5% gone!

Its official. I did my first weigh in after a week of this journey, and have dropped 7lbs, which is 5% of my total. I'm very pleased with that.

Its bank holiday monday, which I had forgotten about. We have had a great weekend. On Saturday we went out for breakfast to our fave little cafe, and instead of double egg, chips, beans and mushrooms that I usually have, I had egg and mushrooms in a baguette with no butter. I also didn't help the girls finish their breakfast, which is where alot of my extra calories come from. That waste not want not philosophy is rubbish - its still wasted food, whether I leave it on the plate or stuff it in my mouth. I don't need it, so nit is still a waste.

We went shopping in town, and managed to get everything we were after, and ended up at the Garden centre with a car full of plants. I love my garden, and I also love the exercise it gives me, lugging plant pots about. We planted some, and have more to do in the week. Eva was on a mission to see how much gravel she could eat...you would think that after the first mouthful she would think 'Hmm, not tasty' but she ploughed on regardless. Grace made a brand new friend, a worm called Wormy who she made a little house for in a plant pot, with leaves for a bed and everything. She sobbed dramatically when I said she wasn't allowed to a) lick him and b) take him to bed with her. He got let go with much declarations of love and friendship, she was heartbroken to leave him.

Sunday we went to see one of Mart's cousins, who was having a celebration day to welcome their new baby son. It was lovely, they planted a Rowan tree as his name is Rowan, and did a time capsule for him. Grace and Eva loved seeing their cousin Nathan, and all the other little ones, and they had great fun peering into the garden pond and spotting a giant octopus and a crocodile apparently. I didn't go mad at the buffet table, just some egg sandwiches and 3 Hula Hoops.

Mart and I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark last night, and had an Indian. Well he did, I had my usual, 4 Poppadoms, some mango chutney and an onion salad - well, I like it! I stink today, which is very attractive.

So one week in, and I'm doing OK.

First hurdle

I was sure yesterday would be a disaster, as my Mum and sister always come to mine on a thursday night and we watch my box set of Six Feet Under (I lust after Nate, he's scrumptious!) and we eat lots and lots. I cook each week, because I love cooking, but we always overeat in a big way.

I felt sick for alot of the day as the Met is still doing its thing, so I wasn't overkeen on going out. In the end Grace and I put Eva to bed and then she helped me make soup. A packet of dried soup mix (pearl barley, lentils, beans, peas ) then chopped carrots, mushrooms, peppers, onions and leeks, a big splodge of liquid stock, veggie worcester sauce (Lea and Perrins has anchovies in, yuck) and some marmite and tomato ketchup and voila, thick vegetable and bean soup. I had some wholegrain bread in the freezer, so I defrosted that and warmed it through in the oven and we had a very nice,very filling meal without me feeling like I'd overdon it.

I had poached eggs and beans on toast for breakfast, and soup for lunch and tea, so not a bad day at all. Poached eggs are easy with my simple way of doing it - fill a frying pan with boiling water from the kettle and put the gas on under the pan. Crack in two eggs and leave the heat on under it for exactly one minute, then put a lid on it, turn the heat off and leave to stand. Delia advises 10 minutes but I think that makes the yolks hard, so I do 6 minutes.

We have got a family party tomorrow (saturday) so I'm a bit concerned about that, but I need to think positively, I am in this for the long haul so if I have one day when I eat a little bit more then it doesn't mean I've blown it and we might as well eat a chinese on the way home. This business is nothing to do with a diet and everything to do with what is going on in my head. Oh dear.....!

Not doing so bad...

Hmm, this has been ok so far - just one teeny weeny nervous breakdown about it on tuesday night, which is about average for me. According to my scales (and lets face it, that is what I will be using all the time for this experiment!) I have dropped.....7lbs!!!

I always lose lots in the first week, and I know the 'experts' would say its just water but so what? Its stil 7lbs that I am not carrying around, and it has given me a boost, so I don't care, I feel like I have taken the first important step.

So what did I eat? Monday was a sachet of Oatso simple porridge, then multi seed pitta with peanut butter and lettuce for lunch, a few left over broad beans at tea and a quorn fillet with mushrooms and peppers, baked potato, broad beans and broccoli in the evening. Tuesday was a large slice of wholegrain toast and scrambled egg, a cottage cheese and salad wholegrain sandwich and rice with broccoli, sweetcorn, scrambled egg and quorn ham. This is where the breakdown came in, as I ate that at 6 ish and was hungry again at 8 and got into a right state thinking this was too hard, I was useless, etc, etc so I had two slices of cheese on toast. It was hardly the end of the world, and obviously hasn't affected anything. Wednesday was two weetabix and milk, then cheese on toast for lunch and a huge veg stirfry with peppers, mushrooms, broccoli, carrots and courgettes with rice in the evening.

The major thing for me has not been eating butter - i LOVE butter, and I can't just have a little bit, I have it spread thick so you can taste it! I can't be doing with this 'Have a little bit of what you fancy, you can still eat your fave things when dieting' - well, clearly not, as my fave things are thick butter, lots of cheese, potatoes, bread - if I carried on eating that, I would stay fat. I need to cut out some things, and I am adding LOTS more veg,which is no hardship as I love veg. I get a weekly veg box from Abel and Cole and I need to start using it fully, instead of hiding some of it in the fridge and then shamefully throwing it away a week later lol!

I've went swimming on tuesday, which must have burned a zillion calories. I took the girls, so I couldn't swim, but I did lots of running in the water carrying them, and jumping up and down holding them, and as together they weigh over 4 stone thats quite a weight training exercise

I've just worked out that if I am to lose 2 pounds per week, I will have shed ten stone by the end of august 2009, in 70 weeks time. I WILL do this.