At Least It’s Going Down.

Busy week again. Lots of gym and zumba. So approached weigh in quite a boyant mood.

Stood on the scales and bam!! No I didn’t break them!! I had put on a pound!?!?! Ohhh man!!!

It feels such a misjustice! I did 506 minutes of exercise since my last weigh in last Wednesday, and that is just the stuff I remembered to put my Heart Rate monitor on for. That is 8 hours and 23 minutes sweating and pushing my fat, flabby, body. Aaaggghhhh!!!! Soooo not fair!!!

After our Kardy class I headed home, thankfully driving past the fish and chip shop which seemed very appealing tonight.
Walking through the door The Boy was on quite good form. Our conversation went like this.

Me “Put 1 on”
Him “What?”
Me “I’ve put a pound on.”
Him “Oh, thats not so good then”
Me ” Its pants last week I put on 2lbs and this week I put on 1″
Him “Well at least it’s going down”
Me “But its not!! Thats the point!! I’ve PUT ON a pound not lost it!”
Him “Yeah, but last week you put on 2 this week you put on only 1, so the amount you are putting on is going down!”
Me “Ummmm I guess that makes sense.”
Him “Yeah I do sometimes”.

Fat Attack

My weight has been a bit of an arse lately. Its not shifting, 2 weeks running it has stayed the same after 3 previous weeks of it going up and down. Now before you say it, I have already done the tape measure, that hasn’t shifted either. So I’ve done it. I’ve done the deed, (not killed The Boy contrary to popular belief). I’ve joined a gym.

I had my induction on Saturday. I told the PT bloke that I wanted to do resistance and weights training as I get plenty of cardio doing zumba and Kardy at Rpsemary Conley 4 or 5 times a week. So he set me a routine for starters. On Wednesday at 6:30am (yes that is an am! must be bloody mad!!) I am having another session with him to sort another one (more legs, lower body and core muscle areas) so I have a bit of variety.

Sunday I did my first full session.

The routine so far goes:

5 to 10 mins on crosstrainer (I have always loved this bit of kit) as warm up
3 x 15 leg presses
3 x 15 chest presses
3 x 15 lat pull downs
3 x 15 shoulder presses
3 x 15 free weight biceps curl
3 x 15 something else I can’t remember the name of
3 x 15 something involving a double ended rope handle and my biceps.

After I felt good, but a wee bit tired and the old muscles were definitely feeling it. By the evening it felt like someone had injected concrete into my thighs and my pectorals (yeah I have some). Despite the pain (which in a perverse way was rather pleasant), last night I decided I might head to the gym this morning before work. This would mean being there for 6.30 and squeezing in a 30 min session.

When I got there a queue was forming by the doors, most of which were what I will call the older generation who were obviously up with the larks. The doors opened and in we went, the majority of the others headed to the pool for a nice swim. Some others (younger gym goers) headed to  a class of some sort.

I went into the gym ready for a session. Only 1 other person in there! Win! With muscles still aching from yesterday I started the work out. Managed to get through most of it, but by the time I got to the ‘3 x 15 something else I can’t remember the name of’, I was struggling. I did complete the session, but instead of 3 x 15 reps I did 1 x 15 reps, 6 x 5 reps.

A quick shower, hair dry and war paint on I got to work just 15 mins later than I normally do. Hopefully over time I will get into a routine this will be quicker.

I’m not sure I will go tomorrow morning, as I don’t want to over kill the body. Being able to move is quite important to me and I will be there Wednesday morning anyway.
Anyway thats the latest. I have zumba tonight and tomorrow night (if I can move that is) so I will still be exerciseing tomorrow. Now I have some questions:

1. Because I am starting so early in the morning, should I eat breakfast before I go or after? Or do as I did today, eat a banana on the way and have another with a cereal bar after? (this might well change to something different as I get more organised)

2. If I am doing these extra sessions on top of my zumba classes, do I need to alter my calorie intake?

3. When will it stop hurting?

4. When will I be able to use my arms again?

5. What is it about gyms that people seem to think you have to get changed in front of everyone else, and wander around naked?? Why can’t they use cubicles?!?

6. What is the etiquette for getting someone off a piece of equipment when you want to use it and they are sat on it chatting on their phone?! Is walking by glaring in their direction the way to go? or do i have to be brave and ask them to shift?

7. The pain is my muscles burning fat, right?!?!?

8. I’m not doing too much am I? Too much exercise can be bad for your body I am sure.

Always keen to hear from others what they do in the gym. I don’t want to “bulk up”, just keep my metabolism up and get back to loosing weight. (oh and I am aware I might well put weight on as muscle devlopes so I am prepared for that). Got to keep up that fat attack!

