Week 39

Woo Hoo - my week back on track was awesome and the scales were super awesome I lost 6.8lbs this week, that's the most I've ever lost in one week!! This takes my total loss to 26.2lbs (must remember to transfer some pebbles in my jars!) and I am now 3lbs away from reaching my first major goal which is losing 10% of my starting body weight.

I wish I was still attending meetings as I would have got some weight watchers bling I believe for reaching 25lbs lost.

The little stars certainly bring a smile to my face :)

So what did I do different this week? Well first of all I have had gains the last two weeks, so that makes up for part of the big loss this week. I promised to work out 4 days this week and I did that plus went for some long walks. I used my exercise bike twice and I also did boot camp one day, and also did my first ever kettle bell workout which I loved (even though I think I lost about 5 gallons of sweat whilst doing it!), and the day after and for the following few days I ached so bad in places I never knew I had muscles!! I plan to try and do it twice this week and hope to ache a lot less.

I am still tracking using my fitness pal, and I tracked 100% this week, and only went over my calories one day this week, which was due to a pumpkin cupcake (which was very disappointing indeed as it didn't taste that nice). I think I ate around 70% clean this week and even tried a new food. I ate tofu for the first time, I coated it in honey and breadcrumbs and baked it and it was really good. Actually I tried another new food this week Trader Joes harvest grains blend which I got in my foodie penpals box and they were so so good. I've decided to finally cut cow's milk out of my diet, I've had an allergic reaction to it for many years, but still keep having it, this week I worked on cutting it out and other than a small amount in some foods (where it is listed at the end of the ingredients) I have done pretty well, and my eczema is definitely a lot better for it - and my stomach too, so that may also have helped with the weight loss. I thought I would miss cheese, but I bought a vegetarian substitute which is great on pizza, and also some goats cheese which I don't appear to react to.

Here are my 'my fitness pal' stats for last week.

 

I'm hoping to have another great week this week, but know that I can't expect big numbers two weeks in a row, but am aiming for a loss.

Have a great week everyone
Sarah x

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 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