fatmanslimming.com

I left my weigh in for the week till today, as it is five months to the day that I decided undertake this monumental task with very little preparation and a fairly simple plan. I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself and my simple plan, and have been constantly surprised and delighted at the support I am getting from you guys out there, the unseen masses - so thank you again for all of your support.

I thought I might make this a simple recap post of were I started and were I am at the moment as the begining of my sixth month is here.
On the 11th of Janurary, ten days after I had started my plan I did the following measurements.

• weight = >150 kg / 330 pounds / 23.6 stone
• chest = 142 cm / 55.9 inches
• waist = 148 cm / 58.2 inches
• hips = 148 cm / 58.2 inches

I knew the weight was incorrect as my scales Only accurately measure at about 155 kg / 341.7 pounds, and I was unfortunately over that, I have since calculated that I was probably greater than 160 kg / 352.7 pounds, but I have left my starting weight at 160 kg for ease of calculations. I have also left my measurements as they stood from the first time I took them, even though they were probably greater in the beginning. It wasn’t until February 24th that I had a weight and it was…154.4 kg / 340.39 pounds, that was one very exciting day

So my progress so far is….

• weight = >160 kg / 352.7 pounds / 25.19 stone - now down to - 141.7 kg / 312.4 pounds / 22.3 stone
• chest = 142 cm / 55.9 inches - now down to - 124 cm / 48.8 inches
• waist = 148 cm / 58.2 inches - now down to - 131 cm / 51.6 inches
• hips = 148 cm / 58.2 inches - now down to - 130 cm / 51.2 inches

I have know lost 18.3 kg / 40.3 pounds off my weight, 18 cm / 7.08 inches of my chest and 17 cm / 6.7 inches of my waist and 18 cm / 7.08 inches of my hips.

I did a BIA (Bio-impedance analysis) on myself yesterday morning. According to my little machine my ideal weight for my frame and height is 86 kilos (190 pounds), currently I am 142.5 kilos (313 pounds). This is were it gets interesting, the excess 56 kilos (123.5 pounds) is made up of 34 kilos (74.8 pounds) of fat, 18 kilos (39.6 pounds) of muscle and 4 kilos (8.8 pounds) of water. This means my target weight is between 104 to 108 kilos (228.8 - 237.6 pounds) depending on fluid, this would give me a 18-20% body fat, which is considered the healthy range for a male of the species.

This new target weight is dependant on me not losing the extra muscle that I carry around on my frame, there is a chance a bit of it will go as I get closer to my goal as some of it will have built over time just to allow my frame to hold an excess 51 kilos of fat around for the last 5-7 years. Some of it will be genetic, and some will be from the physical aspects of my job. Regardless of those caveats it is really good to have another target to aim for and not just my waistline target of 100 cm / 39 inches. That reminds me my waist is know down to 132 cm / 51.96 inches and I lost another 0.5 kilos / 1.1 pounds.

While I had the calculator out yesterday I worked out that last week I achieved 1/3 of my weight loss goal without even realising it!!! At first I was a bit depressed that I was only 1/3 of the way there, but after a good nights sleep I have given myself a good pat on the back, as it is quite an achievement. Which means at this rate of weight lose I will be at my target goal in Dec 07 or Jan 08! So watch out summer……….its budgie smugglers on the beach for me this year………

I hate to make excuses (again) for not posting last week, but it was an incredibly busy week were I didn’t get home till 9pm or after!!! Hopefully I can get a few in this week (posts that is) as I have a few things I want to post about…so fingers crossed!

Over the last couple of weeks I have reached a tipping point of sorts, people are finally starting to notice that I am losing weight. It is a very rewarding, sometimes embarrassing and occasionally very funny thing when people start to notice my weight loss. One of my favorite funny moments occurred a couple of weeks ago, a client who hadn’t been in since late last year came in to see me. She sat down in my room and as she got a good look at me for the first time since arriving suddenly exclaimed “OHHH MY GOD…..you look TERRIFIC” there was a long pause as she looked me up and down examining me….she then exclaimed….”OHHH MY GOD you’ve done your hair!?!”….I then paused as my brain tried to decide whether I should go with this ruse, whether I had actually done my hair, and if I had then what the hell did it look like before!!! but before I could help my self I started laughing uproariously, it took me a minute before I could tell her that in fact I had lost a couple of kilos (I decided understating was the way to go). She was a little embarrassed but also very complimentary and she of course made my day, there is nothing like a good laugh especially at ones self

People are also commenting that I am looking healthier, and although I didn’t realise I wasn’t looking so great before, I would be lying if I said I was feeling great before I decided to embark on this journey. The main reason for doing this in the first place was for better health so these comments are really reinforcing for me the importance of what I am doing.

