Tag: numbers

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 15 – Odious Comparison

Sorry about the lateness of the post – I stayed up late last night finishing my latest book and so put off writing this.

One of the things I noticed recently was that I’m constantly comparing myself to how I was doing back when I first started dieting. So I finally gave in and added a comparison graph tab to my spreadsheet. Basically I took my stats from the first year of Lesamy and lined them up with my current efforts. By ‘lined up’ I mean I chose week 3 of Lesamy to be the equivalent of week 1 of L3 as that was the closest to my start weight this time around. Long story short, I’m doing a little less well (39lbs vs 44lbs) but close enough for it not to be a big deal (so I can stop worrying about it and obsess over something else!)

The other thing that came out of this was to fix in my mind the number 231 – which is not quite my lowest ever[1] that would be 226 – but it’s a low that I reached a couple of times and hovered around during summer 2009. Once I’m back in the 230s I’ll feel like I’ve really made up the ground I lost. And, that’s now nearer than my start point.

A big loss this week. Below 19st – yay! A fair bit was dehydration though – very hot yesterday. I’ve got a weekend away this coming Friday so I’ll be happy to stay level next week.

Lost: 4.2lbs
Lost so far: 39.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.6lbs
Weight: 265lbs (18st 13lbs)

[1]by “ever” I mean since I started dieting/post-2000. In 2000 I was ~17st (=238) and I was only ever going up until I started Lesamy in Sep 2008.

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 14 – Back on Track (I Think!)

So my goal for next week – whether I lose weight or not – is to keep to the diet every day.

Weeeellll. I sort of did this. I had what would have been, any other week, a perfectly fine week. I stuck to my diet every day apart from Friday when we went to the pub for lunch (Fish and Chips and beer) and it was raining too hard for me to do my evening walk. I thought about the stepper – and the thought was something like, “God no, not the stepper!”. But apart from that I’ve been good.

The numbers seem to reflect that. In fact I’ve got a pretty respectable two-week average. Which me being me make me suspicious about the scales. But I’ll take the new low figure and change the battery in time for next week.

Lost: 3.8lbs
Lost so far: 35lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.5lbs
Weight: 269.2lbs (19st 3lbs)

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 13 – It’s Not the Numbers

So, I was all prepared to be explaining a significant gain this week. But, whilst there’s a gain, it’s small. So I think I’ll keep this post short.

However you can safely assume from that that I didn’t exactly follow my diet to the letter last week. In fact far from it. And whilst I’m relieved at the small increase and will probably back to losing by next monday, I am more concerned about getting and staying back on track. So my goal for next week – whether I lose weight or not – is to keep to the diet every day.

Sometimes it’s not about the numbers, it’s about not losing the discipline or, when you inevitably do, about regaining it.

Lost: -0.8lbs
Lost so far: 31.2lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.4lbs
Weight: 273lbs (19st 7lbs)

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diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 12 – Do NOT Try This At Home

Here’s an interesting and unorthodox way to lose weight:

  • Mon-Thu follow diet and exercise regime as normal
  • Fri – go out for lunch with big boss over from America. Since this is likely to be a big deal count it as a freebie.
  • Since it turns out not to be such a big deal and you somehow feel short-changed, extend the freebie to the evening. Eat and drink too much.
  • Sat – you’re now hung-over so don’t bother with any exercise and comfort-eat even more once you get to the part of the day where you can actually face food.
  • Sun – weigh yourself first thing to discover you’re 5 pounds up. No big surprise really. However – and this is really the key part of the whole plan – now you get sick with some flu-like virus which means you spend 80% of the day in bed and eat almost nothing.
  • Sun/Mon – fail to sleep but do lose a good amount of water through sweat.
  • Mon – wake up, weigh yourself to discover…

Lost: 1.2lbs
Lost so far: 32lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.7lbs
Weight: 272.2lbs (19st 6lbs)

However I was not kidding with the title – this is not how to lose weight. I’d much rather be writing about how I need to knuckle down and lose the pounds I put on due to a bad weekend and not (still) be feeling a bit rough right now.


Categories
diet L3 lesamy Less is More

L3 Week 11 – One Week=One Meal=Two Hours=One Pound

So last week I only lost 0.6lbs and was a bit down about it. However I knew it was just a blip and partly to do with timing and so on (both the day before and after I’d had weighings significantly less).

However yesterday I was faced with a dilemma. I haven’t had a freebie since my birthday which is over a month ago and co-incidentally the same time I last saw M. And she’s going on holiday at the end of this week for two weeks. So the question was whether to meet up and when, and the best day was looking like yesterday. But that would imply a freebie the day before I weigh myself. I had a few choices

  • weigh myself yesterday (before going) and count that (Sunday is the new Monday)
  • put it off until another night, possibly after M.’s holiday.
  • go, weigh myself today as normal and just go with it on the basis it’s a long game, it’s just a number etc

I wasn’t really too happy either of the first options. The whole point of a meal out with M. being a freebie is that I don’t want people around me to have to change their behaviour to accommodate me. By switching to a less convenient day aren’t I doing that anyway? Plus it is just a number in what I know is a downward trend. And a freebie at this stage is reasonable.

So enter secret option number 4 – part a. I weigh myself yesterday, not to have it replace today’s reading but just so I can say (to myself and on here) “well maybe I put on weight but that’s just the freebie”. So I did and yesterday’s weighing was 273.4.

Anyway I went, met M., ate, drank and had a lovely time[*] and that was that. Weighed myself this morning expecting/fearing that I’d put on a little – 274.4lbs – i.e. last week’s number!

But of course whilst that could be my official weighing as it was today, usually I take the reading after my walk. Secret option number 4 part b – which I only just came up with half-way through the meal last night was to extend my normal walk a bit, just to make extra sure that I pushed that number down a bit. And sure enough at the end of my walk I was 273.4lbs.

So what have I learned? That I can put on in a single meal what I lose in a week’s sticking to the diet (scary, though I think I already knew that really), and that I can lose it all again with two hours of exercise. And that all this is just 1lb. I need another 49 of them to reach my (first) goal.

Mostly it just re-inforces what I knew which is that sometimes the timing throws out the numbers but so long as the trend is still down, take the long view.

Lost: 1lbs
Lost so far: 30.8lbs
Average Weekly Loss: 2.8lbs
Weight: 273.4lbs (19st 7lbs)



[*]and not (just) because of food and drink. It was nice to see M.