Week One

Well, this week has not gone very well at all. I stood on the scales this morning and they declared:

X-1 stone 0 lb 3/8 oz.

I believe that is a total of having put on 1 lb, not lost one. Boo hiss. I thought I was doing quite well with the eating this week, but clearly not. Yes, I had a few lapses (the entire bag of microwave popcorn on Tuesday night was not exactly necessary), but generally I thought I did alright. God damn this is difficult…

Ok, so I pretty much did no exercise this week, except walk home from work a few times (which we must remember is 1.9 miles and does take about 35 mins). Oh, and I did a massive 5.5 mile hike to Waitrose and back last Saturday with Flâneur, which actually really only meant that we didn’t put on anything from the lovely dinner he made that night…*

Even so, it’s still pretty depressing to have not even lost a measly ounce or two and to have put on instead. Harumph. I will now have to work doubly hard in this coming week to lose 2lb to make up for having put one on and not lost anything. Damn, actually to catch up I need to lose 3 don’t I?

Crap.

*My excuse on the exercise front is that I have been feeling pretty rubbish all this week. Really tired and a bit coldy. I haven’t actually got a cold, but from time to time I suffer from these really annoying cold like symptoms – stuffy head, exhaustion, slight blocking of the nose. Never really come to anything and never bad enough to stay off work (more’s the pity), but annoying and a bit disruptive none-the-less.

A New Challenge

I’m going to be a bit more realistic this time. I think I set myself unrealistic goals by setting the bar too high! Basically I have an appointment with a dress maker on 21st September (very very exciting!). While I will not have to be at my slim point for the dress at this initial meeting, I figured it will give me a nice goal to work towards. By my calculations, that is exactly 1 month from today (that’s the sort of maths I like). Just over 4 weeks. I had initially thought it was 5 weeks, but that’s just stupid, so had initially been thinking, I’ll aim to lose 5lb. So a nice round 1lb per week, which really shouldn’t be so challenging, (but clearly is or I’d be a waif by now!). While it’s not actually 5 weeks, I’ll still aim to lose just over a pound a week as I like the idea of losing 5 of them.

I weighed myself this morning and came in at:

X-2 stone 13lb and 3/8.

Really, that was quite a relief because for some unknown* reason I had been back up in the early X-1 stone bracket for a good couple of weeks. Finally it’s gone back down (I don’t care if that’s only by a few ounces, those ounces are important!). So by 21st September I will attempt to reach the heady heights of X-2 stones and 8 pounds. A mere 5 pounds off my 2 stone point, 2 pound below the 1 ½ stone point, and a bloody good kick start.



*Not really that unknown, I spent one weekend pretty much doing nothing but eating…. I am a glutton, a greedy person and a lover of food. I am very sure that it’s only gone back down again because I have been pushing myself quite hard on the exercise front. This I intend to keep up. Last night I went out with Flâneur for a run, and we upped our run walk ratio to 2.30 : 1 (ish), which was ok. Actually it was pretty hard for me as I feel like my chest has been constricting all week and I was wheezing something rotten on some parts. Poor Flâneur can easily run at a quicker pace that me and probably could have kept up walking! So long as I don’t have some sort of chest infection or other malady, we will go out again at the weekend. The pool re-opens on Monday and I am rather taken with the gym. So hopefully I might exceed my target. That or use it all as an excuse to eat more. ;o)

Gym Bunny

With the pool closed (boo!), I have been hitting the gym instead. Well, I say hitting - does three times count?? I went twice last week (once early in the morning, which was great as there were only 4 other people there, and then again on a day off, which was great because 10:30 is a good time to go to the gym for me, if I didn't work...). I mostly just wanted to use the cross-trainer because I like the low impact cardio element, but when I went on the Monday I couldn't work out how to make it work at first! So I had to try the treadmill, which was more obvious. I was very very pleased with myself that I managed to run on the treadmill for 10 minutes straight. Go me! This was just at 7km per hour (super slow) on the first go, but I got it up to 12 1/2 mins at 7.5km today. :o) And it didn't cripple me the next day...

I did eventually work out the cross-trainer (when it looks like it's off, it's not obvious that it will come on when you start moving your feet) and did the 'weight loss' programme. It was good and I enjoyed it. 4 minutes of a low resistance, 4 minutes of a higher resistance, etcetc for 28 mins. The whole gym experience was actually great and I felt great. I think it helps that it's a really nice gym with tonnes of equipment, so even this evening, when I was there around 5, it didn't feel too busy. I may even keep going after the pool re-opens, to supplement my swimming! And seeing as I've put a few pounds on lately and am trying to get an appointment with a dress maker I think that's no bad thing!

Update!

Have been neglecting the blog for a bit too long... And as always I am prompted by recording the efforts of some exercise!

Since the last post I have spent a week in Perthshire looking after two of my favourite pooches, who were absolutely adorable the whole week (despite a bit of whinging from Baff...). We walked quite a bit and read and it was generally very relaxing. The only annoying thing being Flâneur having to work the whole week. His boss is the most annoying man I have ever come across, he really is... When we got back from Perth though we had approximately four hours before being descended upon by my parents and two of their friends (who I've known forever, not just random friends of my parents). I had a nice week with them too, but was grateful that their stay was only til the Thursday so I could prepare myself for going back to work!

On the exercise front I managed to go swimming twice when I was on my holidays, on both Mondays, and again had great swims. In fact on the second Monday it was my fastest swim ever clocking in at about 31:15 (can't remember the exact figure now). I have subsequently not been swimming, partly because I was just knackered last week... I'd been working over the weekend and suffered two very annoying migraines, so I was left pretty tired during the week. I did try to go this week, but was scuppered by the pool being closed! Which is the most annoying thing when you've made the effort to get up and are quite psyched about going for a swim. I stood there for ages trying all the doors, perplexed about why I couldn't get in. There were no notices anywhere, and I didn't remember having seen any when I was last there, admittedly two weeks before, but even so. I had no choice but to just head to work and grab a shower there and start my day an hour earlier than intended. I was pretty cross by this point. When I got to my desk I immediately went online to see what was going on and found their website declaring the pool shut from August 3-23. They are apparently improving the reception area to make it more accessible, which is a good thing, but it's annoying that that causes the whole pool to be closed! Gah! So that's it, no swimming until the end of August... I'm not sure what I'm going to do... And I know I could go to the local council pool, but it's just annoying and expensive, particularly when I've already paid for a gym membership! It works out at about £6 a go, once you take into account the bus fare to get there...

So I might try out their gym, try the cross trainer first thing. I don't think it will compare at all favourably with swimming, but it's worth a shot. Can't do no exercise just because the pool is closed. 

And in this vein, I went for a run today. To be fair, I only went because Flâneur made me. He'd just had the all clear from the physio to do any type of exercise, provided he started off slowly, and so decided that he might try this running malarky, if it made me go out... He ruptured his achilles many years ago, which had always put him off most exercise, but having just, finally got some physio and being good at actually doing his exercises he can now give it a go. I must say it was a great thing for me (let alone him!). It was lovely to have someone to go out with, to motivate me, and to keep me going!! We did my usual route and my usual 2:1 jog to walk ratio, and did really well! Despite not having been out since June (really, this is just the third time this year that I've been out 'running'), we did the 2.4ish mile route in 31 minutes 14 seconds. I think that the fastest I've ever done it. God, I love that man.