Health and Fitness

Confession time… lockdown weight gain.

A little confession, lockdown weight gain… Yes, it happened. Although I did exercise during lockdown, I gained weight. A whole stone has snuck on…yes 14lbs of fat. My diet somewhat went from being healthy to being…I think best described as… whatever.

I’ve noted the weight gain, and where it all went wrong! As, there is no doubting it did go wrong. I have an underactive thyroid which sometimes makes my weight harder to control, and I know I had a bit of a blip with my thyroid in the midst of lockdown. But, I think I’m back on track now, certainly I feel more healthy.

Annoyingly, my exercise has reduced since not being in lockdown. Partly due to trying to get back to normal, and there are never enough hours in the day. But also partly due to the lockdown weight gain making me feel it a bit more. Yes, really! I’ve felt so cross with myself. So frustrated that my jeans are way too tight. Why have I let this happen? Then I gently reminded myself that actually, my thoughts have been elsewhere. Focused on keeping my family safe, healthy, educated ignoring the thyroid blip. But now, while my worries about those things are possibly greater, my thoughts have also turned to my ill fitting jeans!

The too tight Jeans Problem

So, do I buy new larger sized jeans? Am I happy with the lockdown weight gain? The answer is no. I’m so much happier a stone lighter, mentally and physically. So I need to do something about that extra weight. Here’s what I’m going to do, I’m writing it down, as then I have to take ownership for it. I can’t just “forget”. I am making myself accountable.

Tracking what I eat.

I follow some wonderful people over on Instagram. One of them is a lovely PT. She’s one of those people who makes fitness and health approachable. She did a wonderful video on calorie deficit, and I messaged her to ask what she uses to track her calories. She suggested Lifesum. So, I downloaded it. It tracks your food and exercise, and is very user friendly. So far so good. Actually I’ve already lost 3lb in 2 weeks. Hooray only 11lbs more to go…but I could be there by Christmas! (Ok, maybe sooner than Christmas!)

I’m not interested in fad diets, I want my diet to be healthy and balanced. I don’t want to be sat saying that I can’t have something as I am “on a diet”. So, the weight is going to take a little time to come off and that’s ok.

Take me to the Bar(re)

I’m trying to keep active as, firstly the more active I am the less urge I have to eat, and secondly I do quite enjoy exercising. My plan is to try to exercise 4 or 5 times a week. I don’t see it as a chore, but I do often see it as a challenge, to see if I can do or learn something new. I’ve been really enjoying Barre classes online. It never ceases to amaze me how such simple movements can cause such muscle ache. I’ve also noticed that I need to work on my flexibility, as it is not what it used to be! So, that’s going to be my winter project.

Running.

I’ve spoken about running before, and so I won’t bore you with my thoughts on it again. You can read this post which explains: my love hate relationship with running. I have to admit I still prefer walking to running, I will walk for miles quite happily and I suspect over winter walking will take over from running. Walking is more time consuming than a quick run though!

Swimming

I love swimming, but I much prefer wild swimming to swimming in a pool. That needs to change as I wild swimming won’t happen when the water gets really cold! So I’m looking at waterproof MP3 players to keep me motivated!

So, that’s my plan for the next few months, just to get me back on track before Christmas!