1 week off 6km run

Well I've been a bit slack, as I hadn't been for a run since Halloween, I kept meaning to go for a run but the week kind of got away from me. Anyway after sitting on my arse all weekend and after having a Banoffee pie for lunch today I knew I had to get out and go for a run, and I did.

I got caught at a traffic lights so instead of stopping for the cars to leave I decided to go a different way, fortunately this added an extra km to my distance and there was a steep hill. I got back after 49 minutes, which isn't particularly good I know but as I've been off for a week and this is the furthest I have run for sometime I didn't think it was too bad, if I'd run all the way back I might have cut it down by 5-10 minutes.

Week 2 - Monday

So I had a bit of a boozey weekend, it was a friends birthday in Cardiff which meant eating out and also drinking for two nights. It was great fun but it wasn't very productive, this meant that even though I was pretty tired when I got back this evening I still had to go out for a run.

I had a good run though, I ended up running most of the way to the Spectrum then had a short break before running most of the way back. I'm going to try and get 2 other runs in this weekend and I may even try and get a longer run in over the weekend.

I'm back in the game

Well not really, I've only just managed my 2nd jog of the week, I guess its better than nothing.

I had a pretty uptight day at work, so had quite a bit of energy, it was also a miserable night with quite a bit of rain, it wasn't pouring down but it wasn't the most enjoyable night for a run. But I went out anyway, did the same distance as Saturday and I stopped at the same spots on the way there, but on the way back I really got my rythym, I ran from the Spectrum all the way to Frankie and Bennys, now this isn't that far, but considering I did exactly the same distance on Saturday bit I had to stop part way I was quite proud, I just hope it wasn't a one off.

I was thinking about what to do regarding the Protein shakes, I could take them now but I'm not really doing weights so it could be fairly pointless, but then again if I do them now I'll be able to move onto some muscle gaining shakes in the new year, there isn't any rush so for the time being I think I'm just going to stick without them at least for a couple of weeks.

Back again

Well its been a few months since I was last here, I've been having lots of fun over the summer, lots of fun weekends, drinking and eating way too much. All of that fun without any exercise at all, not for any real reason I just lost the motivation, got bored with the gym and because everyone told me that I looked good I kind of felt like I didn't have to do anymore.

But I'm starting to get some motivation back, as I cancelled my gym membership I have been looking for a new gym to join, there aren't many really decent gyms in Guildford, they are either really good (and expensive) or they are cheap but have very little kit in them. But fortunately there is a new gym opening very soon, its just around the corner from my house, its cheap £15 a month, and its going to be open 24 hours, unfortunately it won't be open until January.

So I'm going to try and do some running between now and then hopefully it will get me in better shape than I am now, I went on a run this evening and its my first run that I've been on for a while, it was very difficult I only did 3 miles and I needed a few breaks to catch my breath, but if I'm as dedicated as I was when I did the Reading Half Marathon I should get back into pretty good shape in a few weeks.

Man Flu!

I had a pretty disastrous week last week, I went out for my friends birthday in London which was an all night binge fuelled by Mojitos, it was a great night though. Unfortunately On Monday night I started feeling a bit ropey but not too bad, then on Tuesday I woke up feeling rubbish sore throat, headache, shivers, aches & pains. I felt pretty rough up until Thursday, but I didn't go back to the gym until this evening, and even then I wasn't 100% I really struggled with some of the exercises and I didn't finish my complete set.

But saying that, I got on the scales this morning and I had dropped a lot of weight, all of which was fat. It may just be temporary, but its definitely good results for now.

Also I have posted some new photos, you can see a big change over the first month, my gut dramatically reduced. The results during the 2nd month weren't quite as significant, but you can see some subtle differences, I don't think the changes are going to become quite as obvious overtime.

Also hit some substantial goals with my weight loss, I dropped under the 20% fat mark this week, and I've dropped under the 13 stone mark as well, all very good and definitely an improvement, I'd like to get to 12 and a half stone, I know it will be a struggle but it would be interesting to see how much difference another half a stone loss will make. I may need some more trousers though as I need belts with most of them now.

Long time no hear

Well its been a while since my last post, the last few weeks have been a real challenge, fortunately they haven't been a complete waste.

The gym in the last few weeks has been going through some refurbishment, so some of the equipment has been out of action, in some ways this is good as it got my on a few other pieces of equipment. Fortunately it looks like the refurb is almost complete so I'll be able to get back on my equipment. I also haven't been going quite as often as I should have been, twice a week at a minimum but I do try and get in 3 times if I can.

On the diet side this hasn't been going so well, I was at home a few weeks ago for the rugby, this therefore involved an entire day of booze and bad food, followed by a couple of days getting fed at home. Also last weekend I did get very lazy and bought some unhealthy food, also last night I was at a works do so I had a few drinks and a 3 course meal.

