Sunday Results

We didn'tget quite a much exercise done as we had hoped because one of the loos started leaking and we had to go and get parts and then fix it. We did an hours walk and half an hour of cycling each on the exercise machine. I also did half an hour running on the machine and a toning video. I think it is lucky we didn't do more as we have both woken up a bit stiff this morning.

Anyway down to the nitty gritty! I lost just over half a pound and am 9 stone 7.8 pounds. My husband lost the same and is 15 stone 11.6 pounds.

Saturday Update

I lost a little weight and went down to 9 stone 8.2 pounds, which I was happy with.

My husband did brilliantly. He was not tempted by any extra food apart from the food that I gave him and he went down to 15 stone 12 pounds. He is still wondering how he will reach his 15 stone 10 target by Monday, especially as we will be at my parents house tomorrow.

We have decided to do loads of exercise today to find out whether that help him lose weight as his Mother finds that makes a lot more difference than what she eats so she thinks it will have the same effect on him. I have noticed that it seems to make some difference to him so we will do a lot today and see what happens.

Fruity Rice Pudding

6 dried apricots
25 sultanas
50g rice
100ml apple juice
50g Uncle Bens 10 minute Brown Rice
semi-skimmed milk
freshly ground nutmeg

Chop up the apricots and put them in a non-stick pan with the sultanas. Pour over the apple juice and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook for a further few minutes. Then Once the juice has been absorbed add some milk. Grate over some nutmeg - about 1/2 teaspoon. Keep adding milk and simmering until the rice softens.

This sugar free recipe was very sweet and contains 3 portions of fruit. It is about 500 calories for this portion so either use it to serve 3 people or do what I did and have it instead of a meal.

Calories - 30th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge with decaff tea
Elevenses - 150 calories
Peanut Butter on Toast with decaff tea
Lunch - 200 calories
Toast and strawberry spread with some apple, grapes, blueberries and a clementine and two cups decaff tea
Afternoon - 50 calories
A banana and decaff tea
Evening Meal - 550 calories
Some soup followed by apricot rice pudding with 2 cups decaff tea
Evening Snack - 100 calories
weetabix with decaff tea
TOTAL CALORIES -1200

EXERCISE :

30 minutes / 175 calories - exercise machine
100 minute walk

Friday Morning Update

My husband ate well yesterday apart from having a chocolate chip muffin at work, not realising how many calories it was. Luckily he exercised and managed to go down to 14 stone 13.2 pounds. He was a bit cross with himself but I thought a 0.6 pound loss was pretty good. He is worried about reaching his 14 stone 10 pound target on Monday. I think he may have to increase the exercise a bit to get there, but it is good that he is still aiming towards it.

I was good and went down to 9 stone 8.8 pounds which was great.

Calories - 29th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge with decaff tea
Elevenses - 100 calories
Weetabix with decaff tea
Lunch -200 calories
Parsnip, carrot and butter bean soup with toast and two cups decaff tea
Afternoon - 100 calories
A clementine, some apricots and prunes, a few grapes and decaff tea
Evening Meal - 450 calories
Noodles with vegetable sauce, chicken style dippers, carrots, broccoli, courgettes and yoghurt with strawberry spread with 2 cups decaff tea
Evening Snack - 150 calories
Bread and Jam with decaff tea
TOTAL CALORIES -1150

EXERCISE :

30 minutes / 175 calories - exercise machine
100 minute walk

Thursday Morning Report

Yesterday was a great success. I went back down to 9 stone 9.6 which was great.

My husband was given tiramisu at work but had no other extras. He had soup when he got home and didn't have bread with it to make up for the tiramisu calories. He went for a walk and on the exercise machine. In the evening he weighed out a portion of cereal but only ate half as he didn't want to undo all the good that he had done. I was so proud of him and his weight went down to 14 stone 13.8 pounds, which was great.

We are both intending to be good again today and see how much we can lose tomorrow.

