I know I told you about my half marathon target only a post ago, BUT it is now only 1 WEEK AWAY! So its kinda on the forefront of my mind, so apologies for going on about this so close to the last post.  I want everyone who reads this post to think and see how they could do something similar, regardless of how heavy they are to begin with – running is such a great way to lose weight, tone up, increase fitness, and keep weight off.  Its also really relaxing – really!

I’ve now built myself up to 10 miles on the treadmill at 6 miles per hour at 10% incline.  I have done less outdoor running, but have covered around 9 miles a few times, and felt as if I could definitely continue.  These are serious distances which you need to build up to.  But remember a year and a half ago I would have NEVER contemplated running AT ALL!  When you think about that, if you are determined, and put in the work, it doesn’t really take all that long to go from never having run before ever, to running 13.1 miles.  In fact I only starting jogging 6 months into my diet, so have only really had about a years running experience now, a week before the race date.  I also haven’t had a boot camp style exercise regime at all – really.  I had help to start with (for the first few months) from a personal trainer, but the rest of the time I have just increased the speed and distance at my own leisure and done it because I enjoy doing it, not because I’ve been forced to, or think I have to.  I haven’t done anything which would hurt me, I’m not a masochist, or have some weird competitive urge to satisfy, and I don’t have that much will power.  So I’m pretty normal really.  Therefore if I can manage to have the self discipline to do this, anyone can.

Now most advice says that you have to ideally have been running for a few years before contemplating the half marathon distance – to be safe and avoid injury.  Sensible advice, but I think a bit over cautious.  As long as you build up gradually, and are healthy to begin with (i.e. no bad joints, heart condition etc), hopefully you won’t have any problems, but you always proceed with the advice of a qualified professional (your doctor, physio etc).  Listen to your body, eat right and go at your own pace.

So how does a person who is morbidly obese (i.e. someone like how I was) end up running over 13 miles?  Well first off, you won’t be planning to do it a few years ahead – its way to far off, and you could well get disheartened.  Losing a lot of weight and getting fit is like trying to tackle a really long run and you need to break it up.  Here’s a way you could possibly break it down:

1) Increase your cardio endurance.

Rule one of any diet, you need exercise.  I see a lot of people in the gym who go on the equipment for an hour but don’t even break a sweat! And then feel disheartened when they don’t lose weight.  To burn calories and fat, you need to really raise your heart rate.  You can do this any way (cycling, cross training, weight lifting) but to be honest, running will get your heart rate soaring, which is why it’s so great for weight loss.  If you think you are too heavy for a high impact sport such as running (as I was at the start – it can put strain on your joints) start with a non-impact alternative, such as cycling or cross training.  To make sure you really work hard, do it in a class where you’ll be motivated.  Talk to the instructor beforehand and tell them your fitness level and ask them to keep an eye on you – you want to be worked hard, but at a level you can maintain.  They will then make suggestions for how best to pace your workout by setting an appropriate speed and resistance.

2) Vary your workouts.

Work on your speed and length.  Workouts which focus on speed are shorter, workouts which focus on length increase endurance and stamina by going for longer at a slower pace.  Both are really importance for your overall fitness.  It also gives variety to your routine and stops you from being bored.  Keep updating these – don’t fall into a routine you never change as you’ll hit a plataeu where you no longer lose weight and get any fitter.  Increase the speed and distance every few weeks.

3) Eat right.

You need enough energy to fuel your workouts, but not too much that you don’t produce a calorie deficit that won’t force your body to burn fat.  Case in point, when I ran 10 miles for the 1st time, I felt on top of the world as I was doing it, but about 15 minutes afterwards had to call my husband to rescue me from the gym as I was about to pass out.  On reflection I burned 1,200 calories in the run, and a further 250 cycling to work, with diet food to fuel it totalling 2000 kcals – way too little.  I felt full, but I hadn’t had enough and my body realised that pretty sharpish.  Use the shape up app to balance your calories.  If you work off 500 calories, you should really eat some of those calories.  Be honest with your calories burnt through exercise – i.e. don’t log a slow walk as power walking, or a jog as a run.

4) Recover.

Incorporate rest days into your training.  Training HARD 3-4 times a week is enough.  On the rest days do light activity (walking, pilates, yoga) to recover.  Over training can hinder your progress, as you don’t get fitter when you are training, you get fitter when you are recovering.

