Lost 1.7lbs this week. I'm really delighted as it feels things are back on track. Just thought I'd share it with you all.

I went into our local Cancer Research charity shop yesterday and picked up this gorgeous silk deep cerise Monsoon dress for £15. It's really beautiful, but 2 sizes too small. I'm using as an incentive to lose weight. I want to wear it for my son's birthday in February.

Well, the optimism in my last post soon proved to me misguided and I have managed to put on lots of weight (up from 177 to 190!!)However, I'm still trying to get back on track and I do still think I can do it.

Since much earlier this year I have been part of an email WW group and we have emailed all our results wach week. Yesterday I took over responsibility for recording all of our progress and I've made a wiki for us all to use. I'm really excited by it because everyone is really supportive and I hope the site will make it even easier for us to focus on our weight loss and help each other along. I'm also hoping that it will help me get back on track, after all, as leader, I can hardly say each week that I have put weight on can I?

As many of you will know, I have had a few really bad weeks on this new way of living. My diet has been awful and exercise has been almost non-existent! I've said a couple of times that I was drawing a new line and restarting, but never really did. The problem was my head, it just wasn't in the right place. However, during the last week, I've gradually realised what I want. Although I haven't put on loads of weight (about 5lbs), my clothes felt tighter and I could see it in my face and on my stomach. I hated the way I felt and looked and I knew I don't want to go back to the way I was once before.

Yesterday really was my new beginning and I've had a good couple of days. I've stuck to my calories and I've exercised and I remembered just how good I feel when both of those things are being done. My head seems to be back where I want it (metophorically of course!) and my determination has also returned.

Hopefully, this will be the last entry which says I'm trying again. I know there will be days when things don't go as planned, but I don't intend for there to be whole weeks of it! :)

Just thought I'd put a couple of photos of my grandchildren on here

The older one is Taylor-Ann, who is now almost 5 months old. She is scrumptious. She's already crawling and has a real mind of her own. But she makes me laugh so much. The baby boy is Riley, who was born on the 9th September. He is so sweet and he looks just like a little old man. I am a very lucky woman.

You may have noticed that it's been a long time since I blogged about how things were going - the reason for this is because they have been going dreadfully!

I was really shaken to the core by my shopping experience and I've been wobbly ever since. I really thought I had this losing weight malarky sorted (silly, I know) and was confident that the new way of eating and exercising was now a way of life. However the past 3 weeks have shown me that I was wrong. I've put on a few pounds, but more than that, I've lost momentum. I keep saying to myself, "start again" and then choose to stuff myself stupid on rubbish instead. I've been eating sweets as though there is no tomorrow and I've even begun to drink full-sugar coke again!

Tomorrow though, I'm starting again properly. Tonight I am going to cook some food for my lunch tomorrow and Tuesday, as lunch is one of my downfalls and then I am going to speak to my daughter who, because she is not currently working, is the main cook in our house and make sure that she either cooks my food without all the extra fat and sauces she is so fond of, or that she lets me know that what she is cooking is not suitable for me so I can plan what to cook instead.

I've got into the habit of popping into the newsagents at Clapham Junction Station and buying a bottle of water and a bag of skittles every evening on the way home and so I will now make sure that I fill my water bottle up before I leave school and I'm not going to take money to work so that I can't buy rubbish on the way home. If I don't have money on me I will also have to walk home from the station which will mean that I get some exercise and save £25 a week whoo hoo.

Wish me luck - I really need it. I'm not sure that I can do it again, but I am so going to try.

My daughter Natalie, me and Charlie, my soon to be daughter-in-law

At midnight 5th Sept, my daughter, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law and I joined 3 of my daughter's friends on this walk.

It was a brilliant night. We soon broke up into two groups as myself, my daughter Natalie and my sister-in-law, Val walked much faster than the others.

I felt such a sense of achievement, when you consider that in February I walked 2 miles on 2 consecutive days and then couldn't go to work the following day as my ankle and foot was so swollen, it's amazing how much fitter I am now.

I was really proud of my girls - especially Val, as she had not walked more than 5 miles before. Val is the person who inspired me to lose weight this year as she lost 4 stone last year.

If any of you live near enough and would like to join us next year just let me know (and in fact, if you don't live near, but want to stay over at mine, you are very welcome to and we would love to have you)

I thought that I had been dealing with the difference in the way I look these days. I can see in the mirror that I am not the same as I once was and I have been revelling in the changes in my body. Which makes my mood this evening very difficult for me to understand.

I went shopping today - all I needed was a pair of shoes and a couple of reasonably smart looking tops to wear at work when I return next week. I didn't want to be long and so I was going into the good old standby of Evans. I love their "comfort" range of shoes for work, they are smart and comfy, just right for standing on my feet all day and I thought I would be able to pick up a couple of tops whilst I was there.

So what happened? Well, first of all, I tried a couple of size 18 tops on and they were huge on me. Well that was quite nice, although not totally unexpected. However, I could only find 4 size 16 tops in the whole store and I didn't like any of them. Then, I tried on the shoes I liked and despite having brought a similar pair several times, today they were like boats. I knew my feet had gone down from a size 8 to a 7, but the width of my feet has shrunk considerably too!

All of that should be making me feel good about where I am, but all of a sudden I feel disorientated. I don't know what size I am (I guess I'll be different sizes in different shops), I don't know what size shoe to wear and most importantly, I don't know where to go to buy clothes. After so many years of just having one or two shops available to buy from, I now seem to have hundreds and I'm over-whelmed. I don't know what styles suit me. I'm worried about ending up dressing too young, but at the same time I don't want to dress too old.

My daughters think I'm making a mountain out of a molehill, but I really do feel quite emotional about it all. I came home with nothing at all, but I will need to go shopping again before next Thursday, so I need to come up with a way to deal with these emotions.

Does anyone have any wise words, or am I just being a bit of a drama queen?

I've had a great week. As I said I was going to, I've been tweaking the amount of carbs I have been eating. I have restricted the percentage of carbs in my diet to between 35 and 40% for the last week and I lost 4lbs! I have also felt less bloated and I can really see the difference in how swollen my stomach is.

On Wednesday I did a 11 mile walk along the thames. It was so beautiful, although it was very hot and I hadn't taken a hat! I still haven't managed to walk the 13.1 miles that I will need to do to complete the sponsored walk on the 5th September. But I'm feeling confident that I will this week.

My 4lbs off means I have lost more than 4 1/2 stones now and I'm now 12st 12lbs. I'm sooo excited and pleased.

When I first set up this site, I really did feel as though I was a desperate dieter; I had shockingly high blood pressure, high cholestral and had just found out that I had lost some of my sight in one of my eyes due to the blood pressure. I was also borderline diabetic. I knew I had to lose weight and in someways it didn't matter to me how I did it.

Now however, I realise that over the months my focus has changed, now it is not primarily about losing weight, although I am still losing weight and have a target in mind, but instead it's about being healthy and happy with myself.

