Wednesday 30 November 2011

Weigh-in - Week 22

Sorry for the delay in posting again this week. I was very busy yesterday and also a little unenthusiatic about the blog and the weight loss due to the fact that I only lost 1lb and was still above the weight I was 2 weeks ago.

My official weigh-in weight yesterday was 18st 8.2 lbs, 0.4lbs more than 2 weeks ago!


I can put this snaller than hoped for loss down to some serious overindulging at the weekend when I ramped up an estimated 95 ProPoints on Saturday when I went on a boys day out to see London Irish vs Wasps (London Irish won by the way, nut don't ask me the score!).

I started the day with just some fruit to keep me going 'till lunchtime when I had a very nice Venison & Wild Boar Pie with a plain small jacket potato, washed down with 3 pints of Wadworths 6X. I estimated the pie to be 20 PPs, but it could easily have been many more than that!

After the luch we made our way to the ground, where it was on to the Guiness - one pint before the game started and 2 each half! After that we went to another couple of pubs on the way home and things start to get a little hazy - I think it was probably 1 pint in each of them, but I cannot be sure.

When I eventually called "She Who Must Be Obeyed" to take me home, she stopped at the Chinese take away for some Chicken & Chips for our dinner!

After all that, it was a Chicken Madras curry dinner on Sunday evening, which won't have helped either!

I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, but I'm glad for the sake of my WeightWatchers progress that they don't happen like that very often (in fact their rarity makes them even better when they do occur!).

Having got over my slight dissappointment and thought about the reasons my loss was so small, I elected to have a Sneaky Peek this morning and was delighted to register 18st 6.2lbs (it's the same scales that I use for my proper weigh-ins). I shall just have to try and make sure that I keep at or below that all week now! Luckily I have nothing planned that involves large quantities of food or drink until Christmas (though plans can change).

I think it is unlikely that I will reach my VChristmas target of below 18stones, but I'm going to give it a good shot! Good luck with your weight loss programs, I'll be back next week.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Weigh-in - Week 21

I'm a day late with my posting this week, unfortunately I was rather busy yesterday and didn't quite find the time.

After last week's unexpected 2lb gain I've managed to lose 0.6lbs of it. This is not a brilliant result, but at least it's turned back in the right direction. I was hoping that I would lose it as quickly as I put it on, but that wasn't to be. Hopefully the loss will come in the coming week. I am still hopeful that I can get down into the 17stones by Christmas, although the tgarget is obviously a little harder to achieve than it would have been wityhout last week's gain. From a psychological point of view, it might be better that I don't reach that target as I stand a good chance of going back above 18st over Christmas and that would be very dissapointing.

I've managed to keep up with my regular exercise on the Crosstrainer and have even increased my pace a little - I'm now doing between 13.1 and 13.2 kilometers in a 30 minute session! I haven't started running yet as my Achilles Tendonitis has still not cleared up, I think it's going to be well after Christmas before it's completely fixed - which suits me fine as I don't want to appear to be a "New Years Resolution" runner.

The week ahead should be relatively free from potential weight loss pitfalls, apart from Saturday when I am going to Reading with a few friends to watch London Irish v Wasps. This will involve lunch at Sweeney Todds pie shop (and yes, there is a barber's shop next door!) washed down with plenty of beer and guiness! I have rearranged my exercise schedule so that I won't be trying to use the Crosstrainer on Sunday morning with a hangover!


Good luck with your weight loss, I'll be back next week!

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Weigh-in - Week 20

A poor result this week - I've gained 2lbs.

I'm really not sure how this has happened - I tracked everything, ate most of my daily points allowance every day and all of my weekly allowance. I earnt 36 Activity Points during the week and I reckon that that should have more than covered anything where I may have underestimated Points (such as when I had duck in an orange sauce for lunch at my parents' house on Sunday.

This 2lb gain was totally unexpected and has resulted in me having an increased Daily Pro Points allowance - it's now back up to 51. I'm not over concerned though, I had a weight gain a few weeks ago and, the very next week, I had one of my bigger losses to make up for it! This week I shall just make extra sure that I keep track of everything and make sure that I make better food choices - the fish and chips for dinner on Friday may have been a mistake, followed, as it was, by a curry take away on Saturday, all within my permitted points though.

