Thursday

Good morning!

Today is a bit of an odd day. I had to be up and out early enough to get to R&D's house for 7.4o am, so that their mum could head off to work. So I had a shower at home, and brought my breakfast with me. Also, since we're going out for the day, and I won't be eating veggie curry for lunch (it's best hot, and although I could take it in a thermos, I only just thought of that!), so I had it for breakfast!

Breakfast
Veggie Curry

Snack
Ok, so I was wrong in thinking we didn't have any pears. We had one left, but it already looked so bruised that I didn't want to take a picture of it in case it put you off them for life! And it was really bruised inside too, so I only ate about half of it.

Lunch
A sort of salad type thing. I didn't want salad (lettuce and all that) because it just seemed too cold (we'll be having a picnic), and also we didn't have anything exciting to put in it. If I weren't doing phase one I'd probably have made a couscous salad, but as I'm not eating carbs right now, I'm having, as I told HP, 'a couscous salad without the couscous'. It doesn't look at that appealing in the photo, but it tastes good.
I sauteed together some onion, courgette and yellow pepper. Then added some chickpeas, soy sauce and a bit of paprika. I added to that some leftover meatloaf, some raw mushroom cut up, a little bit of red pepper (I would have put tomato for a bit of colour, but we were out of baby ones!), and a few cashew nuts.
I also ate about 7 grapes.

Snack
8 more grapes and a cheese tri-bite. (Basically just a pre-packed portion sized piece of cheese) (I only took one picture of grapes, because I didn't take it until after I'd eaten the first 7!)

Dinner
Sausage mush*, as made by HP with peas and low-fat cheese grated on the top.

*Cut the sausage into chunks and fry in a little oil. Add an onion, chopped, then a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add chopped mushrooms and red and yellow pepper, some mixed herbs, Worcestershire sauce, and some kidney beans.

Evening
A spoonful of peanut butter after my antibiotic, and then 7 macadamias cos I was still hungry. Guess I'd better head to bed before I eat anything else!

Wednesday

Breakfast
1 rasher middle cut bacon, 1 egg, some spinach and a spoonful of veggie curry.Morning Snack
A pear (I actually got to eat all of this one today, although I had to hurry the last few mouthfuls as some men were arriving to put some loft insulation in at R&D's house) (And I did take a new picture this morning, if you look carefully you'll see it is different to yesterday's one)

Lunch
Veggie curry and a raw mushroom.

Afternoon snack
A pear (yes, I like pears, but more importantly, they needed eating, especially since the only other person that eats them is my Mum, and she's been doing phase one and not eating fruit the last few days) The second mushroom.
I also ate half a pork burger. It was leftover from the kid's dinner and I was hungry (it was after 6pm and I wasn't going to be eating my dinner until half 7.) I'm afraid I didn't take a photo, but I can tell you that I totally ignored the leftover chips, and to be honest wasn't even tempted. I figured the burger was actually pretty healthy - I read the packet before I ate it!

Dinner
A pork chop with leftover braised green cabbage from a couple of days ago, leftover red cabbage from yesterday, and peas (which I added because it was all looking a bit brown and boring!)

Photographing my food - Tuesday

I'm back to taking pictures of my food for a couple of days...

Breakfast
1 rasher middle cut bacon, a fried* egg (broken and turned) and spinach (wilted in the pan once the bacon and egg are done)
* I use a non-stick pan to cook the bacon, and then fry the egg in the pan afterwards, so it's not exactly fried, and I don't add any extra fat to cook it in.

Snack
Pears - I took the photo first thing, before I took them out with me, because I knew they'd probably be bruised when I actually got to eat them. I actually ate about half of the one on the right, because it was bruised inside (they're getting a bit past it really), and then maybe 2\3 or 3\4 of the one on the left before Little One spotted it, and stole it off me to finish it himself.Lunch
A mixture of a few different leftovers (I'm not fussy!). There was some of my veggie curry, some cashew nut curry (we had it for dinner Monday night, and I couldn't eat all my portion, so I saved it to go in this combo). On top of that I threw in a leftover cold sausage, cut up into little bits, and some broccoli (the long green bits are broccoli stem, which although some people just throw it away, I think it's yummy). Oh, and I also ate a raw mushroom while I was waiting for it to heat up in the microwave and sorting out the kids' lunch.Afternoon snack
I forgot to take anything with me to the kids' house for my afternoon snack, and couldn't find anything south beachy there, so I just stayed hungry and moaned about it various places online!

Dinner
We had meatloaf, made from pork mince, I believe. With that I had peas (yay!), roasted radishes (I tried putting on sesame seeds like Kalyn originally suggested, but I didn't really notice them, to be honest) and red cabbage (cooked approximately like this)

Evening snack
I realised that the antibiotics I'm taking are supposed to be taken before food, and therefore ought probably to eat something after I took my evening dose. Also, I was feeling hungry, so I ate the leftover radishes. (I took a photo, but will upload it tomorrow when I do tomorrow's pics)

Still ill

I have a throat and ear infection and am on antiobiotics. I'm really coughy and wheezy too, so once again I'm not able to get on the treadmill. Grrrr. I wanna get on it so bad, but I also want to live. So I won't (get on it).

