Smashing Through Adjectives

Are you big boned? Are you really?

For years, being naturally muscular, and having the ability to put on weight by smelling a cupcake, I have fluctuated between slender, curvy, voluptuous and just plain fat.

Speaking to my mom, who thinks I am bordering now on anorexic (with 26% body fat), I believe a large part of the problem is this 'big boned' label we allow ourselves. 

Please don't get me wrong: you can be any size you want. I'm not judging. You can view yourself with any positive label at any weight you are comfy with - I have no beef with that. This post, however, is an objective view of "big boned" from a researched scientific point of view based on the fitness community (their research not their opinions).

For me losing weight was hard for a different reason. I often skit around around a UK12/medium (which for my bone structure is still heavy - around 76kg - but looks quite slender due to muscle tone). The problem is, I have always gotten away with being a 12 because it looks 'thin enough'. On top of being comfy with average, there is the label we have been throwing around our family since teen years - big boned.

 

Last year, I decided I wanted to have a lot more muscle definition. I turned 40 and just wanted, for once, to have the body I have always wanted - not the slender girls from the films, but the muscular, strong athletic frame of Michelle Rodriguez in Resident Evil, or Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 (hey, don't knock my references, I'm from the 80s). 

 

I was getting ready, listening to the radio last year - a week before my birthday. An advert came on asking: where do you yourself in 40 years? I sat pondering for a moment, before realising - in terms of average life expectancy - I'd be dead. Now, the women in my family live forever, so I was being a bit melodramatic but it made me realise: I'm 40. It's now or never, cupcake.

 

So I joined a bootcamp program, 3 days a week. I was delighted when I lost another 5kgs and dropped to 25% body fat. My aim was to get into the healthy weight range, so even though I didn't exactly look like I could kick the shit out of The Terminator, I looked nice enough to pull a fair few compliments and a few "Oh my god - what have you been doing?". And therefore rinse and repeat. I looked good enough and better than usual good enough.

 

Then lockdown happened. Lots of us share the story: the weight started to creep on again. Within 4 months I'd lost all the 'gains' and gone back to my pre bootcamp body and a fair bit of the weight.

 

After lockdown, I got a fire under my ass big time. I started this hybrid program at my gym when it reopened. They use a mixture of weights and techniques, with mixed muscle moves with many reps. It's all on screen which is great for me because I'm not an exercise type Sheena screaming in my ear while the music blasts and someone screams at you to work harder type person. I'm 41 now, you know. It is however very high intensity exercise and the results I've seen recently have been incredible. I've never looked so close to my perfect vision of my well defined self in all my life.

 

My problem was - sticking to the calories wasn't great - and now and again not having direction meant I was spinning between giving myself a break for being "big boned/curvy" and "slender enough - and being able to almost taste where I want to be. The issue is going between the two - having no vision - means there are too many excuses and justifications I allowed myself - and therefore the spinning continued.

 

Then I realised that size is a label that is going to be different for everyone, depending on their context. For example, I spoke to a few people last week from my family. They couldn't believe I only weighed 71kg now. For me, in my personal opinion of myself against where I want to be, I still have too much fat. For my mom, I am small. For my son, who is a hench rugby player, 71kg was 'good'.

 

So how do you understand this vision? What exactly is an acceptable weight at big boned? According to the NHS BMI scale I am 20kg over weight. If you know me in real life, you will find this laughable. I am a UK10/Small. If I compare myself to a body fat chart, I have a while to go.

 

Then it hit me. If I know what my desired body fat is, and I work out my current body fat, the calculation of big boned is easy. And that would provide me with a vision - and end to my personal 'I'm curvy and therefore it's acceptable for me to carry a touch extra'. 

 

Again, people. I am giving my own personal opinion on my own body here - you fly your curvy flags as high as you want them. I'm not judging.

 

Enter the algebra. I swear to God this took me about a half hour to work out. I thought I was going to throw my phone across the room at one point during calculations. I am a humble teacher of English literature - maths is a strange, rigid subject that eludes me with it's need to be exactly accurate with no wiggle room for creativity. 

 

So here's my formula for "big boned". 

