Tales from the scales #9

What a week!  Dave broke his collarbone last Friday so we’ve had a weekend of hospitals and sleeping very badly.  I really need to get back to meal planning properly, but despite not having anything written down we’ve had some awesome meals lately and I’ve done a lot of walking.  It’s now the Easter holidays so I am going to try and get Lucas excited about walking and drag him out for a daily walk as I’ve been enjoying soaking up the sun and all the exercise seems to be having a positive effect…

Last week: 17st 6

This week: 17st 3

Loss: 3lb

This takes me to a total loss of 3st 2lb (44lb) since the middle of October!  I am beyond thrilled.  This is the most successful I’ve ever been at losing weight and it really is sustainable for life.  I love eating Primal!!

I’ve popped an updated progress photo on my progress page.

Songs for the road

Here is my walking buddy posing in the valley behind our house.  Isn’t he a cool dude?

We’ve been clocking up the miles together on the school run (well, walk) since I decided to follow in the hairy footsteps of those brave hobbits and walk from Bag End to Rivendell.  It’s been really lovely, especially as the sun has been blazing away beautifully.  We’ve been able to roam around the valley and marvel at the bluebells, primroses and exceedingly fat bumble bees and talk about nature and the seasons while walking home.  (I’d walk in the mornings, too, if I was awake enough.  So not a morning person.)

Today we indulged in a grand hobbit tradition and sang as we walked home.  If anyone was in earshot… sorry.  Here’s our current favourite!

I’m currently on mile 27 of my walk, which puts me almost at the end of a very long road which rolls up and down.  I’m looking forward to reaching the next milestone from the book and ‘seeing’ something more interesting than this road!!  I should probably do more than 1.4 miles a day unless I want to take a year to walk to Rivendell but I’m proud of myself for getting off my arse and walking every day!

 

Tales from the scales #8

*flails like Kermit*

I have lost weight.  I’ve lost a lot of weight.  I’m still utterly amazed and very, very happy.

I’ve spent the past two weeks or so lamenting my woes to poor Georgie.  First there was the week when I did absolutely everything right and lost nothing, and then there was the week when I fell into a vat of carbs for two days around Dave’s birthday and gained a pound (totally okay with that… I had expected more) and then the scales didn’t move.  (Yeah, I’m guilty of hopping on the scales all too frequently at the moment.)   I’ve been keeping going, just taking each day as it comes and trying to do my very best, but the level of angst and whinge was rising to worryingly teenage levels.

Well, there’s no need for any more angsting from me!

Last week: 17st 10

This week: 17st 6

I lost 4lb!!

This takes me to 41lb lost, so I can tick lose 40lb off my list of things to do, and I only need to lose a paltry one pound to reach the (by now magical) 3 stone lost.  Can’t wait to get there!  I’ve already got my reward picked out… I’ve been gagging for the BBC to release Doctor Who and The Daemons on DVD for years and I refuse to buy it until I weigh 17st 5 🙂

(Walking is still going well.  I’ve been walking daily and finally managed to crack the 3mph barrier today, even if it was only for one mile with a slower mile 2.  I’m now 23 miles into my epic journey and I think it might be time to re-read the books…)

Walking to Rivendell

No man (or woman) is an island.  Especially not when losing weight.  For the past six weeks I’ve been joined on my primal adventure by my friend Georgie and I’ve got to say… it’s been absolutely brilliant having someone to talk to who understands all the little things that other people might find banal or bizarre!  We’ve been nudging each other every day via Facebook to eat properly or do some exercise and it definitely works–the proof of that can be found in our smaller sized jeans!

We’ve been talking about getting more consistent with exercising and I happened to remember something I’d stumbled across a few years ago when Lord Of The Rings was at the peak of its fannish craziness: A Walk to Rivendell.  I’ve been enjoying watching my miles add up on Runkeeper and the idea of layering a bit of geeky fun on top pleases me greatly.  I mentioned it to Georgie and ten minutes later found myself with a new FB group and a virtual walking buddy or two.  People have joined us!  I never expected that.  So now we have our own Fellowship!  We probably need a cool name…

I’m so impressed with the Rivendell walk on Eowyn’s Challenge which have been created by the author of the Atlas of Middle Earth.  Those hobbits covered some serious mileage every day!  I knew their journey was long, but the movies compressed it quite nicely to the point that it seemed more like a ramble in the countryside rather than the long and arduous journey it was.  I mean… 18 miles in a day?  And a seven day trip to get to Bree?  Wow.  And days and days of travel after that.  Hobbit feet are obviously incredibly tough as well as being hairy.  I’m not aspiring to cover quite the same distance on a daily basis, in fact, my only goal is to walk for 10 minutes a day.  I figure that if I do that, I probably won’t want to stop after a paltry 10 minutes but for getting out of the door purposes, a 10 minute goal should work nicely.

