3.5 miles

I ran 3.5 miles today - which is the furthest I've ever run.  Whilst it was a good achievement, I can't help feeling slightly disappointed because my average speed was down from what it has been recently - and the nasty side stitch made an evil return today forcing me to walk briefly twice.  Looking back, I know I started too fast - my Walkmeter beeped at mile one telling me that my speed was 5.14mph.  Almost immediately after this I had to take a walk break because the stitch flared up.

On the one hand I think I'm being too hard on myself - I only started running in June and have come on leaps and bounds since that time.  However, looking back I could have easily slowed my pace during the first mile and thereafter to avoid both walk breaks and stitches.  It is a lesson learnt.  My expression in the photo below shows I'd just checked my stats and wasn't entirely pleased!

This was my first trail run in two weeks - last week I did my long run on the road because I was getting ready for Decorex.  I'm sorry for moaning, I am just a bit disappointed :(.  The bonus of this trail run was that there were no weird animal antics today (no feral cats stalking me!).  My next long run will be 4 miles!

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I weighed myself on Saturday morning for the first time since coming back from Decorex and I was nearly exactly the same as I was before I left - 182.5 lbs - up 0.4 lbs.  I've been quite strict with myself these past few days, so now that the Marathon Weight Loss challenge has finished, I'm reverting to Wednesday as my weigh in day.  I'm hoping for a bit of a loss this week.  I have also reduced my calories to 1518 per day, because when I set my daily calorie allowance I weighed more than I do now and I think maybe those extra 100 or so calories may have been contributing to my plateau.

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Last night my husband and I went to a ball!  I've never been to a ball before, but my boss bought a table (raising money for a local hospice) and invited us to go.  The theme was 1940's, but I wore my 1930's dress - and then dressed my husband up as best I could without spending a dime!  He looks a bit like Al Capone!

We had a great time, though we didn't do any dancing.  It might sound shocking, but I've never danced with my husband - not once.  Dancing is not Rob's greatest talent.  I've seen him dance once and, well, I'm still traumatised!  Actually I've seen him dance twice - he danced to "Take on me" on the Wii Just Dance at Christmas and I even took a video of it - but it mysteriously disappeared immediately!  Even without dancing, we really enjoyed the evening.  It's not often I we get a chance to dress up and go out for the evening!  Today was Rob's birthday - so I made his favourite roast dinner - Roast Lamb.  I also baked a Victoria Sponge cake for dessert (I think this is my best cake at the moment, and not too bad for the waistline as there's no icing!).

Another plateau

My weight seems to be stuck again.  I'm still 182 pounds despite tracking all my calories (and staying under my calorie goal) and exercising practically every day.  I'm now very nervous about going away for four days because when I'm working at this exhibition, healthy food is not exactly readily available. In addition to food, there is also copious amounts of wine and I'm just hoping that I will have the willpower to resist!  I really don't want to gain weight while I'm away.

Quite what I'm going to do about this plateau will have to wait until I get back late on Wednesday night.  There are two things that I did this week which could have contributed to the plateau - I did have a few glasses of red wine, I had a pasta dish twice for lunch and a different pasta twice for dinner (probably too much in one week), and I missed two cross training sessions - so basically I've had two unscheduled rest days.  If I change these things next week I'm hoping it will make a difference.

Despite being stuck with my weight, my running progress continues to be good.  Today I did my long run in the 8k training - 3 miles.  I was toying with the idea of going to the park to run those three miles on the trail - but there was lots of things to do at home to make sure the husband and kids were organised for the week, so I just did a three mile loop at home.  I ran 3 miles in my fastest time ever - 36 minutes!

So, I'm getting together the last few bits and pieces for our design exhibition starting tomorrow.  My boss and I collected our special "flapper girl" dresses yesterday and I can't wait to wear my dress!  Yesterday I tried hot rollers for my hair along with one of my headdresses:

I'll put up some more photos next week of the complete outfit - this is just a preview!  The whole theme of our stand is 1930's - so hopefully we will look the part!  I hope you all have a fab rest of the weekend and a good week next week.  Please cross your fingers that I manage to keep to my plan of eating as healthy as possible and foregoing the wine!

