Once again, I've neglected you for way too long. But since Joel and I became regular gym bunnies, I've been far too busy in the evenings to fill out a blog - not to mention making healthy slimming teas! But Joel has been magnificent in the healthy tea department, constantly encouraging me to eat more vegetables with our meals, and pressing me to eat fruit during the day. If it wasn't for him, quite frankly, I'd probably have sunk further back into my old ways by now - but now our trolley always contains at least 1/4 of green contents, and every tea we cook has at LEAST one portion of veg.
Truly, my habits have changed remarkably in the last month or so. I found myself gaining about 7 pounds and then losing it all again. Having sunk into a bit of a "can't be arsed" attitude lately - I re-read my entire SW book again and got back to basics. I started filling in my Food Diary every day, as opposed to forgetting by Wednesday, I planned my meals and stopped spending money in the staff canteen. Any SW meals I made at night, I'd take the leftovers to work, for lunch. Every time we didn't have leftovers, I'd take a veritable feast of snacks instead - apple, Hi Fi bars, Baby Bel (lites), tiny "Whirly" bars, 4-syn packets of French Fries..... and for lunch, a Mugshot, ham-and-extra-lite-mayo-on-wholemeal-bread sandwich, and a tin of mackerel in tomato sauce (a recently acquired favourite!).
Louise and Alex are still doing brilliantly - Louise has hit her 2 stone and Alex is a mere pound off her Club 10 target, so have decided to nab some spare certificates off Joan and post them to London as a surprise! Sadly my next target is still miles away - I have 5 pounds still to go before I hit my stone-and-a-half..... and half a stone to go before I hit my Club 10. Oh well!
The next few weeks at Group should be interesting, too. We've got a party/Taster evening tomorrow night, and the week after we're drawing the Free Raffle and awarding the person highest on the Easter-themed "Ladder to Success" chart we have, that maps the biggest weight loss in Feb/March (I'm currently 2nd!)
Not to mention the gym. Joel and I have been going now for 8 solid weeks, earning me not only a bronze, silver, but also a GOLD award for Body Magic, which is just BRILLIANT:
Being publicly acknowledged for exercising is pretty great, to be honest. I no longer feel so lazy and lethargic all the time, and I keep trying to better myself every time I go. I won't go into details of times, levels, records and weights (as it then just becomes boring), but I can feel myself improving loads. More than anything, it makes me realise just how little I was actually doing when I went to the gym about 4 years ago. I never left aching and sweating like I do now. I used to merely try lifting weights and such - but since a gym-bunny friend from work told me how to PROPERLY use a gym, I've improved my regime in spades. He told me I didn't need to focus on weight-lifting, as that was only made to tone my muscles. What I REALLY needed to do was focus on shifting excess weight first, and then think about toning later - which makes sense, of course.
So now, instead of lifting weights etc.... I split my time between the cross-trainer, the treadmill and the bike. I can't run on the treadmill at all, thanks to my huge..... "tracts of land," and lack of a decent gym bra, so I just start off with a gentle 10-minute walk to warm up - followed by 15 minutes on the cross-trainer (during which I stare out at the vast car park and devise mathematical mini-quizzes to distract me, eg: how many red cars are there, how many walking people are there, how many times can you spot the letter "A"? etc... etc...), followed by 15 minutes spent alternately on the arm-weights, thigh-presses and leg-flexes (I don't know official names) and ended with 20 minutes on the bikes - Level 1, 10km in total every time. I've got into a routine now, where I can cycle 1km in 1:45 minutes, so frantically doing mental maths trying to figure out when my next kilometre is due really takes my mind off the pain! And there's a song I listen to over the last 5 minutes, when my entire body is desperately ready to give up and I just need one final push: "Don't think," by the Chemical Brothers.
Being able to listen to such mindless, pounding, relentless beats somehow really really helps - and it's great for just burning your brain out, ignoring the aching legs, and screaming the frustrations of the day out in your head. Good times!
xxxxx
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