Crash and Plan

Wow - I totally sucked at Combat last night. It was a really busy class, which I wasn't that keen on, as I literally had to check over my shoulder when I back-kicked to make sure I didn't thump my neighbour in the face. That kind of worry totally detracts from what should be an absorbing, focused work out.

Unfortunately, I also plunged headlong into the first four tracks full tilt and then completely crashed for the next four. Pure murder forcing myself to keep going and feeling unbalanced and unco-ordinated for it. I persevered and recovered my pace in the last couple of tracks, but not a great experience. I must make sure I pace myself better next class!

My eating's been a bit up and down this week - Tuesday wasn't so hot as we ate far too late on the way back from a shopping trip, and ate badly for it. I've also allowed some emotional comfort eating to creep in this week as I've been feeling a bit low, but aside from Tues I've reigned it in before I went over points. I don't know if 3 days clean eating out of 7 is enough to allow for a loss this week, but I'll keep my fingers crossed anyway.

On a side-note - shopping was a bit of a strange experience - for the first time that I can remember I was buying size medium tops. I still feel a bit like a fraud buying a medium but they all fit, so maybe not!

GOALS!!!!

I keep making the mistake of setting myself goals that are numbers related. And I keep failing them. After extensive reading of some fabulous blogs, I finally concede that I'm going about it all wrong. That there's no point trying to change the outcome without trying to change the process. So I'm going to set myself some new goals ... with not a scale number or measurement in sight. And I'm just going to start with a week at a time.

So, for this coming week this is what I'm thinking:

• I'm going for dinner to an Indian restaurant. I'm going to practice good eating behaviours and make sure I don't just hoover up all the food in sight - so I'm going to make sure I consciously leave some food on the plate. I'm also not drinking.
• I'm on holiday next week - so there's going to be a reappearance of the Croatia Journal. I will write in it each day and diary my food. No pointing but religious tracking.
• Activity while I'm away won't really be a problem but I will make a conscious effort, none the less, to do some every day, even on the days when we're not being taught. Even if it's just a walk the length of the beach and back.

Nice and simple - they are my goals for the next week. I'm not going to put restrictions on what I eat or drink as I know that I'll be drinking a lot of bottled water on the beach all day, but that fresh fruit and veg is hard to come by because of the being-washed-in-local-water issue. Food's pretty healthy out there anyway though - lots of fresh fish, plain chicken and rice.

Above all, I will enjoy myself, remember the progress I've made since last year, and concentrate on feeling good about myself.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Haven't done that in a while ...

... got straight on the treadmill after a very sweaty spin class and knocked out a quick run. It felt a bit laboured as I made a classic school-boy error this evening and had my tea waaaaaaay to close to going to the gym, but felt good to be back to normal anyway. Muscles functioning like they should be and actually able to do the cool-down stretches and revel in my nearly flexible-again body.

Good times.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Back to it

As you may have guessed from my various posts over the weekend, I pretty much departed from plan for the whole thing.

I had a great weekend but ate too much and by yesterday I was looking forward to getting on track. Having said that, it took me til this morning to actually do it. I didn't really want to point the weekend as I knew it would be wildly bad and not something I could possibly claw back this week, but thought I'd better just for the sake of knowing how bad it was. Now it's back to just making every day as good as it can be.

Lots going on this week, including a shopping night, a meal out and exercise classes and much to do in the way of washing clothes, packing and sorting for holiday. I've also got to make a massive attempt to tidy and clean the flat as I suspect the landlords will be over in the next couple of weeks to inspect the flat due to the change in tenants.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Living for the weekend

Having a weekend of great fun with the girls. After a crappy day of much stress and picking up after other people at work, plus dealing with stress about the flat and my flatmate moving out, I met up with Hannah and Bec at Bec's house for the evening. Too many crisps with humous and some pizza and luscious cupcakes from the patisserie. See how pretty the cakes are (and the girls obviously):

Today we've been to Stratford for lunch and shopping. We had a gorgeous lunch at Russons which is a fantastic family-run place with delicious food. I had a butternut squash risotto with a side salad and I HAD to try the pumpkin pie with maple and pecan cream. A-mazing!!!! Totally off plan I know but yum, yum, yum!

Had a stroke of luck in Blacks which was having a closing down sale - 70% off everything!!! Picked up a Roxy fleece and halterneck summer top, O'Neill linen crop trousers and a Technicals running fleece to replace my current one which is too big now, all for £46. Flippin' marvellous.

Back home now at Bec's again, pyjama'd up and we've just finished carving our pumpkins! Aren't they pretty too?












I suspect there'll be far more food than I need tonight again. I'll try not to be too stupid, I promise!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Slow and Steady

Well, it might not exactly be supersonic speed, spectacular progress, but it is progress none the less. Another lb off this week, taking me to 12st 11lbs.