Today I’ve clocked up 2.9 miles (or 2.1 if you listen to Runkeeper’s craziness) which leaves me at mile 20 (or 458).  I’m left Bag End, and am firmly in Green Hill Country on a long road that rolls up and down.  I haven’t encountered anything scary as yet, but I did walk a couple of bags of old toys up to the charity shop in the village (extra resistance and petrol-saving in one fell swoop!)

Tales from the scales #7

It’s been a good, but busy week.   It was Dave’s birthday so I spent much of the week being consumed by making his birthday cake and spoiling him, and unfortunately fell into two days of eating badly. Still, all the birthday cake has been given away to appreciative minions at work and I’m back on track.  I’ve gained a pound but I’m trying to remain sanguine about the whole thing.  I chose to eat badly–no one held me down and forced cake between my trembling lips–so next time I will choose to eat healthfully and be extra-careful around birthdays!

Last week 17st 9

This week 17 st 10

Gain of 1lb

And now I must get back to the kitchen.  I’m cooking up some paleo char sui in preparation for dinner.  If the pork tastes half as good as it smells then my tummy will be very happy indeed!

Tales from the scales #6

Some weeks you can do everything right and the scale refuses to reward your hard work with a numerical prize.  This week I ate right, worked out four times, got plenty of sleep, drank lots of water and didn’t get any payout.  Except… I kinda did.  The scales might not have moved but I noted that my new jeans are annoyingly baggy already and I’ve only had them for three weeks.  My tummy also looks smaller, which is awesome.

I still stropped around for most of yesterday in a bad mood, but I am pleased to report that I didn’t comfort eat or even succumb to the temptation to nibble on leftover fondant after making decorations for Dave’s birthday cake.  It would have been very easy to have slipped a bit of fondant into my mouth, but I didn’t.  Mostly I didn’t fancy it because it was pure sugar but also… I didn’t want to derail the good work I’d done which would eventually payoff.

Last week 17st 9

This week 17st 9

No change

So… on to another week.  I’m pondering what to cook while I watch some ancient (but excellent) Doctor Who.  There are worse ways to spend a Saturday evening, that’s for sure!

Be your own superhero

A few weeks ago I did something crazy.

At Lucas’s Parents’ Evening, when I found out that they were going to be studying superheroes for a few weeks, I found myself volunteering to come in and talk to his class about my favourite superheroes.  (The children get to choose the topic–I believe they even vote to make it fair and democratic!–and then the teachers apply the topic to writing, numeracy and so forth.  So they do actually learn stuff.)  Anyway, I found myself watching with curious detachment from the back of my mind as my mouth utterly ran away with itself and I found myself enthusiastically volunteering to talk to two classes for 10 minutes each.

Now… I am shy.  I can be pulled out of my shell by someone who is bubbly and talkative and then I just seem to step up and get real chatty.  Conversely, when I am sitting with someone who isn’t very outgoing, then I tend to clam up and watch the tumbleweed roll by.  Also… public speaking?  Totally not my thing.  I remember having to run to the bathroom in high school before to throw up before making presentations.

And yet I volunteered?  Crazy like a fish.

After much head-scratching and ponderings on Facebook about what superheroes the average 5-year old would have heard of, I settled on talking about the Big Three: Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman.  Mainly because I am a total DC fangirl, but also because they are super-recognisable.  Luckily the kids recognised them all, but were a little shaky on poor Wonder Woman.  (She really doesn’t have any all-ages titles or toys, poor girl.)

I tried to connect each hero to the school’s values and talked a bit about what they could learn from each hero and then got to the fun stuff… superpowers!  With much scrunching up of face for heat-vision, attempts to waggle ears for super-hearing and lots and lots of biceps being flexed to show me how strong they are.  It was loads of fun and the kids seemed to have a great time.  I still had a few minutes to spare so I took a few questions.  I think the best one was, “how do superheroes get their powers?”