Over the last few months I have discovered a real love for walking and so exercise has, for the first time ever, become part of my life. I may not do it every day, but I do it more days a week that I don't. I've even signed up to walk a half-marathon to raise money for a local hospice; something I would never have considered when walking the 10 minutes from work to the station was so difficult I couldn't walk and talk at the same time. I have also started walking for about an hour an evening most nights with my ex sister in law. She only lives a couple of doors away and we have always got on, but sometimes months used to pass without us seeing each other. She lost 4 stones about 18 months ago, but hadn't exercised. So it's great for both of us. We are even going out socially too, which is brilliant.

The other thing which has changed is the way I look at food. When I last lost weight (about 3 years ago) I ate lots of complete rubbish, but managed to lose weight because I kept within calories. This time, gradually, but definitely, I have started to be more concerned about the types of food I eat and aiming for good nutrition as well as staying in calories. I think this has really helped because now eating properly is the focus rather than losing as much weight as possible in the shortest amount of time. My weight loss has slowed to about 5 pounds a month (some months a little more, some a little less), but I am no longer stressing about why I'm not losing 2lbs a week, instead I can see that my skin is clearer, I'm less bloated and I feel better in myself and I know exactly what I'm eating - I feel in control!

I don't think losing weight on its own will make me happy, but the changes in lifestyle I'm making are and so it is all connected. I see this as a journey without an end - I'm not on a diet anymore, instead I'm eating well and exercising for pleasure. I am enjoying the journey and long may it continue

I only lost half a pound this week, but I have to say that I am actually pleased with that. After a great start to the week, it all went down hill on Wednesday. I haven't been sleeping very well (I suffer from insomnia and when I am on school holidays my sleeping pattern becomes dreadful) and that really affected me and the decisions I made on Wednesday. I just couldn't be bothered and made some very bad food choices. I felt really resentful about dieting and focused on the fact that I feel really good now and so it didn't matter if I stopped losing weight and instead maintained. Deep down I knew it was just tiredness that was talking and that I wasn't being totally rational.

Now it would have been okay, except on Thursday I did exactly the same thing again. On Thursday I got Pizza delivered and ate a whole one to myself. The only saving grace was that in the "bad old days" I would have had a large pizza with garlic bread and chicken wings but I "only" had a regular pizza and no side orders.

On Friday morning when I woke up I gave myself a really good talking to and wrote a journal entry in my daily dieting diary exploring why I had over eaten and thinking about what I can do if the temptation strikes again. I realised that over the past few months there have been numerous times when I have been really tired, which can make me weepy and take things out of proportion, but that I have managed to not allow it to sabotage things by considering my goals and the reasons for why I want to be healthier and slimmer. So, I have put the following things in place:

1. I got myself a really beautiful notebook and this is going to be my new journal, which is not replacing my dieting diary, but will supplement it. I'm going to include pictures of myself at different stages, pictures of clothes I like and hairstyles etc and inspiring quotes and I'll write down compliments I have received etc. There will also be pictures of my grandchildren (or at least grandchild for now as the other two are not born yet) as one of my main reasons for slimming is to be a fit grandmother and I will put in anything else that inspires me. I can slip this in my bag and when I need motivation it will be there for me.

2. I am spending tomorrow cooking so I have lots of lovely meals ready and waiting so I don't have to cook if I am tired (my excuse for having the pizza)

3. I have persuaded my sister-in-law who lives 2 doors away from me that we should go for a walk every evening

4. I'm going to try meditation to see if that will help the insomnia

5. I'm going to plan all my meals for the next week - I've never done this before as I have always resisted the idea of not being spontaneous, but I think it might be really helpful and if it works then I shouldn't have the excuse to make bad choices.

Pleased to say that both Friday and Saturday were better days and on the plus side I have exercised 6 days out of the last 7.

Today I started the day with 50g of porridge with stewed pears and cinnamon. Lunch was 100g (cooked weight) of brown rice with 80g of chicken breast and assorted roasted veg. Dinner was homemade spicy bean burgers with a salad and I had snacks of 2 oat cakes with cottage cheese and 3 brazil nuts. I also had a banana bread Nakd bar. This evening as I had spare calories, I sucummed to the glorious taste of a Flake bar, eaten with a hot cup of tea - Perfection :)

Calories used 1348. I only earned 110 calories through exercise today and so I had just 42 calories left over at the end of the day.

Today I ate 1545 calories and earned 659 (after background cals were removed) from exercise.

Breakfast was huge:
1. Scrambled egg (1 whole egg and one egg white with skimmed milk) with salmon and roasted tomatoes
2. Porridge made with skimmed milk and topped with stewed apricots

Snack 1: 6 brazil nuts
Snack 2: 1 Banana Bread Nakd bar (ummh delicious - tastes like bread pudding my great granny used to make when I was a child)

Lunch was a grilled chicken breast with spices, 100g of new potatoes baked in their jackets, 1 tsp of clover, salad with low cal dressing

Dinner was 100g lean rump steak with baked mushrooms and tomatoes and courgette cooked in 1/2tsp of clover. This was followed by 100g of Greek-style natural youghurt with stewed apricot

After a slow July in terms of weight loss, August seems to be going much better. I lost 2.5lbs last week and another 1.5lbs at today's weigh in. I'm only 1/2lb away from having lost 60lbs and 1.5lbs from having lost 25% of my starting weight and so I've spent this morning reviewing what I'm doing and where I am going.

Food wise, I am eating much more healthily, but there is still room for improvement. I want to reduce the proportion of carbs I have in my diet, especially in relation to protein. So I'm aiming for a 40: 40: 30: split between carbs, protein and healthy fats. I hope that will help me to be less bloated and stop craving sweet things. I have pretty much cut out processed carbs but hope that by focusing on the amount of carbs I'm eating I will get rid of them completely. I want to increase the amount of protein because I am starting to do more weigh training and protein is good for that.

Fitness wise, I am starting to really enjoy exercising each day - I think I could still be doing more, especially as I am on holiday, but I am earning about 600 calories a day (after background calories have been removed) and eating at least half of them, so even if I don't do more then I know that I am fitter than I was before and that I am doing enough to enable me to eat a reasonable amount of food a day without getting hungry.

Target wise, I set my original target at 10st 5lbs, which was a total loss of 99lbs. I picked this because it was the heaviest I could weigh and still have a BMI which said normal rather than overweight. However, I am beginning to think that I would like to reduce that down even further to about 125lbs or 8st 12. This would mean that my BMI was at a really healthy point and I should be a size 10 or thereabouts. For now, I'm sticking to the original target as an interim one and I will assess how I feel and look when I get there.

Breakfast was 50g of porridge oats made with 100ml of skimmed milk, topped with pears stewed with cinnamon - ummh yummy


Snack 1 was an apple sliced into pieces and with 10g of cashewnut butter spread onto the slices (forgot to take a picture doh!)




