Back at target, still thinking...

[Scrumbles]

Thanks Honey-J! Fingers crossed!


And "fingers crossed" it'll need to be if I'm not careful.

Had a bit of a slip up yesterday. For no good reason I ended up eating 430 calories more than I intended to, putting me at about 1850 for the day. Ouch.

I suppose the only good thing was that I didn't allow it to become any worse than it was - I could so easily have said "Sod it!" and hurled myself into the biscuit tin, but thankfully I didn't.

And I think the reason I didn't was because I kept counting those excess calories and I worked out that even though I was being "bad", if I stopped when I did I would still be less than 100 calories over a maintenance day, and that is such an insignificant number in the great scheme of things: one weight-loss day lost...a few grams of fat possibly regained...so what? Big deal! No drama.

Reading back that sounds a bit glib, but it was genuinely my thought process at the time, and I'm somewhat reassured that even in mid-mini-binge a part of my brain was determined to keep score and limit the damage.

Do I make up for it through the week? I thought about it but realised that if I'm struggling now, going hungry and/or depriving myself is hardly going to make me feel better and might even lead to a worse episode, so I decided against it. I'll just try and stick to around 1400 calories as usual and put it behind me. Line drawn, onwards and downwards, etc.

 

[Scrumbles]

Well, I seem to have steadied the ship: Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were all solidly on track, and today is shaping up fine too. Phew!

I still have this coming weekend (combined birthday and Easter celebration) and another birthday the next weekend to negotiate, but then I'll be out of the woods for a while and can hopefully focus a bit better on losing this weight.

I'd like to see 11-something on the scales by the end of May, but that may be a bit ambitious judging by my loss last month. I can always hope, though!

OH is home now, which is both a help and a hindrance: it helps that my routine is back to normal, but it's a hindrance that the house is full of junk food again that I have to pretend isn't there - aaargh!

 

[Scrumbles]

The Easter weekend, aka The Chocolate Holiday, is finally here...hurrah! Can't wait to get past it, frankly.

Yesterday's stunningly healthy menu featured a hot cross bun with butter and jam for breakfast, then a creme egg with my afternoon cuppa and a lindor ball after dinner. Go me. I went a tad over my calories (came in at about 1550) but I did do an hour of heavy physical work removing a tree stump in the garden, so I let myself off with it.

Today's food won't be any more virtuous either - same combo of treats - but I will at least ensure that my main meals have some nutritional value: cottage cheese with salad for lunch and chilli con carne on a bed of cabbage for dinner (trying to ease myself into low carb a little by ditching the rice I would normally have with the chilli).

Total calories should be a bit under 1400, so right where I'd like them to be, provided I stick to it of course!

Roll on Tuesday...

 

[Scrumbles]

Oh dear.

I kind of held it together on Saturday, but since then I've had 2 days of EPIC indulgence. I mean, we're talking Christmas levels of gluttony

Yesterday was easily 2000 calories, today was probably nearer 3000 - I wouldn't know 'cos I lost count once I started on the booze :sigh:


________________________________________


So there is my line. Can't do anything to change the past couple of days, but I can make the next week or so until weigh in as angelic as possible and see if I can salvage a loss.


Just wish I didn't feel so sick...

 

[TracyGWill]

Oh dear.

I kind of held it together on Saturday, but since then I've had 2 days of EPIC indulgence. I mean, we're talking Christmas levels of gluttony

Yesterday was easily 2000 calories, today was probably nearer 3000 - I wouldn't know 'cos I lost count once I started on the booze :sigh:


________________________________________


So there is my line. Can't do anything to change the past couple of days, but I can make the next week or so until weigh in as angelic as possible and see if I can salvage a loss.


Just wish I didn't feel so sick...