Basically I just kept increasing the length and intensity of what I did.  I hit a plateau 6 months in and decided to take it up a level and thought I’d give running a try.  The first time I hit the tread mill I could hardly run for 1 minute! But I kept trying to run for longer until I could do 1 km.  Then I trained to do 3 kms.  Then I tried to do it quicker.  When I was bored with that after a few months I upped it to 5 kms for the next month.  Then tried to do it quicker.  When I was bored with that I went up to 7 kms, then to 8-9 kms over the next few months.  Then I started running in miles; 5 miles, then 6 miles and increased the distance every week or so by 1 mile, until I hit 10 miles, which is were I am now.  In the beginning I had breaks when increasing the distance (e.g. running fro 3kms, walking for 3 minutes, then running till 5kms).  But as I got more experienced, didn’t need to do this anymore when increasing the distance.  All that really matter is that you work towards doing more and doing it quicker at your own pace.

Bottom line if you always challenge yourself, the skys the limit – maybe one day I will run a full marathon . . . but lets see if I’m still in one piece after the half

Till next time

I went into my local, regular coffee shop in town to enjoy a cake and a coffee with my husband.  There is a friendly barista there who regularly serves us, ever since we moved there.  When he saw me his draw dropped and he exclaimed – ‘you have lost so much weight! How did you do it?’  I replied – ‘exercise’ and his shoulders slumped, and with a groan he said ‘eurgh . . . exercise’.  It got me thinking.  We live in a very quick fix society don’t we – particularly in the west.  People want to hear about the magic bullet – a pill, a particular brand of cabbage soup, shake, magic berry or quick fix diet that will make you lose weight FAST – NOT exercise though, it sounds like too much hard work, too much commitment, it’s frightening.  

We got talking with the barista (as we always do – he is a very friendly nice man) – he’d tried, unsuccessfully to lose weight with many different diets. I gave him my opinion – ‘diets don’t work. Just eat sensibly, cut back on sweets and most importantly – exercise’. I think I convinced him to give it a go. Its the least I could do in exchange for him noticing that I’ve lost weight

Seriously though. It depresses me, the amount of mixed messages we get about losing weight and the lack of help (in the UK at least) we get to sort through all the jargon and mixed messages and faulty promises from the media especially. At the beginning, I thought I really had tried absolutely everything I could to lose the weight – slim fast, atkins, calorie counting, getting a bit more active, but none of it worked and I just continued to get heavier – really depressing, and I felt pretty useless to be honest.  When I approached the doctor for advice, I was basically told to go away and lose weight! Oh Right, why didn’t I think of that before?! I mean seriously!

Eventually they started to take me seriously (they saw my distress) but only recommended pills to restrict my appetite, and had me starting to consider a gastric band. I was never referred to a nutritionist or recommended an exercise program (!!!!).

It was only when I decided that I was definitely NOT going to have surgery.  There HAD to be a way to lose and maintain a normal weight the natural way. So I saved up some money joined a gym and got a personal trainer – much better than a GP here in the UK!

But I’m living proof that you can lose weight the safe and natural way, without resorting to the latest fad diet, pill or surgery.  Even if you think you have done EVERYTHING possible there is still hope.

So take home message – be brave and please please please try exercising along with a HEALTHY eating plan.

Till next time

OK, it’s official, I’ve been talking on and off about my training for the half marathon, knowing that I could back out if I wanted to, but no more – I’ve paid the entry fee which I can’t get back no matter what, and so now officially HAVE to do the race!  It’s silly, but I feel really nervous now.  Actually perhaps not so silly, but rather smart considering the length of the course, here’s the map . . . 

Excuse me for a moment . . . AAAAGGGHHHH!!!!!

I’ve mostly been training on the treadmill, so you don’t realise the distance you cover, but basically from this map you a running all over nottingham . . . and back again.  The course is 13.1 miles.  If I manage to maintain my pace (6 miles/hr) through the whole thing I’ll finish in 2 hrs 11 minutes, but I have entered as expecting to finish in 2 1/2 hrs, considering that I won’t be on a treadmill :S and, er, there are some hills involved *eeeek*.

So, I’ve got 6 weeks till the race and thus 5 weeks of training left.  The longest I have so far run is 9 miles on the treadmill at 6 miles per hour all the way with a 10% incline.  That was over a week ago and I haven’t been able to do it again – it really finished me off.  Now I really need someone to kick me up the bum to get me to do a long run outdoors – maybe half the course to start with.

Wish me luck :S

Till next time

I realised that I haven’t posted any pics for a while now.  But I recently had to go clothes shopping, as when I put my keys in the smallest pair of trousers I owned, they literally were falling down!  So I hit the sales – I went into bravissimo and got a dress and top in a UK size 8, and a pair of jane norman jeans in a UK size 12 (which I will need to get a belt for). The photo on the front page of this blog was taken only a few months into my lifestyle changes, when I was still a UK size 16-18, over 6 months ago in fact!  So I thought – ‘about time for some new ‘after’ pics perhaps!’  

