Alison's Big Fat Adventure

Update

2012-02-15T16:20:00.001+11:00

Well, the news wasn't as bad as I thought. Yes, I'm over the 100kg mark but only by 0.6kg. My naked pre-shower weigh this morning gave me an indication it would be more so I'm pretty happy about that. No doubt I will go under 100 next week.

Well, it's been a while

2012-02-14T21:02:00.002+11:00

It's been more than more than 12 months since I updated this blog. Unfortunately for me in that time, I've gained about 10kg. I'm not very happy with this state of affairs and it looks like I've gone back over the 100kg mark. I am SO not happy.

As much as I really don't want to, I've decided to re-join Weight Watchers. I need to. I can't do this by myself as much as I want to fool myself that I can. Obviously I can't. So tomorrow morning, I'll be heading to the meeting and a date with the scales. Not really looking forward to that.

I thought I might do a more low-carb approach with WW this time. I did dabble with lower carb meals late last year & the scales did record a slight downward motion without really much effort. But Christmas did me in and I haven't recovered. So it's back to the grindstone.

I will return tomorrow with the bad news.

Pro Points

2010-11-26T09:40:00.002+11:00

I'm one week into the Pro Points programme and I lost 1.3kg! I'm not exactly sure how I managed that since I ate so much but I did track every day (a miracle!!) and I am still doing so. I've been snacking on fruit quite a bit so can only assume this is why I lost so much - that plus my hormonal gain of the week before when I should've (according to my scales) lost .5kg.

Anyway, this was last night's dinner. It's the sweet potato, bacon & corn quiche from the December issue of WW magazine. A quarter is 6 Pro Points. Pretty good!

It's been a while

2010-11-21T10:19:00.003+11:00

My weight has been pretty steady for the past 2 months but I'm not particularly happy with that. We have a communal journal at our WW meeting so last week I decided to take it & track. I was really good for the first three days and then I had a weekend away sewing. I was all ready to have a scone for morning tea & count it when I discovered that the organiser had chosen the healthy option. So we had fruit for morning tea & yoghurt for afternoon tea. Bummer! But it helped me stay on track I suppose.

But of course we went out for dinner on the Saturday night. I was really good...I had fettucine in a tomato sauce with prawns, NO dessert, NO entree & just one piece of plain bread. Unfortunately though I drank a whole bottle of wine myself. :) Consequently I had a gain of .3kg. But I think that was mostly hormonal and I was pretty happy with that.

So this week we started the new ProPoints system. I was a bit dubious at first - especially when the on-line tracker showed beetroot as being worth 1 point! But then I discovered it depends which bit you read/use so now I fiddle it & count it as zero. I'm evil. So I've been eating and eating (can't believe how much you can eat on this new programme!) & finally the scales are pointing down. So I can't wait for the meeting to see if I've officially lost!

Weigh in

2010-09-08T17:42:00.001+10:00

Just a quick update to say I lost 1.3kg this week! Very happy with that and I wasn't really really good. I have to continue this week but with my birthday, it's gonna be hard.

August was a complete disaster!

2010-09-05T11:59:00.001+10:00

I've not been happy these past few weeks & have had 4 gains in 4 weeks. I now weigh 89.2 & I'm not happy about it. This is the same as I weighed this time last year which means I've been fiddling around for 12 months. So this week I've been pretty good so far. I've walked 3 out of 4 days but I still have a little late night eating going on which I need to reign in.

I've just had brunch (no pic) which was 1 piece of grain toast with 2 tblsp WW cottage cheese, 3 slices of WW bacon, 130g baked beans & some tomato. Very yum & only 4 points. Tonight's plan is Classic Beef Stew with Mash (5.5 pts) followed by Chocolate Self Saucing Puddings (3.5 pts) both from the Cook Tasty WW cookbook. I don't usually cook dessert as I'd rather use the points for something else but I know that my husband likes them so I thought I'd spoil him since it's Father's Day.

I have some challenges this month....first of all there's my birthday next Saturday. I'm going out for lunch with my mother and also another lunch with my WW pals. Ergh. Then the week after, I'm off to Ballarat for the Sewing Guild convention. A week of food that I have no control over. Plus alcohol! Then after that (as if that's not enough!!) I'm going to New Zealand for 5 days to visit a friend. Let's hope that September is not as bad as August.

Tonight's dinner

2010-08-16T19:32:00.001+10:00

I've really got my money's worth from that WW cookbook. Tonight's dinner was Curried Chicken Pie. I changed the WW recipe a little by only using 1 sheet of pastry & not bothering with the egg wash. Saved myself 2 pts. :)

Other recipes I've made from this book are Baked Pasta Frittata (yum), Beef & Lentil Lasagne (OK but I'm not a big mince fan anyway - the family loved it though), Classic Beef Stew with Mash (very yum) and Indian Style Chicken Curry (yum).

I went away to the Hunter Valley for the weekend last week and so gained 1kg at weigh in. Bummer! I haven't really been good this week either although have been great today. I had all intentions on Sat & Sun, only to discover that my husband had brought home chocolate & cake after a visit to his mother. Sigh.

New WW cookbook

2010-07-31T13:28:00.000+10:00

I bought the new WW cookbook this week, Cook Tasty. It has the recipe for the Shepherd's Pie from my last post in it. The recipes in the book look so good and don't appear to have any strange ingredients in them (thank goodness). So I planned my week's menus and have so far made 2 things from the book. No pics though.

