Still the same weight!

This is getting spooky - I still haven't put on any more weight yet I've had my fair share of chocolate. What's going on?

Starting my days with green smoothies does seem to have had an impact on some of my eating habits, so although I am still eating chocolate, I'm eating a lot healthier with my other foods. More salmon, more raw vegetables and less cakes and biscuits. I'm still having 2 breakfasts in the morning - a tall glass of green smoothie around 7.30 am and another one at 10.00 am keeping the naughty munchies at bay until lunch at 12 noon.

Now, if I can add some exercise then maybe some of the 164 lbs I've been lugging around since 20th June will start to fade...

Weekend 'naughtiness'!

Just when I think I have my eating under control - Bam! - another way of derailing my weight loss efforts comes along! This time it's too much physical work at the weekend. By the time I've finished I'm exhausted...and eat a lot of chocolate to make myself feel better for all that hard work I had to do.

But things could be worse, after all my weight has stayed the same for over a week even with the weekend 'naughtiness' and I'm still having green smoothies for breakfast and relatively healthy food during the day. So it's not as bad as it seems. Now if only I can start reducing my weight. Let's see what happens this week...

Green Smoothie time!

In my bid to cut down my bingeing I've taken to having a green smoothie for breakfast anytime between 6.30 and 7.30 am and another around 10.00 am. And the result?
#1 - I haven't eaten my lunch by 10 o'clock!
#2 - I've reduced my chocolate craving
#3 - my other eating has become healthier
#4 - I've lost 3 lb!

I had tried green smoothies before after I went on a raw food course and I had forgotten how good they taste. I have kale or spinach as the main ingredient with any fruit that I have - clementines, apples, pineapple, strawberries - it's very much a mix and match affair and is brilliant for using leftover fruit and veg. Green smoothies aren't everyone's cup of tea but I love convenient food and this takes no longer than making toast and a hot drink. And it's certainly having an effect on my bloated stomach - it's going down; another great result. I'm going to keep this up until the end of July (if my stamina allows)...

I can't stop eating!

It's no good, I just can't stop eating and eating all the wrong things!

At the rate I'm going I'll be adding 40 lbs not losing them. My weight has increased again. If there was a competition for reverse dieting I would certainly be in with a chance of winning it. Part of the problem is boredom - I get bored or don't want to do something and so I eat. So this weekend I'm going to try and be more aware of what I'm eating...and with a little bit of luck my next post will see me weighing in at least a lb lighter.

PMT equals diet diaster!

A bad bout of PMT drove me to the supermarket for a bar of chocolate! I know, I know, call me weak-willed but when I feel that low and rotten no amount of painkillers etc work as well as a bar of chocolate...

And in place of chocolate I've eaten that many cakes and biscuits that I am now officially back where I started - 161 lbs - and that's even with walking 99,000 paces this week. But i guess I'm not the only woman in the world who seems to repeat the start of her diet every few days. This is one of the reasons I need a makeover!

Too many biscuits!

I have 'successfully' finished my first week without eating solid chocolate and boy was it hard!

But I'm thinking that giving up chocolate isn't really such a good idea. In place of chocolate I have eaten more sweets, chips and biscuits; in fact on one day I ate about 16 bourban biscuits and at 70 calories each I would have eaten less calories if I had just had a 100g bar of chocolate...but I'm determined to stick with it.

The extra food together with the fact that I'm over 10,000 paces short of my target means my weight loss for this week was a whopping 1lb! Still I guess a loss is a loss after all, but at this rate I'll new get back into my holiday clothes...

The shock of the monster arm!

You may have been there yourself: you put something on at home or in a shop changing room only to find that it's a little tight. Sometimes it's not too much of a shock, sometimes I want to cry and have ended up consoling myself with a bar of chocolate...alright I'm not perfect I admit.

But on trying on one of last year's shirts I almost strained my back trying to get the left arm out of the sleeve - it was stuck. A look in the mirror seemed to be playing tricks on my eyes. So tape measure in hand I got the proof I didn't want - my left arm's a monster! It's much larger than my right. I'm still in shock: it's like someone has been filling my left arm with extra fat and I haven't noticed. It's all flabby and wobbly and, well, big. So I need to start exercising my arms now as well as losing weight...

