Lost: 2.8lbs
Lost so far: 34.1lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.3lbs
Weight: 260.6lbs (18st 8lb)
Can’t think of much to write tonight but I don’t want to leave it so just the stats. Fortunately they’re good 🙂
Tag: exercise
Gained (week 13): 3lbs
Lost (week 14): 3.4lbs
Lost so far: 31.3lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.2lbs
Weight: 263.4lbs (18st 11lb)
So I had a bad week-end a week ago. And it’s the usual story – taken me another week to lose it back. I really need to stop doing that. It not only slows me down (not so bad actually) but it makes the motivation tougher – I have to work so hard, just to get back to where I was.
But you’ve heard that all before.
Tonight I walked the streets. Normally my exercise consists of walking laps (and other configurations) around the park. But it’s getting darker and I left work fairly late, so I walked the streets instead. I prefer to do this at this time of year because it’s better-lit and I don’t look like a crazy person – I could just be someone on my way home – unless you follow me and notice that I walk so far, turn around and then walk home.
This is only slightly spoiled by the fact that this is the route I used a lot early this year – Jan, Feb time – i.e. the tail end of Lesamy i.e. when I was losing one week only to re-gain the next – and so on. Thing is, my original “streets” walk is a little impractical, well long, given that I work further away from home (but not far enough that that itself is my walk).
Maybe I need a new route. Or I could use the stepper. Urgh! the stepper!! no.
We’ll see.
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Less is More Week 12 – Comparisons
Lost: 2.6lbs
Lost so far: 30.9lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.6lbs
Weight: 263.8lbs (18st 11lb)
One of the things about having done this before is that I’m constantly comparing my progress with various points in the past. Like I’m about 3months in, how does that compare with 3months in to Lesamy? Or how does it compare with May 2009 when I was at my lowest? Or when, roughly, did I get back to this weight when I let things slide again? Or when was I about this weight earlier this year when I was trying again, but not really succeeding?
The trouble with all this comparison is that a) it’s probably not that helpful and b) I can never remember what I weighed at all those key moments. Oh I’ve got my old spreadsheets but I usually think about this stuff when I’m out walking, so I’m relying on memory. My memory.
Perhaps the best thing is just not to bother comparing. And just as soon as I figure out how to do that…
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Less is More Week 8 – Not Too Bad
Lost: –3lbs
Lost so far: 19.7lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.5lbs
Weight: 275lbs (19st 9lbs)
So, a gain. A not unexpected gain but one which was not as bad as I feared. Which in itself is both good and bad. Good for keeping the motivation going but bad in that I’m thinking in terms of a gain being acceptable this early on.
I’m 8 weeks in. By comparison, 8 weeks into Lesamy I’d lost 34lbs and never gained. Or if you take a start point of a similar weight (week 4) I lost 26lbs without any gain ‘blips’. Actually 26lbs down is about where I’d be if I’d stayed level the two times I’ve put on weight (though of course we know that some of the subsequent loss is losing that ‘new weight’ – easy on/easy off in a way at this stage).
So reasons to see good and bad. I’m a glass-half-empty kinda guy but I must be holding on to some good or my glass would be full of something not conducive to this whole exercise.
I thought about this a little today. To do this, to keep going, you have to have some sort of inner core of will power. Something you focus on. Something you tell yourself when you want to give in. Last time it was the idea, somewhat vague, that things would be ‘better’ when I reached my target. I’d be fitter, healthier, better looking and people would like me more. It was sort of true (people respond positively to what they see as a positive change with encouragement and that feels like they like me more for being thinner even if it’s not that simple in practice). The thing that caused the metaphorical glass to shatter on that illusion was when I realised that I was almost certainly going to have ‘loose skin’. Suddenly the secret dreams of being “better looking” seemed false.
After this, I’m naturally nervous about the fact that I’ve started the process again and I don’t seem to have the same level of drive/motivation. I seem to have simply decided to start again, what, if anything is my ‘core’ this time? I guess it’s this: that if I don’t move forward I will slip backwards. And quickly. The time it took to regain the weight (not all but most) was scarily fast. More importantly I was soon back noticing the same thing that started me off the first time (which I sort of lost sight of with all my dreams of youth and beauty), the thing that has become not the core itself but my slogan for it:
If don’t keep going I’ll soon be back at the place where I’m out of breath climbing the stairs.
Week 6
Lost: 1.2lbs
Lost so far: 16.1lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.7lbs
Weight: 278.6lbs (19st 13lbs)
…that and ankles apparently.
Which means this: I had a good week. By friday night after my exercise walk I was down 5lbs on last week. I knew the final number wouldn’t be that low because it was partly dehydration from the heat+exercise. Saturday I battled with myself over whether to have some alcohol – not so much the thing itself as what it says about my will-power. I compromised and had a few beers. Plus some extra treat items – but stuff I had in already rather than stuff I’d bought – so relatively low in calories compared to what it could have been. I was determined to still lose weight so yesterday was a regular diet day with, if anything, a longer walk than usual. After that I was about 2.5lbs down. I was happy with that.
Today I awoke with what felt like a lightly twisted ankle. Basically fine but not good to walk on. So the extra 0.5-1lb that can disappear in sweat as a result of a long walk didn’t happen. So I’m down on last week (good) but still up on two weeks ago (not as good, but oh well). Still that means if I have a good weekend next week I should be up for a reasonable loss.
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Less is More Week 5 – Actions
Week 5
Lost: -1.6lbs
Lost so far: 14.9lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 3lbs
Weight: 280lbs (20st)
So it’s not been a great weekend. A misjudged attempt at a ‘freebie’ after 4 weeks of keeping to the letter of the law. A pizza and a bottle of wine seemed like a reasonable treat. But that turned into a pizza and a bottle of wine on both Friday and Saturday and some other left-over treats on Sunday.
