Taking steps

So this week I took a step, a step towards one of my scary goals, trying on wedding dresses!

I have my appointments booked and made my mum take time off work to join me, it is something I have really worried about because of my current size, and I have spoken about it before in this blog. So, I will not bore you with the weird mind burps I have on the matter. But, it has made me think about my goals and how much stricter I need to be, I would say that we are eating a hell of a lot better than we used to, but its still not great. I need to get over that 'I'm too tired to cook after work' thought process. When we get takeaway it takes just as long to wait for the food to arrive than it would it we just made dinner, which is ridiculous when you think about it. 

With the wedding plans getting started the thought of diets and fitness is becoming ever present in our minds as the day looms and I still have that big bum and jelly belly! I really am going to try and step it up so that I can look my best on the day but will not stop once the wedding is over! I am determined to be thinner so that if and when I become a mum I am not out of breath playing with my kids, or can't sit next to them on rides (a strange thought I know but when I think that in my current state I could not fit on adult rides a child's ride is surely smaller?).

This week it is a maintain, partly due to over indulgence on Jon's birthday and but mostly due to not getting off my fat arse and doing more exercise! But we are off to the gym tonight and wakling to the cinema tomorrow so let's lose weight!

Current Weight: 18st 11lbs

Target weight loss date: 6th October

Pounds left until target: 11lbs

Weightloss so far: 5lb

Target weight: 18st 0lb

Just a quickie

Ok, I will not lie to you, I set out an exercise plan for last week and did not stick to it. At all!

Naughty Ica!

So this week we are going uber strict on the diets and uber strict with our exercise plans. We want to see how that affects our weight loss for the week.

With our wedding day getting closer and closer all I want to do is try on dresses. But I am caught up in my own thinking of:

'If I try to try on dresses now they won't have many in my current size, and if I don't like the ones that they do I would risk buying one that I can't try on and what if I did and when I'm thinner it doesn't suit me! Or if I try one on now that I like but when I'm thinner it doesn't look right'.

And it goes on like that, so I guess my current option is to wait until the last possible moment so I will have lost enough weight that I can try more on and then carry on losing until the final fitting! However, I have just booked myself and one of my bridesmaids into the National Wedding Fair, so I will be taking lots of pictures and oohing and aaahing!

In the meantime my weight loss this week:

Current Weight: 18st 11lbs

Target weight loss date: 6th October

Pounds left until target: 11lbs

Weightloss so far: 5lb

Target weight: 18st 0lb

Some highs, some lows

So this past week I have been cramming revision in for my exam yesterday, it was a mixture or trying, boredom and results. 

This was definitely me but in front of my laptop!

I had some false starts, did a few mock tests, eventually getting to the point where I was regularly passing the mock tests. I was revising right up until the last minute, really hoping I would be able to soak it all in, or enough of it! I have really struggled this week, not to understand it, although there were a couple of sections it took a few times round to get it, but to remember it past the ten minutes it took to move onto the next section. I am not sure if maybe I had too many other things on my mind or that I just wasn't able to concentrate fully. Either way, I did my test on Sunday, it was an hour of nerves and (psychological pain) but I....

Although it is only a preliminary result, hopefully it won't change and in 4 weeks time I will be receiving a certificate with my name on! So after all the worrying we decided to go out and celebrate my result. Still being on a diet I did try and be good and only had a small sausage and mash with gravy for dinner, not adventurous but nice! 

I did finally make some of the Banana and Oat cookies yesterday, with far too many Bananas lying around the house, I made use of them. I also did mine quite chunky so they weren't crispy all the way through. I have found them to be quite nice but not really sweet at all, I think with some yoghurt they might be nice as a breakfast. I didn't help matters by adding dark chocolate (the only stuff I had in the house) making it even less sweet, however in one batch I did add a small amount of sweetener to see if that would help, and it did slightly but obviously made them a little less healthy.

Prior to cooking

A plan of action

My thoughts of late have turned to the momentual task ahead of me and Jon to lose lots of weight prior to our wedding, this graph shows what my weight loss has been like so far:

So as you can roughly see, although I have gone down and it is a steady downward slope, there have been times where I have hovered and neither lost nor gained, these are the areas I need to work on. We have 46 weeks until the wedding, and if I want to get to my targeted weight of 13 stone then I have 82lbs to lose (5st 8lbs) and that works out to 1.7lbs a week between now and the big day.

Which IS doable!

So Jon and I are going to sit down one week and plan a strict week (diet wise) and exercise every day, and see what effect that has on our weight loss for the week.For this week my plan is:

Monday: Gym in the evening

Tuesday: Rest Day

Wednesday: (Gym/Pool is closed) Walk in the evening

Thursday: Gym in the Evening

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: (At parents this weekend) Walk during the day

Sunday: (At parents this weekend) Walk during the day

So this week's weigh-in - it's a maintain this week, I blame my celebratory meal last night ;) But really I know I have nothing to blame except myself:

Current Weight: 18st 12lbs

Target weight loss date: 6th October

Pounds left until target: 12lbs

Weightloss so far: 4lb

Target weight: 18st 0lb

I may be a sheep afterall

I always thought I was more of a shepherd than a sheep in nearly all my walks of life, and if I am going to copy someone I will tell them beforehand e.g. 'Oooh I like your comic book, I am going to buy one for myself' or 'Oh that activity sounds cool I am going to try it too!' 

I know my sheep are good! I should be an artist! ;)

But, when it comes to diets and weight loss I have been reading a lot of people's blogs for help, support, and sometimes even a giggle or two. I have looked at their blogs and thought.. maybe I should do that too.....

