summer 2021 weight loss and 33lbs down 👍

In May when I decided I had to lose weight it was to get ready for a pending operation under general anesthetic. As I'm on the waiting list, I could be called up at any time so I feel the pressure is on. Since 7th May (now 20th July) I'm down by 34lbs!! That's 15.4 bags of sugar!! (If 1kg bag of sugar = 2.2lbs!). Wow! I feel so much lighter and fitter already yet my weight is now actually where most people would probably be starting! 

I've used eating in a calorie deficit and exercise so far but feel I need to push myself further this week to continue at any satisfying pace. I've been watching YouTube for inspiration. Do check out LouisesJourneyxo on YouTube, she is a true inspiration and has lots of helpful advice and encouragement. See below for her MyFitnessPal advice.

search: https://youtu.be/QZodbrWgq_k

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I've also been completing HIIT workouts at home 3 times a week using Joe Wicks' YouTube tutorials. When I started I could barely keep up with the low impact version of the HIIT workout below - Train with India. Now I can actually complete 8/10 of the harder options and I'm usually still going with the exercises when the timer has stopped for that rep!! That's only taken about 5 weeks. 

search: https://youtu.be/Six8m4Jm6JA

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I've continued with the weekly beach bootcamp 👍 I prefer to do the exercises on the sand to the pebbles but its all done my fitness the world of good. Again I could hardly keep up when I started but now can complete most of what is presented, even if sometimes I don't manage all of a 3rd reps or have to take an easier version for some exercises. The body weight reps are exhausting! I'm proud to say I can now hold my planks for x3 30 second reps and I can almost lift a side plank for more than 2 cm off the ground 🤣

My body fat is now approximately 57% , unfortunately I didn't calculate it at the start. I calculated my current body fat using my neck, hip and waist measurements using the U.S Navy Method. Calculator.net indicates that an ideal body fat for my age = 22.9%. 

This week I've reactivated MyFitnessPal app to track my calories next week. Payday treat this month will hopefully mean some Fitbit Aria Air Scales and some new kitchen scales so that I can accurately calculate my daily calories - whatever works right....? 

Let's hope for another good week next week 🤞 

Wet suits and getting somewhere... maybe? BMI success!! June 2021

17.7lbs down and this weekend saw me fitting into a wetsuit for a water assault course! I never ever thought that either of those things would be happening. I was so worried I had phoned the Aqua Park beforehand to check they'd have a wetsuit that I'd fit in. I gave my height + weight and they seemed pretty confident that it wouldn't be a problem at all and assured me it would fine. Actually when I was there I didn't need anything other than what was already there on the wetsuit hooks. The buoyancy aid however they did find a 'bigger' one for me but to be honest it was way too big for me and when I was swimming it rode up to my ears. I would have been fine with the original one they'd given me, they just don't make buoyancy vests for women with big boobs. They just don't! When I started this blog I described myself as a mum of two babies. They aren't babies anymore and I really don't want to be the can't do mum. When my daughter is saying I should go on the slide I knew I had to do it. Climbing was so difficult under the weight of the equipment and under my own body weight. I had to pull 286 lbs up a very high inflatable climbing frame with rungs so far apart I could hardly lift my leg that heigh - I got to the top (eventually) and then at the top of the very high tower I  had to muster enough courage to go down the slide, and I did. After alot of swimming and effort I completed my hour aqua assault course and all the kids had a fabulous time, which was of course the main purpose of going there in the first place

I have 90lbs still to go! I don't know why I set myself such an ambitious goal... Well I do; Its the weight I was some time ago and I'm an unapologetic perfectionist so crazy end goals do in fact motivate me. 

Second week into my HITT boot camp and typically I've been invited to a job interview just at my boot camp time! Well, old me would have just missed a week, new me has found a pay-as-go session on a different morning, which I'm just going to fit in! I've got to. If I need to be losing 1-2lbs a week then I need to be doing something to a) counteract all sitting down for virtual / laptop working that I do during a working day b) burn all these lbs off! So a £5 HITT at the rec on Thursday morning is booked! 

