Week 1 - Day 1

Today didn't really go to plan. The restaurant we went to at lunchtime was very yummy, and my husband knew the chef so he gave us some extras on the house which I just had to eat. I am incapable of choosing just "pasta in tomato sauce" at an italian restaurant. It seems like such a waste!

Luckily as we went out at lunchtime I just haven't eaten anything else for the rest of the day. I think the calorie count would probably come in at around the 2000 mark but difficult to tell.

Breakfast: pain au chocolat, clementine

Snack: mint imperial

Lunch (Italian restaurant): cheesy garlic pizza bread, olives, lasagne, mixed salad, some onion rings, mint choc chip ice cream

Snack: chocolate mint (from lunch)

No exercise

Here's to a healthy day tomorrow!

Here we go again

I see I haven't posted on here for nearly a year now. Well I can still jog for 30 minutes in one go, but I'm not a lot faster than I was. I have stopped going at lunchtimes during work now as I was having difficulty getting faster without getting really sweaty and disgusting, and even with a bathroom that's not quite what you want if you have to sit through an afternoon at work.

And since the clocks went back I haven't had chance to get out during the week as its dark when I get home. Only a month to go and then maybe I will get back into things again.

Anyway, the weight has been creeping a little recently - I'm 5'4", and around the 9 stone mark. I lost a lot of weight about 5 years ago and have maintained it, and my original goal, which I achieved was 8st 7lbs, but I've spent most of the time since around 8st 10lbs. I've just got back after a weeks holiday, and to be honest the last six months I've struggled to keep my weight below about 8st 12lbs, and tomorrow is my post holiday weigh-in which I suspect will come in just over the 9st mark.

I want to stop the creep - but the problem with being relatively small is that its terribly difficult to get those last few pounds off. So I'm starting an experiment. A countdown to my next holiday in June when I will be wearing a BIKINI for the first time in my life ever (outside of my back garden that is.)

So I have a plan that will hopefully help me lose half a pound a week for six weeks, maintain for one week, then half a pound a week for another six weeks, then maintain for about four weeks before my June holiday. I'm going to keep this blog as a food and exercise diary.

I'm the kind of person who enjoys food far too much to be accountable unless I'm writing it all down - and I quite enjoy writing it all down anyway so I don't have a problem with that.

Here's the plan:

Exercise:

- 20-30 min walk every week day at lunchtime
- 3 cardio sessions a week lasting between 30-60 minutes, either jogging, exercise bike or exercise DVD
- 2 strength sessions a week lasting between 20-40 minutes, either free weights or exercise DVD

Food:

Following a calorie shifting plan - so I don't get fed up with not being able to eat enough.

Weight loss phase:

Sunday 2000 cals
Monday 1300 cals
Tuesday 1500 cals
Wednesday 2000 cals
Thursday 1300 cals
Friday 1500 cals
Saturday 1500 cals

If I have a social event planned on a Saturday I may swap the calorie allowance for the Sunday.

The only food/drinks I will not be counting are water and tea (with or without milk).

I'm not restricting any foods but I will by trying not to eat sugary foods as snacks, as I've had quite a few fillings in the last two or three years.

We begin tomorrow - and I have holiday leftovers to eat up plus I'm going out for a meal with a friend, so may not be a great start but will do my best.

Tomorrow I will weigh and measure myself, and then do it again at the end of the first six weeks.

Here's todays food diary for starters, I haven't counted calories I reckon its around 2000-2100.

Breakfast: baked beans on toasted sunflower seed roll, glass of pineapple juice
Snack: packet of french fries, few mint imperials
Lunch: sunflower seed roll, few slices of various cheeses, few slices of mexican chicken, salad, clementine, cereal bar
Snack: handful of salted nuts
Dinner: sausage and mushroom pasta, white magnum

Here's hoping I weigh less than I think I do tomorrow morning.

Made it!

Well I've done it. Yesterday I managed to jog slowly for 30 minutes without stopping! Very pleased with myself. Now I just need to get a bit faster.....

