Plateau? Don't Mind If I Do

So, I got to thinking this week about how my progress has gone. I know I keep track of things each week, but I feel as if I haven’t really moved much over the past couple of weeks. To put things into perspective, I made a basic spread sheet. As my co-workers all know, I’m quite fond of spread sheets. Here is how I’m tracking:

According to market trends, overall weight is on a downturn. This is good for my health, but bad for the economy. As you can see, from about June 13th to present day, there has only been a net loss of 1kg. This kinda sucks. The good news is that it looks like the plateau is coming to an end, with current weight at an all-time low.

Weight: 117kg

Muscle percentage: 37%

Fat percentage: 42.8%

Goal progress: 26.3%

So in light of these figures, I am going to change my habits a little bit – I think it’s time to shake things up! I am still going to eat small meals throughout the day, because I think that works well for me (when I remember!) however, diet content is going to change. I’m not going to officially do this whole no carb/ high protein diet any more. I don’t generally eat a lot of carbs anyway, for example I never cook pasta for myself. They won’t be off the menu any more though. I’m going to go for what I perceive to be healthy options, e.g. wholegrain bread, dark green vegetables, low fat cheese, that kind of thing. Since I will be re-introducing sugar, I will do it slowly and sensibly. I might have a glass of fruit juice in the morning, for instance. If anyone has any myth-busters about supposedly ‘healthy’ foods, now’s the time to put your two cents’ worth in.

There you have it folks. This week I’m going to focus on the fact that while the slope is not as steep as I would like, at least it’s sloping in the right direction, eh?

Ain't Nothin' Gonna Break My Stride

Hey readers, how’s it going? Got some shock-value news for you – I’ve actually used the gym in my building more than once in a week! You’d think it would be more of an incentive to just get dressed in gym gear and TAKE THE ELEVATOR down to the internal gym than to actually go jogging on the street. Better even than packing a bloody gym back with work clothes, getting a train, and going to the gym near work in the mornings, i.e. getting up at some ridiculous hour like 6:30?! (Hey, I live in the city. Waking up a half an hour before work starts is one of the perks, and I pay dearly for it, so don’t look at me like that.)

But yes, I explored my exercise options this week, with different forms of indoor and outdoor activities. Turns out, jogging in my neighbourhood isn’t the best idea. For one thing, it’s very hilly. I don’t like hills. Sure, I don’t gasp like a choking mongoose when running uphill anymore because my lungs are clogged, but it’s still not a pleasant experience. Also, you get weird looks. From trendy people. Who are walking faster than you. In heels. No thanks.

Next up was the Fitness First near work. This is the gym I usually go to, and it’s held up pretty well so far. I even tried the one in Newtown on Saturday – it’s like McDonald’s – you know what you’re getting.

Finally, I took a good long couple of sessions to explore the gym/pool in my building *from hereon in referred to as the ‘home gym’*. I came to the conclusion that about 90% of the stuff I do at Fitness First can be achieved using machines in my home gym. The pool, as previously noted, is more of a paddling pool than a lap pool, which is unfortunate. However, there is a sauna and a steam room down there. Noice. Coupled with the fact that I have never seen any of the other residents using the home gym, you don’t get that awkward ‘oh god, people are staring at me sweat like a rhino’ feeling.

In a general spirit of wellbeing, I am considering taking up either yoga or pilates. What are everyone’s thoughts on both? Did it work for you? Was one better than the other? Do you really have to go to the classes, or can you get away with the DVD at home? Any other suggestions?

My last rhetorical question for the evening: I was playing my ipod this evening while training, and I wondered – what kind of music do people listen to when they exercise? I haven’t been bothered to make up a training playlist (hell, I haven’t even been bothered to finish transferring all of my music onto my computer) so occasionally I’ll be running hell for leather on the treaddy, when all of a sudden a nice Norah Jones ballad begins to lilt softly over the headphones. Just curious, is all.

Weight: 117.8kg

Muscle percentage: 38.2%

Fat percentage: 39.4%

Goal progress: 24.4%

Getting there....

