Fat Man on a Diet

The Christmas break is almost over for me… the weight *has* increased (tho not saying my how much just yet) and I’ll be back soon stuffed with turkey… and lots of other stuff I shouldn’t have eaten.

My carbohydrate intake went through the roof as I scarfed down gallons of trifle, chunks of Christmas cake, mince pies and the like. Chocolate is obviously a real trap as is the availability of alcohol. Of course drinking just lowers the resistance to the other traps… and here I am in the post Christmas hiatus much too heavy and feeling much too sick.

My back is still hurting badly when I sit, stand, lie down or move… which sort of makes life a bit of a challenge right now… but I’ll get over it. I usually do. If I can pull myself together I *might* even visit the doctor to get some advice… and maybe a referral to an ‘expert’ on lower back pain.

So. I’ll be back in a few days to get back on the diet, back on track to the target weight, and back in the gym. Til then there are tables full of goodies to look at but not sample… and a fridge full of healthy and nutritious food waiting to be eaten. I’ll be back… but not just yet.

In the meantime… keep watching the thighs!!

Don’t ask… will be back soon enough. Diet shot to pieces and Xmas on the horizon. Bugger.

Roll on New Year and then back on the diet… and I’m already aware it’ll be **hard**.

Has to be done though – just not yet.

There’s such a lot going on now with Xmas approaching I really haven’t had time to post as much as I’d like.

Diet is shot to pieces with me eating all sorts of junk… though I *have* tried to keep of the worst excesses and I expect to get back to it once the chaos of the ‘time of year’ has passed. So long as I don’t *increase* my weight unduly I’ll cope. Currently it’s on 120 kilos and if it stays there I’ll be happy enough – for now.

No time to go to the gym… also far too much to do. Drives me crazy as I’d like to get there if only to walk for an hour but since my back is still causing me a lot of grief I *do* at least have some sort of rationalisation I can bring into play to make me feel better.

It will all have to be sorted out of course but for now I just have to paddle on and hope for the best.

I go to the gym. I walk for an hour on the treadmill at level 15 at speeds up to 7 kph and have no problems. Then the hour is up and I ‘cool down’. By the end of the cooling down period I could hardly move.! One of my friends had to do 15 minutes of yoga with me before I was able to walk more than a few paces.

That ain’t good. I didn’t take painkillers before I started this time… but *next* time I think I will.

Still, I lost a half kilo so that made me feel a little better.

Weight finally reaches the point it was last week where I’d dehydrated myself to make sure I’d won the competition. It now reads 119.5 kilos… I’m actually below that 120 kilo milestone for real! What’s more, I’ve done it despite having ‘relaxed’ the diet a little and eaten foods, like chocolate, that I know I shouldn’t have.

What currently concerns me is whether the cold/flu/sinusitis that is working it’s way around the family right now is starting to affect me. A couple of the varied symptoms being reported are burning in the back of the throat/nasal area, excess mucus being developed… and an ‘upset stomach’. I seem to be developing all three of those plus the ’sniffles’ that I’d put down to my chronic rhinitis (mostly from hay fever and similar allergies).

It remains to be seen whether this weight loss is actually down to ‘diet or disease’. Either way, sick of well… I’m off to the gym this morning. I figure a few laps of the lake will help to set myself up and then an hours walking will finish  me off… probably for the day

Somebody I know didn’t quite manage to get back on the diet today.

Still, tomorrow is another day… let’s start again. Not sure which pushed me over the top, the chicken, the gravy, the wine… or the piece of fruit cake I ate afterwards, but whatever it was I*really* need to get back to the gym and away from the food tomorrow or weight will be creeping up on me.

Today it’s 120.0 kilos which was ok but I’d hate for it to get higher instead of lower… and I’m back ‘picking’ in the kitchen!!!

It has to stop!!

Looks like it’s time to rein myself in. Todays weight has risen to 121.5 kilos and, as usual, this is probably either because I’ve eaten more than I really needed or because the foods I’ve eaten aren’t on the diet.

I think perhaps the latter might be the real reason.

Yesterday I think ‘relaxed’ a bit *too* much and had a few handfuls of walnuts, a couple of glasses of wine… and a few squares of chocolate! In addition my evening meal was a chicken stir-fry with rice. Whilst it was nice to eat ‘normally’ for once, I’m afraid this could be the first step of a ‘backslide’, so today I’m going to take greater control of myself and my meals returning to the strict form of the diet.

Alcohol is something I will have to do without. The wine (a bottle of McGuigan Black Label Merlot from 2001) was *very* nice… plummy and full bodied… but drinking it did me no favours at all. It’s been many months since I had any alcohol at all and I’m not sure how it interacted with the tablets. What I *do* know is that afterwards I found myself chewing happily on several squares of 70% dark chocolate.

Tonight I’ll be using the meal replacements (as usual) and for the evening meal reverting to ‘protein’ with plain salad. I do *not* want to start swelling up to the size I was. Because of other commitments, I can’t get to the gym to work off excess kilos. Besides, using the ‘I can always work it off’ excuse won’t work for me. The only way this weight will move off my body is via a strict diet and there is no use pretending otherwise.

So… it’s back on the ‘one true path’ for me until I get down to the target weight!

Will have to miss the gym again today. The weight is at 120.5 kilos but we have another set of rellies arriving tomorrow and the place is again looking like a bomb has gone off. Work needs to be done and the rest of the family is ill.

Maybe the cleaning will count as today’s exercise! Well let’s face it, it has to!!

Hope you don’t mind, but I’ve written them all up on the Opinion Australia site… some are quite useful… others less so. For example I doubt I’ll go rock climbing, and I’ve never been one for massages… but a few of the others look good!!

Don’t forget to read the bit about the Fire Chief at the bottom of the page!!

Ok competition is won and I came home with the grand prize… but I’m *still* overweight and still have to work at losing it.

One thing I’ll have to watch out for is a loss of focus. The dinner last night was really two courses. The first an entree which was a seafood salad, and the main a steak, saute potatoes and mixed snow peas and asparagus. Yes I could have scoffed the lot… I was a little hungry and stressed… but despite relaxing the rules a little I managed to resist. I ate what was presented, except for the potatoes, and drank carbonated water with a slice of lemon.

What surprised me was that I resisted the dessert which was a chocolate fountain with strawberries and marshmallows. The wife asked me if I’d like a half strawberry as a treat… but I declined. I figure if I start to relax too much I’ll just backslide. For now at least I’ll plod along the path and see where I end up.

Currently (other than the pain in the back) I feel ok mentally and physically. I’d hate to go back to sitting in the corner again like a miserable and wobbly potato.

On a theme… off I go to the gym… again.