Wednesday Weigh In - Week 29 - Still Going

Only one quarter of a pound lost this week but hey, it's still a loss and takes me to 27.25 pounds in total

If you read my blog then you will know that I always like to look back on the week and think about what I have done that may have impacted on my weight loss. I have definitely been less active over this last week. My daughter is on holiday from school so there was less running around after her, also she had a heavy cold so she wasn't going to athletics training either. So we had a very chilled and sedate week mostly indoors apart from our trip to the Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium. If you follow me on Instagram you'll have already seen a picture

It was an incredibly afternoon and we got to watch some top athletes including Mo Farah

I didn't even get to do any gardening this week. So I can't even say that I got some exercise that way. I was generally either looking after my daughter or chained to my laptop working. 

So I'm not displeased about only a quarter of a pound lost. It's still a loss. I always knew that the school holidays would be hard so I will be happy with any loss or even just maintaining my weight. My knee is feeling so much stronger now so I will be ready to really push myself in September!

I think it's important when you embark on a long weight loss to recognise that there might be times when you need to go easier on yourself or it might just not be possible to push yourself as much. In my opinion, this is fine as long as you don't see it as an excuse to go completely off the rails. I may not be able to keep to an exercise routine in the school holidays but I will keep to my healthy diet and fit in exercise where I can even if it is just through walking instead of using the car or through strenuous gardening.

Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Monday Motivation - Enthusiasm

Life is invariably formed of a series of routine. Even a radical lifestyle change that may seem fresh and exciting will eventually become your normal routine. In my opinion, enthusiasm is the key to keeping it exciting.

The dictionary defines enthusiasm as "intense and eager enjoyment". Therefore if you are enthusiastic about something then you are more likely to throw yourself into it fully. 

My motivation for today has been to come up with three things in my life that I am currently enthusiastic about. In no particular order, they are:

1. Writing - I love writing this blog and starting it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. I'm excited to see what direction I go in next with the planned ebook.

2. Cooking - I have always enjoyed cooking and particularly baking but have never devised my own recipes before. This is something I enjoy so much and I am really enthusiastic about creating new recipes.

3. Being healthy - I started this weight loss journey because I wanted to improve my life and being healthy is a huge part of that. It's still a work in progress but I have retained that enthusiasm to better myself.

Here's some of the images that have motivated me this week.

I hope you are all feeling motivated today. Try and think of three things in your life that you are enthusiastic about at the moment. Let me know what you come up with. Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Fat Shaming vs Fat Acceptance

If you have read my blog before then you will know that I have expressed concern over the Big Is Beautiful ideology and its message that basically it is ok to be overweight.

An incident tonight raised my concerns again and made me question the role of the media. An article on Facebook caught my attention tonight because of its title about not losing weight, lose the clothes you hate instead. It was about a young girl who had broke out of an unhealthy cycle of binging and dieting, put 30lbs on and then bought a new wardrobe of clothes. I felt driven to comment. While I understood the choices that this girl made, I was uneasy about the tone and impact of the article. I've done the whole hiding your weight gain under larger size clothes. There is no denying that being overweight is bad for your health and I felt that the article did not stress that at all. In my opinion, it gave the impression that buying new clothes was the simpler option. 

I was immediately slammed by vitriolic comments accusing me of judging the girl and that I should mind my own business. This was even though I clearly stated that I understood that this was the right decision for her and that my issue was with the headline and tone of the article. 

What was interesting was that upon reading through the comments, I noticed that anyone who mentioned weight gain being unhealthy or questioned the tone and impact of the article was immediately shouted down. 

There has been a lot of comments about the media promoting unhealthy body images through the use of skinny models and perhaps the media needs now to make sure that they don't swing too far in the other direction. Articles that may be aimed at promoting being comfortable with your own body still need to ensure that they are also promoting a healthy weight too! The obesity crisis is getting worse not better!

I actually deleted my comment in the end as the replies were becoming more unpleasant. I would never try to fat shame someone, it would be a bit ironic as I personally am still classified as an obese weight. In my opinion though, fat acceptance takes things too far in the other direction as it will impact on health, if not immediately then in the future.