I'm sweating pink!

This morning I got a fantastic email.  I went through my usual morning routine - checking facebook (seriously - I read it like the morning paper), twitter, blog stats and then email... I had to do a double take because the subject said "Sweat Pink Ambassador - welcome to the team!"!  Yes, I am officially a Sweat Pink Ambassador and I just want to thank the lovely ladies over at Fit Approach for the opportunity!

I've been hearing more and more recently about Fit Approach and the Ambassador programme, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what this new chapter brings.  Fit Approach promotes all round healthy living and that's certainly what I'm all about.  Losing weight is not just about seeing the number on the scales go down, and it's not about deprivation - it's about getting healthy and most importantly staying healthy!

So - I've made a little progress with my Autumn goals today.  I was planning on making the kids wholewheat pancakes this morning for breakfast - but when I got up my son had already made the pancake batter (albeit NOT wholewheat!) and was asking me to turn on the stove so he could cook them!  He's 12 and is doing food and nutrition at school and of course what did they make this week - pancakes!  He can even flip them in the frying pan (none on the ceiling - woohoo!) - so my kids had a kind of healthy home cooked breakfast courtesy of my son!

Verity started Girl Guides again tonight and the scout hut where they meet is precisely a 7 minute walk from our house - so she and I walked there and walked home.  Walking home wasn't so much fun because we live in a village without street lights and it was very nearly pitch black on the way back!  Verity said something to the effect of "this is what you see in horror movies just before somebody gets killed" - uh yeah, thanks kid - walk quicker!!!  And, how does my kid know about horror movies?!  Thankfully, we made it home without incident!

And - no bugs were eaten or harmed during my walk this evening!

Autumn Goals

I'm pretty sure I ate a bug during my run tonight.  I wonder how many calories "small fly" clocks up on My Fitness Pal?  Ha - thankfully I'm not easily grossed out!  I suppose eating the occasional bug comes with the territory of running outside (other such luxuries are "stepping in dog poo", "running through patch of stinging nettles", etc).

The past few days have been increasingly stressful at work (we are getting close to a big design exhibition in London where we are launching two new furniture collections).  Yesterday we had scheduled a photoshoot and had "borrowed" the house of a former client of ours in Thorpe Bay to stage the shoot.  Well, the client was meticulously clean and hadn't even moved into the house (it was a HUGE beachfront house) - they said they lived in another house 10 minutes away and this one was their "Beach hut"!!!  Long story short - they were there ALL day, watching all of us like a hawk.  It was SO stressful that I felt as if I couldn't even go to the toilet without them wondering what I was up to!  So - I got home late last night, didn't have a chance to do my scheduled run and even had trouble getting to sleep because my brain was still whirring with everything that had happened.  I'll be a much better blogger in October once this exhibition is finished, our new catalogue is launched and things at work have generally calmed down :-).

My kids have been back at school for nearly two weeks and I have mentioned in earlier posts about desperately wanting to be a more organised mother this year.  So, it occurred to me that I should put in writing some goals for this autumn.  I was going to confine this to September - but given the fact that September is nearly half over and my hectic schedule at work, I thought actually it would be wiser to make them the whole of autumn goals!

1. Make a healthy breakfast for the kids every school morning (I've pinned some great recipes on my Pinterest board "Yummy yummy in my tummy" if anyone wants to have a look!)
2. Make a conscious effort to do more creative packed lunches for the kids on Friday's (they only have to take a packed lunch on a Friday).  To date, it has been ham/cheese sandwiches or variations thereon!  Get's pretty boring, I imagine!
3. To eat as healthily as possible whilst away at this design exhibition - log all my calories and not get carried away with the wine!  In fact to just eat as healthily as possible before and after the exhibition!
4. Try Yoga.  My Hal Higdon 8k training calls for "Stretch/Strength" training on a Monday evening and I've always wanted to try yoga - but worried because I'm not the most flexible person in the world!  I can only try and if it doesn't suit me - see if I can find a stretching activity that does!
5. Try Badminton.  I mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to try playing this - I've not been able to find a club yet - but my hubby has offered to teach me to play properly.
6. Do more active things with my daughter.  My kids are like chalk and cheese - Josh is running around playing tennis, football, etc all the time; Verity struggles with being active - there aren't many sports or activities that she enjoys.  Unfortunately this has contributed to her weight.  I desperately want to get this under control now and to help her enjoy being active.

