Weigh-in Wednesday: The first week

I joined My Fitness Pal on the recommendation of The Pink Rachael. For the first week, I decided to carry on with what I have been doing anyway – eating as healthily as possible and trying to fit in some exercise between all my other commitments – and see what insights I could gain. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

• Star jumps (jumping jacks) don’t use up nearly as many calories as I expected. So why exactly have I been jumping around my kitchen like an idiot? 😉
• Pine nuts contain a surprising number of calories!
• There is far too much sugar in my diet. Most of this comes from yoghurts.
• I would be much better at sticking to my daily calorie limits if I didn’t have a social life 😉
• I am totally useless at judging correct portion sizes. If I don’t weigh out ingredients, I will automatically make too much!
• I can currently only jog on the spot for 2 minutes before I have to stop.

All that said, I have been doing pretty well so far. I haven’t always been below the calorie limit that MFP specifies in order for me to achieve my goals, but every day so far I have been below the number of calories it says I would need to maintain my current weight. And now for the numbers…

– I didn’t tell you my original weight (and I’m not going to now ;-)), but this week it is down by 0.5 kg.
– My body fat is down from 30% to 28.5%
– My waist measurement is down from 80 cm to 78 cm (there is some fluctuation, but it tends to be 78 cm in the morning and 79 cm in the evening… the last 6 measurements have all been below 80!)

Here’s a graph showing my morning waist measurements since I started using My Fitness Pal:

All in all, the first week went pretty well. For next week, I want to try and meet my exercise goals (30 minutes a day on 5 days of the week) and actively plan some meals in advance based on the number of calories they contain – during the first week, I was making our “normal” (but healthy) meals and checking out how many calories they actually contain. I already know I will be treating myself on Saturday though… planning on  having friends round for curry. And wine, of course 😉

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Friday letters

Briefly interrupting my Berlin tales because it’s Friday again already, and that means it’s letters time!

Red Norwegian Letter Box (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear Berlin. I had a wonderful time visiting you. Shame it was so short. I promise to come back some day.

Dear self. Your holiday is over now, so it’s time to start exercising and eating healthily again. Don’t forget, in just over three months you’re going to have to stand at the front of a church!

Dear readers. No, the above letter wasn’t some weird way of subtly telling you I’m getting married (HA! The chances of that EVER happening are slim at best). Actually, I’m going to be a godmother, and I couldn’t be any more excited. It’s such an honour to be asked!

Mmmm, Twix! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dear muesli bar. At just 82 calories I am aware that you are much better for me than a bar of chocolate (246 calories for a 50g Twix!!), but why do you have to taste so awful?! Today I had an apple and pear one, which I managed to force down because it was my breakfast and I would be getting nothing else until lunch time, but it was not nice! All sweet and sticky and just ugh!

Dear Rach (aka The Pink Rachael – read her blog here). Thank you sooo much for my Easter bar of Cadbury’s chocolate! It was waiting for me when I came back from Berlin and has already been consumed. (Well, I had to get rid of it before returning to my healthy eating plan, right? ;-))

Dear boyfriend. Every time I think things are moving forward, we have another conversation like the one on Tuesday night and I’m back to feeling like nothing has changed. Admittedly whisky was involved on Tuesday, but why does it always have to feel like one step forward and two steps back?

Enough for today! If you feel like joining in, don’t forget to link back to The Sweet Season blog (click on the image below to go there)

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a fabulous weekend.