End of the Shred

Missed a Target this month.  


Not annoyed about it though...


So, I've been doing the Jillian Michaels 30 Day shred DVD for the past 2 months.  I have *not* done it in 30 days. It would have killed me. Woman is crazy!  But I have done it in 2 months. I started on the 1st March and have maintained other forms of cardio (my beloved swimming) when I have missed days of the Shred.  Today will be Day 30, level 3 day 10.


I have to say, I feel pretty damn proud of myself :)  It's a hell of a workout, no matter the fact that it's only 20 (27 actually, she leaves out the warmup and cooldown times, just sayin') minutes long doesn't take from the fact that your arms and legs and ass and shoulders absolutely kill you the next day! 


My weightloss has slowed right down to around about half a pound a week, which is what I think is healthy for me now. 


This weeks weighin gave me:

12 Stone 4 Pounds

172 Pounds

I had set the target of 170lbs, but, I don't feel too bad about missing it.  I have seen a slow down of loss - probably mostly to do with the fact that I'm eating more calories, but also because of the nature of the workouts I'm doing now.


The circuit training that the DVD does actually includes a hell of a lot of body weight resistance training that I have been quite lacking for a while, so I do think that I've been gaining a little bit of lean muscle over the last few months.  I hope so anyway :D  I'll see what happens when I'm doing different cardio.


I haven't taken any measurements, I kinda wish I had, but I had to go on an emergency Bra shop on my lunch break yesterday, cause the bra that I was wearing was just too big! I only bought it about 2 months ago!
Anyway, I've been convinced that I'm sitting on a plateau of muscle mass, but I looked back over my numbers for the last couple of months and actually it looks like I am right on track for an average of half a pound a week.  I have seen a big slowdown since I took that horrible dose of the flu in february march kind of time, but actually, it was around that time that I upped my calories and moved more towards the maintenance side of things. So I am pretty happy with where I am.


Glad that I bother to keep stats, keeps me sane when there's weekly fluctuations :)


I've reset my target to be 170lbs again by the start of June,  but I shan't hold my breath for that one. May contains many dinners out and a holiday in a foreign clime that may involve a lot of red wine and dinners out :) (can't wait!)


There will be a swimming pool there though, so hopefully I'll be able to get an hour of swimming in a few of the days :)


(Have I mentioned how much I love swimming?)


Happy losing boys and girls.

Exercise Addiction and this weeks weighin

Yeah, I know, never thought this would be something that I would have to think about ever....

This week I've got some seriously tired muscles. Seriously tired. My legs are a little bit jellified and my shoulders are sore and tight.

That being said, I feel pretty awesome! Everything feels like it's working the way that it needs to work!

BUT

I think I really do need a couple of days off from exercise in order to allow the old bod to repair itself. The fatigue that I'm feeling is more than normal!

I took yesterday off cause I had some family matters to attend to, but my goodness, the mood I was in this morning without my little endorphin hit yesterday. I nearly didn't go to my swimming lesson because my head was all fuggy and heavy!

I forced myself to go to my lesson and I swear, the second I got into the water I felt a million times better. A few lengths and I could take on the whole world!!

So I'm a little bit anxious about stopping and making myself go into a funk.

All I seem to think about at the minute is exercise and food. I really need to go on a holiday from it all. 

I really want to make it to my goal though! 

It's the weirdest feeling though, on my days off, I can't seem to go through a whole day without that anxious feeling of "I should be doing something, you're supposed to be jumping up and down to something now, why aren't you in the pool?" kind of feeling. Which is good in a way, but I really need to have a period of time where I don't do anything at all. My muscles need to recover.

I read this wikipedia article today which says it all for me really:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtraining

Go read it, I'll wait for you......Done? Good.

Sound like what I'm rambling about? Yeah I thought so too.

So, the way I'm looking at it at the moment is, I have about 6 days left of the 30 day shred to go before I've met that challenge. At that point I will take a whole 3 days off (in a row!) and see how I feel.

Then I will look into making a brand new challenge for myself :)

No loss on the weighin this week, but I know for a fact that my muscles are full of water and working hard at repairing themselves this week, so I'm looking forward to my recovery week weighin to see how I have actually done :)

Hope you guys are all doing great!!!

April Target Hit!

I was a bit worried about this target, I was away for the weekend a week ago and I think I lost my tiny mind a little bit!