I hope to give regular updates on how I'm getting on with these goals.  Obviously, I will continue with my 8k training and losing pounds.  I think my scales need a new battery because they are giving quite different readings within 30 seconds of each other - so I'm keen to get this asap so I can see if there's a big loss hiding there!

What are your goals for the autumn?

Healthy Living Freed Me From My Life of Lethargy

I have not lost the plot (well…), whilst I know it’s not Tuesday, today I’m joining Healthy Living Blogs’ Healthy Living Tuesdays where the subject is “Healthy Living Freed Me From…”.  I wish there were one single word I could insert at the end of that sentence that could encompass how much healthy living has changed me, both physically and mentally.

Many of you know that when I started my weight loss journey in January this year, I weighed 240 pounds.  It was nearly my all time heaviest weight.  I was sluggish, exhausted and yawning constantly, had zero energy, my skin suffered greatly and I fought constant acne breakouts on my face (while other areas of my skin, such as my legs, were so dry and itchy).  I also had horrible bouts of low blood sugar, which caused me to binge uncontrollably.  I knew that I not only wanted to lose weight and improve my appearance, I also wanted to get healthy.

Me at nearly 240 pounds

Part of my problem came from an undiagnosed adrenal fatigue condition (you can read more about that here).  I went to see a naturopath in London who prescribed natural supplements that would correct this imbalance.  This helped greatly with improving my energy levels and I now also no longer suffer with low blood sugar. 

Regarding my diet - I had previously followed the principles of the GI & GL Diets and knew that the science behind them was just good common sense – eat healthy, whole, nutrient rich foods – feel fuller for longer.  Whilst I haven’t followed either the GI or the GL to the letter, I do employ a lot of the principles in choosing what foods I eat on a daily basis.

I also started looking at the ingredients of what I was eating in much more detail.  A lot of so called “low fat” or “low sugar” foods are actually stuffed with artificial sweeteners or E numbers – thankfully I’ve never been one to rely on artificial sweeteners, but the thought of eating foods (or serving these types of foods to my children) really made me feel sick. 

I switched from sugar to Xylitol – this is a natural alternative to sugar that is not only lower in calories than sugar, but it also doesn’t create the spike in blood sugar and is even suitable for diabetics (most importantly to me, it has no aftertaste)!  I also changed my normal breakfast cereal to a low GL granola (Lizi’s) with all natural ingredients.  My standard lunchtime sandwich has been replaced with lentils, couscous, pasta, salads and low fat fish.  I’ve also kicked my soda habit (having switched to sparkling water instead).

The results have not just been confined to weight loss!  I’ve enjoyed a massive improvement in my complexion (no more acne – woohoo!), an annoying hoarse voice that plagued me previously is now gone, my energy levels have come on leaps and bounds, I no longer struggle with sluggishness and feeling tired – all this combined means that I can enjoy life to the full now!  Even more importantly – by improving my energy levels, it also means that I can enjoy my new found passion of running!

So, to finish that sentence: Healthy Living Free Me From my life of lethargy.  My life has not only changed for the better because I feel better about how I look and have more energy, but I can also be a better mother to my children, and crucially, set a healthy example for them to follow.

A missing lion

My race pack arrived today.  I feel sick.  I feel SO nervous that I will be outclassed by all the other runners at this event and I've literally been searching my mind all week to come up with an excuse not to go through with it.  I guess I'm scared that I will be last - I shouldn't have checked previous race times - that's really messed with my brain!  But - I've just got to get on with it and stop being such a baby!  Everyone starts somewhere and I know many moons from now when I'm running my first marathon (ha!), I'll sit back and remember how nervous I felt running my first 5k!

My nervousness hasn't been helped by rumours that there is a lion loose in Essex - and supposedly in the very same town where my race is on Friday!  The authorities now actually think it's a hoax - but I must admit having trepidations when I went for my run last night - I even kept one headphone out when I was running past a field just listening out for the pounce and roar!  Evidently, they think it's a big ginger tom cat and people have got confused?!  Seriously people?!!  How the hell can you confuse a CAT with a LION?!

