Addicted?

Why do we spend billions on pills and potions to lose weight, when the simple act of eating a healthy and balanced diet will do the job?

I've now been eating healthy for 12 weeks and my carb cravings have gone. I wondered if that might be at the heart of the issue. If found that researchers at Harvard Medical School have reported that the effects of the sharp rise in blood sugar and the subsequent fall activates the same part of the brain as emotion and addiction.

It appears like our brains have evolved to reward us when we eat high calorie foods. This is great for a primitive ancestors, for whom food was difficult to come by. Where a rare honeycomb would be an energy dense treat, but we can get sugar filled sweets every day. Our brains seem to override our common sense and we keep eating.

When given the choice between a salad and a bar of chocolate, most people with weight issues would pick the chocolate. Whilst the salad tastes good, our brain sees the calorie rich sweets and starts to release the reward chemicals, giving us little choice in the matter. Combine this chemical assault with emotional issues that can be subdued with food and we have a recipe for disaster.

I know I have certain foods that I couldn't just eat a single portion. Biscuits being the number one culprit. So when I embarked on the Slimming World plan, I went 'cold turkey'. I know that on the plan you are allowed a little of what you like as syns, so you don't feel deprived. But eating two chocolate digestives, leaving their remaining 25 friends in the packet would have been too difficult. Bread, pizza, sweets and chocolate all went the same way, out of the house. I have to admit the cravings for these foods was difficult for the first couple of weeks. Sugary stuff was the first thing I realised I wasn't craving around week three. Bread took a little longer, but now I no longer feel I NEED to eat any of it. I still enjoy the taste of bread, but am happy with a single portion as part of a meal.

The problem with a food addiction is that you can't easily go tee total in the same way someone with a problem with alcohol or drugs. You need food to survive and it is woven into the fabric of our society. Eating with family, celebrating with food and socialising with friends. It is hard to escape. Fasting is a very severe step for most people and therefore not an option. Enter the weight loss pills and supplements. If you could pop a single pill every day and still indulge your brain's constant need for calories whilst remaining at a healthy weight, lots of people would sign up.

I would like to see a study where subjects were deprived of refined carbohydrates for a period of time, in a rehab type environment to confirm my suspicions that the carb craving can be broken, like an addiction. I think that whilst it is possible to do at home, the distractions of family, friends and the environment would make the task too difficult for most people. Once the research was complete and people knew for certain that, for example, six weeks of a diet free from over processed or refined carbohydrates would make it easier to eat a healthy diet for the rest of their lives, they would be more determined to see it though.

After losing eighty one pounds so far and feeling comfortable with the food I'm eating, I wanted to see what effect eating chocolate would have on me. I bought one of my favorite bars (Boost 12.5 syns) and tried it on Wednesday. Apart from thinking it was a waste of my syn allowance, I found that it was not as nice as I remembered. In the past I could quite happily have munched through a four pack. One was more than enough. Part of me wanted it to taste nasty. In reality it just tasted like a lump of sugary chocolate, not unpleasant, but not something that I'll be rushing out to try again. Could it be that I have broken the addiction? Now to sort out my emotional relationship with food.  

Week 10 weigh in

After ten weeks of following the slimming world lifestyle my weight loss is still going strong. Another six and a half pounds gone, bringing my total to seventy four pounds of lard shed. This week I received my five stone award and slimmer of the week.

As I get lighter each week my calorie requirement drops, to continue with the big losses each week I have two options, either drop my calorie intake further or increase my activity so that I burn more calories.

For this lifestyle to be sustainable for the rest of my life, restricting my calories any more will make it too difficult to maintain for a prolonged period. That means I need to get more active. So I made an appointment with one of the trainers at my gym and asked them to help me figure out a good weight loss workout. Because of my spine injury, I am restricted in which equipment I can use safely. The plan combines 48 minutes of cardio, with 4 sets of strength training and I warm up and cool down by walking to the gym.

The cardio workout is all on the cross trainer, split in to 3 x 16 minutes. The programs are all set up for interval training. The strength training is all on static machines to protect my back, whilst I am slowly improving my core muscles. The strength exercises are all focused on chest, back and arm muscles. I don't need a leg day yet, carrying an excess 200lbs everywhere I go, makes everyday leg day.

I'm now on my second week with this workout and all is going well. My weight loss is on track for my 100 lbs in 100 days challenge. I have 26lbs to go in the next five weigh ins. I've designed a t-shirt as my own award for completing the challenge and am all ready to order it on the web, but I've just had to recycle a second bunch of t-shirts that were too big, so I have no idea what size shirt I'll be wearing in a months time.

Life is starting to get back into a routine again so I hope to be posting more regularly, with more healthy recipes, tips and advice.

At the gym

I joined our local gym today. I was going to try to hold off spending the money, but pounding the pavements was starting to take it's toll on my joints. Whilst I was unfit, hauling my ass round our little town was exercise enough, but all that walking over the last eight weeks has improved my fitness quite surprisingly. I found that I wasn't able to push myself or my heart rate into the ideal fat burning zone by walking. The pace I need to reach now puts too much stress on my overloaded joints and spinal injury.

