Weigh-in - Week 25

Well it's week 25 and the last weigh-in before Christmas and, unfortunately, I've missed my target of being below 18st for Christmas :-(

 

After the weight gain of a few weeks ago, I thought it would be tough, but achievable! Sadly it just wasn't to be, for reasons that are not really obvious to me. I've done nothing different in the last few weeks that would explain this slow down, although, due to a touch of man-flu (a minor cold if there's any ladies reading), I've not done any exercise since the beginning of last week.

On the bright side, I have lost weight this week and am feeling very pleased with that. My target for the next two weigh-ins is to Stay The Same, if I happen to lose any weight then that is a quite considerable bonus.

I must apologise to any regular readers of this blog, assuming I have any, for not posting an update last week. I think I'm beginning to find it a bit more difficult to think of things to write each week and I was feeling a little under the weather so I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to write. I promise that I will try harder in the future.

Have a very happy Christmas, try not to put on too much weight and be ready to start afresh in the New Year.

Weigh-in Week 23

Late with my post again this week! I've got to try and work less hard!

After the disappointments of the last 3 weigh-ins I've finally had a reasonable loss this week of 2.8lbs, which brings my total loss to 2st 8.6lbs (I get awarded another silver star this week) and puts me 5.4lbs and a bit above my Christmas target of under 18st with 2 weigh-ins to go. If I can manage to lose 2.7 and a bit lbs each week I can still do it!

This last week has been a much easier one for my with no extra activities to lead me astray. Luckily I don't have any opportunities for excessive eating and drinking between now and Christmas, mainly due to the fact that I don't have any Christmas parties to attend as the company I'm working for is in financial trouble (aren't they all?) and they can't justify the expenditure this year.

Yesterday evening, when I should have been writing this blog, I was working on compiling a Photo Book on my "Hackintosh" Computer with my wife. During this time I remarked that I thought I was almost down to the same weight as I appeared to be in a photograph taken when our son was a month or two old (he'll be 12 in January), my wife said that I was much less than that! I guess this counts as a NSV!

Another NSV, that actually happened a couple of weeks ago but I forgot to report it, was when my wife said that my jogging bottoms were far too baggy and promptly went out an bought me a new pair - size: Large, not XXL or XL, but Large. What's more, they fit really rather well!

Anyway, onwards and downwards. I'll be back to report again next week.

Weigh-in - Week 22

Sorry for the delay in posting again this week. I was very busy yesterday and also a little unenthusiatic about the blog and the weight loss due to the fact that I only lost 1lb and was still above the weight I was 2 weeks ago.

My official weigh-in weight yesterday was 18st 8.2 lbs, 0.4lbs more than 2 weeks ago!


I can put this snaller than hoped for loss down to some serious overindulging at the weekend when I ramped up an estimated 95 ProPoints on Saturday when I went on a boys day out to see London Irish vs Wasps (London Irish won by the way, nut don't ask me the score!).

I started the day with just some fruit to keep me going 'till lunchtime when I had a very nice Venison & Wild Boar Pie with a plain small jacket potato, washed down with 3 pints of Wadworths 6X. I estimated the pie to be 20 PPs, but it could easily have been many more than that!

After the luch we made our way to the ground, where it was on to the Guiness - one pint before the game started and 2 each half! After that we went to another couple of pubs on the way home and things start to get a little hazy - I think it was probably 1 pint in each of them, but I cannot be sure.

When I eventually called "She Who Must Be Obeyed" to take me home, she stopped at the Chinese take away for some Chicken & Chips for our dinner!

After all that, it was a Chicken Madras curry dinner on Sunday evening, which won't have helped either!

I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, but I'm glad for the sake of my WeightWatchers progress that they don't happen like that very often (in fact their rarity makes them even better when they do occur!).

Having got over my slight dissappointment and thought about the reasons my loss was so small, I elected to have a Sneaky Peek this morning and was delighted to register 18st 6.2lbs (it's the same scales that I use for my proper weigh-ins). I shall just have to try and make sure that I keep at or below that all week now! Luckily I have nothing planned that involves large quantities of food or drink until Christmas (though plans can change).

I think it is unlikely that I will reach my VChristmas target of below 18stones, but I'm going to give it a good shot! Good luck with your weight loss programs, I'll be back next week.

Weigh-in - Week 21

I'm a day late with my posting this week, unfortunately I was rather busy yesterday and didn't quite find the time.

After last week's unexpected 2lb gain I've managed to lose 0.6lbs of it. This is not a brilliant result, but at least it's turned back in the right direction. I was hoping that I would lose it as quickly as I put it on, but that wasn't to be. Hopefully the loss will come in the coming week. I am still hopeful that I can get down into the 17stones by Christmas, although the tgarget is obviously a little harder to achieve than it would have been wityhout last week's gain. From a psychological point of view, it might be better that I don't reach that target as I stand a good chance of going back above 18st over Christmas and that would be very dissapointing.

I've managed to keep up with my regular exercise on the Crosstrainer and have even increased my pace a little - I'm now doing between 13.1 and 13.2 kilometers in a 30 minute session! I haven't started running yet as my Achilles Tendonitis has still not cleared up, I think it's going to be well after Christmas before it's completely fixed - which suits me fine as I don't want to appear to be a "New Years Resolution" runner.

The week ahead should be relatively free from potential weight loss pitfalls, apart from Saturday when I am going to Reading with a few friends to watch London Irish v Wasps. This will involve lunch at Sweeney Todds pie shop (and yes, there is a barber's shop next door!) washed down with plenty of beer and guiness! I have rearranged my exercise schedule so that I won't be trying to use the Crosstrainer on Sunday morning with a hangover!


Good luck with your weight loss, I'll be back next week!

Weigh-in - Week 20

A poor result this week - I've gained 2lbs.

I'm really not sure how this has happened - I tracked everything, ate most of my daily points allowance every day and all of my weekly allowance. I earnt 36 Activity Points during the week and I reckon that that should have more than covered anything where I may have underestimated Points (such as when I had duck in an orange sauce for lunch at my parents' house on Sunday.

