Just a quick diet update......

I have now managed to update my starting weight on My Fitness Pal so my little button over there >>>>>>> is now up to date and yes that's right I have now lost over a stone! Yey! 

I'm really happy especially as I have had a couple of days this last week where I've just pigged out and exercise has taken a back seat but it just shows you don't have to stick to something religiously to still lose weight.

And another quick note I may be a little MIA for a few weeks, I am suffering from bloggers block but hopefully I'll be back with lots of posts soon! I have also got a few posts scheduled for the next few weeks so keep an eye out for those!

Oh and I have changed my blog header to something a little more summery, I hope you like it!

Don't forget you can keep up to date with what I'm getting up to by following me on Twitter, link to my account is also over there >>>>>> 

Project Diet Update - 2

I haven't done a diet update all month so this post is well overdue. As you can tell by the little weight loss tracker over there somewhere >>>>>> I have stuck to my diet and am losing weight every week.

My diet has changed since I started. I am no longer doing the 5:2 diet, I fell off the wagon with it and haven't got back on but I would definitely start doing it again, I might do it for a couple of weeks before my week off at the end of June.

I also am weighing myself every Saturday morning now instead of every couple of weeks. This motivates me to keep going. This last week I have had a bad week on the diet front but still lost a pound, I now have only 1 pound to go before I've lost a stone (the tracker says I've lost more but I forgot to reset it to my current weight when I seriously started to lose weight).

I have found that I have changed the way I think about food. Before if I fancied something e.g. a packet of crisps, I would eat them for the sake of it even if I wasn't hungry but now I think much more about it and the majority of the time leave them.

At work I have reduced my tea intake, I normally have only 2 cups and top up on my water intake with water with a little no added sugar juice in. I have two 750ml bottles on my desk and normally I drink both during the day.

Currently my daily treat is a can of Diet Coke, 1 calorie, but I want to eventually stop drinking fizzy pop so often, after all it's not good for your teeth.

This week I haven't exercised at all, it hasn't crossed my mind but I am going to get back on it. I also started doing squats and lunges but after two days my legs were killing and I couldn't continue but I am also going to start doing those again, maybe just squats this time, they seemed the lesser of the two evils.

So far I have gone down a jeans size which means I've had to buy new clothes. Instead of buying brand new stuff I've been trawling eBay for some bargains and bagged myself a few new pairs of jeans for under £5 each! I didn't want to spend a lot of money on clothes as I want to continue losing weight even when I've reached my 1 stone target.

Well that's my diet update, hopefully my next one won't be so long but if you have any diet tips like low calories snacks or recipes then feel free to leave them in a comment below!

Project Diet Update - 1

So I have been on my diet and healthy eating plan for two weeks now and so far so good!

In fact it has gone so well I have lost 7 pounds! As I originally wanted to lose a stone by the end of June I am half way there! I have added a weight loss button on the side there >>>> so you can keep track of how I'm doing. This will be updated every two weeks when I get weighed. Also you may notice it says I've lost 10 pounds but that's how much I've lost since I first started using My Fitness Pal a few years ago.

I have had a few days where I've gone over my 1500 calories allowance but I've been extra good the next so it's not too bad.

On my 500 days (Fast Diet or the 5:2 Diet) I have found it quite easy to stick to a low calorie diet. I have only had four 500 calorie days so far and I've been over my calories on two of these but not by many. As long as I have under 600 calories then I'm counting these as a success. I'm finding if I plan my days food out before it's alot easier to stick too.

I try to stick to under 100 calories for breakfast (Weight Watchers yogurt or cookies), around 200 calories for lunch (chicken noodles or tuna and cucumber or a salad with a tiny amount of dressing) and  then 200 calories for tea. I normally have a salad with half a chicken breast or half a tin of tuna.

Everyday I am also drinking at least 750ml of water at work and only having 2 cups of tea instead of about 5. Currently I am also having a can of Diet Coke with my lunch (1 calorie) but when my multipacks have been used up then I'm not going to buy anymore and I'll drink more water. Also when I get home I refill my 750ml water bottle and drink that too. I put some high juice in it, no added sugar, which is 39 calories but makes water a lot more appealing.

Last Saturday I completely blew my calorie allowance as I went to McDonalds for lunch and then was going to have a salad for tea but my friend unexpectedly asked me to go out for tea so I had over 2000 calories but I only drank Diet Coke so didn't waste any calories on alcohol.

