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