Calories - 28th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge with decaff tea
Elevenses - 100 calories
Banana with decaff tea
Lunch -200 calories
Spicy vegetable and chick pea soup with toast and two cups decaff tea
Afternoon - 100 calories
popcorn
Evening Meal - 450 calories
Pasta with home made sauce, cheesy sausages, peas, carrots, broccoli and 2 cups decaff tea with an apple juice and some pear
Evening Snack - 100 calories
Weetabix and decaff tea
TOTAL CALORIES -1100

EXERCISE :

30 minutes / 200 calories - exercise machine
100 minute walk

Wednesday Morning Update

We both put on weight today. I ate 500 calories worth of biscuits yesterday and then had cheese and museli and other naughty things. I seemed to totally lose control. I was tired and I find that makes me want to eat more, but I am even tireder today so I need to be really careful. I also only ate fruit for snacks and felt very hungry afterwards. I am going to write down what I am eating for the rest of the week, so I will hopefully get things under control again.

My husband ate 9 biscuits yesterday and his weight went back over 15 stone to 15 stone 0.4 pounds. I had a chat with him about it and we decided that he isn't drinking enough at work. Therefore I asked him to have a drink before everything he eats today at work. I also tried a new lunch box for him with less sandwiches but more fruit and vegetable snacks, hoping that he might feel fuller that way. We also did a deal that he would eat no biscuits or buy any food from the tuck shop until he has eaten everything he has taken with him. I hope it helps. I also made his breakfast and gave him a Weetabix with sultanas and milk, and apple, some tomato juice and a cup of tea. I hope that this will keep him feeling fuller than his normal sausages, beans and cappuccino and the reduced calories should help. The breakfast I gave him was 200 calories compared to his normal 400 calories and his lunch was the same 450 calories but with less bread and more salad and fruit. He is keeping up with the exercise which is great and I hope he will start to see some promising results soon and will reach his 14 stone 10 pound target by Monday.

Why Thin People Aren't Fat

This was a fascinating documentary that I watched last night. They took 10 thin people who have never worried about what they eat and tried to force them to overeat to get them to put on weight.They also reported findings of other studies of weight.

What they found was that thin people not only found it very hard to put on weight even when they were overeating but that that easily lost it again and got back to their normal weight without dieting. They drew several conclusions from this:

- some people cannot physically eat so much food without feeling or being sick
- the food item that they ate to pile on the calories without feeling over full was chocolate
- people have a 'normal' weight for them and their body tries to maintain that. If they overeat the body automatically increases the metabolism to burn it. If they under eat it slows the metabolism.

They explained that if you lose small amounts of weight it is much easier to maintain that weight than if you lose lots. I wonder whether you can train your body to thinking that something else is the 'normal' weight. It scared me to think that my body thinks that a normal weight for me is something that is unhealthy and I want to make sure that I do not put the weight back on again this time, which means that I will have to work really hard at it.

There was also a report about the finding of one scientist that there is a virus which can lead to you more easily being overweight and this can be easily caught and it would seem that you just had a cold or something. This was a new one on me, but an interesting perspective.

Another report, which I had heard before, was that once your fat cells get really big, they multiply. This means that your body then has more fat cells than it did before. As you have more fat cells, you are more likely to get fat again. This means that if you have ever been fat, you are more likely to get fat again. This is worrying when it comes to children as more children are becoming overweight and so are adults.

They also explained that it is genetically positive to be able to lay down fat easily because not long ago, we found it hard to find food and if we managed to put down fat easily when there was food, we could live off that fat at times of famine. The 'fatter' babies and adults survived the thinner ones.

I think it just proved that none of us can be complacent about our weight as even out of the 10 'thin' people, only one of them found it almost impossible to put on weight. If they got into a habit of overeating they could probably get overweight as well.

Taking Diet Supplements

There are all sorts of health products and supplements on the market all claiming to help with weight loss. It can be really difficult to know whether it is acai berry, green tea or hoodia that will be best suited to you and will help you to lose the most weight. I have never tried any supplements to help with weight loss but did drink a lot of green tea when I was losing weight but was never sure if that helped or not. I think with these types of products, you need to do your own research to find out whether you think the product will work for you. You need to remember that just by taking a supplement of acai berries the weight will not fall off, you will need to do a lot of the work yourself. It is also important to start to follow a healthy diet and exercise plan that you know you can maintain for life as I am sure you want the weight loss to be long term. You may like to help the process with something like acai but remember that you need to think more long term if you want to get the maximum health benefits from your new lifestyle.