 

First of all, get a body fat photo collage with percentages. I used this:

Then go onto a body fat calculator site (having yourself professionally measured would be even better). Work out what your current body fat is. I used this site  https://www.calculator.net/body-fat-calculator.html.  You'll need a tape measure and your current weight.

 

Once you have that, the fun starts: you now need to do the algebra - fun! Hey, if I can work it out, anyone can. This site here has the torturous formula - scroll down to "Body Fat Calculator". 

 https://www.verywellfit.com/how-to-use-body-fat-percentage-calculator-3858855

After many mistakes, wrong numbers and getting my signs mixed up, I finally got to the crux of the exact figure I needed to be exactly where I want to be: I need to lose 7.58kgs exactly. 

 

It seems so easy now. So obtainable. No longer am I at the mercy of "good enough" or "voluptuous" or "Marilyn Monroe was a size 12". I now know exactly what my goal is and how long approximately it will take me to get there.

 

If anyone out there is struggling with focus, give it a shot. It has given me a factual and actual number to what is actually considered "athletic" for a big boned girl blessed with naturally muscular frame. 

 

Although I will always have (and absolutely love my curves) my goal weight is 63.75kg. The end of 'big boned' now has a face and a name. His name is 7.59kg.

 

I hope this helps anyone else in my position! And anyone out there, perfectly happy with their bootyliciousness - good on you!  You go, Glen Coco!

https://giphy.com/gifs/filmeditor-mean-girls-movie-l2YWwAjBwZdjxIXBe

All that pesky Australia planning!

Australia has been another bucket list item of mine since I was about 18 years old.  The only destination I wanted to visit more was the big apple but now that it's done, it's all about the Land of Oz!

Out of all the travel I have done, Australia has taken the most research - seriously, it's taken me hours and hours!  This is firstly because the country is absolutely massive and when you have to narrow down where you're going, you need to be sure you're making the right choices.  Secondly, due to the size of the country, different regions are like visiting completely different countries, so it actually depends what your are looking for when you visit.

Finally, I had to consider the time it would take to get from one city to another.  Usually this is as simple as jumping into a rental car or getting a bus or train, but not in the land downunder.

Take, for example, the distance between the neighbouring cities of Sydney and Melbourne.  Check them out on a map.  Pretty close right?

... yeah, you're actually looking at 878km or 545 miles (approximately the distance from England to Germany).

Okay so, there I was knowing that the average one-stop-over-flight to Australia is between 22 and 27 hours, and direct flights are not only rarely offered, but are several hundred Pounds more pricey than the already £800+ return ticket. How do you even decide where to start, or what to miss when a flight out there takes longer than a whole day of your life?

The first thing I did was read numerous travel blogs, spent ages looking through Australian Instagram accounts, and reading sites like Trip Advisor to find out what the 'must sees' in the country are.   Once I'd done that, I had a list that looked like this:  Alice Springs, Perth, Cairns, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmania, and Darwin. No biggie - apart from the fact that those are just about all the major cities and the distance between - let's take Dawin and Sydney is almost 2000 miles/3000km.

Image from Google search

So it was back to the drawing board for me for the second time.  Eventually I had to admit defeat and realise that I can't do it all in one trip.  It would take weeks of travel and hundreds of Pounds and I'd just have to stop being a brat and draw the line somewhere.

After much deliberation, pouting, and looking at pretty pictures, I eventually decided to take 15 days in Australia, and visit only the cities that are nearest to one another - or perhaps I should say the cities that are in the same hemisphere of the country? 😏  My trip looks like this: Adelaide, Barossa Valley and Kangaroo Island, Sydney, Hobart city and Mt Wellington, and Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road.

As my time was limited, I didn't want to waste any time travelling and so I began looking up domestic flight companies.  Almost immediately I came across a company called 'Jet Star' who are absolutely amazing.  Not only are their flights very economical (all my domestic flights cost me less than £130), but they have all sorts of optional extras to keep the prices down.  The only downside is that, as with economy carriers in England, you only have 7kg of free cabin baggage.  If you want any more, you have to pay for it. Was I going to pay for it?  Hell no.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

My sister in law has been showing me these 'ranger roll' army-style packing videos on You Tube and I have decided I am only taking a small back pack containing the following items: 5 x pairs of leggings, 5 x tshirts, 1 x pair of trainers, a toothbrush, underwear, socks, and I will wear my winter coat, gloves, hat and scarf (believe it or not it gets really cold in southern Australia in the winter!).

