Category: exercise

Week 57 weigh-in: 1 lb away from being in the healthy range!

Hello!

I have to admit that I really hoped to wake up this morning to announce “Ta daaah!!! My BMI’s under 25” and be able to squeeze this accomplishment into the very end of May. But is losing weight a race? Does it have to be today? Let’s check out this week’s report card:

What’s happened this week?

  • I lost 1 lb
  • My body fat is now under 30%
  • My body water is now consistently above 50% after often being dehydrated
  • I’ve signed up to do another fitness medal

What could Erika improve on?

  • Increase my calories…. yes, still finding this hard

Erika’s next target(s):

  • 1 lb until my weight’s in the healthy range! A single, solitary, standalone 1 lb left!
  • 2 lbs until I’ve lost over half of my original weight!
  • 8 lbs until my ultimate goal so that I have a 7 lb buffer to stay in the healthy range

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Last year as the pandemic broke and my weight loss journey began, I discovered an international community of people who walk, run, jog, etc. so that shiny new medals drop through their letter boxes. There are SO many websites doing these medals such as Virtual Runner UK, Race at Your Pace and The Conqueror (if you’re on Facebook, do check out The Conqueror Community page for the loveliest and most supportive group of people). Whether you want to cover a marathon distance in one go or set yourself the challenge of walking 5 km over the course of a whole month, there’s a medal out there for everyone and for every level of fitness. On Saturday, I did a 7km walk with a friend across fields and past lakes. Right now, I do need to strike a balance between pushing myself and being kind as, whilst my legs were absolutely fine afterwards, I felt dizzy for hours once I actually stopped walking. But it was very warm and I just need to listen to my body more.

When was my BMI last in the healthy range? Probably about 28 years ago so once I see my BMI go under 25, I’ll be straight on here! I never thought with my BMI starting out at 50 that I could halve it but I’m on the verge of doing that. I’m right on the cusp ❤

As ever, please feel free to share your diet / weight-related successes, frustrations or anything else on your mind.

Take care

Love Erika xx

Recordable weight loss since starting to blog:Still to lose:Current weight:BMI:
142 lbs8 lbs166 lbs25.1
Plus 21 lbs lost prior to blogging

A non-scale victory! I didn’t search for the nearest car park space!

Hey folks

I don’t know about you but I’ve been staying away from the shops since the pandemic began. We’ve been able to get home delivery really easily and I’ve just wanted to stay safely away from others as much as possible.

Well, sensing that I’ve become a bit of a recluse, I’ve started to venture into some shops over the past couple of weeks but late into the evenings. Last night, I drove down to the coast because being anywhere with water (whether it’s the English Channel, a lake or even a duck pond!) does me the world of good mentally. I popped into a clothes shop (and was really excited to be buying US size 8 / UK size 12 clothes) but I then popped into a supermarket. This particular supermarket is one that I haven’t visited since I was 162 lbs heavier and I remember desperately trying to get the nearest space to the front of the shop… and needing to keep pausing to catch my breath. But I found myself last night deliberately parking slightly further away and purposefully walking towards the store with a huge spring in my step and not the slightest bit puffed out. THAT is progress! And it’s when we can compare the old and new that we get to see how far we’ve come.

Have a great weekend everyone. I was hoping that my weight may finally be in the ‘healthy’ range but the scales haven’t budged now for 7 days but let’s see if anything happens before Monday. 2 lbs, yes 2 lbs, will get me to that goal but I’ll celebrate whether it happens this week or next. I just need to think of a reward to treat myself to!

Take care

Erika xx

Week 55 weigh-in: I fell over…but I got up again!

Hey guys

More about the blog title in just a moment but let’s start with this week’s report card…

What’s happened this week?

  • I lost 2 lbs
  • My BMI is now in the 25s!
  • I drank far more water than normal

What could Erika improve on?

