Good afternoon everyone,

Topcac: Your workouts make me feel exhausted! Good luck with your 300km challenge…it’s always motivating to have an objective. Did you always workout or is this since BSD?

Theodora: well done on your loss…sounds a bit weird! There’s nothing more dispiriting than a plateau; after a bit you just want to reach for a sandwich. Or is that just me?

Jmary upbeat..there’s nothing like having your hair done to raise your spirits and you’re going to see your daughter and grandchildren. Wonderful. Good luck with the laundry folding 😉

Again all peaks… It’s Friday afternoon! My weight is continuing to inch down. I had a pleasant walk with a friend in the sunshine this morning. We’re due rain all weekend so that could be a pit though we really do need the rain. Just a pity it’s the weekend!

Hi Angela

I did nothing at all except a slow meandering dog walk every morning until January 2016. Then I swam twice a week. Since BSD (September 2016) I’ve upped my exercise but only started the gym last month. I plank every day and I think it’s this that has finally got rid of a horrible neck pain that had been treated by an osteopath for 6 months with no results. As of about 3 weeks into planking I have had no pain. I’m really not a gym bunny, I really don’t like it that much but I’m hoping to start touch rugby when the season starts again (I tried it for about 6 weeks at the end of last year and really enjoyed it) and I reward myself with a sauna when I do a workout – otherwise it’s just not worth it lol.

Not sure where you are but the sound of a rainy weekend doesn’t sound great 🙁

Theodora~ Congrats on the “whoosh”! 2 inches off is very impressive. Your BMI is awesome too!

topcac~you are really making some headway on the work outs! You will for sure reach the 300 km challenge a lot sooner than you expect if you keep at this pace.

Angela~ Whatever you are doing is working so well for you! You weight continues to drop. Congratulations! Hope the sun comes out at least a little bit there this weekend.

PEAK: Got my workout in after work today.
PIT: Woke up early this morning wishing I could stay in bed when the alarm went off! I had a hard time sleeping last night and when it was time to get up, I was finally feeling like I could sleep for hours. Ugh!

Thanks, JMarie41 – BMI showed a drop of another ) 0.2 today 🙂

PEAK:- Yet another lb off today 🙂
PIT:- Dogs got just as muddy as yesterday on our morning walk 🙂
PEAK:- O/H took over my task and washed and dried them this morning 🙂
PIT:- In exchange, I had to cook him a full English – and I mean FULL – bacon, sausages, eggs, black pudding, fried bread, tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans, followed by several rounds of toast and marmalade. No idea where he puts it all and stays so slim – must have hollow legs. 😉
PEAK:- I sat and felt virtuous, eating my healthy Greek yoghurt and berries 🙂

PIT: my lovely friend died today. She has been our friend and neighbour for over 30 years. In the past she would take my doggie for a walk in the afternoons while I was at work and didn’t mind checking my house every time I thought I had left the iron on or had forgotten to lock the door. In the last few years – as she got older and more frail – our roles were reversed and we looked out for her. She had a sore throat Monday and I went out to get her some strepsils on Tuesday. Yesterday she suddenly got worse and had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance. She had double pneumonia and died this morning.

PEAK: having her as a friend for all these years.

PEAK: what a wonderful NHS we have. 8.30am rang the doctor. 9am nurse arrived to assess her. 9.30 she was in an ambulance heading for the hospital.

Good evening,

Topcac: I have dodgy neck pain, have had for years partially due to bra straps and bag straps. I’ll try the plank see if it helps. I’ll have to look up how to do it first though.

Theodora: congratulations on the continued weight loss and making OH a full English! Now that’s love!

JMarie: So sorry to hear of the bad night’s sleep. The appetite’s always really hard to control when tired. Well done on the work out!

Reasons to be cheerful today: It rained heavily all morning but cleared at lunchtime to a bright blue sky and brisk wind. Currently watching the France-England match in front of the fire and a nice sea bream for dinner to look forward to…It doesn’t come much better.
The Pit: not walking today, been busy with other domestic stuff.

KrysiaD~ I am so sorry to hear you lost your dear friend! Sounds like you had such a good relationship with her over the years. How nice to have someone who was there for you when you needed it and you for her. I’ll be thinking of you as you grieve her passing!
Your NHS was so quick!