Lunch was 2 seed crackers with pineapple cottage cheese and 1 piece of light rye bread with 50g of sardines in water, followed by a Banana Bread Nakd bar


Snack 2 was 6 brazil nuts (again no photo - must remember to take pictures of EVERYTHING that goes into my mouth!)





Dinner was thinly sliced carrot, courgette and leek with garlic lightly cooked with 2 tsp of olive oil and topped with a salmon fillet with 7 thai spices. Follwed by 100g of greek-style low fat yoghurt topped with stewed apricots and cinnamon (I love cinnamon!!)








Snack 3 was another naked bar

I have been looking at what I eat and trying to make it as healthy as possible. I have pretty much stopped eating refined carbs. The only bread I eat now is rye bread or wholemeal pitta - this has really benefited me as I think I have a slight whet intolerance. It als means that I don't have butter or marg anymore. However, I still eat loads of complex carbs and I want to reduce the number of teose I am eating and increase the amount of protein. I am not going on a low carb diet, just shifting the percentages around a bit. Also, I seem to have cut too much fat out of my diet and so I want to add more nuts and olive oil too. I thought that one way of focusing on these changes would be to photograph everything I eat - If there is going to be photographic evidence of my munches then I want it to look good as well as taste good. So for the next week, at least and maybe longer, I am going to post photos of what I ate the previous day.

It's been ages since I updated my blog, I missed blogging throughout the whole of july, and that's sort of symptomatic of what July was like for me dieting wise.

I've had a real struggle to keep on track. I lost and put on the same 2lbs about 3 times! I was never widely off course, but was rarely fully on it either. I think the problem was that I have started to feel okay about my current weight. I've had lots of compliments, I can shop in "normal" stores and I know I'm much fitter, so the impetus to stick firmly to the plan was missing.

However, August is going to be so much better - I'm fired up again, because if I feel like this now, how much better will I feel when I have lost the remaining 42lbs? (ONLY 41lbs!!! That's less than 3 stones to go, which I know I can do). Also, I've signed up to walk a half-marathon on Sept 5th and so I have a really important short term goal to aim for. I've done 2 12 mile walks in the past 10 days and I'm aimming to do 2 5 mile walks and one 10 mile walk a week for the next fortnoght and then up it to 2 8 mile walks and one 13 mile for the following 3 weeks.

If anyone feels like sponsoring me you can do it here I'm doing the walk in aid of our local hospice where my Uncle and Aunt received treatment before they died.

Thought I'd share my inch loss with you all (although I still don't have a waist to speak of!!)

Starting Now Loss
Bust 52" 43.5" 8.5"
Waist 48" 38" 10"
Hips 53" 43" 10"
Thighs 26" 21.5" 4.5" each

And here is a picture of my weight loss over the past 25 weeks

Today was weigh in 25 and I lost 2lbs. That takes me down to 192Lbs, so 52lbs gone in total. I am so thrilled because I have had some real struggles over the past 4 weeks. I have never totaly fallen off the wagon, so to speak, but I had stopped really trying to lose weight and was just playing at it. I think I had just become lazy and a bit bored and it was only that eating healthly had become a habit which prevented me from piling lots of weight back on. However, I seem to have come out the other side as I am back counting points and calories (still can't decided which of these methods is best for me and so I am doing both) and the weight is continuing to come off. The rate has dropped off a bit, but I'm even alright with that because I have come to terms with the idea that there is no quick fix solution and that whether is is another 6 months or another year until I reach goal doesn't matter - it's the long term that is important.

Well, I'm finally there - it seems like such a long time ago now that I dropped into the 14s and now I am 13st 13.5lbs - I am soooooo thrilled. That's 4lbs off this week. I'm just 1/2lb away from losing 3 1/2 stones and my 20% and 1lb away from being halfway to target. I'm hoping to do both by next Saturday's weigh in.

It's been a good week, on Thursday I went clothes shopping and except for Next, where I had to buy a size 20, all the clothes I got were size 18 and one top from Evans, which was a size 16! It was the first time in a very long time that I shopped in "normal" shops and I was so happy. The days of being a size 26 seem to be a long way away now.

Hope you all have a great weekend xx

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

George Bernard Shaw


This quote was delivered into my email inbox by Sparkpeople and it really made me think. I know that I am far too lazy when it comes to doing exercise and I often ignore opportunities to do more. For example, I live 21/2 miles from the train station and, as I commute daily, I get a taxi both ways, which costs me £55 a week!!!

Now, as I already leave home at 6.10 am there is no way I am ever going to walk in the mornings. However, there really is no excuse for me getting a taxi in the evenings. I take 2 trains home and every night when I get on the first one I start an internal conversation with myself which goes something along the lines of "Shall I phone for a taxi when I get to Clapham Junction, or am I going to walk? Well, (says one part of my brain), you are really tired and if you walk it will mean that it will be 13 hours since you left home and then it will be really late to cook and you won't have time to go on the treadmill and you will miss something good on telly." The other part of my brain offers a feeble response and I phone for a taxi. If I don't phone for a taxi from Clapham then I have no option but to walk as the local taxi firm only has 2 cars and they are always busy unless you book in advance.

It also made me think about my personal life - my marriage broke up 5 years ago and until a little while ago I was 100% happy on my own, but over the past few months I have started to feel a little lonely at times. However, I never put myself in a position where I could meet anyone - so now this quote has made me think about how I might rectify that too.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, I am a little bored with WW online. I like counting points, but now that I am on 20 I find I am getting bored with the food choices that I make - it's not even that I'm hungry, I just miss the flexibility that the extra 4 points I started with gave me. So I have been looking around for something else that might suit me better

I signed up at the Biggest Loser UK site but have not found it to be particularly supportive or useful. The best thing about it is that you get to pair up with a buddy, but other than that for the nearly £10 a month, there is little information, advice or help available.

Yesterday however, I came across Sparkpeople This is a free site, but has a huge amount of resources available. I particularly like the ability to be able to track different nutrients and vitamins that you are eating as I have very high blood pressure and so I can keep a real eye on my sodium intake. I love the instructional exercise videos and all of the articles. I think that I will need to browse the different groups that are available until I find one that really suits me, but already people have been very welcoming. The downside is that the site may not have all the foods that I eat in its database. However, it is really quick and easy to add foods to the database and with a large number of Brits on the site already I found quite a lot of foods from British supermarkets etc. So all in all, this site looks really promising.

Well this week started really well and by Tuesday I had already lost 2lbs. However, it all went rapidly down hill from there - not sure why as I didn't really eat anything horrendously bad (well until Friday night at least), but every day I was 3 or 4 points over just because I had silly things. As an example, it was a friends birthday at work and she brought in Jelly Babies and without thinking as we sat and chatted at lunchtime I ate at least 10 of them! On Friday I went out for a meal and didn't even consider the amount of points or calories in my choice :( So, on Saturday at my 20th weigh in, I stayed the same and was hughly relieved at that.

