My Journey - Warts and All

As I went to write this post, I realised that I've almost written 200 posts on my blog so decided to change tact slightly. I had originally been planning on using this to talk about my new job but am going to use it as a wee bit of reflection. I'll start with the good news though. I was offered (and have accepted and started) the most amazing job offer. I am now a Junior Sister (equivalent of an NHS Junior Band 6) at a Private Company and I'm over the moon about it!! I've had the question 'how did you swing that'. Truthfully I'm not entirely sure. I went for a staff nurse job and when they called back they offered me the promotion. This is me getting back into nursing so I did a lot of soul searching as to whether I could cope with the role. I decided I could and my first real shift is Monday. I'm using the news above as the starting point for my reflection. When I think back about where I was in August 2013, it wasn't a good headspace. Septembe

In my last post, I spoke about my challenge for 2014 being the Moonwalk. My preparation for it is now well under way. I've started working with a personal trainer at the gym and this will week starts to incorporate the actual training programme that Walk the Walk have sent out. It's quite a daunting thought that I'm going to be walking 26 miles. Things otherwise have been weird lately. I'm missing my granny quite a lot just now. Things are a bit of a crossroads for me and she would be the one that I would turn to about it and I'm missing having her there. Everyone I've spoken to about her death knows that the way things happened isn't what I would have wanted for her and I think that compounds it for me. I know she was in her 80's but it was unexpected and I keep thinking about what was the last thing I said to her. With my dad and my grandad, we got to 'engineer' our last moments with them but not with granny. I'm also acutely aware that

For a while now, I've said that I was going to do a challenge of some sort and I've ended up doing the Race for Life and nothing else. But this year, I've signed up for my biggest challenge to date. I'm doing the Edinburgh Moonwalk!!! 26 miles on a Saturday night on June!! Oh ya, is all I can say. I think over the next 15 weeks the treadmill at the gym will become my best friend. https://moonwalkscotland2014.everydayhero.com/uk/claire-11 Please dig deep and sponsor me for it. It's going to be a huge boost to my weight loss but more importantly I'm raising money in the fight against cancer. It affects 1 in 3 of us, that's a huge number that needs to reduce. On a weight loss note, I did spin for the first time last night. Ouch!!! I was exhausted and I felt like my legs were on fire and I only did 40 mins. It was good though, I loved the feeling afterwards. I didn't weigh in this week but I will on Sunday and we'll see. I have my personal training

Well another week done and dusted and it's been a terrible week in terms of what I've eaten in that I've eaten what I really fancy. So here goes the weigh in Last week: 18st 9lbs (261 lbs) Lost - 1lb Current weight: 18st 8lbs (260 lbs) Bit of a surprise if I'm honest but I'll take it!! It's been a quiet week otherwise really. Spent the week concentrating about getting stuck into my new job and will incorporate the gym this week. It's been quite hard going back to working 5 days a week and I've been knackered lol! I've also discovered a new wee snack, it's a wee biscuits/cheese/chutney by a company called LowLife. Gorgeous!!!! I'm planning to do my first spin class this week. Well it's not a spin class as such. The bikes in my gym have a setting that mean I can set them to take me through a spin class. Not going to be a good experience for the people on the bikes next to me but hey ho :-) The class in my gym are all only 30 mins lo

Another week down and another weigh in done. So here goes: Last week: 18st 12lbs (264 lbs) Lost: 3lbs!!!! Current weight: 18st 9lbs (261 lbs) I haven't done a jot of exercise this week, it's all been diet so I'm really chuffed with this weight loss. I've started a new job, not a nursing job, but it pays the bills. I've also joined a new gym in Edinburgh. With this new job, I won't be able to make it back to Fife for any of the Fife circuit/CPT classes that I was looking to do so this gym is cheap as chips and it runs enough classes for my liking. I can't get to the gym tomorrow because I have a meeting so it'll be a start on Tuesday after work. I'm really looking forward to it :-) At the end of this week, I'm having the girls round to the house for an Arbonne party so that'll be a good laugh: bit of food, some drinks and a bit of girlie banter. It's a while since I've had the girls round so I'm looking forward to catchi

I'm going to start this blog with an admission. I didn't post a weigh in post last week because I had put on weight again. Last week I put on 3lbs :-( but on the plus side, I went for an amazing night out with wee Noms as almost like a final blow out. So I start this post weighing 19st 3lbs :-( Boo!! But today, I did weigh in and I lost 5lbs!!!! Woop woop. Stats Last week: 19st 3lbs (269lbs) Current weigh: 18st 12lbs (264lbs) Lost 5lbs Weight to go: 8st 12lbs (124lbs) I also discovered a new fitness DVD this week. It's by Jillian Michaels and is called Shed and Shred. Amazing! I forgot how much I love the buzz of hard exercise. I'm going to get a couple of stones off and go to the circuit type training that I've spoken about in past posts. Not a big blog this week, not a lot has happened this week. Maybe something exciting will happen over the course of this week......

Week 1 was a complete bust. I ate crap and wasn't really in the mood to do anything in terms of exercise.  The first time I went out running, I ended up soaking wet and generally feeling rotten and it just put me off. The wind was biting and I really couldn't get past how cold & miserable I was. If any runners read this, I would really appreciate some advice on how you get past the cold when you're running.  I weighed in on Sunday and had put on a pound. So the first week of my resolution didn't go so well but there are still 51 weeks to achieve it. So..... Previous weight: 18st 13lbs (265lbs) Gain: 1lb :-( New weight: 19st (266lbs) I bought a exercise DVD on Sunday as well. I generally don't buy them. I think they're all a bit of a con and when you get used to the routine, it all gets a bit boring. However, this year I bought the fitness DVD that Vicky from Geordie Shore produced. I've watched every season of Geordie Shore and I really like he

Happy New Year!! Hope everyone had a brilliant Christmas and New Year. Ours was all family orientated. Matt's birthday fell in between but he got to spend that at the football so he was happy. So it's 2014. This is going to be a much better year than last, I can feel it in my bones. I'm going back to nursing (just waiting on the necessary paperwork to start). It was a huge decision but the right one. I was starting to miss it. That's the major change from the end of 2013. My weight loss journey has restarted with a bang. I went for a 7.71km run a day or so ago and plan to go out again tomorrow. I'm using a book called 'Run Fat B!tch, Run' to help me with my training programme. It's brutal in that it tells the truth but brilliant at the same time. Wll it's maybe not for the faint hearted but I really like it. I've also had a weigh in and am ashamed to say that I have put on so much weight :-( So a wee stats update: Current weight: 18st 13lbs (2