Theodora~ Another lb. off! Congrats! You are very sweet to cook such a big breakfast for your O/H. It sounded delicious! He sounds like a good man. . .washing the dogs for you after they got all muddy. . .nice! :–)

Angela~ Glad to hear the sun came out after the heavy rain! Nice that you’ve had a good weekend and got a chance to enjoy the France-England match in front of the fire. I’ve never tried Sea Bream! Do you have a fish market close to your home? Fresh fish is always so delicious.

PEAK: I got my laundry folded and put away yesterday. Today I did the elliptical for 30 minutes and got a good sweat going! Later in the afternoon, my husband and I went out for a late lunch. We had meatballs and chopped salad that had roasted red pepper, chicken, small chunks of mozarella cheese, pepperchini, small pieces of salami, and cherry tomatoes with an Italian dressing. We ordered some white wine to go with it and the restaurant had run out of the one we ordered so they gave us an even pricer white wine instead. So nice of them! They only charged us the price of the wine we had originally ordered.

PIT: My mom had to be hospitalized for some bleeding. They did a lot of tests and feel it is her diverticula flaring up but no infection. She will probably be able to go home tomorrow. So good news!

KrysiaD: I realised that I missed your post. It must be so hard losing a valued friend and neighbour but how wonderful that you were able to support each other through the years. You will surely miss her. I’ll be thinking of you and appreciating my own friends more!

Thank you Jmarie41 and Angela06. Everyone is so sad because she was such a lovely person and it happened so quickly.

Jmarie41 – I am so pleased your mom will be well enough to come out of hospital.

You are right that it was an amazingly fast response from our NHS. Our local doctors are trying out a new system where a nurse responds immediately to a request for a doctor to do a home visit – assesses the situation and then takes immediate action if it turns out to be serious. This very fast response gave her a few extra hours of life and her family were able to say their goodbyes which actually made them feel a lot better.

PEAK: JulesMaigret mentions on another thread that he now regards food as only providing nutrition and nothing else. Today I suddenly realised that previously – when I was upset over anything I would have gone on a massive carb fest to make myself feel better about the situation. Of course it never made me feel better and probably made me feel much worse.

This time I feel upset and this has made food much less appealing. This was not a conscious effort not to binge – I just wasn’t that hungry. So following the BSD and avoiding all the bad carbs and sugar since May last year has retrained my body to use food as fuel instead as an anaesthetic – so a very definite PEAK.

Good evening all,

KrysiaD: good news that your impulses have been retrained…definitely a peak

JMarie: the address of the restaurant is definitely a keeper! I don’t think there are many that would do that or maybe that’s just round here! I’m sorry to hear that your mother has been hospitalised. It’s such a worry when their health becomes fragile. I hope she’ll make it home quickly.

No stand-out highs today unfortunately.

On the negative side granddaughter is unwell, probably nothing serious but it’s always a worry: it rained heavily till mid afternoon. Went out for a breath of air but it was very damp and muddy underfoot: and last but not least we went to see LaLa Land. Am I the only person in the world who’s underwhelmed by this movie?

KrysiaD~ Still feeling so sorry that you lost your dear neighbor and friend after knowing her for so many years! What a loss.
What a fantastic health care system in that a nurse responds that quickly to a patient and is able to get help so quickly. The fact that this family was able to be there to say goodbye is such a blessing!

Angela~I’m also thinking of your granddaughter and wishing her a speedy recovery! It is always a worry when our family is sick. My thoughts and good wishes are with you and your granddaughter.
I think I liked La La Land more than I thought I would because I had seen the previews for so long and it did not look very interesting to me. When I finally saw the film it was better than I thought it would be. My favorite though so far is “Lion”! It was really moving to me!

PEAK: My mom was released from the hospital and her bleeding has almost stopped.

PIT: My sister was there at the hospital and found out my mom only weighs 78 lbs. This is really shocking news to us! We knew she was getting frail and thin but never suspected her weight would be so low. She is 5 ft. 3 inches tall, so should weigh at least 25 to 30 lbs. more. I am feeling really irritated that her doctors would not see that weighing this little was a problem. Not one doctor has said anything about her weight until my sister told the doctor at the hospital that she was worried. How sad! Now she is on a high calorie diet but not sure she can eat as much as she needs since she has so many gastrointestinal issues.