That Exercise is Working!

My husband did 30 minutes on the exercise machine last night and his weight dropped back below 15 stone to 14 stone 13.8 and he was thrilled. I was really pleased as well. He also discovered that chocolate is extremely calorie dense and it made him decide to cut it right down as he tends to eat it on a daily basis. If he can keep up the exercise and cut down the chocolate hopefully he will reach his first new weekly target of 14 stone 10 pounds by Monday.

My weight stayed the same at 9 stone 9.6 pounds but I did eat too many of the children's biscuits in the afternoon. I tried to make up for eat by having a low calorie evening meal but was hungry in the evening so made the calories back up in snacks. I think just having cherries in the morning as my snack, made me hungry in the afternoon, so I need to have something more filling like a banana or some cereal.

Monday News

Well my hard work paid off again yesterday and my weight is back to 9 stone 9.6 pounds. I am hoping I will be good again today as I would like it to be lower. I feel like I keep saying this all the time though! I do need to set a good example to my husband. His weight was 15 stone 0.6 pounds this morning so only a tiny loss. I thought I made a healthy meal yesterday but he smothered it in mayonnaise, cheese and butter and so undid all the good which made me a bit cross. I had a chat with him this morning and we are trying some new packed lunch ideas to try to stop him being tempted to snack in the day and also to increase his fruit and veg portions. I am also going to work hard on getting him to exercise on the machine every evening. I tend to go to bed at the same time as the children and so does he. This means that there is no evening time to exercise so I need to make sure that we go downstairs and do something. I will keep you posted!

Calories - 25th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Weetabix, apple and mango juice and 2 cups decaff tea
Elevenses - 50 calories
strawberries, blueberries and apple with decaff tea and a biscuit
Lunch -150 calories
Onion, pea and carrot soup with toast and two cups decaff tea
Afternoon -200 calories
A banana with fat free yoghurt and strawberry jam with decaff tea
Evening Meal - 400 calories
Quorn fillet in gravy, baked potato, carrots, peas, sweetcorn and flat beans with 2 cups decaff tea
Evening Snack - 350 calories
Wallaby Bar, museli and decaff teas
TOTAL CALORIES - 1200

EXERCISE :

30 minutes / 200 calories - exercise machine

Sunday Morning Update

Yesterday we had lunch out at a pub and I had roasted vegetables in a creamy cheese sauce with garlic bread. I also ate one of the children's fish fingers and some of my husbands curly fries. I then had a chocolate bar later in the afternoon! Not good and my weight went up to 9 stone 10.4 so I am going to have to be good today. I did buy some nice new skirts which help to remind me that i need to stick to it to still fit in them.

My husband had an enormous burger for lunch and afterwards said he had wished he had ordered what I did as it looked healthier and was a much smaller amount of food. Nevertheless he was sensible for the rest of the day and managed to go down a little in weight to 15 stone 0.4 pounds.

Wjat surprised me the most was the 'childrens' meal at the place we ate. It was 5 smallish fish fingers with 3 tablespoons of peas and the same amount of fries. It was easily enough for an adult. It made all of think that we would choose something from the childrens menu next time we were in there!

Diet Pills

I have written a fair bit about diet pills before and explained that I do not really think that they are the thing for me. There seem to be several different types which do different things or a combination of things. Some are laxatives, some speed the metabolism, some suppress appetite and some burn fat. It can be hard to know which of these Diet Pills is the best type for you, your body and the weight loss plan that you are following. It can also be hard to know which is the most effective and has the best results. I would also want to know how safe they were and what the ingredients were and how the active ingredients work. Fortunately there are quite a few websites now which contain this sort of Diet Pill Information. It is great to be able to find out a lot more about all of the different types all on one site. This type of research can be tricky as it can be biased but if you look at a variety of different sites then hopefully this should be enoug to give you a balanced viewpoint. Try to make sure that you find some reviews by people who have tried the pills so that you can find out whether they really do work.

