New Year's Resolutions: Update 1

So as part of my new year's resolutions this year, I resolved to try and lose somewhere between a stone and a stone and a half. So far I have been doing pretty well!

I've been eating 1200 calories a day (and recording it with the aid of myfitnesspal.com's fantastic online calorie counter (and the equally brilliant phone app, which even has a barcode scanner so you can just zap whatever you're about to eat and up pops all the nutritional info you'll ever need).

I also took up jogging; I have a treadmill at home and, instead of hanging clothes on it, I've actually been using the thing. I've done half an hour a day of fast walking - and some jogging, a little more each day as I get used to it - most days since the 2nd January. This has been a mixed blessing, since I am definitely getting fitter - I can now jog for 15 minutes; when I started I couldn't even manage 5 - but it has also slowed my weight loss. I'm told that this is because I'm building muscle, and also because muscles that aren't used to regular exercise will try and hold on to glycogen and water (so I'm retaining water now?? OH JOY). So every day that I exercise, the scales creep up a bit, and every day that I don't, they go back down. I've been reassured that this is just temporary, though, and that it will stabilise after a bit; plus since I am definitely burning more calories than I am eating, there is no way it's fat, so I'm persevering.

When I weighed in on Sunday I'd lost about 3 pounds, which is an average of 1.5 per week and apparently this is a healthy rate at which to lose. I forgot to take starting measurements, but the podgy bits around my belly and hips already feel smaller - I suspect I've actually lost more than 3 pounds in fat, and the muscle-y -water-y thing is just hiding the rest :-p

Monday night was where it all started to go a bit wrong, though. I came down with the stomach flu!! Norovirus has been going round the area and I guess it was my turn. Between Monday night and Friday morning I ate hardly anything at all. This morning I weighed myself and I'd lost another 5 pounds in only 3 days: rather an extreme way to diet!!! I expect most of it was dehydration so probably a lot of it will come back soon, but hopefully a bit of it will stay away!

How are you doing with your new year's resolutions, if you've made any?