On the chart

A few months ago, at hubby’s suggestion, I created a wall chart where I could mark off my weight loss progress. Not being very artistic, I did it in the form of a word doc with a table showing every pound from 15 stone 10 (220 lbs), my starting point, down to my goal weight of 10 stone (140 lbs). I bought a load of different coloured stickers and stuck it to the fridge. For the next few weeks I dutifully stuck my stickers on every morning as I hovered between 15 stone 10 and around 15 stone 8, going up and down and not making much progress, and then I started to gain weight, getting up to a high around the beginning of this year of 15 stone 13.6, just shy of 16 stone. I wasn’t even on the chart.

When I started making changes at the beginning of this year and got motivated, I printed off a new chart, since most of the top line of the old one was already obliterated with stickers so I couldn’t even see the numbers. I couldn’t really start it at my new starting weight as there wasn’t room for any more cells in the table while keeping it to one page. So for the past three weeks I have been waiting to lose enough weight that I could actually start using the chart again. Regular readers will know that despite my best efforts, I have been hovering between 15 stone 10.5 and 15 stone 12 for the last few weeks, some days up and some days down. But I didn’t get discouraged and kept on doing what I knew to be the right thing – exercising gradually more and making good food choices without being silly about it.

Yesterday I hit 15 stone 10 for the first time in a long while. Hubby asked if I was going to put a sticker on the chart, but I figured, recent history suggested that the next day I’d be back up to 15 stone 11 and off the chart again. But ’twas not so. This morning I clocked in at 15 stone 9.4. Finally, the scales have started moving down and I am back on the chart. It was a really special moment. I never thought I would be so happy to weigh in at 219.4 pounds! But that 15 stone 10 barrier has become something of a sticking point for me and to finally break through it felt wonderful. I dutifully stuck two stickers on the chart on the fridge, one for yesterday and one for this morning. Yay!!!

Last week I clocked over three hours of exercise in total, although it dropped off significantly towards the end of the week. On Friday I was ill enough to have to take the day off work, and I simply can’t face cardio at the moment. But I did manage to squeeze in my third weights workout on Thursday night, and even managed three sets on two of the exercises, hence, increase the weights next time round. And last night we were out for dinner at friends’ house. I probably should have cancelled but we get to see them so rarely because he works shifts and it had been scheduled for ages, so I drugged myself up and round we went. It was a lovely evening, but he served TWO desserts. He had bought a chocolate tart because his home made cider jelly hadn’t set properly. Then it did set, so he served both. And despite it being gorgeous, I didn’t eat all the chocolate cake. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t finish a dessert. Probably never. And I had a tiny glass of wine, which went very well with the cold and flu pills I had taken earlier, and a grand time was had by all. Overall, I am feeling very positive at the moment about my prospects of finally making some lasting changes, and that hasn’t been the case for a long while.

Feeling rough

Weight back down again this morning with little change in body fat, so that’s an improvement. Have had a bit of a cough but at work this afternoon I started getting a sore throat, painful swallowing and ear ache. By the time I got home I felt dreadful and went straight to bed. Up for an hour this evening and singing the praises of paracetemol (acetominophen) but no workout. Lots of fluids and an early night.

Not much to report

Weight up again this morning to 15 stone 12, but body fat back down under 46%. Is it possible to put on a pound and a half of muscle in two weeks? Just had a quick squizz around the internet. The answer is…apparently not. Not much else to report really. Weights today, and up to two sets on a couple of my exercises. When I can do all three recommended sets I will up the weight. Also, I did 10 minutes on the stationary bike whilst watching TV (a programme about teenage obesity – great motivation). I hate that thing. But I can probably incorporate 10 minute sessions into my week every now and then.

18 minutes in the morning

Weigh day today. Up 0.6 lbs from last week and down 0.2% BF. Hmm. On the plus side, hubby and I were going straight from work to a concert tonight so I knew that I wouldn’t be home till late and wouldn’t want to do my interval workout. So, get this, I got up early and did it before work! Very out of character, but a relief to know it’s out of the way for the day. Distance was 4.8 RU again.

