In honour of the grey, rainy day we're experiencing in Derbyshire today, here is a study in grey from our last afternoon walk in Pembrokeshire. A grey, but mild walk along a grey, pebbley beach. I love the colours, so muted and blurry and gentle.
Shelagh randomly attacks a pile of seaweed - think there might have been a crab in there somewhere.
She still doesn't like the frothy foam though...
At the start of our walk there was no room to walk other than on the pebbles but eventually there was a sliver of wet sand to walk along.
I'm experiencing a familiar feeling. VERY familiar. Yes, it's our old friends hope and enthusiasm back to play. Every time I get back in the diet groove, or at least back somewhere where the groove is at least visible to me, I start feeling like I can crack this. It happened to me last time I was at 4.5lbs off about 6 weeks ago (I could check back but will leave some mystery...). I keep running over in my head - not far off half a stone, not far off 'til I've jettisoned a recognisable chunk of blubber and can at last feel as though "I've made a start".
As an aside, how do other nationalities work it? If you don't have stones, do you think in chunks of 5lbs, 10? If you're in kilos, do you have to have dropped 5 kg before you're off and running? Half a stone is a nice, manageable chunk (obviously not easily achievable for me this time although it has been in the past). 10lbs would be more of a milestone but also further away - I'm not even halfway there!!
The enthusiasm is helpful though - it is assisting me in resisting the booze or biscuits at least.
Another potential help could be that Richard has finally acknowledged that he too must join the flab-busters. He has always had a bit of what he refers to, somewhat coyly, as a "bay window" but in the last year, it has definitely expanded. Trousers are tight and in some cases not fitting!! I shouldn't laugh but it is funny. He says he wants to lose some weight and has asked for assistance in cutting back on treats in the house (that'll be good - no excuse for me to buy in biscuits or sweets "for Rich") and also to think about a bread-free lunch for him at work. It's tricky. He only gets 30 minutes so fussy, microwave meals would be out. I often cook extra so he can take that to work but on the non-leftover days he takes sarnies. I think the only option is salads for him which will also help me to to have them. That way I can make sure we have plenty of nice cold cuts, hard boiled eggs, homemade coleslaw to distract from the no bread situation. This could be good for me too.
I have, however, made the point that the easiest thing for him to do to drop the blubber would be to cut back on beer!! He'd lose a stone in a couple of months if he gave it up altogether but I suspect it would not be happy couple of months for him!! He doesn't drink a huge amount, certainly not every day - 3, sometimes 4 times per week but even at 3/4 pints a time, that would be a saving of around 4000 calories a week! If he had low fat milk, less bread, fruit instead of crisps and fewer sweet treats, he could easily drop a stone in a month.
Lucky devil - I have already cut out most of that stuff and do more exercise than him....dieting is not so easy when you're working at the margins! (I sympathise Peridot as I know you've gone much further than me in cutting out/back and are still struggling to reduce). It's not fair but it is what it is.
So - I need to capitalise on the hope and enthusiasm and make a plan to make Rich's new regime work for me as well. Hopefully that elusive half stone mark will be reached very soon and spur me on for the next. I've had a change of heart on the reward front too - the half stone reward will NOT now be a meal out. It will be a day's hike with picnic and Rich. He doesn't know this yet. Although we like walking, we get far too busy during the summer with golf and other events (and the grim weather hasn't helped this year). So my treat will be setting aside a Saturday or Sunday and MAKING us go for a good long tramp with a picnic, my camera and the dogs.
Update - Now after all that hope and enthusiasm from yesterday, I had a bad night - felt hungry and bored and ate too much - toast and general stuff. And then the scales this morning showed a 2lb jump. Harrumph. Gotta make sure I don't let it derail me for today and the rest of the weekend.
Update 2 - well I've just been out shopping and got a load of fruit and veg for our new style bread-free lunches. It's a start....
2 comments:
I found my weight loss really went well when lovely fella was on the bandwagon as well. It just made thing easier and there was much less temptation around. Hopefully soon we'll find that bandwagon again! Not sure where we left it! X
Yep, life is defintely easier when the other half is playing along. I tend to find that men (sweeping generalisation ahead) need to results quickly to keep them motivated, so let's hope he gets off to a rollicking start.
And hold on to that hope and enthusiasm - you can do it!
Sx
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