The papers are full of it!
The magazines heaving! (I’ll say that again – the Magazines are Heaving with it!)
“Now you are fat and blown-up like a barrage balloon having eaten all that STUFF we suggested to you in glossy, gorgeous, gourmet piles BEFORE Christmas … we suggest you might want to … DIET!”
Even the TV is in on the act with adverts for Gyms and Slimming World or WeightWatchers somehow timed to be shown in January.
Well, if you’ve been with this blog from early on – at least from Jan 2012 – you will know I do not believe in ‘diets’. A diet is ‘what you eat’ – not a weight-loss regimen per se.
And you will have followed my trek down two and a half stones over that year. How? By sensible {nothing banned, nothing glorified, moderate portions, low (not no) carb} food consumption PLUS a set of exercises designed to combat the muscles-loss caused by menopause.
You see, I hadn’t realised that the Menopause cuts back on the very thing that burns-up energy – muscles. So, even eating sensibly (as above) the weight had still crept on … and on … and on! You can find this epic tale all in the blogs under ‘losing weight’ in the Topics menu and on the drop-down menu under About Ann if you missed it and want to know more.
Today is Saturday – so this is the light-hearted laugh of the week blog. Yes, it is. And I’m here to tell you that the weights exercises really work! Oh yes they do … because December just gone I carried out a month-long controlled experiment undertaken with no thought to personal consequences … ok, I stopped doing them for the month – for various excuses reasons – but mainly inconvenience – my usual exercising space (spare room where I also write) was occupied. I didn’t go mad on the food either … but the result – 7lbs ON! 😮 *shocked face*
So here I am, along with the papers, the magazines and the adverts, telling myself to lose weight 🙂 now that is funny.
They say do not start these things on January the first – after all ‘there’s still a lot of ‘bad’ food around’. Well, you’ll also know that on my ‘nothing banned’ sort of eating this doesn’t matter – what matters is how / when I eat it. After all, if I deny myself something altogether I’m certain to get a craving for it! [At least I don’t crave magnets 😉 ]
My best option is to give it away to someone who doesn’t put weight on easily (my OH for instance) – but if I really like it – I eat it sparingly – over time – as part of the overall foods I eat in a week – not extra to it.
So January the first it was back to my (previously) usual routine {less than 15 mins a day – at home – exercises} … and having had the first weigh-in at the end of a week, I can be happy in that 2lb has already left 🙂
Do you find it ironic the way that first they encourage us to eat like there is no tomorrow – then tomorrow they tell us to slim … for the summer holiday that is coming?
Did you miss out your usual exercise over the festive season?
Do share – you know you want to 🙂 and I love to hear from you!