Since then I have been angelic :)

I got on the scales this morning and for the first time in almost 20 years, I weighed in at less than 200lbs. OMG, I was so excited. I KNOW that I'm really going to do it this time xx

Whilst I know the WW diet plan really works, I've got a bit bored with counting points so I've just joined the Biggest Loser site I'm hoping that it will inspire me. You can pair up with a buddy and become a team. My Buddy is called Beverley and I'm really looking forward to working with her. The forum seems very friendly, although possible not as busy as the 5+ board, but I don't mind that. You can also add friends and exchange private messages so it looks good.

I have no idea how it happened, but I lost 3lbs this week, so that makes over 3 stones gone!! I'm really delighted and it's just the spur I needed to get me back in the mood for dieting properly. Plus, I think all the family events are over for a little while, so it should be easier now than it has been over the past couple of weeks

Oh my, having taken a few days off due to the celebrations and then excitement of my grandaughter's birth, plus my birthday, I just don't seem to be able to get back on track. I really need my hand held and some help!

I really, really don't want to mess up big time after all the effort I've already put in.

I went shopping today and I can't believe that I brought size 18 tops from Evans. I know that their clothes come up quite big, but I used to be a size 26 at Evans so I am so excited.

It is a real spur for me to make sure that I get straight back on the dieting wagon after my not so great week.

This week I put on a well deserved 1/2lb - in fact, I can't believe that I have only put that on.

Here is a picture of Taylor-Ann, my son Chris (her daddy) and me. Taylor was born at 17.54 yesterday and weighed in at a hefty 9lbs 3lbs. She is absolutely gorgeous and I am sooooo excited and proud.

The problem is that last night I went out to celebrate and had a Chinese. Today we left the hospital late and ended up eating out again and then on Saturday I am going out to Pizza Hut, Sunday I am having a BBQ for my 48th birthday party and then on Monday, which is my actual birthday, my family and I are going out for yet another meal :(

Think I'm going to enjoy the next few days, whilst trying to limit the damage as far as possible and then restart the diet agin on Tuesday. In the broad scheme of things, a few pounds gained this weekend will soon come off again and I will have lots of nice memories to look back on.

These trousers are a pair I got from Tesco just before I started the diet. They were not tight on me, but they did fit properly and were not loose.
As a comparisson, the picture of me in the blue Tshirt was taken at the end of February.

ummh - I've become obsessed with my fingers!! All of a sudden my dumpy sausage like digits are starting to become bony. I keep looking at them OMG, what a sad person I really am lol

My lodger has a little boy, who is 5 years old. He is a smashing little boy and I like him a lot. I had a new treadmill delievered last week, but it was damaged and the replacement arrived yesterday. So last night was the first time I have used it. Dylan, the 5 year old, watched me for a while and then said. "Jackie, are you doing that because you want to get thinner, because you are quite fat you know" I didn't know whether to laugh or throttle him - I settled on laughing, because let's face it, despite all that I have lost, there is still a bloody long way to go and at least he stopped me from being complacent!

I can't believe it's been 16 weeks! When I weighed in this morning I had lost 1/2 a pound. I was really happy with that because I had put on 2 1/2lbs between Saturday and Tuesday of this week. I've been really strict since then to try and minimise the damage and yesterday I still thought I would be looking at my first gain, or STS at the best. So this morning was a real celebration.

I had an eureeka moment today. I know that 40lbs in 16 weeks is a really good weight loss and that I have gone from a size 26 to 20, but it hadn't really registered if you know what I mean. And then this morning, I posted my WI result onto the 5+ and 3+ boards and someone said "OMG 40 pounds in 16 weeks - that's amazing" and for the first time, seeing someone elses reaction to it, I got really excited and proud about how I am doing. I know now that I can lose all of the flab and that it doesn't matter how long it takes, because I will get there.

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement. It means such a lot xx

Bugger! Today was my daughter's 30th birthday. She had a party on Saturday and then tonight we had all the family over. I was STARVING by the time we ate and I really pigged out. I'm at least 7 points over for the day and that is probably a very conservative estimate. This follows too many points on Saturday and not that great a day yesterday. Ummh I see 4 days of being on only 18 points to make up for it all. Drats :)

I wanted to have something to slim into as an incentive. So yesterday I got myself a pair of size 18 jeans. I tried them on and I can do them up and sit down in them. They give me a big muffin top so they don't fit properly, but the last time I could get into an 18, let alone do them, up was 25
years ago when I was in my early 20s!! It's mad to think that 15 weeks ago I was a size 26 and now I am a small 20.

Just found this site http://weight-watchers-points-recipes.blogspot.com Because it's an American site the points will need adjusting, but it's good to have some new recipies to look at. She posts recipes on Twitter too http://twitter.com/GinasWWrecipes

Ummh, well I had a good night, but actually was very proud of myself as I didn't go mad. I had a few vodkas and some BBQ, but didn't stuff myself silly and didn't drink so much that I got a hangover. However, I do wish I had gone to bed before 4am. I got up at 10 to go for a walk, but I'm ready to go back to bed now. Old age could well be catching up on me lol

I can't believe I am at wk 15 of this and still going - I've NEVER got beyond 12 weeks before and usually by then I am cheating more than actually losing weight. This week I have lost 1.5lbs.

Tonight it's my daughter's 30th birthday party and I had planned to have a very quiet night - no alcohol (I don't drink very often) and only chicken and salad (she's doing a BBQ) but actuly, during the day today I have decided to eat and drink what ever I want. I will have a whole week to make up the extra points and it's not like I go to a party every week lol.

I'm looking forward to a good night

I'm doing it again - just when I get to a point where it is all working beautifully and I'm execrcising and making good food choices, a little voice in my head says "Stuff it, just have.... or just don't worry about the exercise today". It's self-sabotage! I really need to work out why my brain thinks there are more advantages in staying fat than in losing it all.

I know I use the fat to hide behind sometimes. I'm quite shy and not always comfortable in social situations and I like the cloak of invisibility fat can shroud you in. I also know that when I lost weight last time and got down to just a bit above what I am now, I didn't know how to respond to people as they started to treat me differently, but this time I thought I had sussed that out.

I'm SO CROSS with myself uuggghhhhh!!!!!!!!

I lost 3.5lbs this week - which I was really happy about. I've passed my 15%, gained another silver 7 and achieved my Easter target all in one week. I am a very happy bunny

Jackie xx

Yesterday I went to Painshill park with my son and his heavily pregnant girlfriend, Charlie, (she is due on April 21st) and one of my son's friends, Rob, who is like another one of my kids. It was pouring down with rain, but we had a great time - I was hoping that all the walking would start of Charlie's labour, but no such luck :) I would REALLY like her to have the baby before the 20th as that is when I go back to work - selfish, I know lol.

My family are being really supportive in my attempts to walk most days and I often find that one of them decides to come with me. It is a great way of spending time with them as well as getting fit.

