Achieved!
I am delighted to have completed a full 12 months of regular gym sessions for the first time in my life! I have been to the work gym on every single day that I’ve been in the office throughout the year.
Tag: gym
Gym update
A short update to confirm I am still doing 2 – 3 gym sessions each week! So far this year I have been to the gym on every single day that I’ve been in the London office. As I work from home a couple of random days a week, have the odd flexi day and occasionally work away from London I never do more than 3 days in the office.
The gym is often quiet and there is usually no more than 4 or 5 people using it at the same time. We have TV screens with subtitles which helps to relieve the boredom of 25 minutes on a cross trainer or tread mill!
My routine is still fairly similar:
- 25 minutes on the cross trainer
- 10 minutes of weights (focussing on arms and shoulders)
- 25 minutes on the treadmill
I haven’t done as much on the rowing machine lately as these are not located near the TV’s… so they are boring…
And I am still burning off around 450 calories each time.
This morning there was nobody in the gym at the end of my session so I took the opportunity to take the above photo!
July gym progress
Just a short progress update to mention that I’ve completed a session at my work gym every day that I’ve been in the office so far this year. This means getting up at 5:30 am each time I commute into London in order to do my gym session before work. I work in London 2 – 3 days a week so other than when I’ve been away I’ve kept this up and am on track to complete this challenge by the end of 2018!
My hour long gym routine hasn’t changed much as follows:
- Cross trainer: 20 mins
- Rowing machine: 10 mins
- Weights (shoulders and arms): 10 mins
- Treadmill: 20 mins
I usually burn 450 calories each time and this, together with an average of walking another 6 or 7 miles each day and swimming once or twice a week is really helping me to maintain my weight!
June weigh-in
I weighed myself the day after returning from my recent cruise and my weight is… 8 st 3 lb! Yay! This means I managed a 2 week holiday with a 9 day cruise in the middle and didn’t put on a single pound 🙂
Achieving this did take quite a bit of determination and effort which might not appeal to everyone as most people take holidays as an opportunity to relax and enjoy a little overindulgence. However, after 6 months of hard work to reduce my weight by 2 stones (28 lbs) I was keen to find a good balance of enjoying the trip but not regaining any weight. This is how I did it:
- Rough calculation each day of the estimated number of calories I was consuming and the estimated number I was burning off which helped me to keep track and stay focussed.
- Daily gym sessions… it was easy to be in the ship’s gym at 06:00 each morning as with the -8/-9 hours time difference I was always awake at 5 am!
- Paying $69 for a gym pass for the 9 day cruise duration which meant unlimited classes such as pilates and cycling and suspension training.
- Booking active excursions; each of the 4 shore trips I did involved hiking.
- Never taking the ship’s lift… as my cabin was on level 5 and many activities were on level 12 I did a great deal of walking up and down 7 flights of stairs!
- Walking several miles around each of the ports while I wasn’t on any of the excursions.
- Eating healthy breakfasts and lunches but allowing a few treats each evening.
- Not snacking between meals.
- Throughout the day I drank black coffee, herbal tea (mint, cinnamon & apple, orange etc) and water. I mostly had just one glass of wine which was enough for me.
At each meal I opted for the healthiest choice. A typical day would be:
Breakfast (600 calories):
- Half a bran muffin (consumed early in the morning with a coffee before any gym classes)
- Small bowl of bircher muesli
- Melon, grapes, pineapple
- Poached or scrambled egg
Lunch (400 calories)
- Mostly salad; steamed vegetables; vegetable curry and fruit from the buffet
Dinner (1300 calories)
- Bread roll and butter
- Starter
- Main
- Dessert
- Glass of wine
For a 50 year old 5’3″ woman to maintain a weight of 8 st 3 lb my ‘My Net Diary‘ app says I need to consume 1650 calories each day. For an average food consumption of 2,300 calories (as above) this meant burning off an extra 650 calories each day. This was achieved quite easily as with daily gym sessions, walking, trekking and climbing stairs several times a day I often burned off more than this. Extra time in the gym gave me more ‘calorie credits’ to enjoy delicious food each night, such as the delicious ‘warm chocolate lava cake’ as in the picture!
Week 20 walking progress
Week 20 walking progress:
- Total for week 20 = 54 miles
- Average per day for this week (54 / 7) = 7.71
- Running total = 657 + 54 = 711 miles
- Miles left to walk in 2018 (1050 – 711) = 339
Hurrah! This is the most miles I’ve walked so far in a single week… probably ever… I did extra miles at the gym this week and included these… and I’ve done 3 x walks with local walking clubs (Wednesday evening, Friday evening and Sunday) all of which have really pushed my mileage up!
Pre-cruise weight
With massive amounts of exercise combined with eating as best as I can I’ve managed to maintain a weight of 8 st 3 lb for a few weeks. I weigh myself at the gym each week after breakfast and with my clothes on and these do seem heavy duty and pretty reliable scales.
