Comfort eating

This is the hardest blog I have had to write so far. As in every journey, it is not always plain sailing, and the last couple of months have been anything but. I haven’t been writing, because I was not sure what to write, or indeed how to write it, and perhaps that is the very time I should have been writing!

Our 13 year old daughter has been ill for the last couple of months (I won’t go into any more detail than that), and this has caused immense stress and worry for all of us, including her. I have had to stop work to be with her, and I feel like my whole life has been put into a blender, and is having trouble getting back out again.

So what do I do – eat!!! After all the months of losing weight, as soon as something comes along to test me, I fall apart and revert to my old ways! It’s as if I’ve learnt nothing over the last nine months.

Luckily, and through pure good luck, I have not put too much weight on. I’m still over the six stone lost mark (and therefore in India!!), but have been putting weight on, and then taking a couple of pounds off here and there, so have stabilised to a certain extent. Which is good, I know, and better than I would have done before Practically Slim came along, but it certainly isn’t what I want to be doing.

The worry and stress, teamed up with not working and sitting around the house doing not a lot, make me want to eat everything in sight, and at the moment I can’t seem to stop it. Every morning I start with good intentions, but by lunchtime those good intentions have got up and left. I’m in this rut that I can’t get out of.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of what I have done so far, incredibly proud, and I know I will come out of this, but it doesn’t help with the way I am feeling at the moment.

How do you break out of the cycle of comfort eating?

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Water, water everywhere…

Well, go me … I’ve reached my 5 1/2 stone weight loss! I am so proud of myself, I could shout it from the rooftops!

I have been a bit despondent over the last couple of weeks, only losing 1.5lbs each week. So I decided to do something different this week. The only change I made was to drink more water – yes, you heard me right, water!

When I first started my weight loss journey, I was drinking 2 litres of water a day, plus a couple of cups of tea a day. I was getting good weight losses of over 3lbs per week, every week. Sometimes quite a bit more than 3lbs.

I have to confess that lately I have become a bit complacent and my water drinking volume has gone down. Well, it’s so hard to remember to drink it, right? Excuses, excuses!!

I have started using my water challenge bottle again (see picture below). I have also set my timer for every two hours, to coincide with my water challenge bottle hours, so that I know when the timer goes I need to have finished that particular glass. Oh, and I have been drinking it out of a bigger glass which visually reminds me more often to drink.

I am still not at 2 litres again just yet, but I am getting there, and this week lost another 2.6lbs. Much better effort than the last two weeks.

Water is so good for every part of your body, and we need it little and often, like a water wheel, not all at once in one big sitting. Once we feel thirsty, it is too late, we are already dehydrated. We shouldn’t get to the stage of being thirsty – little and often, that’s the secret!!

So, my aim this week is to reach 2 litres of water every day to try to get back to my 3lb weight loss per week goal.

Good morning Iran!

Good morning Iran – Yes, I’ve arrived!! That’s right five stone off, and now over half way on my weight loss journey to New Zealand.

Last Christmas I was wallowing in my own self pity because nothing would fit (yes I know you have all done it too!), and this Christmas I will be wallowing in all the fabulous new clothes I have because I intend to have the other five stone off by then.

What a difference five stone has made to my life. If you’ve never had a weight problem you will never know how difficult the easiest things in life are to do. I can now walk without stopping every 500 yards, I can walk upstairs without dying, I can cut my own toe nails, and it goes on and on. The energy and motivation comes in leaps and bounds, and the best thing of all is that I can join in with my family doing normal family things and I can shop in “normal” shops for clothes.

Now, people who know me know that I don’t do normal. I like being different and unique, however I am chuffed to be able to go into a high street shop and buy clothes. My aim is to be able to buy clothes from little girls’ shops like Top Shop, not because I want to, but because I can!

Once I get to target I will be unstoppable!!!! Bring it on …

I will not be lingering in Iran, for obvious reasons, so hope to reach the border within the next month.

Get off the scenic route everyone and hit the motorway – it is the best feeling in the world!!