BMI

Last month I had a bit of a difficult conversation with a consultant. I'm on the waiting list for wisdom tooth extraction under General anesthetic. He asked door my BMI and I did know what it was because I had worked it out for my work covid risk assessment. My BMI on 7th May was ...... 45.6. He politely said the anesthetist would probably phone me in a panic but not to worry and that everything would be fine. I don't know what came over me, probably because I work for the NHS and wanted to say "I'm not fat because I'm stupid and it's all gone a bit wrong", I suddenly tried to explain to him that all the virtual/ laptop working had meant I sat for long hours with little exercise and I'd completed a weight management course and seen a helath coach, oh my goodness, why, oh why was I explaining myself. I think I was just embarrassed. Since that appointment last month I have been so focused on my weightless goal. I dont want to die on an operating table because of my weight. Today my BMI is down to 42.7 (remember it needs to be below 30). 

I inadvertently set myself a stretch goal last week to start liking myself in photos again. I took the wetsuit pic, was brave and uploaded to facebook! Very, very unlike me. I'm just going to keep taking photos until I'm ok with it. I'm realising that these goals that I'm making are made for me to smash down hard. Last week flew past, it really did! Here's to another week of healthy eating, exercise and weight loss 🤞

waiting for the health coach

As I sat on the 3rd floor of the library in February 2020, waiting for my first health coach appointment I wondered if they chose the 3rd floor on purpose. Do they monitor who takes the stairs up and who takes the lift? Well it worked, I took the stairs but partly because it was baby group chucking out time and there was a substantial fight for the lift in progress already.

There's a glass office behind me, I can hear them talking in there so I certainly hope that's not where I will be going? Plus it said they weigh you in the first session..... they didnt mention in a glass box, with all to see though? 

Its 11:56 so the person before me has 4 minutes to finish otherwise that would make my first session late, surely not. I mentioned orlistat before. I've read that it ought to be taken in conjunction with health care provider- supervised reduced calories diet. Since the gp (doctor) gave me the perscription for orlistat I had at the time managed to loose just over 7lbs. So maybe I didn't need the orlistat ...? a private health coach (friend) said that there were better ways to loose weight so I didn't cash the perscription and left it at that.

Since I wrote that introduction, I've completed all my health coach sessions which through the Covid-19 lockdown was a challenge I can tell you. Sometimes I was just crying down the phone so wasn't able to access the health coaching that I had originally sought. I completed the online weight management course at the beginning of the year. This was helpful. Before the online course I hadn't heard of BLISS foods, had no idea of complex carbs and no idea of portion sizes for each food groups. Now when we cook at home there are always leftovers ready for the next day, I really was eating too much, which I had very little idea about. 

Today as I write this (June 2021) I have managed to implement and sustain significant food changes in my life over the last 5 months. I've set my goal to lose over 7 stone (107 lbs) in weight. So far I am 15lbs down and remain focused on this goal every time I eat. This feels like a huge achievement to be honest. 

I visited the gym on a free trial last week and used the treadmill & crosstrainer but in this crazy 'almost' post-covid world I'm not convinced people are cleaning equipment before and after use as they were supposed to do. For this reason I won't be signing back up to the gym right now. Looking for alternative classes I made the decision to sign up for a 7 week HITT workout boot camp, on the beach. As you can see from the photo below, its a stoney beach, which makes the running and walking parts extra tricky! But I did it! I always find committing to a specific session helps to maintain my motivation. As a baseline I wasn't 'as bad' as I thought. Turns out a year spent perfecting my planks in pilates was worth it. For example: 'Elbow plank' for count of 10 -> run across beach on stones to the marker -> repeat then rest for 20 seconds.

I didn't always manage to complete the third reps of the exercises in the time but I mostly manged x1 and x2. I think signing up to these fitness challenges is the only way. I miss those days of my weekly yoga, fitness pilates and swimming but i know they will eventually return and in the meantime there are alternatives to be found.

I very rarely include photos of myself on this blog, let's face it, I avoid having my photo taken at all, but it's something I'm experimenting with. What if I carry on long enough to start to like myself in photos again...? 

