Weight Loss Journals - petecohen.tv

Hello all, so sorry to hve not been blogging much recently, I've been so busy and have fallen behind on my comittment to keep blogging. I have also fallen behind in watching the daily videos, have about 5 days worth to catch up on. Food choices haven't been great, but despite all of that my head is still in the right place and I am still very much part of the plan. I've also bought fitness ball, yoga mat, skipping rope and stetchy band, although haven't done much with them yet. One step at a time! I really really really want to get back into exercise but I find the dark evenings so hard, I don't feel like doing anything. What I want to focus on is using all my energy to get to the gym ONCE, if I go once then it breaks that negative routine that I've been in for the last 2 years. Onwards and upwards though, I'm still positive!

Have a great day.

xxJo

Hi everyone,

Things are still very busy so have only just been able to catch up on all your blogs. The good news is that I am still on the programme and have made it past Day 8 yippee!! I do still want to improve my work/life balance and not get so stressed, but one step at a time and I am sure I will get there. Just to recap what my goals are, it is to be 3 stone lighter by October 2009 and to not use food for comfort. I also want to have more energy and regularly exercise for fun. I now I can get to this goal. I feel focussed this time.

Have a great day chums.

xx

Hello everyone, hope you all had a good weekend. Only a quick message from me today. Been busy busy busy.. But still on the programme, yippee!!!! Some things have been great, others I need to still work on, but what I am loving is that over the last 8 days I haven’t beaten myself up. You know the thing about treating yourself like you would your best friend? I’ve been actively doing that, spending some time each day talking to myself (in my head!) as if I am my best friend, things like “that’s been a really stressful day, you are so dedicated at work and you try your very very best, no one can expect more from you than that” etc etc. And I have to say, that it seems to be working! For me once my head is in the right place my body will follow. I feel really positive. Have a good week all!

xJo

A pretty good day today! Things I’m patting myself on the back for:

- having an annies smoothie
- having a healthy dinner (smoked mackeral, jacket spud, cucumber and beetroot - I’m addicted!)
- having lots of fruit
- Eating slowly
- making the time to watch the daily video and to blog

There were some things that weren’t so brill, but they are over and done with, all over, in fact I can’t remember what they were! (Well I can but I’m not going to dwell). What I’ve learnt is that it would help me to plan more for when I am in long meetings, and to not feel embarrassed to get out my own snacks. This is my life and my health. Wendy thanks for the tip about BabyBels. Will get some at my next shop.

Work this week has been very challenging, and it will be even worse next Monday and Tuesday, so I am really looking forward to tomorrow evening, I am out for a tapas meal with my new walking group. Out on a Friday night! Yah hay!!!! I am also looking forward to going out for a meal and trying out my new ‘eating slowly’ rule. That’s making me think back to the spring/summer when a big bag of kettle chips was my Friday night source of solace and comfort. I haven’t done that for MONTHS. So I’m patting myself on the back for that. I no longer feel sad if I am at home on a Friday night and no longer feel the need to compensate with food. A massive step forward.

Nighty night chums,

XX

Hi all,

Day 3 had a few delays and hold-ups on the road to my slimmer fitter healthier me. Had an Annies smoothie for brekkie which always seems to set me up in a positive good way for the start of the day. I was in a long meeting this morning at work where I was doing lots of presentations and so wasn’t able to have my normal mid morning snacks and I also felt quite stressed and anxious. The meeting when on until 2.45, so I was ravenous when I finally emerged. I was also so releived that the pressure was off me for a bit that I ate way to many custard cream biscuits that were left over from the meeting. But that’s over and done with. A bit later I ate my lunch of ryvita, goats cheese, tomato and avocado which was delicious. Tonight was better, I did have a pretty stodgy dinner of pasta, pesto, pie nuts and parmesan, but I think I craved that because my blood sugar had gone so haywire from being ravenous and then eating a lot of sugar in biscuits. So I’m not going to give myself a hard time over that, and I am pleased that I ate a small portion and ate it very very slowly so that’s good!! I finished the meal with some (defrosted) frozen berries.

