I'm getting there!

I weighed myself this morning and I am 2lbs away from my pre pregnancy weight and although I still have a long way to go before pre baby weight of my first, I can see it happening!

I haven't started insanity as I had previously mentioned because my son doesn't sleep well and I just don't feel that it's the right time. I have started Jillian Michaels 30 day shred though and today will be day two. I have also been doing weights at home and getting to the gym when work and tiredness allows me to.

I really feel great today, I had hit a sort of plateau but I do believe it was due to not eating enough. I hadn't been logging my calories and when I did , I realised tht I was only eating about 900 calories and that can be dangerous as well as mess with your metabolism and body. Food is good, bad association with it can cause all sorts of issues. 

I will post some progress pictures as well, I want to get a true representation of what I look like now and show you how my skin is quite wobbly and how things like te shred and couch to 5k can change that and help tighten up.

So that's all for now and I hope to continue with this blog, posting more than I have in the past. Two kids, work etc is pretty tiring so forgive me for lack of updates!

I've Been Busy!

For anyone who is taking the time to read my blog, you'll know that I haven't posted in a few weeks. I have a reason for that which is I have been helping with a friends business adn I have returned to work after maternity leave.  I cant quite believe that 11 months has passed but at least in my job, I still have ok hours (apart from night shift), and I don't start my shifts until 4pm.

So, some big news.. I have LOST 6lbs!!! I'm so excited especially as I haven't been to the gym in a week due to shifts being at night and just being tired from starting work again. However, I have found my weights and I will be making sure that I do some on the nights that I can't get out.I have found that using the My fitness Pal App, to be useful and I have been making much better and informed choices when it comes to my food intake.

I really hope to lose another 8 by christmas and then I would be close to a size 12, than a 14:)) I have a wedding this week in Dublin and I bought a size 14 dress. I am over the moon delirious and it just goes to show you that eating healthy and educating yourself on what foods are better for you , can really have a positive effect on how you look and feel. There was one time when seeing the results of a friends dieting where you have to fast for 2 days of the week, that I was almost tempted to follow suit but I was true to my instincts and stuck with healthy eating instead!

How are you all gettiing on with your healthy eating and weight loss so far?

And I'm feeeeellling Goooood

Day two in the gym and I have to say that I am feeling fantastic.  I had my induction yesterday and I was speaking to a trainer who specialised in post natal exercise, who took one look at me and realised that I was in a bit of pain and who advised me not to use the machines such as cross trainer and not to go head in to metafit like I had planned on doing this morning.

I know what i shouldn't be doing but I just want to jump back in, head first! I can't though and I have made appointment with Physio which will take between 7-11 weeks to come through although I should be seeing the podiatrist next week some time who may just refer me on and the next step would be seeing a consultant. So until then, its a case of taking it easy... This is killing me but after trying to get up off the floor with the baby this afternoon and falling back, I realise the need for caution and rather than doing any more hard to my body that its best to wait rather than end up not being able to walk.

Tonight when I was in the gym, i did a walk/run on the treadmill, used the bike and set myself up for a few og the gym challenges, which consist of burning 5000 calories before christmas which really isn't ging to be that difficult. I am also doing a cycling challenge and am now part of a team adn I have downloaded an app that works with the gym equipment and is called "mywellness". It tracks the calories burned, activity,effort level etcand it will be a great motivator I am sure. I enter in my height and weight which are 5feet"2 , and 83.9kg. The absolute heaviest that I have ever been in my life but that is about to change.

So that's my progress so far. How are you all doing with your fitness challenges this week?

Gym Membership...

Has been purchased! I did some research on other clubs in Glasgow and I thought I would be going back to my old faithful "DW Sports" up at Glasgow Fort but I found it to be over £10 more expensive than the Glasgow Club, BEFORE my corporate discount was applied.

I am loving that I can have a choice of gyms to go to and that I will mainly be attending the new and amazingly beautiful "Emirates" Sports complex which is only 12 mins from the house. The other amazing thing is that my husband is also joining in and Im so over the moon about that as he is a smoker and hasn't done the gym in over 14 years. I am hoping that he may stop smoking over time but lets just start small.

Tonight I am going for my induction and I hope that I can start getting back into some hard core training but I am full of the cold and I don't want to push it too far so i may just start with a class and a walk on the treadmill. The husband and I have decided that i will go in the mornings around 06:30am and he will go at night as I am more of a morning person where as he can go straight from work.

I am so super excited that I have also started pinning things on to my Pinterest board for when I start losing the weight. I hope that by Christmas, I can be a 14 again, if not well I am a work in progress and I know that it will take time. I think now that we have finnished having children, i am entering in to a new phase in my life and I am ready to take on challenge that i possibly wasn't ready for before.

We also want to include the children into our fitness regime and will be purchasing a membership for the 6 year old for swimming and as the little one is only 8 months old he comes free. I was inspired by @WillyBMum over on twitter and how absolutely amazing her little family is when it comes to fitness. You should have a scoot on over to her blog for inspiration, there is tonnes of it there not to mention fabulous posts on other topics too!

Do you incorporate exercise into your family life?

Running

 

Ok, so I've started the Couch 2 5k again and I had a question... What about if you want to do more?

