Well Month 4 has ambled by, and a shock discovery is that I'm not as tall as I thought I was, seems an inch can make a lot of difference as I won't be classed as overweight until 14 stone 7lb, at present I'm 15 stone 2lb, so a bit away from being classed overweight rather than obese. I could allow this set back to get me down, but as I'm on holiday with my Family I have other concerns, the biggest one is how to stay on track while on holiday. .
Before now I've not talked about the plan, there is nothing grand about it, in fact it's so simple it's more of a list really. In the past my wife and I have suspended previous diets when we have gone on holiday, but this time we decided to see if we could keep up with the diet on holiday, and save ourselves the pain of having to restart whilst dealing with post holiday blues. I've thought a lot about when I go off track with my eating, those moments tend to be when I don't know what I'm going to be eating and I have to make a snap decision. This often leads to bad choices. So in the last week of the month I plan what to eat for the month ahead, this sounds like a nightmare task, but actually it's quite exciting, and not to mention essential when you are on holiday.
This is a time when temptation can come to call and knock you back, but planning ahead can prevent any mishaps especially if your holiday is self catering. I'll keep you posted on how we get along
Monday 6 April 2015
Sunday 22 March 2015
Making goals to achieve success
So we are into month three now, and this is the point at which we should be able to pat ourselves on the back and congratulate each other. Equally this is the time where (without caution) it can all fall flat on its face. Easter is just around the corner, a long weekend with the temptation of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. The temptation enhanced by the encouragement of those that have denied themselves during Lent being let of the leash. There's also the fact that by now we are beginning to feel better about ourselves, a little indulgence won't hurt as a reward for our efforts surely. This is a dangerous time, when our will power is going to be tested to it's limits. In my particular case I had some great news about my recent health scare, my wobbly vision appears to have been due to eye strain. My blood tests also came back clear of any indications of life threatening illnesses. So I could be stupid and go back to my old ways, or (as I am) accept I got away with it this time and resolve to be a good chap going forward. My blood pressure is back into normal confines now and should remain so if I limit blood pressure raising nasties (caffeine, Alcohol) and I must make sure to exercise regularly. The good news is that I can officially start running again.
Motivation at this point needs to be redoubled, in order to prevent smug turning to pug. So it's a good idea to have several objectives rolling at the same time to keep your interest going. To be honest it's the same with any mundane task, have short term achievable goals, and a long term goal. There are a lot of free tools on the market that you can use to track your objectives and goals, or you can just keep a note of where you are in a physical notebook or spreadsheet. That's how my spreadsheet (pictured below) began, just a simple way to keep a track on my weight loss progress, then over time it developed into something a bit more funky. I use it to track my progress to my overall weight loss goal, and my monthly target. However there are also a dizzying array of free apps and tools out there that can track this for you along with other things. What is really cool with these apps is that a majority of them can talk to Myfitnesspal, so calories burned during exercise can be automatically updated in your Myfitnesspal profile to give an overall view of calories in and calories out.
One of my associates was quite frankly very brutal when he discovered I had Runkeeper on my phone, with "You and I are people that saunter, rather than run." Lets quickly dispel a myth. You don't have to run to use Runkeeper or Runtatsic you can use either of these to track walking, cycling or a multitude of other activities. You don't even have to share your progress with other, this is for you, so it doesn't matter how fast or slow you are.The basic functions that you are likely to use at this stage are absolutely free, and the apps will run on a majority of cheap Android phones, Windows phone, or even IPhone if you're inclined. There are a lot of apps out there to track your fitness and on the whole the basic versions are all free. The paid for versions offer additional facilities that in the early days you probably won't use. If you don't own a phone you can still benefit from these apps, by adding in your progress manually into the apps associated webpage and track that way. In the case of Runkeeper the website is also the place where you can setup defined routes, most useful for calculating calorie burn if you are doing this without using a phone based app.
Here are a few of the things I'm tracking at the moment and the apps I use.
Calories consumed - Myfitnesspal
Distance walked - Runkeeper/Runtastic - linked to Myfitnesspal to record Calories out
Current weight - MyfitnessPal which feeds back into Runkeeper and Runtastic
Additionally I track my weight in my spreadsheet, and use a free BMI calculator on the NHS website to check my progress against the body mass index categories. I've just six pounds left to lose to be classed as overweight and no longer obese, for the first time in twenty odd years. As for my associate, we all will find people on our improvement journey that are happy to run down our achievements, there are many reasons for this, but be assured it's your journey and there are many more people willing to support you than those disposed to dragging you down, keep moving and all will be well.
