Monday weigh in

First of all I wanted to say thanks to everyone who messaged/commented and texted me after my last post, it's great to know I have you all supporting me on my journey.

So as I mentioned before, this past week I have not done any tracking and just focused on eating clean and smaller portions, and also not weighing daily. I did plan to workout this week, but never actually did :( So was very pleased when I got on the scales to see a small loss of 0.4lbs, it's not much but it's a loss and that's what counts. I'm going to adopt the same strategy this week and hope for a loss next Monday. I have my two 5ks this weekend so that is two definite workouts planned :)

I also have a giveaway planned for you all, which I will be posting about later on today, so watch out for another blog post from me.

Have a great week everyone xxx

Week 35

Hey everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. Only 15 weeks and it will be Christmas Eve :) I've already started thinking of my list of things for my letter to Santa.

I had another great week this week, I think I could soon be saying this new clean eating is becoming a habit :) I have been soda free for 42 days today and no longer miss it at all :) I have been eating clean for 6 weeks now, and only had one small gain (0.6lbs) in that time, and I have managed to go out for meals and to other events without feeling compromised.

The numbers for this week, I ended being 958 net calories under my weekly goal, I felt like I ate a lot this week so was surprised that I was under by so many. I ate a lot less fat this week also, but a lot more carbs. I had a few candy bars, so that is the cause of some of those carbs. I would say I ate clean 60% of the time this week. Need to work on the candy, doesn't help I bought a pack of 20 curly wurlys online!!

 This week I worked out 4 times, I used my wii fit, my exercise bike and one day I decided to take the dogs on a 5k walk, all was good, then I realized I had a rather steep hill to climb to get back to my house, I have walked up this hill before but both times I stopped two or three times on the way up. This time I walked up it without stopping, clearly this was pushing my body to its limits as my heart rate monitor shows! I now have a nice measurement to use as a guide, so hopefully next time I walk up it I will see an improvement.

On to the scales, this week I lost 2.2lbs taking my total loss to 22.6lbs and I am now in the 260's which is super exciting, and I am now 6.6lbs away from reaching my 10% lost goal. I also have 6 weeks to lose 19.6lbs to reach my 250lbs goal, which was my original plan, but as I mentioned previously I may move the goal date to my birthday instead.

Hope everyone has a great week and thanks for reading my blog

Week 34

I'm a day late posting again due to it being a holiday here yesterday.

I think I had an OK week, wasn't as clean as I hoped to be - maybe 60% this week. On the plus side I have no been soda free for 36 days :) 

These are my stats from my fitness pal this past week

I only had one day this week I was over on calories, and my overall net calories was 541, although I did eat out Sunday night and the restaurant did have any nutritional information, so I would imagine that I was probably over that day also, as I had to guesstimate based on foods already in the database. I also ate a lot more fat this week and less carbs, what it doesn't tell you is the kind of carbs of fat, so not really sure how useful this is.

The result from this week was a loss of 2lbs (yay me!) taking my total loss to 20.4lbs (I can finally update my goals and rewards page). I am hoping to try and lose 2lbs this week also so I will officially be in the 260's - watch this space. I have 7 weeks before my sister and nieces come and I did set myself a goal to be 250lbs by then, which I don't think I will reach, unless I have some super super big losses, so depending on how it goes, I now have a trip to England planned on November 30th, so I may move my goal date to then, giving me 12 weeks to lose 21.8lbs - but we will see how it goes.

Dave and I had lots of fun yesterday making homemade candy - we made twix and crunchie - there will be a blog post to follow about that at some point.

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone.

Week 33

Just realised I forgot to post my weekly update yesterday - my bad!

I would say I ate around 75% clean last week, Tuesday I ate far too much, as I decided to properly clean out my cupboards and anything that was unopened I donated to the food bank, but opened stuff I basically ended up eating!! So a lot of unhealthy stuff, but at least now the cupboards look good :)

I was 1577 under my goal, compared to being over by 307 the week before.

I also ate slightly less carbs this week based on the breakdown - so that must be a good thing, as I ended up losing 1.8lbs this week :) taking my total loss for 2012 to 18.4lbs and I am the lowest weight I have been this year and I think the lowest weight for a few years. I have a collection of weight watchers cards, so need to go through them to see what recorded weights I had over the year.

Hope everyone has a great week and Im hoping to hit the 20lb loss mark next week.

