When I started this blog I was full of good intentions. Then 2 things happened. My laptop keyboard finally gave up the ghost; I've spend the last 16 months using a USB keyboard plugged into my laptop. Not a fund way to type anything. I also realised that I hadn't quite reached my goal and I certainly hadn't got anything like as far as understanding how I was going to keep the weight off.
So it seemed to make sense to stop blogging.
But now I've got a new laptop, so hopefully I can start writing something that might be useful to people again.
Saturday, 23 June 2012
Saturday, 26 February 2011
Whatever you do...
MOVE.
I've lost what I would consider to be significant amounts of weight three times in my life now. Which makes me sound like a yo-yo dieter, but never mind.
Each time, I have changed what I eat, but I have also done something that I wasn't doing when I put the weight on. I was moving. Well, I know I move every day, but I was moving more. I was walking, swimming, going to the gym, doing exercise videos/dvds/computer games. Heh, you can almost tell when I was losing weight based on the medium was using.
When I've put weight on again, it's because I've stopped moving. I get to a point where the amount I'm moving means I can eat pretty much what I want to, then stop moving. I don't stop eating, why would I? So I put on weight again.
This time, I've done it differently. I started moving more long before I even started to think about food. Moving became a part of my daily routine. Part of that was because I had to. There's no treatment for ME, but exercise has been proven to help relieve symptoms. So I started to move more.
Every day. Not much at first, I was swimming maybe 400m a day. We got a dog; he needed walking, so I had to walk. At first I would think that Kei didn't take him the same distance as me. Then I realised I was just walking a lot slower than he was. After over a year of morning swims and dog walks I felt I could handle the gym. Again, I started slowly and built it up.
Eventually it clicked that if I started to eat less on top of the moving more I would lose weight. And I have. Steadily every week the weight has dropped off. I miss moving when I don't do it. In fact, I feel really crap when I don't do it. I've discovered endorphins; I like them.
I've started doing things I never thought I would do, like running. I have previously in my life declared that I can't run the length of myself. Turns out that was a lie. I am now perfectly capable of running at 10km/h for, um, I'm up to 18 1/2 minutes on the treadmill. I've run outside, where non gym people can see me.
Moving also means I can eat more. This I like.
Make moving more part of your life. Find the time to fit it in. I do it first thing, otherwise I know that I'll find excuses to put it off. Don't even think about what you're eating until you have made moving more part of your life.
Find what works for you. If you like exercising with other people join a class or take up a team sport. If you like going outside, walk, run, cycle. If you like getting wet, swim. If you don't really like doing anything, get off the bus a couple of stops early. Start small and build up. Do something every day. Cleaning the house counts as exercise, that can be what you do one day a week. You'll just have to work out what you do on the other six.
Moving has been a revelation. This time I won't be giving it up.
I've lost what I would consider to be significant amounts of weight three times in my life now. Which makes me sound like a yo-yo dieter, but never mind.
Each time, I have changed what I eat, but I have also done something that I wasn't doing when I put the weight on. I was moving. Well, I know I move every day, but I was moving more. I was walking, swimming, going to the gym, doing exercise videos/dvds/computer games. Heh, you can almost tell when I was losing weight based on the medium was using.
When I've put weight on again, it's because I've stopped moving. I get to a point where the amount I'm moving means I can eat pretty much what I want to, then stop moving. I don't stop eating, why would I? So I put on weight again.
This time, I've done it differently. I started moving more long before I even started to think about food. Moving became a part of my daily routine. Part of that was because I had to. There's no treatment for ME, but exercise has been proven to help relieve symptoms. So I started to move more.
Every day. Not much at first, I was swimming maybe 400m a day. We got a dog; he needed walking, so I had to walk. At first I would think that Kei didn't take him the same distance as me. Then I realised I was just walking a lot slower than he was. After over a year of morning swims and dog walks I felt I could handle the gym. Again, I started slowly and built it up.
