Sarahs Weightloss Blog

Hey Everyone,

I’m training for the silver triathlon this year, taking place at the end of this month.  Last year I did the bronze level which was 20 lengths in the pool, 12kms biking and 3km run. This silver triathlon is 30 lengths in the pool, 18kms biking and a 5km run.

To train I am trying to do all the areas in as quick a time as possible.  On Monday of this week I managed to do the 5km jog in 31 minutes and the bike ride directly after in 38 minutes, which I am quite pleased with.  I’ve bought a swimsuit and will now try some swimming (I don’t really swim a lot).  Rather bravely I bought a bikini – my husband edged me into it but  am dreading this years triathlon pictures!

However for the rest of the week I have been off training since I have been quite ill I’m on the mend now, but still no appetite and low on energy, so I’m just keeping gently active while recovering.  I’ll have to see whether or not I’ve kept my strength when I go back of the gym, probably at the end of this week.

Till next time

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for everyone thats been following my blog, this has really helped me stay on track and keep focused.  I hope I’ve been able to give you all some advice which has helped you achieve your own goal or get started on a new life style.

However now I need a little help and advice from you guys.  I have two questions:

1) how do you know when you have achieved a healthy weight? 

and

2) how do you maintain your weight when you are sure your done?

This is why I am mulling these questions over, and haven’t come up with an answer by myself . . .

I was thinking, everyone (understandably) talks about losing weight, but what about what happens after the desired weight loss has been achieved?  For example I’ve been losing weight for 11 months now.  At the beginning I had an ultimate goal weight in mind of 65kgs which would bring my to the top of a normal BMI for my height, which I broke up into smaller stages of weight loss goals.  As you know I’ve knocked through my penultimate goal of 75kgs and am now 73.8kgs.  Now I’m actually quite happy with my body shape.  I feel loads more confident, have much more energy and my personal life has improved so much as a result of this.  So I posed a question to my (obviously biased) husband: ’should I lose any more weight?’  After reassuring him that it wasn’t a trick question, he said that it was up to me, but in his opinion I really didn’t need to, plus I did just spend around 400 quid on clothes in a UK size 10, so why would I want to lose more weight and not fit into them?  Good point.

I keep asking myself though – am I really a healthy weight? How do you know really if you are a healthy weight?  Sounds silly I know but hear me out, this is my conundrum:

1) I still have an overweight BMI of 28.1, however I am pretty sure I am now an English dress size of 10 after my shopping spree at the weekend – what seriously is that all about? How thin do you have to be to be ‘normal’?  

2) One possible explanation is that I cycle, run, swim and do weight training a lot, and BMI can’t tell apart being overweight due to fat or being heavy due to muscle, so maybe throw this BMI out of the equation and accept I am now the size and shape I want to be and leave it at that?

3) BUT I use the machine at the gym to measure my body fat, it uses a light electric pulse through the hands, I have no idea how accurate it is, but it says I have 31.7% body fat, which according to the charts is ‘obese’ – I am V confused!  

So to sum up, I am pretty happy with myself, I would like a slightly flatter tummy perhaps, but that’s about it.  I am the dress size I want to be, the shape I want to be, I don’t particularly want to be loads thinner – I like being a petite curvy girl.  But all the charts say I’m overweight or obese – hmmmmm.

But that’s not all I’m a little worried about.  My other major problem is: where do I go from here?  I know how to eat and exercise to lose weight.  BUT what do I do to maintain my weight in the long run?  How do healthy people eat? I don’t know, I’ve never really been a healthy person who could control their eating habits. Is it just as simple as – track the calories against exercise and balance the two? I think I could probably manage that, but we’ll see . . .

So what do you all think? The floor is open, post your comments and suggestions please.  Anyone else have or had similar issues?

Till next time

Hi Everyone!

Its been a little over a week since my last post.  Work at University has been really busy.  I did not really have much time to go to the gym as much as I would have liked, with travelling around the country, but I have been having long days of running around and being generally active.  Also not much time to think about or having time to eat lots of food I don’t need to eat!  I have just been having convenient plain, wholesome food – lots of sushi, chicken, fish, veg/salad, whole wheat bread rice and noodles.  Snacks are nut and fruit bars (the eat natural ones – yummy!), fruit, or yoghurt with granola and honey for a treat.

So last time I checked in I was 75.7kgs – 0.7 of a kg off my penultimate target of 75kgs.  I weighed myself on the scales a few days after my shapeup app had been bleeping at me to add a new measurement.  I was expecting it to read the same weight if not more since I had not been much to the gym.  But I weighed in at 74.3kgs! Wahey! I can’t believe it.  I feel very happy now.

I have now entered a new goal weight into my shapeup club app – 65kgs.  This will give me a normal BMI according to the tables for my height.  I still need to check my body fat and consult with my GP, but I would like to slim down a bit more so I can go into most shops and pick up a size 12 – I can only do this in a few shops in select styles at the moment.