  • Increase my calories…. yes, still finding this hard…

Erika’s next target(s):

  • 1 lb until I can go horse riding at a nearby stables (although I can ride elsewhere)
  • 1 lb until I’m at my wedding weight from nearly 25 years ago
  • 2 lbs until my weight’s in the 160s
  • 6 lbs until my weight’s in the healthy range (that’s less than half a stone!). I do wonder how much my excess skin weighs though because it’s possible that this could account for the remaining 6 lbs but let’s not go there!
  • 6 lbs until I’ve lost half of my original weight!
  • 13 lbs until my ultimate goal so that I have a 7 lb buffer to stay in the healthy range

So, back to my blog title which isn’t about falling off the diet wagon and getting back on track! About 3 years ago, I had a really bad fall when I did a lot of tissue damage throughout my left leg and ended up on crutches for 6 weeks. In fact, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t broken a bone as the pain was so immense and I couldn’t put weight on my leg for the first 3 weeks or so. But what was also really hard was that I fell over in a public place and I was immediately surrounded by lovely people keen to help me up. However, I knew that I couldn’t get up easily as I was 158 lbs heavier than I am now. Instead, I had to style it out and reassure them I was fine and I just needed to remain on the ground for a bit longer… and then somehow get myself off the ground when there weren’t so many people around.

Let’s fast forward to Saturday night just gone when I headed to a nearby park, around the lake, around the ornamental gardens for a long walk. I’d been sitting down all day working and I just wanted to stretch my legs. It’d been raining all day and I found myself in an area without a hard path and…. I fell over! I just started to slide in the mud and ended up falling in a rather graceful yet comical way right onto the ground! I didn’t hurt myself at all but what really struck me was that I just bounced back up! Just a push to the ground with my hand and I was soon back on my feet. THAT is a non-scale victory 🙂

And apologies before I go. Last Friday was a full-on day for me and I completely forgot to blog but I’ll be back on Wednesday. I’m going to talk about comments regarding weight loss which I started to touch on last week and then, on Friday, I’ll give you an update about where I am with the atypical anorexia. As ever, please feel free to share your diet / weight-related successes, frustrations or anything else on your mind.

Take care

Love Erika xx

Recordable weight loss since starting to blog:Still to lose:Current weight:BMI:
137 lbs13 lbs171 lbs25.9
Plus 21 lbs lost prior to blogging

Being brave and going out during daylight!

Hey guys

I don’t usually blog at the weekend but I’m currently on a walk and, unlike the walks I’ve gone on so far this week, it’s daylight! In the past hour, there’s been sunshine, rain and even hailstones but after feeling a bit meh today, I thought I would get out there and dust off any negative thoughts 😀 So, these photos won’t mean much to anyone else but, to me, here’s me saying that I don’t need to hide away! It’s okay to be seen. I’ve even discovered a monastery hidden deep in the woods. Despite living in the village for 18 years, there’s so much more still to discover…

Time to head home as my ears are frozen but I’ll see you on Monday for my next weigh-in

Love Erika xx

Can you build a career stemming from your own weight loss?

Hey folks

Although I usually plan my posts, I guess today’s is one of those where I truly don’t know how it might end but this is where my thinking’s at:

  • I like people 🙂
  • I like supporting people who are struggling with one thing or another
  • I’m on a huge weight loss journey right now where I’m putting in as much effort into my thought processes as I am into what I’m eating and how I’m working out
  • I’m pretty good at breaking huge goals into tiny ones that are achievable
  • I really hope that I’m inspiring even just one person because I ‘get it’ when it comes to being bigger than hoped and how being a certain size impacts daily life in so many ways
  • I have a business head which has served me very well