On a worrying note, I had a check up with the asthma nurse today. My asthma is under control but my blood pressure is a little on the high side: 130/90. It has been like that the last two times it was checked too. I’ve always taken solace in the fact that despite being overweight, out of shape, with a family history of cardiovascular problems and a 20-a-day habit for twenty years (I gave up ten years ago), my blood pressure has consistently been 120/80. The nurse scheduled me in to re-check in a couple of weeks, but I think my wake up call has finally arrived. Since I’m already doing what I need to do, though, I guess I just stick at it and hope it’s enough.

Weekend with friends

I have just got back from a weekend down in Nottingham with some friends of ours. Hi, quick wave to Rob and Helen if you’re reading this.

I took my workout stuff with me and improvised where necessary. Instead of resting my feet on a stability ball while doing decline push-ups, I got hubby to hold my feet in the air to get the same instability and ab workout. And instead of ellipticalling I took down Kathy Smith’s Belly Dancing DVD to try out and Helen very gamely tried it with me. It was good fun, but you need to do the full thing (54 mins including cool down and stretch) to get a good cardio workout, as the introductory 20-odd minute session is not very high tempo but is more about learning the moves. Once you know what you are doing you could probably get a decent, quick workout by just doing the second 20 minutes workout. Another advantage of this weekend was that hubby got a workout too by carrying the bag with my dumbells in!

We had dinner out on Saturday night and lunchtime today (Sunday) and I stuck to one course, ate well, and got my 7 minimum servings of fruit and veg both days. So feeling very pleased with myself. Missed my official weigh-in this morning so will do that tomorrow. The last time I weighed myself was Friday morning before work and I was shocked to see that my weight had gone up 2.2 pounds, but my body fat had dropped another whole percentage point to 45.1%. It does seem to be dropping very quickly – not that I’m complaining. It would be nice to see the scales go down too. Well, we shall see tomorrow morning.

Steps, thighs and videotape (yes, really)

Had a scheduled appointment with my physio this morning about my knee, which is a bit sore following the resistance workouts I have been doing. He told me off for trying to go too fast and I have been banned from doing the step overs and reverse squats until further notice. Thank god. Instead I am to do modified side step ups, half squats, and modified lunges for now. Will try and carry on with the other exercises in the workout though.

My thighs are still killing me, and I took part in a market research focus group this evening, so I didn’t get home till after 11pm. Didn’t want to get on the elliptical but I did it. This is so not like me. I’m loving it. The motivation, not the elliptical. Having said that, I did have one lapse into blubber-building behaviour. I had a healthy dinner before I went to the session as it didn’t start till 8.30, but not long after I got there they brought out the trolley with left over food from the earlier session. There was loads of it, and it all looked so good, and it was all just going to go in the bin. And they had fried plaice goujons with tartare sauce. Yummmmmm! I had a whole bowlfull despite not being hungry. So back to that elliptical, with my head hung in shame. I had to tag on an extra minute because my mind was wandering during my warm up and I missed the start of my higher intensity intervals. Tried not to look at the clock during the RPE 9’s but just give it my all, and after 18 minutes I had gone 4.8 (compared with 4.6 the day before yesterday). I have been thinking about it though and there is no way that can be 4.6 km. Most of the time I am doing recovery intervals at around 45 rpm. Say 4.8 random units (RU).

And as for the videotape… if you have been reading you will know that one of our TV stations has just started showing the whole back catalogue of Gilmore Girls, from the beginning. I screwed up the video last night and missed a double header today. And then I thought, well, I know how it turns out; it’s not real – it doesn’t really matter how they get there; and I’m trying to cut down on my TV viewing so 7 hours of GG per week isn’t really helping. So have told hubby (who is the only one who knows how to work the video – in my defence, when it was just a video I could work it fine but now there are forty six auxillaries plugged into the TV and each other, most of which I don’t use…) to cut me off cold turkey. No more GG. Rory will just have to grow up without me.

As for my stats, weight up 0.2 lbs this morning, body fat down slightly.

Owwww!

I hurt everywhere. Today I stepped up onto a kerb (sidewalk) and winced. Coming home and doing my resistance workout was not high on my list of fun things to do for myself. But I promised myself to just try and do one rep of each exercise, and any extra would be a bonus. As it happens, I didn’t do too badly. I fell just slightly short of my (admittedly fairly pathetic to begin with) rep count from my first run through of this routine on the lower body exercises, but actually did a little better on the upper body exercises. Feeling quite proud of myself.

Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed this morning to see that both my weight and body fat measurements had inched up, with apologies for the dreadful and unintended pun. I know that I mustn’t read too much into daily fluctuations and only look at overall trends, hence the ‘official’ weekly weigh in on Sunday mornings, but still… I had been feeling so self-righteous! Just remember, you can’t control what the scales do, you can only control your behaviour. And I am quite proud of my choices this week, so pat on the back for me, then. Yay!

Day 3

I thought it was hard doing the intervals on Saturday. I thought it was even harder doing the resistance session yesterday. But that was nothing to doing it again today when I hurt everywhere. Cardio interval day today. I have a sneaking feeling that I didn’t work quite as hard on my RPE 9 intervals as I did on Saturday, tiring though they were, because I didn’t have a strong desire to vomit when I finished them. I guess at a constant incline, distance travelled would be a good indication. It was 4.6 km today – sadly though I didn’t make a note of what I did last time. I’ll keep an eye on this though. And I did feel better afterwards. Until I have to walk up the stairs tomorrow at work.

The Great 1-Month Slim Down

That’s the title of the workout and eating plan in this month’s Self magazine. I’m going to try and follow the workouts – the ‘diet’ consists of tips for healthier choices, nothing really relevant to my lifestyle and/or nothing I don’t already know. Yesterday I did the 18-minute interval training session and today I attempted the resistance workout that goes with it.

I didn’t fare particularly well, but I was kind of expecting that. It’s been quite a while and some of the moves are quite tricky. So I decided beforehand to begin with one set of each exercise and gradually work my way up to the suggested three. As it was, I didn’t complete an entire set of anything, and as for the Power Pike…not a chance. Couldn’t manage even one without falling off the ball. Settled for decline pushups with my lower legs resting on the ball and will gradually work up from there.

Today was weigh day. My weight held steady from last week, but my body fat was down over a percentage point. Let’s hope it stays that way. I’m feeling pretty motivated and positive at the moment though. I think I will do another 20-minute cardio workout this evening. I’ve got a couple of Kathy Smith DVDs that I haven’t tried out yet. I bought them because I was so impressed with her Latin Rhythm Workout and I’ve heard good things about her other titles. So I’ve got step and belly dancing to try. Think I might try beginners step before my legs seize up from the Hot Stepper and Reverse Squats I did earlier, and because my abs are still sore from teaching my pilates class on Thursday – it’s been about a month since the last class with the break over the holiday and I haven’t been doing my own practice. And I was only demonstrating the moves – I have a feeling my beginners will be feeling a bit more sore than they were expecting!

Some positive changes

Well, it hasn’t been too bad a week overall – I’ve added a few extra servings of omega-3-rich food to my diet, drunk a little extra water (although still not enough), turned off the TV more, and picked a healthy option at a restaurant. Have been a bit chesty recovering from an infection so haven’t done any exercise, but decided to start today and did an 18-minute interval training session from this month’s Self magazine. Despite only 3 1/2 minutes of intervals in an 18-minute workout, it kicked my ass. The two 30 second RPE 9 intervals in particular. I’m still on the elliptical, one of my least favourite cardio machines, because of my knee. Actually, if I’m honest, almost any given cardio machine could take the title of “my least favourite cardio machine”! The only one I really like is the treadmill, but I couldn’t do high intensity intervals on the treadmill without doing a serious injury to my knee, hence putting me out of operation for several weeks. Tomorrow, I will try the resistance workout from the same issue.

With regard to TV viewing, my new year’s gift to myself, I won’t even call it a resolution because I don’t expect it to be too hard to follow, is no more violent/crime TV. I have never watched horror films, but do watch quite a bit of CSI, NCIS and Law & Order – the first two mainly because my husband likes them, although I do like Law & Order – well, the order part at least, the law part often leaves me feeling very depressed. And I have started to have nightmares based on these shows. I already stopped watching the Cold Case type shows because they were just too sad. So now, I have decided to not watch things about rapes and murders and criminals and perverts and monsters. Life can be awful enough without adding to the horror burden with fictional versions. This should have had the effect of drastically reducing my TV consumption, except E4 has just started running the entire seven seasons of the Gilmore Girls, from the beginning, every day. I will continue to watch these until I get too depressed about how real life just isn’t like Stars Hollow. Until then…at least no more nightmares.