The Post-Christmas One

I have indulged in all sorts of festive goodies and unhealthy delights for the past 72 hours and counting. It has been sublime. And so far I have only put on 2lbs (although no doubt this will be more once my body has taken all the carbs and fat and stuck them on my belly).

To counteract the overindulgence, which I had very much anticipated and fully accept as having happened, I have started not one but TWO 30 day challenges. The 30 day squat challenge and the 30 day abs challenge. I think I’m going to aim for both of these to be completed before I jump in the shower each morning. That way, I can start my day safe in the knowledge that I have done something positive already. So if the day starts going downhill, and (god forbid) I skip the planned gym session, I won’t beat myself up about it too much and then eat unhealthy food to make myself feel better. Pre-empting the vicious cycle…sneaky!

So, this new year’s resolution which millions of people the world over will have in their back pockets to lament about on the 1st January 2016, to lose weight, has already started for me! How smug I feel right now.

 

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Let the Christmas feasting begin

To start the aforementioned Christmas feasting, I have indulged in an entire tub of Cookie Dough Ben and Jerry’s. Lo and behold, I’m more than 1000 calories over my daily allowance today, even though I made a valiant effort to  go to the gym this morning.

So my mission over the next two weeks is just to MAINTAIN MY WEIGHT. This is going to involve record-breaking amounts of self-control and some form of exercise. However, I’m away for two weeks so I won’t have the trusty gym or my Jillian Michaels DVDs to save me. Which means the focal point of the festive period will be that little chestnut which I rarely manage to demonstrate, self-control. 

Shit.

 

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Ticking along

We are now on Saturday. The fitbit arrived this week and has been firmly strapped to my wrist since the second it was finished charging. And I have to say, it seems to be a big motivator. I have a constant visual reminder that I am trying to lose weight – having it there makes me want to move around more so that I hit my step goals, and it also makes me conscious of what I’m eating because I’m oh-so-aware that I will have to log it.

I know it’s a little keen but I have weighed myself since getting the fitbit and I’ve already lost 1lb. Wooooo! I’ll try not to throw myself into the premature celebrations just yet – I’m all too good at that.

So for now, I’m ticking along nicely. I’ve managed to convince myself that I only need one day off per week from logging my food (in recent weeks I’ve been over eating on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays then purposely not logging my food and just telling myself that they are ‘days off’). Now, Friday is the day off – it is usually my date day with the non-married-hubby – and it means that I can enjoy myself guilt-free, and jump straight back on the bandwagon the next day. This morning that was kick-started with a carb-free small cooked breakfast and a circuit session. And let’s be honest, I feel far better about myself for the start of this weekend now that it’s begun on such a good note that I will be more likely to keep it up. When I can’t be bothered to exercise on Saturday morning, despite having ample time to get to the gym or having a free house to do some circuit training, I then continue that lazy attitude for the following 48 hours and all of a sudden it’s Sunday evening and I’ve just undone the week’s hard (relatively) work.

So, let’s see if this continues.

It’s time to get serious

It has been far too long my friends. As expected, I fell right off that bandwagon and face first into a vat of Ben and Jerry’s. Predictable. However, I have invested in a fitbit device (£45 from Tesco, what a steal!) and I’m determined to ensure that it’s money well spent. So that means, it’s time to get serious.

I’m hoping that by holding myself accountable for my binge eating and lazy days, I will be motivated to have some self-restraint when it comes to food and some get-up-and-go when it comes to exercise. Also, I follow so many incredible people on Instagram who have lost pounds upon pounds of weight through sheer grit, sweat, and determination, so it’s about time I stop being a giant (literally) twat about this and GET IT DONE.

Watch this space.

Starting weight: 18st7 (although that was in the afternoon with my shoes on…)

Sometimes you have to start again

So I can’t even remember the last time I went on here, and I can’t remember what my weight was at the time. It’s safe to say that I reached a lovely place in my weightloss journey and then it all came crashing down.

However, I won’t be crestfallen or defeated. Sometimes you have to restart things a few times before you succeed. And goodness knows I’ve restarted my weightloss journey a few (million) times. But hey, nobody’s perfect! And if something is worth having, it’s worth fighting for.

So let’s start with today as DAY ONE OF THE REBOOT. I have weighed in and I will henceforth be weighing on Wednesdays…so we shall now rename them Weigh In Wednesdays. Catchy.

So the starting weight is 18 stone. To be honest, I’m still at a -13lb loss since this time last year so I’ve already given myself a head start, right?

I’ve got a couple of weeks off before I start placement again so I was hoping that I would be able to push myself into doing more than one workout a day. Since that plan was made in my little head, I have worked out only once a day (although the plan was only created and envisaged on Saturday and today is Wednesday). Today was the first day of two workouts and MY GOSH PEOPLE I FEEL TIRED. But better to be tired because of exercise than tired because you’re a big, fat, lethargic beast who eats all day. Which is what I was for two weeks of this summer due to a lovely holiday filled with lots of food and wine.

Anyway, my goal is going to be half a stone loss by my birthday (end of October). According to wiifit I need to be averaging -3lbs every two weeks. So I need to get a shimmy on and start making positive choices with my consumption and moving myself around a little more.

