Portion Distortion

Hello my lovelies, I hope you're all well. WI went OK this week, 0.5 lb off which is better than a gain although after all the effort I put in last week I was hoping for at least a pound off .

The topic that the wonderful Jackie spoke about in our meeting this week was portions. How we all get complacent and portion sizes start to slowly creep up. The more she spoke, the more I realised just how much I'm not helping myself with little habits I've picked up. It's the little things that add up isn't it! For me its daft things like having an extra hot drink with milk in a couple of days a week (extra pro points), finishing off the last spoon of Nancy's yogurt a few days a week (each little pot is 2 PP!), "forgetting" to write down extra snacks during the day (around 2 PP a go), not measuring table spoons of salad dressings etc... I'm sure you catch my drift. If I did the afore mentioned things every day for a week I would make a severe dent in the weekly points allowance that I could have used on something that I actually wanted and had pre pointed up.

Sooooooo, this week I am making a conscious effort to weigh, measure, and not "forget" to track anything. So far so good, I have even dusted off my measuring spoons. I have gone over my daily allowance yesterday and today, although only slightly and everything has been accounted for. I blame today's extra points on the delicious flapjack cookies I baked this morning from the new WW cook book "The Complete Kitchen". Everyone who has eaten them has said they're very yummy and I should bake some more. They are well worth the 2 PP each! Tomorrow during Miss Fancy's nap time (if we survive the freezing play group) I shall be attempting to bake the blue berry muffins out of said cook book. It's on offer in the meetings at the mo, and I'd snap it up if I were you!

Lets see what happens...

Lex xxx

Hello!

Well hello my lovelies, I hope you are all well. Once again I have been declared M.I.A (or missing in action if you've not been forced to war films as I have...). I am still here and still plodding along with the weight loss. I am now back at my pre-baby weight and have once again lost 70 lb or 5 stones if you please, and I'm sure you don't mind if I feel a little bit chuffed with my little self.

Not sure if I mentioned it in my last posts, but I'm back in the gym rocking the work out wear once more. I had forgotten how much I like exercise to be honest! That is quite something to say that I skipped as many PE classes as I could when I was at school, and up until I started on this journey I avoided any sort of non-essential moving of any kind. I'm back into the Zumba classes and I'm running again. I would love to one day run a proper race, I have never admitted that to any one at all before! Eeeeeek!!!

Another positive bit of news is that's I have finally started CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) after being on the waiting list for VERY long time, and to be honest I am more than ready for it. As some of you know, I have had depression for a long time and have had many a battle with myself. CBT, for those of you who are interested, helps to provide you with different ways of thinking and behaving in situations that cause anxiety etc that are your personal "trigger" if you will. I have my first real session tomorrow afternoon, and I know that after the last session which was just a bit of a quick interview type jobby, I was shattered so I hope that a cuppa and a Zumba class tomorrow evening will sort my head out ready for WI on Tuesday morning!

I promise I won't leave it as long between posts this time!!

Lex xxx

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiya!

Hiya boys and girls, please let me apologise for my inability to blog of late. I am truly disgraced to see that I haven't posted at all so far this year! How rude of me!!!

To be honest there's not much to catch up on here in sunny South Yorkshire. I'm still going with WW and getting closer to goal with every WI thankfully. I'm more determined than ever to get to goal this year, and now I'm back in the gym I hope I can get there sooner rather than later.

After a meeting at work the other week I realised how much I really DO NOT want to go back to that place, just setting foot inside the car park made me want to cry. Not a good feeling at all. Soooooo as soon as I get within one stone of my goal weight I AM applying to be a WW leader!!! I will have to go back for a while unless we win the lottery in the last few months of my maternity leave.

So I have now lost 66 lbs once more, and as I'm shrinking Miss Fancy is growing! She's now just over 5 months old and is a very cheeky little madam. She's just started eating "real" food so most surfaces are covered in some sort of mushed up fruit or veg, at least I can share the BNS and carrots with out it spoiling my daily allowance!

I will definitely update again soon, I promise!

Lex xxx

Still Going!

Hi boys and girls, I thought I'd better check in with everyone seen as I've been quiet for a while! Hope you're all well :D

So lets get down to the business in hand... Weight Watchers. Last week I had a gain of 1 lb which I was expecting to be honest. We had a messed up week of Mr B working away for the full week in Wolverhampton, so my Mum came to stay for a few days. This meant that I couldn't get out and about walking as much as I would have liked as she's not great with her back and has heart trouble, however I made up for it by walking my little legs off as much as I could leading up to WI today. It paid off too as I had a loss of 2 lb this week! Woooooo! So thats 4.5 lb since returning from maternity leave hahahaha.