Eventually it clicked that if I started to eat less on top of the moving more I would lose weight. And I have. Steadily every week the weight has dropped off. I miss moving when I don't do it. In fact, I feel really crap when I don't do it. I've discovered endorphins; I like them.
I've started doing things I never thought I would do, like running. I have previously in my life declared that I can't run the length of myself. Turns out that was a lie. I am now perfectly capable of running at 10km/h for, um, I'm up to 18 1/2 minutes on the treadmill. I've run outside, where non gym people can see me.
Moving also means I can eat more. This I like.
Make moving more part of your life. Find the time to fit it in. I do it first thing, otherwise I know that I'll find excuses to put it off. Don't even think about what you're eating until you have made moving more part of your life.
Find what works for you. If you like exercising with other people join a class or take up a team sport. If you like going outside, walk, run, cycle. If you like getting wet, swim. If you don't really like doing anything, get off the bus a couple of stops early. Start small and build up. Do something every day. Cleaning the house counts as exercise, that can be what you do one day a week. You'll just have to work out what you do on the other six.
Moving has been a revelation. This time I won't be giving it up.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Don't diet
Possibly the biggest thing I have learned is diets don't work. If you tell yourself that your diet starts tomorrow, you binge today. If you tell yourself that there are foods you can't eat, within a week you will be craving them, eat them and then feel bad for doing it. This last bit is even more likely to happen if, like me, you're an emotional eater.
Diets don't teach the good habits you need to live a healthy life. Cutting out complete groups of food? Yeah, great idea. If we're not supposed to eat something, I'm pretty sure it should be toxic. The people I know who have always been a healthy weight don't cut whole food groups from their diet. When I've been on diets, particularly the super crazy ones that cut out whole food groups, like the south beach diet, I've lost a stone in a week. Then got fed up of my food choices being restricted and given up. Cue putting on all the weight again, plus some extra for good measure.
The other thing about diets is that we tend to think of them in terms of something that we do and then stop. They're a short term fix, or at best a medium one. We expect them to end and then we can go back to being the way we were before. I've learned that's just not possible. If the way you were eating before made you fat, why should that change if you're not fat any more? It won't. Eating too much of the wrong things, or just eating too much in general will make you gain weight again.
So, if you really want to lose weight and be healthy for the rest of your life, give up diets. If you're thinking about starting a diet, don't do it! If you're on one, give it up. Trust me, it's the first step towards being healthy for life.
Diets don't teach the good habits you need to live a healthy life. Cutting out complete groups of food? Yeah, great idea. If we're not supposed to eat something, I'm pretty sure it should be toxic. The people I know who have always been a healthy weight don't cut whole food groups from their diet. When I've been on diets, particularly the super crazy ones that cut out whole food groups, like the south beach diet, I've lost a stone in a week. Then got fed up of my food choices being restricted and given up. Cue putting on all the weight again, plus some extra for good measure.
The other thing about diets is that we tend to think of them in terms of something that we do and then stop. They're a short term fix, or at best a medium one. We expect them to end and then we can go back to being the way we were before. I've learned that's just not possible. If the way you were eating before made you fat, why should that change if you're not fat any more? It won't. Eating too much of the wrong things, or just eating too much in general will make you gain weight again.
So, if you really want to lose weight and be healthy for the rest of your life, give up diets. If you're thinking about starting a diet, don't do it! If you're on one, give it up. Trust me, it's the first step towards being healthy for life.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
An Introduction.
I suppose I should explain why I'm writing this.
I've been overweight pretty much my whole life. Seriously, I checked with my mum at the weekend. She reckoned I was definitely overweight by the time we went on holiday to France the summer before my little brother was born. He'll be 30 in August.
I am a statistic. I'm one of the people we're told to be concerned about. One of the people that are going to cost the NHS a fortune and it's all self inflicted. A GP once told me he had to tell me to lose weight, there was a government directive. Bless New Labour. I can't say that was the first time I was told to lose weight. I remember first being taken to a dietician when I was 8. To be honest, I remember my mum crashing her car on the way home, but that's the same as remembering going to the dietician, right?