I have made the brave and fool hardy decision to try and do my exercise in the mornings again, I am doing it for the rather embarrassing (must be the word of the week!) reason that I am starting to get a bit creeped out walking around my block at night. I think it is mainly due to the cold, the lack of street lights and watching way to many programs on the crime investigation network about serial killers!!! Although my habit of starting out at 10pm probably doesn’t help the situation. So it’s mornings again

I lost another 800 grams / 1.76 pounds last week so I am now down 17 kilos or 37.4 pounds or for my mother in law 2 stone 6.5 ounces. Later in the week I am going to do something that I should have done as soon as I was able to get an accurate reading off my scales, I am going to give my self a BIA. BIA or bioimpedence analysis is a technique were a small electrical current is sent through your body and an accurate measurement of fat and muscle is given. It can also determine hydration levels. I am a little apprehensive about this as it will tell me with a 95 - 97% accuracy how much fat is still on my body and how much I still have to lose!

I will post the results of the BIA later this week…..I promise…

Thank you Spike! and Sideliner for your observations, but alas i have not faded away…maybe next time….and my aplogies also for not posting- it was really slack of me and I sincerely apologize

The reason for me being a slack poster, was I was feeling miserable last week due to a bug crawling up my nose and making itself home, It caused me no end of discomfort and a river of green snot! I wasn’t a happy camper! so I was hoping not to do another wingy whinny I’ve felt crap post..but alas I was sprung and rightly so. The purpose of this blog is a warts and all look at getting healthy, so I should of done my “I am nothing but a pathetic male post!” and been done with it.

But thankfully I fell chipper this week and have powered out and done two huge power walks - and boy do my calves and thighs know about it!!! And to add to my good humour and feelings of energy and well being I had the funniest thing happen while I was putting out the rubbish the other night. As I was busily tearing up a big box and trying to stuff it in the recycle bin I could hear what could only be described as a drunk singing his favorite song at full pelt coming up the street towards me. As this terrible cacophony of sound got closer I tried in vain to determine what song the poor bugger was butchering, but to no avail. After a few minutes I could see that it wasn’t a drunk at all but a 20 something lad enjoying the benefits of a power walk around the block, and unfortunately for him learning the perils of the dreaded ipod! He should of read some of my earlier posts about this cruel yet amusing phenomenon. The look of embarrassment on his face when he finally noticed me was priceless, it took all I had not to double up laughing, it really did make my day, after all it wasn’t me this time!

On the weight loss side of things I have had two pretty unremarkable weeks, a 500 gram loss followed by a 300 gram loss. Both of these are a little on the low side but aren’t a terrible surprsie considering my fairly poor month of health. I hope to turn this around this week. with my measurements I am having more weird stuff happening with almost all of the cm’s coming of my hips over the last 4 weeks - 4cm to be exact, and only 1 of my chest and 2 of my waist. The other thing is my pant legs are getting very baggy so I am guessing that there is a bit of fat coming of the legs as well.

So that is all for this week and last week as well, hopefully it is a readable post as it is getting late …again. Next week I will try for two posts just to try and stretch my self and to make up for last week

This last week and a half was a real trial. It ended with a funeral and began with the flu, it is amazing how sobering a funeral is, nothing is more final than death or more humanising.

The seven days leading up to the funeral I had had the flu and in fact the day of the funeral I ended up with a gastro bug to boot, but these things suddenly seem so inconsequential and minor when put into some proper perspective.

In fact it is these minor things that often trip us up along our life’s journey and especially when we are trying to change some habits, but sitting in the middle of a chapel watching a person who you knew be put to rest pushes all of those little trials and tribulations into perspective.

