Joined the Gym!

I did it!  I joined the gym this afternoon!  I did say yesterday that I would, I just didn't expect myself to want to still do it today.  I guess the threat of rain this evening cemented the idea that going for a walk would be out of the question.   I know I have complained about the gym (a PCYC) in previous posts.  I am still unhappy with the gym being not open on weekends.  It shuts at 7.30pm weeknights.  7pm Friday.  There are only a handful of different classes available. 

Now, I do volunteer work on Wednesday afternoon/evening, so that night is out, but the rest of the week I can exercise.  But there is only 1 class an evening, and I'm worried some of them are beyond my fitness level.  I'm pretty sure the morning classes are beyond my fitness level.  In fact, I struggled in today's circuit class.  Don't get me too wrong, I am glad I went, but by the time we were halfway through, I wanted to pack it in.  So then getting through the rest was tough.  I couldn't even star jump properly.  : (

However, as I was working out (oh yeah, did I mention that part?  Not only did I join today, I also exercised. Yay for me!)   I kept thinking, 'in a few weeks, I'll be able to do this much better and much easier'.  I had to remind myself that while I might be whinging about it now, it was all for my benefit.  That sooner than I realised, I would start to notice the effect of going to the gym would have on me. 

Especially, as I have mentioned earlier on, it was looking to rain tonight, and seems the same way for the rest of the week.  And we are heading into winter soon, so getting outside for a walk before it gets dark may not be possible.  So, that's one of the main reasons I joined.  The other was that I wanted to speed up my results.  Walking is all well and good, but I really want to lose weight.  I'm so determined to lose this extra weight.   I'm sick of the effect it has on my posture, my confidence, my choice in clothing, my ability to participate in activities.  I feel so self conscious in my overweight state.  My face even looks overweight.  So by going to the gym, I want to kick-start my body into burning more energy. 

Also, I don't want to plateau too soon.   And I really don't know how much more I can change my eating habits.  Other than taking longer to eat smaller portions, and making sure I eat something in the middle of the day, I think I eat fairly healthy.  I eat a mainly vegetarian diet - no red meat or chicken, but I do eat fish, eggs and dairy.  I do eat processed foods, such as a muesli bar (sometimes all I have time for in those lunch breaks I mentioned) or stir-fry sauces in a jar, but I don't eat take-aways, or fried foods very often at all.  Cheese is probably the biggest thing that I eat that is unhealthy when not moderated.

One of my colleagues at work was telling me the other day how she's cut out all cream and butter and things of that nature from her food and cooking about three weeks ago and had lost 4 kilos.  Good on her!  But, I don't eat cream and butter, so I don't know what I can cut out.  I've never been a big a sweet tooth and have stopped buying cheese (if it's not in the house, I don't eat it!) and chips.  So, I guess, I'm also a little jealous that she was able to lose 4 kilos so easily.  I eat overall healthily, and I was exercising that first week I started, and I only lost 1 kilo.

But anyway, moving back to the gym.  I went today.  There is a class on tomorrow 6-7pm that I want to try.  Wednesdays, as I mentioned are out for me, although it is the circuit class like today's.  Thursday is a class called FitBox.  This is the class I'm worried I'm not fit enough to be able to do.  And there's no class on Friday, so I need to get a program done up for the weights room so I can do some exercise on a Friday after work.   

But for this week and next, I'm just going to stick to the classes and see how I feel.   For all I know, I won't be able to walk tomorrow!

-SunnyDuckling

Comic by Julie Faulkner Promises webcomic

Winner is you!

Haha!

Am sticking to my plan of watching what I eat fairly well.  Some slips ups obviously, what with it being Easter this weekend.  I'm not a chocolate fan, but I am a food fan.  So, some seafood salad, and potato salad and bread rolls and salmon on toast and smoked herring and oh-so-many foods.  But, I ate a little bit and I stopped when I was full.  Normally I keep eating and eating and eating til I'm in pain from so much food.  But I felt I did really well yesterday for lunch and stopped.  I even managed to ignore my mother when she tried to force more food onto my plate - win!

I've also exercised twice since my previous post.  Win again!
This I do have to credit my mother for: we went to a pilates class at the community centre.  One with mat work and resistance bands.  Never done anything like it before.  Must admit, I did enjoy it!  I wish that I weren't just on holidays and visiting for the week.  I would love to undertake exercise classes like this, but where I live, we have slim pickings when it comes to fitness activities.  Boo.  I also went for a 6 km walk along the beach front this afternoon too.

