Exercise is evil (and wedding dress chat)

Everything hurts. You'd imagine, that after 2 months or so, of personal training sessions, that I'd be finding it a little bit easier. Think again. I was already suffering a bit on Tuesday after swimming on Sunday and a deep tissue massage on Monday night (seriously, don't have a deep tissue massage if you are sore - you may well hit the roof and scream numerous obscenities at the perfectly lovely masseuse), but Tuesday was just really bloody hard work. I felt sick for the first time since session one - I've had a bit of a stomach bug since Friday, which probably didn't help (TMI - but squatting with a dodgy tum is even harder than you'd imagine!).

PT started off with 25 mins of intervals on the cross trainer followed by step ups (and the step was knee height) squats using a weight, arm and back exercises and then some form of hideous sit ups on the step which had me standing, lying down on the step, lifting my legs over my head, lowering them back to the floor, performing a sit up and then back to standing. Repeat x 30. I cannot tell you how hard I found these puppies. Agony. I had to go to bed at 9pm on Tuesday as I was so bloody knackered.

So, after all of my hard work, I was pretty hopeful of a little loss on the scales. Think again (again) - 2 lbs on.

That put me in a proper strop. I am almost back to where I was when I started this journey (which appears to be a circular route, rather than the one way street I'd hoped for). It has spurred me on however, I can't see that hideous figure on the scales again so action is needed. I went to the gym last night, despite being unable to walk and did a quick 45 minute work out. If I couldn't move much yesterday, today is a total write off.

Eating is a lot more focussed since the scales and I fell out. I am using myfitnesspal to track calories at the moment while I decide whether I need to sign up for yet another Fat Class. Slimming World seems ideal, but the nearest class to me has the totally rubbish leader and I am wondering if I should sign up online again - or maybe Weight Watchers is the answer, as it worked for me before.... to be honest, I just don't know... but in the meantime I will continue to try and stick to around 1750 calories a day and see where that gets me.

So - back to wedding chat, you can stop reading now if you are bored of it already... but as requested by Peridot, a bit more about the dress!

I already had an idea of what I wanted, but I was dreading going to Bridal stores as I'd heard most sample sizes are a size 10 or something equally as unattainable as that. I found a shop not far from me that specialised in Plus Sized Bridal wear and called them to see if they had the dress I loved in stock - they did! However, when I got there is was a size 12... but I was assured I could try it on.... You really can't get an idea about a dress when a woman is stood behind you keeping it fastened. As you can see - it did nothing for me really - but who knows if it would have been lovely in my actual size:

That was me thoroughly disheartened. I tried on a few dresses that did fit, but they all looked like satin sacks to me. They had nothing else that I wanted - I knew a long dress wasn't for me since we're getting married in Italy and having tried on a few - I knew they definitely weren't my bag.

In  the end, I decided to get something made. It's a similar style to the above - i.e. Tea Length and strapless, but the bodice is a lot more fitted, so gives me a lovely waist and good support for the ample bust and the bottom is a lot less fancy, so doesn't make me look even wider than I already am. It's a lot like this made by the same people:

I wanted to go for a 50's style so I spent hours trawling the internet for tea length styles, but again, it was really hard to find plus sizes. I think I love my dress - but it's hard to know until it's actually made. In the shop I was wearing one dress - which the top will be modelled on, with the bottom of another attached so I could get an idea. I was lucky that the shop I ended up using is a friend of my sister and they were all really lovely and full of ideas.

So - I am hoping I will feel like a princess on the day - not least I hope I don't look like a hippo wrapped in Ivory Tulle.

And breathe... I seem to have gotten carried away there with wedding chat! Sorry - I promise I won't do it again :)

Quick catch up and Wedding chat...

My resolution to blog more often appears to have failed. Work is still crazy - my 2 colleagues are still on holiday (seriously taking the pee now), so it's all a bit manic over here presently.

Exercise is going fairly well, since last Tuesday, I've done another PT session, a couple of 3 mile walks, 35 minutes of swimming and I've got another PT session tonight. Food is still a bit hit and miss. During the week I am pretty good - lots of veg is being consumed along with lean meat, the weekend was a little bit less focussed. We were away at a hotel near Bristol, so had cooked breakfast on Saturday, no lunch and then dinner at the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse on Saturday night.

We walked a fair bit during the day - a trip to Weston Super Mare (bloody frozen) and Cheddar Gorge, so that was helpful, but I am in danger of resembling an elephant soon if I don't sort things out... Look at that hamster face!!

So in other news, I felt I needed to get a grip on all things wedding related since it's less than 9 months away..... I keep having a fear that we're not actually getting wed and I am literally dragging people to Sorrento on the basis of a couple of conversations I've had with some random Italian Wedding Planner, who could just be performing some elaborate hoax on us...

Here's hoping not. The hotel has confirmed and we've paid a deposit. They've still not  released their menu's for this year so we don't really know how much it's going to all cost (we've a rough idea from last year), the ceremony is confirmed (I hope, again I just have the say so from aforementioned possible hoaxer). Invitations have been ordered and I am very pleased with these. The guest list has gone from 45 people to around 70 as we currently stand - thanks to my mother getting a bit carried away. I am sure a fair few of these won't come as we've a no kids rule, but currently 35 people have already booked flights. Eeek. 

