Tag: weight loss

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Thinking Slimmer – 1st Week In the Trial

I’ve decided to update my Thinking Slimmer post  to let you know how I am going with it.  I have even give it a category all of its’ own.  At the moment, I am not terribly sure how well it is going.  It is still early days in the scheme of the programme.   The programme states that it takes about three weeks for it to become a new habit.  I am ok with that.

How am I doing so far?

In the first few days, I was not sure if the programme was working, or if the fact that I was on the programme was the incentive in itself.  Even, by the nature of posting the results, and reviewing the programme, it can have a placebo type effect.  That’s what I told myself anyway.

Now getting to the first week in, I am noticing small changes, as the programme tells me.  I am making better food choices already.  I am not eating so much, and my confidence is improving.  There is nothing like keeping on hearing it, to help you believe in yourself.

We should try this on the kids when they are dropping off to sleep.  “You will be quiet and respect your mother in the supermarket.”  Joking aside, I am feeling much more positive than I did a week ago.   Is it coincidence, or is it as a result of the programme?  I don’t know, and only time will tell how it works for me.

I have decided not to weigh.  I become obsessed with numbers when I step on the scale, and I want to free myself of that particular reason to shake my confidence.   I am going to do this differently from how Thinking Slimmer is judging results so far.   As a stress eater, taking the stress out of the equation is the best option for me.

I am going to judge my losses and how it works by my clothes and how comfortable I feel, and how positive my outlook becomes.    I don’t want to look at the scales and see how many pounds I have dropped.  I want to know how good I feel wearing whatever sized clothes I am putting on, and how I feel when I look in the mirror.

Roll on week 2.   I began quite sceptical and I have been pleasantly surprised so far.    There is still a long way to go, but  am positive about it rather than feeling like I am being deprived on a diet 24/7.

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Appetite for Disaster – My Fight with Flab

Ok, here we go.   For me, weight is an issue.  

I am not one of those people you read about in papers or magazines who say that they are happy in their skin and that they are comfortable overweight.

At the moment, I have three stones to lose to feel comfortable and get into the lovely clothes in my wardrobe that have been squirreled away for the last four years. 

I have been up and down, I lost two stones last year in January and February, only to put one stone back on again over the year.    This time, I want to lose the three stone. 

I started on January 1st, but there have been many more family issues this year than last year, and I am a comfort eater.  When I am stressed, I eat, then feel guilty, then I eat some more.

I have bad feet, so that rules out jogging, or cycling when they are bad.  I also have a child at home who is not able to be put into a creche etc, so I can’t do my exercise of choice this year, which is swimming. 

What I do have, is all of you.  @livingwithkids on twitter started a weight loss journey with a group of women who are all wanting to lose weight, and although I have not answered this week (sorry Liz, if you end up reading this), I have had an awful week.  I am hoping to do better next week.

The one thing that I really would like in my quest to regain my old body, and that is an appetite retrain facility.  If one of those was available, I can imagine that the person who made it up would be a millionaire overnight.

I have an awful appetite.  It’s not hunger.  Unlike some people, I do know what hunger is as I used to starve in my 20’s.  Not that you would know it now.  I regularly used to go for 2 – 3 weeks on end eating nothing, and I mean nothing.   Perhaps the odd cup of coffee with milk in it, and a cup a soup or two.  And I worked 12 hour shifts when I was at University.   Not once did I ever pass out, or feel faint.

This appetite is the overriding feeling of the fact that you must put that thing into your mouth, chew, and then swallow it, despite all that your head is telling you.  I used to starve without any thought of hunger or appetite.  Even now, I rarely feel hunger, although I recognise when I am peckish.    I don’t need it, I certainly don’t want it, but yet I still pop it into my mouth.  I also find it difficult to look back on the girl who starved for years, and understand how I did it.

I often now, find myself pacing the floor to stop myself from eating.  The craving is so strong, that it is totally unreasonable.  I suspect it is a replacement for what I really need.  The only problem is, that I have not figured out what it is that I actually need.  My desire is to be thin, fit and healthy.  That’s when I feel good, yet I am the one that is doing so much to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

I am putting this out there, as a reminder to myself, that this is the year that I want to crack it properly.  I am resisting the urge to do a starvation session, and I am trying to do this sensibly.  It is taking longer to come off, and I am slipping back and forth with sticking to the diet.

I may need a kick up the derriere a few times this year to get back on the wagon, and the magical button to banish appetite is just not going to happen for me.   This years quest, is simply to be able to ignore it rumbling away in the background.

Maybe I should post a picture of me where I want to be, and have that looking at me every time I log in.  Hmm, that might just make me raid the biscuit tin……

Wish me luck.