DownSizing Debbie

First Sparkler

2007-10-29T14:14:00.001Z

I was very pleased to receive in the post this morning a little certificate from my weightwatchers leader with a Number One ribbon on and little note saying "Well done your fist sparkler" for aving reached my first silver seven last week. It was a really nice pick me up on a day when I felt like I couldn't really be bothered counting points and trying to eat healthy. Diving intervention perhaps ;)

Goals

2007-10-28T18:52:00.000Z

My weightwatchers week starts on a Wednesday but I like Mondays as a starting point (come on now who doesn't?) so each Sunday evening I'm going to start setting myself some small weekly goals to work towards and then review how I've done at the end of the week. Most of them will be weight related as this is as weight loss blog but some of them will be focused on other aspects of my life as well.

Weekly Goals:

Drink more water - I am so bad at this I would rather drink a diet soft drink but they are just SO bad for your teeth.
Get in 3 exercise sessions - can be treadmill, bike, weights, DVD, whatever but get some exercise!!!
Reach my 5 a day!!

Not to hard. I've already been trying at these so now I just need to up the effort a little!

Clean, Clean, Clean

2007-10-26T17:01:00.001+01:00

I spent this afternoon cleaning out my kitchen. I got the curtains down and put them in the wash, then I cleaned out the pantry, the food cupboards and the fridge. Washed down my white goods (fridge, microwave etc!), scrubbed the floors....it looks and smells real good in there. I totally rearranged the food cupboards and put a lot of the tinned stuff on to the pantry shelves so at least now I have a good idea about what food I have in my kitchen. It just wasn't organized enough before.

A man from Severn Trent came out today and cleaned out the drains as they had got all backed up. He said the problem was somebody has been poking sticks down it - we have a child living next door so more than likely he was the culprit! Aww well he's only little. It certainly smells nicer now. I wasn't here when he came but he told our other neighbour that our cellar should smell tons better as apparently the vents for the drains run under it and so the smell wasn't just the damp of a normal cellar it was also the blocked drains. Oh yeah - real healthy that!

Wedding plans are going good. I've still gotta sort the decorations out though. I've seen most of what I need on ebay! Yey ebay!

Wedding hiccups

2007-10-25T10:47:00.000+01:00

We have a slight problem on the wedding dress front. I should have foreseen this but really....I didn't! The dress I brought is getting loose in the bust. It has to fit perfectly in the bust because it's a strapless dress, therefore my bust is the only thing holding my dress up darn it! Wow see how many times I wrote bust there? I decided to try it on this morning just to see..come on its my wedding dress. I didn't think 10lb would make a heck of a lot of difference but well apparently it does in the upper body area! On the plus side at the moment the hips of the dress are fitting just perfectly instead of just that little bit too snug, this is a good thing. I don't see any point getting the alteration made this week as I have 8 weeks to go and hell I could loose some serious weight in that time. My mum says she knows someone who will take it in for me so I can leave it for another 4 weeks at least. Past that I'll have to get it done. Why do I have the idea I might be wearing pins down the aisle!?
Despite the last minute wedding panic ?*sighs* I am very very happy that it's getting loose! Yey me!!

BIG YEY for me!!

2007-10-24T10:23:00.000+01:00

Last weeks weight: 16st 5lbs
This weeks weight: 16st 2lbs
Loss: 3lbs
Total: 9.5lbs

Bring it on. I did better in London than I thought. Now just some hard work this week to make sure that Krispy Kreme dougnut doesn't catch up with me! Woohoo!

I'm hoping that with a nearly 10lb loss already that by the time the wedding rocks round in December I will have made my first stone (14lbs!), being as I have 8 weeks left think that should be reasonable as that's only 0.5lbs a week. If we looked at 1lb a week then I would have lost a total of 18lbs by the wedding. Either would be lovely and anything more than that, well...we'll see shall we. If I've learnt anything it's not to put too put too many time restraints on my goals. When I reach them, I reach them and it will all happen in its own time. There's no point rushing this, it's not a diet but a change of lifestyle and one that I want to sustain.