Week 32

Monday is here again - only 18 more weeks until Christmas Eve :)

This week I went a bit off track and I think I probably only ate clean 50% of the week, my week started off well, then Thursday I went for Afternoon Tea, which was really nice, then I got home and hubby was out that evening and I was so tired I ended up ordering pizza! Although I only ordered a small one, so it was much better than what I previously would have done. Then Saturday we went out to lunch at Outback Steakhouse, the food wasn't great but was OK. I was within calories and making good choices, then I came home and my foodie penpals box had arrived, and it was all yummy treats I had not tried before and I got carried away...

I did however track everything (which I think is a good sign that I was partially in control), but the result was a gain of 0.6lbs this week taking me back to a total loss of 16.6lbs since January, to be honest I was expecting a lot more. I haven't really worked out much this week as my knee is still hurting. Yesterday I bought a wii fit board and did some of the games on there, I think it might have been a little too much impact as today my sciatica is playing up :( so I'm going to attempt to have a rest day today :)

Here are my stats for the week

Whilst resting up today I am going to plan my meals for the week, other than lunch on Thursday I have no other major plans to work around, so  I think it's an ideal time to plan all my meals, as quite often I don't plan then get stuck and grab something not so healthy. Although saying that most of the 'non clean' food is gone now, and I plan on taking the rest to the food bank when I next go as donations.

Have a great week everyone

Sarah xxx

Week 31

Another great week, I'm definitely noticing the difference that comes with clean eating, I seem to have lots more energy and my eczema has got much better too. I would say this week I ate approximately 80% clean, which I think is a happy medium for me, although I do want to try and do a 100% clean week one week. I'm still drinking lots of water, and have drunk nothing else in the last two weeks :) I went out to dinner this week and didn't touch the sweet potato fries or fries with truffle oil, which is a big NSV for me, as normally I would be eating them all!!

This week I only managed to workout two days as I hurt my knee so have spent a few days resting, but am looking forward to getting back on track this week.

This is my calorie breakdown for the week, although Friday's isn't correct, as I had a bit of a binge Friday night, luckily it was only healthy stuff in the house, but still I never tracked it *slaps hand*

My breakdown of calories is pretty much the same as last week, what it doesn't show is the type of carbs or fat etc which would be interesting to see.

The result of this week is a loss of 2.2lbs, taking me to a total loss of 17.2lbs - which yes is great, but reading back through my tracking, I noticed that I was 1lb lighter than this in April of this year!! If only I had stuck with the plan back then! 

I've decided to set myself a target which is to try and reach 250lbs by October 25, when my sister in law and nieces come to visit from England and we go to Disneyland, this is a loss of 25lbs in 10 weeks, so 2.5lb a week, which I think if I work hard and keep up with the exercise and eating clean is doable. Plus this is in line with the Healthy Wage challenge too. Currently our team our 69th in the table, so we need to work hard to stand a chance of getting a prize.

I found my weight loss jars over the weekend and have updated them, still a long way to go, but the pebbles are moving :)

Thanks for reading and have a great week everyone xxx

Week 30

This week I tried something different, I attempted to eat clean and count calories. This really worked out for me, and as a result I lost 5.6lbs and my total loss is now at 15lbs :)

I would estimate that I ate about 80% clean this week, as I had a lot of food in the house already that wasnt super clean that needed to be eaten. I enjoyed trying some new recipes and cooking more than normal. One big difference I noticed was when I was out and I wanted to grab something on the go, there wasnt much clean food around, so instead I waited till I got home and ate - which is something I've always had trouble with, its always too easy to forget about the donut you ate on the way home from the grocery store, or the chips you grabbed at the gas station. This week the only thing I drank was water, and I found I didnt miss my iced tea or soda at all, my iced tea is sugar free (but it isnt very clean) and Ive decided I clearly don't need it. 

It is interesting to see a break down of the food I ate over the last week too.

I had a lot more protein than normal which is clearly a good thing, and I averaged just under 1500 calories a day this week. The fact I exercised a lot too, I'm sure was also a big help. I worked out everyday, and mixed up my exercise, I swam, did cardio and strength training at the gym, exercise bike at home, and walking. I also sold my fitbit (so no more step counting you will be glad to hear) and I bought a heart rate monitor. It was interesting to see the number of calories burned in each activity, as it came up a lot less than the estimated calories online, so this helps me when I want to eat something as I know how much effort I need to put in to burn the extra calories off.

Looking forward to another great week, its going to be busy, but I know I can do this.

Have a great week everyone

Sarah xxx