get healthy and fit

I joined the gym, and I gave up driving to work to afford it, which has the added benefit of 40 minutes a day brisk walking. I’m going to really miss that independence, but I guess it makes sense.

Gym is okay. I went 5 out of 7 days last week. I push myself a fair bit, but I know I could push harder, so there’s one challenge. What I won’t do is wreck the experience by taking it too far. Apparently if I go in too hard with upper body weights I get really nauseous. It happened with a personal trainer (not doing that ever again), so at least now I can sense if it’s approaching and back-off.

It’s scary how unfit I am. I mean, I know, but you really see it when you can’t do what you used to be able to do. It is very disconcerting. I just hope that if I stick at it I will get better. That’s the plan!

I’d like to get excited about ‘muscle memory’, but I won’t get too excited, because although I haven’t heard the term coined yet, obesity research is indicating that our adipocytes have ‘fat memory’ too. Thanks Mother Nature :)

Food… I’m getting better, but still allowing myself to be thwarted. We were given shortbread biscuits. I was worried if I threw them out my otherhalf would accuse me of being wasteful, so I ended up eating them instead! Not HAPPY Jan. Hopefully I learned a lesson because I don’t want my exercise to be for nothing.

I’m going to be throwing a lot of xmas food if I can’t give it away :)

Well yes. I have decided to join the military, but to do that, I need to…not be the unhealthiest person in the boot camp group. I’m on my way though – I go to the gym three times a week, and the other two weekdays I walk 12 kilometres with my dogs. Since I started I’ve lost a size in clothes, but I don’t know how many pounds that is.

There’s a new addition to our family…
a fabulous secondhand treadmill, named Tready.

Tready and I will be great friends. I know it. Tready’s never had the experience of not fitting into his old jeans, but we did have to take off the two front-doors of our house to get him in (and that WAS on an angle), so I feel a certain comradeship.

So… I need a routine. I pictured getting up earlier in mornings to walk with Tready before work (I’m wasted after when you include a 3h commute all up!). I have no problem getting up half an hour earlier at 4:15am, but usually my first 20 mins is feeding the cats and having a quiet breakfast.

I can’t quite see myself hitting the Tready (like I mean it) after waking from a dead sleep. At least not when it’s the freezing cold winter. Morning in summer is the best time of day! But for now Tready may have to wait for my second-wind after work, which is probably 8pm. A bit risky though…

And as for the food… there was no junk in the house… until I found a bag of choc-chip cookies thrown in the back of the top of the pantry! Drat my sixth sense!

Those aside, I think I can eat good food, mostly fresh food being a veggie, but I’m terrible at snacking at home, and my portion sizes aren’t ideal.

You know what craps me? ‘Serving suggestions’ on packs of food. On the pack of Uncle Toby’s Quick Oats, there’s a picture of a bowl filled with porridge with a few slices of banana. On the information panel though, a ‘serving size’ is 30g, which is around 1/3 cup. There’s a big difference between that and a bowl full!

And a standard tin of tomato spaghetti (yes, not ‘healthy’ but beats nastier ‘comfort’ food!) according to the information panel contains 3.3 serves! Like, WHAT? That’s what you pick up with one spoon (dangley bits and all)!

So… looks like carbs and I don’t have an understanding, but we’ll see how we go, hey?

Game on…

Actually if i do not go to gym 7times before the end of the month i will lose my gym membership. I need to go.

Twice a week at the gym working out and once a week playing squash. This also works in well with my 2nd thing of handling stress better

for now the goal is 205 lbs with 10% body fat. I’ve started making it to the gym regularly and i eat well so let’s call it progression.