Till next time, Bis bald 🦸‍♀️ 

2021 weight gain and no followers - Lets start a January weight loss course

Since covid hit the world, well March 2020 for the UK, I have missed my routine of swimming, Pilates and Yoga. I tried YouTube Yoga for a while but it wasn't the same. With lock-down I am reduced to local walks but with working from home and home schooling, finding the time to exercise has been tricky and if I am honest has fallen by the way side. 

At one point last year (2020) covid lock-down had me at home too scared to leave the house. I ate badly and hid under a duvet some days. Christmas was sad and boring, I put on a stone in weight (6.35kg). At 21st 9.5lbs (139 kg that's 306.6lbs) I started to attend a 10 week weight loss course and I am gradually getting back to things.

I am controlling portion sizes with a portion plate: 

That's working well and I actually realise that I have been eating 3 meals at every meal. You can see the difference between this plate and my old dinner plate! Now I use this plate as a guide and measure the carbs separately as the gastric band plate doesn't have those on it. I certainly haven't cut out carbs. I've actually increased some foods - broccoli, nuts, veg and fruit generally.

Being mindful of hunger levels is something that they talk about on the weight loss course so I am trying to be careful not to get too hungry - which hasn't actually happened. I have been using a Paul McKenna - 'I can make you thin' hypnosis track every night for the last 3 weeks - and - I think it is working. 

Looking over my notes from the mindset and motivation course I have also realised that most of this was all under my nose the whole time. As I am now mid-40s it is even more important to lose this weight. My Fitbit is on and the goal is set at 14 stone which leaves another 6 stone and 13lbs to lose! I don't even know if this is possible? How can we establish exercise as part of this covid working when I am spending most of the day 'chained' to a laptop. This is such a contrast to a 'normal' working day for me and it has certainly taken some time to adjust to. The impact of next to no exercise has definitely had an effect on my weight gain. On these lockdown, chained to a laptop work days I am averaging 2000 - 3000 steps a day.

I am on week 5 of the weight loss course - since January I have lost 10.5 lbs. So something is working......     

The focus is activity this week so my Fitbit will come into its own for weekly stats. My daily goal is and has always been 10,000 steps. Today I have worked out a seafront walk is approximately 7000 steps and if I add on a park walk too - I am up to 15.000 steps. At the time of writing I am on 16,076 steps today, which my Fitbit is telling me is 7.12 miles walked today. When you focus on something it really does help.

Onward and upwards - oh and I must remember to get me some followers on this blog! 

Come on, some of my previous posts had 234 views.

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Food is a drug!

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/18/food-is-a-drug-and-we-have-to-learn-to-say-no

Well the photo below was taken in 2014. As you know this year I'm sporting for no lattes and no cappuccinos so it's certainly been a good while since I enjoyed the arrangement depicted below, plus Mc Donald's wont even sell you a bacon bagel any longer! 

Interesting article about the hit food can give you. Those breakfasts certainly fall into this category. A friend once told me that cheese was a drug. At the moment I tend to avoid buying it to be honest.

Last week I certainly had some success. After a whole month of pilates and no milky coffees I actually lost 3lbs. Only a start and a slow start but it is nonetheless still a start. 

I tried yoga for beginners for the first time on Saturday. It was great and I don't know why it's taken me this long to try? It was more friendly than pilates but challenging too. I like that we were told to smile during the class, that there were lavender eye bags at one point 🧘‍♀️ and the idea of activating my inner smile really has stayed with me. a) I didn't know that I even had an inner smile b) activating an inner smile and carrying it with you through the day - what an amazing philosophy. As weight loss also has to be about health and wellbeing, why not activate an inner smile ......? 🤗 New to me.

My Fitbit stats for last week were encouraging. Because I weigh more that when I started using my Fitbit a few years ago its telling me I have gained 10lbs BUT my average steps per day are increasing. Its do hard on  working car with driving and carrying out work duties. I aim for 10,000 steps a day and interestingly if I'm off work I'm often able to do more than thd 10,000. A walk into town for example will boost the steps. 

