One pound at a time!

My goals for week two were to have more "filling foods", plan an extra snack for 4-5pm and to try a little exercise. I'm delighted to report that I succeeded in all three!
For week two I started making a small salad for lunch (as well as my ham sarnie) with lettuce, egg, onion & capsicum and a mini wholemeal pitta. This helped me to feel so much more satisfied during the day and, surprisingly, was really yum too! I also made some curried Butternut Squash soup (BNS, onions, capsicum, curry powder, vege stock) which was delicious - highly recommended!

I don't feel like I have time for exercise, so I decided to use my lunch breaks to go for a short 20 minute walk. I was really surprised that I enjoy the chance to get away from my desk and get some fresh air ("fresh" being the operative air - chilly!).

Weigh in on Tuesday saw a loss of 1 pound.

Being a seasoned dieter, I don't often fall into the trap of complaining "ONLY one pound", as I know that is a healthy weight loss. However being only my second week I had to admit I was hoping for a little more. Never mind, some great friends on the WW message boards cheered me up with this little ditty:

Hello, do you know me?
If you don't you should.
I'm a pound of fat, and I'm the happiest pound of fat that you would ever want to meet.

Want to know why?
It’s because no one ever wants to lose me.
I'm only one pound, just a pound.

Everyone wants to lose three pounds, five pounds or fifteen pounds.
but never only one, so I just stick around and happily keep you fat.
Then I add to myself ever so slyly, that you never seem to notice it, that is until I've grown to ten, twenty or even more pounds in weight.

Yes it’s fun being only one pound of fat, left to do as I please.
So when you weigh in, keep right on saying "oh, I only lost one pound" ( as if it was such a terrible thing!)
For you see, if you do this you'll encourage others to keep me around because they will think I'm not worth losing.

And I love being around you, around your arms, your legs, your chin, your hips and every part of you.
Happy days!!! After all, I'm only one pound of fat!!!

(image courtesy of MyPetFat)

Week One, done and dusted!

I am pleased to say I have successfully survived one whole week following the Weight Watchers plan. I know that only one week in isn't much of a milestone and I still have a long way to go, but it's a victory to me! Now I just need to keep taking it one day, one week at a time...

I was surprised that I didn't find it as difficult as I expected. I wasn't hungry all the time, I didn't have major cravings, I didn't even have to change my normal eating too much - just swap regular foods for lighter options and cut out the junk food and take aways.

I've noticed I'm a little hungry around 5pm, so for the second week I'll aim to have more filling foods and perhaps also plan a snack for this time.

Weigh-in result: 5 lbs lost! A fantastic result and a real boost in the right direction!

I haven't set my final goal yet, but I have set a mini goal to lose two stone by summer (1 June). I'll need to be aiming for up to 2 lbs loss each week to achieve this, so I'll have to keep going strong.

For week two, I'm going to try a tiny bit of exercise: 3 x 20 mins walking. I currently don't exercise at all, so this is a big step for me! Wish me luck...

Here we go...

This is my first week at Weight Watchers in the UK and along with tracking and posting on message boards I have decided to start a blog to track my progress and keep me motivated.

I weighed in at the highest weight I've ever been - 18 st 6 lbs (258 lbs / 117 kg) and I'm determined to lose weight to get to a healthy weight for the first time in my life! But it's not just about the numbers. I also want to deal with the emotions, attitudes and habits that I've been building up over the last 26 years to get to this size.

Right now it feels like a massive brick wall, but I know that brick by brick I can take it down to get to a new, healthier, happier me!

Now for my "BEFORE" pictures:
These were taken recently at Ludgershall Castle, Wiltshire. They're not good photos of me, but they're brutally honest and that's the best quality for a "before" photo.