That's not gluttony, lol - I had nearer 5,000, THAT'S gluttony! xx

 

[Scrumbles]

Haha I love this quote... sounds like me every weekend! x

Lol...I'd be like it every weekend if I had half a chance


Managed to stick to my target calories yesterday - finished up at 1399 - but I can't pretend it was easy. Oh-so-many cravings for mountains of cake, chocolate and biscuits! I know it will pass in a couple of days, but I feel a bit pants right now.

Definitely think I need a spell of low-carbing - just not sure when to start. I feel like I want to get going on it, but it would be tidier to wait until after my monthly weigh-in on the 16th, then I can make a nice clean start and a commitment to low carb for the next month. Yeah...that sounds like a plan

It'll be a test, though: no porridge, no rice, no spuds, no pasta...yikes! I did it for many months at a stretch in 2012, but I was mega-motivated and focused back then and had a LOT of weight to lose. With a *mere* stone and a half to shift this time, I don't think my focus is anything like as great, so this could be quite a challenge. We'll see, I guess!

 

[Scrumbles]

Feels like I'm really having to dig in right now.

Wednesday I had 1450 cals, yesterday was 1390 and today is planned to be 1395, so if I stick to that I'll have managed 3 days out of the last 4 under 1400 calories. I wouldn't feel this was much of an achievement normally, but Mother Nature ever so kindly decided to hit me with my period a whole flipping week early, and whenever that happens my cravings go berserk - I'll be lucky not to eat every bit of junk food in the house, then go looking for more

Oh, and it's screwed up my weigh in this month too. Where I am in my cycle makes a huge difference to what I weigh, so chances are I'll be carrying extra bloat that wasn't present at my weigh in last month. Grrr...

Still, I should look on the bright side. At least I will hopefully come through this tricky time of year without having gained weight, which is an improvement on what usually happens!

 

[Honey-J]

Oh dear.

I kind of held it together on Saturday, but since then I've had 2 days of EPIC indulgence. I mean, we're talking Christmas levels of gluttony

Yesterday was easily 2000 calories, today was probably nearer 3000 - I wouldn't know 'cos I lost count once I started on the booze :sigh:


________________________________________


So there is my line. Can't do anything to change the past couple of days, but I can make the next week or so until weigh in as angelic as possible and see if I can salvage a loss.


Just wish I didn't feel so sick...

haha the word 'booze' lol I was the same on Thursday & Friday. Have you drank since then? X

 

[Scrumbles]

Any wine planned for this weekend? x

haha the word 'booze' lol I was the same on Thursday & Friday. Have you drank since then? X

Sadly no! :cry:No alcohol was consumed in the Scrumbles household this weekend - I'm being good in advance of my weigh in, which is looming mid week

And speaking of that, I was doing some number-crunching over the weekend and it looks like my daily calorie average for this month has crept up to nearly 1500 rather than the 1400 I achieved last month, meaning that my likely loss will be closer to 2lbs than 3lbs. Oh well - any loss is still a loss!

Obviously, the couple of weekends I had off plan for birthdays/Easter haven't helped, but I can't blame those entirely because looking back I've had very few days under 1400 this month, and most have actually been nearer 1450, which is a bit of a worrying trend if I'm honest. I'm clearly getting a touch complacent at this point, so it's yet another reason to go low carb for a while just to change things up a little!

Having said that, I am still undecided about the timing because I know that I'll be having an off-plan day on Thursday and another one on Sunday, so there's at least 50% of my brain telling me it's not worth trying to start low carbing until I'm clear of those occasions, which would make start day next Monday.

Yep, maybe I'll go with that...gives me a bit more time to plan, buy appropriate food and dust off my low carb menus.

Kinda looking forward to it actually - I know from past experience that I thrive on change when dieting, so this ought to be a good move. Guess we'll see!

 

[Scrumbles]

Yesterday turned out to be a good day foodwise - any day that contains Sainsbury's pork and chorizo sausages is a good day, but also I managed to keep below 1400 calories after being a bit over at the weekend, so it feels like I'm firmly back on track.

