Jane October 28th, 2008
Well, I’m up to week 8 of the Couch to 5K, and am successfully running for 28 minutes straight per session. Who would have thought it?! 7 weeks ago, I could barely manage 90 seconds at a time…
Of course, having to get into a wedding dress in a year or so’s time is a pretty good motivator.
What’s annoying me, though, is that after all this effort and time, I’m really not seeing much in the way of results. I’m not eating more, or worse, and I’m definitely working a lot harder, so WHY WON’T I LOSE WEIGHT!?!? grr.
On the other hand, I’m actually fairly proud of myself for sticking with it. When I finish next week (and finish I shall), it will be the first time I’ve honestly seen an exercise program or challenge through to the end (the closest I ever came before was when I dropped out of a 12-week challenge at week 9).
My plan is this - now that I’ve got the exercise thing more or less under control, phase 2 is to make some changes to my eating and drinking habits. Still determined to get there!
Jane September 22nd, 2008
Steve and I are engaged!
Click here to see the ring…or here 
Very exciting!
Jane September 16th, 2008
Well, so far so good! Although the Couch to 5K is only 3 days per week, I’ve still been getting in to work at the same time and going for a walk on the days I’m not running. Sure, it’s only since last Friday (and I’m not doing much on weekends), but that’s still a pretty consistent effort for me, and I’m not finding it a particular struggle to get out at this time every day.
I’d run every day, but I don’t want to injure myself. Slow and steady, and you never know, I might actually stick to it…
I still feel bad about giving up on the shred, but I think whatever I can do consistently has to be better than only doing it now and then, and feeling guilty the rest of the time. For whatever reason, the morning running/walking seems to be working OK.
Jane September 15th, 2008
A website I recently stumbled on and read (thanks to Miss G for the link!), and one which I thought was worth passing on… Que-Sarah-Sarah. It’s not a long blog (sadly), but it’s a truly inspirational one.
Just a reminder to us all to appreciate each day we have, and not to take anything for granted.
Jane September 15th, 2008
It’s been almost a month since last I wrote. A month of inactivity, followed by deep feelings of guilt about said inactivity.
No more. I’m sick of excuses. And I’m going to lose the flab, get fit and fabulous and stop feeling sorry for myself.
I think I’ve finally discovered a time when I can regularly exercise, without having to get up too ridiculously early, get interrupted by work or have to do it when I get home, exhausted. If I get up just 10 minutes earlier and catch the train before my usual one, I get in to work around 7 am. I can then head out for a good 40-60 minutes, come back, shower and have breakfast - all before 8.30.
The thing is, I’m so lucky to be young and relatively healthy. And I’m wasting it if I don’t take care of my health and fitness. Being overweight and inactive are major risk factors for another clot, and I just can’t afford to ignore that - especially with a sedentary job.
I’ve started the Couch to 5K. I jumped in at Week 2, and have done it twice now. I’m doing OK (I was a bit sore over the weekend!) and I hope I’ll be able to keep it up and not let myself down…again… And theoretically at least, in another 8 or so weeks I should be able to run 5 kilometres! Yay!
Jane August 19th, 2008
…and looking at my blog for the last little while, it seems that there is a bit of a theme developing. The “I have a plan”, followed by “oops I stuffed it up again” theme.
Clearly, I’m struggling with trying to keep up any diet and exercise program with any sort of consistency. I’m not sure I understand why that is, except that perhaps I’m expecting too much of myself at the outset, then giving up when I can’t meet the high standards I’ve set.
Needless to say, the past 2 weeks have not been a success, diet and exercise-wise. I haven’t been too bad with my eating, but then again I haven’t been consistent and I have definitely not managed to keep it all together so far as exercise is concerned. I haven’t gained weight but I haven’t lost any either.
What now? I don’t know. I’m struggling a bit work-wise as well at the moment - I’m only 2 weeks back at the firm and have been thrown straight back into the deep end, with long days and a heavy workload. I want to get back to the shred and Wii Fit, but when I get home, all I want to do is collapse on the couch with a glass of wine. 5am doesn’t work - I just ended up getting more and more exhausted through the week, and missing the only time of day I get to see Steve because I had to go to bed early.
If anyone has any suggestions, I’d appreciate them…
Jane August 6th, 2008
Sorry for the long break - I’ve been insanely busy finishing up my secondment and starting back at the firm…
The current plan is this - I’ve started following a diet (one that allows me to eat a chocolate eclair every so often, hooray!) and am doing the shred every morning at 5. My thinking is that if I get up at 5, there is nothing else for me to do but exercise, whereas if I leave it until the evening, I’m usually exhausted, or working late, and it doesn’t happen. I’m acknowledging that the eating is not always going to be perfect (for example, I’ll be at my cousin’s wedding on Saturday, and my grandfather’s 80th birthday on Sunday), but special occasions aside, I’m going to aim to eat healthily for the next 4 weeks.
I’m on the third day of this plan, and so far have lost 1.3 kilos (although most of that has got to be water weight or just normal fluctuation) so I’m feeling much more positive. I’ve managed to get out of bed at 5 on each of these days, although I admit that this morning I woke up at 4.50 and took at least 10 minutes to convince myself to get out of bed… It’s especially difficult when it’s still cold and dark at 5, but hopefully it will get better over the next few weeks.
I don’t plan to blog every day on this - reading back over my last entries, it gets pretty repetitive. But I will say that I started out weighing 69.9 kg, BMI 25.8-ish, and have dropped down to 68.6 kg, BMI 25.1-ish already, and I’ll check in from time to time and update. And maybe I’ll even get back to posting some more interesting things!
Feedback anyone?
Jane July 29th, 2008
OK so… obviously the grand exercise plan hasn’t been going that well. And I’ve been in hiding because I don’t know what to say about it. On the one hand, I know that making excuses isn’t going to get me anywhere. But on the other hand - it doesn’t feel like I’m just making excuses, more trying to keep my head above water.
I’ve been absolutely exhausted for the past few weeks. I mean exhausted to the point where I can’t believe it’s possible to be this tired and still be functioning. I get up ridiculously early to get to work, and I get home over 12 hours later, completely burned out.
What am I going to do about it? Well, I’m not going to give up. But I *am* going to be realistic and say that there’s not much I can do about it this week (my last week at this job). I’m aiming for long-term lifestyle change, after all, not a super-quick fix (although quick would be nice!), so a week won’t hurt too much.
One thing I have noticed, though, is that although I really haven’t lost much weight, my waist definitely has more definition since I started doing the 30-day shred. So I’m certainly motivated to keep going as soon as I can!
Jane July 23rd, 2008
I’ve been thinking about this whole thing, and I think I may have been a bit unrealistic in terms of what I’ve expected of myself. Going from doing no regular exercise to working out (hard!) 7 days per week might have been a bit too much of a leap to be sustainable…
So from today (well, yesterday actually) I’m going to aim for 3-4 sessions per week. If I do more, then great. But at least I won’t beat myself up about missing a day or so when I get busy or exhausted.
And one other thing - what is with giant golf umbrellas when walking around the city?!? People, please!
