Sunday Weigh-In: Change of Attitude

Now I've titled this post of change of attitude, it was originally going to be change of plan but I felt it sounded too strict. The whole focus on diets is to be strict, most tell you to eat certain things at certain times of the day, to do this exercise not that exercise and I hate that, it's silly, it's trading one unhealthy way of being for another. Diets shouldn't be about restricting as many calories as possible and doing as much exercise as you can its about balance, it should make you happy which is why I've changed my attitude.

Trying to keep up with 10,000 steps at the weekend is making me miserable, it's absorbing all my time and I feel like a failure when I can't make it. The worst thing is I'm omitting actual exercise in favour of trying to hit my step target but now I've decided to be happy to be a failure. I'm still aiming to do 70,000 a week but without the pressure.

Don't get me wrong, the fitbit is great and will still be a handy tool in my lifestyle but the figure that shows up is just for information. At the weekend whatever steps I do is good, I know I make more of the effort to get up and do things at the weekend than I used to, my steps have improved. However I love to exercise, I would much prefer to do 90 minutes on a Saturday and Sunday doing something I enjoy than just trying to get my steps up so things have changed.

So I'm trading the left for the right, instead of walking around the house getting my steps up in my joggers I'm back to focusing on the exercise and this is how it will stay. Although I will be spending some of my time slobbing about doing jigsaws in my joggers!

I did 42 minutes on the cross trainer yesterday and 40 minutes of yoga. I'm not pushing it as hard as I used to, I'm still sore and on painkillers so I'm not trying to exacerbate my pain I just need to remind myself that whatever I'm doing now is 10x what I was doing this time last year when I was bed-bound.

I'm lucky as I have a cross trainer with a seat so I mix it up, I stand and sit, swapping between the two, stand for as long as possible then sit down for a bit. It's also great as I can read, watch and listen, as you can see from the photo above I have a stack of magazines (nothing too taxing, I can't concentrate on a proper book for some reason when I exercise) plus I catch up on old radio shows some live ones too and on the odd occasion watch something on Netflix - well, usually Orange is the New Black.

The 40 minutes of basic yoga I did yesterday was the first yoga session since the surgery. I have tried but just lying on my front caused great pain, now it isn't so bad so things must be improving.

I've also stopped looking at the scales. It scares me a little, almost as if when I don't look at the scales they'll zoom up but I actually feel more trim and have a little more energy than I do last week so that is a bonus.

Food wise I've had as little more control along with a few treats. I still haven't worked out why I'm super hungry when I get home from work, even if I've had something to eat before I set off home, I've noticed even at the weekend I get hungry at this time. I also need to start taking my metformin again, I take this for symptoms of PCOS, I stopped when I was trying to reduce my pain medication (I wanted to make sure any kidney pain wasn't down to tablets I was taking). I'm worried as the side effects can make me quite ill but I really think it did help.

Short Term Goals & Long Term Goals

For now I'm just going to see how the next couple of weeks go. I'm going to try and exercise 4 days a week and rest 3 days. It would be good to get up to 70,000 steps each week but it isn't the most important element.

Anyway, enough of my whining. I'm feeling positive this week and I hope everyone else is too!