Here We Go!

I know this seems like a strange time to start both the blog and the change in the way I eat. Normally these things begin at the start of the week, or the beginning of the month or whatever. But to be honest I’ve been prevaricating about this since I got back off holiday at the end of July, and after putting it off for almost six weeks I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns and finally get on with it.

To make an honest start I should say that I had actually been going to the gym regularly from the beginning of May (when my new work pattern kicked in) and was doing fairly well for an overweight, unfit person and had, without particularly worrying about what I ate, managed to lose just over half a stone. Three times a week I pushed myself on the gym equipment, did a bit of swimming and then rewarded myself with a dip in the hot tub and a relax in the steam room and sauna. This continued until I went on holiday in mid July and the intention was to return immediately afterwards and take up where I left off but adding an eating plan to the regime in hopes that I could lose even more weight as I became fitter.

But even the best laid plans go awry and having returned from holiday, suffering from huge jet lag, I let my lazy side talk me into not going to the gym. Although we had done a huge amount of walking during our holiday we had done some amazing eating too - at some of the best restaurants in the city – and what had been a couple of pound gain during the two weeks we were away, soon had me back at the weight I was in April as the weeks went by and I found more and more excuses not to go back to the gym.

Once the jet lag had gone I was dogged with sinus problems which left me feeling headachy and generally a bit blah. Then there was the fact that I hadn’t had a chance to plan how I was going to change my eating. For some reason I convinced myself that I had to start both at the same time and so once again the gym was pushed to the side because I couldn’t quite bring myself to sort it out. A serious case of can’t be bothered set in and I made and broke several start dates because of lack of planning and eventually, as was always going to be the case, I began to fear going back because of what would be said when I did.

I should say straight away that my gym, The Rochester Health Club, is a wonderful place, with the nicest staff and customers you could ever wish to meet. Ever since I started there the staff have been fantastically helpful and interested in my progress and after so long away it was the worry of a telling off that made me reluctant to return. But return I must, after all I’ve signed up for a year and payment still has to be made regardless of whether I go or not.

So last night I finally pushed myself into setting foot inside the gym. And of course it was fine. The staff were nice as ever, and happy to see me return – one even told me he understood my ennui, went through it sometimes himself and pointed out that I had at least taken the first step and gone back. He also pointed out, that although the exercise was killing me now (I am definitely back where I started in all ways) it would get easier soon and it wouldn’t be long before my fitness was even more improved. I have to admit that hard as it was – and believe me it was killing – I found myself getting that happy buzz that a good work out can bring and went home a tired and happy girl.          

And so to the eating plan.

As anyone who knows me is aware I have, over the years, tried just about every type of diet known to man. The Cambridge Diet, Slimfast, Weight Watchers, Slimming World, calorie counting, low carbing, plus all those strange cabbage soup type diets, even slimming tablets and doctor prescribed specialist nutrition plans – and, whilst all have worked to some extent or another, none have stuck and each time I’ve ended up gaining more weight than I lost. Unfortunately, as often appears to be the case, this yo-yo dieting (along with illness and my hugely sedentary lifestyle) has now left me at a very unhealthy weight (whilst I am trying to be honest I am still not quite ready to reveal just how much I weigh, although I will say that I fall into the morbidly obese category on both the BMI scale and the height/weight charts) and I really do need to urgently take steps to remedy this situation.

The last time I seriously tried to lose weight was with a plan called the Idiot Proof Diet, which is based on low carbing and it worked quite well. I therefore decided that this was the plan I was going to go with this time. The downside to this plan is that it takes a lot of preparation and a fair amount of cooking, hardly the grab whatever I’ve got to hand that normally makes up my day. And it was this planning (and the shopping and cooking) that held up everything else.

But having decided I was going back to the gym with or without an eating plan that’s when indecision set in. You see I wasn’t entirely sure whether I should be so heftily reducing my carb intake if I’m going to be increasing my exercise so much. In an effort to find out more about whether I should be considering calorie counting instead I came across ‘The Six Word Diet’.

From what I can see this is a low calorie plan in which you eat a 100 calorie snack every one and a half hours for a total daily intake of 1,200 calories. In some ways this appeals as the idea is that you don’t get hungry as you’re pretty much always heading towards your next meal. It also says that no foods are banned because as long as you stick within the calorie limit you can eat just about anything. There is also a lot of “free” food which you can eat as much as you want to bulk out the snack. As a person who tends to graze rather than cook (unless I’ve specifically planned it) the idea of not having to cook much appeals. The down side to this is that I can imagine it could be quite time consuming working out exactly how much 100 calories of something is (although there are some lists on the internet to give you a start). As I am not sure there are many pre-packaged products in the supermarkets that are 100 calories and with my aversion to planning, this is certainly a stumbling block. However this is something I shall look into further.          

So I’ve finally got my IPD menu sorted for the next few weeks and as soon as I’ve been shopping tomorrow I’ll begin with the new regime. Back to the gym then too and we’ll definitely be on the way to a new me!

Phew. Well that was a heftier start than I’d expected, but I think it helps to set out my stall right at the beginning so people can see that I’m trying to be honest and that I’m seriously trying to get it right this time. Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, I really appreciate that you got this far. Please feel free to comment. If you’re going through something similar yourself I would be happy to hear from you and all encouragement will be gratefully received as I will most definitely need it!