It could so easily be worse! I went to a party on Saturday night and had quite a bit to drink plus various nibbles and a rather sugary piece of birthday cake. Then I followed that with a larger than necessary piece of rump steak for my dinner on Sunday, complete with a jacket spud, onion rings and coleslaw, washed down with a large red wine and followed by a couple of pints of "Roasted Nuts" from my favourite local brewery.
After all of that, I've managed to Stay The Same!
I did enjoy the party, though, as there were quite a number of people that I haven't seen for quite a while and the were all complementing me on how well I looked have lost all the weight - I practically had NSV's coming out of my ears and it was quite an ego boost too! One of my friends wives (I'm really not sure what the grammar should be for that - it was the wife of a friend and he only has one wife) gave me a cuddle and said "wow, I've never been able to wrap my arms around you before"!
Earlier on in my blogs, you will have read that I was amazed that the odd day of extravagance had virtually no effect on my weight loss. Unfortunately, now I am further down the road, it would seem that it can have an effect! Not to worry, though, the whole point of the weightwatchers plan is that it is meant to work in the real (as opposed to the dieting) world, and in the real world parties do frequently happen! Although not as frequently as they used to, sadly.
Back in this real world of ours, we will have to deal with parties and other things that will occasionally cause a jump in weight - we will do this by immediately getting back on the plan! The main thing that I/We must remember when we've got to our target weight is that the new pounds that want to attach themselves to our bodies are sneaky buggers - we won't see them as they join us one at a time, we might not even see a whole rugby teams worth until, one day, when it's far to late for remedial action, we'll be 2 or 3 stones heavier again. To avoid this scenario, we must continue to weigh ourselves on a regular basis and take action as soon as the scale starts going up.
I have now accepted the fact that I am not going to achieve my Christmas target of being "overweight", so I have amended my target to being "under 16 stones" - 2.8lbs in 4 weigh-ins (including Christmas day) - that should be achievable even with my relatively slow progress. I have accepted that I am unlikely to be getting big losses now and am quite happy as long as I average about 1lb a week - it's definitely more difficult to lose weight when you weight 16st than it is when you weigh 21st :-(
Anyway, here's hoping I lose a bit more at my next weigh-in (it could be a bit tricky as I'm going out for an Indian curry on Thursday night and there's more rugby on Saturday). Good luck with your weight loss efforts and I'll report back next week.
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Wednesday, 21 November 2012
Weigh-in - Week 73
My apologies for not posting again last week, I was a little down after gaining another 1lb at last week's weigh-in.
I'm a lot happier this week though as yesterday's weigh in showed a loss of 2.8lbs which brings me down to 16st 2.8lbs and back on the downward slope again. It's still possible for me to hit my Christmas target of being "overweight", I just need to lose 5.8 lbs in 5 weeks an average of just under 1.2lbs per week. Unfortunately we're slap bang in the middle of the Autumn Internationals, so more beer than usual is likely to be consumed AND there's likely to be more food & drink related events due to the coming festivities! I know I'm not the only one that is going to have to negotiate the minefield that is Christmas time, but it does get quite tricky.
My exercise routine is still not back to it's pre-holiday schedule, although I am using the crosstrainer more regularly than I have been of late I still haven't re-introduced the kettlebell into my weekly schedule. I am still going to yoga once a week though.
I have reduced the amount of bread that I eat. This is as a result of finding some reasonably tasty and lowish pointed 1 pot microwaveable lunches at Morrison's and also at Asda. In fact the Thai Green Chicken Curry & Rice that I had for lunch yesterday was a mere 8 ProPoints (4 less than my usual Ciabatta & Chicken) and filling enough to keep me satisfied 'till dinner time. Many people on the WeightWatchers forums do claim that they get better weight losses when they don't have so much bread, so it will be interesting to see if things go well for me with the reduced intake, I do know that I feel less bloated in the afternoons when I don't have bread. The only reason I haven't cut down on bread sooner was that I hadn't found a suitable replacement, wraps are ok, but I find it difficult to find interesting things to fill them with.
That's it for this week, I'll be back again next week to share another loss with you.
I'm a lot happier this week though as yesterday's weigh in showed a loss of 2.8lbs which brings me down to 16st 2.8lbs and back on the downward slope again. It's still possible for me to hit my Christmas target of being "overweight", I just need to lose 5.8 lbs in 5 weeks an average of just under 1.2lbs per week. Unfortunately we're slap bang in the middle of the Autumn Internationals, so more beer than usual is likely to be consumed AND there's likely to be more food & drink related events due to the coming festivities! I know I'm not the only one that is going to have to negotiate the minefield that is Christmas time, but it does get quite tricky.
My exercise routine is still not back to it's pre-holiday schedule, although I am using the crosstrainer more regularly than I have been of late I still haven't re-introduced the kettlebell into my weekly schedule. I am still going to yoga once a week though.
I have reduced the amount of bread that I eat. This is as a result of finding some reasonably tasty and lowish pointed 1 pot microwaveable lunches at Morrison's and also at Asda. In fact the Thai Green Chicken Curry & Rice that I had for lunch yesterday was a mere 8 ProPoints (4 less than my usual Ciabatta & Chicken) and filling enough to keep me satisfied 'till dinner time. Many people on the WeightWatchers forums do claim that they get better weight losses when they don't have so much bread, so it will be interesting to see if things go well for me with the reduced intake, I do know that I feel less bloated in the afternoons when I don't have bread. The only reason I haven't cut down on bread sooner was that I hadn't found a suitable replacement, wraps are ok, but I find it difficult to find interesting things to fill them with.
That's it for this week, I'll be back again next week to share another loss with you.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Weigh-in - Week 71
Well, after a couple of days of self-sabotage, I managed to keep the weight gain down to just 1.2lbs this week! I'm actually quite pleased with that because it means I'm still below my pre-holiday weight and I think my target of "overweight by Christmas" is still achievable - just.
My first act of sabotage was (very expensive) Nacho's with cheese and jalepenos at the cinema (Skyfall of course) with my son on Friday afternoon - followed by a chinese takeaway in the evening. I probably could have got away with that had it not been for drinks and nibbles at a friends on Saturday evening after the local firework display - the drinks and nobbles turned out to be a lot of drinks and a lot of nobbles after a day where I had already consumed my daily allowance of 44 points! Owing to a slight haziness towards the end of the evening, I didn't even attempt to count the points!
Also, as a result of the drinks and nibbles, I didn't manage to persuade myself to get on the crosstrainer on Sunday morning, so only two sessions this week and still no other exercise besides the Yoga, which isn't designed to help me lose weight.
It's also going to be tricky to keep within the ProPoints limits this weekend as it's the first of the Autumn Internationals on Saturday - England vs Fiji. At least England should emerge victorious from this encounter, I just wish I could be as certain of victory for the remaining 3 matches.
My first act of sabotage was (very expensive) Nacho's with cheese and jalepenos at the cinema (Skyfall of course) with my son on Friday afternoon - followed by a chinese takeaway in the evening. I probably could have got away with that had it not been for drinks and nibbles at a friends on Saturday evening after the local firework display - the drinks and nobbles turned out to be a lot of drinks and a lot of nobbles after a day where I had already consumed my daily allowance of 44 points! Owing to a slight haziness towards the end of the evening, I didn't even attempt to count the points!
Also, as a result of the drinks and nibbles, I didn't manage to persuade myself to get on the crosstrainer on Sunday morning, so only two sessions this week and still no other exercise besides the Yoga, which isn't designed to help me lose weight.
It's also going to be tricky to keep within the ProPoints limits this weekend as it's the first of the Autumn Internationals on Saturday - England vs Fiji. At least England should emerge victorious from this encounter, I just wish I could be as certain of victory for the remaining 3 matches.
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Weigh-in - Week 70
With many apologies to my reader, who must have been getting very worried about my absence, I'm back! I haven't actually been away anywhere, I just haven't posted anything since week 66. This was due to being somewhat bored of the whole blog thing and not really losing any weight. This week, however, I'm feeling much better as I have had a loss of 3.2lbs to bring me down to 16st 3.4lbs so, at last, I am finally below the weight I was when I went on holiday back in August! I'm also back on target to be overweight by Christmas - I need to lose 6.4lbs in 8 weeks.
The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful and I have been stuck on a plateau which, hopefully, I have now fallen off. Since the end of the holiday I have really struggled with my exercise regime and have only been doing about 2 crosstrainer sessions per week, last week I managed to do the standard 3 sessions and, this morning I matched my personal best distance on it, so I'm feeling much more positive about the crosstrainer.
I still haven't restarted the Kettlebell workouts yet, but I think that I shall do soon, although it is pretty difficult to get motivated when it is so cold in the garage! I might move my workout mat into the dining room, which we don't use for dining!
I have been going to yoga once a week to try and get a bit more flexibility into my body. This is to help with next years surfing trips, which I hope to be doing with my son. I'm not sure if I am getting more flexible, but it definitely seems to have helped get rid of my achilles tendonitis which I have been suffering from for well over a year now - I no longer have any pain in the mornings. I did say, a long time ago that, if I got rid of the tendonitis, I would try the Couch 2 5K running program. I'm going to leave it to the spring (to give my heel lots of time to fully recover) and I will try doing it then.
Food wise, I've been trying a few of the Hairy Dieter's recipe's. I was a bit disappointed with the Paprika Chicken as it could have done with a little bit more flavour (this may have been because I used normal paprika instead of smoked paprika), but the Beef in Ale stew was nice and the Chicken Jalfrezi was very nice (especially the 2nd portion, which I froze and ate a few days later). I think I might try their Lamb Tagine next.
Now is probably a good time for me to set some mini-goals:
1. To get below 16 Stones (15.99st will do) - that would be a total loss of 5stones.
2. To get down to 15st 11lbs - that would make me overweight.
3. To get down to 15st 10lbs - that would be 25% of my starting weight gone
4. To get down to 15st 7lbs - that would be a total loss of 5.5 stones
5. To get down to 15st 5lbs - that would be the lightest I can remember being, the weight I was when I was 30 - I'm now 51!
6. To buy and wear, comfortably, a pair of 34" jeans. I must have been able to wear this size once! I'm not sure what weight I need to get down to to be able to achieve this particular goal.
That's all for this week folks, I'll try and get back into the routine of blogging and be back next week.
The last few weeks have been fairly uneventful and I have been stuck on a plateau which, hopefully, I have now fallen off. Since the end of the holiday I have really struggled with my exercise regime and have only been doing about 2 crosstrainer sessions per week, last week I managed to do the standard 3 sessions and, this morning I matched my personal best distance on it, so I'm feeling much more positive about the crosstrainer.
I still haven't restarted the Kettlebell workouts yet, but I think that I shall do soon, although it is pretty difficult to get motivated when it is so cold in the garage! I might move my workout mat into the dining room, which we don't use for dining!
I have been going to yoga once a week to try and get a bit more flexibility into my body. This is to help with next years surfing trips, which I hope to be doing with my son. I'm not sure if I am getting more flexible, but it definitely seems to have helped get rid of my achilles tendonitis which I have been suffering from for well over a year now - I no longer have any pain in the mornings. I did say, a long time ago that, if I got rid of the tendonitis, I would try the Couch 2 5K running program. I'm going to leave it to the spring (to give my heel lots of time to fully recover) and I will try doing it then.
Food wise, I've been trying a few of the Hairy Dieter's recipe's. I was a bit disappointed with the Paprika Chicken as it could have done with a little bit more flavour (this may have been because I used normal paprika instead of smoked paprika), but the Beef in Ale stew was nice and the Chicken Jalfrezi was very nice (especially the 2nd portion, which I froze and ate a few days later). I think I might try their Lamb Tagine next.
Now is probably a good time for me to set some mini-goals:
1. To get below 16 Stones (15.99st will do) - that would be a total loss of 5stones.
2. To get down to 15st 11lbs - that would make me overweight.
3. To get down to 15st 10lbs - that would be 25% of my starting weight gone
4. To get down to 15st 7lbs - that would be a total loss of 5.5 stones
5. To get down to 15st 5lbs - that would be the lightest I can remember being, the weight I was when I was 30 - I'm now 51!
6. To buy and wear, comfortably, a pair of 34" jeans. I must have been able to wear this size once! I'm not sure what weight I need to get down to to be able to achieve this particular goal.
That's all for this week folks, I'll try and get back into the routine of blogging and be back next week.
