Another weigh in post, after me hols! I did weigh in on Saturday, after I got back from me hols on Tuesday, but I haven’t yet wrote about it. So here goes…

Generally, on holiday, I didn’t eat terribly badly. It was just the booze. Jump off the wagon, drink any kinda fluid flowing. It’s really bad that, in Tenerife, because we know the bar staff, they give us all these crazy concoctions. A Cherry Bakewell, which is one part vodka, one part Disaronno and topped with grenadine. A Black Jack, which is part sambucca, part Jack Daniels. Why do we do it to ourselves?! Needless to say, I had a complete write off of a day on Sunday. I didn’t leave my bed until 5.30pm, which is terrible, even for me.

I was generally only eating once or twice a day and, because it was so hot, it wasn’t anything remotely heavy. Well, apart from the full English on Monday before I was leaving on Tuesday – hangover inflicted munchies!

Since being at home, I have become addicted to My Fitness Pal (and you can find me on there as frannooooo). I gave up Weight Watchers a few weeks ago, because it was another expense I just couldn’t afford, especially as I wasn’t point-counting as best as I could be. With My Fitness Pal, it’s much easier and they do all the hard work for you. You can scan things and it just pops up for you to enter how much of it you actually ate/drank. It’s also linked to my Fit Bit which is hugely useful, as I’m using that with full gusto again to track my steps and my sleeps. I find that MFP helps as it determines what weight you will be in five weeks, if you keep eating as you are eating. Motivation to be half the person I am now!

Anyways, the following is my graph from the past month. The big increase is the holiday weight!

On holiday, I put on a respectable 3.6lbs for all of my boozing. Rubbish! Since being back from holiday, however, I have lost 2.9lbs of that! Not bad going really, considering I’ve been back for a week. I’m hoping that before next week, I’ll have lost all of my holiday weight.

Things I’m going to change this week is my obsession with weighing myself once a day! I’m going to limit myself to twice a week. Wednesday is my ‘official’ weigh in day, but I don’t think there’s any harm in checking my weight once over the weekend on a Saturday or a Sunday, just to see how I’m getting on. Your body has so many minor weight changes throughout the day that really, it’s not doing me any favours by recognising that I’m losing half a lb, day in and day out. It might not even be true anyway!

I have a wedding this weekend, so I’m really trying to push it so that I’m my pre-holiday weight by Saturday evening. It’s also a really bad time for eating and drinking whatever the hell I want, so I need to watch what’s going in my mouth over the weekend! My Fit Bit aim is between 15K and 18K steps a day and my gym aim is to go four times a week or more. The gym is an area I’ve been slacking in at the moment, but I’ll get back into the swing of it. I went there today and I’m going there again tomorrow, so I need to fit in two more sessions before next week’s weigh in post.

How’s your weight loss going? Better than mine, I hope  

Hi guys. I was away last week, so I didn’t get a chance to publish my weigh in post last week, as I was away on my course. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that much, as I had been pretty naughty, eating wise as I was emotionally down in myself.

I have started not eating as many carbs as of late to try and lose a little bit more before my birthday at the weekend and my holiday next week and, although it has been tough, I am starting to see the results. It’s not as if I’m going to stick to this diet forever – I don’t think I could – but for a quick tone down, I think it really has done the job. Anyways. Visual aids!

That’s a change of 1.1lbs. But I’m even shocked by that massive peak! I have no idea where that even came from!

I have reordered my Fit Bit and it’s being delivered today. I have also started using My Fitness Pal (of course, you can find me at frannooooo) and I’m really loving it. I love the fact that it’s linking my Fit Bit scales and it will be linking my Fit Bit pedometer too. What I love most is the scanning option; gone are the times where I have to stare at the back of a packet and enter every single digit! Welcome to 2013, Franno!! I think I just need everything all in one place as well, and it’s a real good indicator to share with my friends, followers, and everyone else!