Just another number …

Body Mass Index or BMI never really meant that much to me.  It was just another number after all.  And another number that just tells you how morbidly obese you are.  A couple of words that horrify me every time I hear them – morbidly obese.  Yes I know I’m fat, but I don’t need to be described as morbidly obese! Nobody wants to be described as that, right??

Anyway, I digress, back to the subject of BMI. Apparently it is a measure of body fat based on height and weight.  Now straight away I look at the description and think, well I have a lot of weight and, at only 5 feet 1 inch, not a lot of height! So I don’t need a genius to tell me my BMI is going to be high!!

For the geeks amongst you who are now wondering how to calculate their BMI, you take your weight in kilograms and divide it by your height in metres squared.  Sound too complicated? Well use your computer – go to http://www.practicallyslim.com and there you will find a BMI calculator that will work it all out for you.  Much easier!!

The healthy range is between 18.5 and 24.9 – anything over that and you are overweight.

Well, when I started with Practically Slim I had a BMI of 52.6.  Now I’ve lost nearly 5 stone, I thought I would check it again last night. So we worked it out and I am now at 41.6!  Still morbidly obese but getting there. Another half a stone and I will officially be just obese. Whoop whoop!! Still hate the word obese, but it is a lot better than being morbid!!

So, yes it is just another number, but it is a very important number, and probably more important than your actual weight.

Perhaps check your BMI out this week and see where you are.

Happy motoring down your own motorway to success!!

Iran, here I come …

I’ve mentioned previously about being on the “motorway”, well I thought I would take it one step further…

As you know I grew up in New Zealand and am a very proud Kiwi (particularly when the All Blacks are playing!), so I thought “what about taking the virtual motorway down to New Zealand”.  I had about 10 stone to lose and there are plenty of countries between the UK and NZ.  So for a more visual account of my weight loss, I made a map and every stone I lose I “enter” another country.

Now, without wishing to upset anyone, there are a lot of dodgy countries between here and there, so had to pick the countries wisely!! And here they are:

1 stone          France

2 stone          Switzerland

3 stone           Italy

4 stone          Greece

5 stone          Iran

6 stone          India

7 stone          Thailand

8 stone          Indonesia

9 stone          Australia

10 stone         New Zealand

So far I am half way through Greece, and doing well, although there are a lot of beautiful beaches in Greece so have had a few detours here and there, but now back on the motorway, and look out Iran I’m coming to get you!!!

A slight detour …

Sorry it’s been a while, but have been having a difficult time lately. To make a long story short, and a lot less boring, I have been under a lot of stress. And yes I’ve found that as well as eating when I am sad, happy, bored, angry, at peace, and every other emotion out there, I also eat when I am stressed!! Not really fair is it, other people when they get stressed don’t eat – me? I eat whenever I feel anything!!  Go figure …

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a couple of binges, and yes, I have felt really guilty. However, the binges weren’t nearly as bad as they used to be, and the food didn’t taste as nice as it used to.

When I got on the scales though I still lost 1.5lb both weeks.  How?

Well, after I had binged I looked at how far I have come on my weight loss journey, and the desire to continue was stronger than the desire to give up. I didn’t want to undo all my hard work. If that happened the last 16 weeks or so would have been wasted.

So after I had binged I got straight back on plan and because of this, I managed to still lose 1.5lb both weeks.  I have now lost just over 4 stone and feel fantastic, and I am incredibly proud of myself. ❤️👍

To think that in the past a binge would have been an excuse to overeat for the whole week, if not two weeks!! It would have been a disaster, but not now. Now I look at it as being a small detour off the motorway to the seaside for a bit of sand, sea and surf! It was a nice wee trip, but the scenic route is not for me anymore and so I got straight back on to the motorway.

