Getting Up and about

I always like things that help you learn more about yourself so when I was asked if I'd like to try some fitness equipment I fell up the Jawbone Up tracking wristband and I was intrigued. Not only did it track your activity, but it also tracked your sleep, your food, even your mood. So I thought I'd give it a go.

I've had it for just over two weeks now and it's quickly become a part of my life. The band is slightly big for my wrist but doesn't get in the way. I can wear it in the shower (but not in a swimming pool) so you can add your efforts to get clean to your daily movement. After a while, you do honestly forget you're wearing it. Because it's on your wrist, you won't lose it easily so it's almost a case of fit and forget.

The idea of it is it's like a pedometer that senses movement. You set yourself goals for a number of steps per day, hours of sleep and it measures movement like an accelerometer on a phone. If you are active, but don't necessarily do running or walking for your exercise, you can time an exercise or you can add it afterwards. This is good for me as classes like Body Pump don't need much horizontal movement. Even interval training using bodyweight exercises may not register in the same way as a step.

At night time, when you go to bed, you set it into sleep mode by pressing the end of the band until it buzzes. Then it picks up the movement of your arm to assess what level of sleep you are in - awake, light or deep sleep. As an extra, I've set alarms so that it wakes me within 20 minutes of a target time, the theory being that it wakes you when you are sleeping lightly and therefore wake more easily. It wakes you by vibrating on your wrist which is gentler than a loud alarm. However, I find I'm nearly always already awake, such is my body clock. I find looking at my sleep cycles fascinating although I seem to have developed a habit of longer night time wakings which might be related or entirely coincidental.

In order to look at your data, there are accompanying free iOS and Android apps. I have used both, since I have an Android phone and an iPad. They work pretty much the same way and are very easy to set up. You sync your band by plugging it into the microphone socket and it's updated in seconds. I have a slight preference for the iOS app, purely because it gives you an overview of what you've just uploaded since last sync. I find it easier to mess around and view things too but I am conscious I am using a bigger screen. It's easy to look back at your data and you've always got a running total for the day in terms of sleep and steps moved. At the top of my "feed" every day are interesting snippets called Insights that are interesting topics related to fitness or your data in general.

There are many things I love about it. It is easy to use, and the battery genuinely does last for days and then only takes an hour or so to charge back up (which you do via a USB adaptor). It's simple and it's really effective at making you consider how active you are even by just adding a few steps here and there, they all add up.. In particular, understanding about your sleep is really interesting and it does genuinely make me try to get to bed at a reasonable time most nights. I still have not reached my sleep target though!

There are some things that I do not like. I set idle alerts to remind me to move if I've not moved in 30 minutes during the day but if I'm standing and moving gently (like cooking and doing stuff in the kitchen), it doesn't seem to register and the alert will buzz on my wrist whilst I'm standing up. Annoying. And I tried to log food intake with it and found it horribly complicated - although you can add as much detail as you like. I've stopped using it because it should be intuitive and easy; I found it to be neither. I also think they missed a trick not to have added some way of tracing your heart rate or pulse so you can get more information about how hard you are working or have worked when working out. Steps are not everything and adding an activity isn't a perfect solution.

Something I haven't got around to is adding friends as the community is relatively limited in size so far. You can also connect Up to various health and fitness related apps like MapMyFitness but I don't use those. It does link to MyFitnessPal but I've gone off that a bit recently.

On the whole, I do love the Up band and I think the more you use it, the more you will get out of in terms of understanding your lifestyle and improving your overall health and fitness levels. This could be a great Christmas present for a special someone who is planning a serious January health kick but wants to build a genuinely active lifestyle. It's not uber cheap at £99.99, but I think it's good value.

This post is in association with Argos. I have not been paid a fee to write this post and all opinions are my own. 

Papa was a-rollin' foam

(Yes, I know this is a fitness post. I'm SUPPOSED to blog about it here. It's one of my five Fs. Yes, really. Shhhhhh....!)

As long as I can remember, if I've had a really deep night's sleep, I've woken up with a lower back that feels like someone has stretched it all out overnight and then squashed it tight before putting it back in my body. Over the last year or so, it's been more like a generally stiff lower back and then the stiffness has taken longer and longer to go away. You can blame my increased exercise regime for that.

I knew I had to do something but being of limited budget it had to be cheap. I fired up the Google machine and ignoring the warnings of impending death, I happened upon something that provided an option. If I foam rolled the front of my legs (my quads), it should help the stiffness in my lower back.

Thankfully, husband has a foam roller. I hadn't really considered what it was and what it meant but I know that he sometimes faffs around with it for ages when he's been working out. I'd kind of scoffed at what he was doing but I'd heard other mentions of it. So I thought I'd give it a try.

The relief was instant. Whilst I didn't feel it stop the stiffness straight away, I felt fine after rolling my quads but when I stood up, I felt less stiff in the back area and didn't feel stiff the next morning.

I know you're going to ask me now - what IS foam rolling? Well, it's literally taking a cylinder of foam about 15 cm in diameter and using your bodyweight to roll along a muscle. To give it its full title, it's self-myofascial release. The fascia is basically the soft tissue element of the connective tissue surrounding your muscles. Sports massages basically targets these areas too but doing it yourself, with only a foam roll, works out a lot cheaper.

Believe me, it's not an easy option. If you've ever had a sports massage (I haven't but I know people who have), you'll know that it's quite a painful experience. Not searing pain, probably more substantial discomfort. But as you find trigger points, it's often super-sensitive but you have to keep holding the roller there breathing deeply until the point releases. Ow!

If I needed any indication that it wasn't a fluke, my back started stiffening up after I'd not rolled for a couple of days. Since then, I've tried to add rolling different parts of my body post-workout - hamstrings, calves, upper back / shoulder area, and worst of all, the IT band (it runs down the outer front of your thigh) - I am still working up to doing them properly as boy does it hurt! Some sites say you don't need to roll it but it seems to be doing something for me.

I try to do it at the end of my workout if I've got time - as there are a couple of foam rollers at the gym I can use. If not, I do some at home. If I'm really short of time, I roll my quads only - because I know that my back will thank me for it. I'd never really thought that my quads were causing the problem - but I do a lot of squats and lunges so it makes sense really.

The most complete routine of foam rolling I can find (without spending a minute selling you a foam roller) to show you what I mean is here.



Please don't fall asleep listening to the bloke's voice but believe me this is the best!

After rolling, you're meant to stretch and some say it helps you stretch better. Stretching afterwards definitely helps.

Give it a go if, like me, you don't want to turn into a crock holding their back all the time. I know it sounds crazy, but believe me, it works. There are lots of foam rollers around but I'm not going to recommend any particular brand to you - this is not a review post, just me sharing my own experience.

The issue of weight and female athletes - no wonder our female athletes struggle

Photo credit - peter_w

In the last week, I've read two stories about female athletes that have disturbed me greatly. The first was about Hollie Avil, the triathlete who has retired from her sport after beating an eating disorder which was triggered after a coach told her she would get faster if she watched her weight. She lost lots of weight to the point that it was dangerous and although she did run faster, her swimming times suffered. She has been so brave in telling her story - even though there is no shame in having an eating disorder, there is still a stigma attached to it - but I'm left wondering what sort of person says that to an elite athlete in the near peak of condition, and with what justification.

