Over half way there

I weighed in this evening -1.5 lbs and I got my 3rd silver 7. I needed to loose a half to get the silver 7 and I would have been very happy with that. I am delighted with a 1.5 loss.
I have lost a total of 22lbs now and I have been doing weight watchers for 20 weeks. I am achieving a steady loss of about 1lb a week and I am more than halfway to gaol. I am not completely committed to a goal yet. I have a figure in my head and I will see how comfortable I am as I get closer to that number and decide then.

In this evenings class we talked about setting mini goals for ourselves and I can't think of one. I have reached all the goals I have set for now, so I am going to have to wrack my brains for the next one. Of course I can go with the next silver 7, but I want something different as a goal. I've got my 5%, my 10% and one stone. I am even fitting back into the clothes that I haven't worn in years. I do have one pair of jeans that I want to wear again. I haven't worn them since I was 17 though, so there is no hope of me fitting into them again until I reach my final goal. I need a short term goal...But what?

on another note, there is a bank holiday looming this weekend...bank holidays have been my down fall in weight watchers. this bank holiday is being spent in Ballybunion with my parents. Days on the beach with picnics, meals out and long chats into the night over wine...hhhhmmmm....not a great combination for weight loss. I am really hoping that this will be the bank holiday where I come to weigh in on tuesday and have a loss. I will happily take half a lb or even a quarter of one, if only weight watchers would recognise it. I need to beat the bank holiday! and what to do to beat it?....why plan of course!

Ballybunion Beach - A wonderful place for a swim

I will have to have a plan in place by saturday when we leave, i think packing a bag of weight watchers friendly snacks to take with me will be wise, oh and a couple of bottles of Aldis lime crush and pear & eldeflower crush, my new favourite drinks. I will undoubtably have wine over the weekend but maybe I can alternate it with those drinks and have less wine. Oh and I forgot to mention that my uncle owns a delicious chipper in Ballybunion...of course it would be rude not to have some! A treat I think, maybe just the once though....wish me luck!

A delicious dinner and a scrumptious dessert to curb those cravings!

I had a stay the same this week. I was so happy with that because I had one of those weeks where I could not stop myself from eating and I was expecting to be up. The problem now though is how do I reign it in and get back on track?

Today has gone well so I think I will be ok now. I followed some advice from the meeting this week and divided my points up so I knew exactly how many I was allowed for breakfast lunch and dinner. Mine is 6 for breakfast 8 for lunch and 10 - 12 for dinner and 5 for snacks.

I stayed well under that today, quiet by accident. I had 6 for breakfast, 6 for lunch and 8 for dinner followed by dessert for 5 and a snack for 2 pp. I still have 4 left for the rest of the evening.

For dinner today I decided to try something new. I looked through my members favourite book and decided on the caribbean chicken. Oh my gosh! it was delicious. I will definitely be adding it to my regular dinner list. For only 8pp you couldn't go wrong.

Caribbean Chicken - members favourite book

I haven't quiet managed to get rid of the sweet craving that had been plaguing me all last week yet, but i didn't want to give into it and gorge myself on a huge bar of chocolate. Instead I came up with a dessert that is simple to make and oh boy was it satisfying!

Its a kind of  a banoffee pie pudding or sunday. I crushed 2 of the weight watchers double chocolate biscuits and put them in the bottom of a wine glass and layered it with banana slices and topped it with 3 tblsp of butterscotch angel delight adding more banana slices on top and grating a small bit of dark chocolate over. It worked out at 5pp and it was well worth it. I would be happy to serve this up at a dinner party, nobody would have any idea that it was weight watchers friendly, it tastes very naughty!

I also discovered a quick fix for a chocolate/sweet craving that only uses 1pp. I have been microwaving my pink 'n' whites for a while now, just for a few seconds. The marshmallow goes warm and gooey, yummy! My friend amy told me to open the pink 'n' white before microwaving it and spreading a tiny but of nutella onto it and then closing it up and microwave it. Oh my gosh, it was a great quick fix after my lunch today when i was tempted to go to the shop for a giant bar of chocolate.

