So. Close.

For the briefest of brief moments, the scale flashed up 11 stone 13 today. It didn't last before settling at 12 stone 0 but it was there. So close I can taste it. I am 1 more pound down now and even my mother's noticed. The 3rd person to have commented in a year and a half of weight loss. I think it is because my stomach is finally going down, incrementally but going down nonetheless. I'm going to do progress photos later today once my camera has charged. If all goes according to plan I could start next weekend off in the 11 stones. Gulp. that would be brilliant! At the moment I have a mere 8 ounces to go, but work ends on Tuesday so if I can work my butt off this week and crack the 11 stone barrier I will weigh and post immediately! This means I have lost 1 stone 5lbs since starting this blog in January. pretty good going, right?
I'll post later with photos.

Summer weather weigh in

It's finally sunny and I'm at the beach ready to start feeling a bit more body confident now that I'm about 2 and a half stone less than last summer.  I'm not feeling fabulously confident (if anything
I'm probably feeling worse) but I did lose another pound this week.  For reasons I don't fully understand, I measured myself on a few different scales and obviously I got a few different results.  I'm deciding just to stick to my normal scales and not upset myself.  Even if the other scales day something else, I can't deny that once upon a time I weighed 15 stone 10 so they're is definitely a decrease,no denying it!!

So, 12 stone 1 this week.  Better than nothing! I'm  desperately hoping to crack the 11 stones next week. .. fingers crossed!

Summer countdown is on: T- 2 lbs

Ok, last weigh in had me at 12 stone 4. Last weekend I ended up going crazy and eating everything. It was just one of those unstructured weekends that always throws me into this. I am also seeing a pattern with my period approaching (got it now) and the beginning of this week was a huge bitch - I had headaches, stomach cramps, general grumpiness and lack of patience; unfortunately I'm starting to see that the period I worked so hard to get back is not too happy to have returned! I'm guessing this is what people always refer to as period pains and general period unhappiness?! Even when I was much, much younger and still had a regular-ish cycle I never got these symptoms. Maybe they will ease off with more weight loss.

So, in spite of my horrendous performance last weekend and even though I am on my period right now, I am TWO POUNDS DOWN!!! This is the first time I have lost multiple pounds in one week in a very long time. Also, since I did weigh myself last weekend and it had gone back UP, (I think it said 12 stone 6 on Sunday morning), I'm assuming that actually I have lost more than that, although it was possibly just bloat. Anyway.

I'm so pleased because since Monday theoretically, and Tuesday in earnest, I have done a mild low-carb, high-protein diet. It has looked something like: scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomatoes for breakfast, chicken or some meat, cheese, veggies and fruit for lunch and some kind of meat with vegetables for dinner. Any snacks in between have been those Fridge Raiders chicken bags or some kind of fruit thing. I have also had the odd bit of wholewheat toast, and a veggie burger with no bun, and even some cakes and danish pastries this week! I know low-gi is the preferred diet to treat PCOS so I'm guessing my body approves. Last night and today I have over-indulged on bread and biscuits, so the rest of today and this coming week I will be strictly back on the wagon in order to continue my downward trend. If I can do 2 more pounds down this week then I will realistically be able to see myself in the 11s in the summer!!! I have upped my exercicse a bit too. I have allowed the  same amount of time, but I've increased the intensity a little bit. I do feel like my body is working well at the moment - maybe I'll even drop a little more weight when my period water retention is over for this month?

Fingers crossed for two more pounds down this week. As I am losing weight my stomach looks more and more disgusting. I am interpreting this as a good sign, that the fat is breaking down and turning into soft lumps ready to be burned off. At the moment the bottom part kind of folds into a triangle and the top bits make waves over the triangle. It's truly bizarre. The FUPA doesn't seem to be going anywhere though, haha! I wonder if there are specific exercises for that?!

One more pound down

It is my nephew's birthday today so knowing that I would be consuming vast amounts of cake and other crap I pre-emptively weighed myself. One more pound down! This is great, and I am glad that the scale is finally moving, even if it is not moving as quickly as I would like! I am trying to remind myself how grateful I should be as I am so devastated whenever I don't lose - I'm a bit cross with myself actually that I still seem to be making this difficult for myself.

