Two posts in one day! You lucky lot!

I’ve been less than reliable in keeping this blog up to date so far, so I’m looking to settle the tab with the long awaited progress update on my attempts to get vaguely into shape before facing down the most physically demanding challenge of my life.

So to date I’ve:

• Completed 20 sessions across not one but two different personal trainers
• Started tracking and working on my diet (more on this horrifying development later)
• Gone to the gym 16 times separately to working with the trainers

It’s been really helpful working with some trainers, I’m notoriously demotivated by exercise so having someone there to guide me (and kick me when needed) has been invaluable. I’m pleased to say I’ve been sticking with it too.

The biggest surprise (read horror) was diet though. I didn’t think I was that bad, perhaps some room for improvement, a little exercise and I’ll be on track. But no, once I started tracking the snacks and chocolate and less than occasional beer/wine the source of my excess weight became very clear!

To be honest, this was the hardest part to change. Dinner with friends is something I really value so getting my head around cooking more healthily and cutting down on the liquid entertainment has been daunting. I’m not going to say I’ve nailed this bit yet, not by far, but I’m making progress. Small changes here and there.

The good news is I’ve dropped 4 kilos to date. It’s been an emotionally weird process as it’s been a slog to drop that weight. I’m told it’s because I’m replacing fat with muscle (and my reduced waistline agrees) but when you haven’t got loads of ways to measure progress, fairly static scales have been a bit demotivating.

Having said that, as my last blog post alludes to, I’m the fittest I’ve been in a long while and I’m definitely getting there.

I’m excited for the Lake District Challenge, three days of hiking and limited calorie intake opportunities is bound to help right?! I’ll let you know next time.