Tuesday 7th April - had a really, really lazy day and only walked 1500 steps, so nothing worth adding to the total :(

Wednesday 8th April - 2 miles to add to the total today - didn't manage to get out and about. I have a lodger moving in on Friday and so spent the day sorting out cupboards etc so there is room for his stuff. Luckily the lodger is a family friend and we all know each other well, but my daughters and I think it might take a bit of getting used to having another adult living in our home with us.

Total miles covered on the challenge = 29.36 miles

Thursday 9th April - 18000 steps today, which was 6.5 miles so my total is now 35.86 miles

Friday 10th April - so far today I have walked 13924 steps or 5.05 miles. Hopefully by the end of the day the total will be a fair amount higher.

Total miles covered on the challenge = 40.91 miles - only 29 to go

Over the past two days I have walked over 12 miles and I have seen some really beautiful things. On Sunday at Painshill Park I saw the first spring chicks, fluffy balls of yellow and brown - not sure what variety of birds they were, but I think they were some type of geese. I was also very excited to see a beautiful pheasant, I had forgotten just how metalic looking they are. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo that does it justice.

Today I went to Wisley Gardens I haven't been there for years and I loved it. My favourite part of my walk was going through the woods, where all of the magnolias and camillias were in bloom. The perfume of the flowers was so wonderful and I could have spent the whole day there. I also really liked the Moore sculpture, which was placed at the top of a small hill and the shape of it suggested an archway inviting all the visitors to walk through it.

I sat for a while on a bench facing the river Wey surrounded by pine trees and listening to the sounds of the water and crickets. I love times like that spent on my own when I can just sit and contemplate my life or just immerse myself in the surroundings.

As I walked around and saw the butterflys dancing in the sunlight and looking at all of the flowers it was good to realise that spring really is here.

My day was just perfect.

See todays photos here: Wisley Gardens

So far I've walked 27.36 miles on my virtual walk between Bath and Reading - I sincerely wish that the actual walking was virtual too lol!

I'm really happy with this week's result. I lost 2.5lbs which takes me down to 14st 13.5lbs - I haven't been less than 15 stone something since 1993! I have only 1/2lb to go until I have lost 2 1/2 stones, which is brilliant. I can also start to plan which bead I am going to get next for my bracelet, although of course I won't buy it until I have actually lost that last bit.

Bring on next week x

On Thursday I got a copy of the book "Smartgirls do dumbells" and a set of 3 different sized dumbells (these ones) - to be honest, I don't like the book that much as I think the photos are not that clear, but I'm LOVING using the dumbells. It makes me feel as though I really am exercising.

I also ordered a treadmill today. I do so much jogging using the wii fit, but it would be good to know how many calories I was using etc. Also, my wii fit isin my bedroom and so it gets a little boring, but if I have the treadmill in the living room I can use it watching tv or with one of the music channels on. I can't wait for it to be delivered. :)

So far I'm at about 15 miles. Not that great, but I will do loads of walking over the next few days, so the miles should soon rack up (hopefully!)

So far today I have managed to walk 4.5 miles (12000+ steps). That's 10% of the journey done. To be truthful I could have walked more today as I had intended to walk home from the station, which is 2.5 miles, but I was bone tired and so instead I did 20 mins of free jogging on the wii fit. I'm feeling really good about the dieting again and hopefully by my birthday on the 4th May I want to be under 14st 7lbs.

I have started a WW board challenge to walk the distance between Bath and Reading (69 miles) over the next 3 to 4 weeks. The challenge started yesterday, although I only started today. So far I have only completed 2.5 miles, but with my Easter break coming up I feel pretty confident that I will be able to reach my goal


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I'm finally back on track with exercise. It's taken a while. I did the
MIkayla Dodds Dvd today followed by 30 minutes on the wii fit and
thouroughly enjoyed it all. I'm feeling confident again.

I have wanted a Pandora bracelet for quite a while. I am not keen on traditional charm bracelets but I wanted something that I could add to each time I lost 7 pounds. I love the idea of being able to add beads which can be made from silver or glass and which can be plain or enamelled. My youngest daughter and eldest son clubbed together to buy me the actual bracelet and then I bought myself an really pretty enamelled bead. I also got some cheaper glass beads and a couple of dangly ones. One is a heart and is really pretty, but a bit big really and the other is an apple, which I thought was quite appropriate for a "dieting bracelet". I will eventually replace the cheap beads with ones I really want, but as the actual Pandora beads start at £20, I think the cheaper ones will do for a few weeks, until I can get the ones I actually want to represent my weight loss.

I'm hoping that when ever I feel tempted to eat something unsuitable I will be reminded of how far I have already come.

I'm really happy that I managed to lose 1.5lbs this week. I've been really dreadful counting points over the past two weeks and I have been very casual about both the diet and the exercise. A couple of days ago I gave myself a real talking to and now feel as though I really am back on track.

Now I'm smaller than a size 24 I can buy clothes from Sainsburys again. I love just slipping in a top or two along with my veggies and they are cheap enough that I don't mind dieting out of them. It has been quite a thrill to be able to fit into a size 20 pair of jeans that I got last week with the aim of dieting into them.

I'm a secondary school teacher and I have a year 7 form (11yr olds). Today I went into class and one of my boys said "Miss, is it your birthday" I said no, but asked why he thought it might be and he said "Well you are looking so nice today, I thought it might be" I thought that was lovely and it made my day.

I think I'm slowly getting back on track - I've had two really focused days. I could do with doing more exercise still, but dietwise, I'm back to sticking to my points. The feeling of certainty seems to have gone, but I hope that after the next few days it will return.

To get it in perspective, it's not as though I have even had a week when I have put weight on. So why have I got myself into such a tizz? I couldn't have carried on losing at over 3lbs a week, week in, week out - so I should just go with the flow and take it slowly, one day at a time. Now all I need to do is keep remembering that.

Almost two years ago I lost 37lbs and I got down to 213lbs - exactly what I am now. There was no reason that I stopped dieting - I was doing well, I was receiving lots of compliments and I felt good. I just stopped doing it, bit by bit.

So what has that got to do with now? Well as I said before I am at the same weight as then and for the last week I have been eating things I don't really want / need to eat and doing it consciously. I don't understand - I have been doing so well and I do want to lose all the weight. So WHY am I doing it? What have I got to gain by staying as I am?

Time to go away and think about things

I am sitting in my living room, next to my kitchen. With the door open
and the sun is streaming in and I can hear
The birds in the garden. My cats are sunbathing and it just feels like
Spring has arrived.

I feel back on track with my exercise as I have done an hour on the wii
Fit and I'm just about to start the Mikyla Dodd's dvd. So all in all a
very good day so far
X
Sent from my iPhone

So after my unmotivated, unenergetic week I was both relieved and suprised to find I had lost another 2lbs. It means I've lost 30lbs and now only have 69 to go - so less than 5 stones now!