Then, and thankfully almost on the flip side to that, I heard that heptathlete Jessica Ennis's coach Toni Minichello has spoken out after an (unnamed) high ranking official from UK Athletics told him that "she's got too much weight." In other words, she's fat.

Thankfully, Jess is of strong mind and has a great relationship with her coach, who supports her all the way. She has more important things on her mind right now - a small matter of trying to win an Olympic gold medal in a matter of weeks - than whether she needs to lose weight. I suspect at this stage of the summer, most track and field athletes are in peak condition. She hasn't taken it personally, and her answer was to break the British record held for 12 years by Denise Lewis at an event in Austria over the weekend.

Hollie Avil's story reflects with this. It shows how easily a comment like that can destroy someone's self-esteem and can wreck their sporting career, with a wider impact on their emotional well-being and daily life. Jess has had a difficult year, losing her world title in South Korea last September with a below par performance in some of the disciplines. Heptathlon requires many skills and not all of them speed related - sprinting requires power and speed, hurdles and high jump require good technique, shot put and javelin a reasonable amount of strength, and 800m endurance. And there are no prizes for being the skinniest heptathlete in the competition, only the best ones.

 I can't add any of the photos on the internet of Jess, but just Google her and look at the recent pictures of her. Does she look fat to you? She has abs most men would kill to have and it's obvious that she is both slim and strong.

Are we setting female athletes up to fail here? Are we confusing fitness with thinness? What sort of a message does this send out to our children? Hollie Avil's story already proves that losing weight doesn't necessarily guarantee success. I don't know what the answer is but coaches really shouldn't be allowed to make throwaway remarks like that without some form of proof that it is negatively impacting the athlete's performance. Not all weight is bad weight anyway - if it's mostly muscle, then it could be a hugely positive thing and as we've seen, swimmers need a certain amount of fat to stay buoyant.

What bothers me most is that no-one would dream of commenting on the weight of a male athlete and yet, apparently females are fair game. I've linked to The Guardian as they are at least a responsible newspaper but others (*cough* Daily Mail *cough*) think nothing of printing stories featuring female celebrities, commenting on whether they look fat or not, so they can hardly take the moral ground here.

It saddens me that we're so quick to judge a woman by her perceived weight (which is actually her size as we don't, thankfully, walk around with our weight in a blue neon sign above our head). It saddens me even more than my children are growing in a society where women appear to be judged primarily by their appearance and not what they have achieved. It saddens me that Missy Woo will have to work harder on this front than her brother and I pray that I can instill the sort of confidence in her that Jess Ennis has and that stupid remarks like both she and Hollie Avil have been subjected to don't have a negative effect on her.

But that's probably too much to ask.

I'll now be wondering when I'm watching the British female athletes competing in the Olympics this summer just how many of them have been subjected to the same sort of thing. It stands to reason that if top athletes have been, then those further down the tree will also have had similar experiences. How many medal performances will this taint? How many medals will this cost us?

And, more importantly, how many lives will have been changed for the worse?

When Five Fs go bad - a guest post

Photo credit - dsigning

I'm having a break from blogging today, because it's my birthday so instead, I'm giving you a guest post from the lovely Jo Middleton who blogs at Slummy Single Mummy as a little present from me. When Jo asked me if she could write a guest post and asked what she could write about, I told her that as long as it fitted roughly within my five Fs, I'd be happy to publish what she wrote. She took me up rather literally on this, and decided to cram them all in at once. In one post. Brace yourselves... 

I was instructed before writing this post that the theme should fit in with one of the ‘five Fs’ - family, football, food, fitness or fun – and so being the awkward person I am, I decided I would challenge myself to make it fit in with all of them.

Family, food and fun are easy of course, but football and fitness are more of a challenge, as I’m really not very keen on either, but then I remembered a rather unflattering story about a family football match...

I have quite a small family, but on my Dad’s 60th birthday last year we managed to get about 15 of us together to celebrate with a wholesome family picnic. (Food, family and fun – check, check and check).

My Dad’s birthday is in November, which isn’t exactly ideal picnic weather, and the light drizzle and biting wind wasn’t exactly adding to the occasion. Someone, (not me), came up with the idea of us all warming up with a game of football. (Football and fitness – check and check).

I felt a bit like how I imagine an alcoholic feels when they accidentally find themselves in a pub – I knew I wanted to play, but I also knew I shouldn’t.

I have a reputation in my family for being a tad over-competitive, and team sports like football don’t exactly bring out the best in me. My partner recently played Monopoly with me and has vowed never again. Something about me making games Not Fun. I could surely control myself in a friendly family game of football though?

Apparently not.

My then eight-year-old daughter Belle was a team captain. “You really should pick me,” I warned her. “You don’t want to be playing against me.” She didn’t listen though, foolish child.

The rain was coming down steadily as we kicked off. I began calmly, trying to remain light-hearted, but then Belle’s team scored a goal and suddenly I was shouting at my team mates and scowling. They scored another, and it was all too much. Belle had the ball, ready to shoot, her face eager and excited. I went in for what I meant to be a gentle tackle, but completely knocked her legs out from under her. She lay crying in a muddy puddle. Everyone looked at me.

“I did tell her not to play against me!” I said, in a pathetic attempt at self defence.

Even I wasn’t convinced.

Unsurprisingly, the football wrapped up fairly quickly after that, and before long the rain drove us back to our cars, a valuable lesson learnt in why you should never try to combine the five Fs...

Remind me never to play Jo at anything, not ever. Huge thanks to her for writing this post. 

My Fitness Story... - Fay

Today's guest post really made me feel humble when I first read it. I've read it through a few times now and that feeling has not diminished one bit. It's written by Fay, who blogs at Glass Half Full, which is a particularly apt name. Fay has remained incredibly positive throughout this year despite being diagnosed with cancer. In this post, she tells how she struggled with her weight in the past, how the extra weight may have contributed to her illness, through to her recovery and weight loss. 

This is my story which has beginning and a middle but no end yet; that has still to be written.

My Fitness Story... - Sharon

It's Thursday and there's a post so it must mean I have got myself some more contributors to My Fitness Story... Thanks for everyone who read my post last week and offered to help. I always need new contributions so please don't think your story is not worth telling - be brave! 

Anyway, my willing volunteer this week is Sharon, who blogs at My lot. Sharon always seems to be out running - but it wasn't always the case. Here she shares her story of how and why she came to start running and complete her first marathon, the first being the hardest of course. 

So, without further ado, here's Sharon's story. 

My Fitness Story... - The story so far, and a plea for more posts

I'm writing this late in the evening when for the first time, I've had to admit defeat. This week, I have no lovely guest post to share with you. I'm quite sad about that because until now, I've always managed to convince someone to tell their story.

If truth be known, I didn't know if it would last more than a few weeks so to get this far is fairly impressive. I've had 23 posts so far and they've ranged from light-hearted to deadly serious, those making small changes to those transforming their lives and coming back from the brink. We've had life-saving surgery and
gastric band surgery - which, let it be said, is by no means the easy option for losing weight.
I admire the bravery of those who have chosen to tell a story of which others might not approve. The determination of those overcoming serious illness to become fit and healthy people again, and those who have had large amounts of weight to lose and achieved it.

Review: Wii Zumba­® Fitness

If you've been near a gym or a sports centre in the last two years, you can't fail to have heard of Zumba. If you don't know what it is, it's a fitness class based on the Latin American dances of salsa, merenge, cumbia and so on.

