The Pound That broke The Plateau's Back

I have been a godawful weight watcher for the past year. I started off great, and then I went way off track. I've made my excuses, I've clawed my way back.
But excuses don't change the fact that for the last year I have bounced my way around the same stone continuously. Pro-points was the kick up the bum I needed and I am FINALLY starting to gain back some control, and see those numbers start to shift.
At last nights meeting I actually jumped off the scales and whooped with joy. I *only* lost a pound but it was my most significant pound lost to date. With that pound I broke OUT of the 13's and into the 12s! 
I am excited to be in the 12s because in breaking into the ELEVENS I will be marking off 
1) my 20% weight loss!
2) My 6th and 7th silver sevens! 
and most excitingly
3)getting my BMI OUT OF THE OBESE RANGE!


I cannot WAIT to be *just* overweight.


Soooo...


At Start of WW:
WEIGHT:15st10lb (220lb or 99.8kg)
BMI:38(obese)


Currently:
WEIGHT: 12st13.5lb (181.5lb or 82.3kg)
BMI:31 (at the very bottom end of obese)


Thats a total loss so far of 
2st10.5lb
or
38.5lb
or
17.5kg
or

One of these, PLUS

a rack of these (eww...)

PLUS (!)

Half of one of these!

Or in terms we can ALL understand...

About 1/6th of Arnold Schwarzenegger!

This was JUST the boost i needed to keep me feeling motivated through the holiday season.

Bring on the elevens!

Cinderella Dress

In the couple of weeks that led up to me joining weight watchers I had to figure out what I was going to wear for my cousins wedding. At 5ft 4 and 15st 10lbs I wasn't fitting into much of anything pretty, so I got rather stressed out about this - cue impulse buying madness.
I bought a BEAUTIFUL 1950's style rose print dress from H&M, without trying it on - it was MILES too small.
This was a year and 3 months ago.

....

For tonights uni xmas party I was trying to find something I wasn't bored of to wear - and found the bag full of 'stuff to fit into' and had a rummage. I found that rose print dress, slipped it on, and zipped it up.
It fit's like a dream.

So tonight I am in full cinderella mode and plan on being the belle of the ball!

EDIT: (next day) I couldn't find my camera so I'm relying on photobooth and anyone who managed to get a picture of me before I had to be taken home drunk (I forgot to eat anything substantial before drinking so ended up a bit...messy). There I am twirling away in the middle!

Weekly Points Experiment.

This week I'm trying something a little different.
A couple of times now I've had binges and used up all my weekly points and then completely pannicced in case i did it again and didn't have a 'safety net' and totally sabotaged myself.
To prevent that this week I'm treating my weekly points differently.
I've picked three treat-like things that I am prone to a) eating a lot of if I have it around and b) not bothering to measure as accurately as I should.
1) A smallish block of reduced fat mature cheddar cheese (18)
2) Whats left of my bottle of orange and passion fruit squash (10)
3) A bottle of dry white wine for my xmas party on Tuesday (18)
 I have pre-tracked these things at the start of my week, using up all but 2 of my weekly points (I went one over yesterday). I can have as much of them as I like when I like and I won't need to go through the rigmarole of weighing/measuring it all out because I have already accounted for it. The panic is gone because I know all I need to do is stick to my 30 daily points without feeling like some days have been binge days and others hungry days. For me, doing this makes it liveable.
Basically I'm playing tricks on myself, but so far it's working for me!

How are you making the new plan work for you?

Graze Boxes on Pro-Points

 This is just my old Graze Box post but with values in Pro-points...

I know these divide opinion massively but I think they're an awesome idea.
For those who havent heard of them its basically a box of healthy snacks sent by post for you to graze on throughout the week, such as Fresh and dried fruit, nuts, seeds and crackers. The points values that I've heard of so far range between 2-7 pro-points, and 0 points if you get the boxes with fresh fruit, so obviously some snacks are better than others but you can choose to "bin" anything you don't want sending.

The points values I've managed to find out so far are:

Apple Strudel - 2 pp
Golden Pineapple Rings - 2pp
The Beach - 2pp
The lost army cracker mix - 2 pp
Agadoo - 3pp
Great Fire Dragon - 3 pp
Italian Stallion - 3pp
Korean Chilli rice crackers - 3 pp
Little Figgy Went To Market - 3pp
Love Mix - 3 pp
Olive, rosemary and siciliano pesto focaccia - 3 pp
Organic Whole Apricots 3pp
Paper Tiger - 3pp
Sour Mango Tangtastic - 3pp
Beach Bum - 4pp
Detox - 4pp
Hot Cross Yummy - 4pp
Milkshake Mix - 4pp
Billionaire's Shortbread - 5pp
Green Olives with fresh basil and garlic - 5pp
Honeycomb Flapjack - 5pp
Lightly Toasted Pistachios - 5 pp
Made in America 5pp
Mayan Mocha - 5pp
7 Fruits Flapjack - 6pp
Ancient Forest Nuts - 6pp
Apple and Cinnamon Flapjack - 6pp
Cracked black pepper cashews - 6pp
Fiery Seeds 6pp
Fire Nuts 6pp
Fruit and Nut Case - 6 pp
Honey Nut Almonds - 6pp
Kalamata and Amphissa Olives With Chilli and Garlic - 6 pp
Kalamata Olives with herbs - 6pp
salsa tossed cahsews 6pp
Savoury Roasted Seeds - 6pp
  Sweet and Sour Nuts - 6pp
Americas nut mix - 7pp
Aztec Gold - 7pp
Copacabana - 7 pp
Hickory smoked Almonds & macadamias 7pp
Hickory Smoked Hazels and Cashews - 7pp
Oven Roasted Cashews - 7pps
Sweet As A Nut - 7pp

I'll add to this when I find out more- if you know of any not listed please comment! Forewarned is forearmed as it were...or four-armed, or something. 

