Weekly update

I'd have thought having one less child at home would give me more time to pay attention to the blog but it seems not. I missed blogging about my weigh in this week. It was good news though, another kg off, which brings me back to where I was mid August before that big gain. It's taken a while to get it back off, but I finally got there. The big one starting school really threw out my eating. She was quite upset on a few mornings, which in turn upset me, and when I'm upset I tend to comfort eat. The weather turning cooler hasn't helped either. Salad weather seems to be behind us, so I need to find a good, filling alternative. I think I'll have to start making soups for lunch. The first 5% came off really easily, but I'm really struggling to get to 10%.

Big Girl's first day of school

So after a long build up with a lot of tears and tantrums the day finally dawned. We got up around 7, although she'd invaded my bed at 3am and I hadn't had much sleep thereafter. The husband had arranged to go in late so that he could watch the baby while I took Big Girl in. He spent the morning chasing her around the house with an Ella's Kitchen fish pie pouch. Bizarre, but it kept her distracted and meant she didn't get a chance to think about things too much. She was quite excited when she saw her uniform laid out and put it on with no fuss. She happily posed for photos (one below) and was quite keen to head off around 8:30. We only had one, half-hearted, "I don't want to go." We were a little early so we sat in the car for a couple of minutes, and then got out when we saw other people walking to the school.

We waited in the playground for a bit and then when the bell rang and the gates opened we went down to the classroom. We're allowed to go settle them in initially, but normally they walk down by themselves with the teacher. We found her peg and figured out where to leave her lunchbox and book bag. We went into the room and they had little name tags to put on. Only 10 were starting today, 10 start tomorrow and then another 10 on Thursday. I'm glad she was in the first lot, as not having gone to the nursery she doesn't know anyone else and would have been overwhelmed on Thursday.

We had to have a good look around the room and at all the toys. She was a little put out that the bug display she'd seen at her taster session had been replaced by a safari scene. She was very impressed by the role play corner though, it was set up as a doctor's surgery.

When the second bell went I told her it was time for me to go. She was a little bit clingy and started tearing up a bit but the teacher came over and held her hand and took her to play with the other children and she was ok.

When I picked her up she said it was "Really good!" and gave me a picture of her that they'd made for their first day. She waited to say goodbye to her teacher, who she seems to have taken to and she said she made a friend, but she can't remember her name.

Of course the best thing about the day according to her was being taken for a special celebratory tea at McDonalds.

So generally relief all round and here's hoping the rest of the term goes as well!

Here's a picture of her in her uniform, looking angelic.

Weigh in - 4th September

This is a bit disconcerting. I'm trying out the new blogger interface. Let's see how it goes.

No weigh in last week as we were away and I didn't have a set of scales. I also didn't track while we were away so I didn't know how I was going to go this week. I did weigh in this morning, and I've lost 500g which brings my total loss back down to 7.5kg. I still have another kg to shift from my gain the other week. I think the baby not feeding as much is really having an impact.

Snacking is a problem as well. I need to be more organised with the shopping to make sure I have low ProPoints snacks in. I did buy some Pink and Whites (1 propoint each) and I try to have lots of fruit in.

My top tip for myself for this week is when snacking on something that comes from a larger packet, be it crisps, yogurt, rice thins, chocolate or whatever, is measure it out and put it on a plate or in a bowl before you start eating. That way you don't inadvertently eat more than you intend to. I really like rice thins and a quarter of a pack is 3 points. What tends to happen is that I take the packet out, eat the first quarter, and then mindlessly keep munching until half or even all of the packet is gone. By taking out one serving and putting them in a bowl, I don't keep nibbling. If I want more, I have to actually get up and do it.

This week is going to be a bit hectic as Big Girl starts school, but hopefully that will give me a little more time to plan meals and keep on track.

Weigh in - 21st August

It was always going to be a difficult week, diet-wise. The baby has been having tastes of solids for a couple of weeks, but hadn't really been ingesting much. This week she started having actual meals and dropping milk feeds. Because she hadn't up to that point, I hadn't dropped the extra points allocated for exclusively breastfeeding.

The other challenge was that Friday was our wedding anniversary. We went out for a Mexican meal. I had saved my weekly points, so I had a potential 70 propoints available for the meal (plus 10 activity points), but even being within my points, having a large, propoints heavy meal at the end of the weighing week was not likely to produce a loss!

