{Wobbles Wednesday}

My weight loss plans are not going well... :-(

I'm sat at my computer with a bowl of ice cream and some fruit. At least part of it is healthy!

My Sainsburys Online Grocery Delivery Pass has worked in that I managed to avoid all the treats in the supermarket aisles whilst I did my weekly food shop. So that's a step in the right direction at least.

I've also been doing weekly meal planning. Another positive change.

However I was at a friends house at the weekend and majorly fell off the wagon... I consumed an obscene amount of crisps, dips and cakes. I also ate a burger, toast, a bagel and a sandwich. So out with the no bread rule!!

I've also not managed a single run in a fortnight now.

I can do better than this, I just need to try harder.

What's not helping is that work is really stressful as we get closer to a really important external audit (that's the week after BritMums!). All I want to do is eat chocolate and sweets to get through it!! I'm absolutely shattered and I know that the chocolate will just be a quick fix, but it tastes sooooo good!

Despite this, I have managed to stick to the healthy breakfasts and salads at lunch time but by the afternoon I'm craving sweet things!

Today I had a Total Greek yoghurt with fresh berries for breakfast, a Tunnocks caramel wafer at 10am (I was on a training course and couldn't resist!), a prawn & cous cous salad for lunch, a handful of dried cranberries in the afternoon, leftover chicken stir fry for dinner, two of the kids chocolate bars (eaten in secret in the kitchen so they couldn't see me!!), a packet of Hula Hoops and my bowl of ice cream and fruit.

It's definitely the evenings that throw me off. My willpower is seriously lacking.

It's now just 3 weeks to BritMums and I'm not convinced that I can reach my target.

Time to get motivated...

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{Motivation}

I've been lacking in motivation to get back into shape.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have much to lose... just 10 or maybe 11 lbs.

I know I'll be happier when I get back to my target again, but does that motivate me... nope, it does not.

I also know what I need to do... because I've done it before.

Eat less, move more.

Simple, you'd think?

I'm hoping as the weather improves I'll get back out running...

But I also need someone to shout at me and tell me to stop eating all the cake (& sweets, chocolate, pastries...).

Seriously, you'd better be quick or there will be none left!

{Wobbles Wednesday}

It's Wednesday, so that can only mean one thing.... Wobbles Wednesday with The Naked Mum.

I unfortunately didn't manage to weigh myself this morning when I woke up as I had been at my work on a night shift of sorts, so I'll update this post tomorrow with my weight.

Last week I had put on 4 lbs but I'm hopefully (*crosses fingers*) that I've lost at least 1 lb this week.

On Monday I started a Paleo diet of sorts. I'm following it as best as I can although I know I've already eaten a few things that I'm reckoning aren't allowed.

A drumroll is needed for this next bit....

Today is day #3 and I've managed three full days without wheat, dairy or caffeine. I have to say I'm rather chuffed with myself. I had even bought my colleagues brioche, muffins and yum yums for their breakfast this morning and I didn't touch a single one. Amazing huh!

I'm going to attempt to keep it up but will allow myself to have the occasional non-Paleo meal.

The main point of this is to try and improve my Crohn's Disease symptoms. I bloat very easily and it can look like I'm 6 months pregnant - it's uncomfortable. Hopefully this diet will help.

I've not attempted the Paleo Auto Immune Protocol and as such have been eating eggs, tomatoes and the occasional handful of nuts. Not sure I'd cope with no eggs or nuts!

Here's what my meals have looked like - not sure if everything is Paleo as I've had soup from a tin and microwave popcorn, but I'm trying my best!

Breakfast - smoked salmon and scrambled egg

Lunch - chicken salad / vegetable soup

Dinner - salmon with vegetables and corn on the cob

Snacks - fruit, handful nuts & dried fruit, carrot sticks, king prawns, popcorn

{Paleo Diet & Crohn's Disease}

The lovely Laura over at The Mrs Makes has written a blog post on 'Eating Paleo' and she's inspired me to give this diet a try. Basically, the theory is that you eat like our caveman ancestors did... the diet is high in protein, low in carbohydrate and no processed food. My sister is also going to attempt a diet of no processed food to help curb her sugar cravings... I really need to get motivated for this I reckon! No more cake!!?

I've already said that losing weight is 70% diet and 30% exercise. I've got the exercise part sussed - I do at least 4 runs a week normally and I try and make a metafit class when I can. It's the diet part that's seriously lacking.

The more reading I've done, I actually think it might help reduce my Crohn's symptoms and be very beneficial to me health-wise.

Head on over to Laura's post to get some of the background information on Paleo principles, and below you'll find some thoughts on a Paleo diet specifically for autoimmune diseases, like Crohn's.

