Still 15st 4. All right, that's it. I'm giving up for this year. It's nearly Christmas and not the right time to be trying to lose weight.

So, my total weight loss for 2017 is: 11 pounds off.

Not great.

But....not a dead loss. At least I've got a bit of weight off, and kept it off. Could have been worse. I could have kept gaining instead of losing. If I'd carried on as I was doing last year, I no doubt would have been 17 stone plus by now.

 Come January, I need to start again with the same mindset as I did at the beginning of this year. And if I get another 11 pounds off in 2018...well, right now I'd take that.

Slow progress is better than no progress....even very slow progress is better than none.

I have made some progress this year. I'm determined to make some more next year. Modest progress will do.

OK, time to stop screwing around and get back down to it. The year is getting towards its end.

I'm currently 15st 4. I've been there or thereabouts since the spring. Sometimes a little heavier, sometimes a little lighter, but mostly around 15st 4.

I want to end the year at 15st 1. That will be a stone lighter than the same time last year. OK, that's not a huge achievement given that I originally planned to get three stones off. I still plan to get three stones off, just that it's going to take a bit longer than I thought. Even if it takes three years. And one stone off would still be a significant step towards my final goal. It means the year won't have been a failure, just a more moderate success than I had originally hoped.

But I'll never get there unless I start losing again.

I just worked out a new eating plan from now until Christmas. Aim is to eat 2200 calories a day (average) from now until then.

This week is the buildup week, where I get back into the habit of counting (and restricting) calories so I don't expect to be hitting that target straightaway, but next week I should be hitting the 2200 per day target. 

Just checking in briefly. The last few days, weight has been fluctuating between 15st 2 and 15st 3 - it's currently 15st 2. It is coming off, by inches...just very, very slowly.

Well, this is the first post in two months. I haven't been posting because I wanted to hit that 15st 1 mark before I posted again.

I haven't managed it.

I hovered around the 15st 3 - 15st 4 mark for most of July and August. I just came back from holiday in Italy, hoping that all the walking I did would have shifted a little weight. Instead, I find I've gained...must be all that Italian food! Currently weighing in at 15st 5.

Progress over the course of this year hasn't been anywhere near my optimistic early goals. That much is pretty obvious. Still, I'm not about to quit.

Right now, I'm still ten pounds lighter than I was at the start of the year. While ten pounds in eight months isn't exactly amazing progress, it is still progress. I'm definitely somewhat fitter, too. Still pretty unfit, mind. Nonetheless, fitter than I was on 1 January - and for that matter fitter than I was at Midsummer - in fact, probably the fittest (or least unfit) I've been for at least a year. An uphill walk isn't such a struggle now. That's one thing I found out in Italy. Don't ask me to do any ten mile runs yet, but a walk of a few miles I can do.

My next target is to drop below 15st. Even if I don't achieve any more than that this year, I want to end the year feeling like I've made that much progress at least.

Six pounds to lose, four months to do it in. Sounds easy, but I've found losing anything but easy lately. Still, come on. I should be able to do this. I'm going to do it in a set of three phases. Each phase is made up of a two pound weight loss target. I start tomorrow.

Still 15st 2. Still one pound off having lost that first stone, with just under half a year gone. Still, I'm not too unhappy. At least I'm holding steady at my lowest weight in a good while, even if I am still a very long way off my ideal weight. Could be worse, I could still be 16 st+...or even heavier, which I probably would be by now if I had carried on as before. I reckon I might have been approaching 17st by now if I hadn't changed my habits. So looking at it that way, I'm probably more like two stone lighter than I might otherwise have been...that thought really does make it seem worthwhile!

Right now, I'm more concerned about exercise. I've dropped off doing it a little and my fitness has dropped again...maybe not quite back down to rock bottom, but lower than before (and I wasn't very fit even at my recent 'peak'). I visited the doctor last week and she recommended 30 mins of exercise daily. I've also been looking it up and I gather that this is indeed pretty standard current medical advice - 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, which obviously equates to 30 mins 5 times a week.

That doesn't sound like a lot...but in all honesty, it's quite a lot more than I've been doing, and I'm not altogether sure I can stick to that. Still, I'm going to make it a medium term goal. In the short term, I'm going to aim for 30 mins 3x a week. That will put me at 60% of the medically recommended minimum and I reckon that's a start.

