ON JANUARY 10th 2013, I BEGAN A UNIQUE DOUBLE CHALLENGE. I NEEDED TO LOSE WEIGHT FOR HEALTH REASONS AND AS EDITOR OF A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER, I HAD THE IDEAL MOTIVATION. I COULD HARDLY ANNOUNCE TO MY READERS THAT I WAS GOING TO SHED TWO-AND-A-HALF STONE, THEN ADMIT A FEW DAYS LATER: ‘SORRY FOLKS, I’VE MESSED UP’’ I ALSO HAD AN EXTRA INCENTIVE – TO RAISE FUNDS FOR RESEARCH INTO CROHN’S DISEASE, WHICH HAS DEVASTATED MY GRANDDAUGHTER DAISY’S CHILDHOOD. This is how I recorded my weekly progress in The Courier...
FEBRUARY 22ND,
2013
IT’S now six weeks since I started my Dumpy Grumpy diet –
and I’m winning.
Well, I was until the weekend, anyway. One stone gone,
one-and-a-half to go – at least, that’s what I intended when I set my 16 kilo
weight-loss target in early January.
The aim was to raise £500 for research into Crohn’s Disease,
a cause close to my heart because Crohn’s has blighted the childhood of two of my grandchildren.
I’m delighted to say that, thanks to the generosity of
family, friends and Courier readers, the sponsorship fund zoomed past the target this week. So it looks like CICRA – the
Crohn’s in Children Research Association - could end up with considerably more
than it bargained for.
Which brings me on to
the last traumatic week, in which my 13-year-old granddaughter Daisy finally had the surgery
she has needed so desperately for the last five months.
Last Thursday, pale
and emaciated after losing one third of her bodyweight, she underwent a
five-and-a-half hour operation at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool,
during which surgeons removed several feet of infected intestine.
They also found an abscess which was pressing on a kidney
and no doubt causing much of the excruciating pain she has suffered over the
past few months.
Four days after surgery, she was still being dosed with
morphine to ease her post-op discomfort. And she looks unlikely to be leaving
hospital any time soon.
The poor mite has even been stripped of her sense of humour
- legacy of intense stomach pains if she attempts to laugh or cry.
“Try to be serious for a change,’’ my daughter Hayley
ordered the minute I arrived at Daisy’s bedside on Sunday after flying in from
Alicante. “When she’s awake, she finds it excruciatingly painful to laugh or
cry so none of your silly jokes or songs, please!’’
So that’s it, then. Food deprivation followed by a ban on
humour. Goodbye world, I’m off.
Well, almost. However, a little food deprivation to prevent
other children having to endure the same sort of torture as Daisy is hardly a
penance for an embryo whale like I was six weeks ago.
I’m a couple of sacks of spuds lighter now and people have started asking me for my
recipe for losing weight. As if I have become some sort of slimming expert
virtually overnight!
I can’t even comment
on the exercise aspects that everyone says must be part of any weight-loss
regime - because I haven’t done any.
What I have done is reduce the size of my meals – and eat a
lot more often. I’ve also cut out potatoes, pasta, rice and, to a large extent,
bread. And I don’t butter what little
bread I do have. Gone too are the sweet naughty things I love – -
replaced by lots of fruit and green veg.
It helps that I can
buy a huge bag of mandarins/satsumas for two euros and scoff eight in a day
with no fear of putting on weight. And I’ve been supplementing portions of
fresh salmon, chicken and various cold meats with freshly boiled cauliflower,
cabbage, carrots, broccoli and the like.
I’ve also continued to eat out but settle for things like
steak and salad – and Sunday carveries minus the Yorkshire pudding and roast
potatoes. I’ve also found I can handle a Tandoori mixed grill at the Indian
Ocean without penalty providing it’s with salad and no sauces.
It might sound boring to some, but I feel a lot healthier
for eating what the doctor ordered rather than taking the fast-fried route to
the undertakers.
So how has she done this week, I suspect a lot of you are
asking. Well, my trip to the UK has prevented my official Wednesday weigh-in at
the Beauty and Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo.
Which is just as well because it’s nigh on impossible to
stick to a diet when your offspring are hounding you with goodies from the
moment you wake every day.
Those are my excuses, anyway. It’s better than admitting I
just might have put on an ounce or two since leaving Spain six days ago.
But I promise I’ll be back on course by my next weigh-in at
Pueblo Bravo on March 6.
And I am praying that, five months after her classmates last
saw her, Daisy will finally return to Ormskirk High School soon after that.
And be able to laugh at my corny jokes again…
DUMPY OLD GRAN’S
SPONSORED DIET
TARGET- to lose 16 kilos and raise
£500 for CICRA. Starting weight (Jan 10) - 93.2 kilos. Last weigh-in ( Feb 20)
87.1 kilos.
TOTAL raised for Crohn’s Research so
far - £504.
MARCH 1ST,
2013
WHAT A WEIGH DAY!
IT’S two weeks since my last official weigh-in – and I’m gagging
to know how much nearer to my target I am. The problem has been that I am
currently in the UK, so can’t have my regular Wednesday morning weigh-in at the
Beauty and Wellness Salon in Pueblo Bravo.
Last time I was officially weighed, I was 87.1 kilos –a loss
of 6.1 kilos, or just under one stone, since I started my sponsored diet on
January 10. When I stepped onto the scales this morning at my UK home in
Manchester, the reading was 85.7 kilos. Now that is very unofficial – but it
does at least seem to confirm that I haven’t GAINED weight during my travels.
I’ll hopefully be
able to confirm the good news when I get back to Spain early next week. In the
meantime, I’m putting up the unofficial figure so we do at least get some
continuity in coverage of Dumpy Old Gran’s great weight meltdown.
So unofficially, I have now lost 7.5 kilos in seven
weeks…that’s 16.5 pounds, or one stone 2.5lbs. And I feel a lot better for it –
not least because I’ve raised over £500 for the Crohn's in Children Research
Association in the process.
