Readers, I post you this blog from my sickbed. I currently have a flu that has been slowly getting worse all week. Overnight the infection spread from my blocked ear to my eyes, so I woke up with my eyes glued shut. Fun times. Who wants to volunteer to bring soup?! *Warning, volunteers may contract plague*. Clearly, due to the coughing fits, I have not exercised at all this week, and it certainly shows:
Weight: 118.4kg
Muscle percentage: 38.5
Fat percentage: 40.6
Goal progress: 23%
I am just thanking my lucky stars that the scales didn’t go THE OTHER WAY this week. I have a theory that this flu is due to the sudden cessation of smoking. I have heard tell of friends who have gotten sick when they quit. If this flu is the worst symptom of quitting, I’ll take it. This post is going to be short and sweet – I’m going back to sleep guys.
Catch you all on the flipside.
Monday, 20 June 2011
Monday, 13 June 2011
Free At Last
I can’t quite believe it – the book worked! I don’t even know how to put my elation into words! After all this time, the money I’ve spent, and the miserable previous attempts at quitting, I can finally say that yes, I have stopped smoking permanently. My last cigarette was on Thursday night, and it is now Monday. I haven’t had a single craving, and I know I never will. The things that used to trigger a cigarette are still there, e.g. when I get off the train in the morning and walk to work, my brain still tells me it’s time to pull out a cigarette, but it’s more of a reaction than anything. I turn around (in my head) and think ‘hang on, no it’s not – I don’t smoke any more’ and that’s the end of it.
No screaming, crying, depression or overeating. No telling everyone I’ve stopped, then sneaking out to buy a packet and smoking around the corner. Earlier this week I described it as if the nicotine addicted part of me was behind a wall of soundproof glass – I can see him, he’s going nuts, but I feel nothing. I can now recognise that the big stompy monster in my head had a secret – there were TWO of them! He had a sidekick – the little nicotine monster. I thought there was just one big angry guy, who encapsulated nicotine addiction and the psychological need to smoke. However, now that I know what’s going on, I’ve booted out the big angry one, and strapped the little nicotine one to a chair, with duct tape over his mouth.
The book describes how nicotine addiction and withdrawal itself is actually so mild that you barely feel the withdrawal symptoms. Any current smoker reading this is going to think I’ve gone off my rocker. It’s all the stuff in your head that makes quitting so horrible. The book takes you through all this stuff, and helps you deal with it one thing at a time, so that when you read the last page, you really can’t remember why you ever wanted to smoke in the first place! Here's the book - if you smoke, you should read it. Don't worry, he doesn't try and scare you, there's not really much talk of cancer or anything like that. But it does work.
So now I can keep going with the diet, and have more energy (and lung capacity) to exercise and not feel like a social pariah. I actually had lunch INSIDE a café on the weekend! Not on the fiddly little tables out the front in the freezing cold!
Muscle percentage: 37.1%
No screaming, crying, depression or overeating. No telling everyone I’ve stopped, then sneaking out to buy a packet and smoking around the corner. Earlier this week I described it as if the nicotine addicted part of me was behind a wall of soundproof glass – I can see him, he’s going nuts, but I feel nothing. I can now recognise that the big stompy monster in my head had a secret – there were TWO of them! He had a sidekick – the little nicotine monster. I thought there was just one big angry guy, who encapsulated nicotine addiction and the psychological need to smoke. However, now that I know what’s going on, I’ve booted out the big angry one, and strapped the little nicotine one to a chair, with duct tape over his mouth.
The book describes how nicotine addiction and withdrawal itself is actually so mild that you barely feel the withdrawal symptoms. Any current smoker reading this is going to think I’ve gone off my rocker. It’s all the stuff in your head that makes quitting so horrible. The book takes you through all this stuff, and helps you deal with it one thing at a time, so that when you read the last page, you really can’t remember why you ever wanted to smoke in the first place! Here's the book - if you smoke, you should read it. Don't worry, he doesn't try and scare you, there's not really much talk of cancer or anything like that. But it does work.
So now I can keep going with the diet, and have more energy (and lung capacity) to exercise and not feel like a social pariah. I actually had lunch INSIDE a café on the weekend! Not on the fiddly little tables out the front in the freezing cold!
Weight: 118.4kg
Muscle percentage: 37.1%
Fat percentage: 41%
Goal progress: 23%
I am slightly concerned that the weight loss is slowing down somewhat. I know that as you lose weight, it starts to happen slower and slower, but I figured I’d get at least half way to my goal before I started slowing down. I am going to have to bump up the fitness regime a little, I think. Also, you’ve probably noticed a new category above. I’m adding another marker to my KPIs – a friend of mine keeps track of his weight loss as a percentage of his goal. Here’s what I mean – I started off weighing 128.4kg. My goal weight is 85kg. The amount I need to lose overall is therefore 43.4kg. I have now lost exactly 10kg… holy shit – milestone! How’d I miss that? Anyway, so 10kg as a percentage of 43.4kg is 23%. This means that I’m 23% to my goal!
As some of you may know, I moved last weekend. I now live in the city, and have a much shorter commute to work. This translates to a little more free time each day. I also now have a gym and a pool in my building. Talk about no excuse not to exercise – you need to walk past it to leave the building! So I will endeavour to exercise a little more, and hopefully lose a bit more next week.
