Weight loss diary: September 2018

It’s been a while since we had an update so let’s get straight to it:

Weeks 1-4: -8.5lbs
Week 5: -2lbs
Week 6: -1lb
Week 7: -1.5lbs
Weeks 8-10: +2.5lbs
Week 11: -3.5lbs

Total: -15lbs

Not bad at all. Even with a three week blip I’m still averaging at just under 1.5lbs a week. Excellent. It’s not the fastest, sexiest tale of weight loss ever but it is a very sensible, sustainable one.

There will be many more blips but I need to make sure that I arrest them before they turn into three weekers. That’s too long to be off plan and (I always say this but it always bears repeating) I feel SO much better when I’m in the zone. It is hard work to plan and track but the benefits are myriad: better digestion, better sleep, better mental health...it makes you wonder what kind of moron wouldn’t make the effort...

The wages of sin

Well, the scores are in and after shamefully missing not one but two weigh ins, and consuming more points over this last weekend than a good Weight Watcher does in a year I have gained...

2.5 lbs.

So that’s not bad at all. And every glorious mouthful was worth it. I will NEVER be the kind of person who attempts to point while on holiday.

Back to it now and I’m hoping that a good week can get that back off again. There are another thirteen weigh ins before Christmas - I could easily be a stone down by then with a bit of focus. Onwards and downwards!

This week’s weigh in...that’s more like it!

Tonight the Mean Girl scales were kind and informed me that I had lost 4lbs. Hurrah! With my gain last week (boo!) that gives a net result of 3lbs across 2 weeks which will do very nicely. It’s not the rapidest loss in the world, but I’d be more than happy to accept a slow, steady dwindle. A pound a week between now and the end of the year would be nearly a stone and a half which would be amazing.

Two weeks in and I have to say I am really enjoying the Flex plan and the food that I’m eating. I haven’t felt this positive and, well, healthy in ever such a long time. Long may it continue.

Normal, whingeing service will no doubt be resumed soon but in the meantime, vive Le Flex!

A post weigh-in post

Well, I am surely glad that I did write my pre weigh-in post before I went to the meeting. Because the scales were not kind. In fact, they were positively bitchy, informing me that I had managed to gain a pound over the course of the last week.

I’m no stranger to gains – they’re a fact of life, and I try to be sanguine about them but, oh! This stung quite a lot. Such that I could actually feel my eyes get hot and prickly when I stepped off, even while I was cheerfully telling the leader that I wouldn’t let this put me off and would give it another good go this week. Then I went to the meeting shop and spent £7 on over-processed WW own products that are full of the type of sugar replacements that people with delicate tummies should probably avoid.

But while waiting for the meeting to start, I actually sat and read my own post and it did make me feel a lot better. So what if the scales are taking a while to catch up? I know, in my heart of hearts, that I did my very best this week, that I made good decisions, and that I took proper care of myself. Hopefully, good results will follow (said with gritted teeth).

In other news, someone emailed me a few weeks ago to say that this blog had been listed as one of the Top 5 UK Weight Watchers Blogs and Websites in 2018. I’m not sure how many UK Weight Watchers Blogs there are (probably 5), and I’m not quite sure that this has actually been a Weight Watchers blog for a while but hey! We take our victories where we can. And the thumbnail of Minx they have used is one of my favourites so it’s worth a click just to admire her.

Two steps forward, one and a half steps back

I ended the month of January slightly lighter than I started, which I take to be a good thing. 

The cheese-topped, chips-on-the-side nature of our holiday in Scotland, not to mention the fact that we only managed one fast day during the week before we went (because we got into holiday mode slightly too early) means that I would have been entirely unsurprised to see a net gain on the month.  What I have noticed about my 5:2 losses, though, is that for all that they are slow (so slow!) they seem to stick far better than when I was losing weight more quickly with WW.  A fall from the wagon may occasion a gain, but not a particularly dramatic one.  Not like the memorable occasion, many years ago when I gained five pounds one week and then lost seven the next.  I wonder if I was blogging at that point?  I can't see a post called "Flying in the Face of Science" but I definitely felt as if I was. 