So, I could offer 1:1 online mentoring for those wishing to lose weight. I’d be clear that I’m not a therapist but I’m someone with ‘lived experience’ although I do have formal training in the use of counselling skills. This mentoring would be tailored to suit the individual but it’s likely to cover their history of eating and weight loss/gain, the reasons behind their eating, the chance to set tiny goals both scale and non-scale related that are frequently reviewed, resilience building, the psychology behind making weight loss sustainable, etc. In addition, I could offer one-off workshops to inspire others and bring in my personal story. But this is where it gets tricky! I’m this person who hides behind my screen with only one person following my blog who knows me in real life (hello you!) so ‘coming out’ in a more visible way feels a tad bit scary. If I market myself as someone who’s lost more than 170 lbs altogether, people may be able to take a rough guess how much I weighed at my heaviest… and we know that I don’t tell people my weight! So, I need to think this through…

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But before I go…… guess what?! The scales have dropped since Monday….. by TWO POUNDS!!! So, I’m one, yes ONE, pound away from Onederland and I’m going to be straight on here as soon as I see a sub-200 number appear on the scales. I’m apologising now in advance but that post is just going to be an incredibly emotional, excitable Erika blogging in disbelief! Onederland is almost here, whether it’s tomorrow or another day!!

Love Erika xx

2 weeks on a vibrating plate… my wobbly bits have wobbled!

Hi folks

When I think of images from the 1950s, I’m thinking: black and white cinematography, vintage clothing and Buddy Holly. But I also think of images of immaculately-dressed women with perfect hair and make-up holding an upright pose whilst a thick rubber belt wraps around their waists and buzzes away, supposedly helping them to keep their waists super trim.

Now, whilst these belts do still exist in some form, I got curious and thought I’d treat myself to a vibrating plate. The Reviber comes with a manual so I was thinking ‘Fantastic. Let’s check out some simple exercises I can do on this” only to find most of the images inside depicting Olympic-standard athletes somehow mastering superhuman activities like single-handed planking (well, that’s superhuman to me!!). But I guess I’ve figured out my own routine that works for me and I go on my vibrating plate for 10 minutes a day. And what’s great is that, according to my FitBit, the top speeds put my heart rate into fat burning mode whilst I feel as if my body has morphed into a pneumatic drill that will undoubtedly result in a huge crater evolving in my living room!

My main motivation is to lose inches. Two weeks probably isn’t long enough to do a proper comparison and who knows whether inch loss would have happened on food choices alone… (I don’t think this ‘scientific’ approach would pass an ethics committee) but here are my stats…. so far:

Day 1 (in inches)Day 14 (in inches)
Chest44.2544
Waist35.535
Abdomen4645
Hips4543.75
Thigh2625.5
Calf19.2519.25
C

So, small changes in this time but I’m pleased, especially considering how my hips and abdomen were almost 60″ early last year. Who knows where I might be in another 2, 4, 6 weeks.

And I just wanted to share 3 other images with you today. Permission to feel a little bit smug when my FitBit tells me that my cardio fitness is between the good and very good levels….. but also a screenshot from a BMI calculator where I can now see my weight reflected by the black arrow that’s slowly edging towards the middle. I can’t believe that my BMI / weight’s visible…. and I want to instinctively say “AND I’M VISIBLE”. Wow! Where did that come from?! I’m turning into my own psychotherapist ❤ Whilst I love travelling and I’ll get up to all manner of things well away from home like in other countries, I’ve hidden away in my own community for the past few years. Mmmm, I think I know what the subject of Friday’s post will be…

So, Friday’s blog will reflect on the extent I’ve gone into hiding over the past few years unless some eagerly anticipated miracle on the scales happens between now and then…

Love Erika xx

Rooted to the couch? One top tip to get you moving!

Hello folks

So, this post isn’t about how to do a 5K, what to do at the gym or what to look for in a personal trainer. It’s really aimed at the very basic level of even getting off the couch when we find ourselves sitting there for hours. It may be to do with our mental health, such as depression. It may be to do with just not finding the motivation to move our bodies. It may be that we feel hopeless about the weight loss journey in front of us.

So, today’s blog is all about how to get started. I’ve had times when I’ve found myself rooted to my couch, binge watching something that didn’t really grab me but, somehow, time whizzed by. You know… one episode leads to another and all that! This is my number 1 tip:

Put on commercial TV that has regular breaks.

