Weigh-in - Week 9 (Beer 'n' Burgers)

Well after a long weekend of overindulgence I have managed to Stay The Same. Normally I would be dissapointed with this, but as I was at a party on Saturday Night where I honestly lost count of the number of beers I had, followed by a Bar-b-que on Sunday afternoon where the ale was also flowing quite well, I think I've done very well not to register a gain. This of course was not helped by the fact that I had to have a couple of pints when I was at the rugby club watching England's victory against Ireland in the pre World Cup friendly.

For those of you who think it's shocking that I should lose count of the number of pints I had on Saturday night, I should explain that I only poured myself one pint, direct from the barrel, unfortunately this was a magic, never ending pint! Everytime it got down to less than half full, it miraculously refilled itself! It's very difficult to keep track when that happens.

In fact, strictly speaking I've lost 0.6lb this week, but I cheated a little last week to ensure that I reached my 5% goal! I didn't mention last week that my scales have started registering 10ths of a lb since falling from 20st to 19st - as my 5% goal was 19st 13.3lbs and I actually registered 19st 13.6lbs on the scales, I took a bit of poetic license and recorded it as 19st 13lbs exactly, which is what I weighed today. My next target is 10% of my starting weight, which is 18st 12.6lbs and I promise, from now on, to record the 10ths of a lb (so long as I don't go back up above 20st of course).

I experimented with another low point recipe from the WW web site last week - it was a Chicken and Chorizo Gumbo, 5PP's per portion (or 11PP's if you eat half of it in one go!). I had it with a Warburtons Squarish Wrap to soak up the sauce and it was very tasty! I'm sure it would have tasted even better if I had followed the recipe more closely. Anyway, that's now 2 recipe's that I can add to my arsenal of low point meals for when I start to really need them, or for when I need to keep the points low before going out for a few beers.

I managed to stick with the excercise regime of Walking, Wii Fit Jogging, Crosstrainer, rest day and repeat. In fact on Sunday, even after all the beer and feeling a little groggy, I managed a new walking record to average 14.51 minutes per mile! Then, on Monday, I increased my Wii Fit Jogging from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and did, according the the Wii, 10781 metres. I don't believe the Wii Fit distances are in any way accurate, but they do seem to be consistent between jogs so they are a guide for me. It's a good job I'm doing the excercise as this wek, for the first time, I used up all of my weekly points and 10 Activity points!

Hopefully, this coming week shouldn't be quite so difficult to track and should be relatively easy to keep within the points limits. I'm going out for a meal on Friday eveneing to celebrate the birthday of a friend of my wife. I don't expect to be going overboard at this event and I don't have anything planned for the rest of the week.

Weigh-in - Week 8

Finally I've reached my teens!

After being over 20 stones for at least 2 years, I've finally managed to drop down below it! I'm really pleases as it means I've reached my first target of losing 5% of may starting weight, I've also lost my 2nd 7lbs.

This morning's weigh-in showed a loss of 2lbs from last week and now puts me down to 19st 13lbs! I am really very happy as I have achieved the last 3lbs loss while on holiday in Cornwall, where I found it very difficult to track, I wasn't able to get a lot of my normal exercising in and I didn't do any swimming or bodyboarding in the sea, as it was freezing cold! Next year, if we go to Cornwall, I am planning to be thin enough to be able to fit in to a wetsuit!

I think that, where I have been successful is that, although it was difficult to accurately track much of what I consumed over the period of my holiday, I was able to compensate by ensuring that I stuck to my normal breakfast and didn't have excessively large portions of anything. Also, when I had a Cornish Pasty, I didn't have a portion of chips as well! I kept any hunger at bay by ensuring that I had plenty of fruit to hand.

Having successfully negotiated the potential banana skin of a holiday, I am now back into the normal routine of exercise and tracking - made more difficult today as my boss is taking me out for a curry this lunchtime to say goodbye to a colleague who is leaving. I should be ok though as I skipped my glass of milk this morning and am planning to have a Warburtons Square Wrap Pizza for my dinner this evening, so hopefully I should just about remain within my 54 ProPoints for the day. If not, I shall have to use some weeklies, although I want to save them for the 2 bar-b-ques that I am going to this weekend, which will both involve large amounts of Ale (Rebellion of course!).

Weigh-in - Week 7

This week I discovered for myself the perils of the "Sneaky Peek"!

After feeling a bit deflated by my STS last week, I decided that I would have a Sneaky Peak on Friday morning, before setting off on our holiday in Cornwall. It was fantastic, the scales showed 19st 12.4lbs! Unfortunately I have had my official Weigh-in this morning and they showed 20st 1lb, a loss of only 1lb since my last official weigh-in.