The cross trainer, pictured to the right, is a great bit of kit. It gives a whole body workout without the jarring impacts of a treadmill or pavement or the numb butt of the exercise bikes. The fluid elliptical movement of your feet is similar to running and works the same lower body muscles. The longer two pole handles are linked to the foot plates and allow you to push and pull working you upper body. You can also let go of the handles altogether and work your core muscles as you constantly adjust your balance whilst moving.

The machine also has several resistance settings, that mean you can use it as a warm up exercise, as your main workout or as a cool down machine. Personally I use it as my main workout as I walk to and from the gym as a warm up.

For my main workout I did 3 fifteen minute sessions. Each session I set the machine at a low resistance and pace myself so that my heart rate holds steady at 120 bpm for five minutes. I then double the resistance and pick up the pace for a minute, pushing my heart rate out of the aerobic zone, up to 150 bpm into the anaerobic zone for one minute, then drop the resistance and speed, so my heart rate drops back to 120. After two minutes at 120 bpm, I repeat the faster pace etc until I've completed 15 minutes. I take a short 3 minute break, grab some water and then repeat the exercise again.

I based the workout on interval training, although at a slightly more relaxed pace and intensity, as I'm guessing workout facilities in the local heart attack ward are a little sparse. You calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. The idea fat burning zone is 55 - 65% of your maximum, the anaerobic zone is between 65-75%. Shorter sessions of interval training has been shown to be more effective than spending hours plodding along on the treadmill. Ideally it should be one minute at high intensity, then two at a lower intensity for about 30 minutes. Although my fitness level has improved significantly, I'm no where need ready for very intense levels.

As my fitness levels improve, I'll up the intensity of the intervals to maintain the optimal fat burning effects. As my core strength improves I'll be able to add weights into the workout to push the muscles that don't get pushed hard enough on the cross trainer.

Week 7 weigh in

It's Wednesday again and that means off to group to get weighed. To say I'm overjoyed with my loss this week is somewhat of an understatement. Week seven saw a seven pound loss. This got me my four stone award. Another certificate for my motivation wall and a sticker for my weigh in book.

I'm now at the half way point of my 100 pounds in 100 days challenge with 44 pounds to lose by October 3rd, in fifty days time.

The sun is shining so I'm going to hit the garden, destroy some weeds and burn off even more of this lard.

Does my bum look big in this?

My wife went after my favorite t-shirt the other day with a pair of scissors. It's now enjoying life as her night shirt instead of , as she refers to it, part of my badly dressed scarecrow ensemble. After losing a lot of weight, my clothes don't fit me very well. I know I've still got a long way to go, but it turns out, it took quite a bit of fabric to cover the 50lbs of lard I've shed so far. My jeans are only held up with a belt and the aforementioned t-shirt looked like I was a kid wearing his dad's shirt.

Whilst loose fitting clothes help conceal unwanted bulges, baggy clothes do you no favours at all. If anything they can make you look bigger than you actually are. They are also quite uncomfortable. My jeans had an extra 3 inches of fabric on the waistband, that bunched up under my belt and dug into me when I sat down.

I'm guessing I'm not the only (slightly less) fat bloke out there that has older clothes, in smaller sizes, that were grown out of, in the pursuit of ridding the world of pepperoni - one pizza at a time. So out came the storage boxes and we began mining the strata of clothes that had built up over time. At first I felt a little down by the thought that I had put on the weight in the first place. Thinking about each year that I added more clothes to the pile. But then remembered that I had managed to undo the last couple of year's excess in six weeks. In another couple of months I'd be down to the fashion mistakes of the 2010 layer or possibly lower.

It would be nice to go shopping for new clothes, but as we are on a budget this will have to do. The other thing I don't like about clothes shopping at my size, is that the high street shops don't cater for big chaps. You get dirty looks just approaching the door. There are a few specialty stores, but they know they have a captive market and seriously overprice their stock. I'll go clothes shopping in the new year when I'm back into sizes that don't need a number in front of the XL on the label.

After trying on many different t-shirts, shirts and trousers I felt great. I now have some clothes that fit properly and feel comfortable. My neighbour stopped my a couple of days ago and complimented me on how well I looked. The strangest discovery is that I feel thinner. I am aware that the main reason I feel thinner, is the weight I have lost, but now that my clothes fit me, it makes me feel thinner.

I have found that having clothes in a smaller size is a great motivator. I have another reason to stick to my plan and lose more weight. To renew this feeling I have by getting into a smaller pair of jeans.  

100 Day Challenge

After last week's weigh in, I decided to set myself a challenge to keep myself motivated. I had already lost 49 pounds in six weeks and it occurred to me that it might be possible to try to hit the 100 pound loss in 100 days. At that point I had fifty eight days in which to lose another 51 pounds.

I know this is a very tall order, but if you have read previous posts, you might have noticed I like targets and awards to work towards.

So far it has had the desired effect. When the late night munchies hit, I just ask myself if the snack I want is worth the empty calories, compared to the feeling of completing my challenge. I know on the Slimming World plan, the idea is never to go hungry and that with all the free food and syns, there is always food available and sweets and other tasty snacks are doable, in moderation. The plan is a simple way to limit calorie intake, making the weight loss program easier to follow. It is also supposed to teach you how to make better food choices. I feel that eating because the food is available is not a good habit for me to continue with.

