…but it’s a great time for weight gain.
It looks like I’ve got a bit more work to do next year. I can’t believe how easy it is to put on weight. A month of eating a little too much and not going to the gym and there goes a few kilos of weight.
Bugger.
Like many people I’m entering that pensive time of year where you look back over the last year while thinking about what’s to come in the next year. This year I’m going to see it out 8kg lighter than I started it but 7kg heavier than in the middle. On the one hand I’m pleased with my weight loss and on the other I’m very disappointed with my second-half weight gain. But what went right, what went wrong and what am I planning on doing next year.
Without doubt the thing that went most right was my hypnosis sessions. The way hypnosis is dressed up as being a way to focus your subconscious is difficult for some people to swallow but for me it was all about visualising a goal and ways to achieve it. It made a huge difference to my overall aim. Another thing that went right was having a goal to focus on. At the end of June a fair few of us took on the 3 peaks challenge. Having a goal, something tangible to achieve, really spurred me on and having that sense of not letting others down was a great motivator. Failure at the three peaks challenge also was good for me. To only manage 2.5 peaks actually has worked out pretty well. I am immensely pissed off that I didn’t make the top of Scafell Pike and it’s confirmed to me that I really hate failure. I now have a good range of emotion, from the good times on the coast to coast walk to the bad times on the 3 peaks. The first half of the year went extremely well. 15kg loss in 6 months. The focus, the eating pattern, the gym attendance, everything just seemed to slot together.
An over analysis of how to lose weight. I like to visualise my goals and have a good way of tracking them. At one point though I had graphs coming out of my ears and it was no fun. The second half of the year also went wrong. Letting my routine slip meant over eating and not getting to the gym enough. This wasn’t helped by me catching a horrible cold in December but the cold can’t be blamed for everything. Lack of balance. With my new job came a new routine and I haven’t settled into it fully. I have to squeeze the gym in at lunch time and the shorter sessions are good for some things but bad for more. A goal only midway through the year. HAving noting to focus on at the end of the year was just simply a bad idea.
The simple plan for next year is to shift a bit more fat. I’ve yet to figure out how much but I’m thinking of trying for 90kg by the year end. That’s around 14 stones and it will be the lightest I’ve been since I was 14 years old. I also want to focus a little bit more on body shape. I’d like to shift the weight from around my waist and bulk up a little in my chest and arms. I also want to get back into my outdoor activities. Although we did the three peaks last year most of the year was spent indoors doing DIY. I want to get back out on my bike and do some more mountain biking. And since I love biking I’m also thinking of getting out on a road bike at some point. With Kent being so flat it’s much easier to find good road routes. I also want to pick up some more walking weekends too. I used to hate walking but now I love it as a way to spend time with Michelle, chill out and think about things away from work. Challenges will also play a big part in next year. After doing the coast to coast walk I felt an amazing sense of achievement and I want to feel that again. I’ve got a couple of friends who ran the GRIM challenge this year and I would like to get my fitness to a level where I could do that. I’ll also be re-doing the 3 peaks, probably tackling a 50mile walk near Canterbury and hopefully picking up another long distance challenge. Other than I want to get better at self-hypnosis.
I think that’s about it for now.
A little late this week but better late than never…
I’m surprised I lost weight as I’ve been pretty ill recently.
I’ve also been looking into goals for next year. Realistically I don’t think I’m going to acheive seeing out the year at 100kg so I’ve turned my attention to planning the beginning of next year. More on that whn I have a little more time.
Sid.
Well it seems that a bout of flu helps you lose weight.
I did a little experiment last week to confirm what I thought was the reason I’m putting the weight back on.
It’s the weekend that is causing me all the hassle.
It seems that I’ve fallen back into an old trap. The graph above is a daily weigh in throughout last week. It’s pretty obvious to see that as I go through the week I do well and lose weight and then it gets to Friday night and I start piling it back on again.
Now all of that can’t be fat, I find it difficult to believe you can lose 2kg in fat and then put it all back on again in a week. However, it does bring home the fact that I haven’t been as disciplined as I should have been during the weekends.
Now that I’ve confirmed this I’ll be making a special effort not to make the same mistake again. It’s going to be tough since it’s the run up to Christmas but I really want to see the year out at 100kg.
Another bad week results in…
It seems my lack of will power right now is getting the better of me. The gutting thing is I’ve nearly put back on 50% of the weight I lost in the first half of the year. I’m still hopeful that I’ll see the year out at 100kg though, I just need to get some discipline.
I shocked myself this morning when I weighed in. I knew it wasn’t going to be good after having a blow-out weekend with friends who cames down to stay. I didn’t think it would be this bad.
Clearly that curve is heading in the wrong direction and clearly I need to do something about it. I think a very small part of it is bias due to weighing in on a Monday but the trend can’t be ignored.
It’s time to get a bit more serious again.
On Monday I did my usually weigh in and…
I’m starting to fall way behind now.
What to do about it though?
I’ve just made one of the biggest mistakes in my gym going history.
I’ve just been to my regular Thursday lunchtime spin. There were only two of us. For some reason we decided to ask the instructor to really push us.
Whatever you do, please learn from my mistake…DON’T DO IT!
I am sat here in a bit of a daze, still shaking a little bit.
Having said that, it was pretty awesome and I know that give me 30mins recovering and I’ll be good to go again.
Still, if you do it you may want to take a bucket.
Sid.
At the end of week 2 of phase 2b I’ve lost the weight I gained last week.
So good news then. Thankfully! Last week I really got back into the swing of my gym routine. It’s been a while since I made it to the gym 4 times in one week but last week I managed it. I even got back to a Thursday spin class and remembered why I love it so much. Having said that, goading the instructor probably wasn’t my finest moment and I was hurting a little bit on Friday.
Since I put on weight and then had to lose it again I’m around 2kg away from where I should be right now. The timelines I’ve set myself in the run up to Christmas are pretty tight so if I slack off again then I may not make my goal.
I also need to get round to setting out my goals. I’ve decided what the goals are, 102.5kg, 100kg, 97.5kg and 95kg and I’ve decided that the rewards will be a CD, a threadless t-shirt, a piano lesson or two and a martial arts lesson. All I need to do know is figure out the details so I know they are solid rewards. I need to decide which CD, which t-shirt, who is going to give me the piano lesson and when and how I can squeeze a martial arts lesson into my day which already has a massive commute in it.
So here’s looking forward to another good week this week. I’m aiming for 103kg but I think that might be a bit too much so my fall back withh be 104kg.
Wish me luck,
Sid.