Greased Lightening

2007-10-22T17:50:00.000+01:00

Sorry I've been a little quiet on the blog this week. On Wednesday I finished up Uni for two weeks but still with a heap load of work to do and then on Friday I headed down to London for the weekend. I'm not going to lie and say I was an angel when it came to food but I could certainly have made a lot worse choices over the weekend. So if I gain any weight I'm ready to deal and move on. I've got straight back on to counting my points today and I'm gonna exercise as well ;) get me!
Our treadmill finally arrived on Thursday (yeah! only two days late!) and Dad brought it back in the car for me. So now I have a lovely shiny new treadmill to walk and jog on. Matt is loving it too. So it's healthy eating and exercise all the way and I'll see how I do on Wednesday!

Weigh In number three

2007-10-16T21:01:00.000+01:00

Starting weight: 16st 11.5lbs
Last week: 16st 7lbs
This week: 16st 5lbs
Loss: 2lbs

So in the two weeks since starting weightwatchers I've lost 6.5 lbs which I think is pretty darn good and also means that if I lose 0.5lbs next week I will get my first silver seven in my weight card :D I want my silver seven next week. I'm gonna have my work cut out because I'm going to London this weekend to see the stage show of Grease but I am determined eat well and get as much walking in as possible.
My treadmill wasn't delivered today :( they did try and ring but I missed the phone call so I guess I'll have to ring them tomorrow and try and sort out another delivery date.

More PE

2007-10-15T07:47:00.000+01:00

We have another two hour session of PE at 9am. Ick. According to the timetable it's going to be orienteering, quite what tis involves is beyond me but I sure hope it's not quite as vigorous as the "managing the game" session on Friday!

Today is a packed lunch day because I'm in Uni 9-6. You can buy healthier options there but I find if I have money on me I can have the tendency to make bad choices rather than good.
Today my lunch box looks like this:

Seed and bran bagel with lean ham and extra light mayonnaise
Three small plums
3 bread sticks
1 Alpen cereal bar (snack)
1 small banana (snack)

I don't know about other people but I like my snacks mid morning and occasionally mid afternoon!

Autumn fruits

2007-10-14T14:14:00.000+01:00

Autumn has to be my favourite time of the year for fruits. Lots of plums, pears and nectarines. Three of my favourite fruits. I'm not so keen on peaches, although a lot like nectarines that "furry" skin just puts me right off. I've always been a picky eater and a lot of the time it's not the actual taste of the food that puts me off but the texture or smell. Mushrooms for example they just smell disgusting when they are cooking and look all well slimy. That is not endearing me to them much. The same with cooked carrots, I love the taste but can't stand the texture after they've been cooked - hence the reason I like mine raw. Matt is the opposite, I like my food crunchy, he can't stand the way apples crunch (though he eats them if I stew them first!!)

T-minus 2 days until I get my treadmill! woohoo!

Disappointing

2007-10-13T17:28:00.001+01:00

So my other half and I went out last night for a meal with his work mates. The meal itself was pretty disappointing. The service to begin with was just SOOOO slow!!
Before they even took our orders they brought out plates of really scrummy looking breads. I tried to avoid them as much as possible but I had eaten last at 2pm and by now it was 8pm so I was super hungry. I had 3 small pieces of bread, they were definatly the highlight of the meal lol.
In all it took them 90 minutes to take a serve our main dishes. I opted for the "house special" which was penne pasta with grilled chicken in a tomato sauce with aubergine and peppers, I asked them not to put cheese on the top. When it came the dish was absolutely tiny (keep in mind they were charging £8.75 for this dish!!), about 2 tiny pieces of chicken and no aubergine in sight at all. Totally sucked. I could have make an identical dish at home for a lot less then they charged me!! We left quite early as I was tired (and darn hungry lol) so that avoided the temptation of pudding although I did indulge in a GeoBar from the Tesco express. Mmmmm now these Geobars are nice. Rice krispies, oats, raisins and choc chip all for 2.5 points and the bar is really big - make a great "in between lecture" snack! Now I'm going to have to make sure I don't eat too many!

Yesterday my only lecture was PE (I'm a trainee teacher!!). It was entitled "managing the game" so here was me thinking i was going to be doing some yelling and blowing a whistle. No way. I was dripping in sweat by the end of 90 minutes. It wasn't just me either our whole group breathed a very tired collective sigh of relief when the final whistle blew. I then had to walk the mile back home. As soon as I got in it was straight in to a hot bath in the hopes that my legs wouldn't ache too bad for that evening. Luckily they were fine! Plus I earned 5.5 points for m effort! YEY!

