Weight Watchers

[mambo5]

To try and fit in some exercise I walked very briskly to the cinema last night ....

my monthly travel pass is expiring today, I will start walking tomorrow to work, from Kings Cross to Tottenham Court Road... go and back (about 25 mins each trip)...

[Preston1990]

Today's meals:

1. Cantaloupe melon and fresh pineapple chunks with grapes. Big pot of fresh coffee.

2. Raw carrot battons + humous dip.

3. Hot smoked split mackerel fillets over a half bag of watercress, rocket and spinach salad. Balsamic vinegar dressing.

4. Half a can of Baked Beans on 1 slice wholemeal toast. HP sauce.

5. A whole tetrabrick of New Covent Garden Mexican Chicken Chipotle soup.

I walked very briskly to the cinema last night which took me just under 30 minutes and the same going back,

What a fantastic way of getting some additional exercise in - Well done

I see you have been braver than me with your ticker tracker thing and included your BMI figures. I wish mine looked as good - you are starting from around the point where I'm hoping to be finishing.

Good luck at the dental hospital Diane, I hope everything goes OK and that you are not too sore afterwards.


I've thought up a new strategy to help me keep going with my pathetic exercise bike and rowing machine technique:

1. Both machines are now side by side in front of a telly.

2. I select a really interesting programme from bbc iplayer and stream it to the telly.

3. I turn the resistance on the machines down as low as I want.

4. But - I must keep going continually (no matter how slowly) for at least 30 mins (or the length of the TV programme if shorter), swapping between the machines as often as I want.

5. I'm thinking that I will increase resistance settings over the course of time, assuming it gets easier at some point.

Haven't tried it yet but will do it for the first time this afternoon and see how I get on.



Edit - Just seen your walking to work plans mambo5 - looks like a great idea!

[Diane65]

Mouth just a bit sore but fine my canals needed opening up for a root canal treatment to be done at the regular dentist. I meant meals on hold not me as still gone to work, just had 2 poached eggs on one slice of wholemeal toast and a yoghurt.
Preston1990 not that I'm an expert on calories but your calorie intake seems very low especially for a man and you could end up losing too much weight too quickly and you will get headaches. I've used this to work out my daily calorie allowance http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... eDgeEXNgiQ
I'm sure that MrG will be on hand for expert advice but you are doing fabulous and I love the idea of your bike and rowing machine in tandem

[Preston1990]

Sorry - double post

[Preston1990]

Diane, glad you are OK post dentist!

I'll have a look at the calorie intake thing - thanks very much for the link!

You may be right about not enough calories as I've never tried to work out how many I'm eating. I do eat loads of salad when I have it though and apart from on one day I've honestly never really felt that hungry yet (my Churchill thing was just a joke).

I love the idea of your bike and rowing machine in tandem

Managed to keep going for 32 minutes on just the bike earlier on, and on a mid-way rather than low resistance setting. Would have swapped to the rower part way through but thought I may collapse into a heap if I tried to actually stand up and swap over. My legs were a bit wobbly after I'd finished.

Found a really brill way of motivating myself - didn't use progs from the BBC iplayer, just bunged my Apollo DVD in and watched that. I loved all that space race stuff when I was a kid - even went to see all the gear at the NASA space centre in Florida a couple of years ago too. Really shifted my focus away from my tired legs and helped me keep going.

President Kennedy could have been speaking to me directly:

"We choose to go to the moon and to do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard!!"

Worked a treat! - Hell, If they can go to the moon, I thought - I'm damned sure I can do something as easy as turning these pedals round for the next 30 mins.

Mission accomplished, The Eagle has landed, Houston we don't have a problem!!

Lunch today was fantastic - didn't even use any balsamic dressing. Can highly recommend hot mackerel fillets on salad. V Tasty!

I'm a still a bit worried about tomorrow's walk - will I be able to do 5 miles? That seems quite a bit further than what I'm used too. May have to bail out early. Fortunately its a circular there and back kind of a thing and to be honest my mate is no Linford Christie either, so we may have to turn around early if either of us are getting too tired. Hark at me, i'm getting the excuses in early - I sound like a real wimp!

Edited - to say:

Just done the calorie thing.