We go away with friends every now and again and I go with every good intention in the world of behaving myself and just drinking wine in the evenings and going out during the day and working some nice exercise calories up and sticking within my targets. Then everyone buys chocolates and cakes and crisps and leaves them open in front of me!


I swear, I'm like a crack addict set down in front of a mountain of top grade charlie!  I even brought back 2 hot cross buns that they don't sell where I live so that I could savour them!!


I am a sick puppy.


Malteasers are alright though right? Right??


Anyhoo.


Got home and back onto the wagon big style.  Got into Jillian Michaels 30 day shred again - finished level 2 and did day 1 of level 3. Ouch. Back to that tomorrow *shudder*.


Have had a nice swim (learning butterfly stroke at the minute! I know!), did some exercise biking and am in the process of (with dearly beloved) doing up an old bicycle in order to start learning to ride!! I am incredibly excited by this prospect :D  I know there's going to be a bit of falling down and some scraped knees and stuff, but I don't care, I *want* to be able to ride a bike. I *will* learn to ride a bike!!


So! Weighin!  I set a target of 12 stone 7 pounds for monday and when I stepped on the scales I was pleasantly surprised by:

12 Stone 5.25 Pounds

Which was very nice indeed.

So I'm hereby setting a new target for 30th April of 12 Stone 2 Pounds.  That will get me to the threshold of a new decade of lbs (170) just in time for my 31st birthday (yikes)!

Oh, also, my leisure centre membership has changed. Which means I'm going to be able to go to the fitness suite as well as the pool. This opens up the possibility of my starting jogging.....  Interesting developments abounds!


Till next time!!


xx

Breaking the Plateau

Hello!

It has been a while since I've had anything to say, but I can quite happily say that I think I have broken through the plateau!!

Thank goodness!!

My last post here was on the 30th January, and my graph was distinctly flatlining. It wasn't a terrible thing, I can honestly say that I am quite happy with my body the shape that it is now (apart from the bewbs, but that's a post for another day).  

I do want to be able to get to a healthy BMI though, so I decided to mix things up a little bit to see if I could bust through.

So! Using myfitnesspal.com settings I reset all my goals to change the way that I eat!!!

I've boosted the amount of protein I eat in a day and lowered my carbohydrates (note, I am still eating Carbs. Just not quite as many as before).  I'm still eating around 1750 calories (net) per day - a 250 calorie deficit - just in a different way!

So, I've been doing that for about a month now - some days more successful than others! (Protein is kinda hard to eat without being totally across every mouthful of food you eat all day - I really don't want to think about my food that much. Also I don't want to have to resort to bars and protein powder shakes). And it seems to be going ok!!

Before I give you the weighins though I also want to say that I've shaken my exercise routine up a little as well.

I had a week in the middle of February where I was so ill. I mean really, a flu the likes of which I hope I will not see again for a very long time.  Myself and dearly beloved were totally floored and in bed for 3 whole days (and not in a good way). When we finally emerged at the other end of it I can honestly say that my body felt as weak as a kitten. It's amazing how quickly you can lose your stamina if you don't stay on top of everything.  Having said that, I have been pleased at my recovery time, I think I am back on form now! I need to continue with my swimming endurance, but that is a post for another day too!


Anyhoo, to get myself back on track, I have finally given in and am having a go at Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred.  So many people have told me (on forums) how great this DVD is and after hearing a friend of mine tell me how good and convenient it is for a working person, plus how you really feel it even though you're only doing a 27 minute workout a day.  Well, let me tell you.  You really *really* feel it!  

There are 3 levels that you do for 10 days at a time. I'm on day 8 today of level 1. 

I upped the weight that I use for my bicep curls last night.  Ouch.

Anyhoo, I'm doing that on days that I'm at work (as long as dearly beloved doesn't mind doing the cooking - he's a wonderful man really, no matter what anyone says about him ;) )  and continuing with my swimming on days that I am off. 

TO THE WEIGHINS!!

• 30th January - 12 Stone 12.5 Pounds -   180.25lbs

• 6th February - 12 Stone 11.75 Pounds - 179.75lbs

• 13th February - 12 Stone 6.5 Pounds -   174.5lbs

• 20th February - 12 Stone 9 Pounds  -   177lbs

• 27th February - 12 Stone 8.75 Pounds - 176.75lbs

• 5th March - 12 Stone 7.75 Pounds -      175.5lbs

Aren't they lovely numbers? :)


So glad to be down around the 175/next half stone level! That 9 stone barrier is well and truly trampled! 