Paleo Auto Immune Protocol

Some of the normal Paleo-friendly foods have been shown to cause issues for individuals with autoimmune disorders. The key for Paleo for Autoimmunity is to remove Neolithic foods (grains, breads, potatoes, beans and dairy) and it's also recommended to avoid the following foods:

• eggs
• tomatoes and aubergines
• peppers
• spices such as curries, paprika and chilli powder
• nuts and seeds

This then means that I can't have an omelette or scrambled eggs for breakfast, and I can't have my usual porridge or muesli either... hmmmm...

*goes away and does more googling*

Right, here are my initial thoughts:

Breakfast

Smoked salmon, fruit salad, banana

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Lunch

Chicken salad (greens, red onions, cucumber, beetroot, sweetcorn, avocado, carrots; no peppers or tomatoes)

Prawn, avocado and mango salad 

With homemade salad dressing of olive oil and garlic

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Homemade vegetable soup

Dinner

Grilled fish and vegetables (no peppers or potatoes)

Grilled meat and vegetables

Squash 'spaghetti' and meatballs

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Snacks

Not sure what I can do for snacks as my usual 'healthy' choices are rice cakes, hummous, yoghurt, nuts & seeds or some cherry tomatoes! None of which are allowed. Instead, I guess I could try these:

Mange tout

Sliced apples / pear

Carrot and celery batons

Handful of dried fruit

This definitely needs more thought.... suggestions are much appreciated. Do you know anyone that's tried a Paleo diet for autoimmune disease? 

{Wobbles Wednesday}

Just catching up with some Wobbles Wednesday posts as I missed last week due to my holiday (no 3G - I'm amazed that I coped!!).

Last week I lost 1 lb and I was starting to think that I would get to the 11 stone mark soon... but this week I'm now up 4 lbs and my weight has increased to 11 stone 7 lbs. I'm disappointed, but I guess it was to be expected as I was on holiday and I've not really exercised either over the past week and a bit.

Today and yesterday I've been feeling a bit 'meh'. I'm definitely an emotional over-eater. I'm stressed out and tired and have turned to tea and biscuits to get me through... it's not something I'm proud of and this evening after work I've already eaten 6 pancakes and nearly a whole packet of Party Rings. I just need to stop buying 'treats' as I've shown time and time again that I've no willpower or control when it comes to sweet stuff! The only good thing I did was manage to not eat the donuts that appeared today at work... it's a start!

I'm going to try and get back onto the healthy eating tomorrow, but I'm already anticipating a difficult Thursday and Friday in the lead up to the longest day, which is the anniversary of my mum's death. This year marks 12 years since she passed. I miss her every day, especially more so now when I've so much on my plate and I'm starting to struggle.

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{Wobbles Wednesday}

I'm joining up with The Naked Mum's Wobbles Wednesday blog hop for the first time today.

My weight has been slowly creeping up and up and I'm really disappointed in myself for letting this happen as I had done so well to lose the weight in the first place. I went from 13 stone 10 lbs down to 10 stone 4 lbs in 2011 with a combination of running, weights (light ones!) and healthy eating. You can see my before and after pics here.

This winter has dragged on and on - the horrible weather and dark nights didn't help with my running efforts... however, despite stopping exercising as much I continued to eat loads and loads... hence the weight gain! The other month I was sitting at 11 stone 11 lbs.... 1.5 stone over what I was before.

My sister has given me some motivation to get back into the running and it's been going really well. It's the 22nd of May right now and according to my Nike running app I have run 46.1 miles this month!!

My weight is slowing coming back down and this morning I weighed in at 11 stone 4lbs. Ideally I'd like to lose another 7lbs and I'll be happy. But progress is soooo slow and I love my food far too much!!

Perth Mummy and I are using My Fitness Pal - we're doing weekly weigh ins on a Wednesday and I'm being honest with my food diary... it seems to be working thus far.

This weekend I have two weddings to go to and I know my weight is just going to go up again. I'm going to stick to gin & slim line rather than wine and I will try my best to stay away from the buffet table when I have the late night drunken munchies!! I have bought some new spanx-style pants to suck in my flabby tummy... they work a treat!!

Keep going!

{Smitten Saturday: Alison}

Each Saturday I'll be featuring one thing that I'm loving, whether it be food, make-up, an activity, a person... you get the idea!

You can grab my button over here ---> and take part if you so wish? 

And please help spread the word - I'd love to get a few more bloggers joining in :-)

There should hopefully be a linky tool at the bottom to allow you to add your post *crosses fingers*

Anyway, this week I am smitten with my little sister, Alison (also known as Ali & The Grey House or @the_grey_house). (Everyone we meet that doesn't know us thinks that she's older though, sorry Ali!)

I was starting to lose my running & keep fit mojo and Ali has managed to get my spark back again.

