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!

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!

"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.

weighin 26/09/2011

Good morning world! I gots me my 8 stone lost award this morning :D


Totally thrilled about it. Just hope it isn't a fluke or something that's going to kick me in the teeth next monday. 


(Stop it LRD, enjoy the success, don't try to cut your legs out from under yourself already)


Ok, ok, I'm sorry. So yeah! 8 stone gone forever!  

13 Stone 7.75 Pounds

2.25lbs this week, which is pretty darn funky.


Calorie deficits from tracking this week are:


Monday - 553
Tuesday - 26
Wednesday - 131
Thursday - 573
Friday - 334
Saturday - 45
Sunday - 173


Grand Total of - 1835


That's deficits below my goal of 1570 per day which is already a deficit of approx 500 per day, so if I tot that up over 7 days that's 3500 calories 


3500+1835 = 5335 weekly calorie deficit.


To be fair that doesn't add up to 2.25lbs as 1lb is 3500 calories. So I'm maybe burning more than I think I am or my body is still in overdrive from a few weeks holiday. Nonetheless I'm pretty sure it'll slow back down to a pound a week pretty soon. Fun to do the sums though right? :D


(Ain't myfitnesspal great? :D)


To the week ahead then. I have a couple of pretty good weeks coming up, I will be able to do some good exercise today, Thursday and Friday as well as Monday - Thursday all next week. So that's cool. Hope to get plenty of swimming practice in over those few days too.


I really hope the enthusiasm doesn't go off me. I just need to keep imagining myself swimming off the shores of Queensland! 


Next swimming lesson is tonight and sadly I haven't been able to get to the pool between then and now, so I will not have improved one iota. I don't like not getting some practice in-between lessons, but this was the only time that she could fit me in this week, so I'll have to make do with it.  Will make sure that there's plenty of practising between tonight and the next lesson. *shakes finger at self sternly*


Anyhoo, enough rambling.  Time to go and do a DVD. Or the exercise bike....I do have the last ever episode of the Gilmore Girls to watch.......

Onederland

Been a few days in coming this post!

This Monday I finally made it to ONEDERLAND!!!

I stepped onto the scales and was delighted to see that they read 14 stone 2 and a quarter pounds.  198.5lbs!  

*SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEAM*

I can't believe I've finally made it.

Ok, I haven't *madeit* made it, I still have about 48.5lbs to lose before I hit my ultimate goal, but still.  The joys of knowing multiple units of measurement is that I get to celebrate every single little thing that I achieve :D

I have got 22 days now till my event that I started all this nonsense for in the first place and I hope to goodness the dress that I have bought fits me properly.

I have been obsessing about my little belly flap thing now for weeks.  It is the most annoying thing and I don't think it's going to get a lot better! It's that little pouch that sits just under your belly button and when you've had to lose 100 pounds or more, just hangs down by your lady place.

It's puffy and ruins the lines of your clothes.

So I have spent this entire week researching "Shapewear"  or as Sarah Millican would call it "Sucky-in Knickers"

I eventually plumped (pun!) for the BodyWrap Natural high waist shapewear pants. Cause a load of reviews (well 2) said that they were the best for the "Lower Abdominal region"  and most of the other ones that I saw were mostly to do with the tum tums.  Don't get me wrong, I need help there too, and the waist line also needs a bit of solidifying, but the lower abdominal is the region causing me the most distress. So I think those have arrived today so I will be trying those on later tonight with the dress in question and seeing what I think.

I hope it fits.  I really love this dress.

Anyway.  Onederland!  

Need to set a new target soon......Lets get to 7.5 stone off first I guess!

That full feeling

Have just made and eaten the following recipe:


http://www.cookveg.co.uk/vegetarian-recipes/recipe/chickpea-and-flageolet-bean-burgers/

Have to say, it was pretty darn tasty.  Served it with some roasted red peppers and some garlic mayonnaise as well as the warm pitta bread.


Didn't bother with the relish thing though, not too fussed on that.


Anyway, this isn't cooking school, it's my weightloss blog, and I'm wanting to talk about my food.


I ate too much for dinner. I was shovelling (yes, shovelling) those bean burgers into my face at a rate so fast it would have made a dog embarrassed.  It was something delicious that I have never had before, so that explains why.


I knew however that if i stopped when I got half way through that I would be full, and happily full. I didn't though. I kept going. I could feel my lizard brain pumping out seratonin into my system as I chewed and I didn't want to stop.


It's as simple as that, I need to make sure that the things I have available to me are weighed and measured and will not put me over my daily calorie goals.


Sadly today I had a scotch egg in a bap for lunch. That was bad. But oh so good.....

Food addiction

I apologise in advance cause this is going to be a ramble.


I've been back from the "Weekend of Indulgence"(TM) for a week and a half now. That week was supposed to have been spent on 1200 calories.


