Retail therapy

This is the outfit we selected for retail therapy on BBC radio Manchester.

The dress is from Coast (£125) and is lovely material -  it has a lovely swish to it. The bracelet and earrings are also from Coast.

The bag and matching shoes are from Dune - they are covered in bugle beads which makes them really sparkly. They are a bit high for me, but they are lovely shoes. £95 is also a bit more than I would spend on shoes, but they'd be great if they go in the sale.

I also tried on some lovely dresses with lace overlays - they seem to be very fashionable at the moment - but most had quite high necklines which don't do much for me. Also, many of the dresses are cut quite straight, and I'm a full size bigger on the bottom than the top, so they never fit properly. This style of fit and flare gets round that problem and is also very comfortable.

Still not sure about those knees though - say horray for opaque tights, my new current staple!

Happy Birthday

This is my family celebrating my mum's birthday - on Dec 27th. It's a full table (in all senses of the word full).

We did dinner between us all - one doing a starter, one of us on veggies and vegetarian option, one on chicken and one on dessert.

I'm not going to list all the things we had, because if you're trying to be good, it won't help, but it was lovely!

Happy Birthday mum!

New Year, New Style?

Radio Manchester have asked me to be styled for a makeover in their "Retail Therapy" slot tomorrow. They are thinking of doing party dresses, so it should be fun!

If you can get Radio Manchester, it's on between 9 and 11am. I'll take pics and blog - I might even treat myself if they find me a really lovely outfit!

Merry Christmas

Yesterday was my mum's birthday, and a great reason for a family Christmas get together.

This is my hubby and me after lunch, very much in the party spirit. Can't say I was really well behaved though, although I did eat far less than I normally would have done, but I did have more than I should have.

Not sure where that leaves me now - I'm sure the scales of truth will have their day of reckoning soon!

Have a lovely Christmas break everyone,

Just a few pounds more

I got weighed this morning and I've put on 3 lbs. That's no surprise to me, with Christmas drink and fine fare for several days. We have another big day tomorrow, with mum's birthday and a big family get together - so the damage may be even higher - but then it's back to being strict, and shift the weight before it sets on. Hopefully before the new year starts I'll be back to 12 stone.

Hope you're all having a lovely Christmas too, without piling on too many pounds!

Shrinking

I keep thinking I've shrunk everything in the wash. Whenever I take the washing out and hang it up, I always think it's shrunk, as my clothes look so small. I still can't get used to having such tiny things.

And they take up so little room in my drawers compared to my old clothes - so does that mean I can go out and buy more?

Redwood

Obviously I normally post pictures of me looking very glamorous, but I just had to share this one.

This is what I look like first thing in the morning - do you think I could join Jedwood - or perhaps I'm "red-wood"?

I've taken to "doing" my hair - mousse, rollers, the whole works. But in the morning, I have terrible bed head hair. It clearly has a mind of its own, and an anti-gravity mind at that.

So there you go - can't be a glamorpuss all the time!

Weight and sign off

19/12/11 - weight 12 stone - so another 3lbs down, and I'm now 4 lbs below target.

Also had my final session and sign off with the doctor. My Medgem was 1790, but since it wasn't completely fasting (I'd forgotten and had my 5pm snack!), the doc lowered my target calorie intake to 1650 per day.

I think that's quite a lot - I'd been doing some planning based on 1500, so think I will be OK.

I'm thinking of breaking it up into chunks, and sticking with eating 5 times a day, so I could do something like:
- 200 cals for breakfast
- 200 cals mid morning
- 400 cals for lunch
- 200 cals for afternoon snack
- 600 cals for dinner

so, any meals I'm under will give me a bit of leeway for other meals / snacks. Think I can manage on that.

I'll be doing phase 6 and 7 as much as I can until after Christmas - just don't have time to plan around calories yet, so will do that when I get some time between Christmas and new Year.

Oh, and if I don't post before then, have a lovely Christmas everyone.

Health review

So I had a health assessment recently - I have them annually - and my results have changed significantly.

First of all, obviously I am much lighter, and my BMI has come down from 42 to 29 and I am now officially overweight! So that's a dramatic difference from being morbidly obese.

Secondly, my lung capacity has increased - and since lungs can't grow, this can only be because they aren't being squashed by being surrounded by fat.

My diabetes risk score has also dropped - it will never be very low, as two of my immediate family have diabetes, but it's dropped from high risk to moderate.

