Heart Rate Monitor... I heart you

Running is going really well! The heart rate monitor is really helping me to judge my progress. Since buying it I have run almost every day  and I used it every time. My training partner told me we really are running now which I was delighted to hear!
On Saturday we went for a 6k walk/jog with some really good stretches of jogging in there at least 1.5k a few times... I think this is excellent for week 2!On Sunday I did a 10k walk/run. So pleased that I am sticking with it.
 I am finding the diet aspect really hard at the moment. I do not feel like I can stay on strict Dukan and train for the 8k. Maybe this is just an excuse?? I am finding it hard to not pig out on chocolate :/ Today I failed. I can only commit to doing better tomorrow. I do not really want to be on Dukan any more but I do want to eat healthily... I know how to do it I must just tough it out. I put on three or four pounds over the last fortnight and lost them and put them on again... they are some serious yo-yo pounds but they make my weight-loss badge go under 50lbs lost which is annoying. I went them off for good. I know how to lose them now I must JUST DO IT.

Putting the horse before the cart...

This is truly crazy... today after work I went to buy a heart rate monitor so I could judge my progress in jogging. This is epic for me... I didn't buy a HRM so that I could get into jogging. I am already going jogging. Okay so I have gone 4 times in the last few days but I have sworn blind that I will be a member of a relay team running the city marathon this year (honestly this is a serious commitment... there is no getting out of it).

I am very good at spending the cash and thinking it will act as an incentive to work wonders.. to exercise, to diet, to write more, to learn a new language... whatever! This time I put the HORSE before the CART, so to speak. I am thrilled.

How did this journey to jogging begin?? Well, way back on a freezing evening last summer I went jogging with a girl I work with. We were both keen on the idea of exercising and loosing a bit of weight but basically of transforming ourselves into the kind of people who actually go jogging. I unearthed my sports bra and exercise gear, bought and used in my more athletic incarnation circa 2005. All kitted out and feeling good.

Everything was going well until we actually started jogging... my boobs were flying everywhere as I ran and I actually had to put them back into the bra a few times. My leggings were a really AWFUL choice for jogging in because the waistband kept being jiggled to below my flabby tummy. I felt so uncomfortable... and that was before the exercise really kicked in. Despite the challenges we actually pushed ourselves fairly hard for two lazy newbies and when we finished we felt great and swore blind that we would be back again to jog in one day's time. I am sure you saw this coming but... we never went again.

After last summer I had reached my ultimate heavy weight of 209 lbs. I was really unhappy, to be honest I was depressed. I had to drop out of college for the second time. My job was fine and my hours were okay but life wasn't really good or bad... to be honest it was an existence. I never went out and when I did I hid when it was photo time. It had happened too many times that I thought I looked really nice and then I would see a photo and instead of me all I could see was a miserable, heavy girl... nothing else about that girl was striking apart from her size. I felt like the fat I was carrying was a big sign saying 'I am not happy'. I was never a funny, happy fat girl. I just don't have that kind of personality. Don't get me wrong I am a happy person and my friends know my quirky sense of humour but being an extrovert requires some serious effort and when I was 209lbs i just didn't see the point.

In November my mum had had enough of me moping around the house and she put me on a diet. It has actually been really good and I have lost 50lbs in around 15weeks. I am super chuffed.


HERE IS THE KICKER>>> I tried jogging again... same sports bra, new shorts IRISH size 12 (not size16 like during the summer)... this time I LOVE IT. It is so bloody obvious that jogging must be easier when you are 50lbs lighter but I am still amazed by it. I always thought that those people who lost weight and increased their exercise so that they could run marathons and do triathlons and jog 5k's or whatever were exercising so that they could lose more weight... it really never occurred to me that when you loose weight a whole new world of possible activities opens up to you because you are no longer labouring under this weight, it's like shaking off a self-imposed disability.

I always thought that I would never be a runner; that running was so UNGODLY hard that if I ever did become one it would require blood, sweat and tears. I honestly believed that it would be akin to torture and I would be like an Amazon warrior for pushing through what must be Olympian barriers.

 Actually... jogging is lovely... my body likes doing it, my lungs are getting used to the new work and my legs are kinda saying 'alright there Katie, this is a bit different'. I think basically my body is saying thank you. It is so relieved that it doesn't have to carry around that 50lbs that it is pulling out all the stops to make jogging fun. All I can say is 'Thank you body, you and me... hey we're a team again!'

