That felt good

The aches and pains of the past couple of days were gone so by 8.30 this morning I was all kitted up and out the door.  I chose a flat route, a mere 16 feet of elevation change according to mapmyfitness, and an easy run 1 minute/walk 1 minute 30 (12 times for a total of 30 minutes.  I managed to cover 2.26 miles.  I then spent another 25+ minutes on my post-run stretches, so hopefully the aches won’t come back to haunt me.

There’s been a downside to all this fitness stuff (strictly first world problem lol).  My beloved “run addict” t-shirts, which used to be snug, are now impossible to get on.  I leave to your imagination the fun and games involved trying to get one off again (if you do manage to get it on) after a good run session!  So off to Absolute Running I go this morning.

All this exercising has changed my posture.  I now stand tall with my shoulders back instead of stooped and round shouldered.  When running I stride out more instead of shuffling along.

Now all I have to do is work out how to get water out of the little bottles on my water belt.  I pulled up the valve-thing and sucked like a baby, barely getting a drop.  In the end I took the lid off, during walk phases, and got my fill that way.

New start, new shoes

Even though I haven’t posted on here for a while I have still been doing my best to keeptake  Running with a complaining shoulder is no fun.  The constant moving and pounding soon had me reaching for the pain killers.   So I didn’t do very much.

What I did notice on those rare occasions was that my shoes didn’t feel right.  They were moving round on my foot, not very much but enough to make some bits sore.  So today, after seeing Neil, I headed to Absolute Running down in Gosport.  The young man in there put me through my paces on their treadmill before selecting a couple of pairs of shoes.  I tried them both, both on the treadmill and the pavement,  before deciding on these

And the best bit?  If, in the next 30 days, it works out that these aren’t right i can take them back.

Need to overhaul the wardrobe again

Two weeks ago tomorrow I tried on a pair of size 14 jeans.  They fit nicely and I wore them for several days before putting into wash.  Now normally if you wash jeans they shrink a little.  Not for me this time.  They seem to have grown a little.  So today I tried on some size 12 jeans – AND THEY FIT!!!!!!  Admittedly they’re a little snug – and will no doubt shrink a little in the wash – but THEY FIT.

Once we get into September I’ll be blitzing the wardrobe.  I kept some nice trousers (size 16) because, well, I never expected to go down this many sizes.  I’ve gone down from a size 18 to a size 12 (3 sizes, as we size in even numbers here in the UK).

This week just gets better and better.

Weigh in

Another 0.5lb on, making me 1lb above target.  Still in range though, but I must get back in the groove.

Today was our group’s Woman of the Year competition.  I was shocked during the past week to receive a letter telling me I’d been nominated.  I managed to find a couple of photos of me in the bad old days, wrote a bit of a blurb (which I duly ignored and winged it) and thought “not a hope in hell”.

There were 5 of us to do our thing in front of everyone else.  Standing up in front of people to speak is NOT my favourite thing.  My mind went blank and, as I said above, I winged it – severely editing the 2.5 sides of A4 I’d prepared down to not even a side.   Musta done something right because I WON!!!!!!!!!  I was presented with a sash, a certificate and an orchid.  Took me a few minutes to stop shaking.

I’ve no idea what comes next, though there is a national final.  My consultant will fill me in later.

So, if any of you are struggling with your weight I can recommend SW.  I haven’t found it difficult to follow, and it’s got me from eating 5 a year to 5 (or more) a day.  If it can do that for me it can help anyone.  If you already belong to a group, then try to stay to the chat bit after weigh in.  That’s what I put my success down to (and my stubborn-ness when I really want to do something).

And remember, above all, this is not a temporary change to your eating regime.  No, it’s meant as a lifetime commitment.  If what you were eating before was gonna keep the weight off it would have done.  It didn’t work then, it won’t work now.  Not that I’m 100% on plan at all times.  I have the odd day off here and there, and the odd day where I’m part on and part off.  Any questions, please ask.

From this –

Sat in a cafe in Monte Carlo.

to this –

Same clothes, different size me (different location too).

Size 12 shirt size 14 jeans.

 

Just when I thought I could relax

Kind of a ‘life’ post, rather than a getting fit/losing weight post.

After hubby’s surgery at the beginning of the month and the two week recovery, I figured that by now I could look forward to a peaceful rest of the summer.  Yeah, well the fates (or whatever deity rocks your world) decided that my stress levels hadn’t been high enough for long enough and that I needed to return to the insane levels (usually self-inflicted by taking everything too seriously) of 18 months ago.

The in-laws have sold their house up north and are looking to move down here to the South coast.  I’ve spent the past week raiding estate agents in the chosen location, viewing a couple to get an idea if they’re the sort of thing being looked for and then booking in viewings for the latter part of next week – we’re currently at 8 in a day and half.  Before the viewings I have to drive up north and fetch the in-laws (overnight stay at my parents), then the following week I get to do it all again to take them back home.  After that, assuming they find the right place, there’ll be all the usual stress involved with moving house/moving elderly relatives 200 miles out of their comfort zone – the move was their choice.

