Morning…. I’m still alive and kicking. Just. I’ve had a manic week at work. My job seems to be like that. Either relatively steady or completely mental. There’s no inbetween. Unfortunately my last week in abstinence has been a bit of a pants one. I’ve had my slowest movement in weight that I can remember this week. I weighed in at 14 stone 4lbs at the weigh in last Tuesday (a day early) and today my scales are saying 13 stone 13lbs in the MORNING! By my reckoning that means I’ve lost about 2 and a half pounds this week. But, as my regular readers will know, I’ve been here before. You just never know what those lighterlife scales are gonna say. I have had a late charge on a Wednesday before. Oh well, we’ll just see what happens. Don’t get me wrong I’m ecstatic that the scales say 13 something. It’s a great feeling when you tick over into another number at the start of your weight but it’s a development my experience told me to expect on Sunday and not weigh in day. With that said though, there are just too many factors to consider. I’ve been getting weighed on Tuesdays for the last couple of weeks instead of Wednesday; my weigh in day home weight was recorded on Wednesday and not Tuesday too. My body just didn’t want to tick over into the thirteen’s. I’ve had this before. How weird that it’s always when you’re about to enter another stone. Anyway, I’ve definitely decided that enough is enough on the abstinence front now. Maybe my weight loss slowing is my body trying to tell me something. I’m definitely going into management tomorrow. My mind is made up. To be honest though some of the things I’ve been doing over the last week could have contributed to my slower loss. I’ve started my exercise plan now and I’ve been drinking coffee with sweetener like it’s going out of fashion (due to the kids being up every night lately). Both of these things could have an affect. Also, you may remember in my last post that I’d forgotten my packs for the day. Well I got home around 6.30 and had 4 packs before bed. I didn’t feel too good after that and actually woke up in the night having a bit of a funny turn. I guess my body isn’t used to 500 calories in such a short space of time these days. So I don’t know if that had an affect on my loss too. Ahhhh whatever, I’m just tired and moaning. The reality is that this kind of situation is why I got to below my target weight before starting the management phase. Smaller or no losses is what I need to expect from now on so maintaining the weight is now the order of the day. I’ve always said that anything between 14 and 14 and a half I’d be happy and I’m at the low end of that goal right now. My week 20 weigh in is tonight so I’ll be updating tomorrow with the results but I think any sort of loss is a result at this point. I need to keep the faith! I’ll be interested in my ketosis result this week though. I did have a good moment this week too. The woman on reception (who I don’t know) stopped me on my way back from the loo yesterday to grill me about how I’ve lost all the weight. In 20 weeks that’s the first complete stranger who has mentioned it. Felt good.
I mentioned in the above that I’ve started my workout regime. Well as most of you know I have a pretty nice treadmill at home. It’s the proform 3.6 and I have to say I’m loving it right now. There’s nothing quite like the high you get after exercise. I really think it could replace my food high. I haven’t really done any exercise up until this point as I didn’t want it to slow my losses down. I also had some concerns about being on so few calories and exercising at the same time. I’ve now thrown caution to the wind and started anyway. I’m currently following the ‘Couch to 5k’ plan. The idea is that it gets you running from nothing to 5km (3 miles) 3 times a week. I’ve added the 5K plan to my super duper Lighterlife tracking spreadsheet and I’ve now completed the first two sessions. It’s a 9 week plan and my current schedule is to run on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The workouts get tougher as the weeks go on until the final week where you should be able to run 3 miles without resting/walking non stop. I must say, it’s doing the trick. I already feel better, have more energy, and I’m actually looking forward to getting on it again tomorrow. The only thing I have to decide is if I’m ready to up the intensity next week. Although it’s a 9 week plan it’s fully flexible. If I was to repeat the week 1 exercise in week 2, there’s no reason why not. The point is that you don’t over do it. I guess I’ll see how I feel. I’ll keep you updated on how I get on but what I can tell you is that the week 1 intensity with the speeds and incline I’ve chosen burns around 350 calories in half an hour. That’s 1050 calories a week. Not bad for a start. So, as I’ve decided that Saturdays will be my day off exercise for the week (due to the missus working all day and me having the kids) I needed to find something to fill Tuesdays. Wednesdays and Fridays. I figured I need to go for the old toning action. I have an ab toner which I’m going to use on those days along with starting another plan. The 100 push up plan! This is a real challenge for me cos I’ve never been able to do push ups. A real gymhead once told me that nothing tones the body like resistance training (using your body weight instead of equipment). That’s stuff like crunches, pull ups, push ups etc. Anyway, I’m going to give the plan a go and see how I get on. There are various levels based on initial ability so I’m sure I’ll be in push up city before too long. I think I may spend half an hour on the wife’s trampette on those days too just to get a bit of aerobics action going on those days. Ultimately I want to cycle to the station on the days I’m not running but I’m gonna leave that for a bit. It’s too damn cold and I need to tone up some of this skin! I really noticed it yesterday when I was doing my stretches after the treadmill. It doesn’t look too bad in general but it really notice in certain positions. I’m sure things will improve in that area with time. Anyway, 17 weeks until my holiday. I wanna be the same weight and have a decent level of fitness by then. It’s my next big goal.
SO, a fairly quick update today but as always I want to get any moaning out of the way before the weigh in tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow to update you on the final stats in the abstinence period and take you through the first week of the route to management stage. I’ve been so busy focusing on the scales and exercise this week that I haven’t had to time to think about the fact that I’m gonna be eating…….TOMORROW!!!
G
P.S. After my unplanned ‘reveal’ in the pub a couple of weeks ago, a friend who was there is starting the lighterlife plan! I’ll let you know how he gets on.