Our bodies are much better at knowing what food we need to survive than we think we do. One in four people in the UK are now obese, that's pretty damming evidence that we are doing something wrong. Our bodies have evolved to store fat when food is plentiful and to use that fat in times of famine. We don't normally experience famine in the western world, just food - available 24 hours a day.

I bet you have heard that if you skip a meal or two your body will go into 'starvation mode' and you will stop losing fat and your body will start to consume lean muscle. Think about that statement logically for a moment... When no food is around, your body will ignore body fat, an easily available energy store, in favour of destroying the muscles that it needs for you to be able to hunt down food. It doesn't make sense does it? The 'starvation mode' story is actually based on misinterpreted science. During 1944 the University of Minnesota conducted a study on the effects of near starvation on healthy volunteers. The story arose from this study. What the story fails to account for is that when body fat falls below 5%, then lean tissue is consumed. Many studies have shown that when body fat is above 20% in men and 25% in women, the body consumes fat when calorific intake falls below the bodies metabolic requirements.

So going to bed hungry will not cause you to stop losing weight. One pound of fat contains 3600 calories, more than a days worth of energy for a healthy person. I've made friends with my hunger and learnt to tell the difference between habitual hunger, emotional hunger, thirst that gets reported as hunger and actually feeling hungry.

I'm not issuing a challenge to anyone else, this is a hard task I have set myself. I am working with my GP and I have a lot of weight to lose. I'm eating a healthy, balanced diet, rich in the essential micro nutrients needed. If you do attempt this, I urge you to find medical supervision (although some doctors need to be educated in the science of weight loss, rather than what they learnt from the University of What Everyone Knows). I have nine weeks left to lose 51lbs, I'm 100% on plan, I've gotten more active and am ready to step up the exercise next week by hitting the elliptical trainer at the gym.

Week 6 weigh in

I had my first wobble this week after the weigh in. Which considering I lost another 4lbs this week seems ridiculous. I mean I've lost 49lbs in six weeks. But after the last two weeks of losing 7lbs each time, four pounds seems like a blow, considering that I have stuck to my eating plan 100%.

I didn't mention my feelings at group as my fellow slimmers would just think I'm nuts complaining about a huge loss, which in reality it is, but the four pound loss still affected me. I have talked in earlier posts about how I am an emotional eater and that I used to use food to help cope with situations I didn't or couldn't face. Today was the first time I considered using food to treat how I was feeling.

I didn't reach for the chocolate biscuits or pizza though, I faced the problem and talked it through with my lovely wifey. She reminded me of how I was six weeks ago, how proud she was of what I have achieved and that I'm starting to return to my old self. To put the loss into perspective she encouraged me to go out to buy twelve, two liters of pop so that I could see for myself what 49 pounds looked and felt like.

One liter of water weighs one kilogram and body fat weighs about 0.9kg per liter. For the sake of a quick demonstration a full two liter pop bottle is close enough in size to see what 2 kilos of fat would be like. So I loaded up eleven and a half bottles into four carrier bags and lifted them up, but only just. I know that the weight was distributed over my whole body and not concentrated on my hands, but it was still shocking to feel all that weight put back in one go.

My wife then challenged me to carry the whole weight upstairs. On my first attempt I didn't even make the first step. I could only manage half way up on my second attempt before I gave up, sweating profusely. This was the thing that snapped my out of my destructive thoughts. The craving for junk seemed to disappear as I put the bags down.

So for next time I get upset over a weigh in that wasn't what I was expecting I need to remember the following list;

• Body weight fluctuates daily. If my weigh in had been the day before, or the day after, I will weight a different amount.
• I'm exercising more. As I get more active, my body composition is changing. Sore muscles hold on to water, so if I pushed myself to exercise harder, my weight may not be 100% accurate that week.
• I'm feeling better and experience less pain from my spine.
• Get the scales out and fill up my back pack with the weight I've lost so far, then try carrying it, it's a great wake up call.

I need to make sure that I focus on how good I feel from the weight I've lost and the healthy food I'm eating. Whilst the numbers on the scale give me measurable goals to work towards, how I feel each day should be my reward and incentive. 

Week 5 weigh in - Woohoo!

Woo-freakin-hoo!!! Another amazing 7 pound loss this week. That brings me up to a total of 45 pounds in five weeks. Three stone three pounds in 35 days. Twenty kilos in a month(ish).

This week I struggled to get all my award certificates on the kitchen cupboard door. I got my 3 stone award, my Club 10 award, Slimmer of the Week and Slimmer of the Month awards.

Another achievement this week too, I walked to group rather than take the car. Ok, so the whole trip is only a bit over a mile, but considering last month walking round the supermarket felt like it would kill me, I'm over the moon.

As much as I don't want the weight loss to slow down, I might have to slow it down a little so I don't get lynched by the ladies in group. Who am I kidding, I want more stickers... so planning another big loss in the coming week.

 

Week 4 weigh in

SEVEN freakin' pounds lost this week! Sept, sieben, sewe, siet, that's right another seven pounds lost, taking my total weight loss to 38 pounds, earning me my two and a half stone award and two more stickers for my collection. I won slimmer of the week too.

