Week 1 - Not according to plan

Hmm, well, I have said that I want to get back into the swing of being fit and losing weight, and yet, I haven't committed to it as well as I could have.  I've been the chicken in the bacon and eggs analogy - involved, but not committed. 

I only realised tonight that I said that I would start again last week.  I had the plan of daily exercise and everything.

Brutal honesty time:

Did I follow it? No

Did I make any effort to eat better?  Only a little

Did I meet the daily exercise target? No

Did I do things that helped or hindered my effort?  Hindered. 
I went to bed late, didn't stay adequately hydrated, forgot to take any iron supplements, ate badly - no where near enough greens. 

Did I weigh-in or take measurements so I could get a better idea of where I am at and where I need to get to?  No

Did I do things that sabotaged my efforts? Yes

So, I don't even know where my official Week 1 (new) should go, because I had planned for it to be last week, a nice start being the beginning of August, but somehow I let all that slip.  Maybe having my weigh-in time during the middle of the week wasn't working?  So I decided to try it out for Monday morning.  Monday morning will be before two gym days, and after my weekend.  Accounting whether I had a good weekend or not.  So, that's done.  Monday for weigh-in and Measurements.  There we go, catchy title: Measurement Monday.  Starting now, I will have Measurement Monday, and this morning's will be week 2.  I still think I'll take both my weight and measurements each week.  You can see my this week's results in the table below - and also in 'results' tab up top.

Additionally, yesterday morning I did some other exercise! I didn't even think about it until just now.  When I got up yesterday, I rolled straight out of bed and onto the floor so I could do some sit-ups.  I managed about 30.  I probably should have pushed myself to do 40, because if I had done 40 sit-ups once, I know I can convince myself to do 40 again.  And when I was on holidays, I managed to do 40 of them.  So, going to keep on trying and keep on working on that too.

This afternoon, Imogen and I went for a walk again, but I'm really disappointed I went because it was a really short walk.  Only 2.8km.  And it seemed that Imogen was dawdling.  We started off strong, but after 1 km, Imogen just slowed right down.  Maybe during the week doesn't work for her, and we should stick to it being a weekend activity.  I only went for a walk today because I hadn't packed for the gym and had nothing prepared for dinner when I got back.  So I made the decision of food first, exercise second.  But now, I'll have food that I can bring with me to work to eat in the afternoon to energise me before going to the gym with Kelly.  Good food too, like steamed broccoli.  So, in lieu of a good long walk, I instead did some squats, to make my legs feel like I had worked them out.  I managed to get to 20 squats.  My legs are a sore now, but in a good way.  I hope they don't feel too sore tomorrow!

So, now, week 2 results.  Have to be honest.  I'm not sure what to make of them.  When I weighed myself 2 weeks ago, the scale was sitting at 96kg.  Not so this morning.  I'm really debating whether I should get digital scales just to have some better accuracy.  My other measurements aren’t all that bad however.  Certainly not as large as the numbers were when I first started back in April.  I don't know what's going on.  I take my measurements first thing in the morning and I'm in front of the bathroom mirror, to make sure I'm measuring at the same spot each time.

WEEK 2 - (New) 6th August

Summary:

Weight	99 kg
Waist	84.5cm
Hips	116 cm
Bust	101 cm
Thighs	116 cm
Thigh (R)	71.5 cm
Belly	115 cm
Upper Arm (L)	37 cm
Neck	36 cm

Oh well.  I'll just use these numbers as motivation while at the gym tomorrow!  Feel the burn baby.  Speaking of which, I suppose I had better pack my gym bag so I have no way of getting out of going. 

-SunnyDuckling.

Workout buddy is back!

Hey hey!
Quick update. Kelly, who was here in May for work experience is back for 8 weeks (until the end of the quarter) on an internship.  This is good for many reasons. Apart from Kelly being dedicated to learning the ropes, and open to suggestions to get the most out of client sessions, and being an all-round cool gal, she is a fitness-junkie.  She normally runs for fitness, but as it is so cold Kel's not too keen about running at the moment. Additionally, being here on training, means she's putting in longer hours at work and not getting outside before it gets dark. 

But! She's keen to come along with me to gym sessions.  We've made plans to go along tomorrow evening, to Tummy-Butts-and-Thighs.  It's what Kelly came along to last time, so she does know what to expect.  And it's a good one to wean myself back into going.