It's odd how that feeling of control comes and goes. Today I feel like I'm on it; yesterday, not so much. How I held onto it for the 16 months it took me to lose 6.5 stone 3 years ago I have no idea - and how I'm going to retain some measure of it when I eventually get to maintenance is another mystery 'cos my track record ain't good thus far!

Gotta be done, though. Somehow!

Today is planned as another sub-1400 day, so fingers crossed that I stick to it.

Had my usual porridge for breakfast, lunch will be a couple of snack-a-jack rice cakes with cottage cheese and a leftover sausage from last night (yum!) and dinner will be salmon salad with a jacket spud. One caramel biscuit and one Lindor ball will round off the day, along with about a gallon of tea(!)

Then I think I'll weigh tomorrow - I weighed on the 15th last month, so I might as well get it over with! I do feel as if my clothes might be the tiniest bit looser, so I'm hopeful of having lost something. Having done my sums, 2lbs would be about right, so here's hoping...

 

[Scrumbles]

Ok, official monthly weigh in done and I have lost....3lbs

Considering the off-plan days and the calorie-creep this month, I'm delighted with that - I was expecting 2lbs at best on the basis of my calculations, so yay!!

I still have a couple of off-plan days to negotiate this month - and tomorrow is going to be horrendously off plan - but I'm thinking I might just manage to get into the 11's by the end of May, which was my unofficial interim goal.

And that would feel so good. I know the 11 stone bracket isn't great for someone of my height, but nevertheless, it's where I start feeling more comfortable and confident in myself. I may look no different at all when I weigh 11st 13 rather than 12 st, but psychologically it makes a world of difference to me. Weird how much we get hung up on the numbers, isn't it?

I haven't planned my food for today yet but I'm aiming for another day of being slightly under 1400 calories - my third in a row if I can manage it

Onwards and downwards...

 

[hotsue67]

Well done!!

 

[Scrumbles]

Thanks Silver and Sue!


Yesterday was baaaaad: pizza, wine, tiramisu, Stilton, chocolate, biscuits...the works! I was still full this morning!

Gonna try to have a light day foodwise, partly to compensate and partly to recover!

Therefore, I skipped breakfast (for once, I wasn't remotely hungry so I was happy not to eat), I've had tuna and cottage cheese for lunch and dinner will be relatively normal - lemon chicken with leeks, carrots and spuds sounds good to me right now.

Total calories will come in a shade under 1300 for the day which won't make much of a dent in my excess consumption of yesterday but will give me back that all-important feeling of being in control.

Only the weekend to worry about now...

 

[Scrumbles]

Aaaaaand...it's done. Over with. Finito!

I ate a ton yesterday and have horrid stomach problems today, but I can finally draw a line under all this and knuckle down properly to losing this excess poundage. Gotta be done.

I'm holding off on the low carb thing for a few more days (got some cake that will need finishing first) but I'll be trying to go lower carb than I have been lately, which is at least a move in the right direction.

Today will probably end up as a sort of semi-fast (owing to my excesses yesterday), so maybe a little under 1000 calories, and tomorrow will hopefully be back to my normal 1400.

Have to say I'm glad that I'm not doing daily or even weekly weighing at the moment - I've probably (temporarily) put back most of what it's taken me 2 whole months to lose, and frankly that's not something I need to know right now!


Ignorance is sometimes bliss...

 

[Scrumbles]

Ohhh Scrumbles, ignorance is bliss.. I didn't resist the cheese board after all! x

I wouldn't have done either...I love cheese!


Well yesterday didn't pan out as I expected. For some reason I became ferociously hungry after my digestive woes early in the day and ended up eating maintenance calories. Oh well.

I've struggled again today, but I have gotten back on it. I don't want to let things slide just at the moment when it's most appropriate for me to get back on track - that would be properly daft!

I'm at 1460 for the day, and that's okay - not great, but it'll do.

