Waist loss but no weight loss...

High and lows but I'll keep it brief.  I have managed to put on a pound this week meaning I am now 11st 8lb (boooooo) but since I last measured my waist I've lost nearly two inches so my waist is now 34 inches.

If you remember back to my first ever post (A full analysis of my fat ass) you'll remember this little nugget of information:

"You have a higher risk of health problems if your waist size is:

• more than 94cm (37 inches), if you're a man
• more than 80cm (31.5 inches), if you're a woman

Your risk of health problems is even higher if your waist size is:

• more than 102cm (40 inches), if you're a man
• more than 88cm (34.5 inches), if you're a woman"

So at least now I have made it in to the 'second band' of risk - I don't want to celebrate too much but it is a milestone.  And very good news in a week where I've put on a pound.

Speaking of which, I'm not going to think too much about that one pound.  In the last seven days I've cycled, walked and been running three times so it's not like I need to feel guilty about sitting on my fat (slightly less fat than when I started) ass all week, and I haven't cheated on food either.  

A quick running update - my shins and ankles ache, my knee aches, my hip aches and I've managed to split the back of my ankle (it's as grim as it sounds) but fingers crossed if I keep doing my ankle exercises and carry on running gently I'll get there.  After all, come July I don't have a choice - there will be five miles to run in the mud so I'll just need to get a grip and carry on!

Oven chips, pugs and running through the mud...

Well, yes it has been a while but (almost) all for a good reason.  The last three weeks have seen birthdays, trips to London, hangovers and long walks, but to catch up on progress...

The first few weeks of my absence saw me not shift a single pound.  Or even a quarter of a pound!  To be honest it was more surprising I hadn't put weight on as the diet has slipped a couple of times - the day of the hangover saw me eating oven chips for breakfast and Dominos for dinner.    I stayed exactly the same, until Thursday of last week when magically I'd managed to lose two whole pounds.  Probably due to the run (I'll tell you all about it in a minute) which I'm sure almost killed me.

So, that brings me down to 11st 7lbs.  Eleven and a half stone!  It really does feel like a milestone because I can't remember the last time I was eleven and a half stone.  I've got so used to being 'twelve stone' that it feels a bit weird actually.   This means my BMI is now 26.7, a bit closer to that nice green section of the BMI chart!  I haven't measured my waist and as I'm writing this in bed, I'm not going to now either - it'll make next Sunday's weigh in full of suspense.

So, the run.  I've signed up to do the JCB Mud Run in July as part of a team of four.  The JCB Mud Run is 5 miles of muddy, obstacled (is that a word?) chaos.  There are a few important facts to take into consideration when you think about me running. 

Firstly, I haven't run any kind of distance since I was at school and even then, when I was at peak fitness, I was at the back of the cross country group with the fat kids and the smokers.  

Secondly, thanks to joint hypermobility my joints are, for lack of a better word, useless (there are better words, but there might be children reading).  Basically, where most people's joints are supported by tendons or what have you, mine are a bit floppy so the muscles have to work harder to provide the support.  This means a jaw that cracks because it can't stay in place, knees that crunch because they bend back too far and a thumb that comes out of place almost as and when.  Plus that party trick where you can twist your arms too far round.  I know - what a freak.  Most frustratingly though it means my ankles are a bit weak which causes pretty bad lower leg / ankle pain when I run as the muscles are working extra hard and tugging where they join to my bones.  Minging.  I've just got to a point where they're actually getting better but it's taken SO LONG.  As in years, rather than months.

Finally, I'm the only girl on the team so my natural pace is a bit slower than my team mates (I should mention, my very supportive team mates)... oh yeah and I'll be dressed as a duck - a pretty risky word to type when you're doing it in the dark I might add.

So, last Wednesday the team and I went for a run.  The route was two miles.  I made about a quarter of a mile before I stopped the first time, and from then on it was pretty much every couple of hundred yards.  I can't even tell you how tired I was when we'd finished.  My thighs stopped aching on Saturday - my lower legs / ankles haven't stopped hurting yet.  

For everyone's sanity I've decided that before I go running with my team again I'm going to do the couch to 5K program, so I've downloaded the NHS version from iTunes and went for my first run tonight around Westport Lake.  In week one you do a five minute warm up run, followed by 20 minutes of alternating walking and running and then a cool down walk.  I was out of breath, but not totally destroyed which felt good.  My lower legs and ankles were hurting but actually I think it did them some good.  I'll keep you updated on my progress but I'm feeling pretty positive about it at the moment.

