Current weight: 15'10.5 (220.5)
Progress: -1.5 from last week.
Well, that could have been worse. It's been a shaky start for a few reasons:
1. I didn't realise exactly how much I loved freedom of choice in my meals. I love convenience food. It's a BIG problem for me. Boiling water, frozen chicken piece in the oven, pasta in the pot and it's done. When I can't get a hold of these things because they're not low in fat or in calorie, I start to crave them a bit.
2. Fast food. Only recently become a problem, but I've been going out a lot more than I ever did, so time's a bit of a rare commodity. And pizza's so handy when I'm playing D&D...
3. I'm a carb and cheese junkie. Pasta, rice, bread...
4. Portions. Even with things that are good for me, I don't have much concept of how much food is "enough" when I cook alone. I've ended up with giant salads at work this week, followed by gas (I'm not sure why I eat cucumbers, they don't like me at all) and stomach cramps. Oh well.
So it looks like a few lifestyle changes are in order. I've got a diet of sorts, it's working pretty well.
Breakfast - 3 little slices of brown seeded loaf with cottage cheese. It's really quite small bread.
Elevenses - 1/2 oranges and a banana
Lunch - salad. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers, celery, sometimes some onion. Crunchy and makes me pee like a racehorse. I've got a better idea of portion sizes now.
Dinner - if I'm out, a sandwich or some sushi, maybe cereal when I get home. In, it's some sort of base component (1 bt of breaded chicken, a small pie, some quorn) with a lot of veg. Easy on the potatoes.
Sometimes dinner will become pasta and a chicken kiev if I've been to the gym and want to replace carbs.
Time's the problem, but nothing new there. Anyways, I reckon 1lb per week should be both sustainable, but will keep me taking this seriously.
Next week... eh, maybe the exercise regime.
And for something to write on... alright, this has been bugging me. You know those washer tabs? The little liquid pouches with the green stuff in them that are water soluble? Why don't they melt fromt the inside? I mean, is that stuff oil based?
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Tuesday 7 September 2010
Project 42 - week 1 (hope and glory)
A big change looms on the horizon. Marriage. I never thought I'd be typing there, but there we go.
It's struck me that this may be the best, certainly the most memorable, day of my life. It also strikes me that there will be a lot of photos taken. I've had issues with my weight and appearance ever since I was... probably 12? I mean, I used to be a skinny little bugger.
But then, I used to get ill quite a lot, too.
I plan on using this blog for 2 things. I'm going to try to write something every week about something that amuses me, that's not a problem, but I'm also going to write about losing weight. Time for a few lifestyle changes, methinks. More gym, no more sandwich shop for lunch, only one takeout a week and a bit more care about what I'm buying. It shouldn't be too hard. I've managed to lose 36lbs in the past (of which I seem to have regained 24 since I started my last year of university) so I don't see why it can't be done now that I have a real incentive. And given that I tend to cook during my weekends with said incentive, getting bored shouldn't be a problem.
As I write this, after a day at work, breakfast and lunch at around 8 in the evening, I weighed in at 15'12. Weighing day will be on Wednesday mornings. May as well start now and all. I think the lightest I've been as an adult was 13'10, so I'll aim for... 12'12 would be good. That makes it 42 lbs, which is nicely geeky. If I can lose at the very least 1lb per week (and keep it off), this shouldn't be a problem. I may even make a spreadsheet, because I like spreadsheets.
This means I'll have to learn to use this copy of openoffice I got.
Damn.
Milestones will be important. Let's use...
15'7 (15.5 stone)
15'0 (15 stone)
14'4 (200lbs)
13'10 (the old best)
12'12
After that, I'll just try to maintain my fitness levels.
No target dates. We're about to enter a holiday season, so there'll be another 5 lbs coming back.
So, something to write about. Well, I've realised today that my weight only really went up when I started working and stopped going to the gym 3 times a week for an hour just because I had nothing else to do apart from job interviews. I've unfortunately retained the "I don't care what I eat, I exercise a lot" attitude without the actual exercise. While work has made me more organised in some ways, it's had some strange effects on my physical health and has made me insane.
