couch to 5k

I have ordered a sports bra, and as soon as it arrives, I plan to start the couch to 5k running plan. I would love to get fit, increase my stamina and tone up. Basically it is a gradual process to get you from no running experience to being able to run 3 miles over the course of 9 weeks, interspersing running with walking and over time upping the running and cutting down on the walking. I can see it as good alone time and I am quite looking forward to it. Each running session lasts for 30 minutes roughly, and you do it 3 times a week. I was thinking about doing it in the evenings after the kids had gone to bed, but Jonathan said it's getting dark by that time, and suggested I do it in the afternoons on Friday, Sunday and Tuesday. Tuesday is when the in-laws come over to help me with the shopping, I'd feel a bit guilty spending some of that time running (then showering) but I guess we could wait and see. Maybe do an early morning run, but then I really am not a morning person!

Anyway, I am looking forward to it. :)

Lowest weight, yet...

I am the lowest weight I remember being, the same as I was when I was 18, which is 153lb (roughly). I am not quite the size I was last time, I am probably less fit, higher fat ratio, and am still mainly in size 14s with some size 12s. I've dreamed of being a size 12 for years, yet now I am here (more or less), it doesn't feel good enough. I still have just under a stone to take me to my goal weight, and it's coming off soooo slowly now, but part of me is ok with that. Like I know that if I keep going the way I'm going, I'll lose the weight eventually, and it's helping set me up with a new way of eating for the rest of my life. One thing I really need to focus on, is that food isn't a filler in my life, it's not going to make me happy, or give me company, food is purely a fuel, and something I have learned is that my body needs surprisingly little fuel to run efficiently.

I am going to keep the weight off, that's one thing I swear, I want these habits to last me a lifetime, and now I am lighter, I find myself really almost ITCHING to start exercising with a gusto. I find myself wanting to go out running, I need some sports bras before I do that, and some exercise clothes. And some time!! When do people find the time to run when they have two preschoolers?!! Just some more things for me to be thinking about.

Sorting through clothes again!

I have got a huge amount of clothes that fit me, or have done recently, and I am having to sort through them again. A whole load of vest tops I have in size 16 are way too baggy for me now, and a size 16 skirt I wore to my brother's wedding in August 2005 hang around my hips, and I'm pretty sure that if I tried hard enough I could get them off without unbuttoning it. A pair of 3/4 length black trousers I found in my wardrobe, size 14, are loose on me, but they are slightly stretchy ones. Still, it's all good for the confidence boost!

I'm weighing in tomorrow, and hoping that I will be 156lb or lower, I was 156 on Sunday so lost 3lb since 15th June. I am feeling so good about myself, less so when in just underwear, but clothed, I am most certainly feeling comfortable, and I think the more weight I lose, the more likely I am to pay more attention to wearing properly fitting clothes, which highlight my weight loss, which gets me more compliments, which spurs on my weight loss! When I reach 151 lb, I will have lost 4 stone. And that is only about 5lb away! Maybe I should aim to get to that weight by my birthday, the 10 stone isn't going to happen as I had a verrrry slow couple of months, but seeing as I had originally hoped to reach 12 stone by Christopher's first birthday, and I am now very almost 11 stone, with him only 9 months old, I can't help but think I have made a huge amount of progress already, that even though I had hoped for more weight loss by now, I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Some people don't lose 4 stone in 2 years let alone what will be around 10 months.

I am really hoping that when I have my repeat glucose tolerance test this year (which might not be until December, as that's when I took my *ahem* 6 week PP one to check it was gestational only), it will show no glucose intolerance at all, and completely normal levels. And that when/if I get pregnant again, the gestational diabetes does not return.

It's working!

4 days on, and I am now 156.8lb, which is 2lb lighter! I need to lose 2.8lb over the next 6 days to reach my goal, and weigh 11 stone for the first time in about a decade! I am eating much less, thinking twice before eating something, and not going overboard on snacks. Getting into salad again as well which is good!