Right. In the words of a well-known sports brand, I need to JUST DO IT.

Too busy to diet and exercise

WHAT AN EXCUSE!

But, alas, this is true. I am just far too busy to think about healthy eating or to get down to the gym. And I’ve had one horrific cold for the past week so that’s also taken me out of action.

So I’m having a week off. It all starts again on Monday. I think this is a fair enough plan. I’m not going to kill myself off when I’m ill – I have too many responsibilities and commitments…I’m a very busy and important gal! So instead I’m going to eat enough food for my body to recover quickly, chill out at home in the evenings instead of burning off all of my energy at the gym, and generally calm everything down for a few days.

I’m all over this idea right now, but if I weigh in on Monday and find that I’ve put on a stone then I’ll be rethinking doing this again!

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The “Eureka Moment”

Okay so everyone who has been on a weightloss journey will have experienced what I like to call the “Eureka Moment”. This is when you realise that your hard work and dedication is actually paying off, you really have something visible to see as a result of everything you have deprived yourself of eating and every time you have forced yourself to work out.

For me, that moment was today. I have a pretty snazzy plaid shirt which I have never been able to do up (I have a habit of buying nice clothes despite the fact that they’re too small for me – MASSIVE denial problem). But today was the day that I, purely by accident because I didn’t realise I was even able to, could do up every single button on that damn shirt. Hell yeah. EUREKA BITCH.

So to celebrate, I went and bought myself some more clothes. Well, it had to be done.

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Drifting off here…

So we’re on day three of the 5:2 diet and day one of the fast days for this week. My calorie intake today, as of 3.40pm, has been approx 200 calories – half a tiny tin of mackerel and some dressing-free salad. The first two days were eating days and I was fine: healthy eating, no over-eating, and workouts on both days. But today…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No deal Noel. This is hard work. I’m waning, I actually feel like I’m physically waning. Is that even a thing? I don’t know. But my concentration levels are non-existent, my energy levels have plummeted through the floor and I feel like my head is going to explode with the fuzzy weird vibes that are filling it.

And my stomach? OH MY GOD I NEED FOOD. That’s what my stomach is screaming at me. But I can do this. I need to power through. I can power through.

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Struck down

So this past week (week number 3 of the exercise regime) has been a complete bust. I’ve been struck down by a cold and a cough which has resulted in me feeling completely lacklustre and unmotivated. I did one high intensity workout last Monday and THAT WAS IT. Disgraceful.

This is the recurring pattern I experience. Usually about two weeks of super-motivated exercising and then it all goes a bit kaput. So let’s ignore week three and chalk it up to an illness. Moving on! I read somewhere last week (probably on Instagram, I’ve become obsessed with following inspirational weightloss journeys and reading about how well other people are doing, and seeing how god damn dedicated they are) that weightloss is 25% exercise and 75% food. Now this makes sense. That first week I was working out tirelessly and didn’t get the result I wanted. But to go along with the exercise, I was eating a hella lot of bad stuff. So, announcement time. Today is day one of the 5:2 diet! Waheyyyy. How jolly exciting. So let’s stop getting so physical and start getting some self-control over food shall we? Obviously it goes without saying that I missed my 7am gym trip this morning (I have a semi-legitimate excuse here: I was woken in the middle of the night by the on call phone and I was coughing the rest of the time so basically I didn’t get a single wink of sleep). However, I did go swimming yesterday and I did so many lengths I’m feeling the burn today, so maybe later I’ll squeeze in a high intensity workout to boost myself up for the week. Start as I mean to go on! I’m quite glad my fast days aren’t until Wednesday and Thursday this week….I’ll decrease portion sizes for three days so they won’t be such a shock to the system when the food stops going in.

Oh, and before I forget. Today was weigh-in day and yes, I lost 2lbs! Shock. Maybe it was being ill? So I’m now standing firm at 17st8lbs. If I stick at this diet I’m pretty confident that I can smash through the 17st marker by Valentine’s Day. However, that will involve some super discipline. So we’ll see how it all goes…

 

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Confession

Okay so I’ve got a confession to make. Due to an intolerable illness completely wiping me out for the past 48 hours, I haven’t done a speck of exercise since Monday. And I may have gone a bit carb happy in the process.

Okay okay, seeing as this is a confession, perhaps I should be more honest about the illness. So it’s a cold. And a pretty mild one to be honest. Nevertheless, I’ve been achey and coughing and generally feeling crappy around the sinus area since Monday evening and I’ve completely used it as an excuse to have carb blowouts and lazy days.

But to be honest, if I power through colds then they just get worse. I have an incredibly shit immune system and my body needs time to repair itself. I’ve got to the wise old age of 24 and realised that sometimes your body just wants you to rest. And if you don’t rest then it will make you rest, because you’ll be too ill to move. So I’m listening to my body. A key part to this weightloss journey. Listen to your body.

Tomorrow, health-depending, I should be back on it. Oh and the speculations about whether to go back on the 5:2 have come to fruition and it starts on Monday. Low carb, high protein, fasting on two days. Those be the rules bitches.

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