Example.
My company pays overtime in 30 minute increments, 1.5x for weekdays and Saturday, 2x for bank holidays and Sundays. The amount we are allowed to do is not limited. My brain, having played a few too many RPGs, has decided that this is a way of level grinding my bank balance. The thought process goes as follows:
"So I can get in 30 minutes early, get another £7. That's good, 30 minutes is NOTHING and they add up fast. But if I arrive an HOUR early, I get a parking space, saving me 5 minutes walk to and from the car park. That's like... only another 20 minutes overall, which is less than 30, which is nothing. Which is... less than nothing.
Now if I do half an hour at the end of the day too, that's nothing too. I've made £21 from nothing. Let's just plug all this into my claims sheet and look at the total... damn, 3 hours off of a round number. Well, let's try to work another half hour over on Wednesdays..."
And somehow I've ended up doing a 10 hour day, manage to get in at 8:30 and just about have time for dinner and a shower. Which means I make dinner after an hour of Internet, elect to skip the shower and go to be at midnight. I've also comitted to doing weekends.
I think I've figured out why I don't go to the gym much. I wonder if this is unhealthy...
It seems to me that getting in early is fine, but a person should leave work no later than 6pm if they have ANYTHING they want to do that evening that doesn't involve taking care of a basic human need like bathing or eating. I need to get some sort of consistent structure in place, perhaps. Yeah.
Well, here's to the start of a long and frustrating journey.
It's struck me that this may be the best, certainly the most memorable, day of my life. It also strikes me that there will be a lot of photos taken. I've had issues with my weight and appearance ever since I was... probably 12? I mean, I used to be a skinny little bugger.
But then, I used to get ill quite a lot, too.
I plan on using this blog for 2 things. I'm going to try to write something every week about something that amuses me, that's not a problem, but I'm also going to write about losing weight. Time for a few lifestyle changes, methinks. More gym, no more sandwich shop for lunch, only one takeout a week and a bit more care about what I'm buying. It shouldn't be too hard. I've managed to lose 36lbs in the past (of which I seem to have regained 24 since I started my last year of university) so I don't see why it can't be done now that I have a real incentive. And given that I tend to cook during my weekends with said incentive, getting bored shouldn't be a problem.
As I write this, after a day at work, breakfast and lunch at around 8 in the evening, I weighed in at 15'12. Weighing day will be on Wednesday mornings. May as well start now and all. I think the lightest I've been as an adult was 13'10, so I'll aim for... 12'12 would be good. That makes it 42 lbs, which is nicely geeky. If I can lose at the very least 1lb per week (and keep it off), this shouldn't be a problem. I may even make a spreadsheet, because I like spreadsheets.
This means I'll have to learn to use this copy of openoffice I got.
Damn.
Milestones will be important. Let's use...
15'7 (15.5 stone)
15'0 (15 stone)
14'4 (200lbs)
13'10 (the old best)
12'12
After that, I'll just try to maintain my fitness levels.
No target dates. We're about to enter a holiday season, so there'll be another 5 lbs coming back.
So, something to write about. Well, I've realised today that my weight only really went up when I started working and stopped going to the gym 3 times a week for an hour just because I had nothing else to do apart from job interviews. I've unfortunately retained the "I don't care what I eat, I exercise a lot" attitude without the actual exercise. While work has made me more organised in some ways, it's had some strange effects on my physical health and has made me insane.
Example.
My company pays overtime in 30 minute increments, 1.5x for weekdays and Saturday, 2x for bank holidays and Sundays. The amount we are allowed to do is not limited. My brain, having played a few too many RPGs, has decided that this is a way of level grinding my bank balance. The thought process goes as follows:
"So I can get in 30 minutes early, get another £7. That's good, 30 minutes is NOTHING and they add up fast. But if I arrive an HOUR early, I get a parking space, saving me 5 minutes walk to and from the car park. That's like... only another 20 minutes overall, which is less than 30, which is nothing. Which is... less than nothing.
