A 30-something girl’s diet and weightloss journey

Well, it is a new year. Towards the end of last year, I had a bit of a roller-coaster ride. I got on track in the late part of November and lost a few kilos, and went into December feeling quite good. Of course the party season hit hard and I gained all those kilos back.

One of the best gifts I got this year was the “21 days” pad from Kikki k. It has a space to write all the goals you want to focus on that week, the reward you will give yourself if you do, and check boxes to tick off each day. I am LOVING it!

Last week my goals were - under 1300 cal each day, excercise each day (even if only a walk) Stretch, visualise, and do the dishes each night before bed.

Well, I had a perfect week, all check boxes ticked, and it was great! there is no way I would have stretched or visulaised every day without it, but I LOVE those tick boxes!

This week I am doing all of the above, PLUS a 15 minute clean on every night that I am at home.

So.. the stats. At the end of last week i weighed 72.2kgs. That’s 1.3 down from the previous week, so I was overjoyed with that! This week has also been good, but f course I never get big numbers two weeks in a row so I will be happy with getting down by 0.2-3.

It’s going to be a good year, I can feel it!

I went for a run this morning before work, and it went really well!

For a few weeks now, I have been going to the gym before work, and attempting a run outside on the weekend. However, on the weekends, I don’t like to get up early, and by the time I get out there it it generally too hot. This has resulted in runs being cut very short due to the heat.

So, I decided that a change of plans was in order, and this morning I planned an outside run instead of a run on the treadmill at the gym.

It was drizzling a little when I went out, and I decided to run anyway. I’m so glad I did! turns out running in the rain (when there’s no wind) is really enjoyable! I don’t think i’ve ever enjoyed a run so much, and I did 9kms in just over an hour. This is probably the longest run I’ve done since the City to Surf!

I feel really good now

Last week, after 3-4 weeks of steady small losses, I maintained my weight.

I thin k my exercise was pretty good. My eating was slightly off track - I had a few lollies from the lolly jar each day, a (planned) pizza night with a friend that got slightly out of control, a few too many choccy biccies at a saturday afternoon tea, and two fast food meals on the weekend.

A few weeks ago I could probably have gotten away with that and still had a small loss, given my exercise routine, but not any more. So I am now on day two of avoiding the lolly jar, and yesterday my calories were around 950 before exercise, which is too low for a normal dy really but great coming off a day (sunday) when I had over 2000 calories. I really do think calorie cycling between weekdays and weekends is the way to go for me, as long as I can keep my high-cal days moderate, and my overall weekly tally in the 1200-1400 range.

OK, this week I gained 0.2kgs, and while that’s not huge, I’m just not sure why. Yes, I had a splurge friday night, and I messed up last night. But the weekdays were all really quite good, I exercised quite a lot, and usually in my experience a bad weekend doesn’t completely undo a great week. Maybe it’s TTOM. Maybe it will even out next week. I just don’t know.

The thing is, when I’m on track in the week, usually my mid-week weighs show a good loss during the week, which then goes back a little on the weekend. but this week they didn’t. That did seem weird to me.

In any case it’s just a blip, I’m sure. Unless there’s a gain again next week I won’t worry.

I went for a run (7kms) this morning to make up for not going yesterday (and binging last night) It was OK, I struggled a bit but made it with a bit of walking. Except for the bit where I SWALLOWED A FLY!!! That was gross. Like, really, really gross. Ick. That’s all I have to say aboutthat

This morning there was a big morning tea at work, to celbrate the boss’s 60th. There was lots of my favourite things there, sausage rolls and lots of cake!

However, my diet plan has been carefully balanced this week to allow a small blow out at the movies tonight. We are going to Gold Class and I want some wedges!

So, I just kept remindingmyself how good that meal will be tonight, and that I was there to enjoy my colleague’s company, not to eat… and that I had tried all this stuff before, it wasn’t new and I wasn’t missing anything.

And I did it. Didn’t touch a thing.

Small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

My last challenge - the 6-week one, derailed quite spectacularly on the second week.

However, the last couple of weeks I have been back to basics, and getting nice consistent results 0.5kgs and 0.8kgs lost.

I have been planning my meals, excercising quite a lot.

This is my exercise routine for October, which I have followed so far and will hopefully continue for the rest of the month.

Monday - 30 min tempo run and weights
Tuesday - ride to work and back
Wednesday - interval workout
Thursday - 30m tempo run and weights
Friday rest
Sat/sun - 6/7km run outdoors.

My goal is to be under 71 by the end of the month. Currently I am sitting at 73.0, totally do-able!

For the next six weeks, my goals will be
1. less than 9450 calories per week food intake - that is an average 1350 cals per day, but I will probably eat less during the week, and more on weekends.
2. at least 1000 calories of deliberate exercise per week. I won’t be eating back exercise cals necessarily, but if I stick to both those goals, my net average cals per day will be around 1200, which should give me pretty good weight loss each week.

My other goals for the six weeks include -
- finding a good weight program and doing it consistently for the six weeks,
- planning my meals every week, and
- keeping on top of my cleaning list! that’s not weight related, but it makes me happier when I do it

I did it! Runny nose and all, and I made it in 1hr, 20mins and 57 seconds!

I am very happy with that, considering that just 6 weeks ago I couldn’t even run 5kms.

The day itself was lovely, I really enjoyed a lot of the run, up until the last 4 kms where I really struggled, but I didn’t walk too much, just on the hills which were massive. The atmosphere of the run was great, looking forward to next year and I expect i will do better now that I know what to expect!

Five days to go before the city to surf and I came down with a cold! Realy sore throat, the kind that feels like you have eaten broken glass.

So I took yesterday off, dosed up on vitamins, betadine gargle and rested all day, and today I feel a little better. Hopefully I will be all good on the day, only three days to go!!

Well, maybe not THE worst. I mean, I did MUCh worse in my out-of-control days. And I DID run 12ks. But it was pretty bad.
So. Moving on, putting it behind me, and having a super-rocking-good week to make up for it!

City to Surf next week