1 x bowl of rice crispies = 210 cals
1 x large bowl of cornflakes = 300 cals
1 x spaghetti bolognaise = 850 cals
2 x cups of tea = 70 cals

Total calories for yesterday = 1430

Seeing as how I’m now working from home I could do my exercise early in the day. Just to try something new I thought I’d have a go on the Tennis game on Wii sports, just to see if it was an effective way of burning calories. I’m pretty good at it, I’m ranked at about 1800 points. The game went on much longer than I’d planned, nearly 25 minutes before I eventually toppled my level 1900 computer opponents. I’m sorry to report though that according to my Polar heart monitor (and even with all the jumping around I do whilst playing) it doesn’t really burn that much, about 40 calories in that 20 minutes. It’s better than sitting on your arse doing nothing but it’s not really going to help you lose weight. With the experiment out of the way I worked my way through my routine on the Wii Fit. A round the island run followed by 2 lots of expert boxing (10 minutes each), 6 minutes hula and the 2 sets of 6 press-ups. Including the Tennis I burnt 543 calories.

It was a great start to my second week. I consumed 1430 calories and burnt 2100 + 543 = 2643 calories. Total calorie deficit for yesterday was 1213, my best day yet. You might think with that sort of difference that I was probably starving all day. Not at all. I drink almost thought the whole day, I really enjoy my dinner but at no point do I feel anything more than usual hunger, and even that’s from about 4 o’clock onwards as I get ready for my dinner.

New Year Diet – Day 8 is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

I forgot to weight myself yesterday, too much work to do so I made a point of doing it this morning. I now weigh 11 stone and 11 pounds, last Monday I weighed 12 stone 2 pounds. All in that’s 5 pounds of weight gone in only 1 week! How the heck have I managed that?

First of all I’d say a very large part of this has been down to my exercise routine, I really have kicked the crap out of it this week. I’ve been to the gym every day and my total calorie burn for the week (according to my Polar Heart Monitor) is 7489 calories. I’m no scientist but I think for just the “extra” calories from exercise in 1 week I’d say that was a lot. In that time I’ve ran over 30km on a cross trainer and rowed more than 15km. On one of my 5km rows (yesterday actually) I broke my own personal best with a time of 20:41.8 It’s funny because now I’ve finished the weight loss part of my diet one of my fitness goals for the first month was going to be to row 5km in under 21 minutes, looks like I’ve passed that already!

Besides the extra exercise I was also careful with what I ate. I guess feeling guilty about having put on a pound helped with that. I did stick to eating 3 solid meals a day but was good enough only to eat that. Other than 2 cups of tea a day and plenty of water that was me done. In keeping with my diet so far I ate the food that I like and not some low calorie nonsense. Fish and chips one night, lasagne another etc etc Not once during the week did a feel anything more than normal hunger (usually before each meal).

So that was it really, no secret weapons, no shakes, no wonder pills, just a whole lot of exercise and eating nothing more than 3 solid meals a day was how I lost 5 pounds in 1 week.

How To Lose 5 Pounds In 1 Week is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

For a start a new lad joined the office so that meant drinks after work on Friday.  One or two quickly developed in to 6 and by that time it was too late to eat properly so I picked up a large portion of chips, cheese and gravy with 2 sausages on the way home.  Luckily I wasn’t feeling too bad on Saturday so was in a fit state to go the gym and work off some of those extra calories from the Friday.  Unfortunately I was also snowed under with work, something had to give, I either go and earn some pennies or lose some pounds.  It’s been a quite few weeks on the money front so I had no choice really, work wins.

To compound this problem even further the wife decided that she’d wanted that Pizza delivered that I’d been teasing her about for a few weeks.  You know once you get the idea for something it’s hard to lose it.  The end result of this was me eating 6 slices of a 14 inch Meat Feast pizza.  It was delicious but came at a price.  When you’ve adapted to eating less having a splurge and over eating can have some really bad effects.  Enough to say I then spent the whole of Saturday night not sleeping but instead shitting through the eye of a needle.  No gym for me on Sunday then.  

This has been by far the worst weekend since I started my new routine and not one I’m keen to repeat again anytime soon.  I’ve now left myself with 4 pounds to lose in one week.  I haven’t experienced that level of weight loss since starting my new diet and exercise regime so what chance now?!  It’s time to discover my will power again, either that or chop of a foot.