So, the scale photo just to prove to myself it is going down:

I think I might take some more progress photos as I can see various differences. I am looking forward to being 12 stone 3 as I can officially say  I've lost 3 and a half stone then! Which I know is really good, but there is still so very much left to lose. I'm excited about approaching the 12 stone mark too. Then it will be just a brief jump into the 11 stones!!! WOO HOO!!! Only 8 lbs left until the 4 stone lost mark. That's nothing ;-)

I'm not-so-secretly desperate to have a great week this week and lose like 5 lbs, but 1 pound will still be a great achievement. I'm going to cling onto my secret hope though, just in case it guides me out of bad eating or guides me into a bit of extra exercise. When I do work at it I do get results. This is maybe what I should get tattooed on myself!!!!

1 stone lost photos

Somehow I didn't notice that I have now lost 1 stone since starting this blog. I started this blog weighing 13.5 stone, and now I am 12.5 stone. I am wondering if I messed my calculations up somewhere along the way as I was sure  I hadn't reached a stone yet... but the figures are there! So without any further ado I have new pictures and then comparison pictures. Today's pictures first:

 And the comparison photos are below. Left is the heavier ones (13.5 stone/187 lbs/85 kilos) and right is the photos from today (12.5 stone/173 lbs/ 78.5 kg). I wish I had taken a better shot of my left side when I took the first photos! Ugh!

I'm pleased to have made progress, but 1 stone in 6 months isn't great progress is it?! Let's see how we get on from here.

One pound down again

Hooray!! One more pound down again - 12 stone 5. Even the ounces almost line up after a bit of well-timed toilet visits and jumping about a bit inbetween weighings!

So, something is going well at the moment then. This week has been a bit crazy as it was my birthday last Monday which necessitated eating out on Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights. Then there was the leftover cake and birthday chocolates. Also all that eating out threw me into a bit of a tail-spin and I had McDonalds twice after that. I managed to restrain myself yesterday and I think that  all the junk food made my body remember why it didn't like junk food any more, and I was actually craving the banana I had planned with my dinner after my workout yesterday. Crazy times! Today I have a big meal at a buffet planned so I did the weigh-in this morning again, to avoid any demotivating artificial inflation tomorrow morning. Seems like it is turning into Magical Saturday! This week I am going to be extra good. No eating out (I can't afford it anyway) and I'll be able to go to the gym at least 4 times including yoga tomorrow. I wanted to go swimming last night after my workout but I forgot that my gym closes early on a Friday. I bet that would have gotten rid of those last 6 ounces to push me down that extra pound! Still, I am beyond happy that my weight not only didn't go up but it didn't stay the same - it went down this week! Happy birthday week to me! I'm so excited about the slide down into the 11 stones now. I can't wait to be able to start counting in the 4 stones lost, instead of still the 3 stones lost category.

Right, once I locate my camera I will do some more comparison photographs as I find those very helpful. Here's hoping for at least a loss next week and maybe a big one!

Less than 3 stone less to lose now!

It has been three loooong weeks since I last weighed in or wrote anything. Can you guess why? I bet you can. Go on, give it a go. No, it is not because I magically lost 42 lbs overnight ( I wish). It is, of course, because I lost absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Nil.

Today, I am weighing in as it is my birthday on Monday so much celebrating commenced today including, of course the immense eating of cake and other bad treats. So, I wanted to give myself the best shot possible! Today's weigh in included a loss of 1 lbs!!! Which is good, as it is the first anything I have lost in three frigging weeks, but I had been hoping for 2lbs and so I am only half way there. I'm trying desperately not to be disappointed as I don't want that to be my attitude to my weight loss journey. But I am. And I didn't get to nearly 25 years of life by lying to myself about this so I'm not going to start now. Fingers crossed that next weigh in day I am down at least 2 lbs if not 3 to make up for this week! I forgot to take full body shots to compare, so I will try to do that really soon as I think the gym is making a mark on my muscles, even if it isn't making any marks on the scales. So, official weight of 12 stone 6!

We won't talk about the dark days that stalled my weight loss. Or the fact I'm still struggling to pull myself out of them and fighting it at every moment. I have slipped into a bit of a carb-withdrawal accidentally. I didn't start it on purpose, but when I realised it I have encouraged it. I haven't had carbs for lunch 4 days out of the last week, and not for dinner on at least 3 days. I think it helped with weight loss and I didn't miss them too much. I have more than made up for it this weekend but I think I will try to keep it going through this week as it can't hurt.

I have also bought some chia seeds to try and replace the yoghurt in my morning smoothie. I think this will make a big difference to my levels of protein and fibre, and I hope to be able to cut out my morning fibre cereal as soon as the box is gone. I might weigh myself the next few days just out of interes, so if there is any positive change (such as an extra 1 lb gone!) I might weigh in again!