Stop coasting through life, RIGHT NOW.

I seem to have reached a point where although I'm happy with my slimmer frame, I'm not really pushing myself as much as I should. I've tended to drift through life falling into one thing or another, after all I only got my new job after I was pushed into attending a job search course. So I seem to be getting a little slack in my exercising and dietary choices. Whenever I go swimming I only do breaststroke because its easier than front crawl and I can do a mile relatively easily, when I should be pushing myself to start doing front crawl, so I can get stronger in my swimming, I should be pushing myself when I'm on the treadmill, or rowing machine but keep telling myself, that I'm tired so that's why I'm not giving it more. The Boxercise class on a Saturday I'm trying to push myself but some of the exercises are leg work, so I'm not quite as quick as I'd like to be but I should push myself more so that like the swimming I can get stronger and therefore quicker at.

I'm no longer doing the Zumba class on a Monday because I'm weighing in that day and have work, so don't have the time anymore, the same on a Wednesday, although this is partly true, I'm using it as an excuse not to do the classes, when I should be pushing myself more, since I don't have much more weight to lose.
I'm also telling myself that because my bodybugg shows I've burned off additional calories that it doesn't matter if I eat more than I should, since hey look a calorie defict, although the way I'm going its been a handful of calories, rather than the amount which will help me continue to lose weight.

I've also gotten into an annoying habit at work, where if I have a break, I'm tending to eat something, it seems to be toast with some kind of meat, then having something sweet afterwards, since I only do five hour shifts and have a 15 minute break, this isn't too bad, its the days when I have longer shifts and therefore more breaks, I seem to be ingesting upwards of 800 calories, more if I get the urge for a chocolate bar or two. I can't seem to break out of the habit either, I do try and pick the healthiest options when it comes to the bread and meat but seem to be failing when it comes to not eating an unhealthy chocolate bar, I know I shouldn't be eating them but I guess I must have an impulse control issue when surrounded by all the sweet treats, it might be easier if I take something in with me to eat, or simply avoiding eating on my break, or minimise the amount I eat and having a piece of fruit or something.

Before I started the job, I was on a steady downward trajectory with my weight loss, then I started working and my loss seemed to stall, then I gained a couple of lbs, lost them, stayed the same for a couple of weeks, lost again and as of this morning, had gained 2 lbs again, so put me squarely back at 13st 9lbs. It just shows how easily the weight can creep back on if you aren't careful. So time to get back to being more careful with what I'm eating and avoid the chocolaty treats.

The ups and downs of a new job

I'm just starting a new job, which is such a relief after the shambles that was the final months of working at Subway, I'll be on much better money and back in a position of responsibility, the only downside I can see at the moment is that it is only ten minutes walk from home, now I can hear you saying hang on, how is that a downside, a job that close to home, when my commute takes me an hour or longer. Well, I used to use the distance I lived from Subway as a way of getting some extra exercise, much like when I walk to the cinema for cheap Tuesday, so I now get five miles less cycling/walking for any shift I'm working, still I guess that I'm able to get to the gym and then to work a little easier, so I guess it all works out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally stoked to have a much better job that doesn't involve washing any dishes or making any sandwiches, I guess I'm just going to miss the enforced ride to work, I don't mean enforced as in against my will but more to save the bus fare getting there.

I'm about to receive my bodybugg through the post from an excellent friend, so hopefully that might show me, that this new job is actually better for my health, that the previous one, in case anyone is unaware of what one of those is, its an armband that tracks a variety of body readings and uses some fancy calculations to fairly accurately  work out, how many calories you're burning as you exercise/move around during the day, it says that the band is 95% accurate and compared to the gold standard machines that they use for scientific calorie calculation, so either way, I should get a more accurate burn, which will prove I'm burning more calories than my current apps of choice are guessing I'm doing, or I'm doing less than is being reported, either way it'll be nice to have more accuracy.

The only way to get the better bluetooth version of the band, is to either live in the US/Canada or have a good friend like I have, there is a version available in the UK but its horribly expensive for both the band and the subscription to the tracking software, almost three times the price of the band and five times the price of the subscription.

Still a new job and a body bugg, life is pretty sweet right now.

New job, new issues.

It seems having a new job makes a real dent in your fitness routine, for the first few days it was humping stock around and refilling shelves getting the shop ready for opening, then it was learning how to use the tills and serve the customers, then it was learning all of the procedure I need to follow as a supervisor, especially the part about not serving the underaged with tobacco or alcohol.

For the most part its been pretty easy, I've been mostly doing closing shifts, as I live so close to the shop, so I get to close down tills, sort out newspaper returns and lock up, making sure the shop is nice and tidy for the next day. The one thing that's taking some getting used to, is the stock control, in relation to products that have a short shelf life, like bread, milk and cooked meats etc. luckily the bosses understand that this is new to some of us, so they're not being too hard about any mistakes that've been made so far.

The challenging people we think are underage has been remarkably smooth, with only a couple of complaints from people, who if they had id, would have been served, so it all balances out in the end. my diet has been slightly all over the place and I've not really done much in the way of exercise, as I've been pretty tired but I'm putting this down to being on my feet for hours at a time, when I've not done long shifts in months, that and I'm getting to bed later, I've been drinking energy drinks to keep me going which means I've been full of caffeine, which has a knock on effect.

Although I put on a little weight, I seem to have lost it again, which means I'm back to the same weight I was three weeks ago, so now I need to knuckle down and get my diet back on track, more healthy less unhealthy, since I seem to have had energy drinks, chocolate bars, alcohol and been eating way more than I should have been.

I did finally receive my bodybugg from Lilliana, which means I can get a more accurate calorie burn for the times, I'm a work, or when I'm doing my fitness classes, it weirdly counts every calorie burned including the ones you burn, when not actually doing anything, so I need to take away around 1.5/6 calories per minute for the period I was exercising, so I was albe to work out that I burned 705 calories working today, marred only by the fact I massively overate foods with a high fat content.