Blah

2007-10-13T17:27:00.001+01:00

Felt like a bit of a blah day today on the food front, not really sure why. I haven't gone over my points allowance - nearly bang on in fact, just 0.5 points under. However I did eat lots of my points before lunch where as I usually consume the most at my evening meal - maybe that's why, it felt like I ate too much too early.
Friday night is going to be testing - I'm going out for a party/meal. I'm not an alcohol fan so that's all good but I am a food fan (obviously!!) I just hope the meal is somewhere I can make a low point option.

Treadmill

2007-10-11T17:27:00.000+01:00

We've arranged a delivery date for our treadmill. It's being delivered to my mum and dads house (as someone will be in most the day) on Tuesday! Hopefully dad will drop it around to me that night :D YEY. I can't wait to get it all set up and start working out on it. I really like jogging but at my size I'm not really comfortable running out in the city - so for now the treadmill will be great for that. I have been using my bike but I'm not really loving it that much. If I'm gonna exercise I want it to be something I enjoy so I can keep it up well forever lol.

Weigh in day

2007-10-09T17:26:00.000+01:00

Starting weight: 16st 11.5lbs
Last week: 16st 11.5lbs
This week: 16st 7lbs

Loss = 4.5lbs!!! YEY

Mortat and Pestle

2007-10-06T17:25:00.000+01:00

My other half brought me a brand new pretty expensive Mortar and Pestle today - I love it. It crushed up my garlic very nicely. As a little bit of an experiment we cut open a potato (par cooked) put the crushed garlic on the top of the two halves and baked it in the oven. Turned out really crispy and yummy with just enough of a garlicky tast! With that we had some chicken coated in a lemon and black pepper dressing. Really enjoyed the meal. Low point and healthy, now I just need to start working on eating more veg. I'm not really a veg person, never have been but I get better with age. Still I tend to only eat it when someone puts it on my plate, when I'm at home my 5 a day tends to consist of fruit. For that reason I am loving the approach of autumn. Plums, nectarines, peaches, scrummy apples. My favourite fruit season.

I have to say I'm totally addicted to Chai Latte's at the moment but at 4.5 points for a skinny chai latte from cafe nero it's not something I can drink all the time. Anyone have any suggestions for making my own lower point version? I'd be really grateful - would save me a fortune as well

Eating Out

2007-10-05T17:24:00.000+01:00

Today we ate out for the first time since my weigh in. We tend to eat out once a week so I'm going to be brushing up on the best choices to make. Luckily I'm not really a big alcohol drinker so I don't consume loads of calories that way. This evening we went to Nando's. Which basically serves spicy chicken, spicy chicken, oh and spicy chicken.
I shared a starter with my other half - some warm pita with a scrummy low fat red pepper dip. For my main I had a chicken breast pita (no mayo!!) with salad and some spicy rice. I even had a pudding - low fat frozen yoghurt which is only 2.5 points per serving. It was a great meal and really friendly on the points. I feel good for having managed to eat out without being a total pig and eating all the chips and choc cake in sight.

On a very exciting note we found ourselves with some extra money in the bank so we have just ordered a treadmill off sports website. It was on sale and looks like we got a find deal Can't wait for it to come!!

On the exercise front - I walked to university and back today - about 2 miles total give or take, I also did 20 minutes on my bike and some weight work for my arms. I forgot how I great I feel after working out. Bring it on!!

Day two

2007-10-04T17:23:00.000+01:00

I'm two days in to the weight watchers plan and it all seems to be going good. I'm already feeling better for eating healthier though I have been a little hungry in the evening but I'm trying to cut out eating late at night. Last night I did have a piece of fruit as that's light but got rid of the hunger pangs.
Tomorrow I'm going to start adding some exercise in as well. Currently I walk to uni and back everyday and that comes to about 2 miles. I also want to alternate between the stationary bike I have in my study and the tae-bo and yoga DVD's I have kicking around the house. Hopefully that will help me tone up and lose the pounds.