Here I am trying to lose weight and here she is needing to gain weight!

PEAK: I had a wonderful weekend with my husband. Today we watched the Super Bowl and mainly relaxed. Tomorrow is back to work but I’m not feeling too stressed about it for a change. I packed my bags today for our trip to the Carolina’s this coming Wednesday. It was nice to still fit in my new dresses that I have bought since I lost weight!

Here’s to a good week ahead for everyone! Hard to believe it is already February. How did January go by so fast?

Jmarie41
That must have been a dreadful shock to find out that your mom only weighed 78lbs. Hopefully the high calorie diet will put some weight back on. It is frustrating that the medics haven’t picked that up – you would have thought that they would have been monitoring it. It is ironic that you are on a weight loss regime and she needs to gain weight.

Hope you really enjoy wearing your new dresses on your trip to the Carolinas.

Angela – hope your granddaughter is getting better.

Sorry, Haven’t been on for a few days as I’m on holiday, but JMarie41 I am so sorry to hear about your mother, what an awful shock, but I hope that this can be brought under control and that she will be on the mend soon.

Angela, how is your granddaughter now? I hope she is on the mend too?

Peaks and Pits…………….

PEAK – after yesterday’s torrential rain all day, when we were more or less condemned to spend the entire day holed up in a pub, beside a roaring log fire, today has been a gloriously sunny day, so lots of walking of the coastal path.

PIT – I KNEW I wouldn’t manage 10 whole days on holiday with good but very boozy friends without succumbing to the temptation of alcohol! So out for dinner this evening and I had 2 glasses (150) of red wine,. I really enjoyed it, and had a pint of water with each (not mixed, just alongside). And, more to the point, I honestly felt I had had enough – in the past, during the course of an evening lasting from 7pm til gone 11pm, I would happily have downed the entire bottle!

PEAK: To compensate for the wine, I tried to be really good with the food. I had a crab starter, followed by a starter portion of moules mariniere (boy were they good – but then I love seafood, and mussels and crab in particular 🙂 ) I declined both the yummy homemade bread and the chips which accompanied my meal – didn’t go to waste though, as O/H demolished both, on top of his own!!.

DOUBLE PEAK was when I got back to the hotel, dreading the damage I may I have done, I punched in my meal to FATSECRET and, despite the alcohol, I still think I came in under 800 calories 🙂 Think I may make mussels a regular feature of BSD, so healthy and low calorie.. Even my carbs came in higher than I have been aiming for (25g) but lower than the recommended 50g – as far as I could work out I had 43g carbs. Of course, it is really difficult to estimate restaurant food, I had to guess the ingredients and quantities, but at least I can go to bed reassured that, even if I have gone over, I have not totally blown BSD800 (today, at any rate 😉 )

Tomorrow is another day, and no alcohol will pass my lips. The forecast is good, and we will be walking the next leg of the coastal path.

Hope everyone else has had a good day too, with more peaks than pits. x

Thank you KrysiaD and Theodora for your kind comments about my mom! She is getting back to her normal routine and says she is working hard on eating her high calorie diet. I guess time will tell if she is able to stick to that and gain weight!

Theodora~ Happy for you that you are enjoying your holiday with good friends and still being able to stick to the BSD while still enjoying a little alcohol! The mussels sound delicious! Enjoy the rest of your holiday–you are doing great!

Angela~ Thinking of you–sure hope your granddaughter is doing better!

We had a pretty fierce storm here during the night and this morning with 40 mile an hour winds. I left the house, headed for work at 4:30 am, and quickly realized something was wrong with my car. It turned out that I had a flat tire! Luckily I listened to my intuition and drove back to the house. Instead of going to work, I ended up having AAA come and change the tire and then driving to a tire store to get the tire fixed. Turns out a large screw went right into the tire. The tire store paid for the repair and charged me nothing! Wow! When I asked them why they would do that, they told me it is because they want people’s return business. It was such a nice experience and I will definitely return!

PEAK: Thankful I didn’t try to drive on the semi-flat tire, in the dark and in the storm. It would have been dangerous to be on the side of the highway in the dark and in the heavy rain. So glad the tire fixing experience turned out so well! Got a work-out in today!

