Day 6

We were still in Manchester and still walking everywhere that we went. I started the day with a cup of tea in the hotel room. We then walked out to find somewhere serving breakfast, we ended up in a Cafe Rouge where I ordered 2 poached eggs and toast with a cup of tea.

The remainder of the morning we spent walking around the shops and sights. At lunch we went it a bar that was offering lunch for £4.00. I ordered the breast of chicken burger with chips (I could honestly count on the one hand how many times in the last month that I have eaten chips before this trip). I did the same as the day before and gave half of the chips to my bf and only ate one half of the bun that the burger was in.

The rest of the day was spent on the train before leaving we stocked up on healthy snacks for the journey - we got carrot sticks, hummous, satsumas and low fat crisps. After getting off the train we walked the 20 minutes home instead of getting a taxi (we were glad of the exercise and fresh air). Once home I had a cup of tea and 2 slices of toast.

Day 5

What a sloppy blogger I have been lately - thankfully I have been sticking to the plan! I was away for the weekend and returned with a cold, so I have not really been feeling like keeping my little blog - but I am back on it today!

Day 5 was an early start, as we were heading for an early train to Manchester, but I still made sure I had time to eat breakfast - so that I was not snacking on the journey. I made myself a sachet of Oat so Simple porridge (apple and blueberry flavour). For the journey I packed some of the Berry muffins that I had made, cereal bars and a few cans of diet Coke. The journey down was fine and all I had to eat was a muffin and a can of diet Coke.

When we arrived we headed to Bella Italia for lunch (we had a buy 1 get 1 free voucher). I ordered a roasted vegetable panini and a diet Coke. The panini came with chips, so I straight away moved half of the portion onto my bf's plate, I also took off the top layer of bread on the panini and ate it like it was an open sandwich.
The remainder of the afternoon was spent doing a LOT of walking around the shops and the various Christmas markets that were taking place. We stopped in at Starbucks where I had a cup of tea to heat up.

Before heading out to dinner my bf and I shared a bottle of Champagne in our hotel room. We then walked to the restaurant - a steakhouse. I ordered the Teriyaki steak (it came with rocket and spring onion salad) and I had a few of the chips that my bf ordered. We shared a bottle of wine with the meal and then headed to a nearby bar to have a few drinks before walking back to the hotel.

Day 4

Last night I made some Berry Muffins, I got the recipe off of the weight watchers website. They were very easy to make and are 1.5 points per muffin. I would say that mine turned out to be more like a scone than a muffin, but they are very tasty - I think I may try a slightly different method the next time that I make them.
So, as a treat I had one of the the muffins (still a little warm) and 2 of the chocolates from my advent calendar with a cup of tea (well I manage to stretch the treats out over 2 cups of tea!).

I think that tonight may be a bit harder! We usually have dinner and then share a bottle of wine if we are not going out. But, we are going to be having dinner and drinks out tomorrow night when we are away, so I do not want to treat myself 2 nights in a row. This means that I will be watching the X Factor with a cup of tea and maybe a muffin! It will be back to walking tonight and I will try and make it an hour long before lounging in front of the TV for the evening!

Today I have eaten the following:

2 slices of wholemeal toast
1 poached egg
1 slice of wholemeal bread
home made weight watchers soup (same as yesterday)
Tonight's dinner is pasta and meatballs in a tomato and basil sauce.

Already looking back at what I have been eating this week I can see that it will get boring very quickly. As I mentioned I am going to take some time on Tuesday night to prepare for the weeks meals. I think it will be another week of soups for lunch, but it will be a different variety. I think I will also change what I have for breakfast next week - I have lots of Oats So Simple porridge in, so a week of that will be a nice change.

Day 3

All is still going well and I am still positive, motivated and giving this my all - yes I do know that it has been 3 days but I usually am kidding myself in one way or another and this time I am doing things the right way eg no cheating or pretending I did not eat something that I did!! I know that planning is the key to making this work for me. I also know that there are going to be days that I no longer want to eat what I have planned, but I am going to have to stick with it and not give into the temptation of local food outlets! To help make this happen I am setting aside Tuesday night next week to prepare and freeze meals for the coming week.

