What happens when you forget to diet

Forgive me, It has been about 4 months since my last confession!

Of course since then i have done nothing to improve my health and well being at all, in fact i seem to have been on some kind of mission to make it even worse, all of that of course is quite depressing in itself but not as depressing as cancelling the holiday that was booked for October for a variety of reasons.  That is not to blame for my lack of weight loss, that is just me!!

A New Start

I hear the cries already “oh c’mon”, I know, I know ok. I’m sure we have all been there many times and it never seems like a good thing to do, a new start means forgetting your failure and probably not learning from it but I am still going down the new start route as there was many things wrong with my last start it seems.
Currently I am at the same point when i started all those months ago

23 stone 11 lbs

333 lbs

151.4 Kg

Health effects of too much weight

picture credit - almostdyingwithlaughter.blogspot.com

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How To Lose Weight – Just

Well it has been a week since I decided to start and in my last post things were not going that great, too much social drinking and eating for anything to be effective, eating take away food and eating it late in the evening and failing to take any exercise is certainly not the most auspicious start to a weight loss campaign.  I’m not an idiot and i know that some consistency in both diet and exercise is what is required.

I’m very pleased to report that the second half of the week has been much better in that respect, Saturday through to Tuesday evening has seen my eating much more consistently and taking some exercise every day.

Saturday: 12 miles (18km) bicycling = exercising for 70 minutes

Sunday: 40 mile (64km) Charity bike ride = exercising about 4 hours

Monday:  1 hour 20 minute brisk walk

Tuesday: 10 mile bike ride – fairly genteel= exercising for 50 minutes

So exercise has been good, if a little painful on the posterior,  You see up until Saturday my arse had not been in the saddle of my bike for over 2 years and really in terms of riding more than maybe 2 miles that probably extends to 5 years!!

Food has gone well, I have manged to stay within my calorie allowance (1880) every day, admittedly some days harder than others and 1 thing that has been apparent is that my Fat Intake is too high and Dietary Fibre (Fiber) intake too low.  But still a 3lb weight loss overall on the week is acceptable given the poor poor start that was made.

I still have measurements to take and organisation of my food and exercise diaries but so far – so ok!!!

Easy Dieting?

No!!!

Well that is my answer so far.  I have not exactly covered myself in glory since I started midweek as the following will show..

Day 1 – managed to stay under calorie allowance (just).

Day 2 – managed to stay under calories but still had too big a chinese meal in the evening .

Day 3 – Terrible, overate by approximately 1000 calories.

How could this happen?

Easily, and i fully understand why it happened and there are 3 reasons for it.

Reason 1 – Lack of Planning

What is that saying? Failing to plan is actually planning to fail!  I could not agree more with that sentiment right now, you see i didnt really plan ahead for the week and that is what made it easy to fail and fall into the usual patterns I have had in the past, the very ones that will kill me if they are not mastered.  You see Day 1 was not a falure other than not making time for exercise but that would have still been positive but i had planned for that, eating sensibly at work, drinking plenty of fluid and ensuring I ate up to my calories.  Unfortunately work commitments in the evening meant that i just did not get time to exercise.

Reason 2 – Family were not on board.

A recurring theme in this household is starting a diet and immediately going off the rails, perhaps we have come to expect it and perhaps even enjoy it!  Anyway what i did wrong was to enforce the idea that it is for real this time, that if i do not deal with this weght loss issue it will kill me.  So we were invited to friends after work, not for a meal or anything just for socialising and actually doing something for them.  We had a couple of drinks, 1 bottle of beer for me, however as is often the case we were there much longer than intended, not returning home til around 10pm.  Lack of planning meant that we had nothing that didn’t seem like a timeconsuming pain in the butt to get ready at that time of night, not even sandwich ingrediaents which would have been better than the Chinese meal we ended up having.  Add to that the fact that although after approximately half of my dinner i was full, i continued to eat until it was all gone and i felt full and bloated, another habit that should be broken.

Reason 3 – Greed/Old Habits

Additionally after the chinese incident with greed on day 2 day three was always a planned party, i knew i would be drinking more than i should and knew (as is the case after such sessions) that we would likely eat takeaway.  I’am an intelligent man, and my wife is an uber intelligent lady and we know that we can make sensible choices even in such situations.  Why is it then that i bought a turkish chicken doner kebab and chips (fries) which on its own is a 2000 calorie meal never mind the quite large amount of beers I had before hand.

