cjtrigg's Journal

Here we are
Jun 12 2009 09:18

So here we are.  Pretty much at my goal date.  My goal, the image I've had in my head, has been centred around our holiday to Greece.  When I started the weight loss thing in January, I wanted to be able to wear nice summer clothes and even a bikini by the time I went on holiday.  Well, we fly on Sunday morning, and I am just so delighted - and amazed - to be able to say this is actually the case.  It's been 6 months, but here I am.  I'm 16lbs lighter, and much trimmer around my mid-section which was the area I was most bothered by. 

My legs have stunned me.  In January, my legs were ok.  They were perhaps a bit wobbly in the upper thigh area.  But they weren't that bad, I mean I could go out in shorts without terrifying everyone.  Anyway, so now my legs are just... solid.  Nothing wobbles on them any more.  It's actually quite weird; they look a little too muscley perhaps. But I remember them looking like that before when I was more active as a teenager.  I guess in terms of where weight falls on my body, my legs aren't a key area.

Anyhoo.

So I've been feeling quite pleased about all this in the last few weeks although in those weeks I haven't really been able to exercise much. Today is my last day at work before going on holiday and I came in this morning and the two guys who are working downstairs stopped me to ask what my secret was.  I was thinking about work things and said, well, what secret? And (obviously, given I'm writing here) they said they'd noticed I'd lost a lot of weight recently and wanted to know how I did it.  Talk about a pick-me-up at the beginning of the day!  On top of that, talking to the security guard who is a South London hardman type, I impressed him by saying I'm running two 10k races soon.  I'm starting my day very chuffed.

Er. This was meant to be more coherent, but as always... no.  Basically, I can't believe I'm actually here.  And what's more I'm not going to stop here.  I'm going on this holiday for two weeks and I'm going to do and eat whatever I want.  But I have two 10k races in September, and I could still do with losing more weight from my stomach, and so when I come back I'm going right back out and running again, and continuing to keep an eye on my food consumption. 

Argh
May 05 2009 10:41

So. I began in the middle of January with calorie counting, running and other exercise.  All went well.  We're now in May and I've lost 13lbs and (unlike when I lost that much by just eating less) I am more toned and have a flatter stomach.  But it's plateau time, and although I say my stomach is flatter, it's still quite pot-bellied, in a buddha way. 

Fine, I can probably handle a plateau and since I've been mostly doing steady state cardio running up to 9k, I may well be able to break it by trying some sprinting.* Except, Problem #1: last week I strained my calf muscle.  Not enough to require any sort of treatment, but enough to know I probably shouldn't run for at least a week.  Bugger.

And again, all this wouldn't bother me so much were it not for Problem #2, which is really defining my mild panic at the moment: my holiday, and my goal of being able to wear beach clothes and generally nice things whilst there, is in 6 weeks. 

It is entirely possible I am being pathetic and making more of a fuss about this than I should, and I should also add that I intend to continue with the weight loss when I come back from holiday since I am 10lbs away from being the right BMI again.  But I don't like it; the clock is ticking now and yet I can't do anything about it because of the injury.

Random additional query: I am assuming that once the body gets used to exercising at a certain level, you have to keep that level up and go beyond it to keep losing weight.  Right?  Because right now that thought is giving me the droop, frankly.

* But the steady cardio seems to have been the key to my flatter stomach, I really don't want to lose that benefit by changing to sprints...

After a break...
Mar 05 2009 10:25

So nothing doing for a bit here.  Last week I caught a nasty cold and so most plans went out of the window.  I didn't exercise, and I didn't calorie count.  But I was still working a show shift so being a bit more active daily and I don't think I went much higher than about 1600 cals a day.  So I was a bit gutted to find that the scales read 1lb heavier at the end of the week.  Actually, 'bit gutted' doesn't really cover it - I'm kinda pissed off.