This 2lb gain was totally unexpected and has resulted in me having an increased Daily Pro Points allowance - it's now back up to 51. I'm not over concerned though, I had a weight gain a few weeks ago and, the very next week, I had one of my bigger losses to make up for it! This week I shall just make extra sure that I keep track of everything and make sure that I make better food choices - the fish and chips for dinner on Friday may have been a mistake, followed, as it was, by a curry take away on Saturday, all within my permitted points though.

I took some body measurements this morning, before my weigh-in, so these help to keep things in perspective:

                               Jun 28                      Nov 15                  Change
Neck                       48cm                        44cm                       -4cm
Chest                    131cm                       121cm                     -10cm
Calves                    50cm                         45cm                       -5cm
Thighs                    62cm                         58cm                       -4cm
Upper Arms           41cm                         38cm                       -3cm
Waist                    118cm                        111cm                      -7cm

I've lost everywhere, except my thighs, since I last took measurements at week 16! I think that's quite a reasonable set of results - I just hope that I can lose a bit more from my thighs as I will find it difficult to get trousers to fit if I don't!

Even with this week's gain, I still think I can achieve my target of below 18st by Christmas - I've just got to lose an average of 2lbs a week. Good luck with acheiving your targets, whatever they might be.

Weigh-in - Week 19

Well this has been a much better week - 2.8lbs lost this week, which is very satisfying after the measly 0.4lbs of last week. How have I done it? Well I just carried on as I have before - I tracked everything and kept within my points allocation and lost a lot more weight. The only thing I can think of to cause the reduced loss of last week is that it was the week where I really got back into exercising on the Crosstrainer and maybe that had a temporary adverse effect.

Anyway, my current weight is 18st 7.6lbs, a total loss of 2st 6.4lbs! My BMI has reduced from 40.3 (Morbidly Obese) to 34.5 (Obese) and I can now get into some old jeans with a 38" waist! Oh, and my daily ProPoints allowance has just gone down today from 51 to 50.

I did some experimenting last weekend with a Slow Cooker that we got from Sainsbury's in the summer for a rediculously low price and we hadn't had a chance to use. It didn't really go too well as I got the timings wrong!

The recipe for the Sag Aloo said that it should be cooked on "high" for 4 hours, but as I was cooking it overnight I decided to cook it on "low" for 8 hours - this turned out to be much too long and the potato was very dry. I also messed up with the Frozen Spinach as I didn't expect it to be solid lumps of spinach and so it didn't have enough time to thaw out before I started cooking it.

The recipe for the Butter Chicken Curry said cook on "high" for 4 to 6 hours. I elected to cook it for 5 hours, but this turned out to be much too long and some of the chicken was burnt and stuck to the side of the cooker and the sauce was reduced too much. What I managed to save did taste quite nice though, apart from the chicken being overdone.

When I try these two dishes again, I shall cook them on "high" for 3.5 hours each. If the Sag Aloo isn't properly cooked after that time, I can finish it off in the microwave when we're just about to eat, if the Butter Chicken Curry isn't ready, then we'll just delay dinner for 30 minutes.

I haven't really cooked for years, but this WeightWatching has given me the incentive to try some new ideas, I will let you know how I get on with these and any other new recipes that I try out.

Good luck with your weight loss, I'll be back next week!

Weigh-in - Week 18

Not such a good week on the weight loss front this week - I only lost 0.4lbs. On the bright side, a loss is a loss as the Weightwatchers old hands say and, of course, they're right.

I'm at a loss to explain why I haven't lost a bit more this week as I have kept well within my points allocation, having 18 Weekly points and 18 Activity points left over at the end of the week, which is about what I normally have. I can only think that my return to exercising has had some effect and that I will have a better loss next week, time will tell. Speaking of exercise, I have just been using the Crosstrainer since, as those who follow this blog will know, I have been suffering with Achilles Tendonitis. I have now increased my time on the Crosstrainer to 30 minutes each session and, according to the meter I am covering 12.6 Kilometers. I can tell you that I feel pretty knackered after that, but I must be getting fitter otherwise I couldn't last that long.

One of the benefits of the exercising that I have been doing is that I no longer get a pain in my lower back when I go for walks, so even without the extra levels of fitness and the toning of my muscles (not that my newly toned muscles are visible under all of the fat) I have benefitted from it. I still plan to start running when my Achilles Tendonitis has completely healed, but I suspect that this will not be for quite some time - luckily it's winter, so I'm less likely to be enthusiastic about running anyway.

Anyway, onward and downward and good luck with your weight loss program.

Weigh-in - Week 17

Special - for this week only - 10% Off!

Yes, that's right, a massive 10% of my starting weight! In fact, it's just a little over 10%, but I'm not going to let that stop me from saying, once again, a MASSIVE 10% OFF!

I'm actually quite surprised that I lost anything at all this week. I've not really been overindulging at all, well apart from the lunchtime curry on Friday, but at the same time I don't feel like I've been on track to lose anything. I normally wake up at some point during the week and just feel like I've lost a bit, but I never had that feeling at all this week, in fact quite the opposite I felt like I had gained weight. I suppose it just goes to show that it's not just the scales that can lie, but your body can lie too!

I have restarted my exercise plan, following my painful Achilles Tendonitis, but I am only using the Crosstrainer at the moment. I've used it 3 times this week and have increased my time on it to 28 minutes per session. I'm pointing this activity as a "high" intensity activity as there is no way I could possibly string a sentence together when I'm in full stride. This gives me 9 Activity Points each time! I still have a little pain in my tendon when I wake up in the morning and if I haven't moved around for a while, so I don't intend to try running or jogging any time soon. I suppose I ought to resume my early morning walks, but it is tending to be cold and dark and miserable at 06:00AM these days.

I have noticed that I am feeling the cold a bit more than I used to, so much so that I've had the fan heater on in the office where I work. This time last year the fan would be on for the other workers in my office and I would be complainig that it was too hot! I'm beginning to think that I might have to get some long sleeved shirts for this winter, I haven't worn those for years! Has anyone else found that they feel the cold more since their weight loss, I wonder?

