Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Canberra Show

Wednesday:

Health has continued fickle, I've had a couple of well days and then plunged back into the horrible depths of ... well, very mild illness. Yesterday was probably my worst, with nasty diarrhoea.

Thus my exercise has been very intermittent so far this week. It has rained every day but I have at least walked the kids to and from school every day except yesterday. I've only done more vigorous exercise twice.

We went to Canberra Show (agricultural fair) on Sunday and I did pretty well with the food. Instead of indulging in everything and taking home at least one showbag; I had half a donut, some chicken and pad thai for lunch, and a few bites of samples. No sugary "home made" lemonade (I brought a water bottle, and grapes, from home), and no show bag. I tried to focus on watching the wood chopping and sheep dog trials and dog agility and all the pretty cows.

It is always frustrating when your momentum is stalled by illness, but hopefully I am on the mend now.

Friday, February 24, 2012

WW Weigh-in: 79.2 kg; down 0.1 kg

Friday:

Official Weight Watchers weigh-in today. I lost 0.1 kg, my lowest amount so far, yet I was happiest with it. I was actually thinking I might record a gain so a loss, even a small one, was a relief. It's all relative.

It means I have lost a total of 1 kg in 3 weeks. Certainly not what I was hoping for when I started WW, but as long as the numbers keep going down it must be working.

I didn't stay for the meeting today, I just had too much to do.

After feeling well yesterday for the first time in over a week, I had a bad night when my daughter kept waking us with her misery -- she has come down with a cold -- and I feel pretty wrecked again today.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Tricky week

Thursday:

Weigh-in is tomorrow and I'm a bit nervous. The first two weeks I expected a big loss and didn't get it; this week I didn't exercise at all due to illness and have the least weekly ProPoints left over so far so I don't think I will have a loss at all. It's not just guesswork either, I weigh myself every day at home and as of this morning I was 300 grams heavier than I was last Friday.

So, where did I go wrong? I couldn't help being sick, I'm not worried about the lack of exercise. I'm feeling much better today, finally. The PP blowout was really only on Tuesday with the pizza, other days I've only gone over my daily PP by a couple. Tuesday was a biggie though. I didn't have take away after swimming on Wednesday, I didn't have D&D supper this week, no other binges. Probably shouldn't have made chilli lemon chicken tonight, quite a bit of oil in the marinade and it ended up costing more PP than I expected. Within the budget though, more or less.

Overall I am still on track with the food, I just had one bad day. One bad meal, really.

To work on: getting back into exercise, obviously. Fitting more dairy into my diet -- if I don't have cheese with a meal some days I'm having nothing more than the milk in my tea, and that isn't enough.

On the rest-of-life front I have decided that the internet is a huge time suck-hole. Anyone else noticed that? So it's banned during work hours, and reduced other times. Read a few less blogs, a few less amusing memes. I need more time for other stuff.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Pizza

more Tuesday:

Aiden slept all afternoon -- I had hoped he would wake feeling well enough for me to pop up to the shops to grab dinner. But he stayed asleep. I tried to find a Chinese restaurant that would home deliver on a Tuesday and would take a credit card to do so -- no luck. Nothing in the house I could make a meal of. So I ordered pizza. I was already feeling pretty down, now I feel bloated and miserable and a failure.

I had 11 ProPoints left for the day; plenty of weekly ones as well so I was prepared to use a few of those. I ate half a pepperoni pizza, as usual: 21 PP. And a slice of cheesy garlic bread (not usual): another 4 PP. And a little chocolate cake (never before): I've guesstimated another 8 PP but for all I know it could have been more. 33 ProPoints in one meal! Well over a whole day's allowance. And not a single vegetable. No wonder I feel yuck.

I felt like I had no choice, but there is always a choice. I could have ordered something for Tim & Jasmine but had toast and an apple myself. I could have had two slices of pizza for about 10 PP and that apple. Sure I didn't have much food in the house but there is probably even some tinned tuna. No-one made me eat half a pizza plus extras I don' t even usually have.

I was craving junky food all afternoon. Just because I'm tired and stressed, probably.

I woke Aiden at 6 pm after he'd been asleep for more than 4 hours because I didn't want him to be awake all night, but he wasn't interested in food (vegemite toast, not pizza!) and just wanted to sleep so I gave him a very quick bath and put him back to bed. He has the best eating habits in this house, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and doesn't eat when he isn't hungry.

