Double celebration!

Good morning all, and a happy Easter weekend - it's going to be a warm one apparently.

I'm in a rather good mood this morning, I've got two reasons to be very happy. The first reason is that on Wednesday 20th April I FINALLY managed to sucessfully give blood! It was no trouble at all this time, I did get a bit wobbly afterwards though - I get the feeling that I must have gone a bit of a funny colour as three of the Nurses descended on me at once! They were all so wonderful and put me at my ease straight away, I may have said this before but if you are able to donate please, please do. They don't get enough people turning up for it and it saves so many lives.

Anyways, onto the second piece of good news, here are the first measurements I took:

13th August 2010

Body Fat %: 52.9% ++ Very High (48.9kg/ 7st 9lb/ 107lb)
Visceral Body Fat:* 8 (0 Normal)
BMI: 34.0 (Obese)
Weight: 14st 7lb/92.5kg/203lb

And here is the measurement I took today:

22nd April 2011 (8 months later)

Body Fat %: 50.3% (43.2kg/6st 11lb/95lbs) (-2.6% / -5.7kg / -12lb)
Visceral Fat: 7 (-1)
BMI: 31.5 (-2.5)
Weight: 13st 7lb/85.8kg/189lbs (-1st / -6.7kg / 14lb)

I'VE LOST A STONE  :D

It's taken me eight months but it's gone! I have also gone down by one on the Visceral Fat scale which is brilliant, it's taken a very long time to shift that. I am still 'Obese' but, whereas before the arrow on the NHS BMI calcuator stubbornly stuck to the edge, the arrow is now creeping towards the 'Overweight' mark.

It does look like a very depressingly small nudge along the scale doesn't it! I don't mind - it's still a stone!! I still have a long way to go before I'm in the Green but at least I'm trying.

I shall sign off now, have a very wonderful Easter everyone.

New Year take two

Well, I am treating the first few months of this year as my 'Winter Break'! The end of January and most of February was a bit rubbish for us life-wise to be honest, my family had booked a week off and three of those seven days were funerals. Everything happened all at once really. To add to it I started a new job in March, so I've not really had as much time to spend exercising as I had been when I was unemployed.

I will do a measurement in the next few days to bring me up to date, then it will be back to every two weeks on Sundays. I will start to make a concentrated effort to exercise in the evenings now that the crushing tiredness is starting to fade, who knew being in an office all day would wipe you out!

I did a couple of weeks measurements that I hadn't posted up, so here they are:

30th January 2011

Body Fat %:  51.7% (44.9kg/7st/98lbs)

Visceral Fat:  8

BMI:  31.9

Weight:  13st 9lb/86.9kg/191lbs

13th February 2011

Body Fat %:  51.5% (45kg/7st 1lb/99lbs)

Visceral Fat:  8

BMI:  32.1

Weight:  13st 10lb/87.4kg/192lbs

I'll do an indepth analysis of these numbers when I'm not quite as tired, the most obvious thing about them is that I gained a pound in two weeks. I am not surprised by this at all, the two weeks between the 30th January and the 13th February were rubbish and quite stressful for us. Everything that wasn't important just went out of the window at that point.

I shall sign off for tonight and wish you good fortune :).

Happy New Year! :D

Well, another year has gone by. I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and even happier New Year’s celebrations, I know I did!

With the New Year comes the 'New Year’s Resolution', I don't tend to make them anymore as I know what type of person I am. I get all enthusiastic and then after a brief trial it fizzles out, like 90% of the rest of the world it seems!

A resolution is a promise, and it's one you make to yourself. I have heard a lot of people say that they want to 'Lose weight' but they rarely say how they are going to achieve it. For most people when they hear the words 'Lose weight' the instant thought is 'Go on a diet.' I think as a nation we're a bit lazy, if we don't have a history of exercising and keeping fit we're less likely to turn to it. People who half heartedly turn to exercise for the New Year after doing nothing for years and years soon give up because it's horrendously hard going when you first start up. I was quite lucky in that I had a husband who kept prodding me with metaphorical sticks every time I complained that it was hard, it was hard, really hard, but I'd made up my mind. Once I’d been doing it for a while I passed that hurdle of “Oh God why...” and it gets much easier after that. I'm determined to do this, I don't think I'd have been able to keep this up if I'd done it purely through a New Year’s Resolution.

Losing weight is more about mental strength than physical strength, I always have times where I look out the window and think "Oh for goodness sake, I really can't be bothered to go out in that...". You will only lose weight if you choose to. If you're doing it for someone else or because someone's told you to it becomes a less effective motivator. That's why personal trainers exist! It's an outside influence telling you to exercise which can be very helpful, it's a boost to your efforts to have someone else encouraging you which is why I wanted to do this weight loss effort in a blog, to have outside views and opinions.

This is quite a good site with advice and tips for keeping your resolutions if you made them this year :D. 'How to make New Year's Resolutions stick.' I carried on exercising over the holidays, admittedly not as much as I have been doing but I didn't stop my effort. The results over the holidays are as follows:

19th December

Body Fat %: 51.4% (45.9kg/7st 3lb/101lbs)

Visceral Fat: 8 (0 Normal)

BMI: 32.8 (Obese)

Weight: 14st 0lb/89.2kg/196lbs

3 January 2011

Body Fat %: 51.4% (45.1kg/7st 1lb/99lbs)

Visceral Fat: 8 (0 Normal)

BMI:  32.2 (Obese)

Weight: 13st 11lb/87.8kg/193lbs

In today's results I have put the number in brackets as the comparison with the very first measurements in August, it's looking quite good overall:

16th January

Bust: 42 in/106.7cm (-0.5in / 1.3cm)                                                       

Chest: 34.5 in/87.6cm (=)                                                                   

Waist: 38 in/96.5cm (-2in / 5.1cm)                                                                      

Hips: 45 in/114.3cm (-2in / 5.1cm)                                                          

Thighs: 27 in/68.6cm (-0.5in / 1.3cm)                                                                 

Calves: 16 in/40.6cm (-1in / 2.5cm)                                                                    

Upper arm: 13.5 in/34.3cm (-0.5in / 1.3cm)                                                                    

Forearm: 11 in/27.9cm (=)

Body Fat %: 51.5% (44.9kg/7st/98lbs) (-1.4%)

Visceral Fat: 8 (0 Normal) (=)

BMI: 32 (-2)

Weight: 13st 10lb/87.2kg/192lbs (-11lb / -5.3kg)

Wow, I'm so close to losing a stone!! Well, this proves that you can keep weight stable over Christmas. You can enjoy the meals and as long as you exercise too you should be fine.