Eight weeks into the last year of my fifties. I have seven ticks on my 60 for 60 list (see About). Not even one per week so I’d better get a move on. As predicted time is not on my side. This weekend I’m attending a course (more about that next week) and then picking my son up from University. Finding a few minutes to write this blog has been a little challenging.

And of course there is the cost of my 60 for 60. My son’s second university year is going to be a challenge on my purse as he moves from university accommodation into a house with friends.
So time and money. Sound familiar.

But my biggest challenge is my fat loss one. And that is not on my list. It is on the blackboard in my gym. But my New Year resolution is starting to look like a big fail. At this stage I would like to say that I’m on my way but I’m ashamed to say that I’m now even further away.

Over the last four weeks I have lost just under a kilogram. 2 pounds in old money. But my body fat % has actually increased. At 37.7 % body fat I remain obese where this measurement is concerned. But to look at me I appear of normal weight and as a consequence of the weight training I do fairly toned. It is what lurks under my clothing that is of concern.

This is a photo of me a couple of weeks ago at the start of a leg of a run supporting Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity. This appeared on Twitter and that’s where it stayed. What jumped out at me wasn’t the good cause but that belly fat. So superficial of me.

So am I wrong to focus on what I’m occasionally told is just the inevitable result of being middle aged and having two children. Well if my body fat percentage is unhealthy then no. Particularly with my medical history of heart valve disease.

But it is so hard. I train at least four times per week and walk about 14,000 steps per day. I habitually run up escalators. It is what I eat and drink that is the problem.
I also think that I have been deluding my self that it is not my weight that is the problem. I am at a normal body weight index (BMI). But it is at the top end of the range. And the range is vast. A ‘healthy’ weight for a woman of my height ranges from 53kg to 73kg.

That is a range of 3 stone. Why should I conclude that 73 kg is healthy for me and not 60kg. When I was recovering in hospital after my surgery I weighed 65kg. I looked awful but I had just had my chest cracked open and had a Hb of 7.2.

At eighteen I weighed 9 stone (57kg). Looking back at old photos I was to thin. My clavicles were visible for all to see. But according to the BMI range I was ‘healthy’.
So I’m going back to the drawing board. I need to commit to the food diary that my personal trainer is getting bored asking me for. I’m not going to achieve the 28% body fat that I posted on the blackboard but for the sake of my heart health and those Twitter photos I need to get to 32%. And I’m going to add it to my 60 for 60.