Get moving as soon as the commercials start.

On the days when I’m feeling especially tired, I use these 2-3 minutes here and there to get jobs done and it’s amazing what I can achieve in that time. When I sit back down, I think about what I’ll do during the next commercial break like empty the dishwasher, strip the bed. If you find this works, you could then reverse the process where you pace the room whilst watching whatever and use the commercial breaks to sit down. At the end of the day, it’s about mind games and strategies to push that comfort zone for the steps to add up but in a way that feels doable.

Talking of steps, I’ve found it helpful to work towards shiny medals which you can read about HERE. Now, I know from online communities that there are two camps about how to count your steps for these medals that get posted to you. One camp says that counting your everyday steps is cheating. You MUST count only those from walks, jogs or runs that are part of ‘official’ exercise. But I’m in the other camp and I say this as someone who couldn’t walk 100 metres a year ago without being in pain and being out of breath. If even moving off the couch is a huge achievement for you, count every step! Count anything that celebrates how you’re making a change in pursuit of your goals. Your medal; your way!

I’ll be back on Friday but there’s so much to share with you over the coming months. And I now have 11 days to go until I hit the first anniversary of the start of my weight loss journey so there might be some reflection about what a difference a year makes!

Love Erika xx

Weight loss, sagging skin and photos!

Hey folks

I guess I’m probably ticking all the boxes for why I’m getting sagging skin:

  • I’ve lost well over 100 lbs
  • I’ve lost this in just under a year
  • I’ve spent much of my life being overweight or obese with a top BMI of 50 so my skin’s been stretched for a long time
  • I’m in my late 40s so any elasticity in my skin has upped and left!

Where’s this sagging skin appearing? It’s mainly over my upper and lower abdomen, the tops of my thighs and my arms where my bingo wings seem to have developed their own bingo wings. My hope is to control this as much as possible through diet and exercise but I’ve been thinking whether I’d want skin removal surgery. It’s pretty big surgery with recovery time of 4-6 weeks and, as I write blog, I’m watching an episode of My Extreme Excess Skin featuring Dr Nowzaradan from My 600lb Life fame (I’d love to meet him!!). Whilst other episodes feature people who’ve lost 200-500 lbs, this one’s about someone who’s lost 170 lbs which pretty much reflects the total journey I’m on but she had bariatric surgery. Do people lose weight at a quicker speed after bariatric surgery? Am I likely to have a similar appearance to this pre-op lady? You see, I really don’t think I’ll ever be someone who wants to hang around the pool in a bikini but I’d just love to wear clothes with confidence. So, I think I’ll continue on my journey and re-evaluate as I get nearer to my goal weight. Perhaps I’ll buy super strong underwear to hold my body together instead! The thought of having my belly button repositioned is enough to turn my stomach!!!

Before I go, I thought I’d share some photos to show you my bingo wings and how I can fold up the skin! And rather brave photos of my belly where you can see how the skin can easily be moved around. Goodness, despite hiding behind my laptop anonymously, sharing these photos feels scary so please be kind! This is me….with more than 117lbs lost and around 50 lbs left to go!

Hope you have a great weekend. I’ll be back on Monday with my next weigh-in and will then be aiming to blog 3 times a week as I head towards my target weight 🙂

Love Erika xx

Week 32 weigh-in: an advent calendar with a difference!


Hey guys

I can’t wait to show you my advent calendar. The rest of my family have chocolate ones but my one is, er, a little bit different! More about that in a moment but, first, let’s take a look at this week’s report card.

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What’s Erika done well this week?

  • I’ve lost another 3 lbs 🙂
  • I’m now under 100 kg! (99.97 kg to be precise)
  • I’m light enough to take a helicopter flying lesson with a local company
  • I’ve been focusing on upping my protein (mainly cooked chicken) and cutting back on carbs

What could Erika improve on?

