Muffin Top Magic Week 7

Just as well Kate changed the name of this linky as I am posting on a Tuesday not a Monday! Its been one of those weeks that if I had been on a traditional diet I might have had a hissy fit as the scales once again weren't showing the results I want. So back to the trusty photos:

Great to see that since last week's photo (on right) things have once again tightened up. My top is reaching lower down my body. It's even more obvious on comparing the side view from 2 weeks ago:

The running is really paying off on sorting out my core! I just need to keep it up and keep listening to the Slimpod, Chillpod and Fitpod..

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 3

Well things are still going well with my combination of running and Thinking Slimmer slimpods. On the whole I am making healthier eating choices and stopping when full. My energy levels have rocketed as proved by my race on Saturday. 

There are 4 other ways that I can see how things are going:

1. Scales - down another 1.5 pounds and I am now just fat not obese!
2. Tape measure - this week an inch off my hips
3. Other people - several people have commented on my weight loss this week especially from my face
4. Photographs - I have put my Saturday pre race photo next to my kick off photo and I can see the difference myself:

So let's see if a week off school with being at home with temptation turns out to be a positive test of the slimpod..

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!

Workout Wednesday Week 3: Fitting in the Fitness

I am pleased to have drawn the winners of my competition with Thinking Slimmer so I do hope that they have great success with their new Slimpods! I have been listening to mine and trying to remember to focus on the positives... things like not wolfing down everything on my plate once messages come back from my stomach to say enough.. The clothes that were a bit tight after Christmas are all much more comfortable now. 

This week I wasn't tempted to drink alcohol and was happy with my booze free beer. Bit bored of being stuck with one beverage though so may need to get more variety for the last week and a bit.

As for exercise it was a relief to be able to get out on Friday after not being able to run much earlier in the week due to illness of one or other of us. Not only did I manage 10 km in the rain but I ran the fastest official one too:

That made up for getting wet! At the weekend I had to squeeze in some mini runs with my son as we went out and about:

Better a little bit with a total of 5km than nothing. On Monday I did my first Staveley to Kendal run for a while. I added a loop around the village first to extend the distance. My leg was niggling at me but I thought that was just the cold and thought I could run it off as I went along:

I did manage to complete the 10 km in my second best time but unfortunately I've been limping ever since.. So that's no run today then. Just hope its recovered in time for Friday though I doubt it. Onwards and slimwards next week...

Workout Wednesday: Week 2 2014 - Get fit in the forest

Fitness

With the children and I back in routine last week it was a good chance to get some proper running in. So with the sun out on Thursday morning I headed off straight after dropping the children at school to head back to Kendal. I didn't push myself hard but enjoyed being out having the roads almost all to myself:

In fact I was enjoying myself much I thought I would just keep on going! I had to run past my estate and then go round it a couple of times to make it to 10 km but it wasn't tough (I had signed up to a challenge to run a 10 km event this month!). What turned out to be a bonus was that this turned out to be my fastest ever recorded 10 km (the Christmas Pudding came up as 9.9 km):

So it was a lovely feeling, just need to work on getting it under 1 hour.

When I saw the Forestry Commission mentioning their Get Fit in the Forest campaign I decided to combine our trip to do the Stick Man trail with an attempt at running in the forest. So once the trail was completed I got ready for a run and set off on one of the forest routes. I have to say its lovely to be running down paths like this:

It was very distracting to encounter views like this:

I have to say that the trails are pretty steep in the forest as its on a mountain but it was nice on the down hills and the flatter bits! Next time my son is going to come along with me so I need to find a better route...

Workout Wednesday: Week 1 in 2014 plus Competition with Thinking Slimmer

It's been a while since I did a Workout post as Christmas plays havoc with everything as there are extra activities and then 2 weeks of no school... So here I am in 2014 with my goal of finishing off the job of getting myself fit and healthy. With a wedding to attend at the end of May I've set myself a goal of dropping another dress size by the big day.

By the time the fireworks had gone up on New Year's Eve my belt had got too tight (I blame a Chinese takeaway). So I started 2014 as I mean to go on by going out for a run (in the rain and sleet!). It may not have been the fastest run in the world but I at least tried...

