18/02/2016 by jo

Weightloss Update – 2

Okay, so things are on track. I had a blip though, it was almost like I was doing so well I had to sabotage it, and so put some weight on instead – thanks to eating badly and making sure it was really bad.

Weight Watchers logo

I have no idea why I do this.

I worked hard the following week and by weigh-in day I’d still managed to lose weight, so I must be doing something right.

My last weigh-in had me at 13 stone 5, a loss of 9lb, and having joined on the 10th January, I’m 1lb off qualifying for the Weight Watchers deal to get my money back (10lbs in 8 weeks)!!

I just hope the WW app doesn’t tell me off for not tracking my food every day. I’ve also stopped tracking my steps – my data usage on my phone went through the roof, so I’ve disabled everything in the background for now – and am looking for a good pedometer.

I know what I should and shouldn’t eat, and I also know I’ve probably got points left, but quite frankly, I’m too tired to eat more. Work is busy (and even the blog is suffering for it) – and I’m busy.

But most of all, I’m losing weight. I’m being sensible with food. I’m being stricter with myself apart from weekends when I will have a glass or two of wine as I’ve behaved through the week. We even went out on Tuesday night with H and her “boyfriend” and I had pizza and didn’t put on weight. I know this is fine for a one-off and not something I can keep doing, mind. That was my problem last time.

As far as how this time compares to last time, I’m definitely much more relaxed about it all. I know I can lose the weight, it’s about keeping it off and staying sensible, but knowing I can have an occasional takeaway and not beat myself up. I’m doing a lot of walking and this helps too.

But anyway, I’m pleased – those pounds are going – while they’re not dropping off, they’re going and that’s all I want!

03/02/2016 by jo

Back on Weight Watchers.

There. I’ve said it. I’ve officially come out again. I got too fat. I comfort ate through a lot of last year for various reasons. I reached 14 stone just after a large Pizza Hut pizza that I had scoffed in next to no time, thanks to being unhappy and hungry. I’d always said when I reached that weight that I’d go back on – so yes, I’m back doing Weight Watchers.

Weight Watchers logo

This time I’ve paid for it myself, I’m not working with them, and I’m turning around my bad habits I’ve fallen back onto. You can’t beat a takeaway on a Friday or Saturday which we were doing – just the one, mind. But the weight crept back on. It got really bad around my birthday when we went for Afternoon Tea, followed by a further, posher one a few days later where I ate cakes, cakes and more cakes and oh boy it was GOOD.

Great Fosters Afternoon Tea

I know the score. Track your food and track your activity. Fortunately my phone has a step tracker in it, so that’s switched on and I’m hitting my targets a couple of times a week which is good – and the steps I’m achieving give me three or more points a day, which don’t end up being used.

So from weighing in at the start of the year at 14 stone, I’m already down to 13 stone 7.5 which I think is bloody good going. I didn’t even try very hard, just stopped helping myself to the biscuit tub at work – although yesterday found out one Oreo Cookie is 2 points – the same as a Weight Watchers Chocolate Bar. Heheh.

I’ve been stocking up in Poundland, whose selection isn’t as good as it was when I last did Weight Watchers – and getting additional bits in my weekly Ocado shop. With me making progress I am starting to feel better about myself, so that’s progress.

Weight Watchers has changed though since I did it. I can now track things easily on my phone (I couldn’t before), and when I can’t find it straight away, I can scan in the barcode which makes life much easier. I am rubbish at tracking every day, but know that, and also know I don’t go anywhere near my daily allowance. For example – here’s the food I’ve had today.

Breakfast

Apple and Pineapple (0 points)

Snack

Pack of Quavers (3 points)

Lunch

Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Egg and Cress Sandwich (7 points)

Evening Meal

Butternut Squash, Ginger and Parsnip soup (3 points – damn you parsnips) in the Soup Maker plus 1.3 Weight Watchers Naan Breads 4 points). This is not the soup, it’s an old one but the picture will do.

bramleyappleandparsnipsoup

I have a daily allowance of 30 points, and that only uses 20 of them, leaving me 10.

I have walked 6050 steps today, which gives me an additional 7 points I can use, so 17 in total that could be used on treats if I fancied it. (I earned 12 yesterday doing pilates for an hour as well – but I was too tired when I got home and fell asleep from 9pm!)

So far, so good. Plus Weight Watchers are doing a deal at the moment, where if you lose 10lb in 8 weeks they’ll give you your money back – now if ever there was motivation to try, that’s it! Well I’m three and a half weeks in and I’ve lost seven. I reckon I can do it. You can still try too – you can register with that deal (and Quidco offer cashback too) until the end of February.

