Weight Loss & Fitness Update: The Amazing Week 17!

Yikes. I noticed that it’s been a while since I’ve done the fitness update on this blog. And that it’s been an incredible 17 weeks since I started this. Wow.

The weight loss has continued on its downward trajectory, and I’ve continued to exercise and maintain a healthy diet. Let’s take a look at the weight loss journey as chronicled here on Family Of Five:

• Week 1 – Weighed in at 109.8kg. This was before any exercise or substantial change of diet.
• Week 4 – 103.8kg. Quite an inspiring drop in weight. I think it was these big initial changes in weight that spurred me to keep going.
• Week 6 – 99.4kg. Even after this 10kg drop from my initial weigh-in, I felt like I was on a plateau for weeks afterward. I stayed persistent though, and kept exercising and eating well.
• Week 17 – 87.6kg. Again, I felt like I was stuck around 90-92kg  for the longest while. But in the last week, I’ve seen the weight start to shift again.

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Can I be the Biggest Loser?

A couple of days ago, I started playing the Biggest Loser Wii Game. Not that I’m remotely as wobbly as the contestants on that show, but for the last few years I’ve been struggling to regain control of my pot belly.

I’ve touched on this theme before, but getting started is the biggest problem. Just trying to be more active throughout the day, eating smaller portions and healthier foods. Swapping snack foods for fruit.

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A sample 7-day healthy eating diet.

We’re always saying that we should start eating more healthily, but the biggest problem from my point of view is actually choosing foods to replace the unhealthy stuff with. Luckily, I have a fitness freak sister-in-law who took it upon herself to free the thin person within me – and came up with this sample 7-day menu plan.

Aren’t I lucky?

Now, I tried it for a week, and it was tough going at first, but I got used to it. And having a list of ‘approved’ foods means you’re less likely to slip into your old bad habits. I’m sharing it here – mostly as a reminder to myself, but possibly because it might help other people. Naturally, there’s the usual caveat about consulting with your doctor before beginning a new diet. You – like me – choose to use this information at your own risk!

Monday

• Breakfast: porridge
• Mid morning: fruit / 2 rounds brown toast
• Lunch: soup and a roll yogurt
• Mid afternoon: yogurt
• Dinner: chicken fajitas (no cheese)
• Exercise: Take a reasonably long fast walk (choose a route and stick to it) and time it. 30 pressups with wide arms standing up holding kitchen counter and 30 with arms closer together and elbows close to body

Tuesday

• Breakfast: cereal
• Mid morning: cereal bar
• Lunch: 1 wholemeal pitta with low fat Turkey, lettuce, 2 cherry tomatoes and a yogurt
• Dinner: grilled chicken breast with Rosemary and thyme, broccoli and carrots
• Exercise: Same route but jog slowly and time yourself. 30 sit ups and 30 squats.

Wednesday

• Breakfast: 2 slices wholegrain toast and 2 eggs
• Mid morning: 1 banana
• Lunch: cold veggie pasta salad
• Mid afternoon: 4 crackerbread
• Dinner: grilled fillet steak with spinach and grilled tomatoes. Fruit salad
• Exercise: 25 min bike ride

Thursday

• Breakfast: Cereal
• Mid morning: 1 apple 2 crackerbread
• Lunch: wholemeal bagel with low fat cream cheese and cherry tomatoes
• Mid afternoon: 1 yogurt
• Dinner: oriental chicken noodle salad (1 chicken breast, soy sauce, garlic, seasame oil, noodles, mange tout, bean sprouts, carrots)
• Exercise: jog route and time it. 30 press-ups, 30 sit-ups, 30 squats, 30 lunges each leg

Friday

• Breakfast: 1 toasted bagel with low fat spread
• Mid morning: 1 cereal bar and 1 fruit
• Lunch: Chicken salad sandwich, apple
• Mid afternoon: Yogurt and 1 fruit
• Dinner: 2 chicken breasts grilled with tomato salsa, lettuce, cucumber, broccoli, roasted cherry tomatoes
• Exercise: 1 hour bike ride

Saturday

• Breakfast: 2 weetabix, 1 yogurt, 1 slice wholegrain toast
• Mid morning: 2 crackerbread 1 apple
• Lunch: 1 sweet onion chicken terryaki Subway with no cheese on wholemeal roll – NO CRISPS or COOKIES
• Exercise: Swimming

Sunday

• Breakfast: 1 scrambled eggs, 1 slice wholegrain toast, 2 tbsp grilled mushrooms, 2 grilled tomatoes
• Mid morning: cereal bar
• Lunch: omelette (2 eggs, non stick pan, spray oil, 2 slices lean ham, chopped tomatoes and side salad)
• Mid afternoon: 1/2 bagel and yogurt
• Dinner: spaghetti bolognese (wholewheat spaghetti, lean mince, onion, carrot, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, basil FRESH, dried oregano)
• Exercise: rest day

So that’s it. Some of the exercise seems a bit punishing for sedentary types like myself, but I think the idea is to start off light and work up a bit.

