Yet again I’m lagging behind in my posts. I have two challenges to write about, firstly week 7 is Shop Smart. Week 8 is Out To Lunch. The two do fit perfectly with us, so hopefully this won’t be too long!

As far as the weekly shop goes, working four days a week and having busy time when not working means I have very little time to shop. Today we ended up in Asda, all of us wondering why we were there on our day off – as generally I’ll do my weekly shop at Ocado and get it delivered on a Tuesday using their weekday pass deal. Ocado also do good multibuys and stock Weight Watchers food. Generally I’ll buy a few WW bits – although I’ve found quite often you can go to Poundland and get them there too; so do my shop at the weekend and head to Poundland on the Monday lunchtime, removing anything I’m able to pick up there from my Ocado order.

The Weight Watchers foods we buy are the bread ones – we make our own bread in the breadmaker but keep a supply of bagels, wraps and naan breads in to have with soup. I also get the yoghurts (as they’re 1 point) and often on multibuys. Other than that I stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as passata, spice, quorn or tofu, and that’s pretty much it. Our weekly shop varies from £45 to £60, which is a LOT less than I’d spend if I went into a supermarket.

Eating out is another one I don’t stress too much about. Generally we eat at pizza places, where there’s plenty of choice especially with low-calorie options. I try to go for restaurants that have free WiFi so I can check for deals, but also check the points of what I’m eating. I refuse to deny myself food (as that’s what makes me stop being good if I’m denied something) but I’ll make sure I don’t eat a lot of the foods which are higher points. It seems to work for me, and having the app handy to check is good too, though I have found often they’re not in the system though can be found when you google them.

As far as at work goes, I’m a creature of habit. I’ll buy the same foods every day – I know the points and I’m happy with them. If I fancy a change I’ll head to M&S or Waitrose for their pricier options, but generally I’ll have a Sainsburys Be Good To Yourself Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich (7 points) and some vegetable sushi (4 points) for my afternoon snack. This comes in at £2 and is already cheaper than their meal deal! In the morning I’ll have a banana to snack on. If I go to the pub over the road for lunch I’ll still have some chips – these come in around 5 points, so I’ll make sure I don’t have the sushi so I don’t go over too much – and if I know in the morning I’m having lunch out then I’m more likely to walk from Clapham Junction to my work which is around a mile, so I’ve a few points stored up too.

The most important thing for me is knowing how many calories things are, and I’m noticing more places are now displaying it – just divide the total number by 40 and voila!

If you’re lucky then the points may even be on your sandwich; M&S and Sainsburys both do it if like me you can’t even think straight at that time of day!

I’ve been provided with six months of Weight Watchers membership – all opinions are my own. I’ve lost a stone and a half and am now a regular weight again due to my own work with Weight Watchers.

I’ve fallen behind a bit on updating, we’ve had a sickly child and not much sleep, but let’s cut to the good news – I am now no longer overweight! I’ve finally after I-have-no-idea-how-long (possibly since being a teenager) hit the point of being a normal healthy weight again. Given my health issues I’m giving myself a HUGE pat on the back, as this helps considerably lower my chances of getting diabetes again, as well as issues with cholesterol. BUT. The journey doesn’t stop here – this is an entire lifestyle change, I’m not about to relax and think I know what I’m doing, as I don’t. I’ve still got 6lb left to lose as I want to be comfortably in the ‘healthy weight’ zone. To help me celebrate this, WW have given me one less propoint, sob! So now I’m down to 27 a day.

To celebrate I’ve spent a bit of money at H&M and Uniqlo getting some clothes that fit me – including for the first time in years, ladies jeans! It’s all really good and quite weird. I still feel quite self-conscious, but I also have more confidence overall, and I’m hiding a little bit less.

So, we’ve some occasions coming up in the next week. I’d firstly like to say we don’t celebrate Valentines Day as I find it a terrible waste of money and a silly pressure to come up with something on a day which means nothing to me – I’d rather celebrate a birthday or anniversary (like my brother-in-law’s). BUT! Pancake day is coming, and I do like to celebrate that. I’ve found a WeightWatchers recipe (which looks the same as a regular pancake recipe, though less fat)  and each pancake comes in at 1 point. Tuesday is also the day I do pilates, so I’ll earn a few activity points in the process, so may well treat myself to a chocolate filling.

