Planning Ahead & Doing Well

Planning is important when trying to lose weight. If you plan ahead what you are going to eat for the week, it is much easier to avoid those tempting moments when you are hungry, don't know what there is to eat and grab something unhealthy for a quick fix.

With that in mind, Robert and I did a lot of planning ahead for this week. We won the new Slimming World cookbook "A World Of Flavours" at the last Slimming World meeting, so we decided to cook from it this week. So far I have made us two things from the book.

The first recipe we tried was Baked Cannelloni (Italian). We had broccolli as a side dish and the meal was delicious! The recipe feeds four, so Robert, our two teenage daughters and I were all able to have it, and everyone enjoyed it. It was even enjoyable enough for my teenager Angelica that she was willing to eat spinach! (There was spinach in the recipe, and she normally won't eat anything with spinach in it, but she liked the cannelloni.)

Tonight we had Vegetable Lasagne (Italian). It was delicious too, and importantly, it got my teenage daughters eating vegetables without complaining about it! It was full of healthy vegetables like bell peppers, courgettes, onion, and aubergines.

Tomorrow we are having Falafels (Morrocan) and the Tomato & Courgette Flan (French). I'm preparing the mixture for the falafels tonight and cooking it tomorrow. If I have time, I will also be making us the Spanish Orange Cake.

Tuesday, we will be making New York-style Meatloaf (North American) and on Wednesday, we will be trying the Baked Gnocchi (Italian). I am really looking forward to trying all of these new dishes.

I will be adding all of these recipes to my recipe blog as we try them out, along with what we thought about them.

Next week, we might try some of the recipes from the sections for Greece, India, China and Thailand to add even more variety to our meals.

Robert and I have been very, very good this week with our eating and exercise. I've been on the elliptical crosstrainer many times this week, the Wii Fit (using handweights) many times this week, and we've gone on several long walks. We've stuck to the Slimming World plan all week and used very few of our allowed "syns."

I am very hopeful that this week I will finally get past this plateau I've been stuck on for five weeks. My weigh-in is tomorrow night. I'll have a good idea by morning whether or not I will have a successful weigh-in or not. I am probably going to be a little worried until then though, because for the past five weeks, being "good" with my diet and exercise hasn't given me any results. I'm just praying that adding a little extra exercise and getting more variety in my diet has helped.

Challenging The Plateau

I am so tired of fighting this weight! I've been stuck at the same weight for 5 weigh-ins (if you count the week I went up two only to follow by going down two the next week). And this week, my weight jumped up a little right after my weigh-in (as it usually does), but no matter how good I am being, it seems to want to stay up. I am doing more exercise (again, even though I told myself I would never over-exercise again). I am eating completely on plan with hardly any "syns" used at all. But it looks like I might continue at this weight for yet another weigh-in. (I'm really hoping this weekend shows my weight start to drop.)

I don't get it! I lost 127.5 pounds with a pretty steady amount of weekly loss, and yet once I reached the magic ten-pounds-left number, everything stopped, and even changing things up doesn't seem to be shifting it.

And the really frustrating part about this ten pounds hanging on is that I pay £4.75 a week for my weekly weigh-ins and group meetings at Slimming World, but once I reach my goal weight, I get to go for free. So not losing this last ten pounds is costing me money!

*sigh*

I know I should not focus so much on the weight, but it's just ten little pounds! I will not be beat by TEN FREAKIN' POUNDS!

I am stronger now, and that is a good thing. My BMI is probably better than my weight would suggest it is because I have added muscle to my body. My husband keeps referring to me as "tiny" and "petite" (which is music to a formerly morbidly obese person's ears). I have lots of energy too, which I did not have when I was seriously overweight. I can buy pretty clothes in a variety of styles IN MY SIZE, and they look GOOD on me now. I am still losing inches.

And yet that last ten pounds taunts me. I can hear it chanting, "Neener-neener-neener! You caaan't catch meeee!"

But, with my competitive streak in full force now, I know I will beat it. The thought that rises to my mind in response to its taunting is, "Wanna bet?"