My 2011 weight loss diary

Quick post from me

2010weightloss — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 16:16:45 +0000

I’ve just passed up the chance for crisps and chocolate. That is good in itself, but it is not all good news. I am going to have a curry for dinner, before I go out with friends for a few end of week beers.

Still, I managed a walk around town today, which was impressive seeing as badminton really took it out of me last night.

Yesterday was a good liquid intake day: 5 litres of water, a glass of pineapple juice but also an energy drink and a pint of coke. Not all good news.

I should drink more today, I can’t remember having much yet…

An age transition workout

2010weightloss — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 21:43:34 +0000

It has been a month since I created my first home work-out, and it yielded some good results, along with a generally good month of dieting.

In 3 weeks time I turn 25 and i want to be under 120Kg for that, for no other reason that it will mean I am where I was 14 months ago from that date. As much as I would like to be the same as I was a year ago, losing 14Kg in 21 days is not a healthy option. If I can get my weight under 120Kg for April 6th, and then lose another 2 by the 16th to take me down another 6Kg in a month then I will be happy.

If I can keep shifting 6Kg a month I will be under 100Kg for my holiday in July and I will be really happy with that. To do that I need to be careful with what I consume, and work hard with the exercise too.

As part of my work-out in the next month, I am going to be doing the exercises on the One hundred push ups website. Following that should mean that in 3 weeks time, I should be able to do around 15 push ups at a time, and in 6 weeks be able to manage around 40. Because of this, the training on that website will be part of my work out for the next two months to see how many I can manage.

I will also be doing bicycle crunches, side lunge with windmill and some shadow boxing.

With the nights getting lighter and the weather (supposedly) improving, I’m hoping to get out and walk more often too.

Report: Needs to try harder

2010weightloss — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 19:45:48 +0000

Me being on a diet is a lot like some of the classes in school which I wasn’t interested in “needs to apply himself”, “must try harder” and all those other comments which mean “is doing well, but could be doing so much better!”

How well am I doing? Well today is the 16th, so I weighed myself this morning. I have lost around 6Kg (about 13lb) which I think is quite a good start for 4 weeks into it. Most people would be thrilled with that, but I feel like I did after sitting my exams with no preparation and doing better than those who tried ever so hard and only just got through.

Where can I improve? Well most critically, as I am typing this I am also eating pizza. A double pepperoni one with stuffed crust. It was that or tomato soup, and as I have to go and pick my sister up from the train station soon, I am going to have a good meal for doing so. Good being subjective and relative to the other choice.

Because of last week’s busy schedule, I hardly exercised last week, except badminton on Friday, and a little bit of walking on Saturday.

On Sunday I had a large coke at the cinema; Monday I was shattered so I had an energy drink; yesterday I was quite good, but still no exercise and today…well I don’t want to go into it but here goes:

Breakfast:

Chicken, bacon and mayonnaise sandwich with lettuce
1 chocolate cereal bar
1 insanely sugar filled energy drink

Lunch:

Egg mayonnaise sandwich (light mayo though)
1 strawberry yogurt
1 apple
1 banana
1 orange
1 high sugar energy drink

Snack:

1 double chocolate cookie
1 high sugar energy drink

Dinner:

double pepperoni stuffed crust pizza

How do I feel for being open and honest? I feel disgusted with myself. Ashamed and embarrassed. I wish I hadn’t got up late this morning, which would have meant I could have a better breakfast, and I might have been less tired if I didn’t feel rushed first thing, but I was so energy drinks saved me.

I did have my 2 litres of water with those, so that’s about 3 and a half litres of liquid today, and 164% of my sugar RDA in 3 drinks. Naughty.

Please, express your distain for me and chastise me as you see fit. I deserve it.

When I get back, I’ll figure out my work-out plan for the next month and let you know what that involves.

Time to go and get my sister.

Finally the weekend

2010weightloss — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 11:14:57 +0000

It’s finally the weekend which means I can rest and relax a bit to recover from a very busy week.

A week, however, where my diet and exercise really went out of the window because of things at work.

On Tuesday, my evening meal was a pizza. Not a huge one, but a pizza all the same. Not great. I was better on Wednesday when I had soup and brown bread rolls, but I had a really long day so I also had a couple of chocolate digestive biscuits and a donut.

Thursday saw the tiredness of a busy week hit me, so I ended up having a high sugar energy drink to keep me going. I worked late again then, so it was curry for my evening meal. I didn’t eat it all, but I had the rest for lunch on Friday.

