Nine Months to Target

Over  the last few weeks I have been hovering around my target of 9st 12lb and then this week I was bang on so I have switched to maintenance and thought I should do an update post!

Stuart and I had switched to Monday & Wednesday for our fast days (previously Monday and Thursday) as Stuart started playing football on a Wednesday and doing the fast day on the same day fitted better with meals etc. It appeared to work well for both of us dieting wise too. I’d often see a good weightloss on a Thursday but even after eating normally on a Thursday and usually drinking, I’d lose weight again on the Friday (I only ever counted the Friday weigh in, I know you aren’t meant to weigh yourself too often but was just curious to see the pattern).

To remind you what my starting statistics were:

Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

and now my final statistics are:

Weight: 9st 12lb
Body fat: aprox 15.6
BMI: aprox 22
Chest: 35”; Waist: 35”; Hips: 39”; and Thigh: 21.5”

(A reminder that my height is 5’6” – body fat & BMI are aproximate as I didn’t take note of them when I weighed myself yesterday.)

So, in 9 months, a total of 1 stone off and 6.5 inches. I wish I had a decent before and after photo but I didn’t take starting photos in January and then only took photos after on days when I was feeling slim. This is the best I could do (remember I didn’t actually have a lot to lose as I was already healthy BMI). The first photos were taken on a ‘slim’ day in February and the second lot were taken today.

I’m happy with how I look and feel and as I’ve reached my target I’m now switching to fasting just one day a week. Though, to start with, I’ll still be watching what I’m eating on the now non-fast day just to see how it affects my weight, I wont be restricting myself to 500 calories and I intend to eat 3 meals a day instead of 2.

Today is the first day that should have been a fast day and it does feel weird to eat but this whole experience has taught me some better habits. Things like, when making the kids dinner, I don’t snack as I’m making it and don’t automatically finish up whatever they leave.

I’ve also enjoyed having some days where I don’t drink any alcohol. I eat a lot less chocolate and enjoy more fruit and vegetables.

As I said at the beginning of starting the 5:2 Lifestyle, it wasn’t all about losing weight it was about improving health. The overall thing I think I’ve noticed healthwise is the speed in which I get over colds. I’ve never been a ‘sick’ person and don’t tend to catch many colds/viruses so it isn’t overly noticeable whether I’ve caught less in the last 9 months but I have often felt run down like I’m going down with something but then it has gone the next day and never actually materialises. Anything that is a little more stubborn I seem to recover from a lot quicker.

On the downside, I do get more headaches on fast days but think that is when I don’t drink enough water. I have also suffered from sleep paralysis about half a dozen times (which is more frequently than previously) and it appears to happen on the night that follows the day I’ve been fasting. This can’t solely be attributed to fasting, however, because it also relates to periods when I’m having more irregular sleep patterns due to Millie waking.

Unfortunately, exercise has fallen by the weyside since my holiday in June so I do intend to get back on it in the near future. I fully expect my weight to increase a little as the fat turns to muscle but I’m OK with that because I also expect to see the wobbly bits go a little less wobbly. Like I said above, I am now happy with how I look – which means I am happy with my overall silhouette. I don’t think I want to lose any more fat just through dieting and think I need to tone up now to improve my figure further. Therefore, weight is now less important if that makes sense.

5:2 Something I Can Stick To

I’ve been doing the 5:2 diet for 6 months now so thought it was time to give you an update.

Here are my starting vitals:

Weight: 10st 12.2lb
Body fat: 16.6%
BMI: 24.4
Chest: 35”; Waist: 37”; Hips: 42”; and Thigh: 23”

and my current vitals:

Weight: 10st 1.4lb
Body fat: 15.9 %
BMI: 22. (something or other)
Chest: 35”; Waist: 36”; Hips: 40”; and Thigh: 22”

(I should point out that the body fat index is done on my home scales & is unreliable – these figure show I do not have enough body fat to be healthy which is an utter lie! Healthy range is 21-33%. I can take a photo of my wobbly bits if you want me to prove I have body fat – but please don’t make me do that, it’s not pretty!)

So, to sum up, that’s a total of 4 inches of my body and just short of 11lb lost. In fairness, I expected the inches to be more as I am really happy with how I feel but I guess it’s because of the wobbly belly that comes after having a couple of babies!

I would have liked to have got to my target by now which was 9st 12lb and I have been hovering around this 10st 1-2lb weight for a while but if I look at the overall achievement then I can’t be disappointed and, like I said, I feel good and I am mostly happy at how I look in the mirror. Sure, I can see all the lumps in the wrong places and the bits that wobble that shouldn’t but if I stop being so critical and try to see myself as others would see me (i.e. if I was looking at someone else with my body) then I am pleased with where I am.

My loss has been slow going but I put this down to not having much to lose (& being a healthy BMI to start with) and to really not restricting what I eat or drink on the non-fast days. Others have followed this diet and lost weight quicker and more lbs than I but the whole point of this for me (aside from the health benefits being just as much a priority as the weightloss) was that I wasn’t going to be restricting myself for 5 out of 7 days so it was something that I could stick to. And 6 months down the line I think I’ve proved that. I normally give up on diets around the 6 week mark!

Exercise has been a bit up and down. I will exercise regularly for a few weeks and then it will dwindle off to nothing for a few weeks before I kick my but and get back on it again.