I've now reset my WeightWatchers target weight to 17st 11.9lbs and I really hope to achieve this by Christmas. If I do, I will be absolutely over the moon. I certainly believe that this is an acheivable target as it's less than 1 stone and I've got 9 weeks to do it. Wish me luck and good luck with your own weight loss journey!

Weigh-in - Week 16

Eighteen - with a bullet!

Unfortunately I couldn't find an image for "Eighteen with a bullet" so this one will have to do!

I'm really pleased that, after last weeks gain of 1.4lbs, I have lost 3.8 lbs to take me into the 18 stone region. I am now 18stones 13.2lbs which means that I've now lost a total of 2stones 0.8lbs and am just 0.6lbs away from my 10% target. Oh, and I have gone down another ProPoint in my daily ProPoints allowance.

This week I found it somewhat easier to keep within my allowances, since I didn't go to the Rugby club to watch the Rugby World Cup Semi Final matches, since England are no longer in the competition. Instead I stayed at home and watched a woeful France beat an unlucky Wales (who I'm sure would have thrashed France if they'd had a full team) and then a Rampant New Zealand beat an avarage Australia (who STILL don't seem capable of scrummaging). I think the final is pretty much a foregone conclusion - France - "not many", New Zealand - "lots". I suspect the better game to watch will be the 3rd place play-off between Wales & Australia.

I haven't done any exercise at all this week as my Achilles Tendon still hurts a little first thing in the morning. The pain normally subsides once I've moved about a bit, but it does come back after a period of activity - this is a vast improvement as it used to hurt all the time and walking was painful. I went to see my doctor about it yesterday and she said that there didn't appear to be any damage to the tendon, so that's good. She also gave me some stretching exercises to do to try and resolve the problem and said that I should be ok to do the Crosstrainer, which I was going to do this morning, but I overslept and didn't wake up 'till nearly 6.00AM. I will do the crosstrainer tomorrow morning.

Yesterday I found myself with 20 ProPoints unused at the end of the day! I often find that I have 5 to 10 points left over and sometimes I use them up by having a beer or a bag of crisps, but 20 points is a lot. I decided that I would have a bar of chocolate - Green & Blacks - it was lovely and 10 points for 100g seemed very reasonable. It tasted very nice, but I certainly wouldn't want to waste points on it if I was running short as it didn't seem to be very filling.

All in all, a very pleasing week on the weight loss front, let's hope that next week is equally good! I've set myself a mini target of under 18stones by Christmas - wish me luck!

Weigh-in - Week 15

Disaster! I gained 1.4lbs this week.

I think I know why though - I haven't been exercising and I overindulged at the weekend.

The reason I haven't been exercising is that I have come to the conclusion that the pain in my heel that I have suffered from for a while now is caused by Achilles Tendonitis. The cure for this is to rest the foot, so I haven't been doing any Wii Fit Jogging, Crosstrainer or my early morning walks. The pain has subsided now so that it only hurts when I first wake up in the morning or if I haven't moved around for a while (it used to hurt all the time). I think the cause of it is the Wii Fit Jogging, so I have decided that I won't do that any more, which is a shame because I had come to enjoy it.

I will start exercising again when I have been pain free for a few days, but I shall start with the Crosstrainer only for a while to prove to myself that it isn't that which caused the problem. Once I'm satisfied that the Crosstrainer is OK I shall re-introduce my walks, with the intention of starting the Couch 2 5K program after a while.

Hopefully, if I can avoid too many overindulgances I can get back on track and start to lose weight again without the exercise - I guess time will tell!

Weigh-in - Week 14

After last week's fantastic loss I really didn't expect much this week, especially after my 39 point breakfast on Saturday, and, sure enough, the loss was small - 0.6lbs! Not bad, though, as I was anticipating an STS (Stayed The Same) or, worse, a slight gain. My weight is now down to 19st 1.6lbs.

You may be wondering how I managed to have a breakfast of 39 ProPoints - it's really quite simple, I was watching England struggling to beat Scotland at the local Rugby club. I did quite well to limit myself to just 3 pints of beer, but by the start of the second half everyone around me had had a full English breakfast and I could resist no longer! This probably wouldn't have been too bad, but Mrs TBI decided that we would have an Indian Curry for dinner that evening (and I had to wash that down with some more beer!). In the end I used up 87 ProPoints in one day, something of a record for me. I have decided that I won't be having a curry for dinner on this coming Saturday because I expect the breakfast will be much the same since I will be watching England v France!

Yesterday I decided to start the "Couch 2 5K" plan to enable me to run 5K on the road. I'm pretty sure that I already have the fitness level required to do 5K on the road, but I think my leg muscles and joints need to be introduced to it quite slowly. Yesterday I did Week 1, Day 1 which is a 5 minute walk to warm up followed by 8 cycles of 1 minute of running and 1.5 minutes of walking with a 5 minute walk at the end. I managed this quite easily and the next 2 runs are the same. Even though it was quite easy, I don't intend to skip parts of the plan, so it will take me about 9 weeks to get up to the point where I am running, of the road, for a full 30 minutes. It might take me a bit longer becuase I want to carry on with the Crosstrainer and the Wii Fit Jogging too, so there aren't really enough days in the week to do them all.

Apart from the excesses of Saturday, my eating plan has gone well, I'm still finding it remarkably easy to stick to the WeightWatchers ProPoints plan and, even allowing for 87 points on Saturday, I only ended up using up about 9 Activity Points this week. I normally see using Activity Points as an indication that I've overindulged! I'm sure that as time goes on I may come to rely on Activity Points as my daily points allowance drops and this is probably as it should be.

For the next week, may aim is to lose 2lbs to take me down to below 19 stones which will geive me a total loss of just over 2 stones which I think is a good milestone to pass.

Weigh-in - Week 13 (Unlucky for some)

But not for me!

This week I registered another big loss of 3.6lbs! I really feel, after a few slow weeks, that the weight is starting to come off at a reasonable pace, even though the WeightWatchers tracker warned me this morning that I am losing weight too fast! The tracker will issue a warning if the average loss over a 4 week period is more than 2lbs a week, mine is 2.7lbs for the last 4 weeks, but as it's 2.0lbs for the total period I've been doing the WeightWatchers plan, I am not too worried and I don't intend to change anything I'm doing. I'm sure the loss will slow down again soon of it's own accord.

