7llb Loss in January

Not the stone I was hoping for, but its a start.

Well on this final day of Janathon I have walked five miles, done 45 minutes swimming, forty minutes of Davina and ate a huge fat cream cake. Janathon well and truly done :)

I am glad to have taken part, I have made new blog buddies (mr Lumpy Badger ,Lena, Kay and Jo to name a few)

I have read loads of interesting and inspiring blogs, I have been able to laugh out loud many times at JogBlog's ramblings intelligent and interesting posts.

But mainly I have been motivated to move my fat arse a hell of a lot more than I normaly would have done at this time of year.

I have added an exta 107 miles to my journey to placement throughout january by getting off my 4 daily buses a few stops early every day. I have managed 25 piddly miles on my bike and I have clocked up about 57 hours worth of exercise.
I am nowhere on the leader board, but I am a winner, as are all of us who took part and carried on when it started to get tough .

Three cheers for all the Janothoners, p.s. see you all in June :)

2 days and counting

Janathon Must be really taking its toll now, I actually cannot wait for it to be over. Its not the exercise it is the finding something worth blogging about that is causing the stress.

today I walked 3 miles with the dogs, did 40 minutes of Davina and then because it is the RSPB bird watch day, I spent an hour sat in the garden all wrapped in a quilt, counting different bird species.

I saw 2 Robins, 4 Blackbirds, 4 Blue tits (6 if you count mine) countless Sparrows and Starlings, 6 Great tits, 2 Nuthatch's, 5 Bramblings, 2 Jays 2 Blackcaps, 1 Fieldfare, 3 Mistlethrush, 7 Wrens ,4 Dunnocks, and a couple of pigeons in just one hour, pretty amazing and it was nice to just sit and watch nature. I seem to spend every day lurching from one thing to another and this was the ideal excuse to do nothing.

3 days left

Phew, its been much tougher than I expected, this janaothon lark.

I have really struggled fitting everything in and can honestly say I will be a bit relieved when its over.

Today I went for an extra long walk with the dogs, we were out for two hours, forgot my garmin so will have to guess the distance. When I am out for 1 hour I usually cover about 3 miles, so using my excellent math skills, I estimate the walk to be 6 miles.

I also had an hour of Nell to contend with, I can really feel a difference in my butt and biceps since starting with this dvd, its definetly one I will be keeping up with once janathon is over.

On another note, I entered a competion for Student nurses in the UK months ago and forgot all about it, only to recieve a lovely e-mail yesterday telling me I was a runner up. Whilst it would have been great to be the winner of £600. I was actually more than happy knowing that out of over 1000 entrants I had come third. I get to choose a nursing book of my choice from Oxford University publishers, so I have gone for a really good one on epilepsy as that is the field I want to specialise in when I qualify.

I could have danced all day

and I pretty much did, I got the opportunity to experience a different placement setting today, A day center for the elderley. Today they were practicing for their annual pensioners strictly come dancing, never one to miss a Janathon opportunity I was right in there.

I have waltzed, tangoe'd and cha cha cha'd for about 3 hours, these pensioners are amazingly fit, they put me to bloody shame. I reckon I am going to ache all over tommorrow, but it was well worth it, I had a cracking day.

I also got my 5 mile walk commute in, plus ten minutes on my stability ball when I got home.

Bloody Buses

After standing around in the freezing wind waiting for a bus that was 40 minutes late yet again, my patience was at snapping point.

Not only had I been covered in some sweaty chavs cigarrette smoke as he chain smoked beside me, I then had to suffer him hawking all kinds of crap out of his disgusting mouth.

So when the dippy driver then got lost and added another 30 minutes on to my journey, I snapped. I phoned the bus company and let rip, I am not a complainer, but this service is a joke. It only runs every two hours as it is without it being ruddy late every day. In the last month, it has been late on average 30 minutes every single day.

felt loads better after screaming at some poor woman in the office (sorry missus) and had a lovely spring in my step on the walk part of my journey. Got to placement 2 hours late, sweating and huffing because I had practically run the 2.5 miles, only to be told I was not supposed to be in today. FFS!!!!

walked my 2.5 bloody miles back across town to find I had just missed my bus, which left me with another 2 hour wait.