On top of this an old family friend (of my parents more than me, but still) has terminal stomach cancer.  A couple of weeks ago he was told 6 – 9 months without chemo, or some undertermined time with it.  Well he was taken into hospital this week to be drip fed as he couldn’t eat or drink.  This after his first chemo session.  So I’m thinking that a) it’s just a reaction to the chemo, b) it’s a mental thing as eating very little has caused him indigestion and some pain for a while now and he’s become scared to do so, or c) the cancer has spread/grown and he is in the end stages so quickly.

Combine this with the impending in law move and I am stressed to the extreme.  Today has seen me with my first migraine in some years.  I’m trying to decide whether it’s all of the above or the impending storms.  We’ve got plenty of black clouds but nothing else.

(Manically singing Gloria Gaynor’s “I will survive”).

If you have read this far, I thank you.  I didn’t start this blog to post on life in general; just needed to get it off my chest.

Quick update

The knee has finally decided to start behaving – phew!

Right up till Friday I was wondering when it would be fit to go for a walk, stand and iron, get out in the garden, or just let me potter round doing little jobs for more than 5 minutes at a time.

On Saturday I woke up feeling ready to try any one of these but it was England v Australia in the ICC Trophy – can’t miss mauling the Aussies!

This morning I was champing at the bit so a walk round town was on the menu.  My parents, who arrived for a visit on Wednesday, left early to go home – thanks to them my top border is weed-free and ready for planting, the halogen lights under the kitchen cabinets are all fitted, and my lavendar is planted in the end towers of a garden wall.  I should add that hubby has back issues and has been suffering for the past few weeks (after spending an hour or so trying to do some of these types of jobs).  Hubby and I headed into town and I am now the proud owner of a really nice jacket!  (So far, the knee is quite happy and not being obnoxious).

All this weight loss is making what were once comfortable clothes look a bit baggy and ‘wrong’.  So I’m slowly but surely changing my wardrobe.  There’ll be less clothes but what makes it in there will be good quality.  Lots of separates to mix and match.  Classic lines that don’t go out of fashion.

Also called at a garden centre to start planting perennials in my newly prepared border.  I’m grinning like a Cheshire cat.  If the knee is happy I shall start going on walks this week.

Clever hubby

It’s not often I mention family and friends on here – it’s not that sort of blog – unless it’s related to losing weight/getting fit.  And even then, I keep names out of it.  But I must give much kudos to my wonderfuly hubster for finding me an app for my phone that will be invaluable over the next few weeks.  It’s like a stopwatch but you can program it to beep at different intervals.  I have it set to display “Run”, count down for 45 seconds and then beep; then display “Walk, count down for 2mins 15 and then beep; then repeat that for a total of 30 minutes (3 minutes for each circuit of intervals).  I could have added more intervals with different time lengths.  A couple of months ago he also set me up with a mapmyfitness app so that I could log distance/time.  (Don’t think I can use both apps at the same time).

Three out of the four inhabitants here are techno-whizzes.  One of us is a techno-numpty.  I’ll leave it to you to work out who the numpty is.

Edited to add:  I just need to work out how to, if it does do so, make it beep when it changes between “run” and “walk” AND make the beep loud enough to hear when traffic is about.

How I’ve changed

I thought I’d give you a before and after of how my eating habits have changed.

Before

Breakfast – 2 slices of toast with butter.

Lunch – 2 slices of bread with butter and ketchup.  Packet of plain crisps.

Dinner – Meat, sauce, chips (most nights), maybe baked beans or mushrooms.  Large glass of wine.

Snacks if required – biscuit, chocolate

The bread was granary.

Now

Breakfast – at least 3 of the following: 2 chipolata sausages, bacon, eggs (baked in the oven or poached), baked beans, mushrooms, toast (my Healthy B choice).  All baked in the oven with no fat.

Lunch – either salad with cooked meat and cheese (Healthy A choice); or pasta, passata, beans of some kind if not had at breakfast, cooked veg, chicken and cheese (A choice); or home-made vegetable soup made from whatever veg I have in, a chicken stock cube, and seasonings.

Dinner – meat, veg, sauce made with either some of the soup from lunch OR passata, jacket potato/rice/potato wedges, spices and seasonings.  Sometimes a small glass of wine.

Snacks if required – 0% fat natural yoghurt or muller-light yoghurts, a handful of grapes (rarely as I’m not a big fruit fan).  The occasional piece of chocolate but not if I’ve had wine.

So, there’s quite a difference in quality and quantity.  I couldn’t believe how much I was supposed to eat on Slimming World’s plan but it works.  It must do, I’ve lost very nearly a stone.  I don’t feel restricted or that anything is banned.

Another big change is when we go out to eat.  I find myself scanning the menu and seeing how synful the meals are.  OK, there are times when I think “stuff it, I really fancy ….”, but I mostly can’t bring myself to eat something that’s too far off the plan.  If I do succumb to temptation there’s a little voice in my head reminding me that I’ll have to be very good tomorrow to make up for it.  Who’d have thought that the guilt-trip would already be so entrenched.