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Weigh-in - Week 66
Well it's been another fairly uneventful week, they're all starting to merge into one another now. I guess that's what happens when you've been doing something like this for a long time. According to this morning's weigh-in I lost 0.8lbs, bringing me down to 16st 6.8lbs, just 0.4lbs above my pre-holiday weigh-in. I had been hopeing to have shifted it all by now, but less than 1/2lb is still pretty good and, If the current trend continues, I should be back losing again by next week. At least I am now being completely honest again when I tell people I've lost 4.5stones ;-)
I haven't taken any measurements for a while, apart from my weight, so I must try and do it soon. I feel sure I will have lost a centimetre somewhere since the last time I measured myself.
I keep on thinking that I must get some new trousers for work, but then I think "no, don't do that - M&S trousers are always a little small, compared to jeans, and you'll only be disappointed if you have to get a bigger size, better to wait until the jeans are a little looser.
I've still not resumed the kettlebell training and I'm only going on the crosstrainer twice a week at the moment. I don't feel too bad about the crosstrainer as I'm still getting good distances on it and I feel a bit better for the additional rest day. I have now been to Yoga once a week for the last 3 weeks and I do think it is doing me some good - my Achilles Tendonitis (remember that?) seems to be getting a little better as I am almost completely pain free in the mornings now. Who knows, maybe in the spring, when the mornings are getting lighter again, I might have another go at the Couch 2 5K program.
I haven't had a chance to try any recipes from the Hairy Dieter's Cookbook, apart from the Skinny Lasagne that I made a while ago. I hope to get a chance to make something from it this weekend. All the posts about it that I have seen on the WeightWatchers site have been extremely positive, So I'm eager to give it a go.
I haven't taken any measurements for a while, apart from my weight, so I must try and do it soon. I feel sure I will have lost a centimetre somewhere since the last time I measured myself.
I keep on thinking that I must get some new trousers for work, but then I think "no, don't do that - M&S trousers are always a little small, compared to jeans, and you'll only be disappointed if you have to get a bigger size, better to wait until the jeans are a little looser.
I've still not resumed the kettlebell training and I'm only going on the crosstrainer twice a week at the moment. I don't feel too bad about the crosstrainer as I'm still getting good distances on it and I feel a bit better for the additional rest day. I have now been to Yoga once a week for the last 3 weeks and I do think it is doing me some good - my Achilles Tendonitis (remember that?) seems to be getting a little better as I am almost completely pain free in the mornings now. Who knows, maybe in the spring, when the mornings are getting lighter again, I might have another go at the Couch 2 5K program.
I haven't had a chance to try any recipes from the Hairy Dieter's Cookbook, apart from the Skinny Lasagne that I made a while ago. I hope to get a chance to make something from it this weekend. All the posts about it that I have seen on the WeightWatchers site have been extremely positive, So I'm eager to give it a go.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Weigh-in - Week 65
I've not got a lot to post about this week as it's been fairly uneventful. I lost 1lb at this morning's weigh in, so that's 3/4 of the holiday weight gain gone! Hopefully next week I'll have lost it all and be back on the way down. that 1lb loss means I'm on track for my "overweight by Christmas" target (15st 11lbs according to my iPhone app, 16st 01lb according to the BBC BMI Calculator - I'm aiming for the iPhone app target).
Mrs TBI decided that we should get rid of some of my old pairs of jeans & trousers that are now too big for me - it was quite a nice feeling to be seeing the back of them AND it makes it much easier when I need to find a clean pair to put on!
I manged to go to another Yoga class on Friday evening and I must say I felt pretty good afterwards and had a really good night's sleep. I did have a little pain around the shoulders on Saturday, but I think that sort of thing will pass as I get used to the poses, especially if I learn to relax into them a bit more.
I've only done 2 crosstrainer sessions this week, but they were both good. I've still not got back into the kettlebells - I will try harder this week to kickstart myself into doing them regularly.
I cooked a nice Beef n Ale Stew on Saturday, which I had with some Butternut Squash. It was very nice, but the next one I make will be from the Hairy Dieters recipe book. On Sunday I cooked up a batch of the Hairy Bikers South American Chilli. I used my own home grown "Apache" Chilli's, but the resulting chilli (which I tried last night) is a little mild for my taste - next time I'll put more Apaches in.
Mrs TBI decided that we should get rid of some of my old pairs of jeans & trousers that are now too big for me - it was quite a nice feeling to be seeing the back of them AND it makes it much easier when I need to find a clean pair to put on!
I manged to go to another Yoga class on Friday evening and I must say I felt pretty good afterwards and had a really good night's sleep. I did have a little pain around the shoulders on Saturday, but I think that sort of thing will pass as I get used to the poses, especially if I learn to relax into them a bit more.
I've only done 2 crosstrainer sessions this week, but they were both good. I've still not got back into the kettlebells - I will try harder this week to kickstart myself into doing them regularly.
I cooked a nice Beef n Ale Stew on Saturday, which I had with some Butternut Squash. It was very nice, but the next one I make will be from the Hairy Dieters recipe book. On Sunday I cooked up a batch of the Hairy Bikers South American Chilli. I used my own home grown "Apache" Chilli's, but the resulting chilli (which I tried last night) is a little mild for my taste - next time I'll put more Apaches in.
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
Weigh-in - week 64
Well that's nearly half of the holiday weight gain gone - I lost 1lb at this morning's weigh-in, putting my current weight at 16st 8.6lbs. Obviously my first target for now is to lose the remaining 2.2lbs and get back to the weight I was before my holiday, after that my target is to be "overweight by christmas"! to do this I need to be 15st 11lbs or, preferably, less. I've got 15 weeks to do it and, according to my "Ultimate Value Diary" app on my iPhone, it'll take me 13 weeks at my current average weekly loss - it's definitely doable! Maybe, when I get to "overweight" I will start to think about my goal weight, I'm not sure it's going to be in the "normal" range though, I'm already being told "don't lose too much"!
Normal, for me according to the app is 13st 2lbs, according to the BBC BMI Calculator it's 13st 6lbs and overweight is 16st 1lb! I wonder why there's a 4lb difference? Perhaps I should just go by the BBC Calculator?
On the exercise front, I've been very good at keeping up with my crostrainer routine, but terrible with the kettlbells (in fact, I haven't done a routine with the 'bells all week). I did, however, attend my first yoga class last Friday. It was interesting and very difficult for me to achieve many of the poses, but the instructor was very helpful and was able to tell me how to get the best out of what I was able to do. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to move everything perfectly normally the following morning. I'll be going back again this Friday and, hopefully, it will become a regular activity for me and I will find it easier as time goes on. The aim of the yoga, as my reader will know, is to get more flexible so that I find it easier to stand up on a surf board when I next get a chance to try surfing. I'm not sure that one yoga class a week will be enough but, as I start to get used to the poses, I will try and so some of them at home in between classes.
That's all from me this week, if you too are trying to lose weight, good luck.
Normal, for me according to the app is 13st 2lbs, according to the BBC BMI Calculator it's 13st 6lbs and overweight is 16st 1lb! I wonder why there's a 4lb difference? Perhaps I should just go by the BBC Calculator?
On the exercise front, I've been very good at keeping up with my crostrainer routine, but terrible with the kettlbells (in fact, I haven't done a routine with the 'bells all week). I did, however, attend my first yoga class last Friday. It was interesting and very difficult for me to achieve many of the poses, but the instructor was very helpful and was able to tell me how to get the best out of what I was able to do. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was able to move everything perfectly normally the following morning. I'll be going back again this Friday and, hopefully, it will become a regular activity for me and I will find it easier as time goes on. The aim of the yoga, as my reader will know, is to get more flexible so that I find it easier to stand up on a surf board when I next get a chance to try surfing. I'm not sure that one yoga class a week will be enough but, as I start to get used to the poses, I will try and so some of them at home in between classes.
That's all from me this week, if you too are trying to lose weight, good luck.
Tuesday, 11 September 2012
Weigh-in - Week 63
Well I had hoped to lose a bit more this week, but 0.8lbs still means I've started to lose my holiday addition. I don't suppose having a curry on Saturday followed by a barbeque on Sunday will have helped! The trip to the brewery for a free p*%s up tonight won't help either, but these things have to be done!
I missed out one crosstrainer session last week, although I have matched my personal best twice since my return from holiday, so maybe a longer period between crosstrainer sessions might be a good idea. I haven't been very good at all when it comes to the kettlebell sessions as I only managed one session last week and that was a bit half-hearted if I'm honest.
I've been investigating local Yoga classes and have decided to try one on Friday at our local leisure centre, luckily I have a friend that will be coming along too to hide some of my embarrassment when I can't do any of the moves. I'll let you know, in next week's blog, how I get on.
That's all for this week.
I missed out one crosstrainer session last week, although I have matched my personal best twice since my return from holiday, so maybe a longer period between crosstrainer sessions might be a good idea. I haven't been very good at all when it comes to the kettlebell sessions as I only managed one session last week and that was a bit half-hearted if I'm honest.
I've been investigating local Yoga classes and have decided to try one on Friday at our local leisure centre, luckily I have a friend that will be coming along too to hide some of my embarrassment when I can't do any of the moves. I'll let you know, in next week's blog, how I get on.
That's all for this week.
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
Weigh-in - Week 62
For the first time I have been able to enjoy (yes enjoy) an active holiday, which made my son very happy. My son and I were able to go surfing, which, as my regular reader will know, is one of the targets I set for myself when I started WeightWatchers. We had 4 1.5hour lessons with a very nice Frenchman called David. After the first lesson my son had pretty much cracked it and was able to stand up on the board and ride the waves in, I, unfortunately, only managed to stand up and fall straight off by the 3rd lesson (and I didn't get any better in the last lesson). I can say that it really was great fin and I couldn't have done it without losing the weight and getting fit over the last year. I know now what I need to be able to do in order to surf properly, so, by the time we go on next year's holiday (back to the same place, it's already booked!), I will need to be more flexible and agile. Flexible and agile are not words that have ever been used in any description of me, so please wish me luck and let me know of any tips that might help me achieve it.
As well as the surfing, we managed to get one round of 9 holes of golf in. Unfortunately it was quite expensive and both my son & I felt that the money was better spent on the surfing. We did enjoy the golf though and we did our best to get full value for money out of the round (golfers will know what I mean by that).
My downfall on this holiday, if you can call a mere 4lb gain over 2 weeks a downfall, was the nibbles, wine and beer by the pool and the occasional Run & Raisin Ice cream, plus the odd glass (bottle) of wine and beer. I managed to achieve this remarkably small gain while not tracking at all. In fact I just treated the holiday as though I wasn't on a diet and I ate and drank exactly what I wanted to.
Now that I am back I have started tracking again (yesterday) and I went on the CrossTrainer for the first time in over 2 weeks this morning (we got back from our holiday on Saturday evening). I did take my kettlebell with me, but only did 2 sessions with it, the surfing was more than adequate exercise. I'll be doing the kettlebell workout tomorrow and, hopefully, I'll soon be back into my normal exercise routine.
I'll report back next week to let you know how I've done at losing the holiday pounds, bye for now.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
Weigh-in - week 59
Holiday Target Achieved!
I'm very pleased to say that, after continuing with my reduced fruit intake, I have managed to achieve my target of under 16 1/2 stones in time for my holiday (which starts on Friday). At my weigh-in this morning I have lost 1.4lbs, bringing my current weight to 16st 6.4lbs! My aim for the holiday is to try and enjoy myself, without worrying too much about what I am eating and drinking, but to come back and still be below 17stones. I'm hoping that, as I expect to be fairly active throughout the holiday, I should be able to get away without any extra indulgences causing too much damage.
This week I tried a new recipe - The Hairy Dieters Skinny Lasagne. In case you're not aware of it, the Hairy Bikers have realised that all of the hearty food that they have been eating over the years has taken it's toll and they are now well and truely fat! In truth, neither of them are as fat as I was when I started, but they are pretty big. To try and do something about this, they have embarked on a diet, but they are customising many of their favourite dishes so that they taste as good, but are significantly healthier. The first of these was Lasagne, where they made a reduced calory sauce and replaced the pasta with leeks. I made this for Sunday lunch this week and it was a great success! I've got a portion left over which I shall be having for dinner this evening and I shall definitely be making it again. You can find the recipe here, but be warned it is a bit time consuming to prepare.
My exercising this week was a bit more regular - I managed to use the crosstrainer twice and I did my kettlebell exercises twice. I'll get one more crosstrainer session and one more kettlebell session in before I leave for my holiday (Mrs TBI has told me not to exercise on Friday morning as she doesn't want my sweaty exercise cloths lying around for 2 weeks before they get a chance to be washed!). I shall be taking my kettlebell with me as it doesn't take up much space in the car, but I will miss the crosstrainer (I hope I don't struggle to get back on it when I return).
