Healthy Lifestyle Update – Week 62 (fish & chips on the beach)

Evening all. I’ve just had the most wonderful of weekends again so without wanting to appear too gushing, let’s just say that things, and you know what, or rather who I mean, are going well. I just ate fish and chips on Whitstable beach, washed down with a pint of Whitstable Bay lager … and I’m not even sorry. But now it’s time for this week’s healthy lifestyle update.

So, how did my week go? It was great. Busy, but great. I got my roots done (I’ve had to increase my visits to once every four weeks now!), I went to London to schmooze with a camel and eat strawberry cream tarts, and I had parents evening where, for the first time ever, I could have happily throttled one of my kids’ teachers. I’m normally on the teachers’ side but this one in particular, well … suffice to say, I gave her a few choice words.

Grrr. Moving on. Had a lovely date night on Thursday, and I’m loving the shape that keeps appearing each week – still a long way to go, but every time I look in the mirror I think, “Is that me? Aren’t I fatter than that?”

And remember that whole running thing I tried out last week? Well I only went and did it three times this week, each time was better than the last, and I’m now on the treadmill for 20 minutes – a three-minute warm-up, then bursts of two minutes of running, with one minute of walking, and so on. You’d be amazed by how sweaty you get doing interval training like that, but it’s going much better than expected. My dodgy left foot (the lesser known Daniel Day-Lewis film) is still giving me grief, but I’m trying not to let it affect me too much. It doesn’t feel painful afterwards, which is progress.

Also, I finally got my bike out of the shed after its winter hiatus. Covered in cobwebs with two flat tyres, and then I couldn’t find the bike pump so had to go and buy a new one, by which time it was too late to cycle to the hairdressers … etc etc, but FINALLY, after all that, on Saturday morning, with the sun shining, I pumped the tyres up and cycled to the gym for a Pilates class.

It felt so good to be back on my bike, although weirdly, my quads aren’t thanking me for it today. Strange, as I do so much indoor cycling, but I’ll survive #SuchATrouper. It’s just wonderful cycling in the fresh air. In fact, on my way to the gym, I bumped into a guy called Jon, who runs a fitness and weight loss support Facebook group I follow. He’s lost over ten stones I believe, and it’s a lovely source of inspiration – and he lives round the corner! So we had a good chat and he mentioned that he, and a few other members of the group, may be taking their bikes to Bedgebury, which is a really nice place to cycle, so hopefully that will come off in the summer and I can tag along.

Food-wise, all good. Calories this week were thus: (thus, lol)

• Monday:  1696
• Tuesday:  1515
• Wednesday:  1758
• Thursday:  1486
• Friday:  1787
• Saturday:  2056

10,298 / 6 days = average 1716 calories per day

So, although I’ve attempted to eat 1900 calories per day, I’ve only managed that once, and that was because of ALL THE BEER AND PIZZA.

Meals this week have been varied I’d say – steak and runner beans one evening, which was quick and delicious:

Christ, I’ll never be a food blogger. Sorry about the quality of that photo, clearly too hangry to worry about what the photo looks like, but it was delicious.

Banana pancakes (still), lots of eggs, cod in breadcrumbs with veg, omelette and the occasion Crème Egg. I can’t get enough of the damn things. I know this might be a little boring, but I’m writing all of this out on paper so that I can look back and make sense of it all because some weeks I don’t lose weight when I think I should, and vice versa.

RESULTS:

The three things to note this week are that I’ve got back on my bike and I’m cycling around town again, I’ve stuck (not intentionally) to circa 1700 calories per day, instead of the 1900 I had planned to eat, and I’ve been running three times, on top of my usual weight training/spin/Pilates routine.

And I’ve lost 2lbs! Bloody chuffed I have to say, and what’s even more great is that the more weight I lose, the more I can see the muscles I’m creating underneath. OK, there’s still a big layer of fat everywhere, but it is actually really hard to lose fat AND build muscle at the same time, which is what I’m trying to do. I think if I JUST focused on fat loss, I wouldn’t have any tone or definition to my body now, or after I’ve finished losing weight, and that’s not the way to go for me. So I’m trying to do both things together, but it’s just about finding that balance. This week, I found it and I’m really pleased with a healthy 2lbs loss.

That makes a total loss so far of 3 stones and 12lbs – I can’t believe I’m nearly at the 4 stones mark, the Holy Grail!

I’m going to be writing about The Big Announcement this week, that I mentioned a few weeks ago, as I’ve now had the go-ahead for this amazing project, so please do keep an eye out for that, and the next week will entail more of the same – plus another trip to London, but hopefully minus the strawberry cream tart. And I’m lucky enough to be going to the Dr AND the dentist. My life really is very exciting.

Have a wonderful week, and please do follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.