I've made the Lasagne which was very nice. It could do with some vegies in it though and I have also made the Prawn Risotto. Now that was an interesting thing. It's made in the oven which I had my doubts about but I dutifully followed the recipe and as I suspected, the rice wasn't cooked in the time they said to have it in the oven. So I put it in for 10 more minutes...still not cooked. I added more liquid, gave it another 10 min....still not cooked. I was starting to get a bit shirty...gave it another 10 mins. No. Parts of it were OK but the rest was still crunchy. So I gave up, added the prawns & gave it another 10. The prawns weren't cooked!! The recipe says to cook the prawns for 5-7 mins. No chance! Another 10 mins and the prawns were done so I gave up and served it. It was still a tiny bit underdone but delicious. Next time, I'll make it on the stove top as I usually do.

I just hope the rest of the week's recipes will be easier than that!

Update

2010-07-16T10:14:00.002+10:00

Once again there's a big gap between my posts. I've actually lost a little bit and am now down to 86.8kg. I was 86.5 last week but let's not go there. This week, I'm being good. As good as I can that is. I'm just back from a 30min walk and it's my second walk this week which is pretty good for me.

I've come to the conclusion that this weight loss thing isn't a race and that it doesn't matter how long it takes me...as long as I get there in the end. Gosh..that's deep & meaningful isn't it. LOL.

I made something new 2 nights ago. It's the Shepherd's Pie with sweet potato which was in the WW weekly booklet 2 weeks ago. Oh yummy yum yum. I was completely stuffed afterwards. It's very filling which is a damn fine thing. You want pics? OK then.

Here's how it looked before going into the oven.

And here's how it looked on my plate.

What happened to April????

2010-05-12T19:11:00.001+10:00

April has been and gone and my blog remained update-less. Oh well. My weight wasn't doing much either so it doesn't really matter.

In the last 2 weeks I've lost a total of .5kg which doesn't sound much but it's pretty good for me. My leader has suggested that we email our trackers to her which is fabulous. It certainly keeps you honest and good. I was sooo good last week but only lost .2 which was a disappointment but this week I cracked the 87kg mark. Woot! This has given me motivation to continue.

I spent some time this afternoon planning this week's dinner menu. That's something I haven't done for a while. This is how it looks:

Wednesday: Curried prawns
Thursday: Chicken & Cashew stir fry - STGTBT Book 2
Friday: Oriental Pork - STGTBT Book 4
Saturday: McDonald's - I have a Seared Chicken Deluxe Burger without cheese, 6 points
Sunday: Tortilla Stack - STGTBT Book 3
Monday: Pork in Plum Sauce - an old WW recipe
Tuesday: Mongolian Lamb but it will be chicken - STGTBT Book 3

So onto today's pic........ this was tonight's dinner and very yum it was. Curried prawns from STGTBT Book 2. I made it exactly as the recipe except I added more vegies and omitted the chilli powder. I loved it! My DD said it was a bit spicey but still ate it so that's good. Other big news here this week was the purchase of a rice cooker. Fabulous!

Happy happy

2010-03-31T15:42:00.003+11:00

I'm happy to report another loss this week. It was only .3kg but that's my 4th loss in a row! So my total loss for March is 1.7kg so I've made my goal this month (makes a change). It's happening very slowly but I'm not being 100% good so I only have myself to blame for that. However, I'm still happy to have the scales go down even if they're only going down .3 per week. A loss is a loss is a loss.

Last night's dinner (of which there is no pic) was the Zuccini slice from STGTGT Book 1. Divine! I worked out the points as 3 for 1/4 of the whole thing which is pretty good. Tonight's dinner is homemade pizza. I don't put any cheese on mine anymore. :) Also we're off to a concert tonight. My friend, me & our 2 daughters are all going to see Crowded House. Woot!

MIA

2010-03-17T19:13:00.001+11:00

It seems to be a trend among my blog buddies at the moment. We're all faffing around not losing much. I actually did have a loss this week, half a kilo. I haven't been all that bad in the past few weeks but nothing was showing on the scales. Who can explain that? Anyway, this hopefully will give me a bit more motivation to continue.

In keeping with my last couple of posts, here is my dinner from tonight. It's based on Annette Sym's Chicken Homestead Pie from STGTBT book 4. I don't actually make my own pastry and I add lots more vegies than in the recipe. This one has mushrooms, shallots, capsicum, cauli, carrots & beans. The sauce is made with 4 sachets of cup-a-soup mixed with milk. When boiled, it thickens up beautifully & is pretty tasty. Tonight's was a mix of cream of mushie, spring veg & cream of chicken. 5 points is the total for 1/4 of the pie using reduced fat puff pastry.

My lunch

2010-02-12T13:17:00.000+11:00

Here's a pic of my lunch today. It's brown rice, capsicum, cherry tomatoes, feta, chickpeas & balsamic dressing. Very yum & very filling. I've been a bit bored with my lunches lately so I'm trying to mix them up a bit. This recipe came from the March issue of WW magazine.

Last week I had a hormonal gain of .6 and this week I lost it again so I'm back to 87.8. The reason I didn't lose more was due to my late-night eating which again has become a problem. For the last 2 nights though, I've been good so am hoping for a loss this week too.

Dinner

2010-02-01T18:55:00.000+11:00

This was my dinner tonight. I made a couple of recipes from the February issue of the WW mag. The chicken lovely legs were marinaded in a mix of oil, garlic & herbs and then oven baked. Yum! The tomatoes are stuffed with rice, cream cheese, paprika, tomato and herbs. They were good but I think they'd be better with different cheese, maybe parmesan.

