Kicking arse

So its been a good week weight-wise. Official results in tomorrow of course but I have been blessed with some very welcome numbers on the scale this week. On Monday I weighed in at 68.9. My initial response when I glanced down was ‘oh for GOD’S sake I can’t believe I’m back up to 69.9. FRIG’. Then I realised it was in fact 68.9 and if it hadn’t been for the fact that it was Monday morning and one can NEVER jig on a Monday morning, I would have jigged. Tuesday saw an even better result – 68.7. Wednesday I nearly FAINTED when I saw 68.4. 68.4!! That is a 1.3kg loss! Unprecedented loss in any other that the first diet week. I hugged that little nugget to myself ALL day and felt like I was finally getting somewhere. It meant only 2.5kg to go in 5 weeks to hit my 66kg target for Boston. It was in my reach!

Of course I was cruising for a bruising and sure enough it came this morning in the form of 68.7kg. But I have talked sternly to myself and reasoned that had I not known about yesterday’s weight, that’s still a 1kg loss for the week and NOTHING to be sneezed at. So Widebride is a happy dieter. I just hope the general downward trend prevails tomorrow. I would love to enter a 1.3kg loss on my online WW thingee and see the little message that comes up warning that losing too much weight too quickly is bad for you (or whatever crock of crap that it peddles). Then see a big dip in my weight loss graph. So, scale gods if you are listening I implore you!! And next week is water retention week so I kind of need something to get me through that.

Exercise has been weird this week. I went to the gym on Sunday and did an hour’s work out including a ten minute run. It felt FABULOUS to be running again and while I knew I was working hard, it was a GOOD workout, if you know what I mean. I felt really good throughout the workout. Cut to Monday and OH DEAR GOD. Someone had clearly put cement in my shoes because the run was AGONY. I did the same as the day before which was 5 minutes at speed 9.0, 4 minutes at 9.5 and 1 minute at 10.0 and I nearly died. I couldn’t do the full 60 minutes either, managing only 45 minutes – I didn’t do the last 15 minutes on the cross trainer. I just couldn’t.

So on Tuesday I was DREADING the gym and DREADING the run. It was slightly better but the run did kill me. I managed the full 60 minutes though. Last night’s session was probably the easiest of them all which is weird because usually towards the end of the week it gets harder as I get more tired. So I managed the full 60 minutes and felt pretty darn pleased with myself. I’m almost looking forward to doing some resistance work when I eventually get signed up with my personal trainer (April).

Today is Valentine’s Day and G and I are going to eat at home this year. Normally we go out somewhere real nice (last year it was Smiths of Smithfields) but we decided this year to save in to save calories and money. I am cooking (honey mustard chicken on rice) and G has got some nice wine for us to enjoy (god I can’t WAIT for a drink). Slight snag in that G may have to work late tonight due to some big work thing he has on – grrrrrrr. But either way I don’t have to go to the gym for which my knees thank me.

Tomorrow night we are going out with friends for dinner. We haven’t seen them in ages and the guy half of the couple is hopefully going to be G’s best man. I have made G set the dinner up because he STILL hasn’t asked him to be best man and we want to make sure he is actually coming to NZ for the wedding and won’t pull out!

I am SO ready for the weekend too. Not sure what we really have on, but house tidying is going to have to feature sadly. I am aiming to go to the gym both days which will mean 5 times in total this week. Am hoping that will really make a difference for the next 5 weeks and ensure I reach my target (5 weeks today – eeeeeeeeee!) – going 5 times a week regularly I mean, not just 5 times this week. On Sunday night we are going around to the other groomsman’s house for dinner so once again I will be slightly out of my comfort zone in terms of choosing what I want to eat. Hopefully they’ll cook something reasonably healthy and being a Sunday we can’t get TOO stuck in to the wine.

I have been thinking about possible reasons for such a good loss this week (there, have I jinxed tomorrow’s weigh in enough already?) and wonder if it is to do with the fact that since Sunday night, I haven’t had any real starchy carbs with dinner. Sunday night was soup and mini bruschettas, Monday night was chicken in spicy tomato sauce, Tuesday night was poached haddock and last night was soup and mini bruschettas again (I’m on a real soup thing at the moment). Is that why suddenly I am showing losses on the scale? Like its not REAL weight loss in terms of bulk from my body, its just my body is lighter because I’m not retaining as much water (I’m not sure if this is scientifically correct or not so don’t quote me, but I think of starchy carbs like rice, pasta and bread as ‘sponges’ which soak up the water and therefore it weighs more heavily in my stomach. Protein like chicken and fish don’t soak up liquid so I don’t weigh as much). Or is it because I have been drinking at least 2 litres of water a day all week and that is somehow making me pee out my weight…? Or maybe its just that I am having one of those weeks.

This whole weight loss thing (and I know this from so many personal experiences) is just a mystery. There is no rhyme or reason when you look at small statistics, no matter how comforting they may be. I could eat the same thing and do the same exercise week in week out and sometimes I’ll lose, sometimes I’ll gain and sometimes I’ll stay the same. But as long as I keep plugging away, I will lose weight. Its all about the big picture. Which means I can only look at weight loss over a longer term. Like as of today I’ve lost 4.1kg (9lb) over 6 weeks. Now that’s an average of more than half a kilo every week and that takes into account having a period, my birthday and having a gain. And that’s still about what I expected to lose by now, if not slightly more. So there is no point analysing stuff to death. What I am doing IS working. I’d be mad to change it.

Right, wedding wise. Am pleased to report the dvd arrived of the wedding our videographer did in December. I started off feeling a little horrified as I watched it, as some bits such as the bride and her bridesmaid hanging out at the house in the morning just chatting and stuff looked so FORCED. They looked SO self conscious and uncomfortable and I was all thinking ‘oh god this guy is RUBBISH’. Then I realised that it probably wasn’t HIM as much as the people he was filming who were just getting used to having the camera there. And I will have two bridesmaids, not just one so we aren’t just going to sit around trying to think of things to say to each other – especially as one bridesmaid is a self-described wanton exhibitionist. In fact I will probably have trouble getting MYSELF on camera at ALL. And we’ll have the hair and makeup ladies there and stuff. So it will be more lively and fun and we will be drinking and stuff and just generally being excited. I hope. So I think we’ll go with this guy. It helps he’s the only one still available.

The other slightly funny thing about the video is that this couple had DJ Dick as their wedding dj. And he does sound like a complete game show host. Eeeeeeek.