I know the blog is quieter than it used to be.  Actually, blogging in general seems to be quieter than it used to be.  And a lot of the blogs that are out there are very big and shiny and full of beautiful photographs as opposed to back in 2010 when people just got behind the keyboard and typed away on their unglamorous but entirely functional BlogSpot platforms.  It's a shame, because I think the sense of community has disappeared a little bit, and I think a lot of the people who still are blogging are doing it less to reach out and more with a view to becoming the next Big Thing.

But, to my original point.  The blog is quieter than it used to be partly because I don't really feel like I am on a diet any more.  5:2 has fitted in to my life relatively seamlessly.  There's only so many times that I can write about how fast days are tough and I feel very hungry but it's worth the freedom that it wins me on the other, non-fast, days. 

Still, I also started writing this as a place to record recipes and to record experiences, and I've not intention of giving that up because a Book Deal may yet be forthcoming!  Well, not really, but because I love being able to look back and remember stuff I've eaten and places I've been. And, you never know, someday I might reach my elusive Goal Weight and I can't think of a better, more proper place to record that achievement than this little corner here. 

So, as ever mes amies, onwards and downwards.

MPM: 13th November 2017 (and more musings on intermittent fasting)

For the first time in a while, we managed to complete two full fast days last week and, as a result, the scales have started to veer downwards again which is good news.  Monday is sort of the "official" weigh day which means that my "official" result is 1.2 lbs off - however, my lowest recorded weight of the week was 0.6 lbs below that.

None of these figures are stellar.  I doubt that anyone is going to be particularly inspired by a two-stone-in-a-year loss.  But I'm happy with it.  Yes, I remember saying at the outset that I would be happy with a pound a week average and I've managed half that.  But the important point is that it is steady, sustained weight loss.  There have been loads of weeks where we've only fasted once or we've not bothered at all and on non-fast days, I've been eating normally - no food is forbidden, nothing is off limits.  Because of this, I've noticed my habits improve; for example, I tend to eat quite small portions, I never feel the urge to clear my plate if I've had enough and I don't eat anything for the sake of it.  These are all healthy habits.  I feel like I've come a long way - even if the scales haven't.

Now, on to meal planning.  We had a lovely week last week, culminating in an excellent rabbit pie with a proper, suet pastry crust.  Absolute bliss with mashed potatoes, braised red cabbage and honey roasted carrots.  I'm looking forward to some leftovers this week!

Monday:  Fast day - soup

Tuesday: Spaghetti Bolognese (sauce from the freezer.  As ever, we live in hope of one day seeing it empty).

Wednesday:  Fast day (probably) - soup.  D won't be able to fast today as he is going on a team lunch out.  He said that he is still quite happy to have soup for tea, which gives me the opportunity to stick to a fast if I want to do so. 

Thursday:  D out - leftover rabbit pie for me.

Friday:  As with last week, we're going to do a mystery fish type exercise, depending on what looks good in the market.  The hake that D bought last week was served with delicious butter beans which I cooked with chilli and rosemary, which acted as perfect ballast (every time I eat beans I remind myself to have them more often).

Saturday:  Home made pizza - we both get to choose a topping.  I'm thinking maybe something with tiny cubes of roasted squash.  Or perhaps a classic goats cheese and caramellised onions.  Or punchy anchovies. 

Sunday:  A Diana Henry recipe from her Telegraph food column: baked sausages, apples and blackerries with mustard and maple syrup.  She suggests serving with mash or jacket potatoes. 

So an excellent week's eating.  Hopefully I will manage to claw my way, alone, through a second fast and record enough of a loss on the scales to finally tip me over the two stone mark for the year.  Wish my luck, and have a fabulous week!

Baby steps

There are few things more annoying than tracking a good weight loss all week (between 2 and 2.8lbs) only for the scales to bounce back up on Official Weigh Day. 

