12in12 2022 Challenge January Update

JANUARY

Just wiping away the tears… are they tears of despair or tears of laughing at my own ridiculousness?  I am not actually sure…. Let me explain….So two thirds of the way through my January “plateau” month and I am currently  three pounds heavier than I was at the beginning… so in Challenge terms it is like I have put on four lbs as I am supposed to be losing a pound this month… now at this stage there are two paths I could take… one rewrite my whole year and decide that January is not a Plateau month but rather a Net Gain month and therefore the 3lb gain is justified and I just need to spend the next ten days losing the lb for the month…hurrah job done… kick the can down the road… I will be good tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, next decade…. NO… this is not the point of the challenge .. the challenge is supposed to be about a little effort all the time not one big effort that is destined to either fail or never actually deliver the desired result….. so what’s the alternative…… I could grab the proverbial bull by the horns and deliver the January Challenge and try and lose those 4lbs in the next ten days… hmmmmmm…daunting but not impossible…. I should at least give it a go shouldn’t I ?

The first thing to do is look at the diary… yes I do have a few social engagements but nothing that I couldn’t incorporate into a net loser programme… ie I am not going away on a 3 day girls drinkathon or have four parties or dinners in a row spliced with work lunches and/or family get togethers…it’s not Christmas or my birthday (in my defence for the three pound gain I did have a four day trip to Vegas to celebrate my husband’s 50th… my 20th wedding anniversary, my son’s 19th birthday and three days in Edinburgh to celebrate my daughter’s 21st… only 3lbs gain I hear you congratulating me…..I know what a paragon of weightlessness I am… or in reality I am the heaviest I have ever been .. not pregnant… or even pregnant with one baby but I do really digress!)….. so diary assessed and days where I know I will be bad I will counter with extra exercise or an intermittent fast…. 

I also have a pretty light work commitment schedule for ten days (incorporating two weekends) so that I can really up the exercise….  Hmmm exercise what is that?  With work and the freezing temperatures outside and my favourite zoom trainer off skiing that has sadly taken a back seat to the knees up mentality as well… but that is in the past and I am living in the present for the next ten days.. my goal is here and now not there and gone….

So…. What am I actually going to do…? Well first off I am going to stop the incidental eating.. this has crept back in … so no more small packets of cheddars with a cheeky glass of wine (yes of course I needed it!) or one biscuit here or there (when I say one……who was counting?! …. sadly no-one ) with a cup of tea or an extra hot chocolate before, or even in, bed … well it was blinking freezing up there in my bedroom when the boiler gave up…. All that has to stop… and the exercise and movement has to start… this is two fold… firstly and most importantly it actually burns the calories that I will consume…. But secondly and almost equally importantly it resets the mind.. those endorphins will encourage and congratulate me… they will eliminate some of the temptation as weirdly I never feel like scoffing quite so much in the immediate aftermath of a run or class.  Mindfulness of calories consumed versus calories expended and “whoosh" I will be the Challenge Queen. 

Elf Buddy and I once read an article about the “whoosh” phenomena when you eat a pizza or chips or something fatty after being on a restricted diet and it actually causes your body to drop a few lbs as it stops holding on to the fat as it realises it is going to get some more and the famine is over…. Sadly we were a little too over zealous with the trying to get the whoosh (ie eating the fatty foods) rather than actually adhering to any restrictive eating.. no whoosh sadly just a whopping gain …. 

This has to be sustainable though…there is no point in going all out and nearly killing myself in the next ten days .. we have a long year ahead.. but I know I can do it if I actually make the effort…. I will pledge to try and devote two hours a day to exercise, not snack and maybe try and do a little intermittent fasting a few times a week… just for 10 days… I know my body… I know that after what I have been through those first four lbs will come off in 10 days if I am good… that wouldn’t always work and I am mindful of that…. I am at my heaviest right now and we know that the first half a stone comes off three times faster than the last half a stone so I am fully aware of that advantage and that is why I am going to give it a try and my best effort…. 

I daren’t even think about February and the four lbs I need to lose to keep this yearlong challenge going.  I will get to that once I have reset my head and achieved the January challenge… I have accepted my own challenge with myself and this is the most important step….Know yourself, know what you can do, know what works for you, know what doesn’t work for you, don’t be over ambitious but at the same time there has to be some effort and commitment… Onwards and inwards…. Plateau January here I come….

Day 1-3 update

Day 1 

Spent most of the day on a plane or rushing around to get to the airport and back for a work trip… had three meals - solid .. didn’t calorie count as not possible and didn’t do any exercise… one small glass of red wine but refrained from many of the treats I could have indulged in so neither the worst nor the best start… made a bit of a plan for tomorrow… always helps….

Day 2

So I had forgotten how little you can actually eat when calorie counting and how much effort you have to make whilst exercising in order to burn calories… also I had forgotten how easy I find it to let anything else get in the way of me and being “good”…. So I started off by getting up at 5am (woke naturally before you think I am too much of a nutter!)  Then worked till 7am… this left my next couple of hours free to do some exercise… decided to go for a run … was just about to leave when a friend rang who has an ill child from a different time zone and I couldn’t say that now was a bad time.. so turned the run into a walk and spoke to her whilst out… then did a bit more work and decided to join in a class.. annoyingly the class I chose was not nearly at the intensity I had hoped for and spent a lot of time stretching… never fear I thought there is that Power Yoga I love online in a minute… so I logged into that too only to find they had changed the schedule and it was Yin yoga .. hardly a calorie burn and to boot they were focusing on the upper chest and neck area for posture which was uber painful as I currently have a trapped nerve that is being operated on in two weeks…. So all in all… let’s recap three hours of time used up for “exercise” and barely 400 calories burned… so I translated this into the food I would be allowed and seeing as I had had to grab a scone for breakfast as didn’t have time between classes to make anything else I ended up rather hungry for most of the day and evening… it always amazes me at the beginning of these endeavours how much I must have been eating calories wise when not counting or caring as I generally felt bloated and very full and when I eat a more normal amount I feel hungry and internally concave.. like someone has sucked the air out of me….hey ho… just got to get used to it and hope that I can sort out some better exercise for tomorrow…. I feel this is going to be my saving grace… exercise, exercise, exercise…