Monday weigh-in

Today I weighed in at 222.8. That's down 5 from last week.
I've got a bad earache and sore throat so I'm not going to be exercising for a few days, and haven't done so since about last Wednesday.

This week's exercise post

Monday
I had a really long day looking after the Little One and Little Flower, so I didn't go on the treadmill. However, I did go for a couple of walks with the kids and got some fresh air.

Tuesday
35 mins on the treadmill (3.5 km) at incline of 6.

Wednesday
35 mins on the treadmill (same as yesterday)

Weigh-in

This Monday I weighed exactly the same as last week.
(227.8)

Exercise

Monday
40 mins on the treadmill.

Tuesday
65 minutes working HARD on the treadmill.

I think I overdid it on Tuesday, cos I ached for the rest of the week, and upset my asthma a bit.

Thursday
12 minutes treadmill

Friday
11 1\2 mins treadmill

Monday morning weigh-in

227.8

That is down from last Monday (which was 228.6) but up 3 from my lowest weigh-in this week. Water retention? Who knows.
But it's down, and I'll take it!

My exercise challenge

Having been able to get back on the treadmill again (after a chest infection) and discovering how much it improves my mood and makes me feel better, I'm going to set myself a challenge.

At the moment I don't have a full time job (although I'm working on it..), but that means I have lots of time to exercise.

So, my challenge is to do at least 5 hours exercise a week. And, if those five hours are on the treadmill, and I do other stuff in addition, then that's even better.

Sunday
1 hour treadmill

Monday
1 hour treadmill
weights (approx 15 mins)

Tuesday
30 mins treadmill
30-40 mins swimming (I did 28 lengths)

Wednesday
1 hour treadmill
weights (approx 15 mins)

Thursday
45 mins treadmill

Friday
1 hour treadmill

Saturday
70 mins treadmill

Sunday
Took a day off from exercising.

This week's Monday weigh-in

On Monday I weighed in at 228.6 (my lowest so far, and breaking through the 230 barrier)

Hmmm, haven't posted on here in a while

Weigh-in Today (Monday)
230.2

I lost around 2 stone (28 lb) while I was living with blest in Texas, and another half a stone since I've been back.

I'm still dealing with my body adjusting to the time difference (having to make myself eat in the mornings cos I just don't feel very hungry then) and mentally it's been hard too.

Today I'm in a really bad mood, for a number of reasons. But hopefully it'll lift soon.


WOW! I just added a new pic in the sidebar, and look at the difference between July 2006 and Feb 2008.

Monday

Weigh-in 263 (total loss since last Monday is 6.4)

Breakfast
Baked beans, mashed cauliflower and bacon. (There's is a photo here which you probably don't want to look at because the beans and cauliflower got all mixed together, because it was the final leftovers and they were in a pot together, which doesn't look so lovely, however it tasted great!)

Snack
Jelly with ricotta, and then a spoonful of peanut butter. Just got a craving for the peanut butter so went with it - had one little spoonful and then put the jar away.

Lunch
I panicked a bit because I suddenly realised I felt cold and wanted something warm rather than lettuce etc, and all the beans are gone. I aimlessly looked in the fridge a couple of times and then realised I could do another stir-fry for myself. This one has onion, carrot, courgette, red pepper, mushroom, pine nuts and soy sauce. Note to self - come up with more simple but warm things to eat for lunch.Dinner
Cashew nut curry (which contains sultanas, so that was my fruit for the day!) and brocoli.

Sunday

Breakfast
Baked beans, mushrooms and bacon
(forgot to take the picture until after I started eating!)
Lunch
Stirfry with onion, carrot, courgette, mushroom, green beans, brocoli, red pepper, lamb (left over from the roast on Friday), pine nuts and soy sauce.Afternoon snack
Jelly with ricottaDinner
(boring, I know, but they needed using up..)
baked beans and cauliflower

Saturday

Weigh-in 262.8 (down 2 from yesterday)
I'm trying to work out how long I should stay on phase 1. I like the rapid weight loss, but I know it's not ideal for longterm. I'm considering adding in fruit next week, but staying off other carbs for another week. Any thoughs y'all?

Breakfast
Bacon, baked beans and cauliflower.

Lunch
Chili con carne, mashed cauliflower, broad beans and red pepper

Afternoon snack
babybell

Dinner
Celeriac and lentils with hazelnuts (recipe we found in The Guardian (thanks Bekki). Tasted ok, but I wouldn't recommend it!) Jelly with ricotta.

Friday

Pictures now uploaded

Morning weigh-in 264.8 (back up .2 from yesterday)
I will stict to phase one today (Wednesday and Thursday I had slight deviations from the plan, but still felt ok with the choices I made)

Breakfast
Homemade baked beans with a flat egg. (I probably ought to freeze some of the beans, because the recipe makes a large batch, and I tend to just eat it at some meal every day afterwards until it's finished. I don't mind, just wanted to point that out in case people don't think I have a very varied diet!)Lunch (I didn't have a snack this mornnig because I had a bit of a lie-in, so there wasn't such a long time as usual between breakfast and lunch)
Chili con carne with mashed cauliflower and some red pepper (not in the picture)Afternoon snack
Some cashew nuts and a babybel (no picture)

Dinner
Roast lamb with lots and lots of vegetables. Not sure I can remember what they all were without looking at the picture! Peas, broad beans, brocoli, carrots, cauliflowr. Also some gravy and some mint sauce.