And most importantly of all, Westport Lake is great for dog spotting! Tonight there was even a pug!!

Weigh in day comes around too quickly!!

Steak - iron rich but my worst nightmare....

Well, weigh in day is here again.  I was pretty nervous for two reason - firstly, it's not week one so I thought my body might be getting used to it and I wouldn't do as well, and secondly because I've resisted so many biscuits this week and I haven't really had a 'bad' day so there would be no reason for me not to lose any weight - make sense?

Results: I've lost four pounds and half an inch.

So that means that today I weigh 11st 9lb, and my waist is 35 and three quarter inches!  I'm quite astonished to be honest - I would have been happy with one singular pound.  This means that my BMI is 27.1 - for the first time this is closer to healthy than obese.  It also means I've lost half a stone over the last two weeks.  I should point out that I'm absolutely not expecting this rapid loss of fatness to continue - I'm sure it's going to slow down at some point.

So to quickly tell you about this week... I have to say this week I have felt so tired (someone actually told me I looked pale and 'was I OK?' on Wednesday) almost all of the time.  Tired enough to struggle to function really - I've forgotten how to spell, how to do simple tasks - I've even forgotten what day it is.  I've been contemplating a few different reasons for this.  Perhaps it's because I've cut my calories down to less than 1400 per day and I haven't got used to it yet.  After all, I'm taking in less energy than I'm using up so it seems logical that I might not feel particularly energetic.  If this is the case then hopefully I will get used to it - I felt terrible yesterday but today I feel a lot better.  As well as that I cycled to work and back on Monday, which is about 15 miles (and all into the wind) so I had probably exhausted myself  before the week even began.  

The My Fitness Pal app also monitors some of the more well known nutrients including iron and I've noticed that I don't really get a lot of it.  I don't think I ever have on the basis that I don't really like red meat or nuts, plus I don't eat a lot of dried fruit (apart from in my porridge in the morning).  In fact, I've gone back through my food diary and it turns out most days I'm eating less than 10% of my recommended daily intake on iron.  So, this week I will be eating an actual stew with beef in that I will be making - for those of you who know my dietary 'quirks' you'll know that this is going to be a pretty substantial challenge for me.  I've also read that wholegrain cereals (which I've eaten a lot of), although high in iron, are an iron blocker - I'm not sure of the truth in this because I only seem able to find mention of it on websites like beefnutrition.org (yes really) and the 'Wild Rose College of Natural Healing' - there's not a single mention of it on the NHS page about iron.

On the other hand it could be that I've just had a bit of a virus because it definitely felt like I was ill.

Although I've been tired a lot this week I haven't been particularly hungry, but I've realised that I might have been making it sound like it's been really easy because of this.  I've been so tempted by a whole load of things - office biscuits, buffets in the office or in meetings, trips to McDonalds, takeaway on Friday night (where I live smells like a takeaway when you get out of the car on a Friday evening) - even little things like licking the spoon when you're cooking or tasting dinner more than you need to as you eat - it's all extra calories.  There have been so many temptations but I'm pleased, proud and slightly smug when I say I have resisted all of them.  Admittedly, I was about to have a biscuit on Friday when I realised that there were none left....

Weigh in Number 1

Reckon I should treat myself once I've lost a stone - halfway goal marker

Weigh in day today and I made sure I weighed myself before breakfast (well, I've got to give myself a chance haven't I).  Having had that enormous burger on Friday night I was half expecting to have put a pound or to on, but fortunately excellent results - I've lost '3lbs in weight and lost three quarters of an inch from my waist!  Woopee!!  

That makes me 11st 13lb and 36 and a quarter inch waist, which in turns means my BMI is now 27.7 (down from 28.5).  I'm really relieved I've made some progress this week as it was probably going to be make or break in terms of motivation.  I was only hoping for 1-2lbs loss each week so I've exceeded my target for the week.  I suppose it could be because it's the first week and my body hasn't had time to adjust to the reduced calories and increased exercise but only time will tell.

In other news, last night I posted my blog on Facebook expecting a couple of people to have a look - just enough so I feel guilty approaching the biscuit jar at work.  What actually happened was 92 people looked at this blog in 4-5 hours, along with another 70 people today.  So thanks everyone for your interest!  But serious pressure now not to fail (which is a good thing by the way).

