My 13 Week Challenge - Week 1: The Easter Bank Holiday

Last night was weigh in night and the first one of my 13 week, 13lbs challenge and I was up 2lbs!
Ok, so it didn't go to plan, I didn't lose the 1lbs I was aiming for but i'm not disappointed with myself either...sounds a bit strange I know but I feel fantastic!

Let me explain.
My plan for the long weekend was not to drink any alcohol, just eat one Easter egg worth 25 Pro Points from my weeklies and do plenty of activity and loose 1lbs.

Beautiful beach

Here is how it went.
My week started of with a great start, I woke up last Thursday morning and I headed out for a walk, I hadn't gone for a walk in weeks but I managed to do a 5Km walk and I felt great. I came home and I ate well for the day. Thursday night we headed down to west cork for an extra long Easter weekend. Friday got off to a great start, the weather was gorgeous, we went for a walk on the beach and later that evening we climbed up to The Beacan at Baltimore to see the sun set.

The Beacon

Ok...so I did eat some chips and shared a slice of cake with William before hand, but still not so bad. Saturday came and we went for a wonder around the local market, and I decided to make some dessert for Sunday lunch the next day. I made a raw food, chocolate & avocado tart, it was amazing! we went for dinner Saturday night, I really wanted pizza but I ordered fish instead and just had one very small glass of wine. I opted to be the designated driver so that I couldn't drink more alcohol and I resisted more wine when we got home but I did eat a couple of triangles of Toblerone...oops!
Doesn't sound too bad now does it, my weeklies would have covered the treats I did have.

My Chocolate & Avocado Tart

Then came Sunday and that's where things started to slip. The sun was scorching, we were having 12 people over for Sunday lunch and I got carried away in the buzz of the bank holiday weekend. we climbed the small mountain behind the house before dinner, it was tough but I made it!

I drank more than I should have on Sunday. Cold beer just tastes so good sitting in the blazing sun in a beautiful garden chatting with friends and I ate far more chocolate than I had planned, we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden that morning and I couldn't resist, Monday was similar to Sunday, more chocolate and an ice cream cone on the drive back home. 

Sunday morning egg hunt

So as you can see gaining 2lbs is not that surprising really. I was kinda hoping that the activity would make up for all the chocolate I ate but I knew that was just wishful thinking. I don't regret my weekend because I had an amazing time with friends and family, it was almost like a mini holiday and those kind of weekends don't happen very often.

At the top of the little mountain

I feel fantastic because I did more activity that I ever did when I was losing my weight originally and I have kept it up too. I went for an 8km walk on Tuesday and a 6km walk on Wednesday. I am setting up a great habit for myself and I am learning to make activity a part of my lifestyle and enjoying it too!

I didn't reach my goal that I had set for the week, but I conquered one thing, activity and I am proud of that. This week I will conquer tracking and I know I will have a loss next Wednesday night.

one challenge at a time, one day at a time, one meal at a time and I will get there because Slow & steady wins the race.

Confessions of A Perfect Person

I started this blog as a means of tracking my weight loss journey & keeping myself motivated, It turned into so much more along the way and I have loved every second of it. I always wrote about the good times but most importantly I wrote about the bad times,

Me before I started at 13st 10.5lbs  & when I reached goal at 11st 7lbs

The last few months have been difficult for me, my bad habbits crept in, I lost control and my weight crept up and I have found myself 13lbs over goal. During the last few months I have avoided blogging, I felt that if I couldn't blog from a positive place then I shouldn't do it, I became a leader a year ago and since then I have felt that I needed to be seen as 100% focused and on track all of the time, I needed to be perfect. I was afraid to come on here and tell you all how horribly wrong things were going because I was trying to maintain the image of a perfect leader. So I didn't tell you about the time I ate a whole pizza, or the time I ate an extra large chocolate bar in one sitting or the time I went to the cinema and had a medium popcorn, 2 scoops of Ben & Jerrys and a share bag of minstrels all to myself...yes I have done all of these things! The truth is I am not 100% perfect.The truth is there is no such thing.

Me now at 12st 6lbs

I am a perfectly normal human being.

I have my struggles
I have food issues
I have weight problems
I can fall of the wagon
But I can get back on!

So that is what I am doing right now, I am owning up, I am being honest, I am writing about the bad times and I am getting back on track.

where I will be for the next 13 weeks and beyond!

I am setting myself a goal. I want to loose 13lbs and get back to my goal weight by July 1st, That gives me 13 weeks. I know this goal is realistic and achievable and that's very important, I lost 31.5lbs in 32 weeks to get to goal ,so I averaged out at a 1lb a week weight loss.

Do you need a goal to help keep you focused? Why not join in my challenge and aim to loose 13lbs by July 1st. In 13 weeks I will be confident in my summer clothes and fingers crossed wearing a bikini to the beach! who's with me?

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!

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!

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)