Sshhhhhh…

I don’t want to get too excited yet but things appear to be occuring!

Fitting

I’ve just bought some proper exercise trousers – now of course I’ve had some but they have either been baggy ones or normal leggings.

Over the last year the leggings have got smaller which  is great but I’ve still been a bit nervous about the proper exercise ones, in the past I’ve always felt that the fabric they’re made from showed up all my lumps and bumps which for me wasn’t that motivating especially when I’m using a gym with mirrored walls (!)

Anyway given the amount of time I spend in the gym now and that just perhaps I’m not feeling quite so wobbly I decided to take the  plunge and get myself sorted out. I found a great online company and ordered 2 very different pairs.

When I took them out of the bag today I almost fainted at how small one of the pairs looked and firmly thought they’d be going straight back. Even the other pair (not quite so scary) looked tiny.  I put them to one side and decided I’d come back to them later on when I’d got my head around the task in hand…

It had to be done, so tried on the not quite so small pair first, wow, not only did they fit, there were no visible wobbly bits and I actually looked good in them!   Spurred on by my new-found confidence (and amazement) I put on the other pair, yes the fabric is super stretchy (made of bamboo) but they did fit and as far as I can see under artificial light, I’m not showing too many lumps and bumps!

So a result and nothing is going back which is a great thing. I intend to look good in all my different clothing options including the sports gear – still seems a bit weird that a large part of my clothes rail is made up of stuff for fit activities – who would have thought.

I feel nicely motivated now and have booked the mid challenge measurement session for the 8th March – nervous and excited!

The company I used was www.noballs.co.uk – love the name!  Lots of natural fabric options too, also bought a sports bra which fits just fine however given how fast my upper  half seems to shrink may need replacing fairly soon – hopefully

If you’re struggling with your exercise treat yourself to some proper gear that you feel good in – it makes all the difference (especially if they’re smaller than you ever thought would fit you).

Reading Material

I’m a bit geeky about a lot of things – I do like a good read about the science of nutrition , dieting and especially the head stuff.

My friend bought me a book for Christmas that’s proving very interesting as it brings up (and supports) a lot of the things I’ve come to believe in  – from a science point of view.

Brian Wansink looks at a lot of things that when you think about them are commonsense, however we’ve lost sight of them over time resulting in over eating and not thinking about food and nutrition in the correct way.

The whole world is on a diet yet the science clearly shows that this approach doesn’t work  – 95% of people will put the weight back on however we continue to yo-yo on and off diet plans?  Why?  It makes little sense yet everyone does it?

The book clearly shows that it is a lot to do with how we think about food, if we re-programme that thinking we’re able to make significant changes. I’m enjoying it because it is based on science, every single question and answer is backed up with research, it also links into some new American and Australian research that backs up why as we lose weight it gets harder to lose it, I found losing the first 3 stone surprisingly easy however now six stone plus down the line it does take more effort and has to be backed up with exercise.

It’s worth a read to understand how the brain works with food, it’s one of those ‘light bulb moment’ books.  Often we just need to understand and make sense of the situation to be able to make changes.

Oh and it talks about smaller plates – I’ll always be a supporter of those, portion control is the one easy step we can all make, for all our family members, it’s becoming increasingly important that parents begin to realise the impact of children over eating, even in a small way, the knock on effects through life are there for everyone to see now, we really need to give ourselves a really big kick up the bum to change things.

Challenging…

There’s a little update tonight, a good week on the whole – especially the spinach! Go on click on the page – up there!

Keeping Focused

As with most important things we have to deal with in our lives, losing weight, keeping it off and getting fit and healthy is not always easy. There are hurdles to overcome and you may come up against obstacles you would never even have dreamed off.

Keeping focused is important, keeping sight of those things you really want and aspire to, often though you may need to re-evaluate when it becomes difficult – this is absolutely fine and it will happen in one way or another at some point.  Don’t be afraid or it or let it scupper your new life, all it normally takes is a bit of re-jigging and you’re back off and running.