I mean, the point about weighing yourself daily is to get a sense of the overall trend, the general movement and not to get too het up about the number on any given day.  But everyone knows that the results on Official Weigh Day mean the most.  And everyone knows that Official Weigh Day is really Monday, no matter how often you try and convince your psyche that Friday is better.

So, anyway.  My Official Weigh Day result was a 1.2lb loss.  Which isn't bad by any means, but given that this was the highest number to flash up since last Monday it is supremely irritating. 

Still, I take it and I keep going.  The alternatives that I mentioned are weighing almost as heavy as, well, me.

MPM - and a progress update

I’ve been following the 5:2 plan for 10 weeks now and things are going well. Strictly speaking, I had one week of 4:3 (which was bloody awful) and one week of 7:0 (that was the week that we went to Brighton and entered “holiday mode” a bit too early). In that time, I’ve lost 20.6lbs, which is nearly a stone and a half (yay!) and an average rate of just over 2lbs a week which is double what I was expecting (more yay!)

But if you look at the chart you can see that there was a period when things started to move in the wrong direction – basically, most of February. I had three weeks of gains on the trot – one, after an indulgent weekend away, was expected the other two, not so much. The thing that seems to make the big difference for me is alcohol. If I don’t drink anything, I can eat with relative abandon on non-fast days and lose weight. As soon as I start trying to factor in some wine at the weekends or a sneaky couple of midweek pints, it slows right down. It’s a shame as I adore a tipple, but for now, I am putting my beloved g&ts to one side while I concentrate on shifting some poundage. Drinking is going to have to be an occasional treat rather than a regular occurrence.

On to this week’s meal plan and, continuing our plan in March to cook our books, the basis of this comes from Valentine Warner’s “The Good Table”. I have yet to identify any particular theme to this book, unless that theme is “delicious things that I want to eat”. We’ll be fasting on Monday and Wednesday, and D is out on Friday for a team lunch, so four evenings to plan:

Monday: Soup

Tuesday: Mussels on toast

Wednesday: Soup

Thursday: Valentine Warner’s Dad’s prawn curry

Saturday: Moussaka

Sunday: Slow cooked beef cheeks with baby turnips

YUM. That’s the third week in the row where I think we’ve had some absolute treasures to look forward to – and, this may be the fasting speaking, but I can’t wait to get stuck in to that little lot.

Notes on 4:3 and a Wet Weekend

You now that I've said that 5:2 is hard but doable? Well, 4:3 starts to tip over into too hard and not doable. We fasted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday last week and Friday felt like a slog from start to finish - especially when work was over for the day and we celebrated the start of the weekend with yet another bowl of soup.  Meh.

And perhaps as a result of that, or perhaps because constant virtue can be rather dull, Saturday and Sunday ended up being a bit off piste, specifically with regards a glass or ten of the good stuff.  I've been eschewing my usual beloved tipples over January but suddenly, all caution was hurled to the wind.  The result was plain to see this morning - despite all the fasting, I gained 0.6lbs.

It's not the end of the world and is unsurprising, perhaps, after a spate of good results.  It's frustrating certainly - especially since I don't feel as if I overate, but the scales don't lie and, after all, gram for gram alcohol contains almost as many calories as fat.  Lesson learned (although I don't doubt that the very same lesson will have to be learned again at some point in the not too distant future.)

Meal planning this week - well, one or other of us is out for three of the seven nights (yes, we are dining out on Valentine's Day) and then obviously there will be yet more soup.  That just leaves next weekend to plan:

Saturday:  Coq au vin* with mashed potato and roasted kalettes

Sunday:  Merguez sausages with a warm salad of giant couscous and roasted red pepper

*Because if you're cooking with wine it doesn't count.  Obviously.

Week of pain

The blog has become rather diet centric in recent posts.  I suppose that is just a reflection of what happens when one starts a new regime and it, briefly, seems utterly fascinating.  Give it a few more weeks and the novelty will have worn off.

