dietdevil: The feisty one can vote!

dietdevil: The feisty one can vote!: So today M turned 18!  I am not sure how that happened..........it seems like only yesterday that she was a noisy little person giving me s...

The feisty one can vote!

So today M turned 18!  I am not sure how that happened..........it seems like only yesterday that she was a noisy little person giving me sleepless nights..............oh wait, she still is!

 

I am handling it a lot better than I thought I would. I do not feel in any way redundant as a mother as I actually think that my kids are more demanding as they get older. If all goes according to their life plans, they will both be flying the nest this September so I am grinning and bearing the unpaid job of being their PA for the time being.

 

So what can I say about Martha?

 

She doesn't look like me but we definitely have similar personality traits - she is feisty, quite opinionated, a bit of a softy underneath it all and a bit of a madam. She also likes food.....the big difference being that she can eat what she wants and is tiny.

 

 

 

I am told by many that she has an excellent sense of humour and is 'really funny' , To be honest, this revelation may escape me a bit but I am not doubting it in any way.

 

She can now drive, she can now vote ( not UKIP ) and she is hoping to go to Bristol University to study law later this year. She can cook, she bakes beautiful cakes, she is well spoken , she is beautiful and I am very proud of her.

 

She will always be my baby and if she reads this she wont be happy.....but simply, that's how it is.

 

Every time she goes off out in the car I think to myself 'she's too small and young to be driving' but she is living her life and she has her whole life in front of her and this makes me happy. I am aware she likes to party  too and the odd thing is that I don't really worry about her on that score as she is more than capable of looking after herself.

 

So that's today's very mushy blog.

 

And one final word for all you younger Mums out there.................time really does fly, and they will be grown ups before you know it.

 

Baked potatoes and Buddies.

So it would appear that I haven't blogged for a while. I am going to rectify this right now as I have missed spouting out my musings and I am sure some of you have missed me too.......haven't you?

 

In keeping with the original subject of this blog, I am still going to fat club and after having been at target for almost a year, I went  a bit mad last  week and decided to lower it by another half a stone.

 

TODAY I DID IT..... STICK A FORK IN ME, I AM DONE!

 

I am now around the weight that I was prior to getting pregnant for the first time in my spring chicken days. This was 23 years ago.  I can't go any lower because I like food and I would be miserable..... and I have loads of nice new clothes that I want to keep wearing. Thank you Ebay.

 

I have a few words of wisdom for anyone wanting to embark on a weight loss journey. I have written them in list style so it makes it easier to read whilst eating doughnuts etc.

 

1. All 'diets' work if you stick to them.

It doesn't matter if you do Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Atkins, 5:2, or cabbage soup. Everyone has their preferences and as long as you follow the guidelines you will shed your weight. You will not lose weight by eating the same sort of foods that made you overweight in the first place.

 

2. Some clothes are never going to fit you.

I bought a lovely silk tunic style top in September 2013 - a Joe Brown's one. It was a little 'snug' back then and 16 months later and 3 stone less of me, it still doesn't fit. It is still hanging in my wardrobe waiting to be rehomed.

 

3. Your diet is your business.

There are always going to be 'experts'  out there ( ie, friends that have never had a weight problem ) that will think they know better. Ignore them - they don't .

 

4. It's ok to buckle and have a pie.

You can never be 100% good all of the time. If you want a pie, have a pie. You'll probably wish you hadn't had a pie,  but sometimes you just have to. You're only human.

 

5. Don't think once you are at target you can eat lots of pies.

Obviously you can have the odd one ( see above ) .....but in my case it's best to avoid the tasty little buggers and just keep my eye on the ball.

 

And that's it really. No biggy, just common sense.

 

Today, after the euphoria of another target certificate a group of us went for lunch.

 

 

The common bond  about these people is  that we are all book group buddies and buddies in real life too. Leanne was also there but she chose to abstain from the photo and took it instead. We laughed, shrewed, chatted and ate baked potatoes and generally spent a lovely couple of hours in each other's company. It is now a bit of a habit to do this on a Wednesday after our weigh in and we all actually manage to stick to being fairly well behaved too. They ALWAYS give us several slabs of butter with our baked potatoes and we always hand it back ( some of us more willingly than others) and I don't know if everyone in the whole world knows this yet  but I am having a dry January again so I washed my lunch down with a delicious lime and soda. It was very 'refreshing'.

 

So what next for me?