Anyhow If anyone wants to try it out (UK only I'm afraid :( ) then go to www.graze.com and put in this code: 635YGP8

If you use this code you'll get your first box free and your second half price (they normally cost £2.99 with free posting). I'll also get a discount off my next box so it works out nicely for everyone : )
I'm not getting paid in any other way for this so I dont consider it advertising- your just helping subsidise a penniless student's dried fruit addiction and getting yourself some yummy healthy treats into the bargain :D

Enjoy!

Online Journalling on Pro-Points- Day 3

November 12 Food and Exercise Journal- Housemates Birthday!

time- food/exercise (points)
8.00am- Green tea (0) Wholemeal pitta bread (4) Cottage Cheese (1) Vegemite (0) letuuce (0) grapes (0)
9.30am-Walk to Uni
12.00pm- had to stay in uni for tutorials, lunch from S.U.= cheese, crackers and pickle (11) low fat rice pudding (4) Freddo bar (3) Dr. pepper Zero (0)
1.00pm-Walk home (pedometer to healthy)
2.00pm- lick of caramel off spoon decorating housemates cake.... (1)
3.00pm- Pitta Bread (4) Quorn (2) vegemite (0) salad (0)
5.00pm- Graze Box Smoked nuts and aztec gold (14)
7.30pm-Birthday cake (7)
8.00pm- tortilla (3) vegemite (0) salad (0) Quorn (1)
9.00pm- Birthday cake again (7)
10.00pm- Rum and Diet Coke (2)


Points Summary
30/30 Daily Pro-Points used
30/49 Weekly Points used (11 remaining)
 4 Activity Points earned
12/12 Activity Points used

GHG Summary
fruits/vegetables: not  the best
Liquids:Probably, there was a lot of green tea today which didn't get tracked
healthy oils: nope
lean protein:CHECK!
vitamins: nope
activity: CHECK!


Lessons learned:
So today was pretty damn heavy on points. And I've found it stresses me out less using up the weekly points if I use up my activity points first. I also managed to stick to just one drink last night which i'm pretty proud about!
Biggest fall of the day came from not bringing lunch in to uni and then being asked by my friend to stay behind for a meeting with her, I need to have more snacky things/fruit in my bag!
A day like this on the old plan would have sent me off into a spiral of 'why bother' I'll gain anyway this week', but in theory if I can keep to my daily 30 for the rest of the week then I should still have a loss!

Today's Plan:

breakfast- apple,porridge oats(4) milk (1) raspberries(0)
lunch- salad veg (0) beans (4?) quorn (2) olive oil (3) cheese (2)
dinner- noodles (3) stir fry veg (0) sauce (1/2?)
snacks-fruit (0) graze box things?(I'm going to start making a list of graze box pro-points on here- if anyone has any please let me know!)
exercise- not much, todays an essay day...

Online Journalling on Pro-Points- Day 2

November 11 Food and Exercise Journal

time- food/exercise (points)

10.15am- Banana (0) Apple (0)

10.45am- Wholemeal Pitta Bread (4) tsp Vegemite (0) Lettuce (0) 60g reduced fat cottage cheese (1) Green Tea (0)

12.00pm- falafel (8) 2tsp olive oil (3) salad veggies (0) grapes (0) Diet Coke (0)

12.30pm-walk to uni + rehearsal = healthy on pedometer

5.00pm- Cadburys miniatures (7)

6.45pm- fry lite (0) noodles (3) stir fry veg (0) chow mein sauce (1)

7.30pm (20g cheddar cheese (2)

8.00pm- grapes (0) passion fruit (0) Greek Yogurt (1) honey (1)

10.00pm- Green Tea (0)
Points Summary
30/30 Daily Pro-Points used
1/49 Weekly Points used (41 remaining)
4 Activity Points earned
0/8 Activity Points used

GHG Summary
fruits/vegetables: CHECK!
Liquids:getting closer
healthy oils: CHECK!
lean protein:need to find out if falafel is protein!
vitamins: nope
activity: CHECK!


Lessons learned:
Involving a trampoline in the current show means I get a good sneaky work out in at uni!

Today's Plan:

breakfast- apple, banana (0) Pitta (4) cottage cheese(1) vegemite (0)
lunch- quorn of some kind? with other stuff? I dunno
dinner- More stir fry maybe?
snacks- Housemates birthday cake (between 5 and 10)
exercise- walk to uni and back

Online Journalling on Pro-Points- Day 1

 Everyone is still working out what the best things to eat are, and the best way to use up all our points are on the new plan! Because of that I thought this might be a good time to do another week of blog-journalling so you could see how I'm transitioning to pro-points, which if you haven;t read my last post already, I LOVE! I've borrowed *cough* nicked *cough* my jounralling template from the wonderful and lovely leah of Leah: The Kind Weight Watcher .  Go check her out, she's one of my favourites!
I'll be posting the previous day's journals on here rather than updating throughout the day!