Exercise Videos

My husband loves buying exercise videos. We have all sorts of different ones and from time to time I will have a go at one. I like them because I find the music inspires me and the range of exercises tends to be different to what I normally do if I exercise alone. He has recently been looking at Barry’s Boot Camp, which is a unique exercise video in that it is done in the style of an army drill. This is very different to any other exercise video I have done and probably really appeals to the make market, unlike many of the dance style ones that are on the market. Barry Jay, who came up with the idea, wanting to develop something which really pushed the people using it. I think this is a great approach, as it is easy to put in the minimum effort when exercising, have fun and enjoy the music but not use your full potential. This type of encouragement will mean that you will really get every thing you can out of the time spent exercising so you will not only lose more weight but tone up more quickly. I think this is great as I find that the quicker I see results, the more I want to continue with something.There is a trailer of the Fitness DVD on the website so you can find out what to expect from it and there is also a lot of information about it. You should be able to find out whether it is something that you think will suit you before you decide whether to buy.

Maintaining Weight

I am finding it much harder to maintain my weight than I thought I would. If anyone has any tips, I would really appreciate them. I am so busy work wise that I have not really got back into exercising properly, which I am sure is a big factor. I seem to have days when I eat badly and then days when I eat little to try to redress the balance and I know that I should really be eating the same each day. I think a major problem is that I am unable to believe that I am the size that I am and so eat as if I am big still. I catch a glance of myself in a mirror and cannot believe that it is me! That is a lovely feeling but I know I need to work hard to maintain that figure I have worked so hard to get.

Reducing your Appetite

Hoodia is an extract from cactus which has been found to ward off hunger. It was used by African tribal huntsman to ward off hunger during long hunting trips. Extracts from the plants are now used to make Hoodia Diet Pills. Hunger can be a problem for a lot of people, especially those that are losing weight. Cutting down on the amount of food that you are eating and possibly missing out on snacks can take a lot of getting used to. I know that I have been hungry at times while losing weight. I try to drink a cup of green tea or some water to get rid of the hunger or have a low calorie snack. However, I do not get hungry that much, but some people do. I think that in these cases then Hoodia Weight Loss could help them. Many people are against diet pills but I think that as long as you do careful research and find out exactly what is in them, use them as instructed and do not expect them to help you lose weight without you putting in some effort too, then they could be a very useful tool. Just make sure that you do some research into how successful they are in helping others, or see if you can try a free sample before you buy and then you will know that you are likely to see good results yourself.

Thursday Update

Well the calorie counting worked out well yesterday. I went down to 9 stone 9.6 which was great. My husband also managed to do well, despite picking at cereal during the evening. His weight went down to 15 stone 0.8 pounds so hopefully he can get back down below the 15 stone mark soon. I hope he sees this as a motivation as he was so thrilled when he went below this barrier before. I was hoping he would be below 14.5 stone by now as he lost so much over Christmas but hopefully he will still reach his target weight by next Christmas.

Watching Sport

There is something about watching certain sports that make me want to do some sort of sport myself. I am not sure whether it is because I tend to get quite involved in sports, if I am watching something that I am big of fan of such as tennis. If I get really involved in a match then I seem to have quite a lot of adrenalin afterwards that I need to burn off and so it often inspires me to go on the exercise machine. I watched a Wimbledon final when Boris Becker beat Stefan Edberg once and I was so cross at the result that I went for a jog and jogging is not something which I ever do a lot of by choice!

Of course the Australian Open is on at the moment and I am supporting Andy Murray. There seems to be something about British players which really create a high adrenalin match. They seem to be capable of really dragging the game out and making it very exciting but also hard to watch! I am hoping that I will be able to watch some of Andy Murray's matches. I know that some websites have the Australian Open Live showing on them, so I will just have to find out what time his matches are on. I suspect they will be very early in the morning, which means that I will be waking up to high adrenalin start to the day which will hopefully inspire me to exercise hard. Lets just hope he keeps winning, so I keep getting the inspiration that I need!

