Syns

Alright?

What a week! What a crappy week. It’s been glorious weather, but I’ve had so many things go wrong and so many bits of bad news that, well, it’s just been crappy. Ever get that?

I guess it’s best not to dwell. The week’s nearly over and to be honest there have been some nice things in the week (like a fab trip to the Hen House and an invitation to a grown up lunch with a friend sans children!). It’s just been predominantly crappy, that’s all.

Which is why last night’s 0.5lb gain didn’t surprise me in the slightest. What else could it have been?

I’m not upset particularly. I know I could have done things better than I did this week. I was a bit sad though. I stayed to group last night and came out feeling OK, but like I wanted a bar of something (it’ll always be a bar of something with me, never a glass of something 😉 !) I haven’t done that, even on weigh in night, for bloody ages, but I phoned Ben and told him that’s what I was going to do. He said, if I was sure. So I went to the garage on my way home. I walked around saying to myself ‘you can have anything you like. Anything. Only not a massive bar, just a normal size bar. OK?’ So I kept looking and looking and then I saw the ice cream fridge and thought ‘oo maybe an ice cream?’ Then I remembered I had low syn (3.5) Funny Feet lollies in the freezer at home and just like that I left. Empty handed. I could have had anything I liked and I went with the express intention of buying ‘what I wanted’. Only something in me decided not to. And it was so easy too. It wasn’t a great big, stopping in my tracks battle, like I’ve had in the past. I just realised it wasn’t really want I wanted. So gain or no gain I ended up feeling pretty proud of myself last night. And I really enjoyed my Funny Foot!

Wall's Funny Feet. Ice Cream for 3.5 Syns! — Wall’s Funny Feet. Ice Cream for 3.5 Syns!

Looking ahead, I do sincerely want to get back to my 6 stone. I seem to take so much longer to get from one stone to the half, than from the half to the stone. Or at least it seems that way. Out of curiosity and to see if I was right, I took a look at the length of time its taken me to get all my awards. And do you know I was shocked. Each award seemed to take such a long time to receive and yes some took longer than others (my 4.5 and 5.5 stone ones for example) but none have taken ridiculously long to reach and some of the earlier ones no time at all!

Award	Date Received	Weeks taken to receive
1/2 Stone	6/8/13	3
1 Stone	27/8/13	3
11/2 Stone	10/9/13	2
2 Stone	1/10/13	3
21/2 Stone	22/10/13	3
3 Stone	19/11/13	4
31/2 Stone	3/12/13	2
4 Stone	23/12/13	3
41/2 Stone	20/2/14	8
5 Stone	18/3/14	4
51/2 Stone	20/5/14	9
6 Stone	26/6/14	5

I know it’s going to take longer the closer I get to the ‘end’, but in the last year I lost on average 1.75lb a week.

So (stern voice on) I need stop messing about. Just because I got my 6 stone award, doesn’t give me the right to get all billy big boots. Sort it out!

Right (resuming normal voice). This week I will lose 2lb and I want you to hold me accountable for that. Sara? Can you put that as a mini target in your notes please? I have bought tonnes of fruit this week and all stuff I love. Plums, Strawberries, Peaches, Satsumas, Cherries, Melon, Bananas, Jazz Apples and White flesh Nectarines. Nooooooooommmm! So snacking wont be a problem. I also need to remember to drink more water, particularly in this heat. Not for weight loss necessarily, but more for my health!! I’m terrible at remembering to drink – that’s what motherhood will do to you I guess!

Hope you have a great week (and hope mine is less crappy 😉 )!

Hugs

xxxxxx

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

Left taken in May 2013, Right taken in Oct 2013. Getting there.

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.

Oct 2013 to Feb 2014 - just keep going — Oct 2013 to Feb 2014 – just keep going

Like I said; a journey.

Have a great week people

Xxx