1.5 lb off!!!

I lost 1.5 lb this week. Yay!!

I am fairly pleased with that. I was hoping for slightly more as I stayed the same last week but at least its in the right direction and its a loss.

I am going to plan my meals and make sure I fill in my online tracker each day this week. I know there where a few days where I didn't completely fill in my tracker but was still within my points but I need to get back into the habit of filling it in as I eat it to make sure I don't miss anything off.

I am aiming to do some exercise everyday this week and make sure I eat my 5 portions of fruit and veg each day which I know I haven't been doing so hopefully will see a nice loss next week.

I am hoping to drop a dress size by the end of the year so I can buy some new clothes in the sales. I'm planning on taking a lot of the clothes I have here to the charity shop as we won't have the room to take a lot of stuff back.

I have tons of homeschooling books that I am desperate to take back with us to England. I haven't even started packing yet and we will be leaving here in 2 - 4 weeks. Aaargghh!! I think once I get started it will be fine its just the getting started packing thats the problem as there is so much stuff to sort out.

I will be happier when we have booked the flights but we are selling our business here and part of the conditions of sale is that we train up the people buying it and it all depends on how quickly they pick it up as to how long we stay. I think now we have made a decision I just want to get back. Plus its my 29th birthday at the beginning of December and I want to go to our favourite hotel for a weekend too.

Perhaps I should aim to do 30 minutes a day and it will soon get done.

I am off out for a lovely blue lagoon tonight (vodka, blue curacao and lemonade) and a chinese tonight as a treat as my lovely husband is insistent and I have to be a good wife and do as I'm told lol. I won't be counting points but have had a very low point day today so far and will start again pointing in the morning.

I Feeeeel Good...

deh deh deh deh deh deh deh. I knew that I would... deh deh deh deh deh deh deh!

As you can tell from the title I am feeling surprisingly good today. Especially considering I have just boiled the kettle for my morning coffee and went to get my mug out the cupboard to find the milk in there!!! I think dh must have lost his head last night and for some strange reason instead of putting the milk in the fridge he put it in the cupboard!!! Its definitely off this morning!! Oh well I suppose it will give me an excuse to go for a good walk and get some once the kids are up.

So I can't have my morning Ready Brek so am making do with sliced banana on 2 Ryvita Crispbreads and its delicious.

Its weigh in tonight and I am not worrying about whether I have lost pounds or not. It will be nice to though after staying the same last week but I feel so much better. I feel like I have more energy and not so lethargic as I have in the past. That to me is just as important as the weight loss. I am aiming to see a nice sustainable loss and it will stay off.

In the past I have gone all guns blazing desperate to lose as much weight as possible in as short a time frame as possible and then piled it back on and more again besides.

This time I am not thinking of it as a race to the finish line. I know I will get there eventually and it is going to take me at least a year to do it but I will get there. I keep telling myself the fable of the Hare and the Tortoise. The Hare rushes to get to the finish line but never gets there with their speed and cockiness. I am the tortoise taking their time plodding along but I will reach the finish line. I will reach my goal. At the moment I have to lose a further 8 stone (112 lbs) to do so but I will do it.

Yay!!! Nominated... I Love Your Blog!!!

Thanks to Rachel at Rachels fat fighters club for nominating me.



I am thrilled as I have never been given any blog awards before.

The rules are:

The nominated is allowed to put the picture on their blogs.
Link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate seven other people and link to them.
Leave a message on those people's blog to make them aware that they're nominated.

I am nominating (in no particular order):

1. Ellies Weight Loss Journey

2. Debiggering

3. Dieting Battle

4. Wee Wee Wee Bathroom Scales

5. Scale Junkie

6. Dieting Is Not A Piece of Cake

7. Jenny From Da Rock

I have tried to pick ones that haven't already been nominated as far as I can tell. I love all these weight loss blogs and loads more besides.

Have a great week everyone.