The dress is ordered and paid for - I want to lose a bit of weight before my next fitting in March, so that's something I still need to address. Bridesmaid's dresses (i.e. my nieces) are ordered and have been tried on and are exactly what I wanted. 

My sister is making my shoes and my bouquet (like this), so I am currently scouring ebay for buttons and shoes that she can customise. 

I've a date in the diary for my hen do - although that proved incredibly stressful trying to find a date that would suit about 20 women, most of whom have kids, now we just need to plan something. I think we are going to York for the weekend, but it all depends on hotels and trains, so I guess I need to have a look at that soon. 

Actually - having written all of that down, I feel fairly organised. I can stop the Bridezilla bit for a while now and maybe focus on shifting some of this lard.

PT tonight, that will be a delight. 

Happy New Year!

2012 already - how utterly scary. How did this happen? I am sure last year passed me by in a massive blur.

Christmas was lovely, although I had the misfortune to be struck down with some sort of chest infection/ lurgy which is still lingering after almost 3 weeks. I spent a lot of time doing very little, with the exception of a few long walks, spending time with my nieces and eating and drinking far too much and the occasional bit of work - which had not been part of the agenda.

Looking back, 2011 was a good year for me. I got engaged to my favourite ever boy, I got promoted at work and I made a start on getting back to the gym. On the downside - my weight didn't really move - if anything it moved upwards which was clearly not the plan. I seriously need to address my constant failure to stick at any weight loss regime.

I've not made any specific New Year's resolutions as I generally just set myself up for a fall. I want to continue with my personal training sessions at the gym and be as fit and healthy as I can be in 2012. I hope to lose a couple of stone before my wedding (yes - my wedding - yikes!!) at the end of August, but I am not going to give myself any targets otherwise I'll end up beating myself up when I don't reach that goal.

Yesterday I had a PT session - which after 2 weeks away almost finished me off. I'd managed about 15 miles of walking over Christmas, which was not as good as I'd hoped, but a start anyway. The healthy eating plan has commence today and I am utterly famished!

So - here's hoping for a healthy and happy New Year.

AWOL again

Crikey, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been mental Chez Linzerello. Work is utterly stupid - for the past 3 days I have been covering a team of 4 people on my own. I literally cannot wait for 6pm tonight or earlier if I can manage it.

I've had a couple of trips to the gym for PT - one ending up with leaving me completely disfigured thanks to my urticaria and a swollen eye which took nearly 48 hours to return to normal. Nice... thankfully the doctor is now referring me to a specialist (but only after I insisted) so hopefully in the New Year that will be sorted. Warning - ugly eyes to follow:

Obviously this has made me a bit nervous about exercising, which is rubbish, but I am attempting to persevere with the help of numerous anti-histamines. My second PT trip since my last post didn't leave my looking like the above, so maybe I just need to continue with the drugs.

We had a works Christmas party last Friday which was on a boat down the Thames, food was rubbish so I barely ate, but proceeded to drink far too much free wine. Thankfully, I made the sensible decision to go home once the boat docked, or I dread to think what rubbish I'd have been spouting at my boss about being totally overworked. The rest of the weekend was fairly relaxed, present wrapping on Saturday and a lunch with the girls on Sunday which was a lovely catch up.

Since then, we've driven up North to my parents house and I've spent the last 3 days attempting to avoid the numerous gorgeous food items dotted all over the house. I'm working from their Lounge (my dad is in the office and Matt has commandeered our bedroom), mostly with one sister's dogs running around like crazy and my other sister's daughters demanding my attention. I can't wait to switch my laptop off tonight and actually spend some quality time with them, it's pretty difficult trying to do a day's work with a 4 year and a 7 year demanding attention. No work until the 3rd January once today is over - it feels like it's very much needed. We are at my parents til the 29th and then travel back down via the Midlands to see Matt's family. My parents will be travelling down too and spending New Year's eve with us and some friends in a local restaurant. All very relaxed and lovely.

The plan of action regarding the lard is to take the aforementioned dogs for long walks and practice some squats and sit ups when I can so my next PT session on the 30th December isn't too much of a shock to the system. Diet begins afresh in Jan.

Right, I had better get back to work so I can hopefully finish at a reasonable time. Have an amazing Christmas and New Year everyone, I doubt I'll be posting again before Jan as this laptop is staying firmly off :)

xx

Tis the season to be jolly...

... except if you are doing my job at the moment. I am run ragged. Literally dead on my feet and it is doing my head in. Thankfully I've only 5 more days in the office and then 3 days working from home before I can have a bit of time out. I am literally counting down the days.

I've been suffering some form of man flu/ sore throat/ general feeling of rubbishness for the last week as well which really hasn't helped. My eating has been ok, I'm not making a right pig of myself, but I most definitely could do better. Being so busy at work and getting home a lot later than usual means I am so much less prepared than I normally am. Dinners have been a bit more of the convenience variety of late and there has been too much bread creeping in. Not good enough.