So all though I had a really good weight loss result of 1.5 kilos I am aware that some of that may be due to gastro and the flu despite this, the rather unsettling events of the past week have reinforced the fact that this a life changing journey I am taking is worthy of perseverance and commitment .

My apologies for this post taking so long, I had a few technical problems, some with the computer and some with me

Well this week I had another good weigh in result and I nearly need a new belt. My pants are loose on the second to last notch but are a bit snug on the last notch. I have never been down to the last notch on this belt and I’ve had it for a few years now so I am eagerly waiting for this momentous occasion…..I can feel a dance coming on!!! I also lost a little over a kilo, this means I have now lost 14 kilos or 30.8 pounds, I was very happy with this especially as I hadn’t been feeling great (I had the flu during last week). So I am over the moon with this result.

I have finally finished my top ten list, I have made a permanent page from it that can be accessed from this site any time as well as adding it to this post. Please feel free to add your thoughts on any of my list ideas or add some of your own.

Enjoy!

My top ten list of weight loss tips!

1. Make time for your meals, I don’t think its any coincidence that we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic while at the same time as we rush all of our meals. When was the last time you took half an hour to sit down and enjoy your food without any distractions. Do this for every meal and you will find your inner Zen three times a day and it will make the next tip much easier to achieve!

2. Eat slowly, chew each mouthful savouring every flavour. Take your time with your food. Enjoy it! Your body will appreciate this and reward you with proper digestion and decreased appetite - win win!

3. Sit down and make a list of all the foods that you love and like to eat. You might be surprised at how many foods are on that list that are really great for you. Concentrate on these, after all if you are going to be chewing food thoroughly you should be eating food you actually like to eat. Of course it should also be good for you.

4. Prohibition doesn’t work! if you cut out entire food groups sure you’ll lose weight - I certainly have when I have done that in the past - but it just isn’t sustainable. If you can’t live without something naughty in your life - don’t! Work out a time once a week were you can have your little something, over time you may be able to have it more often or less often without it causing problems. It all depends on what it is and what sort of hold it has over you.

5. Water, the most important substance on the planet, it only takes three days without it before we die. Yet how much of it do you drink? The average person needs about 1 ½ litres a day of pure water a day to stay completely hydrated. It also helps depress hunger pangs, sure it takes a week or so to do this but it works, and that’s all that matters. So drink plenty between meals and those snack cravings will be a thing of the past.

6. Still on water - make it your favourite drink, well your favourite daytime drink! Cutting out soft drinks, cordial and juice is enough for some people to reach there weight loss goals! It may take a couple of weeks to get used to but is well worth the effort.

7. Cut out the snacks, not just the chippies or biscuits but those bucket sized cappuccinos and lattes that are so popular. I have seen cups that could feed a small army! How much milk is in one of those?! And how many calories are they?! It’s going to be a lot and some people have 4 or 5 or more a day.

8. Slowly does it! again! Start any exercise program slowly it only takes 6 weeks to get a huge gain in strength, but it takes six months for your joints to get used to that extra exercise. Nothing is more un-motivating than an injury early in your lifestyle change! Exercise is just as important as diet but don’t injure yourself being impatient!

9. Walk! Walk for exercise, walk to work (if possible) walk to the shops, get in as much incidental exercise as possible. Walk everywhere and as far as possible, it is the ultimate low impact exercise.

10. Celebrate! When you reach a goal - Celebrate, one of the true joys in live is joy!!! If this process is fun and has fun times attached to it you are more likely to succeed. Make your celebration individual, it could be a show, a movie, dinner out with friends or a dance of joy around the lounge room. Whatever it is make it yours and own it fully…and dance a little

Please leave your feedback, your thoughts or any of your own tips as a comment below and until next time don’t forget to feel amazing.

I will be doing a full post tomorrow, I just wanted to say that Nellch’s comment had me laughing so hard I though I was going to fall of my chair, thanks for that Nellch as I have had a bit of a drama filled couple of weeks (nothing serious) and I always find humor to be a great pick me up, so thanks mate.

I will try and get a top ten list of things that I have done so far, and that have made a difference up in the next couple of days. I have had a couple of requests and I hope I can put something together that will be helpful to other people, that is other people other than me (did that make sense?). It’s clearly getting late as my grip of English is failing me, so until tomorrow, Cheers.

