Health Kick Up The Bum – Starting Point

As I have mentioned before, a couple of years ago I joined Slimming World, revolutionised my approach to eating and my body, became much much happier in my skin and lost three stone. Bloody good show, well done me, etc etc etc. Having lost three stone, I became very complacent. “I am a size twelve now!” I would think, gleefully levering cake into my mouth. “Isn’t that great! Might buy a new dress.”

I mean, I’m being flippant, but still. At my lowest ever weight, it was easy to just… piss about a bit. Eat what I knew would keep me bobbing along about the same, and think that *in theory* I was still losing weight, but actually… just sort of not do it.

Now this is of course fine if it was my goal. My BMI is still in the overweight zone, but who gives a toss about BMI? Well, firstly – I kind of do. I have never, as an adult, had a “healthy BMI”. I want to try it. Trust me, if I don’t like it, I’m sure I can put the weight back on! But I’m curious. What does it feel like? Also, my attitudes are starting to slip back into old ways. I’m starting to eat high fat foods out of boredom rather than joy, make sub-optimum choices out of laziness rather than actually wanting the food. Finally, I cycle a lot. Good for me again, yes. But it is difficult for me to cycle. I do 10 miles a day and it’s hard. I reckon if I ramp up my fitness, that’ll make it easier for me to haul my ass plus a bike up the massive hill near my house.

My goals are various, but can be roughly broken down into –

• Lose that last stone and a half
• Improve fitness to point where cycling the 5 miles to work is incredibly easy and maybe a bit quicker
• Improve and safeguard mental health – in terms of nice exercise endorphins to reduce anxiety, getting me out of the house on work-from-home days, and re-establishing good food attitudes and habits, which were there last summer but have been steadily slipping.

I have joined a gym and intend to visit it three times a week, in addition to my normal biking about. Today is my first day. I already have an eating plan that works brilliantly for me when I actually do it – so I resolve to actually do it. I’ll keep you updated monthly/when I can be arsed. Let’s go!

Current Stats

BMI – 27.1

Dress size – 12ish

Waist – 34″

Hips – 39″

Energy levels – Not bad. Definitely room for improvement, but fairly perky in general.

Attitude to body – Pretty good! Can look at photos of self happily, enjoying buying clothes at the moment. Good enough to put my waist measurement and BMI up on the internet – but not quite good enough to put my actual weight, so make of that what you will.

Attitude to food – Not great. Feeling a bit lost and out of control, and doing that thing where I reach for high fat/sugar food “as a treat” without really analysing whether I want it/like it. Not planning meals, not really following Slimming World plan. Quite a lot of discount malteaser bunnies going on at lunchtime.

Cycle commute – takes 30 mins. Increasingly difficult – massive hill at the end makes me a bit miserable, and I frequently arrive home wanting a big glass of squash, a peanut butter sandwich and a long sit down.

Goals for the month

• Go to gym three times per week. No achievement goal – just turn up, even if I half ass it.
• Stay to Slimming World meeting every week. Do not bunk off to do writing/something more interesting. They are good for my mental health, the people are nice and I pay for them, so must stop being a dick.
• Plan food in advance and actually buy food, so not in situation where only thing for lunch is quorn sausages and scones.
• Stick mainly to slimming world plan. Occasional “oh I’m at a birthday party maybe I will have a bit of cake and a burger, thanks!” incident is fine, but keep to once per week not once per day.

 I kind of can’t believe I’ve uploaded this photo. But you know what – fuck it. If I stick to this, I KNOW I’ll want a baseline photo to look back at the changes. Also. A seemingly contradictory way to end what is essentially a weight loss resolution post, but there is nothing wrong with my body – bigger, smaller, or exactly how it is.