I’ve still got 8.5 kilos more to lose so if there’s anyone
out there who would like to sponsor me, you’ll find the donation page at
www.justgiving.com/donna-gee Onward and
downward!
TOTAL
LOSS, 7 WEEKS, 7.5 kilos (16 lbs 8 oz)
(UNOFFICIAL) January 10 - 93.2 kilos, February 28 - 85.7
kilos
MARCH 8TH,
2013
A LOSS WITHOUT GLOSS
OK, I got it wrong. My weight loss while I was in England
was not as impressive as I thought. When
I weighed in on my return to Spain on Wednesday, the scales at the Beauty and
Wellness Salon in Pueblo Bravo clicked up a total loss of a few ounces under seven
kilos since I began my diet on January 10.
It’s the first week I have had to report an INCREASE in
weight, but when I headed off to the UK on February 16, my main consideration
was that I should come back no heavier than when I left.
So I am delighted to announce that, after two weeks and five
days with my family in England, I tipped the scales on Wednesday one kilo
(2.2lbs) lighter than at my previous official weigh-in three weeks earlier.
Meanwhile, my 13-year-old granddaughter Daisy, who suffers badly
with Crohn’s Disease, is finally on the
mend after major surgery three weeks ago which involved removing part of her
inflamed intestine.
There were
complications which I won’t go into – and she still suffers spasms of
pain.
But she was discharged from Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in
Liverpool on Sunday and will hopefully be able to return to school shortly for
the first time since October.
We are already past the £500 figure I set out to raise for
CICRA – the Crohn’s In Children Research Association - when I began my Dumpy
Old Gran Sponsored Diet eight weeks ago.
TOTAL
LOSS, 8 WEEKS - 6.9 kilos (1st 1lb)
Start weight 93.2 kg; Weight now 86.3
kg
MARCH 15TH,
2013
Time for a plateau (no, not a gateau)
A PLATEAU, they call it. The point where your weight-loss
success rate suddenly sticks. Where you cling loyally to your diet, yet the
only thing you seem to lose is your patience.
Well, I reckon I’m just about plateau-bound. Last week I
discovered I had lost just one kilo during the best part of three weeks dieting
while I was in England. And when I jumped onto the scales at the Beauty and
Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo for this week’s weigh-in, I discovered that
another seven days of voluntary food deprivation had rid me of a mere 200
grams. That’s seven ounces to those of us who can’t make sense of the metric
revolution.
That leaves me still almost one kilo short of the halfway
point in my bid to lose 16 kilos by the end of June.
When you find yourself stuck on the plateau, dieticians say
it is essential not to turn to the gateau. They insist the key to success is to
stay resolute and keep going. That’s what I do - I keep going to the fridge and
wishing it was loaded with chocolate rather than salad.
My target when I started my diet on January 10 was to lose
16 kilos (35lbs) and to raise £500 for the Crohn’s in Children Research
Association (CICRA). I’ve given myself until June 30 to reach my goal
weight...and am delighted to say that the CICRA fund now stands at more than
£600. If you’d like to donate, go to www.justgiving.com/donna-gee
TOTAL
LOSS, 9 WEEKS - 7.1 kilos (1st 2lb)
Start weight 93.2 kg, Weight now 86.1
kg
MARCH 22,
2013
HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
18.5lbs thinner and I’m ready
to trip the light gran-tastic
THE worst part of dieting is sticking to it. Particularly
when you have mega-blubber to shed.
I mean, how does a whale see the horizon when it’s submerged
by its own vast weight?
In human terms, I’m referring to the poor souls who allow
their girth to expand to the point that they face literally years of
deprivation to regain anything like a normal shape.
That ever-more-distant horizon was an important motivating
factor when I began my sponsored slim on January 10.
My target weight was so far away that I would soon have been
hopelessly chasing it for the rest of my life.
Two-and-a-half stone was reachable within a few months.
Expand that to five stone and you are looking at a minimum of a year’s severe
dieting.
In my case, I was eating myself to death - literally. I’d
put on a good ten kilos in the previous 18 months, courtesy of Chinese and
Indian indulgences, second helpings as a norm - and an insatiably sweet tooth.
It was clear I HAD to diet so I devised a diet strategy. By
publicising my progress in my Courier
column each week, I would put myself into a Catch 22 situation.
Imagine the humiliation if I had to tell you all: ‘Sorry
folks, but I’ve started pigging again. Can’t do this diet stuff’.
Of course, I also had the powerful motivation of raising
money for Crohn’s Disease, which has devastated my granddaughter Daisy’s life.
I’m please to say she is vastly better since her recent surgery (see picture) -
and thanks to everyone who has asked for an update.
The incentive was enormous - and at 14st 9lb (93.2 kilos),
my 5ft 5in frame was beginning to resemble an archer’s bow.
Even more worrying was that, as someone who suffers with
angina, my heart was being seriously overworked.
Ten weeks on, I’ve not only passed halfway in my battle to
lose 16kilos (2st 7lb) - I feel like a
different person.
Gone is the breathlessness I felt whenever I walked 50
metres at anything faster than snail’s pace. Gone are the worrying angina
pains. And gone is the lethargy that made the tiniest household chore a major
challenge.
I now march rather than shuffle and I can actually
manipulate a pair of tights on to my feet. Younger readers can laugh..but it’s
a battle royal for us creaking OAPs.
Sponsor me at www. justgiving.com/donna-gee
(don’t laugh, kids - you try it when you’re an OAP!).
Admittedly, my prime consideration was to raise money for
CICRA, the Crohn’s In Children Research Association.
TOTAL
LOSS, 10 WEEKS - 8.4 kilos (1st 4.5lb)
Start weight 93.2 kg,
Weight now 84.8 kg
My obsession with jumping onto the bathroom scales at every
opportunity has been anything but the weight-loss killjoy the dietary experts
say it is.
I am well aware that I weigh more at night than in the
morning - and that readings can fluctuate wildly.