As you can imagine Michelle is not a happy bunny this evening and is going to be supping at least one bottle of wine tonight!!!!

missed my bus stop

was too busy messing about on twitter to realise that I had sailed past my stop, good job I was at uni today and not placement!

My commute today is only 2 miles, would have been 3 but as I accidently stayed on the bus I was closer than I should have been. So to make up for it, I did an hour of Nell Mcandrew, 30 min biggest loser and 10 minutes core work on my stability ball.

My weight is not budging but I am definetley seeing a difference in my wobbly bits. So even though doing Janathon has been difficult , tiring and sometimes downright tedious, it has been well worth it!!

Also the fact that I now have massive guilt trips if it gets to five and I havent done any exercise, gives me great hope for keeping active once we are into February.

Burns Day

The whole day has been dedicated to a scottish theme today at my placement, and it has been wonderful. We all wore kilts,(kinda) mine was a tartan scarf wrapped round my waste for example! In the morning I read Burns Poem "Address to a Haggis out for all the clients in my best scottish accent.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!
Then at lunch time we had a proper scotmans come in and play his bagpipes whilst we ate our lunch of haggis neeps & tatties, the clients loved it, apart from one who had her hands over her ears the whole time, bless ( we took her in another room after five minutes).


As soon as luch was settled it was time for the wheelchair dancing that we have been practicing for the last couple of weeks. We started off with the Gay Gordon which went down really well, we managed to do it completeley without crashing wheelchairs once, (not that I am admitting to ever crashing). Then myself and two of the support workers did our version of the highland fling, which resulted in lots of laughter from staff and clients alike. We finished off with our freestyle dancing and managed to include all 20 clients at the same time. Every one of them had a great day as did I.


My Janathon efforts today include my daily 5 mile commute walking, 1 hour of dancing and 30 minutes X-box biggest loser.

My Wireless internet is still down, but my bodge it
clever hubby, has trailed wire across the house from pc-pc! Just hope I dont need a wee in the night or my janathon efforts might be scuppered by a nasty trip

phone blog

Home internet stuffed so this will be brief. I walked five miles I swam for half hour and my bus ride this morning was shocking

late post, tidgy bit drunk

first off one hour of Nell, bloody love how I feel after this workout, goint to do it at least twice a week.

secondly I went straight out with the dogs for an hour, we only covered 3 miles, nearly ended up in the bog because the stupid new dog shoved his head between my legs from behind and lifted me up. (he was trying to get his muzzle off)

Then when I got home the x-box biggest loser was calling me, so I did my 40 min set session and topped it off with a couple of freeplay exercises.

the rest of the day has been lost playing x-factor on the x-bow with the girls. It is soooo much fun, with a few glasses of wine down my neck I really believed I could sing. I was dancing round the room like a right pop star. (I really cant sing which was confirmed when hubby came down to tell me to shut up because I was making the dogs howl)

Nell mcandrew is the DEVIL

I could barely get out of bed today my muscles are that sore, I screamed that loud when trying to sit on the loo that hubby came running! Now I dont mind a bit of muscle soreness but this is excrutiating.

So today I have managed two, 1.5 mile walks with the dogs, one this morning and one I have just came back from.

I attempted x-box kinect thingy, but was too sore. I will definetly be working harder tomorrow to make up for my poor effort today, hell, I might even give Nell another round :)

Davina my old faithful, Mystery solved

when I find it hard to do any other exercise, I shove the patronising bint in my dvd player, turn the sound down and workout really hard. That was the plan today as I felt a bit better, but not well enough to venture outside.

Stupid woman is not in her case, where she belongs by the way. I have looked everywhere, even in the lazy ass teenage daughters bedrooms, whose idea of exercise is to turn the music up louder(not to dance or anything energetic,just so its louder).

Now I am feeling quite upset about this, which makes me think maybe I actually enjoy seeing her smug face on my tv, in fact maybe I actually like her!!

