Selkie-esque Status, Wonky Weights & Pussycat Pics...

... so, here I am at the end of another week where I smell like an explosion in a bathroom cleaner factory! Can a chlorine smell actually ever be removed by any of these bottles and potions they sell? LOL

but, the good news is that in the last 4 days I have swam over 6km :-) I consider that a serious high five moment for me considering before 5 weeks ago I hadn't done any proper swimming in almost 4 years ...
and while i'm on the subject, on friday I started my 6 week countdown to Swimathon D-Day (not drowning! well I am pretty sure not LoL).

One thing that is really helping me train is being part of a great challenge on the ww fitness challenges message board (Big hello to Jill!), My challenge for March is to swim the 29km length of the 'Gate of Tears' strait at the south end of the Red sea. As I can only be sure about getting to the pool 3 times a week that's not going to be easy - works out at having to cover 2072m at each visit to the pool (will be able to chill a bit more on weeks i know I can go 4 times). I'm going to add another tracker here to add up my progress.

I have also set myself a swimming challenge to complete before next year's Swimathon (when I hope to be up to entering to do the 5km distance) - I want to cover the 350km distance across the widest part of the Red Sea - as far as I can work out at the moment, being short of a crystal ball and all, is that this distance divided by the number of weeks I hope to be able to swim enough works out at having to complete just over 7.5km a week ... not sure if I can do this and I might have to extend the time to next summer or thereabouts, but I'm going to give it my best shot :-)

The Red Sea is the first place I want to scuba dive so this should really help keep me focused on my main fun goal and reason for losing weight! I'll make it on that dive holiday by my mid forties if it kills me :-)))))

And, more good news, I have lost another 2lb at WI this morning, making for a total loss of 17lbs since Jan 17th, I was especially happy with that as i did a sneaky wi on friday (yeah, i know, BAD IDEA!) and it had me at a 2lb gain, guess i hadn't balanced out enough of my earlier in the week piggery by that time - this leaves me with 33lbs left to banish forever by July 18th!

and finally, just so that this post isn't just all about my boring ramble I have added some pics of my so, so cute little kitties... they are 10 weeks old and bleedin' little monkeys! from top to bottom they are Kiba, Kasumi, Kai & Kuma :-))))))))))

The Dark side of the Dark stuff! ~ Chocolate & Coffee that is...

... Getting my soapbox dusted off today as I have been reading stuff that just annoys me ...

First they say that coffee is actually good for you - it contains large amounts of anti-oxidents and can apparently improve artery health ... so all good there , but! then we are told it has a nasty ole habit of preventing your body from absorbing vitamins properly !?! I give up!

Then, I read pretty much the same good/bad stuff for my favorite dark chocolate :((((( I have decided that these people havent got a clue and just change the rules when they think we are getting too cocky about knowing what we should be eating!

And talking of eating, I haven't done too well this week (as i posted yesterday) but I am back on track today, after ending yesterday at -33 points (yep that is a MINUS sign!). I know I won't be able to pull that back in the 4 days i have left so I am just going to write it off and try and keep on track from now till my sunday morning WI :-)

Exercise is still a bit iffy this week too, due to sick little people and lack of oomph on my part I havent yet got to the gym this week, but I have managed a decent amount of swimming at least and I am going to the pool later and actually feeling good about that! of course i'll need to be home early in order to fit in the time I need to drink my coffee, sneak in my chocs and round off the day with a mega vitamin pill to make everything right with the world again! *lol*

Have Munchies & Calamine, Will Travel ...

... Good news first --- I don't often find something new that impresses me all that much - especially when its food that is classed as "healthy" - but today is different.

A few days ago I discovered a site where you can order boxes of nibbles that are posted to you, Its called Graze and I got my first box of goodies today and i'm very happy with the result. I got raisins, dates, walnuts, cashews, various seeds and bits and some really fabulously tasty little crackers that were only 0.5 ww points for the packet! All hail to the munchies God *lol*

Anyone who wants to try a graze box for free can go to the site via this link and enter this code 1HJPZ48N :-)

And now for the bad news --- My youngest daughter (19 months) has the dreaded CHICKEN POX!!!, and you can bet my 6 year old isnt far behind :(
Guess i am going to be hitting the pool in the evenings this week, well at least then it's adults only and quiet!

A Whole New Meaning to April Showers...

...Showers of Sweat that is! ... because I done something that I may live to regret *lol*

I have signed up for the 2010 Swimathon event to raise money for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
I was going to enter to do the 1.5km distance but decided that it wouldn't be enough of a goal to aim for so I signed my life away and agreed to do the 2.5km *gulp* - that's 100 lengths of a 25 metre pool that I have to do in a max time of 3 hours! Piece of cake!?! - well it just might be if I can avoid eating any of said cake along the way!
D-Day (hope the D doesn't end up meaning Drowning! *lol*) is April 16th...

