Hitting a plateau?

I've been a bit slack at updating the last week or so and it's mainly because I've been a bit slack on the old exercise front. That's not to say I've been gorging myself on pies - far from it (I've actually been exemplary in my behaviour for the most part ;-)) but I did skip last week's training.

So tonight I was back and ready to get into the swing of things once more. It was really hard. I don't know if it was because I'd been bunking off or because my personal sadist was ramping up the action - perhaps a combination of both? As usuale we started off doing circuits, the first stage of which was some practice called "burpees" or "burpys?" (i have no clue how you begin to spell this torture). Essentially it's dropping down to your haunches, then kicking your legs out behind you and quickly taking a position as if you were about to start doing pressups, then jumping back into crouch position before getting to your feet again. Repeat 15 times before moving onto the next part of the curcuit. These curcuits formed the first 10 minutes of the workout, so even before I embarked on my main 30 minute workout, I felt like I've been through an industrial wringer.

To read about, the burpees sound easy right? I thought the same when I watched Neil demonstrating them. Well I can assure you it's the opposite. I've mentioned before that the true pain from a session will skip a day, so in keeping with this theory I'd be feeling the burn on Friday, having worked out on Wednesday (tonight). However, all of my limbs feel like dead weights tonight and when I get up off the couch (which I'm trying to avoid as much as possible) it feels a little like I might topple over and collapse. And I only worked out 6 hours ago. I think it's fair to say that this time tomorrow I'll be f*cked. (sorry to swear but sometimes extreme situations call for profanity).

Weight loss wise, I think I've hit a plateau. This is when it gets really tough. Without seeing non-stop results on the scales, I find it pretty hard to keep going with this kind of effort. By my scales I'm looking at roughly a 9lb drop - but I feel like I've lost more from my clothes and how they fit. It could be my imagination but I don't think so..but I certainly feel like the arduous pain and torture should equate to a greater loss on the scales.

Still, the trick is not to give up because true to form, every ounce will come flinging through the air back onto my frame before you can say McDonalds' Extra Value Meal. I feel good though and I have to keep going. Here's my latest snap, taken at the weekend. I think you can see a difference if you scroll back to my before photos. Still a way to go though:





Please reward my efforts and donate some cash to Cancer Research - you can do so here http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011
On the 9th of July my fundraising team and I will be embarking on a 24 hour relay walk around Catto Park, come rain hail or shine. We've already hosted lots of fundraising events and have a current total of almost 7,000. Please help me up my own personal total and make a donation. Remember my sponsored slim is all in the name of a wonderful cause.

How to lose a stone in 24 hours

BEFORE

AFTER

The message? Get a good haircut people - the pounds will disappear. A hard lesson for me to learn on a day when I'd worn my hair "big" again.

Starting to see results

As every person who has every been on a diet for any length of time will tell you, there's a magical point you will reach in your efforts. This is the point when people start noticing and the significance of this as a motivator should never be underestimated.

When you start dieting, the first few weeks are often a secret struggle. If you're anything like me then you don't want to blab to everyone you know, because (again, if you are anything like me) you are always at risk of tumbling off the wagon before it's even left the station, into a big pile of pastry and chocolate and wine and ice cream and kebabs.

So you keep your secret, clandestine and brimming with potential, until you've got something to show for it. Or rather, until you've got less of you to show for it. I can only liken it to the many, MANY driving tests I sat; approaching each one thrilled at the thought of taking to the roads freely, yet also painfully aware of the potential for failure. And how I did fail!!

I did get there in the end though...

Anyway, I have now reached that magical point in my new regime where people are commenting on a noticeable difference in me. Now that's not to say that I'm sashaying about in size 8s yet... however several people have told me they can see a difference in my face. As with previous diets, my face is the first place for to show.

The Holy Grail in diet-related compliments comes when someone tells you you've lost weight and they never even knew you were on a diet in the first place. Oh sweet words like Manna from heaven! When you get to this point you know you're on the home strait. (a long home strait perhaps, but one nevertheles...)

In any case, this would seem to be the point I have finally reached. I can feel a big difference in my clothes. My trousers hang looser and certainly my face appears less podgy than usual. I feel as though my weight loss is more physically apparant than the digits on the scales might suggest. This makes perfect sense. Neil is giving me lots of workouts which build muscle as well as burn calories. Muscles, meanwhile, are heavier than fat so obviously the weight loss under this kind of training is perhaps going to come at a different rate compared to simple dieting without exercising. That's ok with me as, being a fundamentally vain person, as long as I'm looking skinny then that's all that matters - right?

Tonight I trained with me old pal Lynn - a skinymalink who has been training with Neil for a lot longer than me.