Certainly less than ideal.

Still, I can use the weekend to rest and recover, and to set myself up for another busy week, but a one with less junk food. That’s the plan!

Update from the office

2010weightloss — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 18:29:38 +0000

I’ve said in a couple of previous posts that I will be working late a lot of this week, just with the insane workload we have on. As such, this update is coming to you from my office whilst I wait for the first part of my work to be done. I can’t carry on until this stage is complete.

I’m all out of food now, having had a good, healthy lunch – but the cookies are staring at me. Bullies. I don’t have much water left to keep my hunger suppressed, so it might come down to a battle of wills. Dark times maybe ahead.

That last part sounds a little bit like a zombie horror. Maybe that’s just me though.

Anyway, most people will be used to my normal weekday breakfast by now. The juice tends to change week-on-week, but that’s all.

Breakfast:

2 slices of toast with light butter
1 glass of pineapple juice

Lunch:

Ham salad sandwiches
a mandarin Muller light yogurt
1 banana
2 satsumas (after I read you need two of them to count towards your 5-a-day)
1 granny smiths apple

Dinner:

I haven’t had this yet, but I know what it is for later:

Reheated roast pork dinner with mash potato, cabbage, carrots and swede
Two Yorkshire puddings

I know there is a danger now of me being more tempted into eating bad things as I have already posted, but I have managed to hold off all of last week, through the donuts and the cream cakes, so I am sure I can cope without cookies easily.

I don’t know what time I will be finishing work yet, so I don’t know if I will have time to get my work-out in. Shame really as I had a sneak peek at how my weight was going as a result of temptation resisting and exercise so I would like to further that progress ready for the results next week.

Let’s see how the rest of the day pans out.

Balancing diets with busy schedules

2010weightloss — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 07:59:02 +0000

I think I mentioned last week that throughout the course of this week I am going to be insanely busy with work. Normally I am in the office from around 9am until 5:30pm, meaning I have time on a night to do all kinds of things which I might wish to do.

However, this week I will be working from 9am or earlier, until around 8pm until Thursday because of the work load we have on. I’m not concerned about the tiredness, I always find time to sleep, but I am more concerned about me looking for quick fixes when my energy levels drop off and I start feeling tired at work.

As such I am starting today with a question for you all; as always, any answers are appreciated. When you are very busy, how do you keep your energy levels up without resorting to quick fix solutions such as high sugar foods and drinks?

It’s probably worth noting here that I don’t drink hot drinks, so coffee isn’t a solution for me.

Sloth Sunday

2010weightloss — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 20:58:08 +0000

I’ve had a very inactive and lazy day today, my exercise has been going up and down the stairs for food, or whenever I was called. Nice lazy day.

I have, however, been exercising my brain all day, which I think must count for something.

As a software engineer by trade, I occasionally have ideas I like to try out when I am at home. Today was one of those days. Because of that, I have been sat on my computer all day working my way through my latest idea. What it is isn’t really important, at least not yet, but it has kept me busy.

Despite being a sloth for most of the day, I haven’t pigged out. I’ve been very restrained.

Breakfast:

A bowl of Kellogg’s Coco-Pops with semi-skimmed milk

Lunch:

No lunch – I was busy

Dinner:

Roast pork dinner with loads of veg: mash potato, peas, carrots, cabbage, swede, and parsnip. And a couple of Yorkshire puddings.

I’ve drank about a litre and a half of pepsi-max, and probably about half a litre of water, so I am nicely hydrated.

Another simple question for today, and a friendly one too. Did you have a good Sunday?

Another tip to stop snacking

2010weightloss — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 01:24:27 +0000

Before I actually give you this tip, I want to point out that this is in no way a serious post, just something I happened to find out today. I wouldn’t recommend trying this one at all!

The tip? Syphon petrol from a car. My sister wanted me to syphon some petrol out of her old car today so she could use it in the new one she was getting. Me being the helpful brother, and the man of the house, I duly obliged.

It was the first time I had ever done it, but I knew roughly what to expect. A nasty taste. It was!

having got the fuel flowing from her fuel tank in the car into an approved fuel storage container, I had an awful taste in my mouth of petrol. I tried everything I could to get rid of it and nothing seemed to work. In fact it only made things worse!

It took a good eight hours to get over the taste of it, and it made everything I ate taste of petrol too. Nobody wants that, ever! It puts you off eating because it enhances the taste of petrol. You really wont want to eat for ages after going that, so it will stop you snacking.