This evening I went jogging after work with the same friend from my previous jogging escapade... it was a very different experience. :D

Here we go again... again.

I don't know how I managed it but after I gave up on this blog/diet I managed to reach a new high of 210lbs.

Me at a friend's wedding in Autumn

The Dukan Diet

I am now on another new diet The Dukan Diet :D and i LOVE it! I have been on it for almost two weeks now and so far i have lost... 13 lbs!! I think it is the easiest diet that I have ever been on. I don't feel hungry and I'm not constantly thinking about food. It is so nice to see the weight go down on the scale almost every time i weigh myself.

The food is plain but healthy. Well, maybe not 100% healthy as the diet advises using artificial sweetener. The food is almost all whole, natural food. I feel great and have not suffered from any tiredness.

As for my life goal of become fluent in Irish... well I have made progress! I bought the Rosetta Stone Irish Package (500euro) and have been using it!

Facing up to reality... :/

No weigh in! :( There was way too much going on this past fortnight for me to be able to focus on my diet. That sounds like an excuse and it is one BUT there is some truth to it! It was my 23rd birthday!!! (Here are my birthday cards)

Well the dissertation has been trundling along, scratch that, it has not been trundling along at all, it all came to a head this week when I decided that I should repeat the year. It was getting ridiculous, I was missing deadline after deadline and not really caring about how far behind I was getting. Added to that is the fact that I missed every single deadline during the year too. This was my final year, I should have been busting a gut trying to get the best possible marks and instead... I avoided all the hard work and my friends and piled on the weight.

So, I had a meeting with a lady from the Arts faculty in the my University and she scared me (she was very nice but...)... she really did scare me. I thought that I could just officially de-register and then repeat, suffering through the extra year and the loss of €5,600. I was wrong, results are capped at 40% in a repeat year... that makes repeating POINTLESS. :( If I hadn't been depressed before hearing that I definitely was after!

That's right, I said depressed. It is true. It is so strange to say it on here, considering I have scoffed at the notion of me being depressed every time it was raised by my parents and sister over the past 18 months. They would ask and crying I would say no, vehemently! I would argue with them through tears and say "I'm just feeling a little down". I ignored it for as long as I could and I honestly never put two and two together; my apathy towards college and my feeling blue, seemed like separate issues to me. As did my inability to stick to any diet or even plan of action I came up with. It is amazing that I didn't see the connection, I pride myself on being a clever girl and yet the most obvious thing in the world escaped me.

When  I left the faculty lady's office, I was in bits. I had already arranged to meet with two of the lads from college for a coffee, this was a mistake... all I wanted to do was go somewhere private to cry. The lads were very little help, maybe it is because they are the sort of boys who are less than comfortable with emotional displays or maybe I just wasn't ready to talk. I wasn't overly emotional at that point but any proper conversation on the topic would have led it some outpouring.
I left fairly quickly and got the bus straight home, the No.8 never comes quickly but that day it did :) I arrived home and my sister and my dad were having coffee in the sunshine in the garden. I sat down with them because I knew I had no options. Dropping out of college (for the second time) means one is required to answer all sorts of questions you would normally find ways to avoid. I am excellent at being evasive but this time I had no choice. When my sister asked me tough questions I just had to answer... for the first time crying and just asking to be left alone didn't work. I had to fess' up.

They made me promise to go to the doctor the next day.

For once I didn't totally reject the idea. Talking to my sister made me realise that really this wasn't all bullshit. Feeling the way I had/have been feeling isn't the way I used to feel. Around 2006 I was like a totally different person, I was so much happier then. So I decided to go to see the doctor first thing on Thursday morning. I avoided all of the questions that they asked me at home about what I would say to the doctor. I am totally not comfortable talking about this stuff with my parents (or even my friends until now). But yesterday I was ready to let it all out.

So I went to see our family GP. He is an elderly man... I should have known that talking to him was a bad idea but I was afraid to back out. I thought that they would kill me at home for avoiding my responsibilities (AGAIN). So even though I was so nervous that I was literally pacing up and down in the waiting room, when he rang the bell for me to enter, I did.

I was so nervous though that I possibly didn't express myself very well. In any case, my doctor told me that everyone feels down every now and again and that I shouldn't worry too much about it, then he told me it was probably my HORMONES. What the fuck like! If a man is depressed and has the guts to admit it he gets a pat on the back when a woman does, it must be her fucking hormones. I wanted to slap him but instead I just cried harder. I left fairly quickly after that, after paying €50 for the privilege.
I cried all the way home but thankfully because of the sunshine I had sunglasses in my bag, so I could hide behind them. I got in the front door and had a fit of hyperventilating, tear-y snottiness.