Thursday

Morning weigh-in 264.6 (that's down .2, but still down!)

Breakfast
2 rashers of bacon and a flat egg










Morning snack
Some cashew nuts










Lunch
Homemade baked beans, mashed cauliflower, kale (can you tell I'm having leftovers!)










Afternoon snack
Sugar-free jelly and a babybel (not pictured!) (I was felling really hungry and knew I wouldn't get dinner until quite late)










Dinner (no photo)
Chicken curry with rice (I was babysitting and went straight from looking after J & B. The family I was babysitting for made me dinner and left it for me to have. I didn't eat all the rice, but decided I was hungry enough to want to eat some of it) I also had a couple of garlic dough balls with the curry. I probably ought to have left them, but it had been a long day and I was hungry. I need to be aware for the future that when I'm hungry I don't make such good decisions, so need to try to plan ahead.
I was able to totally resist the cake that they brought me home at the end of the evening, so that was an achievement.

Wednesday Evening

(I didn't manage to take any pictures at the party as it was all a bit manic)
In the afternoon I had some cashew nuts for my snack.










At the party I was pretty controlled. I had crockpot beans and sausage (which for some reason none of the kids wanted when compared to crisps, sweets, chocolates and cake?!) and cucumber.
I also ate a couple of falafals and a samosa. I allowed myself to have one small piece of chocolate brownie, and then thoroughly ignored it for the rest of the evening. I made sure I drank lots of water, and at the end of the evening I felt happy with my choices.

wednesday

This morning's weigh-in 264.8 that's down again. Yay!

For breakfast I had two rashers of bacon on top of 'flat' egg made with two eggs.For lunch I had some of my homemade baked beans (will try to put up a recipe, but not today cos life is too busy!), and leftover brocoli and some of the mashed cauliflower. Yum.
Little J enjoyed it too.And then after that I had a babybel because J didn't want it and I couldn't let it go to waste!
(He didn't eat it at all, I just only remembered to take the picture after I'm taken a bite!)
Thanks everyone who has been dropping by to encourage me. It really helps me stay on track.

Evening meal

For dinner this evening I had 2 lamb chops, mashed cauliflower (if you've never had this then you definitely ought to try it. It tastes yummy and is a great substitute for mashed potato) , curly kale, gravy and mint sauce. Delicious :-)

This is working

Do you know, this is really working for me. Just because I've made a commitment to myself to take a picture of everything I eat, and because I don't want to let any of the OWOA ladies (and Bird) down, it really is working. I think it was Brandi who suggested a while back that I use those guys as an excuse to tell other people, but that didn't really work, however like this is does seem to work. I'm not saying that I'm only doing this for all those guys, I am doing this for me. I know I need to lose this weight, it just helps knowing that they are behind me all the way. I needed to find a way to stay accountable, and this seems to be working for me.

Please excuse the not brilliant photography, I probably could take better pitures if I treid hard, but it's not practical to spend that long before every meal! However, just the act of taking the picture helps me to actually look at the food I'm putting in my mouth and process what I'm eating. It takes the mindlessness out of eating, and that is what I needed to do.


This afternoon I had a sugar-free jelly for my snack (actually it was jelly mixed with ricotta, but anyway). I was aware that making chocolate brownies might make me want something sweet so I went for that rather than nuts or vegetable and houmous.

Today so far (Tuesday)

Weigh-in this morning 265.2 I know that is a big drop from yesterday (about 4 pounds) but I know that some of that was fluids as I had quite a bit of unhealthy salty stuff on Friday and Saturday last week. I feel thinner, and my trousers are back to falling down slightly, so I must have been bloated.

This morning for breakfast I didn't feel like the same as yesterday, but I already had the vegetables cut up (I did a double lot yesterday and put half in a bag to use today). So I stirfried the veg in a very little oil and added a dash of soy sauce, and had them on top of what's known in my house as flat egg. (I used spray oil, broke the yolk and flipped it over so that both sides got browned)
I didn't have a morning snack as we were out shopping and I'd forgotten to take anything, but I think I do need to try to remember something for tomorrow.

For lunch I had similar to yesterday, but added a handful of chickpeas instead of cashew nuts
(lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red pepper, turkey, chickpeas, vinaigrette (we make that ourselves and tend to use more vinegar than oil which is not the traditional way to do it, but I like the vinegary taste)This afternoon I am cooking baked beans and chocolate brownies (for our church kids party tomorrow night). My plan is to have a big bowl of washing up water ready so that I don't even have chance to lick the spoon.

UPDATE: The brownies are in the oven, and I managed to not eat any of it. All I have to do now is remain strong when I cut them up once they're cool.

Monday's dinner

I had chicken turkey dopiaza with brocoli and a spoonful of mango chutney. It was yummy :-)

Extra nibble

Since one of the problems I've had with keeping a food diary is that I've let stuff slip past without recording it, this time I want to write down everything, even the seemingly small stuff so that I don't go that way again. As a result I'm recording that I had a spoonful of cottage pie while giving The Little One some dinner. And that was basically because he really didn't want to eat it and when we did get some in his mouth he wanted to spit it out, and I wanted to check that what I was feeding him really was edible, and that I wasn't trying to feed him something that was past it's best. It tasted fine, so I figured he just doesn't like cottage pie! We persevered and got some of it into him and then changed tack and gave him some toast instead :-)

Afternoon snack

I got to share my afternoon snack with The Little One, which means I got half a pot of jelly and ricotta (whisked together and then left to set) and half a babybel!

