Dowie's Diary - I'm finally ready

D

Dowie

New member
Hey,

My name is Luke and i'm from merry ole England.

I decided to pick a new years resolution and chose the most obvious one which led me here. Despite it being a bit of a curse when it comes to weight loss (i've yet to meet anyone successful completing the weight loss resolution challenge) i've decided to give it a shot.

Why? Because I feel so miserable with myself. I hate looking in the mirror and seeing myself as the fat guy and I just want to feel better about myself. I've never really cared what others thought about me, but I've always cared what I thought about myself and lately...i'm not a fan.

I've been on this diet for four weeks now (28/12 before the end of last year) and i've seen some decent results. First week was just a pound, second week was 2 pound, third week was 3 pound and the fourth week saw me lose 5 pound (I know that's a bit extreme, but I started exercising more this week)

-- How much weight do you want to lose?

I'm currently 239 amd would like my final weight to be around 182. So i'm setting myself for about 57 pounds.

-- What is the timeframe for reaching your target weight?

No real timeframe...I'd liked to see results no matter how long it takes. If I lost 2 pound a week (which is great) I would be happy with that.

-- How do you want to accomplish your goal (what methods do you want to use)?

Cutting down the crap I eat, exercising more, football twice a week (training once and one match) and maybe get a bit of badminton in there. I've got a few small weights i'm using and i've bought myself an exercise bike(half an hour 7 days a week). I'm not into going to the gym but I will go swimming twice a week for half an hour. Swimming will probably start next week when its finally open again.

-- Who or what can support you in reaching your goal?

My family and friends have been very supportive. Always asking me about result, giving me advice and even had a couple of friends to join along the fun.

-- How realistic is your goal?

It's my overall goal..If I can reach that before i'm dead, i'm happy...I'll be ecstatic if I can keep at a 2 pound lose rate each week.

-- When will you start?

I'm guessing i'll start about four weeks ago. haha.

-- At what weight would you like to be at four months from now?

Around 32 pound less. Might be a big ask (i'm not sure) but i'll give it a go.

-- Do you want to lose weight for a specific life event such as wedding or reunion? If so, when is that event?

For my wedding. 10th July. If i can look somewhat nice in those wedding photo's, i'll feel much better about myself. I'm keen not give up before or after the wedding.


-- What, if anything, has not worked for you in the past in helping you to lose weight? Why do you think it did not work?

I was a little bit misinformed about diets in the past and believed starving myself was a sign that the stomach had to switch to the fat it stored...Oh...How wrong was I. Of course I lost a drastic amount of weight but it didn't last. It lasted about three weeks and I sooned gained the weight back on after realizing I can't live the rest of my life eating/surviving like this. After months of reading advice, learning how things work and how I should lose weight gradually I realized it was time to set another new years resolution.


-- What are your three favorite foods?

Pizza, Pizza and Pizza. Honestly it's my own personal hell. It's an addiction I can't shake and i'm aware that i'm meant to not cut out all the luxuries in your life. So i've cut down pizza from 3 times a week (yikes...) and transformed large (yikes again..) to a small thin crust. I've also eliminated the rest of the crap I used to eat/drink. Coca cola, Sausage rolls, any form of chocolate, hot dogs, burgers etc etc...I used to eat them all and the only one I can't seem to shake off is Pizza. The rest aren't even missed but pizza will always be my hell.

-- Do you eat when you are not hungry?

This is extremely rare these days but it was very common before my diet started. Emotional eating was a huge problem for me. When I was bored, sad or stressed..food was my short lived comfort.

-- Do you binge eat (large amounts at a time)?

Once again, very rare after my diet but before I would skip breakfast, then 2-3 bottles of full fat coke, a hot-dog, a large sausage roll, a sandwich, 2 packet of crips, 2 chocolate bars and then I would further snack on junk crap until dinner time which would be pizza (domino's)/Fish & Chips/Chinease. (This paragraph has seriously opened my eyes at how bad I really was)

-- Do you hide your food or eat in secret?

I've never really done this before or after my diet. Mainly because I was so naive at how bad I truly was.

