Lil_Red_Devil

Thanks hun, I'm looking forward to that too Gym work is going well but ooft, my poor pectorals lol But much love to the crew at Evolution of Fitness (http://www.evolutionoffitness.co.uk) for helping me find ways to work my muscles without risking injury to my surgical recovery.

Hormones - epic pain in the ass but apparently essential if I want to keep my bones from turning to dust. Recent pros: new gym which is super fun, and lots of walking Recent cons: Gained 3 pounds thanks to lady estrogen and being fed food I didn't make so I have no control over the calorie content. Overall feeling grumpy but still determined.

Update time! Thursday, May 10 - Calories = 1588 Exercise = 30 minutes yoga, 5296 steps Friday, May 11 - Calories =1428 Exercise = 30 minutes yoga, 5460 steps, 10 press-ups I decided to try my hand at knitting this evening. It did not go well. I'm getting a friend to help me lol!

Visited a friend from FAO in Paris in October and, although I'd been to the city once before, it was nice to spend a few more days there and to spend time with locals

Also adding as a back-dated trip - Attended a conference in Denmark in March 2016 and the SO came over to spend a long weekend with me in Copenhagen. Surprisingly is was quite sunny and very beautiful!

Congrats on the new house mate, that's awesome!! I too am trying to get myself back into the swing of things, so if you need a "get myself in gear" buddy, I'm happy to help

Greetings everyone! It has been ages, but surgery takes a lot of wind out of the sails! I'm pleased to report that everything went well. The surgeon was able to remove 3 endometrial adhesions from my abdomen via laproscopic surgery and everything from the cervix up was removed via a vaginal hysterectomy. Thankfully, this means that my recovery has been pretty swift and I'm back up to walking my normal distances, though they are more tiring than before. I have also been doing some yoga to start getting my core back into the swing of things. All is going well and, aside from two 1cm incisions, there will be no scarring from the surgery. I have to admit, my inner surgeon was eyeing the stitching from the moment they removed the bandages and I was thoroughly impressed and am very glad I waited the extra time to get the surgeon I wanted. I also have to give major props to the staff at the BMI Priory, who were very attentive and took such good care of me, including liberal applications of tea. They've even arranged a gynaecology physio appointment for me in a few weeks. I had no idea that was even a thing! But hey, any help to keep my remaining bits where they're supposed to be and in tip-top shape has got to be good. As expected, nearly 4 weeks of inactivity coupled with 2 weeks of care provided by my SO who doesn't cook has had an impact on my weight and shape, but not nearly as much as I expected. This is probably due to my lack of appetite after the surgery and my desire to get back moving as soon as possible. I suspect there is still a bit of swelling around my abdomen, as my waist measurement has seen the biggest increase, but I'll just have to see how I get on. Just before the surgery, I was at 152.6lbs and 36.5-29.25-38.5 Current weight = 156.4lbs Current Measurements = 36.75 - 29.75 - 38.75 Now that I'm back to an acceptable level of activity, it's time to launch Project Homecoming!! I would very much like to get down to 145lbs by my trip home (August 1st), which is in 12 weeks. I know this is ambitious, but if some of this bulge is the result of fluid swelling, then it should come off a little more swiftly at first. I'm also very much looking forward to being able to undertake full exercise and much climbing without the spectre of sudden pain. I never realised how much that fear held me back, but for very good reason I suppose. While clinging to a tree branch several feet in the air is quite possibly the worst time to be struck with crippling pain, and the primitive survival-driven part of my brain must have registered that. Now with that risk gone, I'm hoping to increase my confidence and push myself a bit more. I'm thinking that the best way to tackle this is to break it down into 3 x 4 week mini-challenges, and I'll probably follow a similar format to the ones run here on the forums. Obviously I'd love to lose 5lbs from each challenge, but more importantly I want to build a new exercise routine in light of my new freedom and push myself to improve my fitness and climbing skills. I'll keep my weekly Thursday weigh-in and measurements to track my progress, as it seems a good consistent point that I easily remember, but I'm open to suggestions for additional activities for my mini challenges. Mini Challenge 1: * Return to previous bodyweight fitness - able to do 3 sets of 10 press-ups, deep squats, lunges, crunches, and dips * Return to previous walking fitness - walking for 1 hour at my SO's "storming" pace * Complete traverse of the climbing bars * Practising my calligraphy - write the alphabet (lower and upper case) once a day I'll do my best to keep you all updated on how this is going, with photos so you can have a giggle at my terrible penmanship [emoji4]

