Weight/fitness update

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Since my gym membership ended in mid January I've gone to a few circuit training classes and tried to keep my overeating and naughtiness to a mininum. However, I weighed myself today and I'm 77 kg- 12 stone 2! Grrr!!! According to compliments recently, I am looking thinner in the last few weeks. Goddamned scales just needs to catch up!! Ha!!After my shitty weigh-in, I worked my ass off in a kettlebell class. Fook, that shit is hard!! Re-joining the gym tomorrow for another three months. I have a huge target set for myself too... My nephew is being christened on Easter Sunday, April 24th. I want to be in and around 11stone. So I'm aiming to lose 14-16lbs in 7 and a half weeks. 2lbs a week sounds doable but will mean curbing my treats, working out 5 times a week and cutting back on my daily intake of calories. The official count will begin tomorrow so get ready for a lot more weight-related updates!

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The first pictures are from Dublin and Wexford! My nephew in Dublin is adorable and I'd a great weekend in Wexford with my cousin and his friends. The other pics are from this weekend at home. I was wearing a really cute high-waisted floral skirt but didnt think to get a photo! I haven't cut my hair btw -it's just pinned back.
Ok so that's about it on the update-front. Feel free to comment! And wish me luck!!! :P

Another week, another class

I did circuit training this evening. Some excercises were a lot more punishing than others but generally it wasn't TOO bad- except for holding in the pee doing jumping-jacks! Finished the hour sweaty, which is always good. I didn't get as red or sweaty as I would after an hour at the gym but it was more toning excercises than cardio which is gonna be good in conjunction with my normal workouts. I will definitely be attending next week!

Food-wise, I've been eating home-made Chinese food. Yum! Salt and chilli chicken- deep fried battered chicken stir-fried in salt, sugar, ginger powder, 5spice, garlic powder, sesame oil, fresh chillis and sliced peppers! Egg fried rice! Fried noodles! Oil! Oil! Calories!!! Yum! I also had some divine Black Forest Gateaux today. Was so yummy! Very naughty though!!

(drool)

Hoping I won't be too sore tomorrow. I really need to work off all the grease, sugar and cream!

2lbs up and snowed in

So pissed with this weather- snowy and icy sucks, especially with our oil gone in the apartment. All I've wanted to eat for the last few days is crap. I've been doing so well too. The weather is also making my gym visits difficult because the paths on the way are too slippy. I got there today but it wasn't very safe.
Such a bad combo- increased appetite and an inability to work out. Tomorrow I'm going to try to eat well and do some excercising at home. Although, right now I'm feeling ill so hope I'm not coming down with something. :( Bad week in all! >:(

Anticipation

I'm sitting in the office at my Mum's work helping out for a few hours and wearing my size 14 trousers! :)

I was so annoyed because I missed my delivery from ASOS yesterday and went in to the post office with the slip to pick it up today and was told they don't do package collection on Saturday! Grrrrr! It's a post office.... POST office! What's the point of being open if I can't pick up my damned post?!!?!So now I've to wait til Monday and I'm very anxious to try these size 14 dresses on and see if they fit and if they look in any way nice!

Also on Monday is my weigh-in. I've been cheating and weighing myself at the gym and apparently I've lost 4lbs since Tuesday but it's not official til Monday.

The gym is going well. I've been 4 times this week including swimming twice as well as my usual mixture of weights and cardio, weight machines and free weights with fitness ball. I'm trying to remember to keep my core engaged as much as possible too. Food-wise I've been doing good this week too- mostly healthy meals and snacks and generally low-calorie.

Yesterday, though, I relaxed for the day and had some treats. I'd a pint of Coors Light, over half of a homemade pepper and chorizo pizza (I went light on the chorizo and cheese and heavy on the fresh chillis) as well as half a bag of microwave popcorn and 2 packets of Banshee Bones which are my weakness (at least they're only about 100 calories per pack). I also had some chicken and veg soup and a couple of apples with peanut butter as well as water, Coke Zero, 2 cups of green tea and 2 double expressos.

Saturday night is looming which means white wine and X Factor. Tomorrow I'll probably sleep all day, eat something low calorie like soup (surprise, surprise) and then get my usual Chinese takeaway of (dry, battered) salt and chilli chicken and boiled rice- cos I'm badass like that! And then it's Monday and my weigh-in and Asos dresses! Can't wait!

Plans

Where I'm at:
September:

Ok, so it's a bad picture but even with that you can see I have a belly, regardless of the angle.

November:I'm def getting more waist definition and less belly. SLOWLY getting there!

