Weigh-in update

...in which all is not as it seems.

So. I should probably be working, so this will be a quick update, probably. This week at weigh-in I put on half a pound, despite having no alcohol, far fewer syns than usual and going to the gym a lot. For the first time that I can remember in 7 months of doing Slimming World this made me feel slightly despondent after Monday's weigh-in, despite the fact that I was half expecting it. I couldn't stay for the group portion ("Image Therapy") this week, but I would have liked to in order to get some encouragement.

Another reason it was maybe a bit more disappointing that usual is that I was so close to my 3.5 stone award (half a pound off, now a pound); also I have a holiday coming up that's going to make it tricky to stick to the plan 100%, and that might put me back a bit when it comes to hitting target by September, which was the original plan when I lowered it. (We also have a barbecue/food evening coming up on Saturday with Saira and her Extremely Significant Other coming round, depending on the weather, but I can make that SW friendly with no difficulty).

I am feeling better about it now; I had a look at my progress graph thing on the SW website and even with the gain I've lost 4.5lbs over the last 3 weeks, and an average of 1.5lbs per weeks is really pretty good, and that's despite a wedding featuring lots of beer/wine.

The reason I was half expecting it is because some of the exercise I'm doing now at the gym is designed to build muscle rather than burn fat, in order to get to the elusive state of a toned tummy and chest. (I'm not looking for a six-pack or anything, since my wife doesn't like that look, I'm just going for slim and toned). Muscle, as most people know, is denser than fat ("heavier" makes no sense - 1 cubic inch of muscle weighs more than 1 cubic inch of fat, but that's because of the density).

I doubt that I've actually put on half a pound of muscle in a week, so some other factors probably came into play; the human body has a way of kicking in "emergency fat storing mode" when it feels it might need to, and it's quite possible that the increased exercise last week caused this to happen for me so that fat that I would usually burn just got stored instead.

Still, nil desperandum, as they say. This week I'm going to do a bit more outside running again but still go to the gym 3 or 4 times. I'm still somewhat confused by this sudden desire to go somewhere that until recently I'd have considered a sort of hell on earth, but apparently it's good for me so I should probably just go with it.

Food this week...I made a sort of rice salad thing yesterday (chicken tikka chunks from Sainsbury's, stir-fried onions/peppers/carrots/tomatoes with white wine vinegar, sweet chilli sauce and paprika all mixed with sweetcorn and rice) - A. has the leftovers for her lunch today at work. Tonight I'll make diet coke chicken, and tomorrow probably paprika pork. If Sainsbury's actually have any half-price steak in I'll get some of that for Friday...

Okay, that wasn't as short as originally intended....back to work. Probably. (Or maybe I'll just procrastinate a bit...where'd that guitar go?).