Trying To Keep Control

Hello Everyone

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog, I’ve had a few changes in my life happen recently and have needed some time to readjust and adapt but now feel that enough time has passed for some normality to return to my life but with the loss of my Uncle and the start of a new job, I’ve had a lot of new things happen all at once, to the point that blogging became next to impossible!

I have been weighing myself at home every Monday on my weightwatcher scales in my kitchen and last week, I lost 3 pounds and this week, gained 1 pound which isn’t bad, considering how stressed I have felt with everything that has happened lately, so I still have some ways to go to get back down to 9 stone territory, so I need to lose 7 pounds before August. Matt made a bad joke about going outside and throwing out 7 stones from the garden! At least he’s trying to make me smile when I put a pound on but a cuddle was even better afterwards. I find it funny how he goes for 6 mile jogs twice a week in his preparations for the wedding (a six pack is developing) yet I struggle to get 10,000 steps a day at the moment but I can still get plenty done during the weekends!

I’m not getting as many steps in as I used to because of my new work arrangements, I am lucky to get 10,000 steps in a day at the moment so my fitpoints will be less than usually, unless I can get a good dance in, in the evenings I mean….If I’m not tired from work, I always fret that I don’t spend enough time with Matthew at the moment because of work but he’s very understanding and supports me through it all, hurry up August!

I try to plan out my meals in advance, now that I have my new job and all! I normally make myself some soup and take some tea with me (could be green tea, could be a normal tea bag…who knows??) and today, I made myself a batch of mince with tomatoes, carrots, peas and mushrooms which tasted amazing and I can have over the next few days as it’s very low pointed which is a big helper in all these changes I am going through and I shall see what other tasty treats I can conjur up on the weekends that are low pointed!

It might be a life that has gone through some new changes but I believe in myself and know that we will both adapt and get used to this new routine! 116 days until the wedding and still a lot to be done!

More soon

My last week at a meeting and what’s next

Hello everyone,

Today was my last day at a meeting like the title suggests and this is because I have got a new job in which the hours prevent me from being able to attend my local meeting but never fear I’m still going to be trying harder than ever to reach my goal weight once again. After this mornings meeting I currently weigh 10st 6lbs after losing 1/2lb which is where I was when I rejoined at my meeting and because I’m doing it at home it’s a nice round number to start off with, I have my own Weight Watchers Scales and a spot in the kitchen to weigh myself too.

I have started to plan and prep myself for things to come and even bought a new journal for the first week I’m at my new job and I’ve written in the first day already so there’s no going back and the layout of the journal looks a little like this…

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snack/Other

I’m keeping my weigh in to Monday as I work best going from the start of the week to the end rather than starting my points mid way and because of all the activity I’ve been doing lately the Weight Watchers App has (with my permission) upped my fitpoint goal to 77 fitpoints in one week, this is due to the fact that I have a step goal of 15,000 and this can equal up to 13 fitpoints and because I try to meet that target everyday that can lead to a total of 91 fitpoints.

I’m just going to have a normal week like any other on the Weight Watchers Plan

Until Tomorrow

 

Trapped (but there is good news)

Hello everyone,

So today is one of the bad days and it’s happening at the worst time as it’s the weekend and even though I’ve still got control over my points I’m trying really hard. The reason behind all this is some bad family news and it’s really hitting home but with the aid of Matt and 0 hero fruit and veg I’m staying strong.

Despite everything I’m doing ok but I have a house full of Chocolate ranging from Chocolate bun, Chocolate rocky road, Chocolate brownies, Chocolate biscuits and just Chocolate bars and what I’m I reaching for in my time of need… Apples, Grapes, Bananas and Robinson squash.

I’m feeling like the more I’m flexing my will power muscle the easier it is to say no and keep going.

However in better news my Weight Watchers Bathroom Scales came today and I can’t wait to try them but I am waiting till that first meeting I can’t go to which will also be my first day at work, as well as this all this bad new has got me cleaning up more as I find it better to keep busy as I don’t think as much about whats going on.

