Week 5 – New Month

Hello August,

How did you get here? I’m pretty sure it’s only May really.

Last night was my 5th Weight In and I won’t leave you in suspense. I lost half a pound. Say what? It was a lucky loss. I feel like I’d been bad. No, I had been bad. I had a couple of binges. But I tried to count up my total syns for the week and if you went by a weekly allowance I think I was just inside it. But I’m wondering if I’ve got slimmers amnesia and missed off quite a lot of things I had.  It was a strange week and quite a sad week. On Monday we found out an ex-colleague had passed away in very sad circumstances. Although I wasn’t close to her I did catch the bus across town with her to our onward bus stops quite a lot of the time.

I’ve now lost 5.5lbs in total and I’m happy with this average. I would li

 

ke it to be more. I would have liked to have my half stone award but at least I’ve lost. If I can lose 5lbs a month, that will be 60lbs a year 4st 4lbs. I’d take that.

Last week I mentioned I’ve started to use a notebook as a food diary. I’ve gone one or two steps further this month and created a printable version of my book so I have a weekly food diary that I can hand in if I feel the need  but has more space than those official sheets as my writing is far too big and I need to list my meals as well as the individual foods. I like doing this as if I need to look back for a good week to copy the meal plan at least I will have a better idea of what I had rather than a list of random foods. I’m also writing in my book as well as the printout.

One of the things I’ve done is set out a number of mini milestones I’d like to reach. Slimming Worlds 1st target is usually club 10. Which is 10% of your body weight. My club 10 is 30lbs and that seems so far away. 24.5lbs away. I’ve gone for 5% intervals.With my interim PAT target as my previous lowest ever weight 16st 6.5lbs. I’m not sure I’ll ever get to the 35% loss but it’s written down.

Type	Weight	lbs to lose	%	Date Achieved
Interim Target	20st 2.5lbs	15lbs	5%
Club 10 weight	19 st 1.5lbs	30lbs	10%
Interim Target	18st 1lbs	44.5lbs	15%
Interim Target	17st 0lbs	59.5lbs	20%
Previous Lowest	16st 6.5lbs	67lbs	22.5%
Interim Target	15st 13lbs	74lbs	25%
Interim Target	14st 12lbs	89lbs	30%
Interim Target	13st 11lbs	104lbs	35%

With these mini targets in mind I’d like to get to 5% lost by the end of August. I have another 9.5lbs to get there and this means a loss of 2.5lbs a week for the next 4 weeks. That isn’t an unrealistic figure and for how much I have to lose. If I stay on plan should be easily achievable.

I also need to work on not having nightly binges. I’m 2 days into a new week and I’ve been on plan but I need to remember there are 5 more days and to lose I have to be on plan all the time. I really want this. Last week I talked about looking ahead and what I where I want to be in 6 and 12 weeks time. I guess that’s now 5 and 11 weeks away and I still feel like I can get to where I want to be. At the least, I want my Club 10 before my next holiday which is in 16 weeks time. Ideally, I want it in 11 weeks. 24.5lbs in 11 weeks is 2.2lbs a week but as we measure in full half lbs I’m going to try and get 2.5lbs a week which should get me my club 10 in 10 weeks time.

Things I have been doing is drinking more. I’m terrible for having drinks when I get home from work. I’m made a space on my food diary to record drinks and it’s making me think about drinking more. I’ve been filling my water bottle with cordial and having it next to me at night while I’m watching tv so I can make sure I drink something.

Image therapy this week was the nominations for the woman of the year.  I nominated the girl who has lost 7 stone, because of her determination to get to goal and how helpful she is in the group.

Another thing that was talked about is the August challenge to record steps and get out walking for Cancer research. I’ve turned on my Samsung health app so I can record my steps. I should dig out my fit bit really. It’s only the very basic one but at least wearing it might help. That might be a plan for the weekend. We’ll be recording steps each week as all the groups in the area are in “competition” with each other. I’m the worlds least competitive person but it’s for a good cause and might get me moving.

