Rest and motivation

Yesterday was a rest day....5 days in a row meant I needed one. My body still aches today, I am lacking motivation to exercise, but exercise I must.

Rest days are difficult in some ways. My Philips DirectLife monitor always flashes a disappointingly small number of lights at the end of a rest day. I usually then get a nice message asking me if I want to reduce my target. I always decline, on the basis that the target is perfect for an active day. It spurs me on to do that little bit more, to keep using the stairs, to walk places I'd normally not, to park in the far corner of the supermarket car park.

But it does mean that rest days are very low vs target, and that in turn means that my weekly target is rarely 100%...you see, I have a pretty high target, well over 1,600 cals burned per day. 100% on one day is tough. But even if I hit the tough target on 5 or 6 days while resting for the other 2 or 1 days, it's impossible to reach 100% of the weekly target. I know the point of the monitor is to measure normal, everyday activity rather than exercise calories...but I guess I use it a little differently. I am not demotivated by not hitting the 100% weekly. The light show on a good day is surely enough reward (along with the smug grin I can afford myself). But it is also not designed with a light show for the weekly target achieved...so I can't be too far away from the norm.

Once again, blogging has raised my mood. I am now significantly more motivated to go and exercise than I was when I started writing.

So much so, I will choose a workout track of the day: "The Flood" by Take That (100 bpm; fast cycling).

Bring on the spinning bike!!!

Blogging works...

No sh*t!

I have cause to review the last 2 months progress. It is more or less the start of a new month. I have lost 5kg since January 5th. I had already lost 4 of those 5kgs on 2nd Feb. 9 posts in January plus 2 in Feb before the 2nd adds up to 11 posts and 4kgs loss. Since then, 3 posts and 1kg loss. The maths is clear to me...you do it too if you want...

So here I am again. February was a strange month including a hastily arranged business trip to, quite literally, the other side of the world. Not conducive to great eating or exercise regularity.

But I'm back on it now, feeling good, weighing less, training more, eating well, almost at the point of having to punch a new hole in my belt...some have even said (prompted) that they can see the 5kgs gone. I'm not so sure myself, but it's sort of nice to hear anyway.

No real change to what I'm doing as it seems to be working just fine...the only reason progress isn't better is me not sticking to what I should. Protein and low GI vegetables are the bulk of my eating these days. Pure and simple, 3 times a day and 7 days a week. Good quality food, recognisable not processed, and mainly just not starchy carb-like... see Dr John Briffa for more details!

Work out track of the day...none, I was doing PT so no i-pod today.

Nobody's watching

I have come to the strange conclusion that the main thing wrong with Western society today can be summed up by the "dance like nobody's watching" attitude.

At first glance, the exhaltation sounds completely reasonable and fitting for our times. We spend too much time worrying what others think. We need to do what's right for us. Right here and right now. Don't worry about what others think. Do what you think is right. Do it now and do it like nobody's watching.

Dancing is a relatively neutral activity to use as the example to prove the efficacy of the theory. Even if you are a bad dancer, dancing badly rarely hurts another human being. It may offend some dance snobs, but no real damage. Maybe a bruised toe now and again or an elbow in the face...but nothing earth-shattering.

But extend the philosophy into the rest of life and something weird starts to happen...
Pick your nose like nobody's watching?
F*rt like nobody can smell it?
Kill all your political enemies like nobody's watching (they aren't...because you banned the BBC or the www)?

Where is the line?

And there's the problem. The philosophy relies on every individual setting their own limits of what is acceptable to do "like nobody's watching". And every individual sets different limits. One dances like nobody's watching, one picks their nose, and Mugabe does what he does...all of it justified by their own limits and moral codes (even the lack of a moral code is a moral code in itself).

What's this got to do with losing weight?

Eat cake like nobody's watching.
Skive off the gym like nobody's watching.
Drink a second beer in front of the TV (and go on, open the bag of crisps...nobody's watching).

Sound familiar? "Dance like nobody's watching" creeps into your life and takes over and makes just about everything acceptable as long as nobody's watching.

That's why blogging works. Somebody is watching. Or can watch at least.

So eat every mouthful as though millions are watching.
Exercise like millions are watching.
Blog like millions are reading.

Habits and self-sabotage

Another week where I get to Friday and I've managed to force my sorry ass to the gym only once. This always happens with a change of location and trying to get myself into a new pattern, a new lifestyle and a new way of being. I always seem to go down the path of least resistance...but that inevitably means I form BAD habits which then need breaking and replacing with GOOD habits.

I guess this comes back to self-sabotage. In the long run it would be easier and more effective if I just formed the GOOD habits first off. But I do so love to make things hard (or even impossible) for myself. It's just so comforting to know that there's nothing I can do, and I always have a ready excuse at hand. It takes away all accountability.