I'm sexy and I know it

My post-holiday weigh in was up 2 pounds from before I left.  I weighed myself the day we went and I was 185.4 pounds - Monday's weigh in was 187.2 pounds.  I did weigh myself again this morning and I was back down to 185.5!  I'm hoping that next Monday there will be a decent loss because we did so much climbing last week, combined with my 5k race on Friday.  Plus my eating is getting back to normal, without the temptations of eating out and desserts, etc.

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So, Saturday is the 1st of September and earlier this week I started to worry about daylight running hours.  I'm worrying about everything lately!  But seriously - we are really far north and in the winter months it gets dark here at 4:30pm!  We live in a bit of a rural area and basically, running on my own at night is not a wise idea - not that anything has ever happened around here, but I wouldn't feel comfortable, so as I see it I have three choices -

1. I can run during my lunch hour at work (pros: daylight, cons: sweaty betty all afternoon)
2. I can invest in a treadmill (pros: running available at home regardless of time of day/weather, cons: treadmills cost a lot of money)
3. I can join a gym (pros: treadmills, plus other equipment available, cons: I have to travel to the gym, it costs money and you all know that I loathe the place!)

I'm unsure what to do.  If we're talking about spending money part of me thinks that the money I would be paying to join a gym could actually be going to pay for my own treadmill.  I don't really think that running at work is an option - I get seriously sweaty when I run and there aren't shower facilities available where I work, so it would be a case of spraying deoderant and holding your noses around Mary!  I've never run on a treadmill before, but I don't want to stop running and I feel that when the daylight hours start closing in it would be more likely for me to start making excuses for sitting on my arse!

Advice would greatly be appreciated here!  How many of you own your own treadmills and do you find it's better than the gym?

I hope you all have a great week and wish me luck for Friday!

The Lake District 2012 - Holiday recap and photos

For the past five years or so our main family summer holiday has been spent in the Lake District.  My late mother in law passed on her love for this amazingly beautiful part of England.  In addition to the beauty of the area, she also introduced me to the writings of Alfred Wainwright.  For those not familiar with Wainwright, he was a gifted author and artist who literally devoted his life to painstakingly map every fell in the Lake District.  All of his guides were handwritten and beautifully illustrated.  He had a wicked sense of humour to boot - so reading his books has become a favourite pastime of mine.  So well known are his writings that the fells in the Lake District have affectionately become known as "Wainwrights".  I've added a new page to the blog, listing my summits thus far!  There are 214 in total - we'll see if I can climb all of them!

We were pleased to add four new summits to our list of accomplishments - we actually climbed five, but the fifth (The Dodd), we've climbed at least ten times previously!  At just over 1600 feet, we tend to "warm up" with this one every year as it's such a pleasant walk (albeit steep) and the views from the summit are some of the best to be seen in Lakeland.  So, this is where we started on Sunday.  But before I tell you about what we climbed, etc, I wanted to just take a little step back to this time last year... While we were away I happened to find a video on my husband's phone of us climbing Blencathra (alt 2848 ft) last year - I was the last one up, huffing and puffing and nearly ready to die when I reached the summit (it's very windy at the top, so apologies about the sound - and I haven't figured out how to edit, so you get to see everyone else reach the summit too!):

I got to the top through pure determination alone, but I think you can see how unfit I was.  This year was a different story altogether!  Unfortunately we didn't take any videos of me bounding up the summits, but suffice to say, though they were all hard work, I didn't struggle to get up one!

Back to the recap: On Sunday, we went to a lovely little restaurant out in the back of beyond for lunch and reckoned we would climb the Dodd to burn off our lunch!  On Sunday's, Mae's Tearoom (in a beautiful old converted school in Uldale) serves a roast dinner - it was roast beef with Yorkshire Puddings the size of my head!  I was smitten from the moment we walked in the door - and the food was delicious too!

