What the heck???

Bleary-eyed, I hopped onto the scales this morning. I hopped back off rfather more quickly, then tried again. It was an 'aaaaaaargh... OMG!' moment.

What on earth happened? How, when I've been exercising and eating sensibly, did that darned needle go up again? Not impressed at all.

But, hey, what the heck. It may just be a glitch... she says, hopefully. I won't panic just yet, I'll just keep on doing what I'm doing and see where we are in a few days time.

Onwards ever...

Feeling fighting fit

OK, so that isn't strictly 100% accurate but it ain't too far off either. Life feels pretty good.

Lovely hubby and I went for a fabulous two-hour stint at the gym over the weekend and had a whale of a time. It was brilliant, really quiet (there was a local half-marathon on which kept the numbers down), and even the showers were warm this time. We both LOVED it, and came out of there into the glorious spring sunshine buzzing with energy and dancing with joy! In fact we went for quite a long walk afterwards too.

That pesky asthma-beast behaved itself quite politely and let me do everything I wanted to, with only a little coughing to remind me he hadn't gone away completely. C'mon beast... it's about time you went into hibernation!

As to feeling fit, well a small proportion of me (mainly around the pecs and shoulders) is a tad achy-sore this morning, but that just proves I did some work, n'est ce pas?

I decided to mix things up a little and do some different cardio stuff, rather than my usual routine, and also to add in some additional weights work. It went really well, although I struggled with the newer version of the elliptical (see picture) to begin with, at least until I got the hang of it and got into my stride. For some reason I started off backwards on this new one!

It's amazingly different to the old-style one that I'm used to using, but in a good way as it's very smooth. I shouldn't really be surprised, I guess. After all, the new stair-stepper is a world away from the squeaky, clunky older ones too. Hmmm, one other thing I noticed was that I am urgently in need of a new gym bra. The old one doesn't really fit any longer and certain parts of my anatomy were somewhat less comfortable than the norm. Must do something about this, pronto.

I do love our gym - there's none of the neon-lycra-clad poseur brigade about it's clientele and it is so good to have well-qualified and helpful staff at hand to show you exactly how to set up and use 'new' bits of gym equipment correctly. I had almost worked it out for myself, but confirmation from one who 'knows' is very reassuring.

The daily morning rowing stints are going pretty smoothly too (if still a bit of a daunting prospect when the alarm goes off at 5 a.m.!), and I'm looking around for other abs exercises I could use in our all too short period of time in the mornings, to give me a little variation in what I do.

From a food standpoint, things are also back to going pretty well. I was a bit naughty last week (actually quite a lot naughty, and paid for it with a smallish gain) but am back to sense and good healthy eating again so that excess should come back off without too much trauma.

Onwards ever...

A bad way to lose

Me and my big mouth!

Oh boy, I had to do it, didn't I? Go and open said big mouth and suggest that, when lovely hubby came to meet me from work last night, we visited out local Chinese restaurant for dinner.

So we did, and I chose pretty sensible options, I thought - a mostly grilled meat startery type thing and a soup noodle main (of which I could only manage less than half).

Unfortunately, my 'sensible' choice has rather backfired on me in the sense that, last night, I spent an inordinate amount of time visiting the bathroom. This hit me as soon as we got home and, while I shan't go into graphic detail, just leave it that the region between my navel and knees is not at all comfortable and anything other than plain water (warm please) is not remotely on the cards today!

My lovely hubby kindly pointed out this morning that this 'event' undoubtedly meant I would see a drop in the scales. Er, he may be right - in fact I'd guess he probably is. Frankly, right now, I would rather forgo the loss. Grrr!

Update: OK, I don't feel 100% fabulous, but the 'episodes' seem to have reached their conclusion and a walk in the fresh air has helped me feel a whole lot better. Talk about Spring cleaning!

Move it

OK, so the gym and the rower has been off the agenda for a while (Grrr! Thanks asthma, I don't think!) but that doesn't mean I haven't found some ways to keep my posterior moving.

Most of this has been through walking, using the stairs not that tempting lift, and some half-hearted abs stuff. Sure, it's been a wheezy experience a lot of the time, but I have not given up. And it's this movement that has largely helped to save my bacon, I think, and means I haven't turned back into the giant flab monster once again. And, just let me assure you, it wouldn't take all that much.

Constant vigilance is definitely the watchword for keeping weight off, methinks. Seeing it as a 'lifestyle' choice not a diet, and remembering the health reasons for wanting to lose the weight from the beginning, is of the essence.

Making sure I move every single day, even if not up to my usual standards, is such an important thing for this fat lass. I just cannot stress enough how much it helps me, nor how different this is to my previous way of life in my obese days when a nice sit down was my aim for much of the time. Even if I 'could do better', doing something is vital. In many ways, doing at least 'some' exercise is as, if not more, important than good eating these days.

That's not to say I could (or would even want to) go back to my old bad habits in the food department. It's amazing to think I would miss my fresh fruit and veggies and oatmeal far more than I would enjoy a bowl of chips, a box of chocs or a full English fry-up.

Somehow though I can understand the change in my tastes, and this helps keep the eating on track. But never in my life was I ever someone who was considered (or considered myself) remotely 'sporty' and I am actually a confirmed exercise-phobe... particularly if 'exercise' involves any sort of 'team' activity. Bleh!

I can't begin to account for my sea-change in approach to movement. I suppose finding things I can do which pander to my 'loner' tendencies has been of great help. Walking and my indoor rowing is not competitive in the least and that works for me. Whatever the cause of the change in 'me' I'm just grateful for it.

Finding what works 'for me' has been the biggest help to getting the weight off in the first place and keeping it off. I guess the message in this is to listen to your body and figure out what it is trying to tell you. When you've heard what it has to say, and understood what it wants from you, do your body a favour and act on its requests. But if you don't get it quite right at first and it needs a little tweaking, then tweak. Between you, you'll figure it out.

Incentive

My lovely hubby has given me a great incentive to get my motivation kicked up a notch. Er, we made the mistake of looking at the sale rail in East at the weekend...

I came away from there the proud new owner of a 'target' dress, in deep purple merino wool, fitted at the bodice then A-line skirted, which, being soft and slinky wool, slinks across every little bump and wrinkle.

My mission (and I've chosen to accept it) is to minimise those bumps and wrinkles to provide a smooth(er) canvas for the beautiful dress.

OK pounds. Your days are numbered. It's gloves off time, and I am coming out of this the winner.