So the next couple of weeks will be taken up with a couple of 9-hole rounds of golf, at least one theme park visit, swimming in the pool, body boarding in the sea, surfing lessons and whatever else Mrs TBI and Master TBI decide they want to do. This is very active compared to my normal, office bound, life! Hopefully we will also be able to enjoy some good food and wine, but not too much!
I'll report back again after my holiday!
Bon Voyage!
I'm very pleased to say that, after continuing with my reduced fruit intake, I have managed to achieve my target of under 16 1/2 stones in time for my holiday (which starts on Friday). At my weigh-in this morning I have lost 1.4lbs, bringing my current weight to 16st 6.4lbs! My aim for the holiday is to try and enjoy myself, without worrying too much about what I am eating and drinking, but to come back and still be below 17stones. I'm hoping that, as I expect to be fairly active throughout the holiday, I should be able to get away without any extra indulgences causing too much damage.
This week I tried a new recipe - The Hairy Dieters Skinny Lasagne. In case you're not aware of it, the Hairy Bikers have realised that all of the hearty food that they have been eating over the years has taken it's toll and they are now well and truely fat! In truth, neither of them are as fat as I was when I started, but they are pretty big. To try and do something about this, they have embarked on a diet, but they are customising many of their favourite dishes so that they taste as good, but are significantly healthier. The first of these was Lasagne, where they made a reduced calory sauce and replaced the pasta with leeks. I made this for Sunday lunch this week and it was a great success! I've got a portion left over which I shall be having for dinner this evening and I shall definitely be making it again. You can find the recipe here, but be warned it is a bit time consuming to prepare.
My exercising this week was a bit more regular - I managed to use the crosstrainer twice and I did my kettlebell exercises twice. I'll get one more crosstrainer session and one more kettlebell session in before I leave for my holiday (Mrs TBI has told me not to exercise on Friday morning as she doesn't want my sweaty exercise cloths lying around for 2 weeks before they get a chance to be washed!). I shall be taking my kettlebell with me as it doesn't take up much space in the car, but I will miss the crosstrainer (I hope I don't struggle to get back on it when I return).
So the next couple of weeks will be taken up with a couple of 9-hole rounds of golf, at least one theme park visit, swimming in the pool, body boarding in the sea, surfing lessons and whatever else Mrs TBI and Master TBI decide they want to do. This is very active compared to my normal, office bound, life! Hopefully we will also be able to enjoy some good food and wine, but not too much!
I'll report back again after my holiday!
Bon Voyage!
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Weigh-in - week 58
Well, for those of you who have been wondering about my experiment with a reduced fruit intake, I can tell you that the experiment appears to have been a success! I have lost 2.2lbs this week, which brings my weight down to 16st 7.8lbs with another week to go before my holiday. I intend to continue with the reduced fruit intake as it does seem to have made a difference for me.
I treated myself to a fish n chip dinner from the chip shop on Saturday evening and I think it was a mistake, as I spent quite a lot of Saturday evening in the smallest room in the house. I think it will be a while before I do that again, I'll stick to the oven baked fish & chips for now. We also had a barbeque on Sunday afternoon, with good friends and lots of food and beer, so to lose 2.2lbs is a pretty good result after that.
I've been very good at sticking with the crosstrainer, in fact I matched my personal best on Saturday morning. I've not been so good with the kettlebell workout on the alternate days. I really do intend to get back to using the kettlebell, in fact I plan on taking it on holiday with me as I won't have access to a crosstrainer where we're going. I'm also planning on taking my golf clubs, or a subset of them, as our holiday cottage is next to a golf course and I hope to get at least to rounds (of 9 holes) with my son. This will be in addition to the surfing lessons that ThinBlokeInside Minor & I will be having. There is also a big theme park nearby, so that will involve lots of walking too. All in all I expect to be doing quite a lot of exercise while we are on holiday, so hopefully I won't put on too much weight even though I'm not planning on being too strict with the weightwatchers plan.
I'll be back again next week to let you know if I've achieved my target of being under 16st 7lbs for my holiday (unfortunately the target that I set myself at the beginning of the year was under 15st 7lbs, but I missed that due to spending too much time hanging around on plateaus (maybe I should have reduced my fruit intake sooner).
Bye for now.
I treated myself to a fish n chip dinner from the chip shop on Saturday evening and I think it was a mistake, as I spent quite a lot of Saturday evening in the smallest room in the house. I think it will be a while before I do that again, I'll stick to the oven baked fish & chips for now. We also had a barbeque on Sunday afternoon, with good friends and lots of food and beer, so to lose 2.2lbs is a pretty good result after that.
I've been very good at sticking with the crosstrainer, in fact I matched my personal best on Saturday morning. I've not been so good with the kettlebell workout on the alternate days. I really do intend to get back to using the kettlebell, in fact I plan on taking it on holiday with me as I won't have access to a crosstrainer where we're going. I'm also planning on taking my golf clubs, or a subset of them, as our holiday cottage is next to a golf course and I hope to get at least to rounds (of 9 holes) with my son. This will be in addition to the surfing lessons that ThinBlokeInside Minor & I will be having. There is also a big theme park nearby, so that will involve lots of walking too. All in all I expect to be doing quite a lot of exercise while we are on holiday, so hopefully I won't put on too much weight even though I'm not planning on being too strict with the weightwatchers plan.
I'll be back again next week to let you know if I've achieved my target of being under 16st 7lbs for my holiday (unfortunately the target that I set myself at the beginning of the year was under 15st 7lbs, but I missed that due to spending too much time hanging around on plateaus (maybe I should have reduced my fruit intake sooner).
Bye for now.
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Weigh-in - week 57
OK, so I could have been wrong about falling off the edge of the plateau - this week I've gained 0.4lbs! It could have been worse I suppose, but I am a little disappointed with that result - only 2 weeks left now 'till we go on our surfing holiday and I REALLY want to be under 16st 7lbs for the start of it.
I have been reading some of the posts in the various WeightWatchers forums and have decided that my difficulties may be due to eating too much fruit. This is my normail daily fruit intake:
Breakfast: 2 pears, 1 orange, 1 banana
Lunch: 3 tangerines/clementines/satsumas, 1 orange, 1 banana
giving me a total of 7 portions of fruit per day.
I've decided to cut it down to 1 pear and an orange at breakfast time and 3 tangerines/clementine/satsumas and a banana at lunch time to see if that helps. This will also please Mrs ThinBlokeInside as she's always complaining that we're spending a fortune on fruit!
My exercising is still not fully on track as I am still tending to miss out the kettlebell sessions, which is surprising because I think these are the important ones for me to complete in the run up to our holiday - I MUST Try Harder!
Well, I'll be back next week to share the results of my reduced fruit intake experiment, see you then!
I have been reading some of the posts in the various WeightWatchers forums and have decided that my difficulties may be due to eating too much fruit. This is my normail daily fruit intake:
Breakfast: 2 pears, 1 orange, 1 banana
Lunch: 3 tangerines/clementines/satsumas, 1 orange, 1 banana
giving me a total of 7 portions of fruit per day.
I've decided to cut it down to 1 pear and an orange at breakfast time and 3 tangerines/clementine/satsumas and a banana at lunch time to see if that helps. This will also please Mrs ThinBlokeInside as she's always complaining that we're spending a fortune on fruit!
My exercising is still not fully on track as I am still tending to miss out the kettlebell sessions, which is surprising because I think these are the important ones for me to complete in the run up to our holiday - I MUST Try Harder!
Well, I'll be back next week to share the results of my reduced fruit intake experiment, see you then!
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Weigh-in - Week 56
Well it looks like I might have finally tilted over the edge of the plateau that I've been stuck on. After a weekend where the tracking went a little haywire due to a bad start on Friday night (too many beers and a Saturday morning hangover :-( ), I managed to lose 1.4lb resulting in my current weigh-in weight of 16st 9.6lbs! I've not had a gain in weight for 4 consecutive weigh-ins now, so I think I must be over it - here's hoping!
I've re-evaluated my short term goals and have decided that my goal for the start of my Holiday (in just over 3 weeks) is to be below 16st 7lbs and to come back from the holiday at no more than 7lbs above the holiday start weight. Hopefully I'll gain less as I'm planning to be relatively active (surfing & golf plus whatever other activities She Who Must Be Obeyed decides on us doing) and I'll at least be sticking to my WW breakfast even if I eat and drink a little badly at other times.
I've still not managed to get back into the swing of things with the Kettlebell exercises, but I have been pretty good at keeping up with the Crosstrainer (apart from missing out a session on Saturday morning!). It's getting quite close to my holiday (did I mention that?), so I really must get back on track with the full exercise regime if I am to stand any chance at all of successfully learning to surf!
That's all for this week, I'll report back next wee with, hopefully, more good news on the weight loss front! Bye for now!
I've re-evaluated my short term goals and have decided that my goal for the start of my Holiday (in just over 3 weeks) is to be below 16st 7lbs and to come back from the holiday at no more than 7lbs above the holiday start weight. Hopefully I'll gain less as I'm planning to be relatively active (surfing & golf plus whatever other activities She Who Must Be Obeyed decides on us doing) and I'll at least be sticking to my WW breakfast even if I eat and drink a little badly at other times.
I've still not managed to get back into the swing of things with the Kettlebell exercises, but I have been pretty good at keeping up with the Crosstrainer (apart from missing out a session on Saturday morning!). It's getting quite close to my holiday (did I mention that?), so I really must get back on track with the full exercise regime if I am to stand any chance at all of successfully learning to surf!
That's all for this week, I'll report back next wee with, hopefully, more good news on the weight loss front! Bye for now!
Friday, 20 July 2012
Weigh-in - Week 55
This week I've Stayed The Same. I suppose it makes a change as for the last few weeks I've always followed a loss with a gain, so hopefully next week will be another loss.
It's getting quite important to me now to have a few good losses between now and mid-August as this will be when I have to show myself in public in my new wetsuit, which arrived last Friday. I have to say it is a little (very) snug, but then they are meant to be that way. The reason for the wetsuit is that my son & I and some friends are going to learn to surf and, with the weather we've had so far this year, I expect the water to be very cold!
My training is still a little out of kilter - I'm back in the routine for the crosstrainer, but I just can't seem to motivate myself to get back into the kettlebell sessions. I really must try harder as I think these exercises are going to help with my surfing, particularly the press-ups and the planks.
Any way, that's it for this week, good luck with your weight loss efforts.
It's getting quite important to me now to have a few good losses between now and mid-August as this will be when I have to show myself in public in my new wetsuit, which arrived last Friday. I have to say it is a little (very) snug, but then they are meant to be that way. The reason for the wetsuit is that my son & I and some friends are going to learn to surf and, with the weather we've had so far this year, I expect the water to be very cold!
My training is still a little out of kilter - I'm back in the routine for the crosstrainer, but I just can't seem to motivate myself to get back into the kettlebell sessions. I really must try harder as I think these exercises are going to help with my surfing, particularly the press-ups and the planks.
Any way, that's it for this week, good luck with your weight loss efforts.
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Weigh-in - Week 54
Hopefully this means I have fallen of the edge of the annoying plateau that I was stuck on, but only time, and next week's weigh-in, will tell.
The last week has been a bit easier to deal with as there were no special events to cause me to overindulge in the beer & food. I even managed to get back into the normal routine on my crosstrainer (although I still haven't got back into the kettlebell routine).
On Monday of this week I was fitted with a heart monitor to wear for 24 hours, this is so that the cardiologist can, hopefully, find out why my resting heart rate is so slow (45bpm) and if there is anything I should be concerned about. I purposely elected to have it fitted on Monday morning so that I would still be wearing it when I used the crosstrainer on Tuesday morning, this was so that I could be sure that my most intense workout was included as, apart from it beating very fast, I have no idea what my heart is doing when I use the crosstrainer. I probably ought to wear a heart rate monitor when I train, just to ensure that I'm not overdoing it. I should get the results of the monitoring at the end of next week.
As you may have noticed, I am my customary day late with this posting, so I can tell you that I started off this new week's tracking with a bit of a points splurge - it was the member's tour night at my local brewery, so I ended up having 5 pints of very fine ale, which unfortunately adds up to 30 points! I'm now limited to 25 weeklies for this coming weekend, this could be tricky! I guess I'll probably end up dipping into the activity points, so I must make sure that I continue to use the crosstraner this week.
Time to set some new mini-goals, I guess:
16st 10lbs - 60lbs lost.
16st 07lbs - 9 "Silver 7's".
15st 13.9lbs - under 16st.
15st 10.5lbs - 25% of my starting weight lost.
15st 05lbs - my previous lowest adult weight (at 30 years old).
