Dave's diary - back on plan, back on Minimins

Hi Diary,

Sadly it has taken me until Thursday, the penultimate day of my conference, to realise that the evening dinner menu is actually posted on the outside of the brasserie from the morning, showing us what will be available!Better late than never I guess hehe.

I had a look at it during our morning tea break, and sadly there was nothing on there I even liked let alone anything that would be suitable for someone doing EE. I personally think posh restaurants should be banned lol. But it did give me time to come up with a Plan B.

And Plan B sees me sat in Wetherspoons in Swansea typing this update out. Sadly I am here alone so have become a Billy No Mates, but seeing as I was expecting that to be the case for the entire week I have been pleasantly surprised up to now. Somewhere in the darkest depths of the kitchen here there is a 5 bean chilli with my name on.

My plan for the rest of the evening, is to go back to my room after dinner, do some reading and paperwork in advance of tomorrow's conference business items, pack my suitcase as best as possible to save me a job in the morning, then have a long hot relaxing shower, and have a nice early night.

We have a very busy day ahead tomorrow, and I will be bright eyed and bushy tailed ready for it. And then afterward of course the 5+ hour journey back home.

On the way back to the hotel from Spoons tonight I will be popping into the Somerfield store to grab some fresh fruit and supplies partly for tonight and tomorrow during the day, but mainly for the journey home. When conference adjourns at 17.30 tomorrow we are left to our own devices and there is no dinner supplied, so I want to make sure I am not left in a situation where I am hungry and looking for something to eat in a train station, because invariably the options available in those situations are never good. I have 10 years of working on the railway under the belt and eating that kind of rubbish so know what I am talking about haha.

Anyway, my chilli has turned up and I wouldn't want to be rude and not eat it :)

ttfn x
 
Dear Diary ...

I have had the most incredible amazing interesting fun informative challenging rewarding week. But I am looking forward to getting home, to the wife and boys, to normality, to a food menu I get to choose, and perhaps importantly with only a few weeks to go now before my two 60+ mile bike rides I am looking forward to getting out on the bike for some serious training.

I am currently on a train, at Cardiff station, en-route from Swansea to Faversham, and I really can't get there quick enough. I should get home about midnight if all goes well with connections and the Underground too.

Today I had the same brekky as I have had all week, then my choices at lunch were bad again and I ended up with a couple of chicken drumsticks, some cucumber sticks and some potato salad. Not ideal, but the best I could have done. I have also eaten a couple of Alpen light bars a banana and an apple on the train journey. Not exactly a dinner but it will have to do. I am probably going to get some more fruit on the way home either at Paddington or St Pancras as I haven't really eaten a lot today. It may be a fruit overkill but it is preferred to the alternative I reckon.

This week has been quite the challenge, and I set out my plans and aims to myself in advance, and have stuck to or even exceeded them for the entire week. I couldn't be any happier with it actually.

But the frustrating thing is I haven't had my scales here lol, so I am looking forward to getting on them in the morning. Whatever they say, good or bad, will be fine. I just need to know :)
 
Well, my journey home didn't go quite to plan ... all was well from Swansea until about 3 miles from Paddington station, when the train failed. It had quite a serious fault, known as an air burst, and we ended up sitting right there on the train for over 2 hours. Of course, because of the time of night we all missed our onward connections, and we ended up being put in taxis all the way home from Paddington station. I got to Swansea station to start my journey at 17:30, but didn't get home until 02:30 :(

I had a lovely lay in though, not up til half eleven this morning, and it has been great to be home, see everyone, and have real food again. I had a lovely salad for lunch, and just had spaghetti carbonara for dinner. We need to work out a food plan and get some shopping in for the next few days.

I am going to start my bike ride training tomorrow, I really need to get into it as my long rides are getting closer and closer now and I haven't even sat on my bike in weeks.

I was looking forward to getting back to my own weigh in this week on Tuesday, but my training course is cancelled and I am being sent up to London for a meeting and I don't know if I will be back in time. I am also at a union meeting the following Tuesday as well, and definitely won't be able to make that SW meeting. If need be I will go down to the Whitstable group on the Wednesday as I don't want to miss so many meetings. And I am now very much regretting buying a countdown as I will be losing money on it , lol, we live and learn eh?