I guess that’s what I’ve worked out since last September with Weight Watchers – you CAN eat your regular foods (unless you eat a Domino’s Pizza every day, of course), you just do it all in appropriate portion sizes. If you want to eat more, or foods with higher points, increase your activity. If you have a few days like we have where you’re stuck at home and not doing a lot activity-wise then keep to low point foods (we’ve had soups and stews). I was chatting with someone who did Weight Watchers before the Pro Points came in, who talked about having ‘Sin’ foods – and that (to me) is a bad way of putting it – yes, there are foods that aren’t great to eat, but with the Pro Points system you choose and if you happen to want to work things in, then there is a way. (Not every day, mind) Saying food is a ‘sin’ would probably make me want to eat it more.

So, this weeks challenge is about keeping track when you’re out and about. I’ve found that dining in restaurants that have free Wifi is my best option (I don’t have an iPhone, just an iPad and iPod) and I can work out what to eat that way – but not everywhere has that. I’m a creature of habit so tend to eat at Pizza Express, though I’m finding more restaurants are listing how many calories a dish has – so I then attempt to calculate it and ask Shaun (he’s the numbers man) – just divide your calories by 40 and there’s your Pro Points. You know what though? If I go slightly over my daily allowance I don’t stress about it – I just get off the bus to work a stop earlier and make sure I walk at lunchtime and it balances out (I’ve set up my points preferences to take my activity points first and use the 49 points everyone gets every week as a last resort – last week I used two of them).

The previous week’s challenge was about moving around more. I am the world’s worst at this. I start work at 8.30 and can quite often get to 12.30 and realise I’ve not moved for four hours. I do try to walk as much as possible when I can, and the new year has brought me meetings out of the office so I’ve done a bit of extra walking which has helped. I have no advice to make this better – don’t be like me! Or if you are, go for long walks at the weekend!!

I’ve been provided with six months of Weight Watchers Membership as a Blogger Ambassador, my opinions are just that, and are honest.

So, we have weekly challenges, and this one appeals. My entire life is based around routine – be that the alarm going off and having a few minutes to wake up, to getting out of the house by a certain time to catch the train, to making sure I’m on a good train home to have as much quality time as possible out of work. I pretty much know where I need to be and when, and we’ve kind of got our food routines sorted out too.

The key to this challenge is to make sure anyone starting out on Weight Watchers knows to think ahead, have some element of routine in your life and then to show how I do it and any challenges faced when eating out. I’m very much a creature of the do-it-and-see-what-happens kind; for example, I’ve been out and grabbed the first food I could  (finding out later on that it covered an entire days allowance was quite a shocker), though have also planned ahead and knowing we’ll be at a certain place and working out what I’d fancy from the menu (when they put them online) that’s a low(er) calorie option (hello Pizza Express).

If I was at work, then my daily routine would be something like this :

6.30 wake up
7.30 on the train to work, get to my final station by 7.53. If it’s good weather walk to the office which is at least a mile (and log the activity)
8.10 at work, eating my toast for breakfast (7-8 points), try to get up from my desk as much as possible through the morning (and usually fail)
11.00 mid-morning snack – usually a WW packet of crisps followed by a banana (2 points)
12.30 Sandwich time which is always a Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Egg and Cress sandwich (7 points)
13.00 lunch time. If the weather is okay, then it’s a walk down the hill (and it’s an evil hill) and back again which takes around 15-20 minutes, which of course is logged as an activity
13.30 lunch time over, back to work
14.00 Vegetable sushi afternoon snack (4 points)
16.30 finish work for the day. Run for the bus (logged activity) and run when I’m off the bus to catch the….
16.38 train – if I’m really lucky I get this one though I have two others I can get close behind
17.00 nearly home
17.25 pick H up from nursery, walking from bus stop (or walking from station if there’s no bus due within five minutes – I have a handy phone app to check) (log activity)
17.30 home, start preparing food – or if I’ve been really organised some veg we’ve prepared from the night before for soup or a stew in the Soup Maker. While Basmati rice is quicker, wholegrain rice is less points but takes longer so I get that on the go as soon as I get in (as it takes around 25-30 minutes)
18.30 evening meal
20.00 H’s bedtime
the rest of the evening is ours! I generally don’t eat in the evening but might have a WeightWatchers chocolate biscuit if I really need something to eat (Shaun snacks on a ton of fruit instead and often does his Couch to 5k run at this point too).