I'm really chuffed. Now I just have to get the energy to start exercising again. Hopefully the 12 hours sleep I got last night will have helped.

I read in a newspaper or magazine a couple of weeks ago that most people who are not successful at losing weight give up by day 73. The article also said that the time around this point is when most people feel at their lowest and that is why it is such a crucial time.

The last week has been quite dificult - I had some sort of virus at the end of last week and I have been left feeling totally exhausted - I just can't get enough energy to function, let alone exercise. I always work really long hours because I commute for 90 mins each way, but this week I've had 3 days when I have left home at 6am (my usual time) and got home after 7.30 pm. The combination of these things means that I have felt really deflated and unmotivated.

I'm hoping, with day 73 approaching for me this week, that I can keep up the motivation and effort.

Week 9 weigh in - I can't believe I have been doing this for so long and still doing it properly.

I'd lost 3lbs this week so that is exactly 2 stones in that time. I've also lost over 5 inches from each of my bust, waist and hips and 2.5 inches from each thigh.

71 lbs left to go and, for the first time ever, it feels perfectly possible that I will get to goal and be able to keep it off. Life is good.

Started the day off with 30 mins on the wii fitness coach - I've had it for a few weeks and only used it once, so I must start using it more consistently - my problem is lack of coordination - there are one or two moves I just can't get a hang of. I then did 20 mins of free jogging on the wii fit.

I'd promised myself that I would go for a long walk today and was going to go to my usual place - which is Painshill Park, but I didn't fancy going on my own. So I bribed my daughter, Natalie. I said if she would go on a 5 mile walk with me I would take her out for lunch.

We walked to Black Pond - this is a 300 year old man-made pond in a woods half-way between Cobham, where I live, and Esher. I haven't been to Black Pond for years, but it's a place that holds lots of memories for me - My dad used to take me there when I was a little girl with our dog. The woods are really boggy and smelly and our dog used to shake herself all over us in the car and we would always get covered in the nasty smelling mud.

When I was older and a teenager, my friends and I would go there to swim. Looking back, it wasn't really a safe place to swim - there are loads of weeds and the further out you go from the shore the colder the water is and the thicker the weeds are. It was also a good place to meet boys, who would always try to impress us girls by diving off the small jetty that was there then - I was quite sad to see that only a small part of the jetty now remains, but I guess it will stop the dangerous diving antics.

On the way back from Black Pond we stopped off at the Fairmile arms, which is a big pub that serves food all day, and had food. I had an 8oz steak with a jacket potato and salad (with no dressing - I sent my meal back when it arrived because it was covered in dressing even though I had said I didn't want any). I briefly considered frozen low-fat yoghurt and berries for puddin, but then decided I didn't really anything and for the first time in living memory, I ignored apple crumble and custard (didn't even think about having it!!!!)

Apart from the memories trip, I didn't really enjoy the walk today - most of it was by the side of a busy main road and I got quite bored of walking - when the walk is somewhere pretty or interesting I find that I don't notice the time or the effort needed to carry on walking. Still, it was somewhere new and next week I will appreciate Painshill much more

During the week between Christmas and New Year I went to Tesco and bought myself a really nice pair of trousers, which I wore to work the first day back on January 5th, which was the day after I started my diet (first day was a Sunday, but I weigh in on a Saturday). They were not snug, but they certainly were the right size and were not loose in anyway. Have a look at how big the trousers are on me today!

It's been a tough week this week. As I said earlier in the week I got gout and it has bothered me all week. I have done absolutely no exercise since the start of the week and even just walking at work has been a struggles. Added to that, I became a bit lazy weighing things out and found that on a couple of days I went over points - although luckily, I managed to save enough points over the week to cover these.

So you can imagine how delighted I am that when I weighed in this morning I had lost 1.5lbs and reached my 10%. It also means that I have lost 25% of the weight I want to lose! whoo hoo.

The gout is a little better this morning and so tomorrow I will start walking again - today, I'm just going to walk around the shops and look for something non-edible as a treat to myself for reaching my 10%.

I have yet another attack of gout. It started last night. I'm so peed because my walking and exercise has been going so well and now it will be on hold for a few days again - my problem is I usually lack motivation and so I am going to have to keep my interest going without doing the actual exercise. Wish me lukc - I will need it.

On Saturday I went out for lunch with friends I haven't seen for ages. I was really worried as it wasn't a chain restuarant and I didn't know what they would serve. When I got there I saw there was only a choice of 6 meals and most of them were cooked in butter. So I ordered the caeser salad, but without the croutons, parmasan and dressing - so I ended up paying £9 for a bit of lettuce and some chicken :(

I was feeling very virtuous until everyone else ordered ice cream and I thought "Well what difference can a scoop of ice cream make?" - the trouble was it wasn't one scoop, it was three! And it was the most delicious homemade stuff. Not sure how many points it was but I really cut back for the rest of the day. Thankfully I'm not a big drinker so I was happy to have lime and soda.

Saturday was my 7th weigh in and I lost another 2.5lbs - I'm estatic. I hve only another 1lb to go before I reach my 10% whoo hoo

This is nothing to do with my diet I am just seeing if I can blog
directly from my new iPhone x

Sent from my iPhone

As I said in an earlier post, I have never exercised in my life. Since I started this diet I have been doing the wii fit and also for the past 3 weeks I have been walking as much as possible. I also have the aim to walk 10000 steps a day, minimum. Tonight I had only done 8500 at 10pm and so I decided I would take a walk around the block (takes about 10 mins and would take me over that magic number. But then I thought why walk, why not jog? This is because I really enjoy the free jogging on the wii fit. My daughter said she would come with me and so off we went. I onkly managed 3 short bursts of about 90 seconds or 2 mins each, but I did it and I felt really proud of myself.

I do have to say that the wii fit jogging bears no relation to actual jogging. I can do 40 mins on the wii fit and still be able to breathe, albeit rapidly. However, those short bursts tonight raised my heart rate into the high exercise bracket! I'm going to try and do it each evening until I can keep it going for longer and breathe properly.

Saturday started so full of promise. My sixth weigh-in and I lost 2.5lbs, bringing me up to 21lbs and taking me down into the 15s. I was so chuffed.

The morning was great and then late afternoon disaster struck. I don't drive and I wanted to go and buy some shelving from Argos and a friend of my eldest daughter said he would take me. So far so good, but then on the way home he made a detour to the KFC. Now this is my favourite takeaway and because the nearest shop to me is about 5 miles away, I don't ever have a chance to get it. So 3 chicken portions, 3 hotwings, half a portion of chips and some coleslaw later, I found myself 7 points over for the day. Drats, drats and yet more drats.

Now the thing is, I found I didn't even enjoy it that much (well, except for the hot wings, which I loved) and then the fat in them meant Ihad a really upset tum all night. So I paid dearly for that moment of poor decision making and I don't intend to do it again lol!