So for my next mini target, I'm hoping to get below and stay below 12 stone 7 by the start of April!


Looking forward to seeing the results of this 30 Day Shred DVD!

Dreading The Plateau

Ok, I'll admit, I haven't been following the plan exactly. Things are changing diet and exercise plan wise and my face isn't quite keeping up with it like it should be, thus I'm getting a little bit discouraged by the result on Scaley Mc Scalerson!

Todays weighin - Target post christmas was:

12 Stone 12.25 pounds

180.25lbs

Which, when looked at logically, is pretty good for what I was aiming for - I wanted to maintain 180lbs - but, I have been "behaving" myself for the entire month of January to no result. I think we can officially call this a plateau now.

Anyway, I'm not going to let it get me down, as I've been rejigging the program and I am now in a "lose half a pound a week" category, so it's going to take a lot of time.

The new plan is to eat a heck of a lot more food! Which is nice :)

I've redone my calculations and I have 1750 (approx) calories to eat in a day, as well as any calories that I claw back from dragging my ass around a swimming pool in a day.

I also have to calm down with my weighins I think. It's just not going to move as quickly as it used to. I may have to go to fortnightly or monthly weighins to make sure that I don't get depressed.

Last night I was so annoyed with myself that I just ate everything in the house!! I mean really, I ate (not unhealthily) a lot of food! about 1000 calories more than I should have!

Anyway. I'll think about what target I am going to set this month and put it on twitter by the end of the week.

New challenges required I think! Something physical as opposed to a scale target. 

Oh dear oh dear

I have been a very naughty girl.


I've not had a loss for about 3 weeks now and I really have not been behaving myself at all.


Thankfully I've also not seen a gain which means I've managed to do my overeating at my maintenance calories. 
Which is nice.

So, when I got home from work today I went and did 50 minutes on my exercise bike and some press ups to get myself back into the endorphin hit.


I must get back on top of my eating now,  I have been a little bit mental with booze and chocolate biscuits cause we've had visitors, so I don't feel too bad about it.  I need a plan for the next few weeks though.


I have to get through this 9 stone barrier! It's beginning to piss me off.

Enough of this!

Right, it's a day early for coming off my 1200 calorie kick, but I have been feeling sluggish and lethargic for the past 3 days and I don't really want to keep going with it anymore.


I don't have an awful lot of weight left to lose and I don't want to do my workouts harm by not taking in enough fuel to keep it going at maximum.


So, going back to the old BMR Calculations:



655+(781.9125)+(324.3)-141=1620.2125 = BMR
*1.2


=1944.255 = Total Daily Calorie Expenditure


So that gives me a maintenance number of 1944 calories.


With allowances for my exercise, I will set my loss at half a pound a week.  This gives me about 1694 calories for a day.


Much nicer.


So that's where I'm going to be from now on.


Myfitnesspal has given me about 1750 cals so I'll use that as a nice guide to stick within:


1694 - 1750 cals


This past week I  have been eating way under my number, which is probably part of why I've been feeling so rubbish.  I've got to the point today where I really want to binge like a crazy person to make up for the unders this week!


SUNDAY ROUND UP


231
384
140
1
64
(-140)  +
-------------
680


1200*6=7200-680 = 6520 for a week. Which really is not very much at all.


So, I've had enough of that :)


CALORIE ++ :)


The only thing that I've started to wonder about, is if I'm calculating my activity level correctly. I count my daily activity level as sedentary as when I'm in work I tend to spend the entire day sat down.  I do know though, that I'm a heck of a lot more active than I used to be at the beginning of this. So should I set my activity level slightly higher? It's a bit hard. Will stick with sedentary for now I suppose, I just want to be able to eat more food :)


I have three days this week in order to go to the swimmers and indeed do some DVD work (really could do with a bit of strength training).


Then I have some friends visiting for a few days.  I hope to get out for a nice long walk one of those days with them, but it may end up being a bit of a diet disaster! Thankfully the girl that's visiting is also on a January health kick, so she will be able to keep me in check :)


Ok that'll do for now!


Buh bye!

Workout today :)

Damage Control

Mid way through 1200 fortnight January.


