Even after 5 years, I am no expert!

I thought after this many years, I'd figured out how to manage my weight. Well, for the most part I have, but the reality is that for the past 8 months I have *chosen* to ignore various aspects and continue to enjoy eating whatever I wanted all weekend-long. So, it was a little bit of a shock this week to be told by Ginny, my nutritionist, that I've gained 5kg of fat since November!

Just to re-cap: back in November I checked in with Ginny and all was pretty fantastic. I weighed in at 63kg which was down by 600g from the previous visit 4 months ago and actually slightly under-weight for me. That showed Ginny that I was continuing to lose weight with one free day per week. She told me I could eat more - now I could have a two free days per week. Woo Hoo!

So I did. BUT when I got sick with the flu numerous times and didn't exercise for weeks on end ... I kept right on free-mealin' through the weekends.

I also incorporated some new foods into my diet and didn't check their energy levels. Hey, those corn wafters are pretty thin, I should have 4 instead of just 2. And that's a 'mini' wholemeal pita bread, so I should be able to have the whole thing rather than just half. Do that for many months in a row and that extra energy has to go somewhere ... for me it went on my bust, waist, hips and thighs! Ha!

Ginny told me that it's a fine line with weight maintenance. I took that as: if you're not exercising you can't just keep eating the same way - you aren't burning off the extra energy and it will get stored as fat.

The good news is that I can take this weight off pretty easily. This week I weighed in at 67.1kg and the goal is to be losing about 600g per week for a total of 3.5kg and a new weight of 64kg. I feel good at 64kg.

Following Ginny's recommendations, this how I am going to do it:

- Exercise regularly - a 40 minute walk, four-five times per week
- Eat cleanly throughout the week
- Cut back my 'free weekends' to just one 'free meal' per week

That's it. And that's what I love about this way of managing my weight. It is so simple. But I am still learning, I am no expert. I am grateful to have Ginny to remind me of what I do know and to continue to teach me what I don't know.