Weigh-in and milestone news

Oh Thursday mornings, how I have grown to love you!

Weigh-in day today, and this week I lost 3lbs, taking my total in 18 weeks to 37.8 lbs. I am losing ways to describe my feelings about how this year is going... however, I'll still try, as today I hit a pretty awesome milestone on my way to a sustainable healthy weight.

I have been a yo-yo dieter all my adult life - gain weight, lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, and on it goes. I have long since destroyed any evidence of my weight when I finished university in 1999, so my records begin in September 2004, but in that time I been 17 stone at my heaviest (238lbs, or 108kgs) and 10st 13 at my lightest (153lbs, or 69.4kgs) - though that is still officially overweight. I can't ever remember a time when I was a 'normal' weight. Today, however, I dropped below the lightest I've been since January 2010, when I topped the scales at my highest weight ever; and more than that, I feel different about it. I think back to how I lost weight in the past, and it was nothing like how I'm doing it this time. Below is a chart showing my weight over the last 10½ years, right up to today - you can click to enlarge, but basically the marks along the horizontal axis are "J05, J06, J07..." to show January 2005, 2006, 2007, etc. And the vertical axis is stones of weight. 17st at the top, 10st at the bottom. The pink dotted line represents a BMI of 25, and is where I'm headed. But once my weight drops under that line, my job is to pretty much straighten out the line on that chart, and stop those constant peaks and troughs. It's all about developing a lifestyle I can maintain - and that's what I'm doing differently this year.


Really, really pleased with the 3lbs loss this week. Started the week with a big strawberry tart on the Thursday evening - pastry, creme patissiere, whipped cream, strawberries, and the thick gloopy red sugary jelly/syrup over the top - (delicious!!). Gave into temptation with the large boxes of chocolates in the office brought in by colleagues who retired on Friday, and ate handfuls. At the retirement party on Friday night, I had a small plateful of buffet food (pizza, things in pastry). At the parkrun post-run celebrations on Saturday I had a piece of birthday cake with thick icing on top. Sunday's long walk took me to a cafe where I ate a buttered cheese scone covered in melted cheese. I savoured and enjoyed every single one of these treats, and there was no negativity, no shame, no regrets after eating them - things definitely are different!!

And yet, the decisions I've made with food and exercise this week have contributed to a great loss on the scales - it's no fluke; I've ate carefully on the days where I have treats, sticking to lower fat proteins such as chicken, turkey, lean pork, and swordfish. On the other days, having my higher fat proteins, like salmon and mackerel. Weighing portions of wholewheat pasta. Eating plenty of vegetables for fibre and nutrients (I've been a Kale Queen this week, haha). Drinking plenty of tea and water. Avoiding taking extra snacks to work when I know I'll be nibbling chocolates. And so on... I don't want anyone to be under the illusion I'm not working hard at this, because I really am.

Exercise-wise, a big change on the landscape this week, and I said goodbye to my personal trainer. I'll write more about this, and where the future lies, in my next post. Running-wise, I didn't get a long run done on Sunday, but I've done some very good confidence building smaller runs, and feeling good for the 10km race a week on Sunday. This morning I ran 2 steady miles before going to the polling station to vote; managed 2 miles 'comfortably' in 22:14, which is brilliant. I think it's possibly the fastest I've ever ran 2 miles, not including the two most recent parkruns I've done, and it's runs like this that build my confidence up. Yesterday morning, I ran along the seafront at Portobello for a speed session - ran 2km in 13:06, which felt hard. My aim was one “easy” fast km, then turn round and do one where I really pushed hard – the splits were 6:55 and 6:11! That second km is equivalent to 9:58 mins/mile pace, woohoo!! If I can build up more speedwork at sub 10 min mile pace, it’s going to pay dividends on parkruns and so on. Plus, of course, burning kcals. ;-) My HR got up to 200 by the end of that second km though, I was really pushing myself - after a short rest I did some tricep dips on a bench, incline push-ups, and stretches, gentle recovery jog, and so on. Really nice to be by the sea so early in the day - it was a lovely way to start the day, and I was home before the rain started, too! x x