I've stumbled a few times, not quite kept the weekly total under what it should be, but to be honest with you, it's such a wrench from my normal eating that as long as I'm keeping it well below 1400 per day, I'm ok with it :)


I've started to play a little bit with vegetarian food.  Meat seems to be the one thing that adds an insane amount of calories to my meals. Don't get me wrong, I'm not turning vegetarian, I'm merely commenting on my lack of control when faced with an entire leg of lamb (mmmm leg of lamb) so I'm thinking it would be nice to be able to have a few meals a week/month where it's only veggies in the dinner.  Good for fibre intake and a massive calorie dip per meal! 


So I've bought Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's "Veg Everyday" cookbook and last night I made the Cauliflower and Chickpea curry from it for myself and dearly beloved.  Very very nice indeed!! Lot of experimenting required :)


Calorie deficit/surplus for the week were:
Monday : -586 - oops
Tuesday : 14
Wednesday : 62
Thursday : 111 
Friday : 148
Saturday : 16
Sunday : -149


Calories Burned for the week in exercise : 1265


Good to be back into it again :)


This week has started off well, I've got some new toys that I'm going to have a play with today and will tell you all about next time (can you say heart rate monitor?! wooooooo!)


Hopefully next week's weighin will show me back to pre christmas weight (am still a bit over that 12 stone 11.75 pounds, but not far!)


Hope 2012 is going well so far ;) 

Back to reality

Hi everyone.


Did you have a good Christmas/New Year time?


Hope so.


Mine was fine thanks, yeah, a little crazy but generally enjoyable.


Put on weight? Um well. I haven't dared to look yet.


I spent the entire time either sitting on my butt driving the car for about 3 hours at a time or sitting on my butt drinking sloe gin and eating christmas pudding.


I feel atrocious!


I have today off and I really should be down at the swimming pool right now getting myself back into the swing of things exercise wise, but really the only thing that I can bring myself to do is sit right here and type this blog post berating myself for not getting down to the swimming pool and getting back into the swing of things...


This is the year that I want to hit goal. I can't stress enough how badly I want to get to that magic number.  It pisses me off that I have to slow down my rate of loss now to keep stupid body happy and out of plateau mode, but it's what I have to do.


Having said that, I'm aiming at 2 weeks at 1200 calories per day to get myself back on track with my eating. Exercise will come as I get more into the swing of things.  Having said that, I know that I should still do something today... I'll see how it goes.


Anyway. I've no doubt that I'll get back into the way of it, I enjoyed having a "thin" christmas. Wearing clothes that made me look nice and feeling like a normal person - at least for a little while.


It's still a strange feeling, I guess it's to do with the company that I keep, they all have known me for a long time and I have always been big, so when I'm with them all I don't feel any different, so I feel like old me.  Then I remember that old me isn't here anymore. Even though she's still making me have some more crisps and cake.


It's a weird feeling.


I wonder if you can ever shed the old fat feeling and actually feel normal? I guess normal is just whatever you are. Physical image shouldn't even intrude on your consciousness at all to be truly normal.


Hmmm.


Happy New Year all.

Christmas is coming LRD is only a little bit fat

Hello!

It's been a while since I've felt the need to express myself on this as I've been messing about a little bit more on http://www.Myfitnesspal.com a bit more recently.  Nothing terribly exciting, just acting like I know what I'm talking about and generally being a bit of a pain in the arse.  

However, I weighed in today and felt the need to talk a bit about it.

I've been hovering about the 13 stone mark for a wee while now - I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be a finish mark for me. I'm pretty happy with my body at the moment. It does everything that I'm asking it to do on a regular basis and the fact that I have to tighten the seat belt on an airplane seat now just tickles me to death :D

This morning I stepped onto the scale after a pretty good couple of weeks drinking and eating and partying for the festive season. Fairly confident in the knowledge that I really didn't deserve a loss.  Hoping that it hadn't gone up too much.

12 Stone 11.75 Pounds

Can you believe that? 

I have left my weighin for a couple of weeks since the snowboarding escapades as my muscles had swollen and put on about half a stone of water weight (period week too) so I decided to leave it.

I've still been counting calories, but I've not been jumping on the scale morning and night for a while now. It's quite weird to feel yourself changing habits.

Anyway, another thing I've done now is I've upped my calories and decreased my defecit again.

Isn't that a beautiful thing? "Marginally overweight"  I would have given my right arm for this point back at the beginning! 

Anyway, that number means that eating a 1lb a week calorie deficit number nowadays would be far too little to keep up a healthy metabolism. (If what I've read on the fitness forums are to be believed) Plus, I want to start learning to eat like a normal human being now and a few more calories to play with are a good thing.

