Weight Loss highs and lows

ID-10064756

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

I haven’t blogged much about my weight loss lately, mainly because I am not sure where to start! It is up and down and all over the place at the moment really. I have periods of time when I am doing really well, and others where I do less well. Like a lot less well.

Starting with the positive, I have lost weight.  In fact at one point I had lost a stone! Wahoo! I got down to 12st 6, it was a very happy day for me, and it meant I managed to get back into my size 14 jeans, which was awesome! But I then piled on a few pounds again, then lost a few and then gained them back again. I am still in my size 14s buuuuut they are extremely snug again now so the 16s are more comfy again. Booo.

So what is going on? Well I can see why people like the 5:2 diet as it limits the amount of time you are actually on a diet. For me the weekends are the hardest times to stick to the WW plan. For the most part I have no problem with it as it is about everything in moderation, and even if I have a bad day and indulge in some chocolate, the weight has been coming off fairly steadily. But at the weekends it all goes to pot. Why? Because of socialising mainly. It has been a busy old year so far with take away evenings, meals out with friends and family, hen dos and meals round grandparent’s houses. I try really hard to check out nutritional info before I go and budget points…. but then I succumb, to peer pressure but mainly to temptation and my own lack of will power!

There is a bit of leniency in the diet, but lately I have been over indulging more and more. Part of the problem actually is that because I know there is a bit of leniency (and if I am a little naughty I should still lose weight – albeit a little more slowly), I take advantage of it. I push it too far. This last week has been especially poor and has very much stalled my efforts. We had a difficult week with a teething LM and as I may have mentioned before, I am a comfort eater, and so is hubs, so we both over-indulge when things are a bit tricky. On Saturday, for Valentine’s Day (we don’t normally celebrate it as we both feel there shouldn’t have to be a set day to do nice things for each other, but while things are a bit tough it was actually a nice excuse for us to make a little effort with each other!) we ordered a take out from one of our favourite restaurants, which was delicious and then on Sunday we went out for lunch with my brother and his wife. Lovely, but not good for the diet in the slightest!

WP_20150214_19_18_14_Pro

Exercise really isn’t happening at the moment either. I bought a postnatal yoga DVD on recommendation and have watched it once. I want to do it but there is a bit of a sticking point for me at the moment. My knee. I think I mentioned that it was bugging me a few weeks ago and I assumed it was related to my back being a bit weak. I have been doing little exercises with my back and that is much better, but if anything my knee is a lot worse and is really quite painful.

I have had a couple of physio sessions for it which seem to help on the day but don’t reallyseem to help long term. I know I need to rest it but with crawling round after Monkey, on my knees changing nappies and being ordered to run around the garden, rest isn’t really happening. I have finally bought a decent knee support which definitely helps so hopefully that will help it get better. But at the moment exercise is a little off putting as I don’t want to make it any worse… though it may make it better.. I have no idea really.

After a very naughty weekend food wise I am ready to get back on the diet again which will hopefully help. Although another problem is that my best friend is getting married in a couple of weeks  and I am a bridesmaid. My dress is already feeling a little loose so I really can’t lose any more weight… but staying the same is a bit tricky… Oh I will probably carry on yo-yoing a little with my eating until the big day is over and then I can try and focus a bit more and hopefully finally lose the rest of this baby weight and get into my 14s for good!

Fingers crossed anyway!

#BloggingToJogging
Mama and More
And then the fun began...
Sim's Life

Postnatal Yoga and my Weight Loss so far

I am nearly one month in to my weight loss journey, and well it’s been a bit up and down to be honest!

Diet

I am following the idea of the original Weight Watchers plan. My MIL had all the books and paperwork which meant there was no cost involved, and I am not a huge one for joining groups. Hubs introduced me to WW when  I wanted to lose weight after Monkey and I found it worked really well for me.

I like to think of it as an everything in moderation diet because nothing is completely off-limits. You get a points allowance (much like the current WW system) and you work out how many points are in any food and then you can add up how much you are eating throughout the day to meet your allowance. Points come from calories (70 calories per point) and saturated fat (4g sat fat per point) and your personal points allowance is calculated using your current weight, height, activity level etc.  I am not sure how the current system works but I think it takes more nutritional values into consideration than just calories and sat fat.

The reason it worked for me so well the first time was because it really made me pay attention to what I was eating, and how many calories were in everything I ate. I could still eat anything I liked but when things have a points value associated with them, and you have daily total, I found that I would make healthier choices, eat foods with lower points, as it meant I could eat more throughout the day.

I did really well on it the first time round and had high hopes it would be pretty easy again but it has been a bit harder so far. I started off really well and according to the scales lost about 5lbs in the first week. then things  very much leveled off, even though I was still following the same plan. I have written before how I am not relying totally on the scales as I am not sure how accurate they are as a measure, and how for me, it is more about how I fit in certain items of clothing.

The trouble is though that it is easy to feel disheartened when the needle on the scales stops moving south. It is easy, when feeling disheartened, to go off the rails a little, and I have definitely done that a few times. I could make excuses, we still have a very small baby, I am still shattered after being up in the night with her and then looking after her and a toddler every day… and they are very true, but that is how I got overweight in the first place and not good enough reasons for going back to old habits.

