LighterLife

I find it weird even admitting to this but I've started the LighterLife diet. As of today.

Half my brain is saying "this is what I need to get thin"..."this'll be the thing that does it."

Half my brain says "this is completely ridiculous"..."why are you doing this?!"

I guess the resulting weight loss will decide which half of my brain wins. I am doing this after hearing the success of my director at work so it's not a crazy whim.

So goodbye to delicious pizza...

 
and hello to, of what I've experienced so far, mush.

 
Ok so three out of the four meals weren't so bad (on the mush scale or average to horrendous). That was the porridge breakfast, chewy fudge snack bar and shepherds pie dinner but the soup I had at lunch was HORRENDOUS and I still have two more packs of it to eat, eurgh.

My weight today was 216lbs...let's see how this goes...

More of today's experience: hunger, rumbling stomach, dizziness, jaw clenchiness from hunger.

And so triathlon training starts

It was a lovely autumn day yesterday and I got off my bum and went for a run.

I ran for more than 5 minutes which, to be honest, I was impressed with in my current state of unfitness. It was 23 minutes running in total (with some breaks in which I stopped my watch) and a bit more time walking, covering about 2.2 miles.

Then on the way home I did something I have NEVER done before...I bought fruit to make fruit salad for breakfasts this week!!! Yeah, not so shocking but hopefully yummy. I don't think I've actually bought a melon before though - it's a brave new world people.

Anyway this was obviously far too much excitement for one morning so I went home and drunk about 3 cups of tea. After which some of my extended family turned up at my flat (including a nine year old who could "definitely" build a hula hoop tower taller than Big Ben but for engineering reasons he had to eat all the wonky hula hoops because they weren't structurally secure).

Once the family had disappeared home a friend came round a bought me a pretty candle they'd made.

And so triathlon training starts...

I'm actually going to start writing again

You may shake your head in disbelief but it's going to happen.

And here's why...I SIGNED UP FOR A TRIATHLON TODAY!

Why?! Why have I done such a thing?!

Well, I returned from South America last week (it was incredible, thanks for asking) and during a four day trek along the Inca trail to Machu picchu I remembered that I like this exercise stuff.

I really like it.

I like the feeling of leaning into the "burn" instead of resisting it, the feeling of accepting that you are out of breath and pushing harder. The feeling that your body can DO THINGS. And it can do them WELL. Grrrrr.

But I'm not going to lie, I also hate exercise. I hate the stupid burn, I hate feeling out of breath, I hate pushing harder. I can't do anything well, eurgh.

So why do I do these things to myself? I guess eventually the like of exercise wins over the hatred, and of course being able to prove the point, over and over, (mainly to myself) that I am not the fat kid any more and I am now in fact an awesome exercising machine is a huge added bonus.

Also peer pressure. Peer pressure is why I started running in the first place (I got asked to do a 10k with a friend) and is why I've just signed up to a triathlon (I got an email yesterday from a friend suggesting it).

And for the first time I'm not actually scared of training with the four friends who are doing this. I did a lot of swimming as a child, some competitively, so I feel relatively confident, even good about my abilities in the pool (stroke-wise, if not speed-wise) and the rest will take some hard work but I'll get there.

All in all, some exciting training lies ahead. And I plan to blog it all here...

Back once again with the renegade master

I've decided to start blogging again.

Why?
1. I'm 216lbs light now (oops)

2. I'm about to start the "Insanity" workout programme (scary) to achieve some of no. 3...

3. I've got an amazing South America trip and some weddings coming up and I wanna look hot hot hot

4. I'm not grabbing life by the horns (or whatever cheesy phrase you prefer) at the moment, I am mostly sitting round and moping (sometime about boys, i.e. the worst form of moping) or eating loads of chocolate icecream*

5. I have a, not fully decided, life goal of getting a working holiday visa for a year in Australia before I'm 31 and I think part of living the Australian dream is being a hot beach babe (stereotype much? I blame Home and Away and my new Australian housemate)
 
*the ice cream was worth it

So there we have it. The final reason is that it's nice to do some writing now and again that isn't science related, since my job is a 24/7 science writing extravaganza (more like 7.5 hours a day, but whatevs).

Goodbye gym

Today was the last day of my year's gym membership, and I didn't even go to the gym!

The incident yesterday upset my stomach a bit more than I thought. Couldn't sleep well last night due to feeling a bit off then felt a bit weird all day and decided not to push myself when in a weird state.