Food & exercise wise today has been a bust, I should have been doing some serious swimming today but I just couldn't deal with getting off the sofa in the morning... I did get going eventually but didn't manage nearly as many metres as i was hoping for ... after 8 days off due to my in-laws visiting I am finding it really hard to get going again. I know that as soon as I do i'll feel much better so its really silly to have not gone all out to get the lengths done that I had planned - this will be rectified tomorrow! I am heading to the pool in the morning with my daughter and will get with the program again - an extra alarm and some caffeine and I will survive! lol :-)

My points have had to deal with more stretching then my waistline these last 2 days, sitting about more than usual means I eat more so the exercise really has to get back on track! I am supposed to be on 31 points a day, but have used 13 extra by today *nonono* Its day 2 of my week so here's hoping I can claw it back over the next few days, if I do then great, but if i dont then I am determined not to end the week anymore down than that and to just move on again next week, bumps in the road are all part of the process i guess...

If only I could swim to the Gym...

Well, big news this week is that I have reached that first milestone of losing a stone! ~ at WI today i had lost another 3lbs so I am down a total of 15lbs since Jan 17th (5 weeks) ***YAY!***

I wasn't expecting much this WI as i havent been to the gym at all and have only been swimming once due to visiting relatives and half-term, so I am extremely pleased to have got a great result.

I do have a dilema this week in that I know i need to do more cardio than weights at this early stage in my weight loss, but i really feel I should be doing equal time in the gym and the pool, but i just cant do the amount of cardio in the gym that I want to get to in each workout, whereas in the pool i find it a doddle. If i could combine them in one session it would be great but that is just far too much faffing about LOL - for now I am going to stick to 3 visits to the pool and 1 to the gym and review that again in 4-6 weeks depending on how my weight loss is going :-)

I have set myself a new mini goal that is a bit bigger and further away. I want to lose another 35lbs by the time I go on holiday in July, so hopefully giving me a total loss of 50lbs for the first 6 months ~ check out my tracker at the bottom of the page to see how i'm doing :-)

Kitty Chaos ...

... is taking over the house! We got our four kittens today and after to-ing and fro-ing for over a week they all finally have names, so welcome to Kai, Kasumi, Kiba & Kuma (don't ask!).

The last couple of days have been great for me eating and exercise wise, I am on track with my points (even saving a few for going out at the weekend) and I dont feel at all deprived.

I have swam a total of 1850 metres in the last 2 days so I am happy with my progress there too :-)

Ok, so I did say I like Horror! ...

... and believe me the "before" pic I have just added to my profile definitely qualifies as first class, tarrantino-esque quality of shock, horror and awfulness :-((( I should most certainly have been eating that pineapple rather than drinking the booze in it!

But, its there for a reason - so I can see where I started and where I am NEVER going back too.

mind you the really scary bit is the numbers (the first one starting with a 2 is something I will be really happy to lose in the next few months) ... so, here goes *gulp* my starting weight on Jan 17th 2010 was 24st 7lbs OMG!!!!!
In the first 2 weeks I lost 4lbs, and my week 3 WI yesterday netted me another 3lb loss! That was a good end to the week and got me my first WW Silver 7 and has got me out of bed and moving better than most monday mornings.

The big news in my life this week is that tomorrow we are getting 4 new kittens. (first it was one that my daughter wanted, then we said she could have two so they had company, and then I made the mistake of letting my hubby see the other two and suddenly we are taking them as well! - now how did that happen!)Two of them have names so far but we are still arguing over the other two. Mind you this will help my diet efforts too, i'll need to eat less to pay for all these extra small fluffy things...

well, the sun is out so that's what I'm doing too, a walk to park will get me those much needed activity points for going out to see a band on Saturday night!

500 lengths in Feb!...

...Ok, so here I am :-)

Angela , aka Secretselkie on some of those dubious messageboards out there in cyberspace! *grin*

This is my first attempt at writing a blog and i fully expect it to fall as flat as my belly flops at the pool (aahhh! i hear you say, now I get the post title!)

anyway, on to the reason I am here - I have decided that 2010 is going to be the year that I finally get round to learning to scuba-dive, but there's a problem, in order to do that I need to get to a point where I wouldn't have to worry about running (or indeed swimming) away from the nearest whaling fleet. simple really, you cant safely scuba if you weigh too much ... so, I plan to fix that this year :-)

My campaign started on Jan 17th when my hubby & I joined a health club and forked out enough cash to cover mexico's debt to the US in order to get hot showers and a pool without cracked tiles. We also figured if it ain't cheap we will use it to get our money's worth - that seems to be working as we have practically moved in.

I am also following the weight watchers plan online, my 3rd weigh-in is tomorrow and I am hoping for good things, so far I have lost 4lbs and have set myself a goal of there being 20lbs less of me to haul through the water by my birthday on April 3rd - watch this space ...

I have started to spend a bit of time in the gym and am actually enjoying it, but at this early stage I need the cardio to get that first bit of weight off and I am much better at swimming, so for now at least I am mainly going to stick with my selkie routine and stock up on the anti-chlorine shampoo :-)

I have no idea what will actually end up in this blog, but hope you enjoy at least some of it!