Bake Myself Thin...

I absolutely love to bake and very recently acquired The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. I've made a few delicious cakes so far and there is ever so much more to be tried. But alas, I'm trying to lose some weight. Although I always give most of what I bake away, to be constantly creating treats to tempt me is not conducive to dropping a few pounds.

If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know about The Biggest Loser contest we did at work over a year ago. Being a loser made me a winner but then I proceeded to gain the weight back again. The competition with a fellow colleague was my impetus to stick with diet and exercise for three months but after the contest was over, I returned to my old ways and with those ways came the pounds I had lost.

So, I decided to create a new type of competition... with myself. I plan on using my love of baking to 'bake myself thin'. I created a system whereby I will earn points for good behaviour and lose points for bad behaviour. My reward will be the ability to make lovely treats to share and of course I will be able to sample the treats I bake.

Thus my plan. Only after earning 60 points will I be able to make something from the cookbook.

1. I will weigh in every Friday that I am at school and record my weight. A few other colleagues still do this since the BL contest and being part of it will help. (3 points each time I weigh in)

2. I will log everything I eat into Livestrong.com daily and stay within my calorie goal.
(1 point for logging in and recording, 3 points for logging in and staying within the goal)

3. I will exercise for at least 45 minutes- gym, cycle, running or something along those lines. I will also record this on Livestrong.com
(3 points for each time I exercise and record it)

4. The only thing I can buy from the school cafeteria is salad, soup, bread (roll) and fruit. (-5 if anything more)

5. With the exception of Friday Treats, I may not eat any sweets that are in the staff room. Healthy snacks are okay but must be logged.
(-5 points for every time I eat staff room sweets)

6. On a school night if I go out in the evening I can only have 1 drink.
(-3 points for every drink I have over one)

7. Finally, once I am able to bake something must record it with the calories and must give most of it away. No points of this- just a rule.

I will start tomorrow, keep this up until May and then decide if I should continue or not. I'm already planning on what I'll bake after earning my first 60 points. Yum! Of course I'll update on my progress at points here if you are interested.

And now I'm hungry and must eat something.