I knew I could lose weight fairly quickly but to have lost thirty eight pounds in four weeks of healthy eating has astounded me. I know that all of the conventional wisdom says slow and steady or you will put it all back on again. The main reason why people who lose large amounts of weight quickly regain the weight, is because they crash diet for a short period, lose the weight and then go back to their old unhealthy eating habits. I'm not on a diet, I'm eating healthy food, which I plan on eating for the rest of my life. I have however made a choice to completely cut out take away food for the next year to help speed up my weight loss.

I want to say that I enjoyed every tasty calorie I ate on my journey into obesity, but in all honesty, a lot of what I ate was just stuffed in my face mindlessly as I watched TV or sat at a desk working. Whole packets of biscuits would disappear as eating was easier than feeling. I'd rather get food delivered than cook, convincing myself that the diet would start tomorrow or after the weekend. After five weeks of eating proper food, I can honestly say I don't miss junk food in the slightest. Last night my wife asked for a McBurger and salad for her dinner, the thought of that grease sodden food actually turned my stomach. The smell from the drive though was even worse.

Slimming World has an award called Club 10, which you receive when you lose 10% of your body weight. I'm a couple of pounds away from it now and am really feeling the benefit. When you are morbidly obese, simple jobs are difficult if not painful. Losing 10% of your body weight feels like you have been given a massive injection of energy, without the painful needle. I'm not going to run a marathon any time soon, but I feel like I could. I want to get active and it's only the buggered nerve in my spine that is slowing me down. But even that has gotten better. I've been able to reduce my intake of pain killers and can stay active longer between breaks.

That's enough of sitting on my arse writing this blog entry, the lawn needs mowing and weeds need pulling and I have plenty of calories that need burning.

Making time for food

The events of the previous three days have been somewhat unexpected and really hectic. Getting healthy would have taken a back seat if I had been less prepared. Eating healthy does take a lot of work, planning meals, shopping, preparing ingredients and cooking. Unhealthy foods are easy, grab a ready meal and nuke it, or the nice people on the other end of my phone will bring me pizza.

We sit down once or twice a week and plan out meals for the next few days, where possible we cook large batches of freezable meals, so it doesn't feel like we spend hours on end in the kitchen every day. I also chop up a lot of the veggies we buy and freeze them in recipe friendly portions. That way when I don't feel like all the hassle of cooking or when I return home, ready to tear chunks off a scabby horse, a nutritious meal is only minutes away.

This week I've had little time to cook, so microwaving portions of chilli and spaghetti bolognaise have saved my sanity and diet. On the days where I have been able to cook fresh food, I found that chopping all the ingredients I would use for the entire day, in the morning before I got busy, meant that when I got hungry, I could pull all the ingredients out of the fridge and whip up a masterpiece in minutes, just like the TV chefs and their dozens of little pots of ingredients (you can guarantee they don't have to do the washing up afterwards).

Another tip for when you are too busy to buy healthy food, is to let someone else do the shopping for you. Here in the UK our main supermarkets allow you to shop online and have your food delivered. The delivery prices have dropped to just a pound for certain days of the week and in some cases free if you spend enough. I've found I can do a week's shop in about a third of the time on my computer, with the benefit of never having to go near the chocolate biscuit aisle.

I've not managed to get out and be as active as I would have liked this week, but I've still managed to stick to the healthy eating plan and am looking forward to getting my 2½ stone award and my precious sticker at tomorrow's weigh in.

Staying motivated

After this week's weigh in I found my motivation levels had dropped. I know that a four pound loss would be a dream come true for most people, but having done this all before and had excellent results I felt kind of cheated. So I looked back at my weight loss journal from 14 years ago to see what I did differently.

It turns out that my weight loss slowed on week three back then too, it accelerated in week four and then settled into a five to six pound average loss each week. I'm also fourteen years older, less active and have to be careful of a damaged disc in my spine. I'm feeling better about my perceived lack of achievement. This made me think about motivation and if I felt knocked back after this minor hiccup, then how would I cope if I were to not lose weight one week, despite doing everything right?

I know that weight loss is essentially a simple calculation, consume less calories than you use and your body uses the stored fat to make up the energy deficit. Your body however does some strange things and your weight fluctuates daily, so you could be unlucky and get weighed on the day your body decides it needs to hang on to some extra water for whatever reason. Knowing this doesn't help my comfort eating brain, so I decided to make a disaster recovery plan to boost my motivation.

• Recognise your progress. Last week I calculated my weight loss in cola bottles then went out and bought that many bottles and was amazed at what it felt like to carry them all at once. Today I would need to add another two liter bottle to that load.

• Visualise your goals. I have a spread sheet that I record my progress on, with intermittent goals marked on and a forecast of when I could reach my goal if I lose five pounds a week. I did a second calculation based on an average of four pounds a week. It wasn't that much different when I think about my ultimate goal. I'll only get there if I stick to it and the desire to not go back to how I felt last month is stronger than the need for a consoling chocolate bar.