Here we are:


Despite initial fears about not being able to keep up, I can safely say I did well and only collapsed twice, right near the end. (Plus, she totally just texted me a message saying 'I can barely bend over to sit on the loo'.. so comparatively I'm doing awesome')

Please all remember that I'm putting myself through this ordeal for Cancer Research UK. Please make a donation to http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011
It helps me keep the pies at bay if nothing else

And today's word of the day is...

Plyometrics. According to Wikipedia this is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports. It's also a form of exercise that is responsible for producing some of the most severe muscle fatigue I've ever known.

Tonight, while a muted episode of The Great British Menu played on the giant screen in front of me, I did plyometrics. This carrot-stick approach worked rather well as I worked my way through four sets of four stations under Neil's ever patient eye. So it was that I gazed at dripping joints of meats as I jumped back and forth with my arms straight by my side, Riverdance-style. Butter-glossy crushed potatoes rolled mirage-like across the screen as I did sitting dips off the edge of the couch. Gluttonous panel judges crammed cream cakes into their swollen faces while I lifted weights. And piggy-eyed chefs rolled naked in florets of chocolate with sticks of crackling poking from every orifice as I did sit-up after sit-up. (It should be pointed out that my recollection of the programme is somewhat hazy from around the third set of exercises and it's possible this isn't precisely accurate. There was lots of food on the screen in any case).

I have to say that the result was pretty extreme. Not only did I feel every inch of my body shaking and quivering by the time I had finished, I also could barely lift my glass of water, so aching were my arms. Again, I find myself becoming ever more masochistic, enjoying the pain and the wobbling; feeling the potential and power in all my movements and knowing the thrill of the dropping scale that will be my reward. I am also slightly afraid of what might be in store next week, as tonight's workout was quite a step up from anything I've done before.

By my scales I am about 8lbs down today. Slowly slowly catchy monkey. I will be heading back towards Slimming World at some point soon, for an official reading to mark on my card. And when I've lost the whole three stone, I'll scan the card in here so you can see the losses, pound for pound. Currently I'm a quarter of the way to my fundraising target and a fifth of the way to my weight loss target. Due to some rather 'creative' donations, I'm sitting at the odd total of £149.86, so if someone wanted to donate me 14p that would be marvellous.

In other news, my fundraising teammates and I have now collectively raised more than £3,500 and have a string of events coming up including a rock and roll bingo night tomorrow, a car boot sale on Sunday and a race night on July 1. I think by the time the Relay For Life rolls around in July, we could have hit £5,000 which is just amazing. If you would like to make a donation to our total, you can do so at http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011


And here's me, bedraggled and post-plyometrics:

Do I look thin yet? (Don't answer that...)

My gut feeling

And as we go forth into this great and sunny weekend, I do so newly acquainted with a long lost body part that I thought I'd never hear from again.

My abs.

Somewhere, deep down - deep, DEEP down - among the lovely lipidy layers, they have been hibernating for winter. It's a winter that's lasted nigh-on seven years. But that winter is over - take that fat-drenched and sauvingnon-infused muscles! It's time to get moving and justufy your existence before I lose you forever.

As you may have guessed from my ramblings, I have been doing stomach crunches. And sit-ups. And a funny thing where you lie on your back with your hands under your bum and lift your feet off the ground and hold it for ages. And it's all been at the say-so of grand master Neil, personal trainer extraordinaire and newly designated master of my destiny.

Here he is:

Now he might look like a sweet and gentlemanly, humane sort of a man. And in a lot of respects he is. But he's also capable of a exerting a pain like no other on my jiggly frame. I know it'll be worth it in the end, when I have transformed from the burst-couch sort of look that I'm rocking at the moment, to something infinitely more svelte. But for now I'm just going to have a bit of a moan because I'm SORE. But all the best things in life hurt the next day. Amirite?

Well here's something freaky. After a training session with Neil, it doesn't hurt the next day. In fact, yesterday I pretty much sauntered to the canteen for my morning coffee (skimmed milk - natch). I even boasted about how good I was at doing my bridges (another torturous pose when I lie face-down and raise my body up by my toes and hold it completely straight and rigid for 10 seconds. I didn't even wake the baby this week… who says I'm not improving?)

Yesterday I felt great. But today my middle feels hideous. I can feel every inch of muscle fibre across my rather generous paunch (or as Neil politely says - my 'core'). If I suck my belly in it throbs and a simple morning stretch is followed by immediate doubling over and groaning. You don't even want to know what it feels like when I sneeze.

But this day-skipping pain is really rather satisfying because it means I am working hard. My body still has the capability of putting itself through a painful workout so maybe there is still hope that I could be thin by 30.
On a more positive note, I managed to get several inches closer to the ground with my press-ups this week compared to my pathetic efforts last time. So the times they are a-changing.

