It's been a while, probably a little too long. I started Cambridge back in the summer of 2013 and somehow managed 5 stone in 9 months. Back then I was working towards something, my wife and I were planning a trip around South East Asia and after seeing our honeymoon pictures in New Zealand and being too heavy for things like Zorbing.
We had a great start, I don't know where the dedication and resolve came from! There were tough days, we substituted eating with "food porn" - anything like Man vs. Food, Diners, Drive Ins & Dives etc. and even at one point googling pictures of the foods I wanted to eat (I will resist listing them). Sure, we had some meals out to contend with in that time and I was pretty scared of my consultant so I didn't usually tell her about these but could at least push myself to make the right choices.
Not long in my colleagues noticed the hard work, lots of praise and support kept me going. My dad finally stopped nagging me about my weight ("your health is my biggest worry") and we pushed on. I envy Nic a little (my wife) as weight falls off her a little faster than it does me - not to say we don't share weight issues, we both ballooned during our uni years to over 17 stone...just that she lost it a little bit faster.
The closer we got to our epic trip the more we had to decide on a way to maintain our achievements and we went down the exercise route: running, because you can do that anywhere in the world right? We literally passed the last week of couch25k the week before we were due to leave...another awesome achievement from someone who could hardly run for 30 seconds only a few months before.
Flat all packed up and moved into my dad's spare room, noticed handed into our jobs and initial leg of our journey booked (the challenge was to get to Singapore from London, overland - more on that another time). We set off and I can count the number of runs we went on: 2! Both within the first 5 days of our trip. Initially it was because our schedule for the first month was jam pack with early starts, long journeys and late nights enroute to China (through Russia).
China was excellent for the waist line - lots of food poisoning and unappealing street food. If we weren't backpacking and had gone to nicer places to eat then I'm sure that would have been troublesome, but things like "Chicken 4 Ways" arriving at our table as chicken feet and deep fried cartilidge etc. meant we ate little and not often so by two months into our trip I was the lightest I have been since I was about 12, even without following through on our goal to run - it was just SOOOOO HOT!!!
Vietnam was a stumbling block, that's when we discovered true South East Asian food, and our jaunts through Thailand, Burma, Singapore, the Philippines weren't a good influence either. Somehow though, we kept the weight off. We finished our travels exactly the same as we had started them!! Not bad when you have to eat out for every meal in a region of the world where sandwiches and salads are few and far between or ridiculously expensive.
One discovery we made was that we really loved South East Asia and wanted to stay. Luckily for us we both previously worked for companies with offices over here in Singapore and they both had open positions. So here we are...living in Singapore surrounded by amazing food....a problem for two people that have food control issues. Steadily over the past 12 months the weight has been going back on. Add in a trip to the UK for Christmas consisting of us stuffing our faces with everything we missed from the UK: good cheese, sausages, breads....etc. and you have rapid weight gain. Oh dear!!
Another negative about living in Singapore is that it's just so humid ALL THE TIME! When I started work I made an attempt to run to and from work but it was so hot I would feel like I was going to faint, and the gym would be a good option if I ever finished work before 7. By the time I am finished work I'm hungry, so I eat dinner and then it's a few hours to myself and to digest and then the gym closes at 10.
So that's the story so far....our diet plan is our own, evolving....so while it's not Cambridge this is where I started out and the section I would like to use to find inspiration and motivation to keep me going. More on the diet approach later, I feel like I am rambling on. This post could easily have been 3-4-5 times the size it already is....!
So to sum it up:
Currently: 13 stone 4
Want: to get back down to below 12 stone and a size 14
Dreaming about: getting to 11 stone
We had a great start, I don't know where the dedication and resolve came from! There were tough days, we substituted eating with "food porn" - anything like Man vs. Food, Diners, Drive Ins & Dives etc. and even at one point googling pictures of the foods I wanted to eat (I will resist listing them). Sure, we had some meals out to contend with in that time and I was pretty scared of my consultant so I didn't usually tell her about these but could at least push myself to make the right choices.
Not long in my colleagues noticed the hard work, lots of praise and support kept me going. My dad finally stopped nagging me about my weight ("your health is my biggest worry") and we pushed on. I envy Nic a little (my wife) as weight falls off her a little faster than it does me - not to say we don't share weight issues, we both ballooned during our uni years to over 17 stone...just that she lost it a little bit faster.
The closer we got to our epic trip the more we had to decide on a way to maintain our achievements and we went down the exercise route: running, because you can do that anywhere in the world right? We literally passed the last week of couch25k the week before we were due to leave...another awesome achievement from someone who could hardly run for 30 seconds only a few months before.
Flat all packed up and moved into my dad's spare room, noticed handed into our jobs and initial leg of our journey booked (the challenge was to get to Singapore from London, overland - more on that another time). We set off and I can count the number of runs we went on: 2! Both within the first 5 days of our trip. Initially it was because our schedule for the first month was jam pack with early starts, long journeys and late nights enroute to China (through Russia).
China was excellent for the waist line - lots of food poisoning and unappealing street food. If we weren't backpacking and had gone to nicer places to eat then I'm sure that would have been troublesome, but things like "Chicken 4 Ways" arriving at our table as chicken feet and deep fried cartilidge etc. meant we ate little and not often so by two months into our trip I was the lightest I have been since I was about 12, even without following through on our goal to run - it was just SOOOOO HOT!!!
Vietnam was a stumbling block, that's when we discovered true South East Asian food, and our jaunts through Thailand, Burma, Singapore, the Philippines weren't a good influence either. Somehow though, we kept the weight off. We finished our travels exactly the same as we had started them!! Not bad when you have to eat out for every meal in a region of the world where sandwiches and salads are few and far between or ridiculously expensive.
One discovery we made was that we really loved South East Asia and wanted to stay. Luckily for us we both previously worked for companies with offices over here in Singapore and they both had open positions. So here we are...living in Singapore surrounded by amazing food....a problem for two people that have food control issues. Steadily over the past 12 months the weight has been going back on. Add in a trip to the UK for Christmas consisting of us stuffing our faces with everything we missed from the UK: good cheese, sausages, breads....etc. and you have rapid weight gain. Oh dear!!
Another negative about living in Singapore is that it's just so humid ALL THE TIME! When I started work I made an attempt to run to and from work but it was so hot I would feel like I was going to faint, and the gym would be a good option if I ever finished work before 7. By the time I am finished work I'm hungry, so I eat dinner and then it's a few hours to myself and to digest and then the gym closes at 10.
So that's the story so far....our diet plan is our own, evolving....so while it's not Cambridge this is where I started out and the section I would like to use to find inspiration and motivation to keep me going. More on the diet approach later, I feel like I am rambling on. This post could easily have been 3-4-5 times the size it already is....!
So to sum it up:
Currently: 13 stone 4
Want: to get back down to below 12 stone and a size 14
Dreaming about: getting to 11 stone