So I wasn't surprised that I didn't have a loss this week. I was a little bit surprised that I had quite a big gain.

The result: 1.5kg gain. Not great, is it?

Dealing with a gain:
This week I've dropped the 7 extra points for exclusively breastfeeding, so I'm hoping that will help to shift the extra weight from last week. Yoga is off for the next two weeks, so that loses me a few activity propoints, but I took the girls to the park today and had a play on the swings and a walk around, and I'll try to do something each day to make up for it.

This week's big challenge is that we're going away for the weekend, so my weigh in will be a couple of days late, but it should mean a bit more activity. I just have to watch the hotel food.

Onwards and downwards, eh?

Non-scale victories

I know in meetings and online this week the focus has been on non-scale victories, that is things other than the numbers on the scale that show your progress.

In my last post I blogged my measurement losses. I hadn't measured for a few weeks so it was nice to see such a difference in the numbers.

I had another non-scale victory today. My jeans were getting a bit baggy soo I set out to buy some new ones. As women everywhere know, buying jeans can be a completely demoralising experience. Finding the right combination of size, length, style and colour is a near impossible task. So I wasn't terribly hopeful as I manoeuvred the pushchair and four pairs of jeans into the fitting room.

First pair - too short.
Second pair - a little tight on the waistband.
Third pair - too big.
Fourth pair - Perfect! Low rise straight leg dark denim. Not my normal, safe bootleg style at all.

Not only were they perfect, but they're a size smaller than my old jeans as well. That's a major non-scale victory.

Measurement updates

I promised I'd do my measurements this week if I managed to find the tape measure. I did, it was in the toy box tied in knots. Once I managed to untangle it, I took my measurements. I haven't done them for a few weeks, so it was nice to see some smaller numbers.

So here is my total loss in cm:
Arms: 1.5
Thighs: 2.5
Waist: 5.5
Hips: 5.5
Bust: 5

Not bad!

Weigh in - 14th August

Another loss, but a smaller one this time - 0.5kg (1.1 lbs).

The baby has started solids now, although she's just having small tastes and not actual meals yet, so I will have to drop my points soon as she drops milk feeds. I'll definitely be using my weekly points then!

My average weekly loss is 1.2kg and my total loss to date is 8.5kg. I'm really happy with how it's going and how easy it's been so far, and I'm noticing a real difference in the way my clothes fit. When I find where Big Girl has hidden the tape measure I'll do another lot of measurements and post them.

This week included quite a bit of cake, as I did some baking and had a cream and jam scone on Monday (I had walked quite a long way around Woburn Abbey though!)

I'm still doing yoga weekly, although there'll be a two week break coming up soon so I'll have to find some other exercise to do.

Meals this week included wholemeal wraps, turkey and spinach lasagne, a trip to McDonalds, pizza, steak and salad, smoked haddock fish cakes. Today we're having a roast chicken. I'm roasting potatoes this time but the rest of the veg will be steamed. So I'm obviously not missing out on anything or feeling deprived.

Here's a picture I took at Woburn Abbey on Monday while doing hours of walking!

Weigh in 7th August

Another loss! Down another kg, bringing the total lost to 8kg. I must say I was a little surprised as I'd used a lot of my weekly points. I was also a bit naughty and didn't track at all on Saturday. That was a conscious decision to have a day off, but I don't think it's something I should do regularly as I don't want to get out of the habit.

Meals during the week included:
Dominos pizza (I mostly stuck to vegetarian to keep the points down) and a profiterole pudding
Ham salad
Oven fish and chips
Turkey steaks seasoned with chicken salt with boiled potatoes and salad
Pasta and meatballs in a tomato and basil sauce (basil home grown from seed, I'm so proud!)
Fried eggs on toast

Lots of fruit and salad veg seems to be the key for me. Keeping that up as the weather gets cooker and I return to work will be the real challenge, I think.

Weigh in

Another week, another weigh in. Much better result this time though. After last week's gain, I've lost 2kg this week. This brings my total weight loss to date to 7kg/15.4lb. My points have been dropped again, I'm guessing it goes down by one for every 7lb you lose.

I was better with breakfasts this week, and I think that has made a difference. Last week featured cake for breakfast on more than one occasion, but this week I stuck to a bowl of Fruit & Fibre and some fruit, usually melon. I also incorporated more vegetables into my lunches and dinners. I still had some cake and chocolate and crisps as and when I fancied them, and last night featured a three course meal and a glass of wine, but I was well within my weekly points.