Depending on whether I use my starting weight, or my current weight, the site reckons I need to have 1635 to 1671 cals per day, which I think seems quite high. I'd prefer to do no more than 1500 or so for a bit, given that atm I'm not really that hungry. Now I know that will change. ...and I have seen the guidance that suggests blokes should have at least 1800 so I'll maybe settle on 1600 in a couple of weeks.

I calculated the total calorie value of today's meals as being 1273 (I was quite surprised how easy that was to work out - by combination of food packet info and website lookups) which I guess really is a little low - so thanks for drawing it to my attention. Maybe I'll up it a little tomorrow by having another lot of salady snack things during the day or more protein with breakfast.

My 2nd week weighday tomorrow @07:30ish - hoping for 2lbs loss this week

[TheyCallMeMrGlass]

Yum yum yum, you guys are in 5th gear cruise control! Diane, you smashed the 1lb per 2 week loss barrier, remember that was your trend? You smashed it but within the healthy zone. Well done Diane, I'm proud of you, girl And I see you doing the brisk walks to the cinema, awesome. Oh and I um, dont think your daughter was being sarcastic

Preston1990, I did indeed thought 1990 was your birth year but who cares, as far as I can tell, you sound youthful and as you continue this great journey, you will feel younger and even fitter than any 20 year old. Seriously. I am going to be 41 this year and I am out pacing players half of my age on the squash court and astonishingly I am bowling quicker than I ever did in my life at cricket (from being a 19 stoner, I am still bewildered by the change). Think of the 94 year old man who is running marathons. Now think what you can do at half that age. Nothing is impossible. Body parameters change as we get older but all it means is that we have to be more attentive to our health to maintain great health and fitness than younger folks do. Young people are more complacent with their health because the body is more resilient, we all know that, we've all been there. So, basically it means we need to ensure that we regularly consume all those nutritional food that covers the full spectrum of Vitamins, and minerals, omega oils and proper balance of protein, carbs and fats to protect our body inners from deterioration and developing illnesses. More so now than ever. Prevention is the key to a healthy future. But of course, everything in phases. Losing the body fat means gradual modifications phase by phase towards your ultimate goal. What you doing right now with your cardio equipment is perfect. There will be a point where you may not feel you are losing anymore weight, thats fine because that just means the body has got use to your routine, so you will need to change the routine to shock the system. But more on that when you come to that point (called the plateau).

Arthritis runs in my family. But I will never have it. Yes I can predict the future, I am a jedi...do not argue . As long as I keep active, I wont get arthritis. Same with all deceases. When anyone says a certain illness runs in the family, it really mean that you are PRONE to the illness if you dont look after yourself properly.

Preston, if you never felt hungry, that is actually a good thing. Then I think you are eating just right, and at the same time you are also losing body fat, so perfect! Caloric deficit calculations are just a guideline for starting off and there are different formulas giving different results so you dont need to get specific. Honestly you dont. But it does help to stick by a guideline but you can adjust the bar to how you feel suits, just dont be hungry and dont eat rubbish, as simple as that. I have a spreadsheet that has all the formulas to calculate the caloric deficit. pm your email address and I will email it to you. Actually I'll convert all my heath and fitness spreadsheets to google docs so we can all share it together if anyone finds them useful. Bloody hell that gives me an idea. Remember the Fatloss progress chart journey we used to do? Well if I start that spreadsheet up again as a google doc, we can all enter our progress on it every 2 weeks and I will post up the results like the old days. Would be lesser work for me as you guys will enter your own measurements. Shall we do it, see how it goes? Yeah why not. I am feeling so much energy radiating from all of you :) I really do want to start that up again.

Love your workout to Kennedy moon speech and since he talks pretty quickly, your workout would have been at a fast tempo! btw I too love Space documentaries, I even have box sets of the history of NASA and I have never ever missed a Sky at Night since I started watching as a kid. I do wonder why I never pursued some career in that field but then there was so many other things I love...think that's always been my problem.