So the before pics (even before the out of date picture covering this blog), UK size 22, 108kgs, BMI 40.2 (morbidly obese):

This was taken at my husbands birthday party two years ago. I actually put on more weight after this photo was taken - see photo below. . .

My weight literally ballooning out of control

I literally could hardly turn over in bed I was so heavy, and walking from the sofa to the fridge broke a sweat! I did NO exercise and ate WHATEVER I wanted, when I wanted it in MASSIVE PORTIONS. I mean MASSIVE!

And here are the ‘after’ pics (from a few weeks ago), UK size 8-12 (depends on where I shop – how confusing!), 66.5kgs, BMI 25.3:

Me a few weeks ago. Top is a UK size 10 and the jeans a UK size 12, for which I will need to get a belt to keep up!

Me a few weeks ago in a UK size 10 - I bought it a few months ago and didn't wear it since it was too tight, I tried it on a few weeks ago and it has a little too much room, but still fits nicely I haven't got any of the pics in the new size 8 stuff to hand from the same store - you'll have to take my word for it

So to sum up: in little over a year I have lost 41.5kgs/6 stone 7.5 pounds/91.5 pounds and reduced my BMI from ‘morbidly obese’ to just a little over what is considered a healthy or ideal weight (I would need to lose another 1.5 kgs to bring it into the top of the healthy range).  With my training for the half marathon in September of this year my weight is slowly falling at a much slower pace, as I am happy with my weight and body now.

I have no patience with fad or crash diets.  I don’t like milkshakes, and I like to have a few takeaways every now and again thank you very much!  I haven’t followed any particular diet or plan other than some good old fashioned common sense – i.e. eating less, eating more healthily and exercising.  want to know the secret weight loss secret no ones talking about? Well here it is . . . 

MORE ENERGY BURNT THAN CONSUMED = WEIGHTLOSS

If you follow the above formula sensibly, eating enough to sustain you and exercising enough to feel exertion but not hurt you, then you will get steady, achievable, quick and sustainable weightloss.

It really is that simple.  If I, the couch potato can do it, seriously, really anyone can.

Good luck fellow losers

Till next time

You know what they say that maintaining your weight is sometimes harder than losing it? Well, they’re not wrong!  I feel like I’m trying to balancing on a really small point, sometimes my balance shifts and its easy to fall off, but I’m trying desperately to keep my balance.  Here are some tips I have found have helped me with maintaining my weight:

1. Be Realistic! How many celebs do we hear have managed to go down to a (UK) size 8 or 4 (US size 0), who 6 months later are even larger than when they started? A LOT is the answer. Why? Because they haven’t found a weight they can maintain. As soon as they are off the fad diet and stressful exercise regime then completely lose their balance and fall straight back into their old habits and their old trousers.  You need to get down to a size were you can maintain your eating plan and exercise, even when you encounter stress or obstacles in your personal or work life.  So rule 1 – be realistic with you eating, exercise and weightloss goals.  The more realistic these are, the more in control you will be, and the less likely you will lose your balance and fall off the wagon.

2. Don’t Panic! Weight fluctuates.  You won’t be able to stay exactly the same weight, all the time.  You need to choose a weight to try and not go over, but you will end up hovering around this weight.  For example I have been trying to stay around 68.5kgs.  I have fluctuated between 67kgs and 71 kgs.  As time has gone on, I am staying closer to 67-68.5kgs, so I’m getting better.  The trick is to nip any gain in the bud.  If you rise to 1kg about your target, be stricter with eating and exercise for the next week to bring it back down to target.  It’s easier to do this and stay in control, than put it all back on and have the lose the whole lot again. Just don’t be disheartened and give up if you put on a few pounds in the first week of your maintenance program.  

3. ‘I’m in Control’: Keep weighing and measuring.  Check your calories against exercise.  As time goes on, you won’t have to do this as much.  Now I check my calories against exercise a few times a week to make sure I am not eating too little or too much, but I always weigh and measure weekly.  I find this helps me be in control and keep an eye on my weight, without being too strict now I’m off the stricter diet, which is more convenient for me to keep up.

4. Common Sense:  The idea isn’t to follow a set of rules for a time and then ditch those rules and revert back to old ways as soon as you’re done.  The idea is to make lasting changes and lasting changes take time.  Even when you decide to maintain rather than lose, you must know that your journey isn’t over.  You learnt what to do to lose weight, now you must learn what to do to maintain it.  Eventually you will train yourself about the amount and types of foods you can and can’t eat and how active you must stay in order to keep to your chosen weight.  This takes time – be patient.