This weekend I'm going to be on healthy food all weekend.

I've also got to reassess my protein shake purchases, the maximuscle stacks aren't cheap and I'm wondering if I should try and find a cheaper alternative. Their customer service also hasn't been particularly great, I contacted them to get some advice about my next purchase, I got put through to the wrong department, they said that someone would call me back later that afternoon. That was 2-3 weeks ago, I'm sure they've forgotten about it now.
Also one item from my last stack was out of stock and I'm still waiting to recieve it after 3 weeks.

I've also been spending a lot of time thinking about purchasing a house, I saw an amazing flat last weekend. But that does mean reviewing my finances, I don't know if that is just going to be a pipe dream or whether it will actually be possible, we will need to wait and see.

Week 6

Well this week has been a bit of a challenge, I have had to fit in sessions with my chiropractor on Monday and Friday. This wasn't going to be a problem as I was going to fit in training on Tuesday & Thursday, my training session on Thursday didn't happen as my morale was down, I was going to try and fit in some training after my chiropractor but I didn't think it would be a good idea straight after the session.

So I'm going to have to pull my finger out and get to the gym tomorrow, and go for a run on Sunday.

I'm not going to be expecting much loss this week, due to my lack of training, I'm going to have to get stuck into my training next week.

On the plus side some of the ladies at work mentioned my weight loss, I couldn't help getting slightly embarassed, but its also a good morale booster.

I have a big weekend next weekend as I'm going to the Heineken cup final with some friends, it will be interesting to see if they notice any weight loss, I have seen some of them for months so I should look very different. Weigh in on Monday lets hope we get a better result than last week, although that will be difficult when I haven't done anymore exercise.

Weigh in 12/05/08

Well I did a weigh in this morning, and I'm a bit confused, I don't know whether to be happy or sad.

Overall I dropped 3 pounds from last week, which is the biggest drop in overall weight since I started. But this has been entirely lean muscle mass, in fact I lost more than 3 pounds, as for some reason my body fat increased by 0.5 pounds. It looks like the few ciders I had on the weekend didn't do me any favours, I know that my diet is the one thing that I do need to work on, everything else is going well, but I need to eat much cleaner.

I have created a food diary, so hopefully that will help me keep track of what I am eating, its quite a clever spreadsheet. I just need to make sure I keep it updated.

I'm also seeing my chiropractor this evening (Which should be fun!!) which unfortunately means I won't be able to train, but I am going to go and do weights tomorrow, Thursday and Saturday, I'll also try and fit in some running on Wednesday and Friday, hopefully this extra exercise will help burn the fat.

Weigh in tomorrow!!

I thought I'd get a sneak preview before my weigh in tomorrow, I've been a bit concerned that my progress this week has been nonexistant, I haven't cheated much this week, although I did have a few drinks on Friday night. The results don't look good, but I'll now for sure tomorrow when I do my weigh in.

I'm off to see a chiropractor tomorrow night, his taking a look at some back pain that I have, I don't think this has ben due to weights, it is due to a car accident I had a few months back. Unfortunately due to the times I don't know when I'll be able to fit in my training.

Well the weigh in this morning gave me some motivation, I went for a run first thing this morning, it was painful as it was first thing in the morning and I haven't been for a run in ages.

Anyway, after today I'm going to have to start writing a food diary, I've tried to do these before but they are difficult to keep up-to-date. Also I have the issue regarding lunch at work, as I get the cooked lunch I have no idea what the protein/carb/fat content is for the food, but I'll see what I can do.

Feeling good today

So I went for my usual gym trip this evening, for some reason I was feeling extra strong. I increased the weight on one exercise, and I increased the reps on a few others from 10x3 to 12x3. Also some of the exercises that I really struggle with (which I have in the past not been able to complete) went really well today, I still struggled but I did finish them and they were slightly easier.

I'm also now completely out of Promax (Nightmare!!!) only joking its not the end of the world, I should have the new stuff tomorrow plenty of time for my next gym outing on Thursday.

I did get a maximuscle catalogue today though, I'm still completely confused about what the difference is between Promax and Promax diet, I'm happy to continue using Promax diet for the next month, but I'm going to contact Maximuscle to see what they suggest after I finish this stack.

Weigh in & Photos

So I did a weight in this morning, overall my weight has dropped but only just, it would be fair to say it hasn't changed at all. My body fat has dropped by 0.9%, which has meant a drop in about 1.7 pounds of fat. My muscle mass has increased to 140 pounds, this was the same as when I started the exercise. Overall I guess there hasn't been a massive change, but at least my overll fat content has dropped.