That's all for now folks, I'll be back next week,
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Weigh-in - Week 53
Well here I am at the start of year 2 of the Thin Bloke's fight to get out of this Fat Bloke's body. Unfortunately it would appear as though I am stuck on a plateau at the moment, I have trundled along at around 17st (or just under) for about a month now. Hopefully I will fall of the edge and continue on my journey soon.
The good news is that this week I lost 1lb, which brings me back down to exactly 17st, I would have liked to get back under 17st, but I'm reasonably happy with that result - as you may know, the last 2 weeks have been filled with opportunities for overeating and poor choices! I feel quite pleased that I haven't gone completely mad during this time. Luckily there are no more celebrations like that until our holiday in August, so, hopefully, I can get back on track now.
I have continued to struggle with the exercise routine, in fact, until my weigh in day on Tuesday (yes, this is a late post again), I hadn't used the cross trainer in over a week! I'm not sure why I'm having these motivational problems now but I simply must get over them and get back into the routine.
I'd still like to get down to below 16st by the start of our holiday, but I feel that it is unlikely as I would have to lose an average of 2.5lbs per week and I haven't lost at that rate for a very long time! Whatever happens, I will be fitter, thinner and healthier for this year's holiday than I was for last year's!
I'll report back next week with more news, bye for now.
The good news is that this week I lost 1lb, which brings me back down to exactly 17st, I would have liked to get back under 17st, but I'm reasonably happy with that result - as you may know, the last 2 weeks have been filled with opportunities for overeating and poor choices! I feel quite pleased that I haven't gone completely mad during this time. Luckily there are no more celebrations like that until our holiday in August, so, hopefully, I can get back on track now.
I have continued to struggle with the exercise routine, in fact, until my weigh in day on Tuesday (yes, this is a late post again), I hadn't used the cross trainer in over a week! I'm not sure why I'm having these motivational problems now but I simply must get over them and get back into the routine.
I'd still like to get down to below 16st by the start of our holiday, but I feel that it is unlikely as I would have to lose an average of 2.5lbs per week and I haven't lost at that rate for a very long time! Whatever happens, I will be fitter, thinner and healthier for this year's holiday than I was for last year's!
I'll report back next week with more news, bye for now.
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Weigh-in - Week 52
Well this weekend was, as expected, filled with opportunities to over eat and over drink, as a result I have gained weight at this morning's weigh-in - 1.4lbs, which brings me back up to 17st 1lbs. I am a little annoyed with myself for going back above 17st, but I know that I will get back below that weight fairly soon, although tomorrow night's Wedding Anniversary meal out might not help!
As promised, here are some pictures to show my progress, the first of them was taken when we were on holiday at the beginning of June 2011, as you can see I'm just one big mountain of blubber. Unfortunately it wasn't until I saw this picture that I realised just how big I had become! I should warn readers, if they are offended by photographs of large men in boxer shorts, do not scroll down the page!
These pictures were taken in my second week of Weight Watchers on July 2nd 2011, I'd already lost a few pounds, I weighed 20st 9lbs on my second weigh-in on 5th July, having started at exactly 21st.
And these ones were taken on Sunday 24th June 2012 and I weighed 16st 13lbs.
While I'm still clearly too big, I am very pleased with the progress I have made in the last 12 months - my moobs are significantly smaller, my belly doesn't bulge out quite so far, I have a neck between my head and my shoulders and my arms and legs are smaller.
It's been a long journey and my weight loss has definitely slowed down in the 2nd six months, but I am confident that, if I stick to the WeightWatchers plan, I can continue to lose weight and get down, eventually, to a weight that I am comfortable with. According to the BMI recommendations I need to get down to 13st 6lbs to be in the "normal" range, so I've still got a lot to lose!
See you all again next week and, I promise, I won't frighten the women & children with any more photo's!
As promised, here are some pictures to show my progress, the first of them was taken when we were on holiday at the beginning of June 2011, as you can see I'm just one big mountain of blubber. Unfortunately it wasn't until I saw this picture that I realised just how big I had become! I should warn readers, if they are offended by photographs of large men in boxer shorts, do not scroll down the page!
 |
| This is the picture that made me realise I had to do something! |
And these ones were taken on Sunday 24th June 2012 and I weighed 16st 13lbs.
While I'm still clearly too big, I am very pleased with the progress I have made in the last 12 months - my moobs are significantly smaller, my belly doesn't bulge out quite so far, I have a neck between my head and my shoulders and my arms and legs are smaller.
It's been a long journey and my weight loss has definitely slowed down in the 2nd six months, but I am confident that, if I stick to the WeightWatchers plan, I can continue to lose weight and get down, eventually, to a weight that I am comfortable with. According to the BMI recommendations I need to get down to 13st 6lbs to be in the "normal" range, so I've still got a lot to lose!
See you all again next week and, I promise, I won't frighten the women & children with any more photo's!
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Weigh-in - Week 51 (Flatlining)
Well I managed to regain the 0.4lbs that I lost last week, so I am clearly on a bit of a plateaux at the moment, I hope I can fall off the edge of it soon!. I have managed to remain below 17st, so it's not all bad, especially as I had a tricky weekend to deal with - out to Dinner on Saturday evening and Sunday lunch with my parents. My regular reader will know that my mum cooks a fine Sunday lunch! I also struggled to keep up with my regular exercise regime, so I don't suppose that will have helped!
This coming weekend will also be a tricky one to negotiate as it is Mrs TBI's birthday on Saturday, so we are going out for drinks with friends on Friday night, we're going out for Dinner with our son (I bet he forgets his pocket money again!) on Saturday night and we're going out for Sunday lunch with The Outlaws (so called because they're wanted, of course)! Not only that, but the following Wednesday is our Wedding Anniversary and I shall be taking her to our favourite Italian restaurant - sensible dining choices will NOT be possible there!
I had a call from my doctor the other day, following the ECG which I had a couple of weeks ago to investigate my slow resting heart rate. Apparently everything was normal, but the cardiologist wants me to wear a monitor for 24 hours to get a better picture. I'm now waiting for an appointment to have the monitor fitted, but I will report the results when I get them. I'm certainly not noticing any symptoms that would suggest that there is actually anything wrong, I think I must just be supremely fit :-)
I had a comment added to last week's blog by Chris, who, it would appear, has been inspired by my prose and started his own weight loss journey (obviously he was inspired before reading my blog, but maybe it gave him a bit more inspiration). I wish him the best of luck and I have put a link to his blog,MuffinsMuses, in the list on the left.
I'll be back again next week, which will complete my first year on the WeightWatcher's plan - watch out, there may be photographs! If you're of a sensitive nature it may be worth staying away until the pictures have fallen to the bottom (or even off) the page!
This coming weekend will also be a tricky one to negotiate as it is Mrs TBI's birthday on Saturday, so we are going out for drinks with friends on Friday night, we're going out for Dinner with our son (I bet he forgets his pocket money again!) on Saturday night and we're going out for Sunday lunch with The Outlaws (so called because they're wanted, of course)! Not only that, but the following Wednesday is our Wedding Anniversary and I shall be taking her to our favourite Italian restaurant - sensible dining choices will NOT be possible there!
I had a call from my doctor the other day, following the ECG which I had a couple of weeks ago to investigate my slow resting heart rate. Apparently everything was normal, but the cardiologist wants me to wear a monitor for 24 hours to get a better picture. I'm now waiting for an appointment to have the monitor fitted, but I will report the results when I get them. I'm certainly not noticing any symptoms that would suggest that there is actually anything wrong, I think I must just be supremely fit :-)
I had a comment added to last week's blog by Chris, who, it would appear, has been inspired by my prose and started his own weight loss journey (obviously he was inspired before reading my blog, but maybe it gave him a bit more inspiration). I wish him the best of luck and I have put a link to his blog,MuffinsMuses, in the list on the left.
I'll be back again next week, which will complete my first year on the WeightWatcher's plan - watch out, there may be photographs! If you're of a sensitive nature it may be worth staying away until the pictures have fallen to the bottom (or even off) the page!
Wednesday, 13 June 2012
Weigh-in - Week 50
Just a tiny loss of 0.4lbs this week, bringing my weight down to 16st13.2lbs. It's a little dissapointing as I had hoped to at leaset lose what I put on last week, but never mind - I'm still below 17st, which for me is quite an acheivement.
I have managed to restart my exercising and even managed a new personal best of 14.1 kilometers in 30 minutes on the Crosstrainer! Just remember, though, that distance on a crosstrainer bears no relationship to running distances - there is no way I could run sub 4 minute miles, especially not 8.5 of them in one go! I am still struggling to motivate myself to do the kettlebell exercises, though, hopefully I will regain the enthusiasm and get back on track with that too!
I phoned up my doctor's surgery yesterday for the results of the blood tests that I had last week and was told by the receptionist that all of my results were normal, with my cholesterol level being 4.8 (this is a good result as the last time I had my cholesterol levels tested, it was about 5.9, just on the edge of high). It would seem to me that the only explanation for my abnormally low resting heart rate is that I am, in fact, an athlete! I'm planning on uploading some photographs on my Week 52 blog, so you will be able to judge my athleticism for yourselves :-)
This weekend is likely to be another tricky one to to deal with - on Saturday I'm going to a barbeque in the afternoon, followed by a trip to The Mill at Sonning, which is a Dinner-Theatre, so lot's of opportunity to consume large quantnties of high points food! I will try and prepare for this by having a light breakfast of fruit. Luckily, as I expect to be driving to both events, I won't be drinking much beer or wine, so I'll have a number of weekly points available for the food.
I've been getting quite a few comments about my weight loss recently, mostly from people who haven't seen me for a while. This has been nice, except it always leads to the question "how much more do you want to lose" at which point I reply "oh, about 3 stone", my wife then chimes in with "No, you don't want to lose that much, you;ll be far to thin"! I then point out that even at 14stones I will still be classed as overweight. Eventually I just leave it at "well I see what I look and feel like as I get down towards that sort of weight". I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets those sort of comments from our wives/husbands/partners, but it can be a little annoying.
Anyway, that's anough of my gibberish for this week, I'll report back again next week.
I have managed to restart my exercising and even managed a new personal best of 14.1 kilometers in 30 minutes on the Crosstrainer! Just remember, though, that distance on a crosstrainer bears no relationship to running distances - there is no way I could run sub 4 minute miles, especially not 8.5 of them in one go! I am still struggling to motivate myself to do the kettlebell exercises, though, hopefully I will regain the enthusiasm and get back on track with that too!
I phoned up my doctor's surgery yesterday for the results of the blood tests that I had last week and was told by the receptionist that all of my results were normal, with my cholesterol level being 4.8 (this is a good result as the last time I had my cholesterol levels tested, it was about 5.9, just on the edge of high). It would seem to me that the only explanation for my abnormally low resting heart rate is that I am, in fact, an athlete! I'm planning on uploading some photographs on my Week 52 blog, so you will be able to judge my athleticism for yourselves :-)
This weekend is likely to be another tricky one to to deal with - on Saturday I'm going to a barbeque in the afternoon, followed by a trip to The Mill at Sonning, which is a Dinner-Theatre, so lot's of opportunity to consume large quantnties of high points food! I will try and prepare for this by having a light breakfast of fruit. Luckily, as I expect to be driving to both events, I won't be drinking much beer or wine, so I'll have a number of weekly points available for the food.
I've been getting quite a few comments about my weight loss recently, mostly from people who haven't seen me for a while. This has been nice, except it always leads to the question "how much more do you want to lose" at which point I reply "oh, about 3 stone", my wife then chimes in with "No, you don't want to lose that much, you;ll be far to thin"! I then point out that even at 14stones I will still be classed as overweight. Eventually I just leave it at "well I see what I look and feel like as I get down towards that sort of weight". I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets those sort of comments from our wives/husbands/partners, but it can be a little annoying.
Anyway, that's anough of my gibberish for this week, I'll report back again next week.
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Weigh-in - Week 49
A small gain of 1lb this week, but I'm actually quite happy with that as the Bank Holiday weekend was a tricky one - out for a few beers with friends on Friday night, Sunday lunch barbeque at my parents' house to celebrate my dad's 79th birthday, which obviously meant high value foods and drink, then we went to a Jubilee party on Monday, which meant more high value foods and more beer (The Rebellion Brewery Diamond Porter was especially nice!). I ended up not tracking at all on Sunday & Monday!
That small gain still leaves me below 17stones, so I really am pleased as I had visions of crossing that threshold again. Now this coming weekend should be easier, although not without it's challenges - namely South Africa v England on Saturday afternoon! I shall have to plan carefully for that.
