On The Right Track

Well it's been two weeks since I set my plan and not only have I stuck to all the things I set myself but I've lost 6 and a half pounds.  I've now lost a total of 13 and a half pounds.  Half a pound to go to a stone, no more shiny stickers from slimming world though so I might have to make my own, ha ha.

I've done some really big walks with a group of friends too, now the evenings are light we've left the roads and started walking across the nearby fields and up some very steep hills. I can definitely feel the difference in my jeans and trousers.

  

 

Some of the countryside (and hills) we've been tackling.

I also dusted off the Wii Fit Board (literally) and started using that on the nights I don't do a big walk, my arms are aching from boxing!

I am finding my calorie target very easy to stick too as well and feeling much less hungry than usual. I've really upped my water intake too.

Using my Fitbit Zip to count how many steps and recording what I've eaten using My Fitness Pal shows me calories consumed versus calories burned which I find really motivating.  After a 5.5 mile walk with the girls last night on top of the usual daily steps I did over 20,000 steps. I'd done 19,300 when I got in so I paced around the room to get to 20,000. I think my husband thought I had lost the plot but I knew if I sat down I would stiffen up and not be able to do anything apart from crawl to bed.

It's my sister in laws 40th birthday this weekend and we are out all day on Saturday on an 'Ale Trail' so not only will I be consuming my body weight in lager, cider and vodka but I will need to line my stomach too, and probably have a curry at the end of the night.  That's going to be my day off and I'm doing another 5/6 mile walk tomorrow night, at least 3 miles Friday morning and just sticking to the plan rigidly before and afterwards.

Next time I blog I WILL have lost my first stone!!!

Time To Hit The Reset Button


The past month or so has not gone so well on the dieting front, I had a good few weeks where I couldn't go to Slimming World for various reasons, hubby working away or at football mostly but to be honest I can't say I was disappointed as I knew I would have put a bit of weight on.  I'd started to become a bit disillusioned with the classes anyway and wasn't finding them remotely motivating.  I actually find the woman that runs them a bit rude too, she doesn't even say hello when you arrive and there is no sharing of ideas amongst the group etc.

So I've not been for a few weeks and I'd toyed with the idea of finding a class elsewhere until I read an email yesterday from a diet website yesterday with ideas on how to kick start your weight loss and the first one was 'Hit The Reset Button'  In short, if it's not working stop doing it.

So that made my mind up and I've decided I can lose weight on my own.  Well, with the help of my family and friends at least.  Several friends are also losing weight and so is my sister so we are all going to motivate each other.

So I have devised myself my own plan:

1. Try to eat less than 1400 calories a day on week days and allow myself extra for treats on a weekend.
2. Use 'diet' shakes on work days (mainly for convenience)
3. Eat fresh healthy meals and steer clear of pasta, rice and potatoes.
4. Use My Fitness Pal to record my food and exercise.
5. Walk further and with friends
6. Start using my numerous fitness DVD's and the Wii fit
7. Drink more water and less tea.
8. Plan my meals in advance
9. Bore you all to death by blogging about it!!!

Yesterday was the first day of my new 'regime' and I had less than 1400 calories and did a 4.6mile walk with the dog and some friends.

My meal plan for the rest of the week is as follows:

Tuesday

Tangy Trout with Balsamic Salad

 

Wednesday

Chicken Stir Fry

 

Thursday

Paprika Pork Chops with Roasted Veg

 

Friday

Eating out - All you can eat tapas!!

 

Saturday

Southern Style Spare Ribs with Celeriac Chips

 

Sunday

Some kind of Sunday Roast

 Obviously Friday night may prove a tad difficult, we are being taken out by some friends and it's the first time me and hubby have had a night out together for ages so it's all you eat tapas and drinks but you have to treat yourself from time to time.

I am super motivated and long may it last!!

It was worth it!!!

Half A Pound On

As the title suggests I had a little gain last week but I am pleased with just half a pound as the trip to Wembley was not diet friendly.  In terms of alcohol I actually only had a couple of pints but we took sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps etc which is where it went wrong.

Bradford lost 5-0 but we had a great day out none the less and the atmosphere and fans were amazing.  Ellie had a fab time and just seeing the sea of claret and amber flags being constantly waved and songs being sung was brilliant.

Me and my sis having a quick pre-match pint

Ells Bells

 

So back to healthy thinking this week.  The FitBit Zip has been permanently attached to me and I've found it really motivating see how many steps I've done and it's pushing me to do that bit more. Yesterday I got my first 20,000 step badge.  My legs are aching today. 

