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?!