The pink 'n' whites with nutella and the butterscotch pudding may very well keep me on tack this week and and stop me from totally pigging out. hopefully I will see a loss next tuesday.

I reached my 10% goal!

I spent all last weekend on the beach with Will and my family and I was concerned about sticking to weight watchers for the two days. My mom packs the best picnics (in my eyes) when we go to the beach. It reminds me of my childhood. Banana sandwiches, ham sandwiches,egg salad sandwiches (she is famous for those ones), home made buns, yogurts, apples, grapes, chocolate, biscuits, crisps, jellies, you name it and my mam has got it packed.
Now my family take our beaching quiet seriously, we pack the car with cool boxes full of food and drinks,a flask of boiling water,teabags,coffee,towels,blankets,suncream,hats,balls,hurleys,windbreakers and even toilet paper. we are prepared for everything. number one rule is...get there early! The Murphy's are not happy if we don't get a good 8 hours on the beach.

So you can imagine all the tempting treats that were waiting for me in the cool box. oh gosh they were tempting. Yes I did give in, but just a little and not nearly as much as I would have before joining weight watchers. In the evenings when we got home at 7pm covered in salt and sand and feeling very relaxed my dad would throw on his beloved BBQ. It was still so lovely and warm that we ate outside for the fIrst time in a long time. we had burgers, sausages,baked potato and coleslaw, yummy. The sweetest thing happened. my dad had bought me a pack of slimsters to have my burgers on. I hadn't asked him to and neither had my mam. It was very thoughtful of him.

I didn't track anything until I got home on monday and I was delighted to discover that I still had one weekly point left...but then I remembered the giant ice cream I had! oops.

My Brother, Sister and Myself  enjoying an ice-cream from the van like the good old days!

I wasn't feeling nervous stepping onto the scales on tuesday, I had a great relaxing weekend and I didn't care what the damage was, to be honest, it was gonna be worth a lb or 2. So I was delighted when I discovered that I was actually down 2lbs! and got my 10% sticker. Thats a total of 19.5lbs (1st 5.5lb)

My 21st dress is a perfect fit again!

 I have been bit behind on my blog lately and I've lost of news to share. So here is goes...

I Just did an impromptu photo shoot because I discovered that my 21st dress is a perfect fit again and I was so excited. It hasn't fitted me in 4years! I love that dress and now I need a good excuse to wear it again.

I have been going skate mad over the last couple of weeks with 2hr derby training every sunday and 1.5 hr skate fit class on tuesday nights. I have also thrown in a couple of outdoor skates. All of this skating adds up a whole pile of activity points 35-40 each week.
So you can imagine my disappointment when I got up on the scales last week and discovered I was up 1lb! I was devastated. "but I earned 40 activity points!'' i kept saying to anyone who would listen to me moan. Now I did eat a lot last week, using up my weeklies and over half my activity points too. So i guess I probably did deserve to be up, plus i'm building muscle in my legs and muscle weighs heavier than fat.
Being up made me so determined to have a good week this week and boy did it pay off. I didnt go to skate fit and I didn't have derby training. I used about half my weeklies and what happens when i go for weigh in on tuesday? I am down 3lbs! I couldn't have been happier with that result. Thats a total of 1st 3.5lbs.

This week is a busy week but i'm still determined to stay on track. I am hosting a weight watchers style pot luck party tonight (friday) with the ladies from my meeting. I am very excited about it and all my food was prepped and cooked last night and sitting in the fridge. I am serving red onion and feta filo baskets for 1pp per basket and Nutella Filo parcels for 1pp per parcel. I am also serving a yummy chocolate philadelphia and marshmallow dip for 1pp a tbsp with some strawberries for dipping, yum!
On saturday I am heading to kilkenny to see my parents and my sister. we will be spending all day saturday and sunday on the beach in wexford, my favorite childhood place. fingers crossed I can resist all the biscuits that are sure to be packed in the picnic basket and make smart food choices, oh and a couple of walks on the beach might help too.