Tracking my weight loss

W E L C O M E

Welcome to my blog about my dieting adventures, thoughts, philosophies.

THOUGHT

Taking steps forward takes you into the unknown! Taking steps back keeps you in your comfort zone! Be adventurous today and step outside your comfort zone - life is an adventure!

Monday 30 November 2009

H two O

The benefits of drinking good old H2O:

1. Lubricates joints
2. Maximises metabolism
3. Flushes impurities away and reduces skin blemishes
4. Flushes toxins
5. Cools
6. Aids digestion and elimination


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If you don't drink enough water:

1. Dehydration
2. Feel fake hunger
3. Weight loss slows down
4. Inhibits absorbtion of goodness in food

Saturday 28 November 2009

HEALTHY LIVING

Have at least 5 fruit or veg a day
E
xercise at least 30 minutes a day 5 days a week
A
erobic exercise gets your heart pumping
L
earn the signs of hunger rather than boredom
T
omorrow never comes so always start your regime by saying the day
H
old your stomach in as often as possible to improve posture
Y
ou hold the key to your success


L
ose all those excuses
I
ntroduce different coloured foods into your cooking
V
egetables are really good for you
I
nteresting activities keep your mind off food
N
ever beat yourself up if you make a mistake
G
o for it! YOU CAN DO IT!

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Looking Good...Feeling Good...Being Good

Looking good - try using skincare and moisurise your whole body - not just ya face!! Perfume Exfoliate (remove dead skin cells) at least twice a week - include your whole body in this!! I have set days - Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday - I do my face AND my body and I thoroughly moisturise afterwards

Feeling good - I always try and exercise at least 3 times a week (haha) I have to as I live on a hill and I ain't getting any younger Shocked Find an exercise you like to do - I like aerobics, toning and swimming - it doesn't have to be drudgery!!
Sit Up
Being good - OK lock away all those yummy scrummy biscuits and crisps - better still bin them or don't buy any at all!! Keep a check on the food you have in ya house and don't forget - 5 portions of fruit or veg a day to keep healthy!! Hmmmm maybe I need to practice what I preach!! Drink 2 litres of water too!! (I DEFINITELY need to practice what I preach in this area!!)
Bottled Water Watermelon Apple Pineapple Carrots Broccoli Tomato Potato Bottled Water
Beach HAVE HEAPS OF FUN Aerobics

100 good ideas to keep your diet on track

Take small steps today!