You'll be glad to know that now I'm home and back to my familiar surroundings I will be back to my sporadic posts, rather than the two or three a day I have been doing to help me get through my time while I was away.

Good luck for all your weigh ins, I hope the weigh in Gods are smiling on you :)
 
Thanks but after my weekend away "the god of weigh in" will have to be granting miracles and feeling very very generous lol.
After your determination and willpower this week you deserve a loss so I have got everything crossed for you.
Jayne x
 
Thanks Jayne I reckon I should get a loss tomorrow, assuming I can get to the meeting, but I don't know how much. Fingers most definitely crossed!

I had everything planned, had all my Tuesday evenings free, due to being on a Trade Union course one Tuesday a week for ten weeks, which took me off my usual shift system for the duration of the course. But tomorrow I am now going to a meeting all day in London and don't know if I will be back in time for weigh in - though I will be making every effort - and next Tuesday I will definitely miss my weigh in due to having to be at a meeting in London which doesn't even start until 18.00, Grrrrr.

I don't want to miss any weigh ins, so if need be I will travel down to Whitstable and attend that group the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday I went out for a bike ride, first one in over a month, and I really need to get my practice in because my two 60+ mile rides are only a few weeks away. I only did 15 miles to get myself back into it gently. Wasn't gentle enough, my bum is REALLY aching today lol. So much so that I decided not to ride again today and have a jog today instead. That was a mistake, as it is just soooooo hot, I got about halfway round, and ended up walking the rest! I guess even walking half of it, it is better than just sitting on my bum watching tv, but not quite as good as I had planned.

This afternoon we had a photographer round from the local paper for a few snaps, and they are running a story about mine and the wife's weight loss, and my winning the local man of the year award, in the local rag. Should be fun, this is our 15 minutes of fame that we have been waiting for lol.

When it's out, if there's a way to link to it I will do so.

We have jacket potato for dinner tonight, and even that seems like too much in this heat. I think I will be on perma-salads until it cools down. But I guess there are worse choices to make than that!

Hope you're all enjoying the sun, don't forget the lotion!!

ttfn ♥
 
Just catching up with your diary, my hubbie works for Network Rail SNT for his sins lol.....he also attended the Trade Union course about a year ago. He was so happy as they gave him a student card which meant he got cheap entrance into cinema lol
Your doing so well with your weight loss, SW is fantastic and great to see that some of your collegaues are showing an interest .... my hubbie eats the same as me in the evenings but I haven't been able to persuade him to take the step to join or follow it all day. He can see the results I'm getting but he's not motivated enough to do it :eek:
Good luck with the rest of your week
x
 
Hi Dave
Haven't been on here for a while but just read your post about the newspaper article and it's amazing. Don't think i'd recognise you now! I've now left SW as i'd got stuck and lost motivation there. I'm carrying on at home now and hope to lose a few more pounds before my holiday.

Keep up the good work!
 
Hi all, you can tell I'm back from Swansea I've gone from posting several times a day to once a week again lol

Loopeylou, I am guessing due to his job that he basically eats crap all day? Seems to be common no matter what part of the railway. As I'm sure you are very well aware yourself, you can't really force someone to want to lose weight they have to want to do it. And I mean WANT to do it lol. He may come around to your way of thinking one day, but you can be assured that following your plan in the evenings is probably doing him the world of good and he doesn't even realise it lol.

Teresa, thanks for the good luck wishes I was quite nervous about last Tuesday's weigh in - not because I had been naughty or anything but because of being away all week previously and having a lot of my usual control removed from me. I will keep you in suspense a few minutes longer though ... ;)

Hi Bayside I noticed you hadn't been on for ages, glad to hear you haven't given up on your goals and to be honest you probably know the plan as well as most consultants do and if the support doesn't help you at a meeting you'd may as well do it from home. I wish you every success, and I hope you'll carry on visiting Minimins to give us updates.

Last Tuesday I was at a meeting in London all day at my Union's HQ. I took a packed lunch and then stuck to diet coke during the inevitable visit to the pub which followed, sticking to plan all day.