Shaun said at the weekend “I don’t want to get diabetes” – something we’re both at risk of getting – and it gave me yet another kick up the backside. Although I do worry when I hear H on the Wii Fit saying “oh I just want to lose two calories doing this” – at least it means nothing to her right now….

30/04/201503/05/2015 by jo

A Healthy Me – April

It has been my birthday month, which has meant cake. This has also meant I’ve put weight on. This is not ideal!

I’ve got more of a routine about going to the gym on a Wednesday night now, which works for me – and it’s quiet too so I feel less conscious. I’m not working out enough I end up sweaty and tired, but I can tell I’m doing something, and every week I do five or ten minutes longer on the machine than the previous one.

My back – no bother at all. I even fell over and didn’t twist anything. I had four weeks break from pilates due to Easter which hasn’t made things worse. All good there, and my Osteopath appointments are now nearly two months apart.

Food – could do with improvement. I enjoyed my birthday, and in doing so, ate badly.

Weight. 13 stone 5. Same as last month I think? Phew.

Cholesterol Spots. No change.

Vitamins. We’ve run out. I keep forgetting to get more.

So yes, a month where I pigged out, and I’m now curbing my intake, although it’s hard with a biscuit tin nearby at work (and they had Bahlsen biscuits in there yesterday). Onwards to May!

(as a sidenote, I’ve just seen some video footage of me, and I can see I need to lose weight. There’s bad angles and big chins, but I’m going with it as I’m happy with what is said in the interview)

02/11/201402/11/2014 by jo

A Healthy Me? October

I realise I’ve not updated in ages on my weightloss attempts, and actually, I’m doing terribly. I tried really hard to eat well but in the last month tiredness and illness got the better of us all – and more often than not, food wasn’t as fresh as I’d have liked.

Add to that a week we’ve just had in North Yorkshire with far too many meals involving chips, and I’m stepping away from the scales for a few days – my clothes are telling me everything I need to know.

Having said that, I got the dress to fit! So I’m doing something right somewhere – I did read that travelling to a different time zone can play havoc with your weight as you eat more (I know I do) to compensate for the mealtimes you’re missing that you’re used to.

With illness I haven’t been swimming, though we did lots of walking around Yorkshire when we were there which has hopefully worked off some of the chips and fat! I’ve had the flu jab, so I’m going to see if that makes a difference to my overall resistance to being ill. Shaun has had it too and has been constantly unwell.

So let’s get back to each section I’m working on.

Swimming – could do better. I feel a lot better and ready to restart. Revisit – although I am thinking about doing cycling in the gym upstairs for the days I don’t feel like swimming – then I don’t need to wait before I eat.

Being Active – I am going to wear the Fitbug Orb again and start tracking again. We’ve definitely got an active life – most weekends are booked up now until the end of the year so I need to find ways which involve walking to get there where applicable rather than driving.

Getting Out – we do plenty of that.

Food – needs some work, although right now Shaun is dairy-free so our diet has been adjusted a little bit where we all eat. Sandwiches at work have been a bit hit and miss, and with being so tired and ill I haven’t used the Yumbox as much as I should. That is going to change next week. We’ve had lots of nice vegetable curries though!

veg-curry

Weight – I think the 12 stone 11 was a freak measurement as I’ve never hit it since (and I did try twice when it came up) so we’ll revisit that at the end of this month.

The chips tasted good though. I’m now looking for good Air Fryer deals as I think that’s the way to go. Don’t deny myself, just make them healthier (and use other vegetables).

24/09/201426/09/2014 by jo

A Healthy Me?

I’m overweight, probably borderline obese again since we got back from Australia where I ate to my heart’s content (and the seven hour time difference threw things a bit as well). I need to lose that weight, so I’ve been doing little things here and there to make a difference – while in the back of my mind knowing that one day I will fit into THE dress I bought out there (for approximately £5).

So here’s my plan:

Swimming – I keep clicking my back out, and I’ve had a stinky cold so I haven’t been as much as I should do. I intend to go back this week though and get kicking up and down the pool again. Because of the lack of swimming I’ve been trying to walk more and make sure I do a certain number of steps a day. The Fitbug hasn’t been used since I hurt my back, so I need to get back into that again.