When I rejoined the gym towards the end of last year, I discovered that Zumba classes were almost taking over the old favourites of Body Pump, Body Combat and Body Attack. Having heard various good reports from friends, I decided to give it a go.

My Fitness Story... - Ian

I've lost track of the number of weeks this has been running but welcome back to My Fitness Story... anyway. This week's guest contribution is by Ian who blogs at Northern Blokes Ramblings and his tale of how he motivated himself to train for the Liverpool marathon. So, here is Ian with his tale, which he has called:

Tips for starting Body Pump classes

Following on from my post giving tips for starting a New Year fitness regime and then my post giving tips for starting a diet, I thought I would do another post giving tips for starting at Body Pump classes. I love Body Pump and I currently go three times a week. If I can't go to my usual class, I find a way to go to one at a different time. It makes such a difference to my fitness levels and I really work hard without having to jump up and down or have that much coordination. I blogged back in November how I thought strong is sexy (my most viewed post - wonder why?) and it's still true.

If you don't know what Body Pump is, it's a workout with weights to music. For most of the class, you are using a barbell with adjustable weights. Occasionally, you might use dumbbells. The routine is done in a specific order, working one or two muscle groups at a time. You are usually stood up or lying down with no dance steps to learn. Only certain gyms or leisure centres do classes - the instructors have to do special training which is quite rigorous and they have to attend regular workshops to learn new routines. Routines with new music are released quarterly.

Photo credit: tome213

Before you start, don't even think about starting if you have any major joint or muscle injury. This is particularly true of knee injuries so you might want to get medical advice before you start - although you might be able to modify some of the exercises. I'd also be wary of back injuries.

This set of tips comes with the usual proviso that this is written by me and I'm not a qualified fitness instructor. I did Body Pump for about 3 years before children, then on and off for a while, and I've been back regularly for about 8 months. I've been to classes by a whole range of instructors and have probably been there and done that. So, here we go.

1. Don't be intimidated by the class. Just because you think it's full of lots of fit people, you might think it's not for you until you're fit like them. The class is like that because it makes you fit. Everyone can work at their own level at Body Pump - it is one of its great strengths - and seriously, no-one cares if you're using the tiniest weights or the biggest weights. Take the plunge and give it a go.

2. Make sure you start by learning the techniques. Most places run a clinic or technique class about 15 mins before the actual class starts. Make time to get there for that and introduce yourself as new to the instructor. They will take you through the correct techniques, show you how to change weights, that sort of thing. If your centre doesn't offer these classes, be proactive - get to your first class early and tell the instructor that you're new. It's all about the technique - getting it right will reduce the risk of injuries and ensure you're working the parts you're meant to be working! Whatever you do, don't turn up late to your first class.

3. Position yourself where you can see the instructor easily at your first few classes. You don't have to be right at the front but don't take a gamble on the person in front of you having good technique or staying in time. There are always people who may do a particular move incorrectly or do everything too fast. You want to concentrate on the instructor(they may have another person at the front with the instructor sometimes, they'll be fine to follow too). Remember you will be lying down for some of the time and you'll still need to be able to see them.

4. If you've been doing weights in the gym, don't fool yourself into thinking you can use the same ones for Body Pump. Most people do weights for short sets with breaks in between. Body Pump tracks last between 3 and 5 minutes, and maybe one or two short breaks. You'll need a smaller weight for Body Pump. Trust me.

5. Don't worry about using light weights at first. It may take you a few classes to work out what is right for you. You want to be able to complete the track with good technique but the last few should feel hard (and probably hurt, but in a good way). If it feels too easy, try to make a mental note to use more weight the next time. Or you could be really nerdy and write them down so you know but you soon get a grasp of what weights are right for each track.

6. Use the mirrors if you have them. I know that a lot of people don't like looking at themselves in the mirror but it's really useful to check that you're doing the moves the right way. Personally, I don't think it's any coincidence that you see more people with bad technique at classes in halls where there are no mirrors.

7. Listen to the teaching points. They are given for a reason. Sometimes, the instructor is just giving out general points for you to check your technique. Sometimes, without actually saying, they'll be saying it because they have seen one or more doing it wrong. Always assume it's you until you've checked what they're saying. Some instructors will walk around a class to check technique and speak to you individually. Don't be embarrassed - they want you to get it right.

8. Leading on from points 1, 4 and 5, don't compete with the other participants in the class. This is one trap a lot of men fall into - they see a woman stack weight on for a track and think they have to do more, then can't complete the track. Remember it's about you and what you can do, not whether you're lifting the same weights as someone else. We are all different and have different strengths and weaknesses- literally. If you do go regularly, you will improve and most men progress more quickly than women.And don't do the routines faster because your weight is too heavy - just take some weight off, goddammit!

Photo credit - ayeyah

9. And if you do put too much weight on, don't be afraid to take some weight off in the middle of a track. It's better to finish a track with less weight on than have to give up.

10. Do what works for you. Just because everyone else is doing it, it doesn't mean you have to too. Most people lie on a step for the lying down tracks; I have to lie on a mat on the floor. There is more than one way to hold the bar for squats and lunges(I cannot for the life of me do lunges with the bar on my back - and I need to put my back leg up against a wall). If it doesn't feel right, speak to the instructor or watch to see what others do. If you're scared about changing weights between tracks, and there is ample equipment, you can always have two bars ready to avoid this.

11. Listen to your body. I won't lie - it will hurt as a track progresses if you're doing the exercises correctly, but in a "feel the burn" kind of way. Any sharp, sudden pain should not be ignored. And if it really hurts too much, do stop.

12. Afterwards. Yes, you will be sore the day after and probably a couple of days after that. If you start to go to Body Pump regularly, it will stop happening. If you're suffering from DOMS, baths often help. (As do a couple of painkillers!). More exercise may also help too - but again, listen to your body on that one. Some people say stretching helps with this but I think the jury is out on whether they actually make any difference. By all means, do any stretches the instructor suggests between tracks and during the cooldown at the end.

13. Expect to progress (by increasing your weights) about every 4-6 weeks at first. However, if the routine changes in that time, this might throw you off as some tracks are harder than others in different releases. There is no shame in moving back down or taking weight off mid-track if it's suddenly too hard - or even if you're just having a bad day which we all have occasionally. You will know when it's time to go up - it will suddenly feel a ton easier. Do it track by track - there is no point putting up your weights for all of the tracks if only one routine suddenly feels easier.

14. Finally, enjoy it. Don't give up if it feels like too much after one class. Give it a few weeks; you'll probably start to see some results after about 3 weeks.

I have probably mentioned technique a lot in this post, but please don't be fazed by it. Body Pump is all about the technique, but the moves are not hard to learn. It's just worth spending a bit of time learning the right way to do it when you're starting out.

A final point  - if you really want results, you'll still need to watch what you're eating. It won't make up for you eating too much!

Do give it a go, won't you? If you have any questions about Body Pump, feel free to ask me and I'll try to answer them as best I can.

