Thanks everyone!
wannalose8st
Feel free to ask away! The exercise thing is an interesting one and there are quite a few Mini's who do lots!
I started around week 4 - I was doing my step at home as I found it easier to work out at home based on all round general energy levels, ie. instead of planning when to go to the gym but then not really knowing whether I was going to have the energy to even get there, let alone sweat for an hour! i found it much easier to capitalise on the energy bursts at home as and when they happened.
Once I started I couldn't stop - so at the gym (think it was around week 9 when I started there) I've been doing 2-3 times per week sessions, an hours worth of strength training and toning. My gym is brilliant in that I got a PT for free for a month. I've now hired him full time and the difference is just staggering. Having said that, after this morning's session I did ask him if he's actually ever killed anyone. Oooh, hurting already!
It's expensive, but there really is nothing quite like it, for me anyway.
As the fat burning is happening elsewhere (500 cals of foodpacks!) I don't do any gym cardio but do swim at least once a week.
I also do pilates and yogalates which is absolutely wonderful and fabulous for the mind body and soul!
The inch loss is unreal. I had a 4 week period at the start of development where my weight losses were really small, but the inch loss was fabulous. Now both things seem to have caught up with one another and are balancing out.
My history at the gym is a loooooong one, and not great. I've always been a member of a gym but have always associated it with pain, hell, failure, torture etc. I do know my own body very well though and for me, the gym/regular enjoyable exercise will be the absolute key to maintaining my weight loss. I just need to work so hard to burn off the calories so there's no other option really.
Also, I really believe my flabby bits are nowhere near as bad as they would've been had I not started serious exercise whilst doing LL.
Finally, on the days that I don't get to the gym I won't go to bed until I've done at least 100 crunches and a solid set of leg exercises on my floor! There really is very little effort involved but the results are great. I would recommend this to anyone who just doesn't feel ready for the gym yet, but wants to do something. Just get on the floor and crunch!! Even last week when I was at Glastonbury I found myself crawling into my tent in the wee hours of the morning and thinking 'I'll just do a few crunches!'
One of my goals is to have 19" thighs (the so called perfect thigh size) I've lost 5.5" per thigh so far and at 21" they're almost there!! That definitely didn't happen by accident!
Sorry for long post! You may be thinking you wished you'd never asked! I can get on my soapbox a bit on the exercise issue as LL are ***rubbish*** on this whole area and I've had little or no support from them. Just listen to your bod and push yourself as slowly or as quickly as you need to in the early days. But for me, losing 6st with another 2 or 3 to go, what happens at the end? What about all of the skin issues? How do you even start to build up stamina and strength? How can you maintain such a huge weight loss without exercise? So many questions
Do let me know how you get on. If you've not started doing anything yet, and are a bit worried about it, the best advice I can give is increase your walking quota massively. Use the stairs whenever you can and get the power walking miles under your belt!