discodoris

 I've lost weight much more slowly since the last post, and when I weighed myself this morning, I was 12 stone 10 lb.  But this still means that I've lost four more pounds and I feel very happy that it's the case.  I haven't been particularly careful about dieting since my birthday, which was back on the 27th of February and was the one week this year so far that I've put weight on, a whole 1lb!  I have got into a routine during the working week.  I have a yogurt and some fruit for breakfast and lunch is normally rice cakes or wholemeal crackerbread with either very light cheese spread, tuna in tomato sauce with herbs, tuna in light mayonnaise with sweetcorn or reduced fat houmous.  I have a fruit bowl on my desk for when I want to pick and there are normally at least four or five different types of fruit in there.  I occasionally add a low fat chocolate mousse for dessert.  

In the evenings and at weekends, there've been no particular patterns.  I'm making leek and potato soup this evening, I'm still fairly likely to make soup, although we're now moving towards spring and I guess that it'll be salad season soon :).  I have chocolate and crisps in the house for when my partner's daughters are here and I'll occasionally treat myself, but not too often.  I continue to make bread in the breadmaker and it's not unusual to have comfort meals like scrambled egg on toast, or roast beef sandwiches.  There are low calorie treats in the form of reduced calorie icecream and frozen yogurt, should I be craving sweet things, but the cravings don't visit often.  There are instant risottos in the cupboard, for when I'm too tired or lazy to cook for myself - the job has been very busy recently, as has my partner's, so it's not always in us to cook.

Work, despite being very busy, is going really really well.  I had a sort-of appraisal with my group manager (the annual round was being done and I was included, despite only having been employed for five months) and she was glowing with praise for the amount of skills that I've brought to the post.  So much so that at the first opportunity (which will be in October) I will be regraded up to the next grade, so a promotion.  I'm really enjoying myself too, the work is varied and there's just the right amount of pressure for me to make the days fly past, without feeling that I'm buckling under the quantity of work.  I'm establishing a good reputation amongst other work groups too, as I've been able to field all sorts of different enquiries and in a couple of cases turn round failing projects into successes.

I did fall off the dieting wagon when I went to a EU meeting in Brussels, primarily because an entire plate of macarons was left next to me and I just *had* to try all of the flavours.  I'll move them away from myself next time, having proved to myself that I have no will power around them.  Their sandwiches were delicious too, I'm going to have to be much better behaved at next week's meeting and also in Paris at the end of this week.  However, the fact that I've been less than good over the last five weeks and my weight has still drifted downwards has put me in a really positive frame of mind again and reminded me that I have another 17lb to try and lose in the next nine weeks if I'm to get to my next goal.  Doable, but definitely challenging.  I really won't beat myself up about it if I miss it though, I'm still well within my graph area which told me I was doing ok providing I was losing an average of 1lb per week :)