But after nearly six days in which I had GAINED a pound, it
was a pleasant shock to see the digital display plunge by a whole kilo in the
24 hours before my weekly weigh-in.
If that’s not an incentive to keep hammering the hell out of
those scales, I don’t know what is.
MARCH 29, 2013
AS EASY AS DDD
Who said you can’t eat Indian and Chinese and lose weight?
IN the fullness of emptiness (otherwise known as dieting), a
stone and a half is not a massive amount of weight to lose.
I am not in the same league as those ‘Slimmer of the Year’ winners
the formal diet groups use to promote their weighers (that’s a play on ‘wares’,
you know I can’t resist a pun).
Anyway, I mean those
sylph-like ladies whose ‘before’ picture
portrays a bouncy castle with a moonface perched on it – and whose ‘after’
photo makes Kate Moss look like Humpty Dumpty.
At the start of this week, my official weight was 84.8 kilos
(187lbs) – a far cry from the 205.5lbs I blubbered in at 11 weeks ago.
It’s now reached the stage where people are actually
NOTICING that I’m visibly less portly
than when I began Dumpy Old Gran’s Sponsored Diet 11 weeks ago.
I’ve also been staggered at the number of strangers who
offer me encouragement and advice – and ask me whether I am following the
Weightwatchers, Slimming World or whatever diet.
It happens just about
everywhere from supermarket car parks to Indian restaurants and even Wok
Buffets.
Yes, believe it or not, Donna’s Delicious Diet allows me to
dine out three or four nights a week – and still lose weight.
It’s all down to instinct. I have friends who keep telling
me I am doing it the wrong way but I am losing weight and they aren’t, so
there!
Anyway, I tailored my own diet to keep it simple. The basic
DDD rules are…
minimal intake of bread, potatoes, pasta and rice
lFry as little as possible - if you have do, fry it in its
own juices
lEat lots of fresh veg and fruit
lAvoid biscuits, cakes, sweets and gooey desserts (two
squares of chocolate allowed each day).
lAnd finally, as little alcohol as possible.
Fish and most meats are OK as long as grilled, oven-cooked
or microwaved. I opt for chicken much of the time for health reasons, while
steaks are reserved for restaurant forays. For me, a medium-rare sirloin
accompanied by a nice salad takes some beating, even when I am not dieting.
At this rate, I’ll soon be the best judge of steaks in the
Costas (all offers gratefully accepted!)
And those Indian and Chinese outings? Well, I can still get
away with a Tandoori mixed grill, which was always my favourite Indian dish
anyway – plus ONE poppadom. The difference is that I used to drown it all in
curry sauce and top it up with a Peshwari nan. Fat lot of good it did me.
Until Sunday, I had a blanket ban on Chinese food because so
much of it is fried. But since my three companions voted unanimously to stop
off at a Wok Buffet and I was in someone
else’s car, my plan was to just sip a drink while the others poured oodles of
grease into their digestive systems.
Had this been a traditional Chinese restaurant, I would not
have eaten. But I had no problem jumping out of the frying pan, tempting as it
was, and enjoying a large prawn and tuna
salad. That was followed by a cocktail
of fresh strawberries, lychees and kiwi
fruit, none of which broke my
self-imposed rules.
My friends tell me I
should drink eight glasses of water a day, that I can’t do it without lots of
exercise and that I mustn’t eat after 7pm.
So what am I doing right?
Still, the way things are going, I’ll soon be a catwalk
figure. Yes, I’ll be able to walk my cats that challenging 200 metres to the
recycling bins and back without gasping for breath!
As well as my ongoing weight reduction, I’ve also lost a
total of 55 centimetres in body measurements, including eight centimetres off
my midriff. And that’s with very little exercise because of the danger of
straining my less-than-perfect heart.
Going back to the diet itself, I never did eat a lot of
carbohydrates, so it’s been no problem cutting out chips, pizza, pasta and
potatoes, and minimising my bread intake. I’ve also developed a taste for fresh
cabbage, cauliflower, carrots etc, which go down nicely with roast chicken,
cold meats, salmon and tuna.
I’ve got into a routine that is rapidly becoming a
lifestyle, rather than a food-deprivation experience. And I can’t imagine ever
going back to my old greedy ways, which would have killed me.
freeze! I’M GOING BANANAS
SNACKING every hour or two on interesting things like
olives, pickled gherkins and cherry tomatoes seems to do my diet no damage. But
my favourite nibble is a frozen banana! They taste much nicer frozen and last a
lot longer - just try one and see! Peel it before you freeze it or you’ll never
get the skin off. Eat it like a lollipop
(it will soften gradually as you nibble) but beware freezing fingers.
I’ll do it my weigh!
I’M beginning to
think I have a Fairy Godmother whose magic wand only works from 6pm on a
Tuesday until around midday Wednesday.
That’s the only way I can explain the bizarre plunge my
weight seems to take in the 24 hours prior to my official weekly weigh-in.
I keep pretty solidly to the diet regime I have set myself,
yet it’s only in the immediate build-up to stepping onto the scales at the
Beauty and Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo that I finally seem to sink below
the weight recorded the previous Wednesday.
Last week, when I lost 1.2 kilos (2lb 10oz), my bathroom scales (which tally
almost identically with Centre owner Lyndsey’s - indicated a GAIN of up to one kilo the day
before my weigh-in. So in effect, I lost 3lb 10oz or more in 24 hours. Unlikely,
maybe – but the same thing happened this week.
On Tuesday, I tipped the scales at home at around 86.5 kilos
(compared to 84.8 the previous week). By Wednesday they were reading me as low
as 83.6 kilos- and at weigh-in I was 84.1.
Those in the know like Lyndsey and her assistant Val tell me
I should only weigh myself once a week. But old habits die hard – and old
journalists are like Alice in Wonderland; they just get curiouser and
curiouser.
The good news is that I have now lost more than 20lbs - and
feel 20 times healthier than I did when I set out on January 10 to lose 35lb -
of 116 kilos - by the end of June.
