Z weighs in

Actually, this is a bit me, me, me, isn't it?  Still, that's its purpose I suppose.  I weighed myself and I haven't lost any more weight even though I've lost an inch from my hips.  That's all right, shows it's getting established.

I'm really not eating all that much, so I have to be particularly careful that what I do eat is very good.  That is, both good for me and delicious - delicious in particular.  My preference has always been mostly for healthy food anyway so that's no problem.  I do need to be sure I eat enough calcium because I don't have milk in tea or coffee, nor do I eat cereal.

At the moment, I'm eating a lot of fruit because fruit is so gorgeous at this time of the year.  I was slightly downed by seeing English plums at Tim's shop yesterday because plums mean autumn, but I bought them anyway, as well as nectarines, apricots, peaches, greengages and a melon.  The melon isn't quite ripe so I haven't started it yet, but I've rather overindulged in the rest.  Today, a couple of dessertspoonsful of plain yoghurt for breakfast with fruit.  For lunch, a slice of ham, some tomato and cucumber, 6 black olives and half a slice of lightly buttered bread, and fruit.  Later the Sage and I shared a slice of chocolate cake, then two chipolatas and some french beans for dinner.  I cooked potatoes but I didn't eat any myself.  I like early potatoes and I like them when cooked interestingly, but plain boiled potatoes are quite dull and just there as a filler as far as I'm concerned, so I left them.  Oh, I had a few more olives, three or four, with a glass of wine before dinner.

Tomorrow I'm out for dinner with friends, a regular monthly thing. We have two courses, so I'll either have a starter and a pudding or eat part of the main course and not all.  Unless it's a fruit-based dessert, I won't eat it all.  

Zzipping up

I've mislaid some clothes.  I wanted to wear a pink jacket the other day - I'd been to a funeral so wore a black jacket with my grey and white dress, and thought I'd brighten up a bit for the afternoon.  It's a bright pink, unmissable ... only it isn't.  I can't find it anywhere.  This morning I was going to do some scything so I wanted to wear my old jeans.  No idea where they are.  Last I saw of them they were in the washing machine.  That is, I haven't worn them since I washed them, but they aren't there now.

Anyway, while I was looking this morning I picked up a pair of jeans that I keep for old times' sake.  Shall I tell you the story?  Oh, okay - well, it dates back to when Al was in his early teens and I had recently lost weight.  It was 23 years ago in fact, and I weighed under 8 1/2 stone when I stopped dieting, and I kept that weight or close to it for several years - my forties were difficult years and that was when I piled on too many pounds.

One day I went to the pile of clothes I'd brought in from the washing line the day before, took a pair of jeans and put them on, did them up and realised something was wrong.  Hard to identify, they fitted but they didn't feel right.  I looked in the mirror and they were narrower than I expected.  I took them off - of course, they were Al's jeans.  Marks and Spencer, age 13, height 63 inches, waist 27 inches.  Al was a skinny lad (he still is, turn sideways and he almost vanishes, just a thin line) and I was quite gratified that I could zip up his jeans *just like that*.

Well, when he grew out of them I kept them and they're my yardstick.  Of course in my fatter days I never tried to put them on at all, and a few months ago I could put them on and not do them up.  The last time I tried, I could do up the waist button but not the zip.

You know what's coming, don't you?  Yes, I drew in the vast tum, pulled on the zip and up it went.  I examined myself critically.  Still something to come off the thighs and if I didn't hold the flab in by sheer willpower it had a tendency to spill over a bit (not outrageously, mind you).  But I bent over and could touch my toes in them and, more importantly, I couldn't do them up a few weeks ago.

Later, I measured my hips.  37 inches.  

Z waists away

And so today, I measured myself.  And I see where those pounds have gone from - my waist.  So that's good.

I did so because my skirt keeps swivelling round so I thought a bit might have gone, and it so happens that I measured my waist only about a fortnight ago.  Then, it was an okay but slightly depressing 29".

I think that's considered pretty normal nowadays, but when I was young, it was 24" that was the norm, and that was more or less what I had.  In those days, I had a smaller bust - probably I varied from 33"-34", 24" waist, hips 35" to 38" depending on my weight at the time.

So today ... 36" up top, 27.5" waist,  38" hips.  Which is in proportion, anyway.  Can I keep the top and lose a bit more down below?  Hmmm.

Of course, my shape is nothing like it used to be.  Generous love handles, for a start (when waistlines all sit firmly on the waist so it's all contained within cloth, no one will be happier) and an alarming amount of flab.  And shall we not mention upper arms?

The diet continues, darlings.  But it includes cheese and chocolate.

