It's Amazing How Much You Can Eat...

...when you put your mind to it.

Yesterday afternoon a friend and I went for afternoon tea at Cliveden. The 376 acres of grounds are owned and managed by the National Trust while the house (once home to Waldorf and Nancy Astor) is owned and operated separately as a hotel. The weather was glorious and as we arrived a little early, we made the most of the spring sunshine and sat outside.

For tea we were seated on a gloriously squashy sofa in the great hall, next to the huge fireplace, where a fire was burning, even on this lovely warm spring day.

Over the course of the next two hours I managed to eat 3 finger sandwiches -ham & wholegrain mustard; cucumber; and chicken - and devour three cakes - a chocolate and cherry confection, a chocolate mousse layer cake and a fabulous macaroon, plus a scone with strawberry jam and clotted cream (what's an aftenoon tea without a scone afterall?!) all washed down with two pots of coffee. I was amazed at how accommodating my band was, and really pleased to be able to enjoy such a delicious afternoon tea with no trouble at all. Needless to say, I didn't need any dinner yesterday evening!

70lbs!!!

Yay - for some reason the weight is literally falling off this week. I was going to blog on Friday that I'd lost another 1lb, but didn't get round to it. I thought perhaps it was because I'd had my hair cut shorter! Then I weighed today and I'd lost a further 2lbs!

Today is clearly an auspicious day:
1) it's my 14 month bandiversary
2) it's my darling boy's 2nd birthday
3) it's the first day of spring.

And I have a 70lbs/5 stone lighter spring in my step!

13st 10lbs - 192lbs - BMI 31.9

(a total loss so far of 70lbs; 24lbs to go)

Yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaw!

Fact: Blogging Aids Weightloss

Don't ask me how, but blogging causes weightloss. That is an absolute fact. How do I know this? Because, friends, it happened to me. Up until yesterday's post, I hadn't blogged for nearly three weeks and hadn't lost any weight for four. Lo and behold, yesterday I blogged, today I had lost weight. A strange coincidence, I think you'll agree.

13st 13lbs - 195lbs - BMI 32.4
(a total loss so far of 67lbs; 27lbs to go)

Repeat after me: must blog more often, must blog more often...

Still Here and a litte NSV

Sorry for the blogging abscence. I'm just checking in briefly to let you all know that I'm still around. I just have nothing to report on the weightloss front - still hanging in at 14st (196lbs).

I've been this weight for about a month now, so I think it's fair to say I'm in Plateauville. Also known as The Land of Complacency. I'm still happy to have got this far which means I'm doing very little to get any further; I know that's wrong and I'm pretty sure at some point I'll shake myself and get moving again, but for now this is where I'm at and it feels good. I'm still going to the gym three times a week, but I'm offsetting this good work by eating a lot of biscuits (cookies) and chocolate.

I want to share this photo with you - despite the fact the small boy appears to be picking his nose (!) and despite the fact that it's really poor quality - because I can see my COLLARBONE!!! NSV to me!

ABC; Easy As...

Thought I'd jump on the old ABC bandwagon with some 'interesting' facts about moi:

A) Age: officially 39, but I've been going backwards for the last few years so I'm also 34...
(B) Bed Size: Superking, best piece of furniture we ever bought!
(C) Chore You Hate: all of them, that's why we have cleaners (yes, we're a little bit la di dah, aren't we?!)
(D) Dogs? No; too much like hard work
(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: toothbrush, coffee
(F) Favorite Color: Green
(G) Gold or Silver? Silver; or platinum would be better...
(H) Height: 5' 5"
(I) Instruments You Play: played the recorder when I was at junior school - does that count?
(J) Job Title: Indexer
(K) Kids: One little tinker, male, aged nearly 2
(L) Live: Reading, UK; but very soon to be a little village in Somerset...
(M) Mom's Name: Mum, with a 'u'! Actual name = Joan
(N) Nicknames: wifey, Jus
(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? when I had my tonsils out when I was about 7; two nights when I gave birth to darling child; one night for WLS
(P) Pet Peeve: rude/ill-mannered people; bad spelling/grammar
(Q) Quote from a Movie: You had me at 'Hello'; Run, Forrest, Run
(R) Right or Left Handed? Right
(S) Siblings: Nope; I'm a 'lonely only'
(T) Time You Wake Up? Whenever darling child awakes, unless it's a nursery day in which case it's 7.15am in order to get him out the door and over there for opening time
(U) Underwear: big, black and comfy; if they hold my tummy in too, all the better
(V) Vegetable You Dislike: radish, lettuce, cucumber, almost everything that makes a salad
(W) What Makes You Run Late: constantly thinking that everything I need to do before I have to be somewhere takes less time that it actually does, and getting sidetracked into doing unnecessary things; I'm almost always late
(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: ankle; broke it at a nightclub when VERY drunk
(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Victoria Sponge; that's about it, I am a TERRIBLE cook, hubby is the chef in our house
(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Penguin