For me there have been several points like this:

• Knowing surgery on my knee was around the corner and I wouldn’t be able to do anywhere near the amount of exercise I was doing pre-op, I was scared of what this might mean, would I put on weight because of this? In the end it took a bit of thinking about what I was going to eat and drink and also that there was actually a lot of exercise I would be able to do, it wasn’t that bad in the end I didn’t put on any weight.
• The realisation I was very unhappy at work. However deciding that life was too short and that I really needed to get out there and really enjoy the weight I had already lost was a turning point and I ended up having a fabulous few months and re-evaluating how I lived this part of my life too.  It’s framed the next stage nicely and without having done it, maybe I wouldn’t be on the next stage.
• Struggling with the new eating regime as it challenged some of my thinking – yes this was difficult, it was as much about how my head dealt with the problem as the awful digestion problems I encountered. I have to really redo my thinking on this one however I was reminded I needed to find my own way of moving my challenge forwards, if it didn’t make me happy then it was unlikely to work, everyone is different and I have only succeeded this far by finding my own way, it was perfectly okay to approach this stage in the same way and yes I feel a lot better now!  Check out the Challenge page to hear more.
• Not having the support of some people who have been unable to deal with the changes in my life. Don’t get me wrong I have wonderful friends and family who are very proud of what I’ve achieved, they see how happy and content I now am and also how unhappy my old life was. However this hasn’t been the same with everyone and it has been incredibly difficult and upsetting to deal with.  I have though recognised that I don’t need the negative impact they bring to my life, I’m not going back to my old life and the old ‘me’, and this isn’t my problem, it is theirs?  It’s taken a lot of strength and determination to move past that, I’ve ended up having professional help to get through it in a healthy way for me. I’m disappointed that it’s happened but I won’t let it ruin what I have achieved or what I want to do in the future.  Asking for help doesn’t mean you are weak or in trouble, it marks a certain strength and its something I actually should have done a long time ago.   The brilliant news is that I do have people in my life who challenge me, support and motivate me and I would much rather spend my emotional energy on them!

Staying focused and motivated is always going to be challenging, for the vast majority of it, it is incredibly positive but there will always will things that sneak up to challenge you in other ways, I do always find that I do learn something and it makes the next time that bit easier.  That’s life I guess!

 

Losing things

This morning I found I’d lost one of my rings. In one way I’m really disappointed as I quite liked it but on the other hand it tells me something – my fingers are shrinking again. I almost lost a very special ring that was made for me last summer a couple of weeks ago too & it fitted like a glove a while ago?
Not only did I have to replace every item of clothing I owned (even shoes) thanks to the shrinkage I also had to ditch bracelets and rings. At the time it surprised me, I’d never given that any thought, that everything would shrink! And I did, in different places at different times, it didn’t happen proportionally all over either, I seemed to wake up one morning and find my double chin gone or my knee caps were visible?
I put on a top for the first time in a while this week too & it fitted differently to the last time, my shoulders seem narrower and there is something going on around my waist?
Maybe this is the beginning of seeing the effects of the new regime – whatever it is, it looks like I need to go shopping for some new smaller things soon.

Loving it!

I’ve now completed three of the new strength programmes, yes it’s tough but I am loving it, even THAT 5 minutes of intense bike work in the middle!  Really feeling my body working now – I look like a beetroot when I’m done but that is a good thing!

I also changed my cardio session on the bike last night pushing it into a resistance programme between 7 and 10 – I’ve never been able to sustain a 10 before so I am extremely happy!

On the protein front, I’m now on the hunt for alternatives to the whey products I have been using, they do exist, I’ve just got to find them, it’s further complicated by my nut allergy but I’ll give it a go – in the meantime, the meat and fish continues!  Had a big pile of spinach tonight, I really love the stuff!

From talking to a nutritionist I do need to be careful about the protein as it could end up making my system over work and ultimately make me sick and this could scupper my plans so I’m taking it gently now I know I struggle with it. However I know I need it to make the most of these fab strength sessions so I’ll look for a safe alternative that works for me.