Cholesterol hasn't changed much - I thought it might have dropped since I've been so low fat, but I'm not sure that you can change cholesterol levels by diet.

The doctor was very pleased, as was the doctor at the Alizonne clinic - so everyone is happy!

So, the objective for next year is to get fitter and keep off the weight - I'm setting myself an upper limit of 12 stone 4, since I know my weight can go up and down by about 4 lbs a day. Let's see how we get on over Christmas.

Catching up again

Well, I don't think I've posted anything for ages! I've been caught up in the preparations for Christmas, and having a new fireplace - so I haven't actually sat down with my laptop for what seems like weeks.

I have lots to tell you, so I'll do separate posts over the next few days - possibly in a bit of a random order! Hope you enjoy catching up with me!

Before and After

So, here I am, at target and feeling fab.

I've just recieved my before and after pics, so thought I'd share them with you. To be honest, when I saw this, I thought "who let me out of the house looking like that!?".

The difference is astounding, and if you think I look different, imagine how different I feel.

Altogether, I've lost 6 1/2 stone with Alizone, and 3 stone before that, so 9 1/2 stone all together. It seems for years I've been carrying round an extra person with me, all the time. My poor heart, joints and muscles - now enjoying a well earned rest!

Out for dinner

I've been in London on business and out to dinner with some colleagues. I'm still officially phasing off, so really trying to stick to the phase 6 and phase 7 regimes.

As we were in an Italian restaurant, and I was avoiding carbs today, it was a bit tricky, but then I noticed this fish on the menu - seared cod loin with griddled vegetables - perfect!

It tasted delicious and just goes to prove you can stick to the plan when eating out.

OK, so I did deviate a bit by having a glass of wine with my dinner - this was a Christmas and celebratory dinner (we've just about finished a big project). Have to say, after my first glass of wine in 8 months, I was definitely a bit squiffy! And of course I savoured and loved every mouthful!

If you don't want to see calories, look away now

We're having a festive bake off at work, and it's my turn tomorrow. So this is my entry - a festive turkey and ham pie with chestnuts and cranberries on top. I'll be serving it with some homemade chutney - but I won't be having any (well, maybe just a little bit without the pastry!).

I've also made smaller mushroom, chestnut and goat's cheese ones for the vegetarians.

I'll let you know if I beat the competition and get through to the final! Wish me luck!

Makeover Pictures

This is another of my favourite photos taken by the very talented Frank Henshall - and it's also my favourite dress.

This is the fit and flare dress I bought about a month ago - sometimes I wear it with a shirt underneath or with a lightweight cardigan over it. It's very versatile and I love it!

Still can't walk properly in those shoes though - think I need stabilisers or training wheels or something!

World's Best Diet

Just watching The World's Best Diet on ITV2 (a program shown earlier in the year I think - you can find a link here - http://www.itv.com/news/tonight/episodes/worldsbestdiet/default.html).

Interesting stat - 500 cals a day over your limit will give you a weight gain of about 1 lb a week. Bizarely though, they suggest that the calorie limit for a woman is 2,000 cals a day - but I think most women's base metabolic rate is much lower. Most of the women I know who have had a medgem are around 1,400 cals per day - so on a diet of a recommended 2000 cals, they'd already be 600 calories a day over! It's no wonder we put weight on whilst thinking we're eating the right things.

Can't wait to find out what my daily calorie burning is - will know on Thursday!

Another quick dinner

Another quick dinner tonight, but lovely and healthy. Cod loin with brocolli, green beans and a hot salsa of fennel, red onion and tomato.

Put the green in a pan of boiling water, then gently fry the fennel. Add the red onion when the fennel starts to soften, then add the tomatoes when the onion starts to soften (cut them up small so it doesn't take too long). Season it all with salt and pepper. Make a space in the frying pan then add the cod (or any fish). Turn the fish over after about 3 mins and then drain the greens.

Deglaze the frying pan with vinegar (I used sherry vinegar because I like the strong, sweet taste). Put the greens on your plate, then add the fish and spoon the salsa over the top.

Takes about 10 mins in total, and it's quite filling and very tasty.
Enjoy

Pastrami Salad

So, salad for lunch, but fancied something with some bite. I made this salad based on a new york deli style pastrami sandwich.

Green salad with lettuce, spinach, green pepper, chopped gherkins and spring onions. And a dressing of natural 0% fat yoghurt, mixed with wholegrain mustard and some sweetener (makes a passable honey-mustard dressing).

