We’ve been doing this a long old time, fellow checkers. Whether you’re a recent convert or a long-time…ahem…loser, let us know how your battle against fatness and/or fight for fitness is going. Check in in the comments…
Chubby Checkers Week 46
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EXERCISE – My 100 mile running challenge for November is still on track – I’ve done 73 miles so far, so right on target. Also managing five mile-long swims a week.
FOOD – Hairy Bikers healthy recipes galore. And lots of warming soup.
DRINK – Won a bottle of gin in a raffle. I may have to have the odd treat!
SCALES – Another 1lb. Total lost 52lbs.
MISCELLANEOUS – Had a couple of long car trips this week, and a weekend conference, but still managed to squeeze in exercise and keep eating healthily (although the conference food was easy – very healthy-eating fare was the order of the day, as the event was to do with my daughter’s medical condition which requires a very strict low-fat diet).
Not quite in your league @drakeygirl but did do the proper 10k timed run myself and son were booked onto. Pretty nippy it was on Saturday morning at 930 am, but we were pretty pleased with son’s time (54) and mine (62) on a course we hadn’t run before. Amazing how many people went out quick and had no finish, pacing is all once you get over 5k clearly.
You’re definitely in my league, @moseleymoles – you’re faster than me! (I’m a plodder, a determined plodder, but a plodder all the same). Well done – I bet you felt chuffed with yourself afterwards.
I have been stepping on the scales with varying results – one day a few pounds gone (hurray), a few days later they were back again (not hurray). So have decided to keep on keeping on, as per new Alan Bennett book, and not weigh myself too often. Also heard interesting thing on new Radio 4 series The Power of Negative Thinking, which is a title guaranteed to spark my interest. Apparently if you mentally look forward to when you have lost the weight it is counterproductive, as you relax in a happy state thinking of being slimmer, and don’t actually put so much effort in. I guess it doesn’t mean that you imagine you won’t lose any weight instead! Probably it’s a pointer to stay in the present and concentrate on that.
A consultant dietician told me to only weigh in once a week and always at the same time of day. It can go up and down by a few pounds depending what’s gone in one end and, um, come out the other, recently.
I know what you mean! My memory is so flaky I won’t remember to weigh same time every week but will try and do so approximately (if I’m feeling brave).
Yep, all good advice there. I would say to try to not get disheartened if you feel like you’ve had a good week but the scales don’t reflect it, because the chances are it will show the next week.
Hello, hello! The exercise thing is happening but hampered somewhat by occasional sciatica and ill kids (and general wussiness caused by the fact that it’s so cold and DON”T MAKE ME GO OUT THERE). But, it is happening. Pilates yesterday, circuit training today (aching muscles tomorrow).
But, exercise was never the central thing with me; it’s always been about figuring out what I ate and avoiding stress eating, and learning what a sensible portion should be. And that’s still going really well. Still eating pretty healthily, and portions sizes much reduced (without feeling deprived).
People keep telling me I’m losing weight, and some of my clothes are getting really noticably baggy.
I even tried on my “shame jeans” the other day… I went shopping with my aunt a few years back. She disapproved of the holey old jeans I was wearing and said she’d buy me a new pair. I found the biggest pair of jeans in the shop, took them to the changing rooms and forced them on. They were so hideously tight, I could barely breathe. I could hardly do the buttons up. A sensible person would have put them back on the rack, but not me; I had something else at play. My aunt has always nagged me about my size, telling me I need to lose weight, and I was simply too embarrassed (despite being in my late 30s at the time), to tell her that the jeans were too small (i.e. I was too big).
So, I pretended they fit, and took them home.
Occasionally, I’d pull them out of my wardrobe every so often, and remind myself how stupid it was to pretend they fitted, just to save a bit of face.
Then I tried on the shame jeans last week and… they now fit perfectly.
(I still feel like an idiot though, writing this story up)
Well done on the jeans of shame, yes the trouser test – I know it well. I have a couple of grey pairs that I used to be able to get into comfortably, and can only just about manage to now, but will use them as a litmus test to see how things are going.
The reasons you got those jeans may have been less than stellar, but forget those feelings and bask in the feeling of how they now fit, and how, more importantly, you’re now feeling so much more positive about your body and your lifestyle.
One 10k run (2 mins faster than first one), also a 5k. Eating/drinking not bad. We have just had about 10 inches of snow and temperature is hardly rising above 0 all week so I need to try the indoor running thing.
Nah, there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. It’s bracing out there. Bracing can be good, honest.
Snow on pavements (sidewalks) is ok, but ice isn’t. There will be possibilities to run outdoors and some do all or most of winter, but when we are between -20C and -30C (without wind chill) and we have frostbite warnings then that’s a wee bit too bracing for me!
I take it all back. Bloody hell, that’s cold!
Well, well. Who`d a thought it? Two more gigs since last week, a very good `Show of Hands` Thursday in Liverpool and Manchester Friday for a magnificent `Wilco`. Plenty cider was supped and plenty un-diet friendly food ate. I followed this by eating lots of Cheddar and Cumberland sausages on Saturday and other stuff. Not as much walking this week, bloody rain.
So the weigh in. TWO lbs down on last week! 13st 3.25lbs. Explain that `cos I can`t! Oh I did double check the scales, triple check in fact.
It’s that fluctuating thing again, innit? I strongly suspect you would see a difference the other way if every week was like this one!
Yep I agree drakey, it`s going in the right direction though so that`s good.
Still at the muscle-building thing, and wow, yes, I do now have visible muscle definition. A bit, anyway. I’m on a special training program and it is working: lifting heavier and feel a lot stronger.
Eating is very good; trying to get at least two servings of protien which is helping hugely. As ever, weight stays the same but that’s absolutely fine. Physically I feel very good at the moment and sleep is a bit better.
Life is difficult and (as ever) unpredictable and I have just had some very bad family news so I need to learn to navigate the next year or so without resorting to my default starvation and/or over-exercising as a coping mechanism so I want to get these habits nailed down.
Well done to all the Checkers; this has been a very inspiring thread! Apologies for being a part-time Checker but y’know, life.
Hope you manage to get through what sounds like a difficult time without it affecting your health and wellbeing too much, @rubyblue. If you’re feeling physically good and sleeping better, that should put you in good stead. You’re always very welcome on the Checker Board – it’s been interesting to hear about someone’s efforts on building muscle rather than the more common aim of losing chub!
Thank you! Yes, I’m trying to get sleep and be as well as possible for the year ahead. Thanks, I will try and pop in more often; always like to read what you’re all up to and see all the progress.
A boring week for me weightwise. I reached my target early in the summer ( a target probably half a stone from my ideal ideal but at my age ideal ideal is probably not, erm, ideal) and it seems , fingers crossed, whenever I have a bad week then upping the exercise and one fast day a week (500 calories) gets me back down there again.
Mind you, Christmas in the UK is a-coming so two weeks of festive gluttony will test this theory well and proper….
I’m a firm believer (well, a wobbly person with a firm belief) in not being ridiculously strict all the time when it comes to food and drink, and then moving about a bit more to make up for it. You definitely get a pass at Christmas.