Motivation at this point needs to be redoubled, in order to prevent smug turning to pug. So it's a good idea to have several objectives rolling at the same time to keep your interest going. To be honest it's the same with any mundane task, have short term achievable goals, and a long term goal. There are a lot of free tools on the market that you can use to track your objectives and goals, or you can just keep a note of where you are in a physical notebook or spreadsheet. That's how my spreadsheet (pictured below) began, just a simple way to keep a track on my weight loss progress, then over time it developed into something a bit more funky. I use it to track my progress to my overall weight loss goal, and my monthly target. However there are also a dizzying array of free apps and tools out there that can track this for you along with other things. What is really cool with these apps is that a majority of them can talk to Myfitnesspal, so calories burned during exercise can be automatically updated in your Myfitnesspal profile to give an overall view of calories in and calories out.
One of my associates was quite frankly very brutal when he discovered I had Runkeeper on my phone, with "You and I are people that saunter, rather than run." Lets quickly dispel a myth. You don't have to run to use Runkeeper or Runtatsic you can use either of these to track walking, cycling or a multitude of other activities. You don't even have to share your progress with other, this is for you, so it doesn't matter how fast or slow you are.The basic functions that you are likely to use at this stage are absolutely free, and the apps will run on a majority of cheap Android phones, Windows phone, or even IPhone if you're inclined. There are a lot of apps out there to track your fitness and on the whole the basic versions are all free. The paid for versions offer additional facilities that in the early days you probably won't use. If you don't own a phone you can still benefit from these apps, by adding in your progress manually into the apps associated webpage and track that way. In the case of Runkeeper the website is also the place where you can setup defined routes, most useful for calculating calorie burn if you are doing this without using a phone based app.
Here are a few of the things I'm tracking at the moment and the apps I use.
Calories consumed - Myfitnesspal
Distance walked - Runkeeper/Runtastic - linked to Myfitnesspal to record Calories out
Current weight - MyfitnessPal which feeds back into Runkeeper and Runtastic
Additionally I track my weight in my spreadsheet, and use a free BMI calculator on the NHS website to check my progress against the body mass index categories. I've just six pounds left to lose to be classed as overweight and no longer obese, for the first time in twenty odd years. As for my associate, we all will find people on our improvement journey that are happy to run down our achievements, there are many reasons for this, but be assured it's your journey and there are many more people willing to support you than those disposed to dragging you down, keep moving and all will be well.
Sunday 22 February 2015
Like the blind leading the blind.
My plan was to make blog posts on a weekly basis, or at significant events throughout my journey. Unfortunately sometimes things have a habit of knocking your train off the rails, and you have to put some lofty aims to the side in order to pick yourself up and deal with the outcome.
Exactly a month ago to the date today, I made my third effort with the Couch to 5K Week 1 Podcast. These podcasts are free to download from the NHS and are quite motivational. The challenge for me was not to be the fastest person on two legs, but to gradually build up to running the whole of a 5k eventually. As you can see from the Run Keeper graph below I increased my distance each time and I kept up an average of a 15 minute mile, not earth shattering, but not bad for a 46 year old man that hasn't run for about twenty three years. Unfortunately life sometimes has a habit of delivering surprise blows.
On Friday 23rd January, out of the blue whilst chairing a teleconference I began to lose my eye sight. I struggled on, and managed to message a colleague, who picked up chairing the call. After an hour my vision began to come back, and a night of good sleep seemed to clear it up fully. As this was not the first time it had happened that week, and at the advice of some of my dear friends, I took myself down to the NHS walk in clinic.
What I had experienced was a Migraine Aura without headache, but as to what caused it, they could only offer rough guidance. They did a rough eye test, and suggested I may need distance glasses, also my blood pressure was on the high side. Not critical, but higher than it should be for a Saturday morning at rest. The two episodes I had experienced that week had occurred the day after I had been running, so they told me to stop running until I had seen my own Doctor.
I have never seen my doctor look concerned before, so to say it put the fear of god into me would be an understatement. He agreed with the clinic that I should get my eyes tested and that my blood pressure was higher than he would expect. He arranged for a full battery of blood tests to be taken, these needed to be done after fasting for twelve hours, and due to availability at the clinic they had to be scheduled for two weeks after my initial consultation.