In the end, I'd rather be moving slowly but steadily in the right direction, than zig-zagging unpredictably up and down. Actually, thinking back a couple of weeks, that was exactly why I changed my weigh in day, so I guess it's working!

Being able to see my true weight loss, rather than the ups and downs of the weekend allows me to be far more realistic with my goals. There's no point me aiming to lose a stone by Christmas when I only average about 1.1lb losses each week, because unless I change something radically from what I've been doing for the last 40 weeks I won't meet that goal.

Side note: can you believe I've been at this 40 weeks already??? When I started out, I kind of hoped I'd be finished already, but I also secretly thought I wouldn't stick it out this long. So to have lost 51lbs in 40 weeks is great, but to have got to a place where I feel comfortable to just keep plugging away at this healthy new lifestyle? In the words of the Mastercard ads ... priceless.

I'm finding at the moment that my confidence and self-image is up and down all over the place. Somedays I feel great and totally feel like I look hot (today's one of those days), and other days I think why do I bother because it makes no difference to everything else I think is wrong with my life.

Yesterday I woke up thinking "this is still going to be me when I'm 40. Still single, still renting and unable to afford my own place because I can't manage my money, just more lonely and desperate". Well, whatever happens, I can't let that stand in the way of me getting healthy an looking after myself.

This weekend's going to be a bit of a minefield eating wise. We're having a full on girls' weekend whilst the boys are away in Amsterdam. They banned us from going, but we're damn well not going to sit around waiting for them to get back with tales of partying, so we're doing our own thing. Tonight is going to be relaxation: G & T's, chick flicks and pumpkin carving for Halloween. Tomorrow day we're going to Stratford (home of Shakespeare) for the day. We're having lunch out tomorrow, hitting the shops and doing some sight-seeing. Tomorrow evening we're making sushi and tapas, and then maybe heading out for some drinks. I'm going to have to plan carefully so I don't stray too far off track.

I've been invited out for a bike ride with friends in Sunday morning which I might do. I did Balance last night, and as expected the hip track was .... well, challenging. I nursed myself through the class though and I did feel better for it. The class was really friendly with a lovely chatty instructor called Becky. She was great at giving out alternatives for injuries and making me feel at ease when I got completely lost in the warm-up. I'll definitely go back next week.

This morning however, all my aches have kicked in full force. Not my back injury, that's still ok, but all the muscles that are feeling abused after this first week back exercising. My hamstrings and inner thighs from circuits, upper back and shoulders from Combat and bow my calves after super tight from Balance. I'm going to take a few days off now to let it all subside. We're going to be walking around enough tomorrow to keep me moving.

Have a good weekend!

-- Posted from my iPhone

Mmmmmmmm - yummy!!

Just thought I'd share my afternoon snack with you (yes, weird, I know!), but how nice does that look:

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Ouchie!!

Ooooooh - I'm like one big, continuous ache this morning. It's all nice satisfying gym ache though, and no nasty back pain, which I'd say is a bit of an achievement!

Tonight's challenge will be Body Balance. Oh good god, what am I letting myself in for? I haven't done any yoga / pilates based classes regularly in about 2 years or so. In fact, I know it's at least that long because I had to go and retrieve my yoga mat from Dad's house, and I moved out of there 2 years ago. It's going to be quite a challenge as I'm extra stiff today due to all my gym aches, but I am hoping that the session might actually help loosen some of that up.

In the past I've stopped doing yoga or pilates classes because I have to confess I usually get bored after the first couple of classes. And I don't like the Balance classes at my own gym as they are totally over-crowded, with all the mats literally end to end, so I'm going to try a new class / instructor combo over in Worcester which is the one my friend Bridget and her mum go to. Hoping that that will make it a bit more fun, as I need to keep going this time under orders from Kate the physio.

This is supposed to help build up all my core muscles to help protect my back from further relapses, which will then allow me to get on with my life without these painful interludes. Or that's the theory. Sounds like enough motivation to me to be worth giving it a whirl.

I'm on track with my food today. Yesterday, I was suddenly aware that I'd been eating a lot of snacks, and actually managed to run out of points before dinner. Not a disaster as I clock up plenty extra doing Combat, but not ideal. So today I've stocked up on fruit and I'm monitoring my intake closely. It's looking a lot more balanced so far, but on a side note: avoid Weightwatchers' Caramel Mallow snacks like the plague! They might only be 1 point each, but they taste like soggy, chewy cardboard with something vaguely sweet in the middle. Not too pleasant!

That's pretty much all from me for today. Not expecting any great shakes at weigh in tomorrow following the return to my exercise routine and Friday's over-eat. My weight dipped back down to 12st 10lb's after the weekend but has stubbornly gone back up to 12st 11bs and stayed there ever since.

More anon, lovely readers!


-- Posted from my iPhone