Weekly weigh in

2.5 lbs off :-)

12st 13lbs last week and down to 12st 10.5lbs this week.

Measurements wise - my hips were the same as last week, waist and chest ever so slightly up, and arms, legs and rib area slightly down. Make of that what you will, but I'll keep tracking.

So I had 7lbs I wanted lose in this 3 week period - 7lbs I committed myself to doing the best I could to get rid of. That would mean I could be back to my lowest official weight of 12st 6lbs and 4 stone lost before I go travelling for a month.

Regular readers here (that's about 2 of you, right?), will note that I have been to this current weight of 12st 10lbs-ish numerous times over the last 6 months and that it's become the psychological sticking point that I can't get past.

The difference this time is that I'm not in a feast / famine frame of mind now. I want to continue tackling these next couple of weeks from a clean-eating, stick to my points each day perspective instead, and I've proven to myself that I'm capable of that this week.

Why the drive to get this done now, you ask? Several reasons:

I want out of this funk. It annoys me that I was being so successful on a long term goal, which believe me in my world is somewhat of a miracle, and then stopped for no reason. I have a point to prove to myself and I damn well will.

Secondly - that old friend or foe - vanity. I'm going on the trip of a lifetime and I want to feel good about myself and have great pictures to remember it by afterwards.

Lastly - the trip itself. For a whole month I'm going to be away from the scales, and out of my normal routine. No gym, no running, different food, holiday thinking with friends who might not necessarily egg me on, but won't hold me back either. I'm bloody terrified how much damage this could do.

I've been thinking about this quite a lot, because a month on holiday has huge scope for damage.

I'm certainly not going into this without a plan either. The current plan (well, rough idea) has a number of aspects to it. I want to get down to the lowest I can before I go - partly to give me a good place to start from, and partly so that I'm in the habit of thinking in terms of on-plan eating when I leave.

I plan to track in some form as much as I can whilst away. I'm still debating whether to take my iPhone with me or to leave it at home and take a cheaper handset in case of damage / theft. If the iPhone goes with me, then I can keep using my usual tracking software on here, along with the points calculators. If it stays at home, then it's back to old-school tracking in my notebook.

The point of tracking for me is it keeps me mindful of what I'm eating. I definitely want to try the local foods whilst I'm away, but I don't want it to become an excuse to go overboard at every opportunity. On the plus side, I tend to snack a lot less when I'm away with the girls because we're busy, and they just aren't big snack eaters. On the other hand, meals can turn into a bit of a free-for-all and they do like they're beer and wine. I'm not as keen on beer so that always slows me down a fair bit, but it's certainly something I'll have to watch out for.

Exercise will be tricky whilst I'm away. There won't be gyms where we're staying on the whole, and there certainly won't be space for work out clothes in my bags. Running is out due to no kit again, and also it not being wise to split up from a safety perspective. Plus the girls will probably get quite annoyed if I'm obsessive about diet and exercise on a month long holiday (which is kind of fair enough) so I need to take advantage of day-to-day opportunities. Luckily for me the girls are pretty active anyway, and aren't exactly the lie-around on the beach types.

The first couple of days we're there we'll be learning to surf, and then another couple of days a couple of week later - that should keep us moving. There'll be lots of swimming and mucking around on beaches to keep us cool and entertained. We won't have a car so we'll be dependent on public transport and our own two feet. There'll be lots of walking exploring places, there are plans to climb a mountain, go white-water rafting and canyoning - they keep us active too. If there are pools where we're staying I can take advantage to get a bit of exercise.

One thing that does worry me is that is that I'll have no way of monitoring the results of my efforts for an entire month. The scales are the thing that keeps me in check. The longest I've been away from then since I started this healthy quest of mine is 11 days - I'm going to be away nearly 3 times as long this time. The one thing I did think of is that packing my tape measure would take up very little space - I've been tracking my measurements too the last couple of weeks, so that's something I could keep tracking to give me a rough idea of how I'm doing. Any ideas here?

Today is the start of a fresh week and I'd very much like to produce another weekly tracker like last week's come Friday ... or even better! I had a little treat in the form of breakfast from Starbucks this morning, which is something I only do every couple of months - I make sure to keep it as a treat and not let it become a habit. Lunch will be homemade soup from last night (carrot with tarragon today), and I'm meeting some friends for dinner tonight which will be Italian - so veg heavy pasta, spirits or soft drinks instead of wine, and leave the garlic bread alone! I might see if I can head to the gym or catch a swim later this afternoon too.

Hope everyone's having a good Friday - can't believe I've only got one week of work left to go!

- Posted from my iPhone