Learning from the Past

Minty found a discarded beanie baby on a recent walk - she LOVED it, right until she buried it deep in the undergrowth....never to be seen again.

This time last week I was about to go off-piste with PIE! I had failed to appreciate that I was entering a danger zone and walked straight into a few beartraps. I didn't go mad though and I was rewarded with a lovely drop on the scales last night.

However, I am not so complacent as to think that I can continue to have weeks like last week without ramifications. The good loss could have been caused by anything. Perhaps the fact that in some cases I didn't actually eat a lot of anything, albeit that I was largely off-plan. Last Sunday, for example, I had a grilled breakfast and a modest sandwich and that was it all day. It was probably also influenced by time of the month issues.

So, I'm not going to take things for granted by any means.

Hence the "learning from the past" title. Today I have been much more focussed and organised and, so far, have avoided the beartraps. I had a sensible breakfast (bacon and eggs with 1 slice of toast), tea and fruit snacks during the morning and then, on the dot of 12, headed out for a lunchtime run with the dogs. It was lovely. 45 minutes over fields and lanes; not flat but not toooo hilly. I'm pleased with the route as it is about the right length and hilliness and allows the dogs to be off the lead for the bulk of the run.

Lunch was equally sensible - cold meat and egg salad followed by yoghurt - and I'm feeling motivated and chirpy.

It's amazing the difference from last week. I was extremely happy with the 3.5lb drop last night and that sense of satisfaction persisted all evening and into today as well.

I've been thinking about any tips I glean from my SW class which I might be able to pass to Peridot (and other SW'ers). Last night the Leader passed out a list of common mistakes which might cause people to stick or not lose quickly enough where they think they are following the plan. Being brutally honest I do pretty much all of these and I'm still losing fine so I'm lucky. If the rate of loss falls away or I stick at some stage I'll have to address these but at the moment, if I can get away with it, why not? Perhaps the fact that I do lots of exercise helps me??!

Anyway, back to the list of "errors":

• Not removing fat from meat
• Not measuring your daily allowance of milk and "guessing"
• Not eating the exact Healthy Extras but substituting with other nicer (and higher syn) breads and cereals.
• Not weighing or measuring synned items and guessing instead.
• Not keeping track of the number of syns you're having each week.
• Eating too little and not using some syns - "loosen up" she said!
• Not checking the syn value of new products. She has warned us that some yoghurts which were free have now changed their recipe and are NOT free. Even the reliable Muller Lights...
• Using semi-skimmed or fullfat milk instead of skimmed milk but still having the skimmed allowance.

I can't remember any more but, as you can see, they're not keen on guessing, substituting and not tracking stuff!! As you may also guess, I don't do ANY of this. I guess, substitute, don't look things up and certainly don't write things down. Eeek. I'm quite lucky in that regard but, who knows, perhaps I will have to at some stage.

One tip I have is to focus on what you CAN eat, not what you can't. You can have such delicious meals without any syns and with very little compromises in taste that I don't really miss the things I can't have much of like cheese. I have had to put certain weekday favourite meals away for the time being - fajitas, enchiladas and pizzas being the main losses. But I can still have such a huge selection of good meals that it would be churlish to mourn these. It's not like I'm NEVER going to have these meals again, just a lot less often for the time being.