Day 5: Other People's Biscuits

This dieting lark is turning into a social minefield. I was minding my own business in the office today, looking over some weekly figures, when a colleague came in with a giant box of biscuits. Apparently, it is his birthday and he had been given the biscuits as a present. Unfortunately (for me) he is on a diet and so didn’t want them and decided to share them around the office. Now, I haven’t told anyone I am watching what I eat, and I should have prepared for this scenario, but I didn’t have a readymade polite answer for turning away what looked like a top quality biscuity offering.

He was clearly as desperate to get rid of them as I was to refuse. There was quite a long silence as my brain kicked into panicky action.  After a few seconds he rattled the tin under my nose and the waft of chocolate, sugar and creamy filling rushed up my nose and straight to my brain, addling it even further. By this point the silence was quite pronounced, “go on, have one, please” he pleaded. 

At this point I crumbled, and took the smallest biscuit I could find. My colleague visibly relaxed.  I put the biscuit on a post-it note for later. He looked at me. “Aren’t you going to eat it?” he asked.  What is this man trying to do to me? I have relieved him of about 100 calories worth of fat and sugar, isn’t that enough? “Err, not just now, I thought I would save it for after lunch”. He nodded, seemed satisfied and left.

Now I just had the problem of the temptation sat on my desk. There was only one thing to do and that was to dispose of it, and quickly. What to do? I could bin it, but what if someone noticed? I briefly thought about throwing out of the window, but I sit on the 4^th floor above the executive car park. Could a biscuit dent a top of the range BMW from 4 floors? Best not take the chance.  There was always my handbag, for later disposal, but then I would know it was there, taunting me, waiting for willpower to weaken. No, it had to go, and it had to go now. I eventually decided it was unlikely that my colleague was going to rummage through my bin, so wrapped it in a tissue and buried under the empty yoghurt pot where it sat for the rest of the day reminding me of my little deceit. I wonder how many other biscuits were secreted about the office by other people who are also trying to cut down?

Be happy.

Miss D.

Day 4: Diet Diary

I am a real gadget freak, no two ways about it. I have all the widgets you could want, from my beloved iPad to my rather battered but much loved mp3 player.  The odd thing is that when I really need to focus on something, and make sure it gets done, remembered or generally sit in the forefront of my rather ragged mind, nothing is better than paper and pen.

My new health kick is important to me and so it doesn’t get caught up in all the other daily debris that ends up in my diary, I have decided to note down my daily statistics in a separate diet diary.  

Today, work was very busy indeed and I could feel the 2^nd floor biscuit tin calling to me.  Before I could be tempted by a jammy dodger (or two) I took myself into town to the stationary shop to buy something cheerful to record my daily weigh in. The lack of biscuits is definitely making me grumpy and so I decided something to make me smile was the way to go.

I was rather taken aback by the choice of diaries available. Who would have thought there could be so many different ways to remind yourself you have a dentist appointment. I stood there for several minutes, my mental faculties clearly diminished by 4 days without any form of processed sugar. I must have been looking quite dazed as a helpful shop assistant asked if I was OK.  I nodded, grunted and tried to focus. Now, a week to view seemed a good option. I discounted business diaries (too much like work), floral Edwardian style (too icky) and the one covered in pictures of cupcakes (too much like torture).  Eventually I went for A Simon’s Cat diary. It has just the right amount of room to note down weight, Body Fat % and BMI, with a nice notes section under Sunday to summarise the week’s successes and lack of biscuit intake. Also, who can’t be cheered by Simon’s Cat?

Be happy.

Miss D.

Day 3: A Weigh A Day

Firstly I should apologise for the dreadful lack of updating. I can only blame work here. It has been frantic, and I have written the posts, but not had time to actually publish them. So today, there is going to be a bit of a catch up, with loads of posts all on the same day. I promise to try harder.

As mentioned previously I have decided to weigh daily. I have a pair of those rather snazzy electronic scales which do weight, body fat percentage and water percentage.   I am not so bothered about water, but I think in the longer term the body fat readings could be useful.

Lots of diet books seem to think that weighing yourself every day is a sin second only to eating an entire packet of chocolate Hobnobs whilst watching back to back editions of Downton Abbey on a Sunday afternoon when you should be out running 10k.  When I have been trying to lose weight in the past I have been meticulous in weighing only once per week, at the same time, wearing the same clothes, etcetera etcetera. The problem is that when I am trying to do something which I find so difficult I need constant feedback that I am going in the right direction. Weighing only once per week left me in a perpetual state of worry that I might be unwittingly going off the rails. Trying to second guess what was going on was torture. It is bad enough having to fret about whether I have eaten enough fruit and veg, fibre, slow burning carbs and good fats without the extra pressure of weigh- in day.

As I have become all independent minded on the weight loss front I thought daily weighing may well be the answer to the problem. I can see how things are going and make minor tweaks through the week to rescue things if needed, rather than suddenly finding I am 2lbs in the wrong direction.  I am going to give this a go for a month or so and see how things pan out. 

Be happy.

Miss D.