I've been a bit lazy this past week as I haven't used the Crosstrainer or done my Kettlebell exercises since Wednesday. I WILL get back on the crosstrainer tomorrow morning! I don't really have any excuses for not exercising, I think I just felt a bit lazy and found it very easy to make up excuses to keep me from doing it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has the occational blip like this. It is really important that I start again right away, though, as I could easily get used to not exercising in the mornings and that would undo a lot of the hard work I've put in over that last year.
That small gain still leaves me below 17stones, so I really am pleased as I had visions of crossing that threshold again. Now this coming weekend should be easier, although not without it's challenges - namely South Africa v England on Saturday afternoon! I shall have to plan carefully for that.
I've been a bit lazy this past week as I haven't used the Crosstrainer or done my Kettlebell exercises since Wednesday. I WILL get back on the crosstrainer tomorrow morning! I don't really have any excuses for not exercising, I think I just felt a bit lazy and found it very easy to make up excuses to keep me from doing it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has the occational blip like this. It is really important that I start again right away, though, as I could easily get used to not exercising in the mornings and that would undo a lot of the hard work I've put in over that last year.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Weigh-in - Week 48
The tricky part for me now is to make sure that I stay below 17st at next week's weigh-in - I think the Jubilee Weekend may well bring some temptation - especially the Jubilee Party on our local green, where I beleive there is to be a Hog Roast and plenty of Ale. I guess I will just have to be especially careful in the few days before it - maybe I'll have to forego my usual Friday and Saturday beers to save the weekly points for Monday.
I received the results from some tests I had done a couple of weeks ago and was very pleased to see that my Carotid Artery, Atrial Fibrillation, Abdominal Aortic Anuerism and Peripheral Arterial Desease testa all cam back with "Normal" results. The only concern the screening company raised (apart from the fact that my BMI was 32.5) was that my Resting Heartbeat was very slow at 44BPM. I went to see my doctor yesterday and he seems quite happy that there is probably nothing to worry about, but he's booked me in for another ECG next week. I'm also going to have a blood test for Cholesterol levels at the same time (last time I tested my Cholesterol, the results were on the high side of normal, so hopefully it'll be the same this time). The doctor also checked my blood pressure, which is also normal at 120/78, so all in all I think I'm probably pretty healthy considering all of the abuses I've put my body through over the years - overweight (or, more, normally obese) since my teens, smoked until about 2003/4, almost no exercise since I gave up swimming when I discovered beer in my early teens etc. etc.
I mentioned in last week's blog that I was trying to go backwards on the crosstrainer as my warm up for my kettlebell circuits. Well I persevered with it this week and on Monday I managed to do my full 5 minute warm up going backwards. I wasn't as fast as I am when I go forwards, but it definitely feels very different and exercies the legs in a different way. I'm going to stick with it and see if I can up the pace over the next few weeks. Everything else has pretty much stayed the same - 10 pressups and 30 seconds of the plank at the end of each circuit, I think I'm going to stick at 10 pressups for a little while and try to improve the technique, before I try and do more repetitions. I also need to think about introducing what we used to call "squat thrusts" so that I can get used to the movement in preparation for my surfing holiday in August.
Anyway, that's all for now - keep on losing and I'll see you next week!
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Weigh-in - Week 47
Well I never quite got around to posting last week, so my apologies for that. My excuse is that I was just so incredibly disheartened bythe fact that I had gained 2.4lbs since the previous week, putting me back up to 17st 4.2lbs!
This week I have lost most of that and i am now back down to 17st 2.4lbs, which, cosidering that I went out on Saturday night and had far too many beers, followed by sausage & chips on the way home, is not too bad. Not only that, but I ended up eating at a Burger King on Sunday afternoon (Cheddar & Bacon Angus Burger, if you must know), It's a shame really because my sneaky peak on Saturday morning had me weighing 17st 0.8lbs, but I'm am still pleased that I've lost most of that gain.
I tried something different yesterday for my pre-kettlebell warm up - I attempted to go backwards on the Croisstrainer! I have to say it is a really wierd sensation and I found it quite tricky. I had planned to do 5 minutes, but I had to stop after 2 as it was just too strange. I do think I will try to build up my time though as I'm sure it works the muscles in a different manner.
I've now increased the number of press-ups I do at the end of each kettlebell circuit to 10. I see this as a real acheivement as not long ago I really struggled to do 1. Overall I think my levels of fitness have got to be much better than they were when I started this nearly a year ago. I can tell this in that many of the everyday things I do that used to cause me to get out of breath and/or start sweating - like climbing a flight of stairs for example, no longer cause me any bother.
I do find it really annoying that my weight loss has really slowed down! I lost nearly 3 stones in the first six months, but have not quite lost a stone since January. On the bright side though, I am still on a downward trend and I shall do my best to remain on it for the next 12 months if that is what it takes!
I'll be back next week, hopefully much closer to my goal of being under 17stones by June (I think I may have to revise that to under 17stones by the middle of June). 'Till then, bye for now.
This week I have lost most of that and i am now back down to 17st 2.4lbs, which, cosidering that I went out on Saturday night and had far too many beers, followed by sausage & chips on the way home, is not too bad. Not only that, but I ended up eating at a Burger King on Sunday afternoon (Cheddar & Bacon Angus Burger, if you must know), It's a shame really because my sneaky peak on Saturday morning had me weighing 17st 0.8lbs, but I'm am still pleased that I've lost most of that gain.
I tried something different yesterday for my pre-kettlebell warm up - I attempted to go backwards on the Croisstrainer! I have to say it is a really wierd sensation and I found it quite tricky. I had planned to do 5 minutes, but I had to stop after 2 as it was just too strange. I do think I will try to build up my time though as I'm sure it works the muscles in a different manner.
I've now increased the number of press-ups I do at the end of each kettlebell circuit to 10. I see this as a real acheivement as not long ago I really struggled to do 1. Overall I think my levels of fitness have got to be much better than they were when I started this nearly a year ago. I can tell this in that many of the everyday things I do that used to cause me to get out of breath and/or start sweating - like climbing a flight of stairs for example, no longer cause me any bother.
I do find it really annoying that my weight loss has really slowed down! I lost nearly 3 stones in the first six months, but have not quite lost a stone since January. On the bright side though, I am still on a downward trend and I shall do my best to remain on it for the next 12 months if that is what it takes!
I'll be back next week, hopefully much closer to my goal of being under 17stones by June (I think I may have to revise that to under 17stones by the middle of June). 'Till then, bye for now.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Weigh-in - Week 45
Well after last week's big loss I was hoping for more of the same, unfortunately it wasn't to be - just 0.2lbs off this week! I blame it on the Chicken Fajitas that I had for dinner on Monday, the night before my weigh-in, also on the fact that Monday was a bank holiday so I was able to have a few beers throughout the day. Hopefully I will lose more this week!
As you know, I ordered a new Kettlebell last week, which arrived on Thursday. It's 12kg, which feels quite a bit heavier than my original 7.5kg 'bell - I suppose that is because it is quite a bit heavier. After doing my first session with it on Friday morning it occurred to me that it would be very tiring to have to carry it around with me all day, then it occurred to me that I've actually lost slightly more than the equivalent of 2 of them!
That's all for this week - I'm a bit disheatened by the tiny loss this week and connot think of anything further to add, apart from that I won't let it get me down and I will lose more weight at next week's weigh-in!
As you know, I ordered a new Kettlebell last week, which arrived on Thursday. It's 12kg, which feels quite a bit heavier than my original 7.5kg 'bell - I suppose that is because it is quite a bit heavier. After doing my first session with it on Friday morning it occurred to me that it would be very tiring to have to carry it around with me all day, then it occurred to me that I've actually lost slightly more than the equivalent of 2 of them!
That's all for this week - I'm a bit disheatened by the tiny loss this week and connot think of anything further to add, apart from that I won't let it get me down and I will lose more weight at next week's weigh-in!
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Weigh-in - Week 44
Well I'm really please this week as I have lost 3.8lbs to bring my current weight down to 17st 2lbs. I think this is probably my biggest loss since I started the Weightwatchers plan! I think the weight loss gods are trying to make up for the gain I had last week!
I've got a couple of mini-goals coming up:
I also had a pretty good NSV this week - my wife bought me a couple of pairs of shorts (just in case we have a summer this year, she does like to be prepared). One pair had a 38" waist, while the other pair had a 36" waist, she was expecting to have to take the 36" ones back - I said no, it'll be the 38's that have to go. I was right :-) I was so pleased that I got a new pair of jeans too!
On the exercise front, I've continued with the Kettlebell routine, but I've now increased the press-ups to 7 reps on each circuit and am up to 25 seconds of the plank on each circuit. I've also ordered a heavier Kettlebell, which should arrive tomorrow. I'm really beginning to feel as though I'm acheiving a reasonable level of fitness now, although with all the blubber I'm carrying I don't expect any visible signs to show.
I've also cancelled my subscription to Weightwatchers as I've found an iPhone app that can track my points just as effectively as the WW app, but it doesn't cost me £10.00 per month. The points database seems to be a bit better too. I think Weightwatchers are not offering a big enough price differential between the online membership and the full membership to make online membership worthwhile when there are other resources available. I also think that they ought to offer a "couples" membership at a reduced rate as £20.00 per month for 2 people to access exactly the same resources is a bit steep in my opinion and must put a lot of partners off joining.
Anyway, bye for now - I'll be back again next week - will you?
I've got a couple of mini-goals coming up:
- Get into the 16s (and also my 8th silver star). - just over 2lbs to go.
- 16st 11.2lbs - 20% from my starting weight - 4.8lbs to go.
I also had a pretty good NSV this week - my wife bought me a couple of pairs of shorts (just in case we have a summer this year, she does like to be prepared). One pair had a 38" waist, while the other pair had a 36" waist, she was expecting to have to take the 36" ones back - I said no, it'll be the 38's that have to go. I was right :-) I was so pleased that I got a new pair of jeans too!
On the exercise front, I've continued with the Kettlebell routine, but I've now increased the press-ups to 7 reps on each circuit and am up to 25 seconds of the plank on each circuit. I've also ordered a heavier Kettlebell, which should arrive tomorrow. I'm really beginning to feel as though I'm acheiving a reasonable level of fitness now, although with all the blubber I'm carrying I don't expect any visible signs to show.
I've also cancelled my subscription to Weightwatchers as I've found an iPhone app that can track my points just as effectively as the WW app, but it doesn't cost me £10.00 per month. The points database seems to be a bit better too. I think Weightwatchers are not offering a big enough price differential between the online membership and the full membership to make online membership worthwhile when there are other resources available. I also think that they ought to offer a "couples" membership at a reduced rate as £20.00 per month for 2 people to access exactly the same resources is a bit steep in my opinion and must put a lot of partners off joining.
Anyway, bye for now - I'll be back again next week - will you?
Tuesday, 24 April 2012
Weigh-in - Week 43
Well it's not a good result this week, I've regained the 1.2bs that I lost at last week's weigh-in. I'm really at a loss to explain why as I have been tracking everything as accurately as possible and I haven't exceeded my allowances. I've also exercised regularly - 3 times on the crosstrainer and 3 times with the kettlebell. All I can do is continue to track, continue to exercise and hope that next week's weigh-in result makes up for this week's dissapointment.
having mentioned my exercises, I feel quite proud of myself that I have now increased my press-ups from 5 at the end of each set to 6! I intend to increase this by one each week until I reach 20. I've also increased the reps I do with the kettlebell for the one-armed rows and the kettlebell presses from 5 to 10. I think I really do need to invest in a heavier bell as I think this one is a bit too light for me now I've got used to what I'm supposed to be doing with it. I can get a 12Kg one from Argos, But I am worried that I might find this a bit too light, after all the guy on the cubedwellerfitness site, that I got my kettlebell workout from, recommended men to start at 16Kg!
That's all for this week!
having mentioned my exercises, I feel quite proud of myself that I have now increased my press-ups from 5 at the end of each set to 6! I intend to increase this by one each week until I reach 20. I've also increased the reps I do with the kettlebell for the one-armed rows and the kettlebell presses from 5 to 10. I think I really do need to invest in a heavier bell as I think this one is a bit too light for me now I've got used to what I'm supposed to be doing with it. I can get a 12Kg one from Argos, But I am worried that I might find this a bit too light, after all the guy on the cubedwellerfitness site, that I got my kettlebell workout from, recommended men to start at 16Kg!
That's all for this week!
