Theresa’s Lifestyle Blog...

I’ve been to Waterstones and bought two things. One was a fat / calorie counter book to help with my healthy eating plan. The other purchase was a book on walking to get fit, by Joanna Hall. I’ve spent a lot of time reading it and it has some fabulous advice on the most effective walking techniques, the number of times and miles you should walk in a week and also some really good recipes.

Somehow it feels like a bit of a cop out to curl up on the sofa in front of the fire on a cold rainy night and read about getting fit. By I’m sure I have been told at some point in my career that if you “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail” I’m so happy that I have finally been able to quote that in context!!!

Did I mention that I also ate a packet of biscuits whilst reading?

The reason for the rethink is that clearly the Gym wasn’t my thing. As lovely and supportive as they all were, I seem to have a problem with committing time to personal things and the Gym seemed to be the thing I had most resistance to. I don’t think this part of my quest has worked at all.

So my thinking is that I will be literally pushed out of the car on the way home from work and I have to walk the rest of the way. Every couple of days it will be progressively further away. So technically I will get fitter and fitter as the weeks go by.

Louise from the office has also offered to make a graph to show my progression and mark my times down to see how much I am improving by each day.

My brother once tried this technique on his girlfriend. Unlike me however, she had no warning – she mentioned that she wanted to get fit, and so was literally pushed out and told to walk the rest of the way! Yes, my brother is very mean. Possibly that stems from growing up with 5 sisters?

Incredibly they are still together, now engaged and she is beautiful and very fit. But that’s not through the walking. I don’t think that happened more than the once and I believe my brother, once she arrived home that night, learnt a valuable lesson in how to treat a lady!

But I digress.

The badminton game is booked for next Tuesday. I had a little ‘kind of’ practice earlier this week at a Ladies Only Wii night with some of the girls in the office. It was hysterically funny; I have never played before and let me tell you, I was genius!!!! Well that might be a little bit of a white lie, but what I lacked in technique, I made up for with enthusiasm. At least no light fittings or ornaments were broken. But it was close let me tell you.

I think a Wii might be going on my Christmas list.

The style you have chosen this week, by quite a big majority is Classic Luxe, and I’m very happy with that. I have an appointment with Wendy Elsmore in two weeks so I have to feel a little bit trimmer. I know I said at the start that weight wasn’t a major concern. I’m not obese by any stretch of the imagination, but every woman would like to be just a little bit lighter I’m sure. Particularly with the thought of having to try on lots of new styles in front of -  not technically a stranger as I’m lucky enough to have worked with Wendy for a couple of years now -  but I’ve certainly not shown her any of my lady bits!!!!

Just a quick update for you. I’m keeping up with the Lancome skincare regime, I’m wearing more make up. My hair is still dark. I feel different I have to say. People who haven’t seen me in a while say I’m definitely looking different – (and in a good way fortunately!)

So the last two weeks push will involve Badminton, walking and healthy eating. No crisps and chocolate will pass my lips. To help with this I have booked in another Indian Head Massage. The lovely ladies in Lush are going to give me either a hand or foot massage, a couple of times a week…and they do this for free – just go in and ask!!! Both of these are to help with the stress of not being to eat chocolate during the lead up to our biggest event of the year. ‘The Christmas Light Switch On’

It’s big this year. We have the Santa Parade…even bigger and better than last year. The lights are being switched on by the ‘oh so cute’ Alvin the Chipmunk who is bringing his friends Simon and Theodore. We have a brilliant firework display from the roof of the Centre – they are breathtaking!

Then after the Light Switch On we have live music in Festival Sq with Still Drifting (featuring Ray Lewis from the original group The Drifters and our own lovely Fil Straughan) Moni Tivoni, Joshua Antoni and the very funny Bread & Butter Theatre Company will host the evening.

Sorry, this is once again turning in to an advert. But you have to understand why I might be just a little stressed this week!!

The vote for the next two weeks will be “How many pounds will I lose before my trying on session” two, three or four.

This will give me an idea of your confidence in me!

Now you don’t have to worry that I will do something drastic. There will be no silly diet – sucking on lemons etc.! Those that know me will confirm that it would never happen. I love food far too much.

It will be totally down to the walking, Badminton, healthy eating. And you are going to have to trust that I tell you the truth at the end of course!

So thanks for your voting last week. And thanks for the e mails of support.

Speak to you soon,

Tx

PS. The picture above is a reminder of what i looked like at the start of my Blog!