I've now lost a total of 25.8lbs!

My excercise regime is still going strong, I managed to complete over 11Km in 30 minutes Wii Fit Jogging, twice! I also managed to up my time on the CrossTrainer to 26Minutes this morning, during witch time I covered 11.4Km. As you know, I don't believe the Wii Fit distance to be at all accurate and I know that I couldn't possibly jog as fast on the road - sooner or later I'm going to find out when I start doingthe C25K plan.

I'm now thinking of adding some weight training to my Excercise regime and have been contemplating getting myself a KettleBell (hence the picture). Has anyone else tried using one and, if so, has it been beneficial? What are the best excecises to do with one? Please feel free to comment here or on my Week 13 post on the WW Mens Forum.

I had a bit of a binge on Saturday as Mrs TBI & I went to a friends house for a bit of a get together and we had some rather nice Fish n Chips from the chip shop, plus nibble before we got the Fish n Chips, plus beer plus a piece of banoffee cake. All in all I think the points were up to about 75 by the end of the day. Not quite as good as TheShrinkingMan's 100 points, which I think must be something of a WeightWatchers record, but a valiant effort I feel. It just goes to prove, once again, that one day off the wagon does not equal failure!

I'm now in the process of planning the next week's excercise cycle, since I will be walking to the rugby club on Saturday morning for beer, a fry up and watching England hammer Scotland in the Rugby World Cup. Saturday would normally be my CrossTrainer day, so I think I shall just move WF Jogging to Thursday and the CrossTrainer to Friday. With a rest day on Sunday I shall resume the plan with a walk on Monday morning.

I want to lose at least 2.2lbs this week as that will mean that I will have lost 2 stones since I started, If I can lose more than 2.2lbs, that will put me below 19 stones for the first time in about 2 years! Wish me luck!

Weigh-in - Week 12

Well this week I have recorded the biggest loss for some time - 3lbs, which brings me down to 19st 5.8lbs and earns me another "silver star"(I've now had 3 of them). In case you don't know, WeightWatchers awards a "silver star" for every 7lbs lost, I think that you actually get a badge if you go to the meetings, but as I'm doing WeightWatchers online I don't actually get the badge.

There haven't really been any hiccups along the way this week. I was expecting to use a lot of points on Sunday as I was expecting to have a few beers while watching England v Georgia at the rugby club, but the barman had a late night on Saturday and didn't turn up until the end of the first half, so I only had 1 pint to wash down the Full English Fry-up. This was the first proper fry-up I've had since starting WeightWatchers and, I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it (as I should have for 30 points!). I'm looking forward to another one at Saturday's match against Romania.

My excercising has also been going well and the walk to and from the rugby club will have helped to take care of some of the points I consumed with the breakfast. It was a little cold on Sunday morning though, so I am beginning to think that I am going to need to join the local Gym over the winter period. It's going to get harder to motivate myself to go gor my walks when it starts to get cold, dark and wet in the morning and, as winter draws closer, it's going to start getting too cold to use the Crosstrainer in the garage too. On the upside, if I do start to use the gym, I will probably introduce some additional, or more varied, activities to my workouts and I'll be able to use a treadmill, so I might start to do the Couch 2 5K program.

My body shape is definitely beginning to change:

                                       Start                         Now               Loss

Neck:                              48cm                        45cm                3cm
Chest:                            131cm                      122cm               9cm
Calves:                           50cm                         47cm               3cm
Waist:                            118cm                       114cm              4cm
Upper Arms:                   41cm                        37cm               4cm
Thighs:                            62cm                        60cm               2cm

I have now started wearing a 40" jeans, which were always a bit snug when I first go them but now fit me quite nicely. It just goes to show how innacurate jeans sizes are though - 114cm is 44inches! Although I do tend to let my belly hang over the top of my belt, so I guess the waist of the jeans is below my waist. Anyway I'm now looking forward to losing more next week, good luck with your weight losses.

Weigh-in - Week 11

Well I know I shouldn't be dissapointed with a 1.6lb loss, but I am. This is due to the fact that, once again, I have been taling Sneaky Peaks - on Saturday morning I weighed 3lb less than I do this morning! I put the increase since Saturday morning down to 2 things - I had quite a lot of beer on Saturday while I was watching England struggle to overcome Argentina in the Rugby World cup, followed by more beer in the evening and I also went to a carvery on Sunday afternoon and had too much to eat (including a huge Eton Mess for desert).

What can I take from this? Well, firstly I can tell that Sneaky Peaks lead to dissapointment - if I hadn't weighed myself on Saturday I  would have been very pleased with my 1.6lb loss. Secondly, that it is possible to enjoy oneself on occasion without completely undoing all of the good work - an occasional blip is not going to do lasting damage, it is only when those blips become regular events that damage will be done!

I'm still continuing with my excercise routine, but this week there was a minor modification in that I did the Wii Fit Jogging a day early (and got up to 10954metres in 30 minutes) and walked to and from the rugby club on Saturday (a total distance of 4.5 miles). I'll have to make the same changes this coming week as England are playing on Sunday morning (against Georgia - we shouldn't have any trouble in this match). I shall also be enjoying a Full English breakfast with my beer while watching that match, so I will have to make sure I've got plenty of Weekly Points left to cover it.

Anyway, I'm now down to 19st 8.8lbs from my starting weight of 21st 0lbs - a total loss of 19.2lbs in 11 weeks! I'm averaging 1.7lbs per week, which I am very happy with.

Weigh-in - Week 10

Well this is the 10th Weigh-in and I'm very pleased to inform you that I've lost 2.6lbs since my last official weigh-in. I've now lost a total of 17.6lbs, which is an average of 1.8lbs per week. I have dropped another ProPoint from my daily allowance, which now stands at 53.

I still find it amazing how easy thisWeightWatchers ProPoints plan is! I haven't felt hungry at all since starting it, apart from a little hunger about an hour before most meals - which is probably a good thing. I've not missed any of my favourite foods or drinks because all of them are allowed and I've introduced some new foods to my diet whish are probably keeping me healthier than before (I was never really that fussed about eating fruit and I certainly never ate as many vegetavbles as I do now).