While I'm disappointed that I didn't stay below 20st, I am still pleased to have registered a loss on the scales, after all I am on holiday and so my WeightWatching is not as easy as it would normally be. I'm having to estimate quite a lot, and it is possible that I'm underestimating rather than overestimating the points (although I would be surprised if this is happening a lot.

I have done a little bit less exercise this week, as my wife doesn't want me walking along the Cornish country lanes first thing in the morning. I had thought that I might make up for this by doing some body boarding with my son, but when we were at the beach on Saturday the water was freezing. I would have been the only person in the water without a wetsuit on. I did try to get in, I got as far as waist deep but my gentleman's parts felt like they were going to drop off, so I retired to the water's edge to watch my son. The water was warmer on Sunday, but by the time I realised this, the tide had come in and it was time for us to leave. Yesterday it rained and it looks like we'll have more rain today, so I don't think I'll be doing any bodyboarding today either. I have promised my son (an myself) that next year I will be fit and agile enough to take some surfing lessons with him! I think we'll go somewhere warmer for that though.

Anyway, not a bad result this week, but not a great one either. Onwards and downwards!

Weigh-in - Week 6

A huge dissappointment this week - I've Stayed The Same!

I had really hoped that I would lose 3lbs this week, which would have meant that I would reach my 5% target. I have to admit though, I didn't really feel like I had lost weight this week. I had a couple of days where, although I remained within my points allowance, I think I probbaly overindulged. The worst day for that was Friday, when I was taken out for a curry at lunchtime. Curries are difficult to point as who really knows what is in them, it;s quite possible that I blew my allowance without really knowing it. Then I followed that up on Saturday, when I went to the pub to watch England v Wales and had a few beers, some crisps followed by a Jacket Potato and Rump Steak when I got home. To add to all that I went to a carvery on Sunday for lunch (another meal that I find difficult to point).

On the plus side, I've stepped up my excercise a bit this week by going for a walk on Tuesday, doing some Wii Fit Jogging (Roaring Fire) on Wednesday and spending 20 minutes on the Crosstrainer on Thursday, the I did the same on Saturday, Sunday and Monday after a rest day on Friday. This earnt me a few Activity Points (which I had hoped would get offset against any errors I made in calculating the Points for the curry and the carvery meals). I intend to keep this 3 day cycle, followed by a rest day, going as far as possible.

Still, I can't be too upset, an STS is not a loss, but it's not as bad as again, so I'm keeping positive and looking forward to a good loss next week. Having said that, next week might be difficult as we're going to Cornwall for a short holiday, so keeping track and within my points allowance could be difficult - maybe the bodyboarding (if the sea is warm enough!) will use up enough energy to counter any overindulgances of food and beer.

Anyway, that's another WeightWatchers week completed and I'm 12lbs lighter than I was when I started, so I'm still very pleased with my progress. Stay tuned for the next update which will be from sunny Truro.

Weigh-in - Week 5

Another 2lbs gone!

I had hoped that it might be a little more than that, but 2lbs is a good loss. As a result of this, I've lost another ProPoint from my Daily ProPoint target and am now down to 54.

I'm now 3lbs away from my 5% target and I aim to do that by next week's weigh-in. I am also only 2lbs away from my second 7lb star! If I manage to reach my 5%, I will be below 20 stones for the first time in over 2 years (probably more like 2.5 years)!

This last week I have been doing a little bit more excercise - I've done my morning walk twice, I've done 20 minutes of Wii Fit Jogging once and I had 20 minutes on the crosstrainer on Sunday morning. It's actually about 18 months since I last used the crosstrainer, so I was expecting to suffer afterwards, but I didn't! The worst effect of this extra exercise was from the Wii Fit Jogging, which caused my calfs to ache somewhat a couple of days later.

For the coming week I plan to walk today and Saturday, Wii Fit Jog on Wednesday and Sunday and use the crosstrainer on Thursday and Monday. I do intend at some point to start the c25k plan (Couch to 5 Kilometers), but not until I've got down to below 18 stones as I don't think my old bones could take the impact of road running at my current weight.

I've also started looking at some of the recipes on the Weight Watchers site to try and find some tasty and filling low point meals as I think that as I lose weight I will find it difficult to carry on eating the meals that I'm having at the moment. Yesterday I tried the Quick Chorizo and Bean Chilli - it was very nice, although the recipe is meant to make 4 servings, I had half of it for my dinner (12ProPoints) and shall have the rest tonight. I've also experimented with the famous Warburtons Square Wraps and they definitely have potential.

Diet Coke - Part 5

That's it! No Diet Coke now since Sunday morning, I am totally clean!

I'm glad to say that I haven't, so far, suffered any ill efects from quiting CFDC, no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever, so I think I should be able to stick to it. I expect that I will, from time to time, have a normal coke as it's just 4 ProPoints a can and contains no Aspartame.