Slow and steady

The past few weeks have been challenging from a social point of view, I need to stop making myself so busy! Every time I plan a quiet weekend at home, we end up making other plans and before I know it, my syns are out the window.

The past 2 weekends have seen big Sunday's - Food with Friends as part of the London restaurant festival and then Champagne Sunday Brunch at the Landmark hotel the following week. Couple that with a few girls nights out (wine tasting no less) and the odd pub trip, well losing weight seems like a flipping impossibility,

Anyway, despite this, I've dropped a pound each week the past 2 weeks, so that's 31 down now in 16 weeks. It's not ground breaking by any means, but I'll take it.

I'm starting to notice differences now, I'm wearing a size smaller in my favourite jeans, clothes all feel a bit looser, people are starting to ask me if I've lost weight (which I do find odd, I mean you'd not comment if you thought someone had put on, would you?).

Smaller jeans!

I'm now 4lbs away from my 10% goal with 2 weigh ins before I can't make class for 2 weeks. I've set myself a mini challenge to get there before we head to Dubai on the 12th November  as I suspect Dubai may be similar to Italy and see me come back with some form of monumental gain. Achievable if really focus.

And just because I can't write a post without numerous photos, here you go....

Angela Harnett, cooking my lunch.

 Sunday Brunch

When I haven't been out gallivanting, I have managed some pretty tasty Slimming World friendly food, now if only I could stop going out. 

Duck Noodles

Pulled Pork Pancakes (Amazeballs)

 

Chicken 'Biryani'

And I've even made the odd good choice whilst dining out.... 

So, 2lbs a week for the next 2 weeks? Let's be having you.

Eating out

Another pound down at the scales on Monday, it's not exactly stellar but I'll take it considering we spent the weekend in London dining at Story and Dinner by Heston. Neither of which are exactly Slimming World friendly, but bloody amazing!

One of the starters at Story - bread and dripping

Heston's Meat Fruit - amazing!

Bone in Rib with Mushroom Ketchup and triple cooked chips @ Dinner

Tipsy Cake (nearest) & brown bread ice cream @Dinner

My social life is not really conducive to weight loss, so that fact that I've now lost 29lbs in 14 weeks is not to be sniffed at. I have to keep telling myself this as I am having a lot of sulks at the slowness of it all, but that's utterly ridiculous. It took me 38 years to get this fat, I can't expect to lose it all over night.

I did, however, have a minor moment of realisation when I tried on a pair of leather trousers (yeah I am back in the 90's) that I bought back in April that were nowhere near to fitting me. I was able to wear them comfortably last week, so at least that's something. Other than that, I'm really struggling to notice any massive difference in myself, but it must be coming off somewhere.

The aforementioned leather trousers

This week has been ok food wise,shocking booze wise. Work has been all manner of stressful so I've had a few glasses of vino of an evening which is not the best use of syns, but hey ho. The scales are looking ok today, but I have the weekend to ruin that!

Tonight we're seeing friends for dinner but I'm driving so that helps and then on Sunday we're off to the Merchants tavern as part of the London Restaurant Festival. Sunday is not an ideal day to be dining out since it's the day before weigh in, but so be it. I can't sit around all day Sunday eating celery so the scales thank me on a Monday, plus I hate celery so that'd be pretty miserable.

London looking lovely from Butlers Wharf

Breakfast at Tea Pod

Looking at all that food, it's a bloody miracle I lost anything at all.... 

Rollercoaster

Last week I spat my dummy out in spectacular fashion. I gained a pound, no big deal really but I've been back and forth since coming back from holiday and not really making any progress. Anyway, this week was much better, 3.5lbs down. I finally got my 2 stone award which has been within reach for 4 weeks.

12 weeks in & 28 pounds lost. I'll take that.

This week has been pretty stellar on the food front, pretty abominable on the booze front. Work stress mainly which is beyond boring, but there is nothing like a nice G&T or cold glass of wine after a crap day at work to make you feel much better. I love food and I love booze. It's pretty difficult for me to limit both.

Not much else to report, we're off to Liverpool for the weekend to visit friends, so no doubt there will be much alcohol involved, but I'll just have to suck up whatever the scales show me on Monday. It's really not the end of the world if they don't do exactly what I want.

Here are some tasty morsels I've sampled this week. Exciting. huh?

Skinny Flat white (HEa)

Oat pancakes (HEb) with bacon and tomatoes

Beef, horseradish potato cakes with stir fried veg

Chicken 'kiev' with chips