I used to be a thin person in a fat person's body... Now I'm a not so fat person fighting the fatty inside!

My blog posts are my thoughts and feelings in the ongoing struggle to maintain an arse that fits in a size 12 pair of jeans.

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Body Shock

Right, I'm afraid I'm going to have a rant.

So I'm off work this week preparing for and sitting exams. And therefore I'm back with my old friend daytime TV. Today both This Morning and Loose Women are discussing body image.

This Morning commissioned an investigation into body image and questioned 3000 women of different ages and sizes. Over 80% of women said they were unhappy with their body. See the video of their discussion with actress Shobna Gulati here: http://thismorning.itv.com/thismorning/life/womens-body-image-survey-results

And why are we unhappy with our bodies girls?

We all know why we feel less than lovely at times. Because we're comparing ourselves to perfection. I'm guilty of it now more than ever - if I have even the smallest glimpse of my wobbly bits under my clothes I am disappointed. Disappointed rather than devastated, mind you. Which is an improvement on how I used to feel, but definitely not how I imagined being slim. And that's all I am. Slim. Not perfect. And I realise now I never will be.

But I've got a serious complaint to make on this very issue. Not only do we have to contend with perfection, we now have to contend... with children. Take a look at this:






I was on www.very.co.uk looking for a dress at the weekend. I scrolled past this and actually thought I'd selected children's clothing as well.

How can women be expected to compare their bodies to that of a child?! It made me really angry and if I thought it would do any good I would have complained to very.co.uk. As it stands, I doubt they'd care.

Quite frankly, when we've this to contend with, how can we have a healthy body image? Comparing our bodies to those of very young adults is ridiculous. As far as I can see the only women on their website that actually look like women are those modelling their "plus size" range! And considering plus size models are only a size 12 to 14 we're clearly being given a skewed image even there.

Please comment on this below, I'd really like to know your opinions. Has the way you see your body changed through weight gain or loss? Are you happier with yourself or more critical now than before?

Thanks!
Hannah

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Every time I try to revise something exciting happens.

This time?

Only the video from the WW Fashion Show! Woop!

Literally just opened the book and this little link was brought to my attention!

Check it out:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150289833815022

In other news, I've been to my WW meeting tonight, lost 1lb despite the 2 weeks with days in London and everywhere else, which was good. Got the new ProPoints info but as I'm off to London again Thursday and Friday for my boyfriend's birthday I won't be giving it a go until next week. So I'll keep you posted on that.

In case I don't have time to post before Sunday, have a good weekend lovely followers! :)

Sunday 7 November 2010

Cosmopolitan Magazine!

Two posts in one day, what's going on?

Well. Guess what?!

I'm in COSMO!!!!!

P.124, my weight loss "story"!!

I'm a bit excited.

Wow!

ProPoints?

Ok, so a very helpful Annie commented on my last post with a link to a very detailed article on the Weight Watchers points changes.

ProPoints.

Seems to me the article is slightly biased towards WW, but then I am guilty of this myself, so we won't worry about that.

My initial reaction is that generally points values for foods have increased, as has the daily allowance which wouldn't really have much of an impact as they've changed together, but then if they've upped both what benefit is there to upping either?

Fruit is now zero points which is a good idea and seems to be to encourage people to choose healthier options over sugary snacks. Obviously this is beneficial to dieting as fibre will fill you up and sugar will just give you cravings and make you hungrier.

49 points a week for treats. 49 points. If we're assuming that points have approximately doubled that's 24.5 points a week (in current terms) to use on "treats". That's 4 bars of Dairy Milk a week. Currently I can just about fit one into my weekly points if I'm on 19 a day. I admit I do fit in what I would imagine will be classed as "treats", for example WW cookies and chocolate bars or dessert, but I also use my points on fruit. I guess some people just don't though.

So, I guess overall I can see that it's mostly a rebranding to move with the times. Apparently it's all off the back of the theory that calorie counting alone isn't good enough. But with that theory implying that eating wholegrain foods and fruit and vegetables will cause your body to burn more calories, why wasn't the Discover Plan good enough? Surely that's exactly the point of Filling Foods?

