What would your weight loss journey look like as a visual?

4^th September 2013

You may not be able to control every situation & its outcome, but you can control your attitude & how you deal with it.

Getting up in the dark isn’t as much fun as waking up when it’s light, makes me realise summers almost over!  On a positive, one of my members made me a lovely Happy Owls cushion yesterday (love thoughtful gifts I do) and I lost a pound!  On a reality check level I posted a picture on Facebook that showed a real weight loss journey graph and it wasn’t a straight line going down! 

And looking at my graph, it looks a little like a heart rate monitor,

last 3 years

last 12 months

and the last 7 weeks has gone,

Week 1 - 1lb offWeek 2 – Stayed sameWeek 3 – Stayed sameWeek 4 – 3.5lb offWeek 5 – 1.5lb onWeek 6 – 1lb onWeek 7 – 1lb off

Since May I have lost on average a pound a month – slow or what!  And I’m absolutely fine with that because I’m not in a rush, I’m no longer a size 20 and I’m still 3 stone lighter than I was when I joined Weight Watchers in 2004, so yes for me it’s all about enjoying the journey, Eating Gorgeous, being healthy & happy, taking life’s challenges on a daily basis and cutting myself some slack.

As you can see from my graph, I fluctuate – why?  Because I am a human being, because sometimes I do emotionally eat, because food tastes so damn good, because I have a weight problem, I keep losing it and it keeps finding me - ooo lots of reasons.  Seriously though I have gold members who get to their goal weight and stay there forever, within that 5lb range, I gave one her 10 years star a few weeks ago, I on the other hand don’t, I like food and red wine much too much and yes if I really wanted to I could control it better but if I’m honest I don’t always want to ;-) I likes to eat.  If they’d change the BMI chart by half stone, I’d be maintaining lovely, I’m blaming hitting 40, because I know from when I hit goal in 2004 until I hit 40 in 2010 I maintained my goal, then I hit 40 and I’ve struggled with those extra few pounds.

Now some of you may be nodding and thinking yes, it’s a medical thing, you hit 40 and your body shape changes, you don’t burn so many calories, blah blah blah.  For me yeah maybe some of that’s true but the real reason is over the last few years, I’ve embraced my body, I’m not as self conscious about my image anymore, I’m happy to trade an inch or two on my waist for tastier meals and a glass of red – that’s the reality in my world.  I’ve lost so much weight over the years, if I’d kept every one of those pounds off, I’d be a key charm by now!

I do however want to get back until that stone and nearer to my goal than I am so I will continue to watch the scales and cut back somewhat. I’m goal plus 11lb now and eventually I’d like to be goal plus 5lb, hopefully by Christmas so I can enjoy myself and not worry about numbers, at a pound a month by December I’ll be goal plus 7lb, so I better pull my finger out, at least with the cooler nights I won’t want lager and I can start making big pots of stew, mmm I might defrost some meat and do that today!

Yesterday food wise I cooked up a chicken & veg pesto pasta dish (8pp), just threw in what I had hanging around in the fridge, I tried the vegetable Kohlrabi, I shan’t be eating it again, wasn’t keen.  For my tea I had garlic mushrooms on toast (7pp) which were absolutely delicious, and worth the extra ProPoints for the lurpak garlic butter which I had in the fridge, you can however use low fat spread or a teaspoon of oil and add garlic, I added an extra two cubes of frozen garlic to mine, I likes my garlic I do!

I also had tomatoes on crumpets (5pp) for breakfast with St Agur (3pp) on them mmm, and for a snack I had 0% Greek yogurt (2pp) with a banana and a drizzle of runny honey (1pp) that was lush too.

Here’s to another day of delicious!

You with me?