It’s taken a lot for me to blog on a day like this as I just want to curl up in bed and stay there which may sound lazy but I’m still in the belief that nothing can harm me when I’m in bed and nothing can go wrong if I just keep to myself, all this is hard on Matt too as he has to watch me go through it but he’s proud of me for keeping strong and always says that he’s there if I need a cuddle.

Later tonight I’ll be doing some jumping, stepping and dancing to build up my steps as I’ve not done a lot today because I’ve felt so down and the weather is poor here.

Until next time

Planning and Prep (Ready for treat day)

Hello everyone, as most of my readers will know Thursday is treat day in the Whitehouse/Whitham household and I’ve made sure to try to plan and prep for the most of it.

It was my pick what takeout we got and I opted for a Chinese as it’s more healthy than other places and I also had enough pizza last week, my only issue is that in talking to Weight Watchers live chats they say said they couldn’t tell me a set Smart Points allowance for my Prawns in Black Bean Sauce with Mushrooms as it can be so varied even though they recommend it in the eat out guide. I then went on to ask my local Weight Watcher Facebook group who were unsure as well, but with some tips and advice from my leader we soon worked something out and my leader helped me find one at just 2 Smart Points per 100g and I used the tips she had given me to find out the points for Egg Fried Rice and set them as favorites in my app so I can find them tomorrow night.

My plan of action is to get Prawn in Black Bean Sauce with Mushrooms and Egg Fried Rice and then weigh it out with the scales so I can point it which may also mean I have some for Friday, I’ll need to start doing this more and making notes for my fave takeaway foods for when I’m at my new job so I can just place my order without looking at the menu, by doing this I will keep within my points and have a treat.

Why set Thursday as a treat day? you ask ?

Why have a treat day? you say?

Well the answer is simple, Matt’s longest shift is on Thursday and so to help him relax we set Thursday as our treat day but that doesn’t always mean we get a takeout. We get a takeout every fortnight and on the week in between we make our own like tortilla pizza or noodles to give you an example.

We don’t have a treat day for any other reason than it gives us a night off from the kitchen and before Matt moved it I would have my weigh in on Thursday and a treat night then and it was worse than it is now. Me and my family would get in 3 pizzas and eat some while saving some for the next day and this was my cheat meal and because I was so good the rest of the week I still kept losing and I still do, I found that as long as I kept up the activity and was good every other day I still lost weight therefore I don’t feel a need to change my lifestyle.

I’ve learned that Weight Watchers is made to fit around your lifestyle not you around it or at least that’s what we are told and as long as you are good 80% of the time you can allow 20% to being a little naughty, always remember nothing is off-limits with Weight Watchers as long as you point and track it.

Until next time.

Will Power (and how it helped me)

Today I’m going to talk about will power as today I really had to dig deep to find some and keep going on my journey.

Today Matthew and I went to pay off the rest of the honeymoon and we set off in good time to ensure we would be home by lunch time, it didn’t take long to sort out the honeymoon and afterwards we had a look around some shops and then Matt decided it would be a great time to take out his revenge on me. He was taking his revenge due to the fact that me and my mate had listened to lots of cheesy 90s music on Saturday and Matt had to listen to it for a few hours, he started by stopping and looking at the burger king menu and then going on to talk about different foods from Burger King, McDonald’s and Wendy’s from around the world.

All this food talk got me looking up points for different foods, biting my tongue, holding my leg and giving Matt dirty looks meanwhile Matt was finding all this rather funny even though I kept asking him to stop, this kept on going all the way home and as we got near to home I blew up. Poor Matt had been unaware of the fact that I had gained 5lbs on Monday despite it being in my blog and me telling him all my hard work had been undone, I stormed off and when I did talk I told him how upset I was, how I really wanted a burger now and so on.

On the way home to try to combat the craving I was having we picked up some HECK Zesty Chicken Burgers, 2 paninis and some bread for Matt, I was planning to change my original plan of one hotdog in a bun to one burger in a Panini with some butternut squash chips. However before I started cooking my food I went upstairs with Matt and we worked everything out and he apologised for winding me up so much and said he wouldn’t have gone so far had he known I’d gained 5lbs.

