Weight Watchers: A Day in the Life

This week’s Weight Watchers challenge is to do a “Day in the Life” post telling you what I did and what I ate.

Thursdays are generally my busiest day of the week. I work in the day and it’s rehearsal night for the brass band I play in, so it’s a quick turnaround at home. It’s therefore important that I am organised if I want to be healthy and eat properly – other days of the week I can get away with not planning because there is time; I still like to plan but it’s not so vital.

Here you go…

6.00am

My alarm went off. It’s normally the same time every day, unless I need to get something done before work. Today I snoozed it. Several times. Oops.

6.34am

I suddenly realised how many times I snoozed my alarm, quite a few more than normal, oops. So I got up quickly and had my morning shower.

6.50am

I rushed downstairs much later than normal, filled and boiled the kettle and went outside to sort the bunnies out – they had broccoli and hay for breakfast, yum! I made some tea and ate a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with some semi skimmed milk (5 Pro Points). While I ate my breakfast I worked out the Pro Points values for my packed lunch and evening meal and entered them into the tracker app on my phone so I knew what was left for snacks (I have a biscuit bar thing to review that I wanted to eat!). This is the most organised I’ve ever been with tracking, I normally track after eating or while preparing dinner – but I quite like the idea of knowing ahead of time what the damage is, I think I will try and do this more often.

7.50am

We left for work ten minutes late – I blame LincsGeek – he says it’s not his fault. The roads seem especially busy this week, probably because of the wintery weather. The four miles took 25 minutes today so not too bad. I parked at the far end of the car park and walked to the office, good to get some fresh air first thing. I do like to cycle to work but haven’t done so for a few months – a combination of the weather, tiredness and not feeling particularly safe on one stretch of the journey along a busy road into the city. Even when we cycle regularly we don’t do so on a Thursday as we don’t have time to mess about with showers etc when we get home before we have to go out again.

8.20am

Arrived in the office, offered a cuppa straight away which was nice, stuck the computer on, had a bit of a chat with colleagues about LincsGeek’s graduation ceremony yesterday (very proud!), and started work.

9.20am

The kettle goes on again. A decaf tea for me – I generally only have a couple of caffeinated teas a day to try and keep my caffeine levels down. I am a massive tea drinker, it is my “go to” drink, which probably comes from being brought up by Salvation Army Officers (oh there’s nothing like an Army cup of tea…). I take my tea white with no sugar if you ever need to know!

10.10am

I was getting hungry so I had a glass of water in the hope that would calm my stomach for a while. Whoever says eating breakfast keeps you going til lunch lies! The water worked for a little while but didn’t do the trick for long so I resorted to some chewing gum to make me last til 11am. I always have sugar free fruity flavoured chewing gum in my desk drawer – it’s actually one dieting tip I can pass on if you have the same problem as me. Chewing the gum tricks me into thinking I’ve had a nice packet of sweets or something, but it’s practically no calories. If you work in an office where there is temptation all day then get some. It even smells like sweets.

11.15am

Hooray for snack time!!! Bringing in my own snacks in with me is important because I work in an open plan office where there is always sweets and cakes to tempt me, and now there is a café just outside the office door in our building which serves lovely things – food everywhere. Some days I will happily give in and have a slice of cake (especially if it’s homemade), but today I was able to resist. I suspect that had a lot to do with writing this diary and not wanting to show myself up!! I had a decaf cuppa and a Special K Biscuit Moments Chocolate bar. This is something I have been sent to review for Splodz Blogz, I love getting food parcels in the post (keep them coming please!) but it can be terrible for my diet. I used the calculator on the online tracker to work out the value at 3 Pro Points. I was hoping that a 98 calorie snack would be worth one or two but based on the protein, fat, carb and fire values it is three. It was very tasty – I’ll post my review in the next week or so.

12.05am

I normally eat my lunch whilst working at my desk at midday ish, and I’d taken in a packed lunch made lovingly by LincsGeek last night for that purpose (that would have been worth 6 Pro Points), but a reminder popped up on my screen: I am meeting a friend for lunch and some blogging chat at 1pm. Doh! So I had a couple of glasses of water and watched the clock… the packed lunch is in the fridge ready for tomorrow.

