When More Nos Equal More Yeses

I’m just going to say it, three weeks after really getting to grips with “operation love my Heart” and my little plaque proudly displays, these little numbers.

I’m so proud of myself! Proud because I’ve stuck to what I promised myself I would!

  Now I’ve always been the sort of person, who’s pretty much up for anything, which is probably how I found myself camping in the jungle with a group of soldiers and abseiling down the side of Nottingham Forest Football club.

  Somehow my fun "yeses" got turned into not so fun "yeses", and I found the time I had for me getting less and less and the things I wanted or sometimes needed to do getting put on the backburner. I don’t like ironing any more than the next person, but sometimes you’ve got to get it done!

  So two weeks ago when my sister Lucy signed up to join my gym, I said “yes” to giving her my password to my online booking and agreed to try various classes, on the proviso that if I REALLY hated something or suffered injury I didn’t have to go again!

  Every bit of me wanted to say “no”, but a promise is a promise and what is it they say ....

  We started off with aqua Zumba, which in fairness, won me round immediately…. Dancing in the water? What’s not to love? Alright it was hardly the famous lake scene from “Dirty Dancing”, but there was a classic Aha track on the playlist for good measure and afterwards we gossiped in the hot tub.

  Then there was the yoga…. This class started and ended with 10 minutes laying on the floor…. This baby sells itself! I didn’t care that I’d accidentally positioned myself next to Bendy McBendyface the bendiest woman in all of bendyland.

Next up was body combat. This is basically pretending to punch and kick things in time to music. Great for stress levels and I slept like a baby afterwards!

  Finally, today it was Just Jhoom, which is my favourite gym class! It’s basically a Bollywood version of Zumba.

  To allow me to fit all of this in, I’ve said “no” to some stuff I don’t want to do!

  It’s not just been the exercise, I’ve said “no” to biscuits in meetings, I said “no” when someone offered me a cake to take home and I’ve politely declined taking on a work project that ultimately would be of no benefit to my business.

  So if I take all my nos and add them to my yeses, do you know what I got? 3 ½ pounds off! That’s what I got!

  Tomorrow I’ve said yes to going spinning and unless the teacher looks like Matt Goss and is naked, this might get added to my “no’s” for next week

I'm Not Anti Exercise, I'm Just Anti Doing Stuff I Don't Like!

There’s a line in “Sex and the City”, where Carrie says that shopping is her cardio. There’s a lot of things I like about Carrie Bradshaw, her fabulous shoes, her ability to wear clothes that would quite frankly make me look like a crazy bag lady and the fact that despite spending most of her evenings drinking Cosmopolitan’s in a fancy New York bar, she really doesn’t have a weight problem! (Weight Watchers fans, a Cosmo is 6 pro-points!)

  Alright, I’m sure there’s a wealth of personal trainers who would argue that shopping isn’t cardio, but they would be wrong. I can only assume they’ve never spent a proper day shopping, walking in and out of shops, up and down stairs, spending hours and hours traipsing around the streets of your favourite city, looking for that one bargain! Plus, sitting to enjoy a coffee / glass of wine on your trip is not only a chance to rehydrate, but is also sort of like doing squats….. I went too far didn’t I?

  I think the point Carrie is trying to make, is that whatever it is that gets your heart pumping and the blood racing around your body, should be something you like doing. P.E lessons for me as a child, were not fun, running around a school field in P.E knickers in the freezing cold, getting bashed with a hockey stick and trying to make head or tale of what the bloody hell lacrosse was. None of these things made me happy or indeed want to continue them in later life. In fact having an amenable music teacher meant that he was quite happy to schedule my flute lessons for then!

  As part of my “Happy Katie” plan, and knowing that eating less and moving more helps with the slinky mission, I have decided to only do things at the gym that I really like. The classes where I don’t notice the ticking of the clock and spend it wishing the teacher would get a phone call telling her that a heard of goats had attacked her car.

  So the last few weeks, I’ve been trampolining. Planet Bounce has opened in Nottingham and if you haven’t been, then I’d really recommend it. I went with my friends and godchildren and bouncing is for EVERYONE! Turns out an hour of bouncing is quite a lot, but it’s one of the most fun things I’ve done all year!