Today was the day I had to try and make up for it. I went for a 4 mile walk and during it two wonderful, amazing things happened. The first was that I walked up the side of a really steep hill - just before Christmas, I went to Guildford, which is a town near to where I live. Guildford is really hilly and I struggled to get to the top of the high street - I was really suffering and had palpitations and sweats. So walking this hill was such a triumph. The second was that my family wanted to go to the top of a tower in this park. There are 99 steps and my first reaction was that I would never do it. But I did! And I didn't stop and I whilst I was slightly puffed, I could still hold a conversation when I got to the top. For all those people who doubt that the Wii Fit is proper exercise, I would have to disagree. Since I have been doing the free jogging and free steps my stamina has improved out of all recognition. Whoo hoo.

I'm going into week 7 with confidence and the hope that I can lose 3lbs this week so when, on Saturday, I meet so friends I haven't seen for a few months, I will be under 220.

This is the top of the hill I climbed up - it's difficult to see just how steep it is from this.



This is the view from the tower - see how high up it is!

A few weeks ago I sorted out all of my wardrobes and sorted all my clothes into those that fitted, thosw that were still too small, but should fit when I lost another 7 or so pounds and then thse that I needed to lose more weight to be able to wear them.

Today I tried on those that had been that 7lbs too small and guess what? THEY ALL FIT - I'm so happy, I've gone from a size 26 to a large 22. I have some 22s that are stilll too small, but they seem to be the ones which are not from specifically "large" shops. For example my 2 Jeff Banks tops. The only exception to this are the Sainsburys clothes which are still too small, even though the Tesco and Asda ones fit comfortably.

One of the Jeff Banks tops is the one that I wanted to be able to fit into by my birthday in May. When I first started this diet there was a good 3 inch gap where the two front edges didn't meet. Today I can get everyone of the buttons done up - I just couldn't sit down in it lol. I suspect that by May it may even be a bit too big. As the title of this blog said whoo hoo!

Today for the second day running I went for a long walk back to painshill park. It was amazing how much snow had disappeared overnight and although it was still cold, there was bright sunshine. My daughter, Natalie, and I walked for 4 miles before we headed home.

The only problem is, when I combine this with the 6 miles I walked yesterday, it means my poor feet are in a bad way! I have quite weak ankles and have had physiopherapy on them in the past and the walking up and down hills has made the muscles around my ankes hurt sooo much that now I am finding it hard to walk at all. Trust me to overdo thing, but when I was actually walking it was easy to ignore that my feet hurt as I was enjoying it so much.

Lesson learned I suppose - next weekend, one day walking and the other day something else.

Whoo hoo - today was my 5th weigh in and I lost 3lbs - I'm so pleased. It means Ihave lost 18.5lbs since January 4th. I spent 2 hours today walking in Painshill Park, which is a restored 18th century landscaped garden. It was stunning and I managed to walk over 16000 steps, which was an added benefit.

Here is one of the photos. The rest can be seen here

It's one month ago today that I started this journey towards a fitter, thinner me. The highlights have been:
1. Giving up Coca Cola in all forms
2. Being able to get back into some of the clothes I was wearing 18 months ago when I last lost weight and dropped 2 sizes
3. Not cheating once and not actually wanting to cheat.
4. Becoming more organised about my eating - I have taken lunch to school everyday and have cooked every evening
5. Having a sneaky feeling that I might just actually like aerobic exercise, especially jogging on the wii fit! Never thought I would say that in a hundred years lol

Bring on month 2!!

Had a snow day today. School was closed because of the snow (I'm a teacher) so I didn't have to go to work. Just as well as there were no trains running and I take 2 to get to work.

My youngest daughter, Sarah, was also home for the day and so we walked my eldest daughter, Natalie, to work. We then spent about 21/2 hours walking around my home village taking photos and just enjoying the walk. Although we took things slowly so we didn't slip over, my leg muscles are killing me. I think it's because I had to pick my legs up quite high (I'm only short) so as not to get totally buried in the snow. Also, because I had to keep struggling to keep my balance.

I'm off work tomorrow too, but I'm NOT walking out in it again lol

Here are some of the photos I took on our walk

The weekend stated well with a 2lb loss for the week. So that was 15.5lbs in 4 weeks - I've never lost so much so quickly before. I'm feeling very optimistic - not just because of the weight loss, but because of the choices I have started to make. Not once have I felt that I couldn't control what I am eating - which is a really new feeling for me.

Today I had a great day out walking in Windsor Great Park - I went with my daughter, a friend of hers and her friend'd daughter. We had two dogs and walked for two hours. It was really lovely, despite the bitterly cold winds and the occassional snow flurry.

Here are a couple of photos of the day

Blah! having a bad day - I'm tired - no sorry, make that I'm exhausted and I'm fed up and bored and very unmotivated. I think the biggest thing is the tiredness, it means I can't get a real perspective on how things are going. I have PMT and I so nearly gave in and got a takeaway tonight.

I'm going to have an early night and hope tomorrow is a better day. The only positive is that I have stayed within my points, but I haven't done any excercise today AND my pedometer isn't working properly for example it's over 800 steps to the station from work, but my pedometer only registered 2 steps!!! I need to get a new one pronto.

Thanks for letting me moan, I'll be better tomorrow, I promise x

I've been having a browse trying to find some sites to help with the food plan and I have come across these:

http://www.minimins.com/weight-watchers/
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/dietandfitness/community/diets/articles/0,,598157_682594,00.html
http://www.cooken.com/WeightWatchers.htm
http://msnusers.com/WeightWatchersRecipes/wwrecipes.msnw
http://www.extrapounds.com/group/wwfriends
http://www.dwlz2.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=76
http://www.dwlz.com/wwmemrecTOC.html
http://www.stormpc.com/ww/
http://www.freewebs.com/tammy2866/index.htm
http://www.healthdiscovery.net/
http://www.angelfire.com/me/kyoddie/diets2.html
http://kitchenparade.com/2002/10/weight-watchers-recipes.php
http://www.weight-watcher-recipe.com/weight-watcher-recipes.html
http://www.freewebs.com/noreenblackett/index.htm

I think I remember that the American points system is different to ours here in the UK, but I can't swear to it - so you might want to check the points in some of the recipes just to be on the safe side

The last couple of days people have started to notice that I have lost some weight. On Friday 2 people said to me along the lines of "God, you've lost weight" - I loved the way they stated it as a fact and not as a question.

Then yesterday my eldest daughter, who is not usually very generous with her praise, said "Mum, you can see you have lost weight - you've got a waist." She then proceeded to tell everyone we saw yesterday, which was mainly her friends and I'm not sure they were really that bothered, but I was really touched that she felt that she wanted to tell people that I had lost almost a stone. She also told me to keep it up, which is again quite unusual for her (mind you when we went shopping she did put one of my favourite family size cakes into the basket, which I thought was a bit mean).

But best of all, I tried on some of the tops which still didn't quite fit me last weigh-in and this week my two favourites did!!! It was like Christmas all over again.

