Small steps

[watchandwait]

Had a really busy day at work today - a couple of people are off sick and another one is on holiday, so that only left 3 of us. The day went really fast though, so I didn't get the chance to even think about snacking! Did ok with the speed food though - veg soup and aubergine casserole with some added spinach bumped things up nicely. Here's the full list for today:

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Carrots
4. Cucumber
5. Leek
6. Swede
7. Celery
8. Lettuce
9. Tomatoes
10. Aubergine
11. Onions
12. Spinach
13. Broccoli
14. Cabbage

I did a kick boxing type workout today - not my favourite. It definitely got me hot and sweaty though, so hopefully the calorie burn was quite high. I'm eating out again tomorrow night (I suddenly appear to have developed a social life!) so I'll probably be going off plan. I was secretly hoping to lose 3 pounds this week, but it's not looking very likely. The way things are going I'll be happy with 2! x

 

[watchandwait]

Hey,

I love how much speed you get through, I need to up my intake.

subscribing x x

Hi there! Thanks - I do love my veg

 

[watchandwait]

Today was a bit hectic. Luckily I'd already got my lunch sorted and planned my snacks for work because I was running late this morning. Hadn't prepped any breakfast though, so had to go with a quick slice of toast with peanut butter and banana on it. Any excuse to eat peanut butter! I don't like skipping on speed food at breakfast time, but I find it difficult to get it in when time is short. Think I made up for it during the rest of the day:

1. Apple
2. Carrots
3. Cucumber
4. Aubergine
5. Onions
6. Spinach
7. Tomatoes
8. Swede
9. Cabbage
10. Broccoli
11. Satsuma
12. Lettuce

I was surprisingly restrained when I went out this evening and ended up having a chicken and avocado salad (dressing on the side). Maybe I will manage to lose 3 pounds this week after all! Fingers crossed.

 

[watchandwait]

Had the best night's sleep I've had in a long time last night, but still felt absolutely shattered all day! Was really busy at work too (and I'm covering for someone who's off sick). Planned on going shopping after work - couldn't face it, so I came home and had a nap instead

Big speed list today, but I think that's because I had about 4 meals. Oops!

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Carrots
4. Cucumber
5. Leek
6. Swede
7. Celery
8. Lettuce
9. Tomatoes
10. Aubergine
11. Onions
12. Spinach
13. Bean sprouts
14. Red pepper
15. Cabbage
16. Green beans
17. Mushrooms

As I'm so tired I only managed a bit of stretching today. Also had a cheeky peek at the scales and wish I hadn't! I'm going to have to get a bit stricter with myself and follow the diet plan properly. I don't think winging it is working any more. Not feeling great really (probably because I'm knackered!) Goodnight all x

 

[watchandwait]

Oh goodness me, what a dodgy couple of days I've had. Been feeling so fatigued I haven't managed to do any exercise at all. It's been a busy week, with one thing or another, and it's going to be pretty much the same for the next 2 or 3 weeks. Unfortunately I gave in to temptation at work on Thursday and had a packet of monster munch and a wispa bar. I regretted it later that evening - I didn't even enjoy them! Comfort eating at its worst. The thing is, I did it again on Friday! (Well, it was a chunky kit kat and some roysters(?) crisps, but still). Luckily I didn't have much money on me because it could have been much MUCH more. Chocolate, crisps and biscuits are trigger foods for me, so I've really got to avoid them as much as possible. Once I get a taste... the cravings awaken.

On a more positive note, I have still been getting my speed food eaten. Here's Thursday's list:

1. Raspberries
2. Strawberries
3. Apple
4. Carrots
5. Cucumber
6. Tomato
7. Onion
8. Aubergine
9. Cabbage
10. Spinach
11. Broccoli
12. Swede
13. Red pepper
14. Bean sprouts

And Friday's:

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Apple
4. Carrots
5. Swede
6. Aubergine
7. Onions
8. Spinach
9. Tomatoes
10. Broccoli
11. Satsuma
12. Leek
13. Celery

I think I'm a bit stressed at the moment, but in a low-level constant underlying stress kind of way rather than anything major. In fact, it's probably more that I really don't cope well with any kind of stress. I just try to ignore it. Or eat it. I'm not really struggling at work yet, but I can see that point coming fairly soon. There's only so long you can keep on top of things when you're doing 2 people's jobs! And I've got lots of stuff to sort out at home. Seems like things are constantly breaking. I've got a long list of things that need fixing/replacing and was going to replace my broken microwave this month, but my iron burnt out this morning so I've had to get a new one of those. The microwave can wait. I'll try to squeeze in a bit of yoga today to help me relax a bit! x

 

[watchandwait]

