Sunday Summary #30

Wow, number 30 already! The weeks are flying by.

Sarah - I have been REALLY naughty this week so was very surprised when I stepped on the scales at WI and had lost 1lb :)  I have also lost another 1/2" off my waist, thank you hotpants!  To give you an idea of how naughty I have been since my last WI I have eaten: 1 x zinger tower burger, 1 x pub burger & chips, 2 pints of lager, jacket potato with full fat cheese, sweet & sour chicken balls & egg fried rice, 2 x cream scones, 1/3 of a massive millionaires cheesecake (amazing btw!), 100g salted peanuts, a twix, 1/2 tub ice cream, malteaser bunny, a billionaires shortbread bar, a couple of cupcakes that I made and a packet of crisps.  I wouldn't like to work out the total calories but it's a lot more than my 10-15 syns a day. I was also meant to be doing Charlene's 30 day shred challenge but embarrassingly I haven't started it. I've been both too busy and too lazy! I have made a pact with myself to show restraint and exercise this week so wish me luck!

Gemma- I lost 0.5lb this week which is great news, I was a little worried because I went to a wedding on Wednesday and had a roast dinner and dessert with clotted cream and bacon rolls in the night eek. I am now at -47 and I want to work hard to get my -50lb certificate. I'm hoping to lose about 1.5 this week. I have organised a Cardiff bloggers meet up which is on Wednesday, there are going to be free drinks and food so I will have to save up all my weekly points for that and try not to go too mad. It's been a long and busy week in work so I'm going to treat myself to some chow mein, curry and mushrooms tonight. (about 10 ProPoints)

Sarah V - I lost 1lb this week. I'm trying not to get disheartened as my weight IS going down, and since I went back to Rosemary Conley properly at the start of September, it's gone down steadily, week by week. But it's been a month now and I haven't lost a whole half a stone - when I went back in March I lost nearly a stone in my first month! There's a lot more I could be doing to step it up though so I just have to keep trying and factor in some more exercise. Every week since I've been back there's been something - normally just a day where I haven't been able to control my diet very well, or a meal out or something, and I think those days are making a big difference, even though I'm being really good the rest of the time.

Charlene - It's been quite a good week. Haven't weighed myself (feeling rather scared of the numbers to be honest) but the 30 day shred must be working because I feel a lot more confident about my body and think I'm looking more toned too! My diet hasn't been too bad lately either. I'm really starting to notice that eating my meals at odd times causes me to snack more or just skip a meal alltogether and end up filling up on junk instead so I've been trying to be a bit more organised!

Lucy - Is on her holidays in Australia now, lucky lady!


Have you entered our competition to win a pair of hotpants yet? Tell us all how your week has been!

Guest Post - Lotus and Pie

Hi readers of Where are my Knees!

My name is Jenn and I “re-started” my healthy lifestyle back in March 2011.  I say, “re-started” as previous to 2007; my life had been fairly healthy.  I was an overly active teen at school, playing every sport there was and then progressed to elite fitness and kickboxing in my 20’s.

A few major changes occurred in my life and I slipped into the habit of not caring about myself, smoking, drinking and basically not providing my body with the right fuel or energy to have one day without feeling tired or lethargic.

I packed my bags and moved from Sydney to London in May 2010.  I worked in a pub as well as my 9-5pm job.  This caused me to gain a lot of weight as I was drinking cider after every shift while socialising and trying to make friends in a new country.

I soon realised that this was not the life I wanted to be living.  I never had before, so why should I start doing this to myself now?  I quit smoking in October 2010 and haven’t looked back.  It took a few more months to get myself settled into a healthier routine but once I was in a happier place, I knew it was time to work on changing my body to being better than what it was before.

March 5^th 2010 is when I took my first progress picture.  I was disgusted with what I had let myself become and in all honesty, that was enough motivation for me to sort myself out. 

I bought a runners backpack and gave myself a challenge of being able to jog the route home from Camden to Shoreditch, which was about 3.5miles.  I also signed up to My Fitness Pal so I could see what nutrients I was putting into my body and educate myself as to what was good and what was bad.

Okay I won’t lie; the first day jogging I felt like someone had a harness attached to me, holding me back.  I couldn’t hop gracefully from the road to the footpath when needed and I had to stop frequently to walk and catch my breath.  However, before this first attempt was even half over, I was determined to kick my goals a**!

After 3 attempts I was able to jog the entire length of the hill up Pentonville Road from Kings Cross to Angel.  Believe me, the smile on my face when I ran to the top was huge!  Of course, since I had run the whole hill without stopping, I couldn’t let it beat me again.  Each time I ran; the hill was mine.  Before I knew it I had shaved 6mins off my trip home.

I had to make some pretty severe changes to my diet since I have a very active sweet tooth.  I stopped buying anything sugary. I saw it as a bad habit (like smoking) that needed to be kicked cold turkey.  I limited drinking alcohol for a while, knowing that my weakness for bourbon and coke was doing nothing for my sugar intake.  I do enjoy a vodka, fresh lime and soda though!

