Journeying from Blobby to Buff!

Moved to Weight Watchers……

12 May 2012 Leave a Comment

by Leigh in Uncategorized

I know, traitor right?

But seriously, I just needed a change and a plan that I didn’t know the ins and outs of.  So I decided to join Weight Watchers nearly 3 weeks ago……

And I’m 7lbs down already!!!  It is amazing – I haven’t been that hungry (apart from at the moment because I’m ill) and I really like the way that they encourage little pieces of exercise in a better way than SW – you needed consistent work to get a sticker at SW whereas with WW you get activity points which you can choose to use or not.

The main thing I think that’s going to work for me, though, is the portion control.  Even though I was eating the right things on SW, I was definitely eating WAY too much of it.  Because you have to point everything with WW, I’m having to weigh and measure food (apart from fruit and veggies, which are mostly free).  I’m finally learning what a “normal” portion of the different foods are!!

So, I’ve got a 3 months subscription to WW – let’s see how close to target I can get in that time!!

Oh good grief……..

08 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment

by Leigh in Uncategorized

So…it’s now January 2012.  I am still fat (heavier than ever, in fact).  This is officially rubbish.

On the plus side, I have a permanent job which I am mostly enjoying and still ridiculously happily married   I do have a death-timetable (5 lessons on a Monday, Tuesday and Friday) but I am coping admirably (I think, anyway).  My weight loss/exercise plan took a bit of a hit last term, as I was trying to settle in and get used to my workload.  I think I’m pretty much there now, and according to colleagues this term isn’t as hardcore and full-on as the Autumn term.  Thank Dawkins for that!

So – time to get my head back in the zone and concentrate on my weight loss again.  I rejoined Slimming World in December (Online this time as I can’t commit to spending an evening a week sat in a room listening to people complain how they don’t lose weight when they eat crap) but didn’t start properly until Janaury 2nd (obv!).  I lost 2.5lbs in the first week(ish) – I WI on Thursdays so had only been back on plan for 3 days when I weighed that.

Since then, been mostly on plan, but occasional lapses.  I got a really hoarse throat on Friday so felt a bit sorry for myself this weekend.  That translated into some biscuits and chocolates (finishing off Christmas things really), and some hash browns, and a giant Yorkshire pudding with my stew tonight.  But I’m focused now and I’ll be right back on it tomorrow morning.

But, progress so far is as follows:

Starting weight: 11st 12.5lbs (166.5 lbs)
Current weight: 11st 10lbs (164 lbs)
Cumulative weight loss: 2.5 lbs
Weight to target (9st 7lbs): 2st 3lbs (31 lbs)

I’m also starting the 30 Day Shred again tomorrow.  Given that my evenings are taken up with marking, planning and the like I’m going to have to get up and do this in a morning.  I’m getting pretty good at getting up early so I’m fairly confident that it won’t be too much of a hassle.  But we’ll see.  The bigger challenge is whether I remember to blog about it

Getting back on the horse

24 Aug 2011 1 Comment

by Leigh in Uncategorized

So I’ve decided to go back to Slimming World.  I’ve tried so many things, from calorie counting, to Monica Grenfell’s 5 Days to a Flatter Stomach, and I was starving and bored (respectively).  But I’ve not met an eating plan yet that gives you the freedom that SW does.  It worked before, and I know it’ll work again – I just need to have a bit more willpower (and stop buying cheese *look*).

I’m back up to 11st 2.8lbs (sigh), which means that I’ve nearly put everything back on that I lost in the first place.  I can’t believe I got so close to dropping into the 9 stone bracket and threw it all away.  My clothes are getting too tight again, as I replaced a lot of my wardrobe when I lost the weight before, and I’m just a bit pissed off with myself for letting it all go back on.

I start back at school next week, so hopefully that’ll get me back into a routine and I’ll be able to get myself back in the groove again – I’m going to sit down this morning and make a list of the meals that I’m going to eat this week and try and buck my ideas up!!

Sorry for the “woe-is-me” post, but I’m just feeling a bit annoyed with myself

The tuition fees debate/debacle

10 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment

by Leigh in Uncategorized

I remember first hearing about the proposals to raise university tuition fees and I remembered being a bit narked off about it.  Not that it will affect me, you understand, but because I don’t believe that university education should be so expensive.  I did my undergraduate degree at a time when tuition fees were just over £1,000 per year, and I remember that, at times, I did struggle.

My parents have never been well off, and while they supported me as much as they possibly could in a financial sense, I couldn’t rely on them to bail me out if things got sticky.

I recently quit my (nicely paid) accountancy job and started a PGCE course to train to be a teacher (not the most well paid career in the country), and my tuition fees for this are just over £3,000 for the year.  Obviously, on top of this I have a maintenance loan so I can eat, but I also receive a maintenance grant (which I did not receive during my undergraduate degree).  This means we don’t have to worry too much about bills and if something happens to break and we need a new one.

And do you know what I learned from this whole experience?  I learned to budget.  I learned that the world didn’t owe me anything and that if I wanted to succeed I had to work for it.  I learned that resources are not infinite, and that there must be a trade-off between “wants” and “needs” (this, incidentally, is THE economic problem.  I am a Business and Economics teacher, and most kids don’t understand this!).

In short, it taught me how to be a responsible adult.  The kids going to university in the next few years seem so young compared to how I seemed as an 18 year old.  I had a student come up to me the other day and say he couldn’t revise for a mock exam over the Christmas holidays because he had Chemistry and Maths exams to revise for (that were actually real, don’t you know). 

Erm, hello!!  Welcome to A level study!!  Welcome to the real world!!

Since starting my course I’ve met a lot of kids that simply don’t have the mental capacity to go to university.  As for Labour’s 50% target, I don’t think that 50% of the kids I’ve met could survive in an independent learning environment!  Don’t get me wrong, there are some wonderfully bright and intelligent kids, who deserve to succeed and go to university, but there are a lot of kids who just aren’t academically able to do this.

Seriously, having to tell a Year 12 class (16-17 year olds) to take notes, what notes they have to take, not to forget folders, coming in without pens/calculators/paper/books/any kind of intelligence – it’s exhausting!!

So I find myself becoming more and more in favour of the proposals.  Yes, the fees will be high – but they’re payable AFTER graduation.  If you never earn more than £21,000, they’ll never be paid back and will be scrapped after 30 years!  The whole point of a degree is that it’s supposed to get you a better career, with better pay and better prospects.

I just can’t find myself agreeing with the protesting “students” at the moment.  Maybe, like my husband keeps joking, I AM becoming a Tory…..