Being Active – I like to think I’ve an active life, in fact I get told off sometimes that I never stop. Now school is back we’re into the regular routine, Rainbows (with me helping) on a Monday – this week I showed them how to skip… Tuesday is Football with my pilates class an hour afterwards. Wednesday H has swimming and it isn’t convenient to watch her without running over half of the gym to get a decent seat. Thursday and Friday I collapse…

Getting Out – on the weekend we’ve been trying to do trips and walks around a bit more. Last Saturday we went into Central London to visit the British Museum, and on Sunday after a party we had time to go to Nonsuch Park to finish H’s home learning for school.

Food – I’m one of those meal deal people a few times a week and it has to stop. On the other days I’ve been buying a sandwich from M&S, a low calorie one with vegetables, however, I’ve had it so much now that I’m at the point of feeling sick if I see it again, and I’m bored of egg. The low calorie sandwich options are not great out there. So I’m taking things in hand – and have bought myself a Yumbox Panino. Two or three days a week I’m taking my own lunch in, on the busiest days so I’ve had some food beforehand. After a couple of weeks the Yumbox will have paid for itself. I was mocked today for having one, then praised at the layout and how ingenious the silicone seal on the lid is, so that was good! Today’s lunch was a sandwich and some vegetables and hummous – something I’d have probably paid up to a fiver for before now. How silly is that? Add some fruit and it’s all good.

I’m also on the lookout for an air fryer, or one of the kind of fryers which uses no oil at all and makes chips from scratch in no time at all.

So that’s the plan so far. Every few days I get an urge to start running, but then my back gets a bit clicky so it’s put to one side – I’ll concentrate on the swimming for now I think!

I weighed myself this morning, and after coming in around 13 stone 4 when we got back, I’m now weighing 12 stone 11 – so something is working somewhere. I have to add, the difference moving around when your back doesn’t constantly hurts is a big one too.

So this is my September update – back in October. Maybe I’ll try get the dress on….

11/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Porridge On Tuesday – an Update

Porridge on Tuesday is a healthy eating plan I’m working with as an Ambassador.

Porridge on Tuesday has loads of delicious recipes and is helping me organise my life at the moment – when I can’t get things done there’s still one thing that needs to be organised, and that’s food.

I went a bit off-track the last couple of weeks with trips away and other things, but I feel like I’m back and on the case. Fortunately I haven’t put on any weight in the process.

I have made a few lifestyle changes. One thing I’m going to write more about soon is sleep and my general lack of – so I now only drink coffee on weekends and Wednesday when I’m off work. When I’m at work it’s water all day – I need to stop relying on it to keep me awake.

I also haven’t been drinking as much – we’re not big drinkers but cutting out alcohol apart from once a month (when I knit) as well as the no coffee has made me feel much more alert and ‘with it’. There was an unofficial Porridge On Tuesday July dry month which I kept to pretty much, apart from when I went to York and my sister ~~forced me to drink a pint~~ invited me for a drink in her pub.

One of the things I’m finding is that I can lose the weight, but I still see myself as the big girl in the background – some things don’t change. You don’t lose weight and a magic wand makes everything okay, so I’m working on the other things one at a time.

ANYWAY. Without further ado, I have organised my plan for next week, starting Tuesday. Being a creature of habit I have my breakfast and lunch logged as I keep to the same things, with the Porridge on Tuesday meal ideas for the evenings, as well as healthy snacks for through the day. My plan runs from Tuesday every week and we’re out on Friday and Saturday so I haven’t planned anything specific.

I’ve placed my Ocado order so I’m ready. We’re eating a lot of salads at the moment thanks to the previously mentioned Salad Wine Box so this makes things much easier and quicker. For me, I can see Porridge on Tuesday really working for me once H starts school and I’m finishing work at an earlier time every day – giving more time to prepare food in the evenings. While the meals I do are quicker ones I feel like a little more time will benefit us all.

I’ve kept Friday blank as we’re at Lollibop and I’ve no idea what foods will be on offer there – but I want to be healthy. I figure I’ll do plenty of walking too so I’m getting some exercising, as well as bopping to Rastamouse…

Porridge on Tuesday can be found over here.

I have been provided with twelve weeks free to use the service and give my honest opinion.

23/07/201327/01/2014 by jo

Porridge On Tuesday – Win a 12 Week Healthy Eating Plan – Giveaway

We’re Porridge on Tuesday Ambassadors, overdue an update but for now, how about a giveaway?

