So this is my new diet and fitness blog. The reasoning behind it is simple. I’m forty five years old, incredibly overweight and even more unfit. Having moved to working at home three days a week, my already sedentary lifestyle has become almost comatose. Sitting at the computer, moving only to visit the toilet or make a cup of tea does not make for a healthy lifestyle, especially when the only other exercise I now get (having stopped working in the pub where at least I was walking a lot) is the stroll to and from the bus stop on work days. It is abundantly clear that changes need to be made before I either turn into one of those people in the freaky dieting shows on the telly or die of some nasty weight/unfitness related illness.

To this end I have joined a gym to improve my fitness and am about to embark on the latest attempt to lose weight through a new eating regime (I don’t want to say the ‘D’ word as I think it’s rather negative). As I chronicle my journey to greater fitness, better health and weight loss there will be daily posts as I think this will help to keep me focussed and hopefully help me to stick to the plan during the bad times I know lie ahead. I intend it to be honest as I need to acknowledge my weaknesses and fails as well as my good progress, which could be painful, but will hopefully, eventually be cathartic and helpful.

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Day Thirty


I got to the gym just after 6am this morning as I was really on the ball today despite a fractured night’s sleep. I was still aching, but feeling better than yesterday. When I retrieved my workout plan I realised two things: 1) that it had been written by Siobhan, the trainer who takes me for power plate – which would explain why it was so damn hard as she does like to push me, and 2) that Kemsley, the trainer from yesterday, didn’t really understand the programme Siobhan had written.

I knew this because when I looked at it I realised that she had set me a very particular programme, which has to be done in a certain order to get the benefit and some of the equipment should be on a specific setting to help keep my heart rate down. However, in yesterday’s session not only did Kemsley put me on all the equipment on basic quick start, but he told me I could do it all in any order I wanted as long as I did the time. He also added an extra ten minutes on the seated bike at the end which wasn’t on the programme sheet! Unfortunately this means that as I haven’t been shown how to programme the equipment I was unable to do the work out correctly – and found it very hard to keep my heart rate in the specified zone on almost all the equipment. I shall discuss this with someone the next time I’m there and get them to show me how to programme the various machines.

The machine I am having the most trouble with is the cross trainer which was introduced on Wednesday. In order to get it to work properly you have to go above a certain speed. However, due to my weight and general lack of fitness, if I go at that speed my heart rate shoots up into the 120’s (according to my sheet it should be no higher than 95). Once again I only did 5 minutes on this machine as I found it hard to get a decent rhythm going when I was trying to keep it slow to reduce my heart rate. I have a similar problem with the treadmill, but that is one of the machines Siobhan has put down to programme so I assume that will sort itself out once I know how to do that.

The increased work out really gave me an appetite and wore me out and with my body still aching anyway I decreased the amount of time I spent in the swimming pool then headed home for a cooked breakfast of smoked back bacon, scrambled egg and fried mushrooms and tomatoes. I also ordered the waterproof mp3 player (and a pair of goggles and a swimming hat) in bright magenta. I really hope it arrives soon, It’ll be a real pleasure to listen to music while I’m swimming.

I’m also pleased to say that the psyllium finally kicked in today (or at least it stopped blocking my body from doing what it should – not sure which way round it is). After a few hours of work I found myself hungry again and had a lunch of baked ham with cream cheese and avocado. A frantic housework session in the afternoon which burnt off a few more calories was followed by a portion of the chilli bake for my dinner (a little early for my liking but I was going out). I didn’t take the psyllium before this as I forgot and didn’t have the time to wait before eating.

I hadn’t intended to have the chilli bake today originally. However, because I was going to a birthday party this evening and I wouldn’t be able to eat any of the party food (although Mrs H3 did actually find me a slice of cucumber and shared her cheese from the cheese and pickled onion on a stick) I needed to have something to eat before I went (hence the early dinner). However, due to lack of time I couldn’t make anything and I hadn’t defrosted anything either so I went with the chilli bake.

I had already decided that I would have a couple of glasses of wine at the party as I was helping to celebrate a birthday, but didn’t have the large amounts of water in between that I usually have to break it up, although I did make the drinks last an inordinately long amount of time. However, the alcohol (and the early dinner) left me feeling peckish and so when I got home I had a snack of prosciutto and a couple of pieces of cheese. That wine brought my carbs to just over the daily limit.

I did finally manage to open the Soda Stream today, at least the outside box. I shall take it from its packaging and test it tomorrow to make sure it’s working before I throw away the delivery box. I didn't manage to get round to measuring myself although I’m not sure there’s any point. I had decided to wear one of my favourite dresses to the party (with heels, but they were out due to the pain in my feet) but when I tried it on it looked awful, so instead I covered up with a long line tunic over my old black jeans with a pair of ballet pumps. I will definitely do it tomorrow though, as I need to get a base measurement if nothing else.    

Now that I'm back from the party my nose seems to be all bunged up and yet running at the same time (I hate it when that happens!) and I've got the starting of a scratchy throat. I just hope I'm not going down with anything. Off to bed now for a nice long sleep. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.
            
Today’s exercise:  Seated Bike = 10 mins; Treadmill = 10 mins; Stretching = 10 mins; Bike = 10 mins; Cross Trainer = 5 mins;  Armbike = 10 mins; Arc Trainer = 10 mins; Stretching = 10 mins; Swimming = 20 lengths
Carb's Eaten: 31.3G
Exercising to: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling read by Stephen Fry (UK Edition)
Weight Loss = 9lbs
Inch Loss = 0
Mood: A little despondent


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