November 10 Food and Exercise Journal -Weigh In Day

time- food/exercise (points)

11.15am- Wholemeal Pitta Bread (4) tsp Vegemite (0) Lettuce (0) Apple (0)


12.10pm- 45 Minutes Wii Fit-muscle routine and expert cycling (Moderate) (+3AP)

4:00pm- Mini Milkybar (2)



6:00pm- Weigh In , Lost 4.5lbs! Coffee (0) with semi skimmed Milk (2) Falafel (8) Cherry Tomatoes (0)

7:00pm- Banana (0) Walk To The Supermarket (Healthy on pedometer +1AP)

8:30pm- Leek, Cheddar and Mushroom Bake (10) Steam Bag Vegetables (1) 2tsp Basil Olive Oil (3)
11:00pm- 10 Cadburys Miniatures (7)
Points Summary
30/30 Daily Pro-Points used
7/49 Weekly Points used (42 remaining)
4 Activity Points earned
0/4 Activity Points used

GHG Summary
fruits/vegetables: CHECK!
healthy oils: CHECK!
liquids: Not even close
lean protein: not sure, is falafel protein?
vitamins: nope
activity: CHECK!


Lessons learned:
On WI day I need to get up and have breakfast earlier so I have time to have lunch without it affecting my WI. I was super hungry by the time I got to my meeting. But the plan works!

Today's Plan:

breakfast- apple, banana (0) Pitta (4) cottage cheese or houmous?
lunch- falafel (8) salad (0) 2tsp olive oil (3)
dinner- pasta (3) pesto? garlic bread (2) salad (0)
snacks- grapes (0) cadburys miniatures?
exercise- walk to uni and back + rehearsals

A Love Letter To The Pro-Points Plan!

Dear Pro-Points Plan,
You are truly made of magic!
I have been on you for 3 days now and at WI tonight you gave me a 4 and a half pounds loss, my 5th silver seven, and my 15%! I'm now down to my lowest weight on WW so far and am filled with much excitement and epic levels of glee!
I think you were made for me. You see my tendency to binge once then blow it for a week and give me a safety net for those incidences. I am feeling more in control now than I have done for the last year and it makes me HAPPY!

I look forward to a long and productive relationship with you.
Ever yours,
Florrie,
the fat girl finally making headway in getting slim...

xxxxxxxx

Anomaly

This weeks WI meeting was a bit strange in many ways. I was expecting a gain this week, and possibly a big one. After last weeks post-WI food binge my eating just snowballed this week. I barely tracked, I didn;t plan, there was a party with excessive amounts of drinking(thanks freshers...) and a consequent day of colossal hangover and the associated munchies. I didn't excercise. I barely left the house. It was a wreck of a week.

But I lost 1.5 pounds.

I'm not complaining as such that I lost weight, any other week that loss would be hugely celebrated. But I know I didn't earn it, and habit-wise this week has been dreadful. So the weights tracked but I'm going to put that week and its anomaly firmly behind me. If I let myself think that acting like that will result in healthy weight loss then I'm doomed to...well...doom.

The topic tonight was dealing with food shopping. I know when I make my meal plans I'm pretty good about this, and stick to shopping lists as best I can. Still, it's always good to get a reminder.
One thing Angela (temp. leader, though soon to become my new leader as I switch meetings to a different night- stupid uni timetable...) said that really clicked in my head was "Even if that food seems like a really good bargain, and that you're going to save all this money on it, don't forget that if you have it in the house, sooner or later it's going to get eaten. And when it does you're going to be spending all that money you saved on these meetings."

As a student on a student budget going to Weight Watchers meetings is quite a big financial commitment, and I know that when I've got my degree my planned career is highly unlikely to provide a steady income, and so I really need to do the best I can to get to goal and lifetime or close to that point by the time I graduate. I know I'm going to need to keep going to meetings to keep myself on track and that's just not likely to happen if I have to spend much more time paying for them!

Anyhow, I have to be up early tomorrow because my classes are starting and I GET TO SEE EVERYONE AGAIN!


So it's bedtime for me.

P.s. I got a hamster.
p.p.s. she's a russian dwarf hamster.
p.p.p.s. her name is Princess Anastacia Karenina.
p.p.p.p.s. She has the tiniest nose ever.

Online Journalling - Day 7

 Today started off really well, then went kind of rapidly downhill....


September 14 Food and Exercise Journal:
time- food/exercise (points)
8:30am- oats (2.5) flat peach (0.5) 50g raspberries (0) low fat vanilla yogurt (0.5) 500ml Skim Milk (2)
9:00am- walk to gym and back + cross trainer, excercise bike, rowing machine and weights.
12:15pm- dolly mixtures (1.5) bruiser chew bar (1.5)
12:40pm- 3 bean soup (3.5) bread (1.5) phili (0.5) quorn 'beef' slices (0.5) mustard (0)
5:00pm- walk to WW meeting. WI= lost half a pound. 
7:00pm- star walking back, tights keep riding down making walking REALLY uncomfortable. Decide to get the bus back. Need bus fare so go to cash point, need to break a twenty for bus fare so go into the shop, super hungry so end up buying and eating: cheese and onion pasty (about 9.5) shrimp and banana sweets (5.5) chocolate raisins (10.5) diet coke ( HA! 0)


Points Summary:
Daily used: 40/21...jeez.
AP earned:8
AP used:8
Points Saved:-11
Saved Points Used:0
edit! fvuckit   viodjka party!
GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- NOPE
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- CHECK
Liquids-CHECK
Lean Proteins- CHECK!
Vitamins-CHECK
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer- 19278

Lessons learned:
Always wear tights that fit properly! And bring some kind of snack to eat after W.I. because I'm always hungry by that point and I can't keep doing these bus stop binges.

So this is my week of blog-tracking up, and i'm annoyed it's ended on such a low note, though I'm pleased that I've at least been honest about it. I think that's making a good step forward to breaking my secret-eating habits.
Here's to a much much healthier tomorrow!