Here is a photo I took this morning so you can see the difference in my face from when I started (see the photo of me in a red cardigan in a previous post for the before photo). I think there is a bit of a difference, or is that just wishful thinking?

Its been a good week mostly, I've managed to do some form of exercise most days and except for once, I hit my target of 10000 steps a day (mostly because I am using the wii fit steps exercise before going to work and before going to bed). I've been suprised at how many steps I can rack up just by being a little more energetic and a little less lazy.

The lst couple of days I have been quite hungry, but that's because I have exercised more and haven't eaten all of my points each day. So my target for this week is to eat all of my points every day. I probably won't eat the activity allowance though as I'm still not sure I'm counting them properly.

Anyway when I did my weigh in yesterday I had lost 3lbs that makes 13.5 pounds so far and just 1/2lb away from being in the 220s. I was really chuffed.

Well today seems to be the day when I started to take this seriously and I have to say that I actually really enjoyed it. This is what I did:

1. 40 mins of aerobics exercise on the wii fit, including 2000 steps in 20 mins
2. 30 mins of the Mikyla Dodd Dvd - focusing on the aerobics and the boxing
3. 1000 steps on the wi fit, just before I got into bed 5 mins ago

1. Mind you, my legs are protesting, so goodness knows how they will feel tomorrow lol

In my bedroom I have a whole wall of wardrobes, which since my marriage broke up, all belongs to me! The space is divided up into 2 double wardrobes and one single. Up until this morning one of the double wardrobes was full from top to bottom with clothes I could no longer fit into.

Inspired by Helen who is one of the organisers of the race to size 12 for nye2009 group on the 5 stones+ board, I decided to go through all the clothes I own and sort them out by size.

Well, 6 hours after I started I have all my clothes ironed and hanging up and categorised by how near they are to fitting me. So in one double wardrobe I have all the clothes I own which fit and there are several more items than there would have been if I had done the same thing 2 weeks ago. The single wardrobe is full of clothes that should fit by the time I have lost another 10lbs and finally the other double wardrobe contains those which will fit me when I have lost another stone & a half to 2 stones.

By the end of the marathon ironing session my feet were killing me, but I'm hoping it will help keep me committed to the change in lifestyle. I have some really nice clothes I bought last time I lost weight and I really want to wear them again. Despite the fact that I have lots of clothes that fit me now, most of them have been chosen not because I really like them, but because they will do. So there are few I feel any attachment to.

Anyone know how many activity points I may have earned through the ironing? lol

The first picture is me August 2007 at my heaviest weight.

In October 2007 I started to diet and managed to lose 37lbs - you can see the difference in the middle picture - this was taken in March 2008

Unfortunately, I managed to put back all of the weight except one pound - so the third picture shows what I looked like at the end of last autumn, weighing exactly what I weighed on Jan 4th when I started this new life plan.

Hi all,
I just wanted to say hello and welcome - I'm really chuffed to have you all follow me and I hope the blog stays of interest to you

Take care and have a great weekend

Jackie

Well today was the second weigh in and I was really pleased - I lost 4lbs which means I have lost 10.5lbs. I don't think I have ever lost so much in two weeks, but I do know I have really stuck to the diet.

There have been several times this week when I have made decisions about food which meant I made a healthy choice and very unlike my usual self. Earlier in the week one of my colleagues put a box of celebration chocolates on the desk at work for every one and anyone to eat. Normally I would have picked at them all the way through break or lunch and then picked up several of my favourites to take with me. This week I took 2 sweets and ate them slowly and pointed them. I didn't feel deprived and I probably enjoyed them more for the fact that I savoured them.

On Wednesday morning I picked up a small milky bar from the local shop intending to eat it later and actually didn't get around to having it until yesterday afternoon - that's over THREE DAYS!!

I have found this week easier in some ways because I knew it was working, but a couple of times I have felt as though I've had nothing "nice" to eat, which is rubbish, but I need to spice my evening meals up a bit as they have become a bit samey.

So today is day one of week 3 and so far it's been a good one. I even managed to save enough points for a cold pint of cider - which went down a treat.

I came home full of the joys of life, but now I'm feeling really down. It's probably because I only slept for about 4 hours last night. I sometimes get insomnia and last night was fairly typical of what it can be like. I have also been having some problems with a few people which has caused me to be really peed off - I used to run a family tree wiki site which had several thousand records on it. However, because lots of the members of the site kept arguing and falling out I closed the site down. I found out yesterday that one of those members had copied all my info, which had taken literally hundreds of hours to collect and put it up on a new site as though it was his own research. I have been trying to sort it out since late last night.

This has all led to me craving something really sweet. I've had a mixed fruit salad but have nothing in the house which is low points and sugary sweet. Luckily, I don't have any high point sugary sweet thing either! I have 1.5 points left, so if I get desperate I can have an apple and a yoghurt.

I'm going to watch the end of Masterchef, have a shower and go to bed early. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I read a great blog today by Katie, she was saying that she had made a mistake in weighing her self today and that she should have left it to her official weigh in.

I have to hold my hands up and confess that I weigh myself EVERY day - I know it's wrong, I know it's stupid, but I just can't resist it lol. I do it knowing that there will be days when I have put on weight, but on the days when I have lost weight it more than makes up for it. I find a whole week too long to go without knowing how I am doing and I find it easier to cheat as I won't know how much weight the cheating has put on - if you see what I mean? What do you think?

I've always struggled with the idea of exercise and even as a child did virtually none - one of my earliest memories is being laughed at in junior school as I couldn't get over the exercise equipment (it was a high wooden thing with a padded top - shivers at the memory). Added to that, I have absolutely no co-ordination at all.

Anyway, back in November I got a wii fit and I went on it every day for a couple of weeks, but then I put my back out hula hooping. I hadn't been back on it again until today (I avoided the hula hooping lol). I did 40 mins this morning and then the wii told me to take a rest, so being a good girl who always does as she is told, I did just that. However, this evening I decided to do another 20 mins. I would have done more, but my heel/ankle was feeling sore - the gout is still not gone completely, but I just worked through it. But I have NEVER done a whole hours exercise in one day before and I really enjoyed it. I stuck with the balance exercises and the aerobics. Partly this is because I want to strengthen improve my posture, but also because I find the balance games fun (especially the penguin one). I did 3 jogging sessions and several of the steps game too, I jogged hard enough to work up a sweat (nice - sorry), so I hope that the exercise was effective.

Inspired by the events of today, I have just ordered 3 fitness videos. First I ordered the Claire Richards one because I am very inspired by the changes in her and also I should think the steps music is quite fun to work out to. The second was the new Coleen Nolan disco one - I'm a child of the 70s and so I think I will love the music and I do love to dance, dispite the lack of co-ordination. Finally I orderd the Mikyla Dodds one, again because she looks so good and the amount of weight she has lost is amazing.

So I'll see how it goes - I'll keep you all updated.