TOTAL
LOSS, 11 WEEKS, 9.1 kilos (20 lbs or 1st 6lb)
Start weight 93.2 kg, Weight now 84.1
kg, Goal weight 77.2 lbs
APRIL 5, 2013
HEY RYANAIR, I’VE
LOST MY LUGGAGE
I’M heading for England on Sunday, in the knowledge that my
last trip to see my family did little for my weight-loss efforts.
If I remember
rightly, I managed to trim one kilo off my
then-portly frame during a near three-week stay.
This time I’ll be in the UK just a fortnight, nearly a week
of which will be spent with my elder daughter Hayley, who is renowned for her
cooking. And her speciality, a massive,
very cheesy, more-more-moreish shepherd’s pie, is simply irresistible.
The ultimate test, in fact, of my resolve to hit my target
weight as soon as I can.
Ryanair will be
pleased (will they hell!) that my Wednesday weigh-in this week recorded another
drop of 800 grams. It leaves my total weight loss at a few ounces under 10
kilos and means I have shed the
equivalent of a full Ryanair hand-luggage allowance since the last time I flew
from Alicante to the UK.
I reckon that should qualify me for a free luggage voucher.
Twenty kilos worth at least...
TOTAL
LOSS, 12 WEEKS, 9.9 kilos (1 stone 7 lbs 13 oz)
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; April 3rd
- 83.3 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
APRIL 26,
2013
CUP CAKES, GATEAUX…
AND I’M STILL
LOSING!
I SHOULD be feeling guilty after my first weigh-in for three
weeks revealed I’d lost just 400 grams during my 16-day ‘holiday’ in the UK.
Even the excitement of cheering my beloved Cardiff City into the Premier League
couldn’t shift any more surplus energy. The consolation is that I more than
achieved my goal of not GAINING weight while I was away - though I’m not sure
how. I had one enormous blowout when Brenda - my lovely hostess in Cardiff -
took me out for a luxury ‘high tea’ and I forgot myself. Endless exotically
filled sandwiches, cup cakes, sugar-coated
biscuits and mini gateaux later, I conceded I must have put on at least a kilo.
But one week and several blowouts later, I’m wondering just how I managed
to guzzle much too much and continue to
lose weight.
Wednesday’s weigh-in at the Beauty and Wellness Studio in
Pueblo Bravo was both a relief and a disappointment. A relief that I had lost
400 grams and disappointment that it could have been so much more had I not
stuffed myself in Cardiff.
I now have nine weeks to lose the remaining 5.7 kilos of the
16-kilo target I set myself when I started Dumpy Old Gran’s sponsored diet back
in January.
With more than £700 donated so far to Crohn’s Disease
research, I owe it to my sick granddaughter Daisy to push that figure up to
£1,000. To reinforce my determination, go to
www.justgiving.com/donna-gee
TOTAL
LOSS, 15 WEEKS - 10.3 kilos (1 stone 8 lbs 10 oz)
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; April 24th
- 82.9 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
MAY 3, 2013
MAY DAY, MAD DAY: THE WEIGHTING GAME
ANYONE else would have been miles away enjoying themselves -
but I made a wasted journey.
The locked doors of
the Beauty and Wellness Centre at Pueblo Bravo told me my Wednesday weigh-in
was a non-starter. It was a Red Day.
I’d taken a tentative reading from my own bathroom scales
and estimated I’d lost 700 grams in the week – or just over 1.5 pounds. That
reading won’t be far out, I reasoned. My home weigh-ins usually tally pretty
accurately with the official Wednesday ones.
Twenty four hours later I was back at the Beauty and
Wellness Centre. I had to know – even if I was a day overdue. And I’m glad I
went…because salon owner Lyndsey checked me in at 81.5 kilos. A loss of 1.4
kilos or just over three pounds.
That’s DOUBLE what I’d been a day earlier…and it’s not the
first time it’s happened.
I stick to my self-planned, minimum carbohydrate diet pretty
meticulously. I also break the general rules pretty meticulously. I am forever
jumping on the scales…sometimes a dozen times in a day. I drink far too little
water. I get very little exercise. But I’ve lost nearly two stone since January
10. And, more importantly, I’m now just 4.3 kilos from my target of losing 16
kilos by the end of June.
I’ve also been motivated strongly by my granddaughter
Daisy’s illness. She’s over the worst but her Crohn’s symptoms could return and
I want to do everything I can to help
the battle to find a cure.
I was flattered when Lyndsey told me at yesterday’s
weigh-in: “You’re doing great. Nobody else would have stuck at it as long as
you have.’’
That’s because nobody else has an army of readers to
motivate her. I CAN’T fail – they’d never forgive me if a chickened out.
TOTAL
LOSS, 16 WEEKS 11.7 kilos (1 stone 11 lbs 12..7 oz)
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; May 2nd
- 81.5 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
MAY 10,
2013
A QUESTION OF ASKING
IF there is one thing the British expat community excels at,
it’s raising money for charity.
Everyone seems to be raking it in for a cause – and some
people make a career of it. Albeit an amateur career.
I’m talking about gifted fundraisers like Susan Reader, the
brain behind the Fun Walk through El Raso on May 26 in aid of Crohn’s Disease
research .
Susan and Sofia’s Bar owner Dee Williams are spearheading
the organisation of the Sunday event, which will benefit CICRA, the Crohn’s in
Children Research Association.
It’s a cause I began to support at a time Crohn’s almost
cost my 13-year-old granddaughter Daisy her life.
My own ongoing sponsored diet has already raised over £750
and with Susan and Dee’s help I’m confident of lifting that sum well into four
figures by the end of this month.
What staggers me is that people like Susan find it so easy
to (a) think up fund-raising ideas and (b)
ask people to part with their cash.
Personally, I find it extremely difficult to ask anyone for
money, even when the opportunity begs to be taken.
On Sunday, for instance, I was cornered at a restaurant in
Dona Pepa by a group of Pink Ladies (with a few pink gentlemen in tow). I
happily parted with a few euros for cancer research and the collectors’ words
of appreciation were both warm and sincere.