Monday Lunch

Salad with lettuce, pepper, cherry tomatoes, turkey, a few cashew nuts and vinaigrette.

Breakfast Monday 29th October

I've decided the only way I'm actually going to realise what I put in my mouth is to take a picture of every single thing I eat in a week. I realise this will probably be boring for most people, but I need to find a way to stay accountable. Food diaries just aren't enough, because I just give up when I eat sometihng I shouldn't.
So I'm going to write about doing this on all my blogs (One weigh or another, It's my life, and here)
in the hope that people might pop in and see how I'm doing.

Weigh-in this morning 269.4

Breakfast - vegetable omlette\frittata
onions, brocoli, red pepper, mushroom, 2 eggs, splash of skimmed milk, cheese, salt, pepper, mixed herbs
(I took a photo in the pan as well as on the plate because I knew it would fall apart when I got it out the pan)

Shrek climbs a tree

Weekend round up

I drank lots of water.

I ate lots of vegetables.

I ate sugar.

I snacked.

I did no exercise.

I am up 4.8 today from last week.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
(that's me growling at myself).

Goals for this week:
1. Go to bed early. I know how much of the extra eating and bad choices has been because I was tired.

2. Exercise, even if it's only 10 minutes a day, it's still better than none.

3. Cut out sugar and carbs for a week. (phase one) and do it properly.

4. Be aware on Wednesday - that's my bad day, where I'm in situations that mean carbs and sugar are easily available, and my will power is low.

Day 7 (Thursday)

1. Water - Lots and lots

2. Fruit and Vegetables - lots and lots, more than 5.

3. Exercise - None really. I was tutoring after school, so didn't have loads of time. Should have gone swimming.

4. No sugar - Hmmm, broke this one.

5. No after dinner eating - Can't remember. Have a feeling I broke this one too. Feeling a bit discouraged. Think I've got tired and a bit low, and then my resolve breaks more easily and then I feel even more disappointed in myself and discouraged.

Day 6 (Wednesday)

Wednesdays are really long and busy days for me, so i didn't get round to writing a post then, nor yesterday, so now I'm just going to do a quick five point summary

1. Water - loads, kept needing the toilet in the evening!

2. Fruit and Vegetables - 2 apples, tomatoes, chickpeas and pepper for lunch, peas and asparagus for dinner.

3. Exercise - didn't get out for a walk, but did do some speed tidying and cleaning. I set my timer for 10 minutes and then raced around a room sorting and moving things and putting them away, and also some vacuuming. I did that for at least 40 minutes, while entertaining a small person (I brought him back with me to my house)

4. No sugar - managed to break this by eating some silly stuff at small child's house.

5. No after dinner eating - had some grapes at small group meeting (midweek church group) so broke this one too. Not the best day really.

Day 5

Wow, how did it get to be day 5 already?

Breakfast
2 rashers bacon
1 egg

Snack
8 (!) dried apricots
half an orange
small piece of banana
[Ok, let me explain all that. Apricots and me need to stay away from each other, and in future we will. This morning I took the Little One to Hayes Hill Farm and although I was taking him home for lunch his Mum sent me with a banana, an orange, some juice, nappies and a packet of apricots. I need to ban myself from apricots I think, cos I'm not very good at only having a couple at a time, or rather, I have a couple, and then a couple more. So we ate apricots. And then when we got back into the car we sat and ate orange and banana, or rather Little One ate most of it, but some bits he fed to me. And since I knew I was unlikely to get to eat lunch until gone 2, I let him!]

Lunch
A little leftover mashed potato
Tikka chiken
half a yellow pepper
3 cherry tomatoes
sweetcorn
[I stuck the chicken on the bottom, covered it with the potato and zapped in in the microwave. Then covered it with the salad stuff. It was yummy.]

Snack
spoonful of peanut butter (I was having cravings, so decided to have a little bit)
an apple

Dinner
slice of melon
brown basmati rice
chick pea chilli (very hot!) (with lots of different vegetables in it)
left over cold lamb from Sunday's joint

Vegetable and fruit servings: about 4 veg and 4 fruit

Water
Loads and loads and loads, definitely met the target

Exercise
I chased the Little One all over the place this morning and went for a little walk this afternoon.

No Sugar - I'm not sure eating dried apricots really goes with this category, but I don't really know. I aim to stay off dried fruit for the rest of the month. Reminder to self - next time check you actually put the apples in the bag, otherwise you may not have them when you want them!

Day 4 of the challenge & official weigh in day

breakfast
2 rashers bacon
1 egg

snack
lite cheddar babybel
small apple

lunch
last of the homemade baked beans
a small yellow pepper
about 5 cherry tomatoes
lettuce

snack
small apple
4 macadamias
few cashews

dinner
cashew nut curry (containing turkey, mushrooms, onion and lots of other nice things)
peas (lots and lots)
2 spoons of mango chutney

Summary of vegetable\salad portions: 3 portions at lunch, 2 at dinner
Also 2 fruit portions

Exercise - well, Monday is a really long day for me. I work at school from 9-3.30 and then go straight to do some home tutoring for and hour and a half, all of which meant I didn't really get much exercise, but I did join in the Athletics lesson that I was supervising this afternoon (the school gets an outside instructor in to run the sessions, but requires a staff member there in case of discipline etc)

Water - I lost count again, but let me think.... yep, definitely got over 6 pints. Seems like I'm addicted to the stuff!