Sprouts!!! Never Again!!!

I have been good at staying on track this last few days. Hopefully that will continue. I am hoping for a nice little loss on Monday.

I have swapped a couple of my evening meals around and ended up having a gammon dinner for lunch yesterday with lots of zero point vegetables including sprouts!! I haven't had sprouts for ages and I won't be having them again for a long while either!!! Not because I don't like them but they gave me terrible wind!! Top and Bottom!!! It was awful. Oh well I should have lost a few pounds this week with the amount of wind expelled yesterday lol.

I am hoping that by the time we get back to England at the end of November people will notice a difference and be able to tell I have lost weight.

I am managing to drink water and sugar free juice ok this week and have discovered that I really love Ryvita Crispbread so will look whereever possible to replace bread with that and they only 0.5 pt each.

Feeling better and raring to go!!!

This morning I am finally feeling much better and am raring to go. I got the best night's sleep I've had in weeks and feel so much better for it. I fell asleep at 10pm and woke at 9am so feel much more with it today. The last week or so I have been living on 4-5 hours sleep a night and I felt like crap.

I feel better still thanks to Paul at Fat4Now who left me a lovely comment in my previous post about not dwelling on staying the same. I have just looked at his blog and he has posted a picture from the start of his weight loss and a picture now at 32.5lb lighter and the difference is amazing. It has helped spur me on a lot.

We have made a decision to move back to England at the end of November which was the hardest decision we have ever had to make. I feel better about it now we have made the final decision and am actually looking forward to it. The kids are very excited and have packed their bags already lol. We think we have a buyer for our business here too which is great and they are not trying to get us to drop the price which is good. Dh is having another meeting with the buyer this afternoon when hopefully things will be finalised and I can book our flights.

We have loved living here but I think now is the right time for us to return to England (sunny Blackpool!!) We will be much better off financially for the next year or so at least which with everywhere being affected by the global credit crunch will make me much happier.

We went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon so I have no excuse not to put in a determined effort and lose weight this week.

I am on 27 points a day and my meal plan will be something like this:

Thurday:
Brekkie - Ready Brek + highlights hot choc - 3.5 pts

Snack - Pear - 1 pt

Lunch - Tomato Soup and 2 bread - 5.5 pts

Snack - 2 Ryvita original crispbread spread with mashed banana - 2.5 pts

Dinner - Unsmoked Gammon Joint (4 slices), potato mashed with flora light, broccoli, Bisto Gravy - 10.5 pts

Snack - Dole Peaches in Strawberry Jelly - 1.5 pts

Total: 24.5 pts - 2.5 pts leftover for anything else.

Friday:
B - Ready Brek and highlights hot choc - 3.5 pts

Snack - Apple - 0.5 pts

L - Chicken Cup a soup with 2 bread - 4 pts

Snack - 2 Ryvita crispbread with banana - 2.5 pts

D - Iceland Skinless Chicken Breast, Jacket Potato, Flora light, 3 tblesp Home-made coleslaw made with helmans light mayo - 8 pts

Snack - Dole Pineapple in Juice - 2 pts

Total: 20.5 pts - 6.5 pts leftover for anything else

Saturday:
B - Ready brek with highlights - 3.5pts

Snack - Pear - 1 pt

L - 1/2 tin beans on 2 toast with flora light - 5.5 pts

Snack - Ryvita with banana - 2.5 pts

Dinner - Homemade chilli made with extra lean mince beef and Rice - 9 pts

Snack - Dole Peach in strawberry jelly

Total: 21.5 pts - 5.5 pts left for anything else

Sunday:
Same as Thursday.

Monday:
Same as Friday.

I am determined to make sure I drink more water and sugar free squash so that I can post a loss on Monday night.

Have a great week.

Stayed the Same!

I stayed the same this week.