Maria’s pink panthers know exactly how to claw in
much-needed funds for the AECC…and here
was my opportunity to pick the pinkies’
pockets in return.
I have no idea if they recognised me, but the logical thing
would have been to ask them to support the
May 26 Fun Walk.
The problem is, I have no idea HOW to ask without turning
bright red in acute embarrassment. On this occasion, I didn’t even let on that
I’m the person who puts their campaign reports and photos in The Courier. That
surely would have guaranteed me a euro or two’s sponsorship.
Instead, all I have on my sponsorship form is one entry –
five euros from my boss Barry. So it hurt when Marie, our community President,
told me on Tuesday that her form is almost full of sponsors for the 2.5km walk.
It also delighted me, of course…because we are in this together after all.
But why can’t I pluck up the courage to ask people to
sponsor ME? Well, not in the flesh anyway.
The obvious way to do it is
via my ramblings in this column. So, how about sponsoring me to walk as
much of the route through El Raso as my Parkinson’s and angina-battered heart
will allow me?
Just one euro will do if it’s all you can afford.
I BLAME it on my neighbour Claire - but I actually added 600
grams to my dwindling frame over the last week. But I promise to avenge the
strudel attack which threatens to destroy my four-month diet.
“Come round for a cup of tea and a chat,’’ begged Claire. So
I went...and was shamefully talked into
sampling the most delicious home-made fruit strudel imaginable.
It was so nice that I couldn’t resist a second helping - and
quickly discovered just how heavy the consequences can be.
The message is clear: beware chocolatey Claires.
TOTAL
LOSS, 17 WEEKS - 11.1 kilos (1 stone 11
lbs )
January 10th - 93.2
kilos; May 8th - 82.1 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
MAY 17, 2013
Being a hostess is heavy going
I BREATHED a sigh of relief when my latest visitors flew
back to the UK on Sunday because I was starting to feel like a pregnant whale.
Last week my four-month diet went into reverse for the first
time – and I gained 400 grams. This week
I lost just 200 grams, leaving me just six weeks to shed the remaining 4.7
kilos of the 16-kilo target I set myself when I started my sponsored slim in
January.
So while I love to having visitors, I’m glad to see the back
of them as I home in on the hardest bit of all.
One of my problems is that because I have angina, my heart
will only stand up to light exercise. So the food/exercise ratio the dieticians
recommend is completely unbalanced. That’s my excuse, anyway!
Nevertheless, I hope to complete the full 2.5km course at
the El Raso Charity Walk on May 26. Since the proceeds of the event are being
donated to the same cause I am dieting for, I’d be a real misery to settle for the 500-metre ‘Baby Walk’, wouldn’t
I?
I also guess I can get more sponsorship if I take the scenic
route, though my embarrassment about asking people verbally to sponsor me is
certainly not helping.
Either way, I intend to find out just how much exercise is
safe by taking the long route, with the help of a heart monitor given to me by
The Courier’s medical expert Dr Machi Mannu. At least I’ll be able to keep a
check en route whether I’m alive or
dead!
Susan Reader, the amazing voluntary fund-raiser who is
organising the Fun Day, has a message for prospective walkers and supporters of
the Crohn’s in Children Research Association..
“If you are unable to join the walk, may I ask if you would
you put your name on Donna’s sponsorship form,’’ she urges. “Just 50 cents or
€1, as I would like to get Donna’s fundraising which is already at €750, to
over €1,000. Together we can do this.’’ (If you could only see me blushing as I
write!).
The walk starts at Bar Sofia at 10am. Registration for ‘semi
serious’ walkers is at 9.45am but sleepyheads can settle for Bucks Fizz or a
small beer at the Old Finca and that token 500m walk to Bar Sofia with an
optional Treasure Hunt along the way.
Susan concludes: “If you don't want to walk, then why not
come along and join us anyway? After the walk, there will be a variety of food
on offer at Bar Sofia, along with music and a Fashion Show plus a few
interesting stands. Oh, and could all walkers please dress in black and/or
white!’’
Email your pledges to Susan at sueinthesun@hotmail.co.uk or
call in to see Dee at Bar Sofia. You can also donate online at
www.justgiving.com/donna-gee
TOTAL
LOSS, 18 WEEKS - 11.3 kilos (1 stone
11 lbs )
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; May 15th -
81.9 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
MAY 24,
2013
The going’s so heavy at pudding time
I’m back on course with a vengeance...and about time, too!
The three weeks up to Wednesday had been a nightmare. First, my weight went UP
for the first time since I started my
diet - and the following week I only managed to recoup half of that gain.
The result was that I had to shed 400 grams by this
Wednesday just to get down to where I was three weeks ago.
At 81.9 kilos (12st 12.6lbs), I was almost five kilos short
of my goal of losing 16 kilos (35lbs) by June 30. And I’d begun to think nothing
would shift the remaining blubber.
It hasn’t helped, of course, that I can only take minimal
exercise because of a heart problem. But I have meticulously followed my
regular routine of avoiding carbohydrates and confectionary.
With little more than five weeks to go, I was desperate to be a
loser again. But first I had to negotiate my way around weekend outings with
friends for a Chinese banquet and then Sunday lunch.
I could not be so rude as to just sit and watch, so my only
carbs were a few noodles at the Happy Garden on Saturday...my roast spuds being
left on the plate at Lo Marabu on Sunday. OK, I did see off the Yorkshire
pudding (no, not John Prescott). But the overall strategy worked - because I
scaled just 80.6 kilos (12st 9lb) at Wednesday’s weigh-in.
I now need to shed 1.5lbs a week to hit the jackpot. Then I
plan to hit the swimming pool in a
bikini. Well, perhaps not...
DONNA GEE set out in January to lose 16 kilos (35lbs) and
raise £500 for the Crohn’s in Children Research Association (CICRA). That
figure was reached some time ago - and Donna’s revised target is now £1,000. If
you’d like to donate, go to www.justgiving.com/donna-gee. Better still, come
along to this Sunday’s charity Walk and Fun Day at El Raso - and please bring
something for the raffle if possible!