The good news, I have lost weight. I can now do up my red shorts – I mean they are still ridiculously, uncomfortably tight but I can do them up, which I could not even nearly do 2 weeks ago. So regardless of what the scales say, I have lost inches and I need to focus on that.

.    red shorts 2    now

Not exactly a huge difference from 2 weeks ago but hey it is a start!

Exercise

I have been walking more and I went to a postnatal yoga class last week which was really good. My back has been terrible over the last month or two, so when I saw the taster session for postnatal yoga I was immediately interested. The class was great, the instructor took things very slowly and said it was all about rebuilding the strength in our muscles. The exercises (mainly breathing exercises) were very simple but effective and I could feel them working.

The downside? Little Miss. The idea is that you take your baby to the class and they will either doze to the side or happily gurgle at you while you do the exercises and at times you can include  them in the class. Most of the other babies there did that, LM ooh no. She wanted feeding shortly after the class started – not easy to lie down doing back strengthening breathing exercises when feeding a baby! Then she needed burping, then she wasn’t happy on her back. Out of the hour long class I got to do about 10-15 mins of the exercises and was watching the rest of the time. Better than nothing and the one exercise I remember does help when I find the time to do it at home.

I would love to carry on the class but with LM having no routine at the moment I don’t feel like there is much point. I don’t want to pay for an hours session if I can’t actually do the exercises. I know she is only a few months old and a few  people have said I shouldn’t be impatient, it is just what a baby is like and I get it, but it is hard to carve out time for myself when every day is so totally different. I keep changing my mind whether to join up or not, and, well I shall keep you posted I guess. The other option is to get a dvd I can do at home but it is very difficult to know which one is good. Any recommendations for a gentle post-natal exercise dvd, please share it!

I need to concentrate on strengthening my back though as it has gotten worse this last week. For a few days my whole left side has been very painful, from my neck all the way down to my knee. My knee especially has been agony at times. Hubs has regular physio for his back and because I was so uncomfortable he looked after the kids for me on Friday afternoon and gave me his appointment. It definitely helped and is all just stemming from my issues with my lower back, so I really, really have to make time to work on it if I want things to improve. I shall keep you posted with how that is going!

I need my body to be strong again and carrying excess weight isn’t helping either so I am re-doubling my efforts to stick to the diet – and I need to ask hubs to stop tempting me with offers of my favourite naughty foods in the evenings. I actually crochet-ed some baby booties for LM recently and concentrating on something and keeping my hands busy definitely stopped me snacking so much, so I think I need to crochet some more things, if only for that reason lol!

#BloggingToJogging
Mama and More
Super Busy Mum
The Musing Housewife

My Red Shorts

I wrote recently about how I am trying to lose weight at the moment, in an effort to getting back to being me. To feeling like myself again. The diet is having ups and downs, good days and bad days but I am not stressing about the bad days. I am trying not to be too hard on myself or trying to do this too quickly. I am a pretty impatient person and want results yesterday, but I know it is going to take time. It is not even 3 months since I had a baby and my body is still recovering. I am walking a lot more and trying to build my fitness up a bit. This week I am also trialling a post-natal yoga class as my back is killing me at the moment and I would be interested to see if that can help.

What has any of this got to do with red shorts? Well, as part of the not pressuring myself I am trying not to base my idea of weight loss success purely on the scales. According to the scales, after 5 days of dieting I had lost 5lbs but then 2 days later on the same diet I was back up to my start weight again. Very demoralising. But, actually, I feel like my clothes are not quite as snug as they were before I started this diet so I do think I am on the right track, whatever the scales say. I always find clothing the best way for me to judge my weight, just because there can be so many fluctuations on the scales.

I have this pair of red shorts that I have had for over 10 years. They have been all over the world with me and I have worn them at different weights and they have gone from being loose to tight to loose to tight as my weight has fluctuated. They are now completely battered and mainly used for doing things like painting or dying my hair but they always help me judge what size I am.

red shorts

As well as tracking my weight loss, I will also be periodically checking how my red shorts fit me to hopefully keep my spirits up along the way! This photo was actually taken a few days into the diet when I had lost a few pounds, but, well, as you can see, they are extrememly tight, and I cannot remotely do them up!

red shorts 2

I doubt I will ever be out and about in them again (note the paint stains) but hopefully my red shorts will fit me again at some point, then I will know I have achieved my goal size and am back to feeling like myself!

#BloggingToJogging
Mama and More

New Year, Time for Me

Happy New Year Everyone! 2015 I am pleased you are here 🙂

Are you making any resolutions? I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions as I feel that if you want to do something then you should just do it, not wait for an arbitrary date to start. However I do think that New Year comes at a good time for those of us that have over indulged over Christmas and want to make a fresh start so I never begrudge anyone that.

I have definitely over-indulged lately… not just because it has been Christmas but because the last couple of months since Little Miss arrived have been really hard. And I am a comfort eater. I have been sleep deprived, poorly, exhausted and generally unhappy. So when I feel like this I eat. Chocolate yes but actually crisps are my biggest vice. And coleslaw, and pate and cheese and lots of other full fat options! So even though I lost some of my baby weight shortly after LM was born, I have now put it all back on and my clothes are definitely getting tight. I gave away my maternity clothes already and refuse to buy bigger sizes so it is time to do something about it.

Continue reading