The diary of a spod.

[spod]

I have decided to start a diary because there is half a tube of sour cream and chive pringles in the cupboard and I really want to eat them and I have been really, really good today so I dont want to spoil it!

My name is Megan and my weight has crept up from an ok 11 stone to just under 15 stone for the last 7 years. :sigh: On and off over the last 5 years I have done something about it (WW, calorie counting and Slim fast) and always lost a fair amount then for one reason or another I have stopped. BUT enough is enough! I dont want to be the 'fat friend', I dont want to be the one with the obese BMI and in more chance of heart attack, cancer or having a stroke.

I was reading Icemoose's inspirational stuff on his website and something he said made me realise what part of my problem with food actually is. I eat because I am bored and because I am lonely. Stupid really, the being lonely thing. I have lots of great friends, a good job, a husband and family (and until v. recently 4 gorgeous cats who had to be re-homed when we moved - God that was awful!). So why do I get bored or lonely? - Well, thats something I am going to have to get my head round, so when I have lost this weight, I will not slip back in to the habits I am trying so hard to get rid of!

The craving has passed!! Hurray! Have been drinking green tea - wonder if thats got anything to do with not feeling hungry now?? Will have to investigate...

(Have just re-read all I have typed - god I can waffle!)
Off to do some ironing - got first day at new job tomorrow, so slightly nervous as dont really know what I will be doing as never actually applied for it or saw job description (loooooong story), but at least I will finally meet my work mates. Fingers crossed they arent too odd.

Spod
xx

 

[Silence]

Hey Spod.
Glad you managed to write the cravings away thats brilliant! I do that a lot. I boredom eat too and I write it away posting on here. The arcade is good for combatting boredom as well!!!
I think a lot of maintaining after weight loss is to do with your weight loss journey and I firmly believe that weight loss should be about readjusting our relationship with food and learning how to eat properly.
What diet are you following?

Good luck with whatever you are doing hun!

~Silence~

 

[spod]

Just got back from first day at work and the people I will be working with are lovely. Had to go and have lunch with them as a welcome lunch thing, so I was v. good and ate lots of veg stuff. Think we will have a lot of fun as a team and we have bonded over a love of marmite.

Silence - I am just watching the amount I eat, not eating so unhealthily and eating more slowly (which I kind of have to with chop sticks). I guess it is a low carb diet too as I've pretty much cut out bread (harder to find here unless brioche types) and I have lost interest in rice and pasta cos eating so much of it!

Havent really got much to write as I am knackard! Managed to get the bus on my own there and back - did get off a stop early on the way there, but hey - good exercise. Not bad for someone who doesnt speak any Chinese.

 

[Silence]

How are you managing out there? Have you just moved?
I recently moved to France and found that hard and I speak the language (fairly well anyway)!!! I can't imagine how difficult it is going with nothing.

~Silence~

 

[shrinkingannie]

Wow I would love to go to China - do you like it there?

I might start eating with chopsticks - that would definately slow me down. You seem to be following a very sensible plan

 

[spod]

We moved a month ago, so not been here long. There are ways of coping (involves lots of pointing and smiling!). TBH I am not finding it half as difficult as I thought on a day to day basis, we are in a big city, there are so many products with English on as well as Chinese and my husband's collegues have bent over backwards to help us and his PA is great and will come and translate for us any time (or over the phone as well!) the only time we have problems is like today, when our boxes arrived from the UK and the delivery men were trying to pull a fast one on where to leave the boxes (we paid for door to door and they were trying to leave them outside the apartment complex which is about 8 mins walk to our apartment) if it had just been us, I dont know what would have happened cos we wouldnt have understood he was just going to leave them!!!