As you may know, I get a bit obsessed with planning and being as organised as I can be. Well it seemed to pay off this week as one of my best friends and her gorgeous little girl came over on Wednesday for an adventure to get some material to make the gruesome twosome (our babies!) Christmas stockings. Mrs A is doing well on Slimming World so I made us veg soup to give us strength to battle through the crowds! The vat of this has seen me through the week, and the scrummy healthy lunch that Mrs A made for our crafty day on Sunday was delicious! We were very very good too and had a sliver of cake rather than the chunk of cake (with cream or ice cream) of lunches past. I'm also pleased to report that Mrs A had a great loss at her WI too this week.

I'm hoping to keep the planning and organisation going this week. I've planned all our evening meals for the next week, and I'll have to go to the market for the veggies a few times so I can hopefully gain so activity pro points too! It's times like this that I'm greatful for the basket under the pram, I shudder at the thought of having to carry shopping now hahahaha.

Getting out and about with Miss Fancy Pants in the pram keeps me from going stir crazy, and I'm proud to say that she is the youngest member of the playgroup and the play gym (not that she does any playing yet, just glaring at the kids having fun!). To be honest I've not taken to motherhood as easily as I hoped I would, and the brain mush has returned with a vengence unfortunately. I'm very lucky to be able to be as honest as I am with Mr B and my family, I know not every one is lucky to have such a great support network and as I said getting out to play groups and other meets is really helping.

Any way, thats enough of that. Do any of you lovelies who go to WW meetings have any of the new cook books? I've been flicking through them at the meeting this morning (I have the hearty cooking if thats what it's called with the blue cover) and wondered if you could recommend any of them?

Have a great week,

Lex xxx

I'm Back Baby!!!!

Well boys and girls, as the blog title suggests, I'm back to blogging and as of Tuesday back at Weight Watchers!

The last eight weeks have gone crazy fast, miss fancy pants is now over eight weeks old and is a proper little bruiser weighing in at over 10 lbs! Not bad for someone born 3 weeks early at all!

So down to business. I re-joined WW on Tuesday at a totally different meeting here in Barnsley and am once again doing the monthly pass so am tracking online and on paper as that works best for me. The weigh in wasn't as bad as I expected to be honest. My last recorded weight was the day after I found out I was pregnant and I was 13 st 2 lb, and on Tuesday my weight was 14 st 6 lb. So one stone four pounds of baby weight really isn't too bad going at all I don't think, especially considering my aversion to our fridge and cooking things during pregnancy!

It feels nice to be back on the plan once more, for now any way! My brain mush has come back with a vengeance so to have something that I can "control" is making me feel a bit better. I know it's not a great way to think but that's how I feel at the moment. But more about that in another post...

Any way, please have all fingers and toes crossed for me for this week with the plan! I am finally catching up on every one's blogs now that miss fancy pants has a more regular bed time!!

For those of you who would like a sneaky peek at my gorgeous girl, here she is...

Lex xxx

Going Bananas...

The wanderer has returned! Our Internet decided it didn't like us during my week off which is why I haven't had chance to get on and keep in touch with every one. Needless to say I have lots of reading to catch up on once Virgin decide to fix our Internet...

Today is my first day back in the office, and I can safely say it's like I've never been away, and not in a good way. I have done some serious thinking whilst I've been off and decided it's time to bust a move in some form or another! I'me sure everyone gets fed up in their jobs, but I have stuck it out for too long now and am in need of a change. It's time to be proactive rather than be a serial moaner, even though I know I am extremely lucky to have a job at all now a days.

As predicted, my week ended up being jam packed full of lots of little bits. Mr B is off poorly at the mo, and we barely spent any time together at all which was a shame, but I suppose we can't have it all seen as we had a fab weekend socialising and slobbing on the settee. I spent the week catching up with friends, eating cakes, going to the gym, meeting new babies, and doing lots of walking. Work seems like such a nice quiet place to be after writing that little lot down!

I am keeping up with the running in the gym, and I keep on doing my cheesiest grin when I've completed my 20 mins. I'm now on to 1 minute of walking and 3 of jogging, and I'm amazed that I can actually do it with out keeling over. Off for a gym session tonight too, as I'm trying to keep up the 3 times a week hing I had my heart set on. So far so good on that front too. Zumba class was run by a different lady this week. She has a very different style to our usual lady Libby, much more relaxed and a bit more like an aerobics class. I enjoy the dancing style that Libby does, and I didn't feel like I had as much of a work out as normal either. Fingers crossed that Libby comes back from her holiday sooner rather than later!

I went to Yong's house for tea on Tuesday and we were nattering about me becoming a leader and what I'll have to do, and I can honestly say I can't wait to get started now. I have just started learning how to be a clerk at our meeting now too, we had 12 more new starters on Wednesday, I know the numbers will dwindle eventually but it gave me an idea of what might happen this time next year for me at "My" meeting... It was nice to eat something different, we had quorn chilli. I really like quorn whereas Mr B can't stand the stuff, so I either just cook it for myself or don't bother!