BMI – again!

BMI is something that intrigues me – according to the scale I am still overweight, however let’s consider a couple of things.

1. When I was in my teens and early 20s and classified as a ‘normal’ weight, I smoked a bit, drank a lot, eat poorly, looked dreadful and was very unfit, I did no exercise whatsoever.  And looking at the photos I am far too thin, I was constantly ill and in my 20s developed ME.

2. Now and classified ‘overweight’ I can cycle 12k without trouble, go to the gym 3 times a week, swim 2k in a normal session (but have done 10k), can run up stairs – oh and I eat incredibly well, drink sensibly, don’t smoke and outpace people 10 years younger than me who are classified as ‘normal’.   I have no health problems of any kind, my visceral fat is normal and my doctor and knee surgeon are more than happy with my health. In fact due to my progress through cruicate ligament rehab I was discharged 3 months early due to my fitness levels and effort which had put some of the sports people he treated to shame, mention was made during the surgery that my muscles were in incredibly good condition for my age and that this was down to the work I’d done pre-op.   I am a comfortable UK size 14 with some size 12s in my wardrobe.   From a looks point of view if I were to go down a considerable amount more I would not be happy, due to being as big as I was at the start, there is a high chance the loose skin would be unmanageable and I could end up more self conscious about my body than when I started which would be a ridiculous position to be in. I am trying various things to help this but it has been such an extreme loss that I am realistic about the outcome, my skin stretched badly even when I was a teenager so the collagen isn’t particularly good in my family history so biology may not be on my side.  Just in case you were wondering, no I wouldn’t consider surgery as an option to rectify this.  

Yet if you base my health on BMI alone it says that I am in trouble?    This makes no sense.  I am miles away health wise from how I was as ‘normal’ and certainly from where I was as obese.   My fitness levels are good, my skin and hair sparkle and I don’t get sick.  

If I had lost the weight with no exercise I could understand the debate and I would be totally behind it, after all this is what can happen after extreme diets and gastric surgery, however I didn’t and  just because you’re in the ‘normal’ bracket, it doesn’t mean you are fit and healthy.  

I am 100% behind the fact that being overweight presents health risks however losing the weight alone may not rectify all of them.  Prior to my knee surgery I had a long conversation with the practitioner who was doing my full health assessment, he was getting angry about the emphasis being placed on BMI alone and as a orthopeadic centre they were moving towards using other factors as it wasn’t enough, post surgery you have to be able to do the intense physio, if you’re unfit you won’t be able to do it, therefore it was imperative that this was considered and I had to sign up to this before the operation could even take place.  They now take a full lifestyle survey, and interestingly they had no concerns about my weight because they could clearly see I was fit and healthy.  They had in fact rejected people for surgery in the past who were ‘normal’  if they weren’t up to doing the physio.

Last summer I went to an event, the way out to the car park entailed climbing quite a steep hill, I was astounded that much younger apparently ‘normal weight’ people really struggled with this, yet I bounded up with no trouble and wasn’t out of breath.   I see them in the gym too, struggling to even put the bike onto resistance level 2.

How many people are sitting at a ‘normal’ weight yet are unfit, you can smoke, drink, eat dreadfully and still be a ’normal’ weight.  You can even have high visceral fat and not be obese due to your lifestyle choices.  You can quite happily go online, put in your height and weight, get a ‘normal’ reading and think things are fine, yet is that the full story? 

Health is something that has to be considered using lots of different factors, yes weight is one indicator but it shouldn’t be the only one.  I’m measuring now in terms of fitness levels, body fat, visceral fat, not having any health issues, my immune system function, how well I eat, sleep, etc etc  - I am in a very good place.   If I lose more weight as a consequence of all the work I do, that’s great but it’s not the be all and end all, it’s one factor in developing a healthy, fit, safe lifestyle that is sustainable in the long-term.  

This is far more important to me.  I’m not advocating being overweight more that a holistic view is taken, if you really want to improve your total health, losing weight alone may not do this?  