I next went to see one at 15. This was because the asthma specialist decided that it was because I was fat that I couldn't breathe. It wasn't; they did a test where they made me run up and down stairs until I couldn't breathe and decided that no, I really did have asthma. In fact, as well as some common allergies that a lot of asthmatics have they said I had exercise induced asthma. That basically means I'm allergic to exercise. If that's not a brilliant excuse for being fat I don't know what is.
I've lost significant amounts of weight over the last 15 years or so, only to eventually put it all back on again, plus more for good measure. I'd like to claim there was some underlying medical condition responsible for making me fat, but it would be a lie. Even though I'm asthmatic and have ME I know that these conditions didn't make me fat.
What made me overweight was food. I love food. All food, not just food that's "bad" for you. I like food so much that it made me overweight. At my heaviest that was a whopping 11 stone overweight. Even though I did have ME when I reached my heaviest I will never blame my weight on my illness, it's all about eating too much. A bit of not moving about enough, but mainly eating too much.
So I've been overweight for 30 years. Until I weighed myself at the weekend. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm not overweight. I'm healthy. I'm "normal" - OK, I live in Britain, that's probably not normal is it?
Anyway, from weighing 11 stone too much less than 3 years ago, I'm now healthy. It's been a long journey, but I've learned a lot of things along the way. I figure they might be useful to others, so I'm going to write them down. That's what I'm doing here.
I've not learned anything earth-shattering, I've not found a magic bullet, but if what I've learned can help anyone else then it's worth it for more than just me being healthy.
I hope what I've learned has changed my life, it's probably too early to tell.
I've been overweight pretty much my whole life. Seriously, I checked with my mum at the weekend. She reckoned I was definitely overweight by the time we went on holiday to France the summer before my little brother was born. He'll be 30 in August.
I am a statistic. I'm one of the people we're told to be concerned about. One of the people that are going to cost the NHS a fortune and it's all self inflicted. A GP once told me he had to tell me to lose weight, there was a government directive. Bless New Labour. I can't say that was the first time I was told to lose weight. I remember first being taken to a dietician when I was 8. To be honest, I remember my mum crashing her car on the way home, but that's the same as remembering going to the dietician, right?
I next went to see one at 15. This was because the asthma specialist decided that it was because I was fat that I couldn't breathe. It wasn't; they did a test where they made me run up and down stairs until I couldn't breathe and decided that no, I really did have asthma. In fact, as well as some common allergies that a lot of asthmatics have they said I had exercise induced asthma. That basically means I'm allergic to exercise. If that's not a brilliant excuse for being fat I don't know what is.
I've lost significant amounts of weight over the last 15 years or so, only to eventually put it all back on again, plus more for good measure. I'd like to claim there was some underlying medical condition responsible for making me fat, but it would be a lie. Even though I'm asthmatic and have ME I know that these conditions didn't make me fat.
What made me overweight was food. I love food. All food, not just food that's "bad" for you. I like food so much that it made me overweight. At my heaviest that was a whopping 11 stone overweight. Even though I did have ME when I reached my heaviest I will never blame my weight on my illness, it's all about eating too much. A bit of not moving about enough, but mainly eating too much.
So I've been overweight for 30 years. Until I weighed myself at the weekend. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm not overweight. I'm healthy. I'm "normal" - OK, I live in Britain, that's probably not normal is it?
Anyway, from weighing 11 stone too much less than 3 years ago, I'm now healthy. It's been a long journey, but I've learned a lot of things along the way. I figure they might be useful to others, so I'm going to write them down. That's what I'm doing here.
I've not learned anything earth-shattering, I've not found a magic bullet, but if what I've learned can help anyone else then it's worth it for more than just me being healthy.
I hope what I've learned has changed my life, it's probably too early to tell.
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