It was half expected really. I have felt quite lethargic this last few days with a killer headache and stinky cold. I feel as though I am on the verge of exhaustion. I am just totally knackered but no matter what I can't seem to lie in these days. I have been keeping within my points but managing to still eat crap within my points and had stopped planning my meals which a think was a big no no for me. Also I haven't been shopping so haven't got much good stuff in. We are going shopping this afternoon so I will pick up lots of fruit.

I am going to plan my week's meals today and hopefully that will stop me mooching in the cupboards trying to decide what to eat and then making a bad choice.

We have also made the decision to return to the UK to live at the end of November. Its not a decision we have taken lightly but I think it is the right decision for us at the moment. I am not looking forward to packing things up here though as we have tons of stuff I want to take back with us.

Hopefully in a few days of eating better I will feel better. I am determined to get back onto plan properly though. If anything moving back to the UK will be a big incentive to get down into the 17's which I was before we moved here.

I will post my menu plan for the week later today when I am feeling a little better. I might try and see if I can get some sleep.

Another 2lb off.

Yippee!!! I lost 2 lb tonight taking my total weight loss so far to 15 lb.


I am so happy. I have never lost this much weight before.


In the past I have lost in the first week but deprived myself so much I have put it back on again and more in the second week. I have just completed my third week and its going great and I don't feel like I'm on a diet at all!!!

My Starting Weight: 277.5 lb
Week 1 weigh in: 270 lb
Week 2 weigh in: 264.5 lb
Week 3 weigh in: 262.5 lb
Total Loss so Far: 15 lb
October mini-goal: 2.5 lb remaining
Christmas mini goal: 13.5 lb remaining
Long-term goal: 112.5 lb remaining

Dh thinks I have lost weight from my face and my stomach. I will have a look through some pictures to add tonight or tomorrow. I usually hate having my picture taken so it could to me a day or two to find some.

Have a great week

Too much bread?

Is there such a thing as eating too much bread?!? I have been looking back at my points tracker for this week and I was quite shocked by the amount of bread on there. Over the past week this is my bread consumption:

Sunday 4 pieces
Monday 3 pieces
Tuesday 4 pieces and a 2 inch frenchstick
Wednesday 7 pieces
Thursday 4 pieces
Friday 2 pieces
Saturday 4 pieces
Today ??

Tuesday and Wednesday were particularly high in bread consumption. Will this hinder my weight loss? I don't really know much about the different food groups but I plan on educating myself and the kids this week on it when we cover healthy eating for our homeschool science project.

Should I try and cut back on bread today and tomorrow as my weigh in is tomorrow evening? Anybody know the answer?

Have a great weekend.

Blue Lagoon

Dh wanted to go for a quick drink last night when he finished work so he dragged me kicking and screaming, sorry I meant persuaded me to go for one drink. I ended up having a Blue Lagoon (Vodka, Blue Curacao and Lemonade). I think I had enough points for it. I looked on weight watchers online and it came up at 4 points but it was in a large glass and Cyprus is not known for measuring spirits. They just pour it in!! So I have added it to my tracker as being 6 points which should be ok as I had enough points. I won't be having one again for a long while.

I have had my homemade chilli con carne for tea again today because it is sooooo delicious. I had it with rice and I measured my portion of rice. I don't normally. The whole meal was 8 points and delicious.

I think dh is subconsciously trying to sabotage my weight loss lol! He bought me a pack of prawn cocktail crisps and a 4 finger kit kat. I admit I have eaten the crisps. 3.5 points for the bag so not too bad but I don't intend on having them very often as I am not a crisp person but if they are there then I will eat them. The kit kat is still in the fridge and I am thinking of having 2 fingers of it in a little while (2.5 points) and then putting the other 2 fingers in the freezer til tomorrow so I am not tempted to scoff the rest. I have enough points left to eat it all but I would rather bank those points.

I haven't done as much exercise as I should have this week. I have spent far too much time glued to the computer and blog reading. I have been trying to reach my target of 30 skips but seem to get to about 27 maximum before the rope gets caught. I will have to look for a longer rope as I have been using the kids much to their amusement lol!