My lunch was great and both Matt and I were so proud that I stayed strong and made my own kind of burger instead of getting one later and regretting it, since having my lunch I have further made my plan for today better by having another burger for dinner and adding some bacon medallions to it.

I don’t know why I didn’t have these HECK Burgers sooner they are great.

Until next time.

All my hard work undone

Hello everyone, I’m really sorry that I’ve not blogged last week but I had a horrible week and when that happens I don’t want to blog but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to start blogging even on bad day since I’m going to be doing Weight Watchers from home in 2 weeks.

as the title says all my hard work I did has now gone as the Easter weekend and my last week at work lead to a massive 5lb gain so I’m back and square one, however this isn’t going to stop me and with 2 weeks off before I start my new job I’m planning and prepping myself to lose the weight again. I remember Monday so well as I got told about my new job but then it all went down hill from there, the mistake I made was using Monday as a treat day where as in a normal week it would be Thursday and it fair to say I never recovered from Monday and I just kept going until I knew I had gained weight.

I went to my meeting today knowing that I wasn’t going to like what I saw and I was right, I’m not going to let it get me down like normal I’m instead going to use it as motivation to try to do better this week. I’m going to make note of when I’m liking going to need a treat and plan for it and by doing this there is less chance of me losing track, I also picked up a paper tracker from my meeting and I’m going to track long and hard and keep positive.

Over the next 2 weeks I am also looking into how I can help myself while doing the plan at home and here and some ways I’m doing so…

• Journal
• Weight Watchers Scales
• Weight Watchers Losing Weight The Smart Way Cookbook
• Drinking more water
• Fitness dance workout Wii game
• Walking
• More fruit and veg

What would you do if you were in my place? Leave your comments below and let me know.

Also if you have any tips or advice leave a comment as you help would be greatly appreciated

Until next time

Big News !!! (read to find out)

Well Monday was great like always but this time it had a reason to be….

I went to Weight Watchers thinking not about my weight but about a phone call I was waiting for, it was going to be THE phone call that was going to make or break my day and I walked to my meeting kinda zoned out not sure what was going to happen and I wanted it to hurry up.

I got weighed and lost 1lb which makes it 5lbs in total since I rejoined and I was happy with that and I told everyone about my phone call and what it ment to me and one of the ladies said “you watch it will ring which she’s (the leader) giving the talk” and not 5 mins into the talk my phone went off. It was the call I had been waiting for, it was the call that stopped the world, it was the call telling me I got the job at the nursery and club…

I was so happy I ended the call and told one of the clerks and I was jumping around like the Easter Bunny, I walked back into the meeting room and I was putting my thumb up to all those who had know about the job and they were happy for me and as soon as the talk was done I knew I wasn’t going to have a great Monday but I knew that I could work it off and get there so I can get my silver 7 next week.

I left my meeting a very happy bunny and went to see my mate at work and tell her the good news and once again I was like the Easter Bunny jumping up and down and I stayed with her a while and then went to find another friend that works at Nero and I told him and he was happy too, I then went back to see my mate at work and she took her break and I filled her in on everything that happened that morning. After seeing her I set off to meet Matt and told my Aunt on the way and asked her to ring back later in the evening for a more detailed version, I met Matt and tried to make it look like I wasn’t happy and then I said “I went to Weight Watchers and I lost 1lb and gained a job” it’s fair to say it took a few seconds to hit him and after he was so happy for me he even picked me up and spun me around.

We then went to Nero again and he got me a Skinny Carmel Latte where the only thing skinny about it was the milk and a cappuccino cake slice and we sat down and filled everyone in and I spoke to his mum on the phone who also was shocked and congratulated me and then as time was going on he took me to get 3 more Disney Tusm Tusm’s and I picked out The Fairy Godmother, Jak Jak and Gus from Disney’s Cinderella. We then walked home and had lunch before work rang me and I told them the good news as well as finding out I didn’t need to go in until 3:15pm.