Weigh in that evening was great, I lost 2lbs since my previous weigh in 8 days earlier at Swansea (or in the interests of continuity 1½lbs from my previous weigh in a fortnight earlier at my own group). Whichever result I took, it was far from the biggest loss I have recorded, but it was definitely my most proud result since I began. Being away for the week was very hard for me, I didn't have the choices and options I would have had at home, but harder than that was the constant temptation and almost expectation that I should just go with the flow eat drink and be merry for the whole week. Well I ate on plan, drank on plan, was still merry, but now I am VERY merry as I got a brilliant reward of another loss :)

Thursday this week and today (Saturday) I have been out for a 5.7 mile jog both days. I am starting to find it easy now and am going to extend my route next time I think.

My wife and the kids have gone away on holiday for the week, so I am at home alone fending for myself. Gulp! This is day one, and I am glad to say the better half made my lunch and packing up before she left so today has been seemples lol. Tomorrow I plan to get some shopping in then have salad for lunch, and as I finish quite early I plan on a Wetherspoons for dinner. I can foresee that Wetherspoons is gonna feature quite heavily in this week :)

Due to being at a meeting in London this Tuesday I cannot make my own SW meeting. So I have decided to instead go to my friend Marie's meeting on the Monday night. I went there once late last year so it will be good to go back and see all the familiar (or unfamiliar as it may be after all this time) faces again and see the consultant Linda again who seemed lovely.

I am off now as I can feel my bed calling me! ttfn x
 
Back again! Actually it's only because I forgot to mention something ... something that is actually very very exciting and I can't believe I forgot it!!

The wife and I have been in the paper!!!

Sally, my Consultant, tipped the paper off about my man of the year thing, so they phoned up and we spoke, and then they sent a photographer round, and it ended up being half a page!! I have added a copy of it to my album/gallery wotsit thingy on here if you want to check it out.

First autograph is free, ok? hehe

Anyway, I really am shattered so I'm off to bed for real this time.

Take care one and all, be good to yourself ♥
 
Hi all,

Flying visit tonight as the season finale of Flash Forward is about to begin and I want to watch it before all my friends on Facebook wreck it lol

Went out for a ride this morning as part of my training for the two big events I have coming up in a fortnight (gulp). Took a spare inner tube, just in case. Well, I get to the station at 09.15 as arranged, no sign of the two ladies I am meant to be riding out with. So I get a call, one of them has a slow puncture, they are pumping it up. No worries. Ten minutes later, they turn up, one of them has a flat. So much for SLOW puncture lol. Neither of them carried a tube so I used mine to fix it. And off we went. Fast forward two hours and twenty miles and BOOM I get a puncture!! Typical eh? No tube now to fix it with, so ride over lol. I'm just glad I was right next to a station when it happened, considering we had been in the middle of nowhere most of the ride. And it wasn't raining too. Very very lucky.

Anyway, the main reason I am popping in now is to update you on my weight loss. I can't make my usual class tomorrow evening due to being at a meeting in London at the same time. So I instead went along with my super friend Marie to her class in Lordswood. I actually went there two weeks after starting on SW, so the SWC there Linda knew me from then - you could imagine the look on her face when I walk in half the size hehe. Anyway, my weigh in went superbly! I only needed a ½lb loss in order to collect my 7½stone award, but as it goes I lost 4lb!! So I am actually already halfway toward my 8 stone award now :) Not bad at all considering I weighed a day early too. Very very pleased.

Anyway, must dash, Flash Forward is calling me hehe.

All the best and ttfn ♥
 
omg awol again i know training is taking all your time hope its all going well :)
 
Hi all,

Sorry I haven't been about for a while. I haven't been very focused on plan, in fact most of the time I haven't really been on anything you could readily recognise as the plan in any way shape or form.

I came off plan almost entirely while the wife was away, despite my plans to stay very much on plan throughout. Then when the wife came home she was still in holiday mode, and I was more than happy enough to go along with the flow, and we both stayed off plan together.

