Christmas

Slimming World Update – Week 75

24/12/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hellllloooooo!

I promised I’d update you this week. And here I go!

So last night was the final group before Christmas – Tuesday instead of the usual Wednesday and despite it being so close to the big day, it was important for me to weigh in. Partly to know where I am right now and partly so I can know exactly how I do over the next week or so. As last Friday saw me drinking my own body weight in wine and eating an entire bag of Metcalfe’s Salt n Sweet popcorn when I got home, not to mention “recovery toast” the next day, I knew this weeks result might be a bit of a shock. And was it ever.

I lost 3.5lb!

I can’t tell you how shocked I was. I can only put it down to all the dancing we did on Friday night (it was fantastic and I feel the need to go dancing again soon!) It means I have lost 6 stone 9.5lb (93.5lb), 2 stone 9.5lb since last Christmas! Get in! It was so unexpected and it’s MADE my Christmas. Already. And it’s not even the big day yet!

So the next few days I will be going fairly easy on myself syn wise and that’s my choice. Obviously there’s the main meal, but alongside that I have a BOX of cheese in my fridge (we plumped for Gorgonzola, Yarg and a Port flavoured one with a Stilton core I don’t even know the name of, this year) as well as two boxes of Hotel Chocolat chocolates (we decided to go for a small box of Christmas and a small box of boozy flavours). These next few days will be decadent for sure. But I also have the wherewithal to make proper meals. Casseroles, soups, proper wintry fare. Gone are the days when the Christmas holidays saw me existing on a succession of one snack food after another, all washed down with vast quantities of Quality Street. I mean what’s the point? Seriously? What kind of a gift is that to give myself? Heartburn, nausea, stomach cramps, not to mention the weight gain. No thanks – you can keep them for me.

It’s not all about the food for me. I’m excited about so many other things this Christmas. I’m excited for Ben to be at home with us for 11 days, the longest he’s had off work in bloody ages! I’m excited to see my baby open his gifts on Christmas morning and for all of us to play with them together. I’m excited to go for walks with my family, watching Oscar grow in confidence and understanding of his surroundings. I’m excited to catch up with friends, be that in person, or digitally (Skype soon Michelle?). I’m just excited for Christmas. A little peace and a lot of love.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to say a huge ‘Thank you so much’ for all your support this past year. I know lately things have been a bit hit and miss here on the blog (bloody life getting the way hey?!) and for that I’m sorry. But whether you’ve stuck by me from the beginning or are new to my ramblings, you have all been more of a blessing than you could ever realise. If I could give you all a gift it would be to have the Christmas you want. as full or as peaceful as you would want it. To taste every mouthful you choose to eat and to mindfully and thoroughly enjoy it.

I’m not even going to pretend I’ll be blogging over Christmas – I wont (although if you follow me on any social media I’ll be sure to make you sick of the sight of me – links are in the side bar!) My next weigh in is on 30th so I promise to check in after that!

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Big loves

Lisa

xxxxx

Slimming World Update Week 73/74

19/12/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

HI guys

Yes it’s me, remember me? I’ve been so busy these past couple of weeks that I barely remember who I am. Blogging has taken a bit of a back seat of late and for that I apologise. Only when I start to think about it, have I really been that busy? Well I guess I have been out and about in the evenings a lot more than I usually am, but really the thing that’s changed is that Oscar is edging closer and closer to dropping his daytime nap. I know – abandon hope all ye who enter here!! I find it so hard to write, or at least write anything of any value, when he’s around, that it’s just easier not to try. But actually the thing I’m finding the hardest is the lack of ‘down time’ I get these days. I’ve said it before and I don’t mind repeating that I know I have only been able to stay at home with Oscar as long as I have because he has, until recently, been a good, consistent napper. I wish I could say I revelled in his company 24/7 and wish it didn’t bother me quite as much not to have time to myself, but it does. Something has had to give and of late it’s been this.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never felt quite so much like I’m dragging myself towards the end of the year as I do this year. We’re all exhausted. The past few months in particular have been draining for all the family. Whereas last year I was excited to see what 2014 held, this year I can’t wait to get 2015 going, to make some changes. In some respects I feel nothing is still, nothing is constant and in other respects I feel like I’m static and somewhat stuck in a rut. Its the most bizarre feeling – like standing stock still in the middle of a storm.