Online Journalling - Day 6

September 13 Food and Exercise Journal:
time- food/exercise (points)
9:30am- oats (2.5) flat peach (0.5) 50g raspberries (0) low fat vanilla yogurt (0.5) green tea (0)
12:15am- Pretzels (1.5)
2:30 pm- Vegetable Sushi (3.5) flat peach (0.5) Water (0) skinny cow lolly (1.5)
4:30pm- WW tomato soup (1) bread (1) extra light phili (1)
7:00pm-quorn nuggets (4) new potatoes (2) cabbage, broccoli, squash (0) 500ml Skimmed Milk (2)

Points Summary:
Daily used: 21.5/21
AP earned:? who knows, forgot pedometer...
AP used:0
Points Saved:-0.5
Saved Points Used:0

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- CHECK
Liquids-CHECK
Lean Proteins- CHECK!
Vitamins-CHECK
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer- forgot to clip it on today which is annoying because I did quite a lot of walking today!

Lessons learned:
DO NOT FORGET YOUR PEDOMETER!

September 14 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- oats (3) fruit (0.5) yogurt (0.5)
Lunch- soup (4) bread (1.5) light olive spread (0.5)
Dinner- pasta of some kind? dunno, not feeling inspired.
Snacks- peaches (0.5) skinny cow lollies (1.5)

Online Journalling - Day 5

September 11 Food and Exercise Journal: MOVING DAY!
time- food/exercise (points)
11:00am- oats (2.5) flat peach (0.5) 50g raspberries (0) low fat vanilla yogurt (0.5) fruit tea (0)
1:00 pm- flat peach (0.5) skinny cow choc stick lolly (1.5)
3:00 pm- Massive salad: 2 quorn frankfurters (3) apple (0.5) Light Caesar Salad Dressing (0.5) Lettuce, spinach, red and yellow pepper, mushroom, cherry tomatoes, celery, pickled red cabbage, carrot (0) Water (0)
6:00 pm- brownie made by housemate(and so it begins) (about 4?)
7:30 pm- squash and spinach risotto (5.5)

Points Summary:
Daily used: 19/21
AP earned:0
AP used:0
Points Saved:2
Saved Points Used:0

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- NOPE
Liquids-NOPE
Lean Proteins- CHECK!
Vitamins-NOPE
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer- 5292

Lessons learned:
I am GOOD at risotto.

September 14 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- oats (3) fruit (0.5) yogurt (0.5)
Lunch- soup (4) bread (1.5) light olive spread (0.5)
Dinner-quorn nuggets (5) veg (0) potatoes (2) ketchup/pickle/something (0.5)
Snacks- peaches (0.5) skinny cow lollies (1.5)

Online Journalling - Day 4

September 11 Food and Exercise Journal: MOVING DAY!
time- food/exercise (points)
8:00 am- bran flakes (about 3? scales are packed) strawberries (0.5) milk (0.5) water (0)
11:00am- wholemeal bread (3) low fat cheese (2.5?) Onion Chutney (0.5) Water (0)
3:00 pm- Vegetable Couscous (5) Water (0)
6:00 pm- Skinny Cow choc-caramel ice lolly thing (1.5)
8:00pm- Macaroni Cheese (6) Leek, onion, tomatoes, mushrooms (0)

Points Summary:
Daily used: 22.5/21
AP earned:2
AP used: 1.5/2
Points Saved: 0.5
Saved Points Used:0

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- CHECK!
Liquids-CHECK!
Lean Proteins- NOPE
Vitamins- CHECK!
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer-10618 steps


Lessons learned:
I don't like not having my scales to measure things. Skinny cow choc lolly things are great because it's not unlike having a chocolate bar, but I would find it much harder to eat 5 ice lollies in a row that 5 chocolate bars, so it's a bit less likely to trigger binges for me.

September 11 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- oats (3) fruit (0.5) yogurt (0.5)
Lunch- soup (4) bread (1.5) light olive spread (0.5)
Dinner-quorn nuggets (5) veg (0) potatoes (2) ketchup/pickle/something (0.5)
Snacks- peaches (0.5) skinny cow lollies (1.5)

Online Journalling - Day 3

I hate to say this but this blog journalling thing would be a bit useless if I weren't actually honest about it - last night I had a very stupid, pointless, unsatisfying binge involving the rest of the bag of tortillas, the rest of the tub of houmous and a considerable about of the bag of half fat grated cheese. I didn't point it all and I didn't track it all and if I purposefully try to claw back the points I know I'm going to be feeling really unsatisfied and demotivated this week, which considering its quite a disruptive week with the move anyway is NOT how I need to be. So with my best interests in mind Im just going to wipe clean my saved and activity points to now, and any I earn today and then call it a clean slate from there. Annoyingly I've totally sabotaged my meal plan for today as well which was fairly heavy on the tortilla/cheese/houmous front so I'm going to have to do some re-planning. 




September 10 Food and Exercise Journal:
time- food/exercise (points)
7:40 am- 2 glasses water (0)
8:50 am- 1 Glass Water (0) 35g Cheerios (2) Milk (0.5) 60g Strawberries (0.5)
10:00am- Chickpeas (4) Olive Oil (1) Lime Juice (0) Ground Ginger and Mixed Spice (0)
12:00pm- Vitamin tablet (0)
1:00 pm- Feta Cheese (3.5) Honey Mustard Dressing (0.5) Red and Yellow pepper, cabbage and celery (0)
3:30 pm- Twix Fino (4) Raspberry Coconut Ice (4.5) -This was a moment of sheer madness. Neither were nice, both have made me feel a bit sick. 
8:00 pm- Bean and Chickpea Goulash With Rice (6)


Points Summary:
Daily used: 26.5/21
AP earned:1.5
AP used: 1.5/1.5
Points Saved: 0
Saved Points Used:0

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- CHECK!
Liquids-CHECK!
Lean Proteins- CHECK!
Vitamins- CHECK!
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer-8840 steps


Lessons learned:
Cheerios are yummy but don't fill me up for very long. Also buying chocolate means eating chocolate. Need to NOT DO THAT.

