New blood and old photos

This week's blog reading music is The Distance by Cake because a lot of this blog is about keeping me motivated and I defy you to be able to listen to this song and not get totally pumped.

Before & after a session at 12 Rounds.
Soaked to the skin, too tired to smile but very happy.

I hit a milestone this week which I was pretty pleased about.  I started this journey, and this blog, last October and this week marked me losing 50lbs (3 stone 8lbs or 22.7kgs).  It's not like I had a goal in mind when I started for a particular amount of weight to lose or even that getting the numbers down on the scale was really the focus, I just wanted to not feel like shit all the time, but having a goal or milestone to track your progress by is really important I've discovered.  It's one thing to say something general to yourself like "I want to eat healthier" or "I want to lose weight" but it's something else to say something specific like "I want to make sure I eat 5 pieces or fruit or veg a day" or "I want to lose 5 pounds".  Giving yourself a task gives you something to achieve and the reward you feel for achieving it is a great way to reinforce positive behaviour.  Or you can actually reward yourself with something - probably not cake though, we're trying to get away from the idea that food that's terrible for us is linked directly with being 'good'. Lose 5lbs and book a massage, perfect.

When I got started with this it was on a program with a handful of others with Kat from 12 Rounds Boxing and this week she's started up a new online course on nutrition so our little private Facebook group that we use to keep each other motivated and share ideas and food pictures and recipes and the like has welcomed a stack of new members.  Me hitting a milestone this week coincided with all these people starting their own journey and it's exciting for me to see people in a position to start leaning and understanding what I've been slowly getting to grips with about food in the last six months. The attitude and relationship with food I grew up with has radically changed.  Think you can't have peanut butter on a diet?  I live on the bleedin' stuff.  Muller Low Fat yogurt as a guilt-free snack?  Nope, Satan in a pot.  Can't wait to see how this new group get on and also how reinvigorated our original group has got due to the influx of new blood.

So you may remember a couple of weeks ago I wussed out of putting up weight loss pictures at Easter as I said I would, I wanted to hit that 50lbs mark before I did but here they are. This is progress so far but I'm a long way from done, this is an ongoing process now not something with a end date.  It's my birthday in July which is 3 months away and I'll take pictures again then to see how I've got on.  Right, this makes me deeply uncomfortable but being publicly accountable is kinda the point of having this blog in the first place. No taking the piss.

That's your lot, stop looking at my knockers. Thanks for reading, here's a video of a skateboarding cat.

Follow me on Instagram for fitness and food based posts
Befriend me here on My Fitness Pal
Or on twitter for geekdom and more cute animals 


Check out the brand new 12 Rounds Boxing website here
www.12roundsboxing.co.uk
12 Rounds Facebook page
Twitter @12_roundsboxing