The other week I started studying for my exams at the library. And because I felt that the atmosphere there was incredibly productive, I will try to keep doing that as often as I can. One problem I encountered though, is the meal issue. Usually, I am home most of the day, or at work for a few hours, but I am home for the meals (of course, unless I am eating out with a friend). The library cafeteria does have food but I imagine most is not very healthy. They do have salads and fruit but I have been doing something else that is a little cheaper.

For the past few months, I usually have oatmeal in the morning. I mix 50 or 60g of oatmeal with 10-120ml of water and microwave it for a minute or two. While the oatmeal is in the microwave, I mash a banana with a fork and then add that to the oatmeal, as well as a teaspoon of nutella and peanut butter. I am loving this breakfast so. freaking. much. I love banana and peanut butter and nutella together and what with it still being so cold outside, it is so nice to start the day with a warm meal.

The way I solved the lunch issue is that I cut up some fruit that I brought in a tupper container along with a fork. It’s not ideal because I cannot keep it refrigerated at the library so it just sits in my locker for a few hours before I eat it but I just make sure to eat it for lunch. That way it still tastes good and fresh. I have also been bringing a sandwich with me or bought one at the cafeteria (not much you can do wrong there).

I’d prefer a warm meal but they only offer one meal per day and it’s not the most weight-loss compatible option.

I usually also bring a cereal bar to snack on or buy a chocolate bar, because studying all day really makes me hungry and depletes my energy. I do need to watch out not to have more than one snack like that, though.

The biggest issue, I have found, is dinner, though. I often come home very very hungry and it is easy to just shove whatever I can find into my mouth, because I find myself too hungry to wait till my dinner is cooked. Luckily I don’t usually* have anything too unhealthy in the pantry but it’s something I need to work on. Maybe an option would be to prepare meals ahead of time so I can just microwave them in the evening. A lot of days that is how I do it anyway as I often just cook two portions and leave the second one for the next day.

* There have been too many exceptions lately. I have apparently still not learned that I cannot buy larger sized bags of snacks because I just. cannot. portion. them.

** Usually this works really well. Not when I cook pasta with cheese sauce though. I love cheese sauce so much that I often end up having the second portion as well just for the cheese sauce.

How do you handle meals when you do not have the opportunity to cook for lunch or bring in something microwavable? And how about dinner when you come home absolutely starved? I’d love for you to share any tips you may have.

I missed another weigh-in post last week. Well, luckily this is not a bad sign as far as my weight loss goes, just of my preoccupation with studying.

Last week I did not do perfectly. I went over points by quite a bit at the end of the week, and I have not been at the gym in five weeks. But despite everything …

I lost 0.7 kg (1.5lbs)!

This past week, I did okay. I again went over points. I did realize one of my major problems: I often end up snacking too much on the day of my weigh-in and the day after. I had used up my weekly extra budget after three days this past week. I think my mentality is a little like … there are seven days till the next weigh-in so it won’t influence the weigh-in. But of course it will, if I end up eating just a few points over budget every day for the rest of the week (which would be fine if I still had the extra budget).

This past week I also made one big mistake: I bought hard candy for while I am studying at the library, and I completely underestimated how many points that is! I didn’t buy the sugar-free version but for some reason I didn’t think that it would be high in points. And needless to say, I have yet to actually be back at the library to study (I bought the hard candy on the way home from the library Saturday night) but the candy is already gone – all 450g (I think that’s a total of 45PP) within four days. Needless to say, I will go back to chewing gum.

Luckily, I did not gain this week. I even had a small loss, which is really all I could hope for after this hard candy disaster.

I lost 0.1kg (0.2lbs) this past week!

I am back at a total of 3kg lost since December. Which, I know, isn’t much. Heck, I was here before, on December 30th. But I try to keep a positive attitude because I know that all that matters is to keep trying and not give up. Even if my weight has been yoyo-ing for the past 7 weeks, I am not giving up.

My challenge in the next few weeks will be to keep up the small losses, because I have noticed that when I am up from 8am to midnight, I need three proper meals, and some (filling) snacks in between, when usually I would be up from 12pm to 4am and do with two meals. (Weird, I know.) But what with my trying to use my time efficiently and studying at the library a lot, I am just using up a lot more energy (at least so it feels, I am completely drained at the end of the day), and it takes all of my strength not just to shove everything I can get a hold of in my mouth when I get home from the library at 8 or 9pm. (Luckily, I don’t have too many unhealthy foods at home.)

How do you deal with eating your meals when you are out all day?

Last week was bad. I did say I wanted to get back on track, and I did. And when I ate at home, I was (except for too much chocolate on Friday and Saturday). But what with my best friend’s birthday, my mom’s birthday, I ate out three times, and had pie one day and two danishes when I visited my sister. At the restaurants, instead of ordering a small portion of something healthy, I decided I’d enjoy the meal and eat what I would like best (this is something I have to work on, being able to order the healthy alternative without feeling like I am missing out on something better). Now it isn’t like I went completely overboard, don’t get me wrong, and I was surprised at how much I gained, but the gain per se wasn’t all that much of a surprise. I tracked points for the first three days of the week, and not for the last four (which is when all the eating out occurred). I ended up with the biggest gain yet of the past three months …

I gained 1.4kg (3.1lbs)!

I was shocked, guys. Really shocked. Not all is lost, though. Now that I am back in Heidelberg (at my own apartment) the ridiculous amount of eating out has stopped (it’s what happens when you cram several months of socializing into two weeks), and I am back on track. Mostly. I do very much need to go to the gym tomorrow though, because I did go over points already. With the help of chocolate yesterday. And cake on Friday. I will not be able to finish this week on points (unless I do three hours of Tae Bo or something crazy like that tomorrow), but it’s an improvement. And I know now that I need to watch to evenly spread my extra budget between days because I have a very hard time going without some extra points every day. I also weighed myself yesterday, and I was actually down to 84.1kg (but back up 1kg today, so I don’t know if it’s the scale or the moon or what, but I’ll just have to wait for the weigh-in on Wednesday.

My three months Weight Watchers subscription expired today but I have decided not to cancel it because despite the pathetic effort I have shown over the past month, I am still determined to lose the weight. And I still believe that WW can work for me. If I let it.

You know, after weighing in at 84.1kg yesterday, I ate a whopping 100g of chocolate (not at once but throughout the day) and 250g of pasta for dinner (in two servings, which is way way way too much for one meal). Which made me think … am I sabotaging myself? I don’t know if I am. I guess that’s something to ponder over and to observe myself.

It is day one of week 12 and I am back on track with WW. I have counted everything I ate today which is more than I can say about … well, every single day last week. I had a bunch of cookies, went to Burger King once, didn’t work out at all, and despite everything …

I somehow managed to lose 0.7kg (1.5lbs)!

I must admit, I would have never expected to lose anything at all, let alone this much over the past week. I knew I did better than the three weeks I had gains (weeks #7, 9, 10), despite not counting, but I really am surprised at this weigh-in.

But you know what, I am going to take it as a motivator for getting back on track with WW. What is better to motivate yourself than having success and feeling good about yourself, right?

I am very curious about the next week. There will probably be several occasions of eating out and a pie on Sunday but I will just try to make the most responsible choice when I go out and pick a healthy option from the menu. As for the pie? Well, I’ll just save my weekly extra budget for that.

How has your week been?