Tony's "Grand Plan" Progress Diary

tony7

Full Member
Well.... here we go....

I'm a 33yr old dad to 3 young kids and in the new year I stood on a Wii Fit for the first time to be presented with a Wii Fit age of 42!!! I had a BMI that was on the verge of obese and I was devastated. I've known I am overweight for a while, but sometimes you just need to see it in writing for it to really hit home.

I have a "thin" view of myself. As a child and teenager I was always called "stick-boy" because I was so skinny that my ribs and elbows stuck out as bony lumps. I had tiny wrists and no fat to speak of. Then I went to college and started to cook for myself and I went HUGE - I mean from about 11 stone to 16 stone over a few years. My peak has been 16 stone, and at the beginning of 2009 I was settled at 15st 7lb. I really started to worry when my "thin" view of myself was challenged as I would see myself in photos or the mirror - I look awful! I have this enormous pot-belly and a spare tyre suitable for a Grand Cherokee! My diet and sedentary lifestyle have also left their mark on my general appearance - my skin is poor, black rings around the eyes, saggy fat nect etc.etc.etc.

The Old Me
So, what were my vices? Sweets, dairy and Pastries! I've always eaten massive amounts of chocolate, sweets, cakes, biscuits, yogurts and desserts. A typical day at the end of 2008 would go something like this:

  1. Get up at around 7:30... skip breakfast, shower dress and drive straight to work, grabbing a 1ltr full-fat yogurt drink for the journey and usually a family-pack of Maltesers or a LARGE bar of galaxy
  2. Sit at my desk working all morning, absolutely no exertion, no exercise
  3. At 11:45 be roused for lunch by my colleagues... make a 2 minute walk to the staff canteen where I would have a stodgy meal with chips, a 500ml bottle of full-fat coke, a pudding (e.g. apple crumble, syrup pudding, chocolate pud) and custard or chocolate sauce.
  4. At 15:00 visit the tuck-shop for 2 bars of chocolate (e.g. Snickers) and possible a bag of crisps.
  5. Drive home at 17:00
  6. Dinner with my family at 18:00 consisting of a full meal with dessert and a can of full-fat coke
  7. Put the kids to bed at around 19:00
  8. At 20:00 get the munchies -make jam sandwiches with butter and 4 doorstep-slices of bread. Sometimes eat a whole family-pack of M&Ms, usually eat at least 2 Muller Fruit Corner yogurts, sometimes also have a bag of butterkist popcorn
  9. Go to bet at 22:00
That is the life I am starting with! Add to this regular weekend trips to McDonalds, Pizza Hut and other similar chains and you've got my old lifestyle in a nutshell! Notice - no exercise AT ALL - not even regular walks.

The New Me
So January 5th 2009 started a new me. I had been fortunate in that most of December 2008 was spent with a tooth abcess and so I was forced (by physical pain!) to avoid almost all food (except puree) for most of December. This tempered significantly my overconsumption at Christmas and, although I didn't weigh myself at the time, I'm sure resulted in a weight drop from 16 stone to 15st 7lbs. Anyway, the reason this is fortunate is because I'm convinced it helped break a few addictions by imposed-cold-turkey... e.g. I wasn't eating much chocolate in December; I wasn't drinking Coke in December; and I wasn't gorging out of sweets, cakes and puddings.

When I got my tooth sorted out at the end of December I was already part-way towards a new eating regime. Come January 5th with my Wii Fit experience and my terrible shock at seeing my oversized gut in photographs I was committed to change.

To change I decided to continue to abstain from over-consumption of the sweet stuff. Added to this, I introduced breakfast to kickstart my metabolism. I reduced my meals to 1 main meal and 1 packed lunch. I now take a packed lunch to work instead of buying food in the canteen. I still eat a full dinner with my family.

As you will have gathered, I enjoy the sweet things in life and no diet would be sustainable if I were to abstain completely - that would just lead to misery and probably failure. So, I adjusted accordingly...

First, I like yogurt so I did away with 2 muller fruit corners and huge bottles of full fat yogurt drink for 1 muller light with breakfast, and possibly 1 for dessert with my evening meal.

I used to love Coke and I like refreshing fizzy drinks, so I introduced a replacement - ultra-low-calorie cloudy lemonade from Asda. I don't drink it much, but I may have 1 can a day. Otherwise I have a low-calorie blueberry and cranberry drink (11cals per 100ml) with breakfast and dinner, and water with lunch.

