Week 36

Only 98 sleeps till Christmas :) I know you are loving my little updates each week.

I actually have quite a few countdowns on my phone:

37 sleeps till Lisa, Paige and Ebbie come to visit

39 sleeps until Lisa, Julia and I take part in the Dirty Girl run

40 sleeps until Dave, Lisa, Paige, Ebbie and I take part in the virtual 'run the hood' zombie dash

42 sleeps until Lisa, Paige, Ebbie and I go to Disneyland

61 sleeps until Dave and I take part in the 10k Awesome 80's run

73 sleeps until Dave and I fly to England for a visit

and 303 sleeps until Comic Con

As you can tell I love my countdowns, also it's been 50 days today since I drank soda :)

Talking of soda, since giving it up I have had no caffeine as the tea I drink is caffeine free, over the weekend I bought a Keurig brewer and I've been drinking a lot of iced tea and regular tea, it dawned on me this morning that this is the reason I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights, I've been awake at 4am each morning, clearly my body needs to adjust to the caffeine intake again.

So week 36, it was an OK week, here are the stats from my fitness pal

Yes Thursday I ate lots, although it wasn't as bad as I expected, I decided to order pizza, garlic bread and wings, normally I would eat the lot but this time I only had two slices of pizza and half the garlic bread, so that's a major improvement for me. I would say I ate 60% clean this week, I do need to work on trying harder with that, as I know the more clean I eat the better I feel and the more energy I have.

This week I worked out  four days. Monday I took the dogs on a 2.76 mile walk, it was a lot warmer than I expected, so was a tough walk. Wednesday I cycled 8 miles on my exercise bike, Friday I did 40 mins on my wii fit, and Sunday I took part  virtually in the Dani Ryan Holmes-Kirk birthday 5k with Dave which we completed in 58 mins. I think the thing I need to focus on the most is drinking more water, as I've been slacking on that.

So the numbers for this week, just a small loss of 0.4lbs this week, but it's heading in the right direction and my total loss is now at 23lbs :) I would like to try and lose 2lbs this week to hit 25lbs next week.

Thanks for reading my blog and have a great week everyone

Sarah x

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 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