The reasons…

Only three and a half years until my 40th birthday *screams* so here are all my reasons for losing weight before I hit the big one.

1. I was either pregnant or breastfeeding (or both) for 3.5 years and now I’ve got my body back to myself I want to make as good as it deserves
2. I want to be able to buy clothes from anywhere, not just plus size shops and websites
3. To feel fitter and not so knackered all the time
4. Not to ache all over when I get out of bed in the morning
5. When my children get older, I don’t want them to look at other mums and wonder why their mum is so much bigger
6. To stop looking around and realising that I’m the fattest person in the room
7. To be able to climb around the playgym/play football/run around with the darlings and not get out of breath after 2 minutes…  I want them to grow up with memories of a healthy and fit mum
8. To feel attractive and get noticed by people
9. When I look in the mirror I don’t see a fat person (I’m in denial!) so I want my body to match what’s in my head!
10. To be able to wear skirts (with tights and long boots in the winter)

Eat less, move more

So a bit about my weight loss plan… as I mentioned before I’ve signed up to Nutracheck’s online food diary service. It’s basically a calorie counting weight loss plan (don’t like calling it a diet!). You put in your personal details… age, sex, height, weight, activity levels, weight goals and it tells you how many calories you can have per day and how many calories to burn from exercise per day.

I want to lose 2lb per week so based on all my details I have 1727 calorie intake and 200 calories to burn per day. Then you can choose an ‘easy’ day so you get more calories that day and less calories for the rest of the week. My easy day is Saturday when I can have 2245 cals, so the rest of the week I have 1641 cals per day. A typical day would be:

Breakfast = 323 cals
Plain porridge made with semi skimmed milk and 1tsp Canderel, Alpen Light Cereal Bar, Banana

Lunch = 432 cals
Vegetable soup with 2 slices of Weightwatchers thick sliced bread, Mullerlight yoghurt, Walkers French Fries crisps

Dinner = 607 cals
Home made bolognaise sauce with a small portion of pasta, cheesy garlic bread

Supper = 228 cals
Weetabix with whole milk and 1tsp Canderel

Total = 1590 cals

I usually have a few calories spare at the end of the day so that if I go a little over one day , I will still be under for the whole week (hope this makes sense!)

The eating part is fine but I’m struggling to do any exercise at all. I try to go to Aqua Zumba on a Sunday afternoon but haven’t made it for a couple of weeks. I’ve got a fitness DVD but have yet to give it a go as I’ve been too lazy and knackered on an evening when the darlings are in bed!

Oh well, hopefully with summer coming and lighter evenings I’ll make a bit more effort!

Weigh In – Week 6

In between cleaning up sick and looking after a poorly Lydia, I managed to find the time to weigh myself on Saturday morning! So I lost…. *drum roll*….. 4lbs!!! I was so chuffed! I’ve not done anything different this week but it seems to have caught up with me at last after 2 disappointing weeks.

So I’ve lost 12lbs in total now! Only another 16lbs left to my 1st target of 10% weight loss. I’m setting myself small targets, taking it a little at a time, although I do have an overall goal weight but I’ll carry on with what I’ve been doing and get there eventually… no rush!!!

Weigh In – Week 5

Saturday is my weigh-in day but I wasn’t holding out much hope of a loss this week. Not because I’ve been eating badly (apart from the cream tea at the spa on Monday!) but because I have done a couple of sneaky weigh-ins during the week! I weighed myself on Tuesday and had gained 3lb and weighed myself on Friday and had gained 2lb. Anyway the official weigh in was this morning and I have gained 1lb.

So I stayed the same last week and gained 1lb this week but I’ve done nothing different to the first 3 weeks of the diet when I lost 9lbs. I’ve not gone over my daily calorie allowance all week. I wonder if my body is now getting used to having less calories? Should I do more exercise? I’m disappointed that I’ve hit this wall so early on. Oh well I’m just going to carry on and stick with it and hopefully the weight loss will catch me up next week!

The joys of the playgym

It snowed a bit this morning. So while I was at work I was trying to think of something to do with the darlings to get us all out of the house this afternoon. There was by no means inches of snow but it was freezing and I didn’t fancy going out in the cold today.

Anyway, I decided to go to a playgym, soft play or whatever you want to call it! So after a quick lunch (quiche with salad today) off we popped to Fizzy Lizards. We go to quite a few different playgym’s in the area but this is one of my favourites. It’s located in a huge complex called Cathedral House which also includes a coffee shop, book shop, conference facilities and 2100 seat auditorium!

Anyway, the playgym is really light and bright, having floor to ceiling windows along the full length one wall. It’s really spacious which is a big plus for me as I tend to feel a little claustrophobic in some playgyms when all the tables are tightly packed together and there are no open spaces! The cafe is brilliant too, with a really good choice of food for both adults and children… paninis, jacket potatoes, baguettes, kids meals… all yummy stuff! It also has a fab outdoor play area which is lovely when the weather permits! The only negative about the place (in my humble opinion) is it’s quite pricey. £3.50 each for entry and the food is a bit expensive too. So by the time I’ve paid for them both, bought drinks, snacks, a coffee for me, I’ve spent well over £10…. I don’t mean to sound tight because I’m not (well not much!) but I’m just comparing it to other playgyms we visit that are cheaper.

The darlings love it too! The actual playgym bit is quite small which is great for their age group as Oliver feels confident to go in by himself and Lydia can even manage to do a bit of climbing (with my help). There’s a lovely baby section too that is great for the really young ones. I must admit that I love going in too! It’s such a great workout! I’m sure I burn loads of calories climbing round after the darlings.

So what do you think about playgyms? Personally I love them and wish they’d been around when I was a kid! I do however think there’s pro’s and con’s to these places. I’m a firm believer in getting the darlings out in the fresh air and enjoying as much time as possible outdoors so I would never go to a playgym when it’s nice weather, we prefer to go to the park or playground. We had a brilliant time this afternoon though and the darlings were both tired out and fast asleep by 7pm and I’ll be in bed very soon too!

Diminishing Debra!

I forgot to mention yesterday that Saturday is my weigh in day! I’ve lost 9lbs in the last 3 weeks and yesterday was my 4th weigh-in. Well I stayed the same this week which was a bit disappointing but I’m still feeling positive and motivated to lose lots of weight this time.

I’ve tried diets in the past (some successful, some not!) I was lucky that I didn’t put on too much weight during both my pregnancies and any weight I gained disappeared almost as soon as I gave birth! But I was overweight before I had the darlings and have wanted to lose weight for a long time but just didn’t have the inclination or motivation… until now!

My sister lost a lot of weight a couple of years ago using the online food diary service Nutracheck so I thought I’d give it a go. I won’t go into great detail about it but it’s basically calorie counting. I’ve found it easy so far and have made a few changes to my diet… mainly swapping to lower calorie/fat versions of what I already eat and eating smaller portions. I’ve also been trying to do more exercise and have started going to ‘Aqua Zumba’ once a week. I was a bit skeptical about it at first as it seemed a bit too good to be true but 9lb lost in 4 weeks proves that it really does work!

In other news….! I took the darlings to a 3rd birthday party this afternoon. It was a pirate and princess themed party so Oliver was dressed in his pirate pyjamas and Lydia had the cutest ever little princess dress. Don’t they look adorable!

Tomorrow I’m having a spa day and I absolutely can’t wait! I think it’s the first ever time I’ve had a whole day to myself since before I had the darlings and I’m going to thoroughly relax and enjoy it. I’m even planning to have a little nap in the relaxation room after lunch!