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 She was a little put out that the bug display she'd seen at her taster session had been replaced by a safari scene.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!