I was due to go to a body pump class tomorrow morning before work but I know have to go to an early morning meeting so won’t have time -so that’s another small setback, but I still have the ’Sunday Step Detox’ class booked for Sunday so I’m looking forward to that. So all in all, not a bad day and I’m still feeling positive! (Although under a lot of pressure at work, probably most of it pressure that I put on myself…. Need to apply the duck to work situations me thinks..)

Have a great Thursday all.

xxJo

hello one and all,

Another pretty good day for me, I am very pleased on the whole. Felt quite stressed at work today bur for some reason I didn’t want (or need?) to use food to tmask it. Guess that being ridiculously busy got in the way of me having the time to over-eat! Did pretty good on eating slowly and eating when hungry (which isn’t one of my tools but which I’ve been more aware of anyway) and drinking water. Have a long way to go though in terms of my ’self image’, especially my confidence at work, but one step at a time hey. have also been listening to the mp3 each night.

Food today was:

Brekkie, annies smoothie
coffee at work
Snack: 2 ginger nut biscuits (in a meeting) and banana
Lunch: ryvita, hummous, avacado, beetroot.
Pm snack: home made banana loaf, apple
Evening meal; veg stir fry with wholegrain rice and yogurt

Have been watching the daily video the evening before as its too much of a rush in the morning and by the evening its too late. 2 days in and its working ok. Heres to getting up to and beyond day 8.

Wishing you all a great Wednesday.

Toodle pip

xx

evening all,

Hope you've all had a good Monday and for those of us starting the programme again, a good day 1. You're lovely comments on my last post were wonderful, so warm and encouraging, being on here really is the best place to be!!

So far my day 1 has been great! My tools for today were to eat slowly and to listen to the mp3 and to actually watch the daily video (confession time…. I’ve only ever got as far as watching day 8 before…). I also used the reminder function, which I’ve never used before. I made a reminder to phone the gym and book up to do one fitness class this week. And it worked! When I saw the reminder I rang the gym and have booked to do a body pump class Thursday morning before work and a step class on sat morning. I chose the body pump taking on board what Pete said about doing resistence training, and also thanks to DJ - your praise of body pump inspired me to try it.

Food has been:

- Annies Smoothie for brekkie (cheers Annie! )
- mid morning apple and banana
- lunch hummus, ryvita, avacado, beetroot, celery, cucumber and tomatoes
- mid afternoon, slice of my home made banana bread, apple
- dinner, homemade cauliflower, chickpea and spinach curry with couscous, mango and yog afters

I felt so much more alert at work today and this evening when I got home, that’s a really positive difference of eating non-stodgy food. Roll on tomorrow.

Night all
xx

Good morning all,

Thank you Pete for a wonderfully fantastic and inspiring day. What you say makes so much common sense, and always makes me see things, and myself, differently and with much more clarity. My goal of being slimmer fitter and healthier is now so much clearer and I know what small steps I am going to start with. I am really looking forward to starting Day 1 again tomorrow.

It was also so lovely to meet the bloggers, either again, or some for the first time. You all inspire me so much and your warmth and unconditional support for each other is amazing. My main challenge is that I give up far to easily and then withdraw into my shell feeling sorry for myself and beating myself up, but seeing how motivated you all are, and how much progress you have made, and how much your friendships have grown has given me a real wake up call. If I hadn’t scuttled off into my shell a couple of months ago I could have been slimmer fitter and healthier since the last event rather than what has actually happened which is that I have put weight on….

I am feeling quite emotional and teary today - I am feeling very sorry for myself for wasting the opportunities of the last few months. Am I a lost cause feeling like this the day after such an amazing day?!

I am writing this to get this out of my system taking on board what the lovely Ros said to me yesterday, which is that it is when we are feeling low that writing the blog matters most.. So with that in mind that’s why I am writing this. I am not meaning to wollow but to express that I have had a wake up call - and that is making me face some cold hard home truths...

But hey, that’s in the past and as Pete said yesterday, the great thing about the past is that its over.!!!!

So I am going to write today off from am emotional point of view.. And allow myself to feel how I am feeling.. And spend today visualising my better future.

I hope this hasn’t come across as self indulgent - yesterday really was amazing, as is every one of you bloggers.