So, I have a limit of 1750 per day, I exercise as often as I can throughout the week and do my best to eat back all the calories that I earn from that.

We'll see how much damage I do over Christmas, but it's nice to flirt with the 170's for the end of the year :  179.75lbs!

If I don't post again I wish everyone a very very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings etc, but most of all a peaceful, prosperous and healthy 2012!

"Don't you lose too much!"

I had to share this, cause I didn't think that anyone would ever say it to me, but I've had 2 in a week now.


Todays weighin went as follows:

12 Stone 13.25 Pounds

How good is that?!?!

Anyhoo, I'm currently at 181.25lbs in weight, 13.25 lbs in the overweight range of BMI and about 31lbs from my final goal.


This week 2 people have said to me "Have you much more to lose? Your face looks so thin now, you don't want to go too far!"


Hilarious!!


I realise that a lot of people can take these things to extremes, but I have got a final goal in sight. I'm not going to let other people giving me compliments (as lovely as that is and please don't stop!) to sidetrack me from getting to a healthy weight.


HOWEVER


I am very close to the time when I think I will have to rethink what I'm doing.


I've been on a calorie deficit for a 1lb loss per week for a good few months now, and I have to say, it's been going pretty well. I am however now thinking about lowering my defecit again.  


I read an article on myfitnesspal this week that hit home with me on how my body really works. 


I need to work on my muscles. That means I really should be doing more strength training (nothing too extreme, body weight resistance stuff and a few hand weight exercises) and upping my fuel intake.


The gist of the article was that as your bmi gets closer to a healthy range, you run the risk of using your lean muscle as fuel instead of the fat that's left in your body when you exercise (or indeed as you just exist!).  In order to overcome that, you actually need to eat more! Now, not a bucketful of KFC kind of more, still the same nice healthy things that you've been enjoying with a large defecit so far.


So, I'm not quite ready to make the step yet, but I think, after Christmas I will re-evaluate my diet and my goals and see where I am.


Hopefully in a position where I haven't gone bonkers barmy over Christmas and gained too much!


Food for thought.

Skinny Jeans

Wore my skinny jeans to work today.


That was fun ;)

Still swimming, weighin week 14/11/2011

Hello everyone!


Feeling a little bit pleased with myself at the moment. 


I decided to go and do my workout yesterday morning before I did my weighin, so I'm fairly certain that it was a bit of a fluke/cheat.  


I got up at a fairly reasonable time (no dragging this ass out of bed at 7am!) and went for a nice long swim.


Seriously. A *LONG* swim! I decided that I was going to do a whole hour! And I did! I started at 09:35 and I finished at 10:40!  I was so pleased with myself.  I can pretty much do the breast stroke now.  Still nowhere near it with the front crawl, but I can do a couple of full lengths of the (admittedly only 25m) pool now!  My stamina and endurance will only get better from here on in, but I tell you, I am so bloody proud of myself you would not believe!  The grin I had on my face when I first did an entire length of the pool, it actually hurt my face I was smiling so much! :D


So, weighin.  I did my lovely hour in the pool (stopping briefly to sign up to join the leisure center to try and save a bit of money for my multi visits) and got home and stepped on the scale.

13 Stone 1.75lbs

WOOO!!!


That's a loss of 2.25lbs in a week! I have *not* behaved well enough to deserve that. Especially after the big meal I ate on Saturday night (lot of beer, lot of food, lot of fun)


So, I'm pretty sure a lot of that was an empty tummy (I didn't eat before swimming in case of cramp) and dehydration - I get really thirsty after a swim!!   BUT, if I behave myself a fair bit this week I should be able to maintain it and stay on track for my target of the 5th December.


Very pleased :)

Monday, monday.

Hello all!  This post will be rubbish, feel free to ignore it.


It's Monday again and that means that it's weighin day!


Had a mad day yesterday. I think I went a little bit barmy and decided to eat everything that I could possibly find in the house after eating a massive dinner.


I think I managed to stay under my calorie goal, but red wine and chocolate was a nice wee addition to my day.