And so, after two months of planning, I'm finally ready to go.  All I have to do now is wait ... 😞

That Big New York Trip (part 3 of 5)

Spending 10 days in the city was a wonderful experience.  It meant I had time to see all of the city, as well as have having a few days off just to chill on the beaches or just relax in the local parks.

I was worried that I'd see everything in less time and then have nothing left to do for the rest of the trip, but NYC is just a never ending dynamic city which never gets boring! Every day I went home and checked off my NYC bucket list items I'd do a few Google searches and find a whole plethora of items to see or experience!

With only about half my trip left, I decided it was time to see the more famous parts of the city starting with Joe's Pizza.

Not only is Joe's rated one of the best pizza slices in the city, but it is also frequented by celebrities as well as making an appearance in the Spiderman movie.

I was saving my NY pizza experience for a special place so I decided breakfast pizza at Joe's was the perfect time.

Day 6 - Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial, Ghostbusters, Friends, Trinity Church and Brooklyn Bridge

From the outside you wouldn't suspect this is one of the city's most famous pizzerias. 

Once inside though, it becomes quickly apparent when you notice the collages of celeb photos lining the walls

This might not look like much but it was definitely one of the most amazing pizzas I've ever tasted - not to mention the slice was about as big as my head!  An interesting thing in NY is that all pizza seems to be served by the slice instead of the mini or personal pizzas we have in England and also in South Africa.  I've seen the single slices in some parts of London before but it seems that it is the general way of being served in NY.

Next stop was the 'Friends' apartment - I'm a mega fan and it was really cool standing in front of 'their' building!  Of course the show was never filmed in that building and the coffee shop 'Central Perk' is not even a real thing, but that's okay. It was cool to get this shot anyway.

  

I walked about a mile across the sweltering city to get to the Ghostbusters' Firestation building to make sure I saw this puppy only to get there and find out it was being renovated and was covered in a huge black net.  Typical!

Until I saw that Ghostbusters symbol painted on the floor, I literally walked past this building three times whilst glaring at my Google Maps which kept telling me I saw standing right in front of it.  Took me a while but you can see why!

Onto the subways to visit the 9/11 memorial and see Wall Street.  I might look calm and peaceful but I can tell you that it was as hot as hell on that subway platform and I was melting.

Subway ticket machines - so colourful.

One World Trade Center

Ground Zero Memorial pools: they have one for the North and the South tower. You can see the vast size of the pool from the size of the people on the opposite side of the memorial to me.

An aerial view of the pools.  It's hard to think that hundreds of people lost their lives in this green, peaceful place.

At around this point, I started becoming quite emotional which I admit I wasn't expecting. These names go all around both pools and there are just hundreds and hundreds of them.

This is the survivor tree.  It was the only thing that was still standing from the blast.  When they found it, it has been blown down to only 8ft and it is a symbol of rebuilding what was lost.  If you can see the lock on the tree that is where the tree regrew from into what it is now.   At this point it was all too much for me and I had to leave the memorial.

For the firemen

Trinity Church which looks out of place just around the corner from the 9/11 memorial and the glass fronted buildings of the financial distract.  It is across the road from Wall Street.  This is the third church built on this site with the first one being rebuilt into a more spacious church, and the second having to be torn down because of damage from bad weather.  The church that now stands was completed in 1846 and has been refuge for survivors of the giant debris cloud following the 9/11 attacks, as well as serving moral and practical support for protesters during 'Occupy Wall Street' for which they got into a bit of hot water!

The South Churchyard of Trinity Church where Alexander Hamilton, William Bradford, Franklin Wharton, Robert Fulton, Captain James Lawrence and Albert Gallatin are buried.

The New York Stock Exchange building

The Charging Bull or the Wall Street Bull which is not actually on Wall Street at all but rather near the Bowling Green Station..  I don't actually know any of these people standing with the bull but it is actually impossible to get a photo of this thing without someone hanging off of it! 

