Walking on sunshine

Life is just so bloody marvelous at the moment. On Friday night I went to my dreaded hockey tournament, had an absolute ball (tee hee) and scored my very first goal, then I went on to assist in another one so I was on top of my meatballs! After the game Meriel and I drove around looking for an in service A.T.M which just added to the fun of the evening in some bizarre sort of way, and then we had drinks and dinner at the hockey club with all the other teams.
On Tuesday we woke to the sun streaming through all the windows and a beautiful day. I decided to get out there and make hay so I called a friend, Kelly and we went down to Avoca in Wicklow for lunch and wondered around the nursery. I then picked Kirstin up at school, hunted Tracy down in the car park and we all set off with the kids to Airfield Farm. We were scraping all our cents together to pay the admission for the kids and then scraped some more to have a coffee at the restaurant. It was an awesome afternoon, we sat outside in the sun and I actually....wait for it....got too hot!!! In true Dublin fashion though my jersey/jumper came in handy about an hour later when the sun finally disappeared behind the clouds.
To top it all off I have actually managed to stick to my healthy eating plan for about 54 hours and the temptations that I have faced....the food at Avoca is begging to be eaten and then I was faced with it a second time at Airfield, which was worse because we even managed to scrape together money for scones for the kids and I had to butter and jam them.....and they looked sooo very good. Of course it fuelled my resolve and I am hoping to get through all the temptations at work today too. Ooohhh oohhhh ooohhh I also did some running yesterday morning, now that is one for the history books!!!!!
This morning I woke to magnificent weather again, and I had to walk through the cobbled streets of Dublin with my sunglasses on! Bliss I tell you, pure bliss.

Phew!

I made it through Easter relatively unscathed. Unfortunately my two little darlings absolutley insisted that I share the Lindt gold bunnies that mysterioulsy appeared in the dishwasher overnight - never ever have I heard whoops of joy from my lasses upon opening the dishwasher to begin the unloading! I was quite restrained, a nibble here and there, and thank goodness they actually obeyed my orders of NOT buying me anything for Easter so it was made a little easier.
I took advantage of a wonderful day yesterday and we went up to Marlay Park for a nice long walk - the ice cream truck cruelly beckoned in the car park afterwards but again we managed to drag ourselves away without a sugary icy treat. After all that I decided that perhaps the scale would be kind and made the fatal mistake of climbing on earlier this evening. I am just not going to believe her, she is lying to me, nasty little piece of work skulking in the corner of the bathroom. Oh and perhaps some more veggie soup and starvation until Thursday....IF I decide to go.

How could I have forgotten?

I had such excitement on Thursday night, I can't believe I forgot to blog about it! I skipped to Weight Watchers, had a brilliant week, stuck to my points faithfully, drank my water, walked every day and....................lost four pounds!!!! Walking on air, it was so much easier with those banished pounds! Of course the weekend was horrific, Malcolm's birthday, Mother's Day and "Houston we have a problem" (No lift off anymore...). So today I made what Weight Watchers refer to as 'free' soup. Leeks, celery, carrots, courgettes, cabbage and chicken stock. I will be enjoying it for lunch for the rest of the week to pay for my weekend sins!
I also had an interview with a recruitment agency, they were very positive, of course this was before the actual testing of my proficiency levels on word and excel, but I did warn them. It also happened to be one of THE crappiest days in Dublin, rain and gale force wind literally shoved me all the way to the luas, so I hope it was worth all the effort, I felt like a real idiot in a SKIRT but it was the smartest thing I could pull out of my very casual cupboard.

WHY???

So it was back to Weight Watchers last night, dragging my heels and covered in shame. I missed 2 meetings and in New York I just kinda forgot that I was actually still on a diet. To be honest the slippery slope started when creme eggs first made their appearance on the supermarket shelves, all that pretty shiny paper and a treasure of chocolate and goo underneath that...what is a girl o do?
I do feel that half the battle was won last night though, going back KNOWING that I was up about 5 pounds was not an easy thing for me to do, but if I hadn't I would have convinced myself that all was not swelling beneath my jeans. So, the outcome...4 pounds up, I am an idiot all that bloody hard work and now I have to lose 4 pounds just to get back to where I was 3 weeks ago...but the show must go on, the goal posts may have changed from March to May but I guess the long and scenic journey is more enjoyable anyway, at least I get to stop off and eat myself silly every now and then...