So whilst waiting for the test date it would have been all too easy to fall into the trap of feeling defeated, and going back to old ways. I must admit at first I did teeter on the brink, but there must be something I was doing wrong now to make my blood pressure high. I didn't want to complicate the issue by adding back the behaviours that had put my weight on in the first place, the behaviours that put me in the path of danger for Diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and numerous other nasties . So I started at the one source of knowledge I did have, I looked at the food diary that I'm keeping on Myfitnesspal. In order to do this I needed to be open and honest with myself, and be tough on me, with no excuses. The obvious thing was my enjoyment of wine, I had managed to work this into my calories, but I could see I was easily over the recommended units per week. Everyday I give myself a milk allowance for hot drinks like tea and coffee, as tea and coffee without milk don't carry calories I don't tend to count those, just the milk consumption. I knew my coffee consumption was higher since working at home, but when I sat and added it up, I realised that I was easily drinking between 7 and 13 mugs of strong coffee in a day. So I embarked on a programme to reduce my caffeine intake.
So where does this leave me at the moment? Well I'm still losing weight at a healthy rate (it's not a race), I've lost half a stone in four weeks. There are also other activities, besides running that are free, I am allowed to go for brisk walks, and I picked up a very cheap second hand bike (most families have at least one lurking in a dusty garage unused). On the food side. I've not had an alcoholic drink in just under four weeks, and I'm now only drinking one cup of normal coffee a day, and some days none at all. Thanks to the wonders of Red bush tea which is naturally caffeine free, I expect the next time my blood pressure is checked that it should be lower. Fingers crossed.
Exactly a month ago to the date today, I made my third effort with the Couch to 5K Week 1 Podcast. These podcasts are free to download from the NHS and are quite motivational. The challenge for me was not to be the fastest person on two legs, but to gradually build up to running the whole of a 5k eventually. As you can see from the Run Keeper graph below I increased my distance each time and I kept up an average of a 15 minute mile, not earth shattering, but not bad for a 46 year old man that hasn't run for about twenty three years. Unfortunately life sometimes has a habit of delivering surprise blows.
On Friday 23rd January, out of the blue whilst chairing a teleconference I began to lose my eye sight. I struggled on, and managed to message a colleague, who picked up chairing the call. After an hour my vision began to come back, and a night of good sleep seemed to clear it up fully. As this was not the first time it had happened that week, and at the advice of some of my dear friends, I took myself down to the NHS walk in clinic.
What I had experienced was a Migraine Aura without headache, but as to what caused it, they could only offer rough guidance. They did a rough eye test, and suggested I may need distance glasses, also my blood pressure was on the high side. Not critical, but higher than it should be for a Saturday morning at rest. The two episodes I had experienced that week had occurred the day after I had been running, so they told me to stop running until I had seen my own Doctor.
I have never seen my doctor look concerned before, so to say it put the fear of god into me would be an understatement. He agreed with the clinic that I should get my eyes tested and that my blood pressure was higher than he would expect. He arranged for a full battery of blood tests to be taken, these needed to be done after fasting for twelve hours, and due to availability at the clinic they had to be scheduled for two weeks after my initial consultation.
So whilst waiting for the test date it would have been all too easy to fall into the trap of feeling defeated, and going back to old ways. I must admit at first I did teeter on the brink, but there must be something I was doing wrong now to make my blood pressure high. I didn't want to complicate the issue by adding back the behaviours that had put my weight on in the first place, the behaviours that put me in the path of danger for Diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and numerous other nasties . So I started at the one source of knowledge I did have, I looked at the food diary that I'm keeping on Myfitnesspal. In order to do this I needed to be open and honest with myself, and be tough on me, with no excuses. The obvious thing was my enjoyment of wine, I had managed to work this into my calories, but I could see I was easily over the recommended units per week. Everyday I give myself a milk allowance for hot drinks like tea and coffee, as tea and coffee without milk don't carry calories I don't tend to count those, just the milk consumption. I knew my coffee consumption was higher since working at home, but when I sat and added it up, I realised that I was easily drinking between 7 and 13 mugs of strong coffee in a day. So I embarked on a programme to reduce my caffeine intake.