Anyway, obviously I need to get over myself because 1lb isn't exactly catastrophic.  I'm on day shifts again this week so I've been calorie counting again, keeping in the region of c1250-1350 per day and doing a little exercise.  I'm seriously struggling with having any routine on these day shift weeks, and I have got to sort that out because in 3 weeks time I'll be back on day shift permemantly so I can't rely on having the days free for running.  I'm trying to work out a route I could run from here at work, but I don't know if it'll happen.  It's really not nice here compared to running the Racecourse at home.

In the meantime I've been using the jump rope I got the other week - my GOD that's knackering - and doing some weights work with the fly floor sanbags, which weigh 4kg each.  I've also been trying to do some core work with crunches and planks.  I don't know that it's doing much, but on the other hand, it has to be better than slumping in my chair in front of the computer.

TOTM is due next week so perhaps I won't see much loss over the next few days although I have been diligently drinking lots of water.  We will see.  I probably won't get to weigh until Sunday.

Feeling it?
Feb 20 2009 09:33

Today I thimnk I'm feeling a bit slimmer.  Actually, that's not true, all this week I've felt a bit lighter.  I don't know though if I'm going to have lost any weight this week, I just think perhaps the inches may have changed slightly.  Ideally I'd like to weigh in at 9st 10 at the weekend but I won't hold me breath, I suspect there won't be any change.  I do need to concentrate on not stressing out if that does happen though, there are so many reasons for nothing to have changed this week that it's not worth worrying about.  Next week is a new week and a week when I can do much more exercise!  I hope that this pattern of one week on, one week off doesn't slow everything down too much though.

The difficulties of trying to work out at work
Feb 19 2009 11:57

I managed to do a routine this morning, although a little interrupted.

3x 12 lunges (bodyweight)

3x 20 squats (bodyweight)

3x 3 20 sec planks

3x 12 oblique crunches

I definitely need to be using weights for the lunges and squats now but, as mentioned before, I don't have any here at work.  But next week when I'm back on evenings I'll be able to do them at home.  Also a lack of weights here prohibits any arm exercises which is quite annoying.  Still toying with the notion of getting a set of dumbells to keep here.  Oh, I don't know.

Exercise not happening
Feb 18 2009 09:43

Exercise has not really gone to plan this week.  I did ok on Monday, got the leg strength training in.  But yesterday I had the vague notion of doing arm srength and it just... didn't happen.  Partly because I don't have any weights at work apart from paint cans of unspecified weight, so I planned to do it at home.  but when I get home at 7pm, I'm just not really in my most exercisey mood. 

So, nothing yesterday.  And I'm not sure a lot will happen today either - I have two different meetings and Simon's in early for the show so I doubt I'll have the time.  It has to be said that even if I did, I feel like crap today.  I woke up with a sore throat (WTF body?!), I still have the remnants of last night's random throbbing headache, and I'm feeling a bit knackered generally.  I hope this isn't the start of a bug, because I could really do without that right now.

On the positive side though, eating has gone to plan and I feel like I'm doing ok there.  And I have a skipping rope on order to start some HIIT here at work for my day shifts.

Back on days
Feb 16 2009 09:39

Back on the day shift this week, and knowing I'm unlikely to get a whole lot of productive exercise I'm going to be counting cals again.  Pitching for 1400, since upping them seemed to work before.  Trouble is I'm all routined for 1200, so my projected intake today as planned only just comes in over 1000.  I have to find 400 cals somewhere!  I'll probably have a biscuit or two with a cup of tea later, but perhaps will have some brazil nuts at home too.  Falling slightly under for one day might be a good thing, I'm sure my metabolism isn't sure what the hell is going on at the moment I'm chopping and changing so much - but that's a good thing!

I posted on the Fitness Forum for advice re: HRM and running, from which I got the usual advice to do HIIT as well as some support to carry on with what I was doing if I want to run distances.  Trouble is, I kind of want a bit of both.  I'd like to run distances and maybe do a 5k in the summer.  But I am tempted by the promises of HIIT when it comes to fat loss.  If only I could think of a way to do it in these day shift weeks.  I don't think running on the spot in the plant room is ideal, actually creating forward motion I suspect might be an important part of running as exercise.  But if I could work out how to do some HIIT on these weeks and then use the evening shift weeks for distance running then I could be on to a winner.

