Sunday 31 January 2010

Diets diets and more diets

Getting your mind in a state that it would accept that you are about to go on a very strict diet is quite an achievement.

Strategic planning was all that I could think about this last week and after talking to a friend of mine at the office, I was convinced that I knew which diet to go for. Firstly: I don't have a lot of time. I have about 4 months to either succeed or to fail and have the get super-fit the same time. I have been to WW in the past but the choice of food is too overwhelming. I think that I will do better on a diet which tells me exactly what I need to eat and as my days are so unpredictable (being all over the country most weekdays), I need something which doesn't involve a lot of cooking so shakes and bars should do the trick. Yes, I can hear you all saying that soups, bars and shakes doesn't work. But I have a trick up my sleeve and that is all this exercise that I will do with this including the upcoming big bike ride!!

My friend is on LL (sorry I have to use all these abbreviations...) and absolutely swears by it. He has lost an enormous about (4 stone I think in total!) and if he can do it, I can do it. So I've been preparing myself mentally for this new challenge that starts tomorrow. I contacted the Councillor of the LL dept here locally and arranged an info session.

What a disappointment! Firstly. I can't just 'sign-up'. I have to have a medical. OK! Cool. I can live with that. But then came the sticker. I must join a group and the only group where there are spaces are on Wednesdays. Bugger. They can put me onto a waiting list for Saturday...great hah. Do they want customers or what?

I got slightly annoyed with the lady that did the briefing session as she sort of insinuated that I'm not prepared to make a commitment. (When I said I can't do Wednesdays). There was another lady with me at the info session and she said she has no problem with signing up on Wednesday. Well, that's fine for her but I can't tell my boss that I need to be back home for a diet class when I'm halfway across England, now can I??

Anyway. It seems that I will have to do this all by myself. I must admit I that I will save shed loads of money as the LL diet is £66 per week!

I went to Tesco and bought Slimfast which also caters for shakes, bars and soups. I got some instant drinks which I can take on my travels and also got powder which I can use at home.

Tomorrow will start with a bang as my team is meeting and we all go for a meal during the meeting. Well I will either fake not being hungry (and try to stop my tummy rumbling) or I will have to take out my Slimfast shake and enjoy that whilst everyone else is having a lovely light lunch.

So rules for this week:

1. No alcohol
2. No tea/fizzy drinks
3. at least 4 litres of water per day
4. Shakes for breakfast and lunch and a very small cooked meal (chicken breast plus salad) for dinner
5. Exercise at least 3 times a week

I also have had some thoughts about enrolling with a personal trainer at my gym. Maybe the shed loads of money that I will save because I'm not on LL could be usefully spend there.

MMmm, I can hear you ask, how much has she to lose? Well. I would like to lose 2 st and 7 lbs. In metric that is nearly 16kgs. Ouch...

Will keep you posted!

Thursday 28 January 2010

To measure progress you need to know where you came from...

Well, here we are on a winter's day with a maximum temperature of 3C. I've had some thoughts about blogging before and unsurprisingly needed a bit more oomph to really get going. Some will call that motivation.

Maybe it would be a reverse process.I needed motivation to blog and now the blog will provide me with some motivation to get started on this awesome journey till 11 June 2010 when our bike ride start.

A bit of background...my other (better)half has done LEJOG, as the (in) famous Land's End to John O'Groats Bike ride is called, in June 2007 and had thoughts of doing it again when he is the big 50. But as they say, why wait so one thing lead to another and plans were made to do it again in 2010. My initial thoughts were to join him as from Carlisle to cycle Scotland but then it dawned on me...what would I call THAT bike ride?? Half a LEJOG?? That is no good at all so I decided to jump in head first and do the whole thing.

We start on 11 June and aim to finish on 26 June. Now this seems still far away but it isn't as it is less than 5 months away and I'm still 2 stone overweight. I recognise that if I want to do this right, I need to lose some serious weight and also get really fit, fitter than I've been in decades!!

So my blogging on this site will be the journey to this huge adventure and I hope you will go with me there and encourage me all the way.

Let's get cycling!