Woooooooooooo

OK, so had a weekend of enjoying myself - surprise double date on Friday night, and celebrating a friends birthday on Saturday night. I managed to stay away from the bread as much as I could, and this week I've been really good with meals, so anything that I put on at the weekend I'm melting off already! Very happy about it.

This weekend we are off to the Lisloughrey Lodge courtesy of a competition that I won on 98fm a couple of weeks ago. It was meant to be a full weekend of boot-camp - and I was quite excited, but now they've called and told me would it be OK if I didn't do the boot-camp  it's postponed till April - and just came and enjoyed the luxury of the hotel - all meals included!! Um, yeah, hell yeah!!

So, gone is the weekend of healthy breakfast lunch and dinner and running around for 8 hours a day. Now it's going to be nice, relaxing and hopefully a bit romantic! :-)

YAY!

Tomorrow's also my last day in my current job, so nice and handy today, clearing out my desk and saying good bye to some of the people in the building. Had a scone for breakfast as well - not ideal, but I have my own lunch, and am having a small omelette for dinner so that's OK.

This is what you get...

When you get to goal!!! 

I made it... :-) After completing the tough and grueling Run in the Dark, I was hopeful that today's weigh in would be a good one. And low and behold, it was-  down 2 pounds on last week, and at my goal weight. That's 143 on their scales, (10st 3lb) and 9st 12 on my own scales. 

I just wanted to thank those that really helped me on my journey - only one or two of who reads my blog / knows that it exists. Without their support I'd have long since fallen off the wagon and fallen back into my size 18s. 

Now - I've free membership to fat camp for the rest of my days... and I have a 5lb window where I can go up or down without being penalised. I hope to never go up more than 5 - but I am more than aware that life does happen! 

Still no wheat....

Ok, so I've been cheating a little bit and have had the odd portions of wheat, but nothing like the toast fest I was having before (I guess, even though I didn't think I ate that much toast)

Friday was torture. It's supermarket shopping day for me - which normally requires visits to one supermarket  that sells things discounted. However, as its a discounted place it didn't have some of the stuff, so I headed off to a main stream supermarket. They were completely sold out of all fresh fish  - the key protein in my dinner on Friday. CRAP. So, off I went to a third supermarket! After landing in my door at 6.10, changing and going out, I wasn't back home until 845, and then had to leave again to collect himself from the train. Also had a crazy incident with my neighbour - she's clearly all kinds of crazy. 

Dinner was amazing, baked hake with pesto, red onion, chorizo and tomatoes. 

Saturday - went to the www.artsource.ie to see some of local Irish and based in Ireland artists - yeah, wasn't as good as last year, but still it was nice to go to. Spent the morning of Saturday on a grueling 13.5km run - which was hard going (2 glasses of wine and 2 bottles of beer on Friday night - NOT my friend), but soooo worth it, and then before the exhibition went to lunch. At lunch I had a smoked salmon open (that's how it was written on the menu - in the salad section!) - however, when it arrived I then realised that it was an open sandwich served on one piece of brown bread. So I ate that. Then I ate chocolate cake - which was amazing. 

Saturday's dinner had disaster points all over it - it should haev come with a WW warning - TWO BOTTLES OF WINE (yeah, for me - I shared 1/2 of one bottle), potato gnocchi - YUM, and a cream and bacon sauce. Gnocchi is something I've never ordered or made before. Even though it was a bit glutenous it was pretty tasty when fried off in the pan and my boyfriend LOVED it. 

Sunday was a good food day, had a couple of these sausages - which did taste low-fat, but at the same time gave me the sausage hit that I wanted. They did not pass the test of the boyfriend though, and I think he would have preferred something a little more fatty! Oh well - it's 1WWPP vs 4 WWPP for a full fat saussie!!
Then I had a falafel from the market and a rice crispie square - with chocolate. Delish! 

This week's been good so far, today weighed in at 9st 13lb :-) Have a 10k race tonight  so am looking forward to that, and any more positive effects it might have on the scales...

Menu today:
Protein shake 2pp
Grapefruit 0pp
Yogurt 1pp
Chicken salad with low fat mozz and dressing 6pp
Porridge 2
Yogurt 1

then home to collapse on the couch... not sure what I'll be able for after the run - sometimes I'm not ready to eat anything right after, and we've no eggs - my normal emergency meal option! 

Quick post before I head out the door...

So, WW  today - 

DOWN 2.5LBS - yes, that's right, bold, and caps and underlined... and a different colour font! I've also realised that I am no longer craving a caffiene fix in the afternoon - such as coffee or a diet coke, and that in a week i've had no diet drinks at all (or carbonated drinks) and wonder if they were bloating me long term - i always felt a bit more bloated when I drank them, but then assumed that it was normal!

I am so chuffed - as was my leader, she said, 'well done - see you did tell me you'd get that off now the last time you came'. I also am particularly chuffed as this means that I am now

2 POUNDS FROM GOAL. 

Next week is a birthday party for one of my best friends. It's a night away, and there's going to be copious amounts of alcohol, and some sort of food - as well as the following day, travelling, and therefore munching in the car. So - going to be smart about this - 10k run before we head down on Saturday - that's an extra 10 WW pro points for me and the dinner that night will not include any of the following:

• bread
• pasta
• noodles
• chips / french fries

All so I can get into this dress, or a dress that looks like that as the dress I have isn't online any more!! It's a UK10 - and I've been trying it on over and over again... I am planning on wearing it with black tights, gold shoes and a cream jacket.... but I DO NEED TO BE ABLE TO SIT DOWN IN IT AT LEAST FOR DINNER!