My Fitness Story... - Tracy

I'm very grateful today to my guest poster because she wrote this for me whilst away from home. I had no post lined up until I put out a request on Twitter on Monday for some new contributions - or the series would have had to take an enforced holiday. I know Tracy has been thinking of submitting her story for a while to me, and I'm glad she took the time to write all down for me. Tracy struggled with her weight after having children, suffering the cumulative effect of weight gain that successive pregnancies can bring, until she resolved to lose the weight for good last year. In total, she lost 5 stone in 8 months, which is pretty incredible - especially as she did it all by myself and all for herself, which is great. This story cannot fail to inspire you if you're struggling in any way with a diet or fitness programme. Over now to Tracy to take up her tale. 

My “struggle” with my weight goes back to my early twenties. I had been a size 8 – 10 and put on weight after university having money, driving a car and eating out. I increased to a size 14. When I look back, this seems like nothing, but I felt bad about myself. My self-esteem has always been related to my size, and I didn’t feel good. So I read a book, “Stop the Insanity” by Susan Powter and I followed it. It was a way of thinking about food and exercise. It motivated me and I stuck to it. It was mainly about watching the percentage fat content of food and increasing your exercise. I became obsessed, both with food and exercise, until I lost lots of weight and got down to a size 8. I felt great about myself, but I couldn’t maintain it. I was exercising before work, running for 40 minutes, then swimming 30 lengths, and doing classes after work. In all honesty, I got too thin and I don’t think I am meant to be that size. My weight started to increase again, but stabilised at a size 10 – 12. I still felt good about myself at this weight.

Me in 2007

I was this size when I met my husband, 11 years ago. I was just under 10 stone when we got together. We met and married in the space of 10 months, but in that time I went from a size 10 – 12 to a size 16. My wedding dress was a size 16. A couple of months after the wedding, I became pregnant. I saw this as an excuse to eat, and put on 4 stone during the pregnancy. I had a difficult and traumatic delivery with my son and it took me a long time to recover, physically and emotionally. It wasn’t until he was 3 years old that I felt able to do anything about the weight. But, in 2004, I got a new job and decided I wanted to make a new start so I began the Atkins diet. Once again, I was obsessed. I followed the diet to the exact letter. It worked. I lost weight, and fast. Within 3 months I had lost over 4 stone and I felt good again. The feeling I got when everyone asked how I had done it, commented on how good I looked and complimented me on my achievement was wonderful. But it didn’t last for long.

Christmas Day 2009

I maintained for 4 months but became pregnant with my second child. I immediately started eating whatever I wanted again, and of course the weight started to pile back on. I put 3 stone back on during the pregnancy, and 8 months after the birth of my second child, I was pregnant again! This time, there was no time for weight loss and I just carried on eating, putting on another 2 stone. I was now a size 22 and 15 1/2 stone. I did not know what to do. I lacked motivation to do anything about my weight and suffered from post natal depression. It wasn’t until I resolved some of the issues relating to the birth of my children through counselling that I felt I was in a place where I could do something to tackle the weight again.

Christmas 2010

I was at work New Year’s Eve 2009, wearing my size 22 uniform and could not do up the trousers. I made a New Year’s resolution. In 2010, I was going to lose the weight. I was determined. I had been given a Wii Fit for Christmas and I intended on using this to keep me on track and hopefully be a fun way of exercising. On New Year’s Day, I stepped onto the Wii Fit for the first time. My BMI was right at the top of obese. I was mortified. I weighed 15 stone 8 lb. However, instead of feeling depressed, this motivated me, I had to do something! I started doing Wii Fit every day. For the first time, I was able to exercise with the children around because they enjoyed watching me do it, which resolved a major issue for me. I had found it very difficult to exercise. I couldn’t fit it in during the day, and was too exhausted by night. The Wii Fit resolved this. I know it is very low impact, but I was so unfit and lethargic, it got me moving more than I had done in years. I started to follow my own diet plan. Not as radical as I had been before, but combining things I had learnt in the past. I had porridge and juice for breakfast, chicken and salad for lunch, fish and vegetables for dinner. It was low carb again, but not in the extreme way that I had been with Atkins. I had “bad” days, particularly around my period, when I would lapse and have chocolate and wine! But this time, instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on. Pretty quickly, I saw results. The weight started coming off and my BMI started coming down. I carried on wearing baggy clothes and didn’t talk about what I was doing to anyone because I was doing this for myself. By August, I had lost 5 stone and my BMI was 24.6. I was thrilled. I started dressing completely differently and my work uniform was no longer the size 22 that wouldn’t fasten, but a size 12 that was a bit baggy. I felt so much better about myself.

After my 10K

I set myself a new target and entered a 10K race. This was my next challenge. I had lost the weight - now I wanted to improve my fitness. I had never done any running before, but I entered the Tatton Park 10k in September 2010 to raise funds for the Bobby Moore Fund for bowel cancer research. I enjoyed training - it gave me a real sense of motivation, having something to aim for. As a complete beginner with asthma, I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I tried to follow a training schedule and enjoyed going out from my front door for an hour, exploring the local area doing run/walks. I did the route in 1 hr 16 minutes but the time wasn’t important, it was just doing it. My children looked so proud, and I felt a real sense of achievement. I couldn’t have imagined, only 9 months before, that I would’ve been able to run for a bus, let alone a 10K.

9 months later and so far, I have managed to maintain. I fluctuate a bit, and I have to watch what I eat, but I still feel good about myself. I am a size 12 – 14, and I am OK with that. I know, if I pushed myself, I could get down to being a 10 – 12 again but in my heart of hearts I don’t think this is where my natural weight should be. I am stable where I am, I don’t want to get big again, and I am happy to maintain where I am now. As I sit here, I am on holiday, and I have a glass of wine. I am planning on getting back to “sensible” eating again next week, after my holiday. Until then, I will not be worrying about it. The next challenge? Who knows. Maybe a marathon for my 40^th birthday next year?!

What a great story. I'm sure lots of mums (including myself) went through similar experiences after they had children. I think Tracy's success can be summed up in this sentence: "instead of thinking that I’d failed and blow the diet, I would get back on the Wii Fit the following morning and carry on". We all have bad days - it's just how you react to them that decides if you succeed in the long run. I think it's an important lesson for us all - failure on a diet/healthy eating plan is not about one day. 

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it. If you want to read previous posts in this series, click on the My Fitness Story... tab above and they are all linked on that page.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

My Fitness Story... - Nigel

My contributor this week is Nigel, who is one of my Twitter followers. Quite coincidentally, he lives in the village in Buckinghamshire that I lived in before I moved to Lancashire, but we didn't live there at the same time. Nigel is a photographer and runs not one but two photography businesses. He's written today about his experience of his fitness programme that he started after Christmas and the benefits to his health. 


Since Christmas 2010, I have been going to my local gym; now, at age 54 years, that is quite an effort. Even though I play badminton regularly, I am not an active soul. My profession of commercial and social photography means spending a lot of time in front of this computer (or a different one if I am at home). My enrolment meant that if I attended the gym three times a week for eight weeks, I would get my sign-on fee returned.

Eight weeks on and I achieved my goal; not so much losing weight but improving my stamina and increasing my appetite. It also prompted me to buy my own provisions for lunch, instead of going to the sandwich shop in the week. I did seek some advice from a very good friend of mine, Lynne Garton, who as a professional nutritionist, advised me on what not to eat.

My weakness is still the odd beer or three about once a fortnight and I do try to consume more water instead of tea or coffee.