1.00pm

All that organisation over breakfast went to pot. Why am I so forgetful and unorganised at the moment – even when I am trying to plan properly?! I deleted my packed lunch from my tracker and decided on a baked potato with baked beans from the pub (10 Pro Points – wow potatoes have loads, I’m shocked!) which was served with a bit of salad. I enjoyed it very much, and it was good to talk twitter and blogging too. I had diet coke to drink which is free. I realised I just tucked right in so there’s no pic for my Day in the Life post – I was hungry!

2.00pm

Back at my desk feeling pretty satisfied hunger wise so simply water and some minty chewing gum. I like to have something to drink on my desk at all times – tea or water or squash or a diet drink. I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem drinking enough water, I know very quickly if I’ve not drunk enough as it makes me feel very groggy. I know it means I end up going to the loo loads but at least I’m properly hydrated!

2.50pm

Ooo a nice cup of tea…!

3.40pm

A colleague opened some biscuits. I could hear the rustling packet and could see them out of the corner of my eye. She offered me one. I said no. They spoke to me – I’m still satisfied from lunch but could just imagine how good that biscuit would taste. Oh dear. I moved the apple that I brought with me right in front of my keyboard so it’s closer and joked with a colleague that if the apple is between me and the biscuits then I’m safe.

3.50pm

I always struggle a bit in the afternoon, even when I’ve had a decent sized lunch. That biscuit temptation really got to me so I grabbed the apple and started eating. At least it has a zero Pro Points value so I could do so without any guilt. I know I didn’t need anything really but there’s something about being sat at a desk all day, it makes me want food – especially when everyone else is munching. I could easily graze all day on a combination of healthy stuff and rubbish – this is probably why I have to diet now!

5.30pm

There’s no place like home. I put the washing machine on – I’m still trying to get all the holiday stuff washed, had a bit of a tidy up, fed the bunnies, sorted out a blog post for this evening, took a set of blog photos of something that arrived the other day (more food!), and got myself changed. Oh and I tweeted a bit and had a quick go on The Simpsons on my iPad. Evenings always seems to go fast, but I know I have to use it wisely – if I just sit down at that point then that’s me done for the evening.

6.00pm

Dinner has to be easy on a Thursday so I can either cook it quickly or leave it cooking while getting other stuff done. We had Lincolnshire sausages (3 Pro Points each – I had two) cooked in the oven with red onion, mushrooms and peppers (0 Pro Points for the vegetables), and a mashed sweet potato (another 4 Pro Points). It was very yummy, an easy meal with loads of flavour that I cook every couple of weeks or so. Here:

After dinner, which we ate in the lounge as the washing machine was making a racket in the kitchen, I was very VERY tempted by the open box of Thorntons assorted fudge on the table next to me. We are slowly working our way through all the lovely sweet gifts we were given for Christmas. I nearly had a piece, worth 2 Pro Points each I think, but thought better of it. I was so close but LincsGeek quite rightly pointed out I’d have to confess on here if I did, so I left the box alone. Go me!

7.00pm

There’s no temptation during band practice – no break for tea and biscuits, no sweets in my eye line. And there aren’t even any mints in the car at the moment so I didn’t have a sneaky sweet treat on the way there or back. So an evening surviving on what I’ve already consumed, which is most likely how it should be every day!

10.45pm

We’re home, I’ve grabbed a glass of water, and am off to bed. Good night.

The Damage

That all works out at 28 Pro Points eaten – two over my daily allowance. So not bad as I have plenty of weekly points left. I go over my daily points and use up some of my weekly points most days – usually for an evening treat rather than my normal meals. Being a Thursday I haven’t had time to sit and watch television with a cup of tea and bar of chocolate or few bits of fudge. And I know for certain that if I hadn’t chosen today for my Day in the Life post I would have had a third sausage at dinner and added another three points to my total. But I didn’t need it and so I’m glad that writing this diary has encouraged me to make the better choice. I love my food, and find it difficult to stick with what I need rather than what I want on a daily basis. Stick your helpful suggestions in the comments box!