Thanks for dropping by

Tammy

It is hard to believe that I have dropped as much weight. I really had given up hope of ever getting rid of as much as this. It just shows how you can con yourself that a task is impossible - just because you keep on failing.

I am a bit of a diet gurus nightmare because I hate counting calories because I have failed in the past when I have gone over a limit and then given up on the project. Anyway I cannot see counting calories as a long term solution. All I try to do about food really is eat sensibly and in a balanced way. I just like to see protein, fruit, veg, cereal, milk and an occasional little bit of fat. I need something that I can picture me doing with little or no effort for life. I am just calculating calorie values this week because of the challenge - and you should have heard my husband complain when I wanted to weigh out my dinner when dishing up.

Stacy

Hope your walk went well. I just hope that we are in for a mild winter.

Jennifer

Thanks. You are welcome. The best thing that anyone can learn from my mistakes is not to get up to 294 pounds in the first place. It is very hard work to sort it out - but I firmly believe that it is possible.

Sunday 4/11/07

Another bright dry day. More blisters between my toes which husband dealt with.

Husband was less than impressed when I weighed out all the food in my main meal. He felt that it delayed our dishing up – which it did do. Counting calories is really not a long term solution for me.

This is the end of the “no raisins” experiment. I got the pain which I have had before. If all the calories for the day are written down – it is impossible for me not to total them up and think about whether I want to spend any more – I have been on too many calorie controlled diets over the years. By the time I got the pain I had used up really all the calories that I had planned on using for the day – and had drank all my cold water in the fridge.

I had one handful of raisins which was not as effective as what I have done in the past which was two handfuls and water from the fridge.

Whether a second handful of raisins would have improved the situation – I can not say.

It may seem to others as an excessive use of calories – but I was happy with my weight loss when I was having the raisins so I am going back to having them whether I need them or not. At this moment in time prevention seems a lot better than a half baked cure.

General Data:

Morning walk = 6.3 miles.
Round the block = 4 times
Extra exercises = none
Weight = 13st 4.0lbs (i.e. 186.0 pounds)
Steps = 27,911
Distance = 10.35 miles
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
Continued my creaming regime – missed off a bio-oil massage

Food / Drink:

NB I have no target calories. I am not trying to reach any magic number.

1 banana = 107 calories
3 weetabix (190 cal), sweetener (4 calories), 350 ml skimmed milk (123 cal) = 317 calories.
1 handful honey Shreddies = 126 calories
1 handful honey Shreddies = 126 calories
1 glass (200ml) grapefruit juice = 82 calories
5 grapes = 10 cal
130g pork (287 cal), 90g roast potatoes (135 cal), 160g boiled potato (128 cal) , 40g half a roast parsnip (46 cal), 120g carrot (50 cal), 95g broccoli (34 cal), 70g peas (38 cal), 150ml gravy (42 cal), apple sauce (20 cal) = 780 calories
2 litres of cold water
some diet cola
1 wine gum = 20 calories
1 large handfuls of raisins = 406 calories

Margaret,

If you've been having raisins for quite some time and you are losing weight on a regular basis, I wouldn't stop them either. They don't seem to be hindering your your loss and if they help you, sure I'd keep eating them.

I have to agree with you on the calorie counting. I know it works for some people, but it doesn't work for me. I try to eat sensibly and I know what things I should avoid.

You are doing a wonderful job doing what you are doing.

Anne

Hi Anne

Thanks for your support.

I think that I had raisins pretty much every day of October and I lost 12 pounds that month. I am more than happy with that rate of loss this far into a weight loss project. It would have never occured to me to drop them if not for counting calories for the challenge this week. I am certainly stopping counting after Friday. Well I have learnt my lesson and they are back in.

I am looking forward to today's raisins. I will put off having them for another couple of hours - then I know that they will be there to prevent problems tonight.

I must be a raisin addict. You would not believe it. I even started pouring water on my weetabix today. And my weight is back up to Saturday's level today. How is that for withdrawal!!

