12months from now - visualisation

Well,

this post is a little bit of fun, keep the spirits up!

These are some pics of how we will look come May 2010! (we hope!!!)

There's no Gym like home!

I Just wanted to drop in a quick post to the blog today. I was thinking about times in the past where I tried to lose weight and Gym memberships and all that wasted money!!! Anyhoo... one of the things that I've found invaluble to getting on top of my weight is our home gym.

We are fortunate to be living in a big enough house that we can devote a room to it. But equally a garage or similar space could do.


I say it has been invaluble because of time constraints really, and having 2 kids to look after and busy lives!! :) And the accountability factor that I have absolutely no excuse that I can't make it to the gym...its right there!!!


Anyway, you might be thinking...ooh rich "Baxter" with his home gym...but the purpose of this post is to show you how we did it...and how little it cost us (when compared with gym memberships for 2 people).

Above is a rough panorama shot of our little home gym. Here's what you'll find!

• Treadmill
• Cross Trainer
• Multi-Gym - weights machine
• Stepper
• Punch Bag
• Dumbells
• Skipping Rope

Anyway, what may be surprising is all that only cost us a grand total of €534
Here's the breakdown of each item and where we got it!

• Treadmill - from Argos - €116
  Great manual treadmill. Deceptive little rascal.. on incline constantly, not motorized so you keep it going.
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3020465/Trail/searchtext%3ETREADMILL.htm

• Cross Trainer - from Argos - €134.99
  Great machine, good full body workout. Great to start out on, but would go for a better one next time as ours has gone kaput from overuse!!!
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/9000582/Trail/searchtext%3ECROSS+TRAINER.htm
  
  
• Multi-Gym - weights machine - Ebay - now € 192
  We paid €250 inc. delivery from UK but has come down in price since. Fantastic buy. Great range of resistance training available on it. Pain in the arse to assemble though! took me two evenings, a workout in itself.
  http://cgi.ebay.ie/NEW-VLK-HOME-MULTI-GYM-MULTIGYM-WITH-WEIGHTS-STACK_W0QQitemZ130266573108QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_SportsLeisure_ExerciseFitness_MultiGyms_JN?hash=item130266573108&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1301%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1309
  
  
• Stepper - LIDL - €27
  Something we picked up one day shopping in Lidl. Comes with resistance straps, which personally make it more interesting to use. similar item can be got at Argos for €29
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3027004/Trail/searchtext%3ESTEPPER.htm
  
  
• Punch Bag - Argos - FREE! (we got as a gift) but normally €41.79
  Sitting in gym at moment, not getting used yet. Have to get my hands on a hook to hang it up. But comes with gloves, easily assembled.
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3028766/Trail/searchtext%3EPUNCH+BAG.htm
  
  
• Dumbells - Argos - €19
  A great starter kit. 3 Sets of dumbells. I'm using these regularly at the moment to target shoulders and arms etc. bargain price really.
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3024382/Trail/searchtext%3EDUMBELLS.htm
  
  
• Skipping Rope - Argos - €2.99
  Again deceptive. Try keep going at this for 20mins. One good cardio workout.
  http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/3023204/Trail/searchtext%3ESKIPPING+ROPE.htm

Between all those items we have enough for a real good workout, and again it doesn't cost thousands upon thousands to do and less than many gym membership fees that people are paying.

Anyway as I say, if you can find the space, I'd reccommend it!

Take it easy!

Dara

The Weigh I Was - Dara

Over the last 9-10months approx, I've made some progress on my weight loss, but especially in the last month. I had seen Andrew's post here on his 'before' photos. So I started to dig out mine. There is one photo in particular that I had to put up here, because it was one of those photos that was a defining moment for me. Below is that photo. The picture was taken in our Kitchen 26th April 2008 when I was hitting my heaviest of around 17stone. The thing that got me most about this photos was that it was taken by my son Christian. I remember just looking at the photo and thinking, 'Oh god, is that how he sees me'. It was around this time Carla was starting to lose weight also. So that summer is when I made my first attempts to lose weight and I did lose over a stone.

However, here is that picture:

(note jeans in above shot are the ones in my last weigh in pics: see Dara - 21st March).

Below now, is some shots of me when i tried to get started with losing weight at the end of 2007.
These were taken on November 16th 2007. I weighed 16st. 12lbs in these shots. My attempt was short lived as I went on to weigh 17st+ my May 2008 (as per above photo).







Anyway, below I have a few other random photos from last year or two. My face is quite heavy and double chin quite noticeable. Anyhoo.. this might give you an idea for where I've come from so far.

So, I hope in maybe 6 months time I can get Christian to take a new photo of me which will be the complete opposite of that photo above he took.. Something we can both be proud of! :)

'No Weigh Back' to this.. :)

Dara

The Weigh I Was - Andrew

Sorry for posting so late but I ended up working later than I thought today! I think that Dara has done a pretty excellent job of explaining where we are both coming from though, I'll write more myself tomorrow (including up to date pictures), just wanted to get started now before I fall asleep. I thought I'd start by posting a picture taken just about a week before Christmas, I would have been close enough to my heaviest at that point, 182.2kg was my weight when I weighed myself on 21/11/2008. So, here's where I am coming from!!


Yikes! So, as you can see a lot to go at that point, I'll post my weigh in for this week and pictures tomorrow, not sure I'll be as brave as Dara with the pictures though!

Welcome & About this Blog

Hello all who may stumble upon this blog of ours.
My name is Dara Walsh, and I'm here with my good friend Andrew Reynolds. We're here to share our journey with you as we aim to shed the extra weight we have been carrying with us for many years. We've finally 'snapped!!', this is, this is the time we once and for all lose it. Get fit, and get the bodies we deserve. In this blog we will be setting out mile stones/challenges for ourselves, weighing in and photograping weekly and posting it here, and sharing the ups and downs of the process as we make our way.

So what is the purpose of this blog. Primarily Accountability. To keep each other motivated, but to also know that people may follow our story and see how we get on. And in doing so, we'll be accountable to you, our followers (if there are any!!!).

We'll also be sharing our thoughts/mindset, nutrition & recipes, excercise routines, and as mentioned above our weigh ins & challenges.

So, we look forward to this journey, and I hope you will join us on the way.

Dara & Andrew