Each week I continued to take progress pictures. I felt the difference in my body; I couldn’t see it for some time.  I still felt as big as what I was the week before.  But you know what, after time, my clothes started to get baggy on me.  I tried on some old skinny jeans that I had only ever fit into once in Australia, and they fit me perfectly.  I was finally back to the size I was, when at my skinniest!

I hopped on the scales on June 9^th and saw that I had lost close to 20lbs.  I had done it!

Now it is nearing October and I have maintained my current weight of 127.8lbs for the last 3months.  I exercise 5-6 times per week.  I eat 5 times per day.  I have kept up with running and ran my first Race for Life 10K in 47mins and 20seconds.  I am stronger than I have ever been before and I feel fantastic.  My life has started again and I feel I have been given a second chance.
 
I would like to give some advice to those of you who are just starting out on your healthy lifestyle journeys.

1.  Don’t give up.  Just because the scales don’t show a change it doesn’t mean your body isn’t changing.
   
   
2. Set yourself some mini goals just as I did. Being able to jog/cycle a certain distance in a certain time is a good one.  Or even sign up to a fun run and give yourself something to train and aim for.
   
   
3.  If you have a sweet tooth, allow yourself a treat once in a while.  If you don’t you may end up going overboard one day and then feeling really down on yourself afterwards.  Then you will think, well I have ruined it, why should I keep going?  You have NOT ruined it.  A slice of cake, a jar of Nutella, a spoonful of icing sugar, a whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s never killed anyone.  I speak from experience.
   
   
4.  Learn about and listen to your body.  Put the right fuel in to get the right result out.  Being healthy doesn’t mean eating raw veggies, fruit or boring bland meals.  If it was, I wouldn’t be telling this story now – I love my food way too much.
   
   
5.  Finally, don’t be upset if you still have so far to go.  Be happy that you grabbed your life by the scruff of the neck and started this journey in the first place.  You’re trying and you will get there.

I am sorry this has turned into a long and involved essay for you to read. I think posting a “before and after” picture like mine deserves a bit of an explanation.  It can be done.  It is possible.  You will get there!  It doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right knowledge and determination, you can change your lifestyle in as little as 3 months.

Jenn @ www.lotusandpie.com

Hotpants - A Giveaway! NOW CLOSED



The lovely people at Zaggora have been in touch and offered us a pair of hotpants to giveaway to one lucky Where Are My Knees reader! 

If you're wondering what hotpants are check out our review from last week.  They may sound too good to be true but we got great results from them in our two week trial.



To enter 
Please leave a comment below and let us know what you would do in your hotpants if you won a pair!
Please 'like' hotpants on facebook. You can read reviews from hundreds of users on their wall too.
Please help us publicise our little competition by tweeting the following:

Get yourself over to @wherearemyknees for a chance to win a pair of @gethotpants http://wherearemyknees.blogspot.com/2011/10/hotpants-giveaway.html

The competition is open to UK readers only and closes on Thursday 20th October at 6pm.  The winner will be chosen at random using random.org.  The winner will need to supply their name and address along with their required size.

Good luck!



Fleetly Challenge (update)

We're now onto Day 5 of our 30 Day Shred challenge - 16% complete! There were a few kinks to start with, but I think we've figured it out all out now and so far quite a few people have joined the challenge and started logging their workouts! If you missed our previous post on Fleetly and the Where Are My Knees? Fleetly challenge then you can click here to read it.

There was a bit of confusion over how to actually log the workouts, so I thought I'd put together a little guide of how it works. It's quite simple to use, I think the issues were simply because when I set it up I wasn't 100% sure how it was going to work until we started logging our exercises but Samer, one of the helpful staff members at Fleetly, has sorted everything out for us - thanks!

001. Sign up at Fleetly (you can simply link it to your Facebook in one click or create a stand alone login) and follow this link to the Where Are My Knees? Challenge. You can then click to join the challenge. A lot of us are friends over there so feel free to add us (you can see everyone taking part under 'competitors') as friends to liven up your timeline a little.

002. We've created 3 different work outs for the 30 Day Shred - Level 1, 2 and 3 - which you can see linked in blue in the image above. It's recommended to do each level for 10 days but there's no pressure to move up a level if you're not ready. All you need to do is click the workout for the level you've completed that day and the page you're directed to will have a bright orange 'log' button.

003. Next, select the date you wan't to log the exercise on, this is great if you can't get online one day - you can always backdate your exercises, and then select 'start logging'. You will see 'add' buttons next to the individual exercises, click these (you can fill in more detailed information such as how many reps you completed if you're aiming to gain points for your timeline but this won't affect the challenge) and then click the 'done' button at the top and you should see your points in the standings increase!

I hope that helps everyone! If you've got any more questions or suggestions on future Fleetly challenges then please let us know!

We'd also love to hear how you're getting on with the challenge so far! Have you stuck to it, or have you been naughty and skipped a day already? Personally my legs are BURNING! This usually passes by day 6 or 7 though so I'm going to push through it!