Goodness he looked thin in the bath. All ribs and spine and shoulder blades.

Sick family

Tuesday:

I have continued to feel unwell since last Wednesday and have not exercised during that time but I have continued to eat healthily. My weight hasn't moved for a week, basically within 100 grams of 77.8 kg on the home scale. 77.8 kg is a lovely number but it is time to move on! I was down to 77.5 kg this morning so maybe it will finally go down. I can't hit a plateau after only two weeks! I need to get well and get back to exercising. I feel pretty awful today but that might be lack of sleep.

Aiden started throwing up yesterday morning and is still going today. He's been home from kindy and no-one got a lot of sleep last night. My poor baby, he has no extra body fat so after 36 hours without food his ribs stick out.

If I can't get out to the shops today I don't know what we will be having for dinner -- home delivered pizza maybe. Not good, but I'm not sure what else to do. Tim works long hours and rides his bike to and from work, he needs more than toast.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

WW weigh-in: 79.3 kg; down 0.4 kg

Friday:

I had my third Weight Watchers meeting this morning with my official weigh-in. I had really been hoping for a big number as I only lost 0.5 kg last week, not a big number for the first week of a new diet. But this week it was 0.4 kg. Very frustrating.

Also odd because the WW scales don't seem to relate to my scales at all. I don't expect the same number, of course -- it is a different time of day and fully dressed for WW -- but I thought the difference from week to week would have some correlation. But no. Week 1 at home was a loss of 0.2 kg but 0.5 at WW. Week 2 at home was 0.8 kg but 0.4 at WW. Oh well, I just have to get over it and get on with it.

A combination of disappointment, slight unwellness, and annoying people meant I didn't enjoy the meeting as much as other times. There was a long delay before we started, during which I was talked at by two other ladies: one around my age who seems to be a know-it-all who never shuts her mouth, and the other an older lady who blamed her low weight-loss (bigger than mine!) on too much fruit (?) and the rainy weather preventing her from exercise. Nothing so terrible there, except that she repeated these two points over and over again to everyone around her and then the leader. Very whiney and complaining. Yes I know I whine here on my blog, but you don't have to read it if you don't want to. I was trapped next to this lady!

Last week the leader had set us an unofficial goal of 0.6 kg each, but it seems no one at all reached it. I don't know if anyone actually lost weight this week other than myself and Granny Whinger. Two other people near me gained weight, not sure about the rest of the group.

Apart from that, the meeting was ok. It was about making time for yourself to get healthy. I have always carved out personal time for myself, the only problem is I don't always use it to exercise!

Ok, lets reframe the week positively (I haven't learned about reframing yet but BitchCakes used to talk about it a lot). I lost weight! Yay! Nearly a kg in the fortnight, and a loss two weeks in a row.

I have stuck to a diet successfully for two whole weeks. Tracked every day. No cheating. No private binges. Excessive unhealthy food twice a week but planned and budgeted for, other days only a fun-size milky way or WW low-fat ice cream.

Hit my exercise goal of 21 activity points. I know I can do more than this, but I have spent several days unwell. Earned a Pandora charm which I bought today.

You see, lots of good things.

What do I need to work on? More exercise. Not getting takeaway every week after swimming, trying some other options like casserole that is ready when we get home. Continue all the good stuff I am doing.

On the non-weight-loss front the big thing I need to work on is managing my work time much better, I am really struggling to get into a routine. I have work lined up for the next four months and I have to stop faffing around. Unless I work more efficiently during the day I'll have to give up some evening or weekend time, or get up earlier. That should be motivation enough!

Starting weight: 80.2 kg
Week 1: 79.7 kg
Week 2: 79.3 kg
5% goal: 76.2 kg
Goal weight: 58 kg

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A bit unwell

Thursday:

Yesterday I threw up my breakfast then felt queasy on and off all day -- although it didn't stop me eating! Today I feel a bit tired and weak. I probably just have Aiden's cold, and swallowing a huge multi-vitamin was too much for a slightly unwell tummy. Or something.

I did a "week 3" WW quiz to find out how much exercise I should be doing and it came up with 21 activity ProPoints to earn. In my first week I earned 16. I think the WW minimum is 14 but the quiz revealed that I not completely unfit so I can do more than that. I've done a lot more this week and will hit 22 today with just walking the kids to and from school (luckily, as I don't feel up to anything more strenuous). You self-rate exercise as low, moderate, or high intensity -- obviously walking to school is low -- and get a lot more points for high intensity. It's my last day of week 2 (counting weigh-in Friday as day 1) today, so just made it to my goal.