Strength-wise, things are OK. On the bench press I'm hitting sets of ten reps with 54 kg, which works out at a theoretical 1RM of 71kg - pretty much exactly where I was before, so at least I'm not getting any weaker as I get lighter. That also suggests the weight loss so far is fat, not muscle tissue - if I were losing muscle I should also be losing strength, and I'm not.

So, yeah. Things aren't going too badly in the sense that I could be in a much worse position right now, but I need to make more progress and in the immediate term that means hitting the 30min x 3 cardio target and losing that last bloody pound!

Well, it's the Summer Solstice and I'm 15st 2. I haven't quite managed to drop below 15st by Midsummer as I once planned - though I'm pretty close now. I did actually briefly drop to 14 st 13 a couple of weeks back, but I hadn't eaten properly for three days and as soon as I started eating again, the weight went back up.

Still, I'm only one pound away from being a stone lighter than I was on January 1. It's taken half a year - considerably slower progress than I hoped - but all the same, progress is progress. If I can get a similar amount off in the second half of the year, I'll take that as a win. It's a long term project and I'm not going to set any time limit - what's important is that I keep moving in the right direction.

15st 3 again this morning. On the one hand, that's no lighter than last week, but on the other hand, it was the target I set two weeks ago for today, so I'm satisfied with that. The aim now is to hit 15st 2 by next week. I guess I'm inching forward...So long as the scale keeps going down, it's progress, even if painfully slow progress.

15st 3 this morning. That's good, but I suspect it may not be a true reading...I was 15 4 yesterday and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm back at 15 4 tomorrow. Still, the diet is going well. I'm mostly managing to stick to the target of 2400 cals a day and some days I've got down to 2000 or less. I find that a bowl of cooked carrots in gravy is a much more convincing meal replacement than eating raw veg...I actually feel like I've eaten a meal, yet there's hardly any calories in it. I've been pretty diligent about the exercise, too. I think I might still be in with a chance of dipping below 15st by the end of this ten week phase, which ends in the last week of June. That will still leave me with the second half of the year to get down to 14st. Getting any lower than that will have to wait until 2018, but if I can get down to 14st or thereabouts by Christmas, that will still be two stones off since the same time last year, and I'll take that. I always said this was a long-term project.  

Weighed in at 15st 5 this morning. That’s a pound up on last week – and I’ve been that weight for several days, so I don’t think it’s a false reading.

That’s a bit of a setback. On the one hand, it does mean I’m still two pounds lighter than I was a month ago. On the other hand, I’m back to the same weight I was at on 1^st May – so overall I’ve made no progress in May so far, and the target of dropping below 15st by Midsummer is starting to look a bit unlikely.

I need to start making progress again. Now.

I’m going to be more strict on the diet this week. Target is 2400 daily calories. Last week the target was 2500, but I actually came in at around 2600. This week I need to hit the target.

15st 4. That’s the goal. I need to reach that goal a week from now. And a week after that, I need to be 15st 3.

No more excuses, no more failing. At least not for these next two weeks.   

Just a quick update, three weeks in to the new phase.

The bad news is, I had a bad cold last week, and I didn't do the exercise. The good news is, I still managed to lose a bit more weight. I've been sitting at 15st 4 for the last few days.

I think I'm going to extend this phase out to ten weeks - mainly in order to meet the fitness goals - however, I'm still planning to drop below 15st by Midsummer. On the fitness side, I'm still doing the trampoline stuff, but I'm also adding in some extra work including stair runs. By Week 10 I want to be able to run up ten flights of steps. Not that amazing, but something I'd have haad no hope of doing in January.

Yes, progress is still slow, and a bit hit and miss. All the same, it is progress.

Weighed in at 15st 5 this morning. I'm a bit sceptical of that number - I averaged 2900 cals daily last week, which beat my target of 3000, but that shouldn't have been enough to lose one pound, let alone two. I expected to still be 15st 7 at this stage and I suspect that's still my 'true' weight. Well, if I can manage 15st 6 by a week from today, I'll count that as a result. Target cals for this week are  2750 daily.

I managed all of my cardio sessions last week. This week the trampolining goes up to 5 mins, together with 20 mins of other light cardio (3 sessions per week).

So, back on course.

