Well, this might be the mid-point of life for me, if I'm lucky. Or the first third. Who knows? But 35 feels quite grown up in a way no birthday previously has before. And with it, the desire to change sweeps back through me, reminding me that it's very easy to get fatter and fatter.
I must start relying on my wonderful wife more – she doesn't need me to cook every meal for her, and I can sit and eat my own food with her and my lovely stepdaughter. Or I can go to the gym, then come back and eat and spend time with them.
Swimming is a recent discovery for me, and a great early-morning exercise. Combining that with a good diet, loads of veg, and evening exercise will be good for me. Because, let's face it, since I started contributing to this I've lost a total of about 6 kilos, which I then put back on in about ten days.
I duscussed this with WonderWife recently, and said to her that she must have noticed how quickly weight falls from me, and how quickly it can go back on. The 6 kilos came off and went back on in a total of about three weeks. It went back on because of beer, mainly.
Beer, as Alistair MacLean once said, is the key*. I know all this, yet I get nowhere. How I wish I had more time.
*I believe this was also made into a movie in the early 1970s.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Monday, 6 July 2009
Statistics
Much the same eaten today as yesterday so far - we can't be bothered with the details can we? I mean, how many pots of plain yoghurt and slices of dry bread can one read or write about.
Feeling that I'm a little neater around the waist, I measured it, but there's not any difference from the last time, when I weighed several pounds more. Just to see, I measured the rest of me - 35 1/2, 27, 37 1/2. The same as at the end of last year, but I have lost weight, so that means that the bits between must have gone down a bit. Such as the muffin-top area. Which, above all, is what I'd love to lose. Indeed, I'd say that I wouldn't mind at all if my bust/waist/hip measurements remain exactly the same, if I had thinner thighs, arms and midriff.
Certainly, I'd say that the cycling helps the bum and thighs. I don't want to think about the possible Girton calves I'm gaining.
I read back some way to find out my measurements last time I used a tape measure - I must say, Badge and I have talked some sound good sense on occasion. I should read our own archives more often, for inspiration.
Feeling that I'm a little neater around the waist, I measured it, but there's not any difference from the last time, when I weighed several pounds more. Just to see, I measured the rest of me - 35 1/2, 27, 37 1/2. The same as at the end of last year, but I have lost weight, so that means that the bits between must have gone down a bit. Such as the muffin-top area. Which, above all, is what I'd love to lose. Indeed, I'd say that I wouldn't mind at all if my bust/waist/hip measurements remain exactly the same, if I had thinner thighs, arms and midriff.
Certainly, I'd say that the cycling helps the bum and thighs. I don't want to think about the possible Girton calves I'm gaining.
I read back some way to find out my measurements last time I used a tape measure - I must say, Badge and I have talked some sound good sense on occasion. I should read our own archives more often, for inspiration.
Sunday, 5 July 2009
Z diets
So, here we go again. So far today, I've had
Breakfast - 1 slice dry multi-grain bread, 1 small pot (150g) plain yoghurt and 4 strawberries
Lunch - 1 slice dry multi-grain bread, a helping of cottage cheese - about 100 calories-worth - a tomato and a chunk of cucumber. When they're cooked, I'll dissect a couple of globe artichokes, which I'll have with a squeeze of lemon juice rather than butter or vinaigrette.
Later in the day, the family have invited us to go crabbing with them. No doubt we'll have ice-creams - the Mr Whippy sort in a cone, which I suspect are fairly low fat and high sugar.
This evening, I'll have a salad, then a pork chop with various vegetables from the garden, more strawberries and a couple of glasses of wine.
To drink otherwise, I'll have water and milkless tea.
Breakfast - 1 slice dry multi-grain bread, 1 small pot (150g) plain yoghurt and 4 strawberries
Lunch - 1 slice dry multi-grain bread, a helping of cottage cheese - about 100 calories-worth - a tomato and a chunk of cucumber. When they're cooked, I'll dissect a couple of globe artichokes, which I'll have with a squeeze of lemon juice rather than butter or vinaigrette.
Later in the day, the family have invited us to go crabbing with them. No doubt we'll have ice-creams - the Mr Whippy sort in a cone, which I suspect are fairly low fat and high sugar.