Then topped off with my lunchtime allowance of 80g of protein - today it was 65g Pastrami and 15g low fat cheese.

So, appetite for something crunchy and tasty satisfied. Now for another cup of tea.

Grapefruit

So after indulging (a little) last night, I'm being ultra good today - a weetabix for breakfast and then grapefruit for my mid morning snack.

Of course it will be salad for lunch, and then an Alizonne bar for my afternoon snack. For dinner I'm going to have some cod.

And lots of water - for some reason I have a headache today.

It was a lovely evening though - I saw lots of people I hadn't seen for ages. Some of them didn't recognise me, and there were a lot of "Wow!" comments, which was really lovely. It's just a shame my other half is currently stuck in Turkey - I would have loved for him to be there too. Never mind though, he'll be home next week and I can't wait.

Have a lovely time if you're going out to Christmas parties - don't overdo it, but enjoy yourself!

Drink!

This is my first drink in 8 months - a glass of port.

Seemed just like the thing after the dinner at the Christmas party, along with a little bit of cheese - it was heaven (and I'm glad to say I did it in moderation).

Dinner was a trio of winter pies (so I only ate the filling, not the pastry) then daube of beef with green beans (I left the potatoes) and then a trio of apple desserts, which I tasted but didn't eat much of. Then 2 crackers and a tiny bit of cheese, and this glass of port.

It was lovely, and I savoured every mouthful.

Christmas Party

It's our company Christmas party tonight, and it has a Hollywood Glamour theme. So this is my outfit (I will post better pictures when I have some). Black velvet skirt and vest top, silver silk blouson jacket and lots of bling.

Oh, and redder hair! I dyed it scarlet this afternoon, as the red streaks I had put in for my makeover had started to fade (swimming in chlorinated pools is not kind to coloured hair). So, I have bright red curly hair (thanks for the rollers mum!).

I'm sure there will be more pics, so I'll add some over the next few days.

Salad days

I'm so used to having salad for lunch that it's my automatic response to "what do you fancy to eat?" even though I actually have more choice now.

So this was lunch today - with whisky smoked turkey and beetroot. All very tasty.

Steak and tatties

Tonight's dinner - a bit bigger than I usually make, but I've been feeling hungry recently and wanted to make sure I didn't have a snack attack later.

So, 100g green beans and 100g red onions - with brocolli and griddled aubergine to bulk it up. And of course potatoes - 3 small ones, boiled and then sauteed with the onion in my tablespoon of oil.

All topped off with a small sirloin steak - served blue, just the way I like it.

Lovely and very filling. And about 25 mins from start to plate.

weight

5/12/11 - 12 st 3 still (although 0.2 kg heavier than last week).

As I'm phasing off, I don't expect to lose weight now - and I know my weight can fluctuate by 2 or 3 lbs a day on occasion, so I'm quite happy.

It's been a funny week though, I was away for 2 days with catering that wasn't ideal - not much of it and when you're not eating the carbs you need extra veg. As a consequence I've been hungry, and I've cheated. The odd biscuit here, the odd piece of cake there - not sure what was going on in my head!

I think I was partly seeing how far I could push it with cheating before I gained weight, and partly I think I'm just a bit overfaced with lovely treats at the moment.

But I'm seriously back on plan today - just had dinner with lots of extra free veg to keep me off the snack attack later, and now I'm full!

What a change

I went shopping at the weekend with my husband - looking for a new coat.

Imagine his surprise when I couldn't find one that fit - because they were all too big! It's so unusual that he got quite animated about it - normally I can't find one big enough. His face was a picture - I think it's finally hitting home with him that I'm now so much smaller.

Found a great coat (the right size) last night though - they really shouldn't put John Lewis on my way home from clinic....

Me and my big sister now

And this is my and my big sis now - wearing one of her skirts!

So you can see, we're both half of what we were - but in many ways twice as much!

And like peas in a pod - especially since we bought matching glasses. It's one of those things - on Friday when we went out for lunch all three of us (me and both sisters) all turned up wearing the same colour purple! Luckily for mum she hadn't got changed at that point, and had the option of wearing a different colour - she went for green. Funny how often that happens with us lot.

Me and my big sister

I was looking for a picture of Christmas things to illustrate my last blog post, and found this picture of me and my sister - this is Christmas 2006.

We're both now a lot thinner - I'll find a more recent pic and post it in a mo!