This week I will be mostly running up and down the lane behind my flat because end-to-end it's probably about a mile, it's private and the chances of being seen are vastly reduced. If you DO see me, don't say anything.
Just pay a visit to http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011 and make a donation.

Thank you
PS- I'm half a stone down - just 2-and-a-half to go

Marie - back feeling sheepish

You know the old expression - no pain, no gain?
Well if the amount of gain is directly proportional to the pain applied, I am going to be a slim-limbed goddess at this rate. Last night I began my new personal trianing regime to help me in my bid to shift three stone and today I am walking like John Wayne…but more on that in a moment.

There is something I must address. I know what you are thinking. My first blog was dated March 29. Yes, almost 2 whole months ago. Where are all my updates? How's my progress been? Where are the blogs from my fellow charity-dieting-chums? These are all good questions and, well, I don't know what to tell you. Here's what happened in a nutshell:
- I began in earnest, setting up a donation page and wrote my first blog
- I joined Slimming World and got my starting weight logged
- I began haranguing my fellow dietees to log on and blog also, so sure was I that this would be key to our mutual success
- None of them blogged
- I promptly lost 5lbs with relative ease, in just a couple of weeks
- Still none of them blogged
- I got a new job and may have fallen off the dieting wagon while celebrating
- Still none of them blogged (they were however very keen to partake in celebrations)
- I thought 'to h*ll with it' and 2 months disappeared in a haze of Pinot Grigio and cream cakes.
(well the last point there is a slight exaggeration but you get my drift.)

It is, quite frankly, a miracle that I haven't put my initial 5lbs back on again. So I'm taking this as some sort of divine sign that God wants me to be thin. I know I do and who am I to question His ways? So I'm starting again. My friends may join me for a blog along the way, but I have accepted that I may be waging this cyber war alone.

This week hasn't gone too badly, apart from a door-stopper sized wedge of Victoria sponge that I was forced to consume for Nikki's birthday. I've hopefully burned this off now as last night I began my first of a series of personal training sessions with Neil Hastie.

As well as being the lovely husband of my friend Rita, Neil is a professional footballer, qualfied in sports nutrition and training to be a physiotherapist. He is kindly donating his time to me in a bid to help me reach my target, and raise some funds for Cancer Research along the way.

We worked out for around 30-40 mins and did a routine that included lots of jumping, squatting, weights and I even did a few press ups. I exhaled/groaned so loud at one point that I woke Neil's baby (oops) but pressups are really hard. When I saw how Neil can actually bring his face to the floor and that I only lower mine by about an inch, I realised how far I have to go.

My regime now includes running three times a week, and a training session with Neil. I'm going to adhere to my eating plan and start working very hard to earn your money. Promise.

To sponsor my efforts, please visit this site: http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011

Marie's First Entry

Well here we are at the very beginning.

I've done every diet going. Scottish Slimmers. Weight Watchers. Atkins. Cambridge Diet. Every fad you can think of too. The juice diet that lasted three days before I caved and found myself shoving scrambled eggs down my gob while my juice was still in the blender - check. The so called South Beach Diet.(I mean come on - Aberdeen's nice but it's hardly Miami.)- check. Apple Cider & Vinegar Tablets which promised to help me lose 8lbs in but actually just gave me heartburn. I could go on but I don't want to embarrass myself.

Now I've pledged to lose three stone by August and here's how I'm going to do itL

1 - Go to the gym. This I have already begun in earnest. I joined the Nuffield Health Club earlier this year and I have started exercising regularly. I am registered for the 10K again and hope to beat my previous sloth-like record of 1 hr 12 minutes. Tonight while I was swimming I watched an aqua aerobics class and - in spite of the fervent flapping of a million bingo wings - it actually looked like fun! Next week I full intend to add my bingo wingos to the crowd.

2 - Attend a slimming class. I have started at Slimmng World and tomorow marks my first official weigh-in for the sponsored slim. I don't think any of us are going to be revealing out 'Before' stats just yet. However, at the end of the Sponsored Slim, not only will we reveal just how much weight we've lost, but also how much we were at the start. I know. Affa.

3 We are also going to keep this blog going so we can keep you entertained (probably) and interested (hopefully) in how we are getting on. Hopefully with your support and the promise of some money for Cancer Research, we will be spurred on to success. We've all got our own reasons for doing this. Me? I enjoy raising money for a good cause and will be taking part in the Relay For Life for Cancer Research in July. All money raised from the Sponsored Slim will go straight to the Relay total. I'll let everyoe else tell you their reasons for doing this.

Here's my donation link http://www.donatetomyrelay.org/marieclairejones2011

And here's a few of me before: