Loving a Challenge

I am absolutely loving having this challenge ! 

My exercise challenge is to climb the Eiffel Tower before next weigh in, or the equivalent steps on my stair case.  (An idea I got from my Leader a few months back when she suggested climbing the Empire State Building). So I have over 1700 steps to do this week and it's harder than I thought.  I have been doing it in smaller batches of up and down the stairs 5 or 6 times and i can feel it in my legs, realising how unfit I am but pushing me to do the next ones.  The first day I didn't do my 22 sets but have caught up with myself today and will try and get ahead tomorrow as it seems easier on a weekend.

My food challenge is to try new recipes or to try something new so I am going to make pulled pork in the slow cooker tomorrow for Sunday lunch as we are out all day.  I hope it's nice or Alan & Jack will be cursing me.  Recipe was for BBQ pork but they don't like that so amending it to normal stock.

As much as my long term goal is simply to get to goal I like having short term mini missions as I call it.  If I was to keep telling myself I have 17 weeks to lose 19lb I would think its ages away yet and before I  know it I would have only 7 weeks and still need to lose 19lb.  This way I am looking no further forward than 5 weeks and know I want at least 7lb by then.

Setting myself a challenge has got me excited about WW again, I'm buzzing and the comments and encouragements others doing it with me on my facebook page is great, all in this together, climbing our way to being slim.

I can't wait to see the view of Paris when I get to the top !  I wonder where I can go next week . . . 

Breaking through those walls

Well the summer holidays are well and truly done, first day back to work today.  

I have had an amazing two weeks off with a fantastic week away then a great week at home.  Before my time off I was struggling with WW, not the plan but with my losses.  I felt like i had hit a bit of a brick wall, you know the ones when you have your momentum going and all of a sudden you can't go any further, well that was me.  Bored of meals, a little lazy with checking portion sizes and with cooking, I think we all do it when we feel a bit lighter and a little happier we forget why it's so important to lose weight.

I have not been weighed for four weeks, leaving me a little concerned about how much damage I have done but I can honestly say I haven't eaten any where as much as I would have this time last year.  I noticed when we were away, staying in a caravan, that we didn't eat as much junk food, breakfasts were pretty much as we would at home, no more english cooked breakfasts like we used to, no huge takeaways every night, and no need to snack on chocolate and crisps through the day.  It showed me how much we had changed without even knowing it.

Don't get me wrong I have eaten well, we have eaten out a lot as this is what we do as a family.  I haven't tracked at all and have enjoyed my time away from the plan but found myself looking forward to getting back on it.  Instead of thinking about what naughty things I could eat I found myself planning what meals I was going to make.  Even to the point of getting quite excited about it lol.  Oh how I have really changed.

Things were all good until the weekend, I was feeling good, positive and ready to get back onto the plan.  Alan said he would take us out for a meal to one of my favourite Italian restaurants, all was good until I was sat next to a mirror.  There I was in a lovely summer dress, thinking I looked nice, (well nice as i ever see myself looking) and I glanced sideways and saw myself.  I could have hid under the table there and then, I looked and felt huge, and like been slapped with a wet kipper, there was the reminder that I still had a long way to go.  For a while it made me a little sad  but then I realised it was the reminder I needed, and there the brick wall was knocked down and I am able to move forward again.

So here I am first day back at work, ready to rock the WW world and the guys at work had bought me cakes for my birthday last week, well obviously it would be rude not to sample them but it didn't spoil  my enthusiasm.  I came straight home and have made batches of homemade soup and lasagne ready to eat tomorrow and freeze the rest.  The slow cooker is prepped ready for chicken curry tomorrow.

Christmas is 18 weeks away, I still want to get to my goal of at least 50lb by then, so challenge set.

What can I say, bring it on !!!

Happy Birthday To Me

Another year older, maybe a little wiser and pleased to say a bit smaller.

Getting older doesn't worry me at all, it's just another birthday, a day to celebrate and enjoy cake.  Yes I have had cake too, currently mini chocolate brownies.  Working my way through the box is not good in the world of WW, but in Dolittle's world it's perfect.

I have always loved my birthday being in the middle of summer, I love the sunshine and have had many a BBQ as a birthday party, even for my 21st with a bouncy castle, you never get to old for Bouncy castles.  Good times !

