Day 21 More maths and thoughts of giving up

This Morning

These past few days, I have felt quite tired physically and wonder if my body is protesting. It hasn't had to do exercise EVERY day since PE was a daily occurrence on the school timetable. Yesterday I really had to force myself to do the walking / jogging on the treadmill and even had a five minute lie-down (in my new kit) on the lounge sofa before I left. But I made myself do it and more with the weights and 40 minutes brisk walking to town and back. Today I am teaching at home, but have a window this afternoon through which will plop some weight training.

But I feel SOoo tired and could go back to sleep right now. Reading about the Couch Potato to 5k Programme, there are meant to be rest days between the three sessions a week, but Janathon allows no rest days. I'm mixing it up with swimming and weights, but even so...

I was further discouraged to find my waist has barely shifted in size - maybe a quarter of an inch? In three weeks! No puddings, no snacking and no booze for the first 10 days, then only a small glass of wine on some days since. All home-cooked fresh food, no junk. Actually my tummy has gone down an inch and my size 12 jeans (M&S) are loose, but nothing is different in my size 14/16 upper body. Depressing.

Having lost two stone on the Dukan diet about two and a half years ago, I have kept my diet generally quite light on carbs. Being wheat intolerant helps to keep the carbs down too and I'm not a sugar junkie, but I've gained 10lbs since beginning hormone treatment last March and it is this I am trying to counteract. But maybe I'm fighting a losing battle while I continue to slap on a hormone patch twice a week?

An article in Good Housekeeping pointed out that over-eating daily by only 100 calories - a chocolate biscuit or slice of cheese - will mean a weight gain of 10lbs over a year. Do the maths. 365 days x 100 = 36500 extra calories and with 3500 calories representing one pound that is TEN whole pounds. Any how easy it is to do that. For one thing, most of the food we consume does not have its calorie count written on it. For another, we do not know how much energy we have expended in a day so a lot of guesswork is involved.

Actually I haven't been on the scales yet (I am such an ostrich) but I do measure my waist regularly. It had gone up an inch and a half since the patches and my reckoning is that one inch computes to half a stone, at least it did when on the way down courtesy of Monsieur Dukan. I have read that, for health's sake, one's waist measurement should be less than half of one's height. At 5 foot 6, my waist is currently just under 32 inches so that's OK. Ish. I want it to be less than 30.

So, what to do? I think I've talked myself into a quick walk / jog before the first pupil arrives.

This Afternoon

So I did a brisk 30 minute walk before the first pupil arrived and it improved my mood. This afternoon, an unexpected visitor meant I didn't make the gym, but I did 60 lunges, 10 tricep dips, 2 planks and 10 press-ups at home.