It Ain't All Good

Well - I'ts been two months since my last post - and it hasn't been all that good. On a positive note, I have finally finished my study after 3 1/2 years - I now have a Masters in Primary Health Care. Its a huge relief to have finished as I was finding it the time commitment very demanding on top of full time work, a family, and all that exercise! On the downside, the final assignment was a huge amount of work, and fell at the same time as some huge work deadlines, leading me to work around the clock and get by on about 4 hours sleep a night for about a month. During this time I made a conscious decision to not try and fit exercise in, and relax my diet, but now I have to pay the consequences.

During the 3 months I trained for the 1/2 marathon - I somehow managed to gain 2 kgs even though I still ate relatively healthily(go figure), and in the 4 weeks I took off, I managed to gain another 2 kgs or so. I'm now 5kgs above goal and not very happy about it! So yesterday I rejoined Weight Watchers (online - I'm not into meetings). My original goal weight was at the top of my healthy weight range, but this time when I signed up - the suggested goal was mid way at 53 kgs - and I thought - why not! If I'm going to go back to tracking every morsel into my mouth, I want to achieve something significant, not just relose the same weight. So I have now set a goal to lose 10 kgs, not 5!

Exercise wise - I'm still loving it although not necessarily spending so much time at the gym. I took a few weeks off running after the 1/2 marathon (contemplating never running again, I was so sick of it!) But re-introduced it into my exercise routine on the treadmill for my cardio -more like intervals and short runs just to get my heart rate up. Now I'm back training for the City 2 Bay in September (12kms) and concentrating on speed work. Last year you may remember that my goal was just to be able to cover the distance. This year I'm pretty confident about achieving that part, and for the first time ever am concentrating more on increasing my speed. Still doing weights, and mainly running on the treadmill due to lack of daylight hours to run, but I can do all of this at home - don't need the gym for it. I really just use the gym for the classes which I love, but with school holidays and being away alot for work it has been hard to fit them in. Finally - is anyone else struggling with motivation due to the cold???? Due to short daylight hours, I find that the only time I have to exercise is after tea (that doesn't quite make sense since I exercise inside I know) - but it is a really hard push to get me out there each night. And I reckon I'm a fairly highly motivated person - If I'm having trouble, I don't know how others are coping! The gym is very quiet at the moment too!

Any way - I've had two really good days of eating on my new Weight Watchers plan, and last week I added in lunchtime walk/runs to my schedule (my only chance to see daylight!) on top of my evening routines to boost my metabolism - lets hope it works. According to CalorieKing if I keep up this level of eating and exercise I should lose 5 kgs in a month - wouldn't that be fab! I'd be back to my old "new" body that I was very happy in. Lets see what happens!

Oorooo (Big Brother Travis talk!)