Anyway, a very pleasing result this week.  I had already decided to quit with the weekly updates lest they become an utter yawnfest - but this was worthy of comment:

Weeks 1-4 loss / (gain): 10.6lbs
Week 5 loss / (gain): 4.8lbs
Total: 15.4lbs

I'm not quite sure what happened to create such a big loss.  I'm (sadly) far too experienced in this game to think that weight loss always occurs on a nice, straight line basis but even I was surprised.  However, this week, the scales are not showing any large movements - a plateau, if you will. 

The week of pain in the title refers to the fact that, a little while ago, D and I decided that it might be a good idea to throw a 4:3 week into the mix every month or so.  As it says on the tin, this consists of three fast days rather than the usual two.  It will be interesting to see if this busts the plateau or whether this week is just destined to be a bit of a slowdown.  It will also be interesting to see if I get through fast day number 3 (scheduled for tomorrow) without weeping.  The last two have been difficult - not because I've felt hungry particularly, more that I've been COLD and craving melted cheese.

Still, as I said in my last post, I feel cautiously optimistic that I have found a long term way of eating / dieting that seems to allow weight loss alongside a "normal" existence.  And that, for me, is the golden ticket that helps me to live with the temporary discomfort.  I wonder if I will be quite sanguine when (likely not if) the weight loss slows down and the victories are harder won?

In answer to Lesley's question, D, who has much less ballast than me has lost 7lbs in the past five weeks.  This is an excellent result and suggests that 5:2 can also work for people who aren't particularly overweight.  He tends to take a less moderate approach than I on non fast days and yet still has recorded consistent losses.  To take things to the next level though, and ensure long term consistency, both of us need to up the ante with regards to exercise - Lesley, do you think if I keep saying it that eventually I will do it??

A month of 5:2

We have come to the end of January and thus a whole calendar month’s worth of intermittent fasting.

I’ve completed four full weeks – three doing 5:2 and one cheeky (and accidental) 4:3. So what are the final results?

Weeks 1-3 loss / (gain): 8.6lbs
Week 4 loss / (gain): 2lbs
Total: 10.6lbs

My intention was always to give this a fair shot and then assess whether or not it was worth carrying on. Based on those results, I am more than happy to keep going. I also I feel as if I’m in more of a position now to give a balanced opinion of 5:2. And here it is.

One - fasting is HARD. Some days it is quite hard and others it is very hard and there doesn’t appear to be any particular rhyme or reason as to why this is so. There may be some sort of biological (hormonal?) explanation, but certainly, I’ve not yet been able to identify a particular pattern as to why some days I bumble along slightly peckish but OK and others I want to chew my own hand off within a couple of hours of waking.

Two – if you, like me, have been on one diet or another for most of your adult life, being told to just eat “normally” five days a week is also hard. I feel like I’m having to learn that from scratch. Because it is January and because I’m all fired up to Bust some Lard, I’ve been erring on the side of caution which has clearly yielded results. Further down the line, I’m very conscious that the halo might start to slip and need to watch out for that.

Three – for all the caveats at points one and two, I would definitely recommend this to someone who was looking to breakout of the perpetual diet / binge cycle. Because, psychologically, it is just such a huge RELIEF to know that I don’t have to say no to everything and be in a state of constant, slightly unhappy denial. Last weekend, I saw friends. We had a meal out – there was pudding, there was a LOT of wine. The next day, there was an Indian takeaway. And yet I still did enough to record a 2lb loss because I practiced a bit of moderation and I completed my two fast days. That has all the hallmarks of a lifestyle that I can maintain forever.

Onwards and downwards!

Wot, no meal planning (and this week’s weigh in result)

I think that we might need to up our game with the meal planning a little bit as neither this week nor last week have I felt inspired to blog about what we’ve been eating. It doesn’t help that we continue to stick with a bowl of soup on fast days which, although it ticks many boxes – tasty, warming, filling, minimal effort – isn’t very exciting. So that leaves five days a week and when we’re out for a couple of those…well, the meal plan becomes very short.

We’ve also been aiming to have a pretty frugal January, and have managed well for the most part. I reckon that our total grocery bill for the month is going to come in at under £250, and that includes several bottle of wine and a bottle of gin to replenish our stores post-Christmas. Again, while our bank balances are thanking us, it doesn’t necessarily make for the most exciting meal planning post when we’re freezer diving or eating leftovers.

