Skip to the ... a&e department, my darling

Okay, that's 100 skips done.

And it's nearly finished me. I can barely type for panting. And I only managed to do about 7 at a time before I'd either trip over the rope or have to rest. Dear me, I need to get back into exercise.

Speaking of which I have ordered a new fitbit - or rather a vivofit, an old model of a different make that is less than half the price of a fitbit. It turns out that the manufacturers of Fitbit don't offer repairs. The best they do is give you 20 or 25% off your next purchase. 

My heart is still thumping.

And I am investigating Slimming World classes. I really liked the Rosemary Conley class because it was followed by exercise but there don't seem to be any in my region.

There is a local SW class on Wednesday at 5.00 pm. 

Watch this space.

You have been spared!

I lost 2 lbs this week! So no photo of my flab will be forthcoming I am pleased to say. And I'm sure you're just as pleased to hear.

Not sure how this weight loss was achieved. My Fitbit scores are a little better than the week before and I did spend an hour or so in a very hot soft play centre scrambling after grandsons. I say scrambling because apparently what I was doing didn't count as steps! 

I am having a little treat tonight: we have a bowl of home-grown gooseberries in the fridge that really must be used! So crumble it is. And then I'll have the rest of the week to work it off.

But I mustn't let this go to my head. It can either be an incentive - I've made a good start and will continue - or a noncentive (or whatever the opposite is) - I've lost weight so can over-indulge frequently.

Oh yes, and I've cancelled my Rosemary Conley online membership. Waste of money really. It wouldn't have been if I'd used it properly I'm sure but being accountable to an invisible morph doesn't work for me. So now it's just you and me, people.

Weigh-in 4

-0.2 kg = not enough to get excited about. 

It doesn't help that I somehow managed to mess up my weight record on Rosemary Conley so that it's not even counting the 2 lbs I lost initially. 

Ah well, I am officially less than 10st. Only by about 3ozs but still I'm there before we go on holiday on Thursday. A week of eating a lot and not doing much will send me shooting back up I'm sure. Isn't it unfair how quickly weight goes on compared with how slowly it comes off?

On the plus side, yesterday in fitness class in the YM I was watching myself in the mirrors that line the walls. 'Hey, I'm looking pretty good,' I thought.

Obviously the thought won't linger for long as when I sit down and my tummy cuddles up with my boobs I soon remember.

It hasn't been a good week though as I've already gone into the holiday mind frame and I'm using oil to cook - well it makes things taste better than the spray oil - and not being sparing with my plate when I dish up. 

But again, on the plus side, I didn't add cheese to my dinner last night even though Husband who thought my sweet potato, spinach and chickpea bake was bland, brought it to the table.

And so it begins

One day in May six years ago I lumbered onto the bathroom scales ... and jumped off again in horror. Tentatively I stuck a toe on and braved it again. It hadn't been a mistake: I did weigh more than I had ever done in my life. And that includes pregnancy.

At 5' 4" and 10 st 11 lbs I was one and half stone over the recommended weight for my height. I decided that was enough and took myself off to the nearest Rosemary Conley class.

A few years earlier I'd joined Slimming World and followed quite successfully the red and green day diet but the idea of an exercise class combined with a weigh-in struck me as a good one so I signed up.

By February 2011, about nine months after starting, I was receiving my Two Stone badge and at 8 st 11 lbs weighed less than I had since being a teenager. And people had noticed. Men especially. Who told me to 'stop losing weight!' 'Women are supposed to have curves.'

Today I look like this.

At 10 st 6 lb (body fat 34.3%) I know I'm not enormous. I can still get into size 12 clothes (just about) and I'm comparatively fit (if you compare me to an unfit woman of my age), but I hate the sight of the flab around my belly and on my hips. What I should do, of course, is show you a photo of it but there are limits.

The Rosemary Conley class has ceased to be but I have all the books and know how much of what I should eat so, in theory, I should be able to go it alone. Which is what I've been saying each week over the last five years as my weight has very gradually edged up and up. The rate of increase has speeded up and I suspect that there isn't a maximum at which it will settle but that, one day, unless I do something now I'll realise that I'm 20 st and rising.

So, to the point of this blog. The incentive about going to a class is the public humiliation if you fail to lose or - horror - put on. Now I know it's all done privately and no-one is embarrassed by the teacher but you inevitably get into conversation comparing weight change with other members of the class so it is vaguely public. Or as public as you'll let it be. Doing it for yourself lacks that vital aspect.

So I came up with the idea of this blog. A flab and all expose of my progress as well as a look at my bad - and good - habits and how I can change my way of thinking. And a mini eating diary.

You'll notice that for dinner today I ate macaroni cheese. Now I know that's not a good way to start a diet but I've been craving it since reading about it in where the elite meet to eat and, also, we didn't have any other food in the house.

Food Diary

2 weetabix, semi-skimmed milk, 1 teaspoon sugar

1 glacier fruit (20 cals - I just checked)

2 boiled eggs, 2 ryvita liberally spread with butter

5 cherry tomatoes

6 raspberries, some cheese when grating

Macaroni cheese and salad

I'll probably - almost certainly - have a banana when watching Wallander later.

(If you read that diary carefully you may get an idea of some of my bad habits that I'll write about more fully in future.)

FitBit (at 20.35)

10,154 steps

4.25 miles

1,724 calories burned