On a slightly more serious note, what did I actually consume on this glorious saturday of petrol siphoning? See the list below:

Breakfast:

4 egg scrambled egg
2 slices of toast with light butter
tomato sauce
orange juice

Lunch:

Dry cured ham with cheese sandwich

Dinner:

Steak and kidney pie, mushy peas and chips with tomato sauce

I’ve also drank a pint of Pepsi-max through the day, a little bit of water, a large quantity of coca-cola at the cinema and a tiny, but memorable, amount of petrol.

Due to the weather and the over excitement of my sister to get her car sorted and accessorise it, I never got my 6 mile walk in today. I think I have walked about a mile in total today, so that’s something at least.

A simple question today, related to this post; is it right to try to convey sarcasm when giving “health tips” online?

Back from badminton

2010weightloss — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:10:24 +0000

It’s almost a sequel, and a little quicker to be produced that something like, say the Avatar sequels. Having not been to badminton in four weeks, I expected my game to be all over the place, and to have a really bad night. I had quite the opposite. I won my first 4 games, which is a new personal best; but lost the last two. Can’t win them all, but I played as well as I could and enjoyed myself which, when you are doing anything, is the important thing.

I drank two litres of water to keep myself going through all of the games, which worked out well it would seem. I even managed to avoid having chocolate cake which was made by one of the players.

I will admit that the avoidance of that was more down to there being none left when I wanted to have some than it was my determination and will power to avoid it; but that just means I can have a treat tomorrow. Tomorrow will most likely be coca-cola whilst I am at the cinema.

After badminton I joined everyone for the social side of things, as I usually do, but managed to take the sensible option with what I had then. I had a half pint of fresh orange juice. It was a change from my usual pint of coca-cola. I didn’t even have a bag of crisps or anything. That is unusual. That was down to will power alone. I realised that, although I might feel hungry, it’s probably just a little dehydration and habit rather than hunger.

Alas, I stuck it out and I am here now having not had anything since my meal earlier. Hooray!

The hardest battles you can fight are the ones in your own mind. I’ve found this week to be quite easy-going with those battles; the hardcore fight will be through next week when I am working late Monday-Thursday so I will be tired and want the pick-up of junk food. To save myself from that, I think I am going to have to leave all cash and cards at home.

I’m tired from badminton, so I am off to bed now. Until tomorrow, good health and goodnight.

Back to Badminton

2010weightloss — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:50:42 +0000

An early post from me tonight as I am off out to play badminton for two and a half hours. How I miss that sport!

I haven’t been for a while because of injury and then two weeks of having other commitments. Now I am fixed and not otherwise occupied I can go back to it.

Why badminton? Well I seem to do alright in sports which aren’t considered mainstream. I was/am an avid field hockey player, I’m just trying to get over a back injury I sustained two years ago. I think that was mainly down to my weight that I got it. As I haven’t shifted the weight, I think that’s why I havent shaken it off fully.

Also, badminton is a deceptively fast paced sport which focuses on explosive bursts to get you round the court. The movements keep your body guessing at what is coming next, which makes it a great work out. One moment you might be darting forward and lunging to get a shot which has just dropped over the net, the next you might be rushing back to get your opponent’s clear. Great stuff.

As a result, I won’t be doing my regular work out tonight, but I won’t feel bad about that. More so that I didn’t eat the last, or any, cakes today. I did have a treat at lunch, however; the bottle of Pepsi-Max I have been going on about all week. It was lovely!

So, what did I have today?

Breakfast:

2 slices of toast with light butter
1 glass of orange juice
2 slices of cucumber (after I made my lunch, that’s all that was left)

Lunch:

Tuna-mayo and cucumber sandwich
Muller light peach and pineapple yogurt
two granny smiths apples
1 banana

Dinner:

Reheated roast from yesterday: roast beef, cabbage, carrots and mash potato.

As well as the 600ml bottle of Pepsi Max (all 2 calories of it!) I have, so far, gone through 2 litres of water.

At badminton I will probably go through another 2-3 litres of the stuff, and then something else when we go to the bar afterwards to socialise.

I have a busy day tomorrow. I have to get up early to go with my sister to get her new car; walk to the hair dressers to get my hair cut; and then I probably need to go with my sister to help her pick a sat-nav system. Busy busy. I’ll be at the cinema tomorrow night too. Non-stop for me.

No questions to get you thinking today; I gave you two yesterday in different posts.