And don’t forget to feel amazing.

In a bizarre piece of absentmindedness I forgot to post my weigh in results for last week last week! As they were good results I am a little surprised with myself…

Last week I lost another 1.1 kilos or 2.4 pounds and over a two week period (remember the missing “rope”) I lost 2 cm off my hips, 1 off my chest and 1 off my waist, so all and all a pretty good result.

This week I was really worried about my weigh in (rightly so as it turns out) as I wasn’t able to walk for a week due to a foot injury. I was moving a couch and dropped it on my foot - the string of rather colourful expletives that came out of my mouth would have made Billy Connelly blush!!! Crap it hurt!!!

The lack of walking certainly did affect my weigh in as I only lost 500 grams or 1.1 pounds and 1 cm of my chest, but nothing anywhere else

I think I lost all of my 500 grams in an unscheduled and unintentional test of my injury on Monday. I decided that a walk to the park to play soccer with my 3 1/2 year old would be a great way to spend my afternoon off. Unfortunately 10 minutes into the walk it started to rain a little, we decided we’d push on, two minutes latter and it was raining cats and dogs. On cue my son turned, squealed in delight, and started running as fast as his little legs could carry him back toward home. There was nothing else to do, but turn, sequel in anguish and run back toward home. Five minutes later we were home, I felt like someone had taken a hammer to my hips and thighs, but my foot was all good.

So I have gotten back on the wagon and hopefully another great result next week.

Until my next post, don’t forget to feel amazing.

Well funnily enough the next day became two days…

ShotgunDaddy’s review on the nike+ ipod system is excellent and it is something I have considered for myself previously as a couple of my clients swear by them, so if you are a runner check out his review. Although I have been dabbling in some interval training and alternate walking and jogging I’m not quite at the point were I can consistently run and use this system, but when I am I’ll be there giving it a go!

For the next phase of my getting healthy program I have decided to start incorporating something I really dislike but also really need to be doing. I am going to do a core muscle training regime using a fit/swiss/medi ball. Not many people know this, but I am in fact a certified swiss ball rehab therapist.

I also have a lower back that seriously needs some rehab and before I think about engaging in some more serious exercise regime I need to sort this out. So although it’ not a radical or extremely strenuous thing to be doing, if I can add this to my regime 3-4 times a week I will get the benefit of strengthening my internal stomach muscles, stabilizing my lower back, losing a couple of more centimeters of my gut and sticking to my plan of adding one thing at a time.

I will be starting this after the easter break so I will let you all know how my stomach feels after my first session - I am not particularly looking forward to it, but like the rest of this lifestyle change I have been putting it off too long already.

Until my next post, don’t forget to feel amazing.

First off my apologies for the long delay in posting - no fear I haven’t fallen off the wagon, I have just had a very busy last ten days. Before I get into that though, I would like to thank every body that has left comments especially spike!, nese, and lovehandles (by the way that was definitely the rocky theme ;)) who are prolific comment makers. I really appreciate all the great feedback that everyone gives when they leave comments. Thanks again everyone.

I would also like to thank my wife Natasha for her support in this journey of discovery or madness - depending on your point of view As nese mentioned she too has been losing wieght and has currently lost five kilos. She is currently unable to exercise due to a hip injury, but has managed to drop her five kilos with a couple of small dietary changes - Well done Tash.

Just quickly, I lost another Kilo again last week - so momentum is still there, which is good news, I do realise however that it’s time to up the ante again as this is week 13 so I need to add something to my routine to avoid a plateau. I will post some more tomorrow night on exactly what I have in mind. One last thing before I retire for the night, I wasn’t able to do my measurements this week as I was unable to find my “rope”. Rope is what our 3 1/2 year old calls my measuring tape, this term of endearment also describes what he does with my measuring tape, chiefly tie things up with it. It’s no wonder our cats don’t like us anymore Anyway he had commandeered it and we couldn’t find it - till today when it miraculously appeared lying on the lounge room floor. He of course plead not guilty to the crime of “rope” kidnapping and got off on a technicality, chiefly being too damn cute!!! I’ll be sure to be more careful in keeping it out of his reach in the future!!!