In the summer, I find exercise much easier with gardening and generally getting out there and enjoying the weather. I found that, over the Christmas period whilst attending the gym, it was the first year for some time that I did not come down with a cold or flu, but with a break over the Easter period of not attending, I now have a cough that I can't seem to shift. I am down to one visit a week to the gym and one evening of badminton. But I do plan on increasing the gym again.

With Summer approaching, I find there are good reasons to have a fit body, apart from which it does make me sharper in the mind and less sluggish. Gym is not for everyone, and I think from my experience, gym-goers mostly consist of two stereotypes: the wallflowers who stand in front of the mirrors, and the pros who keep their headphones on and focus with no eye contact or conversation. It can be quite a sad place.

All this is part of my programme to live a healthier life. Although my diet has not changed massively, I still keep a wise head on what I am eating and try and be as healthy as possible. I go to a network breakfast once a week and we do avoid heavy fry-ups. We are also growing vegetables in the garden which hopefully will improve our diet and our bank balance. So watch this space!

My thanks go to Nigel for writing this post today. I think that this shows that small(ish) changes to lifestyle can have a wider impact than just losing weight. The health benefits of regular exercise and watching what you eat are far-reaching. Again, this shows that it's what works for you that is best. Not everyone likes the gym (I don't do it, I tend to prefer classes) but if we all liked the same thing, it would be a boring old world, wouldn't it? And it also demonstrates that you can start a fitness programme at virtually any age - you don't have to be young to get fit, the health benefits can be achieved at any age. 

Feel free to share experiences, as always, in the comments below. My guest posters really do appreciate the messages of support they get from readers.

If you would like to share your fitness story, then please contact me on Twitter or email me on the address on the About Me page. Posts can be partly or fully anonymous, or if you are happy to be named, I will link back to your blog. All contributions are really appreciated so do get in touch, even if you feel yours is not a worthwhile story. If it's a personal experience, it is. And I mean that even if you have failed at something, because it is still YOUR fitness story and you learned from it. If you want to read previous posts in this series, click on the My Fitness Story... tab above and they are all linked on that page.

Thanks for supporting My Fitness Story... and do come back for another guest post next week.

Gino and me (part 2)

Welcome back to part 2 of my interview with Gino D’Acampo. In part 1, Gino told me about his love of Twitter, his Good Food Fight campaign with Cheestrings and how he’s been banned from the kitchen at home. I’d relaxed by now and we were chatting more than I was interviewing him.

I wanted to know what Gino though was the secret to good Italian food.  “It’s to keep it simple. A lot of people, they think that creating Italian food is difficult and they need to try to find these fancy ingredients. Italian food is about buying a fresh tomato when it’s in season, buying a good quality extra virgin olive oil and a few basil leaves and there you have it, that is what good Italian food is all about”. His quick fix for a fast, healthy meal is, of course, a plate of pasta. “In the time you’ve boiled the pasta for 7-8 minutes, I can do a sauce, a tomato sauce with cheese on top, with a bit of fresh basil.”

He feels that food in Italian restaurants here is improving but is still behind. “It’s getting better. But still, I think we’re still about 20 years behind here. To be honest with you, in London at the moment, there are probably not even 10 restaurants that I consider do proper Italian food. Not even 10; I think the last time I counted, I was on 7.”

We somehow came on to the fact that I do weekly meal plans and it turns out he’d been looking at my Meal Planning Monday post that morning – oh, and the post detailing the contents of my fridge! Whilst part of me cursed the timing of these posts, Gino told me how he doesn’t like meal plans but sees the need for them. “My wife tried to do a weekly menu and after one month, I had to say, “We’re going to have to stop this” because so often when my wife planned to have, say, pizza, I don’t fancy pizza, so I’d say to her, ”Why don’t you do a bit of freestyle?” so we just cook whatever we want. But with kids, you have to plan ahead, especially if you want to keep food healthy. When people ask me what is the secret to healthy food, I say you need to plan your shopping.”

Last year, Gino published a book called The Italian Diet, and being interested in fitness myself, I asked him whether he’d ever struggled with his weight. “Never. I called the book “The Italian Diet” but it’s not really a diet book. It is to show people that if you eat sensibly, you just don’t put weight on. If you eat sensible – of course if you eat a kilo of cheese a day, you’re going to put on weight - but if you have a portion-controlled amount of cheese, everything is fine. All things in moderation. That’s what the book was all about.“  To stay fit, he swims and “I move a lot. I’m always up doing something.”

What about Gino on a day off? I asked him what activities he does with his sons when he has free time. Having recently given up his Sunday radio show, he has more time at home. But do you know what he does? He cooks! “We play and stuff like that, but I try to cook with them if I can. What I’m trying to do is to show them that cooking is a fun thing to do. And that is important because once children realise that cooking is fun, they will use that for the rest of their life. My kids cook anything,  simple things like cheese on toast, a plate of pasta with tomato sauce or anything that they like.”

I was disappointed to learn that Gino is not a fan of football. “I don’t like football very much. My little boy does it; Rocco loves football. Luciano prefers rugby, he’s a rugby player. I actually prefer rugby to football, to be honest with you. I think it’s more interesting, more a gentleman’s game.”  

Finally, I ran out of questions.  The time had passed in a flash and after a hug, a photocall and exchange of pleasantries, I was back outside. I got my phone out to tweet someone to meet them, looked up and there was Gino stood next to me. When he noticed my phone, he laughed at me tweeting until I explained what I was doing. My abiding impression of him was that he was great to interview. He was friendly and easy to talk to, and occasionally a bit cheeky; in other words, very much like his on-screen persona. It was a pleasure to meet him.

And before anyone asks, yes, he remained fully clothed throughout!

Visit Cheestrings.com to learn more about Gino’s Good Food Fight, and see how Cheestrings are working to help mums make good food fun for the lunchbox.

(I have not been paid a fee to write this interview, although my travel expenses were refunded. I have included a link to the Cheestrings website as requested but other than that, I have not been told what to write.)

The Gallery - My blog

When Tara says she's set a tough challenge, my heart normally sinks and I don't feel any better after I've found out what it is, spending the weekend scratching my head and then scrabbling around at the last minute to produce something. Heck, last week, it was so late, I didn't even start the post until Wednesday afternoon! Well, this week, for a change, I looked at the theme for this week and thought "I can do that!" straight away. It was a gimme - well, for me anyway.

For the theme is "My blog". In other words, I must produce one photograph that sums up my blog. With a blog name like mine, that's easy. The only problem was putting it together and making it work as a photo. That included making cakes! I really hope Tara appreciate the lengths I have gone to this week for her - no point and snap for me, this has taken a good hour or more of preparation. I think that demonstrates true dedication to the cause.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you my blog - The Five Fs.

To represent each of the five Fs, we have:

- Family - pictures of Monkey and Missy Woo at school and nursery respectively
- Football - one of my old Preston North End replica shirts
- Food - banana and chocolate cupcakes
- Fitness - my new trainers, which was a Mother's Day present from the children
- Fun - one of the toys we've been lucky enough to review recently

The Five Fs. The five things in my life that I am most passionate about. The five things that I (mostly) blog about. One photo, five Fs. Done!


If you have a blog, how would you depict yours in one photo?