Was Tempted But Resisted

I had to stop at the shop on the way home to get some potatoes for dinner and opposite is a kebab place where I used to go once or twice a week and have a lamb kebab in pitta bread with Salad and Mayonnaise.

I was soooo tempted to go and get one. I stood outside the shop for a minute looking at the magazines and newspapers whilst debating with myself what to do. I am glad that I didn't rush right over there and get one as I managed to talk myself out of it.

I am losing weight just fine at the moment and I don't want to screw it up by having one as I know what I am like.

Previously when I have tried to lose weight I would have had one which might not seem like it would do that much harm but I know that I would not stop at that and I would fall off the wagon and think to myself 'in for a penny in for a pound!'

Before I know it I would have eaten a week's worth of points in one night and would then struggle to get back on the wagon and so would begin a vicious cycle I would be locked in until I had the strength to climb out.

I am pleased with myself as I settled instead for home-made Chilli Con Carne and it was delicious.

Here's my recipe for it: (Makes 2 servings: 6 points per serving if I'm correct)

250g Extra Lean Mince Beef
1 Yellow Pepper, chopped
1 Onion, chopped
1 Beef Oxo Stock Cube dissolved in 190ml of boiling hot water
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Half tin of Kidney Beans in water, rinsed and drained
2 teaspoons of mild chilli powder

First I fried the Onion and Pepper in Fry Light for a couple of minutes.
Next I added the Mince and cooked it until it had browned.
Then I put 2 teaspoons of the chilli powder in
Next I added the drained kidney beans, tin of chopped tomatoes and oxo.
Finally bring to the boil and then let it simmer for 25-30 minutes.

I had it with a jacket potato for a change and it was lovely. I shall definitely be making more of that next week. I was hoping to keep the other portion til tomorrow for dinner but dh and dd loved it too so there's none left now.

Thanks to Fat4Now for the comment on the post below about drinking Sugar Free Squash when I struggle to drink water. It has helped me drink a lot more today by having sugar free blackcurrant squash. I aim to make it weaker and weaker until I am eventually just drinking water.

Still going well

I am planning my meals as much as possible and making sure I have enough points for a low point snack for when I get the munchies in the evening.

I am still struggling to drink my water but I will get there. I am planning on taking part in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year. I think it will be great for helping me stay on track too as I will hopefully be so engrossed in my story. I have one or two ideas of what I might write about. I have an idea for a historical fiction novel but I'm not sure about it being meaty enough plus I will have to do loads of research and the whole point of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is to just get on with it and write a novel of 50,000 words in one month.

My menu plan for today is:

B - Ready Brek with 1 tsp sugar 2.5pts
Highlights Hot Chocolate 1 pt

L - Heinz Tomato Soup 1/2 can with 3 bread 5pts

D - Mashed Potato, Baked Beans and 2 fish cakes 8 pts

Anytime - Batchelors Cup A Soup Chicken with 2 bread 4 pts
Banana 1.5 pts
Pear 1 pt
1 Glass Fruit Juice 1.5 pts

Total 24.5 pts so 2.5 pts left for a snack

Ooops!!! Forgot to alter my points!!

I realised late last night after I had eaten my 28 points that as I had dropped into the next stone bracket that my points that I can have each day might have changed. I redid the points quiz on Weight Watchers online and I was right. My points have now dropped to 27 points per day.

Luckily I realised before too much damage could be done. I don't think one point would make a huge difference but don't want to go down that road just in case.

I am still trying to drink my water but am struggling hugely with it at the moment. I just really hate the taste of it. Comes from drinking next to nothing apart from pop for the last god knows how long I suppose!! We have a water cooler and I can get access to cold water from it easily. I won't drink the tap water here in Cyprus. I have my timer going off every hour or so on my mobile to remind me to get another glass of water. The problem is drinking it. I literally have to force it down. Hopefully the more I drink the easier it will become. I am trying to think of it as the more I drink the water the more weight I will lose hopefully.

