In a new weekly feature, Her.ie's Liz is going to share her weight loss journey. She’ll be filling you in on fighting temptation, her willpower struggles with the cocktail menu and taking painfully slow steps towards regular exercise. All in the name of a dress. _____________________________________ Hanging on the wall at the end of my bed is the constant reminder I plan on shedding nearly two stone this year. I also plan on marking the trials and tribulations of ‘trying to be good’ – the favourite saying we all tout, and quickly replace when a cake is put in front of us. Week 61: Finding my fitness level This week marked the month in a new gym challenge. It all started when I was offered the chance to join a bootcamp in The Health Club at The Shelbourne. I’d be training with a personal trainer one day a week, be given a set programme and nutrition guide and I could tag along to any classes in the schedule. It all sounded pretty ideal, and with it being just a short walk from the office, I argued with myself that getting into town an hour before work kicked off shouldn’t be that big of a deal. While I’m quite active during the winter, my summer months tend to dissolve into weeks of short bouts of walking and lots of trip to the ice-cream parlour. Yes, I make conscious decisions when it comes to healthy eating, but I wouldn’t say I was particularly motivated when it comes to going to the gym. I’m much more a dance around my apartment, head along to Zumba kind of lady. I have high hopes of being Shakira when I grow up. So I embarked on the latest chapter of my fitness goals with a little apprehension. I can usually manage a few weeks of enthusiasm before my thighs start crying out for a rest. I was greeted by my personal trainer Philip. It’s safe to say he had a challenge ahead of him, even if he didn’t know it. We got on immediately… mainly because he accepted my vague responses to some of his answers, and realised that I was nervous. Very nervous. Him: “How is your sleeping pattern?” Me: “All over the shop” If you meet me in person, I’m quite confident. I love to talk and chances are I will catch you off guard with my ridiculous laugh pretty quickly. But when it comes to issues of body confidence, it can be a lot tougher to match the smile to my face with the internal apprehension. When he told me I didn’t have to disclose my weight unless I was comfortable, I knew we’d get along just fine. The thing is, I want to be healthy. In fact I’d love to be super lean and toned. I accept that everyone has to start somewhere, but I just wish I was a little closer to the finish line before I had to go onto a gym floor full of ridiculously energetic and intimidating members. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I took a quick look around and asked Philip was it just a quiet time of the day. He told me that due to capped membership, the gym was never overrun and I took a nugget of comfort that there would never be a trail of people watching me on a cross trainer waiting their turn. After assessing my fitness levels (and being gently guided through each of the machines and weight programmes I’d be working on), I was given a personalised programme that thankfully had diagrams. Have you seen ‘Finding Nemo?’ I’m Dori, nice to meet you. If I didn’t have it written down, I would’ve told myself I had the workout down and chances are forgotten most of the steps I was shown. So I made my way around the different machines and set a little place for myself amongst the weights section. I even made a friend in an older gentleman who told me it wouldn’t be long ‘til I was moving up from my 6kg weights. The best part was he wasn’t even being snide or sarcastic. He was just being friendly. I even got a thumbs up. It was definitely more welcoming than my last attempts at entering the weights section of the gym. So I went to the gym three times this week. Once on Monday, once on Wednesday and again on Saturday. I even took myself off for a swim on Saturday afternoon to test my new summer bikini. I might have slightly ran from the changing room into the water, but if things keep going this way I might be flaunting a toned tum in no time. (Ok, realistically, it might not wiggle as much. But I’m ok with that) I also got asked to keep a food diary, which I could do smugly thanks to signing up for Weight Watchers this week. I was back on the food watching band-wagon and signed up for the filling and healthy plan. Apart from a few slip-ups (there may have been a sausage role and two Cadbury bars), I was quite well behaved. I made stir fries, a ‘clean’ cottage pie and a batch of soup for when hunger strikes. So week one down, and I’m feeling confident if not a little nervous. I’ve taken a snap in my gym gear this week. Since it’s a three month programme, I’ll do a before and after at month two, and a before and after from week one to my finishing point. My goal is to lose a stone over that time and to tone up, but rather than put insane pressure on myself, Philip and I agreed on a short-term goal of increasing my fitness levels and dropping 4-5 pounds in month one. It’s not a crazy target, and if I’m lucky I might catch a break with my metabolism along the way. Feel free to follow along here to see how it all pans out… For more information on a Three-month Bootcamp membership at The Health Club at The Shelbourne, check out the website here.