TOTAL
LOSS, 19 WEEKS - 12.6 kilos (1 stone
13.5 lbs )
January 10th - 93.2
kilos; May 22nd - 80.6 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
MAY 31,
2013
‘Ounce’ upon a time on the gateau plateau
ALL the excitement of the last few days has overshadowed the
BIG event - achieving my target of
reducing Mrs Blobby to something less than ‘clinically obese’.
Well, I’ve managed that...but even now, my official Body
Mass Index remains at 29.57, or marginally beneath that horrible word ‘obese’.
I’m sure the table wants to call me ‘fat’ for ever...but it’s now settled for
branding me as ‘overweight’. What a cheek!
Personally, I would call my new figure ‘sylph-like’ but what
would computer programmed jargon know about accurately describing a successful
if a little smug weight watcher?
I’m waffling on because I’ve not had a good week. In fact I
am still 3.3 kilos short of my target weight after losing 100 grams in the last
week, which by my reckoning is just a few ounces.
The big worry is that time is rapidly running out in my
Battle of the (Shrinking) Bulge. My excuse is that Sunday’s Charity Walk and
Fun Day wrecked my routine, as well as dwarfing my own efforts to raise money
for Crohn’s research.
It’s not that I’ve been eating the wrong things...I’ve been
guzzling too many of the right things. Either that or I’ve hit that damned
plateau again. You know, the ‘nothing lost, nothing gained’ limbo land where
nothing changes for weeks and you wonder if the plateau is made of gateau.
I put off my weigh-in to Thursday this week in the hope of
just a tiny reduction over the eight days since my previous weigh-in. I got
it...those 100 grams could not be
tinier.
DONNA GEE set out in January to lose 16 kilos (35lbs) and
raise £500 for the Crohn’s in Children Research Association (CICRA). That
figure is about to hit £2,000, thanks to
a charity Walk and Fun Day organised by Donna’s friends at Ell Raso last
weekend (see Page 7) To donate, go to
www.justgiving.com/donna-gee
TOTAL
LOSS, 20 WEEKS - 12.7 kilos (28 lbs )
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; May 30th -
80.5 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
JUNE 7,
2013
Kilo talk: 13.1 down ...less
than three to go
I WEIGHED in a day earlier this week as I began the last
four weeks of my five-month battle to lose 16 kilos in a sponsored diet for
research into Crohn’s Disease in children.
I flew to the UK late on Tuesday for some medical tests, so
my normal Wednesday check-in at the Beauty and Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo
was not an option.
As it happens, the news was good - I had lost 400 grams
(just under 1lb) in five days, taking my total loss since I began the diet on
January 10 beyond 13 kilos.
The remaining equation is simple. I must lose the last stubborn
2.9 kilos of that 16-kilo target during the remaining 23 days of June - or live
in embarrassment for the rest of my podgy life. I won’t be weighed officially
for the next two weeks, so see you here on June 21...
TOTAL
LOSS, 21 WEEKS – 13.1 kilos (28.8 lbs)
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; June 4th
- 80.1 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
JUNE 14,
2013
THE WEIGHT’S NEARLY OVER AS CHOC-OUT TIME APPROACHES
I’M not sure how much weight I’ve lost in the last week
because I’m 1,500 miles away in Manchester and have been unable to have my
usual weigh-in at the Beauty and Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo. But I reckon
I’ve lost at least another 300 grams - and possibly as much as a whole kilo!
And I’ve managed it
despite guzzling too much food at a couple of family barbecues at the weekend.
There I was, within sight of the goal weight I set myself in
January, taking the cheesy option and succumbing to the temptation of daughter
Hayley’s brie, cheddar and Danish blue.
And to think that 72 hours earlier I’d been given an
unexpected boost with Ryanair’s announcement that flight 9072 from Alicante
would be foodless because of an administrative mix-up (or something equally
pathetic).
I had long since given up listening to the camp steward who
seemed determined to break the world record for spouting amplified non-stop
gibberish at 35,000 feet.
I had spent the entire flight trying to chat to the lady
sitting next to me...only for young Campo to drown out almost every word with a
succession of meandering announcements.
Then came that unfortunate weekend blip, though I managed to
get back on course during the early part of this week. Well, that’s what the
scales said anyway - indeed, at one point the reading dropped as low as 79.0
kilos.
I’m not convinced, though, so have settled for an unofficial
300-gram loss. Just 16 days to lose these last couple of kilos - and I’ll be
celebrating with the biggest bar of chocolate I can find!
TOTAL
LOSS, 22 WEEKS - 13.4 kilos - unofficial (29.5 lbs)
January 10th - 93.2
kilos; June 12th - 79.8 kilos; Target
weight - 77.2 kilos
JUNE 21,
2013
A SLICE OF HUMBLE PIE
I’ve a confession to make - I don’t think I’ll be making a
celebration splash in my new swimwear on July 1. I know I promised I’d get 16
kilos off my blubbery frame between January and June...but this last few pounds
is simply refusing to depart.
I blame it on the hospitality of my two daughters (well, someone
has to be the scapegoat!) though I knew it would be difficult to keep the
momentum going during my latest visit to the UK.
In the event, this week’s official weigh-in at the Beauty
and Wellness Centre in Pueblo Bravo confirmed that I trimmed off 600 grams
during my 13-day trip - taking me below 80 kilos but leaving an unrealistic
task in the immediate future.
The challenge is to lose another 2.3 kilos in the final 12
days of my battle of the bulge. And since I have no desire to chop off one of
my hands, all I can do is continue the diet until the scales hit that magical
figure of 77.2 kilos.
The original target was to shed 16 kilos/2st 7lb of my 93.2
kilo/14st 9lb blubber, so I don’t think I’ve done badly. Try lifting 14 kilos
of shopping and you’ll understand why I feel so much better.