Two posts in one day?

2010-01-27T16:52:00.004+11:00

I was just playing around in Excel seeing what losing 1.5 kg per month would do to my weight by September & the end of the year. So then I thought, what would 2kg & 2.5kg per month do to the amounts? Well here is the result:

	-1.5 per month	-2 per month	-2.5 per month
Today's weight	87.8	87.8	87.8

February	86.3	85.8	85.3

March	84.8	83.8	82.8

April	83.3	81.8	80.3

May	81.8	79.8	77.8

June	80.3	77.8	75.3

July	78.8	75.8	72.8

August	77.3	73.8	70.3

September	75.8	71.8	67.8

October	74.3	69.8	65.3

November	72.8	67.8	62.8

December	71.3	65.8	60.3

Interesting isn't it? I can't believe the difference .5kg per month makes to my September total! If that's not motivating, I don't know what is. :)

I went to the meeting!

2010-01-27T16:36:00.002+11:00

So this morning I got myself together & went to my WW meeting for the first time since 21st October. I wasn't expecting a loss - and by that, I mean a loss since last week cos I sure knew that I had lost since October! But I had a loss - .4kg which is pretty good considering the change from home to WW scales and wearing more clothes to weigh (you know; looking half decent in public! LOL). So I've now paid copious amounts of $$$ for 13 weeks. I didn't want to go the WW unlimited route cos my credit card is not looking very happy at the moment so I paid in advance. Yes, I know it costs me more but it's gone from my bank account & not accruing interest on my cc so probably doesn't cost me more at all.

Anyway, so my weight when I last attended WW was 90.4 and today is 87.8. Bring on 86!

Oh & one more thing.....this makes my total loss in January 1.5kg which was my mini goal. Woot!

Reporting in

2010-01-23T07:52:00.000+11:00

Thanks for your comments....I really appreciate them! I'm very happy to report that after reigning myself in last week I lost 1.1kg! Woot! I hardly ever lose more than .5 so to say I'm very happy is an understatement. All it took was tracking. Yep...I still did no exercise...it was tracking that did it. Plus I have to say I wasn't 100% perfect (who is??) and still went over my pts allowance a couple of times. But the difference is, I went over with GOOD food. Like fruit. I've also discovered grape tomatoes and have been snacking on them. Oh so yummy!

Anyway, I just realised I haven't updated you all on the WW meeting situation. There was a huge development re my previous leader just before Christmas. One of my friends was the weigher at my meeting and she emailed my group of WW friends (another friend calls us the fat farm girls LOL) with the news. WW replaced our leader! You know...the one no one liked. The one that was not inspiring. The one who, basically, was a pain in the arse. The one we had been complaining about for months. My friend the weigher had also been telling WW that perhaps the leader wasn't the right fit with that meeting but was basically ignored. Well, they replaced her too! Bummer. However, the end to the story is that I am going back to that meeting next week. The replacement leader is someone we've had before so I know she's OK. Thank god is all I can say! Praise the lord!

Starting over

2010-01-14T09:15:00.001+11:00

I've been MIA for a little while & re-thinking my situation. I haven't tracked for a month at least nor have I done any exercise except for 1 30 min walk on 6 Jan. Mind you, I haven't gained....only tiny bits.....so I'm now at 89.3kg. Still under that dreaded 90! Gotta be happy with that.

However, I know that unless I get myself under control, that won't continue. I've gone back to that awful out of control late night eating. Ergh. I must get that under control or nothing will ever work. I'm travelling to the USA in September & while I really wanted to get to goal, I know now that I won't/can't. It's still 24kg away and I've only got 8 or 9 months. Actually probably only 7. So with that in mind, I thought what is the weight that I'd be happy with? So I'd like to be 75kg by then. Well, that's only 1.5kg a month. Surely I can do that????? How hard can that be? So yesterday, I started again. I ate 18.5 pts but still did no exercise. It's been really hot here in the past few days. Excuses, excuses.

Stuffed capsicums

2009-12-30T18:47:00.000+11:00

I just wanted to nip back & post about my dinner or part of it anyway. These are the stuffed capsicums that I mentioned a little while ago. They are very yum!

Alison's Stuffed Capsicums - 1.25 pts per capsicum

5 or 6 red baby capsicums
1/2 cup cooked rice (I keep some in the freezer for occasions like this)
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup corn kernels
1/4 cup diced celery
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1/4 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp BBQ sauce
2 tsp tomato sauce
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp vegie stock powder
1 tblsp grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese (I used Bega So Extra Light tasty - points will vary depending on cheese type)

Cut the tops off the caps & scoop out all the crud from inside. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl (except for the tasty cheese). Stuff the caps with the mixture. Sprinkle tasty cheese on top. Bake at 180C for 25-30 mins. Eat & enjoy!

Christmas catch-up

2009-12-30T13:05:00.001+11:00

I did my weigh in this morning & found, to my delight, that I'd lost .3kg. I'm very happy with that considering it happened over Christmas & I haven't been tracking at all. I have been watching what I eat but there's been some yummy chocs & biscuits around the house and I'm sure you all know how that goes. But I was pretty good on Christmas Day....we had ham & salad. I made the garlic bread & made a personal one for myself. No butter, 1.5tsp of WW marg on half a turkish roll. Much better than the beautiful buttery one I made for everyone else! I also had no dessert, just some fruit. Same with Boxing Day which we spent at my in-laws. Prawns, ham, turkey - all cold and some salad. I did indulge in some ice cream (& it was absolutely bloody beautiful!!!) but that was all. So pretty good if I do say so myself.

