Fit To Drop!

Wow, what a hectic week this is turning out to be! I feel like it's been non-stop right the way through.

I had a frantic little splurge at work yesterday ... I decided to rearrange the stuff on my bookcase and ended up mucking out the whole office - I got rid of so much clutter and crap - at least a six foot high pile of papers (there's no point in hanging on to stuff that really is never ever going to be needed again) - but before you all gasp in horror, it did all go in one of our paper recycling bins. I'm very good at recycling at work - I have a basket that I put all waste/scrap paper in, and then it goes in the recycling bin every so often. I've also got a basket that I put all waste paper that doesn't have any confidential information on, and then I can give it to the nursery that Ethan used to go to, as they are always happy to have paper for the kids to draw on. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Oh my God, now I sound like Bob The Builder!

Anyway, I have a nice tidy office now, though it's still not entirely finished. I want to get a lamp or two and some plants to add ambience.

So, what else has been happening this week ... hhhmmm .... went to the gym on Tuesday with the kids - I wanted to do the Body Combat class, but for some reason there was horrendous traffic and it took us the best part of an hour to get there, so we ended up just going swimming for an hour. When we were in the pool there was a swimming teacher in there giving a lesson to a little boy, and when we were in the changing rooms getting dressed after our swim she came in, and Ethan being Ethan chatted her up. It transpires that she has a free slot in her schedule, and it costs just £5 a lesson, so we will probably sign him up for some swimming lessons with her.

I've been off today - I booked today and tomorrow off, with the intention of having some chilling out time just for ME. Great, except Sean decided that he had a migraine this morning and pulled a sickie from school. I'm still not convinced that he really did have a migraine, but I suppose it was nice to spend a bit of time with him. I spent far too much time this morning trying to finish off a layout - Photoshop keeps crashing on me when I try to add text, and although I did eventually manage to finish the page I'm not confident that the problem has gone.

I started on a good old sort out upstairs in our bedroom this afternoon - I even managed to throw some clothes away (shock, horror!). I've now got several piles - stuff to be put away, stuff that I am undecided on (should I throw it out or not?), a big pile of stuff to go on Ebay, and a pile of stuff that needs mending. Plus a huge pile of stuff that I threw into the washing basket. And there is still a mound of clothes on the bed - for now I will put them back into the cot (that's Ethan's old cot, which is still in our room doing duty as a dumping ground for ten tonnes of clean washing that I haven't managed to find homes for yet ... but hey, at least I made a start!

After we'd picked Ethan up from the after school club we headed straight off for the gym, and hit loads of traffic again. I think there must be some roadworks or something somewhere. The boys went off to Club-V (the kids activities), and I went to the hulaerobics class again. I seem to be getting the hang of it a bit better now, I can manage to keep the hoop going for 3-4 seconds now (much better than the 0.0000000000002 seconds I managed last week!) After the class I forced myself to head upstairs and get on the treadmill. I managed to walk a mile in 20 minutes, and I felt great afterwards ... Race For Life is just two weeks away, so I need to increase my walking as much as possible (it's 5 km, which is about 3.3 miles). I'm planning on heading straight to the gym tomorrow after I've taken the kids to school, and I'm going to see if I can manage to do three miles on the treadmill (an hour! Oh my God, how am I ever going to cope with that!), and then I might go and have a swim. I think there's an aquaerobics class sometime tomorrow morning as well, so I might see if I can do that too. Ah, such activity.

BUT (and yep, I've got a BIG butt!), the weight doesn't seem to be coming off. Well ... that's not strictly true. I can feel that some more has come off, but I don't seem to be getting any smaller, if that makes sense. The scales, on the rare occasion that I get on them, say the same as they did six months ago. I'm fairly certain that what weight has come off, has gone from my bust, my bum, my thighs and my abdomen (between belly button and boobies). My big problem is that I have a big overhang of belly (under the belly button), and THAT is what I want to get rid of. It's awful. I HATE IT!

What can I do but persevere? I've been big for so long that I really don't think that it's going to be possible for me to be anything but. The fat might go from the belly overhang, but the loose saggy skin is still going to be there. If nothing else, at least going to the gym gets me out of the house, it's good for the kids and I'm getting fitter. Yes, that's it Katie, FOCUS!!!!! Getting fitter!

I quite think that I could really get into this hula thing. I've been looking online tonight at the different hoops available, and I think I might persuade Colin to get me one - they're only about £20 - and then I can practice. I read somewhere tonight that hulaerobics potentially burns up more calories in a short time than running an 8 minute mile, or something like that ... I just need to crack the technique. I'm determined to crack it, cos the instructor has been showing us some really really cool moves that I would love to be able to do.

I think it's about time I went to bed ... want to get plenty of sleep to prepare me for my marathon training session tomorrow!