FUFF - Week Seven

Just a quickie this week. I haven't the energy or impetus to answer questions this week. I'm not ill or down, it's just I've got so many other things to be getting on with, but I didn't want to leave you hanging, and with NaNo starting tomorrow I kinda didn't want to put it off till them, as I'll be too busy writing my novel :p

Basically, no movement on the scales this week which is really dissapointing because if I went by my figures on Thursday I could have put down a 2 pound loss....however a last minute unplanned splurge and not getting my third gym day in last week (was too busy!) meant I put it back on by official Friday weigh in...and this weekend of course I was at Leeds and then I took a friend out for his birthday...it's not a pretty picture and this week is dedicated to damage control and getting back on track. I've got myself a few tools, I'm self helping with CBT to overcome it (I became intrigued by the Beck book Rebecca has been talking about and decided to give it a spin myself) and picked up a notebook, index cards and post it notes today....indeed I hoped to make my first response cards tonight, just straight after I get back from the gym.

Leeds was awesome and the opera of course beautiful. Tchaikovsky wrote The Queen of Spades around the same time as he wrote the score for the ballet of Sleeping Beauty (I think that's what the program said...I'm sure Charlotte will correct me if I'm wrong!) and you can tell. Sleeping Beauty being one of my favourite Disney movies I of course was more than enchanted....but the recognisability of the music thanks to ballet and Disney's interpretations aside, it was dark and spooky and captivating. The Countess in particular...wow...just wow...And now of course I can cross another task off of my Day Zero List ;)

Sorry for the nonexistent post...but Im sure I'll catch you soon :)

Fire up for Fall - week six

1 - What have you done to achieve your goals this week?

This week I kinda just vegged. I still lost half a pound, this probably because we only went to the gym twice as opposed to three times (still made my 90 minute workout target though!) and this colder weather has given me the carb munchies again. Bread has once again been banished from the house (I stopped eating healthy chicken salad sandwiches and started gorging on toast again) so all things considered I've not done too bad. This week I got weight watchers ready meals for my lunch instead of sandwich things...I hate ready meals (they taste alright but I feel like such a cheat having them at home!) but if having a ready meal stops me from bingeing on bread again then I know what I'd rather have!

2 - What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?

Retail therapy...I now have a lovely new scarf and a big blue hippy shirt with big hippy sleeves. I love big hippy sleeves ^_^

3 - Do you listen to music when you work out? What gets your fired up?


I need to listen to music when I work out otherwise time just drags. When watching the tv I keep clock watching, but I go into my own head when I listen to music and before I know it it's all over. Sometimes I like something fast to get me going but in general I will listen to anything on my favourites playlist. It's not always so much about getting fired up as something to get my mind wandering and away from watching the seconds ticking down. When I do need to get fired up it really just depends on my mood, but something quick and bouncy. Recently it's been Lady Gaga and Red Hot Chili Peppers on my work out playlist. Maybe now that I've said that I'll go and change it round ready for tonights gym session just for fun :p


4 - What's your guilty pleasure music? How does it make you feel?

Anything from my teen years, pretty much! It makes me feel cringey but there's something so fulfilling about it! More about memory lane than the music itself.

5 - If today were a song, what would it be?

I wish it could be Christmas every day. Sorry guys, but I'm getting way too excited about Christmas, much too het up, and I want it to be here now so I can have everywhere decorated and sparkly!

Speaking of Christmas this leads me on to my positive picture. It's positive because it's demonstrative of the encroaching festive season....

Found this shop full of festive decorations in Liverpool One (where Zavvi used to be, for anyone in Liverpool who may be interested) and it was just full of gorgeous things. Everything from massive wicker deer that were taller than me (I had it in mind to buy one and sling it to the roof since I don't have a garden...) to candles and sweeties and calendars and....it was just full of lovelies! It makes me so happy to browse through lovely Christmas things like this. I could have bought the entire shop out and not bought a single thing I didn't desire.

Well...except the Steam Trains calendar...

Thankful Thursdays

For being fitter than I have been in near enough four years

For having a job

For having the opportunity to give my time at ChildLine

For having the gas working again just in time for central heating weather to kick in! 

For having an awesome husband who can actually cook (even if I do take the mick out of his past attempts!) and will go to the gym with me

For passing my maths test at work today (and thus keeping aforementioned job!)