On Friday Mrs TBI and I went out for a meal with some of her friends and I had Piri Piri Chicken with Lattice Fries (it was meant to be potato wedges according to the menu!), which was very nice. I washed it down with a couple of pints of Rebellion Mutiny (one of my favourite ales) and that pretty much used up most of my daily propoints. I followed the main course with Sticky Toffee Pudding and custard, which I had no idea how to point, so I guestimated at 25 points and used up some of me weekly points. I decided that if I had got the points wrong, I probably had ample Activity Points to cover it and I wasn't planning any further excesses between then and this morining's weigh-in.

Asda seem to have temporarly removed their "Chosen by You" Fruit Juice drinks from the shelves, which is a shame as they are 0PPs. I have, however, found a suitable alternative in the shape of "Panda" still flavoured water - No added sugar, No Aspartame and only natural flavours - also 0PPs.

My excercise regime is still going well and I'm starting to really feel the benefits now after increasing my walking pace to just around 15Minutes per mile (15Mins 10seconds on Monday) and increasing my Wii Fit Jogging to 30minutes (is anyone else doing Wii Fit Jogging?). I've also got up to 8.5Kilometers in 20 minutes on the Crosstrainer, but I haven't yet got comfortable enough to increase the time on that. I do plan, at some point, on doing the Couch to 5K plan but I don't want to do that until I've lost a fair bit of weight as I don't want to damage my knees.

I am definitely feeling confident that this weight loss plan can succeed for me and am looking forward to the day when I can say I'm merely overweight, rather than obese (or "morbidly obese", which is what I was when I started).

Weigh-in - Week 9 (Beer 'n' Burgers)

Well after a long weekend of overindulgence I have managed to Stay The Same. Normally I would be dissapointed with this, but as I was at a party on Saturday Night where I honestly lost count of the number of beers I had, followed by a Bar-b-que on Sunday afternoon where the ale was also flowing quite well, I think I've done very well not to register a gain. This of course was not helped by the fact that I had to have a couple of pints when I was at the rugby club watching England's victory against Ireland in the pre World Cup friendly.

For those of you who think it's shocking that I should lose count of the number of pints I had on Saturday night, I should explain that I only poured myself one pint, direct from the barrel, unfortunately this was a magic, never ending pint! Everytime it got down to less than half full, it miraculously refilled itself! It's very difficult to keep track when that happens.

In fact, strictly speaking I've lost 0.6lb this week, but I cheated a little last week to ensure that I reached my 5% goal! I didn't mention last week that my scales have started registering 10ths of a lb since falling from 20st to 19st - as my 5% goal was 19st 13.3lbs and I actually registered 19st 13.6lbs on the scales, I took a bit of poetic license and recorded it as 19st 13lbs exactly, which is what I weighed today. My next target is 10% of my starting weight, which is 18st 12.6lbs and I promise, from now on, to record the 10ths of a lb (so long as I don't go back up above 20st of course).

I experimented with another low point recipe from the WW web site last week - it was a Chicken and Chorizo Gumbo, 5PP's per portion (or 11PP's if you eat half of it in one go!). I had it with a Warburtons Squarish Wrap to soak up the sauce and it was very tasty! I'm sure it would have tasted even better if I had followed the recipe more closely. Anyway, that's now 2 recipe's that I can add to my arsenal of low point meals for when I start to really need them, or for when I need to keep the points low before going out for a few beers.

I managed to stick with the excercise regime of Walking, Wii Fit Jogging, Crosstrainer, rest day and repeat. In fact on Sunday, even after all the beer and feeling a little groggy, I managed a new walking record to average 14.51 minutes per mile! Then, on Monday, I increased my Wii Fit Jogging from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and did, according the the Wii, 10781 metres. I don't believe the Wii Fit distances are in any way accurate, but they do seem to be consistent between jogs so they are a guide for me. It's a good job I'm doing the excercise as this wek, for the first time, I used up all of my weekly points and 10 Activity points!

Hopefully, this coming week shouldn't be quite so difficult to track and should be relatively easy to keep within the points limits. I'm going out for a meal on Friday eveneing to celebrate the birthday of a friend of my wife. I don't expect to be going overboard at this event and I don't have anything planned for the rest of the week.

Weigh-in - Week 8

Finally I've reached my teens!

After being over 20 stones for at least 2 years, I've finally managed to drop down below it! I'm really pleases as it means I've reached my first target of losing 5% of may starting weight, I've also lost my 2nd 7lbs.

This morning's weigh-in showed a loss of 2lbs from last week and now puts me down to 19st 13lbs! I am really very happy as I have achieved the last 3lbs loss while on holiday in Cornwall, where I found it very difficult to track, I wasn't able to get a lot of my normal exercising in and I didn't do any swimming or bodyboarding in the sea, as it was freezing cold! Next year, if we go to Cornwall, I am planning to be thin enough to be able to fit in to a wetsuit!

I think that, where I have been successful is that, although it was difficult to accurately track much of what I consumed over the period of my holiday, I was able to compensate by ensuring that I stuck to my normal breakfast and didn't have excessively large portions of anything. Also, when I had a Cornish Pasty, I didn't have a portion of chips as well! I kept any hunger at bay by ensuring that I had plenty of fruit to hand.

Having successfully negotiated the potential banana skin of a holiday, I am now back into the normal routine of exercise and tracking - made more difficult today as my boss is taking me out for a curry this lunchtime to say goodbye to a colleague who is leaving. I should be ok though as I skipped my glass of milk this morning and am planning to have a Warburtons Square Wrap Pizza for my dinner this evening, so hopefully I should just about remain within my 54 ProPoints for the day. If not, I shall have to use some weeklies, although I want to save them for the 2 bar-b-ques that I am going to this weekend, which will both involve large amounts of Ale (Rebellion of course!).

Weigh-in - Week 7

This week I discovered for myself the perils of the "Sneaky Peek"!

After feeling a bit deflated by my STS last week, I decided that I would have a Sneaky Peak on Friday morning, before setting off on our holiday in Cornwall. It was fantastic, the scales showed 19st 12.4lbs! Unfortunately I have had my official Weigh-in this morning and they showed 20st 1lb, a loss of only 1lb since my last official weigh-in.