I promise that socks will be duly pulled up in February.

Now, what about weight loss this week? As you may recall, the first two weeks of 5:2 had seen me record a cracking couple of losses (partly because the second week turned into an accidental 4:3). I was expecting a slowdown this week – almost hoping for one, in fact, as I always feel that it “consolidates” the loss (if you see what I mean. Or am I just a bit odd?) Anyway, week 3 went like this:

Week 1-2 loss / (gain): 8.4lbs
Week 3 loss / (gain): 1.2lbs
Total: 9.6lbs

I’m really happy with that! A pound a week is probably all that I can reasonably expect in the long run with this plan, so to squeak in just over that after last week was very pleasing indeed. I’ve made an excellent start and am definitely inspired to continue – what a lovely thought that I could hit the first stone mark by the end of February if I keep on keeping on.

Much pain, no gain

When we last saw our heroine, she was looking forward to a lazy weekend resting her poorly foot (or paw as Lesley called it – I much prefer the idea of having paws to feet!)

Well, the good news is that the foot is much improved from a couple of days of very little usage. I can now walk without wincing! Hurrah!

The bad news is that I am now suffering with toothache. Ouch. I spent most of Sunday taking the strongest painkillers that D could elicit from our friendly local pharmacist and whimpering (NB: I am a terrible invalid. I am the whiniest, most trying patient you could ever hope to meet. Stoic is not my middle name). An emergency trip to the dentist yesterday afternoon ended with a prescription for anti-biotics to clear up some infection and an additional appointment, two weeks hence, for a root canal.

Colour me most unhappy.

The silver lining to this particular cloud is that I could barely eat on Sunday, and so inadvertently had another fast day which bolstered my Monday morning result. Here are the scores on the doors so far for 2017:

Week 1 loss/(gain):​​ 4.0lbs
This week loss/(gain):​​ 3.4lbs
Total​​​​: 7.4lbs

By any stretch of the imagination, that is good going. To be honest, if I could just maintain that loss this week I would be perfectly happy – it doesn’t feel quite “real” at the moment (if that makes any sense?)

I talked last week about trying to eat a bit more on non-fast days and to be careful about being too careful. Clearly, the fact that I had an extra, accidental, fast day this week flies in the face of that a little bit. But I certainly didn’t feel deprived on the four normal days. There was a takeaway pizza one evening (with pizza leftovers for breakfast the following day), there was a meal out, a steak sandwich with a decent slather of blue cheese mayonnaise…

D and I have been having a Dry January which has, undoubtedly, also been a boost. I shudder to think of the number of calories that I am capable of taking in liquid form over the course of a weekend; they add up incredibly quickly. While I have no intention of staying dry once January is over, it has definitely inspired me to be more vigilant about the amount I have to drink as a general rule.

I’m also looking forward to getting started with the Couch to 5k – I’m going to hold off for another week or so to ensure my foot is absolutely fine, but it will be nice to get moving. And, once the weather picks up, D and I want to get out and do some walking which will be an additional boost. For now, it’s all about getting the food side of things right and, as the results above demonstrate, I think I’m on with that.

Meal planning and weighing in

So firstly – news from the scales. Today I weighed in after my first full week, post-Christmas, on 5:2 and recorded… (drum roll please…) a loss of 4lbs!

Cue much happy dancing. A very pleasing result. I’m back under my mid-December weight and only 0.2 lbs over where I was at the beginning of December. Hurrah.

It’s been an interesting week, but I probably need to record my full thoughts on a separate post, as I want make sure I’m keeping a full, critical record of my time on 5:2. So, to meal planning.

Monday and Wednesday are this week’s fast days and I’ll be making a batch of broccoli, spinach and blue cheese soup which comes in at just under 200 calories. It’s a little high but it should have quite a luxurious taste and texture owing to the inclusion of, well, cheese.

