Week 8 weigh in

Well this week seemed difficult, but the scales still rewarded me with another 5lb loss, taking my total now to 61lbs in 8 weeks.

I say difficult because I had some mysterious illness that hit over the weekend. It felt like a cross between flu, without the snot and being drunk. I also developed the desire to eat, even when I didn't feel hungry. Luckily there was no junk food in the house, and I was in no fit state to drive to the shops, so I couldn't do that much damage. By Monday I was feeling great again and back on plan.

I read somewhere that when you are eating a high fat / calorie diet and your liver and kidneys can't cope with the high influx of chemicals and toxins, it will store some of the fat soluble chemicals in fat cells. When you start to burn the stored fat, the toxins are released and the liver then does it's thing. I wonder if this brief 'illness' wasn't just my body opening up a new strata of lard and the stored fatty toxins from a couple of greasy kebab, chips and garlic bread meals making an unwelcome return.

This week was the first week when I didn't manage to get another weight loss award and the sticker for my book, but I have been more active over the last few weeks and was awarded my bronze F.I.T. award. This award is for increasing your physical activity and sustaining the level for four weeks. Over the last month I've managed to do at least two bouts of gardening and at least 3, 15 minute walks each week. To get my silver award I need to step my activity levels, so that I'm exercising for at least an hour and a half each week, split into 3 sessions.

So to save my poor knees and the town's pavements from my constant plodding, I'm joining the gym tomorrow. I'm luck in that our local gym doesn't tie you in to a lengthy contract, you can just pay for each month you use the facilities. From previous health kick I found I enjoy the elliptical or cross trainer. It provides a good cardio workout, with almost no strain on my knees or injured spine. I'll report in later in the week with a progress report.

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. 

They only want to detox your wallet

How many times have you been told or read in a magazine that you have to detox to be healthy? Would you believe me if I were to tell you that cleansing and detoxifying are just a marketing terms to help detox your wallet?

The detox fad has gained a lot of ground lately and the list of products, plans and treatments you can buy is astounding, considering none of them are based on actual science. There is a medical term 'detoxification' which describes the treatments to rid the body of actual life threatening toxins such as lead and other heavy metals for example. The detox advocates would have you believe that you need to periodically cleanse your liver, kidneys and gut for optimal health.

Your body encounters all kinds of chemicals, both naturally occurring and synthetic. It does an excellent job of processing these chemicals, separating beneficial chemicals from the harmful ones. Your body then eliminates anything it doesn't want or need via the liver, kidneys, bowel and skin. Nothing gets stored for periodic cleansing by you. If you eat a balanced diet, don't over-do the booze and obviously don't smoke, your body will work fine. When you constantly barrage it with junk, your digestive organs need to work hard to process the food. Which is why cleanses and detoxes appear to work, for a week or more you live a virtuous life of pure detox water, detox treatments and other wallet lightening procedures. In turn for laying off the junk, your body responds by working normally. Two weeks after your detox, and you are eating the same junk as before, you feel like you need to detox again.

You will notice that the detox advocates and salesmen warn about all the harmful toxins that collect in your body, but fail to mention what these toxins are called. They just make sure that you know you shouldn't have them, because they have been linked with illness and cancer. If you do some research into detox therapy, you won't find a single clinical study that shows a link between a detox system, specific toxins and links to clinically demonstrable effects. It is all just the placebo effect. I'm not saying that this isn't good, we humans have an inbuilt belief that we accumulate badness in whatever form and need to make amends for it. The cleanse is just another way we 'pay' for our unhealthy lifestyle.

Try this free 'detox' system; for the next 10 days, you are only allowed to eat food in the following ratio. 50% vegetables, 25% carbohydrates and 25% protein. There are no bad carbs, no bad protein and no bad fats. You cannot drink alcohol for the next 10 days and limit your coffee and tea to just 2 cups, which can only be drunk before 6pm. For the rest of the time just drink water or sugar free soft drinks (without caffeine). If you still need to snack between meals, follow the same 50-25-25 rule, so if you have to eat that snickers, balance it out with some fruit or veg. Restaurants are off limits, without exception, they will add salt, fat and other unnecessary ingredients to your food to make it taste 'nice'. (Also avoid diet meals from supermarkets like the plague, low fat does not equal healthy, when they add sugar and salt to compensate for the flavour lost from removing the fat).  

After 10 days your digestive system will feel just as good, if not better then after your detox. Your wallet will not have lost weight, but you might have.

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.