OK, I haven’t updated the blog for a while. Truth is, I got blown off course somewhat. Life, stress, distraction…

I fell off the wagon for a few weeks, and paid the price. I’m back up to 15st 7. That’s a definite step in the wrong direction, given that I’d managed to get down to 15st 4 at the beginning of April. I’m nonetheless still more than half a stone lighter than I was in January, so I can still claim progress overall. Now it’s time to get back on track and make another significant step in my weight loss journey.

This is the start of Week 17, which should have been the penultimate week of Phase 3. The target was to hit 15st 3 by the end of Week 18. Truth be told, I don’t think I’m going to achieve that now – shedding four pounds in the next twelve days isn’t going to happen. So, instead, I’m going to scrap that plan and commence a new phase instead. This one is slated to be 8 weeks, taking me well in to June. The target is to drop below the 15st mark by the middle of the year.

Now, in one sense, that’s much slower overall progress than I had planned at the beginning of the year. At that rate, it may be the end of the year before I drop below 14 stone, and it could be the middle of 2018 before I get down to 13st. But…so what? If it takes a little longer than originally planned, then so be it. What matters is that I get there, not how long it takes. And I do still plan to get there.

To start getting the weight off again, I obviously need to get calorie intake back down. So I plan to replicate the phased calorie reduction pattern of Phase 1:

Week	Target calories
1 (17)	3000
2 (18)	2750
3 (19)	2500
4 (20)	2400
5 (21)	2400
6 (22)	2400
7 (23)	2400
8 (24)	2400

It worked before – I got seven pounds off in eight weeks last time, so hopefully it will work again.

On the fitness side, I haven’t let things slide quite so much. I’ve been steadily building up the trampoline work, and I’m now doing 9 x 30sec stints, so I’m still on course to be doing 10x 30secs by the end of Week 18, which was the original target. Still very moderate of course, but I have a plan to build that up to 10x 60 seconds with 30 sec rest periods by the end of this eight week phase.  

Week	Sessions	Stint time	Rest time
1	9	30 sec	90 sec
2	10	30 sec	90 sec
3	10	40 sec	90 sec
4	10	50 sec	90 sec
5	10	60 sec	90 sec
6	10	60 sec	60 sec
7	10	60 sec	45 sec
8	10	60 sec	30 sec

That still won’t be enough to make me ‘fit’ of course – a very long way from it – but I’ll be considerably less ‘unfit’ that I was on January 1. Again, progress is what matters, not the speed of that progress. By Midsummer I’ll have completed the ‘rehab’ stage, and in the second half of 2017, maybe I can go on and actually start to get just a little bit ‘fit’. There are different ways I could tackle that, but one simple option might be to build up to sessions of 20 or 30 mins nonstop on the trampoline. There’s the bike too, which I still haven’t touched since that last disastrous attempt. Maybe I could do a mix of both trampolining and cycling on different days….anyway, I’ll see how it goes. Let’s get this eight weeks finished first.  

Strength is pretty much unchanged, though I have been a little negligent with the weights too, but I’m still able to do the same reps / sets as before.   

So, on with the show.   

Into Week 13, start of the third six week phase. Current stats are as follows:

Weight: 15 st 6

Gut girth: 45.5 inches / 116cm

Yes, I've ended up putting  a pound back on - I let the diet slip last week. Well, it was my 40th birthday after all. Still, 15st 6 was my original target for Phase  2 and I've still managed to achieve it - so I'm not too unhappy.

Fitness-wise, I have to say I don't think I've gained very much. Still, I'm steadily building up the trampoline work, which has to be done slowly to avoid aggravating that hamstring. I'm still only doing 30sec stints, but this week I'll be doing five of them, and by Week 18 I'll be doing ten. Then in Phase 4 I'll steadily increase the length of the stints, from 30 secs apiece to three minutes apiece. I'm also supplementing the trampoline work with a short session of the light aerobics and, as before, I'm, doing cardio 3x per week and weights 3x per week.