No eating after dinner - well I've have my dinner now, and I feel lovely and full, so I know I've had enough to eat. So I won't let myself give in to cravings later on if I get them.

Weigh-in - I was 261 lb this morning. I'm going to take my weight last Monday (at the OWOA weigh-in) as my start of challenge weight, because my weight on the 1st was similar to that I think, or if I wasn't I don't actually remember because I only write down the official weigh-in weights, if that makes sense! So so far I have lost 3.8 lb on this challenge. I'm determined to try to get into the 250's for next week :-)
Oh, and todays weight is the lowest I've been on this weight-loss journey. I have reached it a couple of times already on the journey and then put a few pounds back on, but this time hopefully the challenge will ensure I push on through the decade barrier, and on down with the weight loss.

day 3

breakfast
2 rashers of bacon
1 egg (you may notice a pattern developing here. I've pretty much got into the way of fixing my breakfast which allows me to get my lunch ready at the same time if I'm having a packed lunch, and since I like I pretty much always eat the same thing. Some people aren't convinced about bacon on the south beach diet, but it works for me, so I'll stick to it!)

snack
an apple (I've found that carrying a couple of apples in my bag is good for days like today where it means I can munch on that and not have to worry about cakes or biscuits finding their way into my mouth!)

lunch
roast lamb
a spoonful of mashed potato
brocoli
peas (lots!)
a mixture of roasted root vegetables (shallots, parsnip, butternut squash, sweet potato, courgette)
gravy
mint sauce
strawberries (frozen - very yummy!)

snack
I have to admit that I had a couple of squares of milk chocolate. Almost as soon as I had eaten it I did regret it. Gave me a bit of a headache, and the eating it wasn't as good as the thinking about it! Next time I'll just admire it from afar!


tea
small amount of the homemade baked beans (I put a portion ready for my school lunch tomorrow)
about 5 cherry tomatoes
the remains of the left over cabbage
a little bit of yellow pepper
some grated cheese
One of CJ's oat muffins (yummy! We are going to freeze the rest, and I think I might have to keep myself away from them!)

I have drunk loads of water today. And eaten loads of vegetables and fruit. I reckon it must be about 8 portions all together. I ate some chocolate and a muffin which were probably not strictly on my diet, and I do want to try to be stricter with myself from now on.

Oh, I have to admit also that I had a few cashews last night after my dinner which wasn't really according to plan either.

I think I can do the vegetable eating and water drinking pretty easily. I'm trying to schedule in when I will do exercise (I think these first three days were a bit of a wipeout so far as exercise was concerned, but am ready to do this!) I need to be more strict with myself about not eating sugar, and not eating after dinner.
That's me for now. Over and Out :-)

Day 2

Yesterday I drank at least 120 oz water, and managed to resist evening snacks.
And my weight was down this morning from what it was yesterday morning. Hurrah :-)

Today:

breakfast
2 rashers of bacon
(EDITED TO ADD) an egg (Thanks HP, missed it off by mistake!)

snack
small apple

lunch
portion of homemade baked beans
cabbage
a slice of ham
grated reduced fat cheese

dinner
We went to nandos :-)
We had some olives as an appetisers, but I only ate a few - I'm still trying to decide if I like them or not!
I had a nandos sald (mixed leaves, red pepper and cherry tomatos) with a chicken quarter with lemon and herb marinade.
I managed to resist the frozon yoghurt for dessert, but I must admit that I had sprite to drink. I think that was because I was so thirsty when we ordered it was the free refill that tempted me more than anything. On my way home from the tube station I had another apple. Although that's kinda after dinner eating, I was counting it as my dessert!

Not too bad a day. Not a huge amount of walking unfortunately, but I did manage to find a new swimming costume, two new tops and a pair of (ladies) sandals - I have trouble finding feminie shoes because I have really big and wide feet. I think the thing I need to work on for tomorrow and the coming week is meeting the exercise target.

Oh, and I drank loads today. Lost count, but reckon I reached my target for that.

June Challenge - Day 1

Day One in the June Challenge, Debs is ready to do this :-)

CJ, writing over at one weigh or another, has suggested the June Challenge.
Each one of us taking part is setting slightly differing challenges, but with hopefully with similar results - ending June being fitter and weighing less!

My version is as follows:
1. Eat at least 5 portions of fruit and veg a day.
2. Drink at least 6 (UK) pints of water a day (That's 120 oz).
3. Consume no sugar. This is one that I may need to define further as the month goes on, but for starters it definitely means no chocolate, sweets, cake etc.
4. No evening eating after the evening meal. So I can eat dinner, but then no further snacks after that.
5. 30 minutes of exercise four days a week. I think I need to look at my week and schedule this in, otherwise, if I try to go day by day I can see this not happening. This is the part of the challenge that I know I need to work hardest at to achieve.