Much love

Jo

Hello everyone, its me Josie,

Its been ages since I’ve been on here, for which I am really really sorry... I’ve been in a bit of a low place the last couple of months or so and haven’t been handling stress very well...when that happens its in my nature to withdraw and close myself off from any form of support. And I just couldn’t find the motivation to Keep Going with the programme, which wasn’t helped by the fact that I’d never got the daily emails to spur me into action. Anyway, recently, out of nowhere, I’ve started getting the emails, which have been prodding my conscience every day and then yesterday i got one to say that my membership had expired. Finances have been a real problem for me recently, I’ve taken on what I am finding is far too big a mortgage, so theres not much spare dosh every month. Anyhow, without hesitation I renewed my membership. The money situation is certainly a motivation to make a better effort and get the most from the programme this time, so I’m back.

I’ve spend the last few of days reading your blogs, its fantastic to read whats been happening to those of you who I met at the last event, and for whom I have a lot of affection, and to read the blogs of so many new people too. I hope that you will forgive me for my disappearing act.... I have been thinking of you all and wondering how you’ve been getting on.

I really wish I could spare the cash to join you on Saturday, but instead I will be thinking of you all, including Pete!, and wish you all an amazing day.

I am sure to be swept up in the waves of motivation and enthusiasm which will no doubt be all over your blogs on your return from the event.

Lots of love
xx

Day 5 - having started on Monday that means I have got through a whole working week without the latte and almond coissant breakfast that I would normally have had at least once a week YIPPEE!! I have been having a yogurt when I get into work and then my home made breakfast bar when I feel peckish a bit later on. I have also made all my lunches this week. This has not only saved me loads and loads of money (along with the coffee and coissant - ridiciously expensive when I added it up) , but also meant that I've been eating all good stuff. I've felt more alert at work, so less need to have pick me ups to keep me going. I am still drinking coffee, but not as much of it. I have a little one person cafetiere which I have brought into work, and I have now got into the habit of having one real coffee when I get into work. I then might have another coffee in the afternoon. I am happy with that. I know that it is a stimulant and probably does things to my blood sugar levels, but at the moment I am happy to stick with that and focus on other tools.

I'm not eating at slowly as I could do, although I am getting much better at eating when hungry. The nut that really needs to be cracked though is exercise.

And I've just had a bit of a revelation about it.! A few years ago I would go to an aerobics class about 2 - or sometimes 3 - times a week, and I did this most weeks for about 4 years. To start with I was pretty rubbish and uncoordinated and would be bright red in the face. But I kept going because to me, if was the nearest I could get to dancing about to music in a carefree way. It really got my endorphins going. Anyway, as time went on I got to know the routines well and the moves well and would emerge from the class with a rosy glow about me. rather than a sweaty crimson mess. Now I see that that was me getting fitter and fitter . Of course, at the time I did not appreciate this as I was always comparing myself to the people at the front who would make it all look completely effortless. But this is the revelation - at that time I was not eating anything substantially different to what I am now. A basically healthy diet - not as low fat as it could be, but with lots of wholegrains and fruit and veg. Yet here I am now 2 stone heavier. So those 2, or 3, classes a week, which at the time I didn't think were making much of a diference to me, were in fact the difference between being 10 stone and 12. I know I had my kettle chip habit back then, so those few classes where what kept me toned and trim. BLIMEY. THis does seem so obvious, but for some reason since my weight has crept up over the past 2 years, I seemed to think that exercise would only works if I pounded away on the tread mill or if I was brilliant at it - puffing away at the back wouldn't be enough, BUT IT IS!

Great bank holiday weekends to you all,

xxx

PS and the Kettle chips haven't made an appearance for several weeks now, ever since I've started to beleive that it is actually Ok to be in on a Friday night, and that being in on a Friday night doesn't make me some mutant sub-humanbeing!

Hi all,

There have been so many wonderful posts by people that my comment giving the recipe for the breakfast bars is now back 2 pages. So I thought i'd put it in a posting by itself, for anyone who is interested.


