The FatBoy-Slim Challenge

I know, another long delay since my last update. Not really much to report other than I am starting to make progress on losing my 3rd stone. Almost halfway in fact since weighing last night. I’m now 14st 9lbs having lost 2lbs in the last week which is great, but in reality gives me a net loss of 1lb as the week before, I’d put on a 1lb (oh the shame). Overall I am 2st 6lbs down since starting in May – I’ll update this post later with each weeks loss tonight when I have my Slimming World book in front of me, and try to chart a graph on the front page.

I’ve also managed to get Slimming World to officially acknowledge that I’ve lost the two stone that I targeted for sponsorship, so if you’ve been kind enough to sponsor me, I’ll be knocking soon to collect. I’ve scanned the letter and you can read it by clicking the image on the right.

Some bad habits have crept back in recently. We had pizza the other weekend, fish and chips after a bad day at the office, a little bit of a drink (!) at Baker Street the other Friday and to top it all – I’ve got the baking bug again since I finished watching the Great British Bake Off. We also have “Celebrations” chocolates left over from trick or treat and it’s so easy to pop one in the gob…… then another….. then another….. then another….. – you get the picture. However, the difference is that I now am conscious of this happening, and I make up for it by getting back on the diet and cycling as a priority. This seems to have worked as I’m still losing weight week on week, and enjoying the odd luxury. I’m confident that this will in fact aid me to keep the weight off, because this is how I should be eating anyway.

On the subject of baking – like I said earlier I’ve been inspired by the GBBO and I’ve been trying a bit harder with my cupcakes and the baking overall. I made 24 cupcakes for a friend’s charity coffee morning and they turned out pretty good (see below). I also love making bread and I turned out some lovely baps at the weekend (fnaar) – although the perfect loaf has always eluded me. I’m going to extend the blog to cover recipies and tips in baking cause I need somewhere to store them!

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

Chocolate and Orange Cupcakes

This is all well and good, but I have to keep the diet at the front of my mind – which up til now I’ve not been great at – but with the exception of last week I’ve still managed to lose weight each week – but still indulge. I’m still cycling into work a couple of days a week, and so far – still enjoying it. Some near misses with the rain – but I’ll eventually have to brave it and get soaked (it’s raining as I type!).

I’ll try to keep up to date in future!

Good news this time round – I’ve reached my interim target of 2 stone lost! I’d started this challenge both as a means of losing weight and also so that I could raise some money for Sue Ryder.

I’ll start to collect in the money over the coming weeks, but I’m hoping to have raised around £500 pounds. This is a great figure and far more than I hoped to raise. It’s with thanks to following bodies of people that I’ve been able to do so well:

• Friends and Family
• My colleagues at Dynmark (who have been paid-off with cake)
• My ex-colleagues at Avelo (formerly The Exchange).

Total Weight Loss so far in 14 weeks (Weigh-In #15): 1st 10.5lb (-2 lb this week)

Total Weight Loss so far in 14 weeks (Weigh-In #16): 1st 12lb (-1.5 lb this week)

Total Weight Loss so far in 14 weeks (Weigh-In #17): 2st (-2 lb this week)

I’ll post the full run down as recorded in my Slimming World book, once I get my scanner working. It Friday night, I can’t be bothered to sort it now!

However, this isn’t the end of my little challenge (or my challenge to become little) – I’m going to continue and try to lose another stone. That would bring me down to 14st which is a good weight for someone that is 5′ 10″. I’m starting to look at my BMI now, but more on that in future posts.

If anyone is reading this – apologies for the long time between posts. Things have been manic over the summer. I’ve had lots of gigs with the band, and the last 6 weeks have been filled with Birthdays, Christenings and BBQs – so it’s amazing that I’ve managed to aggregate across the weeks a fairly good loss, including getting to 1 1/2 stone lost.

It fact I’ve now achieved what Slimming World call membership of Club 10. This means that I’ve lost 10% of my original weight. Even better, I get another sticker!

So the stats over the past few weeks are as follows:

Total Weight Loss so far in 10 weeks (Weigh-In #9): 1st 6lb (-2 lb this week)
Total Weight Loss so far in 11 weeks (Weigh-In #10): 1st 7.5lb (-1.5 lb this week)
Total Weight Loss so far in 12 weeks (Weigh-In #11): 1st 8.5lb (-1 lb this week)
Total Weight Loss so far in 13 weeks (Weigh-In #12): 1st 7lb (+1.5 lb this week – arrrgh!)
Total Weight Loss so far in 14 weeks (Weigh-In #13): 1st 8.5lb (-1.5 lb this week – phew!)