I do try and take as many meal pictures as I can and upload them to my Instagram account which is seeingspots_sw. Come and find me there and let me know so I can follow you as well.

Week Four – Can I Phone a Friend

After my third weeks WI I was talking to a couple of people outside and one mentioned she’d written a list of the foods she liked and stuck to that rather than referring to the book.

When I got home I decided to dig out one of my many spare notebooks and write out the speed, free, Healthy Extras that I like and know I would eat at the front and then use the book as a food diary.

My writing is big so the small sheets are not big enough. I use a page per day and over the week I’ve been playing with just listing the food in the SW way but I also feel like I want to list meals so if I have a good week and need to refer back I have it almost as a meal plan.

I also use post it notes to add in food/meals I know I will be having. So I won’t forget or if I do forget to update it I’ll still have a bit of memory of what was eaten.

Food wise the week was mixed. Thursday I went to a blogging event at a pizza place followed by a trip to trip to Jamie’s Italian for dessert.

Friday and the weekend was, again a relaxed not on plan eating. I need to stop having 4 day weekends off plan.

Monday was a spot on day then Tuesday was good until after tea and my mum got out the fake Haribo (It’s Tesco’s own and it’s delicious) I then had loads of other things I didn’t need and felt irritated.

SO far we’re on 19:11 weigh in day and it’s been a good food day. Overnight oats, a tuna salad and rice. Some snacks and 6.5syns. I’ve got a mug shot in my bag to have in class and a plan to have either bacon or Linda McCartney sausages when I get home from class.

I’m now home from class and I’ve lost 1.5lbs. I’m really pleased as this is what I gained last week and while I pledged more. I didn’t really stick to it for a lot of the week.

This week we didn’t really do a full image therapy we talked about a campaign that is starting next week around walking for health in conjunction with cancer research and a walk with other SW groups in September.

We also recapped on last week, which was handy as I’d forgotten. We talked about the future and looking ahead 6 or 12 weeks from now and where we want to be.

6 weeks from now will be the start of September. New beginnings, a new school year and while it’s only three-quarters of the year I do still like to think of it as a new start. If I lose an average of 2lbs a week that would bring me to a total of 17lbs. I stick to plan I could round that up to 21lbs and another award.

12 weeks from now is mid-October. 2lbs a week would be a total of 29lbs lost and another award. I would like it to be 3stone total but 2stone is a very realistic total. I want to get my club 10 award by this point. I’ll talk about club 10 later but by 12 weeks from now, I want that club 10 award.

In the past, I’ve never liked setting targets. I feel like I’ll get scared and they are unattainable but I know SW works for me and I can do it.

My group is a well-established class and we have a lot of big losers and target members and they are really inspirational. I may have mentioned this before and I should go back and read my older posts but I think it’s good to have a constant reminder.

Today one girl got her 7 stone award, she’s been following the plan for less than a year (49 weeks or similar) she is so focused and a real inspiration. I was doing some sums and its an average of 2lbs a week. 2lbs a week is a realistic target and a sensible loss.

I have set 2 targets one is the Club 10 – Lose 10% of your body weight and you get a free week. My 10% is around 30lbs loss. I wish we weighed in just pounds. I get so confused with stones and pounds.

My second interim target is to get back to my previous lowest weight from when I joined before. This was no way a final target but I was so much more confident at that weight and I liked myself a lot more.

Realistically I don’t care about the number on the scale, I want my clothes to fit better and my chin not to stick to my chest when I look down! (small things)

PS. My SW buddy lost 3lbs as well. I’m so proud of her.

 

Week Three – The One Where it all Goes Wrong

It’s the day of my 4th weigh in and I’ve been meaning to write this post but week 3 was a disaster. I didn’t stick to it once. It was a tough week. My mum had been ill. (did I use this excuse last week? We are ready meals. I had McDonald’s. I crave it when I do SW and if I’m not on SW I never want it.