I think I maybe managed that two days out of seven - and that was only because I did a buttload of exercise that day.


Anyway, I was averaging about 1700 calories a day, which is ok as it's still below my current maintenance level.


This weekend however - though I still stuck to 1700 roughly each day - was really hard.  I was having some serious food addict cravings.  I really broke my resolve on that weekend away. Having biscuits and crisps and doughnuts and cake and all those kinds of things just on hand has kind of broken all of my will power.


I had had my lunch yesterday (a really nice cashew butter and banana sandwich seeing as you asked) and as I was finishing the last mouthful of it I had the old feeling of disappointment that the food was gone and that that was the only thing that I had had. 


Why had I had this sandwich instead of a ham sandwich? 
Is it really going to be 5 hours before I get to eat anything else today? 
Why don't we just have another sandwich and top off the tummy nicely?
If you could only make yourself sick now you could go and get something else as well!!! (DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!)


Thankfully I've never crossed into bulimia territory (ok, maybe once when I ate a cookie that I instantly regretted - but only once I swear), my problem was I liked to binge and forgot to purge at the end! 


Anyway, I caught myself thinking old thoughts of "is that all??" and really had to fight myself to not go into the kitchen and snack on plain tortillas and ham and whatever other sandwich making ingredients I could dig out of the fridge just to fight off the boredom.


I knit the entire back of a sweater to keep myself from doing something stupid :)


So in a way I'm quite pleased with myself that I managed to avoid it, but I am worried that the old, old feelings can come back so easily.


I watched myself (2 weekends ago) eating an entire bag of cheese kettle crisps. Crisp after crisp after crisp. Not even a single person bag, one of those grab bags that you're supposed to share among 6 people. I ate that whole thing. Sitting in a room with 12 other people I sat and ate that whole damn thing like a proper food addict.  So I guess this weekend was my brain going 
"Well why was it ok that weekend but not this weekend??"


BECAUSE IT ISN'T! 


Because I'm 14stone 4.75lbs and I want to be 10 stone 10lbs (may not ever actually happen, but dammit I'm not going to let a big bag of crisps totally derail me)


Because the target date that I actually started this stuff for is less than a month away now and I won't let my stupid brain ruin everything now!


*sigh*


Stupid addict brain.


I was hoping that the addiction would move at least a bit from food to exercise like it seems to have for a lot of other people who blog about this kind of thing. 


Still waiting.

Feeling different yet?

So, I'm having some weird experiences this week.  I always thought even when I was at my biggest that I looked pretty good.  I had great bewbs, I was outgoing and fat girl bubbly, a few good friends and wore my clothes well. When I looked at myself in the mirror I was generally ok with what I saw (as long as I didn't linger on the profile view too long).  

As I started to lose weight I really didn't see much of a difference as time went past. Sure I could see that my clothes were getting bigger on me (I've had to buy a transition wardrobe recently - nothing I own fits me anymore and I'm not at my target weight yet!! Charity shops were made for this very reason I think!) but when I wear something that fits me right, I really see absolutely no difference in myself from when I started all those months ago.  

I think I must have had this ideal image of myself in my head that I was deluding myself with that I'm finally starting to fulfill.  The problem I have is, that because i'm not seeing any difference in myself (mentally) I'm thinking that I still look as rubbish as I *know* I did 10 months ago.

It's a total head melt.  I've lost 6 stone, nice and slowly, toning up as much as this used and abused body will tone up. I obviously look better from the compliments that I get from people now and again, but my evil nasty brain is looking at me thinking "You're still completely disgusting, you haven't changed at all! Look at that gut overhang! That's never ever going to go away you know! You're going to have to have someone slice into you to get rid of that! And your arms! That tricep flab is all loose skin, that'll need massive surgery to get rid of that, so you're going to have HUGE scars you stupid cow!"

Isn't my brain nice?

It's true what they say really.  This weight loss thing is 20% what you put in your mouth and 80% what you deal with in your head. Cause i'm pretty sure my head is the devil sometimes.

Late Shifts and Feeling Better

As you know, I have had a few weeks off from being as good as I could be with regards my food and my exercise. 

To try to make up for it a little I did my DVD today before I headed into work today - almost made myself late! 

I feel really quite bad, because I found the DVD quite difficult!!! It has not been *that* long since I've done it really, but it seems like it  :D

Anyway, I did it, and I did it without taking a break inbetween the different sections. So that was nice.

I'm on one of my late late shifts in work tonight, which I find quite difficult these days cause it ends up throwing my internal body clock completely out of whack.  It's currently 1.30am BST and i'm bloody starving!