I know my weight loss journey isn’t really a journey at the moment, more of a stop off. Like I’m taking a break at the motorway services of me. I don’t know, I think I’ve lost my mojo somewhere along the way. Don’t get me wrong I haven’t slipped into old eating habits, I’m just not moving forward anymore. I’ve maintained for the last few weeks and last week I gained 1lb (total lost 6 Stone 6 lb (90lb) ). And do you know what? I was fine with that. It’s not that I don’t care so much, just that I was fine with it.

I weigh in tomorrow for the last time before Christmas and I promise to update you on that on Wednesday, in between taking delivery of our Christmas food shop (Yay for Ocado and yay for me booking my Christmas Eve slot back in November!) and cooking our Christmas Ham. Oh and visiting friends and generally getting ready for the big day. Yeah, it might not be a long one on Wednesday 😉

Anyway, I’ll let you go – you probably have a tonne to be getting on with. I’ll just leave you with this picture. It was our Slimming World group party last Friday and boy did we let our hair down. Well, you know me, I don’t get out much, poor old thing!! We had a ~~right old piss up~~ riot and it was great to meet people from the other groups and to hear how they’re getting on. It was especially nice to have people who read my blog come and introduce themselves and tell me how much they enjoy my writing. It’s always slightly baffling but very flattering to think actual people are reading my actual words. And big thanks to the lady who couldn’t get over how I looked. She kept saying I was slimmer in real life than she’d thought I was from my pictures. How sweet!!! The dress I wore was gifted to me by our Miss Slinky, Sarah Jane, who wasn’t able to join us for family reasons on Friday. She was really missed. I wasn’t sure about wearing it, but I’m so glad I did. I felt fab all night. It wasn’t a size I’d have ever picked off the rail and it just goes to show, sizes differ so wildly that it’s not about a number but about what fits. So anyway that picture

Last year’s Christmas party outfit, size 22. This year’s, size 12!

Have a great few days and we’ll speak on Wednesday. Promise!

Xxx

Slimming World Update – Week 72

04/12/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hi guys

Hows you? I’m good. Surrounded by the colours and sounds and general excitement of the festive season and pretty much loving it! I’ve spent the last few days writing Christmas cards. I tried not sending cards one one year and just donated to charity instead. Don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate the sentiment behind it, but it made me feel awful. So I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’m a card writer and I get great cards every year, carefully chosen from charities that mean something to me. This year’s are Thomas the Tank Engine themed (for the boy) and come from the National Autistic Society. They’re just gorgeous! Anyway I did have an Excel spreadsheet as a Christmas card list that I’ve been using and regularly updating for years. Until this year. We bought a new PC in the summer and I forgot to transfer the list onto the new hard drive. Sat down to write the cards this week and I realised I’ve lost my ‘go to’ list! So at least one night this week has been just spent updating my contacts. I think I have them all now, but if you were expecting a card from me and you don’t get one, I might have just missed you off the list. Either that or I don’t really like you 😉

Christmas has also been making it presence felt in our house this week in the form of new pyjamas. If you follow me on any social media, you may already know this; to say I was excited was an understatement. Regular readers will know just how much I love shopping these days, how one of my goals this year was to ‘conquer Fat Face’ (which I think I can safely say I’ve done several times over 😉 ). However, something I really wanted from them, but had never been able to fit into before, was their Christmas pyjamas. They do such beautifully festive ones every year. So this year I decided to treat myself and ordered their Folkloric pyjama bottoms and tshirt. And I LOVE them. If it wasn’t a tradition to wear new pyjamas on Christmas Eve I’d be wearing them already! They’re just so pretty and Christmassy.