Calories - 21st January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge and green tea
Elevenses - 100 calories
Cherries and Green tea
Lunch - 200 calories
Carrot and Parsnip soup with a slice of toast dipped in and two cups decaff tea
Afternoon - 100 calories
Some banana, an apple, 3 dried apricots and 10 grapes with green tea
Evening Meal - 500 calories
chicken style dippers with couscous, sweet potato, broccoli and sweetcorn followed by 2 cups decaff tea and grapes
Evening Snack - 150 calories
Bread and Jam with decaff tea
TOTAL CALORIES - 1200

EXERCISE :

100 minute walk
30 mins / 180 calories exercise machine - cycling

Counting Calories Again

I have decided that I need to start noting down what I am eating again. I thought that I had a good enough idea of what to eat to keep my weight the same but it seems that I do not. I think that if I start noting down what I am eating again I should be able to find out how many calories I actually need. It does change a bit I guess depending on how active I am in a day, but if I can get an average figure, I will be able to find out what I can normally eat. I would like to get my weight down a little bit so I will start by eating to lose weight and then try to even it out a bit once I get below 9 stone 9 pounds again with the aim of staying between 9 stone 7 pounds and 9 stone 9 pounds.

Tuesday Update

I ate badly again yesterday and put on a little weight and anot only 9 stone 10.6 but very determined to be good today and I already have a craving for fresh fruit and veg and it isn't even breakfast time yet!

My husband did well, he had a walk and managed to go down to 15 stone 1 pound exactly.

Is Binge Eating as Bad as Binge Drinking?

I sometimes wonder whether having a bad day and eating really badly is as bad as drinking lots of alcohol on a on off occasion. The alcohol is bad because your body has to work hard to get rid of all of the toxins from your body and it is not used to doing it. When you have a day of eating a lot of rubbishing foods and no anti oxidants will you body have the same problem?

What has got me to wondering is that I had a bad day yesterday and my weight went up to 9 stone 10.4. I have PMT and have been craving everything under the sun! My husband was better behaved and his weight stayed the same at 15 stone 1.8 pounds.

Monday Morning Update

I was pleased that my weight had stayed the same at 9 stone 8 pounds again. My husband put on weight though and he is 15 stone 1.8 pounds. I think this was because he was nibbling a lot yesterday.

Guest Post : Try The Acai Berry Or Not?

Thank you to Kyle H for sharing this article with us :

One of the ways I've been thinking of losing weight lately, or at least to supplement all of my efforts, is to try the acai berry. Probably a particular brand, like acai berry burn would be best for me. The acai burn product has been raved about a lot by so many tv shows and websites that it's quickly turned into the most popular acai product.

Now back to the reason I wanted to talk about acai berry in the first place. This berry is quite unique, it goes bad quickly off the tree, which is why the acai products that you see all seem to come in either one of three formats.

The first format you find acai berry in is the capsules, you can do a search on free acai to see what I mean. You just pay shipping and usually you can get a free trial, or order your own supply straight forward. The second way that acai berries can be bought is in drink format, either pure acai drink, or acai mixed with other stuff like nestea's blueberry acai mix.

Without a doubt, many people like the above to methods to take their acai berry, and the standard is acai berry once a day. Some people take it first thing in the morning while others take acai berry at night. Some people take there acai berry at night and in the morning. One thing is for sure, acai berry is the most healthy fruit on the earth right now.

The final way people have been taking acai berry is in frozen format, ordered offline or in the rare health food store or supermarket. Hope you enjoyed this quick recap of the acai berry.

Sunday Morning Weight Update

I was too busy to post yesterday, I wanted to get some work done and the grocery shopping before we went out - we took my parents out for lunch and then visited a relative.

On Saturday morning my weight had gone down a tiny bit and was 9 stone 8.2 pounds. My husband had gone down to 15 stone 1.

