I want my armpits back! (HJ)

Do you remember being a kid and how your armpits used to be... well... pit-like? There used to be a hollow there, I'm certain.

So I'm a little irritated that despite the amount of work I've been doing, there is a hanging bulge of soft flesh under my arms instead of a hollow. I want my armpits back!

This was the week that my rowing got back up to 40 mins. This is my goal, to row for 40 mins as many mornings as I can. There was one morning I needed to stop at 30 due to needing to get to something on time, and not having been able to drag myself out of bed early enough to achieve a full 40 mins. But apart from Sunday (the designated no-row day) I have rowed each morning.

I was particularly proud of myself yesterday morning, because I felt grotty and didn't want to row. I told myself I'd just do 20 mins of easy rowing and see if I loosened up. Although I didn't hit my record stroke rate, I did end up doing the whole 40 mins - and felt better for having done it.

It's interesting that I'm more proud of my performance on Thursday, when Wednesday was really the highlight in so far as rowing acheivement. It was Wednesday I managed to complete 1400 strokes in my 40 mins (okay, so I did an extra 20 seconds in order to get the round number!), and I hit an all time high in one of my scramble-as-fast-as-I-can-go-for-5-mins of 51 strokes per minute. (Light/easy rowing for me is 30-33. Scramble usually sits around the 38-40. 51 is very impressive indeed, even if it was only for a few strokes).

If the rowing has been up, the walking hasn't been. Most of my trips out have been piggy-backed onto other things where walking was not an option. I've had things I needed to be at in my afternoon LBD walking time. The weather hasn't been as cool, either.

I have been reasonably restrained with my eating, given the time of the year. I might need to come up with a strategy like Givinya to help me make decisions over the Christmas Season, but working in the church does lead to some politeness-based food decisions (which worked in my favour yesterday when I drank my first ever sugar-less cup of tea - the conversation was too serious and important to interrupt it to ask for sugar. They don't cover that in pastoral care training!)

I have been feeling firmer, and clothes are a not as tight, but I'm not noticing any significant change to my size and shape (unlike some who have had to take in all their skirts 4cm!). The only things that are really loose are my ridiculously large pants that I mentioned last week. So I'm still waiting on any real size/weight advantage from my hard work.

In a moment of despair I actually asked my Beloved whether I was looking any trimmer? He immediately answered, "Absolutely!".

It would have been more reassuring if he'd actually looked first.


So I was interested to see what my results would be for this week.

Weight
Last week: 77.7kg
This week: 77.4kg
Loss: 300g
Total Loss: 3.6kg
Distance to next goal: 1.4kg

Waist
Last week: 95cm
This week: 95cm
Loss: 0cm
Total Loss: 4cm

So it is as I suspected. Nothing huge happening here, but 300g is much better than last week's results. Slow results, but I'm feeling much better for the rowing, which is not measurable, but is good.

I'm off to row, then have a look at the Zumba DVDs I've borrowed to see if they will be as fun as an actual class.

Postscript: Since posting I was at Mum & Dad's to see their photos of the new arrival. There were photos on Mum's computer of me on our Malaysia trip from after Easter. It might be possible that I am now more trim than I was then. Then again, a camera adds 5kg (Chandler: "How many cameras were ON you?"). Maybe, just maybe I'm getting somewhere.