But the best thing about them is the difference I can see in my shape when I wear them. You may think I’m barmy, but I sometimes find it really hard to ‘see’ what I look like. In my mind I’ve been so big for so long that despite what the scales say or what I see in the mirror, I find it hard to know what I actually look like. That’s why I do comparison photos and why they blow my mind so very much. This one is quite hard for me to share. The first picture I have never shared as I hated it then and I hate it now. But I’ve got so few full length photos of myself that it’s the best one to use here, I think. This was taken in the Maldives in 2009. Its a few years ago for sure, but I was a similar size to this when I started SW (actually I was probably a bit bigger 🙁 ) Basically a Size 26 to a 16.

Wowsers!

Enough said really.

This past week hasn’t always seen me make the wisest of food choices – nothing mad, just not the best and I’m not really sure why. So I was thrilled with a maintain last night, staying at 6 Stone 7lb (91lb) lost. And actually, this close to Christmas and the challenges it can bring, I think that’s sometimes all you can do. Protect the progress you’ve made. I have thought about it long and hard and I think expecting 7lbs loss in 3 weeks with all the parties and what not I have over the next few weeks is unrealistic and probably just setting myself up for disappointment (and lets be honest, feeling a failure is no gift to give myself this Christmas). That’s why I’m modifying my Christmas goal. And before you say, I’m not stopping or giving up or admitting defeat. I’m taking responsibility for my choices and being realistic. I would like a lose a couple more lbs by the last weigh in, but as long as I don’t gain from this point until Christmas I’ll be happy.

Oh and update on the Fat Face shirt – I went in to my local branch to try it on again and they’d taken them all off the shop floor as they’ll be going in the sale after Christmas. I decided to chance my arm and wait until then and hope they have my size. I do love a bargain!

Have a great week.

xxxx

Slimming World Update – Week 69

13/11/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Hiya!

Have you’ve had a good week? Despite it only being midway through November, mine’s been full of Christmas. Be it weeping at supermarket adverts (seriously Waitrose and Sainsburys, this needs to stop, it’s getting embarrassing) or visiting the mother of all Christmas Fair’s with my great buddy Helen, this week has truly marked the start of the festive season for me.

Now, I don’t know about you, but for me Christmas always, always means food. Any celebration in my family was usually marked with food, but Christmas is traditionally when things go a bit bonkers. It’s not just the main meal, although I have eaten Christmas dinners that have literally been the biggest meal I’ve eaten all year. It’s everything that goes with it. Its the party food, it’s the nibbley bits, it’s the crisps, the snacks, the nuts, the chocolate, the cakes, the biscuits. You get the picture. It’s almost as if the season cannot take place unless everyone has at least one high fat snack screwed into their hand at all times. And in previous years I’ve gleefully joined in this ‘tradition’. It wasn’t until last year that I took time to stop and look at what I expected of the food of Christmas and had to ask myself why? I understand Christmas is a time of generosity, of giving, of plenty and I don’t disagree with these sentiments at all. I just don’t want to push my body into a near diabetic coma in order to prove I’m feeling the Christmas spirit. Surely the fact that I’ve already got “Oscar’s” (yeah right! hahaha) advent calender up should give you a clue as to how much I enjoy Christmas 😉

But the thing is, it isn’t Christmas yet. We have 6 weeks to go. And I know the next 6 weeks aren’t going to be easy. I know that from last year. This time of year can be hellish for those with any kind of food issues and I know I count myself in that group. And it’s not helped that the enormous marketing machine behind Christmas is already in full swing. You think this is full on, you just wait. Every week between now and Christmas will see supermarkets pile on the pressure, with offers and deals and selling you things you need in order to make your Christmas complete, most of which will be food or drink. So OK it’s their busiest time of year and competition for your hard earned buck is fierce. I get that. But I also understand that what is being sold at me, will not make my Christmas. Gorging, will not make my Christmas. And gaining huge amounts of weight, weight I’ve fought every day for months to lose, will not make my Christmas.

So I guess the question is what will make my Christmas? Our plans for this year are pretty much the same as last. Christmas isn’t going to be syn free by any means. But it will be more considered. We’re going out for dinner. This will have the joint benefits of average sized portions and no left overs. We will be drinking Baileys in our coffee and Veuve in our pyjamas. We’ll be getting small pieces of our favourite cheeses and one box of our favourite chocolates. Every indulgence will be planned and anticipated. And every mouthful will taste all the better for it. That and spending time with the people I love the most in all the world. Yeah that’ll make my Christmas 🙂

Right, all talk of Christmas. Enough!