Third news of Win!
I had the massive-ist craving for chips -> corn chips/potato chips the other evening.  I was full, had eaten more than enough food, and then out of nowhere, the desire for chips came upon me.  Of course, it was 10 o'clock in the evening.  I wanted them so bad!  I even started going through my mind, bargaining out "well, I have time tomorrow, I can duck out to the shops and they should be open and I can buy a packet then."  Problem was, then I started to think further and even tried convincing myself that maybe I should buy two packets, in different flavours, in case I get the craving again. 
       Now, I don't know about you, but I know what happens next.  I buy the two packets, open one and eat "just a handful", "saving the rest for later", right?  That's how it goes doesn't it?  It certainly is the intention.  However, reality means that what occurs is that I eat "just a handful", then, just a handful more, and more.  I eat until the taste becomes so salty/strong that I finally ween my self away from gorging on the entire bag.  To see that I have eaten approx 4/5 of the bag.
      So not only do I feel sick from too much salt, and additives and flavourings, I also feel sick from guilt, that I allowed myself to eat *so* much of the chips, when I was only supposed to have "a handful".  If this is like you, I can offer some suggestions that have been given to me, or that I've read.  I try and use them both.

• Pour a small serving into a dish and put the bag away and just eat the amount in your dish.  Why this works? You portion control the amount you are eating; physiologically, you've satisfied your craving (sweet tooth, or savoury crunch); and psychologically you feel satisfied that you've eaten everything in front of you.  I've also found that if you're a couch potato and in the middle of a good movie, you don't want to get up and get more - lazy bonus! :)
• Use your non-dominant hand.  Why this works? Because you are doing a natural action, with an unnatural hand, it makes you more mindful of what you are doing.  You actually end up having to concentrate on what your hand is doing and it helps you realise what you are doing. It's in part connected to the concept of the left brain-right brain training.  

The craving got so intense that it got to the point where I thought I was going to scream for not having the chips.  And yet... somewhere in the depths of my memory came a tidbit of information that I read on another weightloss blog.  I wish I could remember which one.  It may even have been a post from 'Promises Promises Webcomic - a humourous look and fitness and weight loss by Jules Faulkner.  Link here! --> Promises Comic. This information was the "scientifically proven fact" that cravings only last for 15 minutes. 15 minutes?! But I was dying over here....!
        So I dstracted myself, mainly by going onto Google to see if I could find anything else that mentioned how long cravings lasted for.  And I read some interested information about how eating other food, no matter how healthy, may not be the best strategy when you have a craving, because it doesn't quite satisfy the same way. Then you overeat calorie-wise, meaning you've gone over your energy input anyway!  So you may as well have had some of the food in the first place!  But then as mentioned above, I have trouble stopping when that crave is over.  Weight loss and healthy choices are a battle, but a battle worth winning!
       However, essentially google, and other people's weight loss blogs agreed with this idea that food cravings do only last a few minutes.  And I won!  That craving did not beat me! :)  I felt so good at the end of the evening, realising that I had a craving and this is the first time that I have not succumbed to it at all.  Normally if I don't have the food I'm craving, I eat something else in the hope that works.   And as a result, overeat badly.  This time round, I just staved it off - hurruh!!  Very pleased. 

Cartoon for the efforts!

I couldn't think of a better blog title...

I want to share the funny stuff I see, and occasionally say, and wanted somewhere to do it. So here it is!

On top of which, I also wanted somewhere to document my attempt to get fitter and lose weight.  Right now, I'm about 20-25 kilos over weight, which makes me unhappy.  I don't fit into clothes properly.  (Or doorways or in my car for that matter).  I don't have the energy to do all the things I used to enjoyr doing - like going out dancing.  Now I just sit on the couch and brood about how overweight I am.

But I'mma gonna change that! (I hope!) 

Resolutions:
 1.  Eat better.

• By this I mean not eating when I'm bored.
• When I do feel I want to eat something, but I don't know what, I need to remind myself to go for vegetables and fruit and dry crackers and healthier things than I have been eating. (Namely chips and microwave pasta 'n' sauce packs).
• Choose to eat smaller but more often?  I dunno if this will help
• Think about what I'm going to cook for the week and plan to shop for those things
• Not bring chips and other savoury goods into the house.  If they're not there, I can't eat them, can I?

 2.  Move more.
I don't exercise very much either, so I want to increase the amount of exercise I do.  I used to be slender enough that friends of friends used to ask if I was a dancer.  Alas, they ask that no more...

• Walk for 1/2hr at least three times a week.  This is valid for starting out right?  I want to eventually increase it to 45min x 5 times a week.  
• Find a space in which to do some exercise videos.  I live in a tiny 1 bdr flat, so I haven't really the room to do it at home.
• Commit to actually getting out and moving!  As I just mentioned, I don't have room to exercise at home - I barely have room to even do push-ups and sit-ups.  I have to move the desk chair out of the way and lay down just right.  So I need to get out of the house to move and exercise.
• Go for a bike ride on the weekend.  You know, just to mix it up a little! :)
• I don't have much money so I'm not going to try a gym just yet.  Besides which the gym in my area isn't open on weekends (when I would have more time to exercise) nor is it open late on weekdays (shuts by 7.30).  The times they are open there's a lot of people there, and I'm too self-conscious at this stage to want to exercise in front of people I know.  

What do you think?  Acheivable or too much at once?  Help me out and comment if you read this! :)

P.S.  Look! A cartoon to motivate !