Once I got back home I realised I had been failing to listen to my slimpods for a few weeks so I started listening to them again every night. I also drank the last glass of wine in the house on the 1st January and ditched the booze again for a month. So after a few days my belt once again does up on that last hole even by the end of the day!

One of the things on the slimpods is that you are encouraged to not distract yourself whilst eating i.e. be on laptop or watching TV. So as part of my house sorting I have reclaimed the kitchen table as an eating area and not as a craft, homework or everything else area it became in the run up to Christmas! We had slipped back into bad habits of eating our evening meals in front of the TV which is not good for any of us...

Another thing is to increase our quantity of vegetables and fruit that we consume. This is toughest when you have a small boy who only eats limited varieties but we will get there in the end. My daughter created a 5 a day chart and we aren't allowed a naughty treat unless we have had a minimum of 3. My children are hyper-competitive so hopefully this will spur them and me on for a while until it becomes a habit. It's led to finding creative ways to get veggies into our meals such as my daughter suggesting putting peppers and peas into couscous:

Couldn't get my son to eat it with the veggies in but at least he ate the plain version (minor victory).

I went out yesterday for a much better run but I still have to regain some of the fitness I've lost in 2 weeks. Just hope that doesn't take too long! With a few events signed up to in the spring and summer I need to get my legs going...

The slimpods have been such a help last year that I have signed up as an affiliate. This means that I can offer readers a 15% discount:

* Train your brain to lose weight without dieting

* Feel full quicker, eat less and choose healthier

* NHS consultant’s verdict: ‘It’s life-changing’

* Works on its own or as a diet plan booster

* Comes with 100% money-back guarantee (T&Cs apply*)

* Take the pain out of weight loss - no more diets

(*T&Cs apply. There's no tricks or catches to their T&Cs as you can see if you click here to read them >>).

Here is a wonderful success story:

I've also been given a chance to give away not 1 but 2 of their slimpods to help you lose weight. There are pods for women and men so its good for everyone that feels they need to get slimmer in 2014. So please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter (you have 2 weeks to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Challenge 2014

Oh dear I just looked at last year's resolutions. Let's just say it doesn't look good...

1) Carry on getting in shape and actually lose some weight

Well this one isn't a complete white wash. I have actually dropped nearly a dress size though the scales haven't shifted very much.

2) Learn to knit

Nothing to see here...

3) Sort the house out

Well I did get my son's room looking a lot better when I swapped all the kids' storage around. He does now mostly have floorspace to play on! My daughter's room has been a work in progress since we started converting it to a tween room. Hopefully it won't be long until her's is finished.

As for the rest I sort it and it goes backwards... Oops need to do better!

4) Read another 100 books

Well this doesn't appear to have succeeded this year. Apparently I have only read 69! I am sure I did better than that but maybe reading 500 page books isn't the best way to go about it..


So how about 2014 is it the same old same old or something new?


1) Carry on getting in shape


I am ignoring the scales as I agree with Thinking Slimmer that its the size you are not the weight you are that counts. So my challenge is to get this belt off the loosest notch:

Added to this I've signed up to LETJOG14 to see if I can keep on running and do the equivalent of Land's End to John O'Groats over the course of the year.. I couldn't even run for 5 minutes this time last year so I am amazed I am even contemplating it!

2) Operation House

I need to just keep on trying! Small steps at a time so that I can happily have friends round... Need to get children trying harder to put things away to help me though!

3) Family Time

We have such lovely games and toys in this house we need to make sure we spend more time playing with them. So its going to be less TV and more time having fun together.

What are hopes for 2014? These are some of the weight loss slimpods that have been helping me:

Go Sober in October and #Shredtober end week 3 with help from Zeo

Completed my third full week of being tee total and doing the 30 day shred. So how has it gone?

Still making use of my Cut Down on Alcohol slimpod to help my Go Sober campaign and not missing it! There have been times this week when my kids have pushed me to breaking point and I haven't cracked and opened a bottle of wine (I have one sitting on side in kitchen). I am looking forward to November the first though... Very pleased to have been part of a campaign that has raised over a million for Macmillan.

The nice people at Zeo drinks sent me 3 of their soft drinks to try out to help me stick to my sobriety. The parcel they were sent in was pretty amazing:

You can probably guess from the packaging that the drinks are made in Russia. Apparently the drinks are 100% natural and only contain the following ingredients:

Carbonated water: Naturally sourced, straight from the spring!

