weight

Dear Katie: Starting out the year right

/ Kate O'C / 2 Comments

Dear Katie,

I promised I’d check in and hold myself accountable for my 2018 New Year Goals, so here I am.

It’s been a week, and a pretty good one at that, but then I guess most people come out of the gates strong in the first week of January only for it to head south rapidly after that. I suppose only time will tell. Anyway, this is the summary of this my efforts this past week for your delectation:

Goal One: Run a half marathon

  • I still hate running. But we’re signed up to the Reading Half so I’m committed. Was delighted not to massively embarrass myself at the training day on Saturday…
  • …however, some of the photographs that were taken that day have hammered home my need to reduce my waistline. Motivation!
  • I have a new found respect for people who run. It’s hard! My fitbit tells me it gets my heart rate up better than any other exercise I do and my legs are in tatters after two days of training!
  • Realising recovery is key means I’m actually using my foam roller and stretching more!

Screen Shot 2018-01-09 at 13.11.46.png

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New Year Resolutions: Goal setting and chocolate regretting

/ Kate O'C / 2 Comments

It’s that time of year again – the end. Or, the beginning of the new one, depending on your disposition. Either way, it’s that time when we’re all stuffed full of cheese, chocolate Santas and regret, and we decide to declare publicly (thanks to social media) that we have set ourselves unrealistic goals for the new year. I’m hoping mine are less unrealistic and more suitably challenging.

Instagram Resolutions

Katie F’s goals for 2017. She smashed it.

Katie (fellow blogger, muse and all-round good egg) had one hell of a 2017 in her sporting career and managed to knock her resolutions out of the park, I, on the other hand have devoted this year to changing careers and the time and monetary stress associated with that. I have to admit that my motivation in terms of health and fitness has diminished, to the point where Katie has had to give me a good, proverbial kick up the arse and signed us both up to run the Reading Half Marathon in March.

So, there we go, resolution number 1 right there: Run my first half marathon Continue reading →

A weight off my mind

/ katieferg89 / 9 Comments

I recently (hmmm a month ago) posted something on Instagram that took a longer decision to make about posting than it should have. No, it wasn’t whether my smoothie looked too much like grey sludge (thanks chocolate almond milk) or whether someone had spotted me trying to take a surreptitious gym selfie. No, it was this.

View this post on Instagram

I AM POSTING MY ACTUAL WEIGHT ON THE INTERNET. It's incredible what a taboo weight still is (despite the whole #strongnotskinny movement) & how much of a HUGE step this felt. Normally I would probably only ever tell my mum. Weight (and BMI for that flipping matter) ain't nothing but a number and the fat % is what I am really keeping an eye on 🎯 (and it's in a good place RN) I've basically floated around around this weight (ish….) for the last 5 years or so and only really accepted it in the last 12 months as I've learnt it's where I naturally settle – I'm never going to weigh 9 stone something #sorrynotsorry Blog post to follow at some point soon on this – lots of love Katie xoxo🏃🏼‍♀️🏋🏼‍♀️🤸🏼‍♀️⚖️#epiphany #training #weight #taboo #istilleatloadsofpizza #scales #trainhard #healthyliving

A post shared by These Girls Do (@thesegirlsdo) on

There you go people of the world, colleagues, friends, family, strangers…HERE IS HOW MUCH I WEIGH.

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The New Year Bandwagon – Ditch the detox and kick-start healthy habits instead

/ Kate O'C / Leave a comment

It’s January. I had a hectic December and, much like everyone else, ate and drank waaaaay too much. On top of that, I am four months in to a significant change of lifestyle, i.e. student life, and playing a lot less sport as a result. Things were beginning to look grim. Not to mention wobbly. Something had to give, so here I am shamelessly piggybacking off Katie’s recent post about Dry January and friendly sabotage to talk about the January Bandwagon.

It’s still one of the most popular New Year’s resolution in the UK – “I will lose weight”, so people up and down the country part with wodges of cash to join gyms (a lot of Twitter angst was felt towards this by regular gym bunnies) and slimming clubs. Now, I’m not in dire straits by any stretch, so paying to have someone weigh me once a week and talk about ‘syns’ or ‘points’ wasn’t something I felt I needed to do, and as someone who already hits the gym of my own accord I felt fairly well equipped to take myself in hand, but having stood on the scale on New Year’s Eve morning to be faced with 69kgs it was clear I needed to do something. Now.

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Sport for girls should be pink

/ Kate O'C / 4 Comments

Happy New Year, everyone! For my first post of 2016, I have been gifted a topic by a red hot (or should that be hot pink?) debate raging in Ireland right now.

[Sidenote: I wrote the first draft of this using a Bic for Her ballpoint pen… If you haven’t read the Amazon reviews I implore you to do so. For the good of your hand health.]

Whilst idly browsing Twitter this morning, I came across something posted by Her.ie magazine that made me double-take. An Irish company appear to be promoting a new product, marketed at women, to encourage the uptake of Gaelic Football by female players – enter, the Ladyball. That’s right y’all, the squidgy, pink #Ladyball.

Image from theladyball.com

Image from theladyball.com

“The all new Ladyball specifically designed for a lady’s game – soft touch for a woman’s grip, eazi-play for a woman’s ability, fashion-driven for a woman’s style. Play like the lady you are.”

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Dr. Weight Loss; or, How I Learned to Start Writing and Love the Pen

/ Kate O'C / Leave a comment

I have to admit, this post has no intention of cleverly satirizing the fad diet by drawing comparisons between burning belly fat and the Cold War… I’m just a massive nerd and have been wanting to crow-bar a blog post into Dr Strangelove’s title for some time. And now I have.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve lost about half a stone in weight (just over 3kgs, for those of you who deal in non-anachronistic units of measurement). I haven’t gone out of my way to do so – I haven’t gone on a calorie controlled diet, or gone mad in the exercise stakes, but I have started blogging. I am almost certain that there is a direct correlation between these facts.

Yes, I'm a nerd. No shame.

Yes, I’m a nerd. No shame.

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Fit Mammas: A day isn’t enough to celebrate our mothers!

/ katieferg89 / 4 Comments

Let’s face it – neither of us would be where we are now without the most important women in our lives – and we probably wouldn’t have the same attitudes towards health and wellbeing that we do without our mothers playing the laundry lady/taxi driver/#1 supporter/ role that they do!

So, on this rainy Mothering Sunday, when neither of us actually have the fortune to be with them, we’d like to celebrate the top women in our lives and what makes them so freakin’ awesome

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Weighty Issues: Loving the skin you’re in

/ Kate O'C / 6 Comments

I recently read an article about this woman (yes, it was on Buzzfeed. Yes, it counts).

Tess Holliday - instagram.com

Tess Holliday – instagram.com

Tess Holliday is a size 22 (UK) model, who is the first of her height (5’5″) and size to be signed to a major modelling agency. No matter who you are, or what your preferences, there’s no denying she is a very beautiful person. She has an appealing, symmetrical, feminine face. But there is also no getting around the fact that she is bigger than the average lady

I’ve been wanting to write a piece on plus-size women for a while, but haven’t been able to formulate an angle that allowed me to make the points I wanted to make, but I think now I’m going to give it a bash. I’m not about body-shaming and this isn’t about dictating rights and wrongs when it comes to body image, it’s about being both happy and healthy in one’s own skin.

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