Becoming a grown-up part 2: A Weighty Matter plus Health and Fitness

I am generally very lucky and extremely blessed when it comes to my health. I am relatively healthy and hardly get sick except for the occasional cold/period pain/ headache etc.

Last year was the worst year ever in terms of my health. It really took a knock due to various factors, the main ones being that I was depressed, I was under a tremendous amount of stress and I generally just wasn’t looking after myself. Last year I was constantly sick and had the flu every single month, I started to develop sores in my mouth due to stress and depression and I even had a bout of Pleurisy after some hectic bronchitis . Not fun at all.

I  have mentioned before that I am currently the fattest I have ever been. I was a size 8 all my life until I got pregnant. I don’t pick up that much weight during pregnancy (I picked up 12 kg for pregnancy #1 and 14 kg for pregnancy #2) but after pregnancy #2 the weight just didn’t go away even though I was breastfeeding. I have been in denial about my weight for a good couple of years now. I avoid mirrors at all costs (I only use a small one to apply make-up and check my hair)  and it only really bothers me when I need to go and buy clothing, or when someone passes a comment or when I  have to go out and have nothing to wear.

People (usually the fattest ones of all) tend to pass comments when you are overweight. I don’t know why they feel they have the right to/ need to do that. I don’t know when they decided that my weight was their business. Do they think that I don’t know that I am fat? Do they think that I don’t see the number in the clothing label? Do they think that I didn’t hear them the first time they mentioned it?

I am very sensitive towards overweight people because I know how those types of  comments can sting.

At the beginning of this year my Mom spoke to me. She told me that she was worried about me and that I made her anxious because she saw me as a heart attack waiting to happen. She asked me to please face reality and think about what I was going to do about my weight and to come and speak with her when as soon as I’m ready because she was totally  prepared to help me. Obviously this conversation had me in tears and I went back to her the next day to tell her that I was thinking of joining Weigh Less or something similar. She offered to pay for me for the first 3 months and provided me with some incentives if I wanted her to continue paying for it after 3 months. Kind of like the way I bribe my kids sometimes.

I thought about a lot of things over the past few weeks and decided that it is time to make some major changes in this area of my life. In line with my health and fitness goal I have decided to do this:

Check Up:

Go for a complete Physical and check cholesterol levels and everything else.  I have one scheduled in 2 weeks time.

Exercise :

My brother offered to be my running coach. I accepted his offer but then my ankle started acting up and I wasn’t feeling so good about running anymore. I then spoke to my cousin who is a personal trainer about a few sessions. He said yes but is taking too long to get back to me and just seems to be so busy and booked up. My friends Mom suggested that I go to the community centre close by and do aerobics twice a week. It’s mostly much older ladies (read: Granny types) there but she goes and it works well for her. And the best part is that it’s only R20 per month and everyone is welcome. They do Circuit training on Mondays and Aerobics on Thursdays. On both these days you need to be there about 30 minutes before the time because they first go for a brisk walk. In between all this I am climbing stairs at work (I’m on the 3rd floor) and I’m getting a Zumba DVD from my friend.  I’m thinking that this is the perfect way for me to start my exercise programme seeing that I am so unfit.  Seriously. How hard can it be to exercise with Grannies who have had hip replacements and things like that? My plan is to stick this out for say 3 months until I feel stronger and then find an upgraded exercise routine. I am starting with this on Monday. I am also considering doing Ashtanga (Power) yoga which is a very, very physical discipline  and I do actually need to be relatively fit before starting this. I am hoping to start this in about 3 months when I am reasonably fit from going to the Granny gym.

Join Weigh Less:

I joined Weigh Less on 22 January 2011. I got the shock of my life when I stepped onto the scale. I knew I was fat but I certainly didn’t picture THAT number. The consultant (she is fabulous btw and sends me encouraging emails every day) worked out a healthy weight loss for me and calculated that I need to lose between 20 and 26 kg. She told me to aim for 20 and then reassess at that point if I want to be thinner. I was too shocked to say anything and couldn’t even focus enough to plan a meal for the next 2 days. Eventually I came around and I started with Step 1 which is essentially a detox.  On day 1 I drank 2 litres of water – more water than I had consumed probably in an entire quarter. The food was divine and I had a lot of fun experimenting but I felt like crap for at least 4 days. I went through serious withdrawals from coffee, coca cola  and all things fatty. I had a permanent headache, I was dizzy, my tummy was upset (from all that fibre) and I felt completely exhausted, so much so that I took 2 days off work to rest. On day 5 my energy levels started coming back and I felt like a million dollars. And the best part? I lost 2.4kg that week and am totally inspired to lose 27 kg now. You can never be too thin or too rich right? I am going to weigh-in again tomorrow and I just know that I’ve lost because I can feel it on my clothing. Maybe I will attempt to put that ticker thingy up on the blog. Or maybe I should do a before photo?? I’ll see.

Put my entire family on a health trip:

I am currently looking for something that we can all do for fitness. I am not sure what would be the best option. I was thinking that maybe we could do walks or something. Going to look into this some more.

I will update after I weigh-in tomorrow.