For snuggly warm cups of tea that I've treat myself to

For weight watchers mini magnum bars whose sweet, chocolate covered delightfulness have kept me sane whilst dieting

For having a blog that I can rant at or write soppy crap like this in

For Ann Robinson, because she makes Ben scream obscenities at the tv which keep me thoroughly entertained on a Thursday night

For my mum not having to go on insulin

For my family being happy and healthy on the whole and not miserably dying of starvation out on the street, or some other such horrid dire thing 

For me not miserably dying of starvation out on the street, come to think of it....

It's (almost) that time of year again!

Only thirteen days to go till the beginning of National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo as it is known...and the inspiration behind NaBloPoMo) and I'm in a bit of a pickle...this time last year I had my concept, my schedule, each chapter planned out in relatively awesome detail and had even drawn a map (albeit on photoshop, but it was an awesome map!) of the make believe world in which the story would be taking place. I was chomping at the bit to get going.

Welcome to my marriage right now...

This time round...I still can't wait to start...but I've not done a single bit of prep and I'm worried I won't have the time or energy or impeutus as I did last year (when I was unemployed and thus had all the time in the world but still struggled some days to even look at it). Ben has been encouraging me to do it but not as a NaNo because he is of the opinion that my idea is too good for a NaNo. I am of a differing opinion, but the differing levels of confidence in my abilities and originality that my husband and I have aside...I have no real desire to write as anything but a hobby, a challenge, a bit of time out...and if I didn't write this for NaNo then not only would it never have a chance in hell of being completed at all, but also I wouldn't have a clue what else to write....and I LOVE participating in NaNo, it really is so much fun!

But I haven't the foggiest of where I'm going to start. I know the beginning, I know the end, I know some of the little twists and scandals that are going to happen along the way, I know there's actually going to be character development, shattering realisations and revelations about the characters. But I don't know what's going to actually happen to bring these things about. I need to sit down and write out a chapter by chapter plan in order to get a better picture, then fill in the blanks.

I'm probably going to be very quiet over the month of November, and when I do post my posts will probably all revolve around the fact that I'm frustrated/struggling/ready to hack my computer into pieces/about to give up but can't because I have to finish the damn story as well as hit the winning word count in order to complete one of my day zero list challenges.

It's going to be a fun month...and even if you haven't the tiniest interest in banging out an entire novel throughout the month of November, I hope you have fun following me in my journey to do so :)

Fire up for Fall - Week 5

Sorry for the late post this week...I got up early yesterday to go and get my flu jab (booo!) and then went straight to the gym (yaaaay!) which is taking much longer now that our instructor has upped our workouts and given us weights (kinda boo for time but yay for progress!). I came back home for lunch (left over lasagne from the night before, and absoloutely delicious it was too) and then went out almost straight away to ChildLine for a double shift (because we need to do at least ten shifts in our first two months) so I didn't get home till half eleven...I'm starting to feel a little stretched out with all of this. I'm back in work tonight, and whilst I'm happy because our money woes are subsiding and I can get to the gym and fund my voluntary stunts, I just wish I had some kind of routine because it feels right now that the only time I actually get to see poor Ben is one or two evenings a week. Actually, it's him I feel most sorry about in all of this!

But everyone goes through these times. I know I'm building a foundation for the future through this, financially, physically and through experience too so it's ok. There will be a payoff and then I'll be glad I did ll of this :)

Now to stop complaining and get to the meat of the post! Fuff!

1 - What have you done this week to achieve your goals?

I wish I could say they've all been at the forefront of my mind...but whilst I've not been paying too much attention to how much water I'm drinking, nor how often I eat, and I've not exactly been strict on the weight watchers side of things...all of my goals have been set around the desire to lose weight, and I've started losing again! I lost another pound for my Friday weigh in (bringing me down to 22st 11lb) and I weighed in another pound lighter still today. It must be the working out that's doing it because God knows I've slipped up elsewhere! In fact working out at least 90 minutes every week is probably the only thing I'm excelling in right now...I'm doing quite a bit more than that!

2 - What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?

I had a lovely afternoon/evening with the ladies. Sometimes you just need some girl time!

3 - It's halfway through the challenge...you can change one or more of your goals... 

I don't think I want to change anything. I really believe that whilst I'm not always keeping all of them in mind and not always achieving them all, if I reduce them just to meet them I'll feel I have leeway to do them less....but if I increase them I'll just feel dejected if I can't hit them. I think things are already working out good for me, the whole point of these goals was to help get healthy and build up healthy habits with weight loss in mind, and they are working on these fronts...I feel healthier than I have in a long while!

