Same as last year, the season of self-loathing is here again. Fortunately, this time I can recognise it for what it is: a temporary blip on the radar. Christmas has seen a ridiculous amount of gorging on food and drink, plus inactivity that has (if I am honest) stretched right back to before the summer holidays. I definitely need a goal to aim for. Last year it was to lose a stone or so before I bared my scary carcase on the beach and to get fitter before I carked with a bloat- or stress- induced MI or stroke (mainly at my husband's behest - I am supremely lazy).
So... I am not q u i t e back at square one - I think that, although I have certainly put some of my lost weight back on in the past few months, I probably weigh less than I did at this time last year and I have got a bit more muscle visible than in my most whale-like days (my triceps are a good indication). I just need to get back down to it. Luckily we scraped another year at the gym, so I feel pretty well obliged to get my money's worth: anything else would just be ungrateful. But I do really want to change my training routine - less heavy weights and more toning/stretching/cardio as befits a lay-dee of my inexorably advancing years! I've got an induction on those Pilates-wobbly machines, which look a bit daft, but I'll give it a go. I don't know that I fancy getting back into the Tai-Chi - it just seemed to go nowhere and although the idea appeals, the mid-day timing bisects the working day too radically.
The key to success is, as the husband suggest, making a regular commitment to exercise which is what I have been sorely lacking in the past few months. Thinking back I can see where it all went pear-shaped: the summer holidays past, I had no definite goal or plan, plus the boy breaking his wrist meant that the two times a week that I went with the children were dropped until he healed, by which time I was out of the habit of scheduling gym-time. We MUST get back into good habits - and that's ALL it is - GOOD habits. As a couple we're going to cut out alcohol for a few months as from tomorrow: him because he's in training for the Indoor Rowing Championships and me because it's really fattening and I'm getting a bit concerned about all this talk of a link with breast cancer and I must start looking after myself more as the menopause hits. Foodwise I shall cut back on the usual suspects:chocolate, butter and wheat-products which have an adverse effect on my gut in more ways than one. I thought about following Michael Winner's approach to eating - just Eat Less! I am considering the half-portion approach: whatever I would normally eat, eat half that amount, but eat it more slowly and with more appreciation. Wish me luck!