-- Do you eat as a reward?

I'm actually doing this after my diet and whilst I know its recommended not to do this, i've also been told that there is nothing wrong with a few treats or a cheat day (day off) Therefore I weigh myself on monday, if i've lost at least 2 pound I will reward myself with a small pizza. and thats it. Nothing more and nothing less. It's working currently but if it ever changes then I will try my best to cut it out.


-- CURRENT PROGRESS --

Week 1: Lost 1 Pound - It was still christmas time thefore I still over indulged
Week 2: Lost 2 Pound - First proper week, not a bad start
Week 3: Lost 3 Pound - Still going well
Week 4: Lost 5 Pound - Finally starting to feel more energetic, I introduce an exercise bike to my routine and I join a football club. I train once a week and also play a match

Week 5

This week will be first week I start recording on this website. I was a little bit cocerned that I was eating too little for my size. my BMR works out at 2294 x 1.55 (for moderate exercise) which allows me to eat 3556 to maintain my weight. Of course I want to lose 2 pound a week so I lower this to 2556. I don't really calculate my calories (i'm going to start soon) and I tried today and it seems that I only eat around a total (and this is seriously pushed with no trimmings) 1500 calories.

I don't want my metabolism to start becoming weak because I don't feed it the right amount but I can't find a way to hit it up because i'm always full up after each meal and I never miss a meal either.

So...What do I do?
 
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I'm crap at giving advice so I'll leave that to the experts but DEAR GOD, I feel you with the pizza. I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and still want more of it.
 
Hey Dowie, you definitely have the right mindset to complete your goal plus more!

Do not get to worried about your calorie intake. It's important to have a balance of fats, calories, carbs, and protein. Remember we get our energy from carbs. Thats good carbs being sweet potato, old fashioned oatmeal, brown rice etc. Thats why its important to have majority of your carb intake in the morning as this jump starts your metabolism. Think of your metabolism as a wood burning stove. First thing you do is throw some wood in, lite it up.. and after few hours its burning down.. you feed it some more wood, etc and so on. You are consistently eating and never missing a meal is awesome! Make sure to get a good hearty breakfast and go from there. Post up what you eat and I can help you a bit more if you need help. Otherwise 1500 cals is not too low. If your satisfied on that, than that's what matters. Just try not to go to low and set yourself up for failure. Have a cheat meal one day of the week. We all need to be rewarded for our hard work right? Have your pizza, keep it minimum few slices. Make sure to eat healthy the entire day up to the point you cheat. This is not a day binge, but at least gives you something to look forward to besides the weight loss. You are eating all of your meals, which is cranking your metabolism throughout the day. Make sure to drink up plenty of water. And as I said, if you want to post up a typical day of what you eat, I can help critique it. Keep it up buddy!
 
Thanks for the great advice!

My mind is more at ease now and i'm not so worried.

I did actually calculate my calories for the last few days and I have noticed i'm eating around 1500-1600, I was just panicking for nothing.
 
Hey Dowie! Sounds like you've got a good solid plan to follow. Congrats on the upcoming wedding :) It definitely helps when you've got something to challenge you a bit more. Also- that is SO terrific that your family and friends are so supportive... A LOT of people don't have this luxury; some family and friends can be mini-sabateurs, lol. I have this problem a little bit. Oh well, Gotta keep movin :D Anyway, great work thus far, keep it up!
 
Hi Luke! Congratulations on the upcoming wedding! :cheer: I'm with you on the 2lbs a week ... my problem is i'm 101% goal oriented and horribly HORRIBLY impatient lol, so if I don't see results QUICK, i get discouraged and throw in the towel. :nopity:

Heh, calories are a weird thing aren't they? It's so easy to overeat when you eat out or get prepackaged food, but now that I've started cooking everyday for myself and the hubby, the veggies I use to bulk up our meals fill me up so much that pushing 1300 cals per day is a stretch.. *boggles*

Anyway, that's all from me for now - can't wait to see your week 5 weigh-in! :)
 
-Week 5 Results & Summary-

Well I was a little worried about this week. One because I wanted to record a good/great weight loss on my first proper week on this website. And two because I was so bad this week.