• Take it one day at a time. I didn't wake up fat and unfit, I managed to get here by a tough regime of overeating, sofa bashing and carefully selecting exactly the wrong foods. Getting fit can take just a long, tough regime of under-eating, pavement bashing and carefully selecting all the right foods to eat.

• Don't think it, do it. Rather than just sit there worrying that I've eaten something wrong, or a new food I added to my menu was the cause of my lack of progress, I should get up off my arse and do something. Do some chores, go for a walk. I'm already feeling the benefits of my weight loss in simple things like walking, go enjoy these new feelings. Strangely once I start doing something and feel good about myself, I feel motivated to continue and this feeling persists for quite some time after. 

• Perspective. I need to remember that this is not a diet, this is normal life now. Sandwiches are no longer considered a staple food group. Chocolate is an occasional treat, not an essential source of calcium. As nice as pizza and junk food is, waking up each morning in less pain, with a clear head, higher energy levels is so much better.

• Refocus. To anyone watching me walk through our village, I'd probably be dismissed as just a fat bloke walking about. I need to remember that if they stopped me and I told them what I had achieved in three weeks, they would be amazed, changing their perception of me. I need to change my perception too. 

As the quote in the picture says, it doesn't get easier, I just get better. The longer I stick with this, the more weight I will lose and the better I will feel. The cravings will subside, the old habits will be broken. I'll learn to replace comfort eating with better coping strategies and it will all seem easier because I'm better.

Week 3 weigh in

Went shopping straight after the group weigh in this week, so the post is later than usual. Woohoo a 4lb loss this week. That means another sticker for my collection.



I've now lost 31lbs in three weeks whilst mostly following the Slimming World plan. I know the experts say you should aim to lose a healthy 1-2lbs per week, but I'm eating enough food that I don't feel hungry. I'm eating a balanced diet, which typically sees me eating at least five portions of fruit and or veg per day. I've reduced my salt intake to an average of 3g per day, that's half the recommended amount. It's probably a little higher than that as I don't bother looking at the salt levels in the fresh foods, but all those trace amounts will add up.

As the weigh in is early in the morning and I don't typically eat that early, I tend to leave the house without eating breakfast and take some fruit with me in case the munchies strike during the group meeting. After the meeting I headed straight into town to pick up some shopping, we were running low on quite a lot of the fresh ingredients. I made the mistake of going food shopping whilst I was getting hungry. This made the freshly baked bread in the supermarket extremely tempting. This gave me the idea to post my tips on how I avoid buying less than healthy food whilst shopping.

• Never go shopping hungry, or if you know you will be getting hungry soon. Eat a healthy and filling meal before you leave the house.

• Make a list and stick to it. If you know what you want before you hit the shops you are less likely to be swayed by the special offers on foods that you don't really need or want. I find my resolve to get healthy is stronger at home, where I control my exposure to food etc. If I make up my meal plans on the fly, in the shop, I tend to overspend and don't always make the best choices.

• Supermarkets do us a favour for this next tip, they put all the nasty cakes, chocolates, sweets and crisps together in one or two aisles. That makes it easier to avoid temptation when the willpower is flagging. Walk past the danger zone, if you don't see it, you won't know what you are missing.

•  Plan your meals. I like to do one big shop a week, and one smaller midweek shop to top up the fresh fruit and veggies. Planning our meals is essential. I find there is nothing more dangerous to my weight loss, than being hungry and standing looking at the cupboards, wondering what to eat. I could still do some serious damage with the healthy foods I have in the house.

• Use the Internet to plan your meals. Most supermarkets allow you to browse their products and special offers online. The temptation to impulse buy is reduced as you can't just throw the items in your trolley. Find the offers that will let you make tasty but healthy foods and add them to your list.

Now I'm off to cook my favorite Red-day-all-day-grill-up-breakfast-extravaganza. Fat free sausages, bacon, baked beans and a cheesy omelet with onions and sweet red peppers.

A rewarding experience

After rereading my post about why I joined Slimming world, I thought about the different motivations I have for losing weight and getting fit. I was surprised as to how important the weight loss award stickers, they stick on my book for each half stone loss, have become. I chatted to friends and they too are motivated by setting goals and targets. Some even suggested setting rewards for each target they reached.

Previously I have always celebrated with food. Drink has never really been my thing, although there are large gaps in the 1990s that can be attributed to vodka, sambuca and on one regrettable occasion tequila. Celebration and rewards for me have been eating out with friends, celebration cakes, the list goes on. So I thought I would set some targets and a few non food related rewards.

I tried to look into the science behind using rewards to encourage behaviour and found compelling research that indicates that it works, as well as persuasive research showing it doesn't. So that kind of cuts this post short really. From my own personal experience and the new obsession with my award stickers, I feel that positive reinforcement with rewards does work. The thought of how much weight I need to lose and the timescale involved seem insurmountable, but by dividing it into smaller way points the goals become more tangible. I know when I'm going full tilt on this plan I can lose 3-5 lbs a week, so setting goals every stone would diminish the sense of achievement. I have set a couple of goals on my weight loss chart as follows.

Reward 1: Lose 10% of my body weight. Most healthcare professionals agree that dropping just 10% of your body weight, when overweight has many positive benefits to your health. From lowering blood pressure and cholestrol to giving you more energy and a clearer mind. For this milestone I'll reward myself with a new book.

