Tuesday, 30 June 2009

My first set of new statistics. Updated twice monthly

Some good news at last I guess. Today I did my second set of photos and my second official inch loss measurements. My new stats are as follows. The old stats are in bold.

Chest - 49 1/2 " 51"
Waist - 49 1/2" 50 1/2"
right arm - 16 1/2" 17 1/2"
Left arm - 16" 7 1/2 1
Right thigh - 25" 26 1/2
Left Thigh - 26" 26"

Weight - 19st 12lb (290lb) 20st 10lb 278lb
BMI - 35.7 (39.6)
BMR - 2445.34 (2457)

Monday, 29 June 2009

Sigh.

Still stuck at 278lb. I really have hit the mother of all plateaus.

Bargains

Sometimes I think life enjoys playing games with me. Since I have been on my diet free or cheap fattening foods seem to want to throw themselves me on an almost daily basis. I am one of those people that always checks out the reduced section at the supermarket usually with little success. Ob boy have I almost wept at what I have had to ignore just lately. A large Duck crown reduced by two thirds, triple packs of tasty looking top of the range pork pies, butchers choice sausages, prepared meals and anything else that would normally be forced down my gullet given half the chance. All at super knock down prices. At work it is conference season and the new caterers we now have a leagues ahead of the old bunch. Only the other day I had to turn my nose up to hand baked chocolate cookies Little raspberry parcels and various Chinese and Indian style finger food. I can say no to free good quality food in the first few weeks of a diet but I would be a liar if I said I could be the third or fourth month. Could you?

Hubris

I am presently weighing in at exactly the same as I was before I started my nightshifts 278lb (19st 12lb). This just goes to show if you buy your "I've lost a stone treats" before you have actually lost it, life will just bite you in the butt. By that I mean I now wish I had not bought those two bottles of Cider when I did the weekly shop last thursday. Still, the chart looks nice I guess.

Saturday, 27 June 2009

Night shifts.

I am struggling to think what has gone wrong over the last couple of days with the diet. My head tells me that working shifts messes my body about in as much as I eat at different times and and my toilet habits change quite a lot. Also the time of day that I way myself is different by a good few hours. I am guessing that some of the problem is just that I am holding on to bodily fluids (and solids) and that eating at 11pm and 3am tells my brain to hold on to the fat or something.

The good news is that tomorrow is my last night shift then I have 4 days off. It will also help that I will no doubt not be eating much on Monday due to me sleeping for most of the day.

Oh no, I have put on a pound!

Horror of horrors I have put on a pound. I now weigh in at 19st 13lb (279lb). Yet again I blame the night shifts. I just presume that if I keep at it and return to day shifts etc it will start falling again.

Friday, 26 June 2009

It's no loss

Here is today's chart. No weight has been lost today. I think changing to night shifts mucks up the metabolism to much.

Thursday, 25 June 2009

More food pictures

Just thought I would upload a few more snaps of my daily grub.This is what I had for breakfast today. A huge portion of Weetabix with a banana ans soya milk. I topped this off with a spoonful of fructose sugar. Today is an odd day as I start my night shifts and it means I will be awake for nearly 24 hours. For that reason I will be having 4 meals today. To make up for this on my first day off I only tend to have 2 meals.
This is yesterdays lunch it consists of toast & Kippers with a side salad
Dinner was another late rush job and did not do anything for me taste wise. It was Pilchards and baked beans on toast.
For snacks I ate one small apple and a few nuts.

WOOT - 19st 12lb (278lb)!

Fantastic result. I can hardly believe it. I am now only 2lb away from my first treat. (I have a small treat at the half stone mark such as a couple of beers or slice of cake. At the one stone point I will have something like a curry and a bottle of wine. I find it stops the cravings if I allow myself these once in a while luxuries.

Wednesday, 24 June 2009

Another pount lost!

I am very surprised and pleased to find I am now down to 280lb (20st). I am very hungry this morning though.