I also decided to add some photos of my progress so far, I'll be changing these photos as time goes by, the photos from 1/4/08 were very fuzzy but when I reduced the size they didn't turn out so bad. When I first started taking photos it was difficult to see my progress, but after creating the slides and comparing the photos side by side I am pleased with my progress.

I'm pleased with the side view as it shows a noticeable change in my gut size, I never really realised how big my gut was until I took this photo a month ago. Although I have made progress I also realise that I still have a long way to go. I wasn't really that convinced by my front view (I was pleased with my side view so that wasn't a problem), but now that I have the photos side by side I'm quite pleased. You can see that the front of my gut has narrowed, my pecs don't look as droppy, also around the waist there does seem to be some improvements.

Bank Holiday workout

I missed my workout on Friday, I had to go into London for the day and ended up staying in town to catch up with a friend. This meant that my meals for the day were pretty much ruined, but the pizza we had tasted amazing!!

As I was feeling pretty tired and fragile by the time I got back to Guildford I decided to give the gym a miss, but I promised myself that I would hit it hard this morning, which I did. I wasn't feeling 100% when I got there but I put the time in and did my sets, I felt quite fulfilled afterwards.

I also placed an order in for a new stack of maximuscle products, I thought I'd have enough to last me another week but the Promax diet seems to have dissappeared in the last day or so. I decided to go for the same products as last time, I'm certainly not ready to start bulking up, and to be honest I was slightly confused by the other weight loss stacks that they had, so many different products that all do the same thing? Anyway hopefully I'll get them delivered soon before all my stock runs out.

I'll be adding my stats tomorrow morning, I have been keeping an eye on this throughout the week so I'm expecting to see some changes.

Actual fat loss??

I got home from work this afternoon and I decided to take some stats, they aren't going to go in my stats but I was interested to see what they were.

My weight had increased slightly, and my % body fat has dropped, this got me thinking if I had no idea that my body fat % had decreased and I had only seen my weight increase I would be quite dissapointed, but I know that the weight increase has actual been due to increased muscle. and that my body fat has decreased.

This got me thinking should I really worry too much about my overall weight and should I set myself a target for this weight? or should I just concentrate on the body fat %.

I decided to do a few calculations, I multiplied my weight against my body fat %, I'm assuming that this will give me the weight of body fat on me. By my calculations I have dropped from 43.5 pounds of fat to just under 41 pounds of fat so I have lost 2.5 pounds (1.1kg) of fat.

To help me visualise this means I have pretty much lost over a kilo of lard. I couldn't find a photo of 1kg of lard I could only find this, which is about 500g I think:

Improve Progress charts

Well I decided to review my progress charts as the one I put up previously didn't show my progress very well. I have had to find a new Google gadget that would let me create these graphs, unfortunately there is no way to get the body fat and weight on the same chart so I have got to create two charts, if I'm feeling really geeky and adventurous I may look into creating my own gadget.

Anyway, with these new graphs you should be able to see that my weight has dropped over the last month, its not a great deal but I'm losing about a pound a week which isn't too bad, unfortunately this means I have about 3 months to go before I'm a healthy weight.

The body fat hasn't been a steady drop it was a bit dodgy during the first couple of weeks, but it looks like its going down now, lets just hope it is a bit more steady over the next few weeks.

Photos

I have taken some photos of myself as it is a good way of showing changes that are occuring, unfortunately the first set of photos I took are not in focus, and I also have not see a massive change between the photos which is slightly dissapointing, but I will certainly be adding some photos in the future I just need to make sure they show some improvement.

Supplements

For the last few weeks I have been using the Maximuscle weight loss stack, it basically consists of a months supply of Promax Diet, a tub of Thermobol and CLA-100 enough for the month.

Although I have seen some changes they haven't been as significant as I had hoped, I'm wondering if I should change the Maximuscle stack to one that concentrates on increasing muscle instead of losing fat. The only problem is as soon as you mention maximuscle on any website everyone just tells you to forget about Maximuscle and use something cheaper.

I'm going to do a bit more investigation before making a purchase.

So the graph below shows my current progress, it probably doesn't look that impressive but the good news is that my weight has dropped by a pound a week, I'd prefer it if I was losing more but any loss is good. My muscle mass has stayed fairly steady and so has my body fat %, I'm not sure if that is good or bad but time will tell.



One thing to point out is that I have been eating more, my daily diet currently consists of:

Breakfast: Porridge Oats, Protein shake & Coffee (The oats are new this week last week I was just having a protein shake and coffee)
Lunch: This is where I struggle, if I'm good then I'll have some tuna and a salad, if I'm bad then I'll have what ever is the cooked lunch at work.
Dinner: Protein shake, Fruit, Tuna on Ryvita this is spaced out throughout the evening.

Quick update

I've been going to the gym now for 2 weeks and although the changes haven't been massive I have noticed some changes. My weight has dropped a few pounds and my fat % has droppped slightly.

