Week 77

2lb loss!

Woohoo! It works! The system works! I DO know what I'm doing. Stay on track for the week and the results show. And considering my activity levels have been only slightly above zero I have even more to be pleased about.

OK, of course my system of focusing on healthy eating works, otherwise I wouldn't have lost 89lbs or been able to keep going for almost 18 months. But every time I put on a pound or two, even though it's because I caved in to the old eating patterns, there's always a slight fear before I stand on the scales that maybe it won't have worked this time.

You'd think it would get easier.

Actually, it is considerably easier than when I first started, but I don't know whether it will ever cease to be a problem altogether.


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 4lb – 186lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 24lb
Total Weight Loss: 89lbs

Week 76

2lb gain.

While of course I'm disappointed, I'm not altogether surprised. As I mentioned last week, I'd been contending with dodgy eating patterns and Maggie's birthday; this week the eating patterns fell apart.

Saturday reached the peak of destructive eating. I knew that if I started the 200g bar of chocolate then I would end up finishing it. I knew that if I had ice-cream for pudding then I was setting up a sugar craving where I would end up eating chocolate later in the evening. I knew that if I finished the Chinese take-away I would want ice-cream to finish with. I knew that if we bought a Chinese take-away for dinner then I would eat far too much - at least twice the amount I normally would, if not more, plus prawn crackers. I also knew I'd end up having a really lousy night's sleep with all that extra sugar and fat trying to metabolise itself.

Yet I still agreed that we should get a Chinese take-away for dinner because it had been a tough week, Maggie's mother had been taken into hospital and no one felt like cooking.

The reasons were justifiable enough, but once the decision was made, the outcome of gross over-eating was inevitable.

Part of the self-loathing at my behaviour stems from this - at all the points along the way I knew exactly what I was doing and what the outcome would be. And because I knew, the feeling is that I should have been able to do something about it, to stop it from happening. Yet all I could do was sit back and watch as it all unfolded before me with a sense of complete inevitability.

Like boarding a train - once on, you're there for the duration - the point of choice is before you take the first step. After that it's too late.


Still the last day or two we've been back on form. Over the past 5 weeks I've only made a net gain of 3 pounds which could have been so much worse. But it is disappointing to think that I'm back where I was 9 weeks ago.


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 6lb – 188lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 22lb
Total Weight Loss: 87lbs

Week 75

I have no idea how much I weigh as hoards of grandchildren have descended on the house. OK, some might consider the word “hoards” to be a slight exaggeration for “two”, but the impact is the same. With my stepdaughter and children staying with us, the household has almost doubled in size meaning that the kitchen, where we usually weigh ourselves, is constantly occupied, or likely to be invaded at any point, by children, grandchildren or adults.

"Well why not weigh yourselves in the bathroom like most people?" you may well ask. The answer to that lies in the fact that there are very few level floors in this house, and even fewer that aren't carpeted. The readings on the scales can vary depending on where we place them, so in order to keep a consistency we place them in the same place in the kitchen each week for our weigh-in.

To be honest, I'm not optimistic that I would have lost anything anyway, due to the fact that it was Maggie's birthday on Friday (cue lots of cake and treats) which followed a week of varied eating patterns while we tried to re-establish the food stocks after being away.

So, next week there will be no excuses and my weight will be posted whatever it is.

Week 74

1lb gain!

Yes folks, I'm back from 2 weeks in France, eating baguettes and croissants and drinking French wine and I've only put on 1 pound!

Woohoo!

Who's the Daddy?

Woohoo again!

Post holiday analysis reveals that although we ate far more white bread and cheese, it wasn't on top of anything else.

The simple fact is, that my standard healthy eating patterns mean that I can lose between one and two pounds a week, especially if I don't cheat and I'm a bit more active. So I can actually increase my food/calorie intake by up to 30 - 40% and stay at the same weight. Obviously in the long term I don't wish to stay at the same weight, but it does give me a bit more built-in flexibility on a 2 week holiday.