An Inspirational Blog

I came across this blog this morning that is very inspirational. The blogger has lost over 5 stone since January this year and is doing really well so I thought I would make a note of it on here and then if I need any motivation anytime I can hope on over and see that I can do it!!

http://www.bryherhill.com/

Weigh In!! Woo Hoo!!

I have just been and got weighed and I am so pleased. I have a loss of 5.5lb.

My Starting Weight: 277.5 lb
Week 1 weigh in: 270 lb
Week 2 weigh in: 264.5 lb
Total Loss so Far: 13 lb
October mini-goal: 4.5 lb remaining
Christmas mini goal: 15.5 lb remaining
Long-term goal: 114.5 lb remaining

I am so happy. In the past I would have celebrated my weight loss with a takeaway of whatever I fancied to eat but not anymore. I don't feel the need to as I am enjoying my food and don't feel at all like I am depriving myself. I have more energy too and my clothes already feel looser!!!

Trying to drink more water

My mini goal today is to drink a small glass of water every hour on the hour. I really struggle with this as I just don't like water. I have been used to drinking pop which is how I got to the size I am now.

I don't drink water anything like as much as I should so I am aiming to get my 8 glasses in somehow so have set the timer on my phone to go off every hour to remind me to grab a glass.

I'll be weighing in tonight. I can't weigh in earlier as I don't yet have any scales and am having to go to my friends house to do it. Its probably a good thing as then I can't weight myself every day or even twice a day.

I have managed 40 minutes of an exercise DVD this morning so am feeling quite pleased with that. Will carry on trying to improve the skipping too. Aiming for 30 skips now to help prove to ds that I am not old!! lol!!

Have a great day.

I did it!!

I managed to do my 20 skips eventually this evening and I have just gone better still and managed to do 25 skips in one go! Yipee!! Go Me!!

I'm knackered now so its off to bed for me. Weigh in day tomorrow evening. Eeek!!

Killing myself laughing

J, ds9 has just got up and I said to him that I was going to do some of my exercise dvd and have a go at doing some skipping. I said I wanted to do at least 20 skips without stopping and he said, "Are you sure about that? You're kinda old mum to do 20 so why don't you do 10 instead!!!"

Killed myself laughing. I'm only 28 (not 29 for another 3 months!!) I am not old. So to prove him wrong I tried to do 20 skips. My first attempt was 3. 2nd attempt 5. 3rd Attempt 10. 4th attempt 12 skips. I was knackered then so sat down for a minute. 5th and final attempt was 15 skips and it killed me.

J said "I warned you that you wouldn't be able to do 20 skips. You're too old. But well done for getting 15!"

Then he proceeded to show me how it was done and did 20 skips easily!

So my exercise target for today that I have set myself is to try and do 20 skips. I am determined that by the end of the day I will do it and skipping is excellent cardiovascular exercise.

Need to do more Exercise

I really need to up my activity levels and do some more exercise. I have been spending far too much time in front of the computer lately. I think the one way that should help me do more exercise is plan it into my day.

I have quite a few exercise dvd's I could do and the weather is still so nice here that there really is no excuse for me not to go for a walk every day at the very least. So I think I need to plan on doing my dvd's every other day first thing in the morning before I turn the computer on and get distracted by my emails and blog reading.

It is probably the best time first thing in the morning before it gets too hot here. Lately I've been getting up a good 2 hours before everyone else to enjoy some peace and quiet and me time so it wouldn't hurt me to do 30 minutes of an exercise dvd first thing. Then as I increase my energy levels I can increase my exercise time by 5-10 minutes per week till I can do the whole dvd.