Now if I do half an hour at the end of the day too, that's nothing too. I've made £21 from nothing. Let's just plug all this into my claims sheet and look at the total... damn, 3 hours off of a round number. Well, let's try to work another half hour over on Wednesdays..."
And somehow I've ended up doing a 10 hour day, manage to get in at 8:30 and just about have time for dinner and a shower. Which means I make dinner after an hour of Internet, elect to skip the shower and go to be at midnight. I've also comitted to doing weekends.
I think I've figured out why I don't go to the gym much. I wonder if this is unhealthy...
It seems to me that getting in early is fine, but a person should leave work no later than 6pm if they have ANYTHING they want to do that evening that doesn't involve taking care of a basic human need like bathing or eating. I need to get some sort of consistent structure in place, perhaps. Yeah.
Well, here's to the start of a long and frustrating journey.
Wednesday 17 March 2010
The longest journey
It's dark outside. It nearly always is but I never fail to notice it. I like the night. It's a wonderful travelling companion on this, my long and lonesome mission.
Taking what few provisions I'll need, I step cautiously out from the warmth and safety of my home into the orange-painted wilderness. I must travel light, I cannot afford to be hindered as a foul mumbling, a meaningless gibber emanates from somewhere beyond my field of vision; that constant reminder of how fragile I am in this environment, a stranger in a strange land. I pay the sound no heed, I only pray that I never have to meet its source. I quickly cross the inky black moat surrounding my home and board my ever trusty vessel, a perfect vision in cornflower blue. Only it can afford me safe passage through the ceaseless ebony ocean.
Quickly I depart from the orange wastes into the light country. I know not of where the lights lead, only that they pick out countless routes, surely hundreds of winding paths. Each one important to someone but of no use to me for to deviate from my path is to become forever lost in an endless expanse, to travel to the furthest reaches of the black ocean and never to return. Seldom do I travel to the heart of the ocean, never deliberately, and rarely do I return the same man as I left.
As I travel to the end of light country, a noble kingdom opens before me. Endless, sweeping landscapes covered in tiny pinpricks of light, the most perfect and splendid areas of the land I have left behind. I have yet to visit them and I do not wish to do so. I have but one goal in mind, to travel to the heart of this kingdom and steal from it its one and only worthy treasure, the princess of this land. Locals are ever watchful from all angles but they do not suspect my intentions, they merely watch or ignore this newcomer. He is of little interest.
I arrive at the gates to my princess' stronghold, but they offer little resistance.
And then yeah, I usually get back in my car and drive home down the 62 towards my flat. I'm usually kind of tired after that trip.
Taking what few provisions I'll need, I step cautiously out from the warmth and safety of my home into the orange-painted wilderness. I must travel light, I cannot afford to be hindered as a foul mumbling, a meaningless gibber emanates from somewhere beyond my field of vision; that constant reminder of how fragile I am in this environment, a stranger in a strange land. I pay the sound no heed, I only pray that I never have to meet its source. I quickly cross the inky black moat surrounding my home and board my ever trusty vessel, a perfect vision in cornflower blue. Only it can afford me safe passage through the ceaseless ebony ocean.
Quickly I depart from the orange wastes into the light country. I know not of where the lights lead, only that they pick out countless routes, surely hundreds of winding paths. Each one important to someone but of no use to me for to deviate from my path is to become forever lost in an endless expanse, to travel to the furthest reaches of the black ocean and never to return. Seldom do I travel to the heart of the ocean, never deliberately, and rarely do I return the same man as I left.
As I travel to the end of light country, a noble kingdom opens before me. Endless, sweeping landscapes covered in tiny pinpricks of light, the most perfect and splendid areas of the land I have left behind. I have yet to visit them and I do not wish to do so. I have but one goal in mind, to travel to the heart of this kingdom and steal from it its one and only worthy treasure, the princess of this land. Locals are ever watchful from all angles but they do not suspect my intentions, they merely watch or ignore this newcomer. He is of little interest.
I arrive at the gates to my princess' stronghold, but they offer little resistance.
And then yeah, I usually get back in my car and drive home down the 62 towards my flat. I'm usually kind of tired after that trip.
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