--Food Info--

*Everyday I had breakfast - Bran flakes with skimmed milk.
*I always drank at least 2 litre's of water.
*I always met my 5 a day between fruit and veg

However, despite all these good things I had a few too many bad dinners. I had two small pizza's from domino's (one on monday and one on friday) I also had a breakfast bap once which is esentially a bap containing 1 egg, 2 sausages and 3 rashes of bacon for lunch. I went out for dinner twicetimes...I had a burger with chips on tuesday and Ribs and chips on satuday (I only had two of the ribs...I didn't realize how big those monsters were)

I also went out drinking twice (which is usually 4 pints of guiness per session...) and in one case had a chicken kebab.

Overall, it was a pretty crappy week for me. I should've done much better with my dinners.

--Exercise Info--

I managed to get at least 1 hour of cardio every single day this week. I was on my exercise bike 6 days and I played a 1 hour match of badminton. I missed out on football training/match this week because it was cancelled but I replaced it with an hour session of my bike. I was hoping to do swimming this week also to mix it up but unfortunately my gym's pool is still closed for that. Hopefully I can tag along with my mum (haha mummy's boy..) next time she goes to her one.

I went to town a few times (about 4 times) this week also which is a 2.5 mile walk and I can get there in half an hour. I also spend a couple of hours walking around town and then walk back so essentially I did 4 x 5 miles walk this week + whatever walking I did during town.

--Mood--

My mood has mainly been cheeful and full of energy. But I suffered a major backlash one day when I just suddenly felt weak and miserable. I was still up for doing the exercise and diet but I was unpleasant (to put it nicely) Which made people assume that the diet was affecting me badly. It was just an off-day and i'm not going to play on it because every other day I've been full of life and more happier than i've been in years because of my diet.

--The results--

I was really eager to check out how bad the damage was during the week but I sustained knowing that it would hurt my feelings.

I weighed myself this morning at 930 as usual and...





I lost 6 pounds!! I was so shocked! I couldn't believe I manage to get away with all that crap. I was hoping the damage would be minimal gaining 1 pound not losing anything..

Obviously I'm pleased with this result. I managed to get a good first week result here despite it being a bit of a binge week.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read my previous posts and comment. Any advice and kind words are always welcome. I would also like to thank the people who actually write out there own diaries so I can "steal" some tips from there schedules and include in my own, it's also nice to know i'm not on my own with this
 
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Week 6

-Week 6 Results & Summary-

Another fairly bad week for food but not as bad as last week..I'm pretty sure i'm exaggerating because I always stay under my calories limit. I've also been ill for the past three days and it doesn't look to be getting any better *sigh*

--Food Info--

*Everyday I had breakfast - Bran flakes with skimmed milk.
*I always drank at least 2 litre's of water.
*I failed to meet my 5 a day yesterday because I was barely out of bed

I still had my pizza on monday. I had a breakfast bap twice on two days (saw the salt content of bacon and nearly had a stroke...put me off bacon for life) and went out for dinner once which was a small burger and potato wedges. Other than that, nothing else bad was consumed.

The only thing i've added is fibre powder because I feel as though i'm not getting enough of it and my digestive system is pretty...broken. So I need all the things I can to help me with that.

Overall, it wasn't a bad week for food. a few moments of weakness but I did well considering it was my daughters second birthday and she had a party with cake, sausage rolls and everything else god created tasty. I had a few bits but I managed to control myself to not go overboard.

--Exercise Info--

A bit of slower week for exercise. Monday - Friday I did an hour on the bike but saturday and sunday I was too ill to do anything. I also noticed that listening to music is FAR better than anything else i've done. It never felt so easy to exercise.

I went to town twice which is a 5 mile walk there and back. essentially I walked 10 miles total just walking there but I was in town for at least 2 hours on each of those occassions just walking around window shopping etc..

Hopefully if i'm better this week i'll add in some badminton, football and swimming but at the moment i'm just looking to recover.