We are so lucky to live on such a lovely ireland and there are some lovely costal paths we could walk along too with great views. Perhaps when I take dh to work in the evenings me and the kids could walk along the beach and watch the sunset. I am sure walking on the sand would be really good exercise as it takes much more effort than walking normally.

I am really hoping that doing the exercise will help me tone up too as I go on this journey to a new me. So far I am enjoying it and it doesn't feel like a diet even though I am following weight watchers. It just feels like I am eating healthier and making better food choices. I don't feel as though I am depriving myself which is most important as usually if I start a diet I go at it all guns blazing and lose well in week 1 and put it all back on and more in week 2.

It also helps that dh and the kids are joining me in eating healthily. Even J, my ds, known as Chicken Nugget Kid as that was literally all he would eat will now have peas and sweetcorn and both the kids are eating much more fruit. They love pears, apples and cantaloupe melon. Going to try them with some kiwi later and see what they make of that.

Its my 2nd weigh in tomorrow evening so I had better get off here and go and do an exercise dvd.

Have a great week.

My Goals

Have decided to state my weight as I need to see up there in print and I will never ever be as big as I am now!! I have a few goals I hope to acheive so will put them on here too to help me focus.

For each weigh in (Monday evening) I will put my starting weight, that date's weight, pounds lost/gained (hopefully not many gained!) and pounds to my mini goal and overall goal.

Because I have such a lot of weight to lose I am setting myself mini short term goals goals to help me along the way. My first goal are to finish the month of October at 260lb or less. My other short term goal is to lose 28lb between now and christmas. My long term goal is to reach 150lb by my 30th birthday in December 2009 so I have 14 months to get my rear into gear and shift this weight which I have carried around for almost all my 20's and am determined that I will be slim and thirty! I am hoping by having mini goals they will help keep me focussed.

I have been following a healthy eating plan since Monday 22nd September and have one weigh in already and lost 7.5lb. So here goes:

My Starting Weight: 277.5lb
Week 1 weigh in: 270lb
Loss: 7.5lb
October mini-goal: 10lb remaining
Christmas mini goal: 21lb remaining
Long-term goal: 120lb remaining.

Wish me luck!!!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog.

I'm Emma, a homeschooling mum, married to my gorgeous dh and we have two beautiful children, J9 (ds) and E6 (dd).

I am currently hugely overweight. I will post my weight in the future but I want to lose some more weight first. I will tell you that I want to lose upwards of 5 stone.

I joined weightwatchers online last week and have so far lost 7.5lb officially. My weigh in day is Monday evening at the moment but I had a sneaky peek at the scales last night and it showed another 3lb off so hopefully should have another good weigh in on Monday.

I have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight before always losing a good 5lb in the first week then regaining that and more in the second week before giving up altogether.

This time just feels different. I have managed to rope the whole family into eating healthily which is a huge help as dh is joining me and we are supporting each other. We do have a box of 36 2-finger kit kats in the fridge but we have all limited ourselves to one per day and they are only 2.5 points and we have stuck to this really well. (Well I have - found a few wrappers out this morning that dh must have had last night but he is not as overweight as me!)

I can have 28 points per day. My meal plan for today is:


Breakfast: 30g Ready Brek with hot water and dash of milk and one sugar (will look for sweetner when we go shopping) - 3 points.

Cadbury's Highlights Hot Chocolate - 1 point

Lunch: Tomato Sandwiches (a large fresh tomato sliced onto 4 pieces of brown bread with butter (will buy light butter when I go shopping but as long as I count the points is ok) - 7 points

Dinner: Baked Potato with butter and 1 portion of skinless boneless chicken - 6.5 points

Snacks: 2 finger kit kat - 2.5 points; Banana - 1.5 points; Pear - 1 point; 1 slice of Cantaloupe Melon - 0.5 points

Total is 23 points which still leaves me with 5 points extra for some juice perhaps.

I feel really good and positive at the moment. I will succeed in this.

Have a good weekend!
Emma