You Snooze, You Lose

Greetings readers, how are you all? So as many of you will already know, I got the results of my sleepapnoea study back this week. This is from when I spent a night in the hospital and my sleep was monitored. Not the most fun experience in the world. Lots of electrodes everywhere. The results, while expected, were still a little disquieting. The study is quite involved, so I will just run you through a couple of the main points:

I ‘woke up’ (i.e. my brain technically brought me back to consciousness, not sat up wide awake) 338 times, or an average of 45 times an hour. I didn’t get enough oxygen to the brain for approximately 27% of the time. Finally, to give everyone a chuckle, under the category of ‘Snoring’, the technician wrote ‘Loud and frequent’…. No shit, really?!

In other words, I am now officially diagnosed with full blown, severe sleepapnoea. Thanks Dr. Obvious, I could’ve told you that WITHOUT spending a thousand bucks on hospital visits and specialists. The reason I’m telling you all this is because it does actually tie into my weight loss plans. As I lose weight, the sleepapnoea should get better. It will not cure it, but it will help. So I have another reason to keep up the regime.

However, I am starting to wonder if I shouldn’t shake things up a bit. Ever since I started this blog, friends have been approaching me saying that they tried this diet or that diet and lost insert stupid amount of weight here. So, I’m putting it to you all – what diets worked for you, and why? Any advice is appreciated. I will be weighing up the benefits (HA! Accidental pun) and possibly choosing a new eating plan over the next couple of weeks.

Weight: 118.9kg

Muscle percentage: 37.3%

Fat percentage: 43.7

Goal progress: 21.9%

Hooray, back on the straight and narrow! (boom tish, that’s two) I want to be at least 50% of the way there by my birthday – an average of 2kg a week. It’s not an outrageous goal, but still challenging.

Finally readers, something happened last night that I’m not happy about. I went to a party, had a few drinks, and smoked 4 cigarettes. I honestly don’t know why. The whole time I was smoking them, they tasted like garbage. I didn’t get any enjoyment out of them. I woke up today feeling gross, and with no desire to smoke at all. But there you go – it happened, and I’m here to tell you guys about this kind of stuff. Very strange though.

Going AWOL

Hello everyone. Yes, it’s true – I am completely slack, and didn’t post an entry last week. It wasn’t me, he did it! *Points over to the left*

I’ll be honest, I got to Sunday night and just did not have the time to sit down and write. The part of my brain that does all my self-justification work promised me I’d do it on Monday night. Then Tuesday night. Then Wednesday night. Then he reasoned with me that I was already halfway through the week, so there was no point. This guy is particularly good at his job. He got the corner office very early on in his career.

He has also been working overtime over the past two weeks, because I fell victim to myself multiple times. He convinced me more than once that I was doing really well, so I could afford to loosen up a bit. Well, as I’m sure you’ve realised by now, I don’t do things by halves. I’d call it a full scale diet-mutiny. I ate out. I had booze. I had BREAD! And not just any bread – delicious, sugary WHITE bread. I still did my regular grocery shop and got my little meals all prepared, I just didn’t eat them consistently.

As you can imagine, this has not had the best effect on the numbers, and it has finally happened – I’ve gone backwards:

Weight: 120.3 kg

Muscle percentage: 37.3%

Fat percentage: 43.1%

Goal progress: 18.7%

Not happy, Jan! This is just completely unacceptable behaviour. Corner office guy has been seriously reprimanded for conduct which is in conflict with the company’s best interests. He’s on forced leave, probably fuming on a beach somewhere. The healthy food guy has TEMPORARILY been given his office…

One piece of seriously good news though is that the cigarettes are still gone, and showing no signs of returning. I had one evening when a strong craving washed over me (I was rather drunk, go figure) but once I stopped and examined the situation, the moment passed and I went on enjoying my night. I have an app on my phone which is quite interesting, you set the date that you quit, and it gives you statistics on your progress. For example, I haven’t had a cigarette in just over 3 weeks. I’ve saved $376, and did not smoke what would ordinarily have been 588 cigarettes. Apparently my circulation is improving, and my lung function is increasing.

I did also use the pool in my building this week – it’s a bit small to do laps, though. Hmmm, shall have to scope out local pools…

Down With the Sickness

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.

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!

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!

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.