Wednesday Weigh In Number 7

Happy New Year!!

Here we are, standing at the precipice of the day which more than eight zillion people will make a resolution to lose weight (the number eight zillion based on crack Wikipedia research). We will make promises to ourselves, to our families and our friends – this year will be different!

Yes, this year will be different for those of us here at Blog To Fit!

We won’t be among the 7.99 zillion who retract our vows. We’ve got a plan in place. We’ve got a head start on our brethren.  We’ve got a support network, our in some cases, several in place. There are no more excuses.

This is the year!

Here’s an update on our Blog To Fitters and how they did in the last week of 2008, with at least one of them (we won’t call anyone out, cough – David Wright - cough, slipping off the wagon big time last week) and at least two of them posting weight gains!

Tara Cain

I am not weighing myself today. Ok, Ok, top throwing cabbages and rotten tomatoes at me. I KNOW!

I need to start 2009 on a positive note and I know that if I weigh myself I will get all depressed and curl up in a ball and rock myself gently in a corner. Then I’ll eat. And that’s a slipperly slope I don’t want to get on.
I’m having one of those days where I am hating myself and feel all bleugh and need to regroup. I feel that I have failed myself and my self esteem is through the floor.

I know I’m copping out, but I am determined to succeed in the New Year and this is my way of doing it.
I need a couple of days to recover and then I promise I will weigh in and stop being such a wuss.

And you may even get some photos of me in the 2009 (although they will NEVER be in a similar vein to Dave F’s).

Let’s all make 2009 our year. Let’s all really get behind each other and hold hands across that finish line.
Let’s not make empty fitness/weight loss resolutions. Let’s just promise to change our lives for the better and resolve to take those baby steps and suceed.

David Fowler

What a blast! I’ve spent the whole week entertaining family and friends – in a social setting, rather than with a bright orange wig a red nose and a button hole flower that sprays water.

With good company, great food and cheep booze I took a relaxed approach to my diet and fitness…. and it paid off! I’ve been handsomely rewarded with a gain of nearly 2lbs and a quarter inch gain round my middle.Woo Hoooo!

I’m not the slightest bit concerned though. That’s right… I’m going to brazen it out.

The increase in weight was wholly expected. I mean, I ate more and exercised less. What the hell, it was Christmas after all!

With the New Year bearing down upon me in a semi-oppressive kind of way, I’m getting back to the eating plan and I’ll resume running just as soon as I can get rid of this damned lingering cold.

I survived with minimal damage. Yay!

The stats: David Fowler

Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 200 lbs.
Goal weight 173 lbs.

Format: Start / Last Week / This Week

• Weight: 200 / 196.3 / 198
• Amount lost this week: GAINED 1.7 lbs
• Hips: 40 / 39.75 / 39.75
• Waist: 38.5 / 38.25 / 38.25
• Belly: 40.25 / 39.75 / 40
• Chest: 41.5 / 41 / 41

(Weight is in lbs and measurements in inches)

David Wright

Well, since I missed last week’s weigh-in, I stumbled, pigged out and am paying the consequences. I gained weight! What a way to end the year, eh?

Fortunately, my health-related mindset is better as we go into 2009 and I’ve got some new foods to try in the month of January (yeah, I pushed it to January what with all the pigging out). So, here’s to a fitter 2009!

The stats: David Wright

• Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 350 lbs.
• Goal weight: 250 lbs.
• Weight two weeks ago: 345 lbs.
• Weight today: 347 lbs.
• Amount GAINED this week: 2 lbs.

So, how will this year be different for your fitness goals? What will you do differently than last year?

Now it’s your turn.

If you’d like to post a Wednesday Weigh-In post on your blog and help spread the word of our goals, please do so. Get all the info on how you can participate right here.

See you downstairs in the comments – and let’s all show our support and visit anyone taking part.

Want a bit of humor and motivation delivered via email every weekday? Subscribe to get each BlogToFit post delivered for free! Email not your thing? That’s okay, you can also subscribe via RSS – like all the cool kids do. It’s also free. Unless you really WANT to pay us.

Is this Wii Fit all it’s cracked up to be? And a reboot

Hands up who has gorged themselves over Christmas with promises of tucking a couple of weight loss resolutions under that oh-bloody-hell-it’s-expanding belt in the New Year.