My Fitness Story... - Garry

Welcome to the My Fitness Story... series, which has now become a regular Thursday feature on this blog. Today's contribution is by Garry AKA Him Up North, who is a good Twitter friend and blogs at The Blog Up North, which is always a fantastic read. Garry also designed the badge for this series as he has the ability I lack in design! I knew he had a fitness story to tell, so I asked him if he would write a post for this series. He took a bit of persuading that his story was worth telling but, as I have said before, this series encompasses the full range of experiences that people have with diet and fitness. The fact that he has a personal experience means he has a story to tell, so he wrote it, and as always, it's a great read. Garry had to lose weight for medical reasons, having never been on a diet in his life so he had to work out how to lose the weight. Here is his story. 

Two years ago, a doctor told me to lose weight. I had a health problem which was being exacerbated by carrying a bit too much timber. “A stone or a stone and a half,” he said.

Okay, I thought. Which limb do I cut off...? Seriously, I was at a complete loss.

I’d never tried to lose weight. I wasn’t a gym type. My story, like many men, was one of gradual middle-age spread (ie my age was spreading to my middle). But my choice was clear. Lose the weight or face surgery and quite possibly pain. Lots of pain.

So I assessed my lifestyle and realised I was doing many things wrong:

• I was eating the wrong things, often at the wrong times. Working shifts meant I was relying on convenience foods (so called because they belong in a convenience) and eating at odd times of the day.
• I was far too sedentary. I drove everywhere, even short journeys such as the school run, and got virtually no exercise. Because my job is a) desk based and b) has no long break that also reduced scope for activity.

As Gandhi would have it, I had to be the change I wanted to see. Pretty obvious, really.

So my plan was a simple one.

My diet became more virtuous. I cut out bread altogether because up to that point, what I ate had been something of a yeast feast. I reduced my calorific intake by cutting out snack foods and sweet things.

It was bloody hard – I was a grazer – and the lure of the biscuit barrel was great. But I had my motivation – threat of pain – and gradually “educated my appetite”. I could eat little without feeling hungry.

My lifestyle became more active. I left the car behind for any trips around town. Much to the kids’ chagrin, we started walking to and from school (which just happens to be up a steep hill – cue much redness and sucking of air in the early days).

Okay, I didn’t take up trampolining or orienteering. But I did start walking just for the exercise; a four and a half mile route with hills and stuff became my workout.

Because my target was a statistical one, I weighed myself regularly. To my astonished delight I found I was actually losing weight. It was slow and gradual. There were times when I lost nothing or actually went back up. I realised my metabolism meant it was a high wire act with very little margin for failure.

But I had my target and I knew my changed habits could work. I was down to my target weight in about ten months. My regime, such as it was, had become normal. By the time I saw my consultant, my weight was no longer a contributing factor and I avoided the surgeon’s scalpel. Phew.

However, with the threat went the motivation. I played fast and loose on that high wire, choosing to dive into the safety net too often (or the crisps stash as it’s known). Some of the weight is back and I’m verging on disliking it all again.

I realise getting fitter and losing weight was and is very much a journey without end. Just a series of signposts. It may be time to embark upon it again.

Many thanks to Garry for telling his story. I'm sure men can end up feeling a bit inadequate when they see magazines like Men's Fitness which show men with bulging six packs (in the right way!) that give the impression that you have to do lots of exercise in order to get and stay fit. It doesn't have to be that way if it's not for you - simple changes that you build into your lifestyle are more effective for many as they are easier to keep doing when they become part of your normal routine. 

Please share any experiences you have in the comments below. Alternatively, if you have a fitness story to tell, then get in touch with me on Twitter or via the email address on the About me page. I will link back to any blog you write if you wish, or you can remain either partly or fully anonymous.

The Five Fs recommends... Barcelona

As you will have noticed from my Gallery post, we've just come back from Barcelona. Well, actually it was just the three of us - Missy Woo went to stay with her Granny for a few nights, so it was just us and Monkey. I thought I'd do a post recommending various places based on each of the five Fs that this blog is (mostly) about. These are purely personal recommendations - everything I've mentioned is purely because we love them.

Firstly, we have family. Barcelona is generally family friendly as the Spanish love children. Monkey got in the way of a few passing pedestrians and the worst he got in return was an indulgent smile and a ruffle of his hair. Getting around is not too bad, even for those still in the buggy years, thanks to copious lifts on the Metro system. My main recommendation in this category is The Patio B&B. It has only two rooms so it's perfect for families who can take over the place therefore not disturb anyone nor be disturbed. It is amazingly quiet, save the distant rumble of Metro trains passing through the tube station across the road - it's located at the back of an apartment block and is surrounded by buildings on all sides. Traffic noise is often a problem when staying in Barcelona so a quiet retreat is great, especially when you have children. What really makes it for me are the owners, Liz and Tony. Liz is English and is a source of lots of information and great help to make your stay run smoothly. She was great with Monkey too, who benefited to the tune of several chocolate bars! A stay there is so relaxed; our second stay there was as good as the first, if not better. We'll be going back.

Our view last Saturday

Then, there is football. You can't really go to Barcelona and not visit the Nou Camp, can you? The Nou Camp experience is the most popular museum in Barcelona but not that good for children - Monkey spent only half an hour there before he got bored. However, actually going to a match is a different experience but not a particularly straightforward one. Let me offer a few tips:

• Although the fixtures for a weekend are known months in advance, kick off times are not decided until 2 weeks beforehand which makes planning difficult. Kick off times can be anything from 6pm until 10pm, 9pm on Sunday so small children might need to stay up, but it's worth it for those who are into football, plus it makes a Sunday night flight home impossible if you are planning a trip.
  
• Season ticket holders can sell their tickets back to the club for resale if they cannot attend a match. This means tickets become available at any time and is the only way you can buy tickets for most areas. If you can't get what you want straight away, keep trying. You may not be able to get tickets together, particularly in a large group but you can often swop once you get inside. Tickets cost between 32-102 euro, more for bigger games.
  
• If you want to buy tickets in advance of travelling, buy your tickets from servicaixa.com - we tried several times over to book tickets from the FC Barcelona site and it wouldn't let us. A phone call to Spain pointed us at this site and it actually worked.
  
• If you do book tickets online, you still have to turn up with the card you used and some photo ID to collect tickets. I spent an hour queueing (and I use that term loosely) to collect our tickets because we did so on match day. If you can go on another day to collect, you'll probably wait a lot less! You can also collect from ServiCaixa terminals of La Caixa bank - IF you can find one.
  

• Finally, get there early. The layout of the stadium is not straightforward and they send you in an access door which forces you to walk round to your "boca" (block).. and then the odd numbered seats are one side of the aisle, and the evens the other! And be prepared for a crush on the Metro on the way home after, or walk if you're feeling up to it.

Next, we have food. I have to be honest here and say we discovered nowhere new this time. Our itinerary didn't really allow it. We apply the following rules when selecting where to eat:

- nice outdoor chairs; plastic ones are a total no-no
- the bar must stock Amaretto; not my guideline and this is not always strictly applied!
- there must be no pictures of the food, especially the dayglo ones that are supposed to make it look more appetising but fail
- never, ever buy anything to eat, other than perhaps an ice cream, on the Ramblas, it'll be expensive rubbish

Most of our eating occurred in two small chains where we've had some great tapas. The first is Tapa Tapa, which I've visited every time I've been to Barcelona and our first meal this time was down at their restaurant in Maremagnum, where we sat outside at Monkey's insistence. (I know they are environmentally unfriendly, but thank God for patio heaters!) We had some stunning calamari there, and tried some black rice with allioli which was gorgeous. The second was Taller de Tapas where we had some great patatas bravas and a tapa of spinach, pancetta and chickpeas, an old favourite of ours. We were very happy when we discovered there is one close to the Nou Camp so we stopped there before we went to the match.

