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!

Zumba - Shake, Shake, Shrink!

Chatting to a lady in my Just Jhoom class last week, and she suggested I tried the Zumba class on a Tuesday, because in her words it was a “beautiful” Now that description for reasons known only to my imagination conjured up images of Zumba done in an English country garden with us wafting flowers around whilst a little old lady with grey hair in a bun and rosy cheeks made us afternoon tea. As I said, I don’t know why I thought this! Maybe I just really like Afternoon tea?

  This class was probably one of the busiest I’ve ever been to, which I always think says a lot about the teacher. I snuck in at the back and got chatting to some lovely ladies, two of whom had been doing the class for 3 years and the other who had only had her tea 10 minutes beforehand and confided in me she was scared she would vomit, which in turn scared me that she might vomit on me!

  I had visions of Gloria Estefan being right and the minute the music started, the rhythm would indeed get me and I’d go from the Katie who was wearing a blue t-shirt and jogging bottoms to J Lo performing at the World Cup opening ceremony complete with slightly inappropriate green leotard and a hip thrust that could have your eye out.

  Sadly as I pranced around the floor trying to avoid my new friend being sick on me, a scene from my favourite film sprung to mind. As I looked at myself in the mirror I swear a vision of Corey Feldman playing Mouth in “The Goonies” appeared to me and over the cheerful samba music I heard cries of “do it” and me whining “ahhhh come on” a finer Chunk Truffle Shuffle tribute act better than me you wont find in all the land!

  I did think at one point my feet and arms had waged war against each other, because they certainly weren’t working in harmony. By the end of the class, I was more Bambi on ice than Brazilian goddess.

  I’m slightly feeling the after effects today, particularly after an energetic game of badminton with my friend Debbie, where we perfected the art of getting the shuttlecock wedged in the net. We like to think of it as the badminton version of the John Virgo trickshot. Still it wasn’t all bad one of the blokes from the over 60’s club who plays at the same time as us complimented us by saying “you’re getting better ladies”

  For those of you who've never been to or seen Zumba, this is what it's meant to look like!

All the shaking has paid off a little bit as I lost half a pound this week, not brilliant, but I'm trying to think a bag of sugar is pretty heavy!

Jai Ho!

The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday, I went to the gym and I actually had fun! I’m always a bit nervous when I go to exercise classes, because I have a massive fear of being singled out by the super fit teacher at the front for being a complete lumbering incompetent!

   My fear is slightly justified. Many years ago I used to go to a spinning class and I think the guy that taught it thought he was beasting a team of Olympic athletes as opposed to a group of people who were just trying to get a bit fitter. He would march round the class turning the knob up on your bike as high as it would go and if he caught you trying to alter it he would scream at you. He once halted the whole class because my friend stopped for a second because her knee hurt. My last memory of him is him screaming

“STOP, STOP, STOP everyone, Sarah has decided her knee hurts so until SARAH decides to start spinning again we will all sit here”

It was a little bit like that scene from “Matilda” where the Trunchball finds out Bruce Bogtrotter has eaten her chocolate cake. The room shook with fear! After that incident we never returned.

  As a result I’ve always been slightly worried that a gym instructor will single me out and make me “drop and give them 20” if I stop for a drink of water. The reality is apart from one body combat instructor who clearly thought I bought the weight average up to unacceptable level in her class, so therefore didn’t acknowledge my existence, everyone else has been lovely. (I should add I've now swapped gyms)

  I’ve probably tried every gym class going and whilst they hold my attention for a few weeks I’m soon bored. However I noticed that my gym had started a new class; “Just Jhoom” A Bollywood inspired dance fitness class. Well they had me at “Bollywood”

  I love Bollywood dancing, I’m not sure whether it’s the colours, the movement or the sheer noise and jolliness of it all, but I couldn’t not try this! 