Getting back into it

The last week or so I haven't really felt up to exercise particularly. My cold, whilst not too bad, only allowed me the energy to go to work and do everyday stuff, and I had no energy left for exercise. So today I went out for my first jog in about 10 days. I did the 14 min x 2 jog again, and was very pleased that I completed it fairly easily with no apparent detrimental effect from having 10 days off.

The weather is not looking the best over Easter so I guess that may well be my last jog before the holiday. I was hoping to have reached the goal of jogging 30 minutes in one go by Easter, which hasn't quite happened, but hey, before Christmas I could barely run for 1 minute at a time, so even if I didn't quite reached my goal I have progressed well.

I shall have to try and plan in some kind of exercise over Easter - and not eat too much chocolate! Although that shouldn't be a problem as I normally buy my Easter chocs half price the following week...

Meal plan w/c 30 March 09

Not a great to start to the week really. I came back from my weekend away with a cold which has proceeded to get worse all week. Unfortunately its not a "stay in bed" cold, its just a "struggle through the day feeling off colour" kind of cold followed by doing nothing in the evening to recover. Anyway, so the only exercise I've done so far this week was a 20 minute exercise bike session on Tuesday night which I wish I hadn't bothered with because it made me feel worse. Plus I've eaten too much this week because I've been lying around in the evenings and not been able to distract myself.

Then on Monday evening the dishwasher broke. I wasn't impressed. We have quite a small kitchen so if you don't keep on top of things there is nowhere to do anything. As it happens its quite an old dishwasher and we were planning to get a new one anyway over Easter, but hey that means I'm stuck with washing up for two weeks so meals will now be simple and use as few pots as possible!

Mon 30 - spicy chicken and apricot stew with rice and steamed veg

Tue 31 - chorizo, aduki bean and vegetable stew with a small handful of bulgur wheat chucked in

Wed 1 - fray bentos chicken and mushroom pie with steamed veg

Thu 2 - freezer meal, so either frozen pizza and salad, or frozen chicken thing with oven chips and baked beans

Fri 3 - bolognese, baked potato and steamed veg, if my cold is up to it

Sat 4 - hopefully something in the slow cooker, I have a packet of diced lamb in the freezer so maybe a lamb casserole or hotpot

Sun 5 - homemade pizza

Weekend update

On Friday I made sure I went for a jog at work, and I started off the penultimate stage which goes as follows:

5 min warm up walk and stretch
30 mins: (14 min jog + 1 min walk) x 2
5 min cool down walk and stretch

Finally I managed to shake off the lethargy and continual stitches that kept happening earlier in the week. I did well on the above jog and managed to complete it with no problems, so I'm pleased with that.

I then went up to my parents for the weekend, for the purpose of hearing my Mum sing in the Messiah on the Saturday with the amateur choir she belongs to. It was very enjoyable! I also caught up with a friend, who is currently debating whether or not to become a mature student, and if so, whether to go the whole hog and go to university, or whether to do a distance learning course. And then I caught up with my little brother who has just come back from twelve months in Canada.

Anyway, with all that going on, all the travelling, the clocks going forward, and the late nights very little exercise happened. This morning I'm shattered, I feel like I'm getting a cold, and I can't wait to get an early night. My plan is to do a few minutes on the exercise bike if I feel like it today and tomorrow, and then Wednesday to repeat my 14 min x 2 jog again.

Meal plan w/c 23 March 09

Finally I have managed to have a bit more self-control on the food front this week! (Although I admit to a chocolate caramel shortbread from Starbucks yesterday - which didn't count because it was a reward for making the last payment on my student loan hooray!)

Mon 23 - turmeric chicken with mash and steamed veg, new Rosemary Conley recipe which turned out very nicely

Tue 24 - salmon with soy and mustard sauce, mash, steamed veg

Wed 25 - sausage and mushroom pasta

Thu 26 - frozen pizza with salad

Fri 27 - going up to my parents for the weekend so this will be a late meal on arrival, I expect we'll get something like frozen chicken thing, oven chips and frozen veg

Sat 28 - again at parents, probably baked potatoes with cheese and beans

Sun 29 - and still at parents, probably some kind of roast dinner