So where does this leave me at the moment? Well I'm still losing weight at a healthy rate (it's not a race), I've lost half a stone in four weeks. There are also other activities, besides running that are free, I am allowed to go for brisk walks, and I picked up a very cheap second hand bike (most families have at least one lurking in a dusty garage unused). On the food side. I've not had an alcoholic drink in just under four weeks, and I'm now only drinking one cup of normal coffee a day, and some days none at all. Thanks to the wonders of Red bush tea which is naturally caffeine free, I expect the next time my blood pressure is checked that it should be lower. Fingers crossed.
Sunday 18 January 2015
She Came, and She Fired A Gun!
Every new year I (like most people) take a good look at myself in the mirror and say, "this year I'm going to lose weight and do better, I won't give up like last year." This little white lie is generally followed by a huge hair of the dog on the evening of New Years day and despite keeping good form for a little while, old habits and patterns soon creep back in. There's always tomorrow. The excuses and soft talk begin within weeks, my birthday is just around the corner, then Easter, a holiday maybe, then of course summer with barbecues and picnics. Soon we come back around and although I've got plenty of fresh air and exercise, it's all been in vain (or in the case of cholesterol in vein), because like everyone else in my predicament that gets carried away with the moment I've taken on more calories than I can actually burn.
This year is different though. Last October through a fortunate change around in my career, I found myself working from my office at home more frequently. The side effect of this was that the biscuit tin was close at hand, and because my office is only ten short paces from my bedroom I began to put on even more weight.
Now I wouldn't want you to think that before this revelation that I was thin and active, far from it. I did however get to walk between the various offices that were my responsibility, and would try not to use the lift (but I did use it a lot), which helped keep me as just obese.
So having returned from a cider fuelled holiday in Cornwall we were reviewing the holiday snaps and I noticed my Chins were larger than before. The next morning I stepped onto the scales to find I was little more than a gnats whisker away from 18 stone. With Christmas looming I figured by January another stone would be flapping over my belt and I would be almost back to the heaviest I had ever been (19 stone 7llb aged 26). At 46 years old and another birthday on the horizon I concluded waiting till January was not an option, I began in earnest counting the calories.
Well here we are in January, and thus far I think I've made a good start. I like many other people that fight the good fight every day, don't expect praise, don't expect judgement, we do what we do, because we do.
So while I'm attending to my own personal battle, enter stage left Katie Hopkins, making her statements about people like me. Her judgement being that we are lazy. Anyone that knows me will vouch for the 40-50 hour weeks I often work, and confirm Lazy is not a word that can be levelled at me.
Having been subjected to the trailers for her programme, I confirm I was more than annoyed, but like most road kill TV it compelled me to watch it, if only from the perspective of someone who by her terms was Lazy and un-employable. In my terms I am someone who works for a living earns, a wage and just so happens to be obese and has been for most of their adult life. Effectively what Katie did was akin to a non smoker smoking a packet of fags in a day, then saying the next day "There you go I gave up why can't you."
As someone that has struggled with their weight I did identify (grudgingly) with her angst at not being the person that she wanted to be, or was used to being. However non of us are perfect, that's the point. I guess the thing that annoyed me more was the insistence that it's easy to lose weight, and that she didn't have a personal trainer or a personal chef. Fair comment, but in the same way that those of us that are overweight don't necessarily have the mind set to slim down, you Katie do not have the mind set to be overweight. There were more than a couple of visits to Harley street in the programme, not something your average person in the street has access to, and not something we can expect from an already overstretched health service.
So as someone that owns half a life time (so far) of fat, I decide to lose weight. I decided this before the Hopkins programme aired, and have thus far lost a stone and 3 pounds, making my current weight today 16 stone 9 pounds. I intend using no more than tools that are freely available around me, on the internet or through my own knowledge or open discussion. The kinds of things that are around us all regardless of wage, social background, not all of us can afford to join a Gym and go to a spinning class Katie.
I already have access to an elliptical exercise bike (purchased by wife for her own well being, I rarely use it as it hurts my knees), and an air walker, the later being a second hand machine that's been sat in the garage for almost ten years. We also have the kids Wii with balance board, and this bright pink bungee strap thing, pretending to be a rower.
I have a cheap android smart phone, that I got back out of it's moth balls on Friday evening, I'm going to use this to play the Couch to 5k MP3 course that's available free from the NHS Website and also to use one of the freely available trackers that you can download as an app to your smart phone.