So, targets for this phase. Hm. Well, I'd like to say 15st 1 for the weight. That would mean a full stone off from my starting point, and one third of the way to my final goal. Buuut...I'm not certain I'll make that. So I'm going to say 15st 3 as a 'minimum satisfactory' achievement, with 15st 1 as the 'ideal' target. Yes, I know a lot of people will say I'm not trying hard enough, but I say better to set realistic targets that I've got a very good chance of meeting, rather than ambitious ones that I may not hit - that would just be demotivating. And so long as I'm getting lighter over time - even if only slowly - that's still progress, right? I'll only really have failed If I'm no lighter at the end of six weeks than I was at the beginning. So long as I'm making progress over time, doesn't matter if it's slow. It only matters if there's no progress at all. 

As for fitness...well, again, no ambitious targets.  The target is simply to be doing ten 30sec trampoline stints per cardio session by week 18 (and maintaining the rest of the cardio session at the same level as before, so 15 mins of light aerobics for a total of 20mins exercise). That sets me up for the increase in intensity I'll be targeting in Phase 4.

Strength is holding steady. I'm now benching 56.5kg for sets of 7  - which means a theoretical 1RM of 68kg, or 150 pounds. Modest enough, but close to my starting point of 70kg / 154 pounds - and I intend to get back to that starting point in this six-week phase. All other lifts are the same as before and again, the target is simply to keep them that way.  

So, on with the show. 

Into the last week of the second six-week phase. Weight on Monday morning was 15st 5, so slightly ahead of target for this phase, and ten pounds lost since the beginning - almost a quarter of my original target of 42 pounds. Strength seems unaffected in most lifts, and in terms of the bench press, I'm making progress back to my starting point - currently lifting 56.5 x 6, which gives a theoretical 1RM of 66kg, but I'm steadily working towards 58 x 7, which would give me a theoretical 1RM of 70kg - right back where I started, but hopefully at a stone lighter in body weight by the time I reach that point.  

Where I am falling down is on the fitness side. I haven't made much progress there. I am steadily increasing the trampoline work, though, and the hamstring seems to be handling it. Right now I'm doing four 30sec trampolining stints as part of my 20 min cardio session, but I'm increasing that by one stint per week, so by the end of Phase 3 I should be doing ten stints per cardio session. Then in Phase 4 I'll increase the length of the stints gradually, so that by Week 24 I should be doing sets consisting of three mins of trampolining, one min of rest, 5x in a 20 min period, plus an extra ten mins of light aerobics after that. Even that will still be a relatively modest workout, but one I couldn't have hoped to have attempted on January 1.

So, I do have a plan on the fitness side, while on the weight loss and strength sides, everything is pretty much going to plan at the moment. Very slow progress, but definite progress - especially on the weight loss front, where I'm almost a quarter of the way towards my goal

Haven't posted for a while due to work pressures. Suffice to say, weight last week was 15st 7, and this week it's 15st 6. That meets the target for this six-week phase, with still this week and next week to go. Any further loss would be a bonus. Still moving in the right direction, a bit at a time.

Beginning of week 9. Weight this morning was 15st 8, and that’s been the case for the last three days, so I think I can say I’m back on target. All good in that respect.

I completed all three cardio sessions last week, but not to full intensity – I was resting that hamstring. Fortunately it seems better now – still not quite 100%, but getting there. I intend to re-introduce the trampoline this week, but only in very short bursts (30 secs) to start with.

Strength on the bench press seems to be getting back to where it was. I introduced a little extra work last week which I think may have helped a little – a set of ‘strength’ press-ups (5 reps with feet elevated) and a set of ‘endurance’ press-ups (30 reps from the knees) – performed Mon and Fri after three sets of bench press and two sets of dumbbell overhead press. Deadlift strength seems unchanged.

So, a reasonable week overall, but I need to get back on track with the fitness – last week I coasted at best. That was due to the injury and wasn’t a serious setback, but I’m keen to start making progress again on the fitness front.  

Well, weight has bounced around a little this last week. On Tuesday I was back up to 15st 11, by Friday I was down to 15st 8, by Sunday I was back up to 15st 9 and this morning I was 15st 10. I know these fluctuations do happen, and it’s got nothing to do with fat gain or loss. I certainly didn’t lose three pounds of fat between Monday and Friday, then gain two back by the following Monday. So I’ll see how things go over the next week before I start to make any assessment of whether I’m making progress. I have to admit though, it is a bit frustrating to see the scale weight in the same place it was a fortnight ago. Last week my calorie average was a touch over 2500. If I haven’t lost any scale weight by this time next week, it’s really going to be time to rethink the diet.     