4 - What's your worst habit and have you ever tried to tackle it? Do you want to?

I'm a professional procrastinator and a major league lazy bones. I tried to tackle it during the Summer challenge...I'm much better now, and I'm getting better all the time :) I absoloutely do want to change my ways because you don't achieve much in life from sitting around waiting for the world to come to you!

5 - Would you rather have burgers for feet or sausages for fingers?

Burgers for feet. I could get on in life if my feet were useless but if I didn't have dexterous fingers I couldn't use a computer or my phone, I couldn't knit or hold a book or wrap wire and beads together or embroider or sew. I mean, if I couldn't sew, where would Ben be? He'd actually have to sew his own buttons back on and fix his trouser seams himself! We'd have to buy him a new set of work clothes every week, if I couldn't sew we'd be bankrupt!

Haaah. Only kidding sweetie darling. Love you xx

Besides. If I had sausages for fingers, I'd eat them, and then I'd be in an even worse predicament, with feet for feet and nothing for fingers.

Finally, this weeks positive picture!

This is my weight loss chart since July. As we can see I went right up to 333 pounds at the beginning of August (ahem, parental visit, ahem) but today is my lowest weight of 318 pounds. It's not quite as smooth a curve right now as I haven't been weighing in every single day (not at weekends) but you can't deny the overall downward trend :). Many people say only weigh in once a week, but with a chart like this I feel really motivated to weigh in every day and only count my official weigh in on Friday as my progress for my trackers etc.

It also helps me to see trends. Through July I kept my weight written down but I didn't log it here (I came back halfway through August and started logging almost every day again) I admit I wasn't weighing every day so I've gone in later and filled in the gaps for the sake of making it look smooth and pretty...but all the time I thought I was staying stationary actually not so much, I was fluctuating up and down quite a bit. Still, you can see from the graph (aside from where I momentarily stopped weighing in again in September) that I've managed to get my weight into a generally loosing trend again. It also gives helpful statistics like on average since July I'm loosing just over half a pound a week...a slow but steady pace which, if I can continue in this way, is just fine for getting to five pounds lost during this challenge.

Anyway explanations and analysis aside, this is one of my biggest tools right now, it shows that even where it looks on paper like I'm not loosing a thing, actually things are going down quite nicely :) Or, up, in some cases...And I'm liking the downwards trend that shows up for the last couple of months :D

Progress

I lost again on Tuesday, bringing my weight down to 22st 11 lb, which is 319lb and a total of 18lb lost. By today I'd gone up by a half a pound, which was kind of annoying; I hope I can register a "real" loss on the scale tomorrow, which is my weigh in day, and break the steady flat lining my weight has managed to keep these past couple of weeks.

But even if it doesn't, I've seen progress elsewhere. My belt for one has run out of holes, my ankles are decidedly less puffy, the lovely blue enamelled ring my mum and dad bought me to commemorate my 15th birthday almost fits the finger it was bought to fit on! For the past couple of years, it couldn't even slide past the knuckle...progress indeed!

We had our second session with our lovely gym instructor last night, and she asked us how we'd been doing. She's programmed us both in for intervals on the treadmill, which are frankly brilliant; with her adjustments our average rate of calorie burning has gone up from about 150 cals per session to 420 cals, which considering that we have only increased the time of the cardio workout by 15 minutes is rather impressive, and just goes to show that sometimes there's nothing better than having someone who knows what they're doing in the drivers seat.

She also gave us some resistance training to do, which does count towards our increased calorie burning, but only by a small fraction. For me it's leg abduction and adduction for my thunder thighs, and pulldowns and tricep presses for my bingo wings and back. Ben too has the pulldowns and tricep presses, but he then has some more "manly" weights for his, ahem, moobs. Not that he asked for them in particular, but we both asked for some general all round body toning, and she said, well, men usually don't bother trying to shape up their thighs, aside from those guys who go around posturing and go on every weight machine there is, put it on the highest weight possible, and then use the incorrect technique and end up looking impressive to anyone who doesn't know better but actually may as well be sitting infront of the tv doing nothing.

Indeed a fair few young lads who happened to be stood around as she hammered this home to us looked a little sheepish as they listened in to our session, indeed we even saw one young fellow doing exactly what she told us (or rather, Ben in this case) not to before she showed us how its done. He scarpered away pretty quickly, but to me, aside from a giggle we shared with our instructor, it just made me glad we decided to pay the extra for the personal training and programming we're now receiving.