Today I ate:

breakfast
2 rashers of bacon
1 egg

lunch
portion of homemade baked beans
5 cherry tomatoes
grated reduced fat cheese

snack
apple
2 macadamia nuts (all that was left from the open packet!)

dinner
meatloaf
carrots
green beans
sweetcorn
cabbage
gravy

I make that at least seven servings of fruit and vegetables. I haven't really had any exercise today though. Tomorrow I will probably be going up to central London with Bekki, my Mum and my uncle, so hopefully there will be lots of walking around. Maybe I should take the stairs instead of the escalators on the tube...

Monday 30th April

Breakfast
1 middle cut rasher of bacon
1 egg

Snack
15 grapes
6 strawberries

Lunch

salad made from:
7 cherry tomatoes
1 orange pepper
1\2 tin chickpeas with paprika sprinkled on
1 sausage
few cashews

An apple

Snack
1 square galaxy chocolate (a celebration sweet)
apple

Dinner
lamb rogan josh (otherwise known as spicy tomato and lamb soup)
brocoli
green beans

Haven't posted on here for a while

My last post sounded really, um dunno what the word it, but when I went back and read it it made me go 'ouch' which wasn't really the intention. I was actually trying to state the fact that since I was stating my exercise facts that was what I would call the post. However I was tired and it didn't come out right!
Here's a picture of the little one and me because, well just because really. I know it's not all that flattering, but hey!

Today's exercise, mostly

Let's fact it, it's late and I'm tired, so there's no much hope I'm going to post any much other than what exercise I did today, so why not just call the post that?!

I'm feeling really run down at the moment, due to not enough sleep and dunno what else. So I'm off to bed soon, and I've got some vitamin B complex tablets to take. - I'm got some mouth ulcers and vitamin B is supposed to be good for that.

Today I did some skipping and some step ups too. Now I'm off to bed.

Word Cloud

This is a word cloud generated here with random words from my blog.

Skipping

Today I did 450 skips. How cool is that :-)

National De-lurk week

It's official, according to several different blogs I just looked at, it is National De-lurk week. (Bekki, Arwen, Paper Napkin - ok, so that one was just following the link Bekki had, but three references seemed better than two!)

So, please please please de-lurk. I know several people who know me in real life read this blog, but don't comment much, so if that's you I especially want to hear from you. If you really don't want me to drag out a potentially embarrassing photo (like I did to Esther) and say so then I can try my best not to post one.

Secondly, if you don't know me in real life, I would love to have the chance to get to know you. I love reading blogs, and would definitely check yours out if you have one! And if you don't have a blog, well it would still be fantastic to hear from you.

Thirdly, if you already know me in cyber-space, for example any of the one weigh or another ladies, Kathleen, Chaotic Mum, or Rachel who I am just beginning to get to know, then I love it that you read my blog, and if you could spare a minute then it'd be fabulous to hear from you ;-)

Finally, if you feel you're in another category, for instance you just found my blog by googling something, then say hello too!

Please leave me a comment (or more than one, if you like). I promise I will come visiting to meet you afterwards. Just say hi, or tell me your favourite colour, or share a joke. Whatever you say, say something. Remember, in cyberspace no-one can hear you read :-)

(I've copied this post from my other blog, so if you read that too you might recognise it!)

Today

I only did 100 skips today, but I did also look after little one all day, and that's always hard work!
I'm very tired, so I'm off to bed now (8.40pm) but I did just write a long post on my other blog (click Debs on the side link).
Night night.

time to go to bed

Very tired, so just want to say 300 skips today.
:-)

Happy belated blogging birthday to me

I noticed today that I've just missed my blogging birthday. I started my other blog a year and 6 days ago - on the 30th December 2005. I've been reflecting how my life has changed since then. You can read that here but I would say one of the biggest changes would have to be losing 20+ pounds off my weight. I know there's a long way to go, but if you'd asked me then I'm not sure I would have thought even that possible.
Here's the the next successful year of blogging, but especially to a sucessful year of weight loss :-)

Doing ok-ish

School was ok.
I'm doing ok-ish, but no skipping today because my asthma is still only just under control.
Will try to blog longer posts at the weekend.

I'm ill

Just feeling really yucky today. Not really with it most of the time - a bit floaty. I did not do any skipping today. Please pray that I'm ok to go to work tomorrow. Ok, so actually at the moment I feel like I don't ever want to go again, but I figure I need to give it a fair chance this term, havnig sat down and come up with some stuff with the class teacher. I've just been dreading having to go back all this week. So also please pray that things go ok in school.

Tuesday

I'm fighting a cold still, so not feeling 100% yet. However, I did manage to skip 200 jumps today.
Sorry, that's all I can think of to say right now!

Monday weigh-in

I am indeed up this week. In fact I'm at 270.8 which is up 3 from last week. However I shall not beat myself up over it, but am just even more determinded to lose weight this week :-)

In other news I managed 100 jumps\skips (still can't decide which word to use though) and can already feel that I am able to do them a bit quicker, and more jumps at a time before I get caught up in the rope. We also went on a (r)amble this morning with some people from our church. It was quite a gentle walk as we had a few young kids with us, but it was good just to be able to get out in the fresh air and it not be raining! (I think we're forecast rain for the rest of the week, so I'm not sure what that'll mean for the skipping)

Sunday skipping

Well I'm pretty convinced that my weight will be up for tomorrow's weigh-in (in fact it would be a miracle if it wasn't!) I know that as the week went on my resolve got weeker, so it's no surprise really. I guess maybe I'll go back on phase one for a week to 're-set' my body.
I did get to do a bit of skipping today, but only 50 jumps, and that was whilst dodging between raindrops!