I've tried to be good this week with what I was eating (except for the aforementioned burger), but also tried not to change my habits too much.  For example, I know I find it easier to eat well at work and I fall down in the evening when I get peckish.  So, I've been having a decent breakfast (porridge and raisins), soup with a bread roll (no butter) for lunch, snack on fruit mid afternoon and a proper dinner - I've had potato salads, cottage pie, potato and onion hotpot, jacket potatoes with a LOAD of chicken filling... Honestly, it hasn't felt like diet food at all.  I've been getting my ideas from the NHS Change 4 Life meal mixer, it's been really helpful.  Also, I've found that I had some calories left over in the evening so I can snack on Ryvita with some marmite or cheese spread on.

I've been really surprised by the amount of sugar in food - I have been aiming for 30g of sugar a day, as advised on My Fitness Pal, but to be honest by time I've added 20g of sultanas to my porridge in the morning I'm already pretty much at my target.  I haven't managed to stay under 30g any day this week. So I've decided not to worry about it, as long as I don't eat processed sugar.  Most, if not all, of the sugar I'm eating is naturally occurring in fruits etc - I haven't been having coffee or tea to put sugar in, I'm not adding extra sugar to my cereal.  I reckon that the natural sugars I'm consuming are the price to pay for all of the nutrients and fibre I'm getting from those sugary fruits and I can definitely live with that.

So, all in all, a good day - now to just keep it up for another week, though clearly with so many of your watching me I'm not going to have a choice (seriously, if you see me eyeing up those biscuits at work, beat me with a big stick...).

Now to decide what to reward myself with when I've lost my first stone - I reckon spa day!!

Calorie shocker and a looming weigh in day...

To be clear, this was not the burger in question.....

So, I've been really good all week and stuck to my 1400 calories a day (mostly - as you will see).  Most days I've been a little under throughout the day so I've had some extra to play with when it comes to dinner or a snack (i.e. Ryvita with marmite) in the evening.  I've been using the Smart Recipes provided by the NHS as part of the Change 4 Life campaign - you can find them here.  Use the meal mixer to randomly choose a days worth of meals and then you can download the recipes for the day.  I've been using them mostly for dinners and they are quite substantial meals - certainly not how you would expect 'diet food' to be at all.  Plan the week out and only buy the things you need - it takes a little longer on a Sunday night to put the food order in but I certainly think it has made the week easier in terms of snacking.  If you don't buy it, you can't have it.

But I'll tell you more about the good things I've been eating tomorrow when I weight in!  I'm pretty nervous about it to be honest because if I haven't lost anything I'm probably going to be pretty demotivated but I know I need to just plough on no matter what, but it will certainly make it more difficult.  I've not found this week particularly difficult, mostly (I think) because the first week always seems to carry the most motivation - I'm not bored of being on a diet yet and I'm still shocked about what I found our about my weight (see Post 1: A Full Analysis of My Fat Ass).

However, I had a massive shock last night.  We went out for dinner at a pub, which turned out to be a Hungry Horse pub and I had a Smoky Bean Chili Beefburger with chips - I knew it would put me over my calories but guessed it would have been 700-800 calories all in.  It was a birthday party so not something that would happen every week and I had skipped on my bread roll and fruit at lunch to save up some calories.  When we got home I checked out the calories to add to my diary and found out it was a whopping 1194 calories!!!  I, honestly, could have cried - I hadn't been expecting that at all and I'm not even clear if it includes the chips.  Thinking about it, I could have made it at home for about a third of those calories AND without all of the other stuff like a high fat content and salt, which by that point I was too terrified to look at.  If you want to have a look at the Hungry Horse's nutritional information you can see it here.  But I would say that after a week of being strict that burger tasted AMAZING and it's done now so I'm not beating myself up over it - but live and learn, next time I'll know to have a look at the menu and nutritional information before I get somewhere so I can make a better decision.

Finally, I recommend watching a really interesting program - Horizon: Sugar vs Fat which at the moment you can find on the BBC iPlayer.  It's a really interesting look at what is really bad for you with some surprising results based on actual science rather than a fad diet book by an author you've never heard of with some random, made up qualification.  SPOILER ALERT one of the the people on the program ends up nearly being pre-diabetic after one month, and it might not be down to the reasons you would think.