Monday, April 20, 2015

'Laps'

When I was a teenager I used to be constantly eating (e.g. eat my lunch at 10am and then eat my friends’ lunch during the rest of the day, then stop at the newsagents for chocolate while waiting for the bus, home to a hearty home cooked meal from mum).

However, I was reasonably thin (as a typical teenager, I did of course think I was vastly overweight).

A few years ago, I read an article about French women’s habits with regard to eating and exercising and instantly fell in love with the idea of eating what I wanted, not having to go to the gym and just generally loving food and drink.

Reading these articles, books and reliving my childhood memories made me remember that one of the main reasons I was thin when I was younger was because I was so active. I used to walk miles a day! I wasn’t particularly sporty later on but I was constantly walking.

Then, being a work at home person, I was pretty much glued to the sofa, so I decided that I would start with a bit of walking here and there – my aim was to start by replicating the walking between classes at school, so every 40 minutes I would walk for 4-5 minutes.

I have a reputation for not liking the outside (far from true by the way), so I would just walk up and down the hall, snug and living room. This is where I got a bit geeky – I love spreadsheets, so I calculated a route that was 20 steps per ‘lap’ (it’s actually 22 but I count it as 20), I then just count the amount of laps I do, add it to my spreadsheet and can easily keep track of how many steps I am doing each day.

I did also measure the length of my ‘lap’ – 15 metres, so I can keep track of the distance I walk each day.

Just 67 ‘laps’ of the downstairs circuit is a kilometre. That might sound a lot of effort but I do 25 laps in the ad breaks!

Why not give it a try, just try one set of adverts, take your mind off everything for a few minutes and start  a cheap and easy way to lose weight.

I would love to hear how you get on.


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Reduce Your Plate Size




I don't know if it's just us but we seem to have very large plates. I can remember eating at my grandparents years ago and the plates seemed to be so much smaller.

When I was making the changes to my eating and exercise habits, I also realised that I was feeling so uncomfortable after eating because I was eating everything on my plates.

So, another of my big tips is 'reduce your plate size'. I started eating off a pasta plate instead of a dinner plate; I was enjoying the meal so much more because I wasn't eating for the sake of it and therefore feeling bloated for the rest of the evening.

It also means that I have food left for the next day, as one plate of food is split into two. (I am a nightmare for not being bothered to get food during the day, which has the knock on effect of being ravenous when dinner arrives and overeating yet again.)

Monday, April 13, 2015

My Target

For years I have been attempting to lose weight. I have currently lost 3 stones but I have stopped at what appears to be some sort of invisible wall that has prevented me from dropping below 12. When I say I have lost 3, what I mean is that I have lost 3 stone, than gained a few stones which I then lose, then gain, then lose again, and then….well you get the idea. 

My current target is 10 stone 6 on the basis that a photo I have when I was that weight makes me look good. I won’t stop until I am there. (I may decide to lose more when I get to that target but that's for another day).

This yo-yoing came to a head after I stopped smoking (go me!) and I put a stone back on yet again. This was because I lost half of my daily exercise (my 'laps', which I will explain about later).

However,  now I am back on track I feel that I can share my experiences, challenges, fails and successes.