Porridge On Tuesday is much more than just a healthy eating plan, though that is a massive part of it. We’re well into it now and doing well (not gaining weight, and finding loads of new quick healthy recipes) – and this is your chance to have a go too.

I have FIVE to give away – so that’s a twelve week plan – which would work out at £2.50 a week, so that’s a fair bit of money saved (please don’t ask me to count right now, I’m tired) – worth a go, I’d say!

It’s a nice simple Rafflecopter entry too, so please read on. Also, POT are offering the 8 week plan for £14.95 and the 15 week plan for £25.95 – so there’s some savings already. All you need to do is email offer@porridgeontuesday.com.

I’ll be posting an update on how it’s going for us soon – but until then you’ve got until the 8th August to enter – quick! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

14/06/201326/01/2014 by jo

Porridge On Tuesday – I’m An Ambassador!

Porridge on Tuesday is a new website with healthy recipes tailored to your diet and helping you organise your life (and food cupboards) – and I’m proud to announce I’m an Ambassador! If you’ve followed my weight loss challenges over the last few months then you will already know I’ve done pretty well following Weight Watchers. I didn’t make it to my target of 12 stone (I got to 12 stone 2, so I’m not beating myself up here) and I’ve been in ‘maintain’ mode for a while now.

Porridge on Tuesday is going to help me get organised. More often than not on Weight Watchers I’d stick to food I know, and I need to branch out a bit while keeping my food healthy and easy to make in a short space of time. Luckily their website is set up to do just that.

I put in all my current information – including my previous medical conditions (diabetes, high cholesterol issues) and my current weight and height, plus waistline. My ideal weight has been set at 10st 9 which is quite a lot to lose so we’ll see how we get on. I’ll be happy if I could get below 12 stone and have tastier food (disclaimer: I’m not saying Weight Watchers wasn’t tasty, we made some lovely recipes with them) – and I particularly like that you can generate a shopping list based on the recipes.

Firstly, you need to set up an account. That’s straightforward and you decide which programme you want to be on. I opted for ‘eat well and do more at my current weight’ as I don’t need to lose a lot more weight but I could use better stamina and be toned a bit more. After that you need to meal plan. That can be time-consuming, but already there have been some delicious dishes I’ve seen pictures of that I want to try. I’ve been vegetarian for 30 years, whereas Shaun and H eat meat (when Shaun cooks it) so our dishes will be vegetarian ones unless they opt for meat. It’s a simple click and drag process to choose the foods you want, and the calorie content is taken from your daily total.

After that there’s exercise – you mark when you can do anything (I’m not sure if running for the train every morning counts, but I may well log a two-minute sprint) and you have calories set for the day.

Unlike Weight Watchers your calories aren’t broken down into points – this is proper calorie counting and initially I’m finding myself dividing everything by 40 to work out a rough points value as it’s what I’m used to. The choice of recipes are constantly being added to, so I’m looking forward to trying some things out.

So, here we are – a new weight loss journey. I found I worked much better doing it publicly last time, so here’s hoping the good work continues!

28/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Weight Watchers – A Final Challenge

We have our last Weight Watchers challenge to post about – Easter. Yes, that time when people find an excuse to eat chocolate and stuff their faces – I used to. Then when H came along I didn’t want the associations of chocolate and celebrating in her life – I wanted chocolate to be something we eat whenever we fancy. Having said that, I *could* go overboard on the Hotel Chocolat Easter Sale the day after the main event, and may well have. Ahem. Disclaimer: I have then taken another six months to eat it, savouring the chocolatey goodness.

Actually, looking at myself and how I eat around H, I’ve tried my best not to sneak food around her (like a sneaky chocolate) and have waited until she’s gone to bed. Last March (2012) she was given a chocolate Smarties treat which I managed to convince her was a shaker for a year (she ate it last Sunday when I confessed). Doing Weight Watchers has meant I’ve had to really look at myself and this is possibly the closest to ‘me’ time I’ve had in a long time – and hands up I can say it works for me. The hard bit now is keeping it off and not going back to old bad habits.

Which is where chocolate comes in.

We will have chocolate, but we’ll have it in moderation (small eggs! Good plan!). I can eat it and know I’ve enough points to stay within my weekly limit, and seeing as there’s tons of local Easter Egg hunts going on, a long walk to find things with chocolate at the end is a well earned one (I’m aiming for a 10 point one) – that’s if this rotten weather doesn’t let us down. Polesden Lacey here we come….