I love chocolate and sweets and have retrained myself a bit to enjoy them in moderation. If I have any at all it is in very small quantities (yesterday I had 1 M&M!).

My basic principles are these:

  • a more appropriate attitude to food. Going mad with a family pack of Maltesers is crazy - just don't do it!
  • substituting low-cal alternatives for the things I really like (yogurts and drinks)
  • eating one full meal every day instead of two! (taking a packed lunch for the other)
  • Don't snack
Then there's the other aspect... exercise. I'm lucky that my wife is also wanting to lose some weight so I have some help here. We have committed to exercise at least 4 times per week, in the mornings before breakfast (6am). We have started by buying a wide range of fitness DVDs, including Davina, Ministry of Sound and others, and we alternate them all the time so we never do the same DVD twice in a week. We're focussing on aerobic exercise with some toning and we're looking for a minimum of 45 minutes per session including warm-up and cool-down. Most weeks we actually aim to do this 5 days a week, and have been doing this since the 5th January. We're both feeling fitter for it, and it should help us lose weight.

Currently
So, currently I'm down to 14st 13lbs and seem to have stayed at this weight for a week. I weigh weekly if I can using the Wii Fit for accuracy.

I've started to become quite fond of a few aspects of this new lifestyle:

  • I enjoy the time I spend with my wife exercising... its like "couple time" strangely!
  • I have learned to really appreciate those few days when I don't exercise and I can lay in bed resting!
  • I used to struggle between lunch and dinner, desperate for a snack, but now I actually crave than slightly hungry feeling because it really helps me enjoy my dinner... its strange, but if I feel a bit hungry I think to myself "it's going to be a good dinner tonight".. weird I know.
  • Breakfast is really good - I get up earlier to exercise so no rushing around in the mornings and I enjoy a gread bowl of porridge or ready brek (with a smidgen of maple syrup for sweetness!), a glass of low-cal juice drink and a muller light yogurt... low-cal, high-GI - keeps me going 'til noon!

Diary for 5th Feb
Yesterday was a good day - did the fat burn session of the Ministry of Sound DVD "Pump it Up" twice! (each one is 18mins EXCLUDING warm-up!) so got at least 36mins of full aerobic exercise in there. Left my wife to enjoy the relaxing yoga-cooldown while I got the kids dressed and made breakfast.

My eating went completely to plan yesterday except for 2 things that I'm not proud of... when I got home my wife had made a gorgeous vegetarian shepperds pie (with Quorn mince - its lower-fat and she is a vegetarian so we eat it a lot). It was gorgeous, but she gave me a huge portion. Thing is, I'd only had breakfast and packed lunch all day so I ate it all up! Then she had some chocolate cake left over from a birthday cake she's making someone so I ate some of that too! She is such a good cook its irresistable, and I think to myself - I'll only be miserable if I never eat chocolate cake again! So I had a piece. Not a huge amount mind you...

So after a really good day a couple of less-good parts. Having said that, I didn't eat anything else after that and I was asleep by about 9:30pm so I think, on balance, I didn't overeat.

Stupdly weighed myself today (don't know why - perhaps to see if the cake has been absorbed into my spare tyre!) - still at 14st 7lbs... had some irrational fear that I had plateaue'd already! I certainly hope not.:sigh:
 
End of Week 5

Well, I surprised myself today - despite all the cakes and treats baked by my lovely wife this week, the Wii Fit told me I lost another 1lb since Wednesday :bunnydance: (I know weight can fluctuate through the day, so 1lb here or there is negligible, but at least I caught it in the right direction when I weighed!).

Good thing too - I was getting a bit disheartened yesterday .. a bit bored without all those lovely treats I used to devour each and every night. No I'm as committed as ever.

What really pleases me is that I am still able to have an occasional treat. Like today - I ate very little all day (porridge for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, a yogurt and lo-cal drinks) because I knew we were treating the kids to pizza this evening. I had 2 slices of Domino's finest and some potato wedges ... naughty, but once in a while it should be ok. I don't feel like I've fallen off the wagon or anything. I think the fact I used to consume SOOOO many calories before means that any reduction should have some sort of effect... hopefully!

In fact, I did some impromptu exercise this morning by jogging (full-on) for 20mins with Wii fit! The kids loved it and it made me sweat, so must be good.

My next challenge is to avoid weighing myself for another week. I'm a bit of a compulsive weigher I'm afraid :eek:
 
Hi mate, its a honour to be the first one to post on your diary, keep us updated on what you have to eat and you weights - try not to worry about daily fluctuations! My weight usually changes around/upto 5lb a day.. try stick to weighting in once a week.