While I'm disappointed that I didn't stay below 20st, I am still pleased to have registered a loss on the scales, after all I am on holiday and so my WeightWatching is not as easy as it would normally be. I'm having to estimate quite a lot, and it is possible that I'm underestimating rather than overestimating the points (although I would be surprised if this is happening a lot.

I have done a little bit less exercise this week, as my wife doesn't want me walking along the Cornish country lanes first thing in the morning. I had thought that I might make up for this by doing some body boarding with my son, but when we were at the beach on Saturday the water was freezing. I would have been the only person in the water without a wetsuit on. I did try to get in, I got as far as waist deep but my gentleman's parts felt like they were going to drop off, so I retired to the water's edge to watch my son. The water was warmer on Sunday, but by the time I realised this, the tide had come in and it was time for us to leave. Yesterday it rained and it looks like we'll have more rain today, so I don't think I'll be doing any bodyboarding today either. I have promised my son (an myself) that next year I will be fit and agile enough to take some surfing lessons with him! I think we'll go somewhere warmer for that though.

Anyway, not a bad result this week, but not a great one either. Onwards and downwards!

Weigh-in - Week 6

A huge dissappointment this week - I've Stayed The Same!

I had really hoped that I would lose 3lbs this week, which would have meant that I would reach my 5% target. I have to admit though, I didn't really feel like I had lost weight this week. I had a couple of days where, although I remained within my points allowance, I think I probbaly overindulged. The worst day for that was Friday, when I was taken out for a curry at lunchtime. Curries are difficult to point as who really knows what is in them, it;s quite possible that I blew my allowance without really knowing it. Then I followed that up on Saturday, when I went to the pub to watch England v Wales and had a few beers, some crisps followed by a Jacket Potato and Rump Steak when I got home. To add to all that I went to a carvery on Sunday for lunch (another meal that I find difficult to point).

On the plus side, I've stepped up my excercise a bit this week by going for a walk on Tuesday, doing some Wii Fit Jogging (Roaring Fire) on Wednesday and spending 20 minutes on the Crosstrainer on Thursday, the I did the same on Saturday, Sunday and Monday after a rest day on Friday. This earnt me a few Activity Points (which I had hoped would get offset against any errors I made in calculating the Points for the curry and the carvery meals). I intend to keep this 3 day cycle, followed by a rest day, going as far as possible.

Still, I can't be too upset, an STS is not a loss, but it's not as bad as again, so I'm keeping positive and looking forward to a good loss next week. Having said that, next week might be difficult as we're going to Cornwall for a short holiday, so keeping track and within my points allowance could be difficult - maybe the bodyboarding (if the sea is warm enough!) will use up enough energy to counter any overindulgances of food and beer.

Anyway, that's another WeightWatchers week completed and I'm 12lbs lighter than I was when I started, so I'm still very pleased with my progress. Stay tuned for the next update which will be from sunny Truro.

Weigh-in - Week 5

Another 2lbs gone!

I had hoped that it might be a little more than that, but 2lbs is a good loss. As a result of this, I've lost another ProPoint from my Daily ProPoint target and am now down to 54.

I'm now 3lbs away from my 5% target and I aim to do that by next week's weigh-in. I am also only 2lbs away from my second 7lb star! If I manage to reach my 5%, I will be below 20 stones for the first time in over 2 years (probably more like 2.5 years)!

This last week I have been doing a little bit more excercise - I've done my morning walk twice, I've done 20 minutes of Wii Fit Jogging once and I had 20 minutes on the crosstrainer on Sunday morning. It's actually about 18 months since I last used the crosstrainer, so I was expecting to suffer afterwards, but I didn't! The worst effect of this extra exercise was from the Wii Fit Jogging, which caused my calfs to ache somewhat a couple of days later.

For the coming week I plan to walk today and Saturday, Wii Fit Jog on Wednesday and Sunday and use the crosstrainer on Thursday and Monday. I do intend at some point to start the c25k plan (Couch to 5 Kilometers), but not until I've got down to below 18 stones as I don't think my old bones could take the impact of road running at my current weight.

I've also started looking at some of the recipes on the Weight Watchers site to try and find some tasty and filling low point meals as I think that as I lose weight I will find it difficult to carry on eating the meals that I'm having at the moment. Yesterday I tried the Quick Chorizo and Bean Chilli - it was very nice, although the recipe is meant to make 4 servings, I had half of it for my dinner (12ProPoints) and shall have the rest tonight. I've also experimented with the famous Warburtons Square Wraps and they definitely have potential.

Diet Coke - Part 5

That's it! No Diet Coke now since Sunday morning, I am totally clean!

I'm glad to say that I haven't, so far, suffered any ill efects from quiting CFDC, no withdrawal symptoms whatsoever, so I think I should be able to stick to it. I expect that I will, from time to time, have a normal coke as it's just 4 ProPoints a can and contains no Aspartame.

Diet Coke! - Part 4

My campaign to rid myself of the need to have Diet Coke is going extremely well, in fact better than expected! I'm now down to 1 can of CFDC per day, with my other drinking requirements being taken care of with Asda Chosen By You Fruit Juices (0PP), Milk (enhance this morning by adding a Nectarine and some Strawberries) and the occasional beer or lager (if I need to use up some ProPoints or it's the weekend).

So far, I've had now withdrawal symptoms from the Aspartame, so I think that most of the symptoms that people suffer when they give up Diet Coke are caused by the withdrawal from Caffiene. Anyway, I shall soon give up Diet Coke completely, although my wife says I can't do that until all of the Caffiene free ones have gone (she bought a few 10-packs the other day!) as she doesn't like it.

It's difficult to say if giving up the Diet Coke is helping or not. I feel as though I'm feeling full sooner when I eat a meal, and I don't think I feel as hungry quite so soon between meals. I don't have that bloated, gassy feeling that comes from drinking to many carbonated drinks, but part of that is probably also due to beeing a little more controlled about how much I eat. I certainly don't feel as though I'm missing anything by not having Diet Coke everytime I'm thirsty. I do feel that, if I'm in a situation where there is not really any alternative, I can have the odd Coke (full fat, no Aspartame) and not really suffer too badly, after all it's only 4ProPoints per can.