Last week this time a combination of bad food and TOM sent my weight up quite a bit, this week the same foods (D&D supper and takeaway after swimming lesson) have merely caused my weight to stay the same for a couple of days. So I think TOM did have a big effect.

Tired and headachy, but I need to get some work done.

Really looking forward to my WW meeting tomorrow.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Points

Tuesday:

Since Friday I have been well under my ProPoints budget after dinner every day, and have snacked the rest of them in the evening. This is not a habit I want to get into, even though the snacks have been relatively healthy. I wasn't hungry and eating in the evening leaves me bloated at bedtime, I just ate because I had the points. I need to plan better to eat all my food types (enough dairy etc) during the day, and if I am not hungry then I won't eat.

Perhaps I wasn't as far under with my ProPoints as I thought, though; my cups of tea are 0 points each but when the sugar & milk is added together apparently 0 + 0 = 3! I've had to start tracking that differently to reflect that my tea is not 0 if I have more than one.

Weigh-ins at home are still going well, by my scale I have dropped nearly a kilo with three days still to go before my official weigh-in. D&D supper tonight and take-away tomorrow will probably stall me a bit, but I still hope for a kilo loss overall this week.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Trying new foods

Sunday:

I've had a good weekend; exercised both days, healthy food. Didn't do much else. I've had these 64 books to read and judge for an award, and yesterday I finally finished the last one! Now I get my life back. I hardly know what to do with myself. Well, what I have been doing is more reading -- but for pleasure now. I'm reading Game of Thrones -- I've read the first two before but I am starting again from the beginning and will read all five straight. Great books, great writing.

I'm trying not to wish my life away, at the moment. I keep looking forward to future things -- big, like when I have lost this excess weight; and small, like my favourite TV shows -- instead of enjoying the moment.

I love cooking and I have a big recipe folder as well as plenty of cookbooks; but today I started to put together my own healthy recipe book, called "Path to Petite" after this blog. It is only going to have meals that fit well into a healthy lifestyle and promote weightloss. I started with the roast tomato soup that I made for lunch today. It is adapted from a Delicious magazine recipe but with a lot less butter and a bit less bother. I'm taking photos of my food for it too, but having some problems downloading the photos from my camera. I'll add those later.

I'm on a mission to try new foods. I made five new recipes in the past two weeks (three good, two not so much), and I have also tried (or tried again) three vegetables I don't usually have. Button squash, sweet potato, and parsnip. I still didn't like any of them, but at least I tried! The parsnip and squash were edible, I suppose. I'll keep finding new things to taste.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Think!

Still Saturday:

I just earned a Pandora charm! Yay!

On Just Dance 3, on the Kinect, I think it scores you out of 12,000 (even with a search online, no one seems sure) and I consider anything over 10,000 a good score. I think that is the point it gives you 5 stars. I suppose a perfect score is theoretically achievable, but I decided to aim for 11,800; allowing for a few "good" moves instead of all "perfect". My favourite dance track is "Think" and I have been working on it quite a bit. I do it every time I use Just Dance 3, and today I just did it over and over, getting a slightly better score every time. I went from about 11,400; up by small increments each time. And finally hit 11,824!!!! Go me!

This is on the easy setting, btw, but still damn good.

I tried one more time after that but was a bit tired and my score went back down in the vicinity of 11,400.

I am going to get myself a lovely Pandora charm to celebrate dance skill, persistance, and regular exercise.

I haven't worked out my next Dance goal, maybe getting a certain score on difficult, or maybe something like getting 11,800 on several more tracks. I don't think I have come close to that score for any other song, although I generally get 10,000 for most.

When I hit this goal I also got an in-game achievement but was too focused to see what it was: maybe "Perfectionist" -- 90% perfect moves. I could go for their gold achievements of "Highway to the Stars" -- a 5 star rating on 10 songs in a row; and "Constellation Maker" -- 5 stars on every song!

I feel quite proud of myself.

Tea

Saturday:

Ah, the irony. The day after my weigh-in, my weight finally drops back down by a whole half-kilo. Of course it doesn't matter at all that it wasn't included in my last official weigh-in! Much as I would have liked to see a big loss in my little book, I am just happy to know that it was just TOM weight and the numbers are still going down.