NAH, just find her easier than Nell Mcandrew.

So Nell it was, bloody hell what a workout, 1hr of pure torture, but do you know what? I feel great now, I sometimes forget that I used to be really fit and loved pushing myself.

Lesson learnt today is that it is up to me to get my fitness levels back, I can pussy foot about with lots of small efforts, but if I really want to be fit and strong again I need to push myself to do the tougher workouts.


I felt that great, that after lunch I did two ten minute challenges on my biggest loser X-box connect thingy, and I won. I am not too happy that my avatar is the fattest in all the challenges though, it better start changing shape soon. Cant say that having an outline shape like Barney the bloody dinosaur is good for my self esteem !!!


Cannot believe that I am that dense, was just checking my list of posts throughout january, when I spotted one with the exact same title as todays.
After reading it, I know exactly where mrs smug is hiding. She is at placement, I took her in last week to use on a group activity, must have left her in the dvd player, DOH !!!

Will change my title to Davina my old faithful, mystery solved.

deli belly

gut rot, the trots, how ever you want to call it, I have it and have been running to the loo all night. so for janathon today I have used hand weight every time that I have been loo bound. My biceps are bulging as are other parts that I wont mention !!

Stupid Orange

(mobiles) that is not the lovely juicy round oranges that make your mouth water!

I have been patiently waiting for my new blackberry phone that hubby bought me for my birthday and recieved an email on monday saying it would be with me tomorrow. Sorted time off work to wait in for it, gets home tonight to another email telling me how sorry they are but my phone is out of stock.

Well thats just bloody great, I have time booked off with no reason now and I am pissed off, why leave it until this late to tell me its not coming ? Do they think people just sit around all day as a matter of course, incompetent twits!!!

Back to Janathon, I have done my wednesday hour rebound session with clients, my 5 mile walk to and from placement and my 30min zest circuit session.

The amount of pacing and ranting I have done over this bloody phone for the last hour should be counted too, because I have worked myself into a right sweat!!! Someone will be feeling my wrath over the phone tomorrow morning, that is a fact

no walk today

My foot is so paiful and swollen, that I decided to stay on my buses today to try and give my foot chance to rest. It felt really bad sitting on the bus all the way, I was itching to get off, so janathon had already set a good routine for me.

We took a couple of clients to the hydropool again today and as there were more than enough support workers, I got to go in the big pool and have a proper swim. Swimming is not one of my favourite exercises, but I really enjoyed it today i managed half an hour continous swimming with a couple of minute breaks every couple of laps.

As it it Burns night coming up, scottish dancing is the theme for group activities. So Scottish highland fling it was, though if I am honest it looked more like I was having a seizure than flinging. To be fair I only have one good foot to dance on at the moment, the dance may look better if I can get this foot to stop bloody throbbing.

Got home a little earlier (another advantage to sitting on the bus I suspose) which left me time to do 20 minutes of torture biggest loser x-box thingy.

Quite an constructive day all in all, my mood is much better than yesterday, so thanks for all the nice comments, it is nice just to know that someone has listened and not judged :)

boring post.com

Have had a stressful day, feeling quite emotional and want to cry. So here it is ,Janathon stats for today:

I walked 5 miles on a bloody sore foot (plantar fasciitis playing up)

OUCH

Really was not expecting to feel this achey after half an hour playing on the x-box yesterday. I got up this morning and I hurt in places that I have not hurt since I went to the gym last year. Oh well, it works then.

Today I decided that even though it hurts I would add an extra 10 minutes on to my biggest loser session, partly because its weekend and I have the time. But mainly because when I dragged myself kicking and screaming popped on to the scales this morning I had gained two of the pounds that I lost last week :( . Not that I am surprised, the amount of food and wine that I have stuffed down my throat this week I am lucky I did not put the whole four pounds back on. So anyway thats a 40 minute circuit session on the X-box.