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Weigh-in - Week 42
Well I'm posting on time this week, which must mean that I have lost weight - 1.2lbs! I'm very pleased with that - it's not a big loss but, at the same time, it's big enough to be worthwhile. I could do with improving my average weekly loss to around 1.5lbs, as this is what I need to be doing to reach my, rather loose, target of about 15st 7lb by the time I go on holiday in August, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
This was made much easier by not having any food & drink related events to attend, so I was able to track correctly and ensured that I didn't overindulge - I was even able to have a couple of Scones with jam and Clotted Cream for my lunch on Saturday and still stay within my points allocation of 47 dailies plus 49 weeklies!
In fact this week was remarkably easy and I even managed to have 24 Weekly Points left over by yesterday, I don't normally have so many at the end ofthe week, so this is something of an acheivement.
My exercising has also been going well, although I did miss out my Crosstrainer on Thursday, which I took as a rest day (I normally have my rest day on Sunday). I still managed to do 3 days on the Crosstrainer and 3 days using the kettlebell. In fact I've amended my kettlebell routine slightly by adding 5 press-ups and 15-20 seconds of "the plank" at the end of each set. I'm really very pleased about doing the press-ups as, not so long ago, I could barely manage 1, never mind 5 at a time. Obviously, as time goes on, I shall add more reps to the press-ups and more time to the planks (I started at 15 seconds a tome and am now doing 20 seconds, so I'm already improving).
I've come to the conclusion that the 7.5kg kettlebell is already too light, so I'm going to be looking for a heavier one at the beginning of May. I'll probably go up to 12kg as I don't want to run the risk of hurting myself if I'm getting any of the exercises wrong. If anyone wants to see what I'm doing with the kettlebell, I posted a link to the beginners routine I'm following in an earlier post, but here it is again:
Beginner's Kettlebell Workout
It seems like a reasonably safe introduction to the kettlebell, so I'm happy to continue with it but if anyone has any suggestions of anything better, please feel free to comment here on the blog or in my thread on the WeightWatchers Men's Arena.
That's all from me for this week, so 'till next time just keep on losing!
This was made much easier by not having any food & drink related events to attend, so I was able to track correctly and ensured that I didn't overindulge - I was even able to have a couple of Scones with jam and Clotted Cream for my lunch on Saturday and still stay within my points allocation of 47 dailies plus 49 weeklies!
In fact this week was remarkably easy and I even managed to have 24 Weekly Points left over by yesterday, I don't normally have so many at the end ofthe week, so this is something of an acheivement.
My exercising has also been going well, although I did miss out my Crosstrainer on Thursday, which I took as a rest day (I normally have my rest day on Sunday). I still managed to do 3 days on the Crosstrainer and 3 days using the kettlebell. In fact I've amended my kettlebell routine slightly by adding 5 press-ups and 15-20 seconds of "the plank" at the end of each set. I'm really very pleased about doing the press-ups as, not so long ago, I could barely manage 1, never mind 5 at a time. Obviously, as time goes on, I shall add more reps to the press-ups and more time to the planks (I started at 15 seconds a tome and am now doing 20 seconds, so I'm already improving).
I've come to the conclusion that the 7.5kg kettlebell is already too light, so I'm going to be looking for a heavier one at the beginning of May. I'll probably go up to 12kg as I don't want to run the risk of hurting myself if I'm getting any of the exercises wrong. If anyone wants to see what I'm doing with the kettlebell, I posted a link to the beginners routine I'm following in an earlier post, but here it is again:
Beginner's Kettlebell Workout
It seems like a reasonably safe introduction to the kettlebell, so I'm happy to continue with it but if anyone has any suggestions of anything better, please feel free to comment here on the blog or in my thread on the WeightWatchers Men's Arena.
That's all from me for this week, so 'till next time just keep on losing!
Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Weigh-in - Week 41
This week I'm happy to report a completely unexpected loss of 1.8lbs at this morning's weigh-in! Why, I hear you ask, is the loss so unexpected?
The answer, I'm afraid, is that I have really struggled to track over that last week AND I have struggled with my exercising too.
It all strated on Thursday, which was my 51st birthday! I really felt like having a day off the Crosstrainer, so I didn't bother with it at all. Then I was taken out for lunch by my lovely wife (who is walking on crutches at the moment following an operation on her knee) and my wonderful 12 year old son. Unfortunately lunch was at a Thai Restaurant and consisted of a rather nice all you can eat buffet, followed by a very fattening desert (chocolate pudding with bits of Crunchie bars in it).
Then, on Friday, I decided to skip the kettlebell routine as I was playing 9 holes of golf with my son and my brother-in-law. This was followed by a pint in the bar, then a lunch at my mum's. In the evening neither my wife nor I could be bothered to cook, so it was chicken & chips from the local chippie for dinner.
On Saturday I did at least manage to do the Crosstrainer and I think things were a little better points-wise, although I did have some beer in the evening.
Sunday was another bad day as my brother was in town, so we all went to my mum's for a slap up Sunday lunch to celebrate our birthdays - another one impossible to point.
Monday would have been ok, but for the nachos with cheese and jalapenos that I shared with my son in the cinema (The Pirates - it was very funny!). I did at least manage to do my kettlebell workout.
As you can see it's been a very difficult week and I am truly at a loss to understand how I could have lost weight after a week like that. I can only assume that, as I knew that most of the food wasn't going to help me, I must have subconciously been reducing my portion sizes to compensate.
As a result of this week's loss, I have now lost just over 50lbs and am at around the weight I was when I got married in June 1998. My next mini goal is to get under 17stones - I will be very pleased if I can do that by the end of May (and extatic if I can do it sooner than that)!
Also, as a result of this week's loss, the number of Activity Points that I earn for 30 minutes on the crosstrainer has reduced from 9 down to 8!
I'll report back again next week.
Tuesday, 27 March 2012
Weigh-in - Week 39
Good news - another 2lbs lost this week and I'm feeling pleased. I have to admit I was getting a little downhearted when everything was going so slowly at the beginning of the year, but now I seem to have had some good losses and no gains for the last few weeks. This 2lb loss puts me down to 17st 6.7lbs, which means I have been awarded another "Silver 7 Star", making 7 in all, a total loss of 49.2lbs! Oh, and my daily points allowance has just gone down to 47.
I'm now just 0.8lbs away from my next mini goal, which is 17st 6lbs - the weight I was when I got married on 1998!
As you will know if you've been keeping up to date with this blog I added in a "kettlebell" workout to my weekly schedule last Wednesday. I have to say my thighs were in agony on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so much so that I couldn't do another kettelbell workout until Sunday, although I was able to force myself on the crosstrainer on Thursday & Saturday (I even got a new personal best on Saturday). Luckily there is no pain from Sunday's workout, so I expect to be able to do the kettlebell every other day from now.
I also managed to get out for 9 holes of golf with my son on Sunday, we both played rather badly, but when I checked my scorecards on my iPhone I discovered that we hadn't actually played since April 9th last year - it's no wonder we were a little rusty. I'm hoping we can get out for another round on Saturday, but if not I'm taking a day off for my birthday next week and we'll get a round in then. I'm really very keen for William to play golf as often as he can as it is a great game and I think he has the potential to be quite good at it (certainly a lot better than me!).
I haven't added anything to me repetoire of recipes this week, so I've had to make do with the South American Chilli, Steak in Ale Stew and a couple of other of my staples. I have to say I really am eating a lot better than I was before I started my "diet". The food I'm eating is generally much more tasty, is definitely healthier and I am almost never hungy! This weightwatchers plan is to be recommended to anyone that enjoys their food.
See you all again next week after, hopefully, another good loss!
I'm now just 0.8lbs away from my next mini goal, which is 17st 6lbs - the weight I was when I got married on 1998!
As you will know if you've been keeping up to date with this blog I added in a "kettlebell" workout to my weekly schedule last Wednesday. I have to say my thighs were in agony on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so much so that I couldn't do another kettelbell workout until Sunday, although I was able to force myself on the crosstrainer on Thursday & Saturday (I even got a new personal best on Saturday). Luckily there is no pain from Sunday's workout, so I expect to be able to do the kettlebell every other day from now.
I also managed to get out for 9 holes of golf with my son on Sunday, we both played rather badly, but when I checked my scorecards on my iPhone I discovered that we hadn't actually played since April 9th last year - it's no wonder we were a little rusty. I'm hoping we can get out for another round on Saturday, but if not I'm taking a day off for my birthday next week and we'll get a round in then. I'm really very keen for William to play golf as often as he can as it is a great game and I think he has the potential to be quite good at it (certainly a lot better than me!).
I haven't added anything to me repetoire of recipes this week, so I've had to make do with the South American Chilli, Steak in Ale Stew and a couple of other of my staples. I have to say I really am eating a lot better than I was before I started my "diet". The food I'm eating is generally much more tasty, is definitely healthier and I am almost never hungy! This weightwatchers plan is to be recommended to anyone that enjoys their food.
See you all again next week after, hopefully, another good loss!
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
My Kettlebell Workout
For those that are interested the new workout that I did this morning can be found here:
http://cubedwellerfitness.com/2011/04/kettlebell-routines-beginner-workout/
I started off with 5 minutes on the crosstrainer to warm up then did:
10 x Kettlebell Swings
5 x Figure of 8 in each direction
10 x squats
5 x One Arm Rows each arm
5 x Floor press each arm
I repeated that 3 times then finished with a 10 second plank (pathetic, I know).
It didn't seem all that energetic in the video, but I was sweating by the end.
The guy in the video suggests that men should start with a 16kg kettlebell, but I was using a 7.5kg one and that seems like quite enough for me to be starting with. I think any heavier and I would risk injury if I was to get these exercises wrong - maybe I'll get a bigger one in a few weeks time.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Weigh-in - week 38
Well, after last week's small gain, I am very pleased to announce that this week I lost 2lbs, bringing my total loss to date to 47.2lbs!
It's a good loss for what has been a difficult week which included a Curry & Quiz night at the rugby club, which included a few beers and 2 portions of curry! I felt quite cross with myself later for having the extra curry, but I blame it on 2 things - 1. It tasted very nice and 2. I'd already had a few beers by the time the curry was served, which helped to reduce my weightwatchers resolve somewhat!
The Curry & Quiz night was, of course, followed by England v Ireland on Saturday afternoon, when, of course, there was more beer to be consumed followed by a very nice Hairy Bikers Chilli.
On Sunday I decided that it was time I thought about adding something more to my exercise routine of going on the crosstrainer 3 times a week, so it was off to Asda where I recalled seeing some Kettlebells at a resonable price. I bought the largest, which was 7.5kg for £12.00. When I got home, I finally laid the rubber matting, that I got a while ago from Costco, on the garage floor ready for some early morning exercise on Monday.
I started the exercise on Monday morning with 5 minutes on the CT to warm up and then attempted to folloow the instructions for a few kettlebell exercises that came on a single sheet of paper with the weight. I got on OK with it, but I'm not sure that I'm doing the Kettlebell Swing right and I do need to have a set routine to follow otherwise I'll just end up playing at it. Since yesterday morning I have found The Cube Dwellers Beginners Kettlebell Workout which I will try to follow for a while. The guy on there does suggest a 16kg kettlebell for a man, so I already feel a little inadequate! I'll try out this workout for the first time tomorrow!
Thankfully the Rugby is now over, so there are no more excuses for drinking too much beer for a while now, so hopefully my weight loss can pick up the pace a bit now - I'd really like to get back up to averaging 2lbs a week, but only time will tell if that will happen.
Good luck with your weight losses, I'll report back next week!
It's a good loss for what has been a difficult week which included a Curry & Quiz night at the rugby club, which included a few beers and 2 portions of curry! I felt quite cross with myself later for having the extra curry, but I blame it on 2 things - 1. It tasted very nice and 2. I'd already had a few beers by the time the curry was served, which helped to reduce my weightwatchers resolve somewhat!
The Curry & Quiz night was, of course, followed by England v Ireland on Saturday afternoon, when, of course, there was more beer to be consumed followed by a very nice Hairy Bikers Chilli.
On Sunday I decided that it was time I thought about adding something more to my exercise routine of going on the crosstrainer 3 times a week, so it was off to Asda where I recalled seeing some Kettlebells at a resonable price. I bought the largest, which was 7.5kg for £12.00. When I got home, I finally laid the rubber matting, that I got a while ago from Costco, on the garage floor ready for some early morning exercise on Monday.
I started the exercise on Monday morning with 5 minutes on the CT to warm up and then attempted to folloow the instructions for a few kettlebell exercises that came on a single sheet of paper with the weight. I got on OK with it, but I'm not sure that I'm doing the Kettlebell Swing right and I do need to have a set routine to follow otherwise I'll just end up playing at it. Since yesterday morning I have found The Cube Dwellers Beginners Kettlebell Workout which I will try to follow for a while. The guy on there does suggest a 16kg kettlebell for a man, so I already feel a little inadequate! I'll try out this workout for the first time tomorrow!