Facing the music

I was dreading walking through the door. I knew that those pounds I had run away from so long ago had come home to roost, just not sure how many had taken residence.
Thoughts of all the wonderful things that had passed my lips during the festive season made my fears rampant. The wine! The chocolates! Christmas pudding! I also knew that if I did not go back and face the scales matters would only get worse, so I dragged my now bigger bum over to the weight watchers meeting. Standing in the very long line waiting to get weighed was very therapeutic, I was not alone, far from alone in fact, as everybody miserably stood there telling tales of woe. Finally my turn, deep breath, a word of warning to my WW leader and up on the scales to face my demons. 2.5 pounds! I was expecting 5, at least, not too bad, and now I am thinking of the few times I did say no, stopped myself eating this or that and I guess just knowing that I was on the program has actually made a difference. Full steam ahead with a resolution…I will get to my goal weight, 1 more stone, plus the pesky 2.5 pounds from Christmas, and there will be less of me which will be good to see! Hee hee.

Sticks and Stones

I have lost my first stone! That is 14 pounds or 6.8 kg's for all my South African friends. The cool thing about it being called a stone is that when you reach this milestone (hee hee) you get a little glass pebble (stone). Then everyone in the meeting gets to here about the trials and tribulations of your road to success, all me, me, me for a few minutes...I must say that it has been a fairly slow process but it is good because I have still managed to have good nights out and lose weight.
Unfortunately I could not stay for the meeting as I had to rush home for dinner because I had a hockey meeting at 20h00. Of course after reaching such a fantastic milestone I had pizza for dinner, I may have lost a stone but I know I will never become a stick! So 1 more stone to go and then I will have reached my goal, hope I don't fall off the wagon, I have never made it through maintenance on WW, I always get to a good weight and then just stop going! This time I hope that I can continue and actually finish the maintenance part of the plan.

Weight Watchers week 7

After a weekend of wine meal replacements which went horribly wrong....because I still got hungry and had to eat, I was DREADING the scale. I just knew it was going to find some of those lost pounds that I have managed to duck and dive from. I managed to consume 5 bottles of wine in 5 days and after every one of those 5 days we would have a remedy breakfast somewhere...and I still lost 2 pounds! I do have to admit to making a BIG pot of 0 point soup the day the Collins family left and walking 7km's on Wednesday and another 5km's on Thursday in a desperate attempt to avoid the lurking pounds. Somehow I evaded them, although they might rare their ugly heads next week so I will be manically walking around my neighbourhood making sure they don't find their way back....and eating more cabbage soup....the things I have to go through for a bit of fun. Worth it? You betcha!

Pork sausages

I cannot seem to get away from it, I have now joined Weight Watchers on 3 continents! First time when we moved to USA I gained a ton, well not quite, but it felt like it! See, I gave up smoking and discovered Ben & Jerrys ice cream, a super substitute with oh about 20% fat per scoop...and I NEVER stopped until I scraped the bottom of the eco friendly packaging, no need to elaborate more than that. 4 months later I realised I had a problem, walking Jess up to school, I bent down really fast....and yep I split my jeans! My STRETCH jeans.
ANYWAYS I did manage to lose it in 4 months but then 2 years later when I found out we were moving back to South Africa I was so sad I cried into Ben & Jerrys for a few months...so back in Africa and back to Weight Watchers! And NO it was not only Ben & Jerrys, he was just my favourite!
So I have learned that in times of stress I turn to food and I love food, so I kinda had an idea that I would be back at WW when we decided to move to Dublin. Moving house is stressful, moving countries is diabolically so, and let's just say I did not take up smoking again; as I said to Lee Ann...I was bursting out of my clothes like a cooked pork sausage.
I have now been on WW for 4 weeks and feeling better already, I can bend my legs when wearing jeans. Hopefully I will be back to normal in time to eat my way through Christmas.....