I did PT on Saturday and we focussed on strength instead of Cardio as it sounded like I was about to cough up a lung after 10 minutes on the cross trainer. I have never done so many squats or arm exercises in my life. I could barely move on Sunday and was literally walking like I'd had an accident in my pants, couple that with a massive hangover from far too many bubbles on Saturday night, well you can imagine I was a total joy to behold. Still, Saturday night was much fun with good friends so I won't complain.

I've not been near the scales for at least a week so I need to get an idea of the current situation with regards to maintaining. I meant to get weighed last night but we had a work's Xmas lunch yesterday which involved 3 courses, however it took them so long to serve us, I ended up having to stay at work til gone 8pm to catch up so dinner didn't happen. It's all swings and roundabouts at the moment.

Matt is away all week so I'm literally working and sleeping until the weekend. PT is scheduled before work on Thursday morning - it's the only way I can be sure I will make it. Work Xmas party on  a boat down the River Thames on Friday, I bloody hope we don't have a recurrence of last night's weather or we're likely to be swimming. Saturday will be spent with Matt and probably involve me moaning about being hungover and then I've an Xmas lunch with my girlfriends in Richmond on Sunday but that will be very civilised since all of them are either bringing their offspring, carrying an offspring or trying to get themselves impregnated with some form of offspring. Will be nice to catch up however and should stop me drinking so as to not look like the lush of the group.

Right, I had better get back to work. I've had 27 emails since I started writing this...

Someone tell me it's nearly Christmas...

AWOL

Apologies for the radio silence, work is literally kicking my ass this week and I've not had time to think of anything else. I'm dreaming about Load Balancers and databases. How exciting.

The weekend (which seems like a very distant memory) was lovely. We walked miles, visited Borough Market (it's a good job I don't live closer to that place, the food is amazing) and had possibly the best meal of my life at Marcus Wareing. Every course was totally amazing, Especially the Quail and the Lamb. I'd go back every night if money was no object! Thanks for the tip Seren, we told the waiter we'd just got engaged so were invited into the kitchen to meet the man himself. I was all a bit star struck.



Afternoon tea at the Ritz on Sunday was also particularly lovely, but I'm still very much off cake. I don't have a sweet tooth at all but i couldn't resist.

The middle tier was later filled with freshly baked scones. Swoon.




Since all that loveliness, I've been bogged down with the drudgery of covering 3 people's work. This sucks! I had to cancel PT on Monday as I didn't finish work til 8pm - when you start at 730am, that's not a happy place.

I then had to cancel again on Tuesday due to the onset of man flu which couldn't have come at a worse time. Bah humbug.

So, I've skipped breakfast every day this week as I've literally not had time and by the time I've remembered it's been lunch time, this is ridiculous, i never forget to eat. Lunch has pretty much been a sandwich every day and dinners have been some form of meat with various vegetables. Nothing too hideous really but my eye is slightly off the ball.

I'm not going to make WI again as I'm still working, but to be honest, so long as I can maintain my current weight until after the festive period, I will be happy.

I've scheduled PT for Saturday and then we've a Christmas do with friends. Muchly looking forward to that.

So, hopefully next week won't be so stressy, but with 2 of my team out til Jan 12th, I'm not too hopeful! Merry Christmas to me :)

At least all this work is keeping me mostly out of trouble. Every cloud I suppose!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fed up.com

I'm having  one of those days where I just feel pretty darn miserable and I am actually annoying myself wallowing in this vat of self pity.

I hopped on the scales this morning - they've not budged at all (in fact they may even by up 1/2 since last week) so I really don't want to go to WI tonight. I thought I'd had a fairly decent week, I've tracked, made sensible choices and eaten so much Veg I'm sick of the bloody sight it.

Work is driving me mad already and I've got until 12th January before it returns to normal (2 of my team are off from now until then so I am basically doing the work of 3 people - whoopy do). Let's hope I don't get ill.

And finally, my urticaria is really playing up every time I go to the gym. It's now getting to the point that if I forget to take an antihistamine (which don't do much for me anyway) that my heat rash gets so bad that my right eye swells up and sometimes my tongue... Seriously - WTF?? I went back to the doctors today and he basically told me there is nothing they can do for me. So in an attempt to get fit, I am spending half the week looking like the Elephant Man (my eye is still swollen from Tuesday!). He's given me some more tablets to try and if these don't work, then it's tough. Happy days. I thought exercise was meant to be good for you, but I appear to be feeling fairly annoyed with it at the moment.

Lovely.

On a positive note, I am really glad it's almost Friday. We are spending the weekend in London  as our Christmas present to each other. We are going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and then dinner at Marcus Wareing on Saturday plus Afternoon Tea at the Ritz on Sunday. Hopefully that will cheer up my miserable face. Clearly it won't help too much with the weight loss, but if I keep an eye on things and cut back the rest of the weekend, then hopefully it won't be too bad... or am I kidding myself??

So, gym again tonight, spend the night looking like a freak, WI (possibly if I don't spit my dummy out completely) and then a weekend of Christmas Joy...

Normal more cheerful service shall resume next time.