I have a couple of theories relating to patterns to weightloss:

Effect of the menstrual cycle

Week One: Just after my period my weight drops
Week Two: I stay the same or go up a lb or 2
Week Three: I either go up a lb or if weight went up week before will stay the same then about a day before my period I will drop back to what I was at week one
Week Four: I stay the same as the end of week 1 and 3.

I weigh myself once a week but if I was to weigh myself once a month at the end of my period (which usually finished on weigh day – Friday), I would notice a loss without all the stay the same and weight gain disappointment in between. Usually my weightloss is between half a pound to a pound but more frequently, especially recently, it has been half a pound.

Effect of Exercise

As I mentioned above, my exercise routine has been a bit all over the place so I’ve noticed that on the first week that I start exercising again my weight will stay the same. I wont lose until the second week of exercise (unless it coincides with week 3 of my menstrual cycle). If I stop exercising, I will lose more weight than normal but will put it straight back on the week after.

These observations are just theories rather than scientific fact at the moment as I haven’t been documenting the changes and because the exercise is so erratic it is hard to know what effects are down to my menstrual cycle as said above, down to what I’ve eaten & drunk that week or from the changes to exercise routine. If I could stick to the same exercise routine for a couple of months I’d probably get a better idea with regards to the menstrual cycle theory.

Well that’s not going to happen this month as I’m going on holiday and plan on stuffing my face for a full 7 out of 7 days with little exercise for the next 2 weeks.

Health wise, I am useless and never did go to get the all over mot check I said I would. I did google but couldn’t find somewhere to get the blood tests for free (the place I’d heard about was for people over 50) and didn’t think the Drs would do it without good reason so it never happened. I have had a BP check this week which was worryingly high (I’ve always suffered from borderline high BP and checks 10 years ago concluded White-Coat Hypertension). I did tell the Dr that I’d been doing the 5:2 diet in case she thought it relevant but she didn’t see why that should raise my bp. So, I’ll be back for tests after my holiday when hopefully the holiday will have worked its magic and I’ll be well rested and my BP will be back to healthy again.

As a side effect, Stuart and I have both noticed our sleep is affected on Fast Days. Stuart suffers more than I do, finding it hard to get to sleep then often waking early the next day, I suffer just occasionally.

Otherwise, all feels good! I plan to pick up again when back from my hols!

Au revoir!

Putting the Right Shoe First

The view on one of my current runs & why I love running!

I learnt the hard way why it’s so important to get the right trainers for you when you are a runner.

I have always loved running, ever since my first 5k fun run at about the age of 7. I’ve never been an amazing runner and have never run further than a 3.5mile organised run (though once managed 10k when running for leisure/exercise).

The first episode of shin splints was when I was training for a 3.5 mile run around Hyde Park in London. I was running about 3 miles around London in my high street bought trainers a couple of times a week as well as once in the gym.

Then I started getting these niggly muscular-like pains in my shins. However, the run (JPMorgan Chase Run) date had arrived so I vowed to just take it easy and walk when needed. But I was fooling myself! I’m not competitive against other people but against myself is a different story. I knew that I could run the full distance without stopping so, once running, I wouldn’t let myself walk. I ran the whole distance with crippling pains in my shins that then travelled down to my feet. I was stupid but I didn’t know what it was and just thought it was a muscular thing. I could hardly walk after.

The next day I booked an appointment with the office doctor, I hobbled in and she told me I had shin splints. Hairline fractures where my calf muscle was pulling away from my shin bone. It was like any fracture and that I should expect it to take at least 6 weeks to heal. No running!

The guys in the work gym were great and told me I could use the bicycle and showed me different techniques to help (how to move my leg when cycling and to warm up and down by peddling backwards). They said I could use the cross-trainer too. They also told me of a reasonably priced running shoe shop where they asked you to run up and down outside and analysed your gait to see whether you rolled your ankles in or out etc.

I was expecting it to cost me a small fortune but I got a pair of trainers in the sale for £60 – cheaper than most high-street brands!

It instantly made a difference.

Once my shin splints had healed (which actually took more like 8 weeks) I took up running again and then started playing football too. My running trainers were great – comfortable and not a hint of a shin splint but when I played football…ouch! I hadn’t heard of special football boots for shin splints so was at a loss for what I was meant to do. Then a friend and fellow footballer told me that I could buy special insoles for football boots from an online shop called Physio Room. They had insoles specifically for football boots and also other generic ones you could cut down to size. I got both and when my running trainers started showing signs of tiredness, I used the generic ones and they stretched their life a little until I could afford new trainers.

I was told by the trainer shop that you should replace your running shoes every 6 months but I am a bit of a stop-starter when it comes to running and so would say I should change then annually. In reality, I wait for those niggly signs to return before I purchase a new pair which is about every 2 years.

I’ve just reached that point now.

I don’t just buy the same trainers as last time, I go to a specialised shop that analyses my gait and get the right trainers for me. New research means that products and equipment change frequently so I always make sure I am wearing the most appropriate shoe for my running style.

I have never had to pay more than £70 for a pair of trainers since that first time over 10 years ago!

If I could give any advice to someone that was starting running, I could not stress enough the importance of getting the right trainers for you and to ensure you do, get your gait analysed!

Note: I am not a professional runner or sports person. I have had no sports science training or medical training. This post was written from my own running experience and the advice I was given by professionals over the years. All views are my own. Not a sponsored post!