And a special mention for Buenas Migas as a great stop off point for coffee and cake, or their great foccaccia. Husband managed to steer us in the direction of the branch behind the cathedral as he wanted some of their flapjack with yogurt but we also discovered their salami dolce this time around which is enough for two to share! I think we've pretty much visited all the branches in the city in our time and they're always good.

So, we're onto fitness. Strangely, I don't have too many things to say about that. You walk in Barcelona. A lot. Even if you go by Metro, you walk. You soon discover that most line changes actually involve a walk of around half a mile. It's generally pleasant walking in Barcelona if you can avoid the crowds (in which case, give the Ramblas a miss at busy times although you have to experience it once). But if you really want a fitness challenge, perhaps consider entering the Barcelona Marathon. The scenery is stunning and it's only 50 euro to register which is much cheaper than, say, the London Marathon. And it's much quieter too - only 13,000 out of 15,000 registered started last Sunday although it has grown rapidly in recent years, meaning you will get a place rather than having to go through a ballot.

Monkey and Miró

Finally, fun! There is actually quite a lot for children to do in Barcelona. An aquarium for starters, which we didn't get time to visit, nor CosmoCaixa (a science museum) a bit out of the city centre. There are also tons of smaller parks, but Monkey discovered his favourite on our final day. It's Parc Joan Miró, where there is huge Miró statue which totally dwarfed Monkey, but also extensive play areas for different ages of children as well as football pitches and basketball courts. It has a café too, so parents are catered for whilst their children run off some steam. Perfect.

We have been to Barcelona many times, and we will no doubt go again. It never fails as a great place to visit and now Monkey loves it as much as we do. As I said at the start, I've recommended these places I've mentioned here purely because we love them. If you go to Barcelona and try them out, we hope that you will too.

My Fitness Story... - Corinne

Today's story is a truly inspiring one. It's by Corinne Ellison, who decided she wanted to do an Ironman, started training, but was then diagnosed with a heart condition requiring open heart surgery which she underwent in June 2010. When I first read the post, I was struck by how positive Corinne has remained throughout, even when she has been experiencing tough times. Over to Corinne to tell her story, which she has chosen to call..

Heart Surgery to Ironman

My story starts with a desire to complete an Ironman. To those who have not heard of Ironman, it is a long distance triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles bike and 26.2 run (a marathon) – one after another!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not an experienced triathlete. In fact, when I entered my first race, I could only swim 2 lengths and bike round the block! I finished my first triathlon in 2009 and came third….from last! I had been ‘keeping fit’ for a couple of years but I didn’t seem to be improving as I should. I began to become suspicious that something was wrong but put this niggle to the back of my mind. Eventually, I went to see my doctor, complaining of shortness of breath and chest pain - within two weeks I was diagnosed with a large hole in my heart.

This leads me to the motivation behind finishing an Ironman. Facing the prospect of never being able to exercise again scared me immensely. Doctors warned me that I would never be an elite athlete (I wasn’t planning on this!), that I wouldn’t be able to take up my marathon place that year and I facing open heart surgery.

As a woman in my twenties, I felt like the natural concern should be the physical aspects of the surgery – pain, the anaesthetic and the scar. Open heart surgery usually means a vertical scar of around 12 inches down the centre of the chest. This did not concern me, my only focus became ensuring I got back to health as soon as possible. After getting over the initial shock of diagnosis, I had to stop exercising completely as my heart was at the beginning of failure. Whilst I had my long term fitness dreams still burning away inside, I felt unsure about the timescales for achieving them. Over the next few weeks, I began to switch off from sport – I couldn’t talk about it with friends, I stopped going to my club and couldn’t read magazines. The pain of not being able to exercise meant that I had to shut off for a while, focusing only on the here and now.

I was feeling pretty vulnerable whilst waiting to have the surgery and initially afterwards. I was frustrated at not being able to exercise. Doubts started to set in and I was concerned about my ability to ever run again. I needed a positive boost of confidence. This is where the Ironman goal came in. My fixation with achieving of the ultimate physical challenge was cemented. My journey from heart surgery to Ironman began; I fully committed to this goal and used it as a distraction from my fear.

Obstacles in recovery were overcoming the post-operative pain to get out for my first shuffle round the block – a miniscule 7 minutes on my first day! Mentally and physically, I felt fragile but was determined to keep up with the training prescribed by the physiotherapists. Everyday, I pushed myself a little further and soon was walking up to 4 miles a day. My love of exercise began to return and I soon felt the benefit of the fresh air.

What I learnt from the experience was that when something is taken away from you (in my case the ability to exercise and potential ability to race in the future), you want it even more. Scarcity is powerful and I found my determination grew. Ironman became a possibility after a discussion with my cardiologist. He inadvertently told me that as my heart was so ineffective pre-surgery, I should be able to achieve much faster times with my fixed heart. An hour off my best marathon time was jokingly mentioned – I committed this to memory and set my goal then and there. The benefit of having heart surgery, aside from improved health, was that I now appreciate the true value of exercise and how it improves your emotional and physical well-being. Going through a test of character and coming out the other side has given me confidence in myself.

So, where I am today? Almost 8 months after my surgery, I am back to all the sport I love and getting ready for my first race – the Brighton half marathon. A succession of races follows for the rest of the year, with the ultimate challenge of Ironman in November 2012 – the month I turn 30!


Huge thanks to Corinne for sharing her story with us, and good luck for all the races she's running - the Brighton half marathon is actually this Sunday so I will be thinking of her then. Corinne also has a Just Giving page to raise money for GUCH (Grown Up Congenital Heart Patients Association) when she runs the London Marathon for the third time in April. You can also find her on twitter here.

If you'd like to tell your fitness story, please get in touch with me, either on Twitter or via the email address on the About Me page.

My Fitness Story... - An Introduction

At the start of January, I wrote a post giving my tips for starting a fitness regime and some people said to me that maybe we could update in a few weeks. It led me to thinking how I could perhaps include more fitness on this blog - after all, it's one of the Five Fs and I'm painfully aware that I don't blog about it all that often. I don't feel my story is exciting to share with you at the moment although I'm planning an update of my (slow but steady) progress soon.

That was when I came up with the idea of asking people to submit posts about their own fitness story. I think fitness and weight loss is such a broad subject and there are so many different ways of doing it, good and bad, that just talking about what I do doesn't even scratch the surface. So, I asked on twitter if anyone would share their stories and a few people popped up expressing an interest so I've decided to give it a go. 

I want to cover as broad a range as possible. What I'm after is experiences of following a diet or starting a fitness regime, with a goal in mind. It doesn't have to be a great success. If it was a qualified success, or an abject failure, I want to hear those stories too - about what you learned from the experience, perhaps how it changed your ideas or outlook on diet and fitness, and how you moved on from that. It can be a recent experience or one from years ago. 