And it was all about damage limitation again.

We might have had a day where we had large croissants for breakfast and a large hunk of baguette & cheese for lunch, but then we'd have a good vegetable based dinner and we managed to avoid getting back into the habit of evening snacking, which was always the killer.

It also helps that, as Fatmammycat pointed out would probably be the case before I left, we were inevitably more active. OK, we weren't surfboarding or mountain climbing, but walking round towns, strolling along beaches and visiting ruined castles is more active than the usual pastime of sitting in front of the computer or the TV.

So by continuing to eat healthily when we could, we had enough leeway to have some real treats, often on a daily basis.

We are feeling so pleased with ourselves, and it reinforces the idea that we have genuinely found the route that works for us.

I think I will allow myself a wee *smug* moment :)


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 4lb – 186lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 24lb
Total Weight Loss: 89lbs

Week 71

3lb loss??

3 pounds in one week is stranger than the 2 pound gain last week. However, I think I know what's going on. Last week I'm pretty sure should have only been a 1lb gain. When I weighed myself later in the morning out of curiosity, I saw that I was a pound less. The scales had been flicking between one and the other earlier on and in these cases I always count the higher figure.

This week I've been extraordinarily good. My eating has been superb and I have fought off every temptation. The result could account for a 2lb loss. All in all I think it's just evening itself out and the net result is that I'm one pound lighter than I was 2 weeks ago, which is fine by me.

However, things are not likely to stay this way as we are off to France for 2 weeks. I don't intend the eating to get out of control, but this is a country where butter, cream and cheese are a way of life, not to mention large quantities of red wine. I have to accept that I'll be likely to gain a few pounds while I'm away, but my intention is to try and work on damage limitation. If I only gain 4 pounds instead of 8, then that has to be good.

Statistical Significance: I have now lost 90lbs since I started out.


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 3lb – 185lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 25lb
Total Weight Loss: 90lbs

Week 70

2lb gain.

2 pounds??? Oh c'mon! Iknew it wasn't going to be a loss this week, and I feared I might gain one, but two?

Bollocks!

I blame my son's birthday, primarily. He insisted on a "party spread" which means a buffet-style help-yourself assortment of pizza, crisps, things fried in breadcrumbs etc.

There are 2 major problems with this type of food:

1) Any buffet-style layout is fatal for me as I cannot "see" how much food I've eaten. My stomach won't tell me until an hour later, by which time the damage is done. And of course you can refill your plate as often as you want

2) This kind of food comes under the category of "trigger food" - high fat, high salt stuff that means once started I cannot stop

3) (Ok, there are more than 2 problems) - it throws my system out and the next few days will be wobbley at best.

4) (I seriously underestimated the number) - birthday cake - enough left over to have the next day too - choclate, thick, rich, chocolate, sweet (I mentioned chocolate didn't I?) cake with icing and chocolate.


So bingeing on all this meant that Saturday was not good and I kept scanning the kitchen for extras and Sunday was a complete disaster with my emotions all over the place, culminating in the consumation of a large bar of chocolate I'd been given for Father's Day.

Actually, when I write all this down, I'm beginning to think I got off lightly with only a 2lb gain...


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 6lb – 188lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 22lb
Total Weight Loss: 87lbs

Week 69

1lb loss!

Another surprise loss this one, as at least twice over this past week I've had a buffet-style dinner that was high in processed foods and I've definitely over-eaten. The problem with a pick 'n' mix type of meal is that I invariable pick a lot more because I can have seconds and even thirds. Unlike a standard plate of food, I can't "see" how much I've eaten. And as I have a delayed off-switch that doesn't tell me I've had enough to eat until an hour later I end up feeling bloated and uncomfortable by the time my stomach catches up with my eyes.

So why have I still managed to lose a pound? In fact, how come I've been losing weight over the past few weeks when I've felt I probably shouldn't?

The only thing that I can think that I've been doing differently over the past couple of weeks is that I've become more regular with my Tai Chi. During the winter I can go a week at a time without practicing Tai Chi, but with the great weather we've been having recently I've pretty much been doing it every day. Maybe that's what's making the difference.


