Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Monthly Summary

It's time for the dreaded disclosure ... and it's not good news. I've only managed to loose a pound this month. If I continue at that rate, you won't owe me much at the end of the year!

I realise that this is going to be the worst month for eating because of the continuous round of holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. and it's also the worst for exercise because of the bad weather, but those are just excuses and I'm going to try harder next month.

I've now cut out sugar from tea and coffee. I did this at Christmas, at the urging of John's family who all said I'd get used to it. I haven't gotten used to it yet - they still taste pretty awful - so I have a choice of going without tea and coffee or putting up with it. I won't put sugar into drinks for the next year and I refuse to use sweeteners. If only I could think of a hot drink with a very slightly sweet taste that wasn't loaded with sugar. I'll experiment with herbal teas over the next few weeks, but I don't really like them very much.

We're also cutting down on our fats. I've stopped spreading large amounts of butter or marge on my breakfast and lunch bread and we've gone back to cutting the fat off our chops. When we moved back to the UK we got rather lax at doing those things as we were enjoying the comfort foods of our youth. My aim for the next month is to increase the amounts of fruit and veg that we eat and cut down even more on the fats.

Exercise is still a problem. In the past we've joined a gym, but the nearest one is in Shrewsbury and that's a long way to go and will take a lot of time. Everyone around here says we should just go walking, but we're finding it difficult to get motivated - the weather has been lousy. We have been out a few times - braving the howling wind and stinging rain - but not enough to make a difference. This month we must make much more of an effort to get out and walk and stop making excuses to stay indoors in the warm and dry.

Does this all sound a bit negative? I AM a bit disapointed with my performance last month, but it's made me all the more determined to work harder at it in the remaining 11 months.

So stay tuned for a better update next month, and don't forget - it isn't too late to send me a pledge of support!