Weigh-in - Week 70

With many apologies to my reader, who must have been getting very worried about my absence, I'm back! I haven't actually been away anywhere, I just haven't posted anything since week 66. This was due to being somewhat bored of the whole blog thing and not really losing any weight. This week, however, I'm feeling much better as I have had a loss of 3.2lbs to bring me down to 16st 3.4lbs so, at last, I am finally below the weight I was when I went on holiday back in August! I'm also back on target to be overweight by Christmas - I need to lose 6.4lbs in 8 weeks.

The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful and I have been stuck on a plateau which, hopefully, I have now fallen off. Since the end of the holiday I have really struggled with my exercise regime and have only been doing about 2 crosstrainer sessions per week, last week I managed to do the standard 3 sessions and, this morning I matched my personal best distance on it, so I'm feeling much more positive about the crosstrainer.

I still haven't restarted the Kettlebell workouts yet, but I think that I shall do soon, although it is pretty difficult to get motivated when it is so cold in the garage! I might move my workout mat into the dining room, which we don't use for dining!

I have been going to yoga once a week to try and get a bit more flexibility into my body. This is to help with next years surfing trips, which I hope to be doing with my son. I'm not sure if I am getting more flexible, but it definitely seems to have helped get rid of my achilles tendonitis which I have been suffering from for well over a year now - I no longer have any pain in the mornings. I did say, a long time ago that, if I got rid of the tendonitis, I would try the Couch 2 5K running program. I'm going to leave it to the spring (to give my heel lots of time to fully recover) and I will try doing it then.

Food wise, I've been trying a few of the Hairy Dieter's recipe's. I was a bit disappointed with the Paprika Chicken as it could have done with a little bit more flavour (this may have been because I used normal paprika instead of smoked paprika), but the Beef in Ale stew was nice and the Chicken Jalfrezi was very nice (especially the 2nd portion, which I froze and ate a few days later). I think I might try their Lamb Tagine next.

Now is probably a good time for me to set some mini-goals:

1. To get below 16 Stones (15.99st will do) - that would be a total loss of 5stones.
2. To get down to 15st 11lbs - that would make me overweight.
3. To get down to 15st 10lbs - that would be 25% of my starting weight gone
4. To get down to 15st 7lbs - that would be a total loss of 5.5 stones
5. To get down to 15st 5lbs - that would be the lightest I can remember being, the weight I was when I was 30 - I'm now 51!
6. To buy and wear, comfortably, a pair of 34" jeans. I must have been able to wear this size once! I'm not sure what weight I need to get down to to be able to achieve this particular goal.

That's all for this week folks, I'll try and get back into the routine of blogging and be back next week.

Weigh-in - Week 66

Well it's been another fairly uneventful week, they're all starting to merge into one another now. I guess that's what happens when you've been doing something like this for a long time. According to this morning's weigh-in I lost 0.8lbs, bringing me down to 16st 6.8lbs, just 0.4lbs above my pre-holiday weigh-in. I had been hopeing to have shifted it all by now, but less than 1/2lb is still pretty good and, If the current trend continues, I should be back losing again by next week. At least I am now being completely honest again when I tell people I've lost 4.5stones ;-)

I haven't taken any measurements for a while, apart from my weight, so I must try and do it soon. I feel sure I will have lost a centimetre somewhere since the last time I measured myself.

I keep on thinking that I must get some new trousers for work, but then I think "no, don't do that - M&S trousers are always a little small, compared to jeans, and you'll only be disappointed if you have to get a bigger size, better to wait until the jeans are a little looser.

I've still not resumed the kettlebell training and I'm only going on the crosstrainer twice a week at the moment. I don't feel too bad about the crosstrainer as I'm still getting good distances on it and I feel a bit better for the additional rest day. I have now been to Yoga once a week for the last 3 weeks and I do think it is doing me some good - my Achilles Tendonitis (remember that?) seems to be getting a little better as I am almost completely pain free in the mornings now. Who knows, maybe in the spring, when the mornings are getting lighter again, I might have another go at the Couch 2 5K program.

I haven't had a chance to try any recipes from the Hairy Dieter's Cookbook, apart from the Skinny Lasagne that I made a while ago. I hope to get a chance to make something from it this weekend. All the posts about it that I have seen on the WeightWatchers site have been extremely positive, So I'm eager to give it a go.