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.

Thursday, 6 October 2011

Day Twenty Eight


This evening I had a shish and doner kebab, which if I’ve ever deserved one, today is definitely the day. After a long day at work, during which my legs ached terribly after yesterday’s hard power plate work out I finally got to the gym for my session with the trainer and my new programme.

I was aching so much and completely shattered after a long coach journey that I honestly wasn’t expecting to be able to do much and thought that I might just end up having a chat with the trainer to discuss how to get my work out into the fat burning zone, but I should have known that’s not how trainers work. Instead I was really put through my paces and, although it was tiring and I now ache even more, I achieved a longer work out than I’ve ever managed before without really getting out of breath. After promising the trainer that I would keep trying to increase my times on each piece of equipment (I did keep trying to explain about my short attention span but he wasn’t having any of it), I was allowed to go to the swimming pool where I tried to swim and then hot tub away my aches and pains. I even got to try a new piece of equipment, which was an absolute killer, although I guess once I get used to it it’ll be no worse than anything else I currently use. I also picked up some useful tips on how to judge what zone I’m in when there’s no heartbeat monitor on the equipment or, like one of the bikes I went on, when I can’t reach the monitor because my arms are too short.

As it is quite a long work out I’m not always going to have time to do it all but the trainer said that I have to do at least ten minutes on each piece of equipment, building it up as much as I can. Also I am now changing the levels and gradients during the session, rather than starting at a particular speed or gradient as this gives my heartbeat a change to stabilise at the lower rate. It was amazing to discover how much harder the arm bike was to use when I turned it in the opposite direction to the way I usually do it. I can feel that in my arms I can tell you.

At the moment the standing hand bike has been dropped, which is actually a bit of a relief as that was giving me a backache – although tonight a backache would fit right in with all the others. My right shin is currently very painful, as are my feet, which are always a little painful due to arthritis. Shortly I shall be slathering on the arnica gel before hopping into bed in the hopes it will soothe away some of the pain.

Food today was ham, cream cheese and avocado roll ups for breakfast, with a tuna nicoise salad with a lemon vinaigrette dressing for lunch, I also had a couple of Babybel cheddars for an afternoon snack.

Tomorrow I’m going to measure myself again to see if there’s any difference. I’m not sure I did it properly the first time so this measurement will be the base marker for all future measurements. I definitely feel thinner and my clothes are looser – I managed to get into a freshly washed pair of jeans without having to wriggle and dance, so I’m hoping that there might finally be some inch loss to make up for the lack of weight loss.

Feeling completely shattered now so I really need to go to bed.
  
Today’s exercise:  Seated Bike = 10 mins; Treadmill = 15 mins; Stretching = 10 mins; Bike = 10 mins; Cross Trainer = 5 mins;  Armbike = 15 mins; Arc Trainer = 10 mins; Seated Bike = 10 mins; Swimming = 40 lengths
Carb's Eaten: 21.3G
Exercising to: The well meaning nagging of the trainer
Weight Loss = 9lbs
Inch Loss = 0
Mood: Ouch!


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