It’s not too difficult to see where i need to take control, that is the aim over this weekend is to gain control over my decisions – wish me luck!

For those overseas or other readers that have no idea what a chicken doner kebab is like let me explain – it is (i suspect very poor quality) chicken, probably stripped from legs and necks and all the non premium areas and made into a compressed fatty block and then heated and sliced off and put in a large fat round bread which completely gets soaked by the fat that comes out of it.  It is known to me and my friends as death on a plate! it has to be the most unhealthiest thing you can buy in terms of weight loss.

Starting A Diet

Local Time: 06.25

Well after deciding to start last night I have woke up feeling almost as motivated, so it is on for real.  Any weight loss program will require a start point and this is the start point for this diet.

I am using the Wii fit Board as my scales as the impression it gives is that it is less prone to variation, traditional bathroom scales have always been very erratic on my floor no matter whether they were digital or analogue.  The wii fit board on the other hand has always looked to me to be reliable and steady.  It also gives the (dubios) advantage of  giving you a BMI measurement as well, I don’t think it is neccessarily accurate but probably close enough and will serve as a guide>

1st weigh in:

weigh time 06.25am

Result better than expected with weight being:

313 lbs  – 21 stone 5 lbs

BMI = 44.60

Ok so thats the easy bit done now i just have to do it.

I intend from today to change many things in my lifestyle including…

• Have breakfast every day

• Eat Lunch Every Day

• Make better choices for my meals &  snacks

• Drink at least 1.6litres of water every day (8 standard glasses)

• Cut down on the caffiene intake to less than 4 cups a day (health rather than diet reasons)

• Consume a maximum of 1890 calories per day

• Keep a food & exercise diary

• Try to exercise at least 45 minutes per day (can be averaged over the week)

Eating breakfast and lunch every day seems like a no brainer to lots of people but for me i often go without one or both, probably replacing them with coffee and maybe biscuits occassionally.  This would lead to overeating at almost every other time and the lack of routine also affects weight loss i believe.

Making better choices is an easy statement but if you are overweight you will know just how difficult that can be.

Water, the truth is most of us don’t drink enough and most commentators say this is crucial to weight loss

Caffiene, is purely for myself,  Personally i drink way too much of it at work and for purely health reasons i thought i would cut some out (not all)

1890 calories is a figure that according to MyFitnessPal.com suggests i need to eat to lose 2lbs per week, time will tell if this figure is correct.

Exercise 45 minutes per day, this will be difficult with my lifestyle really  I work til 6pm and as a father and husband it is not always possible to disappear for an hour or so to the Gym.  Also my travel requirements are that I’m between cars so dropping to the Gym on the way to or from work is not really possible either.  Today i have the car so i will try to get to Gym at lunchtime.

Wish me luck

Fatty

A Weight Loss Diary

Why Losing Weight Is A Good Idea.

Today was a realisation that  I am a 45 year old man who has suddenly reached a state of morbid obesity.  It was not always this way of course.  Struggling with weight issues was always a way of life, however only in the last five years has it ballooned to these massive proportions, In the last 5 years a gain of approximately 6 Stone (72 pounds) has made it imperitave for some action to be taken, currently I am over twice my ideal weight at 22 and a half stone, thats 315 lbs which is way too much and is having detrimental effects on my life as outlined below.

Although I’m more than double my ideal size, i have no ambition to make that my goal. My ultimate weight loss goal will be 15 stone (210 lbs) which is a loss of 105 pounds or 7 and a half stoone, and the journey starts here, today.

My first goal is to lose the 8 pounds that will take me to 21 st 13lb (307 lbs), i would like to do that quite quickly, however I’m setting my calorie goals to a level that will allow me to lose 2lbs per week.

How to lose weight?

Why with a Calorie controlled diet of course and that scientific truth that says if you expend more calories than you eat then you will lose weight.  I will use a calorie counting tool to help and will use a food and exercise diary to the same end, also i will record my eating and exercise habits in a less formal way here in this blog.

Measurements and progress will be measured several times weekly and recorded here for all to see whether for inspiration for themselves or just to laugh at my attempts and progress.

Of course Misery loves company so if you wish to join me and tell me of your own progress just register here or use the register link in the sidebar and you can comment, take part, keep your own journal, diary or measurements and join me in general on this journey back to health. Otherwise just enjoy the read andplease feel free to comment and return often, if you have any questions you should leave a comment – which I moderate – or use the contact form to email me directly.

Yours

Fatty