September 11 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- bran flakes, fruit, juice (4)
Lunch- cheese and pickle sandwich (6)
Dinner- No idea whats in my cupboard at uni....

Exercise- Moving Day!

Online Journalling - Day 2

September 9 Food and Exercise Journal:
time- food/exercise (points)
12:15 am- 30g Bran Flakes (1.5) Apple (0.5) 150g Grapes (1) 150ml Skimmed Milk (0.5) 200ml Orange Juice (1) 2 Glasses Water(0)
1:15 pm- Graze Box Strawberries and Cream (semi-dried strawberries, green raisins and white choc chips) (2)
2:00 pm- 500ml Diet Coke (0) Vitamin Tablet (0)
2:30 pm- 2 slices wholemeal bread (3) 1 Tbsp Houmous (1) Mixed Salad (0) Activia Fat Free Cherry Yoghurt (1) 2 Glasses Water (0)
4:15 pm- Graze Box Natural Vanilla Seeds (3)
6:40 pm- 50g Goats Cheese (4) 1 tbsp Olive Oil (2.5) Roasted Butternut Squash, Celery, red and yellow pepper, mushrooms, red onion and courgette (0) 2 Glasses Water (0)
9:00 pm- wholemeal tortilla (2) bertolli Light spread (0.5) teeny tiny bit of marmite (0) Water (0)



Points Summary:
Daily used: 21/21
AP earned:0
AP used: 0/0
Points Saved: 0
Saved Points Used:2.5/4.5

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-CHECK!
Dairy- CHECK!
Liquids- CHECK!
Lean Proteins-NOPE
Vitamins-CHECK!
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer-4846 Steps - bit pathetic, only just got to "healthy".


Lessons Learned:
I don't know why i keep trying to make myself like marmite. It's just foul devil-tar grossness. Blurgh. Also- no protein makes me hungry.
September 10 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- Creamy Mushrooms on toast (4)
Lunch- cheese and chilli tortilla(5)
Snack- Activia (1) Apple (0.5)
Dinner- Chickpea and Bean Goulash (6)
Evening snacks- tortilla (2) houmous (1)
Exercise- Packing, packing , packing. Back to crewe on saturday!

Online Journalling - Day 1

At WI tonight I lost 1lb so everythings going swimmingly!

I've been thoroughly inspired by the marvelous Leah and so as a bit of a kick-in-the-pants motivation booster I'm going to make myself accountable to you all again! Following her journal template thingy because I LIKE IT. And it's good.


September 8 Food and Exercise Journal:
time- food/exercise (points)
11:30 am- 1 Cup Green tea with Apple and pear (0), 250 ml Water (0), Creamy Mushrooms On Toast (150g Mushrooms, Half a Leek, 40g Philadelphia Extra Light, 100ml Veg Stock, 2 Slices Warbutons Wholemeal Bread) (3)
12:00 pm- Graze Box Milkshake Mix (semi-dried strawberries and bananas and white choc chips, yum) (2.5)
12.30pm- Walking and blackberrying!-getting pedometer towards healthy, nearly there.
1.30pm- Graze Box Pitted Kalamata & Amphissa Olives with Chilli, garlic and Black Pepper (3.5)
4:00pm- 1 sugar free polo (0)
4.30pm- Wii Fit Step Plus for 30 minutes
8:00 pm- Halloumi With Minted Cannelini Beans and mixed salad (6) 
2 glasses water (0)
8:40 pm- Stewed blackberries with apple, half spoon sugar and mixed spice (1.5) Carte D'or Vanilla Light Ice Cream (2)
9:30pm- 2 glasses water(0)


Points Summary:
Daily used: 19.5/21
AP earned:3
AP used: 0/3
Points Saved: 4.5
Saved Points Used:0/4.5

GHG Summary:
Fruits/Vegetables- CHECK!
Healthy Oils-NOPE
Dairy- CHECK!
Liquids- CHECK!
Lean Proteins-CHECK!
Vitamins-NOPE
Whole Grains- CHECK!
Pedometer-12105 Steps


Lessons learned:
 I should start getting up earlier, 11.30am is rather a late breakfast. Blackberries,apple and mixed spices are quite probably the most delicious autumny combination of flavours ever. I love Autumn! 

September 9 Food & Exercise Plan:
Breakfast- bran flakes, fruit, juice (4)
Lunch- houmous, cucumber and phili sandwich(5)
Snack- Graze Box Strawberries and Cream (2)
Dinner- Goats Cheese with roasted veg (7)
Evening snacks- Graze Box Vanilla Seeds (3.5)
Exercise- WII Fit til pedometer at healthy, 30 mins move more dvd.

Accidental shopping spree...

I'm feeling a bit guilty about just spending way more money that I should have done today. So much so that I'm seriously beginning to think about joining The Great American Apparel Diet, which is actually nothing to do with food and everything to do with not buying any clothes for a year.


But let me just say...


TKMaxx.... L.K. Bennet purple wraparound dress....down from £175...to THIRTYTHREE POUNDS. And it's so beautiful : )


And because it's wraparound it fits nicely, even in a size 12. But it will fit much more nicely once I lose some more weight. 


So in order to alleviate my guilt somewhat it's going to be my reward forgetting down to 13 stone and breaking my massive and ridiculous weight loss plateau.


If anything can break it, this dress can.

