My wedding ring hasn’t become any looser – I guess I’m using that as a short-hand way of determining my progress.

Despite my words about power and fitness, yes, I’d like to lose weight.  About 55 kilos all up.  If I weighed 62 kilos I think that would be wonderful.  I’ll refer to it from now on as my “natural weight” as opposed to my actual weight.

However, my observation has been that most people working in the fitness industry come from two main camps.  The first camp is made up of people who just love being physically active and who want a career based around this passion.  The second camp is made up of people who have made their own hard slog journey from obesity to fitness, and who want to help others achieve this transition also.

My personal opinion is that trainers from both camps work best with clients with similar values to themselves – so the fitness fanatics train other fitness fanatics, and people who used to be large train others who no longer wish to be large.

It’s about connection, empathy and being inspirational.  I love my PT, Lyndell, because I respect the path she has taken – one I plan to take as well.  She knows the pitfalls I will be encountering and can help me overcome them or avoid them altogether.  That is what is valuable to me.

It is well, well, well recognised that to be successful in an endeavour, be it building a business, losing weight, writing a book or learning to be an artist, you need a coach or mentor to teach, train, touch base with.  Alone, we can disappear up our own intellectualisations and rationalisations and never achieve anything except a bunch of words.  How many of us know what we need to do to lose weight but never get around to applying it.  That’s where a PT comes in.  It’s about ACTION.

Here is a quick list of exercises Lyndell has shown me so far. I’m writing this mainly for my own benefit, so I have a record of it in a place I can easily find.

1. With 3 kilo weight, draw the letters of the alphabet out big, like with a light saber.

2. With a 2 kilo weight in each hand, squats, sticking the bum out as far as I can (!) Do 15 twice.

3. With a resistance band, stand on it with both feet, and “row”. 15 times twice

4. Again with a resistance band, stand on it with one foot and lift forward, towards chest. 15 times. Twice.

5. Another resistance band exercise: (check if standing with one or two feet on band) and flap like a bird. 15 x 2.

As I’m writing this, I’ve just purchased my own set of resistance bands on ebay – $26 and free postage from Hong Kong.

And just for the record, Lyndell had me using the green band.

I’ve taken to walking my dogs around the neighbourhood, covering about 1 kilometer, in the early morning. But when the weather gets too bad (it hasn’t yet), we may or may still do this walk, depending on how heavy the rain is. As a rule, I enjoy walking in the rain and like my dogs to be comfortable with it as well.

But I got to thinking what I would do if it was torrential rain and heavy winds. Well, I could always go the the nearby gym, or if that’s not an option on account of various factors, then I could just walk up and down the corridor in batches of 10 minutes, or play one of my exercise dvd’s and follow along.

I don’t want bad weather to be an excuse for not doing anything.

Even for our long morning walk, where they all come back exhausted, putting one paw infront of the other, it doesn’t deter them from eagerly starting out for the next morning’s walk.

I love their attitude and motivation.

Me, well, I’m still at the stage of “C’mon, I gotta do this. I need to do it, it’s good for me. I’ll be glad I did it when it’s over.

So I guess by getting my dogs excited, I’d feel like a real heel if I didn’t go through with it.

In week one, I get 6/7 for sticking to my exercise routine, which I did before work.

However, in week 2, I only get 4/7 because on Wednesday and Thursday I started work at 4 am, so it was too early to get any exercise in before work. I don’t want to be walking the streets at that time, and it’s too early for the gym, which opens at 5.30. Sadly this 4 am business continues indefinately. So I may have to look at some options when I come home at 4 pm – but this is a time when I’m not strongly motivated because I’m tired, hot and bothered. I’ll have to look at those days more closely and see what solutions I can find.

I put a gold star on the calender on our fridge for every morning where I put in an exercise effort. It helps to show my husband the commitment I’m putting in.

Foodwise – for week one, I successfully did not purchase ANY takeaways, yayyyy! Although this was also a matter of finances, I liked how I had planned and prepared my breakfast/morning tea/lunch/afternoon tea. Yes, morning and afternoon tea is important because when you’re sitting in a car all this time, peckishness can be your undoing in giving in to get a takeaway snack. So I’ve learned to either have a nut bar or some cut up carrots for a snack at these times.

Week two, there were a couple of times where I got takeaways – result of feeling self righteous. However, even then I tried to keep the impact minimal, by choosing small items.

So overall, I’d say well done. I’m trying not to be fanatical in my lifestyle shift, but try to be flexible about it so that I’m not beating myself up psychologically about where I may lapse.