I also log everything properly, though sometimes do it as I’m going along – it depends how busy I am in the day. I have 28 points to use in a day and very occasionally have a few left, but mostly use them up. I very rarely dip into my 49 points and have set the app to use my activity points first through the week (handy when I earn points after I’ve gone into the 49 points as it gives you them back!). I earn around 10 points extra a week which does need to be improved (pilates, swimming lessons with H, general walking, running for buses or trains). My hour-long pilates class earns me 5 points, the swimming lessons earned me 2 – though bear in mind they were H’s lessons so not proper swimming on my part so I know I could earn more.

So, what do I find helps me through the day? Generally having Weight Watchers foods to substitute (the crisps are good and always in stock at Poundland so don’t break the bank and I don’t feel like I’m missing out). Fruit is easy to eat through the day with minimal preparation beforehand and comes in at 0 points. I eat normal bread, though choose Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself sandwiches as my main lunch (and they’re only £1.05 so I don’t find myself wanting to do the Meal Deal). I don’t actually need any more food as I’m full after lunch, though eat a little bit extra if I’m going to pilates in the evening as don’t like to eat my evening meal before I go.

We made Weight Watchers-friendly truffles which came in around 1.3 or 1.4 per truffle – and I’m trying to get them even lower

I’ve found that having done Weight Watchers for this long I’m eating my usual foods once more, substituting bread products for WW-own ones (bagels, wraps, naan breads) apart from my breadmaker bread, and just controlling my portion size.

So really, this seems to be what works for me. Also, as I’m one of those people who likes to work with numbers, don’t be deceived by something being 1 point – put in 10 of them and you’ll find out the decimal place of what you’re eating – it might be 1.4 points, so have three and you jump up a point in total to 4.2 (rather than assuming you’re having 3 points-worth). Handy hint there if you’re aiming to eat within your limits!

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

If you’ve been following the BritMums WeightWatchers Back2Best Challenge on here then you’ll already know I’ve been doing WeightWatchers for three or so months now – and I’m really pleased with the results so far.

I was really pleased to be asked to be a 2013 Blogger Ambassador – I’m still overweight and still planning on losing that last half a stone, maybe more. So – things will go quiet until January, but I’ll be back reporting on things and how it’s all going. Right now I’m waiting for a sale at The Gap so I can buy some new jeans… the ones I bought last Christmas are a bit too big.. (woo!)

One thing I’ll find out more about soon is my chances of having diabetes as well as high cholesterol. Those two reasons were my main ones for starting WeightWatchers – I need to be healthy – and as one side of the family do seem to have heart attacks, cholesterol is something I need to keep an eye on. Diabetes came with pregnancy, so I’m at risk of developing that in later life too.

Having said all that, I’ve been slack these last three weeks – I’ve got a new account, and once I’ve added all my recipes in time for next year, I’ll be right back on track. I’ve changed my weigh-in day to a Friday (it was a Sunday previously) and there’ll be regular updates. (and for the record, since the last update I’m maintaining my weight, not losing – which is good)

So stick around, there’s a tab at the top of the page where all my past and future updates are – and tell me any stories about your success with WeightWatchers too – I’ve lost a stone and know I can do that last little bit.

Most importantly of all, I’m NOT on a diet, I’m on a lifestyle change. I can still eat the food I like, I just know my portion sizes and when to stop.

I’ve been provided with six months of WeightWatchers membership – all opinions are my own.

So, here’s my last BritMums Back2Best Weightwatchers update. Incredibly, and I say incredibly as I’ve been terrible at tracking for the last two weeks since the App was updated (I had a few hiccups, but they seem to be fixed by logging out then going back in), I have lost a stone!

The idea of losing a stone and doing it steadily and successfully was something that I never thought I could do. I’m more than a bit gobsmacked at how straightforward it was, and I don’t feel like I’ve ‘missed out’ on anything in the process.

But – I’m still overweight, so my journey is still ongoing – I’ve another half a stone to lose before the magical ‘normal’ comes back into my life for the first time since around 1989 (probably – I didn’t own scales for a lot of my twenties) – but the jeans I bought last Christmas when I lost a bit of weight are loose – I may well be a size 32 for the first time in many, many years. I might even fit into women’s jeans again (whoa!).