PIT: No pit! :–)

I have totally fallen into a pit. it was so large that there was no getting out of it – so that was Monday.

PEAK – Yesterday was slightly better – I did manage a good workout at the gym and managed to stick JUST to the food I had planned despite the temptations of apple pie at work yesterday and all sorts of mini muffins, cookies and other works of the devil at work today!

PIT – not food related but my OH is having real problems at work and I’m struggling to be able to help.
It’s miserable for her right now 🙁

Thank goodness you were sensible jmarie – flat tyres are a flipping nuisance at best and very dangerous at worst so glad you got that fixed.

Hope your mum is continuing to improve too and that your granddaughter is on the mend Angela

Theodora – enjoy – it sounds like you are well in control which is great to hear.

Topcac: commiserations on Monday. It happens to us all but at least by Tuesday you were on top of things and kept away from the works of the devil! I hope your OH’s problems will be quickly resolved. Sometimes just being there is support enough.

Theodora: which coastal path are you walking? I’ve been researching some trails to do in the Summer but am aware I need to notch up the fitness a bit.The exercise alone should surely offset some of the wine! And your meal sounds absolutely delicious especially the crab. Good luck with the walk.

Jmarie, you were so fortunate to avoid an accident and returning home was really a sensible thing to do. And what service! Where you live sounds wonderful with the free wine and then free tyre service. That’s some customer service. Bon voyage for your trip away. I hope your daughter’s well and that you enjoy your new clothes.

Reasons to be cheerful…my weight plummeted this week 2.3kg and a further 300g overnight. So pleased. I stopped the fast till lunchtime and reinstated a modest breakfast composed of a few spoonfuls of the leftovers from the night before. I’m a lot happier and can manage my hunger and carb cravings easier. My granddaughter is recovering from a vomiting virus that has felled most of her school. Just upto now none of the rest of us has caught it. Fingers crossed.

Pit….none!

Have a good day everyone!

topcac~ sounds like you are back on track! Nice avoidance of those “works of the devil” foods at work. It is not always easy to do that!
Sorry to hear about your OH’s problems at work. I’m sure you already know this but you just being there to listen to her is the best way to help her. So glad you have each other to lean on during the low times in life!!! I hope things improve for her soon.

Angela~The stomach bug is one of my most miserable illness’ to come down with. Your poor granddaughter! So glad to hear she is recovering and I sure hope you don’t come down with it.
Your weight loss efforts are really paying off. How much have you lost this second time around? Congratulations on losing more.
I’m really happy for you. :–)

I am about 7 lbs. from my goal but haven’t made any progress during this second go round! My weight goes down a couple pounds then up, then down and the pattern is repeated.
While I’m figuring out how to reach my goal, I am also thinking a lot about maintenance and my “all in or all out” thinking. I for sure don’t want to regain all the weight I lost and I know that ultimately I have to learn to maintain my weight.

My goal for the weekend in the Carolina’s is to not go overboard on any food or drink! If I can get back home and weigh the same as I do today, I’ll be satisfied with my effort. I’m going to be thinking about my plan of action. The BSD is for sure, the right way to go!

PEAK: Slept well last night! I’m pretty much packed up for my trip except for a few things I need this morning to get ready. Excited to see my daughter, son in-law and granddaughters in North Carolina! My daughter and I are going to go have our hair washed and styled on Thursday, then we’ll all go out to celebrate her 38th birthday on Thursday evening, and on Friday my husband, brother in-law and I will start our drive to South Carolina. We are staying in Charleston. There is a pre-wedding event Friday evening and the wedding is on Saturday. We’ll drive back to North Carolina on Sunday to stay one more night with our daughter and family and then I’ll fly home with my brother in-law on Monday. My husband will fly to Florida for business on Monday. He’ll be gone until the weekend.

PIT: I’m not really looking forward to the wedding in South Carolina, as I’m not a real party person, but it will be fun to see the “Boone Hall Plantation” grounds where the wedding and reception are being held. It is where the movie, “The Notebook”, the ABC mini series, “North and South”, and the movie, “Roots”, was filmed and I hear it is beautiful! Also sad my husband will be on his business trip on Valentine’s Day :–(. We’ll celebrate late this year!

