Diet & Exercise Report
Monday, August 5th, 2002 17:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeWell, having started by using my LJ mostly as a dream diary, I've decided to include diet & exercise reports to document my ongoing battle of the bulge.
*Progress in the last 7 months*
On January 7th, a group of my friends at work started Tub Club, a 6 month weight loss support program. It involved setting ourselves a target weight, a weekly weigh-in on a set of electronic scales brought in from home by one of the group and supportive (some would say nagging) discussions of various diet and exercise regimes. We all paid £10 towards prizes for the three most successful dieters. Someone devised a very complicated spreadsheet showing weekly weight loss, cumulative weight loss, percentage of initial body weight lost, progress toward target, etc. and including a graph showing our weights each week, so we could easily check our progress. It was a mixed group, with some of us being very overweight and wanting to lose quite a lot of weight, while there were several keen runners who just wanted to lose a little to help them improve their racing and triathlon times.
By the middle of May I had lost 1 stone, down from 19 st 7 lb to 18 st 7 lb. I had improved my exercise regime but was struggling with a low fat diet and my line on the graph was a bit of a roller coaster.
I had started reading the Motley Fool UK weight training board, and several of the posters kept mentioning how well they had done on the Atkins Diet, so I looked it up on the net and then bought a book about it. I have now been on it since Thursday 16th May, and have lost another 1 st 12 lb as of this morning's weigh-in. I know that a low-carbohydrate diet may not be for everyone, but I clicked with it straightaway. This was mainly due to being allowed to eat cheese, which is one of my favourite things in life, and which I had been avoiding for what seems like forever in my attempts to eat a low-fat diet. The sugar cravings stopped almost immediately, and not snacking between meals is probably the main thing helping me to lose the weight.
The Tub Club's 6-month program finished the first week in July, and I won £10 for coming 3rd, so I got my money back. We immediately started a new 3-month program. This time we bought a communal set of scales to be kept permanently at work, and we are now split into two groups - for weight loss and weight maintenance. Of course I'm in the weight loss group, as I have still got a long way to go.
I am also participating in the 6-week weight loss challenges on the Motley Fool board. Each challenge involves a virtual cruise on a ship, setting ourselves weight and exercise targets and lots of mutual support and encouragement.
So here are the stats for the year to date:
Monday 6th January 2002 - 19 st 7 lb.
Monday 5th August 2002 - 16 st 9 lb.
Total lost in 7 months - 2 st 12 lb (40 lb !!)
*Progress in the last 7 months*
On January 7th, a group of my friends at work started Tub Club, a 6 month weight loss support program. It involved setting ourselves a target weight, a weekly weigh-in on a set of electronic scales brought in from home by one of the group and supportive (some would say nagging) discussions of various diet and exercise regimes. We all paid £10 towards prizes for the three most successful dieters. Someone devised a very complicated spreadsheet showing weekly weight loss, cumulative weight loss, percentage of initial body weight lost, progress toward target, etc. and including a graph showing our weights each week, so we could easily check our progress. It was a mixed group, with some of us being very overweight and wanting to lose quite a lot of weight, while there were several keen runners who just wanted to lose a little to help them improve their racing and triathlon times.
By the middle of May I had lost 1 stone, down from 19 st 7 lb to 18 st 7 lb. I had improved my exercise regime but was struggling with a low fat diet and my line on the graph was a bit of a roller coaster.
I had started reading the Motley Fool UK weight training board, and several of the posters kept mentioning how well they had done on the Atkins Diet, so I looked it up on the net and then bought a book about it. I have now been on it since Thursday 16th May, and have lost another 1 st 12 lb as of this morning's weigh-in. I know that a low-carbohydrate diet may not be for everyone, but I clicked with it straightaway. This was mainly due to being allowed to eat cheese, which is one of my favourite things in life, and which I had been avoiding for what seems like forever in my attempts to eat a low-fat diet. The sugar cravings stopped almost immediately, and not snacking between meals is probably the main thing helping me to lose the weight.
The Tub Club's 6-month program finished the first week in July, and I won £10 for coming 3rd, so I got my money back. We immediately started a new 3-month program. This time we bought a communal set of scales to be kept permanently at work, and we are now split into two groups - for weight loss and weight maintenance. Of course I'm in the weight loss group, as I have still got a long way to go.
I am also participating in the 6-week weight loss challenges on the Motley Fool board. Each challenge involves a virtual cruise on a ship, setting ourselves weight and exercise targets and lots of mutual support and encouragement.
So here are the stats for the year to date:
Monday 6th January 2002 - 19 st 7 lb.
Monday 5th August 2002 - 16 st 9 lb.
Total lost in 7 months - 2 st 12 lb (40 lb !!)
