Monday 12 December 2011

6 months smokefree!

One of the many pivotal things that has happened this year is that the fiance & I have given up smoking - yesterday marked 6 months of us being smoke- and nicotine-free (after having my last fix while dressed as Yoshi!)

I had been thinking about giving up smoking for a while but kept putting it off. Being the complete stress-head I was while at Uni, I really don't think I could have coped with the added pressure of weaning myself off of the nicotine sticks... anyone who spent longer than 20 minutes around me in my final year would probably agree!

As the excuses started to run out, I decided it really was time I ought to go for it and quit! The final decision was made when Darren & I were very hungover after the Bournemouth Uni Summerball & we couldn't face smoking! We had almost gone 24 hours without a cigarette & made a decision on the spot to just go for it and quit!

6 months later & we haven't inhaled the slightest bit of tobacco (other than second hand smoke.. eurgh!).

If anyone is thinking about giving up - do it! Okay, it's hard at first but get past the first few weeks and you'll feel so much better...

I can breathe now! I can taste better, I don't cough as much and I don't get chest pains anymore! It really helped doing it together with my other half, even though we were at each others' throats a lot in the beginning with short tempers!! I think the competing aspect of not wanting to be the first to fail was the main thing that kept me going anyway! The main thing I would think at times I was struggling and wanted to smoke again is why would I want to put myself through those difficult first few weeks again - because if it wasn't now I would give up some time... I started so I'll finish!

Now I barely even think about it and feel great!

Thursday 8 December 2011

Look after the pounds & the stones will look after themselves...

My life has recently been somewhat taken over by the Big Bad Gym and the dreaded task of stepping on the scales each week!

Anyone who has only known me for the past 3ish years might be surprised to know that I was once actually pretty damn skinny and a shade of 'underweight' according to Dr BMI... I never tried to be and I definitely didn't watch what I ate, but I was pretty active and religiously attended a two-hour dance group twice a week.

Since then a lot of things happened that could be 'to blame' for me putting on a lot of stone and going up a lot of dress sizes. It could be a mix of getting comfortable in my relationship, going on the pill, stopping going to dance, starting to drive, becoming a lazy whatsit and eating a lot of Domino's... So yeah... it could be something to with any of those.

Getting fit and losing weight is another of those things I've been wanting to do but putting off so I really needed my recent engagement to give me the shove it did to get down the gym and sort out my eating habits! I'm not aiming to be superskinny but I really want to just be happy with how I look on my big day... and every day after would be nice! And as someone who has lost a lot of confidence in the past few years & who really does have a strong dislike of mirrors & photographs showing myself, this is no easy feat!

But I'm on my way! :)

In 9 weeks, since starting to really focus on regularly hitting the gym & 'dieting' (not following a strict diet, just cutting out crap & eating more healthy stuff!) I've managed to shed 15lbs!

Still a long way to go (I'm hoping to lose 5-5.5 stone altogether, in around a year) but I'm pretty proud of myself so far, especially since getting past these first stone! And that's with a couple of nights out, some meals out, the odd packet of crisps & nibbles of chocolate but mostly concentrating on not snacking, eating healthier meals & getting my arse down the gym!

I'm lucky that my fiance & I are in this together so we're spurring each other on which really helps, as it did with giving up smoking (I'll get to that later!). We weigh ourselves weekly using the Wii Fit (which is spot-on accurate against our bathroom scales) which keeps a tab on our weight & BMI. It's nice to see the charts heading in the right direction!

Let's hope it continues! :)