The WW site apparently thinks I'm losing weight too quickly. I should only be losing one or two pounds a week apparently. Any ideas on what I can do differently?

Here are a selection of my meals last week:
Spaghetti bolognese (I've been trying to stick to wholemeal pasta and the butcher's mince is very lean)
Baked salmon with brown rice and salad
(Good) sausages with boiled potatoes and vegetables
Omelette with spring onions and capsicum/peppers with brown toast
Risotto (it was a packet one which I don't normally use - had half with mushrooms and half in stuffed peppers with low fat cheese)
Low fat philadelphia with crudites
Shaved turkey and salad in a wholemeal roll

Oh the other big news is that I've dropped a dress size! I bought some new yoga trousers this week a size smaller than normal. I also wore some linen trousers I had in the wardrobe that were a size smaller than normal.

Missed a week

I didn't post on Sunday. I did weigh myself though. I had a 500g gain. I'm not entirely sure why, I kept well within my weekly points and tracked everything. My eating wasn't as good as it had been though, even though I didn't go over my points. I had a fair bit of cake, and visited McDonalds as well. I also had a lot less fruit and salad throughout the week. It seems that even though I'd kept to my points, the fruit and salad make a big difference. It could also be that the big loss the week before meant that I had a bit of a readjustment last week.

Only two more days until this week's weigh in, so I'll see if it was a one off, or if I'm going into a bit of a plateau.

Danger day

Gah, the baby woke up for a feed every two hours last night which means I'm exhausted this morning and craving sugary foods like chocolate and coke to stay awake. I don't drink tea or coffee unfortunately.

Luckily there's not too much chocolate in the house or I'd eat a whole family bar, I think.

3rd weigh in

I've been neglecting my blogging duties a bit the past week. I had a bit of an up and down week. There were days I found really tough and I used a lot more of my weekly points this week. I know they're there to be used, but I don't want to get into the habit of using them all because I think that when I'm no longer exclusively breastfeeding and I lose the extra points, I'll struggle to stay within them.

Despite a couple of not-so-good days, I still managed a very good loss. 2kg! That's 4.4lb for those who don't do metric.

I did do a lot more activity this week. I went back to yoga on Monday night, which was great. I've really missed it. It was a bit more intense than the pregnancy classes had been, as you'd expect, and I was aching for a good few days afterwards. I also did more walking, taking the girls into town and walking around on a couple of days as well. I'm pretty much fully recovered from my op now (just the ocassional niggle) so I'm hoping to be able to do even more exercise.

So this week brings my total weight loss to 5.5kg (12lb), which means I've met my first goal, which was to love 5% of my body weight. My new goal is to drop 10%.

I've been doing measurements as well and I've lost 4.5cm from my hips, 4cm from my waist and 3.5cm from my bust.

How did you do this week?

2nd weigh in

I got my silver 7 star. Woohoo!

Lost 1kg this week, or 2.2lb in the old money. Not as good as the first week, obviously, but that's to be expected I guess. I used more weekly points this time, as we had pizza last night and I had lunch out one day and didn't make the best choice.

That brings my total loss so far to 3.5kg/7.7lb.

My daily points have dropped by one now.

So I'm feeling positive again after a couple of down days. Hope I'll be able to keep up the momentum this week and not slip back into bad habits.

Positives from this week:
I've been honestly tracking everything, even the rubbish.
I've lost some weight.

Negatives from this week:
Not making the best choices while eating out.
Falling back into some bad snacking habits.

How has everyone else done this week?

I think it's going to be one of those days

It's only 9:30 and I've already eaten 8 propoints worth of crap. Need to get off my backside and get some fruit to make up for it.

Those doing WW, what do you do on days like this?

Mid week update

Half way through week two and I'm still managing to stick to the program pretty well. I'm trying to save most of my weekly points as we're having friends over for pizza.

I've switched to wholemeal bread and pasta and I've been eating loads of fruit and veg. I've also tried to reduce carbs in the evening by having smaller portions. We're having cottage pie tonight though, so that is likely to undo my good work.

