Fighting the Apple

Ok, so I just finished reading through your diary and I love it!

My favorite thing is that almost every entry you start by providing helpful and interesting info.*applauds*

I just have to say that I think you are doing fantastic and keep up the good work. I also hope that your back does give you too much more trouble.:)
 
Thanks Miss Kallie! Good luck with that first 10 - over half way already! Thursdays are now my weekly 'official weigh day' - I just checked, I lost another 1.5 pounds this week! Better still, I now have a couple of days off from work, and the weather is beautiful!
 
Nutrient Density. I like this term, even though I have only recently discovered it! It actually sums up my approach to diet these days. As I keep stating - I personally don't rate the slimming industry or any 'magic' slimming meals, or potions or pills. My approach consists of evaluating the nutrient density of food and drinks, incorporating the denser items into my diet - exploring their values, enjoying an increasing variety, keeping my overall diet 'balanced', and then combining this healthy eating with enjoyable exercise!

I have now been using this approach for over three months. I have lost over 40 pounds. It might not be the best method for everyone - some of you might find better success with calory counting, weight watchers, specialist diets, or whatever - but this one is really working for me! If you want to start learning more, then try googling for the search phrase "nutrient dense", and start re-educating yourself about healthy food..

It isn't just about weight loss. My heart, breathing - my skin, digestion, even resistance to coughs - they all seem to have improved. I feel years younger. Ok, I feel that I have a way to go on this journey yet - especially in improving my fitness further, but as a in between celebration, I have posted a photo in the Before and After and In Between Forum :)

Diary.

Day starts halfway through a night shift at the power station.

Small meal one: Chicken breast and raw carrot sandwich - two small slices of wholemeal bread. A small clementine, An organic tomato.

Small meal two: Chicken breast and raw carrot sandwich - two small slices of wholemeal bread. An apple, a small clementine.

Rooibos tea and green tea.

Finished work at 7:30 am, drove home and for bed and a shorter sleep (two days off). Got up at 11:45 am.

Late Breakfast: Porridge oats, almonds, a little yoghurt. With a glass of purple grape juice.

Boiled up a selection of soaked pulses for protein and fibre - soya beans, pinto beans, and black turtle beans.

Exercise: Gym for 1 hour plus. I took Mrs Ferret for her first ever session. We both received a fitness programme from an instructor. It included stretches, the exercise bike, various weight machines, elliptical stepper, and the treadmill. A good little session! Water!

Snack: Handful of mixed nuts, and a small portion of the above mixed pulse mix. Rooibos tea

Osteopath session - paid £26 to have a large woman jump all over me!

Main Meal: Salad, with two cold pork kebabs (using up yesterdays barbie), mixed beans, mixed leaf, raw spinach, cucumber, tomato, spring onion, pickled onion, new potato, pasta, mint sauce, olives, ev olive oil. Followed by a low fat yoghurt.

Orange juice.

Exercise: Dog walking 2 - 3 miles. Alongside the river into the forest.

Had a er... few red wines during the evening.
 
Eat small eat often. I have come across this angle by reading through the advice for losing weight given in fitness and body building sites. Its not something that I personally have practised to much of a degree - although I have made sure that I always eat three meals per day, and that my breakfast is an important meal. However, the logic seems to fit - it is natural to eat often, and to balance that with keeping active. Muscles need regular fuel, it can't store that fuel easily - having large meals with long periods of body starvation in between results in some of that excess fuel being stored as body fat, while the muscles become starved. Muscle and exercise burns fat - starving muscles is bad.

I think that this is different to bad habit snacking, where you casually tuck into bad fats and sugars whilst on the go.

I'm going to start eating more often!

Diary.

Day off work :) Got up at 7:10 am to help get the kids ready for school. Feeling a little dehydrated - er ... last nights wine.

Breakfast: High fibre bran cereal with a chopped banana and semi skimmed milk. Green tea.

Exercise: short walk - walked my younger daughter to school and back with Wolfy.

Exercise: stretches, warm ups, 40 crunches.

Exercise: one mile dog walk - walked Wolfy to the vets and back to check up on his ear problem.

Snack: low fat bio yoghurt with added 3 seed mix and nut mix.

Exercise: 1 hour 20 minutes in the gym with Mrs Ferret - tread mill, cross trainer, cycle, several weight machines, etc. Tread mill 20 minutes. After exhausting myself, we followed it by a short bout in the swimming pool. Included 10 lengths (a lot for me!) of the sports pool.

Snack: Mixed bean sandwich (as yesterday) with 2 small slices of wholemeal bread. An apple, and an orange.

Meal: Salad - wholemeal pasta, canned sardine (in olive oil), leaves, raw courgette, an organic tomato, mixed beans.

Took the kids to the cinema. Had a diet coke there - nothing else.