So, what did I learn about myself doing WeightWatchers? I learnt I ate too much, although I do eat lots of vegetables (lesser so with fruit) – the food I’ve eaten hasn’t really changed, but my portion sizes have. Also, if I know what I’m going to eat I can plan better – so if we go to Pizza Express we may well do it after an afternoon at a National Trust place when I’ve earned an easy 10 or more points walking around for a few hours. Also, running for the train counts in my opinion, a cumulative four nights (and mornings) of running for one minute could work out at one point. Actually, there’s another thing. I can run comfortably for the train most of the time (steps are still exhausting, so we’ll take this one step at a time).

I’m still as relaxed about food as I ever have been, and while we haven’t had a takeaway in a long time I have had chips when eating out – but I’m watching my portion size and being sensible. Pizza-wise I’ve still not found the vegetarian WeightWatchers ones though have been told there are supply issues – I’m still keeping a look out.

I’ve found that most WeightWatchers foods are easy to get hold of – I do a weekly Ocado shop and they often do good multibuy deals, as well as a well stocked section at Poundland. We’ve tried a few recipes and they’ve been yummy – and what’s even better is that they don’t taste any different to the food we used to eat. Having the WW scales has been handy – they’re used every night and while we’re not obsessive about using them, they definitely help when working out portion size.

Also, the oil squirter has been an eye opener – mainly as I’d just put a dollop on the frying pan – bad move! So controlling how much I use has helped a lot.

In summary, I’ve not had to overhaul my life to lose weight, I’ve just had to look at it. With logging everything I’ve had the proper guidelines to eat what I need to through the day and haven’t starved myself in the process. With the emphasis on portion size as a family we’re still eating well and most importantly of all, H doesn’t think mummy is ‘on a diet’ which is the key thing I wanted to avoid.

I’m not a runner though am a swimmer – and we’re getting membership at our local gym for the new year – so while I’m now limited to 28 points a day, I’ll earn quite a few back with a good swim. As far as Shaun goes, he’s been eating the same foods and has taken up Couch to 5K – and did his first 20 minute run the other night successfully. (I’m really proud of him!) I’d like to think that H is going to have a family who are healthy, well and active – and that would be the best Christmas present anyone could have, I reckon.

I have been given six months of WeightWatchers membership – my journey continues as I’ve still a few more pounds to shift before I’m no longer overweight. You can try WeightWatchers for £1 (remember to turn off the direct debit option if you choose not to keep it going) and see how straightforward it is too. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

I know I said I wouldn’t update unless something interesting or spectacular happened*. Well in my eyes, something has. Or at least, should be. Or maybe our scales really are broken.

See, you’re not meant to weigh yourself really other than on your weigh-in day – but I did a sneaky one on Saturday morning, when I came in a whole 5lbs less than last week – so given I’d put on 2lbs, this puts me right back on track. Gobsmackingly so.

But, I must follow my own rules, so I duly weighed in this morning, and it’s now 4lbs! But still a good loss and I’m delighted. (this may also be my problem with sabotaging things I do well with to make them less good, or in other words we went to Pizza Express for tea last night before the fireworks – dough balls with garlic butter = 10 points. Sob) I barely touched the ‘overdraft’ until yesterday too.

I don’t even remember the last time I weighed this amount.

BUT – there’s something even more significant about this. I’ve made my target! This means I’ve set myself another target as it’s all about maintaining the weightloss rather than going “woo! I’m thinner, now I can eat badly again” –  as I’m still overweight – I could really use to lose another 8lb to be a healthy weight and BMI. But still – WOO!

People are commenting and noticing and it’s really nice – I kind of forget now, it’s like my eating plan is habit more than resenting what I’m doing (which I don’t, as there’s plenty of substitute foods I can eat when I need some chocolate, crisps or bread) – and I can still have a night out at Pizza Express and enjoy myself (and not feel bloated afterwards). So yeah, woo! Me!

The soup maker is definitely helping too, we’ve had soup and stews – and today we may have time to make smoothies too, they all taste much fresher and yummy than if I was to over-boil them in a pan, and I’m stuffed every time. I’ve also had two days off sick from work this week due to getting really run down and losing my voice – which in turn may have helped the weightloss… who knows..

I’ve been given six months of WeightWatchers Membership for the purpose of these writeups, all opinions are my own, and I bought the Soup Maker myself with my hard-earned pennies.

* not necessarily in those words