The exercising data isn't accurate either as I managed to delete some activity which can't be retrieved and when I enter things manually I don't think it is precise.

Last week I also tried a stretch and tone class. That was a mixture of yoga, tai chi and pilates. It was excellent, challenging and exhausting. I couldn't get booked on it today so just the 10:30 pilates class for me. January at Bannatynes is crazy busy. People keep telling me it calms down by February when people ditch their new year's resolutions. Well, we can see what happens! 

Just a short entry this time round but like all these classes I'm attending; I'm here and I'm going it! 👍

So if I go back to my earlier mention of 'Obese: A Year To Save My Life' for a moment. Chris Powell will say to his clients 'It's not all about victories it's about falling down and getting back up'.

      

So if I go back to an earlier mention of 'Obese: A Year To Save My Life' for a moment. Chris Powell will say to his clients 'It's not all about victories it's about falling down and getting back up'.

This month (January 2020) has seen me getting back up. Where has the time gone? 3 years ago I was writing this weight loss blog. Since then I've had some set backs including a car crash which put me out of action for a time and has left me suffering persistent vertigo BUT when my health club membership came up for renewal in January (2018) I realised I wasn't ready to quit it! Ok so I've put lots of the weight back on but here I go again, January 2020 - if I increase my movement and watch that I'm eating surely there's got to be results, right?

Since my last time of writing all the fitness apps have changed. I treated myself to a fitbit flex 2 which has been fantastic. I can't use the gym that much at the moment as my vertigo would make looking down at digital displays and along with quick movements would send me spinning but I've been swimming. That's my main reason for choosing a flex2 as it measures my swimming efforts. I've linked my fitbit with my Banantynes app & run keeper, which are great motivators and really do give great +ve feedback.

I suffered a back muscle spasm in Nov'19 which put me completely out of action for a month. The result being weight gain and a sideways lecture from my GP. She was very nice about it and said she didn't want to cause offense but that I ought to lose weight to prevent these things happening again. Since then I've been attending pilates classes to improve my core strength- much needed. At first the only class I could book onto was a ridiculously difficult keep fit pilates, because it always had free spaces. I hadn't realised until too late and it was a shock BUT I'm still going. Do Google fitness pilates, I am sure YouTube will have some footage of what it entails. I would have love to see video footage of and in that first class, I'd turned up ready for relaxing muscle stretches but it was side planks and all sorts of pilates madness. I go to a class once and even twice a week if my work schedule allows. It's still really, really hard and sometimes afterwards, I burst into tears in my car, but I'm still going. This week the class was full (new years resolutions and good intentions for January I think) there wasn't room for any more mats on the floor. One of the regulars told me to watch the instructor and that when it gets like this "she tries to kill people off" - he was not wrong. If was the hardest class I have ever attended, at points I had my eyes closed willing a particular hold to be over. So here I am, back again today for more pilates! Fingers crossed for a slightly more graded class today.

I was given a prescription by my GP for Orlistat but on reflection I thought I ought to try weight loss without it first. The side effects sound pretty drastic and potentially catastrophic. I'm booked to see a Health Coach in a couple of weeks so that will be interesting.

Only new years resolution has been to avoid the lattes and cappuccinos. Hidden calories. One problem has been the extra caffeine in the Americanos can be a bit much. 

Today I've turned up for my pilates class at 10:30 only to find its actually at 12:30! So porridge and chamomile tea (still avoiding the lattes) followed by a swim I guess .... oh, and writing this blog which has been dormant for some years now. Well I called this blog journey to slim and I'm very much still on that journey. Bis bald x

January 2015 and surviving Christmas.

So I've missed my Blog these last 3 months. Maternity leave has finished and I'm back to work which is why it's now suddenly a lot of juggling and for lots of the time I am absolutely exhausted. For 2014 I managed to lose just over 51lbs and happily, the good news is I was able to maintain my weight-loss too.

