Challenging myself

Hey guys,

Eating's been good today - which is a bloody miracle seeing that just about everyone in the office seems to have decided to bring in either cakes, sweets, chocolates or all of the above today! I had half a Danish pastry for elevenses (since somebody had very kindly already cut some of them in to half portions - perfect!), but other than that and a handful of jelly beans, I left well alone. No pringles, Miniature Heroes, chocolate Brazil nuts, or any of the other stuff.

The gym was good too - 45 min spin class and then a 25 min run on the treadmill - felt calm and relaxed towards the end, and just stopped as I didn't want to overdo it. And the secret to my easy running? Having someone to talk to me while I run - shame I can't do that all the time!

Which brings me to my question, which I need a bit of help with. The trainer I was chatting too, is running a Biggest Loser event at the gym. It's the third time they've done it, and they've been successful so they're holding it again. I've not watched the tv show, so I don't know how that works, but here's the lowdown on this one. It's a 6 week thing, which includes two group PT sessions at the gym each week, as well weekly weigh ins and a raft of other measures like body fat %age, inch loss etc. Everyone's food diaries will be reviewed by a nutritionist, who'll be on hand to give advice, and they'll have before a kind of talk / feedback / education session, a bit like WW's do after the weigh in, before the PT session. The group is 8 people max, so it's a chance to get quite a lot of one on one time.

Mark said that if I was interested he'd really like to have me in the group as I'm already on a healthy eating plan and have lost 3 stone and if he can make it work for me, then that's really good. The downside to all this? It's not included in my standard gym membership, so it'd be an extra cost of £75 for the 6 week course.

I have to admit that I'm quite intrigued, but the question is - should I do it?

Pros: It might well give me a much needed kick up the arse to keep going, and having a nutritionist and professional trainer review my habits could well be a bit of an eye-opener.

Cons: Cost, commitment of time (one of the sessions is a Sunday afternoon) and the potential depression if I don't do well, or get overly competitive about it.

I have no idea, but I don't have to give an answer til I get back from holiday, and Mark did make it clear that there's no pressure to do it.

On a holiday note - I've bought myself a notebook. Since I'm going for round 2 of How To Survive The Holiday Without A Massive Gain (something which I epically failed at in Scotland), I've started out as I mean to go on. I have bought a pretty notebook to take to Croatia, and I'll use it as a food journal and general diary of what's going on. This is what I meant to do in Scotland, but somehow never got round to.

I'm heading to bed now, to rest my weary eyes. The challenge for tomorrow - eat in my points again. I anticipate that exercise time will be hard to come by once the packing frenzy begins, so if it happens, great, if not, I'll not beat myself up.