MAKING IT WORK

Sometimes it's harder to stay on track than others. Planning is the key when your routine is disturbed.

I've had a couple of early starts this week and therefore did not run in the mornings. So knowing I had to be out early today too, I decided to run a bit on the road instead of heading to the gym. I save around 15 miniutes travel time that way and although I only had time for 3.2 miles today, as they say back in the county of my son's birth, Yorkshire, Owt's better than nowt. Which loosely translates into anything's better than nothing.

Ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in restaurants yesterday, but that can be done without going nuts. Breakfast was half a small melon in a diner, lunch was sushi (just 3 points) and though I have no idea whatever of the points value of dinner in an Indian restaurant, I took what I considered to be as reasonable an option as possible - Dhosa.

Dhosa for the uninitiated is a large pancake made from lentils, filled with potato and other vegetables - plus more than a few tasty spices of course! It's generally breakfast in India, but I enjoyed it in the evening in Stony Brook.

It takes some doing, but you can make it all work if you really want to. It's wanting to that's the problem!!!

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT

Okay, we're writing yesterday off.

It all started with a slice of pizza at my grandson's birthday celebration (pizza is totally acceptable on WW's program) and after that I ate everything in sight for the evening.

There are possibly deep psychological reasons for that kind of binge, but let's not even bother going there right now!!!

The main thing is this - that was yesterday and this is today.

Today, although I didn't get to the gym this morning because I had an early breakfast appointment (and didn't fancy running on a treadmill at 5.30am), I did stay on program with my food. Ate good and plenty, but kept to my 26 points.

Tomorrow I'm out for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but I have a plan!

I'll let you know how it goes.

UH OH

Bad day - Binge day!

Thankfully there's tomorrow!!!

DAY TWO

There was a searching start to the second day of my focused week during which I need to lose 3.4 pounds. You see, I usually give myself Tuesdays off from the gymn and sleep a bit longer instead. But I figured since I have a couple of early morning appointments later in the week, I'd better go exercise while I can. Well, at least that was my conclusion, but it did involve a little personal battle while sleep was still beckoning.

I don't enjoy working out. I've said that before. But I have to do it. Weird thing is, I miss it when I don't go.

Ran four miles on the treadmill and then did two miles on the elyptical. Mixing it up a bit helps, as did listening to the podcast of a friend of mine preaching last Sunday.

Only eaten 18 points so far, so there's plenty left for munching on this evening!!!

26

That's Day One just about done and I've kept to the WW program that gives me 26 food points. The biggest challenge has been to pass on buying coffee while I was out this afternoon and this evening.

There's nothing wrong in coffee itself - I simply do not subscribe to the school of thought that says caffeine is bad for you. Humbug! (Unless you have a medical condition of course). I don't drink too much of the lovely stuff because I take it with a lot of milk and even though I drink skimmed, it all adds up.

I passed on carbs at dinner time and had extra veg instead - figured a bagel this morning covered the carb spot for the day. That left me with plenty of points for a snack tonight.

So there we go. Day One of clawing my way back has gone well.

SEVEN DAYS FROM NORMAL

Okay, it's Monday and I followed my normal routine for the day after Sunday. Went to the gym and did 7.2 miles between the treadmill and the elyptical - most of it on the treadmill - and then off to Weight Watchers.

So here's the official verdict - I'm still 3.4lbs up on where I was three weeks ago. That puts me 1lb over the maximum I can be as a lifetime member (that figure is 2lb over goal). Confused yet?

So the plan is to drop that 3.4lb this week and I figured I'd detail that journey here, just because I like writing and I'm egotistical enough to think there might well be at least one person in the world who could care less about how I get on with this.

This morning's workout was a good start to the day and I now have a 26 points food allowance that I must not exceed for the day. It's lunch time and 12 of them have gone already, which is unusual, but we did stop at the nearby bagel store after WW today.

A bagel is not usually a good choice. It costs 6 points, which is the equivalent to six slices of high fibre bread, but let's face it, now and again a bagel tastes good. The whole point about what I am doing when it comes to food is I'm trying to balance my eating and not simply cut out everything but rabbit food and water. So a bagel's quite okay - so long as you count it.

Back later!

MAINTAINING PERSPECTIVE

Earlier this week I mentioned that the scales showed me a whopping seven pounds up after two weeks of too much wandering from healthy eating.

As I suspected, much of that was fluid and it dissipated over the course of a couple of days (I bet you needed to know that!), but there's still two or three extra pounds around that are really troubling me.

I know that I'm not alone in this, but here's the problem - in my mind it's almost like I have put back on all the 133lbs that I lost. I'd swear my clothes are all tight, I look much fatter and I feel disgusted with myself.

So I have to keep telling myself that it's just a couple of stinking pounds and not the whole lot. I have to remember that one good focused week will see me back where I want to be, so I just need to stay on program - and that's what I'm doing.