Taking care of the pounds.....

What really helped me lose weight was knowing exactly what I ate and what I weighed. Two things I never did before I started to lose weight and two things that are helping me learn to stay on the straight and narrow.

When I first used the online food diary to record everything I ate every day, I was horrified. I was eating way over what a large physically active man should eat, never mind a reasonable amount for a not very tall desk bound woman of a certain age who just about managed yoga and pilates.

Although that first weigh in for 15 years was a shock (yes I am that ostrich!), what I don't really understand is how I managed to be only 12 stone 5 pounds, I should have been much bigger! But I think I'm beginning to understand how I let myself get sooooo big.

It's horrendously easy to let the pounds slip on for me and that's of course how I got clinically obese in the first place.  Since reaching target weight last year, I've added a pound or two here and there. That great weekend away at a wonderful wedding in Dorset. Our walking holidays in the Cornwall and the Lake District. That fortnight when work, Mum and hormones conspired to make life a bit challenging. They all left their mark on the scales.

Holidays, celebrations, stressful times, we all know when we're at risk and there are times for me when my healthy eating just doesn't work.  But in the past, I  didn't redress the balance, I just learnt to live with that extra pound and one by one they crept onto my hips and settled in.  And if I'm not careful....  well you know the rest!

As well as getting back to my new normal, I need to look at why I managed to put on weight after my healthy active holiday! Of course know the main reason sadly is not muscle! I know it was cake, because I'd earnt it (see my blog on the psychology of cake for more on this!).

I need to do more to stop those extra pounds creeping on in the first place. Has anyone any ideas for me to try???

Losing weight is hard, but keeping it off is at least as hard. I'm having to make small but significant changes to things I have done my whole life - how I cope with stress, how I reward my hard work and how I celebrate and relax. Life isn't about straight lines and tidy boxes, I can't and won't live on a permanent diet, my weight isn't more important than caring for the people I love.

But, I am determined not to get fat again..... Can I do it?  Yes I can! (I hope!).

If anyone has any ideas, hints, suggestions to make this work - please let me know!

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