But that what the blogging is for - accountability.
So does fessing up on here to my tendency to self-sabotage (and I could go into long and boring details about the amount of it I've done, both professionally and personally...maybe for a later date) and to my bad habit forming help?

Blogging about it is of course going to help; because blogging is the silver bullet.

But blogging is just the start...I also need a plan of attack for forming the good habits next week.
1. I'm going to plan in my training sessions for the evenings and lunchtimes, spread across the week.
2. I'm going to the supermarket on Monday and buying 5 days supply of soup/secret October ingredient.
3. I'm going to bring 3 sets of training kit with me next week and my bum bag (funny how the small details like nowhere to put my hotel key or i-pod can deflect me and provide an excuse).
4. I'm going to go for a run or a walk each morning BEFORE breakfast (run or walk to fit in with my other training sessions) on at least 2 mornings.

Forcing out a post...

It's getting harder to force out a post every day. But that is exactly what I need to do. For me. Not for anyone else. Just for me.

I have just read a blog that talked about inspiring others towards weight loss. I will be brutally honest...that's not why I'm here. I'm here to inspire ME towards weight loss. Just at the moment I don't give a cr*p about inspiring others. (Nobody is reading anyway)
I have to be selfish and single-minded about it. If that makes me a bad person, sorry, but that's the way it needs to be for me at the moment. I'm just being honest about it. Maybe when my weight is under control and down below 100kg I can worry about inspiring others. Or maybe I can worry about just staying there once I'm there.

And as to Marie Clair - at least it sparks the debate. I stand by my original analysis that blogging helps you lose weight. No, is essential for losing weight. I don't really care if it's sponsored. I don't really care if it's good nutritional advice. I don't really care about the foibles, obsessions or addictions of bloggers.

My list for giving it everything probably defies 99% of dieting and nutritional rules. But I'm not expecting anyone to follow it. Hey, I'm not even following it myself!
September has given ME insight into ME. What works for ME. What I can stick to and what I can't stick to. And do you know what? That's about the most important thing it could have done for me...

Weight 116.2. Weight loss during "Giving it Everything" September 2kg. Total weight loss 2kg.

I have an idea for October. Yes I know it's already begun...I will be implementing this idea from tomorrow. I'm just not allowed to say what it is because I will be accused of sponsorship or leading nobody astray.

Personal Training

I ended the relationship with my second PT yesterday. He's done nothing wrong but it looks likely I won't be in Belgium for much longer, I was at the end of payment plan and so decided to stop it there and then. The review is not bad...my weight was stable for most of the time, but we have explored a lot of reasons for my lack of mobility, injuries, nutrition etc and I am finally on a downward trend. This is of course due to blogging and Giving it Everything rather than anything specific he did.

Last time I had a PT, I put on weight. I got into the habit of only training with him and not otherwise. Plus Christmas was in the middle of it all, for which he was clearly not to blame. I have a theory and concern that many PT clients fall into my habit. There is an element of believing that because you do fantastic workouts with a PT, you have got it covered. But once a week is never enough...and who's got the money to spare to do more than that? Also, I do believe there is an inherent danger of being so reliant on the PT, that when you hit the gym without him or her, you are left wondering what to do.

This is not to say that the functional training that PTs tend to specialise in isn't a good thing. But I'm still searching for the ideal way to get that AND train "normally' and often on top. I will go it alone for the next few months, and will then consider if I get a new PT once settled into my new location.

Talking of which, do I have to change the name of the blog? Nothing else works...so I think it has to stay despite my time in Belgium coming to an end.

Weekend breaks

Last weekend was a bit of an enforced break from blogging, as we had some internet connectivity issues in our new house. I settled with the idea that this blog could be a 5 day a week thing...posts typed up on arrival at work, and just published in time to meet the rest of the day antlers on.


But now I'm having second thoughts. My weekend was bad from a number of different viewpoints. What I ate wasn't great. How I ate definitely could have been improved. How much I ate doesn't even bear thinking about. Exercise was mixed but the drive wasn't there, and I have to admit also continued into the start of the work week. And of course, I didn't post all weekend.


And since I've discovered the magical link between blogging and weight loss, I have now concluded that I simply can't afford not to post on the weekends. The impact on my weight curve is too significant, and even if I have a great rest of the week, I cannot fully recover the damage done at the weekend. and damage limitation doesn't feel good. I'd much rather be making real progress.


I come back to my caption under the "target me" photo at the right. Although written in jest, there is some truth to the fact that I will lose the weight when I have blogged enough...I searched a couple of other blogs yesterday and found that, just like my previous attempts, there are a large number of long-untouched blogs, mostly written by people who are still to be successful in this weight loss journey, and many more that are carefully tended like a bonsai, mostly written by people who have been or are being successful...people who have blogged enough.

Blogging = Success!