Weigh 10 and a half stone and see what happens next...

Item 57 was very deliberately worded. I wanted to lose weight, but after trying for a decade or so, I knew it was tricky, and keeping the weight off, even trickier.

I have several motivations for losing weight. At 5ft 6 and 11 and a half stone (thats 161 pounds for the americans) I was not exactly huge, but I am right on the line of overweight/obese for BMI, and I could stand with losing a few pounds.

It hadn't escaped my notice that I was carrying more spare fat than nearly every other person at the climbing wall. And I figured slimming down might be easier than getting stronger, and it might improve my climbing.

I also need to keep my weight down for health reasons. My mum died of cancer at only 53, and it runs in females down that side of the family, so I need to eat right and stay in shape to look after myself.

I've been trying to lose the weight since this project started back in July 10. But giving up eating my favourite foods is hard. And turning down invites for yummy meals at friends, or out for dinner in town is nearly impossible. I tried upping my activity levels but I was already so busy it was hard to fit much else in.

In May 11, a few things fell into place to make a proper attempt possible. Firstly I realised I was going to turn 30 in less than a year, and that it was never going to get easier to shift. Secondly, I planned to move to Hull which meant giving up the youth groups I help out at, which free'd up a few evenings a week. And then R&S invited me to Crossfit.

Crossfit is sport practised by a small but growing group of nutters who do warm ups that are work outs for most normal people. We then lift weights, before attempting to kill ourselves perfoming the "Work Out of the Day" or WOD.

I have never worked out with such intensity, or had such encouragement from my work out buddies. The WODs are timed. I am usually last, but as soon as the others have finished (and got their breath back!) they are shouting encouragement and helping me count down the pull ups or lifts I have left to do. It makes all the difference.

Plus, in savig up to move, I can't afford to eat out as much :)

It took four months to lose a stone (14lbs) which is pretty slow I think. But then I pretty much did that through exercise. I still ate a huge amount of chocolate, and had the odd drink, and quite a lot of treats.

Its been exciting to drop a dress size, and you can nearly see definition of muscles in my arms, and even more surprisingly, my thighs.

I thought I'd find this so hard I'd hit 10 and a half stone, celebrate with a curry and probably put most of it back on.

But you know what, I don't want a curry tonight. I'm out climbing with my mates tomorrow, and I need to be awake and alert and energetic. A curry will make me tired, lethargic and slow. So tonight will be something reasonably healthy and maybe a drink of something cold and yummy.

I hope to lose another inch or so off my tummy. Annoyingly I am now between a size 12 and 14, which not terribly helpful for clothes shopping! So I'd like to be a 12 consistently. I'd like to be able to run a 5k in under 30 minutes. I'd like to be able to climb any grade 5 climb or V2 boulder route without too much hassle. I'm nearly there, but not quite, and the weight won't be going back on this time.

I didn't actually think when I wrote the list I'd be able to achieve this goal. I knew I needed to try, but it was added out of hope rather than expectation, and I think this is now my proudest achievement to date.

Now, I think it must time to go and get some chocolate :)