Late Snack: 2 oz beef jerky.

Post-note - been a very good boy today, except for one green tea and one diet coke, drank nothing but water all day.
 
Just wanted to stop in to check on you. You are doing a great job and it sounds like you are really motivated! Keep up the good work! :D
 
Thanks Hypo!

Diary.

12 hour day shift today :( Got up at 5:40 am.

Breakfast: Porridge oats with added almonds and a trickle of honey.

Exercise: warm ups, stretches, 40 crunches. The only exercise of the day - had a bit of a recovery day after yesterday's gym.

Off to work.

Meal 1: low fat bio yoghurt with a chopped banana, mixed nuts, oats, and 3 seed mix added. Absolutely delicious as well as highly nutritious!

Meal 2: Two (four small slices of wholemeal bread) pink salmon sandwiches using pre cooked packeted salmon. Some cold new potatoes. An avacado pear.

Meal 3: Fruit selection: an organic tomato, a plum, two small clementines, a kiwi fruit.

Finished work.

Evening meal: Ham salad with leaves, olives, tomato, cucumber, mixed beans, etc. I'm trying to cut right back on dressings lately - using olive oil, yoghurt, lemon juice and garlic instead.

One glass of red wine.

One low fat fruit yoghurt with plant stenols.

Except for the glass of wine, I drank only water today.
 
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TF, poppin' in ta check onya :D You're doing great!!! :D You're almost to your goal! SO proud of you! Keep up the awesome work :D

Ummm....
TF said:
Osteopath session - paid £26 to have a large woman jump all over me!
Click to expand...
ROFLMAO!!!!! TOO funny!! I'm sure if you really had wanted, we coulda found someone near you to do that for a lot less!!! !LOL ;) Hope nothin' broke!! :D

Have a great night/day!! :D
 
Thanks for checking in BizeB. This really is a great website - its much better than just keeping a private diary - and fun visiting other's diaries.

Protein Part II Hmmm, I have read more about increasing protein intake for muscle building, and now I'm not so sure - it seems a complex issue. I still like the other idea though of eating more often, and more earlier in the day - but I although I am perhaps more aware of protein - I don't think that it would be a good idea for me to increase it too much. Better to carry on with the healthy balance I think. Losing fat and improving fitness is a very educational experience. The more I learn, the more I realise that I still don't understand.

Diary.

12 hour day shift today. Got up at 5:40 am.

Breakfast: porridge with added almonds and honey. Grapefruit juice.

Exercise: Warm ups, stretches, 40 crunches.

Off to work :(

Small meal 1: Cold new potatoes and a clove of raw garlic (I need a long shift to get rid of the aroma before I go home to a divorce!), low fat bio yoghurt with added chopped banana, 3 seed mix, and mixed nuts.

Exercise: When I had quiet moments, I exercised by running up 7 flights of steps, and brisk walking around the station. I made more effort through the day to briskly climb steps. Its strange how you can sometimes treat 'work' as 'exercise'. I drank lots of water today.

Small meal 2: Two (four small slices of wholemeal bread) pink salmon sandwiches using pre cooked packeted salmon. An apple, a raw carrot.

Small meal 3: An organic tomato sandwich, two small clementines, two kumquats.

Finished work at 7:45 pm

Evening meal: Mrs Ferret had cooked a sunday roast for a change - a treat meal! However, I did perhaps have only a half of the portions that I used to eat. It included roast chicken breast, gravy, roast potatoes, steamed broccoli and carrot, peas.
For dessert - fresh strawberries covered in low fat yoghurt... hmmmm.
 
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Well done with your food and exercise you are doing great! You are so close to your goal now!! Keep up the great work and hope you are having a good weekend!
 
Thanks fav! Yes, it is going well thanks - the longer I do this, the more motivated I seem to feel! Unfortunately I'm working 12 hour night shifts next weekend :( - but once I feel happier about myself (and I'm getting there) - the next life change is going to be a new job!
 
Three Current Themes to my diet - 1. eating small, often, and early. 2. eating a little bit more protein. 3. Drinking more water. Oh, I've started eating raw cloves of garlic, whenever it is practical for the aroma to clear up before kissing wife and children!

Diary

Late shifts at work today. Got up at 8:45 am.

Breakfast: Porridge oats with added almonds and honey. Grapefruit juice.

Exercise: warm ups, stretches, 40 crunches.

Exercise: dog walking - took Wolfy for two miles.

Snack: Chicken sandwich (breast meat in 2 small slices of w/m bread).

Exercise: Gym for one hour. Exercise bike, several weight machines, then 20 minutes run on the treadmill - 2.1 miles. A good session.

Meal: 2 oz beef jerky. Low fat yoghurt with a chopped banana, three seed mix, mixed nuts. Orange juice.

