Spa, eating out and WI

Today I'm nicely chilled out, I am also chuffed to bits!

This weekend I went to the lovely Sopwell House hotel & spa with my mum. For her 60th birthday last month she wanted to visit a spa with me. So I booked an overnight package and all the treatments we wanted.

I last saw my family only a few weeks ago yet they all said I had lost weight again. I have lost only about 4lb since then but my husband said last week he thought I had lost a bit off my face for the first time and my mum agreed with him. It makes it more noticeable.

We started off very virtuously with an hour in the gym. I normally go to the gym on a Sunday so I was only doing my regular workout rather than a bonus one, but the activity points were essential to counteract the lovely food I ate! Then we had facials, manicures and pedicures. The following day mum had a massage while I had a body wrap. Then mum had a swim while I read by the pool.

I am now filed, polished, exfoliated, cleansed and moisturised to perfection! I even felt not conspicuously fat during treatments and in my swimming costume by the pool. I am still podgy, but not dramatically more so than lots of other people there. My BMI now says overweight, not obese and I felt overweight rather than obese!

So far so good. But I felt certain I would gain a bit, and was quite resigned to it, considering it a fair price to pay.

We had gone out for dinner at ASK on Saturday for my grandmother's birthday, I knew where we were going in advance so planned and saved points for my butterfly prawns starter and carbonara main thanks to the WW eating out guide.

At dinner my brother's girlfriend was raving about how well I looked. She said she and my brother were about to go on a diet as they had both gained since they got together. Too many meals out! It doesn't help that neither of them really cook. They asked what diet I was doing and I told them WW so they are now considering trying it.

At Sopwell House I picked what I fancied on Sunday night for starter (creamy BNS soup with bread and butter) and main course (linguine & pesto) without worrying too much about points though I tried to be sensible for dessert (fruit salad and sorbet) and only had one small glass of wine. Breakfast I was very restrained and stuck to fruit and yoghurt. Lunch I again tried to be careful (small salmon fillet, 2 potatoes, salad, steamed veg, bread and butter, no dessert).

I completed my online tracker last night when I got home and was pleasantly surprised that I was OK for last week, though I did need to use nearly all of my activity points which I don't normally touch. Yesterday was technically in the new week although I did not WI till this morning and I was only 1 point over for the day. I am really impressed that on the whole I managed to make sensible choices without the tracker to help me. Even the linguine with pesto and parmesan was not too damaging. Bread and butter is not good though. Two small slices of french bread and butter added up to as many points as the rest of yesterday's lunch put together!

Normally I plan and track meals out in advance so I still feel a bit nervous about trusting myself when I don't have my tracker! I jotted down what I ate, used my WW calculator when I could and kept a running tally of estimated points in my head. In many cases I found I judged too high when compared with the tracker, but the bread I underestimated.

The most disappointing thing was on the train home I had a sandwich which was not particularly nice (caraway bread ugh!) yet turned out to be 7 points when I used the calculator. I would not have begrudged the points if I had enjoyed it. It's my own fault for thinking I had to get my 'money's worth' of food included in the ticket price of first class. First class or not, train food is only train food!

This morning I weighed in a day late and was pleasantly surprised to lose 0.75lb for the week. Or to look at it another way I STS since my SP Saturday morning before I left home.

It just goes to show I can go places, eat out and still lose weight if I am careful with my portions and choices and only indulge in calorific foods occasionally. It gives me hope that I will be able to re-educate my own eating habits enough to maintain my weight once I've lost it. I'm not there yet, but I am learning.