Hi everyone, Easter weekend: This was chaos - much DIY (I have 4 walls again in my sewing room, YAY!) and a friend stayed for the whole 4-day weekend to help and to avoid his family. We seem to be "that place" where friends go when they don't have anywhere else they can or want to go to for holidays. While I'm very happy being known as the safe haven, it does make maintaining any sort of schedule and diet difficult, and forget recording anything. That being said, I did try to control my portions of all the yummy food and I don't think I did too bad since we were doing manual labour every day. Tuesday, April 3: Exercise = 1 hour walk, 30 press ups and squats Calories = 1,455 Wednesday, April 4: Exercise = 30 press ups and squats Calories = 1,868 So much stress. Working to finish revision on a publication before Friday and my supervisor seems to have no problem pushing everything right up to the last minute, which drives me mad. I know I don't like working to finish something at the last minute, so I prepare and plan, work out schedules of what needs to be done and give myself plenty of room at the end to unwind so I can read it once on submission day for grammar errors and click Send. That all goes out the window when your supervisor is a perfectionist who keeps poking at a project up until the last hours before the deadline and THEN suggests you give it one last read through..... At, you know, 10 at night when I should be going to sleep.... GAH!! I also hate my office. I share a space the size of my living room with 12 other people and their desks. If only 2 or 3 are in, then it's bearable, but hey half a dozen or more and the noise is deafening. I end up working from home as much as possible, but again when you have a supervisor who won't settle on a day and time to have that meeting you need before the submission deadline, you have to be in the office on case they suddenly decide they have 30 minutes free right now. Pretty sure this may be contributing to my anxiety and occasional stress eating. Open to suggestions on what to do about it.

Wednesday: Symposium, but at least a decent lunch and limited biscuits/cakes to tempt me. Exercise = walking across campus and back, dashing up the stairs several times to go to the ladies room *grumble*, and up 6 flights of stairs in the parking garage. Calories = 1,471 #Measurements Update: I had been measuring on Sundays lately, but this Sunday I was still carrying a food baby from a very late dinner the night before. So I delayed to avoid disappointing myself and measured this morning (Thursday) Weight = 153.6 Measurements = 36.5-29.25-38.5 Slow down on the weight loss, but given the lack of exercise I'm not surprised. I'm just glad it's still moving in the correct direction. I think I'll go back to a Thursday weigh in so I don't feel a crash if I go out on a Saturday night and have a bit of leftover food tipping the scale.

I have seriously over-peopled. I've been working from home to hide and regenerate but that means very little exercise. Friday: Exercise = Nada (I barely survived the group office) Calories = 1,407 Saturday: Went to a fun tango event in town, but again, more people and a set menu. Exercise = walking to the venue and an hour of tango dancing Calories = 2,189 Sunday: No idea. Friend's birthday. So tired. Monday: Hiding at home. Exercise = nope Calories = 1,325 Tuesday: Still at home. Stupid UTI. Exercise = I walked to the shop for cranberry juice Calories = 1,127

Monday: So. Tired. Stupid cat *grumble* 3:30am is NOT breakfast time... But you're so fluffy... Eat and drink anything that keeps me awake for this stupid symposium at work. Exercise = Ha, yeah, nope Calories = 2,212 Tuesday: Slightly better, but still recovering from sleep deprivation. Exercise = 20 press ups and 20 squats Calories = 1,454 Wednesday: No Brain, I do not need to start thinking about work at 4am. Go away. Exercise = 20 press ups, 20 squats, and 40 minutes walking down to main campus and back Calories = 1,341 Thursday: Sleep! Glorious sleep! Also tango practice :-) Exercise = 30 press ups, 30 squats, and 60 minutes of tango Calories = 1,570 Can I go crash in a corner now? Oh wait, I need to frost cupcakes... *splat*

I like that you have such a great attitude when things don't go quite right. You look at what the possible problems were, make a plan, and then let it go :-)

That's very true. This whole week had been things not going to plan, but it seems like by some magical miracle I didn't get shoved off track, which is making me very happy. I have no idea what I ate over the last few days, as they were full of first fever, then stressful arguments, and finally a group game day. But, my numers this morning at encouraging: Measurements = 36.5-29.5-38.75 Weight = 154.2 Another pound down, HOO-RAH!

March 12: Exercise = 30 squats and 30 press ups, 2 hours of tango Calories = 1,755 March 13: Exercise = none Calories = 1,080 Monday was stressful, as my SO lost his wallet so I had to buy him a new train ticket, then pick him up at the train station around 11:30pm to pay for his car parking. Thankfully I had tango to keep me busy for most of the night, but I did eat a bit more and had to have some Coke to stay awake.

March 9: Exercise = 1 hour walk, 30 squats and 30 press ups Calories = 1,454 March 10: Exercise = nothing formal but I did do a lot of walking around town, including 6 blocks and 2 flights of stairs fully loaded with grocery bags Calories = 1,896 but very little junk food, I was just really hungry! March 11: Unknown exercise (DIY day) and unknown calories Measurements = 155.2 lbs, 36.5-29.5-38.75 A good start, but I can do better :-)