As for exercise I have been going for walks in the village and going on my exercise bike. For walks I generally burn 104 calories and I always do at least 5k on my bike which is 160 calories. I am trying to build up my stamina on my bike so I'll be able to do 10k again, yesterday I managed 7k so I'm on my way! Last week I didn't do much exercise but I'm going to be back on it again this next week as I'm determined to get the other half of that stone off.

If you have any weight loss tips or healthy recipes let me know!

My two month project: diet and spending ban

I have given myself a couple of challenges to complete from now until the beginning of June (at least).

Weight loss

When I was off work last week I watched Secret Eaters, I hadn't really watched this before but found it really interesting. There was a couple on it who were really over weight but they thought they only about 1000 calories a day and this got me thinking about how many calories I actually ate.

I know I don't eat excessively but like everyone else some days I just eat and eat and eat but everything is in moderation.

A few years ago I started using My Fitness Pal and as I have an app on my iPad I decided to start using it again. If you haven't checked this app out it is really good. It calculates how many calories you need to eat a day in order to lose your desired amount of weight and it has a huge database of foods which you add to your meals and it calculates it all for you. It also includes restaurant foods so you don't have to guestimate and it also includes how many calories are burnt by exercising. It's a great app.

So I have worked out how much weight I need to lose and how long I want to lose it in so for the past 3 days I have been calorie counting. I'm allowed 1600 calories a day which is more than what it recommended but still under the recommended 2000 calories a day a woman should eat.

Whilst doing this I am also going to start doing the Fast Diet. This is where for 2 days a week you basically fast and eat 500 calories. This sounds impossible but a huge salad with a little light mayo is only around 100 calories and with 50g of chicken it would be about 180 calories. So I plan on doing this every Tuesday and Friday and I plan on getting weighed ever other Saturday and will update My Fitness Pal with this info to keep a diary of how well I'm doing.

What I learnt yesterday was that if something looks and seems a healthy choice it might not be. I had a pasta salad with prawns from Aldi which I used to have everyday for lunch in my old job but when I worked out the calorie content it had around 772 calories in it!! And to make things worse it made me feel sick all day and when I worked out how many calories would be in a Quarter Pounder Deluxe meal from McDonalds it would only have been 100 calories more! Even with the disgustingly calorific pasta I was only 132 calories over my daily allowance and on Friday I was over 300 calories above my allowance but me and my mum went out for tea which is what bumped it up.

I'll keep you updated with my progress including what I eat on my 500 calorie days.

 Spending Ban

I've been saying for the last 3 years, since I started my blog which by the way I missed my blogversary on the 25th March so happy birthday blog, that I wanted to reduce my huge stash of toiletries and finally at the end of last year I had managed to just about get it down to a reasonable decent size. And then along came the sales.

I'm now in double figures on some items such as shower gels and my storage unit is busting at the seams and sometime when I open the doors on it stuff falls out as it's all balanced on top of each other to fit in.

So I'm not buying anything until at least the beginning of June. When it's my birthday at the end of June I have a wishlist of products that I want to buy so I'll allow myself to buy some products then.

My spending ban is also on make up and clothes. 

In order to reduce my stash I am selling clothing on eBay and have sorted some things out for a blog sale on here when I get round to putting the post up.

As well as this I am also continuing to save all my 1p, 2p and 5p's in my piggy bank as well as £2 coins which I haven't had many of recently. I'm also continuing to save my extra money from work we get on a Friday. Last time I counted my piggy bank I had £260 and I'm not emptying it until it's full so I should hopefully have around £350.

As with my weight loss challenge I will keep you updated!

Project diet starts now!

One of my Day Zero goals is to lose a stone by the end of the year, I've just kind of been hoping this would happen all by itself but as I felt like I'd put on weight these last few weeks I decided it was time for action. 

On the scales I popped and yes I had put on 5 pounds. 

Shocking. 

So I am now going on a healthy eating and exercise program. I'm not following any one in particular but I've decided to go with the low carb route. So what am I cutting down on? Potatoes, pasta, rice, bread are all no-no's but I won't say no to a small portion every now and then. I'm going to be lapping up salad, meat, eggs, vegetables, cheese in the hope it'll kick start my metabolism. 

I'm also going to go on my exercise bike at least 3 times a week and do at least 3k a time. This doesn't sound a lot but I'm trying to build it back up to 5k a time. Oh and I'm going to drink more water. When I was working I used to drink at least a litre a day but now I hardly drink any other than tea and pop.

I'm also going to give myself one treat day a week where I can have one can of pop, chocolate and crisps. I think this will be a Friday!

I'll do an update every week or so to let you all know how I'm doing, hopefully well!

Are you currently trying to lose some weight or trying to get fit? Or have you any tips that you'd recommend? Let me know.