Weigh-In-Wednesday (delayed...)

Been a bit slack with the updates this week.

After I pulled a muscle last Tuesday I wanted to rest it until I was comfortable exercising again. It was sore on Wednesday and Thursday but felt fine on Friday. I went for a walk on Friday which was fine and I was thinking it might be sorted but on Saturday I ran for my train; only a few steps but it was painful enough to know that it wasn't fully healed, so I've been continuing to take it easy. I went for another walk on Monday and things still seemed fine.
I've mostly been walking into Rothwell, google maps reckons my route is about 4 miles I haven't really been timing it but I think it takes about an hour. It's actually further than I thought now I've looked it up. The quickest route is a lot shorter, but when I'm doing it for exercise then I go the long way around.

Anyway yesterday was weigh-in day. Bit of a disappointment, 18 stone 3. So apparently I've only lost 1 pound this week. Probably a result of doing less exercise and not watching what I eat quite so much, though I've still been way healthier than I would normally be, I have a feeling it might be because it was so low last week, 8 lb over 2 weeks sounds a lot more realistic than 7 lb in 1 week.  Anyway I'm still in front of my target.

Back to the exercise. I went for a run yesterday, day 3 of week 1, though I'm actually into week 2 now...anyway it was the 8 x 60 seconds again. My legs felt a bit stiff at first but I was surprisingly OK with it, I thought I would be back to where I started but I was about the same as my last run, I guess keeping up with some exercise when I'm not on the program has helped there.
The stats were 1.7 miles at 10.54 minutes/mile so a very slight improvement on last time. 441 calories including the warm up/cool down.

I think I will do another week 1 run next time, week 2 moves onto 6 x 90 second runs and I'm not convinced I'm up to that yet. Though I know I need to push myself if I want to build fitness, I'm very wary of pushing too hard after overdoing it and needing a week off.

In other news I'm also 2 weeks into Dry (most of) January.
I was drinking a bit much last year and it started to get a bit silly over Christmas/new year so I thought I would give it a go and see how I went. In large part to make sure I wasn't an alcoholic but also the money savings, calorie savings and potential health benefits are worthwhile too.  There still hasn't been a "real" study on whether taking a month off is worthwhile but a small scale study New Scientist did indicates that there is a worthwhile benefit, which goes counter to the previous advice that taking a month off has no real benefit, mostly because you use it as an excuse to go nuts when you get back on the booze.
I don't plan to quit booze permanently or anything, and in fact I'm not doing the whole of January, I have a warhammer weekend in Stockport on the 24th to 26th that I would like to drink at, but it isn't really bothering me and I think I will try and get into just drinking at the weekend or when I go out rather than every night when I'm sat on my arse watching TV. I reckon as 40 approaches taking a bit more of a grown-up approach to drinking shouldn't do any harm.

Ups and Downs

I decided to go for a run yesterday to finish Week 1. I had a bit of a false start as I got the "start running" message as I was waiting for a light to change on the pedestrian crossing, but never mind, just start when I get over. Which I did. About 10 paces in I get a stabbing pain in my right thigh. I tried to keep on running but it just gets worse. Looks like I've pulled a muscle....
I walked for about half an hour without it getting any better or worse just to be doing some exercise but I'm pretty annoyed. Stupid body.
It was painful last night and is still painful today so knocking the pain down with ibuprofen and hoping that should help with any inflammation. Looks like I'm going to have to research how to deal with pulled muscles now, though I'm guessing it is going to be rest.

Anyway the point of the post: the weigh in. After a week of increased exercise, no booze, and being pretty careful with what I eat (No snacks basically), did I lose any weight?

The result: 19 stone 4 Lb. So I've apparently list 7 Lb this week. Get in!

That seems wildly too high, for that to be real I would have to be on a calorie deficit of 3500 per day, and there is absolutely no way I have come anywhere close to that. I checked my waist and my initial measurement said 46" which is a 2" loss, but re-measuring it I'm still at 48" or maybe a shade less. I think I'm going to have to get Clare to help me get consistent measurements there.
(edit. Clare measures me as a 47". I will stick with getting her to do it so it spuld be more consistent from now on) Overall pretty pleased though. In the highly unlikely event I can keep it up at that level I will hit my target in another 3 weeks rather than the 9 I'd planned on. I don't think that is very realistic, but it is a hell of a start!

Achievements this week:
Ran a mile
Lost half a stone

:D