Archive for healthy eating
Weight Loss
Posted by: | Comments
I posted an entry a few weeks back saying that I would not regularly make comments about my weight loss. Having been silent on this subject for a few weeks I’ve now decided I’ve reached a pretty reasonable milestone on the weight loss journey.
I’ve eating healthily for the last few weeks using the myfoodiary.com tools and been quite successful. When I started losing weight I was clocking in at 115.5kg (or 254.6lbs).
After following a sensible eating programme I’ve managed to reduce my weight to 108.4kg (239lbs), which is a significant improvement for me.
Weight isn’t everything though and one of the greatest successes for me is that my muscle mass has increased as my body fat has decreased. So it isn’t a simple case of losing weight for me, but my body composition is key to the whole endeavour.
The great thing is that using myfooddiary.com means that I can still eat anything I want. I’ve had my mexicana cheese, I’ve had cream cakes, but I’ve also had a healthy balance of fat, carbs, and protein. The thing about this type of weight loss approach, certainly in my experience, is that it is sustainable. It has not been hard, and I’ve not had to give up anything.
I did give up alcohol, however that isn’t because I was largely concerned about the calorie content, even though booze has a lot of calories in it. I don’t drink because of the effect alcohol has on my body and my brain.
I certainly won’t lecture anyone else on their choice to drink as this was a very personal choice for me, and it is a permanent change. I also haven’t missed alcohol at all, which in some ways had surprised me. Equally, I haven’t found there is a huge social pressure for me to drink. I believe that this is partly my use of language, because I deliberately use the words “I don’t drink”, not “I’ve given up drinking”, or “I am giving up drinking”. By choosing my words carefully impacts the way other people view my non-drinking.
So overall I am seeing some serious physical changes, and I think that my body now looks different in the mirror. After all, I’ve lost 7.1kg (15.6lbs, over 1stone) and I am really pleased with that. If I lost another 7.1kg in the next 8 weeks I’ll be down to 101kg. My “ideal weight” is around 85kg. So I need to stay the course with this.
I’ve put a link here to my weight chart page, which I will update weekly, but I’ll update you again at the next significant milestone.
Building a New Body – Day 4
Posted by: | CommentsHaving written in here several times about doing some amazing new workout routing, going to the gym and getting fit I’ve still failed to lose weight.
Rob's Belly
So I think I finally found an answer to my problem, which is the Body-for-life challenge. This is an exercise and diet plan developed by Bill Phillips and it spells out in 84 days how to get fit, healthy and reduce your body fat. The thing I am good at is following simple instruction and when it comes to body-for-life you can’t get much simpler. I bought the book, and also the “Success Journal”. The Journal isn’t cheap but it allows you to record everything your doing, and make sure you’re staying on track.
I’m only on day 4 but there’s nothing more motivating than having specific goals that you can focus on. I’m not weighing myself every day, but my weight is dropping rapidly, as is my body fat percentage. It’s really pleasing to follow a simple model of exercise and diet which just works.
One thing you have to do with this too is plan out your meals ahead of time. That really does stop all that junk snacking, and because you eat so frequently you never feel hungry.
Anyway I’ll keep you posted on how I get along.
It’s all coming off
Posted by: | Comments
This week continues to be a positive for my fat loss goals as I stepped on the scales this morning to find that I had lost weight over this last week. My weight is down another 0.6kg, and my body fat percentage has dropped once again. What is great is the fact I am losing fat, and my muscle mass is going up, mainly due to my diet which is far more sensible now. My energy levels feel a lot better too, and I am not so tired all the time.
I’ve not completely given up drinking but I am limiting what I have. I went out with some colleagues the other night and had a few pints of beer, but didn’t over indulge myself. However having missed the last train home, I ended up catching a different train, and had to walk about 7 miles in the freezing cold as I couldn’t get a cab. So I probably burned off a couple of pints with that activity.
The exercise is the next thing I need to get on track. I have been hitting the gym about twice a week, and I really need to up my game if I want to keep seeing these muscle gains continue and watch the fat drop off.
I am pleased with the continued results so I will make sure I keep it up.