The few SW friendly meals I had are below and I did develop a taste for watermelon which can only be a good thing. I also had a cheeky gin Friday and my lunch out with a work colleague. We needed it and I made a good choice although I did each the chips.

 

I also want to keep a record of what we spoke about in image therapy, but I honestly don’t remember. I do know that when we did the round the floor I pledged to lose 5lbs in the next week. You’ll have to wait till the next instalment to see how I got on. (don’t hold your breath for it being 5lbs off!)

For me, Week 3 has traditionally been my bad week. I get cocky and think Manana Manana. Sadly it some gets to Wednesday weigh in day and oh look.

I haven’t told you the results yet have I. I’ve made my excuses but I haven’t told you the damage.It was 1.5lbs on.

It was 1.5lbs on. It could and probably should have been far more. I ended up going straight home after work and not to the gym as I had been doing as I was feeling ill again and I’d had my tea which is normally a no no before WI for me. Needs must. I’d almost certainly decided I wasn’t going to class. I did and I stayed to the end.

I’m glad I went. I was offered genuine help and support and it helped me.

Tune into my next post to find out how week 4 went and I really should start getting ready to head over to my class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week Two – It’s nice to be home

Let me start by saying I’m having a star week. If you don’t know what this is then you’ve clearly never been a SW member. It’s when Aunt Flo comes to visit. Let’s not go into this month. One day I will do a full post on my star.

Star week comes from if you’d had a gain on star week they would put a start next to your weight and then you would know why there was a gain or begin to see a pattern. I have no pattern but I might add a star anyway.

I’ve had a decent week and feel like the majority of my week has been spot on. I’ve had a few evening binges and moments of weakness but I’m trying to be 80% on plan and not worrying about the other 20%.

It can’t have been too bad as I managed to lose 3lbs. Making it 5lbs in total. My SW bud also lost the same. I think I’m more pleased for her than I was myself. With it being star week I’d resigned myself to have a maintain.

I’m not sure If I mentioned in last weeks post that I did a Zumba class. I’ve done another one this week as well. I really enjoyed both classes.

They were both by the same instructor and the routines were the same. I’ve very uncoordinated and I can’t do half the moves. I keep moving and I honestly don’t stop smiling. I’m not sure how true of a zumba class it is as I’ve never done it before. It’s not as high energy as I expected and I’m glad about that. There are a couple of other zumba classes at the same sports centre, however, I’m scared to try to incase they are out of my ability. I’m going to carry on with my current class until I get a bit fitter then try another one.

I also asked if you wanted to know about the week’s image therapy however as I write this last weeks post hasn’t be published so I’m going to tell you anyway.

This week’s class was a little bit different. Slimming World like to celebrate success ad this week it was time to celebrate our diamond members. A diamond member is someone who has been at target for over 12 months and still attends class. To go along with the celebration we had a taster night. This is where everyone (who remembers) brings food and we weigh and eat. My class did so well and most people remembered to bring something. I took strawberries and Cadburys finger minis. (cop out) but what I love about my class is that it’s made very clear that if you have forgotten something it doesn’t matter you are still welcome to stay and eat and there is no problem which I love and you can tell it’s genuine. Sadly I’d forgotten my phone so I didn’t take any pictures. We also had a speed round of going round celebrating this weeks weight losses but we didn’t pledge a loss for next week. Me and Jo my bud have pledged 2lb between ourselves to keep us on target and to get us both to out first half stone awards.

Last week I requested to be a transferred as a member of this class so that I can book holidays and things like that, when she got to me she confirmed I’d come home and you know what It feels like it. I also acted like it. I got weighed without shoes as normal but instead of putting my shoes back on I kept them off, went to the loo and changed out of my gym kit and I felt like I wouldn;t have done that at my old class or even the one I registered at. It’s nice to be home

This weeks food – Can i be lazy and just leave you with pictures?

