2007 - June

[El Gordo]

Hi Andy, thanks for you comment on my blog!
Ive been careful so far to balance my eagerness with awareness of overtraining=injury, but I welcome your critique!
As for scales, Ive not got a set at home, and I try to weigh myself at gym before I work out (thou sometime i forget!) so that i get a true reading, although I do drink at least a litre of water when im there...
Having said that, it would be interesting to weigh myself before, and after my workout, to see what the difference is, so I may do that tomorrow-if anything, it will give me something to blog about!

Good to see you found your way over here, Lizzie. I hope you'll linger a while. (For the benefit of others, Lizzie is headed for Dublin, and has started a blog at http://roadtodublinmarathon2007.blogspot.com/)

I weigh myself every day but I don't take much notice of individual readings. I put them in a speadsheet, and calculate the average once a week, having first removed the highest and lowest figures. Over a period of time, this seems as good a way as any to track trends.

The longer term trends are much more useful than individual days. You often get rogue figures. You can skip breakfast, have a lettuce leaf for lunch, run 10 miles and go to bed with an apple for supper, and the next morning the scales will tell you that you're 2 pounds heavier than the previous day. And the reverse happens too - particularly after alcohol. It's usually something to do with fluid -- too much or not enough. But over a week, these things get ironed out. The important thing is not to get disheartened if you're doing all the right things but get the odd high reading. The other important thing to remember is that gym sessions are likely to produce muscle. It's quite common for regular gym-goers to put on weight. Don't worry if you do. What you'll find is that your shape changes for the better. Blubbery legs become well-toned legs even though your weight stays the same.