This year I started celebrations early with a Birthday Beach Hut, a day of chilling out with friends and family, fish n chips, Ferrero Rocher ice cream, lots of sun and laughter.  it was a great day.  Then today I am having a day with my boys (hubby & son), started with breakfast in bed and off to the cinema and a meal later.  Jonny Depp on your birthday is always a treat lol.

Off for now, sorry for not many posts but on holiday so lots of days out

Back soon xxxx

My Affair With Food

I am in no doubt I have a relationship with food, now to decided if its a good one or bad.  Considering my weight I would say bad, so maybe time to turn it around and make it a healthy one.  Why am I questioning it you may ask, because to lose my weight and get to goal I need to be in a good relationship with food.

I use food as a reward, you know what I mean " ah I've been really good so I'll have a treat"   Did we not all get rewarded for being good when we were little with treats, usually in the form of sweets, no wonder we do as we do, we are all brain washed lol

Then it's the comfort, " I'm having a bad day so i need chocolate"  Do we really??? And does it comfort us, maybe for the two minutes it takes to inhale the galaxy ripple, or two oops, but the feel good factor doesn't last long.

Then punishment, after we do the above we then eat more, punishing ourselves for the lack of willpower in the first place.  Typically " I've blown it now anyway" or " I deserve to be fat after eating all that"    And the cycle continues . . .

Why did I start this blog post well because I am so bored with what I am eating, I feel like I am having the same meals over and over and it feels like it is effecting my weight loss.  The boredom is making me turn to things i have stopped having but now feel like i am craving.  Im not really but its easy to tell myself that because i dont know wha i want i will just have . . . . Today was a chicken fajita from the sandwich van, then a caramel from the vending machine, and just before writing this a sausage roll.  What on earth was thinking, at least if I am typing I can't eat.

In the beginning i was trying new things, it was all exciting and I was cooking new things.  I didnt even mind weighing everything and gettin out my calculator to check the points of everything I bought or ate.  but now,  is it that I am getting lazy, thinking I know it so don't need to check it all, or is it boredom of the same old things.  Both Alan and I have both said the same, we are sick of the same meals but can't think what else we want.  Maybe it's time to get the cook books out and try some new dishes. 

Been summer you would assume salads could be on the agenda, but as I don't like tomato or cucumber salad for me in the past was a plate of lettuce, topped with calorie laden coleslaws or potato salad, cheese, eggs and a nice crusty roll, not quite the way forward.  I am probably been a little harsh on myself as I do eat salad and i now make my own coleslaw but I eat it more because it is low in points than because I enjoy it.  I don't know about anyone else but whats the point in eating things we don't really enjoy just because it is low pp value, all it does for me is drive me towards something that does taste nice so I end up eating twice.  Salad has its place on my plate and that's at the side, next to the real food lol.

And as for Zero heroes, don't get me started on the lack of zero pp foods on my like list.  As I said I'm not a salad fan, and vegetables are what go on a Sunday lunch covered in gravy and that's about it.  Probably more to do with lack of trying new things, or experimenting in the kitchen but all the same it's limited.  I do now have Butternut Squash Chips, because they are 0pp but have started to sicken myself so will leave them alone for a while.  

Then there's fruit, putting aside the silly prices you pay for fresh fruit, it's messy on your hands, something I'm weird about (shivers just thinking about the mess) and apart from the occasional strawberry, peach or banana then it's not something I eat because I enjoy it. 

What does that leave me with, oh yes, sugar free jelly, and you may have guessed it I don't care for jelly either, unless in the bottom of a trifle.  Haha I laugh at myself and wonder how I manage to lose weight at all.

Now the truth appears, problems with my weight certainly weren't from overheating on vegetables and fruit lol, so I'm guess my love of carbs may be the cause.  Ah pasta, bread, potatoes now that's where my love is, a huge plate of comfort.

Well if nothing else I have just confirmed I have a very unhealthy relationship with food, but as I sit here laughing at myself, I realise that's ok because I am still losing weight, I will still get to goal and maybe just maybe that's why I love weight watchers, because I can have what I want and lose.

I am now having two weeks holiday with my boys,  which usually means eating out alot so fingers crossed I can maintain where I am and not do too much damage.  But maybe it's two weeks that will help me find some new ideas and refresh my love for cooking new meals, after all before we know it it will be Xmas (sorry I know it's too early to mention) and I have a 50lb target for the hit by the end of the year.

Right I'm off to the kitchen to see what else I shouldn't eat lol

Dolittle xxxx