David and Katherine Goodwin

Now that my ridiculous tiredness seems to have eased, and I'm back to moderate tiredness (I get tired easily and a particularly bad night can make me useless all day) I'm starting to catch up on stuff, like getting back into the saddle at work (tackling the dreaded marketing), and actually being able to do some housework (you can probably hear David breathing a sigh of relief)

While its not strange for me to get exited about new shoes, its rare that I'm excited about new trainers, and even rarer that I spend so much money on them (unless they're leather and knee-high!).

However, at the weekend David and I finally dragged ourselves over to Up and Running in Wolverhampton as we both needed new trainers. I hadn't had any in over a year, and was starting to feel they were not really springy when I was running. For David, as he runs pretty much every day, it was his 3-4 month change.

After my attempt to run with my fat fighters group, I decided to be brave and try out a proper (beginners) running club. I ran this route in around 40 minutes, running more than half of it, maybe as much as 2/3

The best thing is that I only ached for a day or so, and was back in the gym yesterday, making myself ache again.

Of course this weekend I'm making myself ache some more, painting the bedroom at last.

For some weeks, I've been signed up to a weight loss course at my local gym. It involves a half an hour session talking about an aspect of food, and then some form of exercise. I haven't really been trying on the eating front, although except for the 2 weeks where I had the nasty flu that was going around, I have been regularly exercising - and more strenuously than ever. This week at the course I had my biggest challenge so far - running. The girl who runs the course also does the beginners running club on a Wednesday, which Jenny and her mum (and sometimes David(brother)) go to.

Before Xmas, I was posting fairly regularly about my weight loss attempts, and more recently I posted about taking a different tack with things, and switching away from weight watchers.

My weigh in tonight saw a loss of (somehow!) another 1.5lbs, which puts me at a total loss of 1st, 1lb. Over a quarter of the way to my goal!

If I keep going like this, I'll be done in six months!

My new mp3 player arrived today; as I happened to break my old one at the same time as Apple announced new models a few months ago, for the sake of 55 quid I thought I'd buy a shuffle.

First impressions - it's very small - far smaller than I expected, very light, and has a nice finish. So shiny on the outside...

The accompanying documentation, although minimal seems to cover everything - but then again, the Shuffle is relatively simple - lacking a radio and any recording ability, and of course no LCD display (And just a single LED) means any interaction has to be simple.

Oh yes!

I probably won't blog about this every week, but this week deserves a mention. Another 3 pounds down means I'm minus half a stone, two weeks in.

I must point out that keeping up that level of weight loss would be pretty unhealthy, and if it were to keep going for 4 or 5 weeks, I would start eating more. However in my experience, large losses in early weeks are quite normal, and I expect future losses to be rather less significant.

Anyway, I'm pretty chuffed. Lets see how I get through the next two weeks with a hen night, a trip to Bristol for Rocky Horror (woo!) and a wedding

Well I always said that once I could get back into the semblence of a normal routine, I'd start exercising again properly, and this time it's sticking.

I had thought for a while that all the problems with my feet, and associated leg muscle issues would continue to cause me problems beyond the need to stretch a lot, but finally everything feels like its starting to ease up.

I've been going to the gym on average 3 times a week for the six weeks or so. Of course when I say "going to the gym" I mean to the David Lloyd centre to do some form of exercise. This means either the gym for a mostly CV workout, or to an aquafit class.