Sarahs Weightloss Blog

Hi All,

Thought I would talk about breaking up the monotony of your training program.  If, like me, you are wondering why you are no longer losing weight as quickly as you once were, then a detailed look at your food, activity and attitude is a must.

I have kept up the cycling to and from anywhere I need to go.  My husband has also been really supportive and at the weekend we walked over 5 miles to do our errands.  I have also gone to the gym a few times and went for a jog outside along the canal over the weekend.  As for food I have tried to be more strict and for the most part am succeeding.  I’m going back to what I did at the beginning of the new regime – letting myself have a few treats but gradually weaning them out, rather than starving myself of them, and its working.  I’m starting to make more healthy choices now that I also want to have.  Now I and down to 77.4, a loss of 0.3 of a kg.  However I want to increase this loss to 1kg a week as before.

However I have hit a snag.  I’m getting bored of the gym! I have really enjoyed the gym for the past 8 months, and made it part of my daily routine (Monday – Friday).  However now I am finding that although they change the music and the moves around a bit in each class they are basically all the same, and after 8 months of it I am no longer enthused to go the gym as I once was.  I like running, but now I want to run 8 or 9 kms, on the treadmill this gets boring very quickly.  Oh dear! and I needed to increase the intensity of my training too

To solve this I wanted to book some personal training sessions, however I am moving house and cannot afford this at the moment so I have found another fun and cheaper alternative – I am taking up a new, active hobby!  I’ve been talking about taking up a sport or some other sort of active hobby for ages, but until now I didn’t feel fit or flexible enough to join in anywhere.  However I have always wanted to take up martial arts, I think the routines look so beautiful and it looks a great and fun way of staying in shape and keeping strong.  Now however I feel much fitter and really like body combat classes, tai chi, yoga and pilates, so feel I finally have the fitness and flexibility to give my dream a go at last!

I’ve chosen ‘Goshin Ryu Ju-Jutsu’, which is a non-competitive form of martial arts, mixing old with new techniques.  It seems to involve lots of different styles, and you can do grades if you wish.  This is good for me as if I want, I can always aim for another level.  This will mean I will never get bored, as I will always be learning and doing something new.

I won’t be giving up on the gym, running or cycling, I will still do these, but I will do a bit around my ju-jutsu classes.  I’m also thinking of doing a regular pilates class as I really love this too and they don’t have much of this class at my gym at all.

I’m giving the class a go tonight.  I have done a few karate classes before and really enjoyed this, but was a little embarrassed, so didn’t keep it up.  Hopefully this time will be different

Hmmmmm, not so sure I have the coordination to do this, but I can only try!

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Till next time

Dear All,

You would think that when you have been losing weight successfully for quite a while that you would have this weightloss thing in the bag and that by doing the same thing you will keep up the same success.  However what I have found over the past few months is that you can start to fall back into old habits, without even realising you’re doing it!  So over the past few days I have been taking a big step back and thinking – if I’m totally honest with myself, what am I eating? How much of it am I eating and what am I doing?  Is it what I was doing when I was losing weight, or has something changed?

I’ve looked at my diet and realised that the type and amount of food was not as good as it once was, as I discussed in my last blog.  However then it also struck me – CYCLING!

I used to cycle to and from university and the gym every weekday, which is at least an hour round trip before I hit the gym.  However I stopped doing this because 1) the weather has been awful here in England over the winter and 2) I got a very cheap nasty bike from halfords which didn’t last very long and was highly unpleasant/frightening/embarrassing to ride.  Also after reading Jon’s recent blog entry I realised that I was not putting the same effort in as I did previously to include more activity in my everyday life (e.g. long walks and cycles with my husband on weekends to explore the local area).  Instead I was spending the cold winter months indoors and trying not to think about how much I wanted to snack (which most of the time I did end up doing).

There’s also another element I have discovered in my self searching, which is that at the moment I am under some stress.  I am moving house in the next few weeks at the same time as travelling the country to lots of different special schools, to gather data on my next research project into autism.  This has left me tired and not feeling like going to the gym.  

My life style is definitely in need of a revamp.

When I am overwhelmed with different things to do I have to make a step by step plan, and break the problem up into different stages.  So here goes . . .

Back-on-track weightloss plan

step 1 - diet change

OK what am I doing that’s wrong here?  I’m really busy, not having time to eat or drink, and so am letting myself get too hungry and am thus overeating and making bad food choices.  This could also be slowing my metabolism, explaining the sluggish tired feeling I have at the moment.

Therefore I must :- *EAT BREAKFAST* *REMEMBER TO HAVE HEALTHY SNACKS TO HAND AT WORK* *DRINK MORE WATER*

Step 2 – recheck of calorie intake 

Maik has written some great advice in his last blog.  Using his instructions I’ve calculated that with exercising 1-3 times a week I have a base metabolic rate of 2199 calories I need per day to maintain my weight.  With a 20% (medium) deficit this leaves 1760 calories per day.  Which is a lot higher than I set my calories at previously.  This will give me a lot more energy hopefully and make me feel like I want to go to the gym.

