Wednesday, December 30, 2009
"Move in now, move out, hands up now hands down"
It's one more day before 2010. New decade, new lifestyle! Me and Sarah have decided that for the new year we will be looking much more closely at the things we eat and the exercise we do. It's fair to say that for various reasons (injury/laziness/weather), the exercise regime I was following earlier in the year has fallen by the wayside. It's "traditional" for people to put on much more weight and over indulge during the holidays, but personally (apart from a big Christmas dinner!) I've tried to stay off alcohol and not eat too much. My weight has gone back up from around 200 to 220lbs (my weight yo-yo's between these two depending on how much exercise I am doing), but this time I want to lose some weight and keep it off. I'm planning to do the Vancouver Sun Run again this year, and I really want to beat 50 minutes after the disappointment of last year's 57 minute run. On top of that, I have my deferred entry to the Great North Run with Paul, who has done an amazing job of losing weight. He's a good inspiration for what I want to achieve.
Anyway, as of January 1st, there will be no more alcohol (for at least a month!), no excess sugars, no MSG... basically just healthy simple foods, twinned with regular good exercise (I want to get back into the habit of 3mile runs each day, with football on Tuesdays and Sundays). We are going to do what most other people do in January and join the gym, but we will stick to going regularly. It's just a shame that none of the local gyms around here are top notch. My old gym (that me, Coops, and Deano used to go to for 90 mins per day) was really good, it had the right sorts of equipment, and it wasn't really that busy ever. There are a couple of options around here that I just don't find any good for one reason or another - either they use old machines and are small, but not busy, or they have the latest machines, but they have classes that mean you can't use the equipment when you want. Yes, St John's, I'm talking about you!
I'm sure we will find a gym that suits us both. In the meantime, I'll be hoping the weather isn't too awful, so I can run pitchcroft. I was pretty pleased that in the summer I could do a lap of it in 16 minutes, but I'll be a long way off that pace at the moment.
I'm determined that this time, once I lose the weight and get my top fitness back, that I stay on top of it and don't slip back. This will be the 4th or 5th time in 2 years that I'm trying to lose the weight and keep it off. I have no problems losing it, but then i'll get an injury or illness, and all the hard work gets undone....