Thankfully the Rugby is now over, so there are no more excuses for drinking too much beer for a while now, so hopefully my weight loss can pick up the pace a bit now - I'd really like to get back up to averaging 2lbs a week, but only time will tell if that will happen.
Good luck with your weight losses, I'll report back next week!
Wednesday, 14 March 2012
Weigh-in - Week 37
Apologies for my late posting this week, I guess I was a little disappointed with my small gain of 0.2lbs at my weigh-in yesterday. I should know by now that I'm going to have the odd gain, especially after having a few beers and a curry on Sunday when I watched England beat France in the Six Nations.
I suppose the reason I didn't post yesterday was that I was hoping to report a loss after a Sneaky Peak this morning - unfortunately the SP was an STS, so I guess I'll just have to accept it and move on.
This weekend is likely to be another tricky one - I'm going to a "Curry 'n' Quiz" night at the rugby club on Friday night and then it's England v Ireland to watch in the pub on Saturday afternoon, so lots of opportunity to consume excess Pro Points, if I'm lucky I'll Stay The Same at next week's weigh-in.
After this weekend there's no more excesses planned until Easter, when it's my birthday, so hopefully I'll resume the downward trend.
I'll report back next week, meanwhile good luck with your weight loss journey.
I suppose the reason I didn't post yesterday was that I was hoping to report a loss after a Sneaky Peak this morning - unfortunately the SP was an STS, so I guess I'll just have to accept it and move on.
This weekend is likely to be another tricky one - I'm going to a "Curry 'n' Quiz" night at the rugby club on Friday night and then it's England v Ireland to watch in the pub on Saturday afternoon, so lots of opportunity to consume excess Pro Points, if I'm lucky I'll Stay The Same at next week's weigh-in.
After this weekend there's no more excesses planned until Easter, when it's my birthday, so hopefully I'll resume the downward trend.
I'll report back next week, meanwhile good luck with your weight loss journey.
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Weigh-in - Week 36
Not a great deal to report this week - just a small loss of 0.4lbs but it is going in the right direction. I would have liked to lose more and felt that I should have done as I was well within my points allowances for the week, with the only minor hiccup being a trip to "Noodle Nation" on Friday evening. I really didn't know how to point the meal, so pointed it at 30 pps for the food, which used up my daily allowance and then I used some of my weekly points for the drinks.
This week was a measurements week (I take my measurements every 4 weeks) and I am pleased to report that, even though my weight loss has been a little slow of late, I have lost 2cm from my chest and 2cm from my waist since week 32.
On Saturday I made a rather nice Steak & Ale Stew in our Slow Cooker. I cheated a bit by using a packet for the sauce (Colemans Slow-Cooker Sauce I think), but the beer I used was Rebellion "Roasted Nuts" and it created a really tasty stew. I had it with roasted butternut squash and a small dumpling for a total of 12 pps. It was so nice that I had the last portion for dinner this evening. Next time I make it I will probably double the amount of sauce because it had started to reduce a bit too much before the stew was fully cooked (the carrots were still a bit hard), another half an hour would have done it, but it was delicious all the same.
I'm beginning to build up a good selection of easy to prepare low point but healthy and filling meals, so the plan should remain satisfying and continue to work. I'm eating more fruit and vegetables than I have ever done and am feeling much better for it.
I'm also definitely back into the routine with my exercising on the crosstrainer - I'm doing it 3 times a week and managed to beat my own personal best twice last week (13.8K in 30 minutes according to the crosstrainer). Pretty soon I'm going to have to introduce some other exercises to prepare myself for the surfng lessons in our summer holiday, I'm not really sure what exercises would be best though.
That's all for now, I'll report back again next week.
This week was a measurements week (I take my measurements every 4 weeks) and I am pleased to report that, even though my weight loss has been a little slow of late, I have lost 2cm from my chest and 2cm from my waist since week 32.
On Saturday I made a rather nice Steak & Ale Stew in our Slow Cooker. I cheated a bit by using a packet for the sauce (Colemans Slow-Cooker Sauce I think), but the beer I used was Rebellion "Roasted Nuts" and it created a really tasty stew. I had it with roasted butternut squash and a small dumpling for a total of 12 pps. It was so nice that I had the last portion for dinner this evening. Next time I make it I will probably double the amount of sauce because it had started to reduce a bit too much before the stew was fully cooked (the carrots were still a bit hard), another half an hour would have done it, but it was delicious all the same.
I'm beginning to build up a good selection of easy to prepare low point but healthy and filling meals, so the plan should remain satisfying and continue to work. I'm eating more fruit and vegetables than I have ever done and am feeling much better for it.
I'm also definitely back into the routine with my exercising on the crosstrainer - I'm doing it 3 times a week and managed to beat my own personal best twice last week (13.8K in 30 minutes according to the crosstrainer). Pretty soon I'm going to have to introduce some other exercises to prepare myself for the surfng lessons in our summer holiday, I'm not really sure what exercises would be best though.
That's all for now, I'll report back again next week.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Weigh-in - Week 35 - 15% Off!
To say I'm chuffed would be an understatement, especially after the ups and downs of the last couple of months! I've now set a new target in the WeightWatchers tracker of 16st 11.2lbs, which will be 20% of my starting weight.
The Sneaky Peaks have continued though and I can say with some certainty that if it wasn't for the beer consumed during the England v Wales match and the following Curry, I would almost certainly have lost more, as my SP on Saturday morning showed 17st 10.0lbs. I'm not upset by this though, the whole idea of the weightwatchers plan is to lose slowly and steadily without depriving oneself of the food and drink that one enjoys. And I did enjoy the beer and the curry!
For this coming week I have an empty diary, so no nights out, no meals out, or at my mum's, and no rugby to watch in the pub. With the complete lack of danger on the consumption front, I should be in for a good loss at next week's weigh-in - what's the betting I have a gain?
See you again next week!
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
Weigh-in - Week 34
Stayed The Same!
Well it makes a change as, on recent form, I would have expected to have a small gain this week just as I have done after every loss since the beginning of January!
This week I was actually expecting a small gain as that was what my Sneaky Peeks were telling me to expect, especially as I went to my mum & dad's for a family meal (including my outlaws) on Sunday. I find it very difficult to control my food intake when I have a meal at my mum's because, not only is she an excellent cook, but she also insists on offering several differing deserts, each of which has to be sampled. I made some educated guesses at the points, but I wasn't at all surprised by my SP result yesterday morning.
Having said all that, it leaves me very pleased to register an STS at my official weigh-in today. I do think I must be about due a good loss soon though!
Some of my regular readers (do I have any?) may remember that a few months ago I gave up wii fit jogging due to suffering from Achilles Tendonitis, well on Friday I decided that the pain from it has almost completely gone (it only hurts first thing in the morning and only for the first few minutes after getting up) and I would try and restart the Couch 2 5K program. Since I do quite a lot on the crosstrainer, I felt that I would probably be able to start at Week 2, Day 1 - this was a mistake! Firsly running/jogging uses a slightly different set of muscles than the crosstrainer and my thighs were stiff until this morning! Secondly my Achilles Tendonitis came back with a vengeance! I was in quite a lot of pain with it all day on Friday and less pain, but still all day, on Saturday! This morning it seems to have reverted to it's pre-jog levels. Needless to say I won't be trying Couch 2 5K again until the pain has completely dissappeared for at least a couple of months, and even then I shall start on Week 1 no matter how fit I think I am!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to another week of tracking and exercising (on the crosstrainer every other day) - the only thing that I have planned that might cause a bump in the road is watching England v Wales in the pub on Saturday afternoon, which will obviously use up a few weekly points. Luckily I don't have a ticket to the match as that would be even more costly in terms if ProPoints (I did enter a Daily Mail competition to win a pair though, so fingers crossed!).
I'll report back again next week!
See Ya!
Well it makes a change as, on recent form, I would have expected to have a small gain this week just as I have done after every loss since the beginning of January!
This week I was actually expecting a small gain as that was what my Sneaky Peeks were telling me to expect, especially as I went to my mum & dad's for a family meal (including my outlaws) on Sunday. I find it very difficult to control my food intake when I have a meal at my mum's because, not only is she an excellent cook, but she also insists on offering several differing deserts, each of which has to be sampled. I made some educated guesses at the points, but I wasn't at all surprised by my SP result yesterday morning.
Having said all that, it leaves me very pleased to register an STS at my official weigh-in today. I do think I must be about due a good loss soon though!
Some of my regular readers (do I have any?) may remember that a few months ago I gave up wii fit jogging due to suffering from Achilles Tendonitis, well on Friday I decided that the pain from it has almost completely gone (it only hurts first thing in the morning and only for the first few minutes after getting up) and I would try and restart the Couch 2 5K program. Since I do quite a lot on the crosstrainer, I felt that I would probably be able to start at Week 2, Day 1 - this was a mistake! Firsly running/jogging uses a slightly different set of muscles than the crosstrainer and my thighs were stiff until this morning! Secondly my Achilles Tendonitis came back with a vengeance! I was in quite a lot of pain with it all day on Friday and less pain, but still all day, on Saturday! This morning it seems to have reverted to it's pre-jog levels. Needless to say I won't be trying Couch 2 5K again until the pain has completely dissappeared for at least a couple of months, and even then I shall start on Week 1 no matter how fit I think I am!
Anyway, I'm looking forward to another week of tracking and exercising (on the crosstrainer every other day) - the only thing that I have planned that might cause a bump in the road is watching England v Wales in the pub on Saturday afternoon, which will obviously use up a few weekly points. Luckily I don't have a ticket to the match as that would be even more costly in terms if ProPoints (I did enter a Daily Mail competition to win a pair though, so fingers crossed!).
I'll report back again next week!
See Ya!
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
Weigh-in Week 33
Once again this week I was Sneaky Peeking and, once again, it has been shown to be a bad idea:
Tuesday (Weigh-in) 18st 0.2lb
Wednesday 18st 1.0lb (bugger!)
Thursday 18st 1.0lb
Friday 18st 1.0lb
Saturday 17st 12.4lb (woohoo!)
Sunday 18st 0.4lb (bugger!)
Monday 18st 1.4lb (bugger even more!)
Today (Weigh-in) 17st 13.0lb (woohoo!)
I think that the increase on Sunday & Monday was probably caused by the beers that I had on Saturday whilst watching England struggle against Italy on Saturday afternoon, even though they were well within my ProPoints Allowance - I had 13 Weekly and 18 Activity Points left at the end of the week.
Having finally reached my Christmas target of below 18stones, I have now set myself some mini-targets:
- 17st 11.9lbs 15% of my starting weight (this is my next major target actually)
- 17st 7lbs 7th silver star (not that I collect them as I'm an online WighWatcher)
- 17st 6lbs 50lbs loss and also the wight I was when I got married 14 years ago!
- 17st 0lbs 8th silver star
- 16st 13.99999lbs Under 17st
- 16st 11.2lbs 20% of my starting weight
- 16st 7lbs 9th silver star
- 16st 1lbs BMI of 29.9 which would make me "overweight"
- 15st 13.99999lbs Under 16st
- 15st 10.5lbs 25% of my starting weight
Before I finish, I just want to shout WELL DONE at Tom Hicks for reaching his goal last week! Tom's blog has been one of the things that has inspired me to stick with WeightWatchers, I you haven't read it, I recommend that you do - he's been through all of the highs and lows and has managed to get there!
See you all again next week.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Weigh-in - Week 32
After my dissapointment of last week, I decided that I would have some Sneaky Peeks (SP's) - here is my SP story and, I think, a pretty good indication of why they are not a particularly good idea:
Tuesday (Weigh-in day): 18st 1.2lbs
Thursday (1st SP): 18st 0.4lbs Happy :-)
Friday 18st 0.4lbs Happy :-)
Saturday 18st 0.4lbs OK
Sunday 18st 0.4lbs Happy (had some beers yesterday - watching the Rugby)
Monday 18st 2.2lbs What the ...? Sad :-(
Tuesday (Weigh-in day): 18st 0.2lbs Happy again :-)
I should point out that I weigh myself at home, so all of these weigh-ins were on the same scales and before breakfast (about 07:45 during the week and about 09:00 Sat-Sun). It seems odd that I can remain the same for 4 days, then gain 1.8lbs and then lose 2.0lbs in 2 days. I am, of course, very pleased that my official weigh in day was today and not yesterday, but I will be interested to see what I weigh tomorrow. See? I'm already back in the habit of Sneaky Peeks! I'd worked quite hard to stop doing that!
I think Sneaky Peaks are even more unwise when using different sets of scales because these can vary hugely. My advice to anyone that asks is avoid Sneaky Peaks, but, if you must have them, make sure you're using the same scales and do them at the same time of day.
