Who knew I was capable!

Scales show me pretty much back to pre holiday weight this morning – 90.5kg. So I just lost the same 2.5 pounds that I lost back in September for the 3rd time lol. Anyway, had an awesome Sunday with D – gardening followed by a 10km bike ride around the waterfront (I know!) topped off with my Mum visiting for dinner.

Salad, Chicken, Hummus, Yum!

Desert was the last bag of FLIPZ that we had brought back from holiday. If it was up to me we wouldn’t have come home with any but D was hooked. He’s still carrying an extra 6 pounds from our holiday so just as well that was the last of the FLIPZ. Anyway, sorted through the snaps on Friday night and came across this lunch pic from Wholefoods. Wholefoods would do a roaring trade here in New Zealand…and I’d be poor. Can see some bloggers having some great successes – keep it up girls!

Holiday over – back to reality

Our holiday was awesome. Far too short (12 days all up) and yet I was ecstatic to be on our way home at the end. I tried on (and bought) more clothes while we were away that I have in the last 5 years combined. I came home with jeans, work tops, some singlets and most importantly shoes. It’s so hard finding decent and affordable size 11 shoes here! And yes, I did buy a few items that are too tight to be worn straight away.

Holiday food was interesting. Eating out for every single meal quickly took its toll on my system and … I’ll spare you the details. Yes I ate FLIPZ and burgers and fries and even a bit of ice cream but I also ate a lot of fruit, and hi fibre granola bars. I’m struggling to recall a meal that I completely finished – portion sizes live up to their reputation. Thankfully D never complained at sharing a meal between the 2 of us and is the best plate cleaner.

Overall the scales are up to 91.7 this morning which I’m OK with.  I’ve tried to get back into the tracking and walking routine straight away – I don’t want to get ‘post holiday complacent’ this time. So happy to be back and looking forward to catching up on some blog reading this week - hope you've all been well!

Choosing my weight loss journey

I came across a blog today that made me really sad and also super determined at the same time. It’s not one I follow, and I won’t name it here but it was about a wonderful woman and her weight loss journey over the past 10 years. There were methodically captioned photos for this entire journey which detailed her weight going from 285 pounds to 165 pounds to 235, to 156, to 250 and so on. She was smiling in every photo and I can only commend her determination to lose that weight again and again and again without giving up (she’s currently in what she calls a ‘skinny’ phase). Wow.  I so don’t want to be that person.

It made me realise that I am not losing weight this time for a particular event and then letting go again. I’m doing this to be the healthiest I can be. Full stop. Yes, I’ll have small targets to get me motivated but like so many of you out there I’m not restricting the types of foods I eat – just the amount of calories. I need to be able to live this life for a long time yet. There will still be many chocolate covered pretzels in my future – I just won’t use them as an excuse to stop caring about myself next time.

Flip it's cold

Weigh in yesterday morning delivered a 600 gram (1.3 pound) loss so thank you jebuz for the willpower to not snack. Tummy rumbles are under control but this is ‘that time of the month’ and I’m craving carbs and comfort food something awful.

D is being wonderful again and just keeps saying FLIPZ if I look like waivering. A gentle reminder that this ‘season’ is all so I can feel more comfortable making the 12 hour flight to the States where I’ll be able to get these wonderful chocolate covered goodies again. In a totally sensible portion size of course. Freezing cold here but still managed 2 walks last week - aiming for another tonight!

Letting food win

I let a bad day get the best of me yesterday and completely gave in to the food demons. My project at work has more things broken than working and I'd only seen a 200 gram loss in the morning. Why bother? I had taken my lunch into work but cooked too much rice - thought I'd leave some behind but ate it all and felt very content afterwards.

Couldn't be bothered thinking about dinner and suggested chinese takeout when asked and stuffed myself full of chicken chow mein, sweet and sour pork and combination fried rice.

To top it off I managed to reach the box of FLIPZ on the top of the pantry and had some for desert. Still in a funk today so can't claim to be back in the saddle just yet...bring on the weekend.

What's with the pretzels?

Why am I doing this? It's those damn chocolate covered pretzels.  Specifically FLIPZ which (thank god) we can't get here in New Zealand. 

But I could get them when living in London 10 years ago.  From a beautiful vending machine on level 8 of the concrete tower I worked in for 14 hours a day.  Of course, back then I was a highly paid contractor with a 20-something's metabolism.  

The affair didn't last long but the memory remained. Subsequent trips back to the UK and then to the US have enabled the flirtation to continue.  Our last trip saw me eating FLIPZ for breakfast on multiple days. And the huge tub I brought home taunts me from the top of the pantry on a daily basis. So hard to say no. But I don't want the affair to end this time. And I certainly don't need the calories.