Weight For Me

Hey everyone, so this post is going to be a tough one for me to write but I am going to do it and put it out there..

I am unfit and overweight..

Now hopefully I haven't fallen into the category of January gym members that work out for a month for a New Year's resolution and then stop going and cancel their membership come February..

Why I write this post is that for some time now, years in fact, I've known that I've been lazy, unfit and have found weight creeping on slowly but surely. Really I only have myself to blame for this and I'll tell you why. I am sadly a naturally fairly lazy person that would much rather be inside snuggled up on the sofa or in bed than I would be outside. Weird I know, as I am a country girl through and through. But I am unfortunately naturally lazy and because of that I hadn't been going to the gym or exercising half as much as I should have. I am also such a fan of sweet things and carbohydrates.. both of which are bad for you in excess.

In recent years weight and horse riding have been hot topics on equine social media, welfare groups and magazine articles.Searching on Horse & Hound gives a plethora of articles on rider weight from showing societies, welfare groups and charities. Being an ROR rep and being very aware of their rule disqualifying riders deemed by the judge to be too heavy is also a major factor on my mind. As some of you will know I sometimes ride Georgie's ROR Beanie but I am distinctly aware that I am too heavy for him to ride regularly and for long periods; so I don't, simple as that. It's not fair on him and causes things like kissing spine. I would be racked with guilt if my weight caused a horse to suffer so I simple won't allow that to happen.

I had wanted to join the gym in November and December last year but with Christmas I didn't have the extra funds to pay for a gym membership, but in January I signed up to the gym and have been swimming regularly and have just started to feel fit enough to work hard in the gym doing both cardio and muscle work. I've also changed my diet a lot too. I've pretty much stopped eating 'bad' carbohydrates such as  white bread, rice, potatoes and pasta etc and have stopped eating sugary treats also and have been eating more protein instead!

I've been eating grains, quinoa and lentils and eating far more fruit and vegetables; and you know what, it's paying off! I've already started to see the results of working out two or three times a week and eating better. Last night I even took the dreaded step onto the scales so I can track how many kilograms i'm loosing. It was genuinely horrible stepping onto the scales and seeing the realisation of what a lazy slug I had been.

Another thing I've found from changing my diet and exercising more is that I am much happier and more motivated in my day to day life. Before I'd do my clothes washing and just chuck dry clothes into a basket and pick things out as and when I needed them or just threw things on a pile in my room; and my room looked a mess because of it. I'd not bother making my bed and just leave stuff all over the place. My flat just looked like a little hovel of laziness really.

Since changing the way I look at life and myself it's made me have more pride in my house and keeping it tidy; it's like the whole saying of tidy house tidy mind and I do think that is true, certainly for me anyway.

Plus by getting fitter and loosing my excess weight that is only putting more strain of my organs, especially my heart, will mean I can start riding more again as I won't feel guilty riding B.

Some of you may know that I work at Cambridge University Hospital in Cardiology; I work with some very smart people who are doing everything they can to stop heart attacks, or try and fix the heart after you have a heart attack. 

Sadly last week while over trying to by a peperami for my scrambled egg lunch I was in the hospital concourse where I heard a commosion and it was a team of doctors and nurses who were quickly wheeling a gentleman to A&E after he'd had a heart attack, followed by a cardiac arrest and was receiving intense and life prolonging CPR. I can assure you it was quite a shock and nothing like you see on dramatisations on TV and films!

Going forward then I am happy to keep exercising and hopefully see the weight drop off (I'd love to to drop off literally) and see other health benefits from being fitter and healthier, my resting heart rate has already gone down 8 beats per minute in the last 6 weeks and that may be only slightly down but it means my heart is working less as it's beating stronger than before!

Just yesterday I put a tweet out about how I was determined to get fit and how it had impacted me mentally and I actually got a message from one of my new followers saying how my tweet had made him realise he needed to get fit to help his mentality and that I had inspired him to do that. That was incredibly nice to receive and motivation for me to try harder and do better! You never know what your words of encouragement might do!

Gotta say thank you for The Frank Lee Centre for their wonderful facilities and to Intersport Bury St Edmunds for my wonderful On Running 'Cloud' trainers which are my absolutely favourite and the best trainers I've ever worn!

I'm sure I'll do updates at a later date

For now, i'm gonna keep up the hard work, cause it will get easier!

Sophie x