At Mae's Tearoom

The initial stiff climb up the Dodd

Me at the Summit of the Dodd

The forecast for the week was dire - rain nearly every day.  On Monday, however, like seasoned fellwalkers - we were out the door with sandwiches packed on our way to climb Great Gable!  Great Gable is one of the higher fells in the Lake District (alt 2949ft), and would also serve as our highest summit of the week.  Our walk began at the tiny little village of Seathwaite - about 20 minutes drive from Keswick.  I wish I had taken a photograph, but there is actually a plaque as you drive into the village that says it is officially the wettest place in England - with the most rainfall each year!  And yes, it did rain while we were there!

We had a bit of a walk to even get to the "start" of our walk to the summit, but there was lots of interest along the way.  I hadn't realised, but this was also a frequently used path to get to the tallest mountain in England, Scafell Pike, and sadly we met a couple on the summit of Great Gable who believed they had climbed the Pike only to realise when they met us (and another couple who had just come from Green Gable) they were on the wrong mountain!

It's a long way to the top!

On the final path up the side of Great Gable

Me at the summit of Great Gable

Descending Gable in the mist...

Tuesday was deservedly a rest day, so we drove down to Ambleside and took a short cruise on Lake Windermere.  This was a very busy place - lots of young families and people who come to the Lakes not for walking (how they could possibly visit the Lake District and not go for even a short walk is beyond me!).  I happened to snap this cheeky picture (pun intended):

Say "no" to crack

Now, it's very breezy on these boats as the sides are open, so I reckon this dude knew what he was doing - in any case, it did make me laugh - a lot.

Wednesday came and the chosen mountain(s) were Red Pike with a possibility of going on to ridge walk the High Stile range next to it.  Again, the weather was not cooperating and as we drove into Buttermere - the village where our walk would start - the tops of the mountains were all in mist.  Our walk started by the lake and ascended steeply to a tarn (a pond) where we would climb again.  We decided to just get up there and see what it was like before making a decision to continue with the ridge walk.  Now I should start this by saying that I can read a map, but I can't use a compass - so navigating in the mist is not going to happen and Red Pike does have some sheer drops from the summit, so I wasn't about to hike off in one direction, kids in tow, trying to find a ridge!

I love Buttermere - it's easily my favourite place in the Lakes.  The mountains there have a sort of fairy tale beauty - tall, black, majestic and inspiring.  But, Red Pike seems to be the odd man out.  The summit is covered with thick red clay and scree (loose rock) - giving it its name.  This would be our very first encounter with scree and with a summit that required a scramble.  I should have known when my father in law recounted his summit with my mother in law quite a few years ago - she sat down and refused to go up.  On her third separate attempt, she made it to the top.

The scrambling described on the route description was "easy" - if that's easy scrambling, I would seriously hate to encounter "hard"! I do not have a head for heights - hard to believe for someone who enjoys climbing mountains, but most of the time when heights are involved, I just take it really slow, keep my head down, swear profusely (because my kids are usually a mile ahead of me!) and get on with it!  Due to the tricky nature of this summit, we all had to stay very close together.  I went up first, followed by both kids and then my husband.  I made it - but it was not an experience I would like to repeat and for once I think going up a mountain in mist was beneficial as I couldn't see the drops around me!

Looking back down the Buttermere valley

The start of the steep scramble - the summit is in mist

At the summit of Red Pike

A particularly tricky bit - about the only time I smiled! (over that ledge is a sheer drop!)

Guess what mountain we've just come down?!

Needless to say, I was happy to get that one in the bag and get the heck off the summit!  The mist was getting thicker on the summit, so we decided to pass on the ridge walk.  The Dodd (separate Dodd than the one mentioned earlier) was literally a leisurely walk next door - so we went to the summit to tick another one off the list.  Sadly, it's not a Wainwright, but it's little more than a hill and unfortunately was shrouded in mist so the amazing views we would have had from the summit were blocked :(.

Thursday again was another "rest" day and we decided to take another lake cruise - but this time at Ullswater.  My father in law came with us and we even had lunch at a pub he used to go to when he was a young man!  It's at the top of a hill in Glenridding and is called The Travellers Rest.  Easily one of the smallest pubs I've ever been to - but what they lack in size of the building, they make up for in abundance on your plate!  HUGE portions!  Thankfully, I just ordered a sandwich, but even that was big!