Pondering the HRM after first proper run
Feb 15 2009 12:54

Day off yesterday, did a small amount of walking to Franklin's Gardens and back but that was it really.  Probably didn't eat fantastically either, with 3/4 of a pizza at lunch and fish finger sandwich for tea, but frankly I've eaten worse.

Today I've been for a proper run with the HRM, the stats from the F4 were:

58 mins total

28 mins in the zone

362 calories burned

Still not sure if the HRM maths are right, when I found the pace to keep me between 50%-70%, I seemed to be going very slow and I felt like I could have run like that forever.  I don't know if I should feel that way or not really, I think the guide book indicates I was doing the right thing.  I'm not sure if I should do the formulas again either with a higher max heart rate (but how on earth do I work that out?), or with a higher resting pulse since the one I took could possibly have been a one off... 

Anyway, so I went running and I have no idea how far I ran because I went a bit all over the place since I felt like I could.  Actually, let me measure on Google Earth... It seems like it was about 2 miles.  Seriously though, could have gone on for ages.  Quite happily.  Anyhoo.  At home, did arm exercisies.  I think I need to investigate a different set of dumbells, because Jim's go up in huge leaps and I don't know if I can hack that. 

Routine
Feb 13 2009 15:25

No running today - no point since we had more snow last night.  But hopefully the trecherous ice paths might be defrosted by Sunday?  It would be good to have a proper run then.  And if I've got the HRM maths right and running at a slower rate is better then I should probably be able to go for longer.  Which is good.

Anyway, no running but did do a 5 minute warm-up row on the machine, then weights:

3x 12 lunges (bodyweight)

3x Arm swing things with weights (5kg each arm)

3x 20 squats (bodyweight)

3x Arms up and out (5kg each arm)

3x 20 crunches

3x 12 oblique crunches

It took a long time, about 45/50 minutes, but felt good.  Not as easy as before, but it's the end of the week and I'm going to take a rest day tomorrow.  When I start these again from Monday, I think I might add weights to the lunges and possibly the squats.  But I'll be doing them at work so I have to improvise some weights from somewhere...

HRM and running
Feb 12 2009 11:14

Went for a run today, with the HRM for the first time.  Annoyingly, the Racecourse still frozen in places so my run was completely interrupted, so no idea what distance I ran.  Previous have been on 2k lap, with just under 2k walking for the distance to and from home.  I think I'd been completing the run at a 10min/mile pace, with probably a bit moe to give if I wanted to.

Today, to keep my heart rate in the target zones as I think I've followed them, I had to slow down quite a bit in places compared to what I was running, although it's difficult to know given the interruption involved.  I've toyed with altering the figures since 226-age isn't exactly an accurate figure for Max heart rate, but I think perhaps a proper run to test this might be a good idea first.  The guides all say that if you think you can go harder then perhaps the numbers are wrong.  We'll see.

Also did a reduced weights-style workout:

12 lunges (bodyweight)

20 squats (bodyweight)

20 crunches

12 oblique crunches

20 shoulder/elbow dumbell thingies (5kg each arm)

5 arm lifts to front then side (5kg each arm)

Weighed myself and have lost another pound since the weekend so now down to 137lbs/9st11, which is where I got stuck for a while last year.  I hope and think that the weight seems to be coming off better now because of the weight training, I certainly feel like I'm exercising more efficiently.  I'm also eating a bit more, I think 1250 might actually be too low for my body even if I am a shortarse.  Since I had a bit of a blow out these last two days, taking my count up to maybe 1600 per day, I was wondering if I was going to pay for them by being stuck for a while but apparently not. 

It annoys me a bit that I've now lost 7lbs since I started a little over a month ago but I'm sure my stomach is still enormous.  As in wobbly and fat, basically.  Still, at some point it'll have to start fading away.