So that's me and my intention, let's have some fun, and see where this takes me.
UPDATE:
Yesterday I did the first podcast for couch to 5K, I deliberately got up very early (6am) and got myself out before breakfast, I must admit it hurt a bit, I got cold and wet, but I got home safe and proud. This has begun.
This year is different though. Last October through a fortunate change around in my career, I found myself working from my office at home more frequently. The side effect of this was that the biscuit tin was close at hand, and because my office is only ten short paces from my bedroom I began to put on even more weight.
Now I wouldn't want you to think that before this revelation that I was thin and active, far from it. I did however get to walk between the various offices that were my responsibility, and would try not to use the lift (but I did use it a lot), which helped keep me as just obese.
So having returned from a cider fuelled holiday in Cornwall we were reviewing the holiday snaps and I noticed my Chins were larger than before. The next morning I stepped onto the scales to find I was little more than a gnats whisker away from 18 stone. With Christmas looming I figured by January another stone would be flapping over my belt and I would be almost back to the heaviest I had ever been (19 stone 7llb aged 26). At 46 years old and another birthday on the horizon I concluded waiting till January was not an option, I began in earnest counting the calories.
 |
| Toasting a publication shortly after returning from Cornwall |
So while I'm attending to my own personal battle, enter stage left Katie Hopkins, making her statements about people like me. Her judgement being that we are lazy. Anyone that knows me will vouch for the 40-50 hour weeks I often work, and confirm Lazy is not a word that can be levelled at me.
Having been subjected to the trailers for her programme, I confirm I was more than annoyed, but like most road kill TV it compelled me to watch it, if only from the perspective of someone who by her terms was Lazy and un-employable. In my terms I am someone who works for a living earns, a wage and just so happens to be obese and has been for most of their adult life. Effectively what Katie did was akin to a non smoker smoking a packet of fags in a day, then saying the next day "There you go I gave up why can't you."
As someone that has struggled with their weight I did identify (grudgingly) with her angst at not being the person that she wanted to be, or was used to being. However non of us are perfect, that's the point. I guess the thing that annoyed me more was the insistence that it's easy to lose weight, and that she didn't have a personal trainer or a personal chef. Fair comment, but in the same way that those of us that are overweight don't necessarily have the mind set to slim down, you Katie do not have the mind set to be overweight. There were more than a couple of visits to Harley street in the programme, not something your average person in the street has access to, and not something we can expect from an already overstretched health service.
So as someone that owns half a life time (so far) of fat, I decide to lose weight. I decided this before the Hopkins programme aired, and have thus far lost a stone and 3 pounds, making my current weight today 16 stone 9 pounds. I intend using no more than tools that are freely available around me, on the internet or through my own knowledge or open discussion. The kinds of things that are around us all regardless of wage, social background, not all of us can afford to join a Gym and go to a spinning class Katie.
I already have access to an elliptical exercise bike (purchased by wife for her own well being, I rarely use it as it hurts my knees), and an air walker, the later being a second hand machine that's been sat in the garage for almost ten years. We also have the kids Wii with balance board, and this bright pink bungee strap thing, pretending to be a rower.
I have a cheap android smart phone, that I got back out of it's moth balls on Friday evening, I'm going to use this to play the Couch to 5k MP3 course that's available free from the NHS Website and also to use one of the freely available trackers that you can download as an app to your smart phone.
So that's me and my intention, let's have some fun, and see where this takes me.
UPDATE:
Yesterday I did the first podcast for couch to 5K, I deliberately got up very early (6am) and got myself out before breakfast, I must admit it hurt a bit, I got cold and wet, but I got home safe and proud. This has begun.
Sunday 15 June 2014
Mid-life ukulele Why?
I always knew it would come around one day, but I didn't think it would ever be today. My forty fifth birthday turned out to be the tipping point; hello mid life crisis.
It's that time of life when vanity might suddenly kick in and the adverts for "Just for Men" hair colouring products sustain more than a passing interest.
There was no doubt about it I was feeling depressed at what seemed like my dwindling years.
Most men my age throw themselves into an implausible relationship with a younger unattainable women who is looking for nothing more than the attention and fun of a Sugar Daddy.
Or maybe they need to prove their virility in a different way through dangerous sport, or even blow their families life savings on a sports car.
I bought a Ukulele.
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