Sugar: ZEO contains low levels of sugar extracted from sugar beets.

Natural flavourings: All natural flavouring substances obtained from raw plant materials.

Natural colourings: Extracted, isolated and concentrated from natural sources (e.g. strawberry).

Citric acid: This is what makes lemons lemony. A natural preservative that is also used to add a sour taste to foods and drinks (lemon juice contains 3% citric acid).

Pectin: A natural thickening/gelling agent extracted from citrus peel.

Stevia: Made from the stevia leaf and used for over 500 years to sweeten food and drinks, this provides a sweet hit comparable with sugar but without the calorie count or leaving you with a sugar craving.

They come in 3 flavours:

• Crush - blood orange, lime, lemon and orange
• Zest - lime
• Burst - peaches and grapefruit

The drinks range from 45-59 calories per bottle which is a lot lower than most alcohol. I liked the gentle carbonation which gave you a tingle without too much fizz:

All the drinks were very refreshing and thirst quenching though the peach was a little too sweet to my taste. My daughter and I both decided that the Zest one was our favourite. Just a shame that I can't find a local stockist. They are available from WH Smith and Ocado at around £4 for a 4 pack which is a fair price.

Shredtober has now passed the third week of the 30 day shred! All 21 workouts done even though I missed a day due to Go Ape. Instead I did one level 2 and one level 3 workout on the same day - eek! My progress photos are looking good: 

Week 1

Loving the disappearing waistline but the sideways shots is good too:

Abs are much tighter and have to say my upper body coped better with Go Ape than it would have done! The scales have gone up this week - that could be disheartening if I couldn't see the changes

Only 8 workouts left for Shredtober and 9 more days to stay Sober the end is in sight!

Go Sober in October and Shredtober end week 2

Well the end of the second full week of being tee total and doing the 30 day shred. So how has it gone?

The Cut Down on Alcohol slimpod must be helping by Go Sober campaign as shock horror I am not missing it anywhere near as much! The fact that people have now boosted donations to £50 is a real inspiration though. I can't believe that I went through a full weekend of birthday celebrations including a ceilidh and a Sunday dinner without a drop of alcohol.. Let's see how week 3 goes!

As for Shredtober I have now completed a second full week of the 30 day shred! I got bored of level 2 and switched to level 3 a few days ago. You aren't really supposed to be able to until nearer the end of the programme! It was a killer to start with but after 3 sessions I am finding it less of a struggle..

Week 1

Definitely a better waistline but the sideways shots show it much better:

Abs are much tighter and my bottom looking perkier! The scales haven't shifted this week - may have something to do with too much cake on my birthday.... Just glad I can see that the hard work is paying off and half way through the challenges I am feeling so much fitter and healthier.

So here is hoping that as my 2 monthly challenges progress there will be less and less of me to show in photographs on here!

Go Sober and Shredtober end week 1

Well the end of the first full week of being tee total and doing the 30 day shred. So how has it gone?

First challenge on staying sober was ironically a charity fund raiser for breast cancer! I walked in the door and was offered pink cava... one of my favourite drinks. Despite friends saying but it's in aid of cancer too I stuck to my guns and drank J2O and lemonade instead! Was quite funny being one of few people in the room not under the influence of alcohol..

Over the rest of the weekend when I would normally have a drink e.g. watching Strictly I replaced my usual tipple with a bottle of Becks Blue:

Not quite the same but my son thought it was the real thing and told me off! We had to show him the label... So that is week one done and it wasn't too hard. 

Next weekend is my birthday so instead of going out for dinner we are going out for breakfast so no booze. Going to be very strange not having a glass of wine to celebrate! If you want to help me through then join the lovely people who have sponsored me already over at Go Sober.

To help me out the lovely people at Thinking Slimmer have sent me one of their Cut Down on Alcohol slimpod. I have added it to my bed time listening! Hopefully this will be great come November when I can drink again too..