A year ago I would never, ever have volunteered for something like this.  A few months ago I might have volunteered but I’d have worried myself sick beforehand.  Today?  I was relaxed and allowed myself to have lots of fun which I think made it more fun for the kids. I think the combination of weight loss and increased exercise has somehow allowed me to regain some of my lost confidence.  If I can do this after losing 38lb, then imagine what amazing feats I could accomplish after losing 50 or 100lb!  I’ll be leaping tall buildings with a single bound before you know it!  (Or cranking out proper push-ups!)  I am my own superhero.

(I am still enchanted by the little girl who told me that Superman’s powers come from his super-pants.  “They make him big and strong. And bouncy, too.”)

Motivation for Monday

I’ve become quite fond of Pinterest lately.  I can happily while away hours looking at gorgeous things for the house, knitting projects, primal food ideas, and… motivational macros.  Now, I know that to be sustainable motivation should be internal but for a quick jolt now and again, I think these “fit-spiration” pictures are awesome.  Here are a few of my current favourites.

 

Meal Planning Monday #4 (5 March)

Last week I didn’t bother doing a meal plan as Dave was away, and my plan was to just cook up a big pot of chilli or ragu and eat that all week.  Which worked out quite well, as it turns out, but it did get a little boring!

This week is a little bit more exciting for my tastebuds.

M: Bora-bora fireballs (spicy pork meatballs covered in shredded coconut), sunshine sauce (almond butter satay sauce), cauliflower rice.  Recipes from Well Fed by The Clothes Make The Girl
T: Leftover fireballs for me as Dave is out to dinner
W: Chicken katsu curry, cauliflower rice
T: Sausages, cauliflower mash, braised red cabbage
F: Chocolate chilli, sweet potato fries, maybe some guacamole?
S: Aloo gobi with chicken
S: Swedish meatballs, mustard gravy and swede/cauliflower mash

I am also contemplating making a paleo (or primal) key lime pie.  I am in the mood for dessert… However, this would require going back to the supermarket and I’d rather not!!

What are you eating this week?  Head over to Mrs M’s for inspiration.

Stonehenge and other diversions

It’s been a busy few days at Cauliflower Towers.  After going to the London Comic Super Show (more on that later), Dave dropped Lucas and I at home and then headed back to London to spend the week showing some friends around the city.  They’d come over for a “once in a lifetime” type trip, so he was happy to tag along and play tour guide.  From all accounts, they had an awesome time!  I am very, very jealous that they went to the Sherlock Holmes Museum and I will definitely be going there when I’m next in the smoke!

Yesterday our friends wanted to see some countryside before jetting off home, which we certainly have plenty of in England, so I picked them up at the train station and we went to Stonehenge and then to Bath.  I had forgotten just how bleak Salisbury Plain could be.  The wind was bitterly cold up there!  But Stonehenge was awesome, as it always is.  They now have an audio tour included in the ticket price, which is what I was listening to in the photo above, which is quite dramatic and along with the mist and the wind, it was quite an atmospheric trip.

By the time we got to Bath the sun had struggled out from behind the clouds and it was gloriously warm.  (The temperature swung from 5C at Stonehenge in the morning to 14C!)

I say this every time I’m there, but I really should spend more time in Bath.  It’s one of the prettiest cities around and would be great for a nice long walk…. There’s almost always an opera singer or two busking near the Abbey on sunny days, and I love the speciality shops…

And now, take a trip back in time to the LCSS!  It was awesome!  One of the best shows I’ve ever been to.  I think the organisers did a great job for their inaugural show.  We met up with some old friends and made some new ones, and I stood in several queues with determined Britishness and got sketches from three of my favourite artists.  Lucas dressed up as a Power Ranger and eventually decided that posing with other superheroes was quite fun.

Lucas with She-Hulk and Wolverine

Before the show started we went for a walk around Tower Hill and then across Tower Bridge for the first time.  Tower Bridge is hugely iconic to me.  I grew up on kid’s TV shows made by Thames Television, and I remember seeing the bridge on TV several times a day as a result.  I always get a bit tingly whenever I cross the Thames and going across Tower Bridge itself?  Awesome.  Such magnificent architecture and engineering.

Oh, and last, but by no means least, my amazing Batman sketch by Jock!