Tuesday, 23 June 2009

Todays chart

What i'm eating

It occurs to me that when you read diet blogs you can't really be sure if what you are reading is the truth, lies or exaggerations. especially when it comes to food. For my part I am trying to log what I eat so that I don't kid myself let alone anyone else. To be sure I am not photographing everything I eat but as many meals as make sense I do (though I won't always post them here). For instance today I had my usual porridge with fruit for brekkie followed by a very quick lunch of toast low fat cream cheese and tomatoes. (I was in a rush to get out the house).
My dinner today was a bit of a sad one. I needed to clear some space in the freezer to I dug out this 5 month old pasta dish. For 550 calories (as labelled) it was not that filling but I guess it will have to do. On top of my three meals I also had 3 small apples. I reckon that is probably around 1500 calories for the day. Usually lunch is bigger than today's so I would suggest that, that is less than normal for me at present.

Supportive partners - not.

My breakfast, Porridge with fruit. Her breakfast bacon, potato cakes, fried mushrooms etc. etc. Last night my treat 6 cashew nuts her treat 3/4 of a box of luxury chocolate truffles.

Just as I suspected

Weighed in at 281lb (20st 1lb) this morning. It was far to much to hope for a further drop after yesterday.

Monday, 22 June 2009

Daily chart.

Nice little bit of spiking going on with this chart now. 9lb lost in 6 days so far this week. I suspect that will be my first weeks total tomorrow too mind you.

A big surpise.

I had a real shock when I stepped on the scales this morning 281lb! can you believe it? after yesterdys weight gain of a lb I was sure I had reached that all to famileir first week plataue. The only thing I can attribute it to is that I only had that large roast dinner yesterday followed by yogurt and fruit at around 9pm. I would guess that plus the fact that my waterworks where in overdrive last night ( I must have gone to the loo around 12 times between 8pm and 8am) accounts for it being a mix of more bodily contents plus a smidge of blubber.

Sunday, 21 June 2009

Fathers day

Bit of a tricky one today, what with it being Fathers day and also my first day off after my night shifts. Generally I don't eat that much on my first day off especially if it is a Sunday because I sleep till around 1.30pm then I have a large lunch at around 2.30 to 3.00pm I usually have nothing more than a snack after that generally at around 9pm a couple of hours before bed.

Ideally I would not have had the Mrs make dinner (I do most of the cooking) but it being the day it was she made me a roast chicken lunch. I had asked for boiled new potatoes and lots of veg to go with it but we ended up with roast potatoes, roast parsnips buttered sweet potatoes and carrots and broccoli. It was nice but not what I really need to be eating at the moment. I do wonder if she is not subconsciously sabotaging my efforts sometimes.

I tried to burn off some of the calories with a bike ride but as usual that narrow saddle makes my eyes water after 10 minutes so again I came home and re-entered the house like a cowboy that has crossed Texas non stop on horseback.

I will be using the chicken carcass as the base for my next set of stews.

Oh the humanity!

Horror of horrors, the weight loss has it its first real blip. I am now 1lb heavier than yesterday. I han not cheated and was pretty mobile yesterday so I guess my body has now regulated itself with regards to fluids and my other bits and pieces. Still it was a good run 6lb lost in total is nothing to be sneezed at is it?

Saturday, 20 June 2009

Ok I have changed my mind. Behold the new chart!

I decided it was pointless keeping the old chart going as it was based on error weights and just looked lazy leaving it as it was. Anyway here it is. The chart as it always should have been.

Dinner

Just a quick post to mention that I ended up getting 5 huge meals out of that big stew I made a few days ago. The best of it is I bet it only cost around 50p a bowl to make. When I think how little my porridge oats cost as well it shows how dieting really can be done on the cheap.

The virtual me

Found this cool tool for people who are shy about showing the amount of blubbage they have to the world. Meet virtual me at my target weight of 210lb (15st). This is me as of today at 284lb. Ok I admit he is better looking than I am.
This link will lead you to the right place to get your own.


I just got around to transfering this photo of a typical lunch. For me lunch can easily be the smallest meal and I try and keep it under 500 calories nearer to 400 in fact. This lunch was two slices of wholemeal toast with a can of sardines in tomato sauce. To liven it up I have added fresh basil a couple of thin slices of cheddar cheese sliced tomato and finally a splash of Worcester sauce. This is then grilled until the cheese has melted.

Lost yet another Pound!

I am actually surpised by this latest drop. I was not expecting to lose a full pound for a day or two (water or not).

Friday, 19 June 2009

More of the same

I am settling into things a little more now. The food cravings are dying down a little and three square(ish) meals now seems tolerable (plus a couple of apples in between). Exercise wise I have not done an awful lot. My job can be pretty active and I have so far had to walk around a fair bit to the point that I raised a bit of a sweat, so I have no problem with myself on that front. The main thing is I guess is that when I jumped on the scales again today I had lost another pound. Even though I know that in the first week or so it is mostly water and crap that makes up a lot of this it is still pleasing to say those numbers heading south.

