50 experiences and challenges to welcome and embrace the new decade of my life…
Final weight of 2018: 8 st 7 lb
Having managed to stick to 8 st 2 or 3 throughout most of 2018 unfortunately I put on a few extra pounds at Christmas… Thankfully my new smaller clothes still fit and at least I am still around 2 stones less than I was just over a year ago! I am keen to get back to 8 st 3, the weight I had begun to feel comfortable at. I’m therefore planning to get back to my exercise routine together with a calorie cut down for the new year…
Weight on 1st December 2018: 8 st 4 lb
Thankfully I’ve lost most of the weight I gained while on holiday at the beginning of November although I’m still keen to lose another lb or two. This might be difficult now we are coming up to the festive season 🎄
The cheese picture above was taken last weekend where I overindulged (again) at a fab activity weekend. As well as lazer clay pigeon shooting, segway riding and axe throwing, the other activities were drinking Prosecco, gin, wine, Baileys and consuming huge amounts of food. I’m just about managing to keep my weight down by burning hundreds of calories at the gym and walking over 40 miles a week…
I’ll do a final 2018 post at the end of December, right after Christmas!
29th October pre-holiday weight: 8 st 2 lb
9th November post-holiday weight: 8 st 9 lb
As I was on holiday for 1st November I’ve included pre and post holiday weights.
Oh dear… a week of all inclusive indulgence resulted in a weight gain of 7 lb! I must say I was a bit reluctant to get on the scales this morning, the first full day back from the holiday 😦
In the past I wouldn’t have faced up to the weight gain and would have ignored the fact my clothes felt a bit tighter… this is how my weight got to 10 st 7 lb by this time last year. However being honest with myself and acknowledging this weight gain has inspired me to get rid of the extra pounds quickly so today I’ll resume calorie counting and up the exercise for the next week or two and see what happens…
Above is a ‘Nutty Russian’ an example of one of the delicious cocktails available. It contains generous measures of:
Weight today… 8 st 2 lb! Hurrah 🙂
Thankfully I nipped last months’ slight weight gain firmly in the bud and according to my gym scales this morning I’m back to what has become my usual weight of 8 st 2 lb…
Well… my weight did fluctuate slightly throughout September. I soon lost the 3 lb I had gained during an indulgent weekend of gluttony at the end of August; managed to maintain a weight of 8 st 2 lb for 2 – 3 weeks in September; put on 3 lb while on holiday in Croatia but thankfully quickly lost it again within the last week.
I am able to maintain this weight mostly with tons of exercise. If it wasn’t for an average of around 500 calories extra that I burn off each day I certainly wouldn’t be able to keep my weight down!
Running total (to week 38): 1,560
Miles walked in week 39: 54
Total walked so far in 2018: 1,614
Having arrived home last Tuesday, this weeks’ walking includes our final day (Monday) in Makarska, Croatia. The first 6 days were lovely and sunny however the last day was a different matter in which we were somewhat battered with a storm! The storm didn’t start until lunchtime and I still managed to walk 9 miles around Makarska on that day!
Today being 30th September means we are now 75% of the way through 2018 already! The good news is that as my revised walking target for this year is 2050 miles I am well on my way to reaching this 🙂
I have 436 miles to go which is an average of around 33.5 miles a week or just under 5 miles a day!
Running total (to week 37): 1,512
Miles walked in week 38: 48
Total walked so far in 2018: 1,560
46 of these 48 miles were walked in Croatia this week, mostly in and around Makarska, our base for 7 days. We stayed in an apartment and while close to bars, restaurants and the sea it was about 1.5 miles to walk into the Old Town and marina. Some days we did this 3 or 4 times which soon racked up extra miles! And most mornings I got up an hour or two before the rest of my family and went for a 3 – 4 mile walk.
The above photo was taken during one of my early morning strolls where I could see the sun rising above the mountains behind Makarska. This was a lovely time of the day before the resort became busier with holidaymakers!
Running total (to week 36): 1,459
Miles walked in week 37: 53
Total walked so far in 2018: 1,512
Good effort this week! 53 miles is an average of 7.5 miles walked each day 🙂 As a little snapshot, this was my mileage for this week:
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:
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!
Running total (to week 34): 1,371
Miles walked in week 35: 51
Total walked so far in 2018: 1,422
13 of the 51 miles I walked during this week were completed by hiking the Seven Sisters coast path where I was fortunate to have amazing weather for this. I also boosted this weeks’ mileage up by doing 20 miles on the Wednesday! I walked to and from work; walked around Central London (rather than taking the tube for meetings); did 5 miles in the gym and another 6 during the evening with one of my local walking clubs!
Running total (to week 35): 1,422
Miles walked in week 36: 37
Total walked so far in 2018: 1,459
Not quite as many miles as usual this week mainly due to going away to Liverpool with work for 3 days (although on both days I got up early and did 4 – 5 miles each day before breakfast) and also being busy with lots going on at home! I did manage to fit in a 9 mile trek with another walking club today, around the scenic Ashridge Estate which is a National Trust which is part of the Chiltern Hills in Hertfordshire.
Challenge number 19 now complete! I was inspired to do this when my friend Jas first mentioned it over a year ago. I was lucky to have experienced perfect weather conditions, unlike the torrential rain from last weekend’s camping trip in the Peak District!
The Seven Sisters are the 7 chalk cliffs you can see in the picture below. The total distance was 13 miles and despite hiking up and down the 7 peaks it wasn’t too difficult. I’ll shortly produce a blog post on my travel blog where full details can be found!
Fifty at Fifty 