However, this final couple of kilos represents the
difference between delight and despair. My self-imposed penance is that the
diet regime will continue until I hit that magical target of 77.2 kilos.
And that means loads more salad days until mid-July at
least. I just hope it’s July 2013 not 2014!
TOTAL
LOSS, 23 WEEKS 13.7 kilos (2st 2.3lbs - or 30.3lbs)
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; June 19th
- 79.5 kilos; Target weight - 77.2
kilos; To target - 2.3 kilos
June
28, 2013
Final charge of the light brigade
A WEEK ago I was ready to surrender to the enemy in the kilo
fields of the Battle of the Bulge. With less than a fortnight to the official
ceasefire, I was more than five pounds off my June 30 target - and ready to
concede defeat.
But, miracle upon miracle, I’ve managed to lose 1.5 kilos
(nearly 3.5lbs) in the last seven days. Which means I’m back on course to hit
that two-and-a-half stone weight loss after all.
I seem to have been dieting for ever to get where I am – and
to fall short would mean I’ve failed the challenge I set when I began my
Sponsored Slim in the New Year.
However, my penultimate weekly weigh-in at the Beauty and
Wellness Centre in Dona Pepa means I am just 800 GRAMS off the 16-kilos I vowed
to lose. That’s less than 2lbs...after a 21-week marathon stretching back to
January 10, when I began my campaign to raise £500 for the Crohn’s in Children
Research Association (CICRA). It has hopefully taken the gross figure raised by
my amazing friends past £2,000 –you can check the figure at
www.justgivingcom/donna-gee.
The sponsored diet was inspired by my need to slim down (I
was heading for 15st when I started), and more importantly, by my granddaughter
Daisy’s battle against Crohn’s Disease.
Daisy’s life was saved by major surgery after an abscess in
her intestine began to threaten her vital
organs. But that is history because she’s now back at school and looking
forward to a holiday of a lifetime under the Dream Flight programme in October
.
Daisy, who is 13, was officially nominated for the trip to
Florida by a nurse during her time as a patient in Liverpool’s Alder Hey Children’s
Hospital, and will fly out to Disney World in October for a free, all inclusive
fiesta along with other brave youngsters who have suffered serious illness.
So all is set for a happy ending all round - providing those
final 800 grams will shove off in the next few days. Daisy is well and
pain-free, lots of money has been raised for CICRA – and diva Donna with a
dazzling diminished diameter! Well, perhaps not quite dazzling – but 12st 2lb
is a lot healthier than the 14st 9lb hulk that began the year.
PS All future donations should be made in the form of
chocolate, cake and biscuits DONNA GEE
TOTAL
LOSS, 24 WEEKS - 15.2 kilos (2st 5lb)
January 10th - 93.2
kilos; June 26th - 78.0 kilos; Target
weight - 77.2 kilos
July 5th, 2013
Light read? Try Mrs Whale’s Diary
IT was just before 2pm on Tuesday that it finally
registered. I jumped on the bathroom scales for probably the 1,000th time in
the last five-and-half months - and there it was. My number was well and truly
up.
The digital display flashed briefly, then settled on exactly
77.2 kilos. Not a particularly memorable figure - but the one I had been
desperate to see since starting my sponsored diet in aid of Crohn’s research
way back on January 10.
I had reached my goal weight! Fully 16 kilos (or 35lbs) of
blubber gone...and more than £2,000 raised for CICRA, the Crohn’s in Children
Research Association.
Thirty-five pounds, two and a half stone or whatever else
you want to call it, I had reached the end of my journey. And it’s irrelevant that
another 700 grams had melted away by the time I weighed in officially for the
last time on Wednesday.
The 14st 9lb whale had dumped those 16 kilos of blubber in
22 weeks - with virtually no exercise because of my heart problems.
I beat the bulge using my own ‘minimal calories’ recipe of
no carbohydrates, cake or gooey desserts rather than the methods recommended by
Weightwatchers, Slimming World and other programmed diet regimes. And I can
confirm that it works. Well, it did until I celebrated my achievement by giving
a late breakfast the full English treatment at Bar Sofia in El Raso on
Wednesday! (See picture).
If you’d like to know more about slimming without exercise
the Mrs Whale way, send an email to me at donna@thecourier.es
If there’s enough interest I’ll make a week-by-week diary
available of my descent from 14st 9lb to exactly 12 stone, which will hopefully
provide some useful hints you can utilise if and when YOU decide to take the
plunge.
TOTAL
LOSS, 25 WEEKS - 16.7 kilos (2st 9lb or 37lbs).
January 10th - 93.2 kilos; July
2nd -
76.5 kilos; Target weight - 77.2 kilos
TARGET
WEIGHT ACHIEVED!!!!
JULY 12th, 2013
THE DOPEY DIET
No exercise, little water - but it worked!
IT TOOK me almost six months – and I admit I surprised
myself. But I somehow managed to lose more than two-and-a-half stone by
following a random diet.
It was a diet I concocted myself – and a diet with next to
no exercise because I have a heart condition.
Call it Donna’s Dopey Diet if you like, because my plan conflicts
in some ways with the generally accepted ‘rules’ of the dieticians in several
aspects. I didn’t drink loads of water, as most slimming experts advise. Eight
glasses a day? I doubt I drank that much in a week…and what I did drink was
generally tomato juice or fizzy water rather than the boring tasteless stuff
you get free from the kitchen tap in the UK.
Dumpy Old Gran is now Dainty Old Gran (relatively!), though
I still have a spare tyre around my midriff. That’s the legacy of being unable
to engage in a weight-loss programme involving aerobic exertion due to a
combination of angina, backache and arthritic laziness.
About 15 years ago, I lost 21lbs on a Slimming World diet.
But I knew I’d be unable to follow a set regime and since I simply HAD to lose
that 35lbs to raise money for my sick grandchild Daisy, it had to be a diet
that was simple. Anything remotely complicated was a no-no as I’d be sure to
forget the recipe. So I decided to base the whole thing around a carbohydrate
shutdown.
