#fudgeitfatclub

Better than Before

I've been reading 'Better than Before - Mastering the Habits of our Everyday Lives' by Gretchen Rubin recently, I'm about halfway through but I'm finding so much of it is resonating with me and my #fudgeitfatclub goals that I thought I would share one of the strategies that I think will work really well for me.

Firstly I've read all of Rubin's books and find them really easy to read, really insightful and I have applied many of the things Rubin suggests to my everyday life and seen real benefits.

Impulsiveness

As it turns out I'm an impulsive person, I'm all about the short term gratification and lose sight of the long term benefits, apparently.  I have to say I rarely regret my impulsive decisions, for example when I got engaged I ordered a ring from an ETSY seller based in the US, they provided a printable ring sizer, I printed it, sized up and placed my order not giving it any thought whatsoever.  When I told my sister-in-law and Sam the looks of horror on their faces really confused me, what's the problem??  As it turns out I hadn't scaled the print off properly and got sent a ring that was waaaay too small, but it just didn't bother me I sent it back and ordered the correct size it just didn't seem like a problem.  Which is kinda my problem when it comes to food.  Had a bad day; have a bottle of wine, colleague pissed you off; eat a chocolate bar, did back-to-back Body Combat and Body Pump classes?  Free reign to eat what I want of course!  I need a plan....

An If-Then Plan

So what is an if-then plan?  It's putting into place a strategy of action to tackle those troublesome occurrences that push you towards bad habits.  So to repeat the example above, if I've had a bad day I tend to have a glass or two of wine to soothe and calm me despite knowing it goes against my longer term weight loss goals.  So if I have a bad day at work, then how about making time out to spend twenty minutes reading my book instead of having that glass or two of wine?  As Rubin points out the key to successful If-Then planning is identifying those trigger instances and formulating  planned behaviours that break the cycle of bad habit forming.  Here are a few I've come up with so far:

• If at work I find I want to snack on chocolate or the never ending supply of cake then grab a glass of water from the cooler out of the office - this defuses the moment and creates a little distance between the moment of wanted to snack on the bad stuff and remembering my longer term goals
• If I get home and I'm tired and can't be bothered to cook then make healthier options more convenient - at the weekend cook up batches of healthy food that can be heated up rather than opting for a pizza
• If I want to cycle to work in the morning then remove the barriers that make me late and therefore result in my driving to work. So for example, pack my bag the night before, put my alarm on the other side of the room so I have to get up and out rather than hitting snooze!

I'm sure I will come up with more over time as there are many different behaviours I am looking to transform into good habits rather than bad.  What would your If-Then plan be, any suggestions?

The view from this mat

OH NO!

Pat the Twat is back!  He has been M.I.A. for about two months, I can't say I've been very upset about that and then at yoga the other night he rocked up with that sneer on his face.  Damn.  Not only was Pat there but it was a total testosterone fest as well, usually we have one or two men but we got up to about 12, something I hasten to add I don't have a problem with but my goodness the competitive breathing, grunting and farting was a bit much!  Calm yourselves gentleman yoga is supposed to be chill!

Like water rushing in

I missed Combat a couple of times last month and when I returned my sacred spot at the front near the fire doors was taken!  Erm... what?  A bunch of tweens had muscled in while I was away, damn it!  It just goes to show you shouldn't skip class, don't worry though Sarah and I are working on reclaiming our rightful place permanently, a couple of weeks with us flailing about in front of them will be enough to put anyone off and we will once again have all the kicking room we need.  

Wish me luck

So I've not been cycling to work recently, it has been a horrible, busy and stressful time recently and to be frank I have been putting off going in until the last minute which means driving not cycling.  But that must change!  I love cycling in and the exercise high you get to start your day, plus my work is at the top of a hill, so by knocking off time I can whizz down the hill to home in no time at all.  Fingers crossed it doesn't rain tomorrow...

Edit: I didn't cycle it is absolutely tipping it down!  Maybe tomorrow?

#fudgeitfatclub

Taking an holistic approach

I've been pondering this health and fitness thing recently, specifically my reluctance to diet.  My first thoughts were that I had to take a mind over matter approach to my own laziness and that my reluctance to diet was weak willed.  Upon reflection I think my reluctance stems from the knowledge that diets are short term, you shed the weight, you feel amazing, you tell yourself you will never go back to how you were before and yet... Diets are often event orientated (slimming for a wedding or holiday) but once those events pass it is easy to slip back into old habits.

