WEIGHT UPDATE

After some big losses over previous months, my weight has plateaued recently. Try as I might, I’m stuck between 93 and 95 kilograms, and I’m finding it impossible to break that barrier and push towards my get-me-a-new-wardrobe weight of 90kg.

It’s prompted me to examine the way I’m fitting weight-loss into my day, and to see what changes I can make to help me drop these recalcitrant kilos.

The first thing that has become apparent is how difficult it has been to maintain my program of not eating carbs after 4pm. To this end, Lyn and I are keeping much closer track of what we eat, and when: our eating habits become lax quite easily, as we’re both snackers by nature, and love our pasta, our rice, our bread (and, let’s be honest, our sweeties, our chocolate, our Chinese takeaway). I’m also making a concerted attempt to eat six smaller meals a day rather than three big ones, and to control the type of food I eat at particular times.

I’ve also noticed that much of my incidental exercise has dropped off since I’ve started attending the gym. I’ve fallen back into using the lifts at work instead of the stairs, and am catching the bus right to my destination, instead of getting off a stop away as before, or walking home from the train station, as I did on a number of occasions. With the wet weather has come a reduction in my gardening time, too, which has meant less digging, less chopping with the axe, less carting about of paving slabs and broken tree trunks. So it’s back to the stairs, and a concentration upon finding exercises I can do at home and in the in-between times.

And whilst I’m hitting the gym three times a week, and usually working at a pretty high intensity, I’m prone to muscle strains and pulls. Part of that, of course, is down to years of inactivity. But it results in a loss of intensity, and a willingness to give in perhaps a little too easily when the ‘wall’ approaches. From this week, I’ll be gymming it up an extra day per week, 4 visits instead of 3, and setting myself a higher calorie-loss total per visit, concentrating on a rotation of exercises to maintain my interest and provide a balance between strength, toning, endurance and ‘burst’ exercising.

I’ve also recognised the need for regular intervention. The Biggest Loser was great for that: a nightly example of other overweight people working hard and seeing the benefits. Now that it’s over, I’ve been on the lookout for some sort of replacement. Lyn bought me a copy of Men’s Health magazine a month ago, and I picked up this month’s issue during the week. With recipes, exercises, and factoids dotted in amongst the adverts for deodorant and hair products, there are a welter of inspirational moments for me to draw upon as I progress.

The goal is this: my birthday falls on the second day of the Night’s Edge SF convention here in Perth. The night of the 10th, I’ll be throwing a birthday party in our room. Some time during that party, I’ll be pulling out the scales and weighing myself.

I will be down to 85 kilograms by that moment.

weight+loss