 

 

It’s Sunday!

So it’s Sunday again, someone asked earlier do we look at the day as being the end or the start of a week? For me this week it is definitly the end, I am quite pleased to see the new week as it means a renewed thought process around my life and my challenge.

I am looking upon it as purely a blip in the grand scheme of the last couple of years, there have been a few but as I’ve mentioned before, the trick is knowing how to deal with them and get back on track – remaining happy both emotionally and physically.

It’s been a good weekend too, met up with a friend who I hadn’t seen since the end of the summer and she was surprised at how my body shape had changed since then, as you all know, it’s important to me how I look, not necessarily what the data says?

I also went out on a dating night and enjoyed the compliments that came my way, it’s still something that is a bit special for me, after years in the ‘big’ closet, it’s nice to be out there and to be appreciated.

I am throughly enjoying the exercise though, even if getting out of bed this morning was a little challenging, all well tonight though after a bit of stretching, back at it tomorrow evening.

There’s an amended approach to the food and we’ll see how that goes this week, the protein levels are still higher and I have now discovered that my carb cravings are diminishing thanks to increasing the amounts a bit, it’s all in the tweaking. I’ve also spent the afternoon in the kitchen and produced some yummy food for the week which is on plan.

And there is cake for my team at work, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but one of the things I love to do is to make cake, I don’t actually eat them, it’s been something I’ve done since I got back my positive relationship with food, I don’t even lick the bowl, but I do love seeing others enjoy them (in moderation!).

So have a look at my ramblings on the Challenge, apologies if that’s how they come across but I wanted to be honest about how the week had gone and how it’s being pulled back for me. Remember though everyone is different, this is my approach, it’s working for me and so far has given me a life I never thought possible which for me is still a very important factor!

Moving More.

So the final thing you need to do to be able to lose weight and keep it off is to move more.

This is an interesting one, I was an active child, I loved gymnastics and spent a lot of time hanging upside down off the swing in our back garden! However once I reached secondary school and the emphasis switched to team sports my attitude to exercise changed, I wasn’t any good at netball or hockey so I found myself sidelined with a growing hate of any exercise.  And in the end I dropped PE at 14 and did extra maths classes – despite having sporty friends through University I still didn’t do anything myself, it didn’t feature as being necessary and as I was a little thing no-one voiced any concerns. And until January 2010 I did no exercise.

So when I’d lost 3 stone and felt a little more confident about my body, I actually wanted to be more active, fourteen years of being very inactive had sewn that seed and strangely (for me) I was intrigued about it.  Swimming was my thing it turned out, I have no idea why, as it meant getting semi naked which was something I didn’t exactly do given my body issues, I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand that one!

But it doesn’t matter, what was important was that I started to get active, with my history it was possible, at 42 in the space of 16 weeks to be swimming a 5k charity event (I did 14 lengths that first night and thought I was going to keel over).

Exercise doesn’t mean going to the gym, or jogging, it can of course but it doesn’t have to – I hear lots of people say that they don’t like the gym so they can’t get fit.

Image via Wikipedia

There is so much you can do to get more active, and what I found was as I got smaller and started to exercise that I had more energy and just got generally more active.  At work I found myself bounding up the stairs without getting out of breath or not worrying about a long walk and would I be able to get back.  It was just a natural progression.

One word of caution though, as a very big person, it can often be difficult to start exercising at the beginning of your journey, it’s not going to have a big effect as you won’t have the energy to do anything dramatic or that you will eat more because you’ll feel you need it so there is a risk that you’ll get de-motivated or scupper your eating plans?  Everyone is different though, but this might happen to you, I waited until I’d lost a bit of weight, got the eating plans well established and got to know how my body worked.

Oh and before I forget,  if you do need to lose a lot of weight, do it safely, get yourself checked out by your GP, being big does present risks like high blood pressure and you shouldn’t start any exercise without this being managed.   Don’t be silly, going hell for leather on your first time out, the best results come from taking it slowly and safely.

