troughs

Back down again this week, bit narked really, would rather be celebrating putting a little bit of weight on! I'm sure that once my subscription to WW stops, I'll have no trouble putting some weight back on, but it'd be nice to know that I don't have to be a slave to points, it feels like I'm always eating things for the sake of it, but am still scared to save enough points for dinner... It's a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest...

On the up

This week I have been making a concerted effort to put on weight, as last week I dropped to my lowest ever point - 60.6kg (9st7lb), which was shockingly low. However, I've been eating well, I think my metabolism's been going into overdrive with all this running. However, as we had a run this week, our reduced training schedule has helped me put a bit on, and I'm back up to 62.2kg, which is more the weight I'm happy at... It's just very bizarre stuffing yourself with chocolate and curry to get there ;)

Uncharted waters

This week has been weird...Despite a surprise 50th for my mum and the ensuing buffet (egg mayo, anyone?), I have managed to lose weight again, and am now 1kg below my goal weight.

Not panicking at the moment, it's not too far down, and I am still training for the 10k run, so being a little low is probably normal. After all, it's not at all through lack of eating (30 points per day + bonus points is quite enough...).

Maintaining...

Well, today was the first weigh-in of my maintenance phase... Once again, I went a little crazy, and weighed myself on a few machines (last week I couldn't use the uni machines because it was closed, the one in Boots was broken, so used one in BHS, and then another, which was completely way off...then checked the next day using 2 mechanical sets in the swimming pool)...Thought it was wise, so used the two in uni, the usual one in Boots and the one I used last week in BHS! They all pretty much agree (apart from the electronic scales in uni, which always weigh high), and the result is....I stayed the same. Which is great, as I don't have to adjust the points total at all this week (still on 30). Very pleased with that.

GOAL!

Well, after 12 weeks I've made it! Just over 10kg (22lb) down from this time 3 months ago. I have to say, it's not been all that difficult, especially when it's something you really want to do. I had a reasonable goal in mind, and set about trying to achieve that little by little. It's amazing what you can learn about food on the way.

So where from here? Well, now I'm a gold member (which means absolutely nothing when you do it online, you just get a certificate, and you continue to pay!), I enter the next phase: maintenance. Maintenance is a little odd - it just means that you get a whole load more points plonked into your lap, and you adjust the total up or down depending on your gain/loss for the week (1 point up or down for every pound up or down). So now I have 30 points per day, which seems enormous, given that I started with 26 points eight weeks ago, a total which has slowly gone down...and now I have to eat four more than that! I'm sure I'll (eventually) get my head 'round it soon, and not feel guilty having a biscuit with my coffee here and there! Aside from that, the training continues for the 10k run, we're off swimming this afternoon (which, incidentally means I'll probably earn another few bonus points to eat - what am I going to do with all these bloody points?!)...

Week 11

It's my 11th weigh-in day, and I'm still not at goal. This week I've lost 0.5kg, which is good, but just a shame it's a little off! I'm confident that I'll make it to goal next week, particularly as I'm going to start training in earnest for the Cancer Research UK 10k tomorrow (please sponsor me here) that's taking place on the 8th of October. You can read about my training progress and how I'm feeling on my new 10k blog, and leave comments of support!

I have, however, managed to get out to run and cycle a few times over the past week, and have earned some bonus points (which I nearly managed to eat too many of last night), which you earn through exercise. It seems no-one really knows how best to use them, but the general consensus is that you can earn as many as you want, but only eat 12 of them per week (to stop you from shovelling in cream cakes while you're on the treadmill). Some people, me included, prefer to eat half of the bonus points earned (I've yet to earn over 12 in a week). The amount earned depends on your weight, the intensity of the exercise and the length of exercise. So, for example, someone of my weight (63.3kg) would earn 0.5 bonus points by walking slowly for 10 minutes, whereas a 1/2 hour run would earn me 3.5. It's all a bit of a carrot on a stick really, I'm sure some people on weight watchers would do anything for some extra food, even if that means trampolining (sorry, I mean 'rebounding'), skipping or the obsessive completion of the Davina McCall 'Power of 3' dvd ;-) !

Onwards and downwards (a little bit)!

Weighing in

Today, like every Monday is weigh-in day. Not that I mind, as weigh-in has been quite a positive experience so far. In fact, I find it all quite exciting. Weigh-in is like the race after the week's preparation. I haven't put on weight once since starting, though did go through a period of not seeming to go anywhere, staying the same for a few weeks (see The Journey)... Generally, my weight loss has been pretty steady, never really over the 1-2lb recommended per week, aside from an unexpected first week loss. However, lately I've been getting a little annoyed with small losses. I think the fact that I decided to use metric units has made things a little more difficult, as most of the people on the Weight Watchers forums seem to work in pounds, so I can only really compare my losses to my own progress. It also doesn't help that one of the machines I've been using from the start seems to weigh a little high, so I don't feel as if I'm getting as far as I really am.

For example, today I went into uni to weigh in, and on this one particular machine, it shows my weight at 64.4kg (10st2lb), but according to this machine I've lost 400g (just under a pound) this week. However, on the other machine, which weighed me at 64kg last week (10st1lb and a bit), I'm now at 63.5kg (10st). Why does this all matter? Well, I checked my weight using a third machine, which confirmed the lower reading. This means I will have lost half a kilo this week (a psychological boundary, sounds more than 400g), and that I am within half a kilo of goal, rather than being over a kilo over. It's all a bit silly, but that's how things are.

Back over on the Weight Watchers forums, some people are happy to have lost, others are being told that staying the same is good too, and others are being commiserated at a gain. Sometimes it is unclear exactly what happens when you don't get the loss you expect. You can try your hardes all week, stick to your eating plan as well as you want, but somehow everything falls down. Sometimes it can be that you haven't drunk enough water (see here for the reason why), that you haven't really stuck to your plan (for some strange reason, some people justify not counting things like milk in tea or alcohol!), or even that you haven't eaten enough food, and your body goes into starvation mode, holding onto every last ounce of fat. Whatever the reason, we all keep our fingers crossed when this happens that next week we'll end up with a loss, and sometimes it happens in a rather spectacular fashion, with a loss that makes up for the previous week...