I also took my doggies around Skipwith common whilst wearing leg weights and carrying my bag full of spuds, which by the way have sprouted extra spuds since sweating in my bag for a week. (pretty sure that we wont be having them with our sunday lunch)



When I got back from my walk I was complaining to my hubby about how tired just a little walk made me feel, and that I felt so unfit and tired all the time. When he reminded me that less than 4 weeks ago I was in hospital on a ventilator hooked up to drips etc, due to swine flue. This made me feel a bit happier because if you take those 3 weeks of being really poorly into account, I am doing bloody well keeping up with all the Janathon antics, so Yay for me .

X-BOX360-Kinect the biggest loser

well it finally arrived, the x-box that was meant to be a xmas pressie for me the whole family, so after half an hour faffing it was ready to go.

As I have been persuaded to try and keep at Janathon, I bagged first go and put the biggest loser bootcamp on, half an hour later dripping in sweat and looking like an oompa loompa my workout was done. The kids had great fun laughing at me trying to keep up with the trainer, and the trainer had great fun telling me I must do better!!!

I have taken both the dogs out separetely, as I am not sure about this new greyhound we have adopted, and did not think I could handle them both on my own, (hubby on a training course today). so two short walks of a bout a mile each. Was going to get my bike out but it is too windy, kinda wish this january weather would piss off now.

So thats me Janathoned for another day, now its time to get my essay tidied up, a couple of reflections typed and my presentation planned, bye for now and thanks to my encouragers:)

tiredathon, think its time to drop out of #Janathon

I am struggling with nursing placements, uni work, exercise and blogging and think I might just call it a day for Janathon. I managed my getting off buses early and walking five miles, plus a 2 hour session at the hydropool. But I have nothing left to give, I just want to curl up in a ball and go to sleep for a week. I cant do that as I have too much to do, but I can drop the exercise until I am back at uni in 2 weeks. I have more free time and not as much commuting so it would make more sense to really kick in the exercise then.

I will still read blogs and shout encouragement from the sidelines, and I wish everyone well in their own personal Janathon experience

The wheelchair conga

OH What fun. The conga is probably the best dance we did today in our wheelchair dance section, and as it was dry and sunny outside and some idiot put me at the ront of the line, the conga procession went out of the patio doors and into the park. The clients were all laughing and clapping, we did get a few funny stares, but then a couple of the old dears who were wandering round the park joined in, it became quite a party. (not sure this is what maggie thatcher had in mind when she closed down all the secure wards and institutes, to get disabled people into the community). But it was jolly good fun and excellent cardio.

I also got my 5 mile commute in again today and 100 sit ups on the stability ball, pretty good going, considering the amount of alcohol I consumed last night.

Birthday blitz

I have done my zest kickstart your fitness circuits, My five mile commute and my hour rebound session with clients.
Its my birthday so now I am glugging wine whilst dancing round my bedroom with my lovely daughters, who are helping me to get ready for my birthday meal with hubby.

So bog off and let me party :)

my pedometer is out by 2 miles

I have been logging getting off the buses early and walking part way to placement, with my pedometer which has been telling me its 1.5 miles each way. I took my garmin with me today to check, as I was concerned at how long it was taking me to cover that distance. Well its 2.5 miles each way, so yay I have been walking further every day and bugger, I need a new pedometor!


I didn't set it coming back because I couldnt be arsed its the same route, so thats 5 miles clocked up, no wonder my plantar is playing up.

I have spent four hours at the Hydro therapy pool this afternoon, 2 hours in the pool and 2 hours out lifting and hoisting clients in so that they could have their sessions. All four hours were physically demanding and made more so because the temperature needs to be above 33.5 degrees which dehydrates you and really makes you feel lethargic.

I think that pretty much makes up for yesterdays mini effort, all things considered a bloody good janothon day.

100 sit ups

and twenty chair dips, that plus my getting off buses early and walking 3 miles to placement is all I have had time for today.

I feel like a right slacker, but after being stood on my feet for eight hours and then going to physio, plus rushing off after my tea for a 2 hr driving lesson, there was nothing left in my tank.

I will do better tomorrow!!!!!!