I there any chance you can get down to the gym or buy some equipment at home e.g. dumbells and a kettleball?

80% of your weightloss will come from your diet and 20% excercise, try get some weight training in the exercise bit as it will leave you with a lean body when youve lost all the weight, otherwise youd look out of shape, let me know if you need any advice or motivation.

K
 
Cheers Kunster! I'm def. gonna introduce some free-weight work into my regime. I've got a bench, bar and dumbells - just need to recover them from the depths of the garage. Thanks for the encouragement!

Yesterday was another reasonable day - 30mins aerobic and a few preacher curls using the dumbells. Eating was good - didn't each much at all really.

My real weigh-in day is Sunday so I did weigh myself (just for the record) yesterday - down to 14st 8lbs. That's the weight I'll record for the week and we'll weigh again next Sunday. Hoping to lose another 2lbs this week if I can keep it up.

Next weekend I'll sort out the garage and get my bench back in action. Then I'll introduce some proper free weight work into the regime.
 
Get them out today mate, dont leave it to the weekend when the footies on :p I managed to drag myself to the gym today even tho it was snowing and my local gym is miles away so its all about motivation -how much you want this!

I started on 14st 7lbs too, im down to 11st 8bs now so thats a 3st loss, i started eating healthy and excercising in septemeber(so 5 months so far) , still i havent done bad(Men loose fat much quicker than women it seems)

3Stone = 42lbs / 5 (number of months) = 8.4lbs a month
Split that into weeks and thats 2lbs a week so it can definetly be done. Have you set a target date? E.g. mines is be able to run 10k by july, have visable abs (six pack) for the summer months and short term get down to 11st by the end of March.
 
Monday was another good day - 40mins cardio, eating as per plan. Didn't weigh. Had a hard nite (my youngest was ill all night so didn't sleep much) but still managed to get up this morning and do another 40mins solid cardio.. Even my wife didn't manage to get up for that one.
 
Another great, "on track" day yesterday. Porridge, yogurt and low-cal drink for breakfast, tuna sandwich for lunch with a yogurt and low-cal drink. Dinner was spag-bol with Quorn mince followed by an orange. 30mins Cardio in the morning.

I'll be pleased if I end the week at 203lbs (14st 7lbs). Then next week I'm looking to break through the 14 and a half stone mark. It will be a real breakthrough for me to get below 200lbs (14st 4lbs) - the first time in a long time.

My target date is May 25th for personal reasons. My target weight is 175lbs (12st 7lbs). That works out at exactly 2lbs per week. Entirely reasonable I think.

Kunster - I can't bear to see myself in photos at the moment, so I won't be posting any for the foreseeable. When I've slimmed down a bit I may do... but I hadn't planned to.
 
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Thats fine, make sure you take one just for yourself to use as motivation on them 'down days' and also so u can compare the results from start to finish from stop you going back to your old ways!
 
Interesting day yesterday - exercised in the a.m. (despite Wednesday normally being my day off.. I'll take Friday instead). Ate well until dinner. At dinner had some bread and butter that I could have avoided, but that said - dinner filled me up rather well and I didn't eat anything else. The meal itself was a very healthy vegetarian lentil thing. Real nice it was.

I've been craving peanuts a bit lately. Not the normal peanuts mind you - Peanut M&Ms and Snickers bars! I haven't caved yet but I'm thinking I might need some soon to stop me going mad!

Started looking over my diary from 2005 when I last tried to lose weight. I was 16 stone back then! Crikey - that's 20lbs more than I weigh now. I gave up then because the time just wasn't right - there was a lot of stress and my mother-in-law was critically ill. Anyway, this time I've got no distractions and I fully intend to carry on!
 
Not a particularly good weekend. After 7 days straight exercising I decided to have Friday and Saturday off. In the event I had Sunday off too, albeit unplanned, and started up again this morning.

Food-wise hasn't been too great either. I haven't over-eaten as-such, but I enjoyed a curry with my wife for valentines and had other less-good meals too.

At my Sunday weigh-in I actually put on 1lb... shame.

I was looking at the "inspirational slide show" on this site last week and I'm hoping the people featured there who have succeeded with some incredible weight loss also had off-weeks like mine. If I can lose 2lb a week I can still make my target...

Time to update my slider (in the wrong direction :-(
 
I've had an excellent few days diet-wise, mainly down to being overworked and not having time to eat. I exercised twice this week so far, and will do so for the remainder of the working week at least. I've not been snacking at all!!