In 4 days time I’ll be travelling to Seattle where I’ll stay for 3 nights before beginning a 9 day cruise to Alaska with Norwegian Cruise Lines. With a permanent abundance of delicious food and alcohol tempting you at every turn, cruises are notorious for causing passengers to gain weight!
The Telegraph suggests the average cruise passenger puts on 1 lb for each day of the cruise! In theory I could come back home and weigh nearly 9 stone again!
My previous 14 night South American cruise almost certainly contributed to the weight I gained during my 2016 global adventure… the weight I couldn’t shake off during 2017…
Anyway, things are different now and on this occasion while I want to enjoy the trip I don’t want to undo the good work of the last 6 months and come back with excess baggage about my person!
Thankfully I don’t have a bad lower back issue this time so I’m planning on a daily gym session, maybe a run around the ships running track each day and have pre-booked 4 x trekking excursions. I’m also planning on taking the stairs up and down the 14 decks rather than the lifts and will try hard not to eat or drink excessively.
I’ll weigh myself immediately upon my return and report back in a couple of weeks time, hopefully with positive weight news…
Gym update
Today is 1st May and I’ve now been attending the gym on a regular basis for 5 months (having joined during the first week of December 2017). This is probably the longest I’ve kept up a gym membership for… ever…!
I am still attending the gym 2 or 3 times a week and have got into a routine of spending an hour each time before starting work in the mornings. I vary my routine slightly and haven’t yet missed a session.
I am feeling incredibly fit now and the buzz I feel when I’ve completed each session is huge meaning I feel positive and ready to face anything throughout the day!
Maldives 50th birthday celebration trip
Trip number 2 of 2018 is now complete! Yesterday Chris and I returned from a week in the Maldives, a relaxing break taken just before my 50th birthday tomorrow.
I’ve produced a full Maldives trip post which is available on our joint travel blog. This was quite a different kind of holiday from our usual active and at times intense holidays.
The trip was more of a healthy retreat rather then a typical holiday as the entire week was spent doing yoga, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, cycling and going to the gym. And eating lots of different organic fresh fruit and vegetables and virtually zero alcohol!
All of this has fitted well with my objective of a fit and healthy start to my new decade!
January gym progress
So far so good…
Having joined the gym we have at work on 4th December 2017, and having completed my induction on 5th December I have since then attended a gym session on each occasion that I’ve been into the office.
This has averaged at 2 x gym sessions per week although as I didn’t go into my main office during the third week of January (Mon – Wed I was in Portugal; Thu in a different office and Fri I worked at home) I had no choice other than to miss this week…
I did however compensate by walking an extra 39 miles so was able to maintain my programme of fitness and activity.
As I combine the gym with walking and swimming I tend to focus more on weight training while in the gym, particularly exercises for my upper arms and shoulders… as I approach 50 I need to try to prevent the appearance of the dreaded ‘bingo wings’… heaven forbid!
Incidentally… on the matter of bingo wings… I found this article which suggests that women who lack the male hormone testosterone are more prone to bingo wings! It says you can boost your testosterone levels by consuming more protein and less cakes and biscuits. This is a little worrying too… if you eat more protein you might reduce the likelihood of bingo wings… but does this mean you end up with a moustache? I’m not sure I like the idea of increased testosterone levels so will focus on exercise to combat the bingo wing effect…
Anyway… the good thing is that I have now been a gym member for just over two months. After about 6 or 7 weeks I began to notice a significant difference. I had a bit of a fitness breakthrough and found myself increasing all of the weights on each piece of equipment together with increasing the resistance levels on each of the cardio machines. This is incredibly motivating… I’m really starting to feel so much fitter and more energetic.
February weigh-in
Progress update…
A little late for my February weigh-in as I’ve just returned from the Maldives, a special holiday to celebrate my 50th birthday which happens to be tomorrow! As I didn’t have any scales with me I was unable to weigh myself on 1st February, i.e. the first day of each month being my planned 2018 weigh check days.
Throughout January I remained highly focussed and committed to achieving my goal weight of 9 stone (57 kg or 126 pounds). I did extra exercise when possible and stuck to an average daily calorie intake of 1100 – 1200 calories. Some days I burned an estimated extra 600 – 700 calories, for example, by walking 5 miles in addition to spending an hour at the gym. On these days, rather than eating more I stuck to my 1100 – 1200 calorie regime which I think must have accelerated my weight loss.
Almost every day I either went swimming, went to the gym or walked for several miles. When I went out for meals I chose salads or low calorie dishes and mostly had either no wine or one glass of wine. Rather than drinking cappucino’s I now drink fruit flavoured tea when in coffee shops.
So a huge effort was exerted throughout January… I even managed to have a healthy holiday! Rather than a complete blow-out I went to the gym, did yoga, went snorkelling and swimming every day and was careful to eat healthily for example by sticking mainly to proteins, vegetables and lots of tropical fruit. I also had 6 alcohol-free days!
These are the results…
Weight on 1st January 2018: 9 stone 10 lb (62 kg)
Weight on 9th February 2018: 9 stone 0 lb (Hurrah! Bang on and just in time for my big 5-0 birthday tomorrow!)
Fifty at Fifty 