Worse than being off plan, is that we are either 100% on plan or bingeing on crap. There is no middle ground for us at all. We are either losing weight, or gaining it. I foresee maintaing target when I get there being a whole lot harder than getting there in the first place. But that is something for me to worry about another day.

Usually when I am feeling unfocused my wife very quickly brings me back to where I need to be, and the same is true the other way round as well. But when neither of us is in the zone, all hell breaks loose! We really are hopeless lol.

Having said that, I have a feeling we both just felt like we needed a break. We have been dieting/on plan/call it what you like a long time.

And OH BOY did we make the most of the break hehe. As always, I have no regrets, I knew what I was doing, I knew the alternative, I knew the effect it would have on my body/weight/size/shape, I knew it was sending me AWAY from my goals rather than nearer to them. And yet I continued. And enjoyed it too. Which in the big scheme of things means that I must have really wanted it. Which is good enough for me :)

I have paid for my naughtiness on the scales though. Two meetings ago I put on 3lb, and the last meeting I put on another 6lb! Clearly I deserved both those results, and I'm not worried about how high they are. When I am on plan I lose weight in massive chunks so it seems only fair that when I am gaining weight for whatever reason it also goes on in big chunks. I can't have my cake and eat it lol.

So, my latest official weigh in was 16st 12½lb, and my lowest had been 16st 3½lb back on 31st May. I guess that is my next mini-target.

I am back on plan again, back in the zone, I have my mojo again, fully focused. This is Day two as I actually got back into the swing of things properly yesterday. I feel just like I did when I first joined SW, refreshed, and ready to lose a lot more weight and get to my target :)

Since my previous post, I went out on another cycle training ride and got to 32 miles, which was my furthest ride ever at the time. But last Sunday I completed an organised ride called the "Great Kent" which was a 60-mile route. I finished it without problem, and didn't even have any aching arms or legs later that day or the following day either which is fab.

I haven't done any exercise since then, as I am just chilling for the week before my big sponsored effort - The Nightrider - 100km around London at night. My pal and I are setting off at 23.30 from Crystal Palace and the route takes us around much of London (not that we will see a great deal of it that time of night lol) and finishes back at Crystal Palace after the 62½ miles. I have been told it is very hilly, and am very much looking forward to that aspect as I am yet to find a hill which can beat me - I cleared all the hills on my last ride despite many other (younger/fitter looking!) riders giving in and pushing their bikes up the hill by foot haha.

I have now exceeded the sponsorship target I set myself at the start (£1000, which is approximately the average cost of each time the helicopter has to go off and save someone) and it is currently sitting around the £1200 mark which is incredible. I never really thought I would get anywhere near my target when I started collecting sponsors so am very very pleased. And still collecting as much more as I can too - the link is in my signature if you can afford a couple of quid that would be superb I am collecting for the Kent Air Ambulance Trust which doesn't get any kind of official funding and relies only on sponsorship and donations to keep running!

I am counting down the hours until The Nightrider now, 72 hours and counting!

Sorry again for the absence, I was absent in more ways than one lol, but I am very much back again now and already looking forward to a great weight loss this Tuesday :)

Hope you're all doing better than I have over the past couple of weeks, Summer is almost upon us and we'll be wanting to get our legs out so no more time for slacking lol

ttfn ♥
 
Nice to see a post from you. Sorry to hear about you being off plan but it happens to the best of us (went back to my meeting last night after 8 weeks of messing about.... not following the plan and then trying Paul mckenna) As I was already just above target it was a big shock to realise I am now 8 pounds above target MAINTENANCE is HARD! I have made a commitment to myself that this time I will not miss meetings when I get back to target.

Really want a good week this week but promised my dad I would take him to an all you can eat asian buffet this weekend. I am saving as many syns as i can and going to try and make Sw FRIENDLY CHOICES.

well done on your bike ride and good luck this weekend hope you are soon in the swing of getting back on plan !!
 