I took some body measurements this morning, before my weigh-in, so these help to keep things in perspective:

                               Jun 28                      Nov 15                  Change
Neck                       48cm                        44cm                       -4cm
Chest                    131cm                       121cm                     -10cm
Calves                    50cm                         45cm                       -5cm
Thighs                    62cm                         58cm                       -4cm
Upper Arms           41cm                         38cm                       -3cm
Waist                    118cm                        111cm                      -7cm

I've lost everywhere, except my thighs, since I last took measurements at week 16! I think that's quite a reasonable set of results - I just hope that I can lose a bit more from my thighs as I will find it difficult to get trousers to fit if I don't!

Even with this week's gain, I still think I can achieve my target of below 18st by Christmas - I've just got to lose an average of 2lbs a week. Good luck with acheiving your targets, whatever they might be.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Weigh-in - Week 19

Well this has been a much better week - 2.8lbs lost this week, which is very satisfying after the measly 0.4lbs of last week. How have I done it? Well I just carried on as I have before - I tracked everything and kept within my points allocation and lost a lot more weight. The only thing I can think of to cause the reduced loss of last week is that it was the week where I really got back into exercising on the Crosstrainer and maybe that had a temporary adverse effect.

Anyway, my current weight is 18st 7.6lbs, a total loss of 2st 6.4lbs! My BMI has reduced from 40.3 (Morbidly Obese) to 34.5 (Obese) and I can now get into some old jeans with a 38" waist! Oh, and my daily ProPoints allowance has just gone down today from 51 to 50.

I did some experimenting last weekend with a Slow Cooker that we got from Sainsbury's in the summer for a rediculously low price and we hadn't had a chance to use. It didn't really go too well as I got the timings wrong!

The recipe for the Sag Aloo said that it should be cooked on "high" for 4 hours, but as I was cooking it overnight I decided to cook it on "low" for 8 hours - this turned out to be much too long and the potato was very dry. I also messed up with the Frozen Spinach as I didn't expect it to be solid lumps of spinach and so it didn't have enough time to thaw out before I started cooking it.

The recipe for the Butter Chicken Curry said cook on "high" for 4 to 6 hours. I elected to cook it for 5 hours, but this turned out to be much too long and some of the chicken was burnt and stuck to the side of the cooker and the sauce was reduced too much. What I managed to save did taste quite nice though, apart from the chicken being overdone.

When I try these two dishes again, I shall cook them on "high" for 3.5 hours each. If the Sag Aloo isn't properly cooked after that time, I can finish it off in the microwave when we're just about to eat, if the Butter Chicken Curry isn't ready, then we'll just delay dinner for 30 minutes.

I haven't really cooked for years, but this WeightWatching has given me the incentive to try some new ideas, I will let you know how I get on with these and any other new recipes that I try out.

Good luck with your weight loss, I'll be back next week!

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Weigh-in - Week 18

Not such a good week on the weight loss front this week - I only lost 0.4lbs. On the bright side, a loss is a loss as the Weightwatchers old hands say and, of course, they're right.

I'm at a loss to explain why I haven't lost a bit more this week as I have kept well within my points allocation, having 18 Weekly points and 18 Activity points left over at the end of the week, which is about what I normally have. I can only think that my return to exercising has had some effect and that I will have a better loss next week, time will tell. Speaking of exercise, I have just been using the Crosstrainer since, as those who follow this blog will know, I have been suffering with Achilles Tendonitis. I have now increased my time on the Crosstrainer to 30 minutes each session and, according to the meter I am covering 12.6 Kilometers. I can tell you that I feel pretty knackered after that, but I must be getting fitter otherwise I couldn't last that long.

One of the benefits of the exercising that I have been doing is that I no longer get a pain in my lower back when I go for walks, so even without the extra levels of fitness and the toning of my muscles (not that my newly toned muscles are visible under all of the fat) I have benefitted from it. I still plan to start running when my Achilles Tendonitis has completely healed, but I suspect that this will not be for quite some time - luckily it's winter, so I'm less likely to be enthusiastic about running anyway.

Anyway, onward and downward and good luck with your weight loss program.