Week 6: where I took a bath.

Weight Loss Milestones - My Strongest Self

Summary of the key moments in my weight loss journey, including before and after pictures, and weight loss statistics.

My Strongest Self

Weight Loss Journal - My Strongest Self

A set of weekly posts, diarising my journey towards losing 20 kilos of weight, through transforming my eating and exercising habits.

My Strongest Self

Monday is the day after the session where my PT was determined to find and work my core muscles.

It turns out that he succeeded.

Today - and for the rest of the week - my entire belly region feels super-achy. Whilst it is not particularly fun being covered in aches, I am quite glad to be achy on this occasion, as being achy means that somewhere beneath all of the fat on my belly, there must also exist some muscle.

Shin splints

I have been struggling with achy legs a lot this week.

My PT tells me it is something called shin splints - which doesn't sound particularly pleasant. It paints pictures in my mind of the bone in my legs splintering apart into lots of tiny pieces. In reality though, it turns out it is quite a common and minor ailment, particularly prevalent in those of us who are new to running, which doesn't involve any splintering of bones. He tells me to get used to it, as it's 'part and parcel' of the leg muscles adapting to new levels of stress.

Slightly more helpfully, he does also send me a link to a YouTube video with some exercises to help with shin splits:

muscles and encourage quicker recovery. It has been about ten years since I last took a bath - but if it may help, I'm willing to give hot baths a try. The baths are certainly relaxing and they seem to help - whether this is because of the epsom salt, or perhaps just because of the warmth of the water relaxing my body, I'm not entirely sure.

A pair of Sweaty Betty Power Leggings

My mood brightens up on Wednesday.

I'm temporarily distracted from all of my aches and pains by the exciting arrival of a new item of clothing in the post.

My new item of clothing is a pair of Power Gym Leggings from Sweaty Betty. At £75 a pair they're about three times as expensive as the IUGA leggings I initially bought at the start of this weight loss journey.

Whilst that first pair of leggings were fine to start with, as the weeks progressed I started to notice that they would slip and slide around a lot. So I've decided they're fine for casual wear - but not ideal when jumping around and doing more strenuous exercise!

These new leggings seem awesome.

As I pull them on I immediately feel like they make me look good. They're super-comfy. They seem to pull everything in, creating a smooth, elegant contour, making me feel fit and sporty (despite the fact that actually I'm still wobbly and overweight!)

My initial thought is that I'm probably going to get what I pay for with these leggings...but time will tell...

A personal training session to end the week

Friday is a PT session day. The first one this week actually. As usual, I spend most of the session thinking things like,

'Why am I doing this to myself? '

'I feel like I'm dying...'

'How much longer until this ends?'

Of course, I know why I am doing this to myself. It is because I know it is good for me and because I know it will get results. So I think I'll end this week with a quote from my PT:

"You may not be enjoying it, but you're here. You're doing it. And you're losing weight!"

Weekly food diary

This week I have been eating...

Up next: my weight loss journey week 7

Week 7: where I failed to do press ups.

“Yes, you can! Now, lower yourself down, slowly.” “I was pleased with those,” he says. Although, I could hear the doubt in his voice.

My Strongest SelfLisa