Friday, we were toying until the very last minute about which fell to climb.  My daughter was pretty exhausted and protested at climbing anything, so we settled on a small climb - little more than a hill just north of Bassenthwaite called "Binsey".  Binsey is pretty much just a grass and heather covered hill - but I was intrigued to climb it because Wainwright says that the views from the summit are some of the finest in Lakeland and I would be inclined to agree.  It took us about 45 minutes to reach the summit and a grand total of about 15 minutes to get down again!  Quite possibly the quickest climb ever - but I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has a spare hour in the lakes!

Binsey 1467 ft

The beautiful tree lined avenue at the start of our walk

Old stone gate

Heather

The view of lakeland from Binsey summit

You can see why I love it!

And here I am with one of my handy Wainwright guide books! (By the way, I'm talking here which is why my mouth looks weird!)

We drove back yesterday and the rain was seriously heavy!  I hate driving (or even being a passenger!) in the rain!  Thankfully we made it home safely.  All total, we walked 23.5 miles.  I tracked all of my food - even though internet access was sketchy, hopefully all of my logins on MFP will still count!  I haven't weighed myself yet, but will wait until tomorrow.  I did eat more than I normally would, but even if there is a weight gain, I know it will come off as quickly as it went on.  And the best thing is that my leg muscles got a serious workout last week!

Guest post from Fighting the Fat - Finding the Right Mix...self talk

This guest post comes from my very good friend Mandie, who blogs over at Fighting the Fat.  Mandie and I grew up together - we were best friends in high school and she is the only friend who I've managed to consistently keep in touch with all these years since leaving the USA.  

Me and Mandie on graduation day, 1994

Mandie has lost an amazing 75+ pounds and is such an inspiration to me!  Her post proves that it takes a lot of hard work and determination every single day not only to lose weight - but to keep it off for good...

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After losing 75+lbs and still not being at goal you would think one would have the determination and motivation to bust butt and finish the race.  Yeah, me too.  Unfortunately that has not been the case for me and my weightloss journey with 30’ish more pounds to go.  

At my heaviest weight - 233 lbs

Honestly, I still struggle every day, even after losing the weight 7 years ago.  It becomes an everyday battle of making the right/healthy choice.  To make myself workout, when all your workout buddies have fizzled out and you go alone.  It’s depressing when you regain weight you thought was gone forever…and you don’t even know how it happened.  A few missed workouts leads to a week.  A few bad meals or drinks turn into more and more every day.  Then before you know it you’re struggling to eat right and make yourself workout.

Yes my friends, I struggle EVERY DAY.  I wish I could say that it was easy.  And, at times it IS easy.  But once you let yourself slide back, it’s brutal to get back into the groove with the right habits..  This is me right now.  Since the start of 2012 I have regained about 14lbs.  I’m at an unhappy place/weight.  I miss workouts, when I used to go EVERY day.  I let the weekends get the best of me with my eating, and most times they flow over to the next week.  But then when I get on the scale every Thursday, I hate it.  I remember a time when I consistently went to the gym and eating the right things was easy.  I wrack my brain trying to figure how did I get here, and how do I get back? 

Well, for starters, I have to accept that I am not perfect, and cannot be.  That’s the first thing with everything.  I have to let go of the past, of the history associated with my ups and downs.  I have to just tackle it.  Take a deep breath and KNOW I can do it.  Believe in it….believe in me!!!!

And this…this is my reminder I must look at every day, it will help me remember....

I SEE PROGRESS WHEN….

I have a weekly menu and abundance of healthy foods in the fridge

Workout at lunch

Run and other cardio (running makes my legs shapely!)

Do Strength Training 3 times/week

Log my food intake

CHUG WATER

OTHERWISE I WILL…..

Eat crap, sometimes even waste money on eating out

Eat in the lounge at lunch (work “break room) with co-workers and never feel satisfied/full with what I bring to eat

Stop running for months and skip workouts

Have to go back to square one to tone my flabby gut, butt and arms

Think in my mind I’m doing okay…when in fact I snack here and there and am not honest with myself (fail!)

Don’t drink anything…get dehydrated and feel hungry!

