OK, so perhaps it's not quite February till Wednesday, but today and tomorrow are my *BONUS* February days!

Here's the deal... I have a careers convention at my old school on March 3rd. I would dearly love to get into a pair of size 12 trousers by then. They fasten but I wouldn't risk sitting down in them!

I have had a horrendous 3 days of eating (mainly from being tired and bored and tired and travelling and tired). Yesterday I made lemon chicken, roast veggies and pre-boiled up a TON of brown rice. I don't have anything planned for any weekends in February, so I SHOULD be able to cope ok and get ON PLAN and STAY THERE for at least 4 weeks.

I'm going to make this a point challenge! Sooooooooo

1 point for CLEAN EATING (only 1 "processed" item a day which includes wheat bread)
1 point for 4 pints WATER (plus "matching" my Pepsi intake)
1 point for EXERCISE (or a planned rest day)
1 point for MINDSET (because that's the most important thing at the moment)

Everyone join in, let's make February Fabulous and you can make up your own point system, as long as every day is a possible 4!

Jan 30th - - 4
Jan 31st - - 4
Feb 1st - ( 4.6km in 35mins) - 4
Feb 2nd - -4
Feb 3rd - (no exercise - busted knee) - 2
Feb 4th - - 4
Feb 5th - - 4

Feb 6th - - 4 ( 5.01km in 34.26mins)
Feb 7th - - 4
Feb 8th - - 4
Feb 9th - - 3 (almost fainted at kb thru lack of water )
Feb 10th -
Feb 11th -
Feb 12th -
Feb 13th -
Feb 14th -
Feb 15th -
Feb 16th -
Feb 17th -
Feb 18th -
Feb 19th -
Feb 20th -
Feb 21st -
Feb 22nd -
Feb 23rd -
Feb 24th -
Feb 25th -
Feb 26th -
Feb 27th -
Feb 28th -

Week 1 total =
Week 2 total =
Week 3 total =
Week 4 total =

What happened to Jan 31st!!

I'm in for that. I've lost 5lbs in 3 weeks which really isn't that bad but I don't feel achievement at all. Last time I dieted I lost 3lbs a week easy


My points are
1 point for eating breakfast every day (i have a nasty habit of eating hardly anything all day and then eating loads in the evening)
1 point for walking at least a mile a day (not really a challenge as I walk everywhere but it'll discourage me from taking taxis)
1 point for cutting down on caffeine. I am going for having herbal tea or soft drinks instead of having ten million teas and coffees everyday
1 point for not having more than 2 pieces of bread a day


Jan 31st - 3 points - not done my walk today because I'm still feeling quite sick. Am doing gym and walk tomoz to make it up
Feb 1st - 4 points
Feb 2nd -
Feb 3rd -
Feb 4th -
Feb 5th -
Feb 6th -
Feb 7th -
Feb 8th -
Feb 9th -
Feb 10th -
Feb 11th -
Feb 12th -
Feb 13th -
Feb 14th -
Feb 15th -
Feb 16th -
Feb 17th -
Feb 18th -
Feb 20th -
Feb 21st -
Feb 22nd -
Feb 23rd -
Feb 24th -
Feb 25th -
Feb 26th -
Feb 27th -
Feb 28th

Me too! I actually managed to lose one WHOLE pound this week which doesn't sound much but to me its great - its the first pound I've lost since Christmas even though I've been Low GI-ing all that time! Obviously writing down everything I eat and keeping to 1500 cals has done something.

So, keeping that in mind, my points will be:
1 point for writing down my calories every day
1 point for not eating more than two medium GI foods and no foods which are high GI
1 point for exercise in excess of one hour of walking

and, to borrow 2frustrated's brilliant idea, 1 point for mindset (this is the one I'm most likely to not do too well on)

30th January - 3 points : : : - its the mindset thing. Feeling a bit miserable because I don't understand why, if I'm eating the correct number of cals and the right types of food AND getting plenty of exercise - then why aren't I losing weight???
31st January - 4 points : : : :
1st February - 4 points : : : : - did 10 mile walk today - to make up for tomorrow when I'm only likely to get an hour walk.
2nd February - 2 points : : - not so great on the exercise thing but I'd planned for that and had done more yesterday. Went over my GI foods limit on meal out
3rd Feburary - 4 points : : : : - I'm feeling a bit more positive about things today - shame I still haven't lost any weight!
4th February - 4 points : : : :
5th February - 4 points : : : : - weigh in day - and I have lost 2lbs!!! Yayyyy
6th February - 4 points : : : :
7th February - 4 points : : : : - more like 3 and a half really - I'm feeling positive about dieting but p'd off about this back and hip ache
8th February - 3 points : : : - the positivity thing again! Did some extra walking (12 miles) because I've got a planned 'rest' day tomorrow
9th February - 4 points : : : : - only did 3.5 miles but it was a planned rest day so that was okay.
10th February - 4 points : : : :
11th February - 4 points : : : :
12th February - 4 points : : : :
13th February - 4 points : : : :
14th February - 4 points : : : :
15th February - 4 points : : : : (planned rest day tomorrow!)
16th February - 4 points : : : :
17th February - 4 points : : : :
18th February - 4 points : : : : (3lbs lost this week)
19th February - 4 points : : : :
20th February - 4 points : : : :
21st February - 4 points : : : :
22nd February - 4 points : : : : (113,700 steps this week)
23rd February - Planned rest day - 4 points : : : :
24th February - 4 points : : : :
25th February - 4 points : : : :
26th February - On holiday
27th February - On holiday
28th February - On holiday

Oh yeah Jan 31st! I'm such a bimbo! I'm thinking too far ahead!