Looking forward, I hope, to being in the 17's next week!
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Weigh-in - Week 31 - Aaaargh!
After last week's loss I was hoping for another good loss this week, but it was not to be! Instead I've gained 0.6lbs, putting me back up to 18st 1.2lbs! I STILL haven't achieved my Christmas target!
I'm feeling quite upset at the moment as I just can't seem to get back on to the downward path.
I don't think I over did anything lats week - most days (Tuesday - Friday and Yesterday) I was within my daily points allowance, I exercised on the Crosstrainer every other day (13.4k in 30minutes). It was only at the weekend that I went over my daily points allowance - this is how it went:
On Saturday we had some old friends coming to visit, so my wife decided that she would do a buffet lunch (which was a good idea as they were very late!). I decided that I would just have some fruit for breakfast (0pp). Unfortunately by the time we started eating it was quite late in the afternoon and I was quite hungry, so I ate quite a lot and, as we all know, buffet food is difficult to track and tends to be quite high in points too. I allocated my full daily allowance to this (49pp). I also had over the course of the afternoon and evening 6 pints of wonderful Rebellion "Roasted Nuts" ale (36pp).
On Sunday we had a late brunch of 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, 2 rashers of bacon, mushrooms and a slice of toast (17pp) and then dinner in the evening was a curry (32pp) washed down with 2 pints of Roasted Nuts (11pp).
I can only assume that I massively underestimated the points i used on Saturday and that having the curry on Sunday meant that there was no time to recover by the time I weighed in this morning. I'm going to have a Sneaky Peak tomorrow morning to see if an extra day is enough to undo the damage. I will post a special report to let you know the result.
This coming weekend will also be a tricky one, although I plan to be a bit more careful with what I eat, as I shall be watching Scotland v England in the Six Nations on Saturday. Obviously there will be an amount of ale consumed, but I will ensure that it is well within my points allowances and I shall make a point of not overindulging on Sunday!
I'm feeling quite upset at the moment as I just can't seem to get back on to the downward path.
I don't think I over did anything lats week - most days (Tuesday - Friday and Yesterday) I was within my daily points allowance, I exercised on the Crosstrainer every other day (13.4k in 30minutes). It was only at the weekend that I went over my daily points allowance - this is how it went:
On Saturday we had some old friends coming to visit, so my wife decided that she would do a buffet lunch (which was a good idea as they were very late!). I decided that I would just have some fruit for breakfast (0pp). Unfortunately by the time we started eating it was quite late in the afternoon and I was quite hungry, so I ate quite a lot and, as we all know, buffet food is difficult to track and tends to be quite high in points too. I allocated my full daily allowance to this (49pp). I also had over the course of the afternoon and evening 6 pints of wonderful Rebellion "Roasted Nuts" ale (36pp).
On Sunday we had a late brunch of 2 scrambled eggs, 2 sausages, 2 rashers of bacon, mushrooms and a slice of toast (17pp) and then dinner in the evening was a curry (32pp) washed down with 2 pints of Roasted Nuts (11pp).
I can only assume that I massively underestimated the points i used on Saturday and that having the curry on Sunday meant that there was no time to recover by the time I weighed in this morning. I'm going to have a Sneaky Peak tomorrow morning to see if an extra day is enough to undo the damage. I will post a special report to let you know the result.
This coming weekend will also be a tricky one, although I plan to be a bit more careful with what I eat, as I shall be watching Scotland v England in the Six Nations on Saturday. Obviously there will be an amount of ale consumed, but I will ensure that it is well within my points allowances and I shall make a point of not overindulging on Sunday!
Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Weigh-in - Week 30 - Oh so close!
I'm so close to my target of getting below 18st that it hurts! At my weigh in this morning I was delighted to register a loss of 2.8lbs, which puts my current weight at 18st 0.6lbs!
It's been my best week for a long time as I am now fully recovered from the illness that affected me over Christmas and the New Year. I've been tracking much better (by which I mean I've avoided the odd bit of comfort food that's just been too small to bother tracking!) plus I've been back exercising of the crosstrainer on a regular basis (every other day) which gives me activity points. Now I don't normally use my Activity Points, I find that my Daily and Weekly Points allowances are enough, but I do think of them as a kind of buffer zone for those odd little treats that don't normally get pointed (like a triangle of Toblerone, for instance, or a handful of peanuts).
I've also been getting more adventurous in the kitchen. On Saturday I made "The Hairy Bikers' South American Chilli Con Carne", this recipe is unusual in that it uses Black Beans instead of Kidney Beans. It took about 3 hours to cook, but the end result was absolutely delicious (possibly the best Chilli I've had for a very long time) and at only 13 Points per Serving it fits in with Weight Watchers quite nicely - I had it with about 10 points worth of Rice and a little bit of garlic bread and washed it down with some beer from my weekly allowance. I've got some maturing in the refirdgerator, so will probably have some tonight (if my current culinary experiment, home made chicken soup, doesn't work out) or tomorrow.
I have to say, I'm feeling a lot happier about this weight loss journey that I have been for the last few weeks, where I seem to have been stuck on a bit of a hilly plateaux. Hopefully this week's loss is the return to the downhill slopes - time will tell!
Good luck with your own weight loss program, see you next week for another report!
It's been my best week for a long time as I am now fully recovered from the illness that affected me over Christmas and the New Year. I've been tracking much better (by which I mean I've avoided the odd bit of comfort food that's just been too small to bother tracking!) plus I've been back exercising of the crosstrainer on a regular basis (every other day) which gives me activity points. Now I don't normally use my Activity Points, I find that my Daily and Weekly Points allowances are enough, but I do think of them as a kind of buffer zone for those odd little treats that don't normally get pointed (like a triangle of Toblerone, for instance, or a handful of peanuts).
I've also been getting more adventurous in the kitchen. On Saturday I made "The Hairy Bikers' South American Chilli Con Carne", this recipe is unusual in that it uses Black Beans instead of Kidney Beans. It took about 3 hours to cook, but the end result was absolutely delicious (possibly the best Chilli I've had for a very long time) and at only 13 Points per Serving it fits in with Weight Watchers quite nicely - I had it with about 10 points worth of Rice and a little bit of garlic bread and washed it down with some beer from my weekly allowance. I've got some maturing in the refirdgerator, so will probably have some tonight (if my current culinary experiment, home made chicken soup, doesn't work out) or tomorrow.
I have to say, I'm feeling a lot happier about this weight loss journey that I have been for the last few weeks, where I seem to have been stuck on a bit of a hilly plateaux. Hopefully this week's loss is the return to the downhill slopes - time will tell!
Good luck with your own weight loss program, see you next week for another report!
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Weigh-in - Week 29
Horror of horrors I weighed in yesterday and found that I've had a, small, gain of 0.4lbs this week! It was such a dissapointment that I couldn't bring myself to add anything to my blog this week!
My wife told me not to worry as it's only a small gain but "out of little acorns, giant oaks grow"!
My excuse, if excuses are allowed, is that I suffered from a chest infection over Christmas abd was on anti-biotics up until last Wednesday and I haven't been able to do any exercise on the treadmill since Christmas day (and that was the first time in a fortnight due to having a cold before Christmas!).
I'm now back into the Crosstrainer routine, having been on it 3 times since last Saturday, and I am trying to get back on track and pointing properly (which might have been a bit erratic over the last few weeks).
I've got to lose 3.5lbs to get into the 17stone zone and I'm determined to do it soon!
My wife told me not to worry as it's only a small gain but "out of little acorns, giant oaks grow"!
My excuse, if excuses are allowed, is that I suffered from a chest infection over Christmas abd was on anti-biotics up until last Wednesday and I haven't been able to do any exercise on the treadmill since Christmas day (and that was the first time in a fortnight due to having a cold before Christmas!).
I'm now back into the Crosstrainer routine, having been on it 3 times since last Saturday, and I am trying to get back on track and pointing properly (which might have been a bit erratic over the last few weeks).
I've got to lose 3.5lbs to get into the 17stone zone and I'm determined to do it soon!
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Weigh-in - Week 28
This week has been a strange one as I am still suffering from the man-flu that I told you about in my previous blog, except that it isn't man-flu, it's a chest infection! It's been pretty unpleasant, althought the anti-biotics, that the Doctor prescribed, are doing their job and the end is in sight. I still haven't felt up to getting back on to the crosstrainer, so I haven't done any exercise at all this year! I also haven't had any alcohol since New Year's Day as alcohol and anti-biotics don't mix! I think this is the longest I've gone without a beer or a glass of wine for as long as I can remember!
Points-wise I've managed to get back in to tracking properly and can say that I've manage to end the week with 44 weekly points left! That's really due to not having anyt beer or wine, although I have used up some of my daily and weekly points to treat myself to some of the Toblerone chocolates that I told you about (I've nearly finished one bar!).
I've also managed to get through this week without any Sneaky Peeks! As any regular WeightWatchers member will know, Sneaky Peeks are the work of the Devil! I have found many times that what looks like being a great week on a Saturday Sneaky Peak, can, by Tuesday, end up being a poor or bad one. And this is using the same scales as I weigh-in on - it's even worse for people who get weighed at WW meetings as no two sets of scales with give the same results. I'm really going to try and avoid SP's from now on.
My plan for this week is to return to the crosstrainer by Thursday or Friday, enjoy the remainder of my Chrstmas Ale over the weekend, I've no idea how many pints are left but, with a bit of luck, I'll finish the barrel on Friday night and be able to visit the wonderful Rebellion Brewery on Saturday to get a replacement. I also plan to try out a new Slow-Cooker Recipe to add to my amoury of low point meals as I'm getting a little bored with the Chorizo & Sausage Gumbo and Chorizo & Bean Chilli that I have quite regularly.
Anyway - onwards and downwards, good luck with your weight-loss and I hope everyone has been as successful in removing the Christmas gains as I have.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Weigh-in - Week 27
Well this morning's weigh in was number 27 and showed a loss of 0.6lbs since last week's 3.6lb post Christmas and Boxing day weigh-in gain. I suppose a gain of only 3lbs over the Christmas and New Year fortnight is not really too bad.
I will admit to being a little less than vigilant with my tracking over these past 2 weeks, but I did try to be a little bit careful with my intake of the bad stuff. The problem is that there is so much bad stuff to contend with at this time of the year. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask - why is it that people, who supposedly love me, gave me chocolates for Christmas (including my wife!)? I got 3 large Toblerone's, which I haven't opened yet, but they will be sitting in the fridge tempting me until I do! I will try and eat them one triangle at a time over the next few weeks, but I just know that sooner or later I will binge on one! Probably the white chocolate one!
I've not been doing any exercise over christmas due to the return of my man-flu (cold) which came back with a vengeance on Boxing day and remains with me still. This means that I have used my Cross-trainer just once since early December! I just know that I will struggle to get back into the routine if my cold doesn't clear up soon, but I will just have to force myself to do it!
This being the beginning of January I suppose it is time for New Year's Resolutions, so here goes with mine:
So happy New Year to both of my readers, I hope you had a good Christmas and, like me, that you are happy with any small weight adjustments that Christmas and New Year delivered. Now it's time to get back on track, lose any small gains and continue down the path to a healthy new you!
I will admit to being a little less than vigilant with my tracking over these past 2 weeks, but I did try to be a little bit careful with my intake of the bad stuff. The problem is that there is so much bad stuff to contend with at this time of the year. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask - why is it that people, who supposedly love me, gave me chocolates for Christmas (including my wife!)? I got 3 large Toblerone's, which I haven't opened yet, but they will be sitting in the fridge tempting me until I do! I will try and eat them one triangle at a time over the next few weeks, but I just know that sooner or later I will binge on one! Probably the white chocolate one!
I've not been doing any exercise over christmas due to the return of my man-flu (cold) which came back with a vengeance on Boxing day and remains with me still. This means that I have used my Cross-trainer just once since early December! I just know that I will struggle to get back into the routine if my cold doesn't clear up soon, but I will just have to force myself to do it!
This being the beginning of January I suppose it is time for New Year's Resolutions, so here goes with mine:
- To continue to lose weight - that looks really good on the page, the word continue
- To continue to get fit - it's that word, continue, again! It still looks good!
- To participate in a 5k run, preferably with sponsorship - money raised to go to Cystic Fibrosis.
- To learn to surf when I'm holidaying in France in August.
So happy New Year to both of my readers, I hope you had a good Christmas and, like me, that you are happy with any small weight adjustments that Christmas and New Year delivered. Now it's time to get back on track, lose any small gains and continue down the path to a healthy new you!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)