This is why step five is going to be so key, mindfulness.  Being mindful of the long term goal of a healthy and fit lifestyle, knowing that you're not aiming for a short term fix but a lifelong change in habits.  

Lightbulb moment

At work a couple of weeks ago as part of a staff festival event Sally Gunnell came to give a presentation about healthy eating and I had a real light bulb moment.  For years I would reach for the weight watchers cereal bars or bottled smoothies thinking I was making healthy choices, and don't get me wrong in comparison to eating a Mars bar usually you are making a healthier choice but the simple answer is to try and eat food that has not been processed at all.  PING!  Oh yeah, I can't believe that hadn't sunk in until now.  So instead of pasta or gnocchi have rice or sweet potatoes (not all carbs are the devil), instead of fruit leather just eat the fresh fruit!  Duh.

Calorie crew?  Fitness friends?  

Whatever term best suits, but basically surrounding yourself with people who will challenge your choices and keep you on track.  I have a friend at work who when she sees me reach for a snack or contemplate a biscuit she will challenge me on it. Because of her actions (and my own willpower of course) I am building a habit around questioning each food choice rather than mindlessly grabbing the free pastry or biscuit just because it's there.  My friend Sarah and I keep one another on track at the gym pushing one another to attend when we might be wavering, it helps that on a Friday before yoga we get there early and take stupid photos and selfies to track progress!

What habits or tips work well for you I would love to know? 

#fudgeitfatclub

It's coming up to a month since I listed steps one and two of #fudgeitfatclub, (you can read the post here) so I thought I would check back in and add to the list.

Scornful scales

THAT moment, when you step on the scales, look down and think "fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck how did that happen??".  I had that moment a while ago, I didn't feel like I had put on weight, I'd been careful with what I had been eating and how much exercise I was doing but the number on the scales was a real knock.  

Side note: this is the emotional journey I go through when processing bad news... Rage against it (this usually involves a lot of swearing and animated gestures of disbelief), bitch about it to others needling them verbally to agree with me, sulk, reflect and apply rational thought, reason with myself, look at it from another point of view, accept or find a solution.

After stomping about with my rage face on for a while I sped through the emotional journey and realised that with all the exercise I'd probably put on muscle mass not fat mass, I was certainly feeling more toned and confident.  It was in this moment that I made the decision not to measure my success on the scales but with a measurement tracker instead, this records bust, chest, arm, waist, stomach, hips, thighs, and calves.  Every week I will check and record my progress, I am liberated from the scales which feels awesome and progressive.

Balance

Its not all about the exercise, upping and upping the amount that I do won't fix things if I'm not focused on what and how much I'm eating.  I've been using the Diet Plan app and website to track the amount of calories I'm taking on usually aiming for 1200 a day and ensuring that I'm burning off more than I put in.  It is remarkable how much food you can justify away and kid yourself into believing 'don't count'.  I thought I would be too hungry to keep up the classes that I do (I'm not going to lie there are some days when the classes are a struggle) but actually it hasn't been too much of an issue.  80% of the journey is the food we eat, 20% is the exercise we do!

  

#fudgeitfatclub

But I don't want to Om

Yoga has fast become one of my favourite classes each week, but to begin with I really struggled with the yoghurt-weavey nature of yoga.  I'm not very spiritual, even putting my hands in prayer during postures made me uncomfortable but the benefits of having a good ol' stretch every week have been immeasurable.  As part of #fudgetitfatclub I want to chart my progress with yoga so before class begins (i.e. there is no one around to see Sarah and I taking photos of ourselves) I'm going to take a photo of my downward facing dog pose to see where I can improve and what progress I've made.

Hamstrings of pain!

Week one (not technically week one of doing yoga but week one of charting progress), need to work on straightening my back which means working on my oh so tight hamstrings and hips.  Week two - time to move those feet closer if I can, and keep at those tight hips, happy that I can get my heels to the floor though when I started yoga they were way off so that's a good improvement.