Hope this helps all you fellow losers out there

Good Luck!

Till next time

I’m out of running training as I have been getting pain in my knees.  Instead I’m cycling, going on the cross trainer and doing weight and abs training in replacement of running most of the time.  This change in routine is actually doing me a lot of good, I feel like I’m getting leaner and more toned (and my trousers are getting baggier y the day) but the scales are steady.  

Hopefully in a few weeks time I’ll be able to start running again, and will be able to start where I left off, and be ready in time for September.

Fingers crossed!

Till next time

So a while back – over a month now! – I decided that I was pretty happy where I was at 68.5kgs, UK size 10-12 and thought I would try to keep it at that for a while, maybe forever.  I’ve been told by others that the hardest thing to do is to maintain your weight after you have lost it.  I think this may be because a lot of people go onto fad diets which are not sustainable in the long term (at least I hope it is!), whereas I have just lowered how much I ate and changed what I ate to be more healthy and exercised.  Surely I can keep this up in the long term and not revert back to super sized Sarah . . . right?

After over a year of strict healthy eating and exercise, you would have thought it would be easy to take off the training wheels and attempt to balance calories in with calories burned, but actually it isn’t all that easy to balance it perfectly.  When you’re losing you just eat less than you burn = losing weight.  But it’s less of a bummer to eat a little less than you thought and lose a little more than eat a bit too much and undo some of your hard work.

Overall I haven’t done that bad so far.  After the first week I was appalled that I went up to 69.2kgs – almost a kg back on!  But the week after I was back to 68.5kgs and have stayed around there for the past month.  My waist however has gone down by another 0.5cm’s – bonus!  I now use the shapeup club app to check every now and then that I am not either in excess or deficit in calories, but I’m trying to wean this out and rely on myself to know what to eat.  However I think I will always use the app to track my weight, measurements and body fat – if they go up at all I can start counting again to bring it down – I’ll never let myself get super size again with the handy app in my pocket

The best thing about this part is that I can have more treats and food as I’m balancing my food intake with my exercise, rather than creating a deficit – cheeky I know, but true.  What this really means is that I have more choice in food than I did before, rather than just reverting back to ‘normal’ i.e. my super sized super unhealthy eating before my lifestyle change. 

Luckily I’ve found that it’s impossible to revert back to that style of eating high fat high sugar foods all the time, since I have been off them so long, I can no longer stand them! Wahey!  I was terrified that I would just think ‘oh, now the diets over – back to the couch with coke, chocolates, ice-cream, buttercream and junk! Come to think of it I don’t feel like the gym anymore’, I had no idea that I would genuinely not like sweet things at all, particularly cheap chocolate, icing or cakes – Bonus again! I now prefer natural cheeky things like full fat greek bio-live yoghurt with muesli and honey, nuts, seeds and dried and fresh fruit, which in a balanced diet, are totally allowed! 

So much has changed.  I hope I keep this up forever and ever . . . .

Till next time! :)

I LURVE BBQS in the summer!  Now the world cup has started we have been enjoying quite a few.  The great thing is BBQ’s can be really healthy, even with burgers and sausages in a bun!  Here are some things I do to try and keep fat and calories low while still having all my favourite things:

Healthy Burgers? Rule one to making sure your burgers are healthy is NOT EVER to buy them ready made from a store – EVER! They have loads of preserves, fat, salt, flavour enhancers – you name it, its got it.  Especially avoid the cheap BBQ deals they have in store – those will be some nasty concoctions.   The best thing to do is make your own and its real easy peasy.

for 4-5 people, get 500gs of extra lean ground pork and 500gs of extra lean ground beef.  Thinly shop 1 large onion.  Get a load of fresh thyme and sage, salt and pepper (as much as you want – season to taste, but take it easy on the salt, you can leave it out altogether if you want).  Get it all in a bowl and just knead it all together with your hands, divide into equal sized ball and shape into burgers – DONE.  Low fat simple burgers.  We don’t have it in the UK much, but you can put minced chicken with the pork, or make ostrich burgers (which is low fat), or even make minced lamb and mint (but minced lamb is quite fatty here – and I can’t find a lean minced lamb anywhere).  Experiment, you can use any meat, any herb, add wine or spirits, whatever you like

For sausages, there are loads of reduced fat alternatives on the market which are around 90-100 kcal per sausage, rather than the going rate of around 200 kcal for a regular one.