*sigh*

One Week To Go

Until I'm back in the Creweniverse for Uni...

So this week Im pulling out all the stops.

Which basically means I'm doing fast start for a week to get me properly in the WW zone before I'm left to do it on my own again.

And today's fast start breakfast? YUMMY.

I had the creamy mushrooms on toast, and added some cherry tomatoes and half a leek into the mix as well.
And I've also got the twinings green tea with apple and pear which is gorgeous.
So far so good.
:)

Self-Sabotage

I had laser eye surgery today. Which is mad. Quite simply the most surreal experience of my life, I have to sleep in goggles and put in eyedrops that make me look like I'm crying milk for the next week. And you haven;t lived until you;ve seen your corneas being brushed back into place over your eyeball....

Anyhow, it's pretty life changing stuff. Which has got me thinking...

This week I've been eating absolute rubbish and haven;t quite been able to put my finger on it. I knew part of it was probably to do with being nervous and comfort eating, but I'm pretty certain it's mainly some very insecure little person sat in the corner of my brain saying;

"You can lose the glasses, or you can get thin. You can't do both to me."

I've been wearing glasses since I was 11, so thats practically half my lifetime. I've also been overweight for about as long, maybe a bit longer. And while I desperately want to change that, it's also really frightening. I have little to no idea of what this transformed me is going to be like, and that's pretty terrifying.

I got badly bullied from halfway through primary school right up until I started college, and it was nearly always for 'external' things, things that didn't quite seem like a part of me- being overweight, wearing glasses, etc. And I think I found some comfort in that, it didn't feel like I was bullied for who I was the majority of the time, just for the things they perceived as being part of me. I've just lost one of those for good, and I think the insecure little mini-me in my brain is getting scared about what will happen when I strip all the other layers away.

So I know I've eaten rubbish this week. I know I won't have lost weight this week. But just for once I'm going to accept that and give the mini-me a chance to catch up with reality.

Things are changing around here.

Graze Boxes

I know these divide opinion massively but I think they're an awesome idea.
For those who havent heard of them its basically a box of healthy snacks sent by post for you to graze on throughout the week, such as Fresh and dried fruit, nuts, seeds and crackers. The points values that I've heard of range between 1-6 points, so obviously some snacks are better than others but you can choose to "bin" anything you don't want sending.

The points values I've managed to find out so far are:

New england - 1 point

The Beach - 1
Golden Pineapple Rings - 1

Strawberry fields - 1.5 points

whole imperal plums - 1.5

Love Mix – 1.5 points

agadoo - 1.5

Pina colada - 1.5

round and round the mulberry bush - 1.5

Luscious lemon raisins - 1.5

juicy orange raisins - 1.5

go gojo go go go - 1.5
Figgy Pop - 1.5

great fire dragon - 2 
Grandma's Apple Crumble - 2.5

Swallows and amazons - 2.5

himalayas and beyond - 2.5

milkshake mix -2.5

Korean chilli rice crackers - 2.5

bento mix - 2.5
Checkmate - 3

natural vanilla seeds - 3

Lightly toasted pistachios - 3

born in the USA - 3

beach bum - 3

Ooh la la - 3.5

fiery seeds - 3.5 points

Natural vanilla seeds - 3.5

Sticky choccy pudding - 3.5

Granola seed mix - 3.5

funky gibbon - 3.5 points

Ancient forest nuts - 3.5

Savoury roasted nuts - 3.5

savoury roasted seeds - 3.5

Salsa tossed almonds - 3.5

Mount pleasant - 3.5

kalamata and amphissa olives with chilli and garlic - 3.5

green olives with fresh basil and garlic - 3.5
Olives With Citrus Marinade - 3.5

Funky gibbon - 3.5

Oven roasted cashews - 4

Cracked black pepper cashews - 4
Sweet and Sour Nuts - 4

mount pleasant - 4

7 fruits flapjack - 4
Yin & Yang - 4
Honeycomb Flapjack - 4.5

americas nut mix - 4.5

naked goodness seeds - 4.5

Chocolate peanut cheesecake - 5

copacabana - 5.5
Bounty Hunter - 5.5

desert Island nuts – 6 points

I'll add to this when I find out more- if you know of any not listed please comment! Forewarned is forearmed as it were...or four-armed, or something. 

Anyhow If anyone wants to try it out (UK only I'm afraid :( ) then go to www.graze.com and put in this code: 635YGP8

If you use this code you'll get your first box free and your second half price (they normally cost £2.99 with free posting). I'll also get a discount off my next box so it works out nicely for everyone : )
I'm not getting paid in any other way for this so I dont consider it advertising- your just helping subsidise a penniless student's dried fruit addiction and getting yourself some yummy healthy treats into the bargain :D

Enjoy!

Apologies

Blogging her has kind of gone by the wayside as I've gotten rather into my OTHER blog www.theymightbeshiny.blogspot.com, lookbook, and posting daily challenges on the weightwatchers website.

But i'm feeling fairly on track, and I lost 3lbs at last nights WI taking me back down to my 25lbs and to my pre-maastricht weight. so that is a GOOD THING.

Also, have a picture of a pig-marrow.

Wardrobe Clearout

Been having a bit of a clearout of things that no longer fit me so there are some gorgeous things on ebay for you to grab!

Check them out HERE

River Island Pencil Skirt (16)

Desperate Dan T-Shirt (Mens XL)

River Island Cocktail Dress (18)

Dark Star top (10-12)

80s Day Dress (16-18)

Amazing 80s cocktail dress (16-18)

Sad to let some of these go but it means more wardrobe space for shiny new things that fit me!