 

 

Week One

 

I’ve gone back to my original class the one I joined in about 2005 and it’s like coming home. I can’t remember if I mentioned the class I joined last week and that was a means to an end. I had told my friend that I’d go to class but the weather was awful and I decided I didn’t want a 20 min walk in the rain, so I joined a class later in the week.

My first weigh in, I won’t lie I was worried. My first or Zero WI had been in the morning before any food or drink. This weigh in was 7.30 pm. After a full day of eating and drinking. I’d also been to the gym and Zumba (more about them in another post) meaning I’d drunk a litre of water within the last hour. I paid, I wee’d I weighed.

Drumroll please……2lbs off. I’d already accepted a maintain would be a good result. My SW buddy also lost 2lbs, she said ONLY 2lbs but I’m knocking the word only from her vocabulary. 2lbs is an amazing loss, stuff week 1 should be a massive loss. A loss is a loss is a loss.

We’ve both pledged to lose 2lbs next week.

Would you be interested in knowing what we talk about during image therapy?

This week we looked through the new magazine

and discussed food ideas from it. Then when we went round the room we hit on the problem of evening hunger/boredom hunger and ways to combat it.

This is where I fall down, I want all the food as soon as my tea has been eaten. I need to try and stop this as It’s always toast or a sandwich that I want. If you have any tips for evening hunger.

Food Diary Highlights

I’m trying to keep a food dairy and I’m useless. I’m trying to take pictures of my meals and snacks and upload them to my SW Instagram account but I wanted to mention the meals I remembered to take pictures of in week one.

Pork Loin, Roast new potatoes and roast veg – One of my favourites, anything with pork loin and I’m happy. This has been a staple meal and we haven’t made any changes to how we cook this.

Sunday Roast – Roast beef dinner, the only syns in this are in the yorkie and the gravy as it was made with the meat juices. I’m happy to use syns on this kind of food and you can’t have roast beef without a yorkie and home made gravy.

Banana on Toast – My last consultant was very much you must have speed food but I know from reading the book it clearly says have speed food where you can. I had a craving for banana on toast. I had planned to have other fruit after but I really didn’t need anything else. My current consultant is very much only have the extra speed food if you need it.

Skyr – These yoghurts are syned but i’m willing to spend syns on these. Depending on the flavour they are between 0.5 and 2 syns. I’ve been taking these and having one for breakfast, sometimes with extra fruit, sometimes alone. These are high in protein to help to keep me full and that takes some doing.

Signing on the Dotted Line….

I started this blog at the start of the year as I was getting back on plan and that lasted what 2 maybe 3 weeks.

Life this year has been hard, not for me personally but there have been things with my gran who has now passed away, my mums has also been ill. Work, well less we say about that the better but I’ve not been happy. I’m still not happy but I don’t really like talking about my real life on the internet. The life I create on the internet is a much safer protected space and that’s not to say I don’t tell the truth or make things up but I guess we all try and put out the perfect versions of ourselves out there and things have been far from perfect but I’m hopeful that we’ve turned a corner.

When I started the blog I was following SW on my own terms, I’m sure I mentioned what I was doing in an earlier post.

Last time I was a member of SW my consultant wasn’t great, she was a lovely person but she really didn’t know how to deal with people over 13 st. She didn’t really eat much of the food other than ready meals or so it seemed and she didn’t know about syning “tweaks” I felt like I knew more than her and I had been a member longer than she had. Onet thing I did get from her class was a good friend. We had a buddy WhatsApp chat going and when we both stopped going we did still chat. A few days ago I decided to send her a hello how are you message. As a result, she mentioned she was rejoining another local class and I decided I’d go with her but the rain stopped me. It’s a crap excuse but I couldn’t face a 20-minute walk in the pouring rain.