1. Walk to work.

2. Use skimmed milk instead of whole milk.

3. Do sit-ups in front of the TV.

4. Walk during your lunch hour.

5. Drink a glass of water before a meal.

6. Choose leaner cuts of red meat & poultry.

7. Eat only half your dessert – save the rest for tomorrow night!

8. Walk instead of driving whenever you can.

9. Take a family stroll after dinner.

10. Avoid food portions larger than your fist.

11. Choose olive margarine instead of butter.

12. Mow your lawn with a push mower.

13. Increase the fibre in your diet.

14. Aim for at least 5 servings of fruit and veg every day.

15. Walk the kids to school.

16. Get a dog and walk it.

17. Join an exercise group.

18. Change to diet fizzy drinks.

19. Replace Sunday drive with Sunday walk.

20. Garden!

21. Eat from a smaller plate to help control portion size.

22. Get off the bus a stop early and walk.

23. Don't eat late at night.

24. Skip seconds.

25. Work around the house.

26. Skip buffets and all-you-can-eat offers.

27. Grill, steam or bake instead of frying.

28. Cycle to the shops instead of driving.

30. Ask your doctor about taking a multi-vitamin.

31. Go for a half-hour walk instead of watching TV.

32. Use vegetable oils over solid fats.

33. More carrots, less cake!

34. Fetch the newspaper yourself.

35. Sit up straight at work.

36. Wash the car by hand.

37. Don't skip meals.

38. Swap potato crisps for celery sticks.

39. Run when running errands.

40. Pace the sidelines at sports games.

41. Take wheels off luggage.

42. Choose an activity that fits into your everyday life.

43. Use the car parking space furthest from your destination (when safe).

44. Ask a friend to exercise with you.

45. Make time in your day for physical activity.

46. Use an exercise video if the weather is bad.

47. Switch from white bread to wholegrain.

48. Keep to a regular eating routine.

49. If you find it difficult to exercise after work, exercise before work.

50. Take a walk or do desk exercises instead of a coffee break.

52. Avoid labour-saving devices.

53. Take small trips on foot to get your body moving.

54. Play active games with your kids for 30 minutes a day.

55. Dance!

56. Keep a pair of comfortable walking or running shoes in your car and office.

57. Make a Saturday morning walk a group habit.

58. Walk briskly around the shopping centre.

59. Choose activities you enjoy and you'll be more likely to stick with them.

60. Stretch before bed to give you more energy when you wake.

61. Take the long way to the water cooler.

62. Explore new physical activities.

63. Vary your activities, for interest and to broaden the range of benefits.

64. Think of yourself as a healthy person and healthy habits will become second nature.

65. Choose fruit or yoghurt for dessert.

66. Consume alcohol in moderation, if at all.

67. Take stairs instead of the escalator.

68. Conduct an inventory of your eating and activity patterns.

69. Share a main course with a friend.

70. Grill vegetables instead of roasting in oil.

71. Eat before grocery shopping.

72. Choose a checkout line without a chocolate display.

73. Make a grocery list before you shop.

74. Buy 100% fruit juices instead of fizzy or sugary drinks.

75. Swim with your kids.

76. Flavour foods with herbs, spices and other low-fat seasonings.

77. Remove skin from poultry before cooking to lower fat content.

78. Eat before you get too hungry.

79. Don't skip breakfast.

80. Stop eating when you are full.

81. Snack on fruit and vegetables, not crisps and chocolate.

82. Top your favourite cereal with apples or bananas.

83. Try brown rice or whole-wheat pasta.

84. Include several servings of whole grain food daily.

85. When eating out, choose a small or medium portion.

86. If main dishes are too big, choose an appetizer or a side dish instead.

87. Ask for salad dressing "on the side".

88. Don't take seconds.

89. Try your burger with just lettuce, tomato and onion – forget the bacon and cheese.

90. Try a green salad instead of fries.

91. Bake or grill fish.

92. Walk instead of sitting around.

93. Eat sweet foods in small amounts, if at all.

94. Take your dog on longer walks.

95. Drink lots of water.

96. Cut back on added fats or oils in cooking or spreads.

97. Stay active on holiday - walk the beach instead of sunbathing.

98. Walk to a co-worker's desk instead of emailing or calling them.

99. Carry your groceries instead of pushing a trolley.

100. Reward and acknowledge your efforts.

10 GOLDEN ways to successful weight loss

10 golden ways to successful weightloss

1. Always have breakfast
2. Avoid eating between meals
3. Watch your portion sizes
4. Be more active
5. Don't drink alcohol in excess
6. Make your meals go further with low-calorie 'fillers' e.g. tomatoes, grated carrots, beansprouts, celery and courgettes
7. Cut the fat in your food (only buy foods with 5% fat or less - check the nutrition panel on the packaging)
8. Drink plenty of water
9. Write your goals down for this year
10. Take regular exercise

Exercising

1. Do some aerobic exercise every day! Try to do between 30 and 60 minutes of aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, aerobics, dancing etc) every day. However, if some days you can only do 15 minutes, that's still a lot better than doing nothing! Forget this twice-a-week stuff. Our bodies were designed to be active on a daily basis. When we're active our metabolism is super-charged and it also puts us in a healthy frame of mind.

2. Incorporate intervals into some of your aerobic exercise sessions. Intervals are brief periods (about one minute) of more intense exercise mixed into your regular aerobic exercise sessions. For example, if you're walking, you would do a one-minute interval of faster walking about every five minutes throughout your exercise session.

Here's how it will look: you start with your normal three to five minute warm-up and then five minutes into your workout you do your first interval, one minute of faster walking (or perhaps jogging). At the end of that minute, you should feel slightly out of breath and ready to slow down. You slow down to your normal exercising speed for the next four minutes and then your fifth minute is another one-minute interval. Continue this pattern throughout your exercise session and you'll derive several benefits:

- intervals increase your aerobic fitness level. While doing your interval you cross the anaerobic threshold into anaerobic metabolism, forcing your body to become conditioned to more intense exercise

- your increased level of fitness means that a given level of exercise will feel easier and that you will be able to exercise at a higher intensity which burns more calories

- your increased level of fitness also means that you will be less fatigued from daily activities and you'll have more "energy" throughout the day

- intervals increase your basal metabolic rate (BMR), causing you to burn more calories 24 hours a day

- intervals cause you to burn more calories during your exercise session and for several hours afterwards

- intervals will tone the involved muscles to a greater degree than your regular aerobic exercise would

- intervals can make your exercise less monotonous and help the time pass more quickly

- intervals can help you to get past a weight loss plateau

- intervals will energise you!