This all leads to me not seeing any progress and feel discouraged, unhappy and depressed with myself.  Physically feel cruddy too!

But I must remember, I’m human.  I’m going to slip up.  The inner cupcake loving fat girl will try to resurface.  And she may even do it for a little while, maybe even for 6 months.  But deep down I know I’m happier the other way and that I will do everything in my power to get back to the right place.  I will find that right mix and move forward….again.  The main goal is to never go back to that unhappy 233lb woman.  Yeah, I never will be her again.     

A Walk in the Woods on Facebook!

I'm off work today.  It was supposed to be a day to spend with the kids, but whilst they're running around playing on the Wii, their bikes, etc, I'm sat on the sofa with a tissue shoved up my nose (sorry TMI)!  In typical "sod's law" fashion, we are due to go away to the Lake District on Saturday for a week of fell walking and yes, I'm getting sick!  In addition to that I've had two unscheduled rest days, in all likelihood it will now be three to four and I'm worried that whatever this is won't shift before we leave for our holiday!

So, I don't know if it's the cold medicine talking, but this morning I created a Facebook page for A Walk in the Woods.  You can "LIKE" it by clicking on the link over here ----->

What's even more bizarre is that I've just invited umpteen of my friends to Like the page, which means if those friends visit my blog everybody will know how much I weigh!  Normally I would cringe at this thought, I'm not happy advertising those digits, but then it occurred to me - I've lost 54 pounds!  That's not something to be ashamed of!

I'm coming clean, I guess.  Admitting to all whom I know in social networking that, yes, I was a great big fat thing - but this time I've cracked it!  Not only have I found the key to losing weight (for me), but also discovered some fantastic activities that will help me maintain that loss.  OK - I haven't reached my ultimate goal yet - but I know I can reach it and more importantly, I know I will!  Another thought that occurred to me was that there may be other friends of mine who are interested in getting fit or losing weight and don't know where to start.  Maybe, in some small way, they would be inspired by something I've written.  So - to all of my Facebook friends reading this, thanks for visiting :-)

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Last night I had another crazy idea (seriously, what do they put in this cold medicine?!).  I want to try to play a team sport.  This may not sound like a crazy idea - but my experience of team sports was limited to trying out (and failing) for the middle-school volleyball team.  When I was in school, I was not interested in sports at all, in fact I loathed them - I avoided them at all costs.  Why I chose to try out for volleyball, I'm not sure.  I did enjoy it and I was disappointed that I didn't make the team - whether making the team would have changed my view of sports I don't know.

My husband on the other hand is an all rounder!  He has played, at any given time in his life, in football teams (that's soccer to all you Americans!), cricket teams, badminton, squash, etc.  He's one of those annoying people who seems to be good at whatever sport he tries (hopefully he's reading this!).  I, in stark contrast, don't seem to be much use at any sport - but I figured this is because I've never really tried!  So, last night I asked him to teach me a bit of Badminton.

Badminton is fascinating to me - I watched the players on the Olympics and were just staggered at the speed of play.  I'm not for a second thinking that I would ever be able to get to that sort of speed or standard, but aside from flicking a shuttlecock around the garden, I'd like to learn how to play properly. The husband has agreed to book us a badminton court and he's going to teach me (he will need some serious patience!) and then I'm going to look at joining our little village badminton club.  Watch this space for news and embarrassing pictures...

Conquering the plateau

I'm not loving my scales at the moment.  I'm on a plateau.  From previous posts you'll all know that I'm not a plateau girl - I like the challenge of climbing a mountain, not standing around on the flat!  My weight actually went up by 0.7 pounds since last week and I'm struggling to understand how this could happen.  I mentioned in a previous post that I really struggle drinking enough water, so understand this could play a part in the weight not coming off.  I have now been making a conscious effort to drink more water each day and hope I can stick to it.

Another possible factor recently is my serious addiction to Pimm's and Lemonade.  This is my summer drink of choice and I would go so far as to say that I'm a Pimmsaholic.  It's about 85 calories for a glass - ish and lately I've been having one a day.  The biggest problem with this, aside from the alcohol content, is the sugar in the lemonade.