Well that was me.
I gorged like I’d never set eyes on such delicious wonders before.
I gorged until I made myself feel sick. And then the next day I would the same thing again.
One morning I had a chocolate off the tree for breakfast.
Little by little the treats crept in. Then the walks tailed off. Then more treats crept in.

I hang my head in shame. Not just in front of you guys, but to myself. I feel like I really let myself down.
I feel totally GREEDY.
I shovelled stuff in because it was there. Because it was rude not to. Because it’s Christmas.
Yes, yes I had all the lame excuses I could possibly think of.
And now I sit and look at the wobble and the excess flesh and the thick waist and I could cry.

So now I am resolute.
I am absolutely determined to get back on my original keep fit and weight loss wagon and stop treating my body so shockingly bad.
I need to stop feeling so bloody awful about it all the time and just do it.
I sat on my bed on Christmas morning thinking ‘I’ll wear something nice and bright today, something festive’ but nothing felt right and nothing looked right.
I felt fat and frumpy and miserable. And yet still I ate my body weight in food.

One of the motivating factors behind my weight loss goals in the first place is for health reasons. My family has a history of angina and I don’t want to make that part of my history.
Honestly, I packed that rubbish away without a second thought as to what it was doing to my arteries. Or my poor face which has broken out in all manner of eruptions.
Seriously folks, I look after my skin like it’s made of thin paper, or gold, or delicately spun spiders webs, but it has taken the full brunt of my gluttony.
So that expensive face cream I treated myself to with the dregs of my birthday money? Bloody useless when it’s up against a sea of fat and sugar and E numbers.

I am determined not to fail this time.
I don’t want to sit on my bed all upset because my favourite clothes don’t fit comfortably. I want to be writing on here that ‘bloody hell, I got into my favourite jeans today’ or ‘hooray, my bust no longer feels like it has a life of it’s own’ (that’s a whole other post altogether though . . . ).
So, I have a keep fit/lose weight kit. And here it is:

1. A pedometer: I love walking and they say the best way to get fit is to do something you love. So I aim to walk as much as possible and hope to keep a tally of my ’steps’ to see how I’m faring. I have no idea how many steps per hour/day/week is good, but I guess I just try to improve week on week.

2. Fit ball and skipping rope: I need to get rid of the bits of my body that wobble like a fat man’s chin, so I have to devise some aerobic and strengthening exercises. Yoga used to be my passion, so I aim to fit some of that in somewhere (more of that in a moment), but other than that I have a couple of exercises devised for me by a personal fitness trainer my husband paid for after baby number 2.

3. Water: This I have found really works for me. It surpresses my appetite and makes me feel great. Yes, that’s water. It’s free, it’s readily available and when my children see me drinking it all the time it encourages them to do the same.

4. Wii: Our shiny, new present from Santa which we have all become rather addicted to. We move seemlessly from a bout of tennis, to a touch of bowling, a game or two of baseball and, if we’re feeling really fit, a boxing match.
I have never had so much fun in my lounge!
I toyed with the idea of buying the Wii Fit for it but it’s so expensive and I don’t really know how good it is. I love the idea of being walked through some exercises in my own home (which I can fit it say after the children have gone to school, in during lunchtime, or in the evening) but just don’t know if it’s worth it.
I mean, I done the whole DVD thing. The Cindy Crawford one just had hubby hovering around the doorway muttering rude things, the Davina McCall one was just too bloody hard and the Shilpa Shetty yoga one was so boring I would actually run downstairs and put a wash on while making a cup of tea on the way back.
I also did the Geri Halliwell yoga one, which was OK, but once you’ve done it a couple of times and heard her say the same daft things 15 times, it’s now propping up the children’s easle after one of the legs broke.

So, my question to you out there in the know: Is the Wii Fit worth the money? Should I fork out or am I better joining a gym/paying for a class/saving my hard-earned cash?

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Ashamed

I did NOT have a good week.

Stress from the holidays, coupled with a sick child and re-arranged schedule which cut into my normal blogging time, and I was a bad, bad boy.

How bad?

I’m not sure yet. I haven’t stepped foot on a scale since Wednesday 2 weeks ago.

Yes, I missed the Wednesday Weigh-In!

Not intentionally, mind you. I was working on a project and attempting to get other stuff done and I crashed into bed late at night/early in the a.m. and simply forgot.