I think I will have to reserve judgement until I've tried it. I can see how it will work now at least, and I'm sure it will work well.

But, why fix what ain't broken?

Friday 5 November 2010

Here I go again!

Well. Where to begin?!

I guess first of all I should explain where I've been and why there has been a distinct lack of blogging going on! I had the week in London training I mentioned in my last post which was stressful and not much fun thanks to a horrible, noisy hotel and a lack of people to make it interesting. Following that I had 3 weeks at work which were manic and involved a lot of financial rubbish that I couldn't get my head around at all. Then another week in London which was much more fun with lots more people and a nicer hotel. Met some lovely people and hopefully made some friends :). And finally this week I've had 3 days at work and another 2 days in London! Plus in between all that I've been to Wales, to the Peak District, and I believe at least once out on the town ;)

So there we go. It's been busy.

Now I know what you're all thinking... How the hell do you do all that on Weight Watchers?

Short answer... you don't.

I very quickly learned that breakfast and lunch in a hotel clocks up the points to unmanageable levels, and once you add on the dinner in a restaurant you've had it.

However. Jumping on my scales yesterday morning I was very pleased to discover that I was actually the same weight I was before that first week in London.

To be honest, dear followers, I have only a vague idea as to how this happened. If you've been reading my "tips" then I'm sure you can guess what has helped here. It's my favourite one of all... being SENSIBLE.

How boring it sounds.

Quite honestly I wasn't really that sensible at all. I had chocolate fudge cake, biscuits, ice cream, pizza, chips, muffins and croissants. I can only assume that my efforts to only eat half the cake (ignoring the confused looks from those I lunched with!), eating two biscuits a day rather than 6, having vanilla ice cream instead of cheesecake, and eating vegetarian pizza somehow helped?! The chips, muffins and croissants I have no idea about. And I did manage one Body Attack class which was immensely hard and after which I stuffed my face in Nandos!!

So, I might have got away with it (although I say might as I'm not entirely convinced I have yet). But to be quite honest I don't feel as if I have either. I feel wobbly. Well. More wobbly than usual!

In the past 14 days I've been to the gym only about 3 times. And my body isn't really happy about it. Tough luck because now I've got tons of revision to do as I've got exams in 3 weeks.

So back on points I will be going!

For 3 days anyway. Then I'm off to London again, for fun this time!

Oh dear.



Anyway. That's the catch up. Now lets get down to business.

I've heard a few things about WW changing their points. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I like the way it works now. One of the most concerning things I've heard is that the diet will be more like Slimming World. Given my history with that plan I don't welcome this! We will just have to wait and see what it really will entail. If anyone has an opinion on this please comment, I'd like to know a bit more about it but I've got Risk Management coming out my ears currently and haven't found the time to do any research ;).

To conclude, a tip, as is the tradition. Sitting in a room with nothing to do but listen whilst lectured to and eat every 90 minutes I desperately tried to find something to stop me reaching for the biscuits and sweets surrounding me, and this has inspired my tip for today. It's a fairly standard dieting trick, but when you're only eating out of boredom and just need something to do, it works.

Instead of nibbling, drink! Now, don't get too excited. I'm not recommending becoming an alcoholic. Personally I have developed a taste for fruit tea. Twinings Cranberry, Raspberry and something or other specifically (or not). A hot drink which contains no points can keep you busy for at least 30 minutes. Teabags which have the little string on them to fiddle with are particularly useful for keeping your hands away from the nibbles too!

Of course you can drink anything - 0 points options will work best in such a situation of course! But the trick is to stay distracted. Similarly, chewing gum can have the same effect, and the sweets you can buy at WW meetings and online for 1 point a box are also good - although don't eat too many of those because you'll have a poorly tummy soon after!

And that's it for now lovely people! I'm off to the hairdressers first thing tomorrow morning and I've no idea what I want doing, so I must decide! Oh, and I don't think I ever disclosed what my exciting thing I'd done was... I had my hair chopped off! Ok so it's not really short, but it's about half the length it used to be, which was a fairly big deal at the time!

Have a fabulous weekend if you've read this far, I'll try and post again on Sunday :)

Happy Bonfire Night too!