Friday Weigh In

18st, 6lbs. That's the lowest WI so far, and only 1/2 lb more than my lowest daily weight yesterday of 18st 5½lbs.

Holiday coming up, so that means it will probably be between 3 weeks and a month to get back down to this point. With an all-inclusive resort it's easy to over-eat and -drink, but I think a little restraint is called for:

1. Don't go mad at breakfast. I'd never eat a cooked breakfast, fruit, cereal juice and pastries for breakfast at home, so there's no reason to do it while on holiday.
2. Lunch = healthy meal. Just try and have the best option available.
   
3. No alcohol before lunch. OK, perhaps just a small one.
4. Have what I like for dinner.

I don't think it's feasible to get points values for each day, but I do want to try and do some kind of tracking. Let's see how it goes.

Don't move the scales

18st 1? What? 10lbs lighter than yesterday? 18st 7, 18st 5, 18st 10.

We'd unavoidably moved the scales yesterday, and when I weight myself this morning I had about 10 different readings. They eventually settled around 18st 6, which is what I've taken as today's weight. I'm still a little suspicious that it's a artifically low result, especially since SWMBO showed a 3lb drop since yesterday as well. This means it's a New Lowest Weight, and 15lbs (over a stone) lost since I started.

So, the moral of the story is Don't Move The Scales!

I'll be weighing on a different scales for the next week as well, which is going to throw the figures off. But as long as I can keep an eye on things, I'll be happy.

Dinner Tonight

Since SWMBO is off gallivanting, I thought I'd do myself a decent dinner this evening.

• 400g potato (that's huge), cut into wedges. Coat with fry-lite, cumin seeds, paprika and cook at 200 degrees for 40 minutes turning every 10 mins. 4 points.
• Throw two frozen cod fillets in the oven, wrapped in foil. 2 points.
  
• Chop a pepper and onion. Sweat with some garlic, throw in a tin of chopped tomato and some herbs. Simmer until the rest is cooked.
  
• Saute a finely sliced leek, in some more fry-lite.
  

A huge great plateful for 6 points. And a 200g potato and a single cod filet would have been a more "normal" meal size for 4 points.

I was inspired to continue my efforts by hitting a new low this morning. A new lowest weight, that is, of 18st 8lbs. 13 lbs lost. 1 lb to go to shift the first stone. It's easy to see how the inspiration can turn to desperation if things aren't working. So let's hope this keeps working!

Self-Motivation

Yesterday's post was a bit tongue in cheek, about the self delusional diet. But the last 24 hours have been a lesson in self-motivation, which is absolutely vital to losing weight.

On Friday, my official weigh-in day, I'd not lost any weight since the previous week. Saturday was something of a blow-out dinner, and by Sunday evening I was in a frame of mind of "I just as well have another beer, it's not going to make any difference". I actually hit my points target for the day, but could easily have been a good few points under to claw back some of Saturday's excesses.

I'd definitely got into a bit of a mental slump. It's easily done - and if you're one of the many people who are pretty sensitive about your weight and appearance, I'm sure it's very disheartening. I've said before, it's easier for us guys!

So I pulled out my spreadsheet, and took a good look. The trend is still going down. The graph hasn't visibly levelled off. This is still working! It really is. I declined a second beer, and had a nice long glass of halo polish instead (Tesco's Lime and Mandarin flavoured fizzy water, zero points). It doesn't taste anything like beer, but serves as an admirable stand in for something to sip at in the evening.

SWMBO has a veggie chili for dinner tonight, so if I can find a good option for lunch today I should be able to pull a nice low points day today. I'd really like to see 18st 7 on the scales before I head off to the US. That's 2lbs below my lowest weight so far and 3lbs below my current weight. Possible, though I'm not setting my hopes too high.

The Self-Delusion Diet

A post over at scienceblogs talks about The Self-Delusion Diet, based on a study where those who told their lifestyle was healthier lost weight. It's suggested that "feeling generally better about themselves, also made small changes to their eating habits, like eating slightly smaller portions, without really thinking about it. That could account for a weight loss of .5 lb per week."

I'm not sure it would work for me, since I'm basically lazy.

After a huge pig-out on Saturday, I see to be going up and down around about 18st 11 this last week. No bad thing, the trendline is still going down so far.

Worst 10 things to eat

Viruz has a post on the 10 worst things to eat. I've copied the list here to add WW points where I can. These are American items, so I've given both US and UK points.

1 Pepperidge Farm Original Flaky Crust Roasted Chicken Pot Pie (1,000 calories and 18 grams of sat fat). UK=19 points, US=21.5
2 McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips (1,550 mg of sodium)
3 The Cheesecake Factory’s 6 Carb Cheesecake (29 grams of saturated fat, 1½ days’ supply.)
4 Dove Ice Cream (300 calories and 8 to 13 grams of saturated fat, half cup). That's less than 100mls, and up to 7.5points.
5 Mrs. Fields Milk Chocolate & Walnuts cookie (300 calories and as much saturated fat as a 12-ounce sirloin steak)
6 Starbucks Venti (20 oz.) Caffè Mocha (Think of it as a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in a cup.)
7 Burger King Quad Stacker (4 hamburger patties, 4 slices of cheese, 8 strips of bacon)
8 Campbell’s Chunky, Select, and red-and-white-label condensed soups (Half a can averages more than half of a person’s daily quota of salt)
9 Chipotle Chicken Burrito (1,180 calories and 19 grams of saturated fat) (UK=21.5, US=25).
10 Mint Chip Dazzler (1,270 calories and 38 grams of saturated fat) (UK=27.5 points, US=28.5).

Ouch. That last one, washed down with a couple of beers is an entire days points for me, and I'm on a pretty large allowance of 33 points. But it all tastes sooooo nice to so many people.

Lifehacker on diets

One of my favourite websites, www.lifehacker.com has an excellent diet post from Kyle Pott with some "unconventional" tips.

I'm not sure how unconventional they really are, though.

First off, Kyle recommends getting a digital scales. Makes sense to me: more accurate than a mechanical one, and ours has a feature where the weight stays on display for a few seconds after you step off. Perfect if you're tall, short sighted and bleary eyed in the morning!

He also recommend daily weighing, which most diet plans don't. You need a very positive attitude for this to work, but I'm in favour of it as well. In fact, his only tip that I don't already follow to some extent is to drink lots of water and exercise.

I hate exercise. I always have. I don't get this endorphin thing, I just get out of breath. I don't mind a walk if the weather is nice, I don't mind snorkeling since I don't have to work too hard. I can't think of anything more boring than pushing some machine around for an hour!

And as far as the water is concerned, I think the important thing is to drink lots of liquid. It doesn't have to be pure water. I drink mostly coffee, fizzy flavoured water, and beer. None of these will cause you to lose more liquid (from their dieuretic effects) than they provide, so I'm not out to change those habits.

I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. Staying under 40 points (thats 2800 calories or so) seems to be the way to go for me. 18st 11¼ this morning. Certainly hitting 18st 7 before the end of Feb is looking easy at this point, even with a week in the States coming up. And that allows me to put on a few lbs on holiday!