It's only a biscuit, how bad can it be?

You just know there's a story coming here, don't you?

After my Body Combat class this morning, my lovely husband took me shopping for some summer clothes (since my wardrobe was a bit light on summer items), and then we went for lunch afterwards in Costa Coffee.  It was nearby, not very busy and heavily air-conditioned.  This afternoon the latter was a prime concern!

Starting today I had a lot of my weekly points still remaining so decided I could push the boat out a little bit.  I chose an iced coffee, a panini and a bag of crisps (26 in total), and then decided that I wanted something sweet.  Checking out the goodies by the till, I spotted something that amused me - giant custard creams/bourbon creams!  They looked to be about 2, maybe 3 times the size of a standard one.  Fair enough, I thought - that's probably somewhere in the region of 6 points.  It's only a biscuit, how bad can it be?

When I got home, I checked it out.  What I had estimated at 6 points, in fact came in at an eye-watering 12 points.   What can I say, you live and learn!

I now have 3 of my weekly points remaining and 3 days to go before weigh in.  So far I have 17 activity points accrued, but as ever I prefer not to use them unless I have to.  Plenty of fruit, salad and good behaviour on the horizon, I think.

Damage Limitation

One of the frustrations of attempting to lose weight, however you do it, is that there are times when life gets in the way, and you just can't do anything about it.  As with anything there are coping strategies, and it's down to every individual as to which one you choose.

My preferred strategy is damage limitation.  It walks a line somewhere nicely in the middle of "deprived misery" and "to hell with it".  This weekend was a good example of how I use it.

This weekend I went to stay with my parents overnight.  On Saturday night there was a BBQ at our friends' house.  Knowing that our friends' cooking is absolutely superb and positively irresistible, and knowing that my willpower is weak at the best of times, I was very worried about it.  I sought advice from my Mum and she suggested that advance preparation was the way to go. 

My parents' best friend very kindly took me to Tesco and we laid in supplies - a whole heap of fresh salad including some really nice tomatoes and sweet peppers and some Jersey Royal potatoes, and a load of fresh fruit including all my favourites - pineapple, strawberries, raspberries, melon and grapes.  We went back to my parents' house and constructed a big bowl of salad and a big bowl of fruit salad to take with us.

At the BBQ itself, I started by filling 1/3 of my plate with salad, with low fat salad dressing.  I then added meat and salmon and a very little coleslaw and potato salad, plus some bits of veg.  Absolutely fantastic meal - and having 1/3 of my plate made up of salad and making sure that I ate it in with everything else rather than leaving it until the end meant there was less room for anything else.

Afterwards, with some considerable willpower, I had fruit salad instead of one of the fabulous desserts on offer.  I will confess, although the fruit salad was lovely, it was the only time during the meal that I had any feeling of deprivation.

Before we went out, I'd decided that I would allow myself one "naughty" item - I didn't know what it was going to be, but I wanted to give myself a little bit of latitude.  My naughty item turned out to be an absolutely delicious piece of chocolate-topped shortbread made by our friends' young daughter, which I had with our coffee after the meal.  It was lovely, and worth waiting for.

So - damage limitation.  Top up on "free" items such as fruit and salad so as to limit the amount of other stuff I can eat, but allow myself one "naughty" item of my choice to avoid feeling deprived.  I've done the same thing before, but this is the first time I've really registered what I was doing and written it down - perhaps it will be useful to someone else, I hope so.

Because I didn't count points over the weekend, I have no way of knowing how Wednesday morning is going to go for me.  I have stuck to my points limit like a limpet today and shall do the same again tomorrow - and what will be will be.  But the main thing - the most important thing, I think - is that I'm pleased with how I dealt with what could have been a very difficult situation - with the help of some very sage and welcome advice from my Mum!