The problem with skipping ropes

is that you can't skip if it rains all day. Especially if you are as tall as me and there's no way you could skip\jump rope inside without causing endless amounts of damage to all the things around you.

An assortmet of thoughts

I've been away longer than I had planned to be gone, so I'll have to try to get you all up to date. On my Christmas day weigh-in I was actually down 1lb to 268.8. However I think I may have put on a couple of pounds over the last couple of days. I was doing ok, but several days in a row of Christmas celebrations my resolve was worn down a bit, and by yesterday when we visited my Dad's parents I was pretty much just eating whatever was put in front of me. However although I wasn't sticking properly to south beach I wasn't eating to excess, which I#'m sure I've done in the past. Hopefully I'll get back to the diet over the next couple of days, and by the time I get back to work it'll be automatic again.

Hmmm, I received a skipping rope for Christmas. I wasn't feeling brilliant from boxing day onwards - the family cold had got me, giving me a sore throat and glands as well as the snuffles. However today I took it out the box and gave it a go. Now I know my fitness level is not at a high at the moment, so I'm aiming to just build up the amount I can skip in one go. I did 5o jumps (not straight, as I can only seem to do about 8 or 9 in a row, but in a session) and then HP did the same. I did a second fifty, and then escaped back indoors to take my asthma inhaler! However, I did do another 80 about an hour later, so that's 180 altogether today. I've no idea if that's good, or quite how I should be going about it, but it felt good - my heart was certainly pumping faster and I got pretty warm doing it! If anyone has any ideas of how to build it up, or extend what I'm doing, then please let me know.

In other news, I have now switched to the new blogger, so hopefully everything will continue to work ok....!

My job

Sorry people, I haven't said much about my job and what happened in the meetings and stuff. That's cos I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it all. Part of me really wanted to say to them that since my contract ended at the end of the year I wouldn't be returning after Christmas. However, I never quite got round to saying that (the sickness bug got in the way somewhat). I did agree with the headteacher that I could continue childminding the little boy two days a week, so at least I'll be keeping the bit of the week that keeps me sane.

I am going to be changing what I do with the one of the two children I work with - doing some more individual work out of the class (as he is quite far behind the other children, and needs to go back to the basics). And I think I've managed to come up with a balance between totally taking him out of the classroom (Headteacher's idea) and only working with him in class to try to access the work the rest of the class are doing (class teacher's idea). We'll see how that goes.
One sad thing is that the lady who was the other classroom assistant (and the person who made the job bearable) has retired, so we'll be having someone new in the new year. Hopefully I'll get on ok with the new person.

That's about all I can think of about it at the minute and I have to go wrap presents. I'll try to post more about it once I start back in the new year - I plan to try to forget all about it over the holiday!

Monday Weigh-in

Haven't done one of these for a few weeks. Probably because of being stuck pretty much in the same place (I went up, up, down but only little amounts so far as I can remember). However all that changed this week. I was back on phase one of the beach, and have lost at least a pound by Wednesday night. That was when I came down with a horrible sickness bug. I was back to eating normally by the weekend, but at my weigh in today I was down 9.4 to 269.8. Which is a total weight loss of 24.2lb.

I'm sick

sick sick sick, and then sick again. Didn't go to work today, and won't be going tomorrow either. The up side is that I just weighed myself (yes, I am a bit obsessive about it) and I currently weigh my lowest for a long time. However, personally I'd have stuck to the beach than having to go through this. Not sure when I'll be back, but in case you were missing me thought I'd better explain.

Knowing that people care really helps.

I was going to title this post "don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo", but having thought about it, that title would just be wrong in so many ways.
For a start, I didn't give it a capital letter, and that would be bad, very bad.
Secondly, I don't want to give anyone the impression that I'm about to hang myself - that would be very far from the truth, so please no-body panic.

This weekend I've been to the Saturday morning prayer meeting that our church has, and then a church training meeting, and then to church this morning. At each of these there have been people that have asked me "How are you?" in a way that showed they actually wanted to hear the answer - they weren't just asking for the sake of asking. Although I probably haven't expressed to them just how down I've been feeling, I've been able to share a little bit of the stresses that are going on in my life. And time after time I've heard them say those special words "I'll be praying for you", and I know that they meant it. It's really been such a blessing to know that people do care.

I can't say that everything is sorted yet, but I know that I've got people on my side, and that all I can do is go into the meeting tomorrow moring and say what I've got to say. God already knows what the outcome will be, I've just got to trust him on that.

I've decided that I want to say that I don't want to continue at the school after Christmas (that is, I don't want my contract to be renewed). I've no idea quite how the headteacher will respond to that, but we'll see...

Everything looks bleak

I'm so tired. Not just a physical tiredness, although I can hardly keep my eyes open, but a mental tiredness too. I've had enough, stop the world and let me off for a bit.