Getting Ready for Christmas

If you’re trying to loose weight, Christmas can be a very challenging time. If you don’t want to see a big increase in the January Scales, then it’s worth doing some planning up front – and that means now.

If you're an Alizonner, then you probably already have a plan for Christmas - and I've just put together a Christmas day plan which I'll post shortly. But for everyone else who might need some inspiration to help get you through Christmas, here are my top 10 tips for surviving without adding too many pounds.

1.       Decide how much leeway you will give yourself now, before the madness starts. Will it be a disaster if you put on a pound? What about 7? What about 10? Decide what you are comfortable with as this will determine how strict you need to be.

2.       Look at your commitments for the whole month ahead – how many parties, dinners, family meals etc do you have? If it’s only a few, then you can probably afford to relish all of them – but if it’s lots, then you’ll need to prioritise them in terms of how much you will allow yourself to consume at each.

3.       On days that you don’t have festive engagements, try and stick to your normal diet, or be even stricter with yourself – that way you won’t compound any increases.

4.       Don’t stock up on Christmas treats early – unless you have superhuman willpower, that tin of chocolates or bottle of vodka will be gone by Christmas if you buy it by the end of November. If you want to spread the cost, get someone else to store your food. Mince pies with a best before date of Dec 15^th are a definite no-no unless mince pies are included in your diet. If you want to buy early and don’t have someone to store things, buy things for the freezer – brandy cream, turkey crown, chestnut stuffing etc can all be frozen and aren’t as tempting as a bottle of Baileys.

5.       Find non-foodie treats to enjoy – festive games, pampering treats, those huge bumper magazines and supplements you get at Christmas.

6.       Try and plan in some fun exercise – you will probably have extra time off work, so a long walk, sledging or even playing Wii with the kids will all help burn off a few calories – but don’t eat more because you’re exercising – use this to burn off what you “had” to eat or drink at parties etc.

7.       Offer to drive and stay off the drink – you will be popular with everyone and won’t have added to your waistline by having “empty” calories. Make a deal that if you drive, they buy your drinks all night, and stick to low cal soft drinks.

8.       Decide which festive treats you really like, and prioritise those. Which do you just eat because they are there? Can you do without them? I used to eat sausage rolls, but then realised that I didn’t really enjoy all that pastry, and so now I leave them, or just eat the sausage and leave the pastry.

9.       Don’t worry about upsetting someone by saying “no” to offers of cake, sweets, food etc – it’s your body and you are the one responsible for its maintenance. You can tell them you’ve just eaten, you’re not hungry, you just don’t fancy it or that you’ve already eaten/drunk too much this Christmas – whatever you need to do. When you get on the scales in January, it will be you, not them, you will have to face up to.

10.   Write your own list of goals and rules for the month ahead – things like:

a.       I will only drink on the following occasions – X, Y and Z

b.      I will not aim to eat all the Christmas cake by New Year’s eve

c.       I will not beat myself up about having more than 2,000 calories / 15 sins whatever, as long as I have fewer on other days

d.      I will try and keep any weight gain to less than X lbs

e.      I will do at least 3 30 min exercise sessions before New Year

So, everything in moderation – pig out some days, but then restrain yourself on others. But most of all, enjoy the break, find non-foodie treats and get at least a bit of exercise.

Merry Christmas,

Fishy treat

I'm having a phase 7 day today, which means I can have carbs - and tonight it was potatoes. So, 3 small boiled potatoes with 100g french beans, 50g tomatoes (seeded and chopped) and a lovely piece of cod loin, grilled with a parsley and lemon crust.

I dressed the potatoes, beans and tomatoes with olive oil and lemon juice and just plonked the fish on top.

It was lovely and very quick to make (boiling the potatoes took the longest) about 20 mins in all.

New Picture

I had to have a new picture taken at work this week - for my security pass and press releases etc - my last one is now very out of date, even though it's only 6 months old! Thanks to Ian Howath for the pics, which are great.

Seems it's been my week of being in front of the camera (which makes a change for me).

I wonder what next week will bring.

Potato!

Today was my first day on Phase 7 - and I can have potatoes! Great timing, as it was a pre Christmas dinner with my mum and two sisters.

We went to the catering college restaurant at Rochdale College, and it was lovely - I did eat my roast potato, but left the dauphinoise and the trimmings, but the turkey and veg were lovely.

C'mon Christmas!