Day one in the big dieters house

"Start as you mean to go on!" well that's what my old Mum used to say, it's sound advice although I'm not entirely sure she used to follow it herself where her diet and well being were concerned.  I took that advice this morning when my alarm clock woke me just before 6am, I swung my legs out of bed threw on some trainers and my outdoor clothes and went for 1.6 mile walk. The pavements were sparkling with frost this morning and it was a bit slippery out there, so my steps were somewhat tentative in comparison to the purposeful stride I had hoped to accomplish, but I was out there doing it.  28 minutes wasn't exactly speedy but now I have a milestone for when I next walk this route, and I burnt 200 Calories.

Speaking of Calories last time I mentioned that I plan my main meals a month in advance, and how some folk feel this is too much effort. Well I thought I would share my menu for January with you.

I have already calorie counted most of the meals for this month, this also means that as I re-use these meals going forward I already know the calories and the portion sizes that will fit my calorie allowance. As you can see there is a reasonable amount of variety with a bit of repetition on some days. yesterdays stew was 210 Calories for the portion of stew that I had with an additional 126 calories for two dumplings, 336 Calories in total including bulking it out with the Vegetables.

One of the other advantages of this approach is that a bit of planning helps you cut down on wasted food, so while you are taking the pounds off your body, your keeping more of your pounds sterling in the bank instead of throwing them in the bin.

She Came and She Fired A Gun

Every new year I (like most people) take a good look at myself in the mirror and say, "this year I'm going to lose weight and do better, I won't give up like I did last year." This little white lie is generally followed by a huge hair of the dog on the evening of New Years day and a rapid lunge to finish off all the bad food in the house. Then despite keeping good form for a little while, old habits and patterns soon creep back in. There's always tomorrow!  The excuses and soft talk begin within weeks (if not days), my birthday is just around the corner, then Easter, a holiday maybe, then of course summer with barbecues and picnics. Soon we come back around to Christmas and although I've got plenty of fresh air and exercise, it's all been in vain (or in the case of cholesterol in vein), because like everyone else in my predicament that gets carried away with the moment I've taken on more calories than I have actually burned.
2015 was a successful year I lost 5 stone and got down to 13 stone 4 (186lb  or 84Kg), Alas 2016 was a challenging year for various reasons and it gradually crept back on back on again.

This year is going to be different though. The past two years I have been working from home more frequently. The side effect of this was that the biscuit tin was close at hand, and because my office is only ten short paces from the fridge I began to put on even more weight. Now I wouldn't want you to think that before this revelation that I was thin and active, far from it. I did however get to walk between the various offices that were my responsibility, and would try not to use the lift (but I did use it a lot), which helped keep me to just obese.

So after a cider fuelled Christmas, I did my usual New years day review and stepped onto the scales yesterday to find I was 18 stone 9lb (261lb or 118Kg). If I continue down this path I figure by the end of January another stone would be flapping over my belt and I would be almost back to the heaviest I had ever been (19 stone 7llb aged 26). At 48 years old and another birthday on the horizon it's time to action (again), and stop using life as an excuse for not taking control of my life.

I plan to do this using the tools available to everyone for free or at least at minimal cost. These are My Fitnesspal.com as a central app to track Calorie intake, in turn I have free versions of Runtastic on my work phone and RunKeeper on my personal phone to track walking/running exercise calorie burn. As I have linked both of these to the MyFitnessPal app they will automatically update my calories.

Having setup MyFitnessPal with my height and weight, it has advised me that I have 1,790 Calories a day to play with. A few friends that wanted to join me on my journey went cold on the idea and told me it was too much effort, and it would need to be a lot easier than this to be successful. Well to be honest there is no magic bullet, the only time I have ever been successful at losing weight was in 2015 when I planned a month in advance what I would be eating calorie counted it and stuck to it, and ensuring I keep up the exercise.