Other than this, it’s all pretty much proceeded according to plan, except that the trampoline seems to be straining my right hamstring. I think I might have to lay off it for this week and then reintroduce it slowly.

So, overall, not the best week. I’ll see how the next one goes. 

Beginning of week seven, and the start of the next six-week phase. The aims for this next phase are a) to keep on losing weight, and b) to further increase fitness.

In terms of the first aim, the target is to drop below fifteen and a half stone by the end of the six weeks. I only need to lose another four pounds to reach that goal – and maybe my goal should be more ambitious – on the other hand, this one gives me a margin for error. If I go a week without dropping any weight, it doesn’t knock me off track – so long as it doesn’t happen more than twice (assuming I lose one pound per week on the other four weeks). If I lose any more than four pounds, I’ll consider that a bonus.

I plan to achieve the second aim mainly by increasing the intensity of the 20-minute cardio phase. I’ll do that mainly by introducing short bursts of high-intensity exercise, following the HIIT principle. For the ‘intense’ exercise, the choices are hitting the heavy bag at an all-out pace, or simply jumping / flat out running on the spot.

How much intense exercise? Again, I’m going to introduce this very slowly. By the end of the six weeks, I intend three minutes of the twenty to be flat-out intense exercise. That may not sound a lot, but I’ll increase it further in the third six-week phase.  The 3 mins is in total – I won’t be doing 3 mins in one burst (not really possible – the point of ‘flat out’ is to be going so hard as to only be able to keep it up for a short time, 30 secs or so). So 3 mins equals six flat-out bursts or ‘sprints’ over the course of the 20 mins.

So:

Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12
.5 mins	1 min	1.5 mins	2 mins	2.5 mins	3 mins
1 burst	2 bursts	3 bursts	4 bursts	5 bursts	6 bursts

The rest of the session will be a mixture of light and moderate cardio. For the light cardio, I’ll keep doing what I’ve been doing so far, such as the light aerobics. For the moderate cardio, I bought a small trampoline last week. I’ve tested it out and it is indeed pretty moderate exercise – harder work than the light aerobics, not so hard as the flat-out stuff. So a typical session will be a sort of circuit – switching between light cardio, moderate cardio, and a few intense bursts of flat-out cardio.   

I’m also toying with the idea of increasing the overall length of the cardio session – maybe to 25 minutes – but I’ll see how I go with the increased intensity first.  

With regard to the weights, I aim to keep doing what I’ve been doing. Current workouts are as follows:

Workout A

Bench press – 3 sets, 6-8 reps

Heavy dumbbell overhead press – 2 sets, 8 reps

Squats – 2 sets, 20 reps

Light dumbbell workout (lateral raises, rows, overhead press, curls, French press) – 1 40-50 rep set of each

Workout B

Deadlift – 2 sets of 5 reps

Dips – 2 sets of 8-10 reps (these are light / cheat dips – still too heavy yet for proper ones)

Heavy dumbbell rows – 2 sets  of 8-10 reps (intend to replace these with pull / chin-ups when I can, i.e. when I’m light enough to do them again )

Squats – 2 sets of 20 reps

Light dumbbell workout (lateral raises, rows, overhead press, curls, French press) – 1 40-50 rep set of each

I alternate the two workouts, so on one week I do Workout A 2x and Workout B 1x, the following week I do Workout A 1x and Workout B 2x. It’s a pretty minimalist programme, I know, and I’m aware it wouldn’t be much use for bodybuilding or strength gain – but that isn’t the aim. The aim of the heavy stuff is simply to preserve existing strength. When the weight and fitness are sorted, I’ll worry about stepping up the weights and gaining more strength then. The one exception is the bench press – the lift where I think I’ve lost a little strength – I’m compensating for that by gradually increasing the weight and number of reps again on a week by week basis, but I’m still not doing more than three sets. The other heavy lifts I’m not trying to progress on, just maintain the status quo. The aim of the light dumbbell routine is to increase upper-body muscular endurance, and so that routine is progressive. I’m currently doing one 40-rep set for each of the five exercises. When I hit fifty reps, I’ll add more weight and drop back down to 20 reps – then build it back up to 50. After that, I’ll probably go to two sets of 30, and build that up to two sets of 50…that will be over a period of several months, though.     