When I got to work I told them all in more detail and then got changed and signed the children in, I helped out with a few craft activities  before we took the children outside to play as stack was being made. While outside I helped the children and staff and went to get the ball a few times as the kids kicked it out but I didn’t mind and before we knew it was time to go inside as snack was done, once we got the children in and sat them down after they washed their hands we got them all to pay attention and I told them all the news only to kind of work out that there was a secret not so sercet card going around for me.

The rest of work was cleaning up and helping the children and staff before it was time to go home, oh I did also get chance to tell the head as well who was also happy for me.

Once home we rested up and then we got a takeaway in and watched tv and talked about the day while we ate, however we left the house in a little bit of a mess after a happy exciting day and so this morning I’ve been doing some cleaning up and but some washing outside ont the line to dry.

More tomorrow..

 

What a Weekend (including Friday)

What a busy weekend I’ve had from Friday onwards…

Friday started with a mad rush to get sorted for my interview at my new potential job at a nursery school and holiday club, it was hectic as I tried to sort out what I was wearing and once all that was done we set off. Once on our way I sheepishly asked Matt if he would come with me just to make sure I got off at the right stop or at least that was the plan, however when we got on the bus we got persuaded into getting a group ticket pass which meant we had to go home at the same time which Matt wasn’t too happy with as it was also shopping day with his parents.

We were soon on our way and thinking I knew what I was doing I pressed the bell on the bus a stop early and was lucky that someone else got off too and so we asked which way it was the the near by pub which was close to the nursery and set off. We got to the nursery 20 mins early and luckily one of the ladies was just getting back from being out and let me in, unfortunately for Matt this meant he had to walk around this small village until I was done and I wasn’t sure when that would be.

The ladies at the nursery made me feel welcome and we had an informal interview in which they seemed happy with my answers, once the questions were done and we talked about bus times and my wedding they showed me around the setting which was small but reasonably sized and I set Matt a text saying I was done. I met him outside and he was less than happy as I had been gone 2 hours and he was freezing cold and we still had a little while till the next bus, while waiting I had my pack lunch and poor Matt had to watch me since we hadn’t packed anything for him I also filled him on how it went and told him that they were going to call me Monday.

The bus home soon came and we were glad to be going home, once back in Skipton we went to Tesco to meet his parents and explain everything as we hadn’t told them I had the interview and they said they would treat us to a McDonald’s to celebrate the fact I had an interview. We finished our shopping in Tescos and Morrisons and while Matt and his dad when to get the food me and Matt’s mum walked home and waited outside for the boys to arrive, we left the shopping till after we had eaten and with everything done we thanked his parents and waved them off.

Now we move on to Saturday…

Saturday was meant to consist of me, Matt, Cathy and Joe (Cathy’s fiance) going to subway and the wedding dress shop and then back to mine to talk wedding stuff, however it didn’t go down like that. Since Cathy is on strong medication I have got into a habit of texting and calling her 2 hours before we meet as she is coming from Morecambe but on Saturday I wasn’t able too and I even messaged Joe to make sure everything was still on.

Hoping everything was still on even without any word from Cathy or Joe me and Matt set off to the station to meet them but when the train pulled in they didn’t get off the train as I hoped and so I asked her mates for her new number and once I got it I tried calling and got nowhere. Soon I got a message off Joe saying that neither had slept well and that she was still asleep and in the end I had to accept she wasn’t coming and so after a while me and Matt went and carried out the plans instead.

The only upside in this is that Matt got to see me in my wedding dress as I went to find out if my blue bow or headband went better and in the end the headband was the best fit and so we bought it there and then and with that we headed for Subway as I had looked forward to my sub sandwich for a week and it was every bit as good when we sat down to eat as I hoped for. Wedding stuff sorted and food eaten we set off for home and once in Matt watched tv and I had a nap from which I woke up refreshed as well as being able to replan with Cathy for next Saturday, at the end of the day I had fun and it still ended up being a good day out with Matt.

I guess that now brings us to today….