Here are some of the meals I've been having:
Roast chicken with salad (no roast veg!). I was a bit naughty and ate the skin but I counted it.
Sandwich steak with dry fried mushrooms and onions, sweetcorn and green beans.
Chicken (left over from roast) risotto. 12 propoints for a heyuge serving.
Grilled chicken breasts with salad and potato and sweet potato crisps.
Turkey and salad in a wholemeal roll.
WW Tuna in thousand island dressing with green pepper, celery and spring onions on a toasted bagel.

I'm having a real hollow day today. No matter what I eat I still feel hungry. I might need to dip into those weekly points and have some biscuits!

First weigh in day

The first week went pretty well. I only used 11 of my weekly points, and that was over two days. The other days I struggled to eat all of my daily points. I managed to get some activity points as well by going for some long, if slow, walks. I don't feel that I'm eating all that differently, and if I want something, I'm having it. I like having the flexibility of the weekly points to either eat more if I'm hungry and have used all my daily points, or to have a chocolate without feeling guilty.

I managed to buy some scales on Thursday so that I could do my first weigh in today. Because I was taking my starting weight from the hospital scales, I don't know if it was exact, so don't know if this week's loss is a true loss or if I was already a little lighter after surgery, but I do feel like I've lost weight this week.

So for the big reveal: My loss this week was 2.5kg! I'm very impressed, especially as it doesn't feel at all like I'm "dieting".

In other news, I managed to find two dresses I really liked and bought them, so I now have a lovely floral 50s style dress and a black and white maxi dress. I even straightened my hair yesterday! It's all change here.

Here's hoping that week 2 is as successful.

First week continues

Two more days down, and very different days they were, foodwise. Tuesday was a bit of a hollow day, I was just hungry all day and nothing seemed to fill me up. I didn't think I was doing too badly in terms of what I was eating, but it just wasn't enough and I was still hungry after all my daily points. I guess that's the point of the weekly propoints, and I used 6 of them.

I had pasta for lunch and was rather shocked that 100g (uncooked) of penne was 10 propoints. The sauce was a small tin of tuna in spring water with tomato and veg so not too "expensive" in terms of points and it boosted my veg intake for the day.

Dinner was oven cooked battered fish, surprisingly low in propoints, with salad. I splurged on some mayo to go with it.

I was so hungry though that I felt really down about it and was thinking I was going to struggle.

Today was better, I had scrambled eggs for lunch and that filled me up more so I wasn't as hungry. Tea was a bit of a scrounge and was fish fingers and oven chips with sweetcorn, but again, not as high in propoints as I thought it might be. I was left with enough points at the end of the day to have sticky toffee pudding and a small scoop of ice cream without using any more of my weekly points.

I'll be very interested to see whether I lose weight this week. I can't exercise yet as I'm still recovering from the surgery (and driving today just about did me in). I imagine if I was moving a lot more as well it would be more effective. I don't feel like I'm eating any differently, although I have made a bit of a fruit and veg effort (not so much today) so that's got to be a good thing anyway.

At the end of day 4 I'm feeling good although I need to go shopping so that there are plenty of healthy and filling foods in the house!

Day 2 - So far so good

At the end of play today I've eaten my 46 points plus 3 weekly points. I had a load of salad with my tea and even had an apple and grapes during the day, increasing my normal fruit intake by two. I'm not feeling deprived, I had a glass of coke with dinner and had a chocolate bar earlier as well.

Let's see if I resist the ice cream or dig further into my weekly points.

I've been exploring the site and have found some recipes that sound good so I'm looking forward to trying those. Now I just need a decent set of scales before weigh in next week (or should I use the pay scales in Boots?).

So today's food:
Toast and jam
1 apple

Salami and tomato quesadilla
Bunch of grapes

Lamb kebab/beef burger
Salad
Bread
Homemade dressing

Bliss bar
Twix finger
Coke

Doesn't look like a diet, does it?

...nothing as of yet

So if you read my other blog, you'll know that I had my gall bladder out this week. I have been told that people often find they gain weight after this, and quite frankly I can't afford to do that. In order to do something about it, I've joined Weight Watchers online. I've done WW before, but this new ProPoints plan is very different to previous plans I've done, so it's going to take some getting used to.

I've decided for the first day or so that I'll eat as normal and track what I eat to get used to the new points system and see how badly I'm doing. Today I've eaten all my daily points and 9 of my weekly points. Good thing I don't have anything big planned this week!

If you're following the new plan I'd love to hear how you're doing. What do you find easy/hard about it? Any pitfalls for me to watch out for? Leave a comment and let me know.