Weight Loss this Week -3kgs/-6.61lbs

I was able to sort my food out this week. Spending a few weeks recording what I ate without changing anything was very helpful. Breakfast was often fine but from there things would go downhill. Instead of having meals I would have sweet snacks. Why? Because they were quick and easy and of course I like them.

This week I made sure everyday I had a good filling breakfast (usually oatmeal with banana/apple, raisins and soymilk which is a big favourite of mine) and I replaced my sweet snacks with fruit. That worked really well for me. I didn't miss the sweet taste in my mouth and I felt quite satisfied. This week I will work on my lunch.

I'm still exercising and weighting myself everyday. I've decided to write what the scale registers here every Monday.

We had a lovely weekend. We went to an area of southwest London called Richmond -upon-Thames and walked along the Thames for about 8 miles. It was one of those rare Autumn days, sunny crisp beautiful.

Life is Good!!!

Just to clarify something in my last post. When I said that I had read somewhere that you have to do something 17 time for it to become a habit, I didn't mean that I had been exercising just 17 times. I started my new regime of exercising 5 days a week on the 7th July right after I had my first appointment with my wonderful new doctor and have not missed a day since then. So this is week 11 and today is day 54 and going strong.

I've been weighing myself everyday for the past week (which is new) and writing down everything I eat (which is not new) without trying to control what I eat (which is new).
Result No 1: I've taken the sting out of the scale. I get on it every morning after I wee and I record the number and I move on with my day. Of course the number is too high and I need to bring it down, but for now I'm grateful that I can weight myself emotionlessly. That in itself is a major breakthrough.
Result No 2: My diet consists mostly of sugar. Left to my own devices I will have Smarties for breakfast, Florentines for lunch and M&M for dinner and the fruit and vegetables will rot in the fridge ... not because I don't like fruit and vegetables you understand,but because I prefer Florentines ;( and probably disease and death.

As I might have mentioned my doctor recommended two strategies to deal with this issue, one of which includes hypnosis. I didn't vibe with the Hypnotist she recommended and she was rather expensive as well. I might try to find and interview some others and/or try a Paul McKenna tape that Barb over at Not Finished Just Yet mentioned worked well for her. Or I could try the other method my Dr. suggested that sounds just too hokey to talk about (even if I can see the logic of it).

So anyway life marches on ... the 'global' banking crisis is a little disconcerting. What will happen next? Perhaps we should keep our money under out beds ... or do like my grandmother did, tie it up in her bra. LOL!!! Unlike my grandmother I never seem to have any money on my person. We tend to use credit cards for everything, but we pay them off at the end of every month. My honey would burst a gasket if we ever paid even the smallest finance charge.

My classes have begun and I just love my students. They are such a wonderful mix and I know it's going to be a fabulous term.

Now if I could just lose some weight ....

After weeks ... months of being too terrified to face the scale I finally weighed myself yesterday. The number was horrible as expected after all the months of unchecked eating.

I've decided to try weighing myself everyday for awhile. I need to get over my terror of the scale and start seeing it as a useful reality checking tool. The idea is not to become obsessed but just to become more aware of how my body's weight fluctuates from day to day in relation to what I eat and my physical activity.

My food is not great but it is definitely getting better.

I'm still doing my stretching, weights and cross trainer for an hour 5 days a week. I read somewhere that you need to do something 17 times before it becomes a habit. I don't know if this is true but exercising is becoming more automatic and less of the tooth pulling struggle it was.

I've noticed some physical benefits as well which I feel good about. e.g. my thighs, arms and torso are looking less lumpy and more smooth and I am becoming more limber and flexible. During the Olympics, I saw the divers bending over and place their palms flat on the ground in front of them in preparation for a handstand and I wanted to be able to do that ... the flat palms not the handstand ... though that would be nice one day too. Anyway, every morning I stretch I try to get my palms closer to the ground and this morning I succeeded in touching it. This made me feel really good.

I started work at the college this week, not teaching yet just meetings and student advisement sessions. I'm really looking forward to this school year. I'm teaching a few new classes that should be a lot of fun ... for me anyway ;P

My niece returned to Barbados on Saturday after what has been a really great visit. When she comes to visit we always do the kind of things that we would never do on our own (like visiting the Science Museum, painting with glitter glue or seeing Kung Fu Panda for instance) and I always make really interesting discoveries. I guess one of the +s of having a child is that she/he gives one permission to be a bit of a child again oneself. Definitely a good thing. Anyway, I was really sad to see her go and am experiencing a bit of what must be a mild case of empty nest syndrome. LOL!!!

On the other hand, boy is it loooovely to have my space back again and what was the first thing I did? Indulged in a great huge dose of me-ness. I stayed in bed allllllllllll freaking day on Sunday ... snoozing, listening to the sound of silence, reading, chatting, snoozing, reading ... and boy was that a DELICIOUS experience.

Autumn is already in the air here, which is really a strange thing to feel since summer never came. While everyone north of the equator has been talking about heat, we've seen the sun probably a total of 5 days for the entire summer and I never got the chance to take our goose down feather duvet off the bed. It's hard to face the prospect of the short, cold, grey, damp days of winter when all you've had is a cold, grey, damp, sunless summer. My poor niece thought she was experiencing winter. When I explained that it was actually summer and that winter gets much colder, she just stared at me in disbelief.

My honey has been shortlisted for another literary prize here, but unfortunately he will be withdrawing himself from the list because it's a prize for unpublished writers and now that he has a publishing contract he's no longer eligible. Pity.

My food has been just horrid but I have managed to keep my exercise routine going. I have now been exercising 5 days a week for 8 weeks. My goals for September are to continue with my exercise routine and start dealing with the food issues.