Small steps get you there - I hope !!!!

[NettyH]

HI

it's 3 complete weeks since I started the eating plan and I have lost - roll of drums please - 6 pounds in that time which is more than I expected. I'm 65 and pretty sedentary so I have stuck to 1200/1400 calories per day, I plan everything and shop accordingly which is easy for me as there's only two of us to consider and no kids at home.

The big difference is that I have upped my exercise a bit from nil to 30 minutes 5 days each week with 1 hour classes in Zumba for the Over 50's on two other days. It's hard going though.

To give me a boost I bought a pedometer and was appalled to see that I was only getting about 2500 steps in per day which confirmed my worst fears about being a non mover. I've only managed 10,000 steps on one particularly energetic day and even then I noticed driving home at 11.55 pm that I was short on my steps so stopped and did 100 steps jogging on the spot in a well lit garage forecourt just to get my 10,000 steps badge - the lorry drivers were might amused.

I guessed I had hoped that it would all be so much easier but then if it was the sense of achievement would be less wouldn't it.

So onwards & upwards

[Candystripe]

That's brilliant and well done Netty. Keep it up.

[LadyP33]

Well done Netty! I think all of us with sedentary lifestyles are shocked when we first put on a pedometer, 10,000 is a minimum and I remember struggling to achieve that at one point!

Love the over 50's Zumba idea, do they play 60 's songs to Zumba to?

[NettyH in reply to LadyP33]

thanks for the reply - yes indeed they do play 60's music particularly The Searchers, Beatles and Beachboys but also the occasional rap number yeah man

[gilly57]

Netty you sound determined! I'll carry that image of you on the garage forecourt with me all day!!! Don't get too bogged down on the exercise thing but just enjoy it for its own sake! Many of us on here can't or don't exercise but as long as your calorie intake is lower than your body needs the pounds will go. Slowly slowly and the monkey and all that!

[NettyH in reply to gilly57]

Thank you for the reply - I agree with you about the exercise. I'm afraid I equated "exercise" with lycra, gym machines and marathons but I love to dance so the pedometer seemed to give that a bit of status which is great. I'm going back to belly dance classes next week as well. wait 'till they see me shimmying in the garage that'll cause a few nightmares.

Yep I'm sneaking up on that monkey

[cornerofsilence]

We'll done you. Where do you do the over 50 Zumba

[NettyH in reply to cornerofsilence]

I do it in a village hall near me, I'm in Somerset. What is interesting is that the class only has 6 or 7 participants but it's great to do. The tutor is self employed so she's barely making minimum wage rates on this class but she loves it. I run a small charity so I am a bit tuned in to how they work. I approached a local council to apply for some funding to keep the class going and they gave us a £1,000 grant and hey presto that's enough to subsidise it for a year. My point is that there's always bits and pieces of funding out there and if anyone wants to get a class up and running then it doesn't hurt to ask to have it set up.

I wanted to call the class Zimmer Zumba but no one would let me.

[cornerofsilence in reply to NettyH]

Sounds perfect.

[glolin]

good on you netty, I recently brought a pedometer too and on day one, i thought i wouldnt do anything different to to normal a day and was horrified at the resuts. I have a desk job and really had to put some effort to reach 10,000 steps.

For me, starting each day with a good walk clocks up over 5000 for me so it doesnt make it too difficult to reach the 10,000 and will run on the spot etc to reach them..I wont accept under 10,000

[NettyH in reply to glolin]

You are so right. there were two surprises for me one was the shock of how few steps I usually take and the other was how many can be achieved in one go. Our Zimmer Zumba class clocks up 4,000 or more which as you say gets the ball rolling. However I'm finding 10,000 per day hard going but on the upside 8000 is becoming the norm now.

It's funny, I don't know about you glolin - I'm not usually a target driven person but the stats on my fitbit plus the support such as on this NHS site have kept me motivated but hopefully not driven.

Good for you with your determination, maybe I need to push a bit more.

[teri54 6lbs]

Just starting

well done I hope I can do as well

[NettyH in reply to teri54]

yes indeedy you can teri54.

small targets and small steps - like gilly57 says it's a softly softly approach to that monkey. What is your target for September then? Set the target and lets see how many of us can match it with you

[kennygirl]

Well done, I shall have to dig my pedometer out!