Bounce selfie!

Shooting hoops is far easier with the help of a trampoline!

  I’ve carried on with Burlesque dancing, because lets face it, if more exercise classes involved top hats and feather boas, gyms would be happier, feather-covered places.  I’m doing Just Jhoom (Bollywood inspired) and today I booked myself into a Zumba class that I had never done.

  Turns out I didn’t read the small print with the Zumba class because it was the hardest class I have ever done! I’m not really sure why.  I’ve done Zumba a lot in the past, but for some reason my feet and arms had declared war on each other and were refusing to work in perfect harmony. There was one routine that involved so much spinning around, that I think even Kylie would have refused to continue! Still my new 71 year old BZF (best Zumba friend) kept checking I was OK and we had a lovely discussion about “Strictly Come Dancing”, she’s rooting for Jay & Aliona, she doesn’t like Peter Andre and she thinks Jeremy Vine is very brave to take part, because he’s all arms and legs.

  By the end of the class, I was slightly dizzy, very sweaty and a crazy red face!

  However I loved it and I’ll be going again next week, although maybe, just MAYBE I’ll get my limbs to work together.

Turns out I’m not anti-exercise, I’m just anti doing stuff I don’t like!

Do You Know What I Got for Christmas? Fat! I Got Fat!

Well that’s not strictly true, if I’m honest Christmas was just a really big flake on top of a VERY big ice cream! A few of my bad habits of been gradually creeping in, which has meant my weight has gradually gone up a bit. 

Bad habits or breakfast pastries as other people call them.

French Toast, which may or may not have been consumed over the Christmas period, by someone who may or may not have been me

There has been an odd flash of brilliance with a pound lost here and there, but (and I know this sounds like an excuse) in the run up to Christmas I’ve been so busy that I haven’t managed to make many weigh ins. I’ve been working crazy hours, which means I haven’t made the gym and getting in late has meant tea has generally been something on toast. It’s amazing what you can put on a bit of toast; I may actually write a cookbook entitled “KT Toast of the Town”.

  I know a lot of people don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions, but I think everyone needs a starting point, whether it’s the start of a New Year, a new week or even a new day, you just need a starting point!

  I took my opportunity as 1^st January, I say January 1^st, it was the bit after the bit where I stayed up until the early hours of the morning eating and drinking bad stuff. My January 1^st started about 10am!

  I planned for it though, I made sure, my fridge was full of healthy stuff that I liked and I also refreshed myself with the plan that DNA Fit put together for me. 

I’ve been combining their advice, but eating to my Weight Watchers points, which has been working. Basically my DNA dictates that I eat very little carbs (bang goes that toast cookbook) eat more fish and protein, bring on the cheese (although weighed and pointed portions) I’m OK with a glass of red (hurrah, I knew I liked dieting) and I can still drink coffee and eat chocolate occasionally (and occasionally doesn’t mean every couple of hours)

  I’ve needed to start to build up my fitness again, so over the weekend, Cyril was taken out for walks, which has the double bonus of earning me extra points and tiring him out, which if you’ve ever come across a beagle is a near impossible task!

Sleepy Cyril & his Moo-cow

  Tuesday morning I set my alarm and was at the gym for 6.30am, which apparently is the busiest place on earth at that time of morning, I had to distract an old lady with Alan Titchmarsh on the tele so I could get on a treadmill.

Ipod and water ready for the gym

Today, I’ve managed to plan my working day so that I could nip off for a couple of hours to go to Just Jhoom, which is my all time favourite ever exercise class. If you’ve never done it, it’s basically Bollywood style Zumba! Don’t let the warm up of moving your eyes left to right and up and down fool you into thinking it’s easy, it’s not! It’s hard and you sweat A LOT and then old ladies have to ask you if you’re alright (well they do with me!)

  So tonight is my first post Christmas weigh in and I know it wont be pretty, but as I strip off at the scales and I mean strip (I need every bit of help I can get) I know that I’ve put myself back on track, I’ve also set myself mini goals to keep me focused! The first one is to have lost 7 pounds by the time I go and see Matt Goss at the end of January, so wish me the best of British!