If you can get some advice, this doesn’t have to be expensive, talk to friends who do exercise, if you do join a gym use any free access you get to personal trainers, they will be able to help so you get the most out of the exercise you do.

There are some things I’d like you to think about:

• Mix up the exercise, you don’t have to go to the gym – walk, swim, buy a skipping rope, play badminton, do pilates. There are hundreds of different things you can do!
• It doesn’t have to be expensive, a friend of mine has got very fit with an exercise mat, some 3kg weights and some exercise DVDs which she uses at home.  Spring is a great time to find DVDs in Charity shops by the way;-)
• Take it slowly, it’s not a competition!  Set small goals, starting out with a marathon in sight when you’ve only just bought your trainers isn’t a good idea, a better goal is to to be able to run 1k comfortably in a couple of weeks and build it up.
• Everyone is different, what works for you, won’t work for someone else, give things a try, if it doesn’t work move on.  Importantly for exercise to be part of your new life, you have to enjoy it!
• Eat well – this is vital, if you don’t have the right fuel in your body, it won’t process it in the right way and a lot of what you’re doing will be useless, make sure you make the most of every minute of exercise you do.
• You won’t lose weight from exercise alone especially if you have a lot to lose.  You do need to eat less too. You can maintain your weight later on using exercise but initially it’s just not possible.  Don’t get into the place of doing exercise and then trading it for a takeaway later, think of that core principle – to lose weight you have to eat less and move more, if you move more but eat the same (or more) nothing or very little will happen.  It’s unlikely then that you’ll stay motivated.
• If like me you start a lot of strength and toning work later on in your exercise programme, you may not actually lose weight however you will change shape and get smaller. There have been several points in my weight loss where this has happened, your body almost takes stock, your body fat decreases and the results are pretty amazing. Everyone is different though but for a lot of women this can be the case so be prepared. It’s another reason why being a slave to the scales at home isn’t a good idea.
• Don’t think that because you’re too big, too old or too experienced to start – I did think that and it took a while but it was worth it, remember you have nothing to prove to anyone other than you…….look around you at the people who are doing nothing about their weight (you are) or those who have (they had to start somewhere).
• Listen to your body, it will help you, if it hurts there’s a reason, get it checked out, the way I differentiate between it hurting because I’m working hard and if there’s something wrong, is a time thing, if it still hurts an hour after I’ve finished there could be a problem, but you’ll get used to telling if it’s good discomfort because you’re working your body or it’s injured. But don’t let it stop you, there will be other things you can do. I did almost 2 yrs of exercise with a very dodgy knee but I still did it, I just adapted so I didn’t damage it further. Don’t risk injury, it’s not worth it.
• Everything you do where you move is important, if you were to monitor your activity all day, you’ll see that. So if you work in a building where there are stairs, use them and go up fast! Don’t email that person on the other side of the building, get up and go to their desk.  If you’re standing talking to someone, move your body.  Fidgeting is good too, move your legs under the desk – seriously it all makes a difference!    Park the car in a car park further away from the office or the shops.  Brainstorm all the ways you can just be more ‘active’!
• Drink lots of water, even if you swim, hydration is very important.
• Everything counts – just move!

My final thought is that if I could do it anyone can. You won’t know until you give it a go though, it’s a bit like black pudding.

I always said I didn’t like black pudding, a friend asked had I ever had it, I said no, he responded with ‘how then did I know?’.  In my usual way I took up the challenge and found to my surprise that I actually really liked it.  My initial ‘not liking’ had been formed when I was much younger, my tastes were very different then, so now I was probably more accepting of it.  We all change during our lives, sometimes we just need to try something new, if we don’t try we’ll never know if it might be the best thing we ever do. I can’t have a cooked breakfast without black pudding now.

That cold evening in the pool two years ago when I did 14 very hard lengths, could barely breathe and left looking like a beetroot were a turning point for me    And I would never want a life without being active now, which is about as far away from the teenage Trudy as you can get!   Go on give it a go!