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.