I am on holiday from next Tuesday, so I may do a quick Monday evening update on my weight and how awesome I have been. It would be amazing if I was under 170lbs for holiday, but even I think that might be pushing it a bit…!

Hello all. Sorry this post is late. Work has been completely and utterly MANIC. Everyone wants to swim their babies, as it happens. Even though the weather is still rubbish.

My diet was pretty appalling over the bank holiday weekend. I have been gorging on chips and brownies because it has been so bloody cold, so this is another ripping off the plaster week… Here’s how it went over the last week and a half…

Up and down this week. Surprisingly, I’ve actually managed to lose 0.9lb. A loss is a loss and although it’s not a big one, it could’ve been worse; it could’ve been a gain! I have cancelled my WW membership as I really wasn’t following it. I am more aware of what I’m eating, the portion sizes and generally about how eating too much cake will make me gain weight. I just wish I could zap away through this stupid plateau phase that I’ve been on for about a year now!

Next week, I’m on a course in Southampton, which I have a feeling might be testing my weight loss. You never know what you’re going to eat in a hotel and it’s generally tougher to make good choices when there’s a limited menu and you’re a fussy eater like your’s truly. I will be in the pool lots though, so I’m hoping that it’ll even itself out that way.

Here we are. Week 13. Unlucky for some, eh? So this week, it’s the weigh in after my holiday. I had a sneaky weigh in yesterday, so I roughly knew what to expect, but nevertheless, sharing this with you all is always nervewracking when I know it’s inevitable that I’ve put on.

So, let’s get straight to the point, shall we?

Surprisingly, I only put on 1.7lbs when I was on holiday! I was expecting a lot more, so generally, I’m quite happy with that. Not overly happy, as the best result would’ve been to lose something, but then again, I ate what I wanted, I didn’t exercise and I drank on two occasions to excess.

This week, it’s the bank holiday weekend for Easter, so I generally need to watch what I’m eating. Boredom is my worst enemy when it comes to losing weight, but I’m hoping to keep busy and most importantly, keep out of the fridge. I would love to lose my holiday weight by the weekend, though I know that that’s really pushing it.

I’ve been to the gym three times this week, with my last appointment for this week tomorrow. I’m waiting for some money to clear in my account and then I’m going to repurchase a FitBit as I drunkenly lost mine on a Christmas night out. I think it’ll be a good way of keeping track of how active I’m actually being rather than how active I think I’m being.

Generally, I’m feeling positive about how I’m going to reach my goal, particularly after not putting on that much after holiday. Ideally, I would love to lose half a stone before my next holiday (23rd April), but realistically, my body is going to do whatever the hell she wants so I suppose we’ll wait and see!

How did you get on with your weigh in this week? Do you have problems with putting on weight over the holidays?

I know, I know, I did it again, didn’t I?! Personal life has completely got in the way of my blogging habits at the moment – sorry guys! It’s the beginning of term for our baby swimming and it’s always a massively busy time, so although I’ve been reviewing bits and pieces, I haven’t had the time to write. It’s a bit quieter now, so I’m hoping I’ll bash out a few posts for your reading pleasure this week.

It’s Wednesday and we all know what that means! Time for a weigh in! My diet has been okay; I’m still following the WW programme and I’m not even going into my weeklys or my additional activity points, but the quality of my food hasn’t been great…

I’ve given up with the Insanity work out because, although I was sweating profuse amounts (charming!), I didn’t really feel as achey as I would if I went to the gym. Soooo I’ve started back at the gym again since last week and today, I am aching my massive behind off. Anyways, without delay, here’s how I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks (thanks to StepStats.com!):

Huge decline coming my way! Hooray! This year, I’ve lost 4.5lbs. I know this isn’t completely amazing, but so far I’m impressed with my progress. This week, I’ve started drinking Maximuscle Promax shakes (I found them on Groupon, so my bank balance didn’t hate me too much!) and I’ve started some Thermobol tablets, which supports weight loss, definition and helps out my metabolism. I actually think this has been helping, whether it be a placebo effect or the ingredients are actually helping; this week alone, I’ve lost 2.5lbs!