The biggest challenge is now though. I have to get back into it if I want to be anywhere near my goal weight before I go to the USA in September. I'm exactly 24kgs away and I really don't think I will get there in that time. However, if I can be somewhere around 75kgs, I'll be very happy. Getting back to tracking & exercising is my New Year's resolution but I'm starting today.

Good luck to everyone else and here's hoping for a slimmer more in-control 2010!

Phew....not over 90!

2009-12-19T10:10:00.001+11:00

Big sigh of relief here when I stepped on the scales on Wednesday. 89.4 thank goodness. I only gained .6 so that was fabulous. I was very lucky! So this week my goal has been to track. And I have...except on Thursday night. All had been ticking along nicely on Thursday....it was really hot here in Sydney...40C and a hot wind blowing and I had plans of putting on the crock pot. Well I totally forgot so arrived home to no dinner. Bugger! Normally I would chuck some fish & wedges in the oven but it was just tooooo hot for that so we had sandwiches. Which then gave me the green light to continue eating. Ergh.

Anyway, I am back in control now (Saturday) and the scales are co-operating. I still haven't done any exercise but I think getting my eating under control is more important right now and I will work on the exercise after Christmas.

I have to mention part of our dinner last night. We had the Beef Pie out of the WW Secrets of Success cookbook but that wasn't the good bit. I had purchased baby capsicums a week ago thinking I'd seen a recipe for stuffed capsicums. Well I had but it wasn't what I wanted so I used a STGTBT recipe from book 3. She does stuffed mushrooms (& I've made them & they're good!) so I used that recipe for the caps. Oh yum! They were gorgeous. Red caps are so sweet & yummy baked in the oven. Let me recommend it to everyone. I think they were around 1 pt each.

Ooops!

2009-12-14T21:47:00.000+11:00

I forgot to post an update re my last post!

So...I did my walk for the 4 days and was very pleased with myself. It only resulted in a .4kg loss though but that's OK. It made me 88.8, a nice even number LOL.

However, this week has been shitty. I have not done any exercise AT ALL. I've not tracked this week AT ALL. I can't stop eating and am prowling the house. Erk...I hate this feeling. No doubt there will be a gain this week.......I just hope I don't go back over the dreaded 90kg but I have a very nasty feeling about that. Some of the gain could be hormonal, which would also explain the eating but I'm not 100% sure about that. I should be taking responsibility for the gain and not blaming my stupid old hormones, right?

Maybe it's Christmas, maybe I'm just bored, I dunno. I can't seem to get myself together. Bleh.

A loss!

2009-12-02T16:28:00.001+11:00

Finally....after weeks of fiddling around, losing & gaining the same .1 or .2, I had a loss of .7kg this week. Very happy with that. It takes me to an all time low of 89.2kg. I haven't been this weight since before I had my daughter (she's 14). Now I just have to focus and keep myself in check for the Christmas season.

I think I may attempt to up my exercise somewhat. I've been doing a 4km walk & adding 4 laps of a local park which takes it to 5km and takes me an hour. Problem is, I've only been doing it twice a week if I'm lucky. So this week I will make a goal of doing that walk 4 times. Thursday, Friday, Sunday & Monday. I'll report back.

Damn hormonal weight gain!

2009-11-18T12:46:00.000+11:00

I hate my hormones! After last week being reasonable and losing .4 to get back under 90kg, this week my body has decided it likes fluid & has given me that .4 back. Well, it was only .3 but still. After going away for the weekend, having dinner out & being good by selecting the grilled fish & vegies, I'm a bit annoyed. More so when I went out this morning to a parent/teacher thing, ate some fruit, had some water & came home. I then jumped back on the scales only to discover I was .4 LESS than earlier. Hmph. I could've cheated & changed my weight on-line but I figure that I wouldn't have been able to do that if I was at a meeting so I left it.

Now I have to suck it in & continue on. This week will be challenging because I'm going out to dinner tonight and to a party on Sat night. I always try to be good at parties but the sight of all that food sitting on a table sends my head into a spin & I just tuck on in. Ergh.

Going well so far this week

2009-11-07T14:48:00.000+11:00

I'm very happy with how I'm going this week. I've clocked up 10,000 steps on my pedometer every day except for today. Today I'm sewing. I just made a Tshirt in a size 14! Now if any of you sew, you'll know that sewing pattern sizes mean nothing compared to RTW. But for me to get into a size 14 with minimum adjustments is a real motivator.

I've also been doing well with my eating. Tonight is a challenge though as our family traditionally have McDonalds for dinner. My DH goes out to the drive-through and brings the food back but last week we got the bad news that McD's have decided in their infinite wisdom to stop making the Lean Beef Burger. That's what I usually have....it's 4.5 points and a good choice. Now they've got rid of it. I'm not happy. DH brought me home a Quarter Pounder last week! Eek...it's 11 pts. I won't be having that tonight so have told him to get food for himself & DD....I will have something else.

2009-11-04T13:41:00.002+11:00

I just wanted to pop in & do a quick catch-up. Since being an on-line WW-er, I've lost the grand total of 300g. Yeah, not very good. I don't know what's going on but I'm only just getting back into my routine that was shattered when I went to Perth in September. So I've been really good for the past 3 days & am now working on the 'one day at a time' mentality.

