Diet Update: Day 8

After a full week of dieting, it was time to weigh myself this morning. Full of trepidation, I stepped onto the scales. I hardly wanted to look down, so sure that I probably hadn't even lost the two pounds I was aiming for. But I took a little peek and was surprised to see that I have actually lost seven pounds! A whole half of a stone!

I'm a little stunned, though I'm not sure why. I have been eating well and exercising every day. I am still sticking to a goal of two pounds per week as I don't expect this kind of loss every week. So my hope is that, next week, I will weigh, at most, 10st 5lbs. Of course, it would be nice to lose a little more than that...

Diet Desperation

It's Day 6 of my diet and I must confess that I think I've gone a little far with it. On Thursday evening, I had a really nasty headache. According to the Tony Ferguson guide, this is to be expected due to the massive change in diet. So I took a painkiller and tried to ignore it.

Yesterday, I cooked sausages, cabbage and broccoli for dinner. As the kitchen began to heat up, the headache returned but I also felt almost nauseous and a quite light headed. The Other Half suggested I have an apple just to boost my energy until dinner was ready. I resisted at first, unwilling to take on any extra calories. But after a few minutes, it became almost impossible to concentrate and so I relented and ate an apple while cooking dinner.

As I was washing up after dinner, it struck me that what had happened was not normal and not healthy. It reminded me of a ridiculous diet during my teens, where I basically starved myself and lost far too much weight. I almost fainted a few times but no matter how much my friends told me that I needed more food, I wouldn't eat more than a piece of fruit or maybe a slice of toast. It became an obsession.

I must not let that happen again. I have realised that my self esteem has actually dropped to about where it was back then. I must keep reminding myself that I want to be healthy and a healthy weight, not just skinny. I need energy to look after my Little Monster, to look after the house and to look after myself. It's all too easy to become fixated on weight loss. I'm glad I had this realisation at this point. After finishing the washing up last night, I had a low fat packet of crisps and didn't even feel guilty afterwards. The diet isn't over but I'm going to calm things down a bit. My health is not really suffering from my weight but it will suffer badly if I don't eat enough.

So on with the diet...but in a healthy manner!

Diet Update - Day 3

Three days into my diet and I'm doing reasonably well. On Monday night, the Other Half wanted pizza for dinner. I did not have the willpower to argue. But, rather than my usual thick based, meaty choice, I chose a thin crust with chicken breast and loads of vegetables. So while it wasn't the healthiest dinner, at least I made it as healthy as possible!

I've been sticking to tomatoes on dry wholemeal toast for breakfast and salad for lunch. It's boring and doesn't really fill me up but while I'm munching through all the greenery, I try to keep in mind that it's going to help me shed some weight. I skipped my workout on Monday and Tuesday just because I did not have the time but I was on my feet for a lot of the day so I must have burnt a few calories. I have just done my workout this morning. My Little Monster shouted "You did it Mummy! Well done" when I was finished. It's nice to have my own personal little cheerleader!

I've also been sticking to mid morning and mid afternoon fruit snacks. Last night's dinner was Shepard's Pie made with a tiny amount of potato on top, bulked out with low fat soft cheese rather than milk and butter, and loads of vegetables inside. It tasted lovely and we'll be having it again at the weekend. We might even try a vegetarian substitute for the beef. 

I weighed myself on Monday and was a little shocked. I thought I weighed about ten and a half stone, which isn't exactly good anyway. No, I actually weigh eleven stone. That's an extra half a stone to lose! With the aim of losing two pounds per week, I should reach my goal weight of nine stone in fourteen weeks. Hopefully if I keep working out as well, I should be a bit less wobbly too. 

Yet another diet...

The Other Half arrived home the other day with a Tony Ferguson Diet starter pack. He's determined to lose some weight. I have decided to join in but without replacing my meals with the sachet shakes and soups. The diet involves eating much less carbohydrates and plenty of vegetables, some fruit and a portion of lean protein in the evening, plus two litres of water per day.

For breakfast, I've just had a slice of dry wholemeal toast with tomatoes on top and a glass of water. It was tasty and I feel reasonably full. I'll have a piece of fruit mid morning, salad for lunch and Shepard's Pie for dinner, using a Tony Ferguson recipe. I don't think I'll be able to fit in a proper workout today but I'll be walking to the shops and I've got some stale bread so I'll be taking the Little Monster to feed the ducks down at the river later. I'm aiming for at least sixty minutes of walking.