3. Tone your muscles with weight training at least twice a week. Toned muscles really boost your metabolism and cause you to burn more calories 24 hours a day - yes, even while you're sleeping you'll be burning more calories!

4. Always eat breakfast! Skipping breakfast sends a message to your body that you're "starving" because you haven't had food in 12+ hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down and your body begins to burn your muscle as fuel. Breakfast also gives your body the fuel it needs to exercise effectively!

5. Look for situations to be active. Park as far from the shopping centre as you can rather than looking for the closest spot. Use the stairs rather than the lift or escalator, do more jobs around the house yourself, like washing the windows or the car or mowing the lawn. Look for the "difficult" way to do things - the way that requires the most effort - and see these situations as opportunities to be active!

Top 10 Diet Tips

1. Write down 3 reasons WHY you want to lose weight.
This is the first and most important step. If you don’t know WHY you want something, it won’t be as important for you to get it. Be positive with your goals. Don’t write down things like ‘I don’t want to be this big or this fat’ or something equally as negative. This is telling yourself what you don’t want. Try not to write down meaningless things; instead write down positive goals like – ‘I want to look great in my little black number on Valentine’s Day’ – this is telling yourself exactly what YOU WANT.

2. Believe in yourself.
How often have you admired someone and their achievements and then instantly thought ‘I would love to be able to do that, but I just couldn’t’. We are all human and we all think like this on occasions. But don't limit your achievements by your thoughts. You CAN do whatever you want to do – you can do whatever you REALLY want to do.

3. Identify reasons and occasions when you overeat.
If you THINK about the places, times, people you are with when you eat, the occasions and reasons why you overeat will become glaringly obvious. THINK about it – is it at work, at home, at the weekends, at night, when you are with certain people, when you are alone? THINK and ASK because the answers are in the questions.

4. Make gradual but permanent behaviour changes.
Not an instant step, but a very necessary and a very possible one. Gradually change the contents of your fridge to healthier products, steadily increase your fruit and vegetable portions, phase out those biscuits and treats and make smart choices a part of your everyday life. Healthy eating will become a healthy habit!

5. Reduce your portion sizes.
It is a fact that if we weigh too much we are eating too much. Sometimes we are eating very healthy foods, but we are eating too much of them. So it is vital that we become aware of how much we are eating and that we reduce it. Use a smaller plate, weigh food on your kitchen scales initially so that you know the weight of the general every day food items, use the same size of plate for meals so that you know how much food to put on it. We have to get used to controlling the portion sizes and hence the amount of food we eat.

6. Drink water!
Dehydration, often mistaken for hunger, can lead to fatigue, slows the metabolism and can reduce our concentration and short-term memory. Drinking at least 1½ litres of water each day will not only help fill you up but can ease joint pain, help your organs such as the kidney and liver work more efficiently and improve the condition of the skin (and help banish cellulite).

7. Always eat breakfast!
Skipping breakfast sends a message to your body that you're "starving" because you haven't had food in a number of hours. As a protective mechanism, your metabolism slows down and your body begins to burn your muscle as fuel. Breakfast also gives your body the fuel it needs to exercise effectively.

8. Make exercise a regular habit.
Exercise is perhaps the ‘secret weapon’ in
successful and permanent weight loss. There is nothing with greater body benefits than exercise. We can start gently and build up gradually - a short walk is a fantastic way to begin or choose some other activity which you enjoy such as swimming, aerobics or playing tennis with a friend.

9. Tone your muscles with weight training.
Toned muscles really boost your metabolism and cause your body to burn calories faster - yes, even while you're sleeping, you'll be burning more calories!

10. Look for situations to be active.
Park as far from the shopping centre as you can rather than looking for the closest parking spot. Use the stairs rather than the lift or escalator, do more jobs around the house yourself, like washing the windows or the car or mowing the lawn. Look for the "difficult" way to do things - the way that requires the most effort!

When you start putting these 10 easy steps into place, you will start on the road to healthy weight loss this year.

