Well, it's only Thursday and I'm a few days early with this one, but...when the news is this good, you just have to share it.
I weighed in today instead of tomorrow, (as I'm off work tomorrow) to discover a very happy shock indeed - I have lost 4½ lbs this week! No....I didn't believe it either! I can't ever remember losing this much weight in a week. We are doing these informal weigh-ins at work until September - and I was advised that I was "slimmer of the week" so far. All this is completely new to me and you'd have thought I'd won the lottery with my reaction to that news! What an amazing way to start my long weekend :)
So what happened this week?
On Monday and Tuesday my legs gave up, as they struggled to recover from that intensive gym-and-swim workout on Sunday. Some serious muscular pain going on, which prevented me returning to the gym until yesterday for yet another before-work session. It's quite surprising just how busy the gym is at 7.30am, and I wasn't too happy to discover that my newly-discovered spinning bikes and rowing machine were being monopolised by other gym-goers!!
But that aside, there were some small victories yesterday. I managed a little more time on the Arc Trainer, which, to the uninitiated is a more do-able variation on the cross trainer, which remains out of my league. For now, anyway :)
This morning I tried something new: I decided to try a pre-work swim. A few weeks ago I bought one of those "swim dresses" but it wasn't very practical in the pool if I'm honest. So I found something else a couple of weeks ago which proved to be an alternative solution for my self-consciousness about wearing a swimsuit....This is something called a "boyleg swimsuit" which doesn't really sound too appealing - but it absolutely does the job.
I mentioned a "swim" but my new strategy in the pool is actually more improvised aqua-aerobics in order to build up my upper body and leg strength before moving on to, hopefully, bigger and better things.
So 20 minutes in the pool gets me leg and arm stretches, star jumps, bounces, dog-paddles, leg kicks and all kinds of variations on the aqua-aerobic theme. Between the pool and the gym, what has really surprised me is that my confidence is growing by the week. That initial "walk of doom" from the changing room to the gym or the pool is now just the most natural thing. Since I took out my membership, what has particularly fascinated me is the number of older people at the gym and the pool. I had worried it would be full of the young, fit, "beautiful people" who would leave me feeling more intimidated, inadequate, overweight and well, just plain "old". But that's not the case. Instead, I've found myself among a whole new set of role models, possibly 10/15 years older than I am. I ended up chatting to an older couple this morning in the pool, who would have put much younger swimmers to shame. They, and many of the other people I have encountered in the past four weeks, inspire me to do so much better. In a very youth-centric society, they should be an inspiration to us all.
And my worries about doing exercise as a solitary activity when everyone has an exercise-buddy with them, have proved unfounded. Stick your iPod on, with a playlist of dance bangers, and you quickly forget how self-conscious you feel about being at the gym on your own.
Most importantly: I'm enjoying this new fitness regime, to the point where I'm perfectly happy to change my whole routine, get up early and go to the gym before work, and eagerly planning my next gym/swim session.
My plan in the coming week is to build on what I've achieved so far and try and fit in some extra sessions. Eventually I am hoping to do some exercise classes, which will be another mountain to climb, battling the fear of going to a group-activity on my own, but I won't go down that road yet until I have reached another level of fitness where I'll be confident enough to participate at a decent level.
In the meantime...onwards to another week of healthy eating and exercise! Although there will be some interruptions along the way :)
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