Todays chart.

I so wish I had bought the new scales before I started this chart. I am losing weight!

Thursday, 18 June 2009

Breakfast - The most important meal of the day!

When I have a day off and can eat a proper breakfast at home I have found the most filling and diet friendly thing to have is porridge outs with skimmed milk and fruit. A bowl full of this stuff will keep me going for around 5 hours. Not really a recipe but what I have is 60g of porridge oats (or Ready Brek) and two spoon fulls of fructose sugar microwaved with a lot of skimmed mild for 5 minutes. When the porridge is done I add a finely chopped banana and a handful of berries. Stir it up and then enjoy. If you hate Porridge Weetabix works nearly as well.

Food, glorious food.

This so far has been a typical evening meal. This is my patented diet stew. You can have a huge bowl of the stuff and still find it only adding up to between 500 to 600 calories.

The recipe is as follows. plonk your meat into the middle of your cooking pot. I highly recommend using those ultra cheap giant sized turkey legs you find in most large supermarkets (leave the skin on) Cut up loads of veg into chunks. The only thing you need to remember is that the majority of the veg used has to be of the lower calorie variety such as Onion, Leeks Carrots,button mushrooms, Swede and Turnip also include such things as Sweet Potato, Parsnips and Potato's but in much smaller quantities. Make a stock up of 2 1/2 pints of water two chicken stock cubes plus what ever suits you, such as Worcester sauce, garlic, pepper, tomato paste & Rosemary etc. Add that to the mix then cook for 4 to 5 hours at a low to medium heat in the oven. When the meat starts to fall from the bone it is ready. Gently take the meat out of the stew and discard all the skin and bone and cut it into small chunks. Pop the meat back into the pot and then partially blend some of the stew to make it thicker. Do not overdo this, you don't want it to turn into baby food. You should now be left with a hearty healthy low calorie meal that will last you most of the week.
This is roughly how it should look before it goes into the oven.

My daily chart




As you can see I was doing so well until I bought the new scales!

Excersie and me.

Lordy, lordy do I hate the idea of gyms and I know no matter how much I wish it was otherwise I have neither the time nor the inclination to go to one even semi regularly. I used to like swimming mind you and even got up to doing 4 miles a week in my 20's but swimming takes up a big chunk of time and I just don't have it these days especially with two little ones taking up a lot of my spare time. After doing a fair bit of research about what activity gives you most bang for your book I have come to the conclusion that a rowing machine is probably my best bet and so I am now actively looking for a magnetic or flywheel model on eBay. I did think of just using my bike for most journeys but as I was nearly knocked over the first time I took it out of the house a couple of days ago I have put that idea of the back burner for a while.

So how is it going so far?

Oh disaster. No I am not cheating or anything so tedious so early on It is more that fact that the Mrs is being as supportive as a cream cake tied to my hand and worse my replacement scales read 10lb heavier than my old mechanical Salter's did. I am sure you can imagine how thrilled I was to find that I was not 20 stone after all (not counting the 4lb I had lost since Monday). Anyway that is all in the past. I now have a rudimentary mental game plan in play. I have found a useful website http://www.physicsdiet.com/ that will help me with graphs and such like and I have most of the equipment I need i.e half decent electric kitchen and bathroom scales. I also have a body fat analyser (but I seem to have misplaced the instructions for those).

The fun does'nt start here!

Like a lot of things with me nothing ever works out quite the way I wanted it to. I eventually started this diet on the 16th of June 2009. My original intention was to do a home made 'shakes' type diet. But my skills in the kitchen failed me on this one so I have reverted to the usual three meals a day plus fruit as snacks. Because I am a total tubster at the moment 20 stone 5 pounds at the time of writing this I should be able to comfortably lose weight on around 1800 calories per day. I will be dropping down 100 calories after I lose 20 pound until I get to 1500. At this point I will level off and let nature take its course until I am down to 15 stone. At that weight I will switch to maintenance mode as I have not interest in getting any lighter than that. At 43 I don't think being lighter will do me any favours (saggy skin etc) especially with the amount of effort it would take to shed anymore chubbage.