MiddleAgeShed

New Year

Ooor old Anna is out of action - she's been in the hospital all over Christmas dieting (!) (She will be having an op in a few days to sort it out) In the meantime I have been been eating for the two of us and if you are like me you will have put away a shed load of goodies over the Christmas period and be feeling pretty guilty.

Well no matter the important thing is that we do feel a bit guilty so that we are forced into action EARLY in 2008...

So with one Indian Meal, One New Year's Dinner, and a couple of boxes of biccys left (and some cheese Anna) here is what I have done so far:

Renewed my gym membership and am off swimming today.
and later I will get my bike out too!

Best Wishes to Anna, get well soon.....there is a real danger that she has overtaken me!!!

Heather's new goal

I have just listened to Lindsy and Anna on last week's show.
If you haven't listened yet and feel the need for a pick up on your weight loss, go and eavesdrop now on their conversation.

Yesterday I was cross with myself, cross with dieting, cross with Italy and pizzas, CROSS.

Why? Because that weight I put on in Italy didn't all fall off again of course.

I was angry because I had made SOME effort last week - but of course having thought about it, a pound has come off (I'm 10stone 10 as at yesterday morning), - and I need to eat less and exercise more to get more weight off!

Having seen Anna yesterday (yes - she looks great - and a proper SlimJim) and listened to the show it has helped me think more positively. I am happy to feel good and look OK. I am fit and healthy. I am still working towards my goal and have been weekly for 8 months. Bearing in mind this is for sure a lifelong need this is the longest period of control that I have had for donkeys years.

The podcast was right - my attitude has changed. I do still rebel for sure - but the rebellion is extremely short lived. I will get to that goal - sooner.......or later.

I've been inspired by that show, now its my turn to help myself:

This week I will blog my food diary and my excercise diary - daily.

My new goal - set all by myself! 10 stone 5lb by 22nd September - i.e a record Heather low by the time I start on my scholarship tour of the US.

Lessons from Lindsy

On Sunday I spoke with our new "diet groupie", Lindsy. It was fantastic to speak to someone at the start of her journey. I recorded the conversation so watch out for it next Saturday! The key points I took from the call were

• You become complacent during your diet, it was great to hear the emotive reasons why I should never let this weight go back on.
• Acted as a way of appreciating what I have achieved - somehow you lose track of the enormity.
• So glad that we did podcast and blog - I don't think that anything else would have worked. Heather really has been my rock. Also I have got to talk to people all over the world - fantastic!
• How each of us can reach out to someone who is struggling with their weight and inspire them to change their life.  Sometime people just need someone to believe in them.
• You are rarely hungry, just programmed to eat....

I May Be Lawn, But I'm Not Going to Walk All Over Myself Anymore

Greetings to all! This is Lindsy (also known as Lawn, which is ever-so-appropriate for the OLD Lindsy). I just thought I'd let everyone know that I've finally accepted the invite to blog on MiddleAgeShed! I'm SO excited! I have also started my own blog at Dwindlin.typepad.com. Back when I used to be a full-force dieting maniac, my now-ex boyfriend used to call me Dwindle Lin, so it's a take on all that. I hope to become very involved in blogging (I have been doing it elsewhere since 2000) because I know it will help keep me focused and motivated.

Enough babble! I just wanted to say hello.

A New Dieter joins Middle Age Shed

If you listened to last Saturdays diet show, you will have heard a wonderfully inspirational e-mail from a listener that we nicknamed lawn. Well, lawn is actually called Lindsy and wants our help to lose 137 pounds or 9 stone 11...wow! Heather and I feel totally in awe...

I will be interviewing Lindsy next week,  so that we can hear more about her story, more about her motivation and also what happened to make her start on this journey.

I hope that together we can help Lindsy and know that the community of people like Karen, Anne and Foxydot will join me in saying "Come on girl, you can do it!"

Its raining.

Big time. In fact its rained so much that most of the roads are impassable without a 4 x 4! So, I'm not going running, or tennising, or cycling, or even swimming. I'm going to enjoy an evening of nothing. I may even have a beer - sometimes its for the best. I'm in this for the long term....the very long term!

Wont go mad, but its a Beer Friday for me.

Blog inspiration!

Karen's fabulous "Why I exercise post" is a true lesson on getting your head around the overall goal me thinks. For example I would use many of the reasons that Karen has used TO exercise to avoid exercise...

11. It energises me.
12. It helps me to relax.
13. It relieves stress.
14. It improves my stamina.
15. It helps me to cope with a busy life and children.