Also check out the amazing nectarine tarte tatin I made the other day:

2 Points per slice! and then a nice scoop of low fat ice cream for 1 point- completely delicious.

OMOMNOM.

Unfortunately you can;t get the tart on ebay...cos I ate it all already.

:D

WW Site Revamp

The Weight Watchers site has been revamped(in the UK at least, dont know about you guys and gals across the pond) and for the most part I LOVE IT.

Now we can make official challenges for everyone and anyone to join in on which is right up my street. I made my "Just One Week" mission into a proper challenge:

Just One Week

And I've also christened myself "The Instant Mini-challenge fairy" - I posted a couple of instant challenges on all the message boards, such as "if you've read this DO 10 STAR JUMPS!' and enjoyed it so much I've made it into a daily challenge feature.

Your Daily Mini-Challenge!

I'm updating this with a new challenge every day, that can be done in roughly a minute or less! The first was do do 10-20 star jumps, the second to spend a minute thinking about how you will look at goal weight, or how great you look now you've reached goal, and todays challenge is to go drink a big glass of water!
I'm finding setting these challenges really helpful as
A) I feel accountable to all my challengees! I can't expect them to live up to the challenges if I don't do it myself!
B) it's keeping me creative, it's only been 3 days so far but I know having to come up with new challenges will help keep me out of ruts and boredom, and hopefully I can pull others out with me!
C) It's keeping me focussed, knowing I have to go and post a new challenge everyday, and that (as of right now) 29 people will be checking up on me - I've got to be there! I can't let them down! And with not letting them down comes not letting myself down.

Another new feature is that you can start blogs on the WW site now. I've ummed and ahed over whether to transfer over there, or whether to post the same blog on here and on there, but that seems silly, and I like my community on here! The limitations of the WW site is that it's just for the UK as far as I'm aware, and I don't want to lose my favourite overseas buddies! So for now at least, I'm challenging on there, but blogging right here.

But if you ARE in the UK.....come join my challenges!

Just One Week Of Fruit

So today is the last day of my first "Just One Week". I decided to snack only on fruit and veg...

and I pretty much succeeded in that!

Fruit is yummy. I need to keep reminding myself of that fact.

This week hasn't been perfect WW-wise. There was surprise indian takeaway the other night, and less surprising thai takeaway yesterday(but it was celebrating my aunt,dad,brother and friends birthday all in one night so I'm counting that as a bit of a win in terms of keeping on track rather than battling four separate parties!) with quite a bit of cakey stuff to follow...

There was also a freaking DELCIOUS burrito in leeds. Omnomnom.

But there was also lots of walking and goodness.

And fruit.
Quite a lot of that.
So I don;t really know what the scales will say tomorrow.

I DO know now that snacking on fruit is actually really useful for me. Even when I get the low fat crisps and cereal bars and stuff they have a tendency to trigger huge binges for me, which I suffered far less from with the fruit.

I'm going to try and keep this up.


NEXT weeks Just One Week will officially start tomorrow morning not today, but it will be to actually STICK TO MY MENU PLAN!
I spend ages making meal plans every week and hardly ever stick to them for very long.
For one week I am determined I can do this. I've written out my plan, bought everything it requires and I've pre-tracked it all on my e-source.

There are a couple of obstacles to this, but I will deal with them the best I shall.
Firstly My bestest everest friendest gets back from travelling today and will be in Yorkshire land for a couple of days before she has to go back londonwards. So obviously I shall be going to see her this week. This will inevitably involve a sleepover with much drinking and madness. But I have vodka and diet coke to bring along so hopefully I won't go too overboard. I've also saved at least a point most days on the plan so I have a bit of a buffer for this. Also, she's vegan and most of her foodstuff is super-healthy. Noone ever got obese from too many lentils. Probably. It'll be fine. But I'm not sure yet how much time I shall get her for, so I'll just try to keep on track while at hers rather than trying to pre-pack all my meals and take them round and look like a diet-nazi. That won't do.

The other very probable obstacle is that I live in a house with a mum and a dad and a brother. And they will probably end up eating my carefully planned food sooner or later. In the event where I am supposed to have a bagel with phili extra light and quorn ham, and someone gone and eaten my bagels I will A) Roar at them till they apologise, and B) substitute the stated bagel for bread or similar foodstuffs.

But as much as possible,

I

WILL


STICK


TO



PLAN!!!!!!!!!

Snackish Noms

My new obsession.

200g strawberries, chopped up (1pt)

Thats several more strawberries than this.

Juice from half a lime (0pts)

TANGY

2tsp Half Spoon sugar (0.5pts)

Diet Crack

My new favourite food....

FOR ONE AND A HALF POINTS!

I'm getting into this fruit as snacks malarkey.

Just One Week

We had a temporary leader for our meeting last week, who suggested we think of one thing we can try and do for just one week. Just to see if we can. This could be addressing a bad habit, or trying to pick up a good habit. it could be increasing excercise or decreasing food. It could be swapping something bad for something good. it could be anything at all, as long as it would help you on your weight loss journey. All you had to do was commit to doing that thing for one week. Not for a month or a year, or forever, a week. 7 days. How hard can that be?
Various commitments were made to keeping within points, tracking everything, working out everyday, eating more fruit and veg, etc. I chose to drink 2L water every day(I managed 5 out of 7 days which im counting as a bit of a victory for me).

Anyway I thought that would be a nice little challenge type thing to do on here.
So come on, one weeks commitment to something-what will it be? Try something new? or get back into the groove with an old habit thats fallen by the wayside?

Post what youre going to do on here so we can all get inspiration from it!