Can’t Stop Eating

It has been a very strange week. For the last 3 months I haven’t felt hungry at all. But the last 7 days I seem to have been eating non-stop (staying within calorie intake limits) and I have craved bad (ie high fat) stuff, and given in.

At the weekend I had a doughnut. Well 2 actually. One good thing about having an 18 year old son who eats non-stop and is just pure muscle and not an inch of fat, is that he quickly hoovered up the remaining doughnuts. In fact it was his fault they were in the house!! He asked for £1 to get something for his pudding while I was cooking tea, and came home with 2 packs of 5 doughnuts! He had eaten 3 on his way back from the shop, then had another 2. Then I had one, and he had one, and I had another and he polished off the last 2. In fact in 2 hours he had eaten 8 doughnuts, a huge portion of chicken curry and 4 slices of toast! I know I didn’t have to have 2 or even 1. But they were there, and you know what they weren’t that great. Doughnuts should be covered in proper sugar not icing sugar. I hung my head in shame as I stood facing the wall (regressing back to primary school) after, however I did draw the line at running along the beach dragging 2 cement filled tyres singing Eye of the Tiger at full volume as a punishment suggested by a friend!!

Unfortunately my shame did not end with the doughnuts. I have also had 2 packets of cheese and onion crisps this week. First ones since December. They tasted soooooo good. They were the proper full fat kind which are apparently made using cheese from Somerset. They weren’t consumed on the same day, one on Friday and one on Monday. I hang my head in shame again. And we won’t talk about the Cadburys crème egg I had on Sunday and Monday. Oh and I’ve just remembered the 2 snack packs of seaweed peanut crakers I had yesterday at work for my breakfast.

I have no excuses for all this naughty eating. I have just been so hungry and really craving food. For the last 3 months I have found it hard to eat the amount of calories I should be eating and not been hungry at all, and now I seem to have no problem eating it. Thing is its not all been good stuff and I suppose because its naughty stuff it has higher calories and that’s why I am getting to my target intake most days. In my plan I am allowed to have a high calorie treat every day of about 100 calories. Doughnuts deffo are not only 100 calories. Perhaps because I have eaten this higher fat/sugar foods that is why I seem to be so hungry. I don’t know. If you were to look at my food diary on myfitnesspal you would see I have been 100% honest with what I have eaten, as there really is no point in lying to myself about it. A treat now and then is ok. Having as many as I have had in a week probably isn’t so good.

Unfortunately I haven’t made it to Zumba since my class last Thursday after weigh in. On my way to work on Friday my car decided it was going to play up so it swiftly (or rather not so swiftly) made its way to the garage and was where it was until Tuesday. This meant I couldn’t make it to Friday or Monday nights classes as they are about 25 minute drive away. My Tuesday night session was cancelled, and so the Zumba has had a bit of a break. I think I have only been twice in 2 weeks.. that’s bad.

However because of the lack of car I have done quite a bit of walking. Friday was the most, and not intentionally. After getting the car to the garage I said I would get the important stuff out of the car and give them the key. This I did, returned the key and walked a mile into town to catch the bus to work. I got to the bus stop and just as it was pulling up I realised in my hands I had my Zumba shoes and not my laptop!!! Aggghhhh!!!!!! Cursing myself I walked the mile back to the garage, retrieved my keys and swapped the shoes for the laptop (the shoes were sooo much lighter), and then walked the mile again back into town to catch the bus. Coming home I had a mile and half walk. So just on the Friday I had done just over 4 miles! I also walked into town and back on the Saturday, so that was another 3 miles. And then there was Monday when I had to walk to catch the bus to and from work, I did a bit of a cheat I went from a stop about 10 mins from my house. And then on the Tuesday I had to walk the 1/2 mile to the garage to collect the car.

Sunday I blitzed the house, from top to bottom. Even the skirting boards got a wet cloth waved at them! The boy woke up in a surprisingly good mood and also cleaned his room. With no encouragement (nagging/moaning from me!), he even changed his sheets! Then, and this is when I got really suspicious, he had a shower!! Nothing unusual in that I hear you say, but this is an 18 year old boy who thinks because he spends a large proportion of the year in the sea (he kitesurfs), it means he doesn’t need to shower often. But this was his second shower in 2 days! So I knew something was afoot! And it turned out I was right, he had got back with the ex-girlfriend, girlfriend ex-girlfriend girlfriend, and he was going to bring her back to the house. Now this is another milestone. He has never brought a girlfriend back to the house when I have been there. She unfortunately doesn’t like spicy food, so my planned Masala chicken had to be substituted for a plain old roast chicken, but it was nice to have her there even if it was that first time in boyfriends mothers house awkwardness to it. Hopefully she will relax a bit more as time goes by.