Well, there’s the goals and the plan. Let Phase 2 commence.  

OK, it’s the end of the initial six weeks, so let’s recap on progress so far.

Saturday's weigh-in showed me at 15st 10, so weight loss has been 5 pounds. That’s only a small fraction of what I need to lose of course, but it’s a start – and better than I actually expected, given that I didn’t actually expect to start losing weight until around week 4. My gut girth has decreased too – from 48” / 121cm at the start, to 46.5” / 118cm now.  

Fitness is harder to measure, but I’m certain it has improved a bit. Cardio sessions have gone from ten minutes – which was plenty in the beginning – to twenty. Still only light cardio, of course, but that was always the plan in this first phase. My walk in to work (about a mile, mostly uphill) feels significantly easier.  I’m still highly unfit and there’s a lot more work to be done – but I’m no longer at rock bottom.

Strength appears largely unchanged so far – which was another important aim. So far it’s mostly being met. The one exception, as I mentioned the other week, may be the bench press – I think I’ve lost a little ground there – but I’m trying to compensate by going back to a progressive programme on that lift. Hopefully I can gain back what I’ve lost over the next few weeks – or at least avoid losing any more.  

The biggest achievement though has simply been to put the routine in place – to start controlling my diet and consistently doing cardio.  I know some people will say I could have pushed myself a lot harder during these six weeks, but that was never my plan. I’d never stick to anything too intense, especially at this early stage….I’d end up saying ‘bugger it’ and falling off the wagon. This routine may only be modest, but at least it’s something I have a better chance of sticking to, and working towards my long-term goals at a slow but consistent pace. The best routine is the one you’ll stick to doing, right? And I have stuck to it. I think I can give myself a small pat on the back for that.

So, in summary…only a beginning, but it’s been a fairly good beginning. 

Into week 6, last week of the initial phase. The latest weigh-in shows me at 15st 11, so another pound dropped. On the other hand, for the second week in a row, I didn’t meet my calorie target…I averaged 2450, which is a tad less than last week but still 200 above target.  Well, that’s the same pattern for two weeks on the run now, so what do I take from it?

It’s clear that it’s going to take a bigger effort than I’ve made so far if I’m going to drop calories any lower…and it’s going to involve being hungry some of the time. To keep intake at around 2500 involves a moderate amount of self-discipline but nothing really hard. To drop lower is going to require significantly more self-discipline.

Question is, do I actually need to? At least at this moment in time? I seem to be losing weight steadily even at 2400-2500. Not only that, I actually don’t want to lose weight too fast – a pound per week is great. So….I think I might just keep things as they are for now, aim for an average of 2500 and see how it goes. Realistically, I know that, at some point, the weight loss is going to stall, and at that point I’m going to have to cut calories to significantly below 2500 to get it going again. I have to be ready for that and, when that time comes, I ‘m going to need to find the willpower to do it. But I’ll face that when I need to.

Another concern is that strength seems to have dropped a little. Last week I struggled to get 8-9 reps on the bench press with a weight I used to be able to lift for 10. I don’t want to lose strength, as I said, but I think it could be because I’ve cut training back too much. So  this week I’m back to three sets, plus a programme of progressive overload – I’ve cut the reps back to 6, added weight, then I’ll build back up to 8 reps before adding more weight, etc. That’s the system I used before to gain strength. I don’t know if it will work so well while I’m in calorie deficit, but I’m only in modest calorie deficit so hopefully it will.

On the plus side, apart from the weight loss, I think fitness is still increasing. The walk in to work is definitely getting easier. I may do a test this week – see how many flights of steps I can climb before I get out of breath. It won’t be many! It will give me a baseline though which I can aim to improve on over the next six week cycle. Fitness is hard to measure with any precision, but this will be a rough yardstick.

Cardio sessions are now up to 20 minutes and so far I haven’t missed one. Seven more days and Phase 1 is complete.  

Well, to be honest it was a bit of a mixed week last week. I failed to meet the calorie limit for the week overall – my average in the end was close to 2500, so actually more than last week. That was partly due to a binge on Friday – there was free grub on offer at work….  I did manage to stay under the limit on some individual days, i.e. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, and fairly close to it on Monday, but I went quite a way over it on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Must try harder.