We had a eat all you like buffet in a Thai restaurant which was really dangerous!! I was really surprised at how well I did though. I had some salad and tried some starters. Then went back for mains and I had a spoonful of rice and a spoonful of each of the three vegetable dishes. Then I had pudding which was lychees and melon. It was really nice and I felt satisfied and no urge to completely stuff myself silly. My parents and husband had about the same except they had the chocolate pudding and the ginger pudding and probably had more calories in their meat dishes, although the volume of food they ate was the same. We walked there and back which probably took 20 minutes each way, so that helped. Then we went out to my Aunts house but we were full so I just had some cold custard and jelly and my husband had nothing. We got home and had scrambled egg on toast with the children as they didn't eat much all day.

This mornings weigh-in was a bit nerve racking! My weight had just gone up to 9 stone 8.2 pounds which I was really pleased with. My husband went up to 15 stone 1.8 pounds which I thought was good too considering the puddings!

I am going to try to get us back to sensible eating today - I need to feed the boys up a bit as they didn't eat much and keep the grown ups calories down. Could be quite a challenge!

Friday Morning Update

Last night I felt quite fat and bloated despite only having about 1600 calories during the day. I didn't have much energy and only did 15 minutes on the exercise machine but I figured it was better than nothing. This morning I felt much better and my weight had gone down to 9 stone 8.4 which was good.

My husband didn't write down what he ate yesterday but remembered and I added it up to about 1500 calories. He did no exercise as he was so tired and had about 10 hours sleep. This morning his weight had gone down to 15 stone 1 pound and he was pleased about his progress. He asked me to buy him low calorie bread and cheese spread for his lunch so he will be cutting about 125 calories there which should help him.

Thursday Morning Update

Well things went a bit wring yesterday! My husband went out for a curry and his weight went up to 15 stone 3 pounds and he was really upset about it.

He brought me home onion bhajis and vegetable samosas which were delicious. After the two chocolates bars I had in the morning, the bread and butter and hot chocolate drink in the evening, I really should not have had them at all. My weight went up as well to 9 stone 10.4 pounds.

I chatted with my husband this morning and we have decided that it would be best for him to write down everything he eats and the exercise he does so that we can count the calories and look at the effect on his weight. His mother finds that exercise is key for her weight loss and I wonder if my husband is the same. He wants me to help get him exercising again so we will be able to find out if that helps.

Wednesday Morning Update

My Mum brought loads of delicious bread with her yesterday and I ate 3 slices with margarine on. I tried to keep things healthy and bought lots of soft fruit and fat free yoghurt to go on it. I definitely ate too much especially after making a lovely risotto for my evening meal which used some olive oil, margarine and cheese! However, I did a walk, although shorter than normal and I did the exercise machine, part biking part running and my weight stayed the same at 9 stone 8.2 pounds. I am happy with that but need to make sure I eat healthily today.

My husband did some cycling on the machine and did a lunchtime walk yesterday. He did eat some chocolate biscuits but I limited his lunch calories by replacing his 100 calories of nuts with 20 calories of grapes. I decided that he needed some help to get down below 15 stone. It worked and this morning he was 14 stone 13.8. He had sausages and beans for breakfast today and I gave him fruit juice so I hope that he is good during the day. I will do my best to get him on the exercise machine tonight which will hopefully help.

Tuesday Morning Update

I was very pleased with myself yesterday. I ate really sensibly and managed to fit in an exercise session - despite it only being 30 minutes slow pedalling on the machine, at least it was a start. I lost a little weight and was 9 stone 8.2 this morning which is great. I have my parents with me for lunch and I am hoping that I will still be able to be healthy today despite the fact that they are likely to tempt me with yummy food. Fitting in the exercise could be tricky as I am snowed under with work.

My husband ate chocolate biscuits and truffles at work yesterday and his weight went back up over 15 stone. He was really disappointed with himself and realised that he has put on a lot of weight since returning to work. I hope that he is inspired to get back on the exercise machine as I think that will not only help him lose a bit of weight but also benefit his health as he gets no exercise at all normally.

Monday Morning Update

I had my usual concerns about being away for the weekend and the effect it would have on my weight. Eating meals at 8pm always is a worry and I only walked on one day. I also had a lot of cheese, cream and butter. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my weight was 9 stone 8.8 this morning. I am determined to start the exercise machine today as I really want to tone up a bit and despite not doing it last week, as I worried about being unwell again if I started back to it too soon, I have a cold.