With 21 days until my holiday to Antigua with Jay and his fam, I really want to lose about 7lbs, but I think I’m being over-eager. I have to lose just over 2lbs a week to get there, but I’m just about at my 174lbs mark, which I had such trouble pushing through last time, that I’m wondering if I’m going to plateau now! Fingers crossed for another 2lbs loss for next week and I’ll be well on my way! In fact, if I aim for another 2.5lbs, I would have lost half a stone since the beginning of the year… Here’s hoping, eh?!

This week, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and hope for the best. I’m looking for a cleaner diet though!

How was your weight loss this week? 

This week’s going to be a pretty brief post, as I’m super busy at work! Here’s my graph for the last two weeks (via StepStats.com):

It’s been a very up and down last two weeks. I am still doing my Insanity work out and drinking tonnes of water, so I think that might be the reason why! I’ve just got to keep at it. I’m thinking of going back to the gym alongside my Insanity work out, just to give myself a bit more of a boost! More exercise required!

My diet hasn’t been too bad… Okay, I’m lying. Last week it was really bad, but that’s because of my brother’s birthday and the rugby and whatever else is going on! So I’m focusing on that a lot more this week, for a bigger weight loss for next week.

How has your weight loss been going? Did you lose this week? 

Happy Wednesday, y’all!

Without further adieu, here’s how I’ve done this week (via StepStats):

This week, I lost a huge 2.6lbs! Hooray!! Not only that, I’ve been looking into how I’ve been doing over the last month and this is how it goes:

JUST LOOK AT THE WEIGHT LOSS GOODNESS! Yes, I did weigh less yesterday, but I was at a funeral and there were cheesy chips and I can’t hold myself back from comfort food… I am really proud of myself, particularly this week, as we’ve been hit by snow and I haven’t been to the gym since Thursday! This week, I’m going to concentrate on more exercise; I’m psyching myself up to start the Insanity work out that I bought quite a while ago but scared myself off of… My brother has just started it and he’s already seeing results, so it can’t be that scary. He is a lot fitter than I am though…

This week, I’m feeling a lot more motivated to get the weight off and keep it off. Although I’m sure I won’t have as massive weight loss as this week, I’m really hoping that I can keep the stamina going until holidays in March.

How did you do with your weight loss this week? 

Hi guys. Just a quick one today, as I’m super busy!

Here’s my weigh in graph (from StepStats.com):

This week, I actually put on weight I’m not making excuses, but I have increased my water intake, so I think that might have something to do with it. Also, I’ve had a bit of a stressful week (since Monday and it’s only Wednesday!), so I’m wondering if it’s stress related.

Not happy, but I’ve still got a few more gym sessions before next week’s weigh in, so I’m hoping it’ll sort itself out. After going to the gym today, I have more sessions tomorrow, Friday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week! I have increased my exercise in the hope that I’ll fall into this better routine and weight will fall off. I’m going on another fasting day tomorrow, as I think the last one I had was last Friday, which was nearly a week ago – oops! I’m hoping this might help my weight loss even more.

Dryathlon is still going well I don’t miss the drink at all. My skin is actually starting to recover from the abuse over Christmas! Don’t forget, there’s still time to sponsor me for my non-drinking until April, so go and click on the button on the left and donate what you can to Cancer Research UK.

How was your weigh in this week? 

Okay, so here we go. It’s the first official weigh in on my blog this week to see if the Weight Watchers diet is working for me this year.

On Sunday, I weighed in with my weight loss uni buddy and had lost 0.5lb. Hooray a loss, but boo not that much. I really want to aim for 2lbs a week, so hopefully I’ve made that up through the rest of my week. I have started my intermittent fasting part of my diet (>post here<), and I tried to do it for a full 24 hours yesterday, but gave up at the last hurdle, as we went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour (I’ll show you some of my pictures in my next post! I am blown away and want to live there!) and it was a very walky day alongside going to the gym in the early morning!