Developing a PMA

1. Set yourself some weight loss goals and timescales in which to achieve them.


2. Eat 3 meals a day.


3. Eat low fat foods.


4. Set yourself a fitness plan


5. Stop making excuses and do it!


6. Mix with supportive, positive people.


7. Always make a list before you go food shopping.


8. Don't eat between meals.


9. Be enthusiastic about your health and fitness campaign.


10. Picture yourself at your goal weight, looking terrific!


11. Be as active as possible in everyday life

Havey Theorum

Step Aerobics Aerobics Sit Up Push Up Jumping Rope
Ice WaterBottled WaterOrange JuiceBottled Water Ice Water
HF+E+W=WL
Healthy Foods + Exercise + Water =
WEIGHT LOSS
BroccoliStrawberryCarrotsGrape 2CornPineapple
Jumping Jacks Squats Weight LiftingStationary Bike

Dieters' ABC

Always drink plenty of water
Beware of fat and calorie content of food
Count the number of steps you take
Diary - keep a track of the foods you eat
Exercise daily
Fat is a no-no
Goals - set them and stick to them
Hop skip and jump - keep moving
Intake fewer calories and lose weight
Jump to it and start today
Kitkats are an occasional treat
Look to the future of how you will be
Move around often
Nuts are good for you in small quantities
Open new doors with your new self
Pursue your goals to the end
Question yourself as to whether you need that chocolate bar really!
Rest assured you WILL succeed if you stick to your diet plan
Sensible eating means you eat 5 fruit or veg a day, drink plenty of water and cut down on your fat intake
Take one day at a time - if you make a mistake don't panic, tomorrow is another day and a new start!
Understand your body - the more food you eat and the less exercise you take guarantees weight gain!
Va va voom - you will have plenty of it if you lose weight and exercise!
Wait and see the difference of your body - losing weight takes time but is worth it!
Xtra portions = weight gain
You are the only one who can do this. Others can't do it for you
Zing is what you will have with your new low weight

This week

This week I have started a new life - no I haven't left my family ;) I started eating healthily and have exercised! Today I did 1 hour 3 mins of aerobics and toning!

I can do this! :)

Tuesday 24 November 2009

Look out for the warning signs!

Look out for the warning signs!

This is a fab article on Rosemary Conley's blog!

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Dumper Trash Can for Lack of Weightloss Excuses

Excuse number 1: I can always start tomorrow (as we know, tomorrow never comes) *opens dumper lid and throws no. 1 in*

Excuse number 2: I can't start this week because I'm going to a friend's house for dinner and she always cooks loads of lovely food (no excuses here - I go every week duh uh she's a really good friend who will support me in my weight loss quest) *opens dumper lid and throws no.2 in*

Excuse number 3: But what about all the yummy food I like - like chocolate etc (there's a lot of yummy low fat recipes that Rosemary has in her cook books and magazines so no excuse for high fat stuff) *opens dumper lid and throws no. 3 in*

Excuse number 4: I'm a big fat failure - I can't do it and will fail after a week then I'll look like a numpty (you look like a numpty now for putting weight on in the first place! Just don't be a failure, get up from wallowing in the slough of despond, wipe yourself off and go show the world what you CAN do - don't let a thing like this get the better of you!) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 4*

Excuse number 5: I home educate my kids I haven't got time (get off your butt and go exercise - you've got more time than people who work in an office AND you lost lots of weight after having the lads so you've got no excuse!) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 5*

Excuse number 6: I'm comfortable with the way I have become and can't imagine being the weight I was a few years back before I gained (what a load of rubbish - deep down you're miserable and you want to be thin, but you've become a lazy blob, now stop being dumb and negative, get off your butt and show the world what you're made of!) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 6*

Excuse number 7: But I waste a lot of food because I fail and it's just too expensive to keep throwing loads of food out (well, follow the menus, stop being a plonker and going back to bad ways then you won't waste food) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 7*

Excuse number 8: I have too much choice - I don't know where to begin! (Pathetic excuse! Choose your favourite foods/dishes and formulate them into a menu plan! QUIT whining!!) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 8*

Excuse number 9: I don't like salads! (they're not that bad! Remember a lot of junk food only seems to taste better because they contain no goodness whatsoever - salad is healthy and may not be like eating sausage and chips, but it is much better for you in the long run! Jazz up your salads with low calorie dressings - it's hardly rocket science!) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 9*

Excuse number 10: I get distracted by the computer/DVD player/Wii (well, duh-uh you're a grown up who should be disciplined! It's not major-league difficult to get your butt off that seat and actually start disciplining yourself - you may actually enjoy being in a routine...) *opens dumper lid and throws in excuse no 10*


OK folks - I know, talking to myself eh? Does one good to give oneself a dressing down :D You can't hide behind yourself! OK I'm out in the open with my excuses - where can I run and hide? I can't - I probably have more excuses I'm hiding behind, but will address them as they rear their ugly heads! :)

Monday 9 November 2009

Sunday 1 November 2009

DAY 2

Managed to get through day 2 - although not exercised mainly stuck to the menu - had a banana instead of salad and potato - I'm really full and can't manage all the food on my menu!

Monday 2nd November is start exercising day!

Have fun readers

xxxx