Day  3 

Decided to start the day with a weigh in to see if any progress had been made… if I’m honest it was as much to see if I had actually put on any weight so that I would then know if I had to make any more effort early on…155.4  I had lost 3lbs from Day 1… phew… so technically I just need to lose another 1.4 lbs to fulfil the challenge for January…. Eminently doable in my book and has spurred me on to continue..

Worked like crazy last night so that I could free up the morning for some exercise… no alcohol last night made it possible to do this.. also made the exercise this morning much more enjoyable…. 

Started with a run which got interrupted by a phonecall about a legal case I’m involved in.… not conducive to running so once again I walked and talked… better than nothing I felt…

After that I thought I needed something new and exciting so later in the day tried a Zumba class…. I have never done this before .. it was actually fairly good fun and the 45 minutes went quickly and I was sweaty and happy at the end so pretty decent… not the most taxing exercise I have ever done!  I followed it up with a power yoga class… that was good but seemed to drag..but then technically I had spent the best part of 3 hours moving by that stage… quite enough…

Yesterday I looked in the mirror during the first exercise class and just saw a padded out version of myself that honestly I don’t feel comfortable with… the tone in my body does help with the excess but nothing can hide the rolls and the sheer volume in the wrong places… quite motivating to finally feel enough is enough without feeling too depressed to do anything and to actually find a negative motivating.… the head has to lead the body otherwise the effort is doomed..  they say it is all about the kitchen but I feel it is all about the head… the head dictates the behaviour in the kitchen and the gym and the incidentals…. 

Drinks then followed with some friends who popped over…

Let’s see what tomorrow brings…. One day at a time, one foot in front of the other, one small change in the moment….   

Day 4 - 6

I am not going to exercise this morning… too much work.. I will see if I can squeeze some in late afternoon or evening… I hate exercising later in the day though as I have generally lost all motivation for it and I don’t like exercising with make up on which is virtually impossible later in the day with work having happened… I better watch the food then….

Hmmm…. And then it all went wrong… so let’s analyse this… I was all motivated and positive…. Then something clicked… I had drinks with friends, ate too much, felt groggy the next day but it was more than this.. it was more than just the small hangover… there was also an element that after three days of success and me “being good” I felt complacent like I knew what I was doing and stopped sticking to the plan.. I didn’t make the small changes that I had been advocating and just lapsed back into pretty pathetic efforts at exercise and a general grab it and eat it as I am sure it’s fine on a superficial level but deep down knowing it was wrong.. how can sitting in a cinema with a full family bag of M&M peanuts being consumed followed by going out for a large boozy dinner EVER be confused with “being good”?  

Then the pattern continued as it was the weekend and the exercise I had arranged to do was outside and it was terrible weather so it didn’t happen but the eating and drinking I had planned to do was inside so was obviously enthusiastically enjoyed… 

All in all I ended up back at 156.8…. So what was it to be .. just give up or 3 days to lose 2.4lbs?

Day 7

Another click…no way am I giving up on this challenge… exercise was resumed… meals were a little more rationed but not as good as could have been… still effort was made…. Felt a bit smug after the exercise.. pretty convinced I am going to see a good number…

Day 8 

Decided to do another weigh in to work out how much work needed to be done today before tomorrow’s final weigh in for the month… 156.8 was registered - all smugness disappeared and sheer grit resumed…so to be with any chance quite a mammoth 2lbs has to be shifted today and before the weigh in tomorrow… this is how I am going to do it… today… no heavy carbs, potato, rice or bread….only eat when I am beyond hungry…. Then try and curtail the portions… 2 hours of exercise at some point… even if I have to walk around the house at 9pm listening to a podcast… I will do it… then tomorrow morning get up super early.. exercise don’t drink any coffee and minimal water until weigh in… yes technically not ideal but a win is a win… let’s see…

Day 9

Well… feeling uber smug…only gone and smashed it… 153.2… yes I know I can’t believe it either… but I used every tool in my box… you could look at the efforts which I will outline and say but what is the point as some of that is only short term but the point is that if you don’t do it to a deadline then when do you ever do it.. it is all too easy to say as I have done for years now..oh tomorrow, next week, next month etc…but yesterday I didn’t… I accepted the challenge and dug deep…. I did exactly as I said… ate only 2 meals.. no heavy carbs.. just a little bit of rice for supper and I mean one tablespoon max…. I ate mainly salad for lunch and did a fitness class and a bit of yoga.. but the keys were I stopped eating at 6.30pm and only had 2 meals.. I did have a glass of red wine as I went out but somehow that still worked and I didn’t blow it at supper afterwards… choosing a meat dish with a bit of spinach and a non creamy sauce… I shunned the bed basket and had a coffee for pudding with sweetener…..I was hungry later, I did have to go to bed early to stop me eating anything else but I did it… so no mad exercise routine this morning to get to my goal…

Sometimes you are not in the right frame of mind to tackle this but when you are you need to have a goal to challenge yourself to keep… so January… has brought a 1.8lb loss…. Shine glory on me!!!  But as Februrary is a net loser month for me I can’t be complacent as another 3.2 needs to come off before March 9th!  Watch this space….

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