Statistical Significance – I have now lost over 40 kilos

Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 4lb – 186lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost: 24lbs
Total Weight Loss: 89lbs

Goal Weight

I just received a comment on my I Am Overweight! Woohoo! post from Sir Squishy, saying:

I just re-read this post for additional motivation.....just curious, what is
your goal weight?

I started to answer in the comments and then realised that my reply might in fact make a better post for this blog, as the answer is not as straightforward as it should be. Strange though it may seem, I've not actually had a goal weight as such.

My main aim when I embarked on this new way of living and eating was to become healthier. Losing weight was always a side effect of that rather than the main goal.

At 5 feet and 7 inches tall, my ideal weight for my height is supposed to be about 10 ½ stone (147lbs). The upper limit, allowing for a broader bone structure is about 11 st 5lbs (159lbs). Even at my leanest, as a fit teenager working as a landscape gardener, I was about 11st 4lbs (158lbs), so 10 ½ stone has never come into the equation.

Therefore, to get to about 11 ½ stone should really be my goal. From the viewpoint of over 19 ½ stone, however, this just looked laughable. I could not for the life of me imagine losing over 8 stone in weight. 8 stone is also 112 pounds, which is the amount in a British “Hundredweight” – hence the title of this blog. I discovered shortly afterwards that the US Hundredweight is a more obvious 100lbs exactly, although even that seemed like an impossible dream.

So when I set out, my feeling was that if I could get down to about 15 stone (210lbs) then I would be more than happy. At the point that I actually reached that weight back last October, I was approached by Sir (now Lord) Chubalot to join the Knights of the Round Bottoms. Up until then, this semi-ironically title blog was just being used to collect and store specifically weight-related blog entries. Now however, I started to keep a weekly log of my progress online as well.

As the weight has come off, so my idea of what weight I might be able to reach has shifted. Having passed the 15 stone mark, I then started to think about 13 ½ stone (189lbs). When I was I was in my early to mid twenties I was about this weight and I thought I looked fine. In addition, I’d worked out that at this size, I would no longer be categorised as “obese”. However, I have now passed that marker too.

12 ½ stone (175lbs) now looks like it might just be possible – and of course that is 100lbs. If I achieve that then I might even get a mention in Twice the Man’s hall of fame, although my efforts pale into insignificance next to his

Might I actually reach 11st 5lbs – 4lbs beyond even the British hundredweight?

Well, to be honest, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. If I’m eating healthily and I get my activity up to a healthy level, then my body will settle at whatever weight it should naturally be, whatever the charts say.

Naked in the mirror, I still have man-boobs and a belly, but I can now fit in clothes without an ‘X’ in the size. I look around at other middle-aged men and most seem to have at least the size of belly that I do, so I no longer look like a Fat Man. I look average. Some time in the next week or two, my wife and I are planning on visiting a gym for the first time, just to see what it involves and to get an idea of how much benefit we might gain from going there.

Even if I didn’t lose another pound, the fact that I have lost 88 is enough to feel I can’t complain.

The fact is, there is no end to this, and that makes a goal weight more or less redundant. Even if I reached 11st 5lbs, I wouldn’t stop eating healthily. As I have remarked before, this is NOT A DIET, it is a way of life.

Mind you, I don't know at what point I'll be able to move from Sir to Lord Man Boobs - when I've lost 100, 112, or 116 (meaning I'm no longer "overweight")?

Week 68

1lb loss!

Very surprised at the loss this week as not only have my activity levels been very low, but I had a blow-out on Saturday.

Actually, when I say blow-out, what I really mean is I had a full 100g bar of dark chocolate because, well because of a lot of reasons which primarily meant that I felt too low to be able to say no.

And yet, even in that dark place of "I'm bloody well going to eat something and no one's going to stop me," I still found that part of me was working on damage limitation in a way I would never have managed before.