Jmarie, what a fun packed programme. No wonder you needed all those lovely new clothes. Have a wonderful time celebrating with family!

Pit – got viral pharyngitis. My voice disappeared last Thursday night. Inconvenient to say the least.

Peak – it’s given people a laugh. And my voice is slowly returning. Resting both voice and body as much as possible.

Captain Lynne: I hope you’re feeling better. Sore throats aren’t fun especially when you need to use it for work!

Reasons to be cheerful today are that I had a great walk this morning with 2 friends. I’d like to do a proper long walk but really need to work on stamina. And my weight continues to drop. After losing and regaining the same kilo for 2 weeks my body suddenly seems to have caught on…

Pit….my grandson has now gone down with the vomiting virus that’s doing the rounds. I’m dreading the thought that it’ll be me next as I picked him up yesterday from school!

Hope you avoided the bug Angie.

It’s funny how many people have telephoned to ask if I’ve got my voice back!

Still talking as little as possible, need that voice tomorrow evening.

The weather is awful, so I don’t even want to go out. It would have been great this past week just to stay in and rest, but life didn’t work that way. Too many deadlines meaning I had to sit at my office computer. I had to ring for help setting something up on the network so I was glad my voice was a little stronger. They took pity on me and did some of it remotely!

Peak – voice almost back to normal, and another pound lost. Now weight 8st 5lbs.

Pit – still feeling yucky because of the virus.

Lynne – sorry to hear about the laryngitis. Am glad your voice is coming back – resting voice and body is the only way to get over it – although it looks as though you have been too busy to rest that much. Hope your voice will be ok for tomorrow evening. Your 8st 5lbs is brilliant.

Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a good weekend, that you’ve well and truly got your voice back, Captain Lynne and that temperatures in Australia have moderated. At least when it’s cold here we can wrap up!

My peaks for the weekend: our friends/neighbours came for a meal on Saturday. I was pleased with what I put together, roast lamb with a garlic and rosemary rub, ratatouille, and rice for them followed by some nice cheese with a leafy salad. I suggested ice cream and fruit for dessert after I refused their offer of bringing chocolate mousse but no one was interested. (I think they might have eaten the mousse before they arrived!)

The pit: All pretty reasonable it seemed but I still managed to gain 600g overnight! Probably because I’m now addicted to cheese and just eat too much. Grrh!

Peak: This morning those grams had disappeared and I’m back to Friday’s weight. So frustrating, so much time lost.

The biggest pit: I think this is the end of the road for cheese and me. It’s got to go, along with the chocolate, bread, potatoes, sugar, wine etc etc…

Have a good Monday (is that possible?)

I’m eating too much cheese too, Angela06. But we can’t give up everything!

So it’s not just me, Natalie! It’s funny but I gave up the rest with barely a backward glance but cheese…well, it’s going to be hard!

Don’t give up cheese, try to get individually wrapped portions of something instead to ‘train’ yourself. One 20g piece for a snack, two for a salad etc. That’s what I did at first. I probably eat too much but I am on more calories now and can afford it again, and the Baby-bel or similar types really helped me on the 800 part.

Morning everyone.

Angela – yes, voice back thank you. It was gone a week! Still not 100% because of virus, but lots better than last week.

Interesting to read of people having these problems with cheese. I’m not too bad with cheese, but my problem is nuts and cream. i’m ok with Greek yogurt, but not cream. I’ve tried different ones, double, extra thick double, and aerosol (ok, not single) and just want to keep eating it.

My nuts of choice have been cashews – preferably salted or Marmite flavoured. But I could eat a whole bag – just like I used to eat crisps. Not too bad with Macadamia, but they’re so expensive.

Looks like two more foods to keep out of the house – most of the time!

CaptainLynne…yes to the cream definitely. Had to throw out a half tub that was left after the pork in mustard sauce. I kept taking a spoonful here and there….but the nuts? Not a temptation or at least not yet!

Glad it’s not just me Angela!

With the nuts, it seems it’s the salted and/or flavoured ones that cause the problem for me. I read somewhere that plain unsalted nuts cause fewer problems. Unfortunately I could easily still eat too many. And cashews have so many carbs.