(Excuse the visible bra. Turns out I don't have many plain black bras. Silly pink ribbons! )

** First outfit is from New Look in size 16 but could have benefit from some Spanx-esque support!
** Second outfit: Top (14), jacket (14) and jewellry are Primark. Skirt (with belt) is from ASOS (16).

So yesterday and today I lowered my calorie intake significantly. Tomorrow will be a soup and smoothie day. May do it for Thursday too if I'm not too hungry.

I had put on a pound but I've lost it and am back at 12.12. I've decided I need to stop weighing myself so often and from now on it'll be on Mondays only. The next few Mondays are important!

Christmas kicks off for me on Saturday 18th when I'll visit my sexy bitch friend Charlene in Galway, two hours away. A night of hijinks will ensue no doubt seeing as that is the unofficial night of the 12 pubs of Christmas.

(The 12 pubs is a popular kick-off of the festivities. It's a big, messy pub crawl with rules. One drink per bar in a certain time frame with a certain amount of loo breaks and so on. Dirty Irish alcos, eh?! I don't know that I fully approve because I know me with 12 drinks and it ain't pretty but each to their own!)

Anyway, so I'm working towards Christmas size 14 and it will have to be achieved by the 18th which, as of now ( 2.40am 24th Nov), gives me 25 days. I don't know how many lbs this will take but if I can be losing 2 a week, I'll be well pleased!

Pump IRON

I look good eh?!

So eating wise things are not quite ideal. But, on the other hand, exercise is going well. I've been at the gym 6 out of the last 7 days! Some days are more productive than others and I havent been swimming in weeks (which I miss but it's too cold and miserable to walk home from the gym with wet hair). Still, though, things are generally going well. I'm mixing cardio and weights and lots of stretching and messing around on the ball and with dumbbells. I also have the 15/20 minute walk to and from the gym which is usually brink because it's rainy as helllll these days!

It's less than 6 weeks to Chrstmas now so I really need to get back in the game. Diet is key!! When Kate Moss was quoted as saying "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels." there was uproar with people saying she was encouraging anorexia etc.. Well, whatever about that, she has a point. You aren't going to look how you want to and eat all in sight. Balance is the key.

I'm struggling with my late evening snacking. I haven't even eaten anything too bad all week but I'm eating too much at night. I really want to get to goal by Summer and I won't if I don't kick my ass in gear! As it is, I definitely won't hit my Christmas goal. :( So that spells the end of my generous late night snacking.

That being said, I WILL still treat myself if I really want it but I DEFINITELY need to start questioning whether I do want it.

On that note, check out Suzi Storm's tips. I love her no bullshit attitude!

Weightloss/FItness update

• I think I'm on the road back! I've been to the gym twice this week- yay!!

• On Monday I did a helluva lot of weights because I really felt that as I hadn't put on weight, I needed to make sure I was doing something for the muscle tone that I had started to develop before I fell off the wagon. So, after an hour walk to get to the gym (I live in the country), I did 30 minutes cardio- 10 on treadmill and 20 on wave machine followed by inner thigh, outer thigh and 3 different sets of upper arm weights and some sit-ups. (I was so proud that I ate some crisps after- bad Claire!)

• Tonight I did something similar- 10 minutes cross trainer, 20 minutes wave machine followed by some painful situps, inner and outer thigh as well as upper arms. This was followed by 20 minutes of swimming at a fairly leisurely pace. I think that's my winning combo- variety + lots of weights! I just need to step up on the situps aspect because my stomache is still very untoned which sucks as I've definitely slimmed down around my waist in the last couple of months.

• Food-wise I've been good(ish) since Monday, though I'm still a late night snack fiend. I'm just trying to keep myself full during the day in as a healthy a way as possible so if I want to be bad in the evening it isn't a total disaster. I know that it's VERY BAAAAAAD to eat at night but I stay up late and it's force of habit which has been made worse by my teaching hours over the last 2 years. It's EVEN worse now that I'm unemployed. At least I can stay up late most nights anyway- what with having nothing to wake up for!!

• Anyway, point being; weighed myself again tonight and I'm still the same. I'm very pleased with that. I wasn't expecting a loss, was just frightened I'd have put on weight! Hopefully I can settle into a routine again soon. Problem is my gym membership is up this week and I'm moving this weekend so I'm going to be too busy to change gym AND work out when it's the weekend and there is moving to be done and beverages to be consumed. Oh dear! I'll keep you guys posted and, in the meantime, will try to be healthy so I can report some weightloss again!!