Hmm, February is going to be a little tricky for me, I'm going away for the weekend, it's my grandfather's 80th birthday party, my sister, her boyfriend and my parents are here, coming and going over a three week period, and I've got the half marathon which will require some rest days around it (and post run celebrations )

But, I think I can manage with the following:

1 point - exercise - including planned rest (I'll set these upfront as 11th and 12th Feb when I'm moving my workouts around to accommodate 2 days off, and 25th and 27th Feb which are half marathon related rest days)
1 point - 5 portions of fruit and veg
1 point - no alcohol
1 point - no more than one coffee

Today - 4 points
Jan 31st - 4 points
Feb 1st - 4 points
Feb 2nd - 4 points
Feb 3rd - 4 points (I resisted the offer of a free drink!)
Feb 4th - 3 points (I was cooking with alcohol, and a little slipped into my glass )
Feb 5th - 3 (that would be the alcohol again. Fruit and veg only just scraped in, but I made a conscious effort to eat as much as possible so I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt)
Feb 6th - 4
Feb 7th - 4
Feb 8th - 4
Feb 9th - 4
Feb 10th - 4. I don't have great hopes for the weekend...
Feb 11th - 4 (amazing!)
Feb 12th - 3 (just a teeny tiny sip of wine, but I did drink it...)
Feb 13th - 4
Feb 14th - 4
Feb 15th - 4
Feb 16th - 4
Feb 17th - 3 (alcohol)
Feb 18th - 3 (more alcohol)
Feb 19th - 2 (alcohol and fruit and veg)
Feb 20th - 4
Feb 21st - 4
Feb 22nd - 3 (coffee)
Feb 23rd - 4
Feb 24th - 3 (coffee)
Feb 25th - 4 (planned rest counts as exercise )
Feb 26th - 3 (alcohol, mucho alcohol...)
Feb 27th -
Feb 28th -

Yay - today was a 4 - although I would actually put it at more of a 3.5 I'm aware I should be drinking more water but I just can't do it otherwise I'd end up p'ing al fresco which is difficult with two inquisitive dogs about.

Isn't it strange how we differ with our targets - I have absolutely NO problem with eating enough fruit and veg - its very unusual for me to eat less than 10 units, I don't like bread and I haven't had anything with caffeine in it for years now because it gives me a cracking headache the following day.

My problem really is keeping a food diary and drinking enough fluids (although I haven't put down fluids as a February goal - must remember it for March).

I hear you Sarah, on the doing everything right and still not losing weight! I think the Zig zag thing might help (I well hope so! )

2frustrated - I'm starting it today. Its my husband's day off so I'm starting with my biggest number of cals for the week, so it'll be relatively easy. Tomorrow won't be so good on the lowest number for the week.

Are you doing the complex or simple version? I think my calorie totals are quite nice... As I say I'm having trouble getting to 2000 but I just added in the banana I had a breakfast and forgot about, and I'm nearly there!

I'm doing the complex version - but rounding the figures up or down to the nearest 20 to make life easy but making sure that the weekly total is 7 x my daily allowance. My husband only really gets one regular day off each week (Thursday) so its nice to know I can relax a little and cook something yummy without panicking about the calorie content so much. Luckily (or unluckily depending on how you look at it) there are other days of the week when he leaves the house at 5.15am and gets home at 6.30pm - and those days are great for me to have as my low cal days - best of all his shift pattern fits in with the zigzag pattern but not necessarily on the days the calculator says! (If you see what I mean.)

I've changed the days on the calculator, I think if you just use the values it doesn't matter which days you do them on! Oh and deffo round them up or down... You'd go nuts trying to hit 1648 exactly every other day!

Do you allow yourself to 'earn' calories through exercise?

I tried looking at the figures and "adding" my exercise on but some days it would have me eating 3500kcals!

So no.. I don't do that! I just do what they say for fat loss and think as the exercise as bonus. If nothing works this week, I will be changing it up again next week - I might try the complex version.

I like the complex version - its nice to know there is one day a week when you can eat more and not feel guilty.

It was a good thing that yesterday was my high cal day as we had a meal out which completely exceeded my calorie limit (nice though!) and I'm feeling better about things in general today.

Today is a low cal day - I've had my normal breakfast except for cutting out the brazil nuts and I've got baked Thai trout with a large stir fry planned for this evening. I'm not sure what to have for lunch though as I haven't got many cals left. I might make a Thai style broth soup if I can be bothered. I had a great walk this morning and, if my pedometer is correct, I'm picking up speed.