So, WW meeting last night and I weighed in at 11st 1lb.  Wearing clothes and after eating, I suppose that’s not so bad, but my leader was a bit brisque because I questioned something she’d written in my log.  I couldn’t read her writing and she explained I started at 11st 5 1/2 lbs not 11st 5lbs (the 1/2s are important for me) so I said surely getting to 11st 1lb is a 4 1/2 lb loss, not 3 1/2, but she said I was wrong.  Am I?  Isn’t it 4 1/2 lbs?I changed it on my log anyway.

Today I was volunteering at the clinical psychology unit and at the end of the meeting the guy said that was it - I should focus on uni work now so no more experience.  I know he’s right, but it was an unexpected bombshell and has left me feeling a bit meh.  I got great experience from the short time I was volunteering, I know that, but as I say it’s left me feeling a bit further from my goals than I was before.  That’s my attitude problem though, not his.  I just need to shake myself out of it.

I went to see Pelham 1, 2, 3 last night and really liked it and The Proposal today, which I also enjoyed.  It’s not fabulous, but it’s something to do, right?  Ha.

It doesn’t take much, really, for something to make an impression on me.  Case in point: I was watching America’s Next Top Model last night, an early episode where they screen the semi-finalists.  Watching that I thought to myself, I want to be like Tyra!  She’s overcome a lot of issues to be completely body confident.  I sat there thinking that that’s why I’m losing this weight, so I can walk down the street feeling body confident, feeling like a 10!

Then, I watched Ugly Betty.  I love Ugly Betty by the way, love it!  In this episode, Betty ends up throwing a party just so her crush can play a gig.  He even dedicates a song to her, but then she walks in on him kissing Amanda.  As she sits outside crying, Daniel comes to speak to her and she cries saying that when her crush called her beautiful, she should have known he meant on the inside because she’s not on the outside.  And for some reason, that line just made me so sad because it strick a chord with a lot of my self-image issues.  It was a sad night.  I’m totally fine now, but I really need to work on my impressionability.

For the impact, I’m really sad for one of my good friends.  He’s just been dumped by his girlfriend who’s over in Camp America.  He was meant to be going too, but couldn’t front the money for it.  His last girlfriend broke up with him when she went to Camp America and we spoke before his new gf went and he told me he was terrified the same thing was happening.  I reassured him and tried to make him feel better, and now it’s happened again.  I feel really bad for him, I know how much he’s hurting and I just want to help him feel better. 

I was meant to start uni work today.  It’s not prescribed by our course, I just wanted to get a head start after last term’s debacle with exams but I’ve still not got there.  I’ve been looking over the materials the psychologist I’m volunteering with gave me though, which is something I suppose.

The last two days I’ve been sitting at 11st 0lbs, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to push it into the 10st bracket for Thursday.  I’ll definitely be there by next week though!  When I do get there, DP’s buying me Twilight on DVD.  I’ve seen it at the cinema, but I want to watch it again lol.  Today’s eating hasn’t been to great because I got a tuna mayo sweetcorn wholemeal baguette and a chocolate square :s DP’s making bolognaise for tea, but we’re having it with turkey mince - beef mince is just too expensive (points wise).

As a result of me doing very little I don’t have much to say to blog about, sorry, but hopefully there will be more goss soon!

Mango x

Sunny thank you for your comment!  You always make me smile.  Just wanted to let you know I’ve not not been reading your blog, my browser just crashes when I go to comment on it Just so you know!  And way to go on your amazing weight loss; if anyone’s the role model it’s you!

Mango x

I don’t know if that’s the right French, but either way I’m back safe on Scottish soil and a happy about it.  How have you all been these last two weeks?  Well, let me tell you about France.

France was lovely, warm and sunny most days with rain a couple.  We stayed in a town called Aujac, relatively close to Saintes and Cognac.  We lived in a big gite with my aunt and uncle and my parents.  For one week my cousin joined us, for the second my aunt and uncle on my dad’s side. Around Aujac they grow only three crops; maize, grapes for wine and sunflowers.  That was one of my favourite things - the rows and rows of sunflowers that were so bright and yellow.  Happy flowers

The holiday was nice, it was good to get away.  It was just unfortunate that we were so far away from civilization.  Unfortunately DP and I aren’t old enough/haven’t been driving long enough for it to be cost-effective for us to hire our own car so we were reliant on other people, which is difficult, and we weren’t in walking or cycling distance of… well, anything really.  My family enjoy shopping (not a trait I share, I’m an in-grab-out kind of girl) so a lot of our days were visiting and trawling round towns.  Some were nice but in the heat of the day the last thing I wanted to be doing was trawling shops :s

So in some ways it’s felt like I’ve really not been on holiday but in others I’ve had a nice time.  One of the best things was that I weighed in at 11st 1lbs this morning - 1lb lower than when I left, which I really couldn’t believe after the diet we had on holiday.  Trying to get affordable food for 8 people who all have different dietary needs is ridiculous-pizza, pasta and pastry was what I consisted on.  So that just goes to show the difference exercise can make!