To be honest I'm a bit nervous to be gym-less (who am I?!). I've been awesome at getting to the gym so far in 2013 and now I have no gym on the way back from work, well, hopefully I won't have no exercise on the way back from work!

On the other hand I'm excited to break free of the oppression of the chain gym and explore what other gym classes are out there i.e. I'm excited to go to Frame and be a megacoolandslick dance star, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, I love dance, but oh wow I'm bad at dance haha.

This weekend Frame have a Basic Barre a Beginner Music Video class on Sunday. I'm intrigued by Barre but more excited by Music Video, hmm. At the moment I think I will try Barre out of intrigue and do the Music Video one next Wednesday.

Other places on my class "to investigate" list are Golden Lane fitness centre in the Barbican, for some cheap classes, and the Runner's Yoga class (and possibly their other classes) at Good Vibes.

I will review places here as I visit them I guess and do comment with more London class recommendations if you see this!

In which I get told off at the gym

So today my body taught me a lesson...

and then a gym instructor gave me a lecture...

OK body, I get it, no crisps before the gym! (Yes I should have known that already but coldness and hunger led to poor choices...sorry body)

It had been a long day at work, got a couple of big things out of the way and was happy to get out to my street dance class to relax a bit. But this week was not the week for relaxing, oh no no no. Our instructor was in the mood to push us hard so instead of the usual, learn a bit, watch a bit, copy a bit, it was BAM learn this BAM do it, now do it again faster!

Although dance classes like these are awesome (the class pace varies a lot from week to week), I was kind of hoping it was going to be a slower song this week so I could do some running afterward, but I ran anyway. Big mistake.

So, tired and sweaty from dancing, I made my way to the treadmill, convincing myself to do the second mission on Zombies, run!. This was fine until about 20 minutes in when I started to feel slightly queasy. A bit odd as I very rarely get nauseous, even after insane workouts. I slowed down to a quick march and finished the mission, then slowed down and stepped off the treadmill...

"oh god, I'm actually going to throw up"...two steps, deep breath...two more steps...

I shuffled across the gym floor hoping I'd make it to the changing room, jaw clench, stomach contents rising, and an instructor eventually approaches (it feels like everyone in the gym is staring at me by this point)...

"Erm, I feel a bit sick".
"Right lie down, feet up against the wall."
"Is it your first time here?"
"Er, no." (Erm, actually I've been a member for a year and I've run a half-marathon, so put that in your first timer pipe and smoke it!)
"Right, have you eaten something today?"
"Well...(don't admit to the crisps, do not admit to them)...I think I had some crisps a bit too soon before coming."
"CRISPS?! Crisps aren't fuel! How can you expect to get results by eating CRISPS!"
"Er, well yeah, I know"

So he did go on to, more gently, give me his name and tell me I should find him on the gym floor if I felt ill in the future. But oh god the shame. Why did I eat the crisps? Why didn't I just say I'd had a banana?! Why didn't I lambast him for calling me a first timer?!?!

Fortunately I am now fully recovered and had a nice dinner (which involved potatoes in another guise).

Lesson: don't eat crap before working out or that crap will come back to haunt you/haunt the gym floor.

Anyone else ever had any near vom misses or other shameful gym moments?

My first running date

On Sunday I met up with my friend L, who I haven't seen for aaaaages to go on our first ever running date!

So I knew it would be tough running with her, she's very much an all or nothing person so I knew she'd be fast but LITTLE DID I KNOW she's actually already built up to 15km (9 miles), whereas little old me has scaled back to 4 miles!

I'm not sure why I'm so surprised, when L really sets her mind her to something she seriously goes for it.

Anyhow she dragged me round a 4.7 mile river run, definitely upping my pace and forcing me to talk to her most of the way. And truth be told I had "such fun" as she would say AKA bare fun blad!

However one dangerous thought she's planted in my mind is doing another half marathon...and soon. In response to her gentle suggestion continuous arm twisting I'm going to see how I go with running this week (badly probably as I already skipped a run today because it's TOO COLD). If I can handle a week three level of the half marathon training programme I used before, I might just sign up for the Madrid Rock n' Roll half marathon at the end of April...OMGcan'tbelieveIjustwrotethatdownwhyamIevenconsideringthisbleeeuuuurgh!!!

Check with this very blog on Sunday to see just how mental I am. EEEK.