Weigh-in - Week 4

Well to say I was a little worried this week is an understatement. After last weeks STS I was concerned that I woud Stay The Same this week too, or, worse, put on some weight! I really didn't feel as though I had lost anything, even though I felt that I have been doing all the right things - tracking my food intake, walking to gain Activity Points etc.

So, at around 07:45 this moring I vervously stepped on to the scales, closed my eyes and counted to 10 before looking at the reading - 20st 04lbs, a loss of 2lbs since last week! That gives a total loss, since I started 4 weeks ago, of 10lbs. I had hoped for a little more so that I could be on target to reach my 5% goal at next week's wiegh-in, but I guess that's not going to happen (it would require another 5lb loss and I don't think that's likely).

I've made few changes to my diet, apart from counting the points and, therefore, excercising better portion control. I have taken to eating fruit, something I almost never did before. I've been having a pear and a nectarine as part of my breakfast and a banana and an orange with my lunch. I have to say I'd forgotten how much I like pears and nectarines, although they are a bit messy to eat (if you get good ones!).

All in all, I'm very happy with the way this weight loss journey is going at the moment. I don't really expect to have many big losses, and small losses all the way are considered to be better anyway.

The Science of WeightWatchers Points

Or "Why you should eat all of your ProPoints)
(Plagiarised from a post in the 5+ Stone to Lose Messageboard, by "hyperhaggis")

 Your body needs a certain amount of fuel just to keep you alive on a daily basis. The larger you are, the more it needs to keep it running, hence the high number of points you have been given. As you lose, the points will drop pretty quickly.

The weeklies are part of your allowance and not extra. They have merely been presaved for you so you dont have to cut back on your daily points to enjoy meals out treats etc.
The end result when you add all your points up, assuming that one point equals approx 40 calories, is a calorie deficit for your body, having used them all!!

Eat them. It will make sure you get off on an even keel, give you steady, healthy weight loss, and allow you to live and enjoy life whilst still losing weight.

If you find it hard to eat them all, then think again. Try using higher pointed helathier foods such as oily fish, full fat yogs and cheese, and whole milk. even a handful of nuts etc can start to use them up. Remember to include yummy treat things too. Dont be depriving yourself of anything you fancy, especially if the points are there for it. You are far more likely to continue to stay on the wagon by using them all than cutting back or not using them at this stage of the game. They will also help you out when you lose a lot of your weight. If you hit a plateau etc theres room for maneouvre if youve used them all from the outset.

Diet Coke! - Part 3

My campaign to give up Diet Coke is going well, I haven't had any Diet Coke with caffiene in it for nearly 2 weeks now and I have successfully reduced my intake of CFDC to 4 cans per day, by refraining form having any with my evening meal and only drinking water (or beer) during the evening. This week I am further reducing my consumption of it by replacing my lunch time drink with Asda's "Chosen By You" Fruit Juice Drink.

The Asda Fruit Juice Drink, seems to be a pretty good substitute, since it contains no added sugar and is 0 WW ProPoints. I was a little concerned yesterday to discover that it does contain Sucralose and Acesulfame K (Acesulfame Potassium). I looked these both up on Wikipedia and they don't appear to be harmful - although Acesulfame K may be slightly carsinogenic, but no tests have been able to prove that, so far. Of course, there are other websites that claim that both of these artificial sweeteners are unhealthy, but I think that trying to find drinks without artificial sweeteners of any sort is going to be a fruitless task.

Weigh-in - Week 3

Well this week is a little dissapointing as I've Stayed The Same (STS). It wasn't alltogether unexpected as I haven't felt as though I've lost anything. I don't think I've done anything wrong - I've used up all of my points on most days, I had 13 Weekly points and 6 Activity points remaining at the end of the week. I did, however enjoy a trip to the local brewery, with free beer, and I had proper fish & chip shop fish & chips - all properly accounted for though.

Everything I know about WeightWatchers tells me that I should expect to have some weeks where I stay the same (and some where I put on a little), but I was hoping not to experience one so early in the campaign. Oh well, I've just got to pick myself up, dust myself down and carry on - STS is as good as a loss, so they say.

Weigh-in - Week 2

So, this is it - my second weigh-in! If I've lost a bit more weight this week, then I think it's fair to say that this WeightWatchers plan is working!

As per last week, I went for a walk at around 06:00 this morning, adding a potentially useful 4 Activity points (potentially useful because I'm going to the member's night at my local brewery this evening - FREE BEER!), before having my bath and then the dreaded moment of the weigh-in.

20st 6lbs - a loss of 3lbs from last week!

Not a huge weight loss, but moving in the right direction! Besides, everyone says that it should be only 1 - 2 lbs a week, although I think, in the early stages at least, people tend to average more than that. Anyway in 2 weeks I've now lost 8lbs, which is remarkable given that I've hardly changed my lifestyle at all at this stage.

 The downside is that I've crossed a threshold that means that my daily points allowance has gone down from 56 to 55. This shouldn't make too much difference, as I've struggled most days to reach 56 points - it's only by forcing myself to have a beer and some peanuts at the end of the day that I've managed it. I did, however, succeed in using up all but 7 of my weekly points allowance this weekend - mostly because I was enjoying the beer that I got from the Brewery, to the tune of 3-4 pints on Friday, Saturday & Sunday! I guess that if I hadn't had the beer, I might have lost a bit more weight, but the point of this plan is that you shouldn't deprive yourself of the things that you enjoy and I don't intend to!

Anyway, on to week 3 and I'm well on my way towards that first 5% target. The plan is working!

Diet Coke! - Part 2

Well my switch to Caffiene free diet coke has gone well, I had my last can of Diet Coke with caffiene in it when I got up last Thursday, so that's 3 full days without caffiene! And no headaches!