To answer Tammy's question (well, it wasn't really a question but still), a kilo is equal to 2.2lbs so just multiply my weight or loss to get the imperial. My weight is currently 90.1kg which is around 198lbs. I don't think I like the pounds number much!! It's very big.

Anyway, this week will be better. I will take each day as it comes, trying to avoid snacking or changing my snacks from point snacks to carrots or fruit. I also need to stop eating after dinner which I have managed to do for 3 days. It's a key thing for me.

Well...I've done it

2009-10-22T20:33:00.000+11:00

I rang WW today & cancelled my unlimited membership. I've now changed to being an on-line member so I don't have to suffer that damn ww woman anymore. Yeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! It's like a load has been lifted. I've been a bit restless in the past few weeks. Couldn't concentrate on anything. I'd pick up my stitching, do 2 stitches & put it down. I'd prowl the house looking for food. I'd sit at my sewing machine and just look at it. I couldn't settle to anything. Let's hope that's all behind me now.

Today was a pretty good day food-wise except for the Baskin Robbins ice cream I had. 6 points! Ergh. So I tracked it and have gone over my pts today by a couple. But I have 2 pts on my pedometer. Tomorrow is another day & I must do my walk in the morning. I'll be out all day Sat so no walk there & Monday I'm going to a friend's breast cancer fund raising morning tea. I'm making a strawberry cake worth 14 pts per slice. I'm thinking I won't be eating any of it!

I am so over my WW leader

2009-10-15T20:30:00.000+11:00

I'm back from my trip to Perth & didn't weigh for 2 weeks. I finally bit the bullet this week & weighed in with a .6 gain. That's OK. However, our meeting on Wednesday was the most bizarre thing I've seen and I am so over this leader.

Our leader is reasonably new to our meeting. From the beginning she's been a rule stickler and the meeting has been fairly boring. We don't get much of a chance to interact - she always cuts people off. She lost me fairly early on in the piece when she said that she'd lost her 14kg & had never had a gain! Eye roll. How the heck could she ever know how people like me (with more than 30kg to lose) feel? Never had a gain? Crap. What a crock. Anyway, this week we had the new area manager & some other woman there. Then 2 other leaders came in & joined in on the meeting. They all knew each other but didn't sit together. Did they really expect us to think they were 'normal' members? But the biggest crock of all was our leader who was all sweetness & light & really played to them. I couldn't really work out what was going on. Usually when the area manager comes to the meeting, they sit up the back, don't contribute & take notes. This didn't happen here. The whole meeting was a complete waste of time for me. But then I'm finding that is happening a lot for me. I'm ready to find another meeting. Or do I really need a meeting at all? Maybe I should just leave WW altogether.

I'm not over losing weight. I'm still motivated. I just got myself together today to start over after pizza last night LOL. But obviously it wasn't the meeting that helped me do that. So do I really need it?

I'm under 90kg!

2009-09-23T14:21:00.000+10:00

A loss of 1.1kg this week has got me under the 90kg mark. Woot! I haven't been particularly good in the past few weeks so this week I got stuck in, did my walking for 3 days plus my gym class. I had a strange sensation of not wanting to eat this week too. Hmm. Not sure where that's coming from LOL. But it all seems to have done the trick.

I also got fitted for a new very expensive bra this week! I ended up with a Panache Tango II bra , size...wait for it....12H! I was very surprised to be in a 12, but a H?? I didn't even know they existed. This bra is an amazing feat of engineering. Not only does it sit on my chest (which no other bra has ever done, even in my youth) but it squashes down the rolls under my arms. A miracle!

So I'm off on Sunday to Perth for the Australian Sewing Guild annual convention. Should be fun! I usually always lose weight at these mostly due to no snacking between meals so I'm pretty confident I'll not gain while I'm away. I've also mapped a 3km walk on mapmyrun.com and printed it out so I can take it with me. I'm hoping to walk every day. It's just the liquor at night I have to watch but I'm taking Tia Maria & will have that with diet coke. I think that's a better idea than wine for me. I'm also taking some fruit snack packs & WW cookies for morning tea so let's just hope my plans all work. See you all when I get back!

A treat!

2009-08-26T13:54:00.001+10:00

I got myself a little treat yesterday......

I absolutely adore Dr Pepper! Unfortunately, I have to pay $2.50 for a can in the import shops and they never have the diet one. Bugger! So I buy one occassionally and share with my daughter. It's worth the 1 point for half a can IMO. (I always thought Dr Pepper was cherry. Seems I was wrong!).

I lost again this week. 0.7kg this time. The scales just keep going on down. I didn't do my planned exercise this week...only Monday & Tuesday. But I did wear the pedometer to the craft show & got about 2.5 pts each time so I suppose that all helps. I must get back into it this week though.

2009-08-19T13:59:00.002+10:00

Another loss this week of .2kg. That makes a total of 13kg lost and I'm very happy. I just did my measurements and have lost quite a bit from my bust in the past month. I want those puppies to get below 100cm before the end of September. Then I will get myself a new bra cos I'm very overdue for one!!

Here are my pics. On the left is Oct last year when I weighed at least 104kg and on the right is today, at 92kg. Can you see any difference (well, besides my hair LOL)??