...This makeover is going to need a lot more effort than I thought. Does anyone know a good exercise for slimming down monster arms?

3 days down but I missed my tea!

Hooray - I've now completed 3 days - yes 3 whole days - in which I haven't eaten solid chocolate. But it's been tough...and I've started to eat sweets again!

But I am trying to be more active and managed to walk 10,000 paces today and on Monday I even walked 700 paces on my treadmill (it's one of those cheaper manual ones on an incline which actually seems to make it harder work). Still, more exercise - even if it's only walking - is a step in the right direction, if you'll pardon the pun. And that's what I need after today's binge. Actually I think I only ate a lot today because I was so tired yesterday that I fell asleep at about 6.45 pm and didn't get up until this morning so I missed my evening meal. Maybe exercise is bad for you after all!

My last chocolate binge...

I've set myself a challenge - no solid chocolate for the whole of June. That's a whole month without my daily fix Cadbury Freddo bars; a whole month with no goodies from Hotel Chocolat. How will I survive!

Of course, in best caveman tradition I have stocked up on chocolate as much as I could these last two days ensuring my chocolate stash was safe and well-protected by keeping it...in my stomach! I doubt whether I could eat any more. I'll still have hot chocolate to drink and nutella on my ryvita, but I don't binge on either of those - it's the solid stuff I have difficulty with.

So solid chocolate in any disguise is out - no to chocolate digestives, no to chocolate chip cookies. Jaffa cakes - no more. If I'm successful I won't be the only one losing pounds (lbs), my local shops will be losing pounds (£) from my lost custom...

Still eating chocolate - and lost 1 lb!

I've lost 1 lb - yippee!

Why am I so happy? Because I'm still eating chocolate! I've always been known to do things slightly differently, but losing weight while eating chocolate is not how I expect to lose weight but I can't quite get my focus back after my holiday bingeing. And what I haven't mentioned is that I have modified some of my other eating - less cakes and biscuits - and increased my walking, although not by much.

But 1 lb is still 1 lb. And as June starts next week I have been thinking about addressing my addiction to chocolate - for the umpteenth time! Actually I once gave it up for a grand total of 21 months; when I started I couldn't even mention the word chocolate and just told people that I didn't eat 'the brown stuff' anymore...how daft is that! Should I give it up? Should I keep eating it? Um...it's a difficult question. Am I up to the challenge?

As June is still a few days away I think I'll just have some chocolate hazelnut spread on a ryvita and think it over...

Why I Need A Makeover...

Some time ago I lost a lot of weight on a very low calorie diet (surviving on shakes, soups and bars) and a lot of walking. I lost 42 lbs in 100 days! It was great. I was lighter, didn't get puffed out so much and clothes shopping was a breeze.

Now, almost 5 years later and I look like my 'before' photo...and that's not a pretty sight!

I did lose a bit of weight for my holiday by eating shakes for breakfast, real food for lunch, pasta mealpacks for tea and protein bars for an evening snack. Result? I'd stopped obsessing about food, my breath was bad, my cellulite increased - but I was looking better. The holiday came - and I fell off the wagon. And once I'd got a taste for those wonderfully dangerous carbs - otherwise known as cakes, biscuits and pic'n'mix sweets - there was no stopping me. If it wasn't nailed down I ate it, sometimes bingeing until I felt ill.

So the holiday clothes have been relegated to the 'can't get into it' wardrobe while the regained weight has plumped up my cellulite so that it doesn't look so bad (how can that be fair!) And this pre-holiday weight loss and post-holiday bingeing has all taken place within the last 4 weeks.

Call it a midlife crisis or complete exasperation but I just can't go on like this!

I want to be able to go shopping without leaving the changing room in despair. I want to have clear skin on my face and no orange peel skin on my bum and thighs. I want my hair to look good without it costing the earth and a smile even a dentist would be proud of...and that's just for starters...

I just want to look good again, or at least, look better. I know it might be hard - I'm not known for my stamina when it comes to diet and exercise - and I know I could put my energy to someting more useful, but this is my challenge...and I'm going for it!