Now the next phase is to cut out the caffiene free diet coke too as the Aspartame sweetener is really bad for you and is blamed for all sorts of health problems. I plan to do this in a gentle, gradual way as the withdrawal symptoms can be quite bad (headaches, irritability, depression etc). I'm going to start by reducing my intake of CFDC (as it will henceforth be known) by one can each week for the next 6 weeks, starting with the one I have with my evening meal. I'm also going to start looking for healthy alternatives that will not cause me too many problems with my weight watchers plan, i.e. they've got to have low ProPoints values. I don't want to be drinking water all the time!

Weigh In - Week 1

So this morning was the dreaded first weigh-in! Would I actually have lost any weight at all? It seemed unlikely, given that I managed to use almost all my daily points every day (sometimes by adding a can of lager and a bag of crisps for supper, like I did yesterday) and I used a fair number of my weekly points on Saturday and Sunday to have a nice curry and some excellent Rebellion Beer and dinner with my parents on Sunday plus more Rebellion in the evening! Having said that, I did start to accumulate some Activity points by going for a walk on Saturday and Sunday morning.

This morning I got up at arount 05:00 as usual and read the papers on the internet for a while before going for a walk at about 06:00. Half an hour or so later I returned having earned 4 points for averaging 18.03 minutes per mile! I guess I would get fewer points if I weighed less. After my bath I set the bathroom scales in their alloted "weigh-in" spot on the bathroom floor and, with some trepidation, I stood on them. For a moment I was quite dissapointed to see that I'd lost just 0.1 stone, then my brain kicked into gear and I realised that the scales actually said 20st 9lbs which is a loss of 5lb!

Now I've read other blogs (eg. http://theshrinkingman.co.uk) and the weight watcher's men's board, so losing 5lbs in the first week should come as no surprise to me, but it does! I've done nothing remotely resembling anything I've ever done on any other attempt to lose weight, I've not given up anything I really like, I've not started doing any really hard excercise, all I've done is count up the points for everything I eat and drink and a couple of brisk(ish) walks. In fact on some days I've had to eat or drink when I wouldn't normally do so to make sure I used my points. On Saturday & Sunday, when I knew I was going to have fairly large meals and drink a bit of beer, I substituted my normal breakfast or lunch for fruit!

So far, this just seems too easy! I will just have to see how the second week goes!

Diet Coke!

After reading in the papers about how Diet Coke doesn't actually help people to lose weight. I thought I'd ask the people on the Weight Watchers Mens Board what their views were. The general concensus seems to be that Diet Coke probably doesn't really help, some people found that they still felt hungry after drinking it with a meal (as I often do).

Now, I don't drink tea or coffee, so I've been drinking about 6 cans of Diet Code a day for as many years as I can remember, so the stories about the harm that the Aspartame (artificial sweetener), that it contains, can do are quite worrying. I've also been having trouble sleeping recently, which I have put down to an excess of caffiene. Because of my sleep worries, I recently switched to the caffiene free variety, but 2 days later (after no caffiene  at all) I sufered from a terrible headache that lasted all day! After reading up on caffiene, I came to the conclusion that this was caused by the withdrawal symptoms! following this I've embarked on a gradual switch to caffiene free DC by alternating the 2 varieties (making sure that I don't have any caffiene after 18:00).

After all of the above, I've decided that I really should stop drinking Diet Coke altogether, so I now plan to complete the switch to caffiene free as soon as I can and then find alternative refreshing drinks, such as freshly squeezed orange juice (0 ProPoints apparently), water, various cordials etc.

The other thing people have said is that, if there really is no alternative to a fizzy drink, I'm probably better of having a normal coke and accounting for the points! Obviously it wouldn't be good to have 6 cans of normal coke a day as that would be 24 ProPoints, or breakfast AND lunch!

Incidentally, I do seem to be sleeping a little better since reducing my caffiene intake. I woke up at 05:45 this morning, which is really quite late for me!

The Easy Bit! - Part 3

Thanks to a weightwatchers member, I found out how to reset my weight data, so everything now starts as of today.

My starting weight is: 21st 0lb

My first goal is to lose 5% of my starting weight, which will take me down to 19st 13.3lb.

The Easy Bit! - Part 2

After our meal out (which was very pleasant, by the way) I did some more scientific calculations and found that I was almost correct with my Breakfast and Lunch points, but a little out with the points for the meal (this was caused by the fact that I wasn't expecting to have a desert). In the end it worked out at 66 Points, with my daily allowance being 57. This means that I strayed into the weekly bonus points zone! This is not too much of a problem as my first weigh in was this morning, so the weekly bonus points are reset.

Anyway, the result of the Weigh-in is that I weigh 21st 0lb, so I've lost a pound already after just 1 day! I have reset my starting weight to 21st 0lb as it is effectively a validated weight. The bad news, if I can call it that, is that my daily points allowance hase gone down from 57 to 56!

Today should be a more realistic indicator of what I'm eating on a normal day, as we're not dining out.

Anyway, I'd just like to take this opportinity to thank everyone who responded to my first post for their encouragement. This is going to be a long, tough voyage, but I managed to give up smoking nearly 10 years ago (after smoking for about 25 years), so hopefully I'll be able to apply that willpower to this. Actually I think losing weight is much harder than giving up smoking - I gave up smoking loads of times, but I've only ever managed to lose weight once!

The Easy Bit!

I've done the easy bit! Yesterday I signed up to Weight Watchers Online. I guessed my weight as it's been fairly stable for the last few weeks, and decided that my Weigh In day will be Tuesday.  This may have been a mistake as I should have started with correct weights and set the weigh-in to be the following week (it'll probably screw up the statistics a bit).

I entered some guestimates of what I'd eaten & drank so far during the day and also guessed at what I was likely to be eating this evening and it looked as though I was going to be within my ProPoints target by about 4 points, which is amazing because I went out to dinner last night! (only a Carvery, nothing really special!).

Now the hard bit is about to start - "Free the Thin Bloke Inside me". I know he's there - I caught a glimpse of him about 20 years ago when I got down to about 15st 5lb, I'm now 21st 1lb!

My first target is the usual 5% loss (20st 0.3lb) which will take me back to what I was before Christmas.

I'm really looking forward to meeting up with the Thin Bloke again, I thought he was pretty cool.

Wish me luck!