Wednesday Weigh In Week 2

Starting weight/last week's weight: 164 lbs

This week's weight: 158

lost/gained: 6

left to lose: 8 (14 if I can manage)

I know you can't really lose 6 lbs in just a week. I think some of the weight I was carrying might have been due to my pregnancy and that my baseline measurement was distorted (I was VERY shocked about the baseline weight). I'm extremely pleased nonetheless.

Success 1:
Ok, so I committed to 30 mins of exercise a day. This is harder than I thought. I managed 2.5 hrs on the Wii Fit, 1 hour of Yoga, 30 mins of brisk walking and mumble mumble. That's in a week, not in a day. It was difficult fitting it all in. Cubling quite clearly objected to my Yoga idea and was still up upon my return. When asked why, she said "Cubling weint. Want living room. Bed - no. Mummy gucken, Fenster." This must be the first narrative she ever produced. All for mummy having the audacity of leaving the house before her bedtime.

Barriers to my exercise commitment:
-It's not easy getting a lunch break at work. There's constant problems that need solving or meetings overrunning. I tend to work through or go for food shopping if the fridge is gaping empty. If I exercise, I'll eat fast food because the fridge is empty. If I go food shopping to cook low calorie healthy stuff, I don't have time for exercise at lunch time.

-I'm knackered in the evenings. Second opportunity of the day to do some exercise is after dinner and Cubling bedtime. By that time I'm usually exhausted and cannot get my bum up for some jogging. I've been good with the Wii Fit though, but don't find it challenging enough. Although I quite liked the way I lost 3 pounds after just an hour of exercise. At this rate I should be able to reach my dream weight reasonably quickly. Yeah right.

-Two nights each week I spend away from home. It's harder to implement an exercise plan out of my comfort zone and when I also want to be sociable.

Success 2:
I've eliminated ridiculous consumption of cake and chocolate, though still having the occasional taste of my favourite brown stuff. I've not binge eaten all week. I'm proud of that. My line manager tends to bring in little treats for team meetings. I'm bad at resisting temptation. On the whole though, success though I could do better, such as eat less.

Barriers to eating healthily:
-If I don't get a proper lunch break I'm frustrated, graze and eat more than planned.
-I don't get time to really prepare my salad, so still munching away on bread (though with healthy fillings).

Summary:

It's just so darn hard dieting when juggling work and child. It really is. While before it was no effort at all to go for a long run at lunchtime, have a shower and simply make up by working late, now all has to be contained within the hours the childminder dictates, and in the evening, my energy level are really not raring. Plus, any runner knows that running after dinner is a very.bad.idea.

The evening is a race against the clock trying to prepare dinner and getting Cubling to bed. Often, there's not enough time to cook up something nice and I grab a high calorie thingy from the freezer.

Improvement for next week:

Try harder to eat leaves for lunch. Resist more sweet stuff. Substitute sugar in tea with sweetener or nought. Keep up the goal of 30 mins of exercise a day. It's hard, but I know it should be doable and a minimum for healthy life style anyway. Start jogging because it's most efficient at burning calories, and because I like it. I feel back to normal physically so should be able to do it.

Here's my motivation:

Two pairs of nice M&S trousers, in my target size. I can just about close the button, but to be honest, they are way too tight. I've got 30 days to return them or return into them. In 30 days I want to be able to close the button without having to hold my breath. Basically, I want to keep them.