Well Saturday kind of went to pot. I didn't do any exercise (again) - not even a bit of stretching. Instead I ended up at an all-you-can-eat buffet Oh dear! And I didn't eat anywhere near enough speed food. I made it to 6:

1. Onions
2. Peppers
3. Carrots
4. Peach
5. Strawberries
6. Mixed salad leaves

Sunday has gone marginally better, for the most part. Did a cardio workout that got me incredibly hot and sweaty - bye bye buffet calories! (Or at least some of them.) Didn't get all my speed food in, but 8 is an improvement:

1. Strawberries
2. Onion
3. Carrot
4. Leek
5. Celery
6. Swede
7. Apple
8. Mixed salad leaves

Most of this came in the form of the veg soup I had for lunch. I love soup. Had my weigh in and lost 2.5lb which is miraculous considering the last few days. Didn't lose anything last week though, so maybe some of the things I got right then are paying off now. If that's the case next week should be fun(!) I've been babysitting this evening and so far have had left over chicken nuggets that the kids didn't finish at tea time, peanut butter on tiger bread, 2 chocolate biscuits, a packet of crisps, a brownie bite cake thing, and an enormous iced finger. Oh, and a cheese sandwich. What am I doing??!?! I need to get back on track tomorrow. At least I brought my breakfast (slimming world rice pudding that I made this morning and some fruit). I need to go shopping on the way home tomorrow because I've got nothing in apart from a bit of milk, a couple of eggs, 1 slice of bread, half a bag of salad, 4 lemons(??!?) and a banana. Sounds like the contents of a Ready, Steady, Cook bag!

Exercise-wise, I've lined up all my workouts for the next couple of weeks, so that should give me a bit more of a push to get them done. 30-40 minutes a day is completely do-able. I've got no excuse for skipping any of them. I'm going to need my rest if I want the energy to exercise, and these children have worn me out so I'd best head off to bed now. Goodnight! x

 

[watchandwait]

Serious question: where do small children get all their energy from??!? Could barely drag myself out of bed this morning and prepare myself for round 2 this afternoon! Obviously it would help if I could go to bed at a normal hour, but I'm still working on that. Stocked up on fruit and veg at aldi today too, so I'm all set for the week. Also got my speedy 10 in today:

1. Apple
2. Lettuce
3. Onion
4. Strawberries
5. Raspberries
6. Swede
7. Celery
8. Carrot
9. Leek
10. Satsuma

Did an INCREDIBLY sweaty HIIT workout this evening (who needs central heating when you can generate that much heat yourself!) I'll definitely be doing that one again at some point. I should probably add a link to it here, just not sure how to do it. Anyway, I'm back at work tomorrow so I'll spend most of the day sitting at a desk. Might try to get some stretching done in the morning before I go in. I'll probably end up just staying in bed until the last possible moment though! x

 

[watchandwait]

I know myself so well - got up as late as possible this morning so had to skip the stretches, but I did do some cardio and abs this evening and got a good sweat going on. Got lots of speed in today too:

1. Cucumber
2. Carrots
3. Leek
4. Celery
5. Swede
6. Lettuce
7. Red pepper
8. Apple
9. Mushrooms
10. Shallots
11. Cabbage
12. Strawberries

And it's now far too late to still be awake so I'm off to bed. Goodnight! x

 

[watchandwait]

Today has not been my finest hour. Hardly ate a thing all day. (I really don't know how people find time to eat when they've got small children. I've got used to the "not being able to go to the toilet without an audience" thing. And the getting some kind of snot/poo/vomit on you thing. But I just end up eating whatever they've left/don't like - which isn't much. Oh yeah, and kinder hippos I mean it's all good fun, but I'm glad I don't have any little ones at home!) Then I ended up buying a huge bag of crisps on the way home. I didn't eat them all, but I gave it a fairly good go. Ugh. Tea ended up being a wrap filled with a bit of cheese and as much salad as I could cram in there to try and make up my speedy 10. Didn't make it, but 9 isn't too bad.

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Carrots
4. Celery
5. Onions
6. Red pepper
7. Lettuce
8. Cucumber
9. Tomato

Was far too knackered to do the workout I had lined up for today, so I swapped it for a light stretching one I had planned for the weekend. I'll get my sweat on then instead. Back in work tomorrow (got a bit of a weird schedule going on this week) so hopefully the "normal" routine should kick back in. Fingers crossed. x

 

[watchandwait]

Seriously overslept this morning - not the best start to the day! Luckily I'd prepared all my food and snacks for the day last night so I just had to grab them out of the fridge. I must try to get into the habit of doing that every evening. Had quite a good day food wise, certainly much better than yesterday anyway. Speed list:

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Carrots
4. Cucumber
5. Leek
6. Swede
7. Celery
8. Lettuce
9. Tomatoes
10. Red pepper
11. Apple
12. Mushrooms
13. Onion
14. Bean sprouts
15. Green beans

I swapped my workout again today as I felt up to doing something a bit more intense than the one I had scheduled - did an (allegedly) "fat burning" cardio routine. It definitely got me hot and sweaty, so hopefully that means the fat really was burning! I quite enjoy ticking off the exercise for the day. It makes me hungry, but I don't care - I just have another snack

 

[watchandwait]

Well Friday was... ok. Was feeling a bit stressed, but I think that's just work. (I really need a proper day off to just sit at home in my pjs!) I just did a light workout as I wasn't feeling up to much. Speed list went well:

1. Cucumber
2. Carrots
3. Mushrooms
4. Onions
5. Celery
6. Green beans
7. Bean sprouts
8. Strawberries
9. Lettuce
10. Tomatoes

Yesterday was not so great. Had a fairly busy day, but really did not feel like eating. Took a chicken salad wrap to work and only managed half of it. Didn't drink enough water either. Speed list:

1. Strawberries
2. Raspberries
3. Lettuce
4. Tomato
5. Onion
6. Celery
7. Carrot

Was suffering a bit with period cramps so was going to do a bit of stretching/light yoga instead of my planned workout, but ended up chain-eating freddos instead!!!! Feeling pretty rubbish this morning. Just going to dose myself up with pain killers and try to get all my errands done, then cleaning, ironing and batch cooking this afternoon. Yay for Sundays(!)

 

[watchandwait]

I'm not doing so well with the speed food at the moment. Didn't really have a proper meal yesterday - just snacks and a bit of veg soup. Not been feeling great, so my appetite is a bit off and I've not done any exercise. Full speed list:

1. Carrots
2. Celery
3. Leek
4. Strawberries

Today was pretty much the same, plus I was at work which is stressing me out at the moment. Came home and had a massive nap. Then I dozed on the sofa for a bit and I still feel knackered! Might need to up my iron intake. Or maybe just stop snacking and actually eat properly. Speed list for today:

1. Cucumber
2. Celery
3. Carrots
4. Leek
5. Strawberry (yes, just the one!)

I'm hoping plenty of trick-or-treaters come round tomorrow because I'll probably end up eating any treats that are left over. Not good!

 

[watchandwait]

Didn't get any trick or treaters on Tuesday. Not a single one. Consequently I've eaten far too much haribo this week. And that's pretty much the theme for the week unfortunately! Haven't done any exercise and I've been back on the chocolate and crisps at work. I'm blaming it on stress. I feel like I'm getting close to breaking point, but luckily I've got half a day off next week and I'm also taking a couple more days off the week after - for the sake of my sanity!

Speed wise I've been up and down this week. Tuesday was 6:

1. Cucumber
2. Carrots
3. Leek
4. Celery
5. Lettuce
6. Tomato

I actually made a proper meal on Wednesday (veg stir-fry), so I had lots of speed:

1. Leek
2. Celery
3. Carrots
4. Apple
5. Mange tout
6. Onion
7. Baby sweetcorn
8. Bean sprouts
9. Red pepper
10. Mushrooms
11. Green beans

And there was some left over for Thursday:

1. Cucumber
2. Carrots
3. Onion
4. Red pepper
5. Mange tout
6. Bean sprouts
7. Green beans
8. Baby sweetcorn
9. Mushrooms
10. Cabbage

Yesterday wasn't as good. Had to run out and do some errands on my lunch break, so ended up just grabbing some snacks to eat at my desk for lunch.

1. Apple
2. Strawberries
3. Cucumber
4. Carrots
5. Lettuce
6. Mushrooms
7. Shallots
8. Cabbage

I was a little bit disappointed with my 1.5lb weight loss last week, but I'm not expecting to have lost anything this week and will be quite happy if I stay the same. My initial plan of losing 7lbs a month is proving to be a little unrealistic at the moment. I still think it's perfectly doable, just not by me! I'd rather set myself goals I'm going to reach, otherwise I just feel like I'm failing all the time and it's very demoralising. The truth is, I could probably just try a bit harder because I've got plenty of room for improvement. I'm going to get back on track this week, starting with having proper meals, no processed food for snacks and doing some exercise. I'm actually missing exercise now. I definitely think it helps keep the stress levels in check. It helps me get to sleep better too (slept from 4am to 8am last night and woke up inbetween, which is pretty standard for me - have a lot of trouble with getting to sleep/broken sleep). I'll see how I get on before resetting my goals. I'm not in a rush to get to target, I haven't got a big event to aim for, so as long as it's coming off I'm not too bothered. I don't want to make changes now that I'm not going to carry on with once I get to target because I'll just end up back at square one. Again! So if slowly is the way to go, that's fine by me. Have a good weekend! x