This evening, I'll have a salad, then a pork chop with various vegetables from the garden, more strawberries and a couple of glasses of wine.
To drink otherwise, I'll have water and milkless tea.
Saturday, 4 July 2009
Z starts again
One of the good things about this time of the year is that it's too hot to cook much, so I'm eating very simply - a lot of raw vegetables and salad and a great deal of fruit. I'm even remembering to drink a lot of water. That is, a lot by my standards. I think this is helping to ensure that the heat has no effect on me at all, except to make me cheerful. Well, I'm always cheerful of course *cough*.
So, assuming I haven't put anything on in the last two or three weeks, I've just about met the original target; that is, the doctor suggested I lose a couple of stone. But since my hip is getting slightly worse and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it, the only way I can place less strain on it is to weigh less.
So, now I seem to have talked myself back into dieting again. I always used to feel most comfortable at about 8 stone 4 lbs (116 pounds, about 53 kilos) - I'm not sure if that's quite realistic for me, but how will I know if I don't try?
So, assuming I haven't put anything on in the last two or three weeks, I've just about met the original target; that is, the doctor suggested I lose a couple of stone. But since my hip is getting slightly worse and there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it, the only way I can place less strain on it is to weigh less.
So, now I seem to have talked myself back into dieting again. I always used to feel most comfortable at about 8 stone 4 lbs (116 pounds, about 53 kilos) - I'm not sure if that's quite realistic for me, but how will I know if I don't try?
Monday, 15 June 2009
Z gets back on the scales
...and is pleasantly surprised. I haven't weighed myself for ages because it hasn't been convenient - with my Victorian scales in the porch, one can't do the early morning weigh-in in the nuddy which, let's face it, is the only one that counts. And, as either I'm going to spend the morning wall-building or I'm in a hurry, I either wear jeans (heavy) or don't have time. Anyway, today I did, so I put on a summer skirt and a teeshirt and came down to weigh myself before going to wash my hair and dress in wall-building clothes.
9 stone and just under half a pound. Yes, I'm surprised too. That's 27 pounds I've lost since the start of this. You might think, and you'd not be wrong, that this is not a vast weight loss in 19 1/2 months, but as I've said before, it's not the speed of the loss that matters to me so much as its continuation and its permanence. The really good thing is that I've not been really dieting, just eating carefully, and in a way I really can sustain, and yet I must have been losing about a pound a month, which is absolutely fine. I've been feeling that I'm a pretty normal weight ever since I got to 9 1/2 stone, which is why I've been fairly relaxed - it's been frustrating that I'm so relaxed but, and I think this is the reason so many diets fail, you can't pretend about it. If someone says "I really should lose weight" then they aren't going to, however porky they are.
I've been too busy to get on the bike as often as I'd like - if I've got only 20 minutes to do the shopping there's no point in spending 15 of them cycling, but I have been very active, mostly in the garden. I'm sure it's the activity that's tipped the balance.
Now I've lost weight, I've got really flabby thighs. Hm.
9 stone and just under half a pound. Yes, I'm surprised too. That's 27 pounds I've lost since the start of this. You might think, and you'd not be wrong, that this is not a vast weight loss in 19 1/2 months, but as I've said before, it's not the speed of the loss that matters to me so much as its continuation and its permanence. The really good thing is that I've not been really dieting, just eating carefully, and in a way I really can sustain, and yet I must have been losing about a pound a month, which is absolutely fine. I've been feeling that I'm a pretty normal weight ever since I got to 9 1/2 stone, which is why I've been fairly relaxed - it's been frustrating that I'm so relaxed but, and I think this is the reason so many diets fail, you can't pretend about it. If someone says "I really should lose weight" then they aren't going to, however porky they are.
I've been too busy to get on the bike as often as I'd like - if I've got only 20 minutes to do the shopping there's no point in spending 15 of them cycling, but I have been very active, mostly in the garden. I'm sure it's the activity that's tipped the balance.
Now I've lost weight, I've got really flabby thighs. Hm.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Z muses
I went to a wedding yesterday and received compliments on my appearance and weight loss (this is so double-edged, as it so evidently means "gosh, now you aren't nearly so fat as you used to be!). And today, a friend whom I see regularly asked me if I'd lost more weight because it looked as if I had.