 

I am going to carry on as I am but I shall be sneaking in the odd treat here and there. A couple of people have asked why I am still attending fat club if I am at target , and the reason being is that I am still up for the odd recipe and cooking hint but most of all, I genuinely like going. It is motivating ( amen) and everyone in that room can feel your pain when things haven't gone as well as you'd expected. It sounds horrendously cheesy, but it's true.

 

And of course, there's the baked potatoes to look forward to afterwards.

 

 

What's a number anyway ?

 

So I've been thinking . It's something I do a lot of and possibly too much of but it's something that I'm unlikely to change now at the ripe old age of 46.

I'm thinking about numbers and quite specifically the numbers that flash up on the dreaded scales . Yes , I'm still a serial weigher and have even taken to making a note of my daily weight on my fancy iPhone . I make charts and graphs because I'm far from someone that has OCD but I do like to see statistics - I think  they're vital ( see what I did there ?) when you're attempting to lose weight !

Today I'm up one!

This can't be right but I saw it with my own eyes , just before I growled .

And this is the point of my blog today ......

Will we ever be happy with our lot and really what does a number mean when logically I'm not going to look or feel any differently from yesterday ?

My old fat club consultant said to me that if you pretty much still eat the same as when you were losing weight but nothing else budges  , then you're at the weight you're meant to be . This makes complete sense but I need to use this as my mantra instead of beating myself up about it .

Since doing the weighing at fat club I see dozens of women of varying weights , shapes and sizes hopping on and off those scales and I know more than anyone that 3 people that all weigh the same aren't necessarily going to look the same.

We are all different and as much as I often think it would be nice to have smaller boobs or narrower hips - IT ISN'T EVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

if I paid more attention to that stupid bmi chart then I would never get to target and my new clothes now span over at least 3 different sizes depending on the cut and the shop so these numbers are never going to be simple .

So my point is - and I know I've blogged this countless times ..... I may ditch the scales ( apart from the official ones ) and calm down and practise what I've just preached .

That's all I had to say and I've done this blog on my mobile and if I'm feeling very adventurous I may just delete my weight data ........

What's a number anyway ?

So I've been thinking . It's something I do a lot of and possibly too much of but it's something that I'm unlikely to change now at the ripe old age of 46.

I'm thinking about numbers and quite specifically the numbers that flash up on the dreaded scales . Yes , I'm still a serial weigher and have even taken to making a note of my daily weight on my fancy iPhone . I make charts and graphs because I'm far from someone that has OCD but I do like to see statistics - I think  they're vital ( see what I did there ?) when you're attempting to lose weight !

Today I'm up one!

This can't be right but I saw it with my own eyes , just before I growled .

And this is the point of my blog today ......

Will we ever be happy with our lot and really what does a number mean when logically I'm not going to look or feel any differently from yesterday ?

My old fat club consultant said to me that if you pretty much still eat the same as when you were losing weight but nothing else budges  , then you're at the weight you're meant to be . This makes complete sense but I need to use this as my mantra instead of beating myself up about it .

Since doing the weighing at fat club I see dozens of women of varying weights , shapes and sizes hopping on and off those scales and I know more than anyone that 3 people that all weigh the same aren't necessarily going to look the same.

We are all different and as much as I often think it would be nice to have smaller boobs or narrower hips - IT ISN'T EVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

if I paid more attention to that stupid bmi chart then I would never get to target and my new clothes now span over at least 3 different sizes depending on the cut and the shop so these numbers are never going to be simple .

So my point is - and I know I've blogged this countless times ..... I may ditch the scales ( apart from the official ones ) and calm down and practise what I've just preached .

That's all I had to say and I've done this blog on my mobile and if I'm feeling very adventurous I may just delete my weight data ........

I'm back with my machine of dreams.

So it has been a long long 2 and a half months since I dipped my toe into the pool of blogging. I have missed it. I'm not sure if I have been missed but I am back.

 

 

The summer in St Ives has been and gone and I am now ( sort of ) enjoying a Sunny September. I am back at fat club every week, I have been given the role of the weighing lady and I have kept off the weight I have lost and am still a target member...........which means that after the thousands of pounds I have spent in my life at trying not to be fat, I no longer have to pay.

 

 

So what's it like to be at 'target'? Shall I say..........and shall I be honest?

 

IT'S ACE!

 

I don't go surfing, I haven't discovered a new inner me and I haven't felt the need to climb any mountains.

