I Love to Go a Sauntering!

I know that sometimes my Slinky mission falls a bit short because I don’t exercise enough, I go through phases where I like going to the gym and other phases where I prefer staying at home and watching TV. 

  I think my main problem is I’m easily bored and am yet to find a personal trainer that really motivates me, or actually listens to the things I tell them! One skill I’ve had since childhood is being able to distract people with the art of conversation! I spent many a history lesson getting our teacher with the sexy bum to stop telling us all about the Industrial Revolution, but instead turn towards the board to draw pictures of what various rock climbing terminology meant. This was good for two reasons

1.     I found the industrial revolution quite boring

2.     The class, which consisted of all girls, got to stare at his bum for most of the lesson.

  A few years ago I started working out with a personal trainer, but again I soon got bored of lifting a kettle bell or lunging or stepping up and down on a plastic box so I soon worked out a way of distracting him. Apparently this came in the form of asking questions about anything from how certain foods boosted metabolism to what sort of car he’d like to own.

  Anyway with the best of intentions that if I was doing it for charity I would make myself train and go to the gym religiously, my sister Lucy and I registered for the Moon Walk. Every time I say that it gives me a vision of us wearing a black hat, white socks black shoes and something sparkly and going all Michael Jackson through the streets of London town.

  In reality the Moon Walk is a chance to raise money for breast cancer and as we both have friends and family members who have suffered we wanted to do something practical. You can do the Full Moon (26 miles) or the Half Moon (13 miles) We opted for the half moon because I have a manky ankle, I’m not sure this is the actual medical term, but the general gist is I have to be a bit careful.

  Over the last few months, we’ve done a fair bit of training, walking Cyril miles (something he never objects to), gym sessions, spin classes and pole dancing! I think I had images of the weight dropping off me, which sadly it hasn’t!

Cyril on one of his many walks!

  So by Saturday night, apart from the fact we were worried we’d be able to stay awake through the night we were ready and raring to go! We had our t-shirts; we had water and just for good measure we bought Walk the Walk bobble hats!

Who knew bobble hats could be such fun?

  There was a slight delay to the start time, and by the time we did eventually set off, standing in a field for an hour hadn’t helped my ankle. Still as people lined the route to cheer us on and homeowners leaned drunkenly out of windows to clap and tell us a bearded woman had won Eurovision it was hard not to get carried away with the mood. 

  So as Lucy and I strided through the streets of London talking about anything and everything from who had killed Lucy Beale? (Eastenders) Who was the best Batman? (Michael Keaton) and what we were going to have for tea (Chinese) we were in a pretty good mood. Sadly it would appear that not everyone doing the walk shared our good cheer and at one point where we reached a bit of a bottleneck on a pavement one woman exclaimed quite loudly “Well we made a mistake getting on the pavement behind these” before she then pushed through the middle of us. Still we let that go and continued discussing the issues of the day, (no we’re not sure when Katie Price will find a decent chap)

  By the time we reached the banks of the Thames my ankle was pretty sore and although we were still upbeat I was aware I had slowed down a bit, it was at this point, I heard a lady (and I use the term loosely) proclaim that “people who saunter should not be allowed to take part in this” I was a little outraged because surely whether I was sauntering or not I am still allowed to raise money for charity?

The walkers heading over a bridge, I forget which one!

  By the time we got back to our hotel about 4.30am we were pretty tired and sore, but proud of the money we’d raised despite sauntering our way through it!

Ouch! My poor manly ankle post walk!

  However on Sunday we celebrated with wine, a Chinese and there may have been a sneaky pack of Oreos, so despite my plan that the Moon Walk would help me lose weight when I stepped on the scales last night I’d put a pound ON, but at least I’ve raised pounds for a cause I care about!

 If you'd like to sponsor us via our fundraising page that would be nice.

A medicinal bottle of Chablis

Extreme Measures!

It’s 10 weeks and counting until we do the Moon Walk in London, so at the weekend, Lucy and I decided to up our training. So on Sunday, we set ourselves the target of walking 10 miles, which was double what we’d done in the past and most importantly earn me 22 bonus points!

  After 5 miles, we stopped for a wee, a brew and something to eat. As we started our return trip, I think we felt mildly confident that this would be easy, however 7 miles in, extreme mardiness set in. Our feet hurt, our hips hurt, we stuck in the middle of the woods….no one could hear us scream! Even Cyril was starting to look mildly fed up!

  Realising there was nothing for it, but to walk, we carried on for the full 10 miles and as we took the final few slow steps towards Lucy’s front door, I don’t think we were actually picking our feet up anymore, it was more of Geisha girl type shuffle.

  The only thing that put a smile on our faces was the fact that we had burnt off 1405 calories! If we were celebrities that would have been a whole week’s worth of calories!

  My Sunday evening was spent on the sofa watching “The Big Bang Theory” and flicking through “Heat” magazine and praying Matt Goss would turn up to make me a brew.