The good news is that I seem to have lost more weight anyway – today’s weigh-in showed me at 15st 12. I’m definitely on a downwards trend, averaging a weekly loss of around one pound. So long as I can keep that up, I’ll be happy….but I think I’m going to have to be stricter about the calories if I’m going to keep it rolling.  

The cardio sessions increase to 18 mins this week – I completed all three sessions again last week, and I also fitted a walk in on a couple of other days. I’m definitely a touch fitter, though Wednesday’s episode with the bike showed me just how far I still have to go. Still, progress is progress, and I’m definitely moving in the right direction, even if only slowly. 

Well, after Monday's positive post, I had an experience yesterday which showed me just how far I still have to go.

As I said Monday, I'm already starting to get bored of the cardio I've been doing and I've started looking for alternatives. So yesterday I thought I'd give the real bike a go.

I took it across the footpath on our local park - a distance of about 0.2km. Since it was a slight downward slope in that direction, I was able to freewheel most of the way. Not much of a problem.

But then coming back the other way....a mild uphill slope....now that was a problem. I had to stop four times. I made it, but I was really struggling, and puffing like a steam train.

200 metres of very mild uphill gradient. It felt like I was attempting 20 miles.

Yes, I'm starting to get a little fitter, coming from complete rock bottom. But this little incident showed me just how unfit I still am.

I'm not going to let it discourage me though - on the contrary, it's a challenge.  

Beginning of week four. Looks like the weight loss wasn’t an illusion – at today’s weigh-in I was down to 15st 13. That’s highly encouraging, given that I didn’t think I was far enough in calorie deficit yet to be losing weight. Of course, it’s just a very small start given that I have forty-odd pounds to lose, but it is a start, and it’s a psychological boost to see the scale weight drop below 16st.

I came in under my target daily calorie average last week – I averaged 2400 (estimated). This week the daily calorie target will be 2250, and if the weight loss continues, I might keep it at that for a few weeks. Of course, it will probably eventually stall, and at that point I’ll need to cut calories further, but until that happens, why make this harder than it needs to be? Also, I actually don’t want to lose weight too rapidly – a pound or two a week is the ideal. 

Strength seems unaffected so far, and I actually think fitness is improving a bit, too. When you start at such a low point of course, it isn’t hard to make a small improvement. This week the three cardio sessions go up to 16 minutes each. I’ve been consistent about doing those so far, but I’ve been a bit hit-and-miss about fitting a walk in on the weights days. I need to try to do a bit better on that score – six days with some kind of cardio is obviously going to produce better results than just three.  As far as the main three cardio sessions go, I’ve found myself varying it up a little – bike then aerobics every time is already starting to get a bit boring, so mixing in other stuff like five minutes of walking followed by a bit of running on the spot, step-ups etc. is a way of adding in a little variety. I figure that, so long as I’m doing some form of light to moderate cardio for the required amount of time, it doesn’t really matter what it is - what matters is that I’m consistent about doing something for x number of minutes three times a week.    

I’ve cut my heavy weights sessions down to what I believe to be the bare minimum to maintain strength. Heavy exercises include bench press, barbell overhead press, dumbbell overhead press and deadlift, each performed for a couple of sets 2-3 times per week with near max weights (except for the BB OHP, where I keep the weights some way below max for fear of another back injury). That’s it for the heavy stuff, and such a routine would obviously be no good for actually adding strength, but I believe it’s enough for maintenance (if strength does start to drop I’ll have to rethink that obviously). On the other hand, I’ve also started doing a light dumbbell workout for high reps (goal being to build muscular endurance) and I’m about to start throwing a little bodyweight stuff in too. Pullups and chins are out of the question for the moment (still too heavy) but press-ups, situps and chair dips are all possible. I’m going to start very small, with just a few press-ups and situps at a time, but gradually build into a short bodyweight circuit, which I’ll probably append on to my cardio sessions rather than do on weights days.  

I’ve also started barbell squatting again but very light (just the bar). As I say, I’m wary of hurting my back again (doesn’t seem to be a problem with the deadlift but it is with heavy squats) so I’ve no plans to go heavy. I know heavy squatting is highly recommended, and that’s great if you aren’t prone to back injuries, but when you are it just isn’t worth it. Instead I’m going to go for high reps. Once I hit sets of around 20 I’ll start adding a little weight to the bar.      