My husband managed to put on weight and was 14 stone 13.2 this morning so he will have to be careful.

Friday Update

Unfortunately my cheesy pasta was not kind to us yesterday and we both put on weight. I am now 9 stone 9.6 and my husband is 14 stone 12.4. We are away for the weekend but staying with my Mother-in-Law who is on a diet so hopefully we will get some healthy meals. I guess it is up to us to show some restraint where portion control is concerned and we should then be okay.

Calories - 8th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge and green tea
Elevenses - 100 calories
Vegetable curry and green tea
Lunch - 650 calories
Flat beans, red pepper and carrot with too much cheesy dip and bread and jam with decaff tea
Afternoon - calories
Green Tea
Evening Meal - 350 calories
Carrot and Pea soup with some cheesy pasta bake and decaff coffee
Evening Snack - 100 calories
Decaff tea and weetabix
TOTAL CALORIES - 1350

EXERCISE :

100 minute walk

Thursday Update

My sensible eating paid off and my weight went down to 9 stone 9.6 pounds. I will work hard at it again today to get it down some more as I would like to get back down to 9 stone 7 pounds. I also feel like I would love to be more toned but I do not want to overdo things this week what with getting used to walking again. I do not want to risk being unwell so I will leave the exercise machine until next week.

My husband took some chocolate drinks to work to save money as he often buys hot chocolate from the drinks machine. He had rather more than usual, as they were cheaper and paid the price by putting on weight. He was 14 stone 12.6 pounds this morning. I still think he is doing really well.

Acne Solutions

I have recently been thinking about trying some different products to see if they can help my acne. I do not get that much, occasional spots on my chest and chin which seem to be related to a certain time of the month and eating chocolate. These I am not worried about as I assume that an acne treatment will not really help. I do have a lot of blackheads on my nose and I would love to find a permanent way to get rid of them. I found that a sauna session really help to clear them but that is not very practical as the effect only lasted for a few days! I am currently trying a facial scrub but it just softens my skin and has no effect on blackheads (not that it claims to). I think that I am going to choose a specific blackhead product when I buy a new facial wash and see whether that can clear my skin. I have tended to avoid these products as they seem to be aimed at the teenage market, which I certainly am not. I think they may dry the skin out, but I do have plenty of moisturisers so I could always use one of those if I get that problem.

Calories - 7th January

FOOD AND DRINK :

Breakfast - 150 calories
Porridge and green tea
Elevenses - 100 calories
Banana and green tea
Lunch - 150 calories
Home made onion, carrot, parsnip and garlic soup and decaff tea
Afternoon - 450 calories
Hot marmite drink, bread and strawberry spread and green tea with some grapes, bread and butter and children's alphabet biscuits
Evening Meal - 250 calories
Small baked potato, Quorn sausages, broccoli, green beans and carrots
Evening Snack - calories
Decaff coffee
TOTAL CALORIES - 1100

EXERCISE :

80 minute walk

Claire Sweeney : My Big Fat Diet

This was a TV program that I watched last night and it was really interesting. Claire Sweeney is an actress and dancer who does musicals and TV shows. She is 5 ft 8 inches and weighed 9 stone 12 pounds with a BMI of 21.3. Her blood pressure was 110 over 70 which is very good and she worked out 3 times a week with a physical trainer and ate sensibly.

She took on a challenge to stop exercising and eat whatever she liked for 6 weeks. The program followed her progress including how she looked, weighed and measured and how she felt.

She put on nearly 2 stone in just 6 weeks and went up 3 cup sizes and 2-3 dress sizes. She started to feel really self concious and her friends thought that she looked completely different. She had never been that heavy before and she began to really hate it.

The really interesting thing was her health. Not only was her BMI in the overweight category but her blood pressure had gone up to 170 over 110 which is in the high blood pressure category. This just shows that even not looking after yourself for a small amount of time can lead to health problems and that a long binge over Christmas or on a holiday for example could be more harmful than we might think.