I've also done my menu planning for the week and it looks like this:

Wednesday: Ingham Chicken Medallions & oven fries

Thursday: Pork Strog from my new WW cookbook, Secrets of Success

Friday: Beef Pie from the WW cookbook

Saturday: McD's - I always have a lean beef burger and oven fries cooked at home

Sunday: Butter Chicken from the WW cookbook

Monday: Pizza Pasta Bake from STGTBT

Tuesday: Oriental Pork from STGTBT Book 4

Exercise plan is a 4km walk on Friday, Sunday & Monday. Blast class on Tuesday. Thursday and probably Saturday will be spent at the craft fair here in Sydney so I'll wear my pedometer and see how many pts I get from walking all day.

July has gone by & nothing has happened

2009-08-05T14:44:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure if it's because I was away for a week (& then again for another weekend) but I hardly lost any weight in July. I started out with a 1.5kg loss that came out of nowhere only to be followed by .2kg coming on & going off again. So this week was a goodie. I got back into walking and walked for at least 30 mins for 6 out of 7 days and lost .8kg so I'm very happy with that.

Even though my weight hasn't moved much, my measurements sure have. This weight loss thing is a funny animal, isn't it? You can never tell what's gonna happen.

Satisfaction

2009-07-21T19:23:00.001+10:00

I've been away for the past week doing some family history research. So that meant eating out every night. I've learnt something about myself and I think it's a biggie. You know that huge overfull feeling you get when you eat too much? So full that you can't even be enticed by a piece of choc or the like afterwards? So full you feel like you've got a lump of lead sitting in the top of your stomach? Well that's how I felt on Friday night. We had dinner at the RSL club in Inverell. I had Beef & Guiness pie with veg & chips. Yum. It was very yum. It had huge chunks of beef in a yummy gravy with gorgeous puff pastry. So I ate it all. Even though halfway through, I knew I was full. But I shovelled it all down. I sat in our hotel room later feeling like crap. Not wanting to even look at food.

So here's what I learnt. I don't have to feel like that. I could've stopped anytime but didn't. I had to clear the plate. For the first time in a week, I felt hungry yesterday. And you know what? I liked it! I felt it. I wanted to feel it. Because when I ate, I knew how much I could have to feel OK. Not overly full, not even full. Satisfied. That's the word. Satisfied. Wow.

So today I felt hungry at 4.00. I had a cup of coffee & a muesli bar. Normally I would've had 2 (I love them!). But today, in order to be satisfied, I only had 1. And I was satisfied.

I've cracked both the 10kg mark & 10%!!

2009-07-01T14:09:00.000+10:00

Well, I absolutely blitzed it at weigh in today. I lost 1.5kg which is totally unheard of for me. I didn't even lose that much on my first week!! No idea how it happened but I'll still keep it thank you very much. I was pretty good all week except for a blow out on Saturday. I only walked 2 days but I did my Blast class yesterday. What I have curbed in the last couple of days is my late night eating. I'm inclined to have toast and honey at 11pm so I'm trying to break that little habit.

I didn't get fitted for a bra but I did try one on at Big W. I tried a 16E but it was too big in the cup and I couldn't be bothered getting dressed, going back out & getting a smaller size. So maybe next week. I should post an updated pic of myself too.

So close

2009-06-24T13:00:00.000+10:00

I am now 100g away from 10 kg lost! After last week's gain of .6, I lost .8 this week. So I am now very close to both 10kg & my 10% goal. Maybe next week? I need to lose .6 next week to hit that 10% so I'm pretty confident that I can do it.

I've done 3 walks this week even though the weather has been foul. I've also been to my Blast class and boy, did she work us hard this week! Between each cardio circuit thingie, we had to jog around the room. Plus, the boxing was really really hard this week. But I feel it's doing me good and I shall continue that. I've also bought one of those WW pedometers for when I'm out shopping, in the hope of getting some extra pts.

Goals this week:

.6 loss
continue walking
get fitted for a new sports bra

A gain

2009-06-17T19:09:00.000+10:00

Poo! I had a gain of .6 this week. I knew I would gain but I didn't think it would be that bad. So I need to get back on track, both with my points consumption and my exercise. Last week I went over my points practically every day and on Saturday I went to the Lindt cafe in Sydney with some friends. Well let me just say that chocolate cake & dark Lindt hot chocolate is not conducive to a weight loss. Not to mention the Quarter Pounder I had on Sunday! So I will put that all behind me & start again.

I was hoping to get a WW pedometer today but wouldn't you know it, our meeting had none. Bugger. So my mother is going to see if she can get one at her meeting tomorrow. It would be very handy when I'm out shopping so I can get some extra points. I'm currently on 20 points & I find it's not enough so I really need to exercise to get some extras.

Another loss

2009-06-03T13:11:00.003+10:00

I lost .7kg this week which brings my total to 9.1kg lost. I'm quite happy with that even though I went over my pts on a couple of days this week. I did a Blast class yesterday which was a bit of a shock to the system. But I'm really surprised that I'm only aching a little bit in my biceps. I thought it would be much worse!

Highlights of last week's menus included Seafood Chowder (a big hit!) and Tacos. Both from the STGTBT cook books which I use almost exclusively for my dinners.

I only walked 3 times last week and had an epiphany. I don't need to go harder or faster or more often. Walking faster than I am now won't give me any more pts to eat so I've decided I will walk every two days for 40 minutes. Otherwise I get too obsessive about it & feel guilty if I don't go. So that's my plan. I'm also hoping to do the Blast class each week on a Tuesday morning.

