Growl!

I really was good last week - and I got up to 12 activity points (best yet) - and I only ate 8 points over the ration - so had most of my bonus points unused.  I felt really pleased, I was a little worried, because I went out last night with M - we had a couple of glasses of wine and met some nice new people Jo and John and went to Osteria Posillipo with them, where I had another couple of glasses of wine - and a plate of Merluzzo caprese - basically cod in a tomato, caper and olive sauce - so hardly dreadful - and two tiny pieces of bruschetta... so still within the bonus point excess I should think, yes - it was, I just checked, I only ate half the bonus points.   And several days last week I only had about 30 points - 9 less than the full allowance.   So what went wrong?

Well, I was expecting to show a good loss - and in fact I put on 0.5 lbs... very unfair.  The official explanation is that activity increases muscle muscle produces glycogen and glycogen production causes water retention.   Hmmm.  Let's hope it's that, rather than a too carby diet.

So, although it was my goal never to put on weight, I really have can't blame myself for this.  It's likely that the wine I drank the night before would have given me a bit of water retention - so let's hope once it all "settles down" I will show a really good drop next week?   I am wondering though... Today I gardened and did almost as much activity (10 points worth) in a day as in the whole of last week... 

Any change?

I am going to be v. pissed off if I don't lose more than 2lb this week - I have been really careful - kept well within limits most days, only used 4 pts from the bonus points (so far) and have been much more active.  Well, continued with a slightly higher level of activity.  I have however, been having micro snacks - these are snacks that fall under the radar - a tiny crust of bread dragged across the butter - no points in that really, but how many can you eat before they register.

I have also thought (although I don't usually eat after supper) that this sort of time around midnight is a no-man's land for eating - you've had your day's worth - and it's not tomorrow yet, so I bet some people do eat stuff at this time.  Ah well, bed calls.

Patterns - wine

Habits, patterns, one looks for them all the time.  Although I was worried about some of the food I ate in week 6 (the sweet potato chips for example and the pork scratchings) I still managed to lose a pound.  So far, there have been 2 weeks when I lost nothing - in the first of these, I was incredibly good, and really disappointed.  In the second of these I had been decidedly borderline in my habits, so perhaps deserved it.

I suppose one just has weeks when one feels inspired to really try - and other times when one says "Oh Sod it!",.   I think too much of my life has been lived under the banner of "What the hell?" - but really, I have tried and enjoyed an awful lot of nice food and drink in my life - so I ought to be able to say "not tonight" occasionally, or just eat a minuscule catwalk model serving.

It's interesting the most of the women I talked to the other day seem to drink a lot as well.  I know this completely releases one's inhibitions and stops one achieving what one wants, so a habit I need to break is always having a glass of wine with food at dinner (well, nearly always).  These occasional glasses are often drunk without one even noticing them, so it must be possible to stop.

The other day at the Minster Village Fair I was really pleased with myself because although I was ravenous, and actually a bit wobbly - I refused to eat the sausage item... I thought, why ruin one's diet for something one doesn't really like?   And I think the wine thing should play a similar role - "Why ruin my diet for a glass of wine that I'm not really enjoying?"

Perhaps the solution would be to buy one £10 a week - then enjoy it slowly... but it wouldn't work, people would still drop around and we'd have to refresh them with something!

Latest weigh in

Well, after all that anxiety I lost 1lb - not great, but it was a loss - and if I felt it was less well deserved than it should have been, so be it.   I have learned that you really can eat pork scratchings - provided you don't go over your limits.     And that I need to be a bit more stringent in my estimates of what I'm eating.  Next week's goal: lose 3lb.... and do some more exercise.  Anyway, I have now lost 17lb - which isn't great, but when I say lost, I hope it will never be returned.  Poor K had a couple of weeks of social life, a big wedding etc. and put on 5lbs.  She seemed pretty gutted.  It must be very hard for her - I wonder if I can find out about zumba classes or something - for a bit of extra fun/exercise - might persuade A to come with me.