I've nothing planned for the weekend so i will be spending some time meal planning for next week and cooking up something healthy for the weekend.  I really need to get back into planning ahead for breakfasts and lunches while I'm at work too so will be cooking ahead for that on Sunday.

Here's hoping there will be less of me next week!!

Result!!!!

Last week I lost another 1/2 pound after another really good week and I was a bit disappointed again, this week I wasn't as good yet I lost 2.5lb's.  Really really pleased.

 

I havve been good most of the time apart froma few occasions, Mark suprised me on valentine's day by bringing home Mussels, Rack of Lamb, Cheesecake and Wine.  Now that;s what I call a valentine's present, I'll take food over flowers any day! We cooked it as healthy as we could but it was valentine's afterall. 

Saturday we took the kids to the cinema and then for a meal, I had 'Scotch and Egg' to start (a fancy sctoch egg really), half aromatic Duck with mash, braised red cabbage and green beans for my main and Creme Brulee for dessert. Yum Yum, it was delicious but naughty.  And we had a few drinks afterwards too. 

 

In between all that I was really good and considering the last two weeks I think the 2.5lb is well deserved.  I got slimmer of the week too. 

 

I haven't done the cheats and cheers list properly for the last couple of weeks, I'll see how it goes this week. I did do a meal plan though for the main part of the week.

 

Monday - Pork Chops, Crispy Potatoes, Sugar Snaps & Baby Corn

Tuesday  -  Beef Burgers, Chips, Salad

Wednesday -  Chicken Kebabs, Rice & Salad

Thursday  -  Beef Stir Fry

Friday - Chicken Curry

 

All slimming world and no syns.

 

Yesterday I received my FitBit Zip and Aria that I won a couple of weeks ago, today is the first day I have used them properly and I love them already.  The Zip is a tiny little thing that clips nice and securely to your wasitband or bra and records every movement.  It records steps, distance and calories burnt and syncs to your phone and pc.  the FitBit site also lets you record food, weight etc and has forums too.  The Aria (scales) also syncs to your account each time you step on them.  I have also linked it to myfitnesspal as I use that for recording my food and it automatically added the weight I had lost before I started using the Zip and Aria. Today I have done over 14,000 steps today and over 6 miles. It also syncs to mapmyfitness so I've now got a choice of where to record activities and food etc and they all end up on FitBit.

 

The week ahead includes the Wembley trip to watch Bradford City which will involve a few pints and whatever food we eat down there so I plan on being as good as possible up to then.  Fingers crossed we are celebrating on the way home.   Come On City!!!

#RedNoseDay #comic relief #teamhonk #goodwork

It is 25 years since the first comic relief this year and when I hear this I immediately felt old. I remember being 10 years old when Comic relief was launched and buying that first Red Nose and wearing it all day at school with my friends despite it being made of pinchy uncomfortable plastic, those little noses have come a long way since then and Comic Relief continues to do amazing work.

Back then I knew it was to raise money for people in Africa and we got to have fun doing it but it is not until you get older that you pay attention to videos of the celebrities going out there and visiting people in appalling conditions without the basic things that we take for granted everyday.

Three lovely fellow bloggers who I recently discovered on twitter and have just had the amazing opportunity to visit Ghana with Comic Relief and see some of the #goodwork that this amazing charity does and they sent me the picture below. I got to choose which of the places they were visiting that I wanted my photo to be from and naturally I went with the food option and my photo is from The Virtuous Women’s Bakery.

This amazing lady is Veronica. You might have seen her on television, on the Comic Relief Great British Bake Off selling bread made in the bakery on the beach. The Virtuous Women's bakery allows women to earn money while their children play and learn in the nursery across the courtyard.

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk;www.aresidence.co.uk; www.mummybarrow.com) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

For the past 25 years the money raised through Red Nose Day has been changing the lives of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the UK and Africa. Let’s Keep Up the Good Work. Find out how at rednoseday.com

For other digital postcards please do join up and check out the linky on www.teamhonk.org

A Loss Is A Loss

Back from weigh in and I lost half a pound.  Considering how good I have been I am a bit disappointed but a loss is a loss and I won't let it get me down.

I got my Body Magic Silver Award tonight after completing all my exercise on the Slimming World website for the last 4 weeks.