Last night after dinner I headed out for a walk, I only walked for 30 minutes as it was so cold. I did not feel too bad about not walking for the full hour as I was putting the Christmas tree up when I got in so I was up and down, bending and stretching for about an hour. Again I had another evening of eating not a single thing after my dinner - I have also found that when I have my evening cup of tea if I make the water as hot as possible (I usually let it cool a little) I take my time drinking it and I am not bothered about the lack of biscuit or chocolate.
I bought my bf and myself an advent calender yesterday as they were reduced to 49p as it is so late on in the month. When I got it home I wondered why I have given myself the temptation??
Anyway, I worked out the weight watchers points value per chocolate to be 0.5 points, so if I do decide to have one I can mark it down correctly.

Tonight after work my bf and I are going swimming again. I plan to swim for the same length of time as Monday (30 minutes) but I am going to try and squeeze in an extra 2 lengths. Fingers crossed I managed. We will be eating dinner afterwards and tonight we are having chicken and vegetable stir fry (with noodles for my bf) in soy, ginger and garlic sauce.
So far today I have eaten the following:

2 slices wholemeal toast
1 egg poached
homemade weight watchers soup (the same as day 1)
2 slices of wholemeal bread
1 apple (I have not eaten this yet, but will be having it at some point over the afternoon)
I may have 2 of the chocolates from the advent calendar when we are watching TV later tonight - I have the points left over to have them, but I may change my mind.

Day 2

Well I did go out my walk last night (walked and talked for an hour) and between getting home and going to bed (about 2.5 hours) I managed to not snack. I know that it is a small thing but I feel great - after dinner and before bed is a real weak time for me when I am usually looking for things the nibble at.

So far today I have eaten the following:

2 slices of wholemeal toast
I poached egg
1 small portion of leftover chilli and rice
1 satsuma (not had yet but I am going to eat it as soon as I have typed this)

Picture of my lunch - I have since changed my mind about the cereal bar and it is now back in the bottom of my bag.

This evening for dinner I will be having spicy sausage tortellini with a tomato and mascapone sauce. I have bought some fresh bread to have with oil and balsamic vinegar, but I will only be having one or two thin slices at the most.
I also hope to get a 30 minute to an hour walk in this evening too - it has been dry and cold all day so if it stays that way it will be a great night for a walk.

Day 1

I am calling this day 1 even though I have been on this mission since Monday. Today was my first day at Weight Watchers. I went along joined, got weighed and got all of my starter information. I have opted to pay for the next 3 meetings up front - I am hoping that knowing that I have already spent the money will help keep me going.
So, I now know where I stand, what I weigh and where I want to get to.

I have been told by the meeting leader to write down everything that I eat each day, so I am going to duplicate that here. So far today I have/will be having:

2 slices wholemeal toast
1 poached egg
1 bowl of tomato, red pepper and rice soup
1 slice of wholemeal bread
1 satsuma
1 cereal bar
Tonight's dinner is chilli and rice

This evening I am meeting my friend and we are going to head out on an hour long walk as we have our catch up chat. I walk to and from work everyday (it is about 1/2 a mile all in) I am also trying to walk twice more in the week for an hour each time and my bf and I have decided to swim for 30 minutes twice a week! We went for the first time on Monday night and it went well!
I am hoping that all of this is going to have a good effect on my weight and my life in general.

The new start.

I have been playing at being healthy and dieting for months now and the only thing that I am seeing happen is that my clothes are getting tighter, I'm getting more unfit and I am becoming more and more sluggish and lazy!

While on holiday last month I was only truly happy with how 2 out of 8 outfits looked on me!! So, I made a decision to make a change and do it for real this time around. I chatted to my bf about all of the things that are bothering me and he feels some of the things that I am going through too.
Together we have decided to be more active, eat healthy good foods and try to look after ourselves more.

I am going to try and keep a daily journal of how I am doing in my personal quest!