I know I do well when I get into the habit of going to the gym.  It's once I skip a session or two that I really start to let things slide.  In fact, I could have gone many times in the last two weeks, but I've just put it off, or justified in some way why I can't (not enough water/food/sleep that day.  Need to prep for next day's work.  Haven't packed gym bag, etc, etc).  I think it's the first one that's the hardest.  Once I go to one session, then it will start to feel normal (and less anxiety-inducing) to keep going to another and another.

Bring on TBT tomorrow!

-Sunny Duckling

Ego and endorphins

An update regarding my walk that I got back from around an hour ago.

Imogen rang this morning to see if I was keen to go for a walk again today, as she was out of town yesterday.  When I knocked on her door at 4.30, I got no answer.  Tried again at 5 o'clock and it turns out Imogen had been asleep - oops!  So I tried to convince her that a really good energy boost other than a nap was to exercise.  I tried for about ten minutes to convince Imogen to come along, but nothing doing.

So I went out on my own, on the same route we did the other day.  And after only 15 minutes, I was bored and I wanted to turn around and go back.  I had music with me, but I only own an FM-reciever, so I was at the mercy of what the radio threw at me.  Needless to say, not all of it was the most motivating to keep pushing myself to walk fast.  I was so disinterested and realised that I either should have pushed Imogen more to come along with me, or find some other way to keep me going.

On the route I took, on the other side of the highway, is a new development area.  There hasn't been a lot of development there yet.  Only 2 completed houses, and one in progress.  This new housing development has a long straight 'feeder' road, that the other streets (will eventually) run from.  This road is around 1km long, so a 2 km return distance.  (1.35 mi according  to googlemaps).  It also has no traffic (because no-one lives in the development yet) and has streetlights along one side of the road.  By eye, those street lights look like they are pretty much evenly spaced.

As I was pushing myself to keep going, somewhere, something twigged in my brain to run between streetlight distances, and then walk the next one as recovery, before running the next distance again.

Yes my friends, my brain suggested I do some intervals... and I went along with it.

I'm normally really good at ignoring my brain when it points out things which are good for me.  But I guess, snaps for my lazy side, I knew that running would be faster than walking, so if I ran some, I would finish up my walk sooner.  I convinced my brain that I would be better off running* the distance between two sets of streetlights and use the same double distance to walk, giving me more recovery time.  I'm pleased to say that I intervalled all the way down and back along that road.  Initially, I bargained that I would run* only down to my turn-around point and then just walk back.  But my lazy side battled with the time issue, while my sensible side countered with the "you just showed you could do it on the way down, why pike out now?". 

My sensible side won out, and I ran*-walked back to the top of the road.  And I felt GREAT!  I don't want to brag too much, but I think a got a little taste of what is 'runner's high'.  Although, truth be told, it was probably equal parts ego as it was endorphins. 

That was the second deal with myself, to run back up the road.  I stuck to it and went a little further again, once I reached the end of the road. 
As I was walking back along the path that heads back to the other side of the highway, my legs still felt pumped, I felt pumped from the ego/endorphin boost.  So I ran* a little more.  Just once, and I think the distance was about equivalent to three streetlight spans.  But I ran* again, further than I had initially thought, and further than the second time I adjusted my bargain. 

I felt so pumped and happy about what I accomplished!  : )  I hate to run, have always hated it.  The only time in the past I've voluntarily run was when I was chasing the school bus down the road on the mornings I slept in.  But today, because of laziness, or bordeom, I chose to run.  And I want to do it again.   : D 

So, I think I now know what will be my September challenge - to start a couch to 5K running program.

-Sunny Duckling

*P.S.  I say run, but I think my running speed is probably closer to fit people's jogging speed.  I was still moving faster than a walk speed and my heart rate went up and my breathing was heavier.  Signs that I exerted myself.   :) 

A Step in the Right Direction

(Read this post as if it were written on Saturday - for some reason, it didn't post when it was supposed to).  I meant to post yesterday, but it didn't quite happen.  Friday nights and all.  For me that was a glass of red wine, in front of the telly.

But before I got there, I started my August Challenge in fine form!  After work, Imogen and I decided we'd go for a walk.  I actually was at work and by 4.30 I decided my reports and sales checks could wait until today, so I packed up early and decided to head home as the weather was beautiful and sunny and still a warm day (for winter).  I even surprised the cleaners, who are used to me leaving after them!