I’ve never been a big fan of
rice, pasta or potatoes – including chips - so cutting them out was no
big deal. I also decided to keep my bread intake to a minimum. For breakfast
(when I was bothered), I’d have a single round of toasted wholemeal with a thin
coating of butter and strawberry jam and a cup of tea or coffee with a little
semi-skimmed milk and a sweetener.
I tend to get up late, so it would usually be mid-afternoon
or later before I was hungry again. If my tummy began to rumble earlier, I’d
snack on a pickled gherkin or a few cherry tomatoes. If that didn’t do the
trick I’d have some fruit. As much of it
as it took. For lunch, if I was at home, I’d make myself a chicken, ham, smoked
salmon or tuna salad, and dress it with balsamic vinegar rather than mayonnaise
or oil. Followed by a 125-gram creamy yoghurt for dessert. At 111 calories per
100 grams, I saw my favourite muesli yoghurt as an acceptable treat – providing
I didn’t have more than one a day .My other special treat was two squares of
milk chocolate each evening.
For dinner, I’d prepare a saucepan full of green veg and
carrots, boil it all for about ten minutes and serve it up with chicken, steak
, chops or liver - or if I felt fishy I’d go for oven-grilled salmon or
mackerel. No limit on the amount of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots,
mushrooms, etc
Initially, I thought that eating out would be a no-no. But I
ended up dining in all sorts of restaurants at least twice a week…and still
lost weight. In, fact, only once in the 22 weeks of my diet did I GAIN – and that was a result of being wined and dined by my daughters during a visit to England.
Like most people these days, I love Indian and Chinese food . But while I’ve
yet to find a decent limited-calorie
Chinese meal, I found I could eat
Tandoori dishes without putting the pounds on. Typically, I would order a
Tandoori mixed grill with salad and a single poppadom with a small amount of
mango chutney. No rice, curry sauce or nan bread, yet I’d enjoy the meal more
than ever because I didn’t go home feeling bloated.
In ‘normal’ restaurants, I’d order a steak and salad with
perhaps a few grilled mushrooms. Desserts were one of the things I
missed…though if hot cherries were on the menu, I admit I did occasionally
indulge. I had my consolation in those two squares of chocolate waiting for me
at home. I also found a new treat in frozen bananas, something I first heard
mentioned during my Slimming World days in the late 1990s. Just chuck
a few peeled bananas in the freezer, leave them for a few hours - and treat them like ice lollies. You can even
push a stick into one end to make the
banana easier to handle. You’ll find they begin to thaw as you eat them and
somehow taste much nicer than in their natural form.
Well, that in a nutshell is how I shed 2st 9lb in 22 weeks
without ever feeling hungry. But a word of warning. It’s little over a week
since I reached my goal weight, during which time I’ve been celebrating
big-time.
The slap-up meals are already taking their toll. I’m not
saying what the scales read this morning…let’s just say I need to go on a diet.
Thanks so much for all your emails and good wishes. And I am
happy to say that my granddaughter Daisy is now healthy and happy - and looking
forward to visiting me next month!
Follow up article (published July
26)
AFTER nearly six months of dieting accompanied by my weekly
ramblings, boasts and dopey eating suggestions, I intended to take my weight
off your minds forever.
But the bizarre happenings since I completed my self-set
challenge of losing 16 kilos (35 lbs) have fired a warning that would leave any
vegetarian weight watcher as sick as a carrot.
I’ve discovered to my cost that it is far easier to GAIN
weight than it is to shed excess pounds.
Two weeks ago, I was Queen of the Lean after slimming down
from 14st 9lb to exactly 12 stone – and with it, raising a heavy amount for
research into Crohn’s Disease.
I celebrated reaching my goal weight with my first full
English breakfast of 2013…and over the next few days continued to celebrate.
And celebrate. And celebrate.
It was restaurant time again – Indian, Chinese, calorie-rich
starters, desserts, the lot. And even sillier, I let my sweet tooth loose on
everything from biscuits and cake to rich milk chocolate.
One night last week, I had a mad 15 minutes before going to
bed during which I saw off the entire remnants of an evening I had hosted for
three friends. A pile of egg mayonnaise sandwiches, EIGHT small cup cakes and a
whole 500g bar of milk chocolate went down the hatch in a frenzied attack on
anything containing sugar.
It was the stupidest thing I could have done after working
so hard to reach my goal weight – and I have paid for it big-time.
On July 2, I weighed 76.5 kilos, or exactly 12 stone. When I
stepped on to my bathroom scales at lunchtime this Tuesday (July 23), the
rotten Japanese nip-on-and-offs repaid me for my sins. Unbelievably, I had
regained almost ONE-THIRD of my entire weight loss over the 22-week duration of my diet. More than A STONE…in a
fortnight.
I simply couldn’t believe it. Surely such a weight gain in
so short a period is impossible, I thought, resigning myself to another couple
of months back on Donna’s Dopey Diet.
By the end of the day I was down to a slightly more
respectable 81.1 kilos, thanks to my prescribed daily water tablet which I
invariably seem to forget to take. So, less than 12lb gained in 14 days then.
Big deal.
Fortunately, I’ve got the message before guzzling a route to
becoming the widest mountain in the Costas.
The problem is
regaining the motivation that drove me on last time, namely the suffering of my
granddaughter Daisy, who faced major surgery to beat off the ravages of Crohn’s
Disease.
The last fortnight has taught me that KEEPING weight off is
much harder than reducing kilos in the first place. But I’m not going to let
down the many sponsors who put their faith in me achieving my target.
The diet is back on…with 12-stone again the thin-ishing line. And I’m announcing it
publicly because it’s tough to tell thousands of readers ‘Thanks for your
support but I’ve made a pie and mash of
it’.
For me, accepting a challenge in the public glare is the
ultimate motivation. How embarrassing to be spotted at an unguarded moment
guzzling a plate of pie and chips.
I promise that won’t happen - I’ll stick to fried chocolate with my chips..