Last night was weigh in, have I lost anything after so eating non-stop for a week? The answer is yes! I’ve lost another 2lbs! thats 46lbs in total!

So going forward, I shall meet self-discipline and introduce it to my self-control, not let my son have high fat high calorie puddings in the house and most importantly, not give myself a hard time about slip ups, because they happen and I am after all, contrary to popular belief, only human.

Post Easter Weigh in

So Easter has been and gone. Did I stay off the chocolate? Not quite. I did only have 1 small (as in two mouthfuls and its gone) Lindt bunny, oh and about an old 50p piece size bit of chocolate from one of my sons eggs that he threw at me, oh and a rolo from one of his eggs and 8 mini eggs. But that was it, still stayed within my calories.

At the Easter lunch at my parents, I was very good and bypassed the lovely beautiful roast lamb and had the equally lovely roast chicken, and lots of veggies, no potatoes though.. (had to take those off my plate as someone had put them on there before I sat down).

I’ve not done much exercise this week, which is rather bad so I know as from tomorrow I am going to have to step it up a gear in that respect again. I have been working through lunches again to try and make some money back on the 2 days off I had to have over Easter weekend. It has also been bloody cold. I am very much a winter baby, I love the winter time and the cooler weather, but even for me this winter has been going on for far too long. It was snowing at work today, Snowing!!! It’s time the weather sorted itself out got that warm air current back up and over England.

After last week’s disappointment on the job front I decided I wouldn’t let it get me down and have since applied for about 6 other jobs. Really thinking a change of career is needed. I really like a challenge, so perhaps someone will have what I want and I will have what they want. If this can be discovered in the next week though that would be fab!.

So back to the exercise tonight after my weigh in. Zumba was fun. Probably do Zumba tomorrow night as well. If it’s going to warm up over the weekend as we have been promised then I think I might go up on the downs and have a walk up there for a change.

Now the weigh in. I was sure I had put on, even though I never went over my calorie intake, I think it was the lack of exercise that has put the doubt in my mind. With a lot of reluctance I stood on the scales… I’ve lost 3lbs!!! 3 blooming pounds!!!! That means I’ve lost 3 stone and 2lbs (44lbs) in 12 weeks! I’ve hit my 3 stone goal! So so so happy!

But I do have to question why again on a week where I have done less exercise than normal I’ve lost more weight, aren’t our bodies strange things?!
Perhaps I shouldn’t question it too much.. just look at my weight loss graph!

I Would Just Like To Say….

Everytime I log on to my blog it surprises me when I see people have taken the time out of their busy lives to read my ramblings.

When I sit tapping away on my phone, often in a popular coffee chain (no not the tax avoiding one) using their free wifi, I worry if what I write is really of interest to anyone. As I have said before I started it as cathartic exercise. Living with just my son who is not really interested in listening to me ramble on (like most 18 year olds of their parents), it provides a great way of escaping and expressing how I feel and what I’m doing.

I have always written privately. When I am really upset with someone I will often write a letter. You remember those? The old pen and paper thing? I write how I feel, how they made me feel, and everything I wanted to say to them but couldn’t face to face. When talking face to face I am always scared I am going to get too emotional (which I normally do) and then I start getting my words mixed up, forget what I really want to say or I just shut up and nothing gets resolved. (Thats is often the problem when I am having a “discussion” with the boy). While writing it all down I will often get quite emotional, and my eyes will often leak as I was writing it, but that is fine as it is private and I have permission from me to cry if I feel I needed to. Then I read though it and when I am done more often than not I destroy the letter. I think I have only actually sent about 2 of the letters I have ever written in this way.

Just getting it all down on paper, letting it all out is a great way to get my head around things, say what I want to and put things into perspective. The whole act of destroying the letter is almost like a putting an end to the issue, and I feel a lot happier about moving on. Even if it means I am the only one to read it.

My blog, with my letter to The Boy on his 18th, was very much a return to the letters I write. I knew sitting him down and trying to remember and say all the things I wanted to wasn’t going to work. Not to mention the fact he would probably take the piss and make silly comments which would totally derail what I wanted to do. I know he read it, I don’t know what he felt about what I wrote as he never discussed it with me (still waiting for my hug), but I hope that some of it went in and that he took it in the way it was intended, a letter of hope from a mother to her son.

On Thursday I did post a blog, made it public for a matter of 5 minutes but then deleted it. I think 2 people read it. The reason I wrote it was because I needed to let off steam a little about the boy, who had been a bit of a shit for a couple of days. Removing and deleting the blog was my way of putting an end to the issue and moving on, like the destroying of the letters.