Anyway, stepped on the scales today and found:


13 Stone 4 pounds


woo! That's a 2.5lb loss this week.  Very nice indeed :D Feeling very happy with that.


week in review has shown:

Monday - 195
Tuesday - 294
Wednesday - 114
Thursday - 20
Friday - 248
Saturday - 521
Sunday - 41


Which has given me an additional deficit of : 1433


added to my 3500 profile setting 


doesn't add up to 2.5 pounds, but I think my time of the month added to that this week.


Anyway.


I've set myself my goal of 6.5lbs for the next month - hopefully I'll be able to meet that, but I know that there's a few parties and drinkies to go to in the meantime.  Which might screw me over a wee bit. I just have to remember at this stage of my weightloss that I'm in it for the long haul.  It's no longer a race to get to the finish line. I always know that if I mess up a little bit I can readjust and sort it out.


Having said that, I really, really want to get to goal!


I need to keep on top of my workouts and make sure that I don't slip with my eating and drinking.  It's too important.

Halloween Target Day

Well, it's the first target after the ultimate target. 


Things have slowed down to a canter and I have achieved what I wanted to achieve today.


Slowly but surely, it's all going in the right direction. Did I mention slowly?


Anyhoo....


This morning LRD stepped on her scales and the numbers said:

13 Stone 6.5 pounds

So that's nice, I'm more or less back at what I was just before I went off to Italy on holiday and ate all of their produce.

I really would have liked to have had more off, but I went to a party on saturday night and drank wine. Naughty, naughty wine. Also ate cake. Naughty, naughty cake.

So I'm not distraught about the slow burn really, I know what I did and didn't do, so yeah. All's well.

I've set myself the next target as you'll see on my twitter page: http://twitter.com/lastresortdiet 

Next target is for a wedding that I'm going to on the 10th of December, so, I'm really gonna work hard and try to get 6.5lbs off by that Monday the 5th December, which will get me to the 13 stone boundary (dammit I want to get to that number so much!!).

An extra treat for you today!

Pumpkin and Vegetable Risotto - Serves 2 gluttons like me and Dearly Beloved - Serves about 3 - 4 normal humans:

Half an Edible Pumpkin - Peeled and chopped into pieces approx 2 inches

3 Cloves of Garlic - Peeled and Crushed with the back of a knife

150g Risotto Rice

Approx 1 Litre Stock - I used Chicken stock

1 Courgette - Roughly Chopped

1 Red Onion - Chopped in Rings

1 Red Pepper - Roughly Chopped

1 Can (410g) Haricot Beans 

Large Sprig of Sage chopped

Salt and pepper

Glug of Olive Oil

Knob of butter

Glass of white wine

Preheat the oven to approx 180 degrees Centigrade

Place the Pumpkin and the Garlic in a roasting dish and cover with some olive oil, half of the sage and some salt and pepper to season. Put into the oven for 10 minutes.


After 10 minutes add the Courgette and Red Pepper to the dish and cook for a further 10 minutes.


At this stage make up your chicken stock and place in a pot on a low heat to keep it warm.  


In another pot, melt the butter over a medium heat and add the rice to it once the butter has melted. Stir till the rice is coated and warmed through. Add the glass of white wine, stir till the white wine is encorporated.


Add the Red onion to the veggies.


Add the stock a ladle at a time stirring over a medium heat till half the stock is used.  Add the beans and stir more.


Continue with the rest of the stock a ladle at a time till the rice is no longer absorbing and has gone nice and soft.


Take the vegetables out of the oven when ready (this may be before the risotto rice is ready, so keep an eye on it!) 


Add the rest of the sage to the veggies, then add the veggies to the rice.


Stir


Add parmesan and seasoning to taste. 


Enjoy!


I made this tonight. It was darn good :)

Eating chicken and keeping a lid on the bucket

Friday night, Dad has invited me to their house for my most favourite thing.


Kentucky Fried Chicken.


I have not eaten Kentucky Fried Chicken for a year and a half.


I was actually terrified! The one thing that my mum and dad are not good at, is limiting the amount of food available. (hello 21 stone me!)


So, I took decisive action. I went to the swimming pool and I worked hard for just over a half an hour - building up some stamina still!!


I felt really strong.


So I went, I asked for 3 pieces of chicken (a wing, a thigh and a leg) and some fries with gravy.


I ate it, and it was delicious. I could quite easily have carried on. I made sure that I didn't.


I was so proud of myself.


I don't think I'll go near it again for a few months, but it's nice to not be afraid of any food anymore.

