Tuesday 25 May 2010

Healthy You Challenge check-in and thoughts on balance

I lost a pound this week, bringing me to a total of 4lb off in 3 weeks.

The rational part of me, the one that knows I can't lose 3lb every week, is very happy with this. This weekend was also a bit of a social frenzy, so I took the principles that I followed last week and applied them a little more rigorously. I made slightly more effort to make sensible food choices, especially at meals where I had a full choice, and thus to save up more points for the moments when I didn't. And even when I let myself slip off the wagon slightly, I didn't go all the way. So at dinner on Friday night, while I did have battered cod and chips instead of the baked fish I'd originally planned, I didn't give in to the little voice saying "Screw it, have a burger!" At lunch on Saturday I stuck to salad. As a result I was able to approach Sunday lunch, a catered event with no choice, without the feelings of dread it would once have engendered. It's all about balance. I wish I could keep track of that more often.

For those of you near a river, punting is a remarkably good strength workout! I hadn't done it for years, and woke up yesterday with my quads especially on fire...

Culinary highlight of the week: a tie. Either the strawberry tart from Sunday lunch (more a proper tarte aux fraises than the Greggs or City Bakeries specimen of my childhood) or tonight's birthday dinner (for the Boy) of veal with new potatoes and salad, followed by fresh pineapple.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

That update I promised

So... when I last posted I'd just got back from the island of frenzied bingeing Aphrodite, just started a new job, and was taking stock of the effect of that unscheduled 4-week holiday on my life.

The most tangible (or possible squeezable) effect was obvious when I stepped on the scales at my first WeightWatchers meeting two weeks ago: 11st 5lb (that's 159lb, US friends, 72kg for Antipodeans). Ouch. That's a gain of about 4kg/9lb on my pre-Cyprus weight. I felt (and still feel) remarkably undespondent about it. How often do things like that happen, after all? If I'd gained more than half a stone in four weeks of normal life, I'd be very worried indeed, but it's a bit stupid to get worked up about a circumstance that will never happen again.

I have been enjoying discovering the new Discover Plan that WeightWatchers has going on at the moment. I've been focusing on the Filling Foods (basically lean proteins, vegetables and slow-release carbs) and zero-point foods (mostly vegetables) and have found counting points much less faff than calories. Remind me of this in six months when I'm moaning about it, please...

I lost 3lb in the first week, which I was of course very happy with. I stayed the same this week, but I'm not unhappy with that - a random combination of social events this weekend meant that I ate out for almost every meal from lunchtime Friday onwards, and while I managed to balance some of it with exercise, I hadn't run far enough to make up for the fact that I ate thirty-nine points on Saturday. (I'm supposed to have 19...)

We have one of our patches of frenzied social activity coming up, with no free weekends till mid-June. I'm going to take an approach of trying to maximise exercise, attempting to make wise choices (where possible) and tracking everything. In theory. Because at least then if it all goes wrong, I'll know why.

Monday 17 May 2010

Still here!

I have been extremely rubbish about blogging, but there is a proper post on the way in the next day or two... honest!