Hola Señores y Señoritas ( see two years of Spanish wasn’t totally wasted!)
How have your weeks been?
Mines been OK, although I have been fighting off a gross cold, which seems to want to sit in my throat and on my chest at the moment. Which is fine, although it does make me sound a bit Darth Vaderish. I’ve also been having some more stomach issues (the doc thinks I might have an ulcer – as the pain comes and goes and I’m waiting for the result of some tests) this past week. When I’m ill, I find my focus isn’t always as good as it might be and I found myself longing for real sugar this past week. Not just sweet, but real sugar. Maybe I was lacking in energy – what with all this fighting I’m doing? Whatever, I had some and chose to make a couple of days this week “Flexible Syn” days.
I’ve heard about Flexible Syns before, but never really understood what it meant until recently. Its those days when it’s going to be extremely difficult or you just damn well don’t want to stick to 15 syns (a special occasion, illness, those one off times when you just want more). It would be easy to go over and then feel bad/guilty, but the idea of a flexible syn day is that you choose a new upper limit and stick to that instead. Rather than feeling bad it allows you some flexibility (as the name suggests) and means you don’t spend the rest of the week “making up” for it or dreading weigh in so much that you don’t go.
I’ve never tried it before (consciously anyway) but knowing I was doing something about feeling so conflicted, put me back in control and the relief I felt from that was palpable! It’s not the solution for every day, but knowing that here and there I have a better strategy than just “giving in and feeling guilty” was awesome. If you’re a member and want to know more about Flexible Syns, there are some great articles on the website, once you log in.
Any who I guess it must have worked for me, as I was thrilled to find out I’d lost 2.5lb at last nights weigh in. That takes me to a total of 4 Stone 12lb (68lb) and as I realised mid way through last nights weigh in means I’ve lost half a stone (7lb) in two weeks, hence a lovely Slimmer of the Week award last night too!!!. As you may recall, my next interim goal (that I set myself) was 5 stone loss. I had in my mind to reach that by 1st April (Oscar will be 2 on the 2nd). I think I’m well on my way to smashing that target 😉 However I don’t want to rush it – it’s a journey not a race after all, so I think I’d like to lose that over the next two weeks. I am choosing to be cautious here particularly as next week I’ll be back in Liphook, meaning I will only have five days between weigh ins (as opposed to the more usual seven).
So yeah, I’m really close to having lost 5 stone and last night I went down into the next stone bracket (I get so excited when the big number at the front of my weight goes down too!) But when I put my loss into my online tracker last night I also realised my BMI (which I don’t really set that much store by, but the medical profession seem to want to) had gone down by 10 points since I started SW! Like I say I don’t pay that much attention to my BMI, but to have reduced it by a nice round figure like 10 felt so good, I just had to share!
Much as I just had to share this. I have two comparison photos here. The first I have shared before. It’s May 2013 to Oct 2013. I remember being so proud of it
And while I am still immensely proud of it. I have an update for you. This is the same Oct 2013 picture alongside a Feb 2014 picture.
Like I said; a journey.
Have a great week people
Xxx