Mambo5, I'm not feeling sorry for you with your bus pass running out because you got an awesome alternative Your are going to be richer and healthier, brilliant new plan you taking there

Octopus, the key to staying at the ideal weight/body fat is to keep setting yourself goals. I recall you do have a good knowledge of how to stay fit and healthy, you know your stuff :) Just sometimes we get complacent (I'm speaking from a personal perspective too) and before we know it, we got complacent for a bit too long. I actually fell in that hole just last winter. I got a bit arrogant with myself, thinking hey, I can have a few more cheat days and didnt even my goals set ahead of which is one of the most important things I've been preaching about. What a hypocrite, I am! Would I be on the right lines guessing similar with you??

Akh, Valda, I also noticed your weight loss progress, brilliant!

Ok I better tell get in with the groove Preston has established and give my plans for tomorrow. Today I ran 9km to the cinema (saw Battleship). Tomorrow I will run 7km to work with a very heavy bag of equipment plus an upper body work out with my stretch bands :)

[Octopus]

I think I wasn't being complacent, cause I know I put on weight easily. I just had loads of stuff going on and was really upset about work and family so I tried to comfort myself with food. I KNOW, it's NOT the right option!
I need to find something else, but I'm really ready to stop this behaviour, not because summer arrives (let's be honest, I'm not gonna use any swimsuit), but, just because.
So yes, I know what I have to do, and I rrrreally need to find the strenght to do it!!
:)

[Diane65]

You smoothy MrG, I'm not used to compliments from attractive younger men

I'm certainly up for the spreadsheet, Betty Botter thought that I was brave putting up my BMI but if I see it in black and white it will make me do something about it. I have never considered myself as getting older and adapting my diet to suit (I have just taken eat that I socialise to much) but now you have made me rethink as being brutally honest at 47 I won't be far off the menopause so as my Oestrogen levels will be dropping I will have to watch for out for the laying down of abdominal fat, heart disease and osteoporosis. You've got me on a roll now I have to keep my fat intake lower, keep up the dairy intake and keep up with weight bearing exercises as you say prevention is better than cure so its up to me to make the lifestyle choices.
While we are on the prevention chat its also so important to keep your brain exercised even if its just learning one new thing a day it helps to keep the brain cells active (I love learning new things and go on at least one course a month to learn something new).

Well done MrG you are doing fabulous and Preston1990 don't knock yourself re tomorrows walk you are doing amazing.

[Preston1990]

You smoothy MrG, I'm not used to compliments from attractive younger men, either.

Thanks for all of that fantastic advice and encouragement Mr G. Although, I'm not quite sure what a "Google document" is - I'm assuming it's some sort of central document that is accessible to us all keeping track of our weight details. Whatever, I'd certainly be up for it!

Seeing as everyone is telling ages and backgrounds - I'm 57. Decided to take early retirement after a heart attacK and being diagnosed with underlying cardiovascular disease 5 years ago. Came right out out of the blue. It was a life changing moment. I decided that I wanted to spend some time seeing my kids grow up rather than racking away as much money as I could. I decided that it was stupid being continually stressed and driving myself further towards an early grave for an organisation I'd worked for for 34 years but I didn't care about and that didn't care about me. I've vowed that I will get my own back on them (not that they did anything wrong really tbh), by living as long as possible and drawing my pension for longer than they ever thought possible.

Got weighed in "optimum conditions" this morning. I've shed another 3 lbs this week - still a bit over the ideal 2lb - but still pleased with that though.

I think this coming week will prove interesting for me weightwise!

I'll be checking for loose skin later on today. Ewww!

Dreaded 5 mile walk day today! Hope I can do it OK - it's OK for you young Triathlete types, but I know that this may be quite a tester for me. I sooo want to make a good go of it and hopefully enjoy it. If I don't make it back - it was great knowing you all - So long and thanks for all the fish!

[jojojoanne]

I decided that I wanted to spend some time seeing my kids grow up rather than racking away as much money as I could. I decided that it was stupid being continually stressed and driving myself further towards an early grave for an organisation I'd worked for for 34 years but I didn't care about and that didn't care about me. I've vowed that I will get my own back on them (not that they did anything wrong really tbh), by living as long as possible and drawing my pension for longer than they ever thought possible.

Good for you, Preston1990!! Money's important, but you and your kids are worth soooooo much more than all the money in the world!!