Elsewhere:

Tuesday: Cauliflower risotto

Thursday: Rice bowl with stir fried pork mince and pickled cucumber.

Friday: I’m out – so D must fend for himself (sob!)

Saturday: Steak baguettes with caramelised onion and blue cheese mayonnaise

Sunday: Some sort of roast (tbc)

2017: and so it begins

Happy new year lovely blog readers! Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I basically decided to do the square root of FA over the Christmas period and very nice and indulgent it was too. We ate, drank and were generally merry for most of the time. I turned another year older, which briefly curtailed the merriment as I reflected on the fact that I am now ANCIENT. But I got a lot of lovely presents, which eased the pain.

Some of said presents were very much on a theme of food so I think warrant a mention here. D, who is an awesome giver of gifts, has booked me on to a one day artisan bread making course at Betty's Cookery School in Harrogate – that made me squee quite a lot. D2 (my brother) presented me with a leg of Serrano ham, complete with stand, which is currently sat on our dining table taunting us every time we walk past. He also gave me a sack of goodies which contains everything I need in order to cook Korean food. Expect a report back on my adventures in Kimchee making shortly, I’ve been meaning to try for ages and now have no excuse!

Of course, after the indulgence comes the encounter with the Scales of Doom (TM Peridot). I hopped on gloomily on Monday morning and was up 3.4lbs from my last weigh in. A bit of an ouch, but considering said last weigh in took place on a Thursday in mid-December just after a fast day, it could have been a lot worse. Two and a half weeks of indulgence in exchange for a quarter of a stone isn’t the end of the world.

Now here we are on Thursday and D and I have completed our two fast days for the week (Monday and Wednesday). They were not easy, I’ll be honest. In fact, I spent a good chunk of Monday asleep to try and distract from the misery (the advantage of fasting on a Bank Holiday). But, as of this morning, the scales have dropped a whopping 4.2lbs. I don’t expect to maintain the whole of that loss over the weekend, but seeing that quick fall has really inspired me to try and be sensible during the coming non-fast days. I think this is one diet plan where daily weighing might be a help rather than a hindrance.

Anyway, the truth will out come next Monday. In the meantime, I hope that all of you have a fab start to 2017 and look forward to sharing another year’s worth of eating, dieting, cat-stroking and general, all-purpose bimbling with you.

Smart points review: one week in

One week of smart pointing and the scales rewarded me with...(drum roll please)...a 3lb loss.

Which is good.  It's fine.  It's actually probably a little bit better than good.  But I would be lying if I said that I was pleased this morning.  If anything, I was a little deflated.  This past week has felt like really hard going, and for hard going I wanted better than good.  Even if it was just an inflated first week loss to bolster me up for the coming weeks.

I ended the week having had all my dailies and most of my weekly points - so pretty much where I was supposed to be.  But, as I have already said in my previous posts, I felt like I was on a diet ALL WEEK.

I'm going to persevere, because at the moment, I don't know what the alternative is.  And, there was a lot of positive feedback from members of the WW message boards who have been following the plan for a while, so I may just need a bit longer to get my head firmly out of Pro Points and into the Smart Points game.  I'll do a further update after the first month and see where I am then (for sake of comparison - the last time I started Pro Points, this blog records that I lost a stone in the first four weeks - it will be interesting to see how the results compare).

A note on Dukan

As I mentioned in an earlier post, D has been doing the Dukan Attack phase this week - which has basically meant eating nothing but lean meat, fish, low fat dairy and a couple of eggs a day.  He reports that he has not been hungry, just intensely bored.  He was well rewarded, though, having lost a whopping 9lbs in 7 days - a big boost was exactly what he needed to keep him going.  It will be interesting to see what happens as he comes out of Attack and on to Cruise phase (where he can introduce vegetables).  I have everything crossed that he continues to see those good results.

Woo to the hoo

Today was my first weigh in of 2016.

I like to weigh in on a Thursday.  It's far enough away from last weekend that you've had the chance to reverse any gain but it also allows you to get a low day under your (capacious) belt before launching into next weekend.