But I’m getting there, I can finally see the finish line.  I just hope I can make it all the way, and keep on track when I get over the line.  The big challenge will be keeping it up after the weight is lost – it is so easy to fall off the wagon isn’t it?  I have never maintained a healthy weight my whole life, I’ve either been too thin or too fat.  I hope I can manage it this time.

Till next time

Hi All,

Hope everyone is getting one step closer to their goals

I have finally moved into my new home! and it’s wonderful.  When I was packing as most people do we combed through all our belongings to throw away everything we did not need, so there was less to move.  Guess what the largest back of rubbish was? My clothes!  It was a real eye opener, I had loads of clothes of varying sizes from UK 10 to 22, some of which were years and years old and I had not worn for years but kept anyway, probably in case I ever needed to fit into them again.  I had even kept the size 22 trousers I had 9 months ago and the size 18 dress I wore to my friends wedding 8 months ago.  I suppose I am still thinking that I will perhaps be wearing them again! So I said to myself ‘NO WAY’, and purged all the large trousers, dresses and tops.  I also realised on checking the labels that I was still wearing size 16 and 18 tops, and didn’t own any other clothes – my wardrobe was looking a little empty to say the least!  So I took a deep breath and went out clothes shopping to get some nice things, something which I haven’t done for . . . wait I actually cant’ remember the last time I did it!  I usually just buy what I need and what would fit – no trendy choices or ‘I’ll buy that because it looks nice’.  However I found that I am a size 12 in pretty much everything (except skinny jeans, still a size 14, but hey, they are SKINNY jeans with a size system all of their own ).  I also quite enjoyed my self, it was a totally new shopping experience.  I didn’t buy much though – I don’t like the 80’s style at the moment, yuck!  But I tried on everything in every shop and it was FUN!

So now I have much more get up and go to sort out my exercise and get my fitness back.  I am training to do the silver triathalon this time (I did the bronze about 4 months ago), it’s an extra 10 lengths in the pool, 6kms on the bike and 2 kms on the run (so 30 length, 18kms, 5kms).  Now I have something to focus on.  I have also organised a new program at the gym with an instructor.  Taking Maik’s advice I have got a weight program together (I do classes, cycling and running for cardio) for 2-3 days a week, each day concentrating on a different body area.  I’ve also been giving it beans (as we say in the UK) down the gym.  Yesterday I managed a 7km run on the treadmill (slowly, in about 50 minutes, 5 mins slower than before Xmas), did a cycling/rowing class for 30 minutes, and 45 minutes of pilates to finish.  I also cycled to work the gym and home.

I am now quite sore, in places I didn’t even know you could have muscle! However I am embracing the soreness, it’s a sign that I am taking it up a notch.  Hope to see some differences soon.  Tonight I’m doing some weights, running and cycling.  I haven’t found a martial arts club I like yet, but will keep looking.

To end with for this week, here are some things I have learned so far to keep myself on track when motivation is low . . .

Tips for when your motivation is lulling:

1. look back and what you have achieved so far

Photos are great, as is being able to step into those really big trousers you used to wear and hold a clear lot of inches either side!

2. Reward yourself

You’ve been working hard, give yourself a treat – clothes shopping, weekend away, whatever you like

3. Take a break!

Don’t be too hard on yourself, everyone deserves a break once in a while.  Try to up your calories (in a controlled manner) and maintain your weight, work on your fitness instead perhaps (a tip given to me by Jon – thanks Jon!).  I have also found that this is also a really good way to beat a weightloss plateau.

4. Mix it up

Doing the same exercises day in and day out is soooooo BORING.  Mix it up, change things, make it harder to achieve, work towards a goal or event (e.g. a fun run, charity event – race for life is coming up for instance).  Don’t let yourself get bored and stop as a result.

5. Keep it real

Be sensible and keep your goals realistic.  Have a realistic plan with goals which break down your weightloss into managable bits.  For example start with a goal of 10% loss in total body weight.  Enjoy the changes, then lose another 10%, and so one.  Becoming disparaged with unreasonable expectations of yourself is a real lifestyle change stopper.

Till next time

Hi All!

Thought I would talk about keeping determined and being patient with losing weight, which can be really tough, particularly when the weight just seems to stop shifting.

When I first started my new healthy regime, I paid a personal trainer for the first 4 months, to ensure I stuck to the exercise.  He pushed me really hard, but with the small, slow and steady changes in eating habits the weight literally just dropped off.  I could expect to lose as much as 2-3kgs/wk, which kept up for a few months!  I would come home after a session and an hour later I could see a change in my body.  I used to have really horrible ‘back fat’ which I hated, and with every session I had, after every week, I could literally see it melting away.  This was great as it gave me a real boost and it was easy to keep going – I really did not want that back fat back! Every time someone offered me a tasty something I really did not want to have it.  I wanted to get my fitness up so it was possible to exercise more so I could become a lean, tall, agile women, like the others at the gym.

