OCTOBER REPORT AND NAILING IT IN NOVEMBER

Apologies for those who dont like long posts but I'll write this one in two chapters (but in one post).

OCTOBER REPORT

All year I've done a monthly report on how I've gone with my diet, training and weight management. I skipped September as there was NOTHING positive to report and I didnt want to talk about my incredible leap backwards on all of those fronts. But in the last week of September I woke up to the fact that I had slipped seriously behind and changing that was totally up to me. There was no point whinging about it, wondering what had happened or thinking about a myriad of options to rectify the situation. IT WAS TIME FOR ACTION.

I put some mini goals in place and realised that it was time to suck it up and ramp up the discipline and consistency if I was going to greet Christmas at a happy weight and not a baby hippo weight. So here is what I've achieved:

DIET / WEIGHT:

In fairness I must point out this has been a 5 week period including the last week of September. My weight loss has been 6 kilos. I had a great drop early and quickly (normal for me) and then a levelling out and even a bit of a rise before I tightened things up for a few days and the sacles moved down again.

As I write this today, I have been sugar free for 39 days. Again not strictly so as I still drink wine or champagne, have a skim cappuccino every day and have foods with natural sugars or traces of sugar. But the big difference has been abolishing cakes, biscuits, ice cream, chocolates, lollies etc. In fact I also havent eaten artificial sweetener for several months now so on that front I'm doing really well.

Has October been binge free? Well in all honesty maybe not 100% but on the 2 or 3 occassions when I overate I would rate the episodes less than 5 on the Richter (Binge) Scale whereas previous binges would rate around the 8 or 9 so I feel good about that improvement. What a difference it makes when sugar is off the menu. For many months now I've continued to struggle with binge eating so to report this is a big leap forward for me :-)

TRAINING:

My "back and all associated muscles" injury had really knocked me for a 6. For weeks I lived with constant pain that was debilitating at times, leaving me depressed and uncertain of what the future could hold for me. From late last year to April of this year I had identified myself as a distance runner and I felt comfortable with that label and that lifestyle. Its like I had found my groove and was building a lifestyle with that as my foundation.

After moping for weeks about my situation I took Liz's advice and found a good physio who has helped me immensely. I have been disciplined and consistent with my rehab exercises and they are paying off even though there were times when I wondered if they were helping at all. I have slowly built up my running times to 40 minutes / session now, taking care to not overdo it by thinking I was invincible and could go from 0 to 100 in no time flat.

Over the coming weeks I'll build up to an hour run by the end of October, after which the possibilities are exciting. But slow and steady continues to be my mantra even to the point of generally running 2 days on and then 1 day off. I know where I want to get but sprinting to my destination is not the best option.

I do Zumba once a week for fun as opposed to it being an excellent workout. My studio is under construction and around mid November I'll be hitting the weights again for upper body work (more on that below.) Then I can work towards my goal of having a nice lean and toned upper body to match my runner's legs LOL.

HEAD SPACE:

I've come to realise that no 4 week period is all smooth sailing. There are rough seas, then calm seas, then rough again. Its called LIFE and you have to roll with it. I'm getting better at this. Previously when things got bad, I'd over-react and think they were REALLY bad but in actual fact they were a bit bad, but they didnt stay that way for long.

I do still have some struggles with the Metal Monster when I'm wanting to lose weight but on that front too, I'm handling things better. As long as the numbers dont send me loopy then thats a good thing LOL.

NAILING IT IN NOVEMBER

A lot of bloggers have jumped onto the "Nailing it in November" quest initiated by Liz. (Sorry, too lazy to link, but you know what I mean.) When I first read about it I couldnt think of anything I wanted "to nail" because overall I was happy with things but since then I've thought of the following and would like to be late entry.

1. NO mindless drinking of alcohol. I know what this means for me without stating rules and restrictions. (Today excepted. Tomorrow will be a much better day.)

2. No delaying getting back into weight training when my studio is functional. Its well known that I'm a Cardio Queen and that getting up close and personal with the iron will require a concerted effort from me.

3. No more than 15 minutes / day spent on personal internet use at work (lunch time excluded.) Yep no more hopping on to catch up on blogs (mine or others) or FB.

So thats it from me for now even though I have a lot more that I want to write but it'll have to wait.

G'night

Magda