My supermarket had little packets of Twinings black tea on special last week -- 10 tea bags in each box -- so I bought seven different varieties to try. I have always favoured English Breakfast, but I couldn't resist the cute little boxes. And you never know. I didn't like the Russian Caravan at all, a bit bitter or something. Prince of Wales was nice if a little mild. Australian Afternoon was great, a new contender. Still a few more to try.

Until very recently I drank tea rarely, maybe once a week as a social thing when chatting with other mothers in a playgroup. (I don't drink coffee at all, and even hate the smell.) But when I started trying to get healthy I cut down on chocolate and suddenly began drinking tea every day. I guess I was getting my caffine fix from chocolate before. Now I have two cups a day and could drink more if I let myself -- I don't want to as I still have sugar in it and also don't wanted to increase my need for caffine. I've gradually cut my heaped teaspoon of sugar down to a bit less than a level teaspoon. I have also switched from full-fat milk to 2%. I can drink plain black tea but don't really enjoy it -- so why do it? I'll slowly reduce the sugar at a rate that is comfortable for me.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

WW Week 1: 79.7 kg; down 0.5 kg

Friday:

I have been weighing myself at home so I knew that my weight had dropped dramatically in the early half of the week then bounced up again just before my period -- and stayed up. I was kind of dreading my official weigh-in at my Weight Watchers meeting and half of me was surprised and grateful for 0.5 kg but the other half was sad and disappointed that it wasn't a lot more. 0.5 to 1 kg is a good loss -- except for the first week or two when you expect a lot more. Hopefully next week will show a bigger loss.

Aside from that, I enjoyed my second meeting. Catherine said there was some mix-up with the topic (the hand-out didn't match the weekly topic on the website), but we talked about body hunger vs emotional hunger and how we eat when we are bored, tired, stressed etc. There were a couple more people there than last week; seven, four of them retiree age, all women.

Starting weight: 80.2 kg (fully clothed)
Week 1: 79.7 kg (-0.5 kg)
5% goal: 76.2 kg
10% goal: 72.2 kg
Goal weight: 58 kg

This week I earned 16 activity ProPoints and also had 15 weekly ProPoints left over, so I achieved both of those goals.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

No title

Thursday:

Yesterday I felt pretty crampy and tired all day and got Wednesday-night takeaway again. Didn't exercise, didn't drink enough water, hardly ate any vegetables. And this morning my weight was up a tiny bit more, although that could be partly to do with my period starting.

But: despite the PMS I only ate one tiny fun-size chocolate bar yesterday. I only ate into 7 of my weekly ProPoints, which is barely more than a good day (although the content of those calories wasn't so healthy). Usually PMS sends me on an eating rampage where I somehow give myself permission to abuse my body "to make me feel better". And this morning, although I still don't feel great, I went for a walk and have had a healthy and balanced lunch. So I feel back on track.

I really want to have a good weigh-in at my second Weight Watchers meeting tomorrow. One of my focusses (foci?) today is drinking enough, I need to flush out all this extra salt.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A week on WW

Wednesday:

My official weigh-in at WW will be on Friday (and will include clothes, shoes, and breakfast) but I have still been weighing myself at home and in the 7 days I have been following WW I have lost 1.4 kg. And that is after an upwards bump of 0.4 kg this morning; due to either/or or a combination of PMS and D&D supper last night. It is still quite a nice loss.

I ate way too much last night, after having roast chicken for dinner I scraped some of the chicken fat out of the pan and ate it (I counted it as 2 teaspoons of fat) -- it was delicious though -- and then I had chocolate, apricot delight, and burger rings at supper.

On the up side I did stop eating once I had had enough, even though there was more on the table. In the past I would have eaten much more. I spent a total of 12 ProPoints on supper, all from my weekly allowance, which was well within my WW budget. I ended up feeling really sleepy and had trouble following conversations, it almost felt like I was drunk. I am noticing that when I eat mostly healthy food, I feel pretty yuck when I eat junk. I probably always felt yuck when I ate junk, I was just used to feeling that way all the time!

This morning I had planned to go to the gym and do BodyPump but it was swimming carnival day and we had to leave early (which I didn't realise until this morning) so I didn't have time for breakfast, what with all the frantic getting the kids ready and their lunches and change of clothes etc. So I had to come home after the drop-off to have my breakfast. I still plan to do some exercise,but I am feeling pretty horrible with PMS. Crampy lower back pain and feeling sad and discouraged. I think a walk outside will help more than trying to drag myself through a Kinect routine.

