Muffin Top Monday: Week 6

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It's hard to believe that I restarted the Thinking Slimmer programme 6 weeks ago! Since then I have been able to access their Slimpod, Chillpod and as of last week Fitpod. The first is helping me make healthier food choices, the second helping me relax sleep better, whilst the last is encouraging me to be more active. Ironically the last week I have my exercise curtailed due to parenting commitments. I missed virtually all my Fitbug targets:

That probably explains why my weight didn't go down this week. I am feeling slimmer and more toned but the scales aren't budging:

So today I got out the measuring tape to see how the 6 weeks has impacted on me:

Inches lost: neck -1, bust -1, waist -4, hips -1, thighs -0.5, right bicep -0.5.

It's the waist one that is making the biggest difference to making me look and feel slimmer. I noticed my running bra is looking loose so I need to go and buy a new one.. 

My fitness is certainly better when time permits and the weather isn't against me. I seem to be plagued by strong winds at the moment! As well as Parkrun on Saturday I went out on Sunday for a longer run. I managed a few trophies on Strava for that one:

Let's hope it all carries on going in the right direction. I went out for another 5km run tonight even though I didn't want to!

Muffin Top Monday: Week 5

How these weeks are flying by! Not every day of them is a good one but I think I am doing pretty well. Still temporarily sober (90 days of sober) and mostly eating healthily. This week has been a bit manic so the running has taken more of a back seat than I would like. I only clocked up 17 km over three runs:

My speed is increasing with my 2nd and 3rd fastest 5km times ever! I have invested a whole 69p in a running for weight loss app to try and mix up my runs. It is a combo of jog, sprint and walk which should improve my fitness too.

Muffin Top Monday: Week 4

Well this week was proof that scales are not a good way to measure getting slimmer! For whatever reason I gained a whole 0.4 pounds.. Oh my what a disaster - well it would have been at one of the Weight Watchers meetings I used to go to. Instead I am relying on the more obvious Lycra photo test:

So apart from my face and neck looking thinner I can see a reduced muffin top and a much looser running top. I am still getting comments from people I haven't seen for a whilst about how good I am looking too.

This week wasn't my best food wise with it being the school holidays and I was home around temptations all week. However I kept myself active either doing house sorting or running and ate a lot less than I would normally do when at home all day. The 90 Days of Sober even coped with a night out when I tried alcohol free wheat beer!

With a busy half term ahead and lots of pressure lets hope I can keep this up...

Muffin Top Monday: Week 2

It's been a bit of mixed week with some days better than others but I was extremely pleased to have lost another 1.5 pounds! Even better than that I am feeling slimmer and this was proved to me in my update photo:

There is definitely less of a muffin top on the left than there was! The shrinkage was confirmed by the tape measure when I found a 3 inch loss on my waist after 2 weeks. I have even lost an inch off my neck - not sure how that happened..

My energy levels are really boosted and this is showing in my running. I worked out how to use the virtual pace function on my Garmin and seem to have found a current optimum pace which is improving my overall speed. This showed in yesterday's Parkrun when I knocked another 40 seconds off my PB and kept up a great pace:

With my fitbit I am recording my general activity levels and the challenge was upped this week. Over the week as a whole my average number of steps is hitting the target. I may have days when I am under but with running, walking and dancing I have done OK:

So I will keep listening to the Thinking Slimmer slimpod and keep on running until I get to where I want to be..

Muffin Top Monday: End of Week 1

I am joining with Kate on Thin Ice for Muffin Top Monday this week. For most of January I have been trying to lose weight but only moving very slowly with about 0.5 pound a week. Not very impressive after giving up booze for the month in aid of charity. So last week I started listening to a Thinking Slimmer slimpod again. As the programme is all about your body shape and not your weight I bravely took a photo of myself which I posted earlier this week.

After a week of listening to the slimpods and noticing that:

a) I was making healthier eating choices
b) feeling more energised
c) my clothes felt looser

I stood on the scales and found out I had lost 3lbs! At last a proper weight loss after all the efforts. To show how it looks on me I created a side by side montage. The photo on the left was this week:

The muffin top is noticeably slimmer! I have also run a fair distance this week with all that extra energy. I have been chipping away at my personal bests of various sections and notched up a few:

So onwards and slimmer wards I hope!