 

      

I said last week that I would start doing a cheats and cheers list of the things I had eaten/drunk and not written down and the times I have refrained/refused things so here it is:

Cheats                                                                

Wednesday
2 x giant m&s chocolate buttons                        
1 x after eight mint                                            
                                                                          
Thursday
1 x giant m&s chocolate buttons

Friday
15 ish skittles

Saturday
1 x large pretzel

Sunday
Oil on my roast potatoes and roasted veg (ran out of fry light)
Skin on roast chicken (I cannot bring myself to throw crispy chicken skin away)

Tuesday
1 x after eight mint

Cheers

No Friday wine
No Saturday tea time beer with Hubby
Only two lagers with my curry on Sat (syned)
Made my own syn free bhaji's while Hubby had Farm Shop samosas

Looking at the above I am pleased with myself.  I didn't use my whole syn allowance so overall I should be within them (apart from maybe the chicken skin)

I've started reading a lot of blogs recently and I've found some really useful ideas.  Over on www.mumreinvented.co.uk she does a meal planning monday post each week which I think would be really helpful.  I always go to the farm shop at the weekend so I think I am going to start doing a meal plan for the following week on a Thursday night.  The new Slimming World magazine was on sale at group tonight so I am about to sit with a cuppa and look through for some new ideas.


Last week I cooked myself a couple of new things, Friday night I had Chicken in a creamy Tarragon Sauce with Roast New Potatoes.  I used chicken stock and quark for the base of the sauce and just sprayed some new potatoes in fry light and baked them till crispy.  Served on a bed of Spring Greens, it was very nice and felt quite indulgent.

It is my husband's birthday on Monday so I will need to save syns for wine on Saturday and we will be having something scrummy to eat but I'll be cooking so can make it as low syn as possible. Here's to another good week.

I won, I won, I won

Just a quick little update to my 'fitness freebies' post last week.  I only went and won.

Very much looking forward to receiving my fancy new scales and activity tracker courtesy of www.mumreinvented.co.uk  (not so sure I'm looking forward to finding out my body fat percentage)

I will give you all a review of them once I've received them and tried them out. 

That's More Like It

I've been to weigh in and lost 2 and a half pounds this week.  Really pleased as I wasn't that good at the weekend. I even had a KFC on Friday night and several glasses of wine on Saturday. oh and Steak Pie on Sunday!!!  But I've been as good as gold the rest of the time, so that and the previous week have actually paid off.

So I am feeling motivated for the week ahead and about to have a look through the Slimming world magazine for some new meal ideas.

I go to slimming world with a few friends and I suggested that a few of them start joining me when I am walking Bailey a couple of nights a week which they have started doing.  It's been nice to have company on the dark cold nights so I am going to keep our little walking club going.

At slimming world tonight someone said they had started making a list of things they had refused/turned down during the week which I thought was a really good idea. I was going to start publishing a list on my blog of the times I had cheated durng the week in an attempt to be more honest with myself which I am still going to do but I think a refusal list would be motiviating too so from next week I'll post both.

I am back up to losing half a stone now and have set myself a target of 3lb next week which will get me back to where I was before xmas.  I also have one more week of exercise before I get my silver body magic award.

Here's to a really good week.  Good luck to anyone joining me.

Fitness Freebie, yes please!!

Since my last post I've done another 9 and a half miles walking and I don't my admitting I am seriously aching. More than usual and I think it is down to the snow. 

Yesterday I downloaded two new free apps to track how far I am walking just to check that the one I normally use is accurate, it had a little wobble two weeks ago and told me I'd walked two miles in 7 minutes (highly unlikely). Normally it is very good, the two new ones were quickly deleted, one only measured kilometres and the other told me I'd walked 0.10 miles in a straight line when I'd actually done half a mile in a circle round a cricket pitch.

So today I came across a tweet from @mumreinvented to enter her Get Fit, Feel Epic competition to win a Fitbit Zip Wireless Activity Tracker, worth £49.99 and Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Smart Scales, worth £99.99?  The Zip tracks your steps, distance and calories burned and The Aria tracks weight, % body fat and BMI  and both sync with your computer or Smartphone. 

Now whilst I am not too fussed about knowing my percentage of body fat (high??)  I definitely want the Activity Tracker and I really need some decent scales so this post is unashamedly me entering to win the competition. 

Check out Mum Reinvented at http://www.mumreinvented.co.uk/

Oh and it's seriously snowing in Bradford, again, more aching muscles and maybe some more sledging .

Stupid Scales

I'm so not a happy bunny with the scales tonight. I have been sooooooooo good this week, treated myself on Sunday to cheesecake and wine but the rest of the week I hardly had any syns. I've done nearly 10 hours of excerise covering 18.5 miles, most of which were in the deep deep snow and six of them were dragging the kids on their sledges up some very steep hills too so imagine my disappointment when I went to weigh in to stay the same!!! Not even lost a measly pound.

It's taken an enormous amount of will power not to throw myself face first into the kids Xmas chocolate goodies to comfort eat myself happy? The Hubby reckons it's cos I've built muscle, blah blah blah.  Whatever the reason I am miffed to say the least.

It had better show on the scales next week. Hubby says I need to measure myself  so if I have weeks like this I can see if I've lost inches instead of pounds but what if I haven't lost either.  Then I could have an all out tantrum. And I can't imagine that would be a pretty sight. I suppose he might have a point.

On the happier side tonight I must've burnt some more calories jumping round the room screaming at the TV as Bradford City make it to Wembley in the league cup final.  And instead of the kids chocolate, I had a couple of vodka and diet cokes to calm to football nerves. I can't imagine a trip to Wembley is going to be syn free.  There'll be a few pints supped then.  Best get food optimising and exercising before hand in preparation.

Hubby is away working in Birmingham (city happened to be playing tonight's game at Aston Villa, that worked out well for him) so me and the kids had yet more snow fun in the back garden tonight and made ourselves a teeny tiny snowman followed by a snowball fight. (More calories burned??)

Walking It Off

The excuse that you can't do much excercise because of the snow can't be used in this house, today I've walked a total of 5.25 miles through the deep snow.  and 3.5 miles of that was dragging the kids in their sledges, often uphill.  I'm shattered now and covered in bruises from the sledge and from falling over chasing the dog yesterday.

Loads of fun and loads of calories burnt.  Hope it shows on the scales tomorrow.

 

Mark flying down to fetch the kids who were giggling away after just mssing a tree.

 

The kids making snow angels

 

 

Bailey, our crazy pooch.

(she doesn't normally look this demonic)

 

Night time walk on the cricket field, looking pretty in the snow.

 

#snowloss

We have Snow Snow and more snow in Bradford today.  I didn't even try get to work this morning, I live on a main road and even that was covered and seen as it is a 20 mile drive I opted to stay at home, plus the kids school was shut so it is officially a snow day.

 

I am 'working fron home' checking my emails between doing some arts and crafts with the kids and then this afternoon we are planning on some more seldging and building a snowman.  This photo is from Saturday morning and we have had even more snow since then.

 
So I figure walking in the snow must burn more calories than normal walking not to mention dragging the kids in sledges.  It's #snowloss.  Even if the kids don't want to go I might just go play out by myself, anything to burn a few calories.

Back to losing weight, back to blogging myself slim

Well blogging myself slim didn't got so well at the end of 2012, I did lose a few more pounds but with Christmas etc etc I didn't get round to blogging, I blogged in my head quite a bit but never got round to writing stuff down.  

I'm not one for new year's resolutions, I don't see the need for it to be January to make a change in your life but this year I've decided to set one.  Not to lose weight, I started that journey (again) back in August, but to keep writing about it.  And eventually I might start promoting my little blog too, for now whilst I do publish it and a few people have stumbled across it I haven't told anyone I know about it so at some point down the line I might do.  For now this is more like a diary for me, somewhere for me to write down my feelings and be honest with myself.

So whereabouts am I on my journey? I had lost 10lbs by the beginning of December but over the rest of December and the beginning of January I put 5 and a half on.  Considering I ate my body weight in cheese over Christmas plus all the usual Christmas beer, wine, nuts, bread rolls, my mums homemade cinnamon rolls (yum yum), cheesecakes, lemon cream pie and copious amounts of crisps and nuts I was actually really pleased that I hadn't out the full 10lb back on.

So this week is the first week back to it and I'm feeling very pleased with myself.  I knew I was going out for a meal today so I've saved most of this weeks syns for it.  And I knew I wanted a dessert so I had a very healthy baked salmon with salad for my main accompanied by a diet coke,  I had cheese cake for dessert and I am now having wine while I type but seen as I have been so good all week I'm not feeling guilty about it.  

I've also been making sure I've had plenty of exercise too, out walking the dog in the snow and I've walked 15 miles since Tuesday, 3 miles of that was dragging the kids in sledges and up and down the local golf course hill for some sledging fun.  Freezing cold but a great time and my fearless kids were off down the big hills without batting an eyelid.

So my weight loss stands at 4.5lb and I'm determined to get back to the 10lb loss within 3 weeks if not sooner.  

What have I got to aim for this year?? My baby brother gets married in Germany in August and straight after that've are taking the kids to Disneyland Paris. For once I want to feel happy having my photo's taken and actually be in some rather than hiding behind the camera. 

I'm not setting a target weight, I just want to feel good about myself so here I go, there is only me that can make this come true and only me who can let myself down.  

Owners and upwards (actually downwards!!!) 

See you after Tuesday weigh-in