On the edge of "Fresh Fat"!!

I hope you like a couple of pics I took on my mobile during the drive back from my french class last Thursday evening.  Below is the lovely Chatsworth House bathed in sunshine and sporting a beautiful double rainbow.  After I stopped to take this picture the colours became achingly intense and it looked as though the rainbow would be right over the house itself. 

I tried to drive up the driveway to capture the sight of the lovely bridge in the foreground and house with rainbows but there was a sign.  It said "House closed. No unauthorised persons beyond this point".  I thought about driving the extra 100 yards round the bend anyway then thought - would I like people driving up my driveway to take pictures of my house when I'd expressly asked them not to??  I also remembered the other part of the sign saying that CCTV cameras are in operation and couldnt face the embarrassment factor if caught.  So, no, I won't suffer for my art apparently...

And no close-ups of the house.  Boooo...

As I got closer to home the storm intensified into a massive greeny grey mass.  It was truly stunning but these photos do not do it justice.  I tried driving up hill to find a vantage spot where I could fit the whole perfect arc into one shot but to no avail.  The frustration.

Anyway, in diet news:  I am teetering on the edge of fresh fat. It is quite exciting. When I say "fresh fat", I am aware that I have lost these very lbs not once but dozens of times in my lifetime, the last time being last summer but it fresh for this time round, ok??!

 

 

 

This teetering business means that this next week or so is crucial in determining the progress of this latest phase of my eternal battle with the fat. If I can get over the hump and drop half a stone, the likelihood is that I will continue on to the stone mark. If I go backwards now I may fanny around for yet another few weeks. I really do not want the latter to happen. I will get over the hump.

So, HOW am I going to go about achieving this?

I mentioned in an earlier post that, driven by boredom and mild irritation, I had actually opened (and read) my SW book during class one Tuesday evening. Well, I've done it a few times now.....it may even become a habit!! I really focussed a couple of days last week on doing the plan properly and I'm proud of myself that I've managed a few whole, perfectly observed days! I know it sounds silly but I usually don't follow the plan as such, more follow a theme. I do a fair bit of exercise and tend to lose weight reasonably easy so, in the past at least, I have been able to "get away with" not being scrupulous and still lose weight. But, as you will have noticed, it's not really worked in the long run has it? While I have dropped the lbs here and there, it has come back on and I'm still here, more or less at my starting position 7 months later.

So, although I am a somewhat slow bear, I'm not totally daft and am endeavouring to change this. To go back to what worked for me at the outset and what will, no doubt, work again. So, what have I noticed about the plan now that I've actually doing it once more?

Firstly, you have to be organised. It is no good hoping that you will have the right things in the fridge because this road leads to TOAST! (And toast is the enemy in SW.) The plan allows you to eat loads but does not lend it self to quick, unplanned meals unless you have a very flexible fridge and larder. So, I have re-stocked the fridge and adjusted my mindset to make sure that I do not fall back on cereals for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. You just can't make SW works if that is your norm, well, not unless you're willing to use up all your syns on bread and have none left for alcohol or sugar, which I'm not!

A better typical day for me starts with bacon, eggs, tomato and mushrooms. It fills me up much longer and doesn't use up any of my "Healthy Extras" (sorry about the diet jargon non-dieters!). This means I can have plenty of milk in my tea and coffee during the day or a spot of cheese in my evening meal as my A choice. And, if I'm able to resist bread and cereal altogether as I did yesterday, means I can have olive oil instead of bread as my other B choice.

Lunches tend to be easy - pasta, salad, jacket spud, leftover from the night before, no problem.

And then supper can be almost unchanged from my non-diet choice. Obviously I can't be launching into fajitas or cheesy bakes very often (at all?!) but most main courses can be adjusted and brought into the SW regime. Last night was rump steak, mash and veggies with pepper sauce all syn counted and very tasty. So Rich hardly notices the difference and I feel full and "normal".

That just leaves snacks. I made a conscious effort during the day NOT to have any apart from fruit and cups of tea and found it easier than I had expected. I hadn't realised how much I had become acclimatised to treats. When I first started on SW last summer (and was dropping weight steadily) I had hardly any, then gradually they crept back in until I was having chocs/biscuits/random stuff (often "healthy" type choices) morning, afternoon and evening "just because". No wonder I gained the weight back! So yesterday I had nothing during the day but I told myself (and my chimp?) that I could have something in the evening after supper. And then I didn't.

Wow! How did that happen? Well, I kept on putting the treat back a bit, just having my usual piece of fruit after supper, then later a coffee. Then, when I was tempted by the digestives Richard was scoffing (he is a sucker for plain digestives, I have to hide them....)I thought, maybe a choc ice instead. So, rather than heading straight for the kitchen, I thought "knowledge is power" (Hi Mrs Lard!!) and first looked up the syn value of both (see what I mean about the book??). I discovered that I could have 2 (!!) digestives for 7 syns or 1 choc ice for 7 syns. Hmmm, dilemma. But, somehow, through all this I realised that I didn't need or particularly want either. I'd put the treat off for so long and not missed it that I was happy not to have it at all. Last night that is. I'm not saying that I won't ever have an evening snack but I will try not to have it unless I really fancy whatever it is and am not just eating out of habit or boredom or because Rich is having it and I "deserve" it.

It was mindful eating for the first time in ages. Not just randomly saying no to things, cooking healthily or cutting stuff out and hoping that it'll work. But actually sitting down and working out what I really want and what I can have under the plan. It's early days but hopefully I can keep this going now. I WANT that 2 stone off. The other thing which I'm finding is helping me (which has never helped in the past) is the thought of my half stone reward meal at 1530 in Castleton. It's only a few lbs away and it is helping me to keep going. I haven't told Richard so that should be a nice surprise for him too.