A lot of issues surrounding diet and fitness can be very personal so if you want the post to be published anonymously, I'm happy to do so. I'd prefer to know who you are, but I promise not to pass that on if you don't want. If you're happy to be named and you blog, I'll link to it in the post. You don't have to be a blogger to take part, of course. This is open to everyone to contribute stories. 

Of course, you may read a post and want to offer your experience of the same thing, particularly if yours was completely different. Please do leave a comment - they are always welcomed, positively encouraged in fact - or if you like, write your own post to be part of the "My Fitness Story..." series. 

So, if you think you have a story to tell, then please get in touch with me, either on Twitter or by email. I already have a couple of posts submitted to me, and a few more are being written. I plan to publish one or two posts a week, so I need stories to make this work! 

I hope you find this series interesting, thought-provoking and useful.  The first post will be published tomorrow - please take a look and give the poster some comment love if you can.

Thanks to Garry from The Blog Up North for making me a badge to accompany the series. 

My tips for starting a New Year fitness regime

Photo credit - dariuszman

So, it's 3rd January and lots of people made New Year's resolutions to get fitter, lose weight, be more healthy, yada yada. Obviously, these normally involve starting a new fitness regime. I've started many in my time, and not just in early January, so I thought I'd pass on some tips. Obviously, you can choose to ignore them and it's a long list, but you will have a better chance of keeping it going for longer and seriously improving your fitness if you follow as many as you can. Feel free to add your own tips in the comments at the bottom of this post. Please remember I am not a qualified fitness instructor, this is just what I have learned over the years of being a punter. Some of these are learned from hard experience, some I've learnt from others.

1. Get proper medical advice if you have a condition or an injury that might mean that exercise could be harmful. Do this before you start if this applies to you.
2. Choose activities that you think you will enjoy. There is no point in doing something that you hate, because you will fall at the first hurdle. You can run, take up a new sport, join a gym, go to classes, or workout at home. If you're not sure what you want to do or will like, try a few things out but give each option a good few weeks. No-one is ever good as soon as they start. 
3. If you join a gym, try to get a trial period before signing your life away or pay as you go for a while. Check any contract very carefully as some gyms charge large cancellation penalties. Don't be swayed by fancy facilities at a private gym - council run leisure centres are often cheaper and the staff are normally well trained. They also allow you to pay as you go although memberships will work out cheaper. Don't think that paying lots of money will guilt you into going. That's how fitness clubs make their profits - all the people that pay hundreds of pounds a year who go twice. In total.
4. Get the right equipment. Some people find they are more motivated by buying new fitness gear. You don't need to, but if it works for you and you have the money, do it. There is, however, one piece of equipment where no reasonable expense must be spared - running shoes. Please don't think you can get by starting to run with any old trainers. A trip to any of the sports chains (Yes, you JJB, JD Sports and the like) will not cut it either. Go to a proper shop for runners where they can analyse your gait and help work out the best type of shoes for how you run. If you don't, you risk developing shin splints, which will seriously hamper your progress. Invest in good shoes and the risks are greatly reduced. Definitely worth the money. 
5. Put your workouts or runs or classes in your diary like any other appointment. It takes about 3 weeks to create new habits, so making time for your workout may be an effort at first. So many good intentions fail because people don't make the time. You only need about 3-4 hours week to get started. Putting the time aside to do your workout will help you see yourself as a regular exerciser until it becomes second nature. Home workouts are particularly prone to other distractions. I got round this by doing EA Sports Active's 30 day challenge which recorded what you have done and when so you had to do the workouts. 
6. Consider having a fitness buddy. It works for some - it will help motivate you each other when the going is tough and you're answerable to them if you want to bunk off. Or you could spend your whole time trying to get them to go. Your call. 
7. Start out gently and build up gradually. I cannot stress this enough because it will help prevent injuries and stop you getting demotivated. To get fitter, you need to challenge yourself, but not to the point of pushing yourself too hard. If doesn't matter if your first few workouts feel easy; just make a mental note to run a bit faster, work a bit harder or whatever it is next time. The first few workouts - if not the first few weeks - are for you to find your level. And remember it's your level, not anyone else's. If you really can't keep up, don't try. 
8. Set goals realistically. Particularly true of running, I think - there are plenty of running programmes around which you can follow. Stick to them, don't try to do them at twice the pace. You won't become fit overnight, it will take time to see results. And see point 7!
9. Make sure you get enough rest. When do you think you actually get fitter? Is it whilst you are exercising? It isn't! When you exercise, your body is under stress. When you rest, the body repairs itself and if you've been challenging it with exercise, it adapts to the challenge and you become fitter or stronger at rest. When you're starting out, it's a good idea to rest every other day if you can, but if your schedule doesn't allow it, working out for a couple of days then taking a rest will do. Overtraining gives no time for recovery and can turn niggles into injuries. 
10. Have contingency plans. This particularly applies to outdoor pursuits, like running, which can become dangerous in winter weather, but it could something as simple as your class being cancelled. Have a back up plan so that you can at least have a workout when this happens, especially if the activity is going to be laid off for more than a couple of days. I go back to EA Sports Active on the Wii when a class is unexpectedly cancelled.
11. Listen to what your body is telling you, particularly if you get ill. You will get ill or injured at some point. How you manage it is important to the speed of your recovery. If you get a cold, you can probably still exercise if your symptoms are above your neck and the rest feels fine, but if they are below the neck, it is best to wait until you get better. You can make yourself very ill if you exercise when ill so admit defeat and concentrate on getting better. Same goes for exercising with an injury - rest if necessary and if it's more serious than you first thought, get proper medical advice. Better to miss 1 or 2 workouts to get better than have to miss 12.
12. If you are exercising with the aim of losing weight, try to measure as well as weigh yourself. Keep a record of the measurements and measure regularly but only about every 2-3 weeks. This is because you may find that you lose fat but it not show on the scale. Muscle is denser than fat so it looks slimmer - and believe me, it's a good thing to have more muscle. 
13. Don't expect to lose weight by exercise alone. As I was once told, "you can never outrun your mouth". Watch what you are eating. Some people start to eat more after they have exercised when in truth, particularly at the start, they may not have burned that many calories. My pet hate is someone coming off a cardio machine at the gym saying they've earned themselves a chocolate bar (the calorie count on those things is often way out). You may find may appetite is increased but try not to overdo it. And DRINK! Keeping hydrated may take away the hunger pangs. Honestly. On the flip side, don't starve yourself - exercise needs fuel. 
14. When starting out, or starting back even after a shortish break, you are likely to get achey in your muscles the day after. The technical term for this is DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) and it will pass after 2-3 days. Your body will get better at reacting to the exercise over time but the first few can really hurt. Warm baths or a sauna can help, and if it's really bad, so can painkillers. 
15. Always do a warm up before each workout with some gentle exercise and do a cool down afterwards. Learn how to do a few basic stretches but don't overstretch.
16. Finally, don't expect there to be an exercise that will spot reduce fat from one problem area. It's just not going to happen. 

Finally, let me end by giving you some links to some useful sites or posts: 

jagsfitnessblog.com - written by my friend Jo about her own weight loss and fitness journey. She has written some useful posts on Frequently Asked Questions and Diet and Fitness Myths which are well worth a read.

stumptuous.com - lots of useful advice for all, with a particular slant towards women using weights. 

ExRx.net - a huge free resource with calculators and exercise directories, featuring videos of how to perform each one.