In other big news...I bought some new Tshirts yesterday. The ones I'm currently wearing (which are size 22) are very baggy & annoying so I thought I'd see if I could fit into something a little smaller. Well...duh...size 18! I bought three Tshirts from Big W - one purple, one aqua and one turquoise. I don't like spending huge amounts of money on clothes when I can sew them myself and also cos they're only going to fit me for a little while. These Ts are $15 so a complete bargain.

What the?

2009-05-28T17:57:00.000+10:00

I only lost .2kg this week. I have no idea what is happening here...obviously the not walking is coming back to bite me. Oh well...I just need to keep going and get back to the walking. The weather here has been a bit rainy so has affected that. But, as my friend said, "you *can* walk in the rain you know"! Well..hello! So it was nice today..I did a 4km walk and so will continue on with that tomorrow.

Tonight's dinner was meant to be pork in plum sauce but I discovered at 5.30pm that we didn't have any plum sauce. Bugger! Luckily I have some frozen fish fillets which I will cook in the oven. The family can have chicken tenders and chips. Here I was thinking I was so organised with meal planning. So it always pays to have a stand-by in the freezer! There's always something to learn on this journey.

Not that great a week

2009-05-20T14:05:00.001+10:00

I gained 0.1kg this week. I knew I would so that just made me hungrier. Why does that happen? I haven't been walking very much in the past couple of weeks and it's finally caught up with me (as I knew it would eventually). So I have to get back into that and have done a 4.65km walk today & yesterday. I really need to do this to keep losing otherwise it's just a complete waste of time.

I also need to continue my menu planning. I haven't done it yet for this week. Last week's meals were all good and the family liked them so that's always a plus. I particularly liked the Oriental Pork which is a satay number and I also loved the Spicy Thai Fish which was a red curry but without any evaporated milk. It had spices and fish sauce and tomato paste..mmmmm! I will make that again this week. The beauty of that dish was that the family didn't have it so I could eat the whole thing (I divided the recipe of course). So I ended up with this plate full of fish and veg and yummy stuff plus half a cup of rice. Have I raved enough yet? LOL.

My weight is going down

2009-05-15T09:31:00.002+10:00

I lost 0.9kg this week! Woot!! It's very strange because I haven't been doing my daily walks this week. I only walked 2 days out of 7 plus the 1 day of cycling so I'm not sure where that loss has come from. It seems that when I'm good I don't lose much but then I lose the week after.

I went for another bike ride this morning. I got a padded bike seat cover yesterday and my husband moved the bike seat up a bit. It seems to have done the trick and I'm much more comfortable although my bum was still hurting at the end. Oh yeah...the seat cover had moved and I didn't know LOL. I still can't work out the gear thing on the bike. I found gear 6 to be the best for the flat but I can't seem to do the small hills. I tried 1st gear but I might as well have not bothered. Geez, I wish I had my old back-pedal no-gear bike from when I was a child. Some lowlife stole it from our garage. Don't know why considering I had painted it lime green when I was 15 and it had blue grips and made a hell of a noise when riding it. It was second hand when I got it at 10 so god knows how old it was. But I miss it! Sniff.

We had the porcupine casserole for dinner and it was yummy. It could've done with a vegie or two though. I think some carrots and maybe even potatoes and I think I'll put it in the crockpot next time too. 4 stars for that one. Tonight is honey prawns and they are definately 5 stars.

Things are going along nicely

2009-05-12T12:50:00.000+10:00

Weigh in is tomorrow and I'm feeling pretty good even though I've only walked 2 days this week. Yesterday I got my daughter's bicycle out (mine is bigger and I don't feel comfortable on it) and rode it for 3kms. OMG! My bum is so sore and the muscles in my thighs are hurting. The seat was a bit low so my knees were scrunched under me and I can never work out this gear thing. Consequently, I couldn't go up any hills LOL.

Yesterday I did my menu planning for the next 10 days or so. Usually I do this on Wednesday but since I was doing the grocery shopping, I thought it might be an idea. So here is what's planned for our household this week.

Last night: Butter chicken and stuffed mushrooms from STGTBT Bks 4 & 3.
Tonight: Chicken Burgers (it's scrapbook class night for me so I need something quick and easy)
Wednesday: Pork in Plum Sauce
Thursday: Porcupine Casserole from STGTBT Bk 3. Everyone on the WW boards rave about this so I thought I'd try it.
Friday: Honey Prawns from STGTBT Bk 4. Had these last week and they are divine!
Saturday: McDonalds - I have a Lean Beef Burger and cook myself some Woolies Select oven fries
Sunday: Oriental Pork from STGTBT Bk 4
Monday: Thai Fish from STGTBT Bk 4
Tuesday: Subway

Those STGTBT books have been an absolute godsend for me. Everything I've tried so far has been so yummy and the family has loved them all. So I'm looking forward to the week's menu. I remember when I used to hate cooking...now I'm loving it. Funny isn't it?

I had a loss!

2009-04-30T12:00:00.000+10:00

Wow...after my gain last week, I had a loss of 1.4kg this week. This makes a total loss of 7.1kg and I'm one happy woman. I walked every day this week for 4km and will continue this. It's funny though...I've had no loss at all in my measurements this week. Obviously it's either one or the other! LOL.

According to Map My Run, these are my April stats.