A New Low

Yesterday I reached my new lowest weight

14st 0lbs - 196lbs - BMI 32.6

(a total loss so far of 66lbs; 28lbs to go)

I'm liking this lovely round (no pun intended) number of 14st dead. Not only that, it leaves me with exactly 2st (28lbs) to lose to get to my goal weight of 12st. The last time I weighed 12st (and at times actually 11st and some lbs) was in 1997 - that's 14 years ago, ouch!

However, at my current weightloss rate of approx 3lbs a month, I'm still some way off reaching my goal (10 months, in fact.)

Yes, I know I could no doubt ramp up the rate of weightloss but I'm so very pleased with where I am right now that I've slid into the (insert Twilight Zone music here)

COMPLACENT ZONE

In fact, I was shocked to see that I'd even got down to 14st. It's not that I'm eating lots, because my band still won't allow me to do that, but I'm not exactly eating healthily or eating in such a way that would make me feel I deserve to be losing. I am going to the gym three times a week, so I'm pretty sure that's helping, plus food doesn't have the same hold over me that it used to, so maybe I'm being a little harsh on myself.

But I'm so pleased to be able to go into most regular clothes shops and know that something (most things) will fit me (I'm now wearing UK size 18 [sometimes even 16] clothes - that's a US 12-14); I feel much happier, healthier and more confident; lots of people have noticed and commented upon my weightloss; things are good. I'm not saying I'll be happy to stay at this weight for always but at the moment, I'm very grateful to have got to where I am.

Fat Stats

Thought it was about time I put my vital statistics down on the page, if only for my own record and not because they are particularly rivetting!

Now, whilst weighing is a pretty much daily event round these parts, I've found getting the tape measure out to record the centimetres lost (I prefer to work in inches to tell the truth, but the only tape measure I could find at home when I first measured was a centimetre one) somewhat more of a chore. In fact, I've only measured myself five times in a year. Still, at least it means the loss is more noticeable!

The first set of measurements are from 3rd January 2010, just before I started my pre-op diet; the measurements after the :: are from 5th February 2011

Neck: 37cm :: 35
Upper arm right: 40cm :: 33.5
Upper arm left: 39cm :: 33.5
Wrist right: 17cm :: 16
Wrist left: 17cm :: 15.5
Bust: 121.5cm :: 107
Below bust: 106cm :: 92
Waist: 114cm :: 97.5
Hips: 135cm :: 118
Thighs: 132cm :: 114
Knee right:44cm :: 38.5
Knee left: 46cm :: 39
Calf right: 44cm :: 41
Calf left: 46cm :: 40.5
Ankle right: 26.5cm :: 24
Ankle left: 27.5cm :: 24

A total loss of 123.5cm - that's about the height of an average seven year old...

My weightloss month-by-month so far looks a little like this:
January 2010: 15lbs
February: 6lbs
March: 6lbs
April: 1lb
May: 1lb
June: 3lbs
July: 5lbs
August: 10lbs
September: 3lbs
October: 3lbs
November: 3lbs
December: 5lbs
January 2011: 3lbs

From a starting weight of 262lbs, to my current weight of 197lbs that's a total of 65lbs so far (inc. what I've lost in Feb) - that's the weight of an average nine year old...

Thus transforming me from:
to:
Onwards and downwards!