For this week I am committing myself to snacking solely on fruit and veg. I've been very snacky this last week and havent been able to stay away from bread and butter and biscuits. I'm expecting quite the gain at WI tonight.


So when I went to do my weekly shop today I bypassed the crisps and cereal bars- all the carby things which I can get a hit of for a couple of points, but which send the cravings soaring. Instead I got strawberries and apples and peaches and nectarines and plums and pomegranates and bananas and a pineapple. 


Omnomnom.

Lets see how many just one weeks I can string together...

Stringing Beads

Actual new plan.
I'm home from holland(finally. 7 and a half weeks takes it out of you...) and back at WW as of tonight.
I haven't been on plan whilst I was away and i reckon i've gained about 7 pounds. But it's ok because I'M BACK ON TRACK IN AN EPIC MANNER.
I am most of the way through writing out a nice meal plan for the week, and me and the mumsicle went shopping for lots of nice healthy low points goodies to keep me on the straight and narrow. (When I got home the fridge was just full of meat and cheese and very little else. No.)
I also have a new motivational plan type thing - slightly nicked from...one of you? I've forgotten who, i'll have a looksie and re-edit this later when I can remember who. Anyhow, they were talking about taking things just one day at a time, no worrying about the big picture, just to keep trying for one good day. She equated these days to stringing pearls and diamonds onto a necklace. My budget wont quite allow for pearls and diamonds but I am going to string a bead onto a ribbon for every good day I have, and take a bead off for every bad day. Every ten beads on I will give myself some kind of a reward -a manicure or a bubble bath or a magazine or something - just some little non-edible treat to keep me in the game. I think this is going to be good. And if I'M good then I'll have a shiny new necklace sometime soon :D

Also I was a bit of a silly and left my weigh-in card thing and points calculator in the uni house. So I'm going to have to get new ones tonight...
Oops.

Start stringing your bead too! I want to see pictures of you wearing strings of shiny good days! Overuse of exclamation marks! Yay!

Cycling Terrors II (Back with a vengeance)

I went for a proper bike ride today.
We all rode towards the park, across the bridge, and then started cycling along by the river. And kept going. The bike path was really quiet and pretty and long...We ended up cycling all the way out of Maastricht! I must have ridden about 4-5 miles today and Was feeling super proud of myself and a hell of a lot more confident.
And then we went back into the city. Where there are people, and sharp corners and cars.
I was going too fast down one side of the bridge, saw a car coming, swerved massively to miss it and ended up skidding into a group of three women on their bikes. We all went down pretty hard put noone was seriously hurt, I just have a bit of a bruised and bloody knee. And a heavily renewed paranoia. I couldn't stop shaking and crying for about an hour, and got really hysterical. I'm just not ready for city cycling yet. Greenie made me get back on my bike to cycle back to the house though, which was probably for the best, even if I was very wobbly. We're going to get up early and cycle along the riverbank again tomorrow, weather permitting, so hopefully I'll get my confidence back a bit. Until the crash I was actually really enjoying myself!
But slowly does it. No more getting ahead of myself.

Cycling Terrors

I haven't ridden a bicycle further than about 10 metres since I was 13.
I can cycle for ages on the stationary bikes at the gym.
I can just about make it through a spin class.
I am a super ridiculous expert at cycling on the Wii Fit.

But I cannot handle a real bicyle.

I was really really slow to learn, even with stabilisers, but it wasn't really a huge deal. I live at the top of a massive cobbled hill, so cycling was never going to be a big part of my everyday life. But I gave it a go for a while when I was little.
But there were a couple of incidents that really scarred me physically and mentally.

I had one of those old folding bicycles that can go in the boot of the car, but i didn;t realise the hinge had broken slightly. I freewheeled down a big hill, and then had to make a very sudden turn because there was a car driving past the path I usually went down. The bike folded shut on me, I skidded several metres along the street, tearing a chunk out of the palm of my hand and another out of me hip.
It scared the hell out of me. I stopped riding.

And then in Year 8 we went on a school camp trip. There were lots of phyisical activities which I got through or avoided with various amounts of success. One of these activities, however, was a cycling trip on mountain bikes. In a big group. I could just about handle cycling by myself, much as I can almost sort of do some degree of running, if I'm by myself. But If I'm with anyone else I feel I have to keep up with them, and that knowledge makes me panic. I know it's ridiculous, but I don't know what I can do about it. I'm a very, very antisocial excerciser. Anyhow, on this trip I was doing alright, though lagging behind somewhat, until we got to some big ditch/jump thing we had to cycle across with a steep hill at the other side. I panicced. Worse than i've ever panicced about anything. I couldn;t breathe, I could barely move. I had to walk the rest of the trip.

And so today was a HUGE huge leap forward for me.
Here in Holland, everyone cycles everywhere. It looks lovely. The weather is amazing. We decided to rent bikes. Lisa, a very good friend of mine and also my gym buddy, really can;t ride a bike. She never got the hang of it and hasn't ridden since she was 10. I thought compared to her I'd be fine. We had a little go at cycling down the street. I wobbled all over the place and couldn't stop myself. My bike has no handlebar brakes, it just stops when you pedal backwards. And the bike is WAY too big for me. I felt myself starting to panic. We walked our bikes along to the nearest park and I just about managed to cycle around ok, and was quite enjoying it. Though the stopping is still nearly impossible for me which is scary and I properly fell off a couple of times. The seat went down further on Lisa's bike so we swapped over and I was a bit better on that. We cycled around the park a few times, through a mad petting zoo, and even managed to cycle along a cycle path at the side of the road. Eventually we dared each other to cycle back to the house, which we just about managed without severe trauma...
My nerves are shot to pieces.

BUT I DID IT!