I love it here, especially now I have met my collegues, who seem lovely. Our standard of living is soooo much better than when we were in the UK. I was v doubtful about coming out here, but it has paid off!
Silence - you must be pretty good - you are a translator arent you???
Shrinkingannie - it is an amazing country - I really recommend a visit! The history is facinating and now is the time to go before it gets too western in the cities!

xx

 

[Georgiestar]

wow china thats cool
ah I tried to cut out bread once and found that I wasnt having enough, (I have to be careful of that sometimes) anyway now I have a sandwich for lunch.

 

[Silence]

Yes, I'm a translator. Well a trainee translator. I just graduated from uni and moved out here. I can get by day to day and could argue with movers trying to rip me off but I struggle with conversational french, small talk etc. and there's always a key word you don't know... like mop head. (an example drawn from experience) lol.

~Silence~

 

[spod]

Small talk is always the hardest I think - I have been asked lots of questions like: who is you favourite actor? favourite colour? which is obviously what is taught at school, but at least you can find common ground with people's tastes and develop the conversation from there(some of the time anyway!)

Georgiestar - I know what you mean about not having enough food. I had the tendency in the UK to be really, really good (fruit and porridge for breakfast, salad for lunch, fruit for snack and chicken & veg for dinner and it would only add up to about 500 calories!)

Had a scary moment last night - got on the scales (I am a secret scale hopper - its awful!!) and I had put a kilo back on, so I weighed 85kg again. Was gutted, had walked for about 1 hour and 30 minutes and been really good. Couldnt figure out why it had gone up. But have just weighed myself this morning and back down to 84kg.

Note to self: Must not scale hop. It is not good.

Hope you all have a stellar day!
xx

 

[BREN]

Hi Spod

I havent been on the scale in 8 months! Fed up with getting disappointed with not seeing the number I wanted!. Now I just measure everywhere and know that when I'm some many cm's around the waist and refer back to old measurements that I weigh between X and X amounts.

Bren
X

 

[Silence]

I used to be a scale hopper. I'm trying to only weigh myself once a month.
Your weight naturally flucuates up to 5 pounds at any given time, you carry food weight, toilet weight, muscle weight (muscle weighs heavier just after exercising apparently so I'm told).
If you are going to scale hop do it once a day, first thing in the morning (after going to the loo).
Most people on here have a designated weigh in (WI) day usually once a week. I know a lot of people who have their partners hide the scales so they can't scale hop anyway. ha ha ha!

I had the same problem with calories too. I think I got down to 700, according to foodfocus.co.uk my intake to lose weight should be 1400. I stopped doing that too cos I was just getting myself worked up over it.

Hope you have a nice day hun.

~Silence~

 

[spod]

I tend to only scale hop once a day, but it is a v.v.v.v. bad habit.

Bren, your idea of measuring is a v. good one. Does it work with weight loss or is it better for maintenance?

I kind of have the measuring thing at the moment with a pair of trousers. I bought them (good old M&S) in 2003 and they fitted brilliantly and were really loose when I met my husband in 2004. Well, yesterday they arrived (having been shipped over) and today I tried them on and I could do them up!!! I havent been able to fit in to them since before winter 2005!!!! They dont fit great but I last tried them on before I packed the boxes and I couldnt even pull them up further than my thighs.

Silence - I do have a designated weigh in day, but I still scale hop pretty much every day. Its really sad!

Been out for dinner (again). Since Saturday we have eaten out 3 times. This time it was with husband's big boss man and various PA types. Still being good and luckily its still so hot I am not v. hungry. Out again on Friday and Saturday cos its Autumn Festival, so much celebrating will be happening. Will have to be careful tho...it will be the alcohol at the weekend that will be the main issue.

Oh well. Off to bed cos I want to eat something like a sandwich (no carbs this evening and I have a bread craving.)

Hope you are all having a good day!

xx

 

[spod]

Been very, very good today and drunk lots of water and green tea. Feeling proud of myself. Also did quite a lot of walking (as went to local shop for food, didnt take enough money with me, walked back to apartment and then back to the shop....so I guess that was pretty good exercise wise!)