Kilometres walked: 88.18km
Kilojoules burnt: 16,740
Days walked: 26 out of 30
Weight lost: 1.8kg

I also bought one of those Nike sensors for my iPod yesterday. After calibrating it correctly, I used it this morning for my 4km walk. It was fabulous! It tells you when you've reached each kilometre and tells you when you're halfway through and then counts down until the end. I haven't tried the other options which are a timed workout or a calorie burning workout. I'm not sure if the calorie burning thing is accurate because according to this morning's workout, I burned 418 calories. Map My Run said I burned 748kj and that's equal to 187 calories. Not sure what the story is there.

Points to ponder

2009-04-25T13:45:00.000+10:00

I jumped on the scales this morning to do my usual naked morning weigh. I know...you're not supposed to but it's always a good indication for me as to how I'm going. Well, they said 97.6kg! OMG!! So that makes me even more determined to continue with my walking and pts counting. I've discovered that even going over my pts by one or two makes a big difference at the end of the week. So I've been very good this week.

I've done a 4km walk every day so far this week. I am totally exhausted when I get home (& busting for a wee!) but afterwards, I feel sooo good. So that will continue.

If someone had told me 6 months ago that I would love low-fat plain yoghurt, I would've said they were crazy! But I do....my fave is Vaalia and I put 2 tblsp on my muesli for brekkie. Yum! I can't do flavoured yoghurt on cereal; it's too sweet so plain is the one for me. It has a tart flavour and is also yummy with my canned peaches. The consistency is almost like cream and I have it every day.

I've just finished lunch and that was a turkey, lettuce, tomato, beetroot and hommus sandwich. Thumbs up for that baby! Tonight we have Maccas for dinner and my choice is a Lean Beef Burger for 4 pts. Nothing else. I might whip up a salad if I feel the urge but usually I don't have anything with it (unless I've saved some pts for a 4.5 small serve of french fries..god..they're divine!). So that's my day. Hoping everyone else is motivated right now.

A gain this week

2009-04-22T21:41:00.000+10:00

Bugger...I gained 0.5kg this week. I wasn't overly surprised as my scales at home hadn't indicated a loss plus I changed my clothes this week. I usually wear a sleeveless lightweight dress but the weather is changing a bit now so I wore lightweight black pants & a T-shirt. These will be my weigh-in clothes for the rest of autumn/winter. LOL.

Anyway, I went for my 4km walk today. I was determined to do it and managed to clock it in 50 mins so got 3.5 pts for that. I needed those pts as I had a chicken schnitzel turkish bread for lunch! I counted that baby as 10.5 pts. Egad!

We had really yummy smoked salmon patties from the STGTBT book 5 for dinner. I borrowed all five books from my BF and just happened to have all the ingredients for this. I had my two patties with some beans and 3 raw carrots. DH & DD had 5 patties each!! Everybody loved them so that's always good.

So I shall continue my 4km walks for the rest of this week and see how I improve. Hope everyone is going well.

Wow!

2009-04-20T10:34:00.000+10:00

I just decided to do a quick check of my measurements. Normally I do this on Wednesday (my weigh in day) but I was curious. Nothing seems to be happening with the scales this week but, oh my goodness...my waist has dropped another 1.5cm in the past week! I've been doing this exercise thing quite seriously since April 1st and I've lost 4.5cm off my waist, 5cm off my bust and 3cm off my hips in that time! That's amazing considering before that, I'd only lost 4cm off my waist between January & March! Obviously the exercise is working. So even if I don't lose much or stay the same this week, I'm pretty happy with that.

Here are my updated stats:

Weight: 98.8 - total loss of 6.2kg
Bust: 115.5cm - total loss of 11.5cm
Waist: 106.5cm - total loss of 8.5cm
Hips: 124cm - total loss of 11cm.

No wonder the track pants I put on this weekend were big on me!

Another loss this week

2009-04-15T12:23:00.000+10:00

I'm just back from my meeting and lost 0.4kg this week. That was pretty good considering I did have a little Easter Egg attack on Sunday & Monday. But I walked 6 days out of 7 so my goal this week is to walk every day. I'm also going to extend how far I walk. Should be interesting!

I had my mother over for dinner Saturday night and made our new family favourite, Pork in Plum Sauce. It's soooo yummy.

Marinade:
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce (I actually use normal soy sauce)
1.5 tbsp sherry
2 tsp chilli sauce (or sweet chilli sauce)
garlic to taste
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice

460g pork (I use pork fillet & cut it up while still frozen..that way you can get very thin slices)
2 tsp oil of your choice
onion
capsicum
shallots (spring onions or whatever you call them)
3/4 cup SPC plum sauce

Mix all the marinade ingredients & place the sliced pork in it to marinade for 2 hours or longer.
Heat oil in pan or wok and saute onion & capsicum until soft, add shallots and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add pork and stir fry until cooked, add the plum sauce & remaining marinade. You may need a bit of cornflour to thicken it up a bit (not included in pts total).

Serves 4 - 4.5 pts per serve

Serve with cooked rice (2 pts). You can also add any other vegies that you like. Mushrooms are good in this too.

1 2 3...go!

2009-04-13T18:50:00.000+10:00

So this is my first post! I've been doing WW since January 2009 and have lost 5.8kg so far. I've done WW many times before but this time something seems to have clicked in my brain and I'm finding it much easier and it's working! I have also just started walking regularly and log all my walks at a website called Map My Run. It's so motivating to see how I've improved. I can now walk further and faster than when I started and it's only been about 2.5 weeks.

Just for the record, here are my starting stats:

Weight: 105kg
Bust: 127cm
Waist: 115cm
Hips: 135cm

Also, a nice 'before' pic.