Breakfast the following day will also not include

• bread
• dairy 
• too much sugar

but it will probably look like this, a lovely Irish fry-up, hangover cure and little bit of heaven on a plate... yummo

Wheat free day 4...

Ok, so last night - Tuesday - was a bit of a mish-mash of a dinner. It's the day when both Mark and I are busiest with Soccer, bootcamp and the timings are all over the place. 

Bootcamp's not till 730, which means that when I get home from work I HAVE to eat some thing! Otherwise I am famished, and not really able for the class. So, I decided to give the porridge another go. This time i thought there might be a way to make it, and then fry it to give it a bit of a crispy edge. Nope, there's not - but it does create a lot of mess... :-( I did remember that I had a heap of frozen blueberries in the freezer - so I added a handful of them to the gloop, and then i diced 1/2 a cox apple and added that too. The apple saved the day - it definitely made the difference between it being gloopy and palatable. Added one teaspoon of golden syrup and ate it - three points. Same as a slice of toast sans rien - and considering I had progressed to toast with peanut butter I am better off with the porridge. sigh - I do love my PB. After bootcamp we both had really enjoyable bowls of roasted butternut squash soup, and today I am going to make a roasted tomato, garlic and basil soup which will be minus the butter, and will make a smaller quantity as I've only about 2 lbs of tomatoes in the fridge and its really just for tomorrow's dinner for me, and lunch for Mark - all we need is a couple of bowls. If it works out then I'll stock up on tomatoes over the weekend and make it again.  

Only good thing about winter is the soups... :-) 

Today's lunch is a scraping the bottom of the fridge lunch - there's spinach leaves - end of bag, sun-dried tomatoes - end of jar, beetroot - end of jar, chicken - end of the cooked chicken, and 40g of cheese - so end of the cheese too. I think it will be nice - i also added 1/2 a tsp of oil to the salad to give it some gloss. 

The scales today showed 10.1 (141) - but briefly briefly flicked to 9.13.8 :-) All I want is tomorrow to be 10 stone heading to my weigh in. I'd feel a lot better - I absolutely hate the fear of going to WW and knowing that you've cocked up! 

Also - i changed my tracking system. Instead of using their books, which are bright green and a bit ridiculous, I have decided to use my own notebook, and just stick within the 29 a day, and then track for 5 week days, and as much of the weekend as I can. I am not going to be that girl writing down her points while she's hammered in the chipper at 3am - but I'll do the best I can to stay out of the chipper :-) Good thing I'm not hitting the pub this weekend! 

The scales...and wheat free day 3

So last night's dinner was hake, spuds and veggies, and then i followed it with a three point curly wurly - the best value (points wise) chocolate you can get - they take so damn long to eat! 

I needed a snack before I went running and had 25g of apricot, raisin and nut porridge (my first attempt at eating porridge as an adult), with some golden syrup to sweeten (we had no honey!). 

Yesterday the scales said 10st 3.2 (143 lbs), today they said 10st 1.2 - (141lbs). Note - the scales and home, and the WW scales never tell the same story for me. The WW scales are about 2 pounds over what I need to be. However, this is all good news on the wheat front - As I was not hungry yesterday, and at the same time I was not bloated, and I still showed a down tick on the scales. I even stood on them twice to make sure! 

Weigh-in day is normally Thursday, but it might be Wednesday this week as I might go see my mum on Thursday instead. We'll see! The last time I went I was 10st 7.5 on the scales in WW - and the week before I'd made it to 10st 5 (145 lbs) - which is only 2 short of my goal. 

I have to remember that when I started I was a WHOLE LOT HEAVIER... 

Taken in 2008 - long before WW was even on my radar...

June 2010 - 6 months before WW - so I was still gaining! 

November 2010 - still pre WW (I had to donate this leather jacket last year as even with a hoody inside it it was swimming on me - it felt good!)

July 2012... over 55 pounds gone! :-) (I'm actually wearing shorts!)

Back to basics... I've been slacking!

Ok, so the posting has been a lot less inspired than I had hoped - and a lot more kudos go out to my friends who blog all the time - Jenn and Lynn, and Tiffany - you guys are amazing, how do you find the time! 

I have decided, based on my allergies, to go wheat free for a week - and see how that goes for me. So, no more sneaky slices of toast, no more digestives that were bought for the chocolate biscuit cake, and no more pasta - just for a week, which started on Saturday. So far it's been ok, as I mentally know that I can have some carbs, and there's a lot of wheat free options out there.

This is in attempt to reduce the itching that I experience all over my body, especially my eyes, throat, nose and legs, and to reduce my sniffles. I'll update how it goes. I may continue for one more week to ensure that i get into that LBD for my friends birthday on the 17th! :-) Who knows!!

Well - today's lunch was leftover fajita peppers (I didn't have the tortillas on Saturday), spinach leaves, roasted chicken and a tiny piece of cheese that was just too small to put back in the wrapper (think 1/4 of a matchbox). It was tasty, followed by an apple and a yoghurt and it was nice and filling - and i'd estimate maybe 6 points for the whole thing - the yogurt was only 1!!:-) 

This evening we are having grilled hake, baby potatoes, brocolli and carrots (boiled) - and I may add a teeeeny bit of parmesan to the veggies and perhaps the fish. I've a long run scheduled with my running buddy too -  12.5km - and have to work out what to eat before I do that. It's going to be hard if I can't have the toast I normally do. My boyfriend's going to get me some oranges, so that might do - or I can have a 2pt protein shake - that might work also, but I think the oranges, with the natural sugar and fibre will probably give me more energy...