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