I'm enjoying snacking on frozen fruit, yes you read that right ;) I chop up bananas, and freeze them. Slice up a pear thinly and freeze that. Halved grapes are delicious frozen too. Because they are frozen, they take longer to eat, so whenever I feel the nibblies coming on, and I find myself in the kitchen, I take out a few pieces of frozen fruit, and that satisfies my cravings. For the most part, I just want to be eating, which is where the craving lies, so eating a few bits of frozen fruit is ideal!

Here's to getting to my first mini goal and completing my 5lb off in 10 days challenge successfully! :)

Still..

I'm still the same weight as I was back in April. This is getting OLD. Very verrry old. I have decided to aim high for the next week and a half, in the hopes that it will prompt me to stop being apathetic, to really put some effort in, to think twice before walking to the fridge, or get something out of it. I've not been perfect the last day and a half, but I have been BETTER. I figure that if I aim high (and by high, I mean, to lose 5lb in 10 days), then if I manage to even lose half that, I'll have done good, you know? I want to see 11 stone 0lb on the scales.. SOON. And I figure by setting myself a date of 25th - the day I've booked us all in to go and have family photos done with a Christmas voucher, the race is on, and hopefully I'll get near to that figure. And that within 3 weeks, I will see the 10 stone somethings on the scales once more. If I manage to get 5lb down by the 25th, then I will be on track for being 10.5 stone by my birthday, if I manage to average 2lb a week from then on.

Back to what works

The mindset of "any loss is a good loss, and a loss for good." It's back! Hurrah! My mojo has returned finally. I lost another 1lb this week, and am now down to 11 stone 5lb again, or 159lb. I am determined that I will lose again next week, be it 1lb, or 1 and a half, or 2lb, whatever. And those lbs will be gone for good too. I am never going to see 160lb on the scales again, with the exception of during pregnancy, while carrying a small child, or perhaps if I naughtily weigh myself during the day or evening, clothed over the next few weeks.

Only 2lb til my 3rd goal of losing 50lb, the combined weight (roughly) of my two boys. And only 5lb until I reach 11 stone, the weight I was when I was 18/19, that's right, how much I weighed almost TEN years ago.

If I lose just 1lb a week on average from now until Christopher's birthday in September, I will fall just 2lb short of my target weight! If I lose on average 1.5lb per week from now, I will reach my target weight by late August! If I lose 2lb per week on average, I will reach my target weight by the beginning of August! To reach my target weight by my birthday in mid-July, I will need to lose a massive 3lb a week on average for the next 6 weeks, which I really don't think is do-able anymore.

So.. for now, I am going to concentrate on eating healthily, and hopefully, the scales next week will be kind. :)

I realised today that I can't remember the last time I ate a bag of crisps. I've eaten some from a bag that have been put out on a table for everyone to dip into (a normal sized bag between 4 adults and Robert), but not for a while, and I haven't missed them at all! Not really anyway, I do like things like wotsits and would enjoy them if I had a bag, but had no real craving to get one at all. This is what I love, the fact that my habits are changing, and I'm barely realising, let alone missing. Maybe someday there will be a day where I do not crave nor miss chocolate, and ice cream too ;)

Anyway, let's see if I can make a 2lb loss by next Wednesday, and see that magic 50lb loss, and maybe pick up Robert and Christopher together to see just how much weight I have lost since Christopher was born :)

Treading water

I've been treading water for a while. Since my low carb 6lb loss I've continued trying but not with a lot of success. As such 3 weeks on I have gained back 2lb of that 6lb loss. I've probably been a bit slack on the sweet treats. Now I'm adding some carbs back but trying to focus on healthy snacking, along with keeping meals lower carb. I am going to stick to soup and salad for lunches, and try and keep limiting carbs for the evening meal. Fingers crossed that this will give me another boost into eating healthier and losing the weight again.

I weigh 161lb as of this morning, and I want that to be the last time I see the 160s on the scales again. Time to get back into it!