Surviving Christmas was a conscious effort not to overeat and although I did have treats that I wouldn't normally have I did try to balance things. I had my annual bottle of Baileys but I certainly didn't want to gain the lbs as I had done over Christmas last year. I very much enjoyed eating some delicious home made Christmas fruit cake and plenty of lebkuchen which are amazing German biscuits similar to but not really like gingerbread.

For a treat I even ventured out to a Beefeater for lunch where they served the coleslaw in reusable plastic pots with lids which I don't necessarily agree with:

When I weighed myself after Christmas I'd gained 2lbs. So I consider that to be a small success to be honest. I think planning ahead by doing my weekly shopping online helped a great deal and stopped any impulse purchases. Not buying chocolate or too many snacks was a definite advantage. This brings me up to date and this week I have been dancing (in the comfort of my own home) and still allowing myself small 'treats' I tried my first ever macchiato. I didn't even realise what it was when I ordered but it was delicious however I'll be strictly back to my Americano with milk from now on.

In order to gain some motivation for the task ahead I have been watching episodes of 'Obese: A Year To Save My Life'. These people are starting at 445lbs and 456lbs. Their stories are inspirational. In the first 3 month phase they are set the goal by Chris Powell to lose 100lbs and at the end of the 365 days they manage to lose 200lbs! It's amazing, the transformation that these people achieve in one year. Last year with much determination I lost a total of 51lbs. My personal goal weight means I have to lose 70lbs this year, that's 5 stone that needs to go!

I made a decision to not make New Year's resolutions this year. In the past my resolutions have been mostly weight related. Reading old journals it seems every year I would set a weight loss goal but actually I would be weighing more than I had done the previous year so it always felt quite hopeless. This year I am more positive, indeed hopeful rather than hopeless. It is also worth noting (I think) that my weight loss last year was near on twice the amount that I have lost in the past when I have been attending a slimming club. 

Although I haven't set resolutions I think the New Year does lead to some reflection of things you ought to be doing, including how much exercise is going on. Ultimately I tell myself eat less and move more as much as possible. It's the moving more that I know I'm going to have to increase. So when I'm lucky enough to take a lunch break, which isn't very often, I'll take a walk to buy a sandwich instead of driving there. Actually after doing this four or five times I managed to halve my time getting there and back and I felt so much better for it. 

All this talk of exercise leads me nicely onto something which I tried for the first time this week, Just Dance 2014 on the Wii U and I absolutely loved it. I have been thinking about a workout and trying to work out how I can successfully add exercise into my daily routine. I like swimming but don't really have the option of getting there as regularly as I need to. I used to play badminton and if I manage to play a game or two this year I'll be very happy BUT with something like a dance game that's at home there's no travel time, no extra cost and technically I can do that most evenings. It does have a great 'sweat' mode to set 10-40 minute workouts so I'll definitely be giving that a go. Now I've put that on here I'll have to do it. It was great fun, I moved the lounge floor mat around the room I was dancing all over the place so much and it has been a while since I've felt the benefit of endorphins. It really lifted my mood.

Now that does feel like there is a plan. Some exercise organised and at the beginning of the year I'm on track to stay on track. I'm rushing to my own deadline to get this written in January as I do plan to keep to my monthly Blog instalments, well that's my intention. Of course this year is also an extra special year for me. I think I've mentioned before that a weight loss motivation for me is that I don't want to be Fat and Forty and I am hoping that with hard work I really wont have to be.

I've been saving the following link for some time and I'm sharing as now feels as good a time as any, plus it also links to a final story from my adventures to slim. Recently as I was packing things away at the end of a party I was merrily waving goodbye to people across a large sports hall. The distance between me and them at the exit was quite some way so I did put some effort in to making my wave as friendly and visible as possible. With some horror, mid-wave I realised that I had a Bingo wing waving independently to my waving hand. This has never happened before, maybe losing some weight makes it more obvious to me but I suddenly became very aware of my wobbly wings, flapping along to my wave, how embarrassing. So with pleasure, I share with you, a 10 minute Bingo Wing Blaster which I seriously need to be implementing! 
Bis Bald x

Click here for a bingo-wings-blaster