When I started running a few years ago, I didn't follow a plan or a schedule but just went out an ran until I felt my lungs would collapse or that I would vomit. Almost everyone I've spoken to started using a plan of sorts when they had started and they seem to go for longer distances and faster. Whilst I'm not too concerned about speed, I would love to be able to run much longer and one day achieve a 10k without stopping.

I wonder if following this plan might take me to what I want to achieve? I do have days where I'm supposed to be taking a break but feel like I could do more or do two rounds of day one etc. Maybe it's not following a plan which makes it less effective and maybe instead if doing too much I could alternate and do free weights , lunges or squats?

How did you start out in your running journey? Is there any advice that you could give in terms of following or not following a plan? 

Overweight and Fighting Back

I have been fat for 6 years. There was a time when I got to a size 12 on top and 14 on the bottom. I looked better than I had done in a while and I think my daughter would have been around 3 at the time. What did it was exercise, plain and simple, no quick fix but that's what it was. I was running around 6 days a week or if I wasn't running then I was at the gym. I know I can achieve that again and I most certainly will.

Part of my quest to lose the weight is to cut down on alcohol in a very big way and drink once a wk if that. I know that I had been drinking far too much and I thought that I needed to as it relaxed me and made me feel less stress but the reality of it is that I need to deal with whatever issues are going on in my life rather than numb it with alcohol. i am more or less doing this just now though and really haven't been drinking more than once a wk, and I feel that this is a personal achievement especially as I was having at least 1 glass of wine every evening probably a heck of a lot more. I would beat myself up about it though the following day and it would be a vicious circle of guilt and blame. Yes it helped at the time but the next day it just wasn't worth it at all.

Fitness wise I haven't done a lot this week at all but I have been walking and that's an achievement that will take me closer to my goal.  I have bought my last size 16 piece of clothing and I plan on getting into a size 14 again and hopefully that will be achieved by Christmas but I won't beat myself up and am being realistic. I hope to buy a nice outfit for Christmas because despite finishing maternity leave in a few weeks, I have Christmas off and I want to make an effort this year instead of feeling like a lump. I have been making small changes, in that i am wearing my contacts more and that always makes me feel better, as well as making an effort to wear some make up as well.

If you are on a fitness or self improvement journey, what do you do daily or weekly to make yourself feel better?

Plans for a fitter Me

                                                       

I hate the term "Yummy Mummy". I am not a candy or sweet , not a product to be marketed, I am me and that's it. I see the pressure there is once becoming a mother, to lose weight and get back into a size 8/10/12 after pushing out the placenta. This hasn't happened to me or many others out there. In fact, it has been 6 years since I was a size 10 and my whole outlook has changed on the whole weight loss and health issue. I used to be Obsessed to the point of starving and binging with vomiting thrown in , not exercising much but walking almost everywhere or climbing stairs. I was skinny, I just didn't realise it at the time. I had no boobs to speak of, a tiny waist and arms but I never felt comfortable.

Fast forward 6 years later, wearing "mumsy" outfits or clothing that either has an elasticated something or other  and I am borderline size16. Not great for someone who is 5"2 although I had a baby 8months ago and I did start exercising 5weeks after the birth of baby number two. I feel terrible BUT , I know I will lose it and the difference between then and now is that I want to be healthy and I want to be toned. I don't want to be skinny. Having kids has made me realise 1. that I don't ever want my daughter to think that dieting is the answer but most importantly, you need to appreciate yourself more for who you are, than what you look like.

So where did I go wrong? I grew up with a mother who was constantly on a diet and never ever happy with herself or appearance. She is now an alcoholic, miserable and just very negative. I remember growing up when she was going from one failed diet to another.. the Scarsdale diet, the cabbage soup diet.. you get the picture. What I don't remember though is her actually getting out and exercising unless it was to the odd aerobics class.. again taking a young and impressionable daughter with her. I also believe that my sisters were also affected. One defo had an eating disorder and I would probably say anorexia and the other used food as comfort but she did exercise. The first one is now exercise crazy but I would like to think that she enjoys what she does rather than feel that it is a necessity.

So here on my first post, I hope to document with pictures, my journey to weight loss and will provide pictures to show visually how I get on. In order to do it, I hope to begin running again, use weights, sometimes do the shred, use a personal trainer when I can afford it and walk to and from school with the kids weather permitting. What I won't do though, is diet. I don't believe in it and we all know that once it stops, the weight goes back on again. You only have to look at the diet industry to see that. It riles me when people say that they have lost weight on weight watchers or slimming world, and in the same sentence say that it isn't their first attempt but third , forth , fifth time and they did lose weight. Why if these things work, do people need to be on it more than once? Why not change your habits? Don't deprive yourself of chocolate or crisps, its everything in moderation.

I may only weigh myself once or twice a month, instead going by inches because as I build muscle, which takes up less room, I may not lose as much as people who diet. Weight is just a number, health and well being is what counts. I will post about recipes as well that we use in our home and lucky for me I do eat healthy I just need to calm down on my portion sizes and wine. Wine is my downfall.... I also don't have any unrealistic expectations as I know it can take a year to lose the weight and start tonight and that's fine, I don't do quick fixes at all. So tonight I start with the Couch to 5k programme and am on my way to becoming the fitter me!