Fat Man on a Diet

Spent an hour this evening out in the pool. This is the first time we’ve been able to use it since last March… and only now because we turned the gas heater on for a few hours.

I don’t begrudge the cost of the gas to be honest. Apart from the pleasure involved, I wasn’t able to get to the gym today so the exercise was most welcome for its own sake.

And from now on, I figure I can hop into the pool when I get back from the gym each day from now on the soothe those aching muscles

Ate far too much last night. The wife was feeling tired so I thought I’d do my bit and grilled a few t-bone steaks and served them with steamed veg.

Trouble is I learned I *still* haven’t overcome my old habits. For starters I totally forgot the ‘Golden Rule’ of dieting, i.e. “When you want to eat… drink a glass of water and wait five minutes”. Also, whilst I was preparing the veg and cooking the food I was ‘nibbling’. Ok I was nibbling celery mostly but I also ate a lot of tomatoes… and whilst they are ok in moderation, eating more than one or two produces a *big* carbohydrate hit!

Add to that my inability to stop myself eating a ’spare’ steak and you’ll see why I say I ate too much. My weight decrease yesterday was reversed this morning and it’s back to 143.5 kilos. Not good.

I need to work hard to get back on the downward track and find some way of controlling my ‘picky; nature!

One of the problems I have with the treadmills at the gym is that they don’t have any heart monitors on them. I find this a bit of a concern when I’m struggling to force myself to keep moving forward and complete my program.

The situation has been resolved pretty much now because the wife bought me an early birthday present. It’s a Casio watch which also has a Heart Monitor as part of it’s feature list. I’ve not yet ‘used it in anger’ in the gym but am quite looking forward to giving it a workout.

Of course… the wife *also* expects me to give it a workout so I think if I slack off I’ll be getting a bit of an ear bashing. Best to keep it up perhaps, if for no other reason that not to annoy her!! 

Today’s more positive weight measurement has raised my mood a little. I’m now telling myself whilst it was good to be writing down my feelings of frustration, it’s even better that the waiting is over and even if the weight only dropped a little, it *did* drop.

This is important. It means my body has reassessed it’s requirements and has decided the food available to it *isn’t* going to suddenly increase as quickly as it decreased and it will ‘eat’ the fat reserves until more food becomes available.

From now on for a few weeks at least we should continue to sail downwards.

I’m actually now looking forward to getting down to 130 kilos… and even (holds breath for a few seconds) under 120 kilos for the first time in yonks!

The chart for last week shows a zero weight loss for the week Sat – to Sat. Aggravating in its way because this morning the weight has dropped to 142.5 kilos. Still… it will help when we get to the end of the week which is the day of the second ‘weigh in’! Let’s hope the ‘holding period’ is over and we’re back on track.

Wasn’t able to get to the gym yesterday morn but *did* manage to get an hour in yesterday and use up 1,000 calories which might have helped.

Can’t get there today or tomorrow either… and maybe not even Monday! Will have to wait and see what I can do. I think I ought to be doing an hour a day at least. Still, maybe the break will help. Who knows?

I have to go to a meeting so this mornings session will have to go. I’ll be there this arvo for two hours (I hope) and will be belaying the girls from a local Guide group at rock climbing which will be *more* exercise of a sort.

Tomorrow we have to drive South for the day, so no gym tomorrow either. Sunday is a no go because it’s my ‘day off’ and Monday is a Public Holiday.

Looks like I’ll be having a break from the exercise for a few days!! Maybe when I get back it’ll kick start the weight loss again. We’ll see.

It’s been over a week now since the weight moved in any direction and it’s a bit depressing. I weighed this morning and it’s back to 144.0 kilos!!

Yes I understand that I’m exchanging fat for muscle etc., and that my body is adjusting to the new diet restrictions and calorie usage etc., but it’s not easy to work so hard and see no obvious and immediate results. After all, even working only on calorie usage I’m burning up to 1,500 calories a day more than I take in. This alone should represent a loss of 2 kilos a week!

Still, I *know* from the reading I’ve been doing things will improve and even if I did no exercise at all the weight would slowly move if only because of the low carbohydrate diet. What the exercise does is make sure my BMI changes and I don’t just get ‘fatter’ by losing muscle instead of gaining it.

We persevere… tho I hope something happens soon to remind me it *does* work.

Either way I have no choice but keep going. The alternative is I drop dead… or worse.

Yet another 2,000 calories gone. Yet another two and a half hours gone too! And yet, no weight gone. Still we persevere. I think this is just a ‘blip’ as my body recovers and regroups after the massive loss of the first two weeks.

I’m sure that this time next week I’ll be looking back and wondering why I was so annoyed as the weight falls off my bones.

I expect…..

Really don’t know what got into me yesterday. As I said, I got *really* peckish in the afternoon… but even after dinner which was a substantial stir-fry I *still* hadn’t had enough so had yet another carrot *and* two hard boiled eggs before I was able to get myself back under control.

Still, the weight stayed constant at 143.0 kilos this morning so maybe I shouldn’t complain too much. Still, it’s a bit of a concern to get so ravenous that I can feel my insides twisting about in protest!

Hopefully it was a ‘one off’ and I can get back to it today with no problems. Oh joy… two more hours in the gym coming up.

I was feeling really hungry this afternoon and finally decided I’d had enough so had a couple of celery sticks and a carrot to keep me quiet until dinner time. I’ll nip off for an extra glass of water as well in a few seconds.

Odd why I should suddenly get hungry after three weeks! Maybe the yoghurt marinade on yesterday’s poached tuna started me off again… I doubt it… but who knows.

The meal was nice either way!