What am I eating wrong?

The theory of the WW points system is that you can really eat anything - so of course I could happily eat all that foccacia on Sunday - as long as I didn't go over the top... however, after years of eating a semi-low carb diet, I don't always feel comfortable about this.  Curiously on Sunday at the beach my lunch consisted of some mineral water, 4 bits of foccacia, some black olives and 2 glasses of white wine.  I felt great - maybe that was the swimming and the sunshine, but also guilty that I had eaten the "wrong" things.

Similarly on Saturday night I ate a meal that consisted largely of wine and salted snacks - with a bit of healthy pizza... but in theory I was within the limits so what's the problem?   I guess the answer will be on the scales tomorrow.  I did a lot more activity - and generally feel more active and energetic... although still find supermarket shopping a bit draining!

Is it just something ingrained in dieters that we feel we eat the "wrong" foods.  Actually, the most delicious thing I ate this week was probably (1) carrot and onion salad (2) tomato and pepper salad (3) coconut cake with strawberry ice cream - I have always liked the strawberry coconut combination - usually in the form of Italian icecream, but this strawberry ice cream I made was so good...I had to make the cake to see if it would work.  It did.   Then again, I only had a minuscule slice of the cake, about 1/20th of the whole, and a dessertspoon of the ice cream.  Hum, perhaps I am learning to eat better.  I have been here before tho'.

Another bad weekend

Oh Lord, I've been so good - but now I've had a wipe-out day... it was all just about OK until this evening, when I found all I really wanted was snacks - nuts, wine, pork scratchings, two tiny pieces of pizza, a piece of the famous coconut cake... more wine, nuts etc.   Grrrrr.  But still, probably only gone into the bad zone of the bonus points, probably haven't had all of those.

Why?
It was a sunny day - I just wanted to relax and enjoy myself.   Tomorrow it's beach, wine and foccaccia day...let's see how it goes.

Later, actually, I added up the points (although I forgot about the coconut cake - and found I had still got plenty of bonus points left, to enable me to go bit mad on Sunday too.

Also, I think that although I pigged out on Sunday - what filled me up was not the cheesy garlic bread, but the carrot salad and the tomato and pepper salad, which were nul points and 1 point respectively.   I went to the beach - which involved walking and swimming, lay in the sun and ate 4-5 pieces of onion foccacia, two glasses of white wine and some olives - and didn't feel at all hungry - just perfectly satisfied.

I suppose the great thing about the points system is being able to use it as one wishes.  I fear I may have been a bit generous to myself about the value of the foccaccia - the oil obviously makes it "worse" than bread.  However, I have achieved the goal of having some points left, and of having done some exercise.  This is good!

A bad weekend

It was all going so well, had stayed below my level nearly all week - then on Saturday I relaxed, I ate handfuls of almonds, and Belgian chocolate biscuits.  Then we had a spectacular Spanish dinner on Saturday night - during which I ate many delicious things... lamb, croquetas, crema di naranja...  and almond bics.  I tried to add it up - but rather failed... ate 20 points above the combined daily and weekly bonus allowances.

On Sunday I was not much better - we went to a Moroccan place for lunch - all you can eat buffet... it was fab.  Only had 2 platesful, but those plates contained (alongside a lot of salad) some lethal things... and I had some wine (only 250cl but...), and I still had room for some supper - burgers, even tho I didn't have the bun or the potatoes, just lots of salad!   And the last tiniest crema di naranja...

Today I felt completely lacking in commitment and picked at stuff - and didn't track all of it.  I ended the evening with 3 glasses of wine... oh dearie me!   I am in trepidation to see how my weigh in tomorrow goes.

I feel that it is just a blip, but I am also anxious that there will be a number of blips in the next few weeks and I will find it hard to get through them without giving up drinking.... I must make myself a delicious non-alc drink like Denise does and take that out firmly with me.    Oh Lord, it's going to be difficult to do this and maintain my social life... time to start mixing exotic non-alc cocktails.