So the writing of my blog is rather like my letters of old. And I hope for you they make sense, that they aren’t too boring, too self obsessed and perhaps that they are more often than not a little interesting and possibly entertaining.

So I just want to say thank you for your support and encouragement, and for your metaphorical kicks up the bum. I am amazed so many people from all over have read it, liked it, commented on it, shared it, or sent me messages. It is really very humbling and it is a great boost when I find myself having a bad day, facing a struggle or just feeling a little low.

Thank You
Beth xx

Eat More Lose More?

Well what a week. I decided after weigh in last week I would try as hard as possible to eat the number of calories I am meant to.

I have been finding it hard to eat as many as I should, and I guess it’s a bit of psychological battle that I’ve had; having lost weight eating so few calories for the first month it seems alien to then increase the number of calories and continue to loose weight.

I still haven’t managed to make the full amount every day, but I have increased my intake and seem to be eating nearly all day! In my head I had decided that if I hadn’t lost weight this week then that was fine and I would just reduce my consumption again.

So anyway less of my waffle, I guess you want to know how much I’ve lost this week. Well to my surprise I’ve managed to lose 5lbs! FIVE BLOODY POUNDS!!! That means I made my 2 and 1/2 stone this week which is what I was aiming for. In fact it takes me 2lbs over! Total of 37lbs.

Now I’m going to bed to have a read of some more inspirational stories in my Rosemary Conely Diet and Fitness mag and hopefully find some yummy recipies to try.

Confession and a Weigh in..

Wow.. well what a week!

Things went a bit haywire on the 19th which was my sons 18th Birthday, culminating in the evening when I had a Steak dinner with him at our local Wetherspoons pub. It consisted of a large steak, chips, peas, ½ tomato and 1 mushroom. I did give ¾ of my chips to my son, so my meal was slightly less than the advertised 1001 calories!! (just). ONE THOUSAND AND ONE CALORIES!!!! Jjjjjjjjjjjjjjeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzuuuuuuuuuu!! Oh and on top of that there was the 4 large glasses of Rosé. That was a total of a whopping 1700 calories in one night. OOPS!!!!!

Oh and while I am confessing I also had a small (?) cooked breakfast in the morning. 2 weightwatchers sausages, grilled, 2 bacon medallions, grilled, 1 tbsp baked beans, 1 scrambled egg and a slice of tiger bread. Grand total of about 447 calories. Double opps!

I didn’t have lunch and I only snacked on a few grapes during the day (preparing my body for the influx of grape juice in the evening perhaps?!) and drank lots of water. We did do a lot of walking around Portsmouth so I am hoping at least some of that huge breakfast was worked off.

I obviously didn’t do Zumba on that night either, but I did go on Wednesday instead (which nearly killed me). And instead of getting a taxi to go and collect my car, I walked it (1.5 miles) early on the Wednesday morning so I think that’s another tick in the right box.

I am not going to beat myself up too much about the splurge on Tuesday night, after all its not every day your son turns 18 is it? Thank God!! I definitely lost a different type of pounds on that day! I thought as I had done so well for 5 1/2 weeks I could allow myself one night off.

So I come to the great weigh in. I know my instructor was hoping for 4lbs this week as that would make it 2 stone in 6 weeks. I had guessed Tuesdays splurge had ruined that aim. So I went with intrepidation and expecting a stern telling off, and I can tell you I lost……………………… 2lbs!! (and no telling off) Not bad me thinks and a darn sight better than I thought I would do, I just didn’t want to have put any on or lost nothing. So I am 2lbs of 2 stone. Next week its mine!!

Blooming ‘eck!!

So 5th week done. What a week! Head being all over the place and in a bad place for a good part of it, body objecting and aching and a couple of naughties. So I wasn’t expecting much tonight, if I was lucky a couple of lbs.

I went in confessed my sins and got told to stop putting it off and to stand on the scales. As you will have seen from my previous post I have struggled to eat all calories and I had a couple of weak moments. But the weak moments (all but one) still applied to the rule of 5% fat or less. The one that didn’t were some chicken wings, at least that wasn’t crips or chocolate.

I did one night when my head was in a very dark place walk up and down the crisp  aisle in Sainsburys checking how much fat was in all the various types. Even the supposedly healthy low fat ones were still well over 5%. I’m proud to say I walked away without buying any.

Next time you think you’ve brought healthy packet of crisps/snacks have a look at the fat percentage for 100g of them. Even those new Special K crisps are at least 9% fat! And Snack a Jacks (even though they say 8% less fat) are still 7% fat.