Reward 2: Lose 25% of the weight I need to loose. This is quite a big number and will take a couple of months, so I'm going to reward myself with a new video game. The one I want is due for release in November, so I also have a deadline to spur me on.

Reward 3: Halfway to my goal weight. This loss should plant me firmly in the feeling healthy, active and full of carrots department, so I'll reward myself with a PC upgrade.

Reward 4: Beat my previous best. I know I'll be feeling great by this point and will want to do something active. Not sure what kind of reward, but I'd love to do something like a balloon ride, kayaking, horse riding, flying lesson or other outdoor activity.

Reward 5: Goal weight... I suppose hitting target will be reward enough but a milestone like that requires some celebration. I don't have anything planned yet, but I am planning on putting one pound in a savings account for every pound I lose. Then when I hit target I will smash the piggy bank open and have a spending spree.

Week 2 weigh in

Week 2 saw another 8½ pound loss. That got me my one and a half stone award, narrowly missing my two stone award by
just one pound. I also won the slimmer of the week award. That's another two stickers for my book and two certificates for my kitchen wall.  

To put that in perspective I made the pictures on the right. Twenty seven pounds is five and a half bags of potatoes. When converted to metric it's nearly twelve and a half kilograms, or in soda, over six 2 liter bottles. I just loaded up my backpack with 27 pounds and was staggered by the weight. I have been carrying that around with me for the last couple of years. I am looking forward to shedding a few more of these backpacks over the coming months.

I knew I was feeling better, my skin looks healthier and clothes are starting to feel looser. Today I had to wait for a prescription to be filled. Usually I take the opportunity to have a seat whilst I wait, but today, the sun was shining and I took a walk around out village's shop lined streets. I'll admit that it wasn't the longest walk in the world, but I wasn't out of breath, my back pain had decreased and it felt good to be walking in the sunshine. Looks like I'll be walking to the slimming club in a couple of weeks with any luck. 

All you can eat

The good thing about the Slimming World plan is that you never need to go hungry. Some diets let you have a set amount of food or points worth of food. Some limit your calorific intake. This plan is good because there is always free food to eat or snack on.

After writing the HALT post about thinking about why you are eating, my wife suggested I post about my eating habits on this plan.

Probably the biggest difference from my fellow slimmers in group, is that I have gotten back in to the habit of only eating when I am hungry, rather than at set meal times. This means that some days I don't eat for several hours after waking and some days, which I call hungry days, I eat every couple of hours. The advantage of only eating when I actually feel hungry is that I find I eat less food.

Not eating at set times is a little strange at first, you see lunchtime roll round on the clock, but I have a drink, wait a few minutes and figure out if I feel hungry or if I just feel like eating. Usually it was just the habit of eating that made me think of food.

I know there are a lot of people who say skipping meals, especially breakfast, is all kinds of wrong, but I'm betting that as my body is the product of millions of years of evolution, it has a better idea of when I need to eat than a clock does. The other factor in my favour is that I'm not going to starve to death any time soon. One pound of fat contains 3500 calories worth of energy and my basal metabolic rate is somewhere around 3200 - 3700, which gives me in excess of 200 days worth of fuel stored in my wobbly bits.

The second thing I do differently when eating is stop when I feel full. It's not unusual for me to leave food on my plate. I can hear my gran giving me earache for wasting food. I just box up the leftovers and reheat it later when I get hungry, or use it as a snack the next day. To try to counter this problem I have switched to using smaller plates, I know I can go back for seconds if I am still hungry.

I try where possible to avoid social eating in the same way alcoholics avoid pubs until they get their heads around their problems. Even when your friends and families know you are trying to lose weight, they can sabotage your will power without realising it. Imagine the situation where you are eating in a restaurant, with friends and you feel full after half the meal. You know you will get comments like 'Is there something wrong with your food?' or 'It's so nice, it's a shame to waste it.' We have been brought up to be polite, leaving food or causing a scene is not worth the bother over half a plate of food, so you just eat it.

I don't completely avoid social eating, but I make sure before I go, the people I'm with know that I might not eat much, I might leave food, or ask for a doggie bag. I also suggest places I know will provide food that is compatible with the plan. I also limit my Syns on the day before and day after so as to minimise the impact of the restaurant's chef's love of adding oil and sugar to make food taste that little bit better. 

I know this kind of eating won't work for everyone, especially for the more sociable folks out there, but the tips can be tweaked to work for you. Think about when you eat, try to wait until you are hungry then only eat enough food to satisfy your hunger. Remember that every forkful of food you eat after you feel full is another 10 minutes on the dreaded cross trainer.

Meat glorious meat.

If you like meat then you will love red days. Slimming World original plan, nicknamed 'red days' from the colour of the pages in the book, are a carnivores dream. All lean meat, fish and seafood are classed as free food on a red day. Combine meat with your free vegetables and you are set. You get to add one or two portions of dairy, called healthy extra A choices and two healthy extra B portions of pasta, potatoes, rice, cereals or bread, plus 5 - 15 syns.

