Life is good & feeling great

I weighed in on tuesday down 3 lbs! I was ecstatic, it pushed me into another stone bracket and brought me close to goal, I can see it now, that lovely gold card, it's waiting for me and I am coming to get it!
I am also considering changing my goal by half a stone to 11st 7lbs instead of 11st, i'm not sure yet but if I do then I am only 6lbs away from goal. That thought has made me realise how far I have come and how wonderful it feels and I had a thought...
How often do we stop to appreciate the good things we have going on in our lives? Not that often I bet! well not me anyway, I'm always pushing for the next thing, my next weigh in, next lb, next, next, next. Today I am stoping and taking a little moment to appreciate my life right now, because I have realised that its pretty great right now!

We need to stop and smell the roses

I've lost a ton of weight over the last 6 months, 25.5lbs in total. I feel fantastic, I'm less tired, more energetic and much, much happier in myself. I can walk (more like a jog) up my full set of 31 stairs without loosing my breath, most of my clothes are now far to loose. To top it all I got offered a job today! I had the interview yesterday and I felt so confident going into it and not one bit self conscious and the interview went really well. The job, which I am very excited about is in a sweet shop and starts on monday.

I will feel like this kid on my first day of work :)

Now, I won't lie, am a little concerned about how going back into full time employment and a change of routine will effect my weight loss, especially because its in a sweet shop and gosh do I LOVE sweets! But i am only a little bit concerned, i've come so far I cannot see it being ruined by anything, I know i will have to go to work prepared with packed lunch and I desperately need new clothes that are not hanging off me so i'm going to spend money on beautiful clothes and not sweets! Thats going to be my mantra and I will remind myself of how far I have come when I feel like giving in to temptation :)

I had a celebratory chinese take away tonight after I got the call about the job. I ended up only eating half because my stomach is not physically able for massive portions of food anymore. I had half a tub or boiled rice for 6pp and half a tub of shredded crispy chicken in a sweet chili sauce, which I pointed at 13 with the help of some lovely ladies from the Facebook page. I didn't cut the points in half for that even though I only ate half because I wanted to be safe. So i've had my treat and i've pointed it and I still have loads of weeklies left for the rest of the week.

also this week I baked some gorgeous banana muffins for only 2pp each!

2 pro point banana muffins.

I had some browning bananas and I was searching for something to do with them and I came across this recipe here - http://fatgirlslimmer.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/banana-muffins-2-weight-watchers-pro-points-each/

Ingredients

30g butter
60g honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas
150g plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
12 cup muffin pan lined with muffin cases
Chocolate chips for sprinkling on top
Melt the butter, honey and vanilla in the microwave. 
Mash the bananas in a bowl and pour over the honey butter vanilla mix and combine.
Mix the dry ingredients in another mixing bowl.
Mix the bananas mix into the dry ingredients until just combined(don’t overmix)
Divide the muffin mix equally amongst the muffin cases.
Top with chocolate chips
Bake for 25 minutes at 190 degrees

* I did not have chocolate chips so I made mine without them.

Back to loosing with some yummy food and good decisions

After a gain of 1.5lbs and then a stay the same, I am back on track with a good lose of 2lbs this week.
I made a few changes and reverted back to some old habits that I had let slip. I think perhaps I was getting a bit confident with my weight loss and wasn't being as careful as I was back in the beginning.

Some things that I changed were going back to meal planning, I used to always do this but I had let it slip and was improvising a lot, so I sat down and made a meal menu for the week and that really helped me to stay on track.
one of my dinner plans was to have fish, I would like to start having fish at least once a week. I found these lovely lightly crumbed sole in the freezer in Aldi. The crumb has roasted pepper and garlic going through it. They were delicious and one fillet worked out at 4pp.

Lightly crumbed pepper and garlic sole from Aldi with baby potatoes, carrots and broccoli 

This week in the meeting we discussed eating on days out, summer is coming to an end and we may have some last days out coming up. we chatted about whats acceptable on a day out, how many points we think is ok to use and things like that. we all agreed that that around 40 - 50 pp was not so bad, obviously only if you have the extra points from your weeklies.
I didn't really have a day out this week but I did have the afters on a wedding to attend last night so it was really a night out. I was going with my Boyfriend, my brother and his wife, who were spending the night with us. I cooked us a yummy chicken curry for 6pp a portion and we also got 2 bags of chips from the chipper to share and I had a good handful but pointed them at 14pp. I had cleverly volunteered to be designated driver so I wouldn't drink all my points or heaven forbid go over my points with wine.

before and after picture of me in the dress.

Last week I decided to try on one of my dresses to see if I could wear it to the wedding party. I had worn it to a wedding afters last december and it was so uncomfortably tight that I couldn't wait to take it off again. Now though its the perfect fit, I can eat and drink in it without feeling sick and the waistband digging into my tummy. I could dance the night away and not feel self conscious. I danced so much last night I must have earned a couple of activity points at least!
I forgot to take a decent picture of me wearing it last night, I had a whole 50s glam thing going on, softly cured hair, red lipstick, eye liner flicks, the whole lot and I really felt pretty. I do have some dodgy camera phone pictures.

Camera Phone Pic - Will and Myself.

Normally on these occasions when the finger food was produced I would have eaten my weight in cocktail sausages. Oh I love cocktail sausages! Last night though I allowed myself 2, a little taste to not feel deprived and that was enough to satisfy me. I also didn't resist having some wedding cake, it was chocolate biscuit, yum! the cake was sliced up into very small finger slices and I just had the one, so not too much damage done there. I hazard a guess at 6pp? there was also a candy buffet table at the wedding and I did eat a couple of jellies but I pointed them too. I was very proud of myself, I would tend to be one of those persons who would eat some jellies and the conveniently forget about it!