Another really low calorie winner are chicken kebabs.  Again DON’T get the glazed processed store bought stuff, cut up some lean chicken breast and make your own skewers alternating between meat and an assortment of veg or your choice.  It doesn’t need any seasoning at all – it tastes great after being smoked on the BBQ and is very low calorie.  Serve in a pitta with salad. YUM!

For other vegetables, get assorted roots vegetables – beetroot, squash, potatoes, carrots etc.  Leave the skins on and whole (except for the squash, unless you have a BBQ big enough!), wrap in tin foil, stick it right in with the charcoal for about 1 hr, unwrap, let it all cool a little before peeling them and eating it – YUM YUM!

If you’re on a serious diet you can eat a selection of these things and not go off the wagon.  If you want to splurge you will still be eating healthy things and so the damage is controlled.  

I ate an awful lot this weekend, but it was good.  The worst thing that happened was the alcohol . . . and our goal keeper letting in the equaliser.  I also ate so much I had more than enough energy to run 6 miles under my target of 1hr Weight is still stable cause I’m still exercising hard and eating healthy things, with a few ‘cheats’ every now and then, but not regularly.

Till next time

I was doing really well up to a point in dealing with my stress: trying to fit in exercise and healthy eating around work.  But then it all got on top of me, I didn’t have the chance to (or rather make time to) eat at regular intervals.  So I got really hungry and ate rather a lot more than I have done for a while, and all the wrong things . . . much cake, chocolate and biscuits were involved.  I still exercised, and it was for only 4 days, but the difference is very noticable – to me anyway.

So now I am trying to get back into eating smaller portions and more healthy food.  I feel like an addict that’s been clean for a long time and fell off the wagon, and is trying to wean off the drugs for the second time.  I think after this stressful time is over, it will be easier.  I really do comfort eat to ease stress.  I don’t eat just for the sake of it anymroe though, I have been genuinely feeling starving, but for sweet things, and instead of using my coping strategies, have just been giving in, since I just don’t have any fight left in me from dealing with other problems.

The stress is starting to disappate though – light is at the end of the tunnel, and I have gotten through the worst I think, with little damage.

On a brighter note I ran 4.8kms in the running club in 25 minutes.  I haven’t really been out for a while, but my speed has improved dramatically.  Today I will try and run 6 miles on the treadmill, as this week is my 6 mile running week.  Next week I need to up it to 7 miles, then back down to 5 miles for my rest week.

Till next time

I’ve been trying for over a month now to find a ‘good day’ example! I suppose there is just no ‘perfect’ anything, including a perfect eating day.  I suppose what’s important is just getting everything OK most more of the time.

Now I’ve decided, after a year of work, to take off the training wheels and see if I can keep my weight stable with the new healthy eating routine I’ve learned, without writing down every morsel of food which crosses my lips.  I though this was really risky and I felt nervous eating using common sense without typing in everything into the shapeup app, but actually its been two weeks and I have lost another 1/2 inch off my waist and am now down to 69.2kgs.  My weight has fluctuated more than usual – around the 68 – 69kg mark, but waist measurement still went down.  I’ve been abroad and been real busy at school with writing reports and doing research and so have not been able to weigh myself on the same scales each time, which I think makes a difference.

Anyway, lately I have been STRESSED as anything – so much to do, not enough hours in the day, everything hanging in the balance.  It stops me from being hungry at all – not as good as it sounds as it also makes me more tired and less like exercising.  However I find exercise so important when I am stressed, it makes you feel happier I find, no matter how bad everything is and perks you up afterward and makes you hungry so you don’t skip meals.  The trouble is finding time to do it.  I haven’t been doing to badly – going to the gym in the evening as a reward for doing a good days work (I know I am such a gym addict ).

I’ve also definitely decided that I am doing the robin hood marathon this September – 13.1 miles.  A trainer at the gym has given me a training program to follow.  I’ll keep you updated on what it involves and how I’m getting on in the following months.  Basically he told me to start running 3 times a week, in the first week at my baseline, which is 5 miles for 3 jogs the first week. Then I need to  increase by 1 mile in distance the following week for 3 runs and another mile the following week to 7 for 3 runs, then back down to 5 miles for 3 runs the following week.  Then the next month I start at 6 miles for the 1st week, 7 for the second, 8 for the 3rd, then back to 6.  Then start at 7 the next month and so on, until I reach 13 miles before the race.

He told me something interesting I didn’t know – running doesn’t make you fitter, recovery does.  You have to stop training to get fitter and feel the benefits of training.  Common sense really, but I my instinct is always to train train train if I want to reach a goal.

Till next time