Oh Fucksticks is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

I guess this goes to show you the importance of setting yourself regular targets, I know that having this new target to hit has really pushed me on and made me determined again, something that was lacking for a few weeks. It also means that I’ve 3 weeks left to lose that other 4 pounds, shouldn’t be too hard. I suspect it is thinking like that which causes you to slacken off!

Picking Up The Pace Again is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

1. Don’t drink calories. This is a really easy one to stick to, just drink plenty of water instead of your normal juices and pop. One drink can contain as many calories as a whole meal, stop drinking calories and you will feel the benefits. If you’re going to drink alcohol then I found a session and then get over it was easier to combat than drinking 1-2000 extra calories a day in wine as some people do.

2. Eat what you like, BUT IN MODERATION. I’ve not done without anything for the last 2 months. Whilst I have eliminated chocolate from my diet the truth is I don’t actually like the stuff that much. I have ate other snacks (not forgetting the 24 packets of mini cheddars in 1 week), the key is to eat what you like but not so much of it.

3. Exercise is very important. Within a week of started at the gym I was mentally feeling much better, I still get a buzz out of it now. Besides the happy feeling I know that my body is burning many more calories a day, increased metabolism is just one of the benefits of a regular exercise regime.

4. If your body says no it means no. On the one night I went overboard with the beer I did try going to the gym the next morning. I could hardly breath (turns out I’d picked up a chest infection walking home in the cold) but persisted for a whole hour. The end result was a week having to rest up with no exercise. If I would have listening to my body I could have been back feeling better within a few days and that week wouldn’t have been such a disaster.

5. The grill is your friend. Finally although you should be able to enjoy the food you like (including the occasional fried steak, yum) changing from frying to grilling food can make a huge difference. About 4 weeks into my plan I decided to stop frying meat and using the grill instead, not only did my stomach not feel so bloated but even after a large meal I felt good to go. If you want to insist on frying everything then remember that you’ll need to drink even more water than normal, fat needs water to be digested and if you’re going to be eating the extra fat from frying food then keep pouring in that water!

So one goal down now it’s time to set another. I’ve decided that my second target is going to be to lose another 6 pounds (bringing me to down to my fighting weight of 11 stone 12 pounds). This time I’m only going to give myself a month to do it. Considering I’ve only been averaging 1 pound a week for the past few weeks this is going to be tough. I’ll be sticking to my original 3-2-1 plan to help me along the way. Looking at long term goals I think one of them is going to be to make it to Peel in the Parish Walk, that’s a walk of about 32 miles. Ideally I’d also like to be able to stop for a few beers on the way

5 Things That Helped Me Lose 14 Pounds In 2 Months is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

Body Weight: 12 stone 5 pounds (A loss of 1 pound)

BMI: 27.9 (A loss of 0.2)

So there you have it, I’ve got 4 days to lose that 1 pound. Will I do it? Of course I will, it was never in doubt

Strange thing about this weigh in was that even with the huge amount of snacks I ate I was still able to lose weight. Mind you seeing as how I’m exercising in the gym every day now my body should be a calorie burning machine.

7th Weigh-In, 8 Weeks In is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

This was the week where I hit it hard again, back to work and back in the routine.

Body Weight: 12 stone 6 pounds (A loss of 1 pound)

BMI: 28.1 (A loss of 0.1)

So a bit of a disappointing week in terms of weight loss but as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before it is around this weight that I start to hit my wall.  With all the best will in the world I’m sure my “natural” weight is somewhere around 11 stone 12 pounds so this is getting down to that last half a stone to lose.  It’s even more important from now on in that I stick to BOTH the diet and increased exercise routine, I reckon it’s going to be far easier to put on a pound than lose it from here on in.

6th Weigh-In, 7 Weeks In is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet

Body Weight: 12 stone 7 pounds (A loss of 2 pounds)

BMI: 28.2 (A loss of 0.4)

Even with the disasterous sick week and the excess drinking I’ve managed to lose 2 pounds in 2 weeks.  This is half the weight loss I’d experienced to date but if I’m being honest it was better than what I was expecting, I would have been happy if I’d stayed the same.

What I have noticed from missing a whole week at the gym is that my stomach feels noticably softer.  Some of that toning has gone but I’m sure I can get it back.

5th Weigh-In, 6 Weeks In is a post from: Too Much Drinking, Now I Need To Diet