Tantrums and more delusion.

It's Not fair!

Hmm, so much has happened  since last week and today I have to say that I threw the baby out of the pram, or out with the bath water, whichever one you prefer.  And I am not the only one.  It seems like Wayne Rooney may be having a mega tantrum for reasons best known to him and Alex Ferguson.  He must be well pissed having watched his team throw away a two nil lead! I talked about delusion last week, but whilst I believe I have relieved myself of my own delusion, I seemed to have passed it and some more to Roy Hodgson, who is the only person in the world who thinks that we played well and were unlucky not to have gotten anything from the game at Goodison Park.

Devil food

 So why my own tantrum, well after last week, with my addition of 1 pound for which I took responsibility, this week I stayed the same. I was and am still not amused. I did everything right,  I swapped it around, mixed it up and counted every single syn that I had, in fact to be honest, I did not have a lot of syns AND I did not have any healthy extras, i.e. no bread, no cereal no dried fruit or porridge.  So imagine my shock and horror when I got on the scales.  Therefore instead of remaining calm, and analysing what I had done, wrongly or otherwise, on the way to my zumba class, I stopped to buy petrol and I also purchased a grab bag of walkers crisp, Worcester sauce flavour and a wispa bar together with  lucozade sport and devoured the lot!

Psychologically this is the same as throwing away a 2-0 lead. After all, before I got to class and got weighed, I was happy and had a spring in my step.  I was confident that I was going to win on the scales and that I would be well on my way to losing the next ½ stone and nearer to fitting into my lovely trousers hanging without use in my wardrobe. Well blow me, I am no nearer, and I could not take heart from the fact that at least I had not put on. Oh no only a loss was gonna be good enough. That feeling of euphoria was short lived, and by doing what I did, I let the devil in and undid my good work!

static stars

I wonder how Gerrard, Torres and Cole feel, with all the ups and down of last week’s purchase malarkey. It was supposed to be the start of a new era, with new optimism. So imagine my shock, or in fact the collective shock of all other Liverpool supporters when we turned out a Goodison Park and played the way we did!  No passion, no control, half asleep and lost in a fixture that is historically significant to our club and that we have not lost for the last 5 years! We lost in spectacular fashion. I cannot even bring myself to put it down to the laws of averages.. we through away a golden opportunity to bring back the feel good factor.. ie we gave away a 2-0 lead!

X Factor, Politics and Dieting

What no footie I hear you scream! Is that relief or sadness?? Well what can I do, we are on an international break and the only premiership news of note is that Gillette and Hicks are going to the high court to stop Liverpool being sold to NESV! So you can check out the latest on that at LiverpoolFC website. 

I have a question - what do the X factor, politics and Dieting have in common?  How many of you have been following my favourite car wreck TV programme the x factor? It has not been out of the news this week; in fact it has been on the front page of most tabloids all last week and today! Why oh why I am screaming? Well the main reason is because Ms Cheryl Tweedy Cole decided to choose not one but two substandard wannabe pop stars over the mightily talented Gamu Nghengu. Check out any of the gossip / newspaper websites for full details.

The relevance point here is spin. Cheryl Cole in her desire to stay in the role of the national darling has tried very hard to defend her blatant favouritism, with statements such as ‘I stand by my decision’; ‘my hands are tied’ meanwhile the juggernaut that is the British Media went on and on like Ariston?  The fanatical desire for the news by the British public knows no ending….the more I think about it the more I am becoming convinced that they invented the whole twist /wild card malarkey to save a bit of face for the show.  Either way there is a lot of deluding and delusion going on here…secondary question- how come Danni was not queried about her choices, they were a bit suspect too weren't  they?

Sir Phillip Green 

In politics today the revered Sir Philip Green ( pictured) has said in his report on how the Government spends money that we are wasteful and that no one in Whitehall knows how much travel costs. I am sure that he thought he was being nice when he said that the civil servants were not to blame but that we did no use our economies of scale in our buying solutions. He went on to say that we did not have a particular agency that we used to book hotels, cars, train tickets etc.   I vehemently state that is not strictly true, at least in my department we do have an agency that we use for booking such resources. As for knowing the costs, as I said to my beloved hubby, even Bloody British rail do not know the cost of their tickets so how the hell does he expect some civil servant to know?  

I do believe that Sir Green was called in to give some backing to his maties Georgie Osborne and David Cameron, to ensure that people know they are not making public spending issues up and add a little credence to the cuts being demanded in so doing attempting to disguise   the fact that Messrs Cameron and Osborne are taking a typically Tory one dimensional approach to dealing with the issue of public spending.