I'd be interested to know your opinions on this. Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Ebook update

I thought I would let you know how I am getting on with my recipe ebook.

It's taking a little more time than I had envisaged, mainly because normal work has got in the way. That pays the bills so it has had to take priority. 

I have sorted out all the formatting. I was surprised at all the different applications that you can use to create an ebook. I decided to go with PowerPoint because it gives me a lot more flexibility over the layout and the images that I want to include.  I can give you a sneak peek of how it will look. 

I've also sorted out the new recipes that I want to put in the ebook including the Banana and Kiwi cakes that I made yesterday. 

These were tricky little devils to make. The kiwi makes the cakes surprisingly moist so I had to play around with the recipe to make sure they rose enough.

The other thing that I have been working on is the ebook cover. I've finally finished the design but I'm going to keep it under wraps for now. 

So all I have to do is transcribe the recipes into the PowerPoint template then convert it to a pdf file once complete. Keep reading my blog and I'll continue to update you on my progress.

Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Wednesday Weigh In - Week 28 - Creeping Towards 2 Stone Off

I've lost half a pound this week which takes me up to a total loss of 27 pounds. 

It's been slow and painful progress lately but I keep reminding myself that it is still progress. It's good to look at how far I have actually come.

When I started on this journey I felt like I was at rock bottom

So this has been a process not just of losing weight but of rebuilding myself. Now I look in the mirror and think of myself as a work in progress.

 I've come a long way and I may still have a long way to go but I'm on the right road and I will get there!

Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Monday Motivation - Love

This may seem an unusual topic for a Monday motivation post but for me it's a way of summing up what I've been thinking and feeling over the weekend.

I started off by feeling incredibly low. The hideous events in Nice really haunted me. That is one of my favourite holiday destinations and I have been to promenade parties on the Promenade des Anglais with my children.

It didn't feel like there was much love left in the world at that point.

Following on from the Nice attack I had to explain to my 12 year old daughter why I may not let her go on a school residential trip to France in the next school year due to my concerns over safety. She wasn't happy but I know that parental love isn't about popularity. It's about doing what you feel is best for your child. It was a struggle to explain this to her though.

If you have read my blog before then you will know that I am an emotional overeater. Bad moods, bad experiences or just generally tough times will usually have sent me reaching for the cakes and biscuits. Even though I felt incredibly low over the weekend, I was able to stop my self from comfort eating. I was in a reflective mood anyway so I took some time to think about what was different this time and why was I able to control my mood.

I came to the conclusion that the difference is how I feel about myself now. I wouldn't go as far as to say I love myself. I still have self esteem and body issues to combat as well as depression. However I can recognise that I am in a different place now compared to the start of the year and I know how far I have managed to come. 

Maybe this is the answer for me. Being happier with myself and more content with my choices puts me in a position of strength to deal with the crap that life throws at me and make difficult choices.

Carrie Bradshaw summed it up perfectly in Sex and the City - "The most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself."

So love your friends, love your family, love your pets but don't forget to love yourself and don't let anyone ever tell you that you are not worth that!

Here's some of the images that have motivated me today.

Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx

Wednesday Weigh In - Week 27 - Stalemate

No change this week, I stayed at 15 st 5

This has finally pushed me towards making a decision that I have been mulling over for a while. From today I am moving back onto Weightwatchers Smartpoints instead of counting calories.

My reason for doing this is that counting calories has increasingly felt like a weight maintenance plan and I think this has been reflected in the small weight losses lately. I'm glad I did switch for a while though, it suited me to take things easier for a few weeks and took the pressure off me for a while. Now with the school holidays looming, I feel that it's time to introduce some more structure back in my diet. I don't rule out switching back to calorie counting again in the future but it's not the right thing for me at the moment. I'm actually quite enthusiastic to see whether switching back has a big impact or not. So watch this space.....

Speak to you soon

Love Erica xxx