I'm off to bed soon, hopefully before 8pm, and that ought to help the physical tiredness. But I don't know what do to about the blank nothing inside my head. I feel like I'm living my life through some sort of emotion stopping machine. Life happens, but I don't feel anything, just nothingness. Perhaps it's my body's way of trying to shut off from the stresses with my job and stuff, I just don't know.

I think I'd better go to bed, but I'll try to post more tomorrow.

Prayer Request

I'm trying to make a few decisions jobwise at the moment and would appreciate your prayers. I just wrote a whole post over at OWOA so I'm not going to write it all out here too, but if you'd go over there and take a look that'd be fantastic.
It's here
Thanks muchly :-)

(I also posted this post at It's My Life)

The sun'll come out tomorrow, bet ya bottom dollar

Still tired. Still not feeling 100%. So glad that the weekend has arrived.
Now I'm off to bed :-)
Will try to post something proper soon.... maybe....

Oh, and guess what I saw at the supermarket the other day?
HOT CROSS BUNS! In December! (This is not them, but a picture that I took last Easter when I was blogging my weekend in pictures over on my other blog)

Today

I am just too tired and there's all this stuff buzzing round in my head. I've got some stuff I want to post at some point, but I need to try and figure it out in my head a bit more before I put fingers to keyboard. In the meantime I just can't seem to stop feeling tired and and bit down. I'm trying so hard to keep 'up' (in my mindset, and physically out of bed) but it's really hard right now.

So I'm off to bed now (it's 7.45pm!) and hopefully it'll all look better in the morning. Night all

Monday, Monday, so good to me

Well, a bit good anyway. I'm down to 279 for today's weigh in. So grand total of 15 pounds lost :-)
In other news I'm feeling ill - nasty cold thing which is getting me down a bit, but hopefully with lots of sleep and lots of water to drink I'll be soon be feeling better.

Beautiful?

I was told I was beautiful today. By a complete stranger. In fact a guy trying to chat me up. Really quite a bizarre experience actually. I don't think he was actually drunk, but he was holding a beer bottle in his hand. And yet, it still felt good. It was something that somewhere inside of me I needed to hear, and God knew that, and it happened. And then I had a really long conversation with the guy about God and church and stuff like that - well having turned the guy down, I at least owed it to him to show him my desire that he (along with all non-Christians) could be saved.

But still, someone told me I was beautiful. I'm not sure I feel in yet myself when I look at my outside - I've lost a stone, but there's still a long way to go. But hey, you know what, I am beautiful :-)

I also wrote about this at OWOA

Wordless Wednesday

Check out my WW over on my other blog - It's those cheeky peppers again :-)

Another Monday weigh-in (and there's many more to come!)

Well I'm done 2.6 pounds this week. That takes me to 280.4 and almost at my short term goal which was to lose a stone (14 pounds) by Christmas. I shall have to have a think about what my next short term goal will be. Happy Happy Joy Joy :-)

The week thus far

Another week is almost ended. Time to evaluate how it went, and especially with regards to the team challenge with the OWOA ladies. Well this week I went swimming with my Mum on Tuesday and we both swam half a mile. That's 32 lengths of the pool we use, and takes around half an hour. My favourite stroke is back stroke, but I was remembering my swimming lessons from when I was little and also did some breast stroke and also some front crawl this week.

On Wednesday I was at home for the day (because 16 month old that I usually look after was away on hoilday. I saw them at church this morning and he's added a new phrase to his repertoire - "oh dear", to add to his other favourite "hello"). I spent lots of the day with the radio on loud dancing, skipping and jumping my way around the house - tidying up and generally sorting things out.

On Saturday morning my Mum and I went for a walk around Forty Hall Estate and had fun spotting friends of our garden weekend visitor (see my other blog if that doesn't make sense!)

I can also report that I have drunk plenty of water this week, over 80 oz each day, and have reported in to my team leader Tami accordingly.

Pictures of me

I really don't like these (although they aren't as bad as some I looked at!), but as a mtter of recording what I was like, and so I can look back and see how I've changed, I've gone through the photos on the computer and found a couple to share...
(The full length one is me and my skinny little sister, HP)

Drum Roll Please

Well, this morning I am down 4.4 bringing total weight loss to 11 pounds. So I'm now at 283 pounds. I think all those numbers add up - I'm at 283 anyway, so you can figure out the rest. I'm too tired!

Team Competition

The lastest thing over at One Weigh or Another is a Team Competion. I'm in a team with Tami (our group leader), Lady Laura, Maria and Stephanie. (Hopefully I just managed to link the right name with the right blog. I'm planning to add them to my side bar soon anyway)

The first thing we need to do is come up with a group name. I've just been mucking around with our initials and come up with a few random ideas, but I totally wouldn't blame the rest of my team if my ideas get shouted down and someone else comes up with something better!

The week we'll be getting points based on weight loss and number of times we've exercised this week. I've done exercise on 4 days and you'll be able to find out my weight loss tomorrow - I'll be posting it here and over on OWOA.
I'll keep you up to date on our team progress as well :-)

Official Member!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have officially commented my way to be an official member over at the One Weigh Or Another site. I just posted my introduction post, so please head over and read it to find out a little more about me :-)

Works for me Wednesday

I just posted my first ever WFMW over on my other blog. Since it's food related I thought I ought to link to it from here. Just click over :-)