The Diet

Since the start of the year I've been saying I want to lose some weight. I'll start with good intentions, shed a few pounds, have a bad day or two, binge on chocolate or something, then put it all back on again.

I've had some success, but with the knowledge that our next fresh cycle will be in February, I knew I really had to get my skates on if I was going to hit my target of 9 stone, 7 pounds by the end of the year. An even larger goal, one which I was originally intending to move onto if I'd hit my target by partway through the year, was to get down to 9 stone total.

I think part of my problem in the past has been trying to lose too much, too fast.

You either lose a lot, hit a plateau and get discouraged. Or you don't lose it as quickly as you have hoped, get discouraged because you've given up all the good stuff and it's made no difference, and console yourself with a nice bar of chocolate. Either way, it's no good.

Last week Mr Click and I officially started our diet, though I'm hesitant to actually call it a diet since it's more of a 'cutting out the crap' kind of thing. I'm not living on lettuce and cabbage leaves. I'm not drinking fancy smoothies. I'm not eating like a cave man. I'm just cutting out the snacking and stuff that I don't really need to eat.

I've set myself two targets. Firstly, to be at 9st, 7lbs by Christmas Day. Secondly, to be at 9st (or near as damn it) by the beginning of February. That gives me a total of 19 weeks to lose 14lbs. That means 1lb per week, with five 'comfort' weeks (for things like periods and Christmas).

I'm off to a good start. At this week's weigh in I'm down 2lbs!

And how am I doing it?

Well, having Mr Click alongside me is helping. He's aiming to lose less than I am, but just having someone else in the house who is working towards a similar goal makes a difference. He's been very good about not restocking our snack cupboard with lots of chocolate and instead getting slightly healthier snacks for us to share, like popcorn.

Plus we can spur one another on.

When I've had a bad day, he's able to tell me it's okay to have a chocolate digestive biscuit at bedtime, or make me a hot chocolate because he knows that's what I need. He's been walking with me more as well, which is making it slightly easier to drag myself out of bed on these darker mornings because I know I'm not heading outdoors alone.

The other thing that's helping is having a food tracker in my Bullet Journal again.

The last time I used one of these I had it as a month long thing and I got the feeling I wasn't getting the best use out of it, but couldn't figure out exactly how to change it. I've got another blog post planned about my Bullet Journal so I'll not say too much about it now, but suffice to say, I'd adapted it into a weekly overview.

It's amazing how just writing down what you're eating makes you so much more aware of it.

And on a completely ridiculous note, I've only got a limited amount of space in each meal box, so I know I can't have too much because there won't be space to record it. It's funny how such little things can influence you.

I celebrated my weight loss yesterday with a handful of Terry's Chocolate Orange Mini Segments (I felt I'd earned them after turning down chocolate at work earlier in the week, not once, but twice!) and indulged in both hot chocolate and a digestive biscuit at bedtime.

I'm a week ahead of myself, I can afford to be a little bit bad before I do it all over again next week.