So you can see that my losses have slowed to 1-2lbs a week. This is fine with me as it is still coming off. It was never an overnight thing, and as I can see it – having been heavy for a long time (years) I can wait to lose the erm – weight. My eating habits have also changed slightly – I’m not so strict and have had the odd bit of chocolate, an evening on the lager and a curry here and there with my mates. This is good and bad I think, bad because I’m not keeping to the diet 100%. The good side though is that I am reflecting normal eating habits more so now, and still losing. The way I see it, is that once I’ve lost all the weight I want to – I’ll be able to eat normally (not like I used to though) and keep weight off. Should the weight start to creep back on however, I’ll know exactly what to do about it. Slimming World seem to have good after-loss support, in that you only have to weigh once a month (for free) and stay within a “buffer zone” and you are fine. Should you veer outside the zone, then you weigh every week (and pay) again until you get to target weight again.

I’ve also just bought a new bike, so hope to increase my cycling – which knowing my luck will mean I build muscle on my thighs making my tree-trunks even bigger! The new bike will hopefully make the jouney that bit more enjoyable and motivate me to do it as many times a week as I can.

Total Weight Loss so far in 15 weeks (Weigh-In #14): 1st 10.5lb (-2 lb this week – Club 10)

This week I’ve managed the paltry sum of one pound lost, thing is though I’ll take that considering my “sacre” week before holiday where I had put on a pound. I’m in it for the long-haul so a pound a week will do.

It also didn’t help going to two BBQ’s last weekend. Our host on Saturday had baked an Almond and Cherry cake which I couldn’t turn down (come in, it was my first cake in two months) and was so nice – I cried (:-)). She (I) insisted we take some away so I had some Sunday and Monday evening. Still, I didn’t eat it in the car on the way home – so that’s progress. Had a few crisps, and a roll – but largely stuck to the plan. Both days though I didn’t eat breakfast til late – and as a result didn’t eat lunch – so this meant I hadn’t eaten when I should have. I think this is pretty important on the Slimming World plan, Sandy at the group insists that we will not lose weight by not eating.

I hope to accelerate the loss though this month – and I’ve started by up-ing the exercise by riding my bike from Cheltenham to Gloucester a few times a week. I’ve started this week slowly – by taking the bike in the car and riding home. First time was a bit of a shock, the legs burned for the first 4 miles of the 8 mile trip. I put this down to several factors:

• I’ve not cycled any real distance in the last ten years +
• My mountain bike is just that – a mountain bike, probably thirteen+ years old, with dirty great big tyres and huge tread!
• I’m a very heavy boy
• I’ve not done much in the way of excerise for a while, so I know longer know how to manage my energy
• The roads between Bath Rd in Cheltenham and Abbeymead, Gloucester are diabolical!

So, in time if this gets serious I may replace my bike with a road bike, or some kind of hybrid (I only recently found out there was such a thing!). Also, the other factors should begin to get easier too – I’m going to lose weight, my overall fitness will improve and they legs will start to get used to the trip. Then I’ll be able to cycle both ways a few times a week. Not much I can do about the roads though.

Each trip burns around 375 calories and although I’m not calorie-counting this has got to be a good thing right? If I can figure out a way to publish the route frm my Endomondo thingy – I’ll update this later.

If anyone has any tips on road cycling, feel free to add to the comments or get in touch.

Total Weight Loss so far in 9 weeks: 1st 4lb (-1 lb this week)

What I would do for some of this!

Another week has passed and thankfully it’s another loss this week – another 2lb towards my initial target of 2st lost. With the 2lb gone, that leaves me with 11lbs to lose. I’m in the right frame of mind now – and finding it easy to turn down the naughty things that crop up. Things like cakes at work (we graduated to KFC this Friday as the boss bought a load in) – I’m glad to say that I held off stealing away a bargain bucket to lock myself in the boardroom with.

I’m beginning to see benefits in other areas – in particular clothes. Three months ago, I was contemplating throwing out a load of clothes that didn’t fit and hadn’t fit for along time. I’m glad I didn’t – cause they are fitting me now, and I can’t describe the satisfaction in trying them on and finding they fit. It’s true what they say – it’s like having a new wardrobe again. There are a couple of t-shirts that I’ve got to get into before I know I’m getting back to the size I was more than 10 years ago though.

On the bike this weekend – should the weather get better. I’m going to try a dry run cycling the 8 miles to work – experience tells me that I should be able to do that no problem (I used to ride my bike absolutely everywhere), but as it’s been a while since I’ve done anything like 8 miles on the bike – it’ll be interesting to see how far I get!

Total Weight Loss so far: 1st 3lb (-2 lb this week)

Yay! Finally after one week of gaining and five weeks of losing I’ve lost my first stone in weight. In fact it’s 1st 1lb, but it’s the 1st bit that’s important. Weighing in last night, I’d lost 3 1/2 lbs over the last week.

I’m really pleased, so much so I’ve lived up to my promise of bringing in home-baked cake for my colleagues at Dynmark for each 1/2 st I lose over the course of this diet. It was a struggle not licking the spoon and bowl once I was done – and it was a struggle that I lost as I sampled the cake batter and icing – just to make sure it was OK you understand.