Off to work at 2 pm.

Meal: 1 chicken sandwich (breast meat in 2 small slices of w/m bread). Clove of raw garlic, kumquat, raw carrot.

Meal: 1 chicken sandwich (breast meat in 2 small slices of w/m bread), organic tomato, kiwi fruit.

Meal: Apple, kiwi fruit, 2 kumquats, raw carrot.

Drove home 10:10 pm.

Snack: low fat fruit yoghurt with plant stenols. A nice cuppa rooibos tea. Drank lots of water again today.
 
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Self Image. Losing weight is one thing - as most people here know - thats the easy bit. Becoming a permanent 'fit' person is much harder, and I suspect that most people who successfully reach their final weight target, later relapse. This seems to be especially true to me, for people that follow a 'published' slimming diet plan, or who use special 'slimming aids', etc. They all see those famous twiglets, putting on weight, then going to some clinic, following a new fashionable diet - and hey presto they are 'beautiful' again (or at least what is socially defined as 'beautiful').

Many years ago, I successfully 'slimmed' by calory counting. Then I put it all on again, plus a little bit more. We all know the story.

This time, I'm determined thats its going to be very different. I have lost weight this time, not by 'slimming', but by eating healthy and through 'enjoying' exercise. With the help of the Internet, I'm learning more and more about weight loss, food, nutrition, fitness, etc. However, one angle that I haven't yet seen anything on - is the self image. Most of us (all people, not just overweight people) have a poor self image. We see ourselves in a negative light - we see ourselves as fat, unfit, ugly. Often we accept it - "its genetics" its "my metabolism", its because I have a "food/carb addiction problem". Thats making excuses and reinforcing this self image of us being naturally fat - doomed to bad health.

I wonder if this bad self image is also sometimes responsible for us reverting back to bad old habits once we have lost our weight? I'm not going to let that happen to me this time. I'm going to become a fitter person - body and soul.

Diary

Late shifts at work. Got up at 8:30 am.

Breakfast: Porridge oats with added almonds and honey. Grapefruit juice.

Exercise: Dog walking - took Wolfy two miles.

Exercise: Oops nearly forgot to do this! Warm ups, stretches, 44 crunches (four sets of 11).

Meal: Wholemeal pasta, mixed beans, chicken meat. Green tea.

Exercise: Gym for 50 minutes. 5 mins on exercise bike, 20 minutes on weight lifting machines, 15 minutes hard slog on the elliptic cross trainer. A nice session :)

Meal: Low fat live yoghurt, a chopped banana, mixed nuts, and three seed mix. Purple grape juice.

Off to work at 1:30 pm :(

Meal: Wholemeal pasta, mixed beans, chicken meat. Clove of raw garlic.

Meal: Organic tomato sandwich, gooseberries, baby avacado pear.

Meal: Apple, 2 plums, 2 kumquats

Finished work. My pedometer recorded 10,250 steps during the work shift. Drove home.

Snack: low fat fruit yoghurt with plant stenols. Ok, it was a funny old shift, and my back has been killing me - so I opened a bottle of French red wine...
 
Wolfy is a great walking partner... but I must say, 10,000 + Steps AT WORK? Wow, i'm super impressed...

Red wine is good for your heart.. enjoy it :) Especially since you are so close to your goal :)
 
I work as a plant op at a power station and part of my job is walking around the entire plant checking machinery, fixing problems, operating valves etc. There are 9 floors in the boiler house alone, and no elevators. Its no doubt a major reason behind my easy weight loss. All I had to do was cut out the bad foods, and I was halfway there.

I only had a half of bottle of wine last night - restraint!
 
Diary.

Day off work and the weather is fantastic! Today was the hottest July day recorded in the UK since records began with over 36 c (thats 97.3 fahrenheit, pretty hot for Britain) recorded near Gatwick airport. We have been having a roaster of a summer over here so far. :) Got up at 7 am.

Breakfast: Porridge oats with added almonds and honey. Purple grape juice.

Exercise 1: Dog walking. Took Wolfy for a nice early walk - the town and the river looked beautiful! 6400 steps, 2.5 miles.

Exercise 2: Warm ups, lots of stretches, 44 crunches.

Meal 2: Organic egg sandwich with w/m bread. Small portion of yellow sweet pepper.

Exercise 3: Gym 1.5 hour session. Total of 16 minutes on bike, 20 minutes on treadmill (2.1 miles), 5 minutes rowing, and 30 minutes of weight machines.

Meal 3: Rump steak (fat trimmed off), large portabella mushroom, and corn on the cob (basted in olive oil) - all grilled outdoors. What a scrumptious treat!

Meal 4: Low fat bio yoghurt with chopped banana, three seed mix, and mixed nuts added. Followed by a large handful of fresh grapes and cherries.

