Sabotage!

My alarm goes off at 4.15am every weekday morning. That’s not because I’m one of these women that gets up early, does 30 minutes of yoga, followed by some meditation and then spends time sipping a green smoothie whilst she spends quality time on her hair and make up….. No I’m not that woman.

  This is me…

4.15am – Bruno Mars kicks me in the Vagina (not literally) as he blurts out “Uptown Funk” from my alarm.

4.16am – swear at alarm for 30 seconds, realize I don’t have that sort of time to waste and jump in the shower.

4.18am - realise I haven't switched off second alarm, get out of shower with soap in my eyes dripping wet to switch it off. Promise myself faithfully to remember to switch off second alarm the next day.

4.25am – get out of shower…having decided that I don’t have to shave my legs because quite frankly it’s cold and no ones going to see my legs, let along touch them.

4.30am – try and remember where I’m meant to be that day, if I have any important meetings and figure out what to wear.

4.35am –Apply make up.

4.37am – Clearly not a lot of time is spent on the above point, but if I’m not drying my hair by this time, I’m late!

4.41am – decide hair is dry enough and that I can tie it up when it's properly dry.

4.45am – come downstairs, wake the dogs up, convince Cyril he does need a wee, try and stop Mabel from barking with excitement that the whole house is up. Make breakfast; sort out stuff to take to work.

4.55am – switch on computer and start work.

5.40am – leave house

There’s not time for yoga and meditation!

 As part of my 21 day plan to put myself first (which I’m still doing!) I’ve tried to be more organized about things, so I’ve mixed up my breakfasts, making sure that I’ve thought about what I want to eat, so in a morning I don’t just have toast, which I like, but is boring!

I’ve also made sure that I have a green smoothie ready and it just needs whizzing up in a morning (yes I am THAT woman!)

And because my working day generally finishes somewhere between 5pm and 6pm, I ‘ve prepared healthy meals, which have been frozen and put into little containers… I’ve even remembered to write on them so I don’t have to play freezer roulette!

Monday and Tuesday, that’s how it goes, but I realized last week that there’s a saboteur in the ranks…. Bloody Wednesday! 

   By Wednesday I’m so tired that It’s 4.39am by the time I’m drying my hair! I’ve not got anything ready for breakfast, so it’s just toast for breakfast, I’ve not had chance to go to the supermarket to buy fresh salad and for tea it’s probably something on toast and because I just want to crash in front of the tele, Wednesday has started to get it’s claws into Thursday and then it’s a slippery slope!

  Not this week, this week I ruined Wednesday’s plans and stuck to my own! Even if my chickpea vegetable curry that I had for tea, was really just tomato flavoured vegetables with a slight curry taste!

 

Feed Me ****** (insert name of your choice here)

Another half pound gone, which means in the last couple of weeks I’ve lost a total of 5, so I’m happy with that and confident I can reach my 14 pound total by my one year Weight watchers anniversary. Lucy lost 2 and for her first weigh in Laura also lost 2, so we did lots of high fives and woo-hooing. You can always tell when someone's lost weight by their body language, Lucy says she sees me raise my arms above my head and do a sort of happy wiggle, so she always knows before I tell her!

Laura, Me, Lucy

  I think going to a slimming club with your friends makes it easier, for lots of reasons

1)     You’re not going to let them down by not turning up.

2)     You probably all go out socialising so it makes it easier to stay on track (unless you’re all having a bad day, then it could go really wrong!)

The first time I did weight watchers I went with my Mum and I got to my goal weight and Mum lost about 4 stones and it helped having her doing too, particularly as, at that time, I was living at home and Mum was doing all the cooking. She would always say what points were in dishes and it made it easy to plan what I was going to eat as I knew what points I had to play with.

Me on the left at goal weight, Lucy on the right.

  As my weight started to creep up, I tried various diets, the Dukan Diet (I lost 4 pounds and developed an irrational hatred of cottage cheese) The Cornflake diet (I lost 3 pounds & developed an irrational hatred of maize based products) and a bootcamp regime (where I developed an irrational hatred of personal trainers and men who shouted stuff like "come on you're not running fast enough" or "give me 10 more") I’d also been to Weight Watchers on my own, but I’d never stay for meetings and found it hard to stick to when I was around normal people of a healthy weight who could eat what they wanted, so I gave up!

  This time going with Lucy has made a difference, because I automatically have a support system there. My Dad is also following the diet, but he’s doing it online. My Dad is a good cook and as my office is based at his house, it means that for lunch he cooks me various low point delights (although neither of us were keen on the beetroot soup!) 