Heres the recipe for the breakfast bars, from the bbcgoodfood website. A brilliant resource!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1605/ontherun-breakfast-bars

Every recipe i've tried from it has been great and there are some good tips on how to adapt the recipe in the comments from readers if you scroll down the page.

For these bars I used 1/2 the amount of butter and 1/2 ripe banana. And used mixed seeds instead of the linseeds and mixed nuts instead of the hazlenuts.

I think you can add pretty much whatever you like to this!

Next time I will try it with all banana and no butter, and will experiment to reduce or find alternatives for the sugar and syrup.

So far so good-ish! Had all healthy food yesterday, so ws very plesaed with that. Starting with a yogurt and my breakfast bar for brekkie. Work was very stressful so i didn't eat as slowly as I should have, as I ate my sarnie whilst working - not ideal. Made a lovely vegetable stir fry for dinner and realised that i was bolting it down whilst watching a replay of our GB lady win gold on the 400metres. Think it was the excitment! I really struggle to eat fod with no distractions, i always have to read the paper,watch tv or have the radio on.

heres to a good day 3.

Somehow I have managed to re-post this journal entry from ages ago!!

Yay! So here we all are! How fabulous to be sharing this all with everyone. My number 1 goal for the 21 days is to stick with it all the way through and really committ to following the programme.

I watched the video this morning, and like Cat, I was struck by Pete's words about taking every day at a time and thinking 'what can I do today to make myself slimmer fitter healthier'. The small changes will add up to a big difference. Thats what I am going to do - not look ahead to much, but just focus on each day and what I can do. I haven't weighed myself for ages since I had a real downer as a result of what the scales told me, so I won't be weighing myself. I will be measuring my success instead on how well I am doing the tools. AS Vikki has said, follow the tools and the weight loss will follow!

So far today, so good. Have been eating when hungry and have consumed a far far smaller amount that I have been known to consume. Also I made my breakfast and my lunch. I realised that breakfast has been a real danger zone for me - I don't have time to have it home, so in theory I take a tupperware of museli to have at work. However, I don't really enjoy eating museli and I think phscologically I need something delicious on a weekday morning to stop me feeling deprived, so its been far too easy recently to bypass the museli and have a coissant and latte from a cafe instead. Which then sets me up for a day of bad food choices as I fall into a cycle of sugar highs and lows. So, to get over this yesterday I made a weeks worth of healthy breakfast bars - full of oats, nuts and seeds and banana - Absolutely delicious and healthy! And to get over the temptation of having them in the house, they are all individually wrapped in clingfilm and in the freezer.

I've also gone back to my journal entry for when I first started Day 1 and looked at what I wrote for what I want. Its still what I want, so here it is again!

"I want to be buzzing with health and vitality and energy. To bounce out of bed in the morning ready and raring to squeese every drop of life and love and laughter out of every day. I want to party like its 1999... and run a marathon and go to everest base camp. I wan to have a toned lithe body and feel confident enough to play volleyball on the beach in my bikini (without a t-shirt covering up the jiggly bits.) I want to truely feel i am the person that everyone else already think that I am. I want to smile to myself... alot, for no particular reason. I want to feel and look great in clothes...and out of them! All in all, I want a peice of everything thats on offer and to have the confidence and joie de vive to grab every opportunity and live life to the full !!!"

xx

So, i've watched all the 9 tools and 'how to' videos, read through the resources, downloaded the recipes and the mp3 track and have been listening to it on and off for over a week.... i am really excited by this as a new concept for getting slim, fit and healthy BUT......... i'm TERRIFIED!!!!! I keep putting off part 2! I guess i'm still hanging onto those old deep seated beliefs that i won't be able to do it, that I will have wasted this opportunity and a a result that I am always going to be a little overwight, and never quite as attractive that i know I could be, and never this and never that yada yada yada etc etc etc..!!!!!!!!!!!

So, this is when i thought to myself that what I need to do is seek tome support from others. So, over to you lovely people! Think I need some encouragement to go for it, and to realise my full potential..... I'm not unusual, i'm not a freak, I'm just a woman who has used food to smooth down the occasional crumple in the duvet cover of life! All help and encouragement that I could be given at this moment to make me go for it, will be really ever so gratefully received!

xx