I did read somewhere that salt triggers the appetite (which is why restaurants add so much to food, especially starters, not to promote thirst), which may account for why salted nuts are more “more-ish” than unsalted ones.

Thank you Captainlynne and Angela06, you have made me feel so much better as I am addicted to cream – I also have a spoonful when I happen to go to the fridge…. which can be quite often. I also made the huge error of buying salted cashews promising myself I could just have a small handful now and then – it’s amazing how quickly an entire bag can disappear…… Both will be left of my shopping list and out of the basket from now on as I cannot be trusted. Struggle with butter also. If I’m going to shift my huge amount of fat, I need to be more vigilante – the weight loss is not happening and I can only blame myself!

Angela, Captlynne and K8sgettingthin – just on a point of interest, re cream and / or crème fraiche, I have ditched both in favour of Total Fage yoghurt and now never have cream in the house. I have it for breakfast every morning, it is just sooo delicious, even o/h has started eating it – not for breakfast, but as a substitute for cream with desserts – it’s all I ever offer guests too, and they all eat it without any adverse comments, don’t think they even notice. I also cook with it and any recipe at all which includes cream or crème fraiche, I just use the equivalent amount of yoghurt and it works a treat. The pork with mustard cream sauce has long been a favourite in this house, and I have made it regularly for about 25 years, with the addition of mushrooms, and have always preferred it made with yoghurt.

Now nuts (Brazils in particular), on the other hand, are my downfall, and haven’t yet found any suitable subsititute 🙁 I do try to limit myself to 10 a day.

Fage is also on sale in Asda at the moment (£2 for a 500g tub)….

Thank you, Theodora, for the cooking tip. I have eaten greek yoghurt but not tried cooking with it. I can’t get Fage just the Nestlé which to my taste buds isn’t quite as nice.

Interesting point about the salt JM. I tend to oversalt, will cut down a little.
On the subject of appetite, I read some research that fizzy water triggers the appetite which figures as it does taste slightly salted.

Angela, any old full fat plain yoghurt will do for cooking, as the taste is lost amongst the other ingredients, but it gives the same sort of richness as cream.

Prior to BSD, I always used supermarket’s own (generally Asda Greek). I only use Fage because it was recommended on here, so I tasted it and it is soooo delicious that I now have it for breakfast, with berries, every morning, so I always have it in the fridge. Plus it is a bit lower in carbs and calories than other plain Greek yoghurts. For example, 125g Fage (which is my breakfast serving) contains 6.25g fat (Asda’s 11.75), 4.75g carbs (Asda’s 8.25), 11.25g protein (Asda’s 6.38), and 120 calories (Asda’s 156) And, let’s be honest, on BSD800, every little carb / calorie saving helps 🙂

Mind you it is a lot more expensive so I guess I ought to really keep a carton of supermarket’s own for cooking with, and for the dogs for that matter, who get a portion each as a treat a couple of times a week, and also love to lick the cartons out as and when I finish them.

I’m glad it’s not just me with the nuts.
My downfall are the unsalted macadamias, so I can’t even blame the salt. It’s got so bad that last Saturday when I went to the produce markets, I deliberately didn’t buy them as I just couldn’t resist anymore.

Funny, chocolate of any sort hasn’t passed my lips since April last year, but now I can’t resist macadamias. Who’d have thought it.
Cheers
Linda

I’m surprised at how many of us have the problem with cream and/or nuts!

As you said Linda – chocolate hasn’t passed my lips since (in my case) December 2015. Neither has bread, pasta, breakfast cereal, pizza, potatoes etc. No problem.

But put nuts (especially salted) in front of me – just make sure no peanuts – and watch them disappear. Cream – yes, please. Good on the berries. Good with berries and nuts! Oh, some left in the pot. Where’s the spoon. Oh, it’s good on its own straight from the pot.

I was in the supermarket earlier and found myself looking at nuts. Well, they’re easy to carry around in case of emergencies. Errr ….. I’d eat them all in one sitting. Leave them on the shelf. Yogurt – yes, there’s the Greek yogurt. Ok. Two big tubs in the basket in case I can’t get to the shops later in the week. Ahhh …. cream. I discovered last week that Sainsbury’s extra thick double cream is not extra thick! But I don’t normally shop there. And there was no Cornish clotted cream on the shelves inTesco or M&S. Yes, I did look! But managed not to put any in my basket.