Whilst it sounds like a dream plan, you must remember that you need to remove ALL visible fat prior to cooking. Unless they are less than 5% fat, sausages, burgers etc all contain syns. Some veg such as beans, peas and lentils are not free, but can be eaten as a healthy extra or as syns.

In my previous post I mentioned that I prefer green days, but have found that having at least one red day each week seems to boost my weight loss. Some of the dishes I really enjoy are;

All day breakfast: Grilled syn free sausages, bacon, grilled garlic mushrooms, sliced tomato, baked beans and a cheesy omelet with onion and bell peppers. As long as you cut all the fat off the bacon and grill everything, limit the cheese in the omelet to 30g and 150g of beans, you can be really extravagant with this meal.

Open club sandwich: Lightly toasted rye bread (60g), low fat mayo (1/2 syn / tbsp), mustard, pastrami, ham, sliced chicken, bacon, tomato, lettuce and spring onion. I like to mix a little English mustard powder into very low fat mayo for this sandwich, or add horseradish sauce if I add sliced beef to the sandwich.

Roast dinner: Roast beef, potatoes (healthy extra), roast squash, carrots, green beans and gravy (a couple of syns depending on brand) and horseradish sauce. If I have spare syns I will indulge in a couple of Aunt Bessie's Yorkshire puddings (3 syns each).  Any lean meat will work with a roast as long as it is as lean as possible.

Jacket potato with chilli: Grab a good size spud (230g raw) and toss in the oven. Make a beef chilli, with lean mince, onion, peppers and seasoning, but skip the beans. Once the spud is ready, split in half and pile on the chilli. Garnish with some grated cheese from your healthy extras. If like me you are not a fan of veg you can add finely chopped veg to your chilli, once they have cooked down, you hardly notice them in there.

Snacking on red days is easy too, in addition to your fruit and veg, you can grab a couple of slices of cooked meat, roll them up and snack. Slice up a couple of syn free sausages and add sliced apple. Wrap slices of ham around a stick of melon or just chow down on a chicken drumstick, but take the skin off first.

It's a green day

Back on track, day two...

I love carbs, so the green day on Slimming World's eating plan suit me best. Although I do suffer with the healthy extras. On the green day plan you can eat all the fruit, veg, pasta, rice and potatoes you like and must limit your protein intake. This is achieved by having one or two portions of dairy and two portions of protein, bread or cereal.

The main problem is that of all the carbs I love most, bread is my best friend. From simple toast and sandwiches to pizza, there are very few times I haven't found a new friend in a loaf of bread. It's unfortunate that bread is limited on this plan, but if it and I were not such close friends, I'd probably not have quite so much weight to lose.

Green days usually start with fruit and yogurt. Cereals are allowed, but they count as one of the two permitted healthy extra B choices. I usually use at least one B choice for protein and the second is flexible between bread, porridge or a second portion of protein. Snacking on green days is easy, fruit. Vegetable crudities are also an option for veg lovers, served with low fat tzatziki dip made from fat free greek yougurt, grated cucumber (with as much juice squeezed out as possible) 1 tsp olive oil (2 syns) and a clove of crushed garlic.

Lunch will normally be a pasta dish with either a healthy extra choice of protein. An easy favorite is Cheese, leek and ham pasta and sauce (Batchelors 1syn when made up with only water) with an extra 1/2 chopped leek and diced ham or bacon. Another simple lunch is pasta shapes served with a half a pepperami diced (3.5 syns) fried with diced onion, diced sweet red peppers and 200g passata, seasoned with garlic and basil. If all else fails, beans on toast.

Dinner choices are limitless, there is very little you can't do with veg, carbs and a portion of meat or fish, except for pizza. Staples are spaghetti bolognaise, chilli and cottage pie, but as long as your recipe doesn't contain oil and fats (unless synned) then you are covered. With syns you can even indulge in dessert or the odd tipple. Personally I'm happy to steer clear of the booze whilst on the plan, I'd rather spend the syns on making the most of the main meals and adding a little extra to the snacks.

The best part of this eating plan, is there is always food to eat, so you never feel hungry. It does however take willpower to break the junk food cravings in the first week or two. I find until I'm well in to the plan and have gotten the sugar rush / crash cycle out of my system, it's easier to not buy in treats like sweets, chocolate and my nemesis, biscuits. For me one biscuit is too many and a whole packet is not enough, so not buying them for the first month is hard, but it's harder to not sneak a couple or six at 2am. Once I'm firmly on the plan and the cravings have passed I'll start adding treats in occasionally. If you have to have your daily sweet fix, buy small amounts which will limit the damage in a moment of weakness. Better still, only buy enough for one day and take a walk to the shop to buy it. 

Red days explained next time.

Slimming world

I seriously lost the plot with my weight loss and getting fit. Depression, pain and anxiety are not great for keeping your head in the right place for getting fit.

After nearly a year off I feel like I'm in a better place for getting fit. One thing I realised is that I'm missing out on is support. Whilst I know how to cook and eat healthy food, when I hit a low point I don't have the mental resources to always pick myself back up. So I have decided to join a weight loss group called Slimming World. I have been a member previously and lost a huge amount of weight, but fell back in to the old bad eating habits, then illness struck, food and comfort eating was my drug of choice. The plan is easy to follow and whilst I'll be mostly sticking to the plan, I will still try to only eat when I'm actually hungry, learning to listen to my stomach not my head.