I had a ready meal for my dinner tonight for the first time in ages.  Tesco Macaroni and Cheese - 410 calories.. Wasn't awful.  Would have preferred something cooked for me by my boyfriend, but at a pinch and when i'm being far too lazy to do it for myself then it will do nicely :D

Day 225

I know, can you believe I've been at this for that long??

I can't really pinpoint what it is about this time for losing weight in comparison to previous attempts, but I'm pretty sure it's that I found out what the sums are.

I'm an engineer by trade, always been into maths and physics and the scientific things in life.  The day that I found out that a deficit of 3500 calories a week will allow you to lose a pound was like a bright shiny light in my face.  After there it was just a little bit of googling before I found the sums that are my favourite things in the world!

Caloric needs for women:

 Caloric Needs: Women: 655 + (4.3 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

then you take your result and multiply it by 20% (for a sedentary lifestyle like mine) and add on that number

That gives you the number of calories that you need in a day just to survive (breathe, see, think) anything that you do above that and you burn calories (exercise!)

So, the thing to do, is to work out your numbers, then take 500 off that amount and I guarantee!!! you will lose 1 pound a week. GUARANTEED!!! It is insanely easy as long as you're willing to do the work counting and tracking your calories.  After a while it will become second nature to you!

by the way, for men it's :

66 + (6.3 x weight in pounds) + (12.9 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

same multiplication factor

(The multiplication factor increases by 10% for each increase in activity level)

Try it! I've lost 4 stone 13.5 pounds so far :)

Weigh Day and the importance of exercise.

If I keep this up (i definitely will be on twitter) you'll discover that monday is my #weighin day.

This morning I was delighted to see a 4 pound loss on my happy scale to take me down to 16 stone 9 and a half pounds.  I started on 21 stone 9 pounds, so I am just half a pound away from a total 5 stone loss!!! I can hardly believe it sometimes really :D

I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about the exercise i did today.

I try to do at least 30 minutes of activity every working day (4 days a week) which means i do a 30 minute walk at lunch time.  Even if that is just to the shop and back :)  On my days off shift I try to do more.

Today was the first day in a week that I've had a day off to be able to do my exercises.  THAT WAS DIFFICULT!! When I last did my DVD it felt like something that I had it sorted and that I could do it and enjoy it every single day.  Then I had a week with no shift day off with no access to anything more than my walk at lunch time.  Today I did 30 minutes aerobics and 30 minutes callisthenics and then 45 minutes of exercise bike and now I feel so good! It took a bit of effort to get going but I did it and I'm so glad I did!

It is so important to keep your activity levels up! your metabolism will thank you for it.  It really really will. Also it helps save you from too much excess skin and wobbly bits!

Hope you're all having a really good day today!  Here's to target day!

My work so far.

Ok, here we go, this might be a long one.

I am 29 years old and I have been a big lassie my entire life.  At age 13 I was 13 stone, 14 I was 14 stone, 15....well you see where i'm going with this. 

Anyway, the straw that broke it for me was 21 stone 9 pounds.

Last year a family member broke the news that there was to be a wedding in the family in 2011.  Fear gripped my body like a vice. "OH NO!!!! A family wedding! With another family!! A skinny family!"

I've been to my fair share of weddings this past few years and I've not been terribly pleased with any of the photographs of me that came from them (how could I be, they didn't just make me look fat - they made me like how i actually look - a million times worse!) so the thought of having to get dressed up for an occasion with people that I don't know very well and looking like the elephant in the room really didn't fill me with pleasure (which i should have felt for the occasion itself!!)

So on the 28th July 2010 I stepped onto my little bathroom scale (bought especially because it went up to the biiiiig numbers) and saw the reading. 

21 Stone 9 pounds exactly.

Prime for heart attacks and diabetes. 

Super.

Now what?!

Well, here's what I did.

I have a wonderful smart phone. It's an HTC hero.  The best part about it however are the little applications  that you can download from the "Android Marketplace" (by the way, I'm not sponsored by anyone, i'm just telling you what I did!).  The application that i credit with saving my life is one called Kilo.  All it is, is a way to mark down how many calories you eat in a day. Yes, a pen and a piece of paper would probably work exactly the same way, but I'm a child of technology! This way I have it all within my favourite little toy in my pocket all the time!

I have always known that there is nothing medically wrong with me in regards to my weight. I am not "big boned" nor do I have a "slow metabolism" and I certainly don't have a glandular problem. I am just greedy! I eat too much too often and it was that that had to stop.

(Told you I wasn't a writer didn't I? - ramblin' roads! Anyway, carrying on).

So, I decided to start counting calories and to not stop until that blumin' wedding!  I started out at about 1800 and quickly decided that that was far too many, so these days i tend to fluctuate between 1200 and 1500 per day hoping to maintain a 2 lb loss per week.

It seems to be working as i'm now sitting at 16 stone 13 and a half pounds!

*happy face*