The Story So Far....

I wonder how many Star Wars references I can get away with before George Lucas comes and cuts me down so I can become more powerful than you could imagine (or he retcons me into the next edit of the movies).

So anyway, I should probably get y'all up to speed on my actual weight-loss. If I where a superhero this would be my origin story (though the choice of names would be rather limited. Blubberman? Captain Fatass? Mr WhoAteAllThePies?) Anyway, this is how it went...



Back in December 2011 I went to my local practice (why do they call it a practice anyway? Surely the doctors there must have had sufficient time to become experts in their field?) for my annual respiration test. The nurse there was not one that I had seen before and she asked me to hop on the scales to check my weight. Upon checking the readout she politely asked if I played rugby. When I said no her professional smile slipped slightly and she just said "Oh."

She's not smiling, she's baring her teeth in disgust.

So basically she informed me that I weighed 19 1/2 stone. NINETEEN AND A FRICKEN HALF STONE. That's pretty damned heavy. So she asked if I wanted to partake in her weight-loss program, which I of course accepted. I made an appointment in January (hey, I wasn't about to miss out on the traditional Christman over-eating now was I?) and went back to see her.

She explained that this was not a diet; this was going to be a change of lifestyle. Diets are, for the most part, fads that give the dietee something to focus on when trying to lose weight. Now, I've tried a few diets myself; none of which have worked in the long term. The diet I lost the most on was a popular one which for the purposes of this blog I am going call the Dr Eat-As-Much-Meat-As-You-Want-But-No-Sugar-At-All-And-Please-Try-And-Ignore-The-Fact-That-The-Creator-Of-This-Diet-Suffered-A-Cardiac-Arrest Diet. I lost 3 stone in six months with that, but I was as miserable as sin the entire time. So as soon as I came off it I went on a sugar feeding frenzy and very quickly put back on all the weight that I had lost. This seems to be case with most diets in my oh so humble opinion.

Anyway, Nurse/y explained that in changing my lifestyle and eating habits I should have nooooo problem losing the poundage and keeping it off. I was a little dubious I admit.

The rules of this program are as simple as can be:

1. Cut down your portion sizes.

This may seem obvious, but when you actually stop and look at what you've got in front of you on your plate you might be surprised as to how much you've piled on it. I told Nursey that I was already making sure I kept the portion sizes confined to the 'inner-ring' of the plate. She smiled ruefully and said "OK, but that doesn't stop you from piling on the food vertically though does it?" She had a point.

It might only be a few inches wide, but it can travel upwards forever.

              2. Walk for 30 minutes 3 times a day.

"30 minutes 3 times a day?!" I may have screeched a little at this point. How the hell was I going to find the time to walk for that long not once, not twice but thrice in one day? It really wasn't feasible, and I told Nursey as such.

"Just fit it in around your lifestyle," she explained. "Don't break your routines to fit the walks; make them work for you." That cheery professional smile was beginning to get on my (actually rather perky) tits.

She was right though; once I thought about it it became obvious where I could fit them in. I already walked Harvey (our Golden Retriever) late at night, so that could be one half hour. I also walked hin in the mornings as well, but usually only a short one for him to do his business. I could probably extend that one, the I could do half an hour in my lunch break at work.

As it turned out the morning one wasn't feasible, so now I walk for my entire lunch break, and can usually get around 3 and a half miles in before I have to back to work. I've found that it's an absolutely great time to listen to audio-books as well.

          3. Keep a food diary.

Last but definitely not least; the food diary. This one I was extremely sceptical about. I mean; what good could it do? Nursey explained thus:

The main point of the diary is to make you aware of what you're eating. The human mind will deliberately forget eating things if the body is saying it's hungry (this is true, I've read it somewhere before) so keeping the dairy will allow you to keep track of what you're eating.

I found this to be a major help in losing the weight that I've lost already; and I would recommend it to anyone trying to lose weight.

I'll be continuing this post later, the children are calling!