I escaped the shops with just 6 eggs, 2 big tubs of Greek yogurt, and an individual portion of cheese before going to my Italian lesson! Ate the cheese on the way to the lesson.

Seems that, at least at the moment, I need to avoid buying both cream and nuts. That could change in the future, have to wait and see.

One small treat I allow myself in the coffee shop is the occasional espresso con panna – espresso coffee topped with cream! But not having it in the house!

Nuts, cream and cheese 🙂 🙂

Hi Everyone, I’m back from our trip to North and South Carolina. It was a great trip! Today it is back to work for me and back on track. Looks like I missed a lot of “cheese, nuts, cream” chat! My weight loss efforts have slipped a bit over the 6 day travel but I’m back on my BSD plan.

PEAK: Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone! My husband’s on a business trip to Florida so I am going to dinner with a dear girl friend. I hear some are calling Valentine’s Day, “Gal-entine’s Day” because many women honor their girlfriends on this day in huge numbers. So whatever you are doing, take time to honor a friend! They are the one’s we rely on to listen to us and be there for us throughout our life!

PIT: I’m irritated that I gained a few pounds over this weekend! Ugh!!! I too must avoid the cheese, cream and nuts!

Thank you Theodora for the Greek Yoghurt tip.
Had an MOT at the doctors last night and for the first time in adult life was told ‘your blood pressure is fine’. I thought I had misheard and asked her to repeat it. Guess that’s a PEAK! and the sun has been shining for the second day in a row.
Don’t seem to have a PIT

Good morning,

Jmarie..welcome back from your trip. I hope you had a great time visiting your family and friends. Now you’re back into routine it shouldn’t be too hard to lose those pesky pounds. The idea of a gal entine is sweet. I certainly do appreciate my friends and the support from these forums. Is it still raining there?

K8 great news on the blood pressure!

And to all cream, cheese and nut lovers….my fridge is now empty of all but vegetables and condiments. If it snows and I can’t get the car out, we’ll starve!

Peaks (and pits) the cheese has been eaten and I turned the cream into ice cream. The only thing left to graze on till next shopping day is a bag of radishes! Desperate times need desperate measures. In spite of cream based sins I managed to lose 700g. I’m on holiday from work and was hoping to walk more but somehow can’t find the energy to do more than the minimum. It’s been a bit of a struggle to walk and also to understand what happened to my energy.

Have a good day.

PEAK: Target weight of 9st 7lb reached this morning!!! Not been this light since before I had kids and I used to go to the gym 3 times a week – feeling very pleased!

PIT: I seem to have brought an eye infection back from holiday so not very happy about that – doc has given me some drops which seem to be working slowly.

I too love cream and treat myself to two teaspoons in coffee every morning. I count this as 50 calories ( I hope that is right) and the fat keeps me going until lunch. Delicious!
X B

Oh, well done, Norfolkgirl – doing the happy dance for you, what a great achievement. 🙂 Do hope your eye infection clears up quickly though.

I returned last evening from a 10 day walking holiday – for which you can substitute pub crawl as, whilst we walked the coastal path every day except one, when the weather was just too inclement (heavy rain and gale force winds) every walk seemed to be planned to arrive at a pub in time for lunch, and another pub for a quick jar at the end of the day’s walk! And the one day we didn’t walk, we (4 of us, and 4 dogs) holed up in front of a roaring fire in a gorgeous old pub all day. Testing times!!! And then there was dinner to contend with every night. So………………………

PEAK – got on the scales this morning, first time since we left home 10 days ago, absolutely dreading the reading. But, a loss of 3.25lbs (1.47kg). WOOHOO – RESULT!!! 🙂 Must have been all that extra walking – up to 15 miles a day. If I wasn’t already doing the happy dance for Norfolkgirl, I’d certainly be doing it for me! 🙂

PIT – none so far, (though only 11am, so there’s still time) but I think the fact that I went on holiday hoping just to not put any weight on, but actually came home over 3lbs lighter will carry me through almost anything today 🙂

Have a good day everyone.

