A very
Merry Christmas time to you! Or whatever time of year you're celebrating at the
moment - just as long as you enjoy it. It has been distinctly drizzly and
drenching in the English South, varying from the former while I'm inside to the
latter when I leave a building. Apart from falling water, I have also had
plenty of food during the festive time - has my weight suffered?
No! Happily
- I am now 192.5lbs, 13st and 10.5lbs or just over 87kgs. This is great news,
and no I didn't do it by avoiding any kind of main meals or by cutting down on
what I ate during those meals. I did it by making sure I stuck to my calories -
and usually did so in a single meal - or by getting to the gym/going for a run
on days I new I'd be eating a lot.
This made
Christmas and New Year about the same as the rest of the time I've dieted, as
far as dieting went. Sure, maybe I had to do a little more exercise and maybe I had a bit of a food coma on
Christmas night BUT I didn't have to reduce the amount I enjoyed myself on any
occasion. Which is obviously a massive plus.
As far as
the gym goes I am now regularly running for 65 minutes and average about 9.2km
in that time. I don't enjoy it for the first twelve minutes, the space between
minutes thirty-two and forty-nine but I am pushing myself to maintain the
practice. Eventually it will become easier and then comfortable, at which point
I will have to up my speed so I still make progress with it. I'm doing heavier
weights now as well so when I leave the gym I'm exhausted, hungry, buzzing with
energy and immensely dehydrated. Survival advice: Don't talk to me between the
end of a gym session and the end of my shower afterwards. I don't make for good
company. Some people might find that hard to believe - some, I'm sure, would
try to argue that I never make good company - but it happens. It's a problem
I'll look into solving in the near future but for now I just have a long, hot
shower which seems to do the trick.
My one
failure (dietwise) this week/ten period has been the KFC I had on New Year's
day when I got back from London.
It was glorious, I loved it, and it really hit the spot (and was technically
within calories) but about two hours later I regretted it - I got hungry again.
A friend (who's identity I forget at time of writing but I was grateful to for
the following information) posted an image on Facebook about why you get urges
for certain food groups and possible alternatives that are less fattening; this
is potentially a diet-saver for those who have problems. Helpfully I did save
the image:
Pretty
neat, right? I haven't tried it out yet but I'm going to be stocking up on kale
like it's going out of style. Nuts and Seeds also seem a fairly good snack-food
but I appreciate some people have allergies and others might be aware that nuts
are actually considerably more fattening than their size suggests. I may even
try seaweed but what I've done to solve my 'salty food' craving is to have a
pasta meal (not microwaved or pre-packaged) and then adding salt to it. Seems
to work - I appreciate it isn't exactly solving the problem but it's got to be
better than eating unhealthy things with more salt in. I'm immensely suspicious
of eating seeds as I have a childhood fear of plants growing out of my stomach
if I eat their seeds from some fairytale or other but I might even give that a
go.
Last bit:
Thank yous and stuffs. My brothers Matt and Marcus (as well as the rest of my
family) are a continuing source of encouragement and have started joining me at
the gym when we can all make it. My friends Paul and Lofty also join me at the
gym quite a lot and their compliments and encouraging comments/challenges keep
me going. Chris Enfield, Eddy Cara, Dan Drummond and Stuart Merritt are also
inspirational by example - I don't talk to them so much as the others but
credit where credit is due; they don't all work out, they weren't all
overweight but they have all given me reason to keep to trying whether they
know it or not. Other thanks: Michael Measures, Cat Haley, Kate Brady, Michael
Oswell, Richard Bailey, Dan Adams, Eddie Hopkins, John Dulle, Shereen Fever,
David Dyson and everyone else who's said a couple of encouraging things to me
when they've had the chance (or complained to their partner about their lack of
effort in losing weight after seeing me). There are a lot more people who
should be on this list but in the interest of not making this seem like a list
of names I'm saving the others for another time. Honestly, I appreciate every
word said to me about it so don't stop.
Not a
shameless call for people to feed my ego. Never.
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