Wandering around the supermarket, I decided that a large tub of prawn cocktail and a large bag of crisps (potato chips for you US types) was just going too far, especially as I knew I'd want the chocolate afterwards anyway. So I just went for the chocolate.

In the end the damage was only 500 calories (if you're counting) rather than about 1,500 if I'd followed my old ways. And given my lifestyle now, 500 calories can be absorbed quite easily across a week.

In my head I'd had such a huge fight with myself that the whole thing seemed much bigger than it was. In the end I still lost a pound this week.

I don't intend to make a habit of it, but it does show me that I can be a bit more forgiving of myself sometimes.


Starting Weight: 19st 9lb – 275lbs
Current Weight: 13st 5lb – 187lbs
KoTRB Weight Lost : 23lbs
Total Weight Loss: 88lbs

I Am Overweight! Woohoo!

(Imported from Rambling of the Bearded One)

Not a common whoop of joy heard in this day and age, admittedly, but I am a happy man. In fact, it turns out that I’ve been overweight for a few weeks now, but I hadn’t checked a BMI calculator recently.

BMI is the Body Mass Index and is essentially a ratio measurement between your height and your weight (you can check yours out at http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/interactiveTools/bmi.aspx if you’re curious) and so can be used as a rough guide to how fat you are. It is only an approximation though - if you are an athlete, for example, then you will get a false reading because muscle weighs more than fat.

So, at 5 feet and 7 inches high, and weighing in this morning at 13 stone and 6 pounds (188lbs or 85.275kg), I have a BMI of 29.44466. This means that I am now Overweight and no longer Obese (as I am in no way athletic). The chart looks something like this:

Less than 20 – Underweight - everyone thinks you look like a model, but you’re actually very unhealthy
20 to 25 – Ideal weight - you are at the right weight for your height, will probably live longer, but worry that your bum looks too big because society tells you that you should be underweight (“You can never be too rich or too thin” - Nancy Reagan)
25-30 – Overweight - you eat too many snacks and takeaways and don’t exercise enough
30-35 – Obese (Class I) - now you’re getting into dangerous territory that could be seriously affecting your long term health. You’re probably struggling to find anything that fits you in a high-street shop
35-40 – Obese (Class II) - specialist "outsize" clothes shops are becoming the norm, but you despise the fact that they insist you look like your granny's sofa cover.
Over 40 – Morbidly or Severely Obese (Class III) - also known as “Extremely Obese” or “Pathologically Obese” – chances are you’ve been dieting all your life and/or have problems with food addiction and emotional eating patterns that are now way out of control. Jogging trousers are just so much more comfortable.

15 months ago I was 19st 9lbs (275lbs) and had a BMI of 43, at which point Maggie and I started a new way of life. The idea was that we would eat healthily (plenty fresh fruit & veg), cut out processed foods and certain fats, avoid trigger foods (ones that set off cravings) and stop snacking in the evenings.

The main aim has always been to be healthier and the weight loss has been a side effect. THIS IS IMPORTANT. We are not on a “diet”, and when we reach an ideal weight we will continue to eat healthily and will not return to old eating habits. This is a way of life.

It means that we have a bit of cake when there’s a celebration; we sometimes go out for meals; on occasion we get a takeaway; but we are careful not to let these things get out of control. And very importantly, we enjoy good, wholesome, tasty food. Maggie is an excellent cook and very creative. These days instead of using those skills to make cakes and puddings, she’s using them to improve our health. Maggie doesn’t want me discussing her weight with the world, but I will say that she has lost a similar amount over the same time period.

In fact, the other day we were looking back through our early photo albums and came to the conclusion that we now weigh more or less what we did when we first started going out together. 15 ½ years to put the weight on, and 15 ½ months to get back again.

It doesn’t stop here though. We are still overweight, we are not as healthy as we could be, and the next stage will be to start upping our activity levels a bit more.

But I am no longer “Obese”. I am “Overweight” and I think that calls for some kind of celebration. Unfortunately it can’t be with a chocolate cake…