What I liked about the program was that it showed that even someone who has an active job and a physical trainer still has to work hard with what she eats to stay healthy. I used to think that people were either lucky and thin or unlucky and fat and that thin people did not work hard to stay the way they are. I think there are some lucky people out there but knowing that most people have to work hard to be healthy made me feel better somehow that I was not the only one doing it.

Wednesday Update

My husband was good yesterday and his weight went down to 14 stone 11.6 pounds which is really great. He has set himself a goal of getting to his target weight by the end of the year. That means he has to lose just about 1 pound a week. I think he should be able to get there more quickly if he keeps going at this rate.

My weight went up to 9 stone 10.4 pounds. I was naughty yesterday and I need to get back on track today. I have decided that I need to write down what I am eating for a few days so that I can keep a proper eye on my calorie levels.

Acai Berry Superfood

I often feel a bit sceptical about super foods and how much good they can do you. I have learnt about super foods during my nutrition course and found out that they were just popular foods which have some nutritional value. However, after reading more about acai berries I am interested in finding out more about them. It claims that it increases energy levels which can help you to lose weight. If it does increase energy levels then I can see how that might help a motivated person exercise more and get healthier. Normally I would prefer to eat a natural product than a supplement but with this particular fruit, I can understand why a supplement makes sense. The acai berry is mainly seed and the pulp is where all of the nutrients are. This means that if the pulp is removed and that puree used to make a supplement, a much higher proportion of the nutritious fruit is ingested. The fruit contains antioxidants, iron, vitamin C, fatty acids and many other nutritious properties. I am still not convinced that it would help weight loss but then I am not convinced that green tea helps, but I still drink it just in case, so I have definitely not ruled out these.

Tuesday Update

My husband found things tough at work yesterday as everyone brought in their left over Christmas biscuits and sweets. He managed to be pretty good and his weight stayed the same at 14 stone 12.4 pounds which was good. I will try to start him exercising soon and that should help him get healthier and lose a bit more.

I bought some fatty treats for the children to try to get them to gain weight. They ate loads (and so did I!) They were very tired form play group so we all got a great nights sleep which I think helped me and getting back to walking too. My weight went down a little to 9 stone 9 pounds. I would like to lose a little more to stay closer to 9 stone 7 pounds.

I bought some new clothes at the weekend. I can hardly believe I am as small as I am. My trousers were a size 12 and could do with a belt and my tops are now a size 10. I have never been below a size 14 in my life before. I keep looking in the mirror and can hardly believe it is me as the better fitting clothes really show off my new figure! I did get asked if I was pregnant again yesterday though. I am sure it is my coat that is not at all flattering and I have a new one arriving today which is a smaller size and I hope will stop people asking that question.

Update

Well today we are all back into routine with the children back at play group and so I got a good walk in today which I enjoyed. I bought the boys some treat foods as they lost weight over Christmas and I want them to put it back on because they are already underweight for their age. Unfortunately I couldn't resist some of the treats myself. I am hoping that the extra exercise will be enough to help me to not put any weight on. I could really do with losing a few pounds as I am 9 stone 9.4 at the moment. My husband was 14 stone 12.4 which is his lowest weight since I have known him. He is really pleased and determined to lose more as he is worried that now I have lost weight I will go off with someone slimmer. I wouldn't do that but as long as he is being healthy and getting down to a healthy weight, I am pleased, whatever his motivation.

New Year, New Start

Well my husband is back at work today so it feels like things are back t the normal routine. Everyone is feeling better. My weight this morning was 9 stone 9.6 pounds so I could do with losing a little bit, which I should be able to do easily once I start exercising again. I will be starting slowly with starting walking again - today doing about an hour and then next week starting the play group run again. Then the following week I will start the exercise machine as well. After about 2 months of not doing the machine and a month with little walking I can notice that my muscles are not as firm as they were. I do not want to rush back into things though as I do not want to risk getting another illness.

My husbands weight was 14 stone 13.8 this morning. I did him his normal little lunch and he had a light breakfast so I think he is determined to keep the weight coming off after his illness. You can really see that he has lost weight and I think that is inspiring him to lose more as well. Hopefully the tuck shop at work will not prove to be too tempting for him today.