I don't know what I am going to do next. That experience with the doctor really put me off getting help. I was ready to talk about it then but not really any more. I felt he just didn't take me seriously.

I met my two closest friends for lunch and after around three hours of chatting we got around to talking about me and I told them everything. They were so much more helpful than the stoopid doctor. They told me to cop on and stop being so hard on myself. I know I don't sound like I am being hard on myself here but in person (and with people who know me) I really am. I ignored it for so long because I think that this sort of problem comes from within and so it should be fixed from within too. I never would have gone to the doctor if the whole situation with the college hadn't forced my hand and now I wish I hadn't bothered.

This coffee is the shit! (Week 2)

Nespresso ... need I say more?

(NO, but I will)

Arrived home to a Nespresso machine today... even the thought of it makes my toes curl! Also had my weight watchers weigh-in and I'm still a looser! Total loss since beginning two weeks ago = 3.1kg (6.8lbs), just shy of a half a stone... Sweet! Thankfully its ridiculously easy, at this point I am starting to think it doesn't  even require will power... long may that continue!

I didn't get much work done on the dissertation today, surprise, surprise but look at what I did get... an action shot of the cat...

Thus, the day was not a total loss! :)

Oops!!

Diet is going well. Dissertation was officially begun today and an apologetic email was sent to my lecturer/supervisor. I wrote 2,500 words, not bad at all however it was the beginning of a new story I am writing and not at all academic! I am screwed, unless of course Fate wants me to flunk out in final year and become a writer instead??  Kismet??

The 2,500 words are very good though and the idea is promising... predictably it is post-apocalyptic and features a kick-ass lady. My kind of fiction, if I cannot find it to read I may as well write it!

Week 1

Meeting Day!!!
All plans to rise early and be a busy worker bee on my dissertation fell through! Scrambled out of bed at 10am to make the 11am meeting. I was ready on time... Mum on the other hand was not. We made it to the meeting half an hour late.... and the room was empty apart from the leader Sinéad (very nice lady). She looked after us and another woman who arrived even later than we did.
 I was very surprised to weigh in at 3.5 lbs lighter... success! I really thought that I would have put on weight because I don't feel like I was on a diet or like I stuck to it much. It it possible that the weight watchers scale was experiencing some placebo effect??
 After the meeting we went for lunch in Amicus, very nice :) I had the BLT on their tomato and fennel bread. It was really tasty and I learned how similar fennel and liquorish are... they must be in the same plant family or something because they taste like twins! I had a diet coke with my food so I didn't feel deprived, Mum had wine. I cannot drink wine during the day... it only leads to bad things or well, really to good but drunken things!

James and Jane met us in Amicus and then the three of us went and saw the Altered Images exhibition while mum had her hair done. The exhibition is OK, not great to be honest but I did like the idea behind it. The way they fully realised the tactile possibilities of art. However one of my favourite pieces was ... this is kinda complicated to explain... the original art work is a video montage of the details in some sculpture and so for the exhibition this was accompanied by an audio description of the work and there were resin models of the images on screen. That is the bit I don't get... the sculpture was a tactile object to begin with, the video changed the way the art was viewed and then the resin models brought it back to its
original form but without it being the original or having any of the tactile properties of stone.... what was the point of that really? To me it just highlighted the fact that sculpture is meant to be touched! People who like sculpture notice the details anyway, they don't need a sensory exhibition to connect with the piece. The exhibition is designed to appeal to people of all ages and abilities but I don't think it really worked for me.
:( I am happy I saw it though! Here is the link : http://www.alteredimages.ie/index.html. The main reason for my interest in it was due to the inclusion of a piece by David Creedon. He is a Cork photographer who I heard speaking at the UCC Photography Society this year. He spoke about his work 'Ghosts of the Faithful Departed' which is basically a series of images of deserted and derelict houses throughout the countryside; it was really interesting. His work is also beautiful.
 I liked his piece in the exhibition but it wasn't the image from the series I would have picked and the brass (?) tactile piece which accompanied it in the exhibition wasn't what it should haven been. If they were trying to add a tactile dimension to the photograph I don't think they should have made the model out of metal. They should have used various materials  for example, using glass or perspex for the glass in the windows and maybe real crockery and paper for the debris on the floor... but that is just what I though. I am sure they had their reasons.

Still no movement on my dissertation :/