I asked about something for my stomach; of course I'm eager to get something there to pull in my ample belly as I start to loose the fat there, and apparently the best thing for that is balance ball exercises for your core muscles...however we have to go for another session in two weeks time and she'll show me how it's done then. For now I'm chuffed that in the space of a week my fitness has already improved to a level where 30 minutes was once a struggle but now I'm doing 45 minutes, and I love doing the weights; I love the thought of being nice and toned once I'm smaller, and not soft, pudgy and weak. I also love the thought of not waiting till I've lost the weight to tone up, and getting it out of the way now so that when it comes to weight maintenance I can focus on doing just that; maintaining a fantastic body.

But that is indeed a long way off for now. Until then I'm happy seeing all the little bits of progress that I'm making towards that goal, and feeling myself becoming stronger, healthier, and thinner on the way.
 

Fire Up for Fall - Week 4

1 - What have you done this week to achieve your goals?

Stick to my diet plan 100%
Or not. I'm doing a bit of 80/20. But every day. I've not been giving it 100% at all. Don't get me wrong, I've not been making terrible decisions or choices, and our main meals have been fine, but I've been slipping here and there. Thankfully I've not slipped off the bandwagon altogether, so I'm ok for now, but as of Saturday just gone we've been paying special attention to getting things right.

Get into the habit of drinking 4 pints of water a day
I've been drinking a mix of juice and water, but altogether I would say my consumption of sugar free none fizzy pop type stuff is around about the four pints mark.

Work towards step three of my PCOS plan
I've been slipping back again on this...yes we're eating more whole foods in general which is great (and is step two), and less sugar (which is step three), but I'm sliding on step one (the eat every three hours one). This week, I am endeavouring to make sure this happens. Starting as of right now. It's going to be a big focus for me because my weight loss has yet again come to a halt, but it was fine before when I was working on doing this, so I think that for whatever reason, this must be one of the things that really works for me.

Work out at least 90 minutes each week
Hello success!

Loose 5 pounds
Well, I've lost two pounds since the beginning of the challenge, but for the past couple of weeks I've been all slowed down to 0, yet again. That's ok though. There are various reasons for that, and I'm not putting on at all, so as I said, I'm refocussing on my eating routine this week as well as sticking closely to the plan and we shall see what we shall see come Friday's weigh in.

Don't beat yourself up when things go slow
I'm not. I understand why I've not lost the past couple of weeks, I'm keeping it all in perspective. I haven't gone "oh well screw it then" and flung in the towel and just gorged myself, which happened a couple of times over the Summer. Keeping this in mind has really helped me to stay as close to the track as I have instead of flying way off the rails.

2 - What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?

Well, it was Jay's birthday this week so we all went out for drinks. It's been a while since I've seen Jay and Blue, and it was brilliant to catch up with them. Lots of laughs were had. The girls and I made arrangements for a girlie evening this coming Saturday. I had some cheesecake that I wasn't really supposed to have but it was ok, I had the breathing room for it. The next day I felt terrible (I only had three drinks! What am I turning into, an old woman? Argh!) and Ben and I hit the gym, and suddenly we felt wonderful again! Anyhow, the whole Friday evening to Saturday mid day was fantastic and I felt fabulous indeed just to spend quality time around friends.

3 - What's your go to food or activity when you've had a bad day?

Oh, just food in general. It depends on my mood and resources. Generally it's a toss up between chocolate and crisps. Until July, I was regularly having both every night just to soothe my bad moods and make up for the horrific calorie deficit I was putting myself through. Thankfully this is a habit that we've shaken.

4 - What is the last thing you did that you are really proud of

The whole ChildLine thing, it's awesome :) I feel proud every time I get off the phone to someone who says thanks!

5 - What was your favourite subject at school? Your least?

Geography, without a doubt, was my favourite. I have a fascination with the way people live, how they live, how they organise themselves, and also about how the Earth works, all the systems within and on the surface too. Loved it, still do. My least? Well you know, I never really liked PE but if you made me choose between that and Maths, maths would get dropped every time. I loathed it, was never any good at it at all. Still aren't. Somehow I managed to scrape a B in my GCSE's, I'll never know how I managed that.

And finally my positive picture for the week (not that I've been exceptionally brilliant in popping one up every week but never mind!)

Me and Ben on Friday. Like I said before, it was a lovely night out, but a few people have said I'm looking pretty good here, and I think I am too. There's nothing quite like seeing a good picture of yourself to make you feel great!