 It’s the time of year, where such magazines are full of celebrities who decided to release a fitness DVD at Christmas and are now moaning about the fact they’re too skinny or they have no boobs left. They're also full of those celebs  who were pictured over Christmas looking fat, but are now exercising in the park wearing lime green cycling shorts and a crop top (no publicity please, I’m not doing this for attention, I just want to get fit)

  An article about Holly from “Geordie Shore” caught my eye, because she had shunned both of these things in favour of something a bit more extreme! Corseting.

  Corseting is the art of strapping your torso into a corset and tying it tightly so that your waist gets thinner. Holly (by her own admission) was trying to achieve the waist of a Victoria’s Secret model, so she was wearing the corset for 23 hours a day, even sleeping in it! Her waist started at 31 inches and by the time she'd been strapped up, she was down to 26 1/2 inches!

  Now I think Holly is a pretty girl, but it just seemed to me, she was just causing herself pain for reasons I couldn't understand, I think she already has a lovely figure. All I kept thinking was, "where on earth have her internal organs gone? ! The journalist, Olivia Cooke who wrote the article, even commented that Holly struggled to sit down, despite pretending it was all fine!

  I've only worn a corset once, it was to a "Moulin Rouge" themed ball and I think I cheated slightly, because I didn't tie it too tightly as I knew a 4 course meal was involved and I wanted to enjoy it!

  It set me thinking about the other extremes people go to, to stay thin and I found an article about a Venezuelan model who has a mesh on her tongue so that it makes it painful for her to eat solid foods, this (she feels) helps her keep her beauty Queen figure.

  Now don’t get me wrong, I want to be able to rock a size 10 dress as much as the next person and I would very much like to not have to pick my belly up when I roll over, but not at the expense of some bonkers scheme, which sees my lower intestine pushed up into my lung or preventing me eating sold foods!

  
For me my Slinky By Tuesday quest is as much about achieving a healthy state of mind as it is body. Having suffered from depression and lived in fear, half of my weight battle is about re-gaining my feeling of self worth and I’m doing that!

"It Always Seems Impossible Until It Is Done"

 Another half a pound gone this week. There was a moment when I started to get a bit disheartened with it all, half a pound really doesn’t seem a lot! Then I gave myself a talking to, instead of focusing on how badly I thought I was doing, I started to look at how well I was doing. I remember someone telling me once “that I might lose a few pounds, but I’d never be thin again” Now unless she has a crystal ball (she clearly has a broomstick) how would she know? However slowly my weight is coming off, the fact is I am loosing weight and am nowhere near the weight I was when I started my Slinky mission means I'm winning.  Every time I track my points, do some exercise or get on the scales I am achieving something, because I’m refusing to let myself go back to my old ways.

  It seems quite fitting that I’ve named this blog after a quote from Nelson Mandela, because he’s right most things seem impossible until they’re done! Which is a little bit how I’m feeling about the plank challenge. For reasons known only to someone who knows a lot of things about things, I decided I would undertake the 30-day plank challenge. If you’re not sure what a plank is, then have a look at this.

  Before we go any further I feel I should say, that when I do the plank I don’t look like the lady in the video! I normally throw myself on the floor, shout at the dog / cat to move out the way "this isn't a game Cyril and Pudding" and the most notable difference is my planks are accompanied by tiny little sobs and my whole body shakes like I'm on of those travelator things they have at airports. 

  The idea is that everyday for 30 days, you build up the time you hold the position. So on day 1, it was 20 seconds and then by the time you reach day 30, you should be able to hold the pose for 5 minutes. If I’m being honest, this was something that seemed like a really good idea when I started and now everyday I lie on the floor and click start, I curse myself. It turns out I know some incredibly inventive swear words, maybe the plank pose makes me more creative?

   The weirdest thing about all of this, is that I actually want to see it through! There’s no one making me do this, if I quit terrible things wont happen, but something inside me REALLY wants to get to 5 minutes. Don’t get me wrong I’m under no illusion that after 30 days I’ll have abs of steel, I have too much weight to loose for that to be an option, but I figure I’ll be stronger and whether it’s in my head,  I reckon my tummy is looking a bit less like a “bowl full of jelly” and I can see some definition in my waist. Actually maybe THAT’s the reason I want to do it!

 Lucy and I are also continuing our training for the Moon Walk, last weekend we walked about 12 miles. We weren’t going to walk that far, but owing to a slight navigational error (I took us the wrong way) Sunday’s walk ended up a little bit longer than originally planned! By the end of the weekend, my feet hurt, my back was sore and getting out of bed took a bit longer than normal, but I enjoyed every single step! Sometimes when I think about having to walk 26 miles, I start to  have a mini panic attack, because it seems so far, but I can’t help, but think that it’s going to be a fabulous experience and that the adrenaline of the event will get me through. Plus if I’m going to spend hours walking and chatting I may as well do it with my Bessie!

   It’s really easy to focus on what you don’t have and how things aren’t going quite the way you want, but it’s far better to focus on what you have achieved and what you do have. So half a pound OFF is still a weight loss and what the plank challenge and Moon Walk has highlighted to me is that once I set my mind to something I don’t quit, however impossible the outcome might seem. So yes one day I will be back in my size 10 jeans!

  Oh and if you would like to sponsor us for the Moon walk, that be most lovely! You can do that by visiting our page. http://bit.ly/1f3itT4