However as I started to lose more and more weight, and get down to a size where I had a figure, could buy clothes in any shop – which is what I wanted – the visible difference in my body shape between weeks started to get smaller.  This has only got difficult for me recently, as I cannot notice the difference week by week or even bi-weekly as the difference is now so subtle.  However overall  I am much happier with my body and the way it looks and feels and the way I feel inside – so much more healthy, bouncy and full of energy, and much much happier and confident than before.  However I don’t think I am totally there yet, and want to lose 1 more dress size (so I’m a UK 12-14 rather than a 14-16).  To be honest though this last 11 kgs is turning out to be really hard to lose, much harder than the 30.7 kgs which preceded it.

However I have heard that this is very common.  People lose tremendous amounts of weight and then the last stone takes much longer to lose.  

If like me you find yourself in this situation, just hang in there, its not easy to lose weight.  Your body adapts to the new regime, learns to live on lower calories, burns less during exercise.  Over the past weeks I have been racking my brains over how to kick my weightloss back into gear, however the truth of it is that I was feeling really unenthused about exercise and eating salads – I was bored and fed up with the same routine week in and week out.  I really was not sufficiently determined or patient, and since my weight was stable, I wasn’t getting any reward for trying to control my eating habits.

Sometimes however you have to be patient both with yourself and how fast you can make changes, and with your body to respond to those changes.  With the support of my husband and family, I have managed to slowly change back to the old routine of better food in sensible portions with regular exercise.  Now the weight is coming off again, at a slower rate, but there isn’t so much excess fat and I am much fitter now – the difference can still be seen, it just takes longer and is more subtle than before, but it is good enough for me to keep going.

If you are really struggling to lose that last bit of weight and are thinking of throwing in the towel, do this:

Current weight: 75.7kgs, 0.7kgs till next target of 75kgs, weight lost so far: 30.7kgs, BMI reduced by: 11.9, down from UK size 22 to size 14

BEFORE:

AFTER:

End target 65kgs, size 12 – NOT FAR NOW!

Till next time

Hi Everyone!

This week I lost 1kg – wahey! I am now 76.3kgs, 1.3kgs till my next target of 75kgs.  It is taking a lot longer than I would like but I am getting there slowly but surely.  I have been worrying about hitting a plateau and talking at length about tackling it in my blogs over the past month or so, but look at my weightloss overall so far: – You can see that my weightloss has slowed down considerably for quite a while and remained stable for about amonth, but it is still going south.  Also my size 14 trousers are starting to get a bit of extra room in them!  I won’t hold my breathe, but I could be on my way (slowly) to a size 12  

So how was my week? I must have been doing something different to kick start my weightloss again.  I cycled to and from work everyday, instead of taking the bus or a car I always, wherever possible walked instead, even if it was miles and took me and my husband all day, we did it.  I also went for a short 15-30 minute jog if I didn’t have enough time to travel to the gym.  When I went to the gym I jogged or cycled there, depending on how much time I had.  I haven’t had the chance to go to the gym much however, since I am still running my study and moving home.  However in my spare time I am running around packing, cleaning, travelling on the train with heavy bags to schools – you get the idea.

So basically instead of my usual routine of going to the gym after a sedentary day and doing an hour 3-5 days a week, I have just been more generally active in my everyday life.  I was worried because I was really hungry and eating above my recommended intake everyday and was sure I would not lose weight, or even put some on, but due to the extra activity, I seemed to have lost weight anyway.

So I suppose a way of losing weight if you can’t afford to go to the gym, or don’t want to go for whatever reason, just try and become more active in your everyday life.  Walk, cycle or jog to and from work and to places on weekends.  This seems to be doing wonders for me at the moment

Oh! I was going to tell you about my Ju-Jutsu class wasn’t I!  It was OK, it wasn’t much of a workout, but the people were very friendly and welcoming.  However there was a lot of mixed ability and not really enough time to practice the moves which I found very hard.  I am going to try some classes at the university, since they are smaller and have many more beginners starting at the same time.  I am also definitely going to try and join an intermediate/advanced pilates class at the uni – if they have one that is!

In the mean time, as another time saver I have found that exercise DVD’s are a really great way to do some exercise.  When I have gone home to visit schools for my study I can’t really do any exercise – I am away from my gym and travel as light as possible so don’t usually bring running clothes.  However there were lots of pilates and yoga DVD’s at my families house, so before bed I did an hour or so of these relaxing, body conditioning routines.  They were really great and I have borrowed a few to try at home before I come back next week!  Again, if you don’t want to join a gym, I would recommend borrowing some exercise tapes from your library or buying them from a local book or DVD shop.

Hopefully next week I will have finally reached my next goal! I don’t want to look too far ahead, but after I am down to 75kgs, I will then try and slim down to 65kgs, which will bring me into my ‘normal’ BMI range.  I am still a little worried about losing too much, so before I do this I will visit the doctor to get some advice on whether or not I am still dangerously overweight, just very muscular, or if I could just do to lose a little more weight.

Till next time

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.