Yesterday she signed me up for the Glasgow Half Marathon and I'm actually excited about my next race (I know, I can't believe it either - me, excited about running!).

Glasgow

I got such a buzz competing in the Edinburgh Half Marathon last year in May, my first ever race! Since then I've done a 10 mile run around Millport (September 2012) but then after that I'm ashamed to admit I've done nothing and my fitness levels have decreased dramatically. The weight has also started to creep back on :-/

This is it though, I've now got a goal... to beat my time of 2 hours 12 min.

Bring it on! Thank you Ali for giving me the kick I needed!!

So tell me, what's got you Smitten this week?

{Grooving Mums}

Here I am linking up again this week with Kate on Thin Ice for her grooving mums blog hop. I'm a bit slow at joining in this week - I'm normally very organised and get my post published on a Tuesday as soon as the link goes live. However, my me-time during the day is now limited as my toddler has decided that he no longer wants his afternoon snooze... he still needs it, and sometimes I'll get him to take it, but other times he's so adamant that he's not sleeping that I just have to go with it. I also feel bad as I've not been commenting on the other #groovingmums blogs, so I apologise and hopefully will catch up soon.

I've been a bit rubbish again this week with the challenges, but one thing I have done is contact my gastroenterologist about my Crohn's Disease and he's not concerned about my symptoms as my blood results and other tests came back ok. That's something I can at least put a tick against...

I did revisit one of the previous challenges 'winter warmth' and treated myself to some cosy ear muffs today from a local gift shop. I'll post a photo soon of them.

Here are the festive challenges set by Kate this week:

1. Get some catalogues and look online and in the shops to identify something for your body that you would like for Christmas. Then tell us all about it.
2. Can you do the same for your mind? Perhaps a book or film on a topic that you would like to explore further. Again, please share your ideas with us.
3. Light a candle. If you are up for meditation, try that. If not just enjoy the sight of it or buy one of those lovely scented ones to lift the spirits.
4. Make a change to your blog. Add an image or a badge (The Grooving Mums one is very lovely, hint). Add a disclosure policy if you are interested in reviewing product samples. Give some real thought to what you want your blog to do for you in the New Year.

Come back next week and hopefully I'll have achieved something off this list!

This past week I've been ill... I could hardly talk at the weekend due to sore throat and cold and so I had to skip running club and Pilates class which I was rather disappointed about. The weather has also been rubbish - wind, rain and even snow! So I've not been out as much and I think that's having an impact on my mood.

I did have a session with my personal trainer last night which I managed to go along to and - despite the mince pies and ice-cream that I indulged in over the weekend and the limited exercise - I've only put on 1lb and my body fat % has crept up just 0.8% - phew! I'll get back on track this week as I would hate for the weight to creep up each week and for me to end up where I started.

I've got our Christmas tree up and decorated the house, so I'm starting to feel very festive and my son is very excited about Santa and is thoroughly enjoying his advent calendar each day! My dad's wife made my son and daughter a calendar each and in the little pockets I put some chocolate santa's, coins etc.

I treated myself to a scented candle recently... it's very expensive for what it is and I wouldn't usually indulge this much money for a candle... but seeing as it's Christmas as we don't have a real tree or a log fire I thought I would get a candle that incorporated the essence of these things. It's called Library and is from True Grace and it is described as "a smoky blend of wood, amber and moss to recreate the sensation of walking into an old library". Funnily enough it reminds me a little of the strange scents from the Jorvik Viking Centre from when I was a small child - I've nice memories of our family trips there (I've just had a look at their website, and the tour takes you inside the home of an amber worker, so perhaps it's the amber!). Anyway, I digress... it's a lovely scent and I'm going to go and light it now and watch my twinkly fairy lights for a few minutes and relax (I finally got my son into his bed!!). That will at least tick off challenge #3 for this week :-)

{Weight Loss Inspiration}

I've reached my target weight, and my personal trainer has now featured me on her list of success stories on her website! Here are the before and after pics:

3 July 2011

3 July 2011

11 Oct 2011

I have achieved the following results:

• lost 6 inches from my waist
• lost 5.75 inches from my hips
• my body fat % has dropped 11%
• lost 33lbs (however I've lost in total 3 stone since having had baby 5.5 months ago)
• dropped from a size 16 to a size 10

All in just 3.5 months!!

The key has been to eat healthily, no crazy diets, and to do a bit of exercise.

A number of people have asked how I've done it, so I want to share with you some of the tips I've learned from Maria.