Nearly 130, but not quite

I weighed myself this morning.  9 stone 3 pounds.  My initial aim is to be below 9 stone, so this is well on the way.

I managed it by a week of hardly eating, however, which isn't really a sensible way ahead, and wasn't planned.  It was a bit of a worry thing.  I didn't drink much, even.

In my younger (but fully adult) days, my lowest weight was 7 1/2 stone.  I didn't diet down to that, I was breastfeeding Al.  I always lost a lot of weight when feeding my babies, I ate like a horse and couldn't keep the weight on, but got thinnest of all with Al.  I've looked up my BMI and 7 1/2 stone is the lowest weight categorised as 'normal' - under that would be underweight.  Sad to say, it's the only time in my adult life that I actually felt slender - that is, I've got a pretty healthy body image now and I've never been one for self-loathing or anything like that, but I always felt fat.  I don't now, actually, despite rather a lot of wobbly bits.

My normal fit weight was about 8 stone 4 lbs and as long as I was under 8 1/2, I reckoned that was okay, if not slim.  It would be on the thin side now, I think that a few extra pounds are not a bad thing - they help to hide the wrinkles a bit for one thing when you're my age and the subcutaneous fat diminishes.  But 120 lbs is a nice round number.  8 stone anything will suit me just fine though.  No timescale, I'm not setting myself up for failure.

Though it's just occurred to me, I weigh 131 lbs.  So it seems I have my first target right in front of me.  One more pound.  

Not wisely but rather well

Well, that wasn't the best example of determination.  I got back from Corfu a week ago, having made a snap decision to go there with friends.  For the first day I was careful what I ate and then I started to feel like such a party pooper that I gave up watching.

It wasn't the meals that were the problem mind you, nor was it breakfast, where I ate yoghurt and dry toast as I might at home (Greek yoghurt, of course, in this case), but the snacks.  Pam produced crisps, nuts and so on with drinks and often we finished the evening with halva or chocolate.  When I arrived home and weighed myself, I'd put on four pounds.

I weighed myself again this morning and I've lost two of them and that's without trying very hard.  Once you get used to grazing, you don't want to stop.  But if I have had any nibbles, they have been olives or cheese - and that's interesting, because they're high in fat and so are crisps.  But I gained weight on crisps and lost it on cheese (not that I was eating it daily).  And I've been unable to resist my Indian Soan Papdi.

A couple more weeks at most and I hope that I'll be back on track again.  

Less of Z to love

I've been aware of my hip a few times recently.  This is spurring me into increased action, or at any rate determination, and I'm going to get shot of the excess once and for all.  I'm going down, under 9 1/2 stone now, but it's not good enough.  I am in the 'normal' range all right, a size 10 too, but I need to be 8 stone something to feel right and to slow down the deterioration in my hip joint.

It's quite a difficult thing to face and I've been managing to keep it out of my mind until now, but the thought of the gradual lameness and increase in pain isn't easy.  I shouldn't fuss I know, I'm being self-indulgent (comes with blogging territory though, surely) when there are so many people in a much worse situation, but if I say it here I won't feel the need to whinge in the real world.

Anyway.  I don't feel like eating at all today, so that'll kick start the weight loss.

Going down...

This non-diet diet seems to be working so far, although it's a very slow way to lose weight.  Still, if it's for the long-term, that's all right.

I am now nearly back to 9 1/2 stone, which is just putting me back to the situation I was in at the time I had my new hip, so is nothing to be proud of - except that I stopped and reversed the gain, which isn't all that easy to do, so does indicate a degree of determination.  And I haven't done it by dieting.  I still eat cheese, I occasionally butter my bread, I have not cut anything out of my diet at all.  I'm just trying to be aware of how much I eat, and stop when I've had enough, even if I could eat more.

That's the theory at any rate, in fact it depends on how delicious the food is.  But it is evidently the key for me.

As I said a few weeks ago on my other blog, I spent a fortnight in India eating like a horse - though again, it was not a greedy horse.  Still, I enjoyed the food far too much to leave much of it.  Looking back though, it was all healthy apart from those delicious snacks, such as home-made, newly-fried potato crisps and so on, which were irresistible, although I tried (so hard, darlings, and didn't always succeed) to limit the quantity.  That I only put on half a kilo was quite a relief.  Since I got home, that and a couple more pounds have come off and my jeans not only fit again but are quite roomy.  I only wear jeans if I'm a size 10.

Since this way of eating is the way forward, I don't have a target weight to aim for.  I'd love to be below 9 stone, which I haven't been for about 15 years, but I'm not going to worry about it.