I had a comment today also that I looked like I lost weight - its always nice when that happens.

I know I shouldn't but I weighed myself today and I've lost that extra pound that I gained - I'm now exactly 14 stone 7 lbs (203lbs). I was hoping to be 202lbs by the end of the week but we'll see....
 
Thanks Janey - I just hope I can keep it up!

Yesterday was another great day - except that I forgot to pack sarnies for my lunch so I had soup at the staff canteen (with some bread for dipping!) and a yogurt. Dinner was good though - I've found a delicious shepherds pie at Tesco - its only 382 cals and 3g fat (its Vegetarian). Pricey though, but when the family eats before I get home its a good alternative to chips and pizza! I also had a lovely bowl of cherries yesterday, really tasty and no more than 150cals. So a reasonable diet day.

Exercise is still going good.

I'm still addicted to the weighing scales... its almost the right side of 14st 7lbs now! I'll celebrate (somehow) when I'm below 200lbs! That will be a fun day.
 
I'm a weighing scales addict!!! I know, I know, I should try to break the addiction (but then its better than being a food-addict!)

Anyways, this morning I was 14st 6lbs!! I've met my target set for this Sunday and for the first time since my teenage years I'm less than 14 and a half stone!

Feeling good, looking great!

My colleagues said I'd lost weight yesterday (in my face). I also got to the last hole on my belt, and I've noticed that my trousers are gathering up around my waist a bit - cool! And to top it all, I'm actually preferring my new diet!

I was in Tesco yesterday and I bought some fresh cherries (very naughty really since they've flown all the way from Peru or somesuch). Anyway, they were £1.99 (!!!) and the lady on the checkout was astonished that I was prepared to pay such a price. I said "well it's either £1.99 for fresh cherries or £1.50 for a family pach of M&Ms!..." - suddenly the extra 50p seemed to be worth it! (I LOVE fresh cherries - better than chocolates or sweets anyday and only 55 calories per 100g). I had some left over so I brought them to work for lunch. Once they're 'pitted' (i.e. the stone is removed) you can eat them just like sweets.

Anyway, I'd better update my slider to my new weight of 202lbs (gonna break through that 200lb mark soon!) !! I'm so excited and enthusiastic its untrue!

My wife is also enthusiastic about exercising seeing some of my results. We're having such a lot of fun on this health-kick. I'm no longer hoping that my commitment lasts - I'm adamant!:D
 
Took the family away for the weekend, including a visit to Cadbury World! What a place to go when you're testing your broken chocolate addiction! Well, if it was a test I passed!!

I didn't eat a single bar of the free chocolate they handed out, only sampling the tiny pot of melted chocolate with rice crispies at the end. In fact, I didn't even want any chocolate! Methinks I did well!

Other challenges this weekend though, as we ate out for all our meals including breakfast. That porridge at McD's isn't at all bad, and pasta and sauce (with no starter or dessert) is pretty widely available at all restaurants. On Sat night I even enjoyed a lovely seafood risotto.

Anyway, after a weekend of relatively increased consumption, I weighed in and I hadn't gained or lost since Wednesday... I'm still at 14st 6lbs, which was (afterall) my target for the week.

All-in-all I'm pleased. Back to the regular routine today though, including exercise this morning. Going well!
 
I guess I'm feeling a little bit disheartened today as it occurs to me that I'm still hovering around the 14 and a half stone mark with little downward progress. I've been naughtily weighing myself and I fluctuate between 14stone 6 (best) and 14 stone 8(worst). I should really be getting down to 14stone 4 by the end of this week...

I'm managing to exercise (some days I've even managed to include a 35 minute brisk walk at lunchtimes - including three uphill stretches and sweat!) and my diet is kinda-ok.

Oh - confession time - Yesterday was pancake day and I had three. There, I said it.

Anyway, another day another dollar (or should that be pound? (lb!))

ps - I took by blood pressure yesterday (I've had high blood pressure in the past) and it was 133/72 resting. Apparently that's not too bad.. so there's good news from all this exercising! I might live longer!
 
My weight hadn't budged much at all for a couple of weeks. Getting a bit melancholy about it all really. Have not exercised all weekend.

At my Sunday weigh in, though, I was down to 14st 3lbs! That's the first time in a decade I've been below 200lbs! Something to celebrate. Keeping up the healthy eating - its turning out to be not that bad, and an occasional treat avoids any boredom.
 
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