Now I’m home I’m back to tracking and feeling so much better for it, and DP has started tracking too!  He can’t make meetings because of his working and study hours, but he’s using the resources I have to make a difference to his wait too.  So now I get the joys of proving him wrong - I really can lose weight consistently - and beating him at it too!

Smiles to all of you,

Mango x

After a lazy morning it now seems there’s a hundred things to do in the few hours we have before we leave.  We’re not flying out tonight, but are kipping over at my aunt and uncle’s.  They’re coming to France too, so we’re hitching a lift with them to the airport on Saturday morning.  There’s far too many clothes for our luggage limit…

My weight watcher’s meeting was last night and my official loss for the week was another 1.5lbs.  I know I saw 11st 0lbs through the week, but I want to lose slow and steady.  I don’t want to make things harder for myself going on holiday!  My plans for surviving the vacation with either maintainence or loss is to swim in our pool every day, make sure I walk up and down every beach we go to and stick as close as I can to points.  I haven’t been using my activity points at home, but I will be there - if I want a crepe, at least I can earn one!

So, I’ll be away for two weeks and shall miss you all, but I’ll return with pictures and hopefully a couple of cheery anecdotes ;)  I hope you all have a great couple of weeks and to anyone who is away on holiday soon too - enjoy!

Mango x

I’ve been such a crappy blogger lately, for which I can only apologise.  I leave for France early on Saturday morning, but we’re leaving Dundee on Friday to night to go to my aunt and uncle’s.  Their son (my cousin) is looking after our cats for us while we’re away, and my aunt and uncle are coming to France too so we’re getting a lift to Glasgow airport with them.  It’s all quite exciting!  I’m one of those compulsive people who makes lists and lists of lists; so DP and I have plenty of jobs to do before we leave including a top to bottom clean of the flat so it’s nice for us to come home to.

How are your weeks going?  I stepped on the scale today for an unofficial weigh in and came in at 11st 0.25lbs, which I was psyched about!  That’s down 3.25lbs from Thursday (I think) which is unbelieveable!  I’m expecting some variability for my official weigh in given that I’ll have eaten and be wearing more than underwear, but that’s ok.  I feel I’m on the right path and WW is certainly working.  Woo!

My writing book has arrived and these swirling stories that have been going around haven’t found their way to paper yet, but I’m looking forward to making progress while I’m on holiday.  Tonight, I’m just looking forward to kicking back and watching Ugly Betty at 9pm and hopefully some of House season 5 if my old boss has finished with it!  I think I’m going to make some low fat scones too.  Yum yum

Mango x

Good evening sister chicks, how are you all?

I’ve had a good day!  My friend and I went for a long walk from Dundee to Broughty Ferry, had a diet coke, then walked back.  It was lovely and sunny, and it was really nice to socialise and get some exercise at the same time.

I had my second Weight Watchers meeting today.  I was pretty nervous; last night DP and I had a (small) spat and I made the bad decision to over-indulge.  But I lost a pound and a half!  I was so over-excited, it was almost like getting my exam results again!  It incentivised me to keep going, stay dedicated and move forward on it.  Goal is a pound a half closer and I can almost taste it!  One happy girly.

I’ve one more meeting before we’re off to France, but today I bought the exec kit that has plenty of supplies in it; 3 month tracker, shop and restaurant points (so now I know exactly how many calories are in everything from Starbucks!) a points calculator and a tape measure.  I took my measurements last week, and I’ll take them every month - in this case just when I get back from holiday on the 2nd or 3rd of August and I’ll post them then.  Still totally psyched over it!

My writing book is arriving tomorrow - happy about that too! :D  I have written short stories for years but this time I’m going for a full book.  I’ve had an idea brewing for a fortnight but I am a fussy writer - I need the perfect book to write in, it should be here tomorrow and I can start writing!  Yey

I hope you’re all having great Thursdays!