In order to give myself a starting point, I gritted my teeth and weighed myself last Thursday.  Which, if you'll recall was New Years' Eve.  I then proceeded to have an extremely indulgent lunch and an evening of profligacy (turns out that my brother makes a very good chocolate salted caramel tart and that I like Parma Violets when they are in cocktail form).

Still, I started tracking on Monday which clearly sent my body into a profound state of shock since I stand before you delighted to report a 2.6 lb loss on last week.  It's a start!

Loss / (gain) this week: 2.6 lbs
Loss / (gain) in 2016: 2.6 lbs

Weight Watchers update: September 2015

So, over the course of September I managed (drum roll please) to lose exactly nothing.  Exactly nothing.  I am the same weight to within a tenth of a kilogram.

It appears that I am really good at maintenance.  And that is no bad thing.  But I appear to have skipped over the getting-to-your-ideal-weight part.  Which is a bad thing.

To be strictly fair, September 2015 is not going to go down in the annals of all time good months.  At times it was rather hellish.  And we all know that in times of stress my ability to think (and eat) rationally gets sorely tested.  Also, there were two lunches out at the weekend which may have caused a bit of a bounce up this morning.

I've been at this too long to allow it to get me down.  It's an ongoing process rather that a finite journey to a particular destination.  But I would like that process to gain a little bit more momentum before the year is out.  Onwards and, hopefully, downwards!

Weight Watchers update: August 2015

Image from funnyasduck.net

I knew that when I got back from Scotland I was going to have to face the scales.  And, not only face them, but enter into battle with them. They're still set to kilograms so actually, the number itself isn't particularly painful because I don't have the slightest clue what it "means".  Nevertheless, you don't have to be a genius to work out that it's too high.

For the last fortnight, I have been tracking...sort of.  That is to say, weekdays have been pretty solid and then it's all gone a bit pear shaped at the weekends.  Still, the good must have outweighed (ha, ha) the bad because I have lost 1.6 kg in that time.  That's 3.5 lbs which is not too shabby at all!

It is my intention to post monthly updates on here noting overall loss (or gain), number of days on track and any favourite recipes, meals or products that have kept me going.  It's good to be accountable and the lovely folks of blogland have always been incredibly supportive.  I am not setting any particular goals at the moment.  There are four months left in 2015 and if I could just be lighter at the end of them than I am now, I will be perfectly happy.

I have reset my weight tracker so that my new starting weight is my post Scotland, August 2015, figure.  I had been resting on earlier laurels for too long.  I need to draw a line and start, unequivocally, on a new chapter of the story.

Hello weight loss, my old friend...

For all my bravado a few weeks ago, I have yet to go back to a Weight Watchers meeting.  I don't know why, but the thought of setting foot through the door reduces me to a quivering wreck.  Definitely some issues there to work on.  But that is not to say that I have not been engaging in the Watching of the Weight.  I have a good few days under my (capacious) belt now and am feeling nicely in control even after our brief sojourn in Whitby.

One of my...issues is perhaps too strong a word but will do for now...with the WW model is the emphasis on the one weekly weigh in.  While I understand the reasoning behind it, it does set an awful lot of store by what you weigh in one particular moment in time rather than on the general progress.  I've recently found an app called Happy Scale which allows you to record a daily figure and then uses that to calculate a moving average as well as a record low summary.  So far, I like this approach.  The concern with daily weighing is always that it can be a bit obsessional, so I've switched my scales to kilograms - that way I can see and record the change in the numbers without really understanding what said numbers mean (I'm actively trying not to do conversion maths in my head).  I find that way there is a much less emotive connection between what the scales say and how I feel.  Logical?  Perhaps not, but you've always got to do what works best for you at any given time.

Anyway, it means that you are spared the interminable weekly weigh in posts for now - although I might do a semi regular update on progress if, for no other reason that to add a bit more accountability.  As to meetings, I just don't know...history tells me that I do better when I am going but history also tells me that I have a tendency to come to a juddering halt whenever I have a bad few weeks.  I'm keeping an open mind for the time being.