So maybe I'm doing something right after all.
Still haven't actually weighed myself though - that is, I occasionally pop on the bathroom scales, but I rarely have my contact lens in when I'm in the bathroom and they are old scales with a wobbly needle, so although I can see that I'm still the right side of 9 1/2 stone, I can't tell by how much.
Anyway, the more I think about it, the more sure I am that a lot of us who want and need to lose weight and eat healthily and take exercise simply eat more than we realise we do, because we've been doing it for so long that we don't notice. I've been observing people and, on the whole, the slender ones stop eating when they've had enough and the fat ones clear the plate. The fat ones pour cream onto a gateau which already contains whipped cream. Having been on holiday with a group of people recently, I couldn't help but notice that if they had cereal, they put more in the bowl than a standard portion. And the little individual jars of jam were scraped clean - a thin person used the amount needed for the roll. So, if you asked each of them to keep a food diary, even when they wrote down the same thing, one of them would have eaten much more than the other, and been quite unaware of it.
The thing is, I think I've got to understand what not to do if I want not to put weight back on. It's all right when you're dieting - you just avoid what you're supposed not to eat. But it's so easy for the quantity to creep up. And it is all right to have the occasional tasty extra - but again, 'occasional' can easily become several times a week.
So maybe I'm doing something right after all.
Still haven't actually weighed myself though - that is, I occasionally pop on the bathroom scales, but I rarely have my contact lens in when I'm in the bathroom and they are old scales with a wobbly needle, so although I can see that I'm still the right side of 9 1/2 stone, I can't tell by how much.
Anyway, the more I think about it, the more sure I am that a lot of us who want and need to lose weight and eat healthily and take exercise simply eat more than we realise we do, because we've been doing it for so long that we don't notice. I've been observing people and, on the whole, the slender ones stop eating when they've had enough and the fat ones clear the plate. The fat ones pour cream onto a gateau which already contains whipped cream. Having been on holiday with a group of people recently, I couldn't help but notice that if they had cereal, they put more in the bowl than a standard portion. And the little individual jars of jam were scraped clean - a thin person used the amount needed for the roll. So, if you asked each of them to keep a food diary, even when they wrote down the same thing, one of them would have eaten much more than the other, and been quite unaware of it.
The thing is, I think I've got to understand what not to do if I want not to put weight back on. It's all right when you're dieting - you just avoid what you're supposed not to eat. But it's so easy for the quantity to creep up. And it is all right to have the occasional tasty extra - but again, 'occasional' can easily become several times a week.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Not given up yet
I'm still alive, and I'd post if I had something to say. My weight still stays pretty well the same, and I still know that I'm eating to not put weight on rather than to lose it. It's a bit desperate in that respect - I sort of think that I'm going to have to resort to eating hardly anything for a couple of days to lose a couple of pounds and then revert to normal for a few weeks, and do that every month. But I know that crash-dieting is silly and pointless - it's just to kick-start, I suppose.
At this time of year, at any rate, it's easy to eat loads of fruit and veg and not bother about much else. Except, you know how it is. I was given a box of Bendicks Bittermints the other day. Now, how can a girl resist that? I don't even want to. I don't care. A year ago I would, but that was a size ago. I have no ambition to be less than a 10 - indeed, I don't know if it's possible without being really thin. I would like a smaller waist and smaller thighs, to be sure, but the hips are fine.
But I mustn't relax. I'm not dieting for how I look, but to stave off a new hip as long as possible. If only there were a more immediate cause and effect. One needs a reward. But virtue is its own reward, isn't it?
At this time of year, at any rate, it's easy to eat loads of fruit and veg and not bother about much else. Except, you know how it is. I was given a box of Bendicks Bittermints the other day. Now, how can a girl resist that? I don't even want to. I don't care. A year ago I would, but that was a size ago. I have no ambition to be less than a 10 - indeed, I don't know if it's possible without being really thin. I would like a smaller waist and smaller thighs, to be sure, but the hips are fine.
But I mustn't relax. I'm not dieting for how I look, but to stave off a new hip as long as possible. If only there were a more immediate cause and effect. One needs a reward. But virtue is its own reward, isn't it?
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