Thank you Theodora, I will do a happy dance for you too – does it count towards my Fitbit 10K steps? 🙂

Where have you been walking? Sounds very energetic, 15 miles is certainly going to work off some extra calories. I am thinking about planning a UK holiday for the late spring/summer to include some nice walking, preferably by the coast, not too far away. New doggie is not very keen on car journeys but he seems to be settling in, so hopefully will be ok by then.

Hi Norfolkgirl, yes OF COURSE happy dances count towards our daily step target – though I hadn’t actually thought of that little ploy myself 😉 Thanks for the idea though 🙂

We were walking the SW Coastal path which, if you live in Norfolk, which I assume you do, is a long old drive!! Also, if you are used to flat Norfolk countryside, the hills may be a bit of a challenge too – we go on walking holidays a couple of times a year – always out of season, because I hate strenuous walking when the weather is warm. We do the SW coastal path and the Lake District, so both hilly options. Though I must say that most pubs good walking areas, and in Cornwall, in particular, are incredibly dog friendly 🙂

So pleased your new pooch is settling in well – is he a pup? My dogs aren’t keen on long car journeys either, but have to tolerate them for the greater good – they would hate being left at home, and IMO, what’s the point of a good long walk without a furry four-legged friend by your side? (apart from reaching our step target of course 😉 )

PS Just thought of my PIT for today:-

Sadly, despite dumping 16lbs (7.2kg) in weight in 4 weeks, and my jeans now bagging round my backside, my waist measurement remains stubbornly the same 🙁 Grrrrrrr!!

And my backside wasn’t THAT big to start with – it was my boobs and waist I wanted to lose from! Grrrrr!!

Norfolkgal~ Congratulations on the wonderful weight loss! That must feel so great to reach your target weight goal. :–)
Sorry to hear about your eye infection. Those are miserable!

Theodora~Your walking holiday sounded like a great trip! I love the fact that you enjoyed yourself, spent time with your dear friends, and lost a good amount of weight. Impressive!

K8sgettingthin~So nice that your blood pressure was normal at the doctor! That is terrific!!!!!

Angela~You are a brave woman to get rid of all foods but the vegetables and condiments! I can just picture you grazing on radishes :–)
I hope your energy returns quickly! Must feel strange after all the walks you’ve been taking. So nice that your weight continues to drop.
Did you manage to avoid the stomach bug? It is going around here and I’m hoping to dodge it. A woman that I work closely with has it and is on day 12. She returned to work but still has to run to the bathroom constantly! Yikes!!!!

PEAK: “Gal”entine’s Day turned out great! We had to eat at the bar because there was no room left in the restaurant, but it was fun to catch up. We were just happy to have a seat! There were so many people celebrating at all the restaurants and the parking lots were packed. I got home about 8 pm and went straight to bed because I knew I had to get up early for work.
In spite of going out for dinner and not having time to do any formal exercise yesterday, I managed to lose half a pound. So hopefully the gained weight from the weekend fun continues to come off.

PIT: Missed seeing my husband on Valentine’s Day!

Good morning

Theodora, oh well done. What is your secret? I’d love to know how you managed to lose weight on a boozy holiday 😉 I walk and walk but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on my weight…my legs are thinner though. Your walk sounds wonderful. I was hoping to do Hadrian’s trail this year but my fitness levels still aren’t great. Think I’ll have to join a gym!

Jmarie, I’m really liking the sound of your alternative valentine’s night. A lovely way to celebrate types of love other than the romantic. I hope your mother is doing well. Wonderful news about starting to lose the weekend weight. It’s heartening to see the scales go down and it motivates us to keep on.

I didn’t get the gastro thank goodness and the family is all bright eyed and bushy tailed again which is great as it’s the school hols. The February holidays are traditionally the ski holidays but in our corner it has been quite mild. There’s snow in the mountains behind us but I’ve heard it’s not good quality.

My peak for Wednesday was that I walked 8kms which was quite a big deal for me. I’ve been building up slowly, starting from the settee at practically 0 kms a day in January. The walk was flat and lovely, started by the sea then followed the river inland. I’ll do it again with my grandchildren. A find! My weight is down a little just 200g. And the violets are beginning to come out in my garden. Spring is on its way.

No pits at all….

Have a great day everyone.