The ultimate irony was though, I’d promised myself fish and chips after weighing as a reward for losing a stone if I had managed it. Problem was though I’d only an extra fiver, and spent that on a Slimming World Summer Days book, and had no money left over. So I ended up going home and having a tuna salad.

So what had I done different in the last week to bring around such a change. I’m not sure – Saturday night I had a Chinese takeaway (we picked reasonably healthy dishes)! Aside from that, I’ve stuck to the plan and done some limited exercise. I took Freddie swimming on Sunday and Tuesday I went to Cheltenham Lido and once I’d got over the distance of a length (50m), I did 14 of them.

This week I’m going to do a dry run of a cycle to work (Gloucester – Cheltenham), and I’m going to join the CheltenhamYMCA as try some racquet sports, as long as my knees hold up. I’m fine with any racquet sports really as they provide a competitive element to keep me going – I am useless in the gym cause it bores me senseless!

I think it’s important to re-iterate that I’m doing this both for my own health and to raise some money for Sue Ryder. If you can spare anything then please donate at my Just Giving page.

Thanks

Total Weight Loss so far: 1st 1lb (-3 1/2 lb this week)

Tzatziki & Pitta

We’ve been away on holiday, so there was no weigh-in last week. Considering the failure the week before where I’d put on 1/2lb, I wasn’t looking forward to weighing as I’d not really stuck to the diet whilst we were away. Saying that though, I’d not eaten and drank like I would have, had I not been on the diet. Previously I’d have had an ice cream every day and put away 4+ lagers (although that wouldn’t have happened anyway as we had taken Freddie, out little one)

Here’s a summary of my deviation from the path:

• Coco Pops with full fat milk (each morning)
• Toast with jam and butter (each morning)
• 2-3 pints of lager (daily)
• Pitta bread (daily)
• Loads of homous and tzatiki (which was not doubt made with full fat yogurt and olive oil)
• Olive oil (daily – it is exquisite in Greece)
• Chips (3 or four times over the week – they come with everything)
• A Cheese and ham toastie
• A couple of ice creams (over the week)
• A couple of chocolate bars
• Usually finished Freddie’s food if he hadn’t eaten it all

In the interest of balance here’s the activity I did whilst away:

• Lots of walking
• Lots of playing in the pool with Freddie (more tiring than you’d think)
• Lots of running up steps (for the water park slides)

Read more…

What!

This week I couldn’t make the Wednesday session in Hucclecote, so I weighed on Tuesday at Coney Hill’s Slimming World group. It was a good job – because I didn’t have to face the shame of putting 1/2 lb ON! This is my first gain so far and I’m pretty gutted about it.

In fairness, I’d not made as many changes as I’d promised in last weeks blog so I’ve only got myself to blame. I didn’t start exercising this week, I didn’t drink more water and I didn’t eat all of my syns (I just can’t mentally figure out why eating syn-ful I’ll lose weight). But still, I didn’t expect it because aside from the bottle of wine I enjoyed Saturday – I’ve really stuck to the plan. We plan our meals, buy only what we need (that’s another thing – shopping costs an absolute fortune) and stick to the diet by and large.

Read more…

This week I only managed a 1lb weight loss. I’m not sure where I’ve gone wrong, because I don’t think that there has been much of a difference between last week and this week. Certainly not enough difference to explain a difference of 3 pounds!

1lb of fat

I’m not alone with this because when I was describing my frustration at the Slimming world group last night, there were a lot of knowing nods and murmurs. I’ve not gorged on chocolate or bad foods, in fact I’ve been every bit as good as for the previous two weeks, even cutting off skin from cooked chicken drumsticks (formerly a hanging offence in my book). The only real bit of syn-ing was to have a swift bottle of wine on Sunday whilst playing with The Shy Teds.

So, the changes I’m going to make to last week are:

• Drink more water during the day
• Go swimming (I’d missed it out last week)
• Start some exercises that my colleague at work has given me (20 mins a day)
• Eat all of my syns each day

Now, the last one I have a problem with. Read more…

It’s Monday and the Bank Holiday is nearly over. I thought I’d get down my progress up to today.

I’ve been cheating a bit and using my scales at home – but I’m not sure that I can go by them for two reasons. There is 1 1/2 lb difference between my weight on the Slimming World scales and that of the scales at home. Further to that, I can weigh myself on my scales at home fours times and it’ll give me four different weights. So the two reasons coupled together means that I have no idea what I’ll be when I go and weigh on a Wednesday.

Yesterday was a blip – but not too much of one. I had a gig in the evening and a birthday party in the afternoon. The afternoon went fine – pasta salad, tomatoes and skin-less chicken drumsticks (does it count if you remove the skin after they’ve been cooked?). No birthday cake consumed, which is good – anyone who knows me, knows that I love a bit of cake. The blip was in the evening at the gig, but it was planned. I took a bottle of dry white wine and a bottle of soda, which is Syn-ed but is far better than 6+ pints of lager or ale. So I exceeded my Syns for the day, but I think I’m covered for the week.

Steak, egg and chips (SW) for tea. Yumm.