Tuesday night also saw me discovering a new favourite pudding, bananas and custard. I know it sounds boring but it's so comforting and feels like a proper little kid desert and it only works out to 3pp per bowl. I use 1 or 2 small bananas and 1 small tub of ambrosia low fat ready to serve custard. Yummy yummy!!! Yong also introduced me to vanilla flavoured canderell sweetener. I've finally found some in Salisbury's on my lunch break today, and made myself what felt like a very luxurious coffee with one of those little babies in. I can highly recommend them!

Just like the awesome Starfish, I too have rediscovered my love for bananas. I still ate them on the old points plan, although I did tend to scoff the "kidsize" ones so they were only 1 point, I did have them most days too unlike many other bloggers who's posts I have read. I don't go over board with them, but I am enjoying being more creative if you will... The smoothie maker has been dusted off, some bananas have been frozen for a sweet treat, some just scoffed straight out of the skins. If any one has any ideas please let me know!

WI on Wednesday was a great result once more. I lost another 2 lb this week which is taking me ever closer to the 6 stone gone mark for the WI before Valentines day. 6lb to go in 4 more WIs. I'll give it my best shot but I won't give myself a hard time if it doesn't happen, at least I'll be closer to the end!

Well I'm sorry that this has been a bit of a mishmash of a post, I'd also left my little blog planning notebook at work so wasn't able to scribble things down. This weeks task is to become more organised!

Lex xxx

Health and Safety Overload!

I have returned and am proud to say that I have survived the health and safety course and an over night stay with moaning colleagues! Wooo hoo! I have to say that it was the same course as last year and just as "interesting" as it was once more geared towards the construction industry. I did come into my own in some areas though so I was feeling slightly smug for a fraction of yesterday. The picture above is of the notes I made on the first day, as you can see at one point in the afternoon my mind wandered and I started adding up how many points I had had so far and had got left for the evening meal... Exciting times! The glass of wine I had with tea was lovely and extremely well deserved. I even managed to earn 2 activity points on my pedometer, as Caroline and I needed some fresh air after the course and went exploring.

I did find the whole thing a struggle as I expected I would. The food choices that were on offer were not fantastic for someone trying to track their points! I remembered from last year that its a full cooked buffet lunch, so I had a fish cake on the first day and a piece of Salmon on the second both accompanied by salad and veg, I even sat all virtuous with my satsumas for pudding whilst everyone else was tucking into amazing looking puddings. It was hard not to revert back to my old habits, especially when I saw the chocolate torte type thing that was on offer. Both lunches were delicious but at home I try and eat lighter at lunchtime and have something bigger for my tea, which wasn't great yesterday with it being the dreaded WI day.

The lack of water available for me to guzzle was a tad rubbish too! There were some large bottles of water on the tables but for some one who can drink loads without thinking about it, there wasn't enough!

So that leads me nicely in to last night's WI result. I had a gain of 1.5 lbs. I'm not surprised and certainly not shocked by this due to the lessened control I had over the two days leading up to it. In all honesty I thought I was going to have a much larger gain than that so I am gratefull that there's less to aim to shift for next week. Even with this gain, I'm still over my four and a half stone mark which is the thought that is keeping me going. My own mini goal is to be at 5 stone gone by my birthday at the end of November...

My WW leader, Yong, last night was teasing us by not letting anything slip about the secret new changes to the plan. Does anyone have any inside info that they're willing to share?! She did however tease me by asking me if I eat a lot of fruit and then winking at me!!! How very mean!!

All my organising skills are coming into their own with the meal planning. Tonight's tea is a, dare I say it... Slimming World recipe that I have adapted and pointed up. I have to admit it was the Herby horseradish dumplings that attracted me and made me buy the magazine! So its rich beef cobbler with herb and horseradish dumplings tonight and lasagne with pork mince for tea tomorrow. Yummy yummy in my tummy, at least I hope so!

Hope everyone is having a great week, I've had fun sat drinking my coffee and catching up an every one's posts.

Lex xxx

10%!!!

Oh yes boys and girls, I achieved it and could even be seen doing some sort of victory jump/jiggle manoeuvre next to the scales. The coveted 10% keyring is mine all mine and I'm feeling rather proud. Now as most of you know, I started doing WW online and only started attending meetings around mid June this year so this is just my 10% since starting going to a meeting. The 2 lb off last night now takes me to 62 lb gone or 4 stone 6 lb if you prefer, and 1 lb away from my next charm for my gorgeous bracelet.

Mr B and I are off to meadow hall on Friday night after much discussion, in which case I can call into House of Fraser and buy myself the two that I owe myself! There's so much choice and so many pretty things though, although saying that its only a small counter so they may not have the full range like the proper shop. So far I am fancying a little four leaf clover to add to the collection.

Is any one else doing anything similar to celebrate little victories or goals?

Off to see the parents tonight and will call in to see Grandma hoppy too. Thank you for asking after her girls, she's doing ok and managed to make it to bingo wearing one shoe and one slipper!!! She won the "house" jackpot any way hahahaha.

Lex xxx