So, how has the first week gone? Pretty well, I think. I've stayed within my ProPoints -- aiming for the daily 26 per day and always using just a few of my weekly extra -- eating huge amounts of vegetables. I haven't banned any foods or deprived myself and as a result I haven't binged -- even D&D supper has been much better than in the past, and I haven't had any solitary food orgies. Of course there will be challenges in the future, but the fact that I have that extra weekly 49 PP to spend means that even if I do have a stumble it doesn't mean I have failed for the week or even the day. I love that. I can work it into the plan. I think WW have organised that really well -- instead of saying you get 33 ProPoints per day and if you go over you fail, they give you 26 PP per day plus 49 PP for the week to use when you like so you can have light days and save for celebrations and restaurants.

I've done quite well with exercise too, I am going for 30 mins most days but of course often doing more than that. I haven't "eaten" any of my exercise ProPoints. School holidays and then these first few days of school with starting Kindy and swimming carnival have been quite disruptive, but from tomorrow everything will be back to normal and I should be able to get into a routine.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hunger and fullness

Monday:

Aiden had his first day of Kindergarten today (my baby is growing up!) but big sister Jasmine doesn't start until tomorrow so we had a day together. I'd planned to go to the gym first but we stayed at the school too long (Aiden didn't actually need any settling in, he was with all his friends and had preschool last year and Koala's the year before that, but all the other parents were hanging around so I felt I had to as well) and I missed my class. In fact I barely had enough time for half an hour on the Kinect and a shower before we rushed out to get to our movie.

I shovelled in a nectarine before we left but I knew that a movie and then lunch at the shopping centre before grocery shopping would take some careful pre-planning, food-wise, and I had already packed accordingly. Jasmine had a lollypop and a couple of other little things, I packed an apple and a low-cal cereal bar for myself. It was kind of strange, sitting in the theatre without eating. I was a little bit hungry, and could have easily eaten junk food if allowed, but I wasn't really interested in my apple. I thought about my cereal bar a bit, but told myself it was 2 ProPoints for no nutritional value. It was there if I really needed it, but I could wait for lunch. And I did.

We came out of the Muppet Movie at 1 pm and I was very hungry by then. If I hadn't thought ahead I probably would have grabbed something terrible, but I lined up at Subway as planned. I didn't chose the healthiest option, I got a 6 inch with steak, cheese & chipotle sauce. It would have been 11 points if I'd eaten it all. Still much better for me than McDonald's (which Jasmine had as a last-day-of-holidays treat) or most of the other options around. And I found I couldn't eat it all. Even now, three hours later, I feel kind of full of bread. Very different to how I feel after salad or soup.

While grocery shopping I bought ice cream for the family and (since one scoop is apparently a horrifying 7 ProPoints) I thought I would try the Weight Watchers brand for myself. I had one after walking out in the hot sun to pick up Aiden, it was 3 ProPoints for a reasonably-sized tub of chocolate flavour and was pretty nice. Good to know I can still have ice cream occasionally.

I also planned for D&D supper tomorrow night. I bought some portion-controlled mini bags of Burger Rings so I know how much I am having. I still have plenty of weekly points to spend on a few treats so I don't feel deprived.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Virgin Fat

Saturday:

This morning my home scales read 78.2 kg! I am into virgin fat territory! And in the three days I have been on Weight Watchers, I have lost 1.7 kg (3.7 pounds). I know that a lot of that is water loss (especially since I have been peeing like a racehorse) but in this case I am happy about that. Lately I have been troubled with water retention, giving me swollen feet and almost-cankles. Not quite sure why, but I seem to be shedding all the extra fluid and I am much more comfortable.

It is lovely to finally be down into virgin fat. When I started recording my weight last July, seven months ago, I weighed 79.6 kg and since then I have fluctuated between a high of 80.9 and a low of 78.7 (four times). It is great to finally get down through that barrier.

So what am I doing differently? I haven't been doing much exercise, because of my nasty headache (a lot better so far today), and I have still had "sometimes food" every day. But I have had a lot more vegetables, and smaller serves of meat and carbs. Lunch today -- instead of, for instance, a toasted cheese sandwich with butter, white bread and full fat cheese -- was 100g of chicken breast stir-fried in a teaspoon of olive oil and some oyster sauce with a huge mound of finely sliced vegetables, all the colours of the rainbow. Total of 5 ProPoints, healthy and filling.