I think the downfall has been a couple of boozy nights on the weekends, but this weekend is going to be different, although probably very dull.

Anyway I'll give a better update on Monday after my weekly weigh in.

First workout

Well I did my first workout at the gym today, I've been given an all over workout so I should be able to get to the gym and train 3-4 times per week, depending on what is going on during the weekends.

Most of the exercises weren't to bad, until I got to work on my arms, I was using the 10kg dumb bells and I struggle to do 3 sets of 10, I ended up doing 3 set of 6, I'm sure I used to be able to life more than this, but I'm sure with time I'll get better.

I was feeling very tired though, this could be due to me not eating the right food before going to the gym. I'll need to look into what is a good snack to eat before training so that I don't feel quite so tired.

Everything is almost ready!!

Right so I signed up to the new gym today and I have my induction later this week, the guys that I have spoken to seem very friendly, although slightly intimidating as they are all huge.

Anyway I got weighed on my scales this morning, I am currently 22.7% fat, which isn't as bad as I thought it would be, anything below 20% is regarded as healthy, so I only need to burn off about 5 pounds and I'll be back to healthy, but I intend to burn off more than that.

I was planning on following the maximuscle 3 session per week plan, it can be found here. But they said at the gym that they would create a plan for me, we'll see how it goes.

I'll update my body fat and weight on Monday as that is when I intend to actually start the training.

John Stone Fitness

I've been doing a bit of research and I found this website:

John Stone Fitness

I don't think I'm ever actually going to get that big, 3 years is a long time but his progress in the initial 3-4 months is really promising. I only hope that I am as succesful.

Guilford lido workshop gym

So as my new regime consists of quite a lot of weights I have been looking at alternative gyms to join, my current one is very cheap and although it does have some limited equipment I get free access to lessons and its useful for when I go running at lunchtime at work.

Guildford Lido Workshop

I have found this gym, its not particularly big, but it does give me access to a lot of weight machines which is exactly what I'm looking for, its not particularly cheap but I don't mind paying a bit extra if its going to give me the results I'm trying to achieve.

Fancy weighing scales

So I picked up my fancy weighing scales yesterday, they look good but I'm a little concerned about how accurate they are. I'll post my first results tomorrow morning hopefully the results will be accurate.

Polo advert

Some people may find this advert disturbing, but I find it really funny so I just wanted to share.

The vital statistics

So before I begin I need to figure out how I'm going to measure my success (If I have any) I am going to purchase some fancy weighing scales this week which should hopefully provide me with information about how succesful my training is going but until then we'll have to stick with these stats.

Weight - This is the obvious one, so I'm 190 pounds at the moment, just over 13 and a half stone. Golden rules about weighing yourself that I have picked up:

1. Always weigh yourself on the same set of weighing scales (I'm technicall breaking this rule already but that because I don't have any weighing scales at the moment)
2. Always weigh yourself at the same time of day, this is because your weight changes a lot throughout the day, first thing in the morning is usually a good time. Unless you have been out drinking all night and you have only got back home at 7am (For the record I have never ever done this!!)
3. Also MOST IMPORTANTLY your weight is not directly linked to how succesful your diet is going. So if you go to the gym 4 times a week, and start eating healthy foods but your weight goes up this does not mean your are getting fatter. You are more than likely gaining muscle which is making you weigh more, and the more muscle you have means the more calories you burn off.

BMI - So the BMI is a fancy calculation that tells you how fat you are, as I'm 5' 10'' and using my above weight my BMI is 27.3 which puts me in the overweight category. If I wanted to sit in the normal weight category I need to weigh 174 pounds (about 12.5 stone). Unfortunately the BMI is only a rough calculation if you did the same calculation on a rugby player they'd probably be 30 but thats because all the weight is muscle.

% Body fat & muscle - This is probably the best way to show how succesful things are, unfortunately until I buy my fancy weighing scales these stats are going to have to wait.

Introduction

Welcome to my blog, this is my first post so apologies for the lengthy post but I thought it would be good to set the scene, letting you know who I am and why I created the blog.

I'm 27 years old, I have a pretty good job working in IT for a large engineering company that I enjoy (There are some bad days but its better than some other jobs I've worked in). I haved moved around the country quite a lot, but I'm currently living in Surrey, although my salary doesn't look like I should be living in Surrey as I don't get paid enough.

Anyway the reason for writing this blog is because I want to lose weight, I weigh just over 13 and a half stone roughly 190 pounds. I recently went on a skiing trip with some friends of mine and after looking at some of the photos from the holiday I didn't like the way I looked, so I have decided to do something about it.

I have been doing a lot of research on the internet about how to lose weight, and there is a lot of information out there, so I'm hoping that this method is succesful otherwise you lot can laugh about how badly I'm doing.