Hi Teresa :wavey: Even in hindsight I am so pleased I had what I guess amounts to a fortnight holiday off plan - I have felt so refreshed and focused again since coming back I reckon it was well worth it. And seeing as you are (were!) at target there is nothing totally wrong with you coming off plan for 8 weeks (but Paul McKenna? lol) but I guess it is a lesson learned that you will quickly put the weight back on again if you totally push aside everything you have learned on your journey. And the most important thing is you too are back on plan, back in meetings, and you don't have far to go again til target when your meetings will again be free :) It won't take you long to get back there again I know. When I get to target (still seems odd even considering such a thing hehe) I intend to keep attending meetings, especially as they will be free then, as I know the second I turn my back the lbs will creep back on again. I owe it to myself, the wife, kids and family to never allow myself to get like I was before.

It is great that Slimming World is flexible enough to allow you to go to an all you can eat place and still stay on plan, seeing how focused you must be again now I'm sure you will make all the right choices, have a great time, and still lose some weight this week :D

I have had a great week (well, few days) since coming back onto plan properly. Eating/drinking has been fine totally on plan. I've done no exercise since my last 60 mile bike ride last weekend, not out of laziness I promise, but because I just wanted to give my body some time to relax and chill between rides.

My Nightrider sponsored cycle is tonight. 100km (62½ miles), starts and finishes at Crystal Palace, goes around London taking in some of the sights - not that I suspect we will exactly see them as we start the ride at 23.30 and ride through the night. I've been prewarned that the Crystal Palace area is VERY hilly, but that doesn't worry me these days.

My sponsorship total has just passed the £1200 mark and I am ecstatic at that, people have been so generous :happy096: It costs over £1000 each time the Kent Air Ambulance launches, and the only income they have is from sponsorship/donations so I know they will appreciate every penny of it.

My only real concern tonight really is actually the logistics. From a travelling point of view it is a pain. Simple enough to get there - train from here to Victoria, then a connection down to Crystal Palace. But the return journey is a bit of a pain. We will finish the ride I guess about 5ish or 6ish depending how fast we go. But the trains Sunday aren't running due to engineering works and there are buses in operation ... buses which you can't take bikes on! So I have been doing a little research and reckon our best bet is cycle to Anerley (just what you want after a 100km ride haha), get the 0655 to London Bridge, then from there to Gillingham, and there to home. I won't get home til about 1030 tomorrow morning!

But that is just one of the problems ... I will of course be missing an entire night's sleep! Tomorrow is Father's Day and I don't want to waste it sleeping which would have a knock on effect for my sleep pattern the rest of the week too, so I am going to stay awake all day and have an early night, and hopefully a nice lay in Monday. But as I am in effect gonna be awake when I should be asleep, my days are going to merge, can I have some more syns? ;)

I will be having 2 energy gels and one bar, as well as 2 litres of the liquid equivalent throughout the ride to keep me ticking over nicely, which I have calculated comes to about 60 syns. So we'll call it quits I think :)

I'm hoping that due to the amount of riding I will be doing it will pretty much burn off as I ingest it, and it is almost 0% fat too so I'm not concerned.

So far as my weight has gone on Tuesday morning I was 16st 11lb, this morning I was 16st 2lb, a loss of 9lb in only 4 days which is a clear personal best lol. Most of it I guess was just temporary weight put on during my excessness of the two weeks off. Not sure what effect tonight will have, and to be honest I don't really mind, what will be will be. I have no choice but to do this ride, I have made my sleep decisions for the best possible reasons, and I will be staying on plan other than the high syn energy stuff which will help keep me refreshed and fit for the duration of it.

Shall I mention the England football team?

No, I think not :8855:

I'm off now, got a little more organising to do in readiness for tonight, then dinner (spag bol :eating:), Doctor Who, then I'm off.

See you all again soon :flowers:
 
Hope your ride went well and i would do the same with the high evergy gels/drinks etc in fact i did for the marathon.

I once did the moonwalk and found the staying awake harder than any of my other marathons but as you work shifts your body may be used to it more than mine.

Well done on your fund raising as well and hope your real weigh in is as encouraging as your home one !!

Just be warned for 48 to 72 hours after a big bike ride like that your body may retain water in your muscles so don't be surprised if the scales jump all over the place.

Teresa (hanging her head in shame over the Paul Mckenna flirtation !)
 
Good luck for tonight hope you get a great loss
Jayne xxxxx
 
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