  When I arrived everyone in the class was really friendly and most importantly so was the teacher. I was lulled into a slight sense of false security when we started with an eye warm up! I can do the moving them left, right, up, down thing, then optician makes me do it all the time, although he’s never referred to it as a warm up and I'm not sure it earns me any bonus points! That was as easy as it got and before I knew it I was doing hand movements called “the beak” and “lotus flower" and kicking my legs about like Dick Van Dyke had asked me “Step in Time”

  My favourite routines were “Jai Ho”, although I suspect I did not resemble a Pussycat Doll in any way shape or form. I think I liked this one most because there was an element of it being like a Bollywood version of “Tragedy”

  My other favourite was a track that sounded it was saying “Barbara Windsor” and wouldn’t have been out of place in a holiday resort!

  I blooming loved it from start to finish and I can honestly say it was the most fun I’ve ever had at the gym, even though by the end of it I looked like this!

Me at my most sexy!

  As I’ve still got 2 pounds to lose to take me back to the weight I was before I went on holiday, I’m really hoping I sweated some of that off!

Getting to Know You

For my Slinky mission, as well as setting myself a weight loss goal, I also set myself a target of generally being more confident in myself.

  Whenever I say to anyone I have no confidence they look at me like I’m crazy. I’m someone who worked in radio for 12 years, during which time I presented a breakfast show, hosted events, did talks and lived by the motto “tits and teeth” No matter how bad I was feeling inside I would always manage to force a smile and do  what was asked of me professionally.

  The flip side of this, was that I was pretty much scared of my own shadow, I would never walk into a restaurant first to ask if they had a table, I’d avoid any social situations where I might get separated from people I felt safe around. If I were out and about on my own and I was lost or couldn’t find something in a shop, I wouldn’t ask for help, because that meant speaking to a stranger. Instead I would wander around lost, traipsing up and down supermarket aisles. I once got myself so lost in London,  I walked around for about two hours before I worked out where I was. As a result I always left far earlier than I needed to, to get to places just in case I got lost. This is a habit I’m yet to break, but I think it’s more to do with I hate tardiness. I think people being late is incredibly rude, it’s like saying “I don’t care enough about you to be on time”

  The reason for all of this wasn’t my weight as such, my weight gain started when I was stalked. Saying being stalked is an awful thing to happen to you sort of undersells it a bit. It strips away at your freedom, your life, your personality and then when it’s kicked the shit out of your life it makes a start on affecting the lives of those close to you.

A selection of the letters I received

  I was receiveing letters from my stalker for a year before I acted and when I did, even though back in the day, Stalking didn’t exist as a crime, Nottinghamshire police were brilliant and there are a few officers I can never repay for their help and care.

  Weirdly long after he’d been to prison for harassment and a life-long restraining order put in place and I’d moved half way around the world, moved house and swapped jobs. The fear and affect of what he did to me lingered on.

  I am a comfort eater and so stuffing my face was far easier than thinking about him. My stalker was and really is still a stranger so I think that’s why I spent years backing away from being in situations where I had to speak to people I didn’t know, because what if I said something that made them stalk me too?

  The eating continued and then after the deaths of my Mum, My Gran and two of my best friends all within 3 years of each other my eating was out of control.

  In October 2012, I took back control and in the last week I realised just how far I’ve come. My weight is coming off, slowly, we’ve had a few blips, but we are getting there and my confidence is getting better.

  Last week was my best friend’s wedding and she’d asked me to do a reading. I’ve hosted hundreds of things and never been nervous, but I think that’s because there’s a “work Katie” and an actual Katie. Actual Katie spent the weeks leading up to the wedding dreaming she’d forgotten to get dressed to do the reading, forgetting to take it with her and then that a friend had stolen it out of my handbag! The reality was I did it and then at the reception, I found I wasn’t sat next to my sister, but at a table full of people I’d never met before. The old Katie would have vomited in her handbag and not said a word to anyone just in case, but the new me had a marvellous time and met some very lovely people!

I also wanted to say a massive congratulations to my friend Stuart for being named Slimming World's Biggest Loser! He's a great bloke and a true inspiration!