Mango x

Hey guys!

Sorry I’ve not been around for a while, I’ve been at my parents for a couple of days and working.  How are you all?

I had a very productive shopping day yesterday - £180 in total for me and DP’s clothes.  I had a great time though!  How unreal is that?  It’s the first shopping trip in years that I haven’t burst into tears.  We tried everything on before we bought and I felt really good in everything I’ve bought, which is a feeling I’d have paid twice as much for.

But, today I am a little hormone-fuelled.  Every 12 weeks I get depo provera, which is a hormonal contraceptive injection (I was at stroke risk on the pill).  This however, means that every 12 weeks I go very low on hormones then get filled up with them, so for about a week I’m all over the place.  Unfortunately, DP does sometimes get the brunt of this but mostly it just leaves me over-reacting to most things.  For example, one of my friends can’t make it to my leaving party because he got tickets to T in the Park (a famous Scottish music festival weekend) for his birthday.  I totally understand - tickets are like £200 and it’s a great weekend, but I got totally bummed.  Then my new shoes cut the back of my feet and I actually cried.  Then got even more annoyed because I was crying!  Lol.  I am laughing now because it is so ridiculous but god, I hate hormones.

Other than that, things are ok.  I’m still on track with my points.  I’m so glad the meeting was about al fresco eating because we had a BBQ at my parent’s and I was able to plan ahead and really enjoy it without going out of my point limit.  All the other things I wouldn’t have thought of before, like the burger in a bun with spread, cheese, relish, ketchup, salad…  But I had a plain roll and just the burger and it was only 5 and a half points.  Then I made kebabs from my portion of chicken and chunks of pepper.  I got two kebabs for 2 and a half points!  To top it off I had a skinny cow chocolate ice cream (1.5 points) so I felt really full and proud because I was in my points!  I’m hoping fo a loss this week, but I’m not going to get all freaked out if I don’t - as Betty said, it’s a tried and tested method - all I have to do is follow the plan, get exercise in and I’m there.

Looking over my cleaning analogy, food is all green now it’s just exercise I need to pick up on.  I love earning activity points!

Mango x

So I am feeling a lot better today

I got up early after a good sleep and went off to Boots (high-street beauty/pharmacy etc kind of place).  I got the rest of my skin care products which begin with my new WW regimen tomorrow :)  Boots have an amazing own-brand line called No.7 and I won’t use anything else.  Their make up and skin care products are quite expensive, but they’re the only kind that really work with my combination skin and don’t give me an allergic reaction.  I have weird oily to combination skin and pretty much all moisturisers make me either more oily or make my skin tacky but I heart No.7 which is just perfect!  So all in all, I’ve spent close to £80 on skin care alone!  And that’s only for cleanser, toner, lip care, eye gel, day sorbet (moisturiser) and night sorbet.  They’re huge fat pots though.  I kind of balk at the money, but I was getting that for holiday anyway and hey, beautiful skin makes me feel gorgeous.

Work was another long day (the temperature’s gone up yet again!)  I wasn’t meant to be working today but one of my workmates is moving house so I covered his shift.  It works out ok though as he’s buying my drinks for my leaving party! :)  Both the managers were in pissy moods but hey, it’s done now and I’ve got tomorrow off.  Back on Saturday, but let’s not think about that!

SO on to my very first Weight Watcher’s meeting!

It was really, really good.  My friend turned up and we went in and got our books and got weighed.  It’s a big meeting and about 40 people go in but only 5 (including me) stayed for the actual meeting.  A lot of people apparently just go in to get weighed and that’s it, which I wasn’t aware of.  That’s what my friend did.  She kind of scoffed a bit then left.  I do love her, but she’s one of the incredibly intelligent people who thinks they know the answers to every single one of life’s dilemmas and does have a tendency to look down her nose at some things.  That worried me a bit and I felt quite apprehensive, but I was happier once she left.  I also found another friend of mine goes, which I didn’t know about and she’s lovely.  She stayed for the meeting too.

My leader is absolutely lovely!  She remembers everyone’s name and their weaknesses and she spent quite a bit of time with me after going over everything with me.  I explained I’d had so many false starts and was quite apprehensive but she was very encouraging and I did feel really welcome there.  I’m feeling really motivated and I’m looking forward to going next week!  I don’t know if my friend will go back, but I will.  I’m aiming for 1lb a week.  I’m starting at 11st 5lbs, so there’s a way to go.  But I feel I can get there

Mango x