I started my Weight Watchers journey around September 2012. In that time I’ve lost two stone, pretty much. My old size 38 jeans are gone – freecycled and put into clothing bins around our village. My old t-shirts need sorting out as they look wrong with my new body shape. I splashed out on some of the clothes I posted about on my New Look post, and got that ditsy print skirt – in a size 14. It fits me. The last time I remember being a size 14 was on my eighteenth birthday.

I’m wearing skinny jeans for the first time in I’ve-lost-count years – probably eighties drainpipes – and I’m starting to feel less conscious about myself. Last weekend we had pizza and I still lost 1lb – I’m edging ever-closer to my goal (only 3lb more to go), so I think it’s fairly safe to say that Weight Watchers works – for me.

Has this been life-changing? Possibly, yes. Would I recommend it? I’d definitely say give it a try. Weight Watchers isn’t for everyone – but if you need help in getting a jumbled life of food in check, it’s worth it. I have a link you can click on to sign up (see the sidebar), although three of my friends have gone for cashback schemes elsewhere – the most important thing is that there are opportunities to try it which don’t break the bank (which is what put me off doing it as we don’t have a lot of money!).

What has helped the most? All of us doing it. Not eating foods with sweeteners – just watching portion size. My wonderful Soup Maker.. quick soups are great. Eating chocolate but keeping an eye on how much rather than eating until I’ve finished the lot. Being careful with crisps – more places are stocking Popchips and that’s great because they taste good! Buying good wine – my tastebuds have changed, they’re recognising cheap and nasty wine so now I pick nice wine and savour it (or maybe I’m just growing up at last?).

There’s only one last thing I need to do – just as I’d started doing Weight Watchers I went for a blood test to check my cholesterol levels, as I’m at risk of high cholesterol. I need to book a follow up appointment, as I’ve been watching my saturated fats plus a lot of the Weight Watchers foods are low in them. I want to see if WW has made a difference to my overall health; I’m also going to try using coconut oil in our cooking to see if that helps.

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All that’s left to say is thank you Weight Watchers for giving me the tools to help get my life in check – and thank you to BritMums (for the initial campaign we worked on) and ShinyRed (for the second campaign) for the opportunity to work with Weight Watchers.

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I was provided with nine months of Weight Watchers membership for this challenge. All opinions are my own.

14/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Weight Watchers – a Big Catch Up!

Firstly, as I can’t remember if I updated, I am now my ideal weight. I’ve not hit my target yet, but we’ve had a couple of weeks of feeling unwell here, so I switched myself to maintenance mode to get my head around having more points (which promptly led me to have some left from my 27 some nights, you can’t win!) – but has meant for the last two weeks I’ve stayed the same which is nice.

I’ve got my routine in place and I’m bringing in different things to add a bit of variety, while keeping them healthy and low in calories – I’ve recently discovered some Special K bites, which my Sainsburys Local has for sale, so I’ve been eating those as they’re pretty delicious. They’re 90-something calories too, so still two points.

I’m getting loads of comments as well – when people compliment you and you don’t feel like they’re glazing over when you chat about it, it’s really nice! A definite confidence booster.

Things don’t stop here though, I’ll be switching back to weightloss mode from Saturday to get those last few lbs lost.

Our first thing to talk about is ‘me time‘. This is an alien concept to me these days – me time used to be that time from H going to sleep and me being on my own until Shaun finished studying – now he’s downstairs and we’re spending time together again (apart from tonight when he goes out for a run) it’s nice, but weird! I can’t even think of the last time I’ve done something FOR me in my time, or made time for it. However, this weightloss has been for me, and two of my friends have signed up and are joining in with it, which is great – so we’ll all compare what we’re doing and think of ways to do things and so on – it’s definitely made things fun.

One thing I could have done (rather than switch to maintenance mode) was a few ‘healthy and filling days‘ – they’re worth looking at if you’re still working on your weightloss, there’s recipes to try and more.

My final thing is Workplace Weight Loss – and as previously mentioned I’m terrible at leaving my desk – though now the days are getting warmer I’m making myself leave my desk and walk down the hill and back (which can be worth two propoints on a good day). However, my way around this is to pick low calorie foods and plenty of fruit. I’ve made it work for me, and haven’t been up the road to the corner shop for crisps or chocolate for well over six months now – and that’s a major result coming from me who would have a finger of fudge in her top drawer and a pack of crisps sealed up in the middle drawer.

So the journey continues, and I’ll be a little more up to date with these updates, I promise!

I have been provided with six months of Weight Watchers membership, all opinions are my own.

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Category / Weightloss