Camera Phone Pic - My Dad and Myself

so in total I used 23 of my weeklies, a few chips, a small bit of cake and few jellies, not bad I think. I am very pleased with myself anyway. I felt very in control and to top it all off I have never ever gotten so many compliments from people telling me how great I looked. I had people I didn't even know come over and say I looked beautiful, so I was going around with a big swelled head and a smile on my face. weight watchers is paying off big time! I am almost looking forward to next weeks weigh in because I know I have made the right choices and the party wont have effected my weigh in, or at least it shouldn't!

Motivation - It was lost but now it's found.

I weighed in this week with a stay the same. I was devastated, I really was expecting to be down. I tracked everything. I used all my weeklies but you are meant to be able to do that and I have done it countless times and lost weight, so it couldn't have been that. There are two things that I could put it down to, 1. the bank holiday disaster was still catching up on me and 2. I had a few drinks on saturday night so it might be alcohol, I haven't been drinking much alcohol since I started weight watchers.

Whatever it was I was in fowl form after weigh in and I got chipper chips and onion rings for my dinner after weigh in and then I ate half a packet of digestive biscuits with tea. Did that make me feel any better? well, no of course it didn't. It actually made me feel worse. A lot worse. I was way past feeling full, I felt really sick and disgusting. I was moaning to Will for the rest of the night about how sick I felt. I realised that I used to eat like that all the time and I wouldn't even feel sick. I thought to myself, 'you cant go back to that. you have got to pull it together!'

 Today I started pulling myself and my attitude back together. I made a 7 day menu plan and went to the supermarket and bought everything I needed. I measured my waist, thighs and arms so that I could track my measurements and my weight. I was delighted to discover that I have so far lost 4 inches from my waist since joining weight watchers. I went out for a skate today and did 6.5km, I am trying to prepare for a 17km wheelathon that I am doing on saturday which I should have started practicing for weeks ago. I also learned that derby practice is back on this weekend after a 6 week break at the end of the season. I cant wait to get back to derby training, it's really intense and will really help my weight loss.

Cork Charity Wheelathon - 17km

I made a yummy, filling dinner today for only 8pp. vegetable & bacon stir fry with rice.

serves 2

1 onion sliced
1 carrot sliced
less that a 1/4 of a head of white cabbage shredded
1/2 head of broccoli chopped
3 bacon medallions
4 tinned pineapple rings diced(in their own juice but drain the juice)

all stir fried in soy sauce and serve with 150 gram of cooked rice.

Veg & Bacon stir fry with rice

I also discovered a lovely treat today, well it's not a new treat, I have been eating marshmallows as a treat for a while, but I bought different ones today and was delighted when I pointed them. A 30g serving worked out at 3pp and when I weighed them out on my scales that was 11 marshmallows! they are the Aldi's twisted marshmallows.

I have now got renewed motivation and it's quiet exciting. I am looking forward to next weeks weigh in already. x

Bank Holiday Confessions

I have to confess now that I did not beat the bank holiday this time round. It did in fact beat me. I gained 1.5lbs when I weighed in on tuesday. I expected a gain and if you continue reading you might understand why.

Ballybunion

It started on friday when I got bad news. I got the letter that I have been waiting 8 weeks for. I did not get a place on the masters that I have been working towards for the last 4 years. I was devastated and I did bawl my eyes out for a solid 15 minutes after opening the letter. It has thrown everything up in the air for me and I really have to start from scratch and figure out what I am going to do, it's a scary feeling, not knowing. I ate about 200g of chocolate friday night and half a bag of marshmallows, I didn't care. I was allowing myself to have it. I was having a night off from weight watchers and I would get back on track saturday. But of course, I didn't! I focused on going to Ballybuinion and having a relaxing weekend with my family which I did, but I also failed to control or track my eating. I was still feeling sorry for myself and I am a natural comfort eater. saturday night we all ventured to the chipper I mentioned in my last post, I shared a burger and curry cheese chips with my sister so that wasn't as bad as it could have been.

My sister and me 

sunday consisted of a Cooked breakfast, a picnic on the beach with doughnuts, biscuits, chocolate and crisps. we went swimming and played ball games too but obviously ate more than that counteracted! Sunday night we had booked into a lovely restaurant and I went ahead and had 3 full courses and wine...oh and don't forget the gin and tonics! 

can you see now why I was up? 

wait! there is more... 

monday was another day at the beach with much more of the same followed by a home cooked meal of steak, garlic & cream potato gratin and roast veg and more wine. Then we all went for a stroll around Ballybuinion. yeah a stroll, I couldn't get away with calling it a walk, I probably didn't even burn one calorie. Oh then me and william stopped and had an ice cream sunday that had hot doughnuts in it!

William and me

I still failed to get back on track when we got home on tuesday, despite weighing in with a gain, I went and got a curry after the meeting and ate more doughnuts, Seriously what was going on with me and doughnuts this week, I don't know! I was quiet upset on tuesday, I thought I had gotten over not getting the masters but I really haven't yet. I will in time I know, just need to figure out my next step.

I am back on track now, even though it was a bit questionable at times today. there was a party in work and I ate sweets and biscuits and a burger and sausages. I was thinking screw it, I will pretend it never happened. When I got home though I decided I would be accountable and I wrote it all down and crossed out the points and I didn't have dinner. No, I am not starving myself, I stuffed myself in work and I wasn't hungry, so really eating dinner would have been pointless and waste more points. I will have some fruit if I get hungry. 

So now I really am back on track and I am going to stay that way. I will have a loss next week!