Have a pasta craving today as I havent had any since we moved and we used to eat quite a lot of pasta dishes (wholemeal). Going to Pizza Hut at the weekend (one of our expats friends only discovered the one in our local area and is very excited...its strange the things you get excited over when you live abroad!!), so I wonder if they do the pasta stuff like in the UK?? Oh Pants. Just realised that us out Friday, Saturday and Sunday for food. Am going to have to be careful. I do not want to be fat any more. - Think that will be come my mantra!

 

[BREN]

Hey Spod

I have measurements and weight records from a diet I did last year. The usual arms, legs, bust, hips, waist....

I measure once a week and then find the week that had the majority of those numbers and see where abouts I might weigh. We all get disappointed when the scale doesn't tell us what we want, so knowing I might be -----kg's ? is better for the mind.

Also the weeks when the scale didn't budge the cm's did and it's much more rewarding mentally!

X

 

[BREN]

Be careful darl with the Pizza Hut and eating out too much!

But still enjoy your exciting new city!!!

X

 

[spod]

Hi Bren, Thats a good point about the cms budging when the pounds dont. Think I might try your idea and see what happens...

Problem with the eating out is that the culture here is v. much that work and business is carried out over dinner and with my husbands job he (and therefore 'we') need to do the whole dinner thing. Why ALL the people who want a meeting couldnt go to dinner together (therefore 1 meal!!) I dont know.
Luckily Chinese food (not like takeaway / restaurant stuff in UK) is very healthy and although the meals take a long time, its polite to put your chop sticks down between each mouthful so you eat more slowly and your brain gets the chance to tell your stomach you are full rather than stuffing your face! Still need to be careful tho.

Thanks for the Pizza Hut warning - luckily that has been put off as the restaurants will be packed and ques round the block this weekend. So people are coming to us for takeaway pizza. This is good as it means that I can eat 1 or 2 slices and spend the rest of the time making sure people's glasses are full etc. and not eat much.

Feel really sh*te this evening. Went to work and had a really good meeting and I love working with my new collegues - they are lovely, but since this afternoon I feel really lathargic (sp?) and like I'm in a bubble with things happening around me that I'm not part of.
Hope I'm not coming down with something...

xx

 

[Georgiestar]

hi I found the food focus website and it says that if I eat 500 calories less than what I'm doing now then I'd loose a pound a week, so far havent been looseing anything, so at least I know now to deduct my calorie intake, thanks whoever mentioned the site!

 

[BREN]

Georgiestar

Agreed a good site, bummer for me though is it's Uk foods and I have to enter all the details of OZ food to get accurate readings.

Although its teadious I still use it.

Bren
X

 

[spod]

Happy Mid Autumn Festival!! Been busy celebrating this weekend and had a BAD BAD BAD day yesterday involving a burger and chips (and salad) and about 6 pints of Guinness as we tried to watch the Rugby...(which wasnt bl**dy on any channel we could get in our Province). Didnt eat anything else all day, so I know that wasnt good. Have been really badly bitten by mosquitos - I have 28 bites on my legs and the are soooooo itchy.
Does anyone know what I can do not to get bitten??? How can I put them off nibbling me? the anti mossie stuff doesnt seem to work, alternative methods would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Today was pizza day & I was absolutely starving so we had lunch (salad, beef & watermelon - not all at the same time) and I am so proud I only ate 1 piece of pizza. Could have eaten loads and loads more, but I made the conscious decision that I didnt want to.
So that was good! I drank nothing alcoholic and had fruit for desert rather than the yummy cakes we had got.

Going to bed now, feeling I had a good day. Wish I could stop itching tho!!!!!!

xx

 

[Silence]

Morning Spod

Well done on only eating one piece of pizza and then avoiding the cakes!!!
Don't know any way to stop the mozzies... you have my sympathy though, the little b*ggers like me too (when I'm anywhere where they live).

~Silence~