I'd had brown rice already on the plan and it was 2 ProPoints for a little scoop so I got a rude shock last night when I coded up my Jasmine rice with dinner. It was 6 ProPoints for the same amount! Much less healthy, of course, but still a big difference.

I went for a 40 min walk this morning, briskly enough to work up a sweat and make my thighs burn. Good to get some exercise in.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

My first Weight Watchers meeting

Friday:

I had my first WW meeting this morning. I dragged the kids along with their Nintendo DSs and they were fine sitting on the reception lounge. From next week, of course, they will be at school. I was one of only five people there (all middle-aged women like myself) plus two leaders, I don't know if this is typical. Maybe more will come next week when school is back as it is probably a mother's timeslot. One lady was new last week.

At home this morning I had weighed-in at 78.8 kg, but at WW -- fully dressed and with shoes, and after breakfast -- I officially weighed 80.2 kg. My goal weight is 58.

After a one-on-one chat which covered all the things I had learned online about the program, today's session was about Filling and Healthy foods. There is a variant where you eat healthy foods all day and don't have to track, not recommended for me yet as I need to track to learn. But filling and healthy food choices are good for everyone, obviously. I enjoyed the meeting, it was relaxed and friendly.

The leader, Catherine, asked about challenges we had in the past week. I mentioned last night's supper. I provided vegetable sticks with dip and some apple slices. And herbal tea. Other people brought lollies, wine, biscuits, and about six blocks of chocolate. I love chocolate. I had 4 ProPoints left from my day's allowance but I ended up eating 11 -- so I used 7 extra from my weekly stash. I felt that this was a bit of a fail, but Catherine gave me a smily star sticker and said I was fabulous. a) I provided healthy food, b) I tracked everything I ate, even when it wasn't ideal, and c) I made the guests take home all the leftovers so there wasn't any junk to tempt me. It was a very nice spin on the event and made me feel empowered and motivated.

I still have my headache and so don't plan to exercise today, which is a bummer.

Kids back at school next week! My exercise plan is:
Monday: BodyPump
Tuesday: Kinect
Wednesday: BodyPump
Thursday: Kinect
Friday: no exercise (WW meeting)
Saturday: BodyStep or family fun
Sunday: BodyStep or family fun

When the weather is right I may substitute a run around the lake some days. Or I might get up half an hour early and go for a shorter run locally. I'm not sure if I will renew my gym subscription in April, I'm prefering the out-of-gym activities more at the moment.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

The first couple of days

Thursday:

I've been following the Weight Watchers ProPoints plan for two days (using online resources, I'll go to my first meeting tomorrow) and of course it hasn't been plain sailing.

Why "plain sailing"? In what way is untroubled sailing "plain"?

Anyway, firstly I've had a horrible headache for most of those two days. It is throbbing away in my forehead, behind and above my eyebrows, which seems to indicate sinus problems. Tim had it for a couple of days before I got it, and I don't really have any other symptoms -- no runny nose or other cold/flu indications. Hopefully it will be gone soon. I exercised for half an hour with the Kinect yesterday and it was like wading through molasses, I just had no energy. I later walked the kids to and from a playdate in the afternoon and getting up the hill was an effort. Today I didn't exercise.

As far as I can tell, WW recommendation is for 30 mins exercise "most days".

The second issue I had was that yesterday was my children's swimming lesson. This term it is late Wednesday afternoon, and by the time they are both finished and changed it is past our usual dinnertime -- and I haven't even started cooking! So I had (pre-WW) decided that we would get take-away on Wednesday nights on the way home, probably roast chicken and hot chips. So we did. It cost 19 ProPoints out of my 26, taking me over by 10 for the day. Luckily I have an extra weekly allowance of 49 to use.

Today, as the weather has turned unseasonably cold (again: it is a really weird year), I made a casserole. And realised that I can do that on Wednesday nights! With mashed potato and salad it was 11 ProPoints. I can come home to dinner ready instead of getting unhealthy take-away. Of course it won't be so nice on stinking hot days, but at least it is an option.

Third challenge will be our Dungeons & Dragons game tonight. This is traditionally my night to stuff myself with junk food, but not tonight. By filling up on vegetables today, I still have 4 ProPoints left -- the equivalent of about 2 freddo frogs -- so I can have a treat, but not too much. My contribution will be vegetable sticks and dip. I might cut up some apples too.

I just wish this effing headache would go away.

I am excited about my first meeting tomorrow.