As for Shredtober I have now completed a full week of the 30 day shred! I moved on up to the second level after a few days and have been getting to grips with plank jacks and walking press ups - eek. It does seem to be paying off getting a real hard workout every day. The scales haven't shifted much (1.5 pounds) as I'm swapping from fat to muscle (I dropped 1% on body fat) but I can see how my shape is changing:

Week 1

Week 2

I need to get a better way to take these shots other than balancing the mirror on the bed! 

It does go to prove that getting in shape is not just about the scales. Hopefully if I stick with it the weight will follow as well though as I am mostly eating a lot healthier than last month. Listening to my body and stopping when full and not eating after the children are in bed is certainly an improvement.

So here is hoping that as my 2 monthly challenges progress there will be less and less of me to show in photographs on here!

Charity Tuesday: Go Sober for October with Macmillan

When an e-mail popped up in my inbox challenging me to Go Sober for October in aid of Macmillan Cancer I immediately decided to sign up. It's such a great cause and this is what the official blurb says:

Proceeds from this event will go to Macmillan Cancer Support to help improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

One in three of us will get cancer and it’s the toughest thing most of us will ever face. And the feelings of isolation and loneliness that so many people experience make it even harder.

But you don’t have to go through it alone. The Macmillan team is with you every step of the way, from the nurses and therapists helping you through treatment to the campaigners improving cancer care.

The number of people with cancer is growing every day. Macmillan wants to reach and improve the lives of every one of those people. By taking part in Go Sober, you will help Macmillan in providing practical, medical and financial support and push for better cancer care.

For further information about Macmillan’s work and how to get involved visit their website at macmillan.org.uk

For cancer support every step of the way, visit the website or call the Macmillan Support Line free on 0808 808 00 00

It's great to have such an inspiration to ditch the booze for a month which I try to do once a year. This isn't the best month for me to attempt the challenge as its a) my birthday b) I am getting together with my high school friends and c) I am off on a short break to Butlins! Therefore I am going to need as much support as people can offer... 

So far only my 6 year old has sponsored me and he has given a whole month's pocket money! Please pop onto Go Sober and donate me the equivalent of a glass or bottle of wine to encourage me to keep going....  I am also in a team of Booze Free Bloggers giving each other the strength to survive a month stone cold sober so you can donate to us all together..

To take my mind off the sobriety and help tone up the wine belly I have joined with over 40 bloggers to do the 30 day shred from today. Here is hoping I can complete this one as last time I got flu after 10 days and quit... To encourage me I took a before photo:

Excuse the dodgy quality I had to balance the mirror on the far end of the bed! As you can see the summer holidays have not been good for my waistline... I need to get back into properly focussing on my Thinking Slimmer pods to eat consciously and record 3 positive things about my diet and fitness..

Weigh in Wednesday Week 11

 

After a gap due to missing my aerobics last week it's back to me in Lycra! This time it's a post workout selfie as my kids on strike again:

 

 

It's not been a brilliant week exercise wise as due to lack of time and an injury the only real workout I did was the Race for Life. Luckily all the picnics and refreshing glasses of cider must have been balanced out as I lost 1/2 pound over the fortnight. Not a huge amount but not bad considering!

So now I enter the danger zone - 6 weeks off work at home with the children. I nearly always gain weight over the break so its a good test of the thinking slimmer pods. Will I manage to eat sensibly and not pig out whilst enjoying time as a family...

There is going to be a bit of a pause in weigh posts as I'm shutting off the laptop and iPad for the first couple of weeks of the holidays! So you'll have to wait a while to see how I do...

 

Weigh in Wednesday Week 10

 

I know this last week, for the first time since I started listening to the slimpod, that I let my emotions control my eating. Therefore I had a couple of days where I ate way too much and felt bad about it.

 

The fit pod had kept me motivated though and I managed 2 good runs this week. In fact I ran for longer without walking than I have yet managed. I've been challenged to run a half marathon next year so I need to build on this distance. This week my runs totalled 11km over 2 runs so I have a little way to go yet!

 

Because of not knowing whether I'd been overall good this week with my poor choices on some days I was in fear and trepidation stepping up to the scales. It was a relief to have lost 1.5 pounds which is a healthy loss in a week. It is quite interesting that I've lost less than half a stone in total since listening to the pods but my body shape has changed dramatically!

 

My daughter took photos for me tonight although my son sneaked into camera for one of them:

 

Here's to looking even better in Lycra next week!