#Zestmagazine kickstart your fitness

My February edition of Zest arrived yesterday, and in the back were four fitness plans to do at home. The one I am following for the next two weeks is "kickstart your fitness" which consist of 3 circuits which include 15 reps of each of these exercise: Bent over row, High knee step ups, bench dips,toe squats, ball pull overs and side step ups. You have to do this circuit twice a week and on the other days a 30 min interval cardio set, or a 45 min cardio steady session.

As it was chucking it down with real gusts of wind outside, thought I would give the circuits a whirl. Easy Peasy thought I, how wrong can a person be???
Bloody hell I am much more unfit than I thought, I was huffing and puffing on the first circuit, by the time I was on to the 2nd I was dripping in sweat and the third set completely wiped me out. Legs were like jelly, heart was pounding, in fact my whole body was shaking.

As it is Janathon, I decided I needed to do a little more to keep the wobbles at bay, so I strapped on leg weights, put a huge bag of spuds in my backpack and took the dogs for a 1.5 mile walk round skipwith common. I enjoyed it, not sure they did , even with their coats on they were shivering and looking at me in disgust.

4 pounds lost :)

which has put me in an excellent mood.

If I can just get my eating under control and carry on with this increased activity, I really could see a difference in my weight this year. Hopefully janathon is giving me the kick up the butt I needed.

I have two assignments, a presentation and two evidence based articles to write up, so my planned exercise has been cut in half today. The dogs got just over a mile walk on the common instead of two, hubby will take them again later.


And my planned cycle from North to South Duff, was swapped part way in for a skipwith circuit! Partly because I need to get my work done, but mainly because the wind was so bad that I was getting blown all over the road. I just could not find the strength to pick up any speed so I kinda gave up, which has made me a bit pissed off with myself.



Oh yeah the weird bus stop people have been changed into different clothes again, so I will take my camera next time I go that way, though I must remember to keep my eye out for the odd little man who messes with them. I nearly crapped my pants last year when I went to have a look at them and he was hidden amongst them, I cycled home fast that day.

Davina my old faithful

Has been exercise of the day today, I took my DVD with me to placement and had two of the able bodied clients join in with the boxercise session and the pump without weights (I used tin of tomato soup) The slopping sound was quite off putting actually.

I am quite sure that all the other members of staff think I am totally bonkers, they are there devising nice relaxation activities, and I am jumping about like the duracell bunny. I have put my name down for the Hydropool sessions next week, plus the rebound group, so that 3 days I get my janothon effort in whilst at work. Sneaky ;)

I only managed 3 miles today as it was really icy and I stayed on one of my buses, would'nt bode well for janothon if I was to slip and injure myself!!


I am really enjoying finding ways to fit the exercise in around work, I did'nt have this problem for Juneathon as I was a lazy lay about and could exercis whenever I felt like it. So in a way this is much more challenging and rewarding.

wheelchair waltz

I did say that I was going to have to get inventive for janathon due to my long shifts didnt I!!

I had to devise an activity that the clients would enjoy this afternoon and as the majority of clients in my care were in wheelchairs, I decided that movement to music would be good.(it was also a sneaky way to get some exercise in)

And believe me an hour pushing wheelchairs around in time to music is definetely hard exercise. The clients enjoyed it and I even got a kiss of one young man, so job well done me thinks.

I got off both my buses early again so got my four mile walk in, then had an hour physio for my plantar this evening. This consisted of lots of stepping up and down on a box ,a 15 min walk on the treadmill and 20 minutes static stretching.

Did screw up the healthy eating though, one of my walks went right past a kebab shop, oopsies :)

Rebound as therapy

Whats that I asked my mentor?

Only bouncing around on humongous trampolines, my god you could not get me on that minibus fast enough. myself and 2 carers took 3 clients, who all have profound and complex Learning disabilities for their weekly rebound sessions. We were meant to have a client each and take turns at having a rest, not a bloody chance its Janathon. I bounced with 1 client, then the next one came and got on our trampoline, as their carer was resting, before I new it I had all 3. A jolly good time was had bouncing for over an hour, the clients had a great time too ;) Also, seeing them so animated was an absolute joy.

