We're in this together...

This week I put on 1lb. It wasn't supposed to happen since we were at home for the weekend so had control over what we ate. It happened because we were decorating so neither of us could be bothered to cook or clear enough space in the kitchen to do so, so ended up having a couple of takeaways.
Other things that happened during the week meant resorting to synful comfort foods, so in all a 1lb gain probably isn't that bad.

I would dearly love to weigh less at the end of the year than I have done all year, so to kick start that I have set a target of 4lb loss this week. In past weeks I've gone for 1lb loss just to get something, but have decided that the only way to do it this week is to target a big loss and really go for it. How am I going to do that? Well, firstly my wife and I will be doing "the scan bran challenge" (if you've not heard of this, it's using scan bran [5 a day]) as your HE), we went for a "big shop" yesterday and bought loads of yummy free and superfree foods, and we're both in "the zone". We got back from a fantastic group on Tuesday and were going to have 1 last takeaway before kicking on with the week since we fancied some chips. Instead I made some SW chips, which we had with Joe's pepper steak, roasted butternut wedges and curried veg. It was gorgeous and more satisfying than a takeaway since it was syn free!

Last night we had salmon, noodles and stir fry veg. I usually use prawn, crabstick or chicken when I cook a stir fry, but the salmon was fab - will be making that again. Inspired by a conversation on my SW group's facebook page I made sweet chilli rice pudding (pic and recipe to follow). My wife couldn't stand it, but I really enjoyed it so will be doing that again!

More decorating this weekend, so more body magic. At the minute I'm hoping for good things this week. I'm in a good place SW wise, so fingers crossed!!

Thank you for being a friend...

I managed to lose 1lb this week. On reflection I'm pretty happy with that.

Friday started off as a really bad day - I got myself into a foul mood for various reasons and indulged in a breakfast baguette. I was ready to descend into synning the rest of the day away until the members of my SW group all offered words of support which helped me get back on track.

Group was fab last night too - so supportive and friendly with plenty of laughs. It was a marked contrast to a meeting I was at today, when people were distinctly indifferent to offering any kind of support to some things that would benefit the community. It's times like that when I realise how lucky I am to have the support of my SW group. You are all awesome!!

I overdid my syns a bit today - I had a training session at work with lunch provided and since I was hungry and hadn't brought anything in I had to indulge in the sandwiches. Tea was completely syn free and delicious - beans, Joe's sausages and bubble and squeak.

I've decided that I would like to lose on averag 1/2lb a week between now and Christmas. If I achieve that then I will be back at the weight I was last Christmas, and the lowest I have been this year. Wish me luck!!

We are not alone...

I read this article about childhood obesity on the BBC website today. Reading the stories of some of the people who contributed reminds me of some of the experiences I had in my younger (and not so younger) years:

• I seem to be one of the few people who enjoyed school dinners and quite often had seconds, especially of pudding!
• I received a lot of verbal relating to my size whilst I was at school, and that led to me being extremely miserable. I enjoyed my education, by hated some of the people I had to share it with.
• Once I got to university I discovered alcohol as a way to help me interact socially (believe it or not I've always been quite shy) and indulged frequently in fast food (the Pizza Hut buffet challenge was at least a termly outing).
• I left home to move down south for work and continued where I left off from uni in terms of my alcohol intake. I resorted to food as a comfort when I felt low or homesick, or simply had nothing else to do.
• I moved to a flat in Leeds and on 2 separate occasions was verbally abused in the street. On each occasion I was by myself whilst the offenders were with a gang of friends so had strength in numbers. I took comfort in the fact that I coudl lose weight, whereas they would always be morons.
• I had no reason to lose weight until I met my wife. Once we got together I had a reason to live and began enjoying my life again. I lost 1 stone in the year before I joined SW by changing my eating habits (in particular making sure I had breakfast every day and having a jacket potato for lunch).
• We joined SW to lose some weight for our wedding and I managed to shed 2.5stone.
• I slipped back a bit up to the end of the year, then started this blog and have fluctuated around the same weight for most of this year.

I know that I have issues with food - I resort to it as a comfort when I'm down or a friend when I've nothing to do. If I can shake that habit and get back into the swing of being a food optimiser then I'm sure the next chapter will see me at target weight living life to the full.

Gotta get through this...

I put on 1lb this week, due to takeaways and cake.

I have a pretty impressive knack of ordering the lowest syn stuff (e.g. boiled rice and foo yung), but then eating everything else that's put in front of me.  The even more frustrating thing is that I can make low or zero syn versions of a lot of the stuff I have from takeaway, but because of the convenience we order in.

Perhaps by planning in advance I might be able to avoid some of this, but having done so before it never works out that way.

For the next 3 or 4 weekends I'm not going anywhere, so maybe that'll help get control over food - planning to do a "big shop" tomorrow night, so might dig out my favourite recipes.

My wife lost 2lb this week - I'm so proud of her! She keeps telling me I need to do more (or at least some!) exercise, but I never seem to find the time - it's getting dark when I get home from work and I don't have time in the morning. I figured I could invest in some exercise equipment and remembered enjoying using cross trainers, but on looking at them online I've found that I need to lose at least a stone before I get below the maximum weight to use them. :-(