Exercise 4: Bicycle ride. Cycled 9 miles plus along roads in the sun! Sticky melted tarmac on the tires!

Meal 5: Wild rice, haddock fish fillet (steamed), hard boiled egg, olives, tomato, and a raw carrot.

Exercise 5: Dog walking. took Wolfy on a walk along the riverside. 4900 steps - 2 miles.

Meal 6: An apricot, a small clementine, and a low fat fruit yoghurt with plant stenols.

Finished off with two glasses of red wine - well, I have drank water all day!

A pretty good day of fitness? Weigh in day tomorrow - oh er Missus!
 
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Target Achieved!

D-Day

Weigh in day (I officially scale on Thursdays or there abouts). Set up the digital scales, zeroed them. Stood on - 10 stone 4.25 pounds - moved the scales, zeroed again - the same. A third time - the same. Reset it to pounds only - 144.75. Ok, I'll accept that as 145 pounds. I've hit and surpassed my goal/target weight by at least a pound!

I haven't weighed this low since around the age of 20 - maybe younger. My 'ideal' BMI average based on height alone is 146 pounds.

So, now that I have reached my goal weight - am I satisfied? No. I still have some of that hard to lose body fat around my torso. My legs, face, arms, and bottom are certainly thin, lean - but not the middle yet. I don't want to become a skinny fat man - all bone and skin in the pursuit of reducing this remaining fat, so I don't want to set a lower weight goal - I want to build muscle.

I have seen this coming, and I have changed my eating habits during the past week. I am now eating more often, and eating more protein. I have also increased exercise inclding in the gym. So my new Goal? A better body.
 
Thanks both - this website and its users really help!

It took me four months to lose the 47 pounds, but I feel almost guilty - its been really easy for me - and I see some people on here having to fight so much harder. Some are starting within the obesity BMI range, some suffer from plateaus, some have monstrous cravings and lapses for ice cream and chocolate, some have disabilities to cope with. I think that they are all brilliant people!

As I keep saying, its not over for me yet - I still have some body fat, and I want to get fitter. I'm starting to take waist measurements instead of weights.

Diary

Working tonight. Got up at 8:15 am. I hope to get a sleep later...

Did my weigh in - 145 pounds! Achieved my weight target!

Breakfast: Porridge oats, plus added almonds and honey. Grapefruit juice.

Exercise 1: Dog walking - Took Wolfy down town. 4400 steps - nearly 2 miles.

Exercise 2: Warm ups, stretches, 44 crunches (four sets of 11).

Meal 2: Rump steak (fat trimmed off), wild rice and yellow sweet/bell pepper. Followed by a banana. With a green tea. Followed by another green tea :)

Exercise 3: Gym session. 1 hour: bike 10 mins, weight machines 20 mins, elliptic cross trainer 17 mins.

Appointment with my naturopath for my back pains.

Meal 3: I was out down town, and needed to buy something there. I bought prepacked sandwiches: tuna, sweetcorn, and reduced fat mayo in brown bread x 2; an apple; and a glass of semi-skimmed goats milk.

Tried unsuccessfully to have a little late afternoon sleep - too hot.

Meal 4: Haddock fish fillet (steamed), wild rice, raw continental onions, raw radishes, rocket salad, tomato, mushroom and corn on the cob. Followed by a low fat fruit yoghurt with plant stenols. A disgustingly large meal.

Exercise 4: Dog walking. Took Wolfy along the river in the forest direction - 7,900 steps. Over 3 miles.

Off to work for a night shift at the power station. I'm tired, my back is sore... Never mind :)

I plan on having the following meal shortly before midnight:

Meal 5: chicken breast sandwich (steamed) in w/m bread, apricot, clementine, a clove of raw garlic.
 
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Day starts in the middle of a night shift.

Meal 1: Low fat bio yoghurt with added mixed nuts and three seed mix. Also a small clementine.

Meal 2: Chicken breast sandwich in wholemeal bread.

7:30 am - finished work, drove home and to bed.

I treated the rest of today as a rest and recovery day.

Got up at 3 pm - doctors appointment for my back.

Breakfast: Wholewheat muesli followed by a banana. A green tea.

Exercise 1: Not much exercise today - cycled to surgery and back - less than 2 miles.

Meal 4: Ham salad. Also an orange juice.

Exercise 2: Dog walking less than two miles.

Then I was a very naughty ferret. Well, I did need to celebrate my weight conquest! Down to the Portuguese pub para beber muito cerveja com os meus amigos. I drank maybe 4 pints of Portuguese beer, and had:

Meal 5: Moelas. Chicken giblets in a spicy gravy with Portuguese bread. Followed by (shock horror!!!!) two pasteis de nata (sweet creamy custard tarts). Thats my treat for a while.
 
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