Must remember to do ones pelvic floor exercises before I go again next week, four children and all that, I suppose I could always resort to Tena Lady!!!!!!!!.

I got my four miles extra walking in again, must admit I was tempted to stay on the bus for a few extra stops though as torrential rain was weather of the day today. But no, I braved it like the good little Janothoner that I am.

Got home a little earlier than expected so dragged my self out for a little jaunt on the bike too, only one mile as I discovered that its too bloody dark to ride at night here even with my bike lights, but hey ho I bounced myself silly today.

poor effort today

As It was bloody snowing again on the first day back of placement, waiting around for public transport that is always late and does not connect properly was no fun!! So I have been in a right grump all day, if I could score janothon points for moaning I reckon I would win hands down today. I only live 19 miles from my placement, 3 ruddy hours it takes me to get there, because of the crappy village bus services. I have been to Manchester and back in less time than that, its ridiculous. And then the same on the way home, 6 ruddy hours commuting Arghhhh.

I took the advice of a few fellow Janothoners and wore my Pedometer today, and have managed to clock up just over 13 miles, only 4 of them were my getting off buses early though, so I am only counting those 4 in todays exercise as my heart was actually elevated then. When I got home I did a twenty minute section of my Davina Dvd (Pump)I was going to do the legs section too, but I forgot to take any lunch with me today,and as I only had a piece of toast at 5am this morning, just could not muster the energy.

Tomorrow is another day

Got a little carried away

Thought to myself North to South duffield that seems quite easy, I will give that a shot. By the time I had arrived at South Duff I had already done the 4 miles I had set myself, so now had to get back home. Phone at the ready, I really considered calling hubby to come get me as I was completely out of breath and without my inhaler. But no, brave soldier that I am, I puffed my way all the way back. Legs are screaming when I climb the stairs, but I cant help feeling a little smug its only 7.8 miles but I struggled with 2 miles, 3 days ago.



Really not sure how I am going to manage any exercise or blogging from tomorrow, as I back on hospital placement. I have to leave the house at 5.30 to catch two buses and then wont get home until late. I have never exercised in the evening, as I am a morning person, will have to be inventive me thinks.

Thank god for Sudocreme

Because there was no way my poor chaffed backside could have got back on that saddle without it.

Day 2 of janathon had me out there wobbling in my Lycra again, I managed a bit further on my bike today, just over 4 miles and I actually enjoyed it. Maybe this exercise lark is a good thing!!!





I also did 2.29 miles bellowing at Stacie again, this time I put the Bike in highest gear and cycled stood up, bloody hell you can really feel that in your wobbly bits.




Then as I was till feeling a little energetic I took my doggies for a 3 mile walk through the common, quite a good 2nd day me thinks.

(shame I ate a huge bag of chocolate coins of the xmas tree at 6am this morning really)

So thats 6.59 mls on my bike and 3 mls walking, Get in :)

eleven bloody stone !!!!!!

This is not a good start to the year, I have been fluctuating between 9 and 10 stone for a year or so now, but ELEVEN STONE, FFS!!!!

Janathon will save me from the trauma of becoming my humongous mother.

Ouch!!! i was only on the bike for a short time yesterday and did not expect it to have caused any damage, bloody fool, My ass is battered!!!

I managed a sad few miles before my body started screaming for oxygen and I had the pleasure of passing the weird, fake bus stop people, that some peole may remember from my Juneathon blog? Well the mad little man who put them there has re-dressed them !!

Pretty sure there is a secure unit missing a male in this area!!!




Well here is my pathetic start to Janathon


And then I followed that by cycling behind, shouting at encouraging my daughter on her attempt at a run as part of her new years resolution.


So my 1st janathon attempt is cycling 5.57 mls quite slowly with a very sore bottom. I got my stability ball out and after vigorous dusting and then re-pumping it back up, managed to do 100 sit ups on it. And that is me truly whooped for the day