Also, from looking over this, it seems a key component is the “eat little, eat often” method where you’re eating smaller snacks between meals to stop yourself from being so hungry you’ll go for the fastest and unhealthiest options!

Colonoscopy

You know how old stand-up comedians used to start their routines with “A funny thing happened on the way to the theatre…”? Well, a few weeks ago, a funny thing happened me in the airport. I took a quick trip to the bathrooms and was alarmed to discover quite a lot of blood on the toilet paper when I was finishing up. (Oh yeah, this post might ick you out a little bit.) There was more blood on the bowl, the sight of which made me the tiniest bit dizzy. Nothing like being in an airport, on your own and bleeding profusely from the back passage to cause a mild panic.

The thing is, it had happened a couple of times that week already, but this was by far the most frightening experience. And after all that’s happened in the past year with dying parents and cancer-stricken in-laws, I decided to take the sensible route and go see the doctor about the problem.

Beyond fart jokes, I’d imagine most guys don’t like talking about medical problems with their backsides. So doctors be warned – if we show up asking for you to check out our rectums, then there’s a fair bit of anxiety lurking in the background. Otherwise, we’d just shelve the problem and ignore it.

Luckily, my GP decided my symptoms were serious enough to warrant a rectal examination. Which was uncomfortable for all concerned. On reflection, I’m glad I didn’t make that quip about “Now you’ll have to marry me!” when he withdrew his fingers. Why? Because he asked if I’d been having the bum sex. Er…no mate, I’m married. With kids. “Oh well, we have to ask,” he waved the topic away. But now I’m paranoid. Do I have an ass that looks like it’s being penetrated by beefy blokes on a regular basis? Oh dear.

Anyway, this leads me swiftly on to a colonoscopy. Just to be on the safe side, the GP referred me to another doctor. We took it private and the consultant recommended a colonoscopy for piece of mind. And about £1,400. Ouch. Thankfully we have insurance we’ve been itching to spend on buttcams.

The prep was worse than the actual procedure. Not only did I have to go without food since lunchtime the previous day, but I had to take this formula which turned me into a walking human power-hose. It was horrible, and I effectively lived on the toilet for almost a whole day. Not fun.

Luckily, and to wrap up my grossest post ever, the whole procedure was over in 15 minutes, with a clean bill of health. As uncomfortable as the camera bit was, I was facing the screen, so I could see all the hot intestinal action. I did wonder for a minute before the procedure if I swallowed a tiny sign saying “You are here”, would it get far enough down to be seen on the colonoscopy!

I’m only a tiny bit miffed they didn’t offer me a DVD of the buttcam footage.

Bicycle season has begun

As the weather here improves, plans are afoot get a little more exercise into our routines. And possibly a slighty better diet, but more on that later.

It started as an effort to get the kids to school quicker – letting them take their scooters and bikes in the morning. Then last week, we gave the shed a clear out, dusted off the adult bikes, reinflated the tyres and headed back out on the road again.

Cycling is such a low-impact form of exercise. For me, after I’ve been running for a while, my leg starts to hurt terribly from the thudding about. Cycling avoids that.

Also, since Dan is still too small to keep up with the pack, he gets to ride along with me. We’ve been using the old mounted seat, but his weight means that it regularly bumps off the back tyre. So…today we’re fitting a crazy gizmo that connects my bike to Daniel’s little bike and makes a tandem. It’s called a trailgator, and sounds like a bit of fun.

The best bit is not having to use the car to go for little errands around town. Want to go up to the park? Jump on the bike. Need to pick up a DVD, bread and milk, some essentials? Jump on the bike. After dropping the kids off to school this morning, Lisa and I did a round trip to the town, picked up some packages and got a few goodies for breakfast. It was a blue sky morning, nice temperature, and we were back home roughly ten minutes after we normally would have been.

I reckon by doing a bit more cycling and making use of the bike part of our routine, it should help in dealing with this premature middle-age spread I’m suffering from! I also want to get the kids out for a few cycles on the country roads, and I might even get to try a few of the cycle routes around Lough Neagh one of these days.

On a related note…a webfriend of mine, Ben Ayers, is involved a couple of social networking sites for cyclists: Cycle Social and meandmybicycle which may be worth a look if you want to get a bit deeper into cycling!