Take care
Love
Margaret

Hi ya Margaret!

What are your "normal" winters like?

Texas is just plum crazy...We never know..

Most often the weather takes turns often..

mild/super cold/chilly/warm/spring-like/cold again...LOL

It's no wonder ppl here stay sick and all kinds of germs are always floatin' around.

We have had so many C-Mas' in shorts for pete sakes!

This is a perfect example:

The high today will be 85*

Tonight a cold front will reach us and it'll be in the 40's by morning.

The high tomorrow will only be around 60-65*



Have A Goal Reachin' Monday Sweetie!

Hi Stacy

I hope that Monday is goal reaching for you too.

Our "normal" winters arent too bad. The worst thing is that we get lots of rain. It would be a particularly harsh winter if we had snow for more than two weeks of the year - and often not for as much as that. We dont really get what you would call a lot of snow even then. Some years we get little more than a couple of light dustings of snow.

Probably if you take away your worse extremes of heat and cold - you are left with us if you use a lot of your dull days.

My parents live in Newcastle upon Tyne (where I was born) which is in north England about 300 miles away from us - and they have more snow there. Not dramatic amounts, but generally the weather is worse there.

The daytime max weather here is generally about 60 degrees at this time of year. That is the approx temp this week. Our weather forecasters do everything in celsius so to convert I take the temp we have and divide by 5, multiply by 9 and add 32. I think that it is about 15 so that converts to 59. It sounds like tomorrow you are going to have weather similar to us.

We certainly wont see anything like 85 until next summer - and we will be lucky to see that then. We often have summers that never turn out too great.

I have just checked our local weather forecast. It is
Tues - min 5 max 12
Wed - min 9 max 14
Thur - min 5 max 15

These translate to
Tues - min 41 max 53
Wed - min 18 max 57
Thur - min 41 max 59

We have never been in shorts for Christmas - but it is unusual for it to be "white" too. We sometimes get a couple of dozen snowflakes though in Newcastle.

I bet you are glad you have your weather!!

Take care
Love
Margaret

Monday 5/11/07

Cloudy but dry.

Raisins most definitely back in daily diet. Although the pain certainly had eased it hung over me from last night causing me to feel generally below par. Decided to put off eating raisins until evening because I didn’t want to be wanting twice as many as normal.

Blisters between the toes on my right foot seem to be getting worse. I have no idea what is causing them.


General Data:

Morning walk = 6.3 miles.
Round the block = 5 times (on two laps my husband came too)
Extra exercises = keep fit class
Weight = 13st 5.0lbs (i.e. 187.0 pounds)
Steps = 33,279
Distance = 12.34 miles
Remembered to take normal vitamin / supplements
Continued my creaming regime – missed off a bio-oil massage

Food / Drink:

NB I have no target calories. I am not trying to reach any magic number.

1 banana = 107 calories
3 weetabix (190 cal), sweetener (4 calories), 350 ml skimmed milk (123 cal) = 317 calories.
1 handful honey Shreddies = 126 calories
200g mackerel (402 cal), 160g boiled potato (128 cal), 120g sweetcorn (99 cal), 5g olive spread (33 cal) = 662 calories
2 large handfuls of raisins = 812 calories
2 litres of cold water
some diet cola

Speaking of the weather....It was 37 degrees here today and will be 30 tonight. Tomorrow we will get a high of 45 and a low of 29 and both nights we are expected to have snow flurries.

Margaret, I'm sorry about your blisters. I know how irritating and painful they can be. I have been putting the shea butter on mine, to stop the cracking and they are holding up ok. Do you ever use moleskin for those blisters? Hubby says a lot of the guys in the army wear pantyhose underneath their socks to help while walking road marches, etc. with blisters. I don't know how many of them would admit it... but they do...lol It must help.

Don't your legs ever hurt? I am guilty of not stretching before walking, and I think it makes a difference. I just forget to stretch, and I pay the price.

