An excellent start!

I’m down 3lbs this week! At first I thought it might be a fluke, but then I realised that what with all the baby steps I’ve been making since last weekend, they’ve added up quite well – and I’ve hardly noticed. I’ve actually managed to exercise my intended three times this week already: walking on the beach on Monday, weights and stretching on Wednesday, and 20 minutes of an exercise video on Friday. I’ve also been making healthy choices with my meals – even if my portion sizes aren’t down pat – and learning to plan ahead. Like when I knew we were going to have takeaway on Tuesday night (due to late working hours, etc) I had a very light lunch and no snacks throughout the day to compensate.

Because I couldn’t stay off the scale this morning, I’ve decided to make Saturday my weigh-in day. I know it’s an unusual choice given that people usually go wild on Friday nights, but I figure it’ll serve as a deterrent and a good prod to make the non-working hours of the weekend as healthy and wholesome as possible.

Saturday Weigh-In 1:

• Start weight: 220lbs
• Current weight: 217lbs
• Weight lost: 3lbs

So, here are my post weigh-in goals for the coming week:

• Cut down portion sizes by using small plate/bowl instead of large.
• Increase water intake to 6 pints per day.
• Increase exercise to 4 days per week.

In some ways this kind of approach frustrates me, because at any other time I’ve undertaken a “diet” I’ve worked out every day for at least an hour, and cut down my intake to sub-800 calories. This seems far too easy by comparison. But it’s something I can stick to. 1200-1500 calories is comfortable, and 20 minutes of exercise 4 times a week seems like nothing at all. I’m obviously going to increase the workout time as I get further into it, but 20 minutes is a step up from the nothing that I was doing before.

For now, I’m going to clean the house, do some balance ball crunches and get ready to go to the circus!

Baby Steps

During a particularly boring day at work, I scribbled down a vague plan of short, medium and long term changes I’d like to make to my lifestyle which would have the pleasing cumulative effect of slimming me down.

Short term goals:

• Reduce plate size to small.
• Gym/exercise 3 times per week.
• Eat 5 portions of fruit and veg per day.
• Drink 4 pints of water per day.

I can claim success on only two of those counts so far. Thanks to my recent obsession with fresh fruit salad, carrots, celery hearts and iceberg lettuce, I’ve been scoffing down almost exclusively fruit and veg lunches, along with veg-heavy dinners. As for the water, I’ve been managing an average 4-5 pints every day this week.

The other two, however, need work. I have an extremely expensive gym membership that has been lounging around unused for a good 3 months now, which is appalling considering how badly my finances are suffering during this credit crunch. My contribution to it this week is to book and go to a legs, bums and tums class with my mother on Sunday. I’ve had the membership since February, but haven’t yet been to a class because I’m a chicken. What will they think, I wonder, when they see my sweaty red face, and big lumbering body at their class? Why is this porkasaurus here, they’ll ask, why isn’t she at home eating all the pies? Ridiculous, I know.

The other stumbling block has been the size of my plate – or more accurately, the size of my portions. While in theory I know what a good portion size is, I just haven’t gotten to the fine art of cooking what I need, instead of more than. Add to that the fact that my boyfriend overserves and you’re looking at trouble. Having said that, I’ve cut my portions down considerably since last week, and they’re due for a further cut this coming week, so I’m at least making progress.

Once I have these goals nailed, I’ll move onto my slightly loftier medium term goals. For now, my next challenge is how to cut down on the damned mashed potato that we seem to serve with every evening meal.