--Mood--

My mood has been good this week and only on one occassion did I feel like a grump. It's not the diet though, it's man-swings. haha

--The results--

I wasn't sure what the result would be this week. The exercise had been consistent for five days and the food I was eating wasn't all that bad.

I weighed myself this morning at 8:00 (I was up early because I went to bed at 1830)

I lost 5 pound! 17 pound in three weeks is awesome and the greatest average I've ever had.

I've also noticed this is the longest i've ever dieted for...I'm pretty sure everything else fizzled away just after a month.

I'm happy with the result and feel as though I can (at this stage anyways) get away with a few treats although it's something I don't want to get stuck with. a 5 or 6 pound loss is awesome and whilst i'm gutted I couldn't do my exercise for the past two days, at least I got a good result.
 
Lucky you! That's so good. Such a huge amount of weight in such a small amount of time! And you still managed to have yummy food occasionally. HOW ARE YOU DOIIIING IT?! :p
 
Congrats on all that weight lost! I'm jealous :) I hear ya on the music for workouts- my gym has tvs on almost all of the machines, and if it weren't for the tvs and my zune, I couldn't do it. I'd wear out wayyy to fast.
Have fun with badminton! I hven't played that since high school.. And I was uhh, sort of a big freak, lol- I would get so competitive that I actually sprained both of my ankles(not at the same time, haha) playing badminton. :rolleyes: yeah, thats right. I spiked the damn birdy RIGHT in their faces ,lollll.
 
Week 7

@Sunflower: No Idea how i'm getting away with it :p Just luck at the moment

@Jess: I'm the same Jess! People find it unreal how I can turn such a gentle pace sport into a full on sweat everywhere battle of strength, lol.

Thanks for the support girls, its always appreciated :)

---------------------------

-Week 7 Results & Summary-

The worst week for me yet. I have been so ill that my diet has lost my attention. Not that i'm saying i've been stuffing my face, it's more the opposite. A few days I went without food at all, I still managed to have a bit of fruit but mostly my body has just wanted to sleep. I've been slapped with this stupid virus..Severe earache in both ears then deaf for a fews day and of course with sickness and wonderful throbbing pains just above my eyes.

--Food Info--

To be honest I rarely ate. On a few occassions I had fruit but only twice met my 5-a-day. I drank crap loads of water because my tablets made me feel dehyrdated. I tried to eat my passion food (pizza) but failed to eat barely any of it. The only thing I managed to keep in routine was my morning yoghurt drink + Multivitamin. I also had my green once or twice..

--Exercise Info--

Obviously my exercise would seem non-existent but I did go on a few brisks walk. 5 mile long x 4 but this really wasn't smart as it made me feel worse.

--Mood--

My mood hasn't been bad, in fact i've been fairly happy for someone in a lot of pain. I've been a bit down because my diet hasn't had any real attention and it's important to me but there's nothing I can do about it except from recover quickly and don't think about it. I've had a few sleepless nights because of the pain but i've slept most of the day afterwards to keep that up, lol.

--The results--

I managed to climb on the scales today despite still being in a serious amount of pain. I did lose 4 pound which brings me down to 224 pounds. I'm happy about this because i'm nearly 15 stone something for the first time in years.

I'm still ill today but i'm finally visiting my doctor so hopefully she can help me with some pain relieve or answers. I'm not sure when this is going away but I hope it's soon :(
 
Oh noooo... I hate hate HATE being sick! I turn into a big ball of mopiness when I get sick- I've been kinda stuffy the last few days- better not turn into something worse, I'd be pretty mad, lol.
Glad to see you lost 4lbs! amazing. You are absolutely KILLING it.
As for turning badminton into a competitive sport: Oh jeez. I'm horrible! I hate losing... Even broke my finger playing wallyball in high school, and after getting my finger braced I KEPT playing, lol. Probably not the smartest decision, considering my knuckle is all effed up now, but whatevv. I still beat everyone ;)
 
Hi Luke,

Haven't seen you around in a couple of weeks - hope you've recovered from that illness and are feeling better!!
 
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