fatmanslimming.com

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!!!

I did one of those strange impulsive things tonight. We all at some time in our life get the urge to be a little wild, to follow that overwhelming feeling of invincibility to it’s end, usually this includes too much alcohol, a shopping trolley, a large hill or appropriate driveway, and a trip to the emergency department. We’ll mine had none of those things, except the hill. For some completely insane reason I though I would sprint up a hill or two - I mean what in the name of all that is sane was I thinking. I really thought I was going to vomit! or pass out! or both! once I got to the top. But instead of doing either of those things, I thought - heck I can do that again, so I did. I clearly had a moment of madness! Although I did feel great about an hour later, it was really really hard work.

We’ll this morning (actually yesterday morning as its now past midnight) I weighed in again and I have now lost a little over 10 kilos or 22 pounds! It was a really great moment as it is a fantastic milestone. I also lost another centimetre of my waist, but strangely nothing off any where else. But this means I have reached another milestone of 10 cm of all of my measurements (chest, waist and hips). I must say I’m feeling pretty good about it. In another feel good moment I was able to get into a pair of work pants that I haven’t been able to wear for a wee while - so all round it was a very satisfying day - so why I decided to end it with my insane sprint up two hills is beyond me!

Wow what a week, I did my measurements and jumped on the scales first thing Thursday morning, but have been unable to spare the time for this post. Thursday and Friday were crazy at work, and then unfortunately Friday night and Saturday I suffered a dose of gastro - that was not fun!!!

Those little inconveniences aside I had an amazing weigh in, so amazing that while I was in my underwear after weighing myself I rushed into the waiting room to share the result - yes still my underwear - making my wife scream in surprise! I of course realised at that moment that the girls across from us in the shop we face could see me clearly. I’m sure I wasn’t spotted - of course I could be wrong

So the results……..a loss of 1.8 kilos or a little under 4 pounds. Plus 2 cm of my waist, 1 off my waist and 0.5 off my chest. As you can imagine I have been chomping at the bit to get this posted, it has been the best result so far and came as a complete surprise. I’d had a few nights out and wasn’t particulalry confident of a great result and what a great result it was.

I was talking to one of my clients about how surprised I was about the result and she labelled it the “momentum of success” when you get a couple of good results you often get a really great result. I think this saying may become part of my vocabulary from know on.

“the momentum of success”

I have just re-read last nights post and made a few grammatical changes, I did after all post at 12.15 am! While reading it again I feel I didn’t quite make my point about my absent mindedness, or more accurately changing that habit. I honestly feel less “hung up” on food over the last couple of weeks, I don’t over think my food decisions and I try not to think about foods as good and bad. I try to eat food that I like and by “like” I mean foods that are tasty and nutritious and filling and fulfilling, that way I’m not having cravings or urges for anything. I know this sounds like a juxtaposition, but it is working for me. One of the exercises I did (and I encourage you to try) is to make a list of foods I like. Not once on this list was chicken schnitzel cheese and mayo wraps (my staple before Christmas). There was fruit, pasta, eggs, salad greens and some veges and different varieties of meats…mmm sounds pretty healthy really. So I have focused on these foods, there is something so filling and satisfying about a home baked vegetarian fritatta with a garden salad or some fantastic Chinese style steamed chicken with boiled rice and shallot sauce.

So breaking this habit was more about eating foods that taste fantastic, I like to eat and therefore I eat them slowly and taste every mouthful, feeling completely satisfied afterwards. Funnily enough this isn’t a stressful thing to do and doesn’t take too much thought (although you can’t be absent minded about it!) and is working so bloody well - I just can’t believe it!!!

Valerie’s comment about the interval training has reminded me that I haven’t been blogging about what I have been doing over the last couple of weeks in much detail. So I thought I would answer Valerie’s question and also talk about what I’ve been up to in other areas as well.

So first up from an exercise perspective I have been walking quite regularly except for a few nights early in the week were we had some extremely wild nights, then there were the storms! They were fantastic old school thunder storms like I remember as a kid - great stuff! unless of course your scared of storms like my poor wife who hated every second of it, oh well you cant please every one!

I have been doing the interval training with every other walk, it is usually for only about five minutes, but I feel it makes a significant difference. I find when I do it I feel far more satisfied with my walk and I get a large endorphin rush from it - so I feel really really good afterwards (endorphins are our natural morphine’s and are released during exercise). The only negative is that it does cause me some ankle and foot discomfort and I find it difficult to maintain. This reminds me that spike! made a comment a couple of weeks ago about hiring or purchasing a bike so I can give it a good go, I think this is what I will do as I know it would increase my results and be very handy during those raging storms

I would love to hear more of Valerie’s experiences, how it is different from other times and what results you are getting. I am very excited about the fact that other people who are reading this are giving it a go, so please feel free to write about your experiences. The more detail the better.

From a Dietary perspective this week was a struggle, as we went out a couple of nights. Funnily enough I find it harder to keep the little rules I have set for my self in place when going out than when staying in. When I’m out having a laugh and not really thinking, it is harder to slow down and eat slowly. I still managed to not eat until I was bloated and overfull, but in retrospect I may have sucked a few of the serves down like a giant hover on super suck! That said I fell no real stress in sticking to my plan and because I’m not depriving myself of all indulgences I don’t feel like I’m missing out either - so far so good.