Now, I’m afraid to step on the scale. I ate without any regard for anything during the past week. I ate as if my stomach were on fire and the only way to put it out was to consume massive amounts of junk food!

To make matters worse, I didn’t work out – at all.

Fortunately, I’m feeling the appropriate amount of shame to get my butt in gear. And we also have New Year’s Eve coming up – time to make some resolutions!

See you on Wednesday, when we’ll see whether or not my horrendous eating caused my scale to break!

So, how did everyone else handle the Christmas week?

Wii Wii Wii all the way home . . .

To say this household is obsessed would be to put it very very mildly!

Both hubby and I opted for no presents this year and kept the children’s stockings very minimal, so we could treat the family to a Nintendo Wii.

We are converted.

My 6-year-old son has thrashed his pa at boxing. Twice. But boy did daddy get a workout!
And I had the pleasure of beating my 16-year-old nephew at bowling.
HIGH FIVE EVERYONE!
Just wait until I get my mum on the tennis game. I’ll show her who is boss . . .

I’m pretty sure this is going to figure in a few future posts, so I’m giving you a heads up now.

Just off to practise my baseball swing (wearing my slippers, my lounging trousers and a party hat – I LOVE this thing!)

Wednesday Weigh In Number 6

It’s Christmas Eve and all around lies a sea of chocolate and mince pies and all manner of temptations.

Of course, there is also a sea of nuts and satsumas and good for you ‘goodies’, but they seem strangely unattractive at this time of year. Funny that!

But when (or if!) you weigh yourself today, it’s not all about beating yourself up about that extra portion of trifle you agreed to, or kicking yourself for drinking so much at the nth family party you attended.

It’s Christmas. It’s a time for letting your hair down and having fun. It’s a time for enjoying yourself. It’s a time for remembering that when the party is over we’re going to get to work again and rediscover that drive that all led us here in the first place.

So let’s not get all obsessed about how many calories are in each generous helping of Christmas pud or how many grams of fat are in a cookie. 
It can get really discouraging at this time of year and it’s all too easy to give up and throw in the towel.
Let’s take the bull by the horns and promise ourselves that after this week (and it’s only one week out of 52 after all), we’ll really do it. Rediscover the mindset, rediscover our goals and get to it.

Here is how Tara, David and David got on this week:

Tara Cain

I have entered Christmas with full-on abandon. I haven’t thought about you lot at all.
“Mince pie?” absobloominlutely. “Fistful of chocolate?” Hell yes.

But the funny thing is, because I have been doing this for a few weeks now, I don’t actually feel like eating much crap.
My head is all “gimme gimme gimme”, but once I start shovelling it in I gag just a little bit and I really don’t fancy it.

* This is me high fiving everyone within breathing distance of me *

The stats: Tara Cain

• Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 168 lbs.
• Goal weight: 140 lbs.
• Weight last week: 165 lbs.
• Weight today: 165lbs
• Amount lost this week: 0 lb

David Fowler

I have had a GREAT week.

It’s been big fun and very busy. I’ve been relaxed about everything including my diet and exercise.

Relaxed but not slovenly! I haven’t totally pigged out but I haven’t denied myself anything I really wanted.

Honestly I believe this is the way it should be, and when I get to my goal weight and I’m looking to maintain my weight I won’t be too far off the mark with this approach.

My only real regret this week is not exercising. I still have the cold which returned with a vengeance and I also spent a few days visiting family, so exercise has been limited to walking.

All things considered I’m pleased to have registered only a .3 lb gain on last week.

Half a pound gain over 2 weeks is something I can easily live with.

No change in the stats.

The stats: David Fowler

Starting weight Wed. Nov.19: 200 lbs.
Goal weight 173 lbs.

Format: Start / Last Week / This Week

• Weight: 200 / 195.8 / 196.3
• Amount lost this week: GAINED 0.3 lb
• Hips: 40 / 39.75 / 39.75
• Waist: 38.5 / 38.25 / 38.25
• Belly: 40.25 / 39.75 / 39.75
• Chest: 41.5 / 41 / 41

(Weight is in lbs and measurements in inches)

Want a bit of humor and motivation delivered via email every weekday? Subscribe to get each BlogToFit post delivered for free! Email not your thing? That’s okay, you can also subscribe via RSS – like all the cool kids do. It’s also free. Unless you really WANT to pay us.

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