I hope you have good weather this winter so you can continue your walks. Other wise, do you have a mall near you? Lots of folks walk inside the malls for exercise. Ever thought of that? I'm not sure you have malls like we have here in the states, do you?

Ok, I've got to run. Will talk to you later.

Anne

Howdy Omega,
SNOW!!!EWWWWWWW I am
so not looking forward to the white stuff it is a pain in da ass for me
and kids walking to school it is hard to get in the walking for the day
your tootsies are cold when the city plows they tend to bury your car then you dig it out to only have you nice neighbor with 5 vehicles take it as soon as pull away GRRRRRRRRRR I so hate it!
Anyway your doing really great and I hope your pain gets better to,Have a nice day Tammy

Thanks for visiting my diary and your continued support. I am quite used to blisters - but these are really odd. For one thing I cannot think how my feet have been rubbed to get blisters in that location. For another thing - I cannot see the blisters clearly in order to deal with them for myself. Last night husband was saying that if they did not improve I should show them to the doctor. I really am not too keen on that if I can sort them out for myself.

Anne

You poor thing - contending with weather as bad as that. We are much luckier than you. I will take our rain and drizzle over that any day.

Although we do have malls in England - there arent any too near here. Not near enough to be a practical solution. The only indoor thing near here is a Tesco Extra (big supermarket) - and it would get really boring to try and walk round that all day.

It is interesting the concept of pantyhose under socks helping. I think that I will give that a go.

I am quite lucky as far as the leg stretching side of things go. The fact is that in the morning I almost always walk until my legs hurt or feel really tired. That is just something that has developed as for a while I addressed plateaus and indeed weight loss slow-downs by increasing the length of the walk. It was such an easy solution and I like to see results. When I felt I couldnt do that anymore I added in later walks and increased those.

Tammy

It sounds like your winters are a real problem too. Talking to you and Anne - I am getting to think that our regular rain is a lot better than it might be. The obvious solution is that we should all go and spend winter with Stacy - I cannot believe that their days can still be 85 at this time of year.

Take care
Love
Margaret

Margaret: I completely agree with you about counting calories. Maybe some people can do that and find it useful, but I find it tedious and discouraging. Like you, I just focus on portion control and avoiding certain foods that seem to put weight on me (sugar, refined flour products, white potatoes, corn). I simply don't eat these things, and in choosing other foods I try to focus on eating things that are good for me. I feel so much better when I follow that regimen. When I fall off the wagon for a couple of days, I always gain weight and feel icky.

Hope things are going well and those blisters get better! How mystifying that you've suddenly started having a problem with that?!?

Hi Lagniappe,

Thanks for visiting.

I will be so pleased after Friday when I can stop tying a calorie number to anything. Like so many rules in life - for the guidance of wise men and the adherence of fools.

When the number is sitting there it is almost impossible not to add it up and feel that you should alter a behaviour pattern that you know suits you well.

The concept of "if it isnt broken - dont fix it" jumps to mind.....

It is funny about the blisters. I have had plenty of "ordinary" blisters - but these are odd and seem to keep coming back when you think they are gone.

Nothing so odd as the human body.

Take care
Love
Margaret

Hang in there Margaret! The bonus will be over soon!

I hope you feel better in all ways as well.

Have A Super Goal Reachin' Tuesday!

Thanks Stacy.

I am counting the days until I can stop counting calories.

I hope that today is goal reaching and fun for you too

Hi there, Margaret
I have to ask if you've been checked for diabetes. You need to make sure what you think are foot blisters are not actually ulcers. As you know, women with PCOS are at higher risk for developing diabetes. If I were you, I'd get my doc to check them out.

I am so impressed with the amount of exercise you do! Wonderful. And that if you enjoy raisins, they should have a place in your regular diet!

Just popped in to tell you that you're doing really well and helping to keep me inspired in

cheers
Janice