Thought monkeys

One of the things yoga teaches you is to reign in those 'thought monkeys' (as our teacher labelled them this week).  Thought monkeys are those thoughts that pop into your head and jump around distracting you from your practice, here are some of mine:

• There appears to be a dust stalactite hanging from the ceiling, if that falls it's going to land in my mouth, horror!!
• (when doing any pose that involves looking at your feet), I neeeed to sort those trotters out before summer no one should have to witness them.
• Is that my phone?  Oh crap, am I the person who didn't put their phone to silent?  Shit bags I am!!
• I wonder how many people have used this mat before me?  If I put my face on it am I going to get spots?
• Don't fart, don't fart, don't fart, don't fart, don't fart.

What are your thought monkeys when exercising?  I can't be the only one with this nonsense swimming around my head can I??

#fudgeitfatclub

I briefly mentioned in my last post that fellow blogger and gym buddy Sarah and I have set-up #fudgeitfatclub, membership currently stands at....2.  Basically we're sick of the pudge and want rid but would rather spend our money on new clothes than the weight loss support type groups out there.  I've done this before, for my wedding I slimmed down, I loved feeling trim however I wasn't particularly healthy (close to the big day I used my daily allowance of 1200 calories just eating bourbon biscuits, I was fucking starving!) or fit which is something I would like to work on this time around.

Identifying pitfalls

I feel like I have the exercise thing down now, I have found the classes and activities I love and the motivation to attend classes week in week out.  Perhaps naively I thought the weight would just fall off with all this exercise, alas no.  Obviously something is amiss, these are the culprits I have identified:

• I am a lazy cook, after a long day at work and an exercise class or two after that I cannot be muffed preparing something packed with vegetables I would rather go for the convenience of toast.  Toast is not dinner.
• Stress.  There is a far amount of this around at the moment, at work there is talk of restructuring and redundancies, it's all anyone can talk about which is exhausting.  I'm not proud of what I'm about to write but to unwind I drink a glass of wine or two every night and not in a sophisticated French way, I chug it back like it's medicine.  Not cool.
• I reward eat.  If I know I'm doing a strenuous class or two in the evening I will allow myself a chocolate bar, or bread, or a heavy lunch.  Pizza is my favourite and makes more of a regular appearance on my weekly meal plan (hahahaha there is no meal plan) then it should.  The treats aren't treats, they're every day and sometimes I eat without mindfulness at all so the treats aren't even being savoured.

Setting goals

Like I say, I've done this before so I know I can do this again, so that's half the battle.  Sarah put together a folder of measurement plans, exercise logs and other documents to help us on our journey, on the front cover of the folder is the quote 'success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out'.  This resonates with me a lot, unlike when I was losing weight for the wedding which was a very specific target, this time I'm aiming for lifestyle changes that are permanent with the bonus that they enable me to lose weight.  Here are some goals to start me off, I intend to add to these as I progress:

• Stop with the Diet Coke EVERYDAY, that stuff is not good for you.  Water is the go to drink of choice, peppermint tea or hot water and lemon.
• Treats are treats, I still need the odd one, but restricting treats to the weekend means I know they're on their way and I can look forward to them and appreciate them more.
• Stop the drinking, it doesn't help with any of the stress, costs me too much money and hinders my progress to the goals that will genuinely make me happy.
• Cycle to work everyday.  I've already made a start on this one and cycle a couple of times a week.  My workplace is at the top of a very very steep hill, when I started cycling I had to get off and push my bike up it but I've been progressing and can now cycle four fifths of the way - that last fraction of hill?  I shall conquer it!

Well that seems like a good start to begin with, I hope to check in again with positive updates on how I'm getting on.  Are any of you on a weight loss/lifestyle change journey?  Got any tips you'd like to share?

Wardrobe wishlists

Gym donkey

I am NOT a sleek gym bunny, I am a sweaty gym donkey, a gym ass if you will.... lol.  I go in looking mostly respectable and come out looking like I've just stepped out of a hotter than lava shower, the important thing is I go in looking mostly respectable which means finding gymwear that isn't just black or overtly branded.  This is an outfit that I think I can work, what do you think?

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My friend Sarah and I are on a weight loss journey together, #fudgeitfatclub we're calling it, take a look at our Pinterest board to see what we're eating and what is keeping us motivated.  New gym kit seems like a suitable reward for pounds lost wouldn't you say??