Imogen started off with an oft-repeated saying of hers "I know this sounds really bad, but I feel like I want to order a pizza".  I have heard this 4 times from Imogen in the past two weeks.  Annoys me, but I don't know how to tell her, it's not worth it.  I know it's not worth it, and I'm strong enough to just turn around and say 'no'.  Imogen's not there yet.  One aspect which makes it extra hard is we live only about 200m away from the pizza place.  All I can really say is "it's not worth it" but no matter how often I say it, it's not sinking in yet.

But to the point.  We went for a walk, and it was grand.  We returned in the dark, but that's okay, because we walked 10,171 steps, covering a distace of 8.67 km.  That's nearly 10% of my distance goal.  Hooray!  I feel good for it.  I was tired at the end of it, but I'm glad that I went for such a long walk after work.  If the weather's good today, I will go again for the same walk I think.

Food-wise, still not doing so well.  But my pedometer shows that I burnt 1020 calories from that walk, which when I converted to kilojoules, because that's what all food energy measurement is given in, I had burnt off 4200kJ.  That was enough to earn a prawn pasta marinara at the pizza place.  They don't do salads there which is dissapointing.  But I'm glad that I was able to justify eating the pasta (2610kJ), and it came in a decent sized portion, which I knew I could eat all of and be satisfied with.  Pizza isn't worth it because there are low-cal pizzas available, but my willpower doesn't let me stop eating just two slices.  I can easily plough through 5 slices in one sitting and usually finish the other three before the night is over.  See?  Not worth it.

Unfortunately I have a lot of lollies in my house at the moment, leftover from Thursday's event.  NEED TO GET RID OF THEM.  I feel sick because I keep reaching over and eating them, even though I normally don't have a sweet tooth.  I don't even eat chocolate because I find it too sweet.  If I take them into work and leave them in the staffroom for everyone, I should be fine.  I don't ever succumb to sweets at work, probably because I have told people over and over I have an anti-sweet tooth.  So, to avoid feeling like a hypocrite, I never eat them at work. 

Gracious, I also need to get cracking and make dinner tonight for the week.  I won't have time to cook dinner at least two nights this week, and it means that I have something to take into work for lunch instead of running to the takeaway on the corner for a egg & lettuce sandwich and an apple.  Hey there's a win.  Over the last two weeks, when I've had to run to the shop to get my lunch, I've picked out either an apple or banana to eat with my lunch.  Normally, I'd go for a small packet of chips.  This week has been all fruit.  Yay.

Well, I have house chores to do, so I'd better dash.  I'll post later this afternoon if I go for a walk or not.  At the latest, I'll post on Sunday about my plans for exercise for the week.

-SunnyDuckling

Monthly Challenge

Right-so.

Because I want to get back into the swing of things, I think I need to start setting myself intermediate goals & challenges, to keep me working towards losing weight and getting fit.

So I decided, not only should I aim to do some exercise everyday, I plan to walk 100 km in the month of August. 

Over 30 days that's an approximate of 3.33 km a day.  Another way to look at it, is if every second day I go for a full 1 hour walk, I'm covering 6km.  I feel I can do it.  I want this on top of going to the gym.

I'm starting with wearing my pedometer at work tomorrow.  I have an outdoor event that is going to go on all day (7.30am - 5.30 pm) and I know I'll be shattered, so I won't go to the gym, but I will go on a walk in the evening.  I may even be able to convince Imogen to come with me.

Imogen is a work colleague of mine who lives nearby.  We both slacked off over the last two months, but on the weekend we went out for a walk, both Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  Over the two days we walked for 1h45m - a total of 8 km.  So, idependently, we each came up with the decision to get back into fitness/losing weight.  Imogen's not much of a gym goer, at least not at the moment, so walking sounds like a plan!  We even discussed cycling in the morning before work - but it's cold and dark at 5.30 in the morning.  It's Winter.  5.30am in Winter is not walking (or cycling) time.  Maybe.  If in a week or two the cold snap passes, the sun will be rising earlier, I might be convinced. 

Am I just coming up with excuses to get out of doing exercise, rather than finding ways to incorporate and increase my exercise & movement every day?  Eurgh.  Losing weight and getting fit is hard.  And it's only like that, because I let myself get so unfit and unhealthy.  If I hadn't ignored the way I was treating my body, I wouldn't be having this issue right now.  I've only brought it upon myself, and I only I can change it.  I want to change it. I will change it. I'm going to change it And I am changing it!

SunnyDuckling