Yay!! Hello!

I have new followers! Haha, followers sounds like I'm leading a cult!I have new people who read my blog!! That's better!! Hello!!! Welcome! Stick around. Comment. Tell me what you want me to blog about. Ask me questions. I'm not working until next month so I am currently a lady of leisure (bum) who has more than enough time on her hands!

I'm actually a little annoyed. My knee/hip are still stiff and creaky. I don't care though, I'll work around it. I need to get my (actually not so fat, actually getting kinda toned) ass to the gym!

My normal workouts usually consist of cardio, weights and swimming. An ideal day is 20 minutes on the skier/wave machine, 10 on bike (really pushing myself, eurgh, so sweaty), 20 on the treadmill and then 10 minutes of working legs or arms, some crunches and then stretching before I go into the pool for 30 minutes with a 15 minute stint in the jacuzzi breaking it up a bit. That's a very time-consuming workout, though so it isn't every day. Some days I skip the weights or the crunches, maybe I'll shorten the swimming time down, or do 10 instead of 20 on treadmill (I hate the treadmill, it is soooo boring and it makes my boobs bounce, even with a €40 sports bra.).

So, yeah, will defo be going today but I will be careful of my old-lady style injuries!

On an unrelated note, can anyone recommend somewhere to buy clothes online- dresses, skirts, cute blouses? I've ordered stuff from ASOS but I wish they had more selection of me-type clothes! Too many dresses have round/ straight accross necklines for a start!! Anyway, yeah, where do you shop when you shop online?

New week!

So after a weekend with a little too many treats, the week begins again! I've just finished a yummy salmon fillet and baby potato dinner- will have veg as a snack in a bit! I'm not eating healthily all the time but it's nice to eat something that you really enjoy that isn't going to go straight to your beer-belly!

Pissed off today though because I couldn't go to the gym and may not be able tomorrow either. I think I've been overdoing it though. I hurt my left ankle 2 months ago and it's still not right and I think that I've been working my legs too hard because now my left hip and knee are giving me hassle. I was actually in pain after my workout last night. Thank God for the jacuzzi!! If I go tomorrow I'll just do crunches, arm weights and swimming. In the meantime, I will ice my knee and ankle and take some anti-inflammatories and hope for the best. If I'm not exercising I'll have to cut RIGHT back on food and I will NOT be happy!! It's my birthday next week though so I wanna be looking as well as I can.


One thing I need to work on is 'treat' mentality. I have a tendancy to overly reward myself. For example, my sisters and I were meant to go out last night but we changed our minds. I'd already considered that I was going to have a blowout calorie-wise because of all the booze so, when plans changed, instead of going 'oh fab, i stayed on track', I went 'oh fab, now I can have a Chinese'!! That's ok, I guess, but only occassionally. Also, if I am eating Chinese again, I have to put a ban on fried rice because it really doesn't make that much difference to the meal if you're eating really spicy chilli chicken and it is just LADEN with calories. So, yeah, stop with the treats, Claire! Thing is, I know I can still have treats as long as I keep count of the calories. So, starting from tomorrow, I'll be trying to keep track of all my food and exercise. I've started well but if I want results I have to take it up a notch!!

Weighty stuff

So I have talked briefly in past posts about the fact that I've allowed my weight to creep up. I have said loads of times that I'm going to do something about it and either I don't commit or I do it half-assed/cheat.

I won't go into specifics but I need to lose 30+ pounds and I WILL DO IT THIS TIME!!

I've been eating a lot more healthily, though I still have off-days and allow myself a junk night once a week. I have also been at the gym 5 times a week for the last 3 weeks, usually spending an hour working out and then an hour swimming. I haven't lost much weight but I can see and feel a difference around my waist and bum. I've started as I mean to go on and am really enjoying having a more healthy lifestyle! I'm still pretty unhealthy though. I love crisps, fizzy drinks, Chinese takeaways, wine and fags but now I also love eating 5 portions of fruit and veg, drinking 2 litres of water, lifting weights...


It will be more difficult,though, when I start up at work again as it will be harder to make the time to work out, I won't have company (my mum and 2 sisters use my gym) and I'll be living away from home which means my food supply won't be as varied (the fridge is always soooo full at home because there are lots of us). But hopefully the 6 weeks I have left will be enough time for me to have formed lasting habits and enough of an appreciation for the good stuff to keep up my good habits. I have a tendancy to allow myself too many treats,though, so, from today on, I'm clamping down firmly on that!
Wish me luck!!