Maybe at the grand, not so old, age of 53, I am finally starting to become an adult!! Scary stuff …

Get off the scenic route…

Around 2 1/2 years ago I joined Practically Slim. I figured I had nothing to lose (except weight) and I had tried every other diet going, so why not this one.  After all, it couldn’t do any more harm than was already done, and I was determined this was going to be my last diet.  If this did not work I would just have to be fat the rest of my life.   My first night I weighed in at 20 1/2 stone and I managed to lose two stone over the course of one year.  However, the second year I spent putting it all back on again!! This, dear reader, was the story of my life!

However I did not give up. Every week I could during that second year I would go and get weighed in. Mostly I would leave the group feeling angry with myself for having wasted another week, and promising myself I would do better the following week. And then, you guessed it, the next week would get the same outcome.  And on and on it went, week after week, until I had put the two stone back on again.

Then one week, about three months ago, Lorraine, our fantastic Practically Slim Coach, talked about preparing yourself for the week ahead like you would prepare yourself for a long car journey, and then jump on to the motorway to make sure you got there in the shortest time possible.

For some unknown reason, everything seemed to click into place! Up until then I had barely said two words in group, however that night I shared with them the fact that all my dieting life had been spent travelling along the scenic route visiting all the little villages, when in fact I should have been on the motorway!  I had always pushed diets to the limit to see what I could or could not get away with, whereas I should have just been following them.

That night I went home and started to look at things differently. I had been waiting for someone to do all the thinking and hard work for me, when in fact, if I wanted to change, I had to do all the hard work. I had wanted someone to wave a magical wand and make me slim overnight, and of course it doesn’t work that way!

Sounds obvious, right? Well it wasn’t to me!!

Since that night I have been on that motorway, and I now weigh 17 stone, a loss of 3 1/2 stone in 14 weeks.  I still have a long way to go, however I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will get there and stay there!!

 

Feel the fear and do it anyway

As the roller coaster ascended to the top, I was thinking “I am a 53 year old obese woman, what am I doing – I hate heights, I hate being out of control, I hate roller coasters”!  All of my fears in the one time and place. How did I get into this position?

I had taken my Guides on a Guide holiday and we had decided to go to a theme park. Great idea you would think – well it was at the time! I had decided that I had put my life on hold for 35 years because of my weight, and I was not going to any longer. This life is not a dress rehearsal – this is the real thing. I had made a promise to myself that I would do something completely out of my comfort zone for once in my life, and hence I found myself on the roller coaster chugging up to the top. To be honest I was cursing myself at the time and wishing I was sitting on the couch watching television at home!

As the roller coaster tipped over the top and seemed to have a mind of its own, I was screaming that I wanted to get off. The other Guider and the Guides thought it was hugely funny – I was just hoping I would make it out alive!!

Finally the horror came to an end – however the guy controlling the thing asked if everybody wanted to go around again. Of course everyone was yelling yes, and before I had a chance to say “not in my lifetime” we were off again …

And no, it didn’t get easier the second time around!!

Yes it terrified me, and no I don’t think I will go on another one, but I am pleased I did it! And I am very proud of myself as it was as far out of my comfort zone as it is possible to get. It really was a baby step out into the unknown and into reclaiming my life back.

If I can take that baby step, then so can anybody. Go on, try it! You’ll be pleased you did!!

I’m an ordinary mum

Why would anyone want to read a blog written by me? This is a question I have been asking myself for quite some time now.  I still don’t have the answer, and maybe no one will read it, but that doesn’t matter because that’s not the point.

I am 53 years old and have been yoyo dieting for over 30 years. The ironic thing is that when I started dieting all those years ago I was only a size 12 and up until 12 weeks ago I had reached the dizzying heights of a size 26!!  So what has changed? Well…

I finally realised that if I want things to change I have to make the change myself! Which means a complete overhaul of the way I have been thinking and acting! If I want to move mountains, I needed to become the mountain!! Because of my change in thinking, I now know without a shadow of doubt, that this will be my last weight loss journey and it will be successful.

I will over the next wee while share with you what happened 12 weeks ago and why my blog is called “Get off the scenic route”, and how, in 12 weeks, I have lost over 3 stone. In the meantime, welcome!!

First blog post

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