After hours and hours of sight seeing I made my way to the Liberty viewing deck but decided to stop and visit a New York movie theater instead.  They really do sell those awesomely massive buckets of popcorn that you see in the movies.

Look at the leg room you get in these seats! And it wasn't even premiere seating.  I also love that you get a little school desk type table on which to hold your gigantic popcorn.

The building that the movies was in was a very strange place.  It has about three massive storeys that seemed to hold nothing other than elaborate marble flooring and this bizarre apple thingy which seemed like a good place to stop and take a selfie.

After the movie I continued my walk towards the viewing deck but got side tracked by this beautiful view of the Hudson River and the city in the background

I decided to keep walking to see if I could find Brooklyn Bridge to tick it off the list.  En route I found yet another magical building that looks like it was hand carved, causally sitting among the other modern buildings.

Brooklyn Bridge lovers have adopted the European idea of 'love locks' whereby lovers immortalise their love with a lock attached to the bridge and throw the key into the river below.  Sucks if they break up!

I'm a big fan of this type of sentimentality and was going to put one up for my son to remove one day when he visited the city as an adult, however I read an article the night before about a team from the DOT who have been employed to remove the locks so it seemed a bit pointless.  You can read more about that here if you're interested http://gothamist.com/2015/04/07/brooklyn_bridge_love_locks.php

It's very impressive!

From this and a few other things I saw, I am guessing that the health and safety in New York is not nearly as over board as it is in England.  People were actually sitting on these bars over the road to take photos and selfies.

In hindsight, knowing that the Brooklyn Bridge is just over a mile long, it would have been a better idea not to walk across it after spending hours walking around the city.  I made it to the end but after that it was straight on home for me with a tub of ice cream!

That Big New York Trip (Part 2 of 5)

Most mornings in New York, I woke up at around 9 to 10am English time which of course meant that it was 4 - 5am New York time.  I'm quite the lark anyway so getting up early didn't really bother me.  In fact I didn't suffer from jet lag at all until I got home.  It took me 11 days to get over it and every morning was absolute agony!  

Sunrise and sunset during my stay

The only real issue for me was that the local shops don't open until 10am so there is nothing to do until then. Whilst walking around Queens one morning, I was told by a local paramedic that I had a random breakfast with that 'Round here we like our late starts'.  For me (on a weekend) 10am is almost afternoon nap time so I found the idea of only starting my day then quite unsettling.

Another unexpected discovery was that in NY the sun (although way warmer than England) doesn't rise until after 6am and sets before 8pm - something to note if you're trying to avoid staying out past dark like I was.

Day 3 - Rockaway Beach, Queens

After my super long exploration of the city the previous day, I was absolutely exhausted and decided to take a time-out-day on another iconic beach, Rockaway in Queens.

Rockaway was a lot closer than Coney Island and was only 2 short train journeys from where I was staying.  The interesting thing about the train journey is that the train goes over the sea on a rail road track - not in a tunnel or a bridge, but just a little railroad track right through the water.  I'm not sure if this is something you see commonly, but it's certainly not something I've experienced before and I made a total unashamed tourist of myself making this video to enable me to fully explain this concept later.

Rockaway was absolutely beautiful and the white sands and blue skies would easily fool you into thinking you were on some Balearic island rather than in one of the world's busiest cities. In fact the more I travel the more I am amused by how completely wrong the stereotypes and preconceived ideas we have spawned about cities and countries end up being.  I don't think I've ever known that New York had beaches - beautiful ones too, let alone that the city of New York is surrounded by sea and rivers and is made up of several islands rather than one land mass.

Rockaway Beach boardwalk.  Look at that perfect blue sky.

It was around this point that I sent this selfie home and said I was never coming back to England!  It seems there is nothing that New York does in half measures.

This sun is definitely as hot as it looks.  Something else I learnt the hard way about the city is that it feels and though it's contending be one of the warmest places on earth! Jeepers it was hot and the humidity was a killer! I don't think the temperature dropped below 30c during any single day I was there.

After a day in the crazy hot sunshine, I had to stop off for some Ben and Jerry's on the way home.  I tried to sample all the flavours that I haven't seen in England, but there were just too many amazing things to eat.