So this week’s weigh in was one I approached with some trepidation. Helen and I had such a great weekend and while I worked really hard to abstain from tasters of cheese etc, I did have a glass of wine here and a bag of popcorn I couldn’t syn there. So all in all I was hoping for no less than a maintain. Which I why I was thrilled with a loss. 1.5lb off. Get in! But more to the point that 1.5lb took me, rather neatly, to my 6.5 Stone Award! That’s right I have now lost 6 Stone and 7lb (91lb).

It’s been something of a long time coming, this one. Five months to be precise. I haven’t gained or lost a lot in that time. Had I been trying to maintain I’d have been doing a bang up job, but that wasn’t ever my intention. Don’t get me wrong, I know the results I’ve seen over the last five months have been entirely down to me and If I’d really wanted to have been regularly losing I could have been. But I’m not sad about it. I don’t feel I’ve lost the last five months. I am at peace with the fact that this journey will take as long as it takes 🙂

So I have 7lb to lose before the last Christmas weigh in. There are 5 weigh ins to go. 7lb in five weeks. Totally doable. I’m going for another good loss this week to send me flying towards my 7 Stone Award. I’m concerntrating on SuperFree foods and particularly those that Slimming World class as Super Speed (foods that will speed up your weight loss). I have also decided to have another crack at eating a better breakfast, than a coffee and a banana. This morning I had 35g porridge oats (as my Healthy Extra B) mixed into a Vanilla Muller Light with half a punnet of raspberries (first Speed food right there!). It was delicious! It didn’t taste like eating yogurt for breakfast (which I personally have struggled with in the past) but neither did it just taste like porridge. It was great. Thanks for the tip Sara!

Hope you have a super week, not letting the marketing departments of big supermarkets dictate the food you eat 😉

xxxxxxxx

Slimming World Update Week 24

03/01/2014 by MrsSavageAngel Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!

So if you’ve read this post, you’ll know I had a fab Christmas and New Year and I hope you did too.

Last night I had my first weigh in for 2014. I’ve been attending a group in Liphook, but last year we found out that there was a group opening up, on 2nd Jan, in Haslemere. I could walk to it in 10 minutes. I wouldn’t have to rely on others for lifts and if Slimming World has taught me one thing, it’s to take control of your own journey. So last night I had my first weigh in at my new group. As my mum said later it probably wasnt the best week to change groups.

I gained 2.5lb in 10 days.

It doesn’t sound too much and I am relieved it wasn’t more, but it was my first significant gain in six months and I really needed the support of my group to talk it over, and last nights group didn’t give me that. It was primarily full of new members at the beginning of their journey, so the meeting only dealt with how SW works. We did no Image Therapy at all. I kicked myself later for not realising this would be the case.

So it’s made me think. Should I put the convenient location of one group over the usefulness and the supportiveness of another? I know the Haslemere group will bed in and become just as supportive as any other and it is only a 10 minute walk away, whereas Liphook is a good 15 minute drive (and I don’t drive!). But I missed my group last night.

Its left me with a quandary I didn’t expect and I one I will have to give serious consideration over the next week.

Which brings me to the strategy for the coming week. I am 100% back on form now and my first goal is to lose the weight I have gained. I would like to do this by next week’s weigh in. But where that will be I honestly can’t tell you at the moment and that’s bothering me.

Hmm decisions need to be made.

Anyway I got home and did a bit of my own image therapy. Ben and I discussed how important it was for me not to forget how far I had come, despite my gain this week. This photo is helping with that. The left hand picture was taken on the first day I could get my jeans back on – 13th Sept 2013. The right hand one was taken in the changing room at Fat Face on 31st December 2013. I didn’t buy the dress as it was still a bit tight on the bum, but I like the difference I can see in my shape. It also shows the difference a good bra can make!!! Oh and the dress on the right is 3 sizes smaller that the one on the left. Another goal is to conquer FatFace this year – I do like their stuff!

Have a great week xxx