• Keep a food & exercise diary, and be honest with yourself
• Eat little and often
• Watch portion sizes
• Have something to eat as soon as you wake up in the morning to get your metabolism going
• Choose the healthy option where possible
• Limit bread, pasta & potato intake (I had no bread or pasta to start with)
• Choose wholemeal where possible (brown rice, wholewheat pasta, wholewheat noodles, seeded brown bread)
• Avoid or limit bananas (as far as I'm aware they slow metabolism - not sure if this is true or not. This is the only fruit that I've been told to avoid)
• Avoid or limit red meat 
• Eat lots of fresh fruit & vegetables
• Eat lots of fish
• Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day (I struggle with this one!)
• Avoid Coke & Diet Coke
• Avoid alcohol (I'll have a soda & lime when out)

Here's what I would eat in a typical day:

7am - couple of spoons of low fat natural yoghurt

8.30/9am - museli (one with nuts and seeds rather than dried fruit e.g. Jordans Nut & Seed) with skimmed milk & lots of blueberries & raspberries or porridge

10.30am - snack (handful almonds; crudites & hummus; oatcake, fruit salad, yoghurt & berries; sugar snap peas or handful popcorn)

12 noon - vegetable soup; chicken, tuna or prawn salad (with salad leaves, beetroot, pine nuts, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives and drizzle of dressing); ryvita & cottage cheese or Food Doctor pitta bread with chicken and salad

3pm - another snack

5pm - fish with lots of vegetables; chicken stir fry with brown rice/noodles or homemade chicken curry (tomato based sauce) with brown rice

8pm - another snack

If I'm feeling hungry at any point I'll grab a handful of Food Doctor seeds or Munchy Seeds or a handful of cherry tomatoes or sugar snap peas.

I still have the occasional cake (there is no point trying to cut out everything 'bad' - it's got to be a realistic diet so that you can stick to it), I'll also still eat chocolate occasionally (80% cocoa dark chocolate and I'll only have 2 squares) and if I do have a take away then I will have a chicken kebab (salad, no sauce!).

In addition to the healthy eating I've been exercising approximately 5 times a week. I've joined Maria's running club which meet on a Sunday morning and I've started a Pilates class too which is a Monday night. In addition to this I do a Davina workout DVD at the house (Davina's are the only DVDs that my personal trainer recommends by the way). I've also been trying to do a run when I can, but at the moment it's becoming difficult as the nights are getting really dark, as are the mornings! To start with I went out for brisk walks with the kids in the buggy and I'm now able to run (I did 5.37 miles this morning at running club, and before August I had never really run before).

Davina Fit DVD

Hope this is helpful? Any questions, do let me know.

{Jogging}

Maria, my personal trainer, has got me to start jogging as part of my exercise regimen. So far I've been doing 2 or 3 mile jogs round the local area, and it's been ok. I wouldn't say I enjoy it (maybe I'm starting to), but once I'm home I'm certainly glad I went. I'm not sure that I'm a competitive person... I try to set myself targets... e.g. keep jogging until I reach the next set of traffic lights or try to beat my time from previous jog... but it doesn't really spur me on. I'm planning on joining Maria's running group in the near future and I think that will make a big difference to my motivation to have other people running with me.

Happy Fitness on Tumblr

I've also signed up for a half marathon in May next year (yikes!!). I've joined Team Macmillan and will be raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support.  My mum died of ovarian cancer when I was at university 10 years ago, and this will be my first sponsored jog (might end up being a walk!) for charity.  My sister has done a few 10k runs before, and she has also signed up for the half marathon (it was her idea) so it will be nice for us to do this together in memory of our mum.

I've dropped a dress size already and have nearly reached my target weight. I'm still a long way from my target body fat % (25% is target, I'm currently at 34%!) but it's moving in the right direction at least. I feel so much happier and healthier - lots more energy!

{Embarrassed}

So, I was at my personal trainer's house last night for a workout session, and she decided to get me to jog on the treadmill... Well, after having had 2 little ones my pelvic floor muscles aren't what they used to be, and yep, you've guessed it - I wet my pants.  I was mortified to say the least! How embarrassing! I'm so glad my trainer is a female and she was very nice about it all. Surely 29 is too young for Tena pads??

On a positive note, I lost 3lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 7lbs. I'm pleased with my progress so far... 

{Motivate}

So far so good... I've been on my new diet, or healthy eating plan, for a week and I have lost 2lbs in weight and my body fat percentage has also dropped. Phew! I was dreading my first weigh in with the Personal Trainer as I had been at Becky's wedding the day before (great day had by all I might add!) but I managed to stick to the diet for most of the week and despite having curry, creme brulee and the most delicious wedding cake I still managed to shift some of the flab!

My session with the Personal Trainer this week was tough. I've been given an exercise regimen for the week and have to continue with the diet (no bread, no pasta, no white rice...).  But I am determined to succeed...

Reposted from i love you asshole on Tumblr.com