Today has been chilled but productive, I got some cleaning up done which is a biggy for me and then after seeing Matt off and having lunch I went to watch my Uncle for my Aunt while she went shopping and filled her in on everything too, once she got back I asked if she had a card and gift bag as it was another Aunts birthday tomorrow and those were the only two things I didn’t have luckily she did and so after sorting out that and showing her my headband (which she loved) I set off for home and once in I sorted out the Apps on my phone and met my other Aunt to give her, her present and filled her in on everything and said goodbye to her.

The rest of my day is just going to involve chilling out with music and tv which I am looking forward too.

Until next time.

 

What I’ve been doing differently and confession time

Since re-joining Weight Watchers as a new member I have really taken to writing in my journal again, this I’m finding is helping me and making me think about what I’m really eating and getting me to face my demons. Tracking is great and it’s something I talked about before but I don’t think I ever really understood it as I was a gold member who was always told I didn’t need to track, I have found that I still track on my phone but then often write it down at a later date.

Another thing I have started to do is eat my of my 5 a day but I find I have to buy it fresh, tinned or frozen. If I buy it fresh I have to use it then and there of I use it once and leave it to go off thus wasting both food and money, if I buy it frozen I do eat it but I tend to forget it’s there therefore it’s fair to say I eat more tinned fruit and veg than anything else as it lasts longer and is easy to use. The only kinds of fruit and veg I like to eat fresh are bananas, grapes (preference to green rather than red or black) and plums, but I’ve found fruit and veg in whatever form is helping me to snack less which is therefore going to have an effect on my weight.

I’m also going to use this post to state a confession and the action I have taken to stop this from happening again…

This last 2 weeks I’ve been having tomato and brown sauce on its own straight from the bottle as well as golden syrup now that may not be a crime but I haven’t been measuring or pointing it and brushing it off as nothing. Due to my confessing this to myself and all of you I have taken action to place any honey or syrups at the back of a high self in the kitchen so I can’t reach them without some sort of help, I’m also lucky in the sence that I have no more tomato sauce and I’m taking action to not get anymore because I’m finding I have tomato sauce on the side because I can not because I want to.

Now that I have made this confession public to my readers and to my local Weight Watchers Facebook page I can’t hide from it and I’m ready to take it on and make changes, I think I know why I have been doing this which also helps as I can take steps to make healthy changes instead of the choices I was making. I think I started to do this because I have given up chocolate for March to help raise awareness for The British Heart Foundation and I’m missing that something sweet, now that I know this I can make healthy changes which may also help me once March is over.

Until next time

The Return From The Brink

Hello everyone,

It’s been a while since I posted a blog but I’m delighted to see that you have still been coming and reading my other posts and after a period of wandering around in a daze and not actually trying I re-joined Weight Watchers. I decided to re-join Weight Watchers for a few different reasons…

1. I needed to clean slate to start from
2. I had been told I was losing my job at the after-school club
3. The task of getting back to my goal weight after putting a stone on was too daunting as a gold member.

I re-joined 2 weeks ago and within my first week as a new member I lost 3lbs and then the week after (yesterday) I lost 1lb.

I rediscovered that tracking everything I eat, drink and move I do better and so I took steps to do this starting by tracking everything I ate and drank, the first week I did this and used all my weekly smart points and some FitPoints and then last week I put my weight loss down to activity. Therefore my goal this week is to track everything, meet my 15,000 step goal each day and try not to use all my weekly points, I’ve found that planning ahead even by the day has helped me too and I’m feeling happier about myself and I have more confidence that I can do it now than I did before.

One thing I have also found is that I’m not in this alone, my fiancé Matt wants to lose weight too and so together we are starting to eat better and I’m just racing through my fruit during the day. Cooking has helped me too and by looking at the recipes I have that were in the Weight Watchers Your Weeks I found some I liked the only issue was that were all in Pro Points and the best way to find out there new Smart Points balance is to work it out on the Weight Watchers eSource recipe builder, however with a few to get through I’m taking it bit by bit and I’ve already made one recipe and I have plans to make another.

One motivation for waiting to focus on losing the weight is the wedding which is 5 months away but I only have 4 months till the dress fitting and every bride wants to look their best on wedding day.

More soon