I have added drinking water between meals to my “eating slowly and eating a little less” regime. I drink between 600 mls and a litre between breakfast and lunch, and between 1.2 and 1.8 litres between lunch and dinner. This is having the surprising benefit of cutting down on the 3 o’clock noddies, I’m fairly sure it is the water because when I forget it still get the noddies. For the life of me I can’t think of a good explanation for it but it is a good side effect!

I have decided I am going to make up a few sayings to help me remember my little rules, the first one is “absent mindedness is no excuse for laziness” I really think that a combination of not thinking about what I was doing with my food and not doing anything about it in a positive way has got me to were I was before Christmas (the size if a baby whale!). It is pretty easy to fall into a pattern that is unhealthy and stick to it. I believe by being aware of this (and doing something about it!) we can help ourselves stop the pattern repeating. A good example of this for me was grabbing something to eat - not necessarily something I wanted or would normally eat and sucking it down as I was in a hurry. I wasn’t thinking about the consequences (absent mindedness) of this habit. Even when I did it all seemed to hard to change my habits - I mean who has time for lunch - that’s all to hard (laziness). So no more excuses!

“absent mindedness is no excuse for laziness!”

My measurements were a bit odd yesterday, with nothing coming off my waist or chest and 1 cm coming off my hips. This does now mean that I have lost 8 cm off my hips, 8 cm off my waist and 11 cm off my chest in the last 9 weeks! not bad really!

I had another great result this week with my weight, I went down another 1.1 kg / 2.4 pounds! I unfortunately needed to get my pants back on in a hurry and see a client so my measurements will have to wait till tomorrow morning. So I will post those results tomorrow evening.

I know several of you out there have been chomping at the bit to see me in a pair of budgie smugglers strutting my stuff for some before and after comparison shots. Not being particularly keen on nuding up for an audience I decided on a compromise. I have some photos of me in a very flattering (not!) tee shirt, this way I can do some comparison photos over the next couple of months and keep my hirsute belly to myself

Enjoy!

Well this afternoon has become this evening has become midnight - ohh well!!!

First of a big thank you for all of your comments and to the new commenter’s (Carolyn, Gayle and Snaphappy) another big thank you. Carolyn asked the question had I tried Hypnotherapy and the answer is yes, and I have found it very useful although I didn’t try it for weight loss specifically I certainly believe it helped get to were I am right now. If I get a chance I will do a separate post on it, as I would recommend it.

I’ve had a pretty fantastic last couple of days, it started on Sunday on my way off to work (Yes Sunday…it’s a long story…) when I discovered that I could actually do my belt up one more notch, this is the first time this belt has come in a notch since I bought it 18 - 24 months ago, so I did a little dance of joy! My dances of joy consist of me pretending that a) I can dance and b) that I am in fact somehow related to MC hammer…thats right folks it’s Hammer time!!!

My second MC Hammer moment came when I jumped on the scales agian on Wednesday morning and I had lost 600 grams since Saturday, and minutes later came my third as I discovered I had lost 2 cm of my waist in the last 10 days. I also lost 1 of my chest and for the first time 0 of my hips, but I was so excited about the big loss of my waist that I rediscovered my moon walk, of course it was more like “fat man tries to shuffle backwards while looking cool and not falling over” but I enjoyed so much that I managed to ignore the startled looks of the girls in the shop opposite work.

So all in all an excellent week and to be honest it really hasn’t been that hard so far. I have managed to stick to my walking make some fairly modest dietary changes and have some fun. It almost feels like its too easy, I guess in reality I have a long way to go and it could take me a year or longer to reach my goals, so I also need to be mindful of keeping a level head and staying determined.

Just a quick post to say that all is well and that I will do a proper post tomorrow, I have had a great week and have lots to tell, so I will try and have something up by tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed!

Well I’ve been masticating like a demon this week and it’s payed off!!! I now have a weight - sure I’m not happy with that weight but its at least a start! So drum roll please….154.4 kgs / 340.39 pounds!!! Going on the standard convention that losing a cm off the belly equals a kilo off the scales, this means I have lost about 6 kilos / 13.22 pounds, not to bad.

I must admit to some mixed feelings as I stood on the scales this morning in my undies (I was in my office) the first was I hope that bloody courier doesn’t turn up right now as I’ll never explain my way out this one! The second was elation - my first goal has been reached, the third was, wholly crap this is going to take a while. Thankfully I have time and determination on my side!!!

I must say the small changes in eating habits have made more differences than I had expected, by taking my time and chewing every mouthful thoroughly I have felt fuller quicker and have felt more energetic and less bloated in the gut, all good things. So next week I will try a little extra planning to make sure I am getting a good helping of nutrients by dipping into all the major food groups. I realised this week I am not eating much fruit if any, a bit of a carry over from my extreme low carb days.
Well I’m off to bed, another big day tommorrow, but I’ll try for another post tommorrow or Sunday.