I really hope the diet works this time. The big difference between this and all the other diets I have attempted is that the Other Half is doing it too. He won't be tempting me by bringing home tasty treats. We can motivate each other. I'm also hoping that the diet will introduce us to some new healthy meals we can all enjoy. Many of the recipes in the Tony Ferguson aren't really suitable for us so I've been coming up with some myself. We need to have a portion of protein and two servings of vegetables for a dinner. My challenge is finding ways to make it tasty while sticking to the diet rules. If I can manage that, we can continue having these meals for our dinners even after we've finished the diet.

Post-Easter Post

This Easter was a bit boring really. There are a few obvious reasons for this. Firstly, we were silly enough to think that we could leave buying Easter eggs until Good Friday. Unfortunately they were almost entirely sold out. We ended up having a few Creme eggs and I have a chocolate bunny sitting in my fridge just waiting for me to munch it up. I'm not complaining about our lack of chocolate. It's more the lack of variety. I had been hoping to get my Little Monster a an egg that included a very sweet little breakfast set. I've walked past them so many times during grocery shopping and always thought "I'll buy it later". I must remember this mistake next year.

Secondly, our kitchen is tiny and has no window and very little ventilation. This makes it impossible to actually make a full roast dinner without steam and the smell of roasting meat filling the entire flat (this stops being appetising and becomes unpleasant very quickly). So instead, we had slices of turkey from the supermarket deli counter warmed up with gravy accompanied by mashed potatoes and cook from frozen vegetables. It was nice but not the same as a proper roast dinner. Thirdly, now that we live far away from family, it was just the three of us. Don't misunderstand me, the Other Half and the Little Monster are my favourite people but I see them every single day. It would have been nice to socialise with some other people on this special occasion.

I did manage to keep the Little Monster happy though. I finally mustered the courage to let her use glue. For this first attempt, I decided very simply sticking pre-cut shapes onto a pre-cut shape would be best. She thoroughly enjoyed it and this was the result: 

It's only foam shapes glued onto a piece of card that I cut into an egg shape (badly) with a pipe cleaner poked through the top but she loves it and that's what really matters. I tried to explain that we have eggs at Easter because baby birds come from eggs at around this time of year so it's a symbol of life. I realise that this only part of the explanation of Easter but I thought that the Christian Easter story would mean absolutely nothing to her. She has no concept of death yet and, while I don't believe in guarding children from such things, I think two years old is a bit early really. 

Now that Easter is over, its time I started up my diet again. When I tried before, for two weeks I counted calories and was very strict with myself with food and exercise. This worked and I lost a reasonable amount of weight so I decided that I could carry on without being so strict and counting calories. It quickly deteriorated after this point. This time, I'm going to stick with my strict regime until I have reached my target weight. I'm not planning to starve myself or anything. I will just eat the correct amount, rather than stuffing myself with pastries, chocolate, ice cream and all those other naughty treats I keep having, and exercise more. I only want to lose about two stone, which will put me in the middle of the ideal BMI range rather than over the overweight line. So wish me luck and I shall probably have updates in later posts. If anyone has any dieting tips, I'll gladly hear them!

Jelly Belly

Hello readers. This morning my legs and hips are aching. This is because last night I went to my first Zumba session. Thus far in my desperate attempt to get back to my pre-baby dress size, I have merely consumed less calories and done some exercise in my living room when my daughter is in bed and my husband is out. My husband has been curious as to why I will not exercise in front of him but I am happy to exercise in a group. If I am by myself, attempting to perform sit ups and stretches and some basic aerobics, I do not want an audience. If I am in a group of people all attempting to perform the same actions, I don't feel nearly as ridiculous. Even if they are, I don't feel as though anyone is watching me. All eyes are on our instructor who had a dancer's physique and could move her feet at speeds that I simply could not achieve. There is also the knowledge that the person beside me, a good friend who recommended the class and kindly gave me a lift there and back, is also trying to lose weight. I think it's safe to assume that a few of our classmates were also trying to lose some weight. No, I'm not making a nasty comment about their appearance. It would be a bit hypocritical to insult the appearances of other women when I'm unhappy with my own. I got the impression that a lot of the ladies there weren't very comfortable in the situation. I noticed people, including myself, pulling on the hems of their tops to ensure their bellies were still covered. I noticed shy smiles and nervous giggling before the class started. I noticed that almost everyone there had at least some difficulty completing the moves that the instructor performed with some ease and grace. Of course there were a couple of sporty looking types who had clearly been going to these classes for sometime. Or at least, that's what I'll believe to keep my typical female resentment and jealousy at bay.
I arrived home exhausted and already starting to ache. My husband was still trying to settle our daughter but after a few escapes into the bedroom, she finally fell asleep in her bed. I then entirely ruined all my evening's work. We ordered a curry. Korma with rice, sheek kebab with a creamy minty dip and peshwari naan. Oh dear. I really must try harder.