In England 'lemonade' is like Sprite or 7UP - it's a carbonated drink and is quite often used as a mixer.  Our summer had thus far been such a wash out with loads and loads of rain that I hadn't been craving Pimms until a couple of weeks ago when I had a party and bought two big bottles of the stuff.  Of course I used a smidgen at the party and am now left with the remainder in my house, calling my name every night!

So, here are two obvious factors for my weight not shifting.  The other possible problem could be that I'm not consuming enough calories.  I seriously struggle with this because my brain automatically flips out when I even think of eating more than 1500 calories a day "Are you crazy?  You'll gain weight!"  Even though my actual caloric needs for weight loss are 1623 per day!  Somehow I just can't get my head around eating more to weigh less!  Having said that, I struggled with a plateau in May and when I increased my calorie consumption, sure enough the weight started to drop again.

I suppose it's even more difficult because when I started losing weight back in January, I put myself on a very strict 1200 calorie per day limit.  So now, of course, anything higher than 1200, seems like I'm overeating!  In retrospect, I would definitely not recommend starting off with such a low calorie intake because moving forward from that - as I'm discovering - is exceedingly hard!

The final factor which may be playing a part in the scales not budging is my exercise.  Aside from my 5k training programme, which consists of 3 sessions per week, I've not truly been pushing myself as I should with exercise.  I've been for a few lunchtime walks and done a few sessions of 30 minute aerobic DVD's at home - but nothing that is pushing me to the limit.  Ultimately, if I want to see drastic results, I need to make drastic changes!

On Sunday night I decided to try another Jillian Michael's DVD called Shred it with Weights.  I bought this because I was intrigued by kettlebells and I wanted a workout that incorporated some weight training.  When I did the workout on Sunday, all I had was a dumbbell (which Jillian says is fine), however at the end I didn't feel as if I'd had a really good workout.  So, on Monday night I borrowed a friend's 5kg kettlebell and tried it again - flip what a difference!  By the end of the 30 minutes I was seriously sweating like a pig and felt as if I had really pushed myself, so I would definitely say that this workout definitely needs a proper kettlebell to be effective.

I suppose that workout has taught me that it's very easy to fall into a pattern.  If I want to prompt my body to change, I'm going to have to keep it guessing about what is coming next - so I think the key to this is to make sure I'm doing a variety of activities.  I need to mix-up my workouts.  A bit of kettlebells, a bit of running, maybe a bit of swimming if I can summon the courage to put on a swimsuit!  I need to increase and vary my calories to keep my metabolism guessing.  And I need to watch that I'm not consuming too many 'dead' calories in things like alcoholic drinks!

I found this on Pinterest, and need to keep reminding myself that it's true!  Let's hope that changing things up a bit will give a better weigh in next Monday :-)

Day 5 of 30 Day Shred

I decided to get my shredding done early today, well, 4 o'clock early so I could spend the rest of the evening relaxing.  The morning was spent cleaning, doing laundry and then my usual 3.1 mile training walk at 12noon.  I got back at 1:15, just in time for a quick bowl of soup for lunch.  After lunch I finished the cleaning and laundry and then got on with preparing supper (I'm cooking a beef curry, which needs to cook for a few hours).  After that I decided to just get the DVD finished and that way, I can have a shower and enjoy my Saturday evening beef curry guilt free ;-).

Today's Walk

All total, my cardio activities today have burned 804 calories!  The good news today is that my muscles are far less achey today than they have been in the previous days.  I must be getting used to Level 1 and today I'm officially half way (through the first level)!  I'm slightly dreading what is coming next, but definitely looking forward to the results at the end.

In a couple of weeks our family is having a short break up north in Chester.  I knew this when I started the 30 Day Shred programme, but was tired of coming up with excuses so decided to start the programme anyway, knowing that I would only have 19 days to do it.  However, today I thought I could bring the DVD with me (how desperate is that?!).  I have a portable DVD player, and it's only 20 minutes - I could do it in our hotel room!  Well, we shall see if I still feel the same way in two week's time!  It would just be nice to keep going for the full 30 days, and also have some reassurance that by getting in my training every day I will be less likely to gain weight while we're there.