Things like before and after photos, now I have a lot of before photos from holidays etc but no 'posed' ones. And now I've lost a stone it's a bit late, however I will do one because I still have a lot of weight to lose do there will still be a comparison to make.

People keep asking me what my end goal weight is and, honestly, I have no idea! My 'ideal' weight from such things as BMI calculators are around 11 stone. Now, whilst that sounds amazing I personally know that being that weight would not suit me, I would look anorexic most likely because of my height etc. I think what I will aim for is ultimately around 13 stone. That would still leave me looking healthy without passers by trying to shove doughnuts in my mouth.

At the same time I am not stupid or ill-informed about weight loss, I know that the closer I get to my goal the harder it will become. I just have to keep positive and keep up the exercise (that hopefully) I will be in the rhythm of and keep pushing.

Another blog I saw they were keeping track of their measurements so that even if they may not have lost weight they had lost some cm/inches off their waist for example. Now I used to do this when I first started losing weight for that very reason, but last week I started again properly, unfortunately I didn't do it this morning as I woke up late and had to rush to work so that will be tomorrow mornings job. I am keeping track of whatever I can; neck, upper arm, bust, under bust, waist, hips, bum, upper thigh and calves.

Now two weeks ago we started going back to the gym and swimming pool, however last week I was hit with the mother of all colds and coughs, Unable to breathe, I thought it was prudent that I didn't extenuate the situation and gave it a miss. Now, I am still suffering from said illness however I have said that we will still go swimming tonight, but I am on light duties, no underwater swimming (my favourite) no ploughing up and down the lanes until I pass out from lack of oxygen! ;)

Quick Flashback to a previous blog

We tried the Inside out chicken kievs last night... and they were NOMMY!! It was basically garlic crusted chicken, but nonetheless was still tasty, even Jon, who doesn't like garlic, enjoyed them! I chose to have potato chunks cooked in fry light as our side. I would recommend the recipe though as it really was tasty, and is going in our recipe book! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them before I ate them up! Maybe next time?

Now onto business: This week's weigh in!

Well it seems was a great week for my because after WEEKS of trying I have finally dipped under the 19 stone marker that has been tormenting me! I have lost 3lbs this week making me 18st 12lbs. It may not seem like much but to me it is amazing! It has been SO long since I saw that number 18 on my scale, I was jumping around the bathroom very excited.

Now my target for 2 weeks time is still 12lbs away due to my hovering weight around my birthday, because I forgot to think of this when setting the target and the unlikelihood of me losing 6lb a week for the next two weeks, I have granted myself a small extension. I have now made the target 6th October and still to be 18 stone. I think that this is doable now I am back in my groove!

Current Weight: 18st 12lbs

Target weight loss date: 6th October

Pounds left until target: 12lbs

Weightloss so far: 4lb

Target weight: 18st 0lb

The dreaded birthday week!

So this week was my 26th birthday (well yesterday in fact) and so with various meals out to celebrate I tried to be good where possible, to the point where I got sick of salad! However, I will admit the odd dessert may have slipped through or a couple of drinkies... All in all though I was restrained.

I had a great birthday and got spoilt by friends and family alike! I wasn't adventurous with my birthday requests this year, only asking for money towards our wedding (which was happily received) the only person not to comply was Jon who bought me a sapphire necklace. This is my birthstone and for as long as I can remember I have always wanted a sapphire, now I have one an I LOVE it! With a couple more of his presents in the hands of Royal Mail I can't wait to see what I get, but the most important thing to me is that I have him! :)

We also took a trip with the in laws to see Wicked, the musical, which I loved!! It was a bit strange hearing it sung with a British accent after knowing the soundtrack from the American version so well. The acting at first was a bit pantomime however they seemed to settle down later on, our Elphaba was not who was actually in the programme, it was the understudy's understudy. Now don't get me wrong she had an amazing voice but it does make you wonder how the person who should have been there would have sounded like! 

The thing I would pick on for the production was that in the final duet 'For Good' the pair were a little out of time, they managed to get it back in the middle but then lost it again, I am not sure if they were holding their notes too long or not long enough but you could hear the beats of the song and their melody did not quite meet. However, I do love a good musical and I had a great time, the sets were amazing and crazy amounts of detail, the costumes were great and you could see it was a big budgeted production.

Now enough of that soppyness, prior to the birthday celebrations we had started our health kick anew and actually mushed our lazy bums to the Gym and the Pool. On wednesday we picked up our fat selves and trundled down to the gym, being back again was good, we had to remember how to get back into the rooms and how to use the equipment, but we did it, we went.

One thing I have learnt is that I needed to get some sort of knee support as sure enough my knee went at the beginning of the session so I had to take it easier for the rest of it. When I go to the gym I find exercising pretty boring, so what I do it almost circuits I do about 10 mins per piece of equipment and move my way around the room and before I know it I have done an hour!

We also went swimming the next day, and although we weren't streaking up and down the pool, we were constantly moving, my plan was rather than try and rush straight into it I will build up my exercise routine and slowly increase the time and intensity of the workouts.

So, it comes down to weigh day, which admittedly I did weigh in yesterday but forgot to post it up, so this week it's a maintain.. which considering the amount of times I've eaten out this week I am pretty happy with considering I seriously thought I was going to put weight on this week. It makes my target a lot harder to achieve as I seem to have come to a standstill since setting it.. but I won't let that stop me!!

Current Weight: 19st 1lb

Target weight loss date: 22nd September

Target weight: 18st 0lb

Pounds left until target: 15lbs

Weightloss so far: 1lb