Possible solutions

OK - I became brave and strong and added up the points and I found I had stolen 13 points from the week - so it wasn't that bad, although I may have been a little bit kind to myself... however, I feel that as I owned up and counted it all out - olive by chip by sugary strawberry that I could perhaps be gentle - and I think my steak was smaller than their suggested portion..

The good news is - we have 36 points still to enjoy!  That's 2 bottles of wine... but I need to work out a strategy for tomorrow.

The important thing is to make some good veggie soup - and have that ready for emergencies.  That will be fine - filling etc. and perhaps I can make some more room for wine in the evening.  Or alternatively not eat anything.   Or get fish and chips - which isn't as bad as you'd think.

Goals

This week we talked about having goals - just small goals, to encourage us.  I suppose my goal might be to put my plimsolls on one day, in the hope that I might go out.   It would help if it stopped raining.


The first WW goal is to lose 5% of one's body weight - which I have done, the second one will be to lose 10%.  

My next short-term goal is to get down to that weight by the end of August (28th is the last meeting) - which means I will have lost 2 stone. This means I will have to lose 11lbs in the next 6 weeks, which doesn't seem impossible, but does require a certain amount of concentration... I can certainly lose 6lbs, but but... I haven't seen a pattern yet.

My medium-term goal is to get down to roughly the weight I was at my mother's funeral by September,  I'm not sure I could do that though - I've just worked out that I was about 17st 9 then - so that's out of the question I think (well it's 8 weeks to beginning of Sept - so even if I lost 16lbs I'd still only be 18.11 - heigh-ho!).  On the other hand, 112 kg on our old, wildly optimistic scales was probably about 6kg out - so my weight was probably nearer 18,.7lbs so not that far off...


My long-term goal - is to be about 12 - 14 stone.... I don't think I'll ever go right to the bottom, not sure if I want to. I only want to be healthier - not to become a haggard stick!


General goal: not to increase weight any week - the worst can be to stay the same.

First goal 3rd July
Last week's goal was not to eat all my bonus points.   I had 23 left (out of 49) so I really feel that contributed to my "excessive" weight loss (2.5lbs).  Achieved

Second Goal 10th July
This week's goal is - what?  To go for two walks down towards the harbour...

Third Goal 17th July

Well - I didn't succeed with that goal - so it's the same goal for next week.   And the secondary goal is not to  use up all my bonus points!  Last week I was 20 over the limit!   Lucky I stayed the same weight.

Result: I didn't walk to the harbour - but I walked a great deal more - and swum and so got 10 activity points up to Monday.  Also, today, Monday, I still have some bonus points left...so perhaps I won't do too badly tomorrow.

Fourth goal 24th July
Try not to use any bonus points - have at least one long walk, a swim and two short walks - even if it's only round the block or to the library.  I yearn to lose 3lb this week - perhaps if I don't drink?  But I've already had a glass today!

You are losing weight too fast!

Naughty Weight Watchers - this week I lost 2.5 lbs - and only used half my bonus points.   When I recorded this on the computer record, a little pop-up appeared and told me I was losing weight too fast, and I needed to slow down or else I might suffer terrible effects, such as headaches, anaemia, etc.

This is a bit silly - last week I lost 1.5 lbs and they didn't tell me it was too slow.   What they mean is losing weight too fast for WW to make a proper profit out of me.  For heaven's sake - if I lose weight at the recommended rate they will have my money for over a year...  One needs to have above-average weeks to compensate for the below average weeks...  Oh well, at least I haven't lost any more points for getting below 20 stone.

Bonus points -

I am writing this before my next weigh-in.  After the panic about eating at JoJo's I found I really hadn't been so bad after all.  In fact, because my Friday night booze-up was cancelled I actually haven't used all my bonus points this week  This is the first week that I haven't used them all.  Most days I have had less than the full complement of points.

I am a bit suspicious about Bonus Points - we all get the same allocation - and WW say "you will still lose weight" if you eat them.  I wonder about the points system - according to WW you should lose 2lb a week on the diet.  That seems good, but what if you want to lose more?  Can you? Should you?  Have they designed it to ensure you don't feel hungry (not really - unless you live off Healthy & Filling foods)?  Or to ensure you continue paying a sub. to WW for as long as possible?  I suspect you will lose less weight if you eat the bonus points....   Well, we'll see what happens tomorrow.

I CAN'T do this!

Today I started well - we had good intentions, we went to a nice place for lunch - a special treat for us - and I chose meat, salad etc.  We shared everything so the meal was:

Cured pork shoulder, served with bread, houmous with pitta, (M's choices),
A large salad with fetta cheese (M's choice), patatas bravas (M's choice)
Grilled lamb - my choice.

My idea was that I would drink a nice glass of wine - slowly - nibble a spoon of houmous with a tiny bit of bread, eat a slice of the pork shoulder - then eat grilled lamb and salad.
Except, I also ate more of the houmous, and some of the patatas bravas and some olives.  It could have been worse, but I realised at the end of it that I didn't have much capacity for supper.

We had steak for supper - and special low fat oven chips which I've invented... although I only had 2 of them.  I had steak, mushrooms, mangetouts and tomatoes.  Unfortunately we were bought a bottle of wine by Rafa, so my intention not to drink was lost - and after two glasses (arrgghhh) of very nice Chilean Pinot Noir - I thought "what the hell!" and had some of the chocolate cheese cake and strawberry compote (pure sugar!)

So, I feel I've had all my extra points in one and now have nothing to save for the weekend.  Oh dear!

The point is, if this happens once a week as it has so far (week 1 trip to France, week 2 boozeathon, week 3 Pa's birthday, and this week we still have tomorrow night with Anna to look forward to...)  That said, I think if I can keep well down on the regular days, perhaps I will continue to lose weight - maybe not as fast as I would like.

WW claim you should lose 2lbs a week - well, hmmm.  That would take me a year and 11 weeks to get down to 11st (if I wanted to).  But if I keep having these splurges - my rate will be considerably lower... but it's too early to say how bad it could be.

Your 100 best diet tips!

Well, even dwarves started small.... here's the first one.  I hope to add more in due course.

1. Reduce your drinking by: mislaying your glass after the first drink or so.   If you have plenty of water between alcoholic drinks, after a while you won't feel thirsty and if you don't have a glass you aren't prompted to drink.    So much behaviour is habitual - it takes ages to retrain ourselves and an empty glass means another drink... It helps if there is something interesting happening so that you don't need to drink.


2. Don't drink at all.  It is well known that drinking reduces inhibitions, in fact seems to dissolve one's superego completely... so don't.  Learn to love slim line tonic with slices of lemon or lime.  If it's boring, mislay your glass and stop drinking (see above).


3. Reaching a weight plateau  This was an observation made by someone who'd successfully lost about 10 stone.  She said for many years she'd been around 15 stone - before creeping up to 20ish - when she lost the weight again she was stuck for weeks around 15 stone - she thought perhaps her body "recognised" the weight - and felt right and was happy to stay there - this seemed a very clever and sensible observation.  The only answer is just to keep on keeping on and find other ways to reward yourself for your apparently fruitless efforts.  The weight will shifte eventually, and after that her weight loss proceeded normally.

Why am I so Hungry?

3rd July

So, it's 5.00pm and I feel hungry.  I ate lunch early, at about 12.30 and I had a very delicious wrap with smoked salmon, cottage cheese and salad.  I think it's justifiable to feel hungry so long after lunch, and I am going to have some water and an apple while I cook supper - or perhaps a little bit of something proteinish...

But actually, I had half a slice of sourdough bread and some butter - much nicer!  Oh dear.  Didn't drink water.