lose weight

Had a rude awakening the other day. A new doctor came right at me and asked what I was doing about my weight! A G.P. can say that, he said, when everyone else in your life will avoid the topic.

That was a shock. Since then I’ve simply been getting down to it. This must be how the smoker reacts when told to quit or die. The decision is easy then – made in an instant.

Well this is the same. I’ve always known it was ‘important’ to lose the weight, but now it is no longer a decision I will make. It is already made. Just like that.

So I started this week at 109.2 kg, after drinking 500ml to boost my weight for the competition. Is that bad :-) ?

You see the doctor’s visit was a few weeks ago. This week I as told in no uncertain terms that I was in a ‘Biggest Loser’ competition with some friends/family. At first I was unsure because when my university mates did the same last year that derailed my cycling binge. I shy away from competition, perhaps because I am afraid of my competitive self.

This time, however, the weight loss decision (set immutably in stone) is bigger than any cowardly fleeing from a competition. So now I must face my own monster of the id.

Now you know why I lay here in bed at 1:43am, stomach growling, knowing that I’ll simply go to sleep instead of snack. Knowing that tomorrow I mount the bicycle once again.

Goodnight. It begins. (For the final time!)

I had the walking thing tied strongly to my other goal of early rising – when I failed a challenge there I let the walking lapse as well.

Now I am cycling, which I enjoy more than the walking and I am sure is burning much more energy!

Since I can’t tell by weight alone if I’m making progress, I have started to keep body measurements to see how I’m going. Check out these numbers (in centimeters) :

chest …. 116
bicep-l .. 35.2
bicep-r .. 36
waist …. 112
hips ….. 108
thigh-l .. 60
thigh-r .. 61
calf-l … 44
calf-r … 45

There is going to be some weight training very soon as well – just need a bench to work on.

Why am I back here talking about things? Tim Ferriss on his blog at the fourhourworkweek.com site has some great entries about eating a low-GI diet and using a High-Intensity workout to really produce excellent results.

Good question – you can tell that I’m not overly anxious about my weight with the lack of gram by gram updates :-)

I started out somewhere between 105 and 110kg. I say between because 110 kg has been my average weight for some time, although when I hopped on the scales a few days ago it did read 105 kg.

Anyway, I suppose I need to set a concrete goal here. That will take a little consideration.

Update : Day 4 I went for a long, easy walk. I couldn’t face the regular (short) track this day so I went walkabout and ended up doing a one hour marathon.

Today instead of the morning walk routine I used a 15 minute walk to the train station (and of course back again in the afternoon) as a substitute.

Muscles are definitely less sore now, perhaps I’m getting a new baseline exercise limit sorted out now?

This morning was hard.

I was up late which only compounded the issue of muscle soreness that I have today. After two days of good strong walks I’m feeling stiff and sore … but I did make it through and walked again for about 27 minutes today.

Phew.

26 minute walk today after a 45 minute walk yesterday.

Feeling good about that, especially since I had an excuse not to go this morning – we’re hosting a BBQ lunch today and there is a lot to get done.

I am going to make this exercise thing a habit!

Having re-ordered my goals to have ‘become an early riser’ at the top of the list, I now will be getting more exercise more regularly as part of my new morning routine.

I’m also sure that by getting to bed when I’m actually tired, instead of pushing through to the wee hours and snacking, will mean better health all around.

Went to bed before midnight last night – which almost never happens lately.

Well, what a difference!

I was awake around 8am and was in the mood to go for a walk … in fact, I even defeated the go-back-to-sleep-urge and got up.

I rolled myself into some sweats and went down to the small park close to the house (as it happened, the rest of my family were thinking the same thing so I had some company!)

So I did a bunch of walking laps of the park (didn’t count, as any form of measurement would have slowed me down) until I was noticeably breathing more heavily – probably went round for 15 minutes or so.

To try this again I’ll have to go to bed before midnight – that could actually be a secret to this goal, as well as dealing with procrastination issues.

I’m also looking forward to getting my iPod nano with sports kit so I can measure these walks without having to slow down and think about it.

Guess I need to use another thing … when I get my iPod Nano with the sport kit I will join the Mactalk Unfit Walkers group and start logging my walks with everyone else there … that should account for the ‘do a little more exercise’ part.

Next I need to concentrate on ‘Eat a little better’ and that will be the entire program!