Oh dear...

Yesterday turned into a 'day off' as it was (I had forgotten!) my parents' wedding anniversary and we went out for a Chinese meal. Today nearly turned into another day of not logging, but this evening I decided to bite the bullet and face the facts and log what I ate. I ate 1,574, although I did burn quite a bit doing 45 minutes of vacuuming and running around after my lovebird (I let him out to have a fly and was training him). It can be hard to face the reality of what you are stuffing in your face LOL. I was hoping it would be less than that! However, I do have myself to blame as I could have turned down the cake and the fruit crumble. To redeem myself - in the eyes of anyone reading this - I did make a super low-cal soup and ate that for lunch (before I ate the fruit crumble with ice cream!). The soup was: ginger, garlic, vegan bouillon, 150g sweet potato, 150 g butternut squash, 100 g carrots, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil.

As a result of this situation, I am now going to challenge myself to at least 6 days of straight 'within calorie allowance' logging - starting tomorrow. I also hope it stops raining so I can get my dog walked... and count that as exercise.

Weigh-in - Met my first mini-goal!

Taken from: http://evanlaar2012.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/the-law-of-celebration/

It is with much amazement that I stepped on the scales to see not only had I lost, but I had also gone past my previous weight before the weight gain. My mindset had been that I felt I had either maintained at 166.5 or that I would have only gone down to my weight 3 weeks ago 165.75. Getting on the scales today, I saw: 164.5. I actually went and checked on another pair of scales because I doubted that it could be right. Apparently it is correct.

Now, I am not sure if part of the reason for this loss is that a few days ago I started taking Green Coffee Extract - http://www.naturesbest.co.uk/verdesse-p348/. I am not normally an advocate of such things, but I was given the opportunity to try them as a family member bought them. In a small study, some obese/overweight young people were given them and lost weight without changing diet. As I have changed diet - calorie counting - I thought this might help me a little to get over my plateau/hump, which from previous experience does seem to occur around 167-165. 

The result of all this is that I have met my first mini-goal - http://weighforward.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/weight-goals-rewards.html. I shall be booking up a scalp, shoulder, back massage to 'reward' myself (I have a gift card for it). 

Going Around In Circles

I ate 1,525 calories yesterday and 1,423 today. Yesterday was disappointing. I ate way more than I realised. It's embarrassing to say, but I didn't actually realise how much I had eaten till I logged my final meal on Calorie Count. Today was less of a mess, but I still ate more than I should. While some might say: "it's only 23 extra calories", it's still more than I should have and that means I have had 3 days in a row now where I have eaten more than my allowance.

I truly hope this is just a symptom of the holiday time!

I am still struggling with my swollen thigh. I am intending - thanks to a friend's suggestion - to do a juice fast starting tomorrow evening after dinner and running into Tuesday. I am not sure how long it will last. Maybe only 20 hours, maybe 24 or more. I find a juice fast helpful at times to reset the acidity level in my body and just clear out old 'gunk'.

Day Off

I did end up having a day off in the end... I logged for 8 days and had the 9th day off because it was a holiday yesterday and I forgot that we would be having a special meal.

I am back on the wagon today and logging. Still struggling with the exercise though. I will be weighing on Monday instead of Sunday, and I don't feel like I have lost anything. I think I am either battling my thyroid or have hit a plateau. I know that logic dictates I increase my exercise. However, logic goes out of the window when you don't feel well!

General Update

Weighing -

As I mentioned, I have been weighing myself each morning this week. So far, no major change - pretty static. Annoyingly my upper right leg is again very swollen (something I struggle with chronically) - just above my knee is 2 inches bigger than it should be and further up is about 1 inch bigger. I am going to stop weighing myself now... so that when I weigh on Sunday, I hopefully have lost some weight!

Physical Activity -

This is a bit better. I did a 25 minute 3 mph walk yesterday with my dog. Then today, I vacuumed for at least 30 minutes. I find housework can be a good way to burn some calories.

Talking about vacuuming, I saw this funny picture the other day:

Hehe!

Feeling Better

Diet-wise I find myself feeling better. I have just completed day 5 of consecutive logging. I feel back in control and on track. It's amazing what a difference it makes to my mental state to feel as if I am at least doing everything I can food-wise to help me get slimmer and healthier.

I am still struggling exercise-wise. I was doing so well, but lately I have felt rough and not up to it. I was hoping that today I would go for a walk, but things got in the way so I couldn't go earlier in the day and by the time I could go, I had lost the energy and impetus.

Seeing as I am now doing better with my calorie counting and logging, I am going to concentrate on motivating myself to exercise.

Gained

Weighed myself this morning and the scale says I have gained 0.75 of a pound. Hmmmmm. Part of me hopes that it's water weight. Part of me thinks: this is what you get when you don't consistently log for 2 weeks.


So, in the spirit of my last post... I have definitely learned my lesson!


Anyway, in good news, today marks the 4th day of 'Back on the Wagon' with the logging and eating 100% right. I want to think that I will get there in the end even if I do hit some bumps in the road, but that can be a hard thought to believe. After this 2 week experiement, I am also even more majorly concerned about the maintenance stage (will talk about that another time) than I was before.

I do feel I need to switch my exercise up again and find some motivation there. I feel incredibly exhausted at the moment and I have been waking up every day with a headache. I have allergies that start about March and run through till maybe October or November. It's a battle to get them under control and right now they are barely under any semblance of control. Of course this impacts my exercise regime because there are some things that one really does not feel like doing when one has sinusitis

Here's my plan for the week - instead of challenges:

Log every day
No free day
Chart my weight daily to see what's going on!
As much exercise as I can manage

We'll see how that goes.