I had a lot of time to think about what to say about this, how I feel about it, as I was pounding out the laps around the park, trying to make up as much as possible with tonight’s exercise. But in the end I thought there’s a lot I can say but it’s my actions that will tell. Next week I will lose it back. I need to in the same way that I need to stick to my daily calorie count or not stop at 5 laps when I’ve said I’ll do 6. Because once I start to let myself slip where does it stop?
In a way that’s the problem with ‘freebies’ they’re too undefined. I think my next treat night will have well defined parameters.
Week 4
Lost: 3.8lbs
Lost so far: 16.5lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 4.1lbs
Weight: 278lbs (19st 12lb)
So I don’t plan to make a habit of this but as I finished my first (lunar) month I thought I’d compare my progress with last time. On Lesamy Week 4 I had lost a total of 21lbs although I was at 296 – 2lbs heavier than where I started this time. Whilst I’d lost more I hadn’t quite gotten up to the same levels of exercise. I was doing a 22min x 2 walk during the week and 30min x 2 at weekends. Currently I’m doing ~80+mins a day (including walk to and from work) weekdays and up to 2 hours at the weekend. I’m not sure I’ll keep that up (as mentioned last week) but the fact I’m even able to shows that as well as not quite putting all the weight back on, I hadn’t quite lost all my fitness.
The really effective period of Lesamy – from the start to my lowest point – was about 9 months – 37 weeks. I got down to 226lbs – averaging about 2.4lbs a week. So we’ll see where I am in another 33 weeks/8 months. My goal is to hit 224 in a year and average 1.5lbs/week.
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Less is More Week 3 – Unsustainable?
Week 3
Lost: 3.4lbs
Lost so far: 12.7lbs
Weight: 282lbs (20st 2lb)
Gotta love these early weeks and the big weight loss.
So I’ve been concerned about a couple of things this week. One is that I repeated my weekend bonus scheme from last week (2300cals on Fri, 2100 on sat and 1900 on sun). The other is that I was doing 6 laps of the park for my evening walk – combined with walking from work and back to my house that’s 1.5-1.75hours.
So on the one hand I’m concerned I’m doing too much exercise whilst eating too many calories at the weekend – hang on you’re thinking, don’t those two sorta cancel each other out? Well sort of but they have something else in common – they’re both probably unsustainable.
1.5+hours is a lot of time every day. On the one hand it’s not like I’d be doing a lot with the time otherwise but on the other it also wipes me out for the rest of the evening. I think it needs to settle down to 1hour/day.
The problem with the weekend bonus scheme is that I can get away with it at the moment because I’ve got that early big loss, I’m doing a lot of exercise and I’ve had virtually no freebies. In a month or two when an hour a night is what I’ve settled down to and I may have the odd meal out or whatever I may struggle to still lose anything if I’m also having extra at the weekend. So I think I need to phase it out. Certainly the next time I have a freebie I’ll have to give it a miss that week.
Still, hard not to be pleased with the progress.
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Less is More Week 2 – Keeping At It
Week 2
Lost: 2.3kg (5.1lbs)
Lost so far: 4.2kg (9.3lbs)
Weight: 129.4 (20st 5lb)
A good week as you can see. Obviously a lot of the success is down to the “early windfall” that you get when starting/re-starting a diet. However I am pleased that I keep to my regime much better. First week truth be told I had a bit of a binge at the weekend and was fortunate still to lose weight. Since that pattern of keeping the diet+exercise during the week but letting go at the weekend was what killed off Lesamy I knew I had to address that. I did so by tweaking the formula a little. I allowed myself a higher budget of calories on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (2300,2100 and 1900 respectively). More important probably was that I made sure I did my exercise (I have the blisters to prove it!).
I don’t know if I’ll carry forward the same thing next weekend and in the future. I may just allow myself one higher budget day if I’ve had no freebies that week, or I may have say 500 “weekend calories” to distribute as I see fit. The important thing is to set it in advance (even if only a day) and stick to it – not constantly adjusting it upwards.
I’m also thinking of creating a new ticker/graph. I may see if there’s better sites out there. Also I’m considering dropping Kg and measuring in overall pounds for a number to graph and stones and pounds for my own readability.
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Less Is More (is Lesamy mk II) – week 1
There’s a line in the first episode of Studio 60 where Danny Tripp, the recovering addict who’s just failed a drugs test talks to his partner about slipping up. He says,
I had twelve years, now I’ve got eight days
(or something like that I may have the numbers wrong)
Anyway I sort of know how he feels.
Which is to say I have become the cliche.
Which is to say that about 3 months short of 2 years after I started Lesamy I’m almost back to where I started. Ok I didn’t put all the weight back on. But I am back to wearing a lot of my ‘fat’ clothes (which I only still have because I never got around to giving them to the charity shop) and crucially I’m back to getting out of breath when I climb the stairs.
*sigh*
*shrug*
I was going to post all about how it happened. About the point where my motivation failed me and the stages of decline after that. But, well all that’s in my blog really. You can take it that since my last Lesamy update I more or less went back to eating how I used to two years ago. And of course not exercising.
The crucial thing now is to somehow find that motivation, that commitment, that stubborness to not give up that I managed to maintain for several months but haven’t had for longer.
Anyway I’m starting again. I’m counting from where I am now(*) which I think will help me “start over”.
So:
Week 1
Lost: 1.9kg (4.2lbs)
Weight: 131.7 (20st 10lb)
(*)ok, technically where I was last week.