This morning I needed to go to the hospital for a blood test. I was early and where I’d been dropped off to get the bus there is a 7.30am SW class. I decided to pop in. I’d got a voucher for free membership still in my bag from the Wednesday and I’d previously text the consultant at this class to see if a 7.30am was a real thing. (it is – please have one in Manchester city centre)

I did it, I walked in and signed on the dotted line. I explained I couldn’t say and she got me registered and weighed before the class started rather than making me wait till after image therapy as in the usual route for new members. I was quite sad I couldn’t stay for the class but my main aim was to sign up. I know I can’t go to that class as a rule as I need to be at work at 8 am. She does have other classes and she was fine when I mentioned I might be chopping and changing for a few weeks till I can settle in a group.

While image therapy isn’t for everyone I do like it when it’s done right, when a consultant can control the class and recognise when the person wondering why they’ve gained as they’ve been perfect confessed to the weigh in lady they had 14 cans of Stella and a kebab at weekend. errrr I see you.

My original consultant was lovely but she did let the wrong people dominate the classes, my next one the one I mentioned before was too new and I never felt inspired.

Over the years we had a few stand in and some of them were great but I couldn’t get to their classes and now I feel like I want to find someone I can relate to, someone who knows what it’s like. Someone who doesn’t body shame as most slimming clubs do. Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. Mate, you’ve never had Costco carrot cake clearly! Pringles, the joy then the painful tongue as the salt burns it.

I need a plan, I need support, I need to be in a space where I can enjoy learning and get inspired.

 

Food I’ve been eating

In my first two post I rambled a bit. I think I needed to do a bit of a out pouring of how I’ve been feeling and what I want to do. I this post I want to document what I’ve actually been doing.

I am basing my diet on the Slimming World plan, however I am not sticking to it rigidly.

One of the things I always struggled with when I was a member was only having one B  choice so I’ve decided to allow myself to have two if I need them. One of the things I’ve seen frequently but I’ve never found an official answer is that people over a certain weight / height (BMI) can have extra syns. My last consultant hadn’t heard of this but I’ve noticed in a lot of groups and some forums I’ve searched. A Healthy extra usually equates to around 6 Syns, but rather than giving myself 6 extra syns which I would probably use on popcorn I’ve putting it towards a second B choice.

Another thing that I have found is with my syns I either hardly use them or go way over the recommended 15 syns. This time I’m aiming to have under 20 syns a day.

Stating the obvious this isn’t endorsed by SW and if I don’t lose weight I will look to change it but I feel like these are tweaks I can stick within.

I’m only on my second full day on plan but I have been easing myself in since 28th December and these are a few of the foods I’ve been eating.

Breakfast – I’m a grazer so by taking a few things that add up to a meal I can start eating when I get to work at 8am and I can make it last till around 10am. If I had it all in one go I’d be hungry again withing 10 mins.

My go to have been these Muller Light Greek Style Yogurts which I beleive are ½syn each, frozen fruit and 2 Alpen Light bars (HxB)

Lunch – Can often be my biggest downfall, I’m a sandwich lover but as I’d had my HxB for breakfast I stuck to ham, lettuce and tomato and really enjoyed it and didn’t miss my bread.

Tea – I’m not in control of my tea as it’s made as a family meal, however this was only 1 syn and it’s my mums take on the Caribbean Pepper Pot stew. 6 kinds of veg, low fat casserole steak, jerk seasoning plus a stock melt served with plain rice.

I did have snacks of popcorn, WW version of Pink N Whites and some fruit – Ended on  20.5syns

Breakfast – Muller Greek Style Yogurt and fruit with a green tea.

Lunch – Uncle Ben’s Mexican Rice 2.5syns, Lettuce, spring onion and wafer thin chicken. I used the chicken as a wrap and added a bit of everything to almost make a mini meaty taco. I really enjoyed this. This does tend to be a default lunch for me and I want to try and avoid getting into the rut of having the same every day.

