The Challenge is nearly over

Tomorrow is the final weigh in for the 6 week challenge I did at the
gym. I'm rather resigned to the fact that the scales are going to show
me as having not lost very much at all - maybe a few lbs if I'm lucky.
It's been frustrating, because this back problem just kept going and
going way past when I thought it would be cleared up, and aside from the
actual challenge training sessions themselves, my normal routine has
fallen by the wayside. In fact, I even ended up missing 3 of the
challenge sessions, as I just got to a point where I couldn't risk
aggravating my back any further. I've run once in 7 weeks, and I
haven't been able to do Combat at all in that time. I've had one long
walk, and a couple of shorter ones, but that's really been it. I feel
rather let down by my body because I haven't managed to focus my full
efforts on this challenge, and consequently even going slightly off the
rails food-wise results in a gain or staying the same.

Having lost half a stone in about 3 weeks on returning from holiday,
I've spent the next 6 weeks messing around, trying to get properly in to
12 stone territory. I overheard one of the other participants in the
challenge at the gym yesterday, saying that she'd lost about 20lbs in
the same 6 week period. Am I jealous? You bet your grandma I am!!! Of
course 20 lbs isn't realistic for me, at this stage in my weight loss,
but half a stone would have been nice.

I guess, I should be glad I've made any progress at all, instead of
being frustrated. According to my own scales I am a couple of lbs
lighter, and I think I've lost some inches. In fact I'm wearing a skirt
today that I bought a couple of weeks ago, and I'm sure it's looser than
it was. But yeah, there's still a bit of frustration there.

After missing the last 3 gym sessions, I made it back yesterday
afternoon for a combined Body Pump / spinning training session. Fun but
torturous - doing 2 supersets of an exercise (60 seconds, then 45
seconds, lunges, squats, dead lifts, bicep curls), back on the bike for
3 mins sprint, and off to do the next exercise - repeat through all 8
exercise sets, with just a 30 second break between the 2 weights sets to
breathe. I was a bit scared that I'd done more damage, when I felt my
back twanging sitting up after then chest press, but it seems to be ok
this morning, with just the usual soreness from tired muscles. I'm
hoping this is the week I can get back to normal, and if so I've got an
ambitious timetable lined up: spin tonight, final weigh in and group
training tomorrow night, Body Combat on Wednesday and Body Balance on
Thursday, run on Friday. All the things I've missed doing. I'm just
going to have to take it a session at a time and ease up if it looks
like being a problem.

Pleeeeeeeease, don't be a problem!!

Food was good yesterday - stuck to my points and put my activities
towards writing off the deficit from Friday, and will hopefully be able
to do the same today. I'm going ok so far, although I was ravenously
hungry this morning - just got to avoid the massive stacks of biscuits
and chocolates all over the office!