Major plusses this week included quitting smoking obviously, and also it marked the first round of compliments. I had 5 people exclaim over the weight loss, and it was awesome! Major negatives this week include the fact that I now REALLY need new jeans, and also the weight loss distribution has had a rather unfortunate side effect – I seem to have lost a lot of weight from my chest, face, neck and waist, but my hips haven’t kept up. Sure, I realise that I’ve lost some weight all over, but my spare tyre now looks rather prominent… ah crap. I have a friend who’s a personal trainer, and she once told me the only way to get rid of that is crunches. Guh. Hate crunches. Crunches can bite my slightly-less-doughy-than-last-week behind. I’ve been happily following the diet and just doing general exercise for the past month, but now it looks like I need to start targeting things.
Until next week, everyone!
Monday, 6 June 2011
Crime & Punishment
Oh readers, I am full of shame. The inevitable has happened, as I predicted (no, not The Rapture – that guy must be kicking himself now, eh?). This past week, I absolutely, positively, irrevocably fell off the wagon. I could lay the blame with the stressful week I’ve had, but I will cop it on the chin. My crimes are listed herein:
Drank alcohol 2 nights
Had 2 days where I didn’t actually eat ANYTHING (even worse than eating crap)
Had day off on Saturday, but also pizza on Wednesday, and bread on Sunday
Failed to give up smoking - spectacular, epic FAIL
As punishment for these crimes, the weight loss Gods have failed to smile on me as much this week as they have in previous weeks.
Weight: 120.1kg
Muscle percentage: 38.2%
Fat percentage: 39.2%
So from last week I’m down 1.8kg and the body fat has shot back down by 7.4%. I am slightly sceptical of the fat percentage measurement – maybe last week when I was on the scales I was unknowingly holding a tub of butter…? Anyway, I was expecting the numbers to be much worse than they turned out to be. All week I felt guilty, but too tired to care. I swear, the energy levels better improve soon or I’m going to go to the nearest bakery, stuff myself full of every kind of bread they have, then wash it down with a slushie. Maybe even TWO, Rowena! ;-)
Joking aside, I really am quite upset with myself that quitting smoking didn’t work. I didn’t even last a day. Not exactly the huge success that I was hoping for. I shouldn’t be too surprised, I’ve been a pack a day smoker for 8 years. I’ve tried patches, gum, lozenges, Champix, Zyban, nothing’s worked so far. THAT part of my brain - he’s huge. He stomps around and orders everyone else about. Thinks he’s king shit. He really does need to be put into his place, but no one has the guts (except the part that champions healthy eating, but as we all know, nobody listens to him).
I am just going to start again tomorrow, and keep going til it works. I’ve got two more aces up my sleeve. The first is a book that I was told about by a friend. It’s called Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking. It supposedly has magical powers. I actually once read about half of it, and found that cigarettes were starting to taste bad, and that I didn’t want to light up nearly as often. Of course, as with many of my past self-improvement schemes, I never finished it. This time, the book will be read cover to cover, and I will see if laser beams fly from the pages and vanquish the nicotine demon.
Drank alcohol 2 nights
Had 2 days where I didn’t actually eat ANYTHING (even worse than eating crap)
Had day off on Saturday, but also pizza on Wednesday, and bread on Sunday
Failed to give up smoking - spectacular, epic FAIL
As punishment for these crimes, the weight loss Gods have failed to smile on me as much this week as they have in previous weeks.
Weight: 120.1kg
Muscle percentage: 38.2%
Fat percentage: 39.2%
So from last week I’m down 1.8kg and the body fat has shot back down by 7.4%. I am slightly sceptical of the fat percentage measurement – maybe last week when I was on the scales I was unknowingly holding a tub of butter…? Anyway, I was expecting the numbers to be much worse than they turned out to be. All week I felt guilty, but too tired to care. I swear, the energy levels better improve soon or I’m going to go to the nearest bakery, stuff myself full of every kind of bread they have, then wash it down with a slushie. Maybe even TWO, Rowena! ;-)
Joking aside, I really am quite upset with myself that quitting smoking didn’t work. I didn’t even last a day. Not exactly the huge success that I was hoping for. I shouldn’t be too surprised, I’ve been a pack a day smoker for 8 years. I’ve tried patches, gum, lozenges, Champix, Zyban, nothing’s worked so far. THAT part of my brain - he’s huge. He stomps around and orders everyone else about. Thinks he’s king shit. He really does need to be put into his place, but no one has the guts (except the part that champions healthy eating, but as we all know, nobody listens to him).
I am just going to start again tomorrow, and keep going til it works. I’ve got two more aces up my sleeve. The first is a book that I was told about by a friend. It’s called Allen Carr’s Easy Way to Quit Smoking. It supposedly has magical powers. I actually once read about half of it, and found that cigarettes were starting to taste bad, and that I didn’t want to light up nearly as often. Of course, as with many of my past self-improvement schemes, I never finished it. This time, the book will be read cover to cover, and I will see if laser beams fly from the pages and vanquish the nicotine demon.
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