So anyway I guess you want to know what those dreaded scales said huh?  Well it was better than worse case scenario of putting on weight, and better than the 2lbs I hoped for. I lost 4lbs!! That is now a total of 24lbs in 5 weeks.. Blooming ‘eck how the hell did I do that?!?!

Raspberry Ketones

You can’t help but be aware of the latest miracle weight loss pills. Raspberry Ketones. As I am on this weight loss drive I was very interested in reading about them.From what I have read they claim that they can increase your weight loss by increasing your metabolic rate, giving you more energy and preventing your body from storing fat. I am not someone who likes to put anything artificial into my body, I hate taking pills, I take as little of my asthma inhalers as possible (much to my asthma nurses frustration) but I was curious.

All the hype about the these miracle pills on line seems to be from the manufacturers and they are being heavily endorsed by Dr Oz (some American TV doctor, no idea who he is but he is mentioned in many articles). Obviously the manufacturers will be putting lots of hype out there and as I have never seen Dr Oz I can’t comment on his opinions.

Having lost 17lbs in 3 weeks on purely reducing portion size, eating less fat and exercising more, I did for a fraction of a second think “wow a pill that will help me lose weight quicker!” And so I did look up about them and was very quickly taken in by the hype (its very well written and promises so much). I read more and more, even coming close to sending off for a free sample. But then the more I read the more I realised that would be daft. After all I have done so well already without them, and did I really want to put something that is synthetically made in a lab into my body, not to mention the cost.

There seems to be very little scientific proof that these work. All I can see is some tests on a couple of mice and test tube tests.

Lots of people are singing the praises of Raspberry Ketones, but after initial comments of “these are amazing I have lost so much weight/ 6lbs/4lbs/an inch/etc” (or something similar), they go on to say, “I’m eating less and exercising more, I have lots of energy.” So my first question is “don’t you think perhaps the weight loss is due to the eating less and more exercise which in turn gives you more energy rather than the pills?” In fact some have put very similar comments on posts but the original posters are so taken in by the hype of the pills that they can’t possibly see that that might be the case. I guess they see themselves losing weight and just assume the pill has done its “magic”.

I also saw quite a few posts from people who had actually put on weight whie taking them.

In order to ingest the recommended 100-milligram dosage required for the miracle effects, apparently you would have to consume 90 pounds of raspberries per day. As a result, the compound is produced synthetically in labs and made into pills, so it’s not even made from raspberries.

I also read more details about the side effects, excess wind (and not of the good type), diarrhoea, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate to name just a few. People with diabetes, heart conditions, high blood pressure, COPD, and asthma should all avoid them as they may aggravate the conditions

You also have to bear in mind that loosing large amounts of weight (I’ve had emails telling me I could “lose as much as 40lbs in a matter of weeks” and “fast weight loss of up to 4stone in weeks”), as these pills promise, in such short amount of time cannot be good for the body, and for those of us who are very over weight, would cause problems with excess skin as it would not have been given the chance to shrink at a normal rate.

I have come to the conclusion that these raspberry ketones (that have actually been around since the 60’s so are not new) are nothing more than a fad with no proper scientific proof that they work. It is manufacturers trying to cash in on the billion £/$ industry of peoples low self-esteem, low body image and weight loss, with skinny models posing with bottles of pills promising unrealistic goals. Ultimately it will be another fad that disappears off the radar over time, but in the meantime it will make the companies that make it a lot of money.

1st Zumba Class

You know those medical educational pictures you see detailing all the muscles in various parts of the body. Well we don’t normally think 1/2 of them because they are internal and not ones you see defined under our skin. Well tonight I discovered all of those hidden muscles.

After a bit of umming and erring and trying to get someone to come with me, I braved it by myself and went to my first Rosemary Conley Zumba class.

Well what can I say? I stood at the back of the class, next to a lovely slim lady who was very nice and said to just do my own thing and don’t worry about looking stupid. The music went up and we started. Well I have moved parts of my body in ways that I haven’t moved them for 19 years. Oh my god, I felt muscles I didn’t know existed. My rhythm might have been different to everyone elses, but no one cared. With arms waving about all over and legs doing who knows what, and then the hips, oh don’t talk to me about the hips! I had my own groove going on that loosley resembled what the girl taking the class was doing, and when I say loosley I mean loooosley.

But I survived! I made it through to the end.
My mind was saying “never again? I wonder if I could manage to go tomorrow night as well”.
My body was quietly sobbing and yelling “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO THAT FOR!?!?!?!?”
My heart was saying “can I slow down yet??!!”

So my first ever Zumba lesson, what can I say apart from…
“That was bloody good fun and lets do it again!”