Back from the land of bread and cheese

Remember how I was worried about going on holiday and going a bit mental (I may have only voiced this worry on twitter) with my eating and drinking and screwing up a load of good work and I was intending on being really good and doing loads of walking and behaving myself?


Yeah, that kinda didn't happen......


Did you know, that the bread and cheese and wine and ice cream in Italy is nicer than any others in the entire world?


I KNOW!!!


Insane.


It is though.


Let me tell you about the Amarena Cherry, and how it makes me eat ice cream in a way that is deserving of the worst ice cream headaches in the world.


http://7streetmarketplace.com/Amarena-Fabbri-Wild-Cherries-in-Heavy/M/B004TSU3RE.htm?traffic_src=GB&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=GB&id=uk

These little bad boys here.


They are the most delicious sour cherries preserved in a glorious sugary syrup that tickles your taste buds in a way that I can only describe as heavenly.  You pop the cherry at the front of your mouth and let the sour juice and the sweet syrup flow down your tongue to the back of your throat and just savour every miraculous second of it.


*ahem*


sorry, got a bit carried away there.


Anyway, I had a fair few of those.....


The majority of any exercise I did was overwhelmed by the utterly delicious food and wine that I drank in copious quantities.


So I do feel a little bit guilty now, however, I feel so much more relaxed about everything weight loss related now. I had been going a little bit mental about it all just before the holiday. Constantly tracking and reading and thinking about what I was going to be eating the rest of the week.


I have put a few pounds on this week (I think I'm going to skip official weigh in this Monday and just weigh in on target day - 31st October) but I've put myself on a week of maintenance 1200 calories to try to calm myself down. Remind myself that I don't need to sit in the kitchen all night slicing up a block of Manchego cheese into slivers devouring it on water biscuits.


I am glad to be home and back in control now though.  It makes me feel good that I know that I can go away and indulge myself for a week and then come home and get right back to good habits again. I know for a fact that in the past I would have carried on being that indulgent in the past and undone *months* of good.

Weekly round up and weighin

Good morning my fellow party people!  It's review time.


This week I have exercised 4 days out of 7. Only one swimming session sadly, but a productive one anyway :)


I seem to have gotten back into the way of the exercise bike again.  I had gotten big into the DVD's for a while, poor old bikey had become a rather expensive clothes horse. This week though, I did a couple of go's on her while watching a couple of episodes of "Charmed".  Have you ever seen it? It's great! Means I can sit on the bike and pedal away at different resistance levels for at least an hour and burn a good 600 calories. It's smashing!!


Calorie deficits this week were:


Monday       - 813
Tuesday      - 54
Wednesday - 24
Thursday     - 960
Friday         - 281
Saturday     - 16
Sunday       - 56
Total          - 2217


Which added to the built in 3500 calorie deficit gives me a total deficit of : 5717 calories.


Not too bad really :)


I'm quite enjoying having all these new numbers to play with really. As you can possibly tell :)


Weighin this week gave me:

13 Stone 6.25 pounds

That's a loss of 1.5 lbs :) That will probably be the last of the big losses for a wee while I would say.  I'm off on a weeks holiday this weekend. I leave on Saturday so won't have a weighin for a fortnight sadly as I won't be back till the Tuesday after.  I will have to behave myself very well this week in order to not undo all this good work.

Here's to the week ahead!

The monthly blahs

So, you remember that guilt that I was feeling on Tuesday? 


That I wasn't going to have time to do any exercise?


See when Friday rolled around?  All that guilt was looooong gone.  


I did really very well on Thursday, I got up at stupid o'clock and I went and I had my half hour swim, followed by a less than relaxing sauna - There were two people in there talking about going to see the housing benefit people to talk about their change of address following their eviction from their previous address. (me thinks "oh god, how long do I sit here pretending not to listen to them before I can leave and not look rude!" - first world problems, anyway) 


When I got home I did my exercise bike for an hour while I was still in the mood for it, so burnt a pretty hefty number of calories. 


Friday on the other hand.  I felt like someone had stuffed my head full of smooshy big pillows. No amount of caffeine was going to fix it. So I forced myself through an hours worth of aerobics and toning. Blooooody awful.


I'm surprised I didn't pull a muscle in my shoulder/arms as I was using my little hand weights and my form was so poor!


However, I have made it through to Sunday, I drank half a bottle of wine last night and I'm feeling pretty good. I think I will go swimming tomorrow to see if I can push through this funk.


Ain't being a girl great?!