The consultant at my local group is extremely enthusiastic and is the reason why I'm re-joining the group. Whilst she is very supportive and never judgmental, I know that the pressure of wanting a weight loss each week in class and to win that coveted slimmer of the week certificate will help spur me on. I found that the support from the other members is also great.

I realised after a lot of reflection on my last weight loss foray with Slimming World, is that I get a lot from helping other members. People have asked me for my recipes, to tell them how and what I eat on the plan and a couple of people have even thanked me for being an inspiration once I started to hit the bigger numbers and drop several clothing sizes. This might seem a little self centered or even big headed, but if that is what it takes for me to keep my head in the right place to loose all this weight, then it's what I will do.

My first class is tomorrow morning, I will be honest that I'm not looking forward to the first weigh in as I know I have put on the weight I lost last year, and maybe some more besides, but it will only be between me and the consultant. I'll also post the basics of the plan and what I'm eating on the blog and report in my weigh in results each week on the Wednesday posts.

I'm not employed or paid by Slimming World to write this blog. I am just reporting my own personal journey. Facts or Syn values are correct to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing. The eating / lifestyle plan is a proprietary product and information posted on this blog is published as a guide to help you determine if their plan would work for you. All recipes are my own work or that of other members and are published with permission. For details about food optimising, contact your local Slimming World consultant.

Lost the plot

I lost the plot. Completely. A combination of depression and pain have derailed my plans. Comfort food and binge eating seem to be the medication of choice right now.

Over the last couple of months I have been feeling very low. So much so I ignored the blog and my quest. It all seemed too hard and my goals seemed so far away.

I feel that right now I'm not in a good place to be writing my thoughts down. The new year seems like a good place to start afresh, even though it is just an arbitrary set of numbers on a calendar. 

Week 6

I know at the start of this new healthy life style quest, I decided I wasn't going to gauge my success on the bathroom scales and have therefore stayed away from them for the last six weeks. Today after my shower I wondered how much weight I had lost as I am feeling so much better. I am finding walking is no longer painful and I am now enjoying the occasional stroll round our local village and our out of town giant Tesco. I have not had to take my prescription strength pain killers for my recovering back injury for over 3 weeks now. And my clothes are now loose and next week I'll be opening up the storage boxes to find my older clothes in smaller sizes.

In the last six weeks I have lost nearly 60 pounds. All of this has been achieved through sensible eating, healthy food and slowly increasing my activity levels. At times it has been difficult, but overall I have to say this time round has been the easiest. In the past I have tried Slimming World, Weight Watchers and a number of strange diet plans. Whilst the Slimming World plan is the easiest to follow and you are never hungry and I had great results whilst on their plan, as soon as I tried 'normal' eating, I picked up the weight again.

In reality all diet plans work, they modify what you eat so that your body sheds weight, some rely on restricting calories, others use weak or pseudo science to sell you their plan, which is really reduced calories wrapped up in a fad eating plan. For me I saw them a bit like a course of medicine, complete the course and you are fixed. Which in reality it isn't, I and many fat people like me have underlying issues that need resolving rather than just treating the fat symptom.

For me I need to re-educate my body and food habits. I can do diets but I can't manage the time between them. So my plan is, as I stated 4 weeks ago when I started this blog, I am looking to learn to listen to what my body is telling me. I need to think about what I eat, when I eat and why I eat. It used to be too easy to eat take away, junk food, sweets etc. it was quick and required no effort. I suppose it tasted good, but sitting here now, I probably couldn't tell you what it tasted like, the food was just piled in, in an attempt to fulfill a need. I ate when food was available, I didn't need to be hungry.

I am learning how to tell when I am hungry as opposed to just wanting to eat. I am unlearning the habit of set mealtimes and eating just because it is dinner time or some other meal time. This way of eating might not suit everyone as lots of people fix meals into busy routines, as we don't have kids, we can choose when we eat. To be honest a lot of the food I eat does fall into meal time slots, but I am finding that I eat now when I am hungry, I eat slowly, until am full and then only eat again when I feel the hunger return. This occasionally means I skip 'meals' but if you take a look at my calorie intake for the day, it averages out. I am eating a balanced diet, making sure I eat good food. Already my body has gone a long way to adapting to this type of diet. Last night I ate some chocolate pudding, it has no added sugar and was made up with skimmed milk and calorie wise it is acceptable, but this morning I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache, I feel this is my body telling me that something in the pack mix dessert it didn't like. To be honest although it tasted fine, I have to admit it wasn't that fantastic and I doubt I'll be eating it again any time soon.

It is strange to think that the human body can adapt to different foods so quickly. I know from past experience on the SW plan, which is very low fat, that one time when we were out for a meal and I had saved up quite a few of their 'sins / syns', which are the way they allow the 'naughty foods' into the plan in controlled amounts, I had chips with my dinner and really suffered the following day with what can only be described as a 'fatty hangover'. I was shocked by how much my body rebelled against a food that I had previously thought of as a staple.

So into week six with a positive outlook, and although the sixty pounds gone so far is only the tip of the iceberg, I am feeling positive.