 

I have bought nice new clothes, I have continued to make relatively wise choices with my food, I still have my culinary flops and I will speak to anyone that asks about how I did it.

 

And that's about it really.

 

 

Yesterday I bought a Tefal Actifry.

 

 

 

 

Any readers out there may recall that I have said on more than one occasion that chips are indeed my favourite vegetable. I make them in a healthy manner ( squirted with low cal oil spray and chucked in the oven ) and yes, they are ok. BUT they aren't like what you would buy at the chippy.

 

Let's be honest here though folks - the only chips that taste like they have been bought at the chippy ARE chips that were bought from the chippy but I have to say that my actifry ones were pretty darned tasty. They were so tasty and I was so impressed that so far today I have done sausages in it, I have roast potatoes in it as I speak and I have some parsnips and honey just waiting to be fried in an active way. It's all healthy and it's all good.

 

And during my absence I haven't been a total angel with regards to my food consumption. I have had numerous meals out,  I have clinked various glasses of prosecco ( my new merlot )   and I actually put on 4 pounds after a weekend with Rachael ( one of my new years resolutions was to meet her ) BUT I got it all off the next week because as lovely as it all is I simply don't want to go back to being a porker.

 

So, if any of you are after a top tip with this slimming malarkey , that's it really.

 

Yes, have treats and yes, have the odd blow out but don't let that blow out continue.

 

Life is all about living.

 

And crispy chips.

 

 

 

 



Relax I'm still here.............

So I haven't blogged for ages. I have been doing the #100happydays malarkey instead and I am now on day 86. It's been a blast but it's nearly over now and so I thought I would gently ease myself back into blogging in a gentle and ladylike manner in a bid to try and get some of my Ukranians back.

 

Or anyone from Chad - I'm not fussy .

 

And the last time I blogged was 3 and a half months ago. Have you missed me?

 

I am still at my fat club target although I am tending to bob around a bit - up 2,  down 3, stay the same etc etc. I am happy with this. I did ask some die hard Slimming World target members the secret to their still snake like hips and they suggested having extra bread ( shriek! ) or the odd extra lump of cheese ( swoon ) but it was all a bit vague ....so the secret to my success is just to still follow the plan and if I feel the need to have a burger ( like today ) then I am good for the next few days and fingers crossed it seems to be working.

 

I have returned to a weekly class though . I like the banter plus I like the cereal bars. It also keeps me in check if I know that the results of my very busy social life will show at the scales.

 

And speaking of busy - I am a crumpled waif at the moment. I am doing a quiz on a Monday and Tuesday and it may not sound difficult but it definitely is. I have to keep control of lots and lots of drunk people and some of them seriously need a bit of a slap. My friend Debbie used to do the quiz with me years ago, and I always remember her saying when we got to the pub one night -

 

''no matter how easy you think this quiz is, for some people it will never be easy''

 

and that basically sums it up.

 

I have been heckled, shouted at, hassled and there's a couple of you out there that have had a little tantrum because you haven't won. I don't care who wins. I get paid to do it and as long as the majority of people there appear to be having fun then that's good enough for me.

 

I am off to London next week to see Robbie Williams with Nicola. We have had the usual last minute drama with the tickets but after a few strongly worded emails and some twitter cursing, they have now arrived. hallelujah.

 

The week after next I am off to Cardiff to see H graduate. For those of you that don't follow me on facebook , you will have missed the drama of the dresses. I need to have exactly the right thing to wear for this momentous occasion. So far I have bought -

 

1. An emerald green tea dress from Fat Face. This is still my outright favourite however I cant wear it unless my boobs shrink between now and the 15th July. My chest will take over the entire ceremony and possibly most of South Wales so it's unfortunately a no-no.

 

2. A Jane Norman navy effort. It would look nice at a funeral or if I got an OBE.

 

3. A very nice one from Viva, the clothes shop on the corner. I thought that this was the one but I saw someone wearing the same one last night at fat club and I wasn't happy.

 

4. A White Stuff one with butterflies on. Too smocky and I wore it out for lunch last week and so it's no longer a virgin.

 

THE WINNER IS -

 

A white linen one with a nice lace border.

 

I got it from Tescos up Camborne and it cost £16.

 

 I am going to accessorise.

 

I still have 12 days of course to change my mind but am going to try and be disciplined.

 

 And coincidentally the penultimate #happydays photo will be of H in her cap and gown. This was not intended but I think is a jolly nice way to bring it to an end.

 

An then you blog fans can have me back.

 

You're welcome.