  • Mmm, this is going to be the subject of my blog later this week but I’m at the point of thinking “Am I just super focused on losing weight or am I beginning to develop the symptoms of atypical anorexia?” There can be such a fine line between the two and I’m not saying that I have an eating disorder again but, if it’s okay with you, I’ll think aloud on here probably Thursday or Friday. As ever, I’ll be very open and honest about where I’m at.

Erika’s next target(s):

  • 1 lb until I’ve lost a third of my original body weight and I’m out of the 220s
  • 3 lbs until I’ve lost 8 stone in total
  • 4 lbs until my BMI is in the 32s
  • 21 lbs until I’m in Onederland (yes, I’ll be less than 200 lbs)
  • 24 lbs until I’m no longer obese as I’ll be overweight

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Right, back to my advent calendar… this is a fitness one! Virtual Racing UK organise this every year but post these calendars abroad too. The idea is that behind every door, you may find part of a medal which you build as you head towards Christmas and you also have a fitness challenge. Today’s challenge? 30 x crunches, 30 x cross crunches, 20 x leg raisers and 60 second plank….. and repeat all of this TWICE!!! It’s actually really exciting to see what the daily challenge is. If you fancy this, perhaps follow them on Facebook so you can see when the 2021 advent calendar is launched. But once my whole medal has been built, I’ll share a photo with you.

From Virtual Racing UK

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Right, I’m off to do my daily challenge workout but I’ll be back Thursday / Friday. In the meantime, please feel free to share your own weight loss successes, frustrations or whatever’s on your mind ❤

Love Erika xx

Recordable weight loss since blogging:Still to lose:Current weight:BMI:
88 lbs62 lbs220 lbs33.5
Plus 21 lbs lost prior to blogging

Walking and running for shiny medals!

I might be in my mid 40s but I’m certainly not too old to get excited when a shiny medal pops through my letterbox!

I’ve discovered an international community of people who love to jog, walk, run, swim, row or do whatever to claim their well-earned medals. Whether it’s medals to celebrate doing your first 5K, running a marathon, jogging the distance of the English Channel or even walking Route 66, there’s a medal out there for everyone.

So, here’s my collection… so far! It all started when I did the Couch to 5K program earlier this year when I was still morbidly obese. I wondered if there might be a medal to reward myself and, wow, I came across so many websites including those I’ve listed at the end of today’s post. I’m now filling my 2nd medal hangar. You know, I could just exercise for the sake of it but working towards these MAKES me want to get out there and get fit!

This last one turned up this week! I LOVE it and it even came with a stunning T-shirt.

Many of these medal companies will ship internationally so you want to check out the ones I’ve come cross so far:

Conqueror Medals https://www.theconqueror.events/ These are STUNNING!!!! Brilliant quality and you’ll find thousands of people doing these challenges on the Facebook group My Virtual Mission (super friendly and supportive group!)

Virtual Racing UK. A really great mix of medals with new ones coming out all the time https://www.virtualracinguk.co.uk/ Helpful staff.

These are pretty cool as you can set how far you want to aim for each month and, each month, the medal design changes to make it seasonal https://www.raceatyourpace.co.uk/

Ace Races …. a new discovery for me but lots of short term challenges here https://ace-races.co.uk/

Virtual Runner https://www.virtualrunneruk.com/race-length/fun-run-races/ This is also a new discovery but I’ve signed up for 3 medals for 2021 so far.

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Does 5K sound to far? You know, back in February, I couldn’t walk 100 metres without having to stop and I was in pain. Honestly, I struggled to get up the stairs without being breathless. But Race at Your Pace do medals from covering 5 miles over a whole month so even if mobility isn’t great right now, I hope you can find one that’s doable but perhaps push that comfort zone a little bit!

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Do you have any medals? Any you’d like to do? Perhaps you’ve got a place in mind that you’d love to see turned into a virtual medal challenge. I’d love to know

Have a great weekend everyone

Love Erika xx