Spin is a deflecting tool; in relation to dieting... it’s the little untruths we tell ourselves in trying to console ourselves when we have put on weight. It’s the non-acknowledgement of the extra slice of bread we had at breakfast, the cake we had on colleague John Smith’s birthday that we did not record. It all adds up and somehow we convince ourselves that if we do not acknowledge it then we never ate it and then we can be genuinely surprised when we have put on weight, as we have deluded ourselves into believing we have followed our diet plan to the letter.  I think it’s a natural response and its hard work to over come this.

As for me I have put on a pound this week, and funnily enough it was this type of delusion was on the top of the conversation in class  with a reminder that we have to count our syns and weigh our healthy extras. My struggles this week were the extra slice of bread here and there, the desire for sweet things, going hungry whilst out on my errands! I must not forget the wine! It’s keeping these things under control they are a real issue as they serve to undermine all the good effort one has already put in. 

Week ending 4th October cont'd

Well blow me for six! I lost one and a half pound this week and that took me to my stone and a half award.  I was so pleased, really I can't say how much... With this event I am even more determined not to let situations get in my way. I need to practice making good choices and to keep this up even when the going is tough.....

Week ending 4th October 2010: Analogies and Good Choices

Goal Scene...

I have to get this off my chest! Am so vexed at Liverpool, yes Liverpool, not my beloved reds as I generally refer to them!  They are there, languishing in the bottom three, losing at home to Blackpool was not part of the plan! And to add insult to injury Torres is injured again! Ok I like Blackpool but that is because I am a romantic! Anyhow well done to them and by all accounts they deserved the win. I will not be watching MOTD to see what happened; in fact I could easily say that my love of Liverpool has now turned me off match of the day… as I watch Chelsea and Man City take all the spoils week after week!  Looking on the forums, BBC 606, the LFC fan page on Facebook, the fans are full of vitriol. Imagine that…Sack the Manager they are calling for, the yanks out they say… they are all rubbish they scream…. But honestly is that reasonable? Is it reasonable for us to call for the manager’s head just because our team did not win?  

I joined slimming world a few months ago. The consultant is a very nice lady who explained everything and gave me the books I needed with all the information. The diet has been going swimmingly, but imagine if I went and started yelling abuse at her on the weeks that I put on weight rather than considering that perhaps it was I who did not follow the diet properly.  Would that be acceptable or reasonable?  I think not.  As far as I am concerned the blame for Liverpool loss today lies mostly at the feet of the players. .

Its similar to a story that I read in a popular women’s magazine, it told the story of two women, where one was resentful of the other. Getting down to the nitty gritty of it turns out the one of them had catapulted to the top of her career ladder and was revered across the industry. The other was stuck in a rut. The two started together, and the successful lady generally came in at 9am and left at 6 on the dot without exception. Compared to this other one who was often still at her desk late into the evening, sometimes as late as 10pm.  This lady was resentful of the successful one, as she felt that she did not work as hard as she did.  When it came down to it  however that this lady stuck in a rut  actually faffed around a lot during the day, tweeting, updating facebook,  and ended up having to stay at work longer in order to get her work done.  I found this story interesting because clearly the woman was deluded about her output and her work ethic was questionable. I can only imagine that her ability to make good choices and focus on the use of her time during the day was limited and/ or impeded. (Compared with dieting, managing or playing in a football team).  My slimming consultant sends us a text message every Friday to remind us to make good choices as in our choice of food and drink for the two best days of the week.  We all know how life is; sometimes it’s easier said than done.

I think it’s fair to say that the weekends are the hardest, you have to go and meet friends, you need to go to that party, or take little Johnny to his party these are all instances that impede on our ability to make good choices, indeed sometimes a whole situation can put paid to making a good choice at all. That is not the worst of it as when it comes to weigh in we are all so surprised when we have put on a pound or two or indeed over the moon if we have seemingly gotten away with it. It’s that thing called delusion again!

Char Grilled Crocker Fish

As for my week, it was a long one, marked by the trips to the hospital and errands that are not ordinarily part of ones repertoire, at least not on a daily basis. Did I make good choices, some of the time, not nearly as often as I should have. I am going to take a pat on the back for my good choice on Friday night whilst out with my old girl’s association. It was a Nigerian restaurant offering all my favourites, but instead I opted for the char grilled fish with Plantain.  I was not good enough not to eat the fried plantain though, but still it was a small but important win, so am proud of myself anyway. Will it translate into a weight loss? Until tomorrow folks…what I will try to do though is be honest with myself analysis when I do get the result.