Tea = Home made pork burgers with sweet potato fries (HxB for bread and 1 syn for ketchup – No Photo was too hungry)

Snack – Home made syn free leek and potato soup, followed later by some Jacobs crackers (8 Syns) which cheese triangles and baby plum tomatoes. (no pic)

I also tend to have a couple of coffees with a splash of milk which is why I only have a couple of cheese triangles for my HxA choice.

My lunch and tea’s are fairly standard whether i’m off or on plan. My issue is snacking and evening hunger (boredom probably) I also rarely feel full. I could  always eat something even after a huge meal. Even when I’m fully hydrated.

NEXT TIME:  My Food Diary Set up

Where are we going?

I’ve started the year only 1.5lbs lighter than 2016. This year I want to be positive and focused not just on sticking to a plan but with blogging, my work, seeing my friends and I feel like it will be a busy year.

I’m hoping that being busy will be to my advantage and I can keep on top of everything.

I just wanted to post this to show a starting picture of me so I will have something to look back on. I will get full length pictures later in the week and do a separate post but this is me 2nd January 2016

It’s 23 weeks till I go on holiday and this is my target point. I’m going to be happy with a loss each week, however I’ve been doing some sums and I’d love to lose 2.5lbs a week. This would get me back to my lowest ever weight and it would be great to get back there.

Realistically 1lb a week would be amazing as that would be just over 1.5stone. I guess we’ll find out in June.

A holiday usually isn’t a great motivator for me as I’m fairly body confident as it is and will happily wear a bikini and I have just done that when I went away in December however the place we are going to on holiday has a huge shopping centre almost next door to our apartment. It has loads of shops including Primark, Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Lefties and Encurentro but one of the only problems is they don’t have any plus size shops and I would really like to spend all my holiday money on new clothes. Even if i have to buy the biggest size. It might seem hypocritical of me as I’m a huge supporter of the Plus Size industry and I do firmly believe all stores should cater for all sizes however I feel this year I’m going to be selfish. I want new clothes when I go away and this is going to be my motivation to make sure I can shop in these stores.

I’m also going to go back to the gym this week. I haven’t been for a couple of months due to holidays and illness but i’m ready to go back. I want to start going to classes but after my anxiety attack last time I tried it’s something to work up to!

 

 

 

The Beginning (Again)

In some ways there are two new things beginning (again) here. 

A new blog (hello blog four (??) Aswell as another stab into the world of slimmingworld. 

My main blog will still continue as normal with my fashion,  beauty and lifestyle posts but here we are at the end of the year and I feel like I need to start slimming world again. 

Starting now to avoid the new year new me brigade. This isn’t old me saying I want a new me..It’s saying I want to be a better version of myself me. 

2016 has been rough. It started with the worst period ever. Literal TMI period and a feeling of oh my God I’m not going to survive this one. Dramatic yes. The feelings very much real. I signed up to a class and did really well for a few weeks then I slipped. I played and didn’t do it. I also let people get inside my head. My paranoia was at an all time high and it felt shit. Really shit for most of it. 

Christmas day I didn’t over eat but I felt like my secret eating in public, my trips to the sandwich lady plus another dinner. My sweets and chocolate binges need to end. 

I have no will power but following a plan does help me. It gives me boundaries and as long as I track I can be on plan..Feel good about myself and it not be all consuming.  When I’m not on plan I’m the one who is all consuming. Consuming everything I see and then some. 

I have a thing where I never feel full. I might day it and I might feel it for 5 mins but then I could eat again and might just do that. I think a lot of it is boredom and I need to get out of that habit. She says just having eaten 4 quality street and 4 biscuits. But no one saw me so I doesn’t count. No syns. Nothing to see here at all. 

Between now and new year I’m not sticking to it.  I’m trying to eat better but I’m not beating myself up for eating those things as long as I remember them and move on. 

I weighed in at boots this morning and and 1.1.5lbs lighter than when I rejoined in January so small mercies that I’m not heavier but I look at people who joined after me and stuck to it and can’t help but feel a lityke stab if what if