 

[Jenny_b]

hey, how are you getting on this week? x x

 

[watchandwait]

hey, how are you getting on this week? x x

Hey there! I've had a bad couple of weeks to be honest- things went rapidly downhill after I last posted on here. I'm going to post the whole sorry tale later on, but in a nutshell I've basically been living off cup a soups, crisp butties, biscuits and cough sweets, haven't done any exercise at all and have put 4.5lbs on. I'm ready to get my head back in the game now though. Weigh in day is tomorrow so I'll see what the damage is and start afresh ftom there. x

 

[Jenny_b]

Hey there! I've had a bad couple of weeks to be honest- things went rapidly downhill after I last posted on here. I'm going to post the whole sorry tale later on, but in a nutshell I've basically been living off cup a soups, crisp butties, biscuits and cough sweets, haven't done any exercise at all and have put 4.5lbs on. I'm ready to get my head back in the game now though. Weigh in day is tomorrow so I'll see what the damage is and start afresh ftom there. x

oh no, sorry to hear that. hope weigh is ok tomorrow. well done on getting your head back in the game. hope you're ok x x

 

[watchandwait]

So, here's the story of the last couple of weeks. I wasn't doing so well last time I posted here, but I had my mind on turning things around. However, I was out all day on the Saturday and ended up not eating much apart from a burger and chips at lunchtime (fast food was the only thing available. At least it had a bit of lettuce on it!) Then on the Sunday I was at a children's party, with all the usual party food, and I came home with a massive slab of birthday cake. It was weigh in day and I put 1.5lbs on, but nevermind it could have been worse. Then... well, it didn't get any better. I'd been busy all weekend, so hadn't been shopping and had the last of my freezer meals. And I got a cough/cold thing that left me feeling drained and not in the mood for shopping, cooking or exercising. So I ate whatever was on hand (mostly cup a soups and crisps and a tin of biscuits that was supposed to be for Christmas ) So last week I put 3 lbs on. Oops!

I was really looking forward to my days off from work, but as I spent them being ill it felt like a bit of a waste. I'm still feeling quite stressed and not doing any exercise hasn't helped at all. (I was actually going to do a bit of stretching the other day and I went on the Fitness Blender website to choose a video only to find it's been updated and it's different now. It's not a big deal and it still works pretty much the same as before, but I must have been in super-stress mode because I just couldn't deal with it!!!) Nearly 2 weeks on and the cough is lingering. I think I'm just a bit run down in general. I'm feeling better than I was though so I've been trying to catch up on everything I was planning to do on my days off. Got a busy day ahead tomorrow running errands to and fro - not the easiest thing when you're relying on the vagaries of the Sunday bus timetable! I also seem to have copped for dealing with a list of stuff that needs fixing at my parents' house while they're away. Meanwhile I am still oven-less and microwave-less. Maybe I should just go and use their's instead

Anyway, that's what I've been up to. I could lie and say I haven't been posting on here because I was ill, but I think it's more that I was too embarrassed to admit to all the cr*p I was eating. I'll try to post everyday from now on, even if I've had a bad day. My priorities for this week are cutting out highly processed food, eating lots of fruit and veggies, and getting a decent amount of sleep. I really don't get enough sleep most nights. If I can do a bit of exercise too then that will be a bonus.

Thank you to Jenny_b for checking up on me. When I saw your message this morning I took it as a sign - time to get back on it! x

 

[Jenny_b]

Hey, please don't feel embarrassed, I'm sure we've all done similar. I've been off track loads of times and found that it really helps to update my diary, it can mean the difference between a day or two off plan and several weeks of eating the wrong stuff.

moving forward, I'm sure you will get those lbs you gained off in no time.

hope you're feeling better now.

good luck for getting back on track. look forward to hearing how much you lose next week x x

 

[watchandwait]

Just a quick update - was out and about from 10am to 5pm and ended up with a Gregg's veg pasty for lunch. Didn't do any exercise today, but (apart from sitting on various buses) I was on my feet most of the time. Had my weigh in and lost 2 lbs so I'm really pleased with that. Haven't been food shopping and won't get to the shops til Tuesday now, so tomorrow might be a bit dodgy. In any case, I'm definitely going to keep checking in here to keep me honest! Hoping for a loss this week - I'll be happy with 1lb. Goodnight! x

 

[watchandwait]

As predicted, today was a bit dodgy. Had a cup a soup and an egg sandwich for tea. Was going to do a bit of stretching, but that didn't happen. Going to the shops tomorrow so I'll get stocked up on fruit and veggies. x