Monday 6 January 2014

Time to Shift Those Christmas Pounds...

Today, the healthy living & weight shifting begins again!

This year, I decided to have a calorie-counting break over the Christmas holidays - and throughly enjoyed every sinful mouthful. :-) 

I think it is important to be realistic with weight-loss, and knowing how much I love my food and how much pleasure I get from cooking, baking and eating, it seemed silly to put a dampener on Christmas by calorie counting the whole time. Instead, I pretty much ate what ever I wanted, but I also found that I have naturally started making different choices even when not counting the calories...

I pretty much avoided alcohol all over Christmas, I had a few drinks here and there, but nothing major - as I've learnt that I really resent drinking my calories. I also avoided the huge tins on Celebrations, Roses and Quality Street - knowing how many calories is in each sweet (around 50) and knowing how many I could usually put away (I reckon about 10 in an average sitting!) I have learnt that its just not worth it - I do not enjoy the sweets enough to warrant that amount of calories. Instead, I shared a SCRUMMY Hotel Chocolat chocolate Festive Wreath with my hubby - and every time we fancied some choccie we broke of yummy slabs of it. It lasted the whole of Christmas, and enjoyed every delicious mouthful, much more than I would have any box of sweets. Yes, it was still full of calories, but it was calories I didn't regret as it tasted so good. 

The type of calories I hate are the ones you regret because you didn't even enjoy the food that much - that is one of my aims this year - I will not WASTE calories on food I do not want/do not enjoy - I will try hard to avoid mindless eating - and I will not put up with bog-standard or rubbish food when eating out. I had a disgusting meal in Nando's last year, which really sticks in my mind, it was at least 800 calories for the meal, and it was horrible - cold chips, plastic-tasting coleslaw and a wrap with no flavour or excitement - I am still mad with myself for not complaining and sending it back - I wasted those 800 calories, and the money I paid for the meal. No more. 

Back to Christmas, so my holiday was FILLED with delicious treat foods, and yes, I've undoubtedly put on weight - BUT - I know I can quickly shift the damage, and will soon be on my way to shifting that last bit of baby weight before the next phase of my weight loss plan begins. 

MY TREAT-FILLED CHRISTMAS...

Here's a few glimpses of some of the scrummy things that have passed my lips this Christmas...

"Epic" hot chocolate - Jamie Oliver Stylee (recipe to follow shortly)

"Epic" hot chocolate with homemade griddle pan waffles (recipe coming soon)

Homemade caramel popcorn, made with our new popcorn maker, a fab Xmas gift from my best friend

Giant Christmas roast! Yum yum! 

Hotel Chocolat Festive Wreath

HELLO CALORIE COUNTING...

And so, I'm back on the bandwagon today - I'm using the My Fitness Pal app as usual, and have a calorie limit of 1550 calories per day. 

How I intend to shift the weight:

-stick to my calorie limit each day

-drink one large glass of water with each meal as a minimum (try to drink more in between meals too)

-use skimmed milk / Lurpak lightest / sweeteners / low fat condiments / half fat dairy products / Hovis wholemeal bread

-get out for a walk with the buggy every day

-avoid alcohol

-limit my portion sizes

-try and be as sensible as possible when eating out (also really enjoy the odd treat every now and again, I'm only human!) 

-try and cook fresh as much as possible


My weight loss aims for 2014:

By 31st March 2014 - I want to have shifted my Christmas & last bit of baby weight (around 1 stone)

By 30th July 2014 - Another 1 stone loss

By 6th December 2014 - Another 1 stone loss

That's a 3 stone loss in total in 2014. 

Hopefully do-able! 

I've done it before so I know I can do it again - I lost 4 stone from September 2011-August 2012 (for my wedding), and since then put 3 back on in pregnancy (boo! but he is SO worth it), I shifted 2 of my pregnancy stones between August 22nd - Now, and now have this final baby stone to lose before I am at my slimmest, and can start shifting extra stones until I reach my goal weight. 

What are your weight loss aims for this year? Do you always start a diet / health-kick / fitness regime in January? Do you stick to it? 

Here's to a happy & healthy 2014!

Mrs B

xxx