When I have my negative exercise head on I would be thinking to my self... I am too tired to exercise, I am too busy to exercise, I need to relax not exercise, I am too stressed to exercise, I cannot cope with exercise.

What a motivation to see all these excuses written down as reasons to exercise.

I shall print these off along with Anna's post on "You know when you have lost weight when..."

PS. Have run 2 miles and swum 16 lengths today - just to show willing...

My top 3 tips for healthy lunches.

Healthy lunches in less than 6 minutes:

Number One:
Porridge - Maybe an odd choice but it tastes delicious, is so easy to produce wherever you are. Its low fat, its filling and even better choose English Oats and you will be helping to ensure that Farming Matters.

Number Two:
Put some balsamic vinegar in a bowl and add some homegrown tomatoes and spring onions to it in the morning. At lunchtime make some couscous (yes boil the kettle) and add your delicious mixture. Scrummy, fast and low fat.

Number Three:
Asparagus Spears with Butter, and Wholemeal Bread. (Yes only a tiny bit of butter but it does need to be the proper job - and in my humble opinion Not Anchor...there's no excuse me dears.... cows in the UK make perfectly good butter. Choose a local one to you or Country Life for a general butter UK produced if you are in Britain) The reason that I've chosen this complete treat is that you literally only have three days left to have this food in season this year in the UK. Tradition says that the Asparagus season ends on Midsummers Day. Food tastes better in season - YUM!

Why I AM PROUD of Heather

Wow, did you see Heather's post yesterday on her diet success - now that is what I call progress.

Podcasting really has succeeded where diet clubs have failed for Heather in the past - in losing weight, exercising and most of all keeping the momentum going. The top 3 reasons why I am proud of Heather

1) She never hides her feelings. She shares them, by sharing she can then deal with them. Her honesty means that she will succeed over the long term because she is not  "kidding"  herself which stops her from putting that weight back on.
2) I have told so many people of how Heather went from not being a jogger to the completion of a half marathon all at the age of 42. That is incredible and shows that she has determination, guts and also resilience for those days when it is hard. The strange thing is that I never doubted that she would complete it - never - why because the public nature of her goal meant that Heather would never allow failure to be an option.
3) Her "bouncebackability". She has had had 2-3 times when most people would have just given up - not because they wanted to, because it would just be easier, then sat back and say diets never work. Heather loves food and this would have been so easy -  Heather does not do easy, she does "success". Success is in the short term losing weight, in the medium term accepting that you will have a few bad days or weeks but they are not the problem - it is not returning to eating well. In the long term it is about finding a balance of exercise, good eating that maintains a lifestyle that gives you the body that you want.

My dad used to say anything in this life worth having, needs to work at it - I think he was talking about relationships at the time however he could have been talking about Middle Age Shed!

I didn't know Heather when we started so why did I know that she was my ideal diet buddy? Easy....she was not going to give up when the going got tough like so many other people - a key ingredient when you are publicly blogging and podcasting about the journey. It would be too embarrassing....

Often the quickest route on a journey is not the most entertaining or the most picturesque - so thanks diet buddy for making this journey a scenic, entertaining and successful one! Wouldn't have it any other way.....

Inside Heather's head looking at Anna's brains!!

I've just listened to the latest shows 36 and 37. Very interesting indeed. If you haven't listened please do so, I have been very much of the attitude during this process that losing weight is a question of eating less and excercising more - which is definitely true. But phew there sure is a lot more going on me thinks.

Anna poses the question - would I feel bad to get to target without her (and thinks I would just celebrate.) However, actually I think I would actually have similar feelings to Anna's, - in the sense that I too feel we are a team, and so that fact that one of us has "failed" would demotivate me too.

Me being the problem one also has its issues though.

The week I ran that darned marathon and put on weight really made me fed up, and I thought "what the hell else do i have to do to get the weight off?" You know the sort of feeling sorry for myself thing. Thats been followed by a great holiday where I ate reasonably and drank unreasonably! Now its the back to normal moment - with a mixture of guilt and despair! I sat through that podcast thinking mmmm maybe I cant/wont make my target.

Gillian Hood was excellent I thought perhaps we all need more help than we think! And as for what I think about Anna - I think Go GIRL get the weight sorted - and sort out the other bits while you maintain! And I definitely think keep to the original target - its definitely worth celebrating for both of us when you get there - for you because you've got there, and for me as motivation.

Please note the above is not moaning and there's no excuses.