Exercise has been good; I went to the gym three times last week, I’ve booked three sessions for this week and I’m going to be swimming after my swimming lessons. I was also planning to go Zumba in the evenings but right now, because of my spending ban (>post here<), I’ll probably start that in March. I’ve lost my Fit Bit and again, due to my spending ban, I’m not replacing that until March.

In terms of my Dryathlon (>post here<), I’m totally not missing booze as much as I thought I would. That makes me sound sooo alcoholic, but I do enjoy a couple of bevvies at the weekend and seeing mates. Instead, I just chilled in with the dog and watched rubbish telly. So far so good! It’s about 11 weeks left, so hopefully, I’ll see an impact on my weight loss with this as well.

Anyways, enough procrastinating. Here’s how I did this week (the following is from my Weight Watchers account )

I’ve lost 1.2lbs this week! Woo hoo! Although slightly off of my target of 2lbs a week, it’s still a loss, so I’m really happy with that. I’m going to keep going as I am going and make sure that I use all of my daily points as that seems to be working at the moment. Gym three times a week is already starting to take it’s toll and I’ve only just had my second session this week! Gross.

How’s your weight loss going so far this year? Have you lost your turkey weight from Christmas!?

Today I’m writing with you about a new dieting lifestyle I have discovered called Intermittent Fasting. My bereavement counsellor first suggested it to me as a way of feeling a lot more ‘guilt free’ about dieting in general. You know, that feeling when you are on a diet, but eat a large deep panned pizza with all the toppings and then feel guilty afterwards? That.

Intermittent fasting is not a new concept and I spent absolutely ages looking into YouTube videos with some impressive befores and afters, and blog posts that are raving about it. The idea is based on fasting for once or twice a week for 24 hours so that your body is burning fat, rather than anything else. There are some astounding results and the fasting doesn’t affect your muscle mass so you aren’t really having a negative impact on your body. The small wins come from when you’re doing well on your diet, when you are fasting and lasting as long as you do and the aim is to not feel so terrible about eating that pizza on one of your non-fasting days. This is what I learned on YouTube, but if you want to read more into it, there is a book called Eat Stop Eat that everyone is raving about. For me, the presentation that the author had uploaded to YouTube was enough for me to get started.

So, instead of weighing in over the past few Wednesdays, because I have been doing really badly at eating and exercising recently, I decided to start on a fasting day. Because my fast is for 24 hours, I can eat again at about 5pm in the evening, but something nice and not calorific, and I can drink water, black tea or coffee (but I don’t drink those!), diet sodas and I can chew chewing gum, although on a good day, that also makes me hungry, so I just sip at my water all day long! Generally, my first fast day went quite well; I went to the gym in the morning and didn’t really feel hungry at all up until lunchtime. The problem with Wednesdays is that I get in the pool to teach for half an hour in the afternoon, which makes me hungry just thinking about it.

I’ve decided to try this diet properly and I’ve taken my before picture. I won’t show that to you now! Hahahaha, but I will do a comparison when I have finally reached my desired weight and feel confident enough that this diet works. Could this be the diet I’ve been waiting for?!

I haven’t weighed myself over the Christmas holidays and jumped on the scale today, to find that I haven’t done at all that badly in the weight department. I’m back to 179lbs, which is quite a lot when you think about when my diet was going amazingly well and I was 174lbs… But swings and roundabouts and I’m totally dedicated to losing all of my weight this year! I’m back to the gym after work this afternoon, I’m giving up the booze for four months and I’m thinking more consciously about food and fasting.

Not only that, I have adopted a new weight loss buddy in an old university friend, who wants to lose weight to fit into her wedding dress for May. Our weigh in day will be Sundays, but I’m still going to be weighing myself all the time, so I’ll keep you updated with a mid-week chart. Hopefully, writing this mid-week and talking to my mate about weight loss on Sunday will be enough to keep my mind off of the pizza.

Have you got a weight loss resolution? What are you doing to change your diet and throw away those lbs?