So, progress is beginning to be made….

Checking in for the start of week 3. The weekly weigh-in showed a drop of one pound. Not reading too much in to that, however. I doubt I’m actually losing fat just yet as my calorie intake is still too high. It’s more likely just a fluctuation in water weight or something. Still, I guess it helps a little psychologically to see the scale weight drop a little – even though I know it probably doesn’t mean much at this stage.

Last week’s calorie average was just over 2600, so I came in well below the target. This week the target drops to 2500 – which is the recommended daily intake for a male. I think I’m getting close to the point of being in calorie deficit - should get there within the next couple of weeks.

I also made the planned increase in the cardio session, which is now up to 14 minutes total. Nothing much else to report, except that everything is pretty much on track. 

Week two, day one. I got weighed this afternoon, and the number is the same as last week – 16 stone 1 pound. That’s no biggy -  as I said before, I don’t expect to be losing any weight just yet.  

Last week I averaged just about 3000 calories per day according to my log. Of course, that’s based on estimates, given that I don’t have exact figures down to the last calorie for everything I ate. I’m not going so far as to weigh every bit of food I eat. I know some people do that, but from past experience, estimates are generally good enough for me. Anyway, I stayed within the limit, which was good, but it hasn’t started to get tough yet and I’ve so far only needed a very modest amount of self-discipline to stay on track – which will change as the restriction becomes tougher. Hopefully easing in to the diet will make it less of a shock to the system.

Today the calorie limit went down to 2750, and the cardio session increased in length by two minutes. I don’t really feel any fitter yet, but hopefully by the end of the initial six weeks I will, even if just by a little.

Onward!

Day one. I’ve just completed my first cardio session, which lasted a whole ten minutes, and believe me, that was enough for now. It wasn’t very intensive cardio either, but hey, got to start somewhere. It consisted of five minutes on the exercise bike and five minutes of light aerobics (don’t laugh, I needed something gentle to start off with and this stuff fits the bill).

At this point, it’s almost a rehab programme rather than a fitness regime. Still, we all have to start somewhere and for me, right now, that starting point is very low. It’s not where you start, it’s where you end up, right?

Here’s my planned cardio programme for the first six weeks. I intend to do this three times a week. I’ll be doing weights on the alternate days to maintain strength – and possibly trying to fit a short walk in on those days too, just for a bit of extra exercise. Sunday is a rest day. 

After that, I’ll start increasing the intensity – maybe by starting to replace the light aerobics with something more strenuous – and once I’ve made the workout more intense, then I’ll further increase the time. But for now, building up to 20 minutes of light cardio is the very first step.

The other thing I started today was, of course, the diet. As with the cardio, I’m starting light. My target calorie intake for today, and for every day this week, is 3000. Yes, that’s still quite a lot, and no, I won’t lose weight at that, but it’s a starting point for a gradual downwards adjustment. I know from experience that if I try to cut the calories too far, too fast, I’ll just be bloody hungry, and that’s a recipe for failure. So 3000 a day it is for this week, as a starting point to get myself back into the habit of calorie counting. Next week it will be 2750. The eventual target is 1800 per day, and I’ll most definitely be losing weight when I get to that point.  

Finally, I decided to do a bit of a ‘detox’ too. I’m slightly sceptical as to how beneficial these things actually are, and I won’t be going so far as the green tea, lemon juice and all that jazz. But I’m going to aim to drink a full gallon of water per day for the next three days. Hopefully it will flush the old system out a little. No doubt it will make me pee a lot too, but hey, that’s kind of how ‘flushing out’ works, right? And no beer for a few days….

Happy New Year! The programme starts tomorrow, but for today, I thought I’d establish a baseline. I want to keep a record of my starting point, so here it is (measurements taken today):

Weight:  16st 1 / 102 kg (Yikes, even more than I thought!)

Gut girth (won’t call it a ‘waist’…): 121cm / 48”

Trouser size: Well, I can just about squeeze into a 38 waist, but it’s uncomfortable and, to be honest, I’m really a 40….or 42. :o  

Chest: 115cm /42”

Upper arm: 36cm/14.5”

Thigh:  60cm / 24”

And a couple of photos:

Disgusting, huh? How did I let myself get in that state? Well, time to do something about it.