Step 3 – exercise

I’m stressed and feeling really tired and so haven’t been exercising as regularly as I used to.  Fixing my diet should help with this, but I really need to incorporate activity into my everyday life in order to get back on track.

Therefore I must :- *CYCLE TO AND FROM UNI AND THE GYM ON WEEKDAYS* *GO FOR A LONG WALK OR CYCLE WITH MY HUSBAND AT WEEKENDS OR GO ON MORE DAYS OUT TOGETHER* *GO TO THE GYM 3-5 DAYS A WEEK*

I’ll let you know how this goes.  However I went out and purchased a really nice bike yesterday which I rode in today and really enjoyed – I forgot how much I enjoyed cycling in the mornings!

Till next time

Dear All,

I think (*touch wood*) that I have solved my weightloss plateau problem!  I’ve found that it’s not just about how many calories you consume in comparison to how many you burn off but what those calories are made up of.  Say for instance you’re allowed 1500 calories per day, and for that 1500 calories you eat a battered deep fried cadburys cream egg (yes these do exist – visit scotland!). Now I have not done this, but what I’ve been doing is pretty close.  I’ve been counting carefully while eating things like burgers, all you can eat chinese and rich xmas food, snacking a lot, but kept up the exercise – the calories said I should have been losing weight, at least 1kg/wk, but I just stayed at exactly the same weight.  However I pledged to clean up my eating mid last week with home cooked food, loads of veggies and snacking on fruit, salad, grains and low fat yoghurt and soya milk etc etc.  With this change back to the healthy eating regime, I am eating exactly the same amount of calories as before (around 1500 kcal), exercising off exactly the same amount of calories as before, but in the last 4 days since I last weighed myself I have lost 0.5 of a kg!  I’m now down to 77.7kgs

So basically in changing the content of my food, rather than the energy the food apparently contained (i.e. how many calories) I have suddenly gone back to exactly the same rate of weight loss as before my slip off the healthy eating wagon.

Now we all should know this, because every nutritionist worth their salt will tell you exactly the same thing – ‘its not all about the calories . . . ‘, ‘don’t count calories, just eat good, pure, honest food that’s good for you in sensible quantities!’, but to be honest it never hit me as completely true until now. The fact is, that if is you JUST COUNT calories and don’t think at all about WHAT you are eating, you can easily find yourself not losing any weight and getting disheartened – what’s the point of depriving yourself if its not working right?  My advice to you therefore is not to look at the calories on the packet but other things as well – salt, fat, saturated fat etc.  Try changing the content of the diet rather than adjust the calorie intake.  

There are other confusing things as well. For example I was put off eating nuts, seeds, dried fruits and avacado, because if you look at their nutrition, they are really high in calories and fats.  I would therefore always opt for a low fat muffin or diet coke because of the lower fat and calories.  However this was not better for me at all.  Now I include these in my diet and have lots more energy, feel fuller, happier and healthier while losing weight.

So take home message – don’t get obsessed with counting calories, think about what make up those calories.

I’ll let you know if this change of diet content rather than calories maintains my weightloss over the coming weeks.

Till next time

Hi All!

Hope everyone had a great holiday/xmas period.  I haven’t written a blog for a while since there isn’t all that much to comment on – in short I haven’t lost any weight really, and have been a bit naughty :S  

On the plus side my weight has not changed over xmas (*big sigh of relief*) However on the negative side, I haven’t lost any more weight either.  I checked my last post which is over a month ago and I am 1kg lighter since then (78.2 kgs) and the weight loss has plateaued.

Now if I am really honest with myself, I have not really been such a good girl with the eating – exercise is still going well and I’m keeping that up, but eating not so much so, as you know from the last few posts.  I think I’m just tired of the strict eating regime, which I managed to largely stick to for 6 1/2 months.  Now I’ve had a month off that more strict regimen to a more relaxed eating pattern, with exercise and found that I can maintain my weight quite comfortably and to be honest, have quite a lot of junk (*all you can eat chinese buffets, hmmmmm*).

This is not really the idea of my new healthy life style however and so now it is the new year and I feel more refreshed, my resolution is this: to go back to my more strict eating regimen and finally start getting down to the goal I set over 2 months ago! – 75kgs.  This is going to be hard, because as I have come to realise, when you get lighter, you burn less calories as you move.  So when I started I could eat 2000 kcal/day, exercise 3 times a week and lose 2-3 kgs/week.  Now I’m 29kgs lighter I now eat 1050-1500 kcals/day and exercise 5 times a week, and don’t lose anything.  Hopefully if I clean up what I eat, and lower the kcal to 1050 everyday (which is were it should be) I will start losing again.

Anyone else been in this situation and have any advice to offer? Or any suggestions from other people? I could really use it.

On the other side of course is the fact that I have maintained my weight steadily for over a month I have mixed feelings about this – sort of chuffed and frustrated at the same time.  However the professional NHS advice here in England is to lose 10% of your bodyweight, then maintain it for 6 months.  I have lost 27% of my body weight so far, so on that note I probably deserve a bit of a break.

Till next time

Sarah.