Nice line, good steady progress, and I've made it into a new stone bracket today, which is awesome - it's been a long time since I've weighed 11 stone something! :-) Well on my way to my goals (which, in basic terms, is hitting the x-axis on the graph, lol, and then staying there), every week is a nice little boost to move me along.
I mentioned last week that I am no longer seeing a personal trainer. This is a huge step for me, as I've used personal trainers for support, education, structure, accountability, and - if I'm honest - just good ol' company in the gym and someone to talk to, for most of the last 5½ years. So I'm left with a decision to make (this is not me asking for advice, by the way, just sayin'...) - I see it as three options. I can go it alone, I can get a new personal trainer, or I can find a running coach. There are pros and cons to each approach - this past 1½ weeks my attention has been solely on running (and work), and until yesterday I'd not been to the gym once. It just seems so much harder to fit in to my day when I don't have an appointment, which is crazy. I know I get a lot out of gym trips, physically and mentally, so I should be able to make the effort myself, but I do get side-tracked by other things easily, and maybe I just can't build the structure myself that having regular appointments makes. But equally, I do know a lot now about what I can achieve, how to structure workouts, what sort of gym work works for me, and so on... and I am understanding a lot more about my capabilities. Likewise with the running, as much as it's going really well at the moment, there's no real structure or planning going in to what I'm doing. This could be a drawback as my improvements plateau out and I flounder a little, or it could be a benefit because I sometimes find a proper training plan rather overwhelming.
I think I have decided on the way forward, though - I'm not going to say much more on that just now, and I won't be doing anything until after my races in May are out of the way - so June will be a new step for me, I think, and I have a little prep work to do first in sorting out my schedules, and making some decisions. In the meantime, it's just me. (With the advice of some good friends who I can trust, when I need it.) - I need a bit of accountability and structure, but I need to know to trust myself and my knowledge. I know what's suitable for my goals: I went back to the gym yesterday morning, and got a good upper body session in, before work. At lunchtime, I went for a swim. It's really important to me to keep a good mix of running, weight lifting, tabata and circuits work, and swimming. I feel happy that I'm on the right path, and that the progress will continue to come. :-)
Yep, you must keep up the swimming - one day you might want to do a triathlon !!!!
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DeleteAmazing how consistent the line has been heading down, that's an amazing level of consistency, just showing how well you've been managing the diet and exercise despite the usual ups and downs that life throws at us.
ReplyDeleteThe last month you seem to have flipped between high weight loss to lower weight loss the week after, but with the average over the month very similar to previous months. There have been some big weekends like the Fling to contend with etc. but you've always got back on track which is really impressive. I suspect this is where keeping logs will be helping, you can spot times when your diet isn't as good, what the result is w.r.t weight loss and then make corrections right away and then see the benefits of this soon after. As you've written you've even going beyond this and mindfully handling times of temptation by adjusting even on the same day to balance things. Kudos for this as it can't be easy being on top of things some much of the time.
Exactly right - the food logs and pedometer records help, for looking back and seeing what's happening when weightloss isn't as high as previous weeks, and also for keeping each day a bit more mindful. Since I want everything about this year to be something I can maintain, there are always going to be 'life' things to contend with - case in point, I was at a dinner for my career's professional body last night, three courses plus a bit of tablet with the cuppa afterwards, and I ate every single bit, and enjoyed it too!! But I made the conscious decision to not have any of the free wine, and to stay away from the pre-dinner nibbles, to make sure that a yummy three course meal doesn't derail me.
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