It's so hot in the city that even the local cat where I was staying was taking strain and lay in front of the high powered fan the entire time I was home.

Day 4 - Fifth Avenue, Times Square, more stunning architecture, Madison Square Gardens, the Empire State Building, Macy's and a giant inflatable rat

Another one of those absolutely gorgeous NYC architectural things

A friend of mine (thanks, Zea!) saw this place on television and said to me on Facebook that I should visit there. Not sure why this guy thought that his bum should be in my photo but anyway.

It was a little pricey for a bagel at over $11 but it was 100% amazingly good (and besides it's NYC prices, right!).

A beautiful shop front I just couldn't get over - I liked it so much that I walked past it twice just to get a second look.

Real life police cars just like in the movies! Eek! This excited me greatly.

New York goths - cute.

Another 'just like in the movies' moment - a NY ambulance.

This was a strange find.  While I was searching for places to stay in NY prior to my trip, I came across this place. I wanted to stay there but the website said I'd have to share a bathroom which I wasn't 100% keen on.  It made me sad because I really thought it looked amazing.  Then I realised I didn't have to stay there to see it but I could just go there!  

When I asked the guys at reception if I could take photos they replied 'Sure.  Where do you want me?'.  It only reiterated how much I love the people of NY. I love their openness and friendliness. 

What a quirky but beautiful hotel.  The internet tells me that every room looks completely different. If this is how awesome the lobby is, imagine how the rooms must look!

I couldn't figure out what this building was but isn't it gorgeous? If my memory serves me correctly, it was just across from that massive Sony building outside Madison Square Park. Anybody know what it is? 

A view of the NYC skyscrapers from Madison Square Park where the suits come to enjoy a lunch in the picturesque surroundings of nature.  I got a couple of sideways looks from some of the mums here so moved on swiftly!

This is so NYC for me.  They had these hot dog stands on every other corner of Manhattan.

While walking towards the Empire State Building I came across this giant inflatable rat attacking a building! I have no idea why and he wasn't very successful.  They tied him to this vehicle in order to subdue him, I suppose.

And more 'just like in the movies'! The really abrasive traffic controllers with the white gloves genuinely exist.  They really shout at people and motorists too! I love it.

Madison Square Gardens where they show all the basketball games in the movies.

The iconic Empire State Building.

New York City streets - sometimes I was just so overwhelmed that I had to just stop and stare.

New York City streets - there were many of those overwhelming moments as you can probably tell!

Macy's - calm down, shopohalics! 

Inside Macy's. Very shiny.

I love this photo.  I was surprised to see that steam really does come up from the ground in the streets of NYC! Does that mean it's built on hell? :P  I think it's because they have open sewers across the pavements.  Sometimes it smells a bit funky but makes for a cool photo!

Times Square -this was possibly one of the most breathtaking things I have ever experienced.  I don't know why it's such a sight to behold and when you explain it to someone 'a few blocks of lights and big signs and moving images' it doesn't sound like much, but the atmosphere here is incredible.  It was definitely one of my favourite things about the city and I really want to come back here for New Years Eve one year. 

Back towards Fifth Avenue outside the Rockefeller Centre (more photos of that later)

St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.  Building took seven years because work had to be halted during the Civil War.  It was eventually completed in 1878. As beautiful as it is, it's another one of those weird New York 'This building looks superimposed against the back drop of modern architecture' moments. New York is full of those!

I've never been a fan of TGI Friday's in England so I thought I'd try the American one instead to see what the fuss is about.

I have to say I was definitely fussed! The food was incredible, the service was second-to-none and the whole experience was wonderful.  I spent almost 2 hours in there.

This was my amazing candy floss cocktail! The waitress came over with the shaker and the glass full of cotton candy.  She then poured the alcohol over the cotton candy and it melted.  It was absolutely fantastic.

This almost killed me. This vanilla cheese cake (selected by Ethan back home who I was having a cyber meal with) contained 980 calories.  I can tell you that (a) it was the biggest slice of cheesecake I'd ever seen (b) it was probably the most delicious cheesecake I've ever had (c) I didn't even die of sugar overload - I sure was buzzing though!  To put the size of that slice into perspective, that is a dessertspoon dwarfed next to it, not a teaspoon.