  Now Laura has joined the Slinky gang, that means that when we head off on one of our adventures we can all try and help each other stay in our points. (I say adventures, because when me, Lucy and Laura go out, it’s never really a normal night out! Throughout our friendship we have ended up stuck in a caravan in Wales the weekend Princess Diana died, met a man in a pub who tried to chat us up as he swigged from a bottle of wine and set off on a walk round a park only to get lost and end up walking 10 miles!)

  Where it gets hard, is when you’re around friends who aren’t on a diet or who have never had a weight problem. We went to a Macmillan coffee morning over the weekend, which was my worst nightmare! Sat in an enclosed space surrounded by cakes, I knew this was going to be a massive test of my willpower. I decided the best thing for me to do was to have one slice of cake and move as far away from the table as possible, Lucy and I also decided that the afternoon would be spent taking Cyril on a long dogwalk. My plan worked well, I had one slice of date and walnut loaf (which I counted) and sat chatting to the other ladies there and avoided looking in the general direction of the cakes. There were a few incidents of “go on have another slice, one wont hurt you”, but I stayed strong, because I thought it will hurt me if I get on the scales on Tuesday and I haven’t lost anything!

Beautiful coffee morning cakes or torture as I like to call it!

  I think if you’re thinking of going on a diet, then try and find someone to do it with you, or if you think it might offend a friend if you say “hey fancy coming to fat club with me?” Then you’re more than welcome to like my Facebook page or follow us on Twitter @slinkybytuesday I’m not saying I have all the answers, because I don’t, but you’re welcome to join in my journey and see if it offers you any support! 

Early Mornings and Hot Blokes!

So far so good this week! Lucy and I have set ourselves the challenge of losing a stone before our 1 year Weight Watchers anniversary, which is the 30^th October. We’ve even pinned a chart to the office noticeboard so we can cross off the pounds as we go!

  When (not if) we both lose the required 14 pounds, it will see Lucy reach goal weight and me achieve my 15% goal. Before anyone thinks we’ve set ourselves an unrealistic target, essentially it equates to us losing 2 pounds a week, which is what the people who know what they’re talking about say you should aim for.

  I think the more my slinky mission continues, the more I’ve realised that you have to set yourself realistic goals. I know I have a sweet tooth and so to deny myself any form of chocolaty goodness would see me have a bonkers moment where I just stuff myself full of a family size bar of Dairy Milk! So instead of saying that I wont eat chocolate I’ve found low fat options. For example a flake is only 2 Weight Watchers points and a curly wurly is only 3 and they’re proper chocolate! Plus you can have 4 rich tea biscuits for 3 points, if you have those with a brew you feel like you’re being really naughty when in fact you’re not! (well your not if you have the points!)

  Exercise is the same for me, I think in the past I’ve set myself unrealistic targets and made such bold statements as “I’ll get up every morning at 6 and do an hours workout before I start work” The reality of that is, my alarm would go off, I’d have an extra hour in bed and then get up to watch “Daybreak” (other breakfast news shows are available) with a brew.

  This time I’ve decided that I will go to the gym a minimum of twice a week, any more than that and yay me, but no pressure! In my working life I’m really organised and keep a list of what needs doing when, that way I know what I’m trying to achieve that day. (These organisational skills may shock my friends who know my non-working reality is somewhat more chaotic) I decided to adapt this philosophy to my gym schedule, so I looked in my diary at what I had to do that week, when I could realistically fit everything in and decided when the gym trips could happen! Hey presto last night I went after work and then again this morning! I got up when my alarm went off and headed to the gym! If I manage to fit in a workout tomorrow brilliant, if not then I wont feel guilty! The bonus of going to the gym this morning was I saw a really hot man leaving for work who lives round the corner from me. I felt as though the exercising Gods were rewarding me for going to the gym so early! In fact he was so hot, I’ll be getting up early next week to go the gym!

  I’ve also decided I need to put together a new gym playlist to motivate me, I pressed shuffle on my IPod this morning and as much as I love Angry Anderson, it’s not really great at making me pedal faster on the bike. Don’t judge me! If you’re mid 30’s I bet you still cry at the clip of Scott and Charlene getting married, if you don’t, then you’ve a heart of stone!

  So any suggestions for suitable songs for my “work you ass of playlist”? Please keep in mind the following

1)     I have rubbish taste in music

2)     I’m not a big fan of anything that takes its inspiration from a car alarm

3)     I love soft rock and also boy bands 

Please and thank you to you!