Don't know why it seems so difficult to get my head back in the game at the moment. I suppose it doesn't help that I'm not naturally a very organised person, so having to plan all of my food each and every day takes its toll after a while, but as I managed it for over a year to lose 6st+ there's no reason I can't do it again!

I can only hope that I get into a routine, I guess - the less I have to think, the better, lol!

 

[Scrumbles]

Still not properly on track...why is this so hard??

Wednesday was good - stuck to 1400 cals - but yesterday I basically blew my deficit on biscuits and ended up only 50 cals or so below maintenance Today I'm headed for 1400 again and don't feel particularly tempted to overeat, so why couldn't I have felt like that yesterday? Geez! :sigh:

Seems I have a good day, then a bad day, then a good day etc., and it doesn't seem to be anything to do with the usual stuff like hormones or "life". I'm not down or worried or upset...I just seem to have moments when I want to eat, and I'm increasingly incapable of controlling them. Grrr

I won't be looking forward to my mid-May weigh in very much at this rate - in fact, I'll be lucky not to have gained...

 

[Scrumbles]

I'm having the same problem.

I'm wondering if it's because I've got treats in the house? For example, I have a tub of chocolate bars in the fridge, as treats can fit in on my non fast days... but then when I'm going over, I feel I'm eating things like that for the sake of it? x

Sucks, doesn't it? I appear to be dealing with the treats in the house by hoovering them up at lightning speed. Gahhhhh!


I'm going to sound like a broken record soon:

Friday = good day, 1400 cals
Saturday = total write-off, well over 2000 cals!!!
Sunday = good day, 1330 cals


WT actual F am I doing?! It's like I'm on my own version of the Johnson Up Day Down Day Diet, only without any proper "downs"

The net result of this can only be a maintain or even a gain if I carry on, so it MUST. STOP. NOW.

I thought this was going to be easier once Easter was over, so I'm truly baffled at the moment. Why am I sabotaging myself on alternate days? Must be something to do with my subconscious mind because my conscious mind knows exactly what I have to do and what I supposedly want to do. There's a battle going on somewhere, for sure!

I'm not giving in, though. Once upon a time, when I was over 17 stone, I would have been delighted to be around 12 stone, but having been in the 10's relatively recently, I'm not prepared to settle. I need to get at least a stone off before I'm content to move to maintenance, and that's not negotiable!

So, nose to the diet grindstone today. I have 1400 cals planned, and that IS what I will have. No snap decisions to have danish pastries, dozens of biscuits, white bread sandwiches or double G&T's will occur. Oh no. Not today.

 

[Scrumbles]

Have you thought about 5:2 to give yourself extra cals on non fast days?x

I tried fasting recently and couldn't handle it at all, so no, not an option for me unfortunately

But the good news is that I succeeded in sticking to my deficit yesterday...hallelujah!! First time I've managed two consecutive days on plan for a while - let's hope I can make it three!

I had a sneak peek at the scales this morning (it's another couple of weeks until official weigh in) and I'm pretty much the same as I was on 15th April, so at least I don't appear to have gained, which is quite a relief!

My original aim for this month was to lose 3-4 pounds but that obviously won't be happening, so it's now to put in a couple of solid weeks and see if I can lose a pound and a half - I'd be happy with that in view of all the messing about I've been doing.

Fingers crossed for another on-plan day...

 

[Scrumbles]

Stuck to plan yesterday, so that's 3 days in a row, and provided I don't mess up this evening, it'll be 4 days. Hurrah!

Still feel I'm hanging on by a thread, but I'm just taking it a day at a time at the moment and trying not to think too much.

It's only food, after all...

 

[Scrumbles]

Managed not to mess up on day 4, nor on day 5...hoping to make it 6 on-plan days in a row by the end of today (minor miracle!)

There will be wine on Saturday, so a seventh day on plan may or may not happen. I'll see how I feel at the time

Not going to stress about it. If I end up blowing my deficit, then I do - I'll just have to get back on track the next day.

One day at a time...