The beginning
It started like so many other weight loss attempts do: as a New Year's resolution. My better half and I were putting on weight and we knew it. When I met her - two-and-a-half years earlier - I was a healthy 83 kgs. By the end of 2004 I was almost 32 years old and, worse, I had ballooned out to 88 kgs.
Part of that had come slowly: the move from 83 kgs to 85 kgs took the better part of two years. But after deciding to work from home my weight had ballooned. In 4 months I had put on another 3 kgs taking me to 88 kgs.
This may all sound rather pedantic. What is a kilo here or there, right? Well for starters, I am 182 cms tall. Roughly, I ought not be more than about 83.5 kgs at any point in time. At least not according to any chart I have seen relating to height / weight stuff.
Another reason is that just 4 years ago I weighed 81 kgs. At that stage, I had been going to gym four days a week for about three years. And I mean every week. I lived in the UK (I am an Australian and currently live back in Oz) and did not own a car., which meant plenty of walking. Sure, I still go to the gym. But not as religiously as I used to. Sure I still walk about. A bit.
But the main reason I look at my weight carefully is that I have previously been very overweight. I was an athletic teenager, but for some reason I stopped doing all the athletic things I used to. Between the age of 17 and 24 I went from 76 kgs to 98 kgs. That is a lot of person.
I wish I could blame genetics or a poor metabolism for this weight gain, but the truth is that I ate like a pig and did no exercise. When my parents came home from grocery shopping I would get stuck into the mini cholocate chip cookies they'd buy. I told myself that a handful wasn't too bad. But years of practice meant that I could fit 13 mini chocolate chip cookies in one hand. I ate cheese half-a-very-large-block at a time using a peeler. I ate a whole tub of Homer Hudson chocolate rock twice a week - on Tuesdays and Thursdays as best I recall.
At the age of 24 I knew I had a problem. Sure I had known for some time that I was overweight, but the snide remarks that reminded me that other people knew too. One day, driving through a shopping centre, I cracked a hissy fit at another driver. I can't remember why, but I am sure it was for no valid reason. I was yelling away at her, using choice profanities, when a guy at an ATM yelled out 'Shut up you fat c!@#!'. Unusually, I was not angry at the guy. Instead, I remember thinking 'I am sitting here in my car and this guy can still tell that I am fat. Boy, I must really be fat.'
Lots of people who lose significant amounts or weight have this point of realisation. I have a friend who once was about to make fun of someone she saw in a shopping centre because the person was fat. Very fat. Just before the words came out she realised she was looking at a mirror. Today, this friend is quite lean.
My car park incident changed things. I did not eat any chocolate chip cookies. I did not eat any chips. I did not eat any cheese. I happened to sell my car and this led to more walking than I was used to. I did not weight myself, though this was more happenstance than by design.
At the age of 25 I decided to join a gym. As part of their assesment of me, I was weighed. The scale stopped at 83kgs. I went from 98 kgs to 83 kgs without really realising it. As far as I could tell, I did not do anything drastic. I just stopped being a pig and a sloth.
For me, losing weight meant a little deprivation and a modicum of exercise, but nothing so drastic as to make the compromises unbearable.
To summarise the last seven years of my life I went from 98 kgs to 81 kgs to 88 kgs. At 88 kgs, I was panicky.
As for my better half, I do not know what she weighed when I met her, though she was a slight, petite girl. I do not know what she weighs now - she will not tell me. She is visibly less slight than she was when I met her.
Both of us find apperance in important, both for ourselves and each other's sake. So we made a vow. The vow, like so many other people's vows that New Year's Eve, was to lose weight. Our difference was that we would not do anything so drastic that we would not be able to adhere to it. Instead, we would encorporate what I knew about good eating from the weight loss experience I had previously and from research I had done subsequently. We would abide by The Rules for one month. My target weight is 84 kgs - or to lose 1 kg a week for that month. My other target is to fit into a pair of pants I have which are the 'I am slim now' benchmark. If I abide by The Rules and meet my targets, The Rules must work.
So what are The Rules then? Read on, my friend ... They are contained in my next blog.
Part of that had come slowly: the move from 83 kgs to 85 kgs took the better part of two years. But after deciding to work from home my weight had ballooned. In 4 months I had put on another 3 kgs taking me to 88 kgs.
This may all sound rather pedantic. What is a kilo here or there, right? Well for starters, I am 182 cms tall. Roughly, I ought not be more than about 83.5 kgs at any point in time. At least not according to any chart I have seen relating to height / weight stuff.
Another reason is that just 4 years ago I weighed 81 kgs. At that stage, I had been going to gym four days a week for about three years. And I mean every week. I lived in the UK (I am an Australian and currently live back in Oz) and did not own a car., which meant plenty of walking. Sure, I still go to the gym. But not as religiously as I used to. Sure I still walk about. A bit.
But the main reason I look at my weight carefully is that I have previously been very overweight. I was an athletic teenager, but for some reason I stopped doing all the athletic things I used to. Between the age of 17 and 24 I went from 76 kgs to 98 kgs. That is a lot of person.
I wish I could blame genetics or a poor metabolism for this weight gain, but the truth is that I ate like a pig and did no exercise. When my parents came home from grocery shopping I would get stuck into the mini cholocate chip cookies they'd buy. I told myself that a handful wasn't too bad. But years of practice meant that I could fit 13 mini chocolate chip cookies in one hand. I ate cheese half-a-very-large-block at a time using a peeler. I ate a whole tub of Homer Hudson chocolate rock twice a week - on Tuesdays and Thursdays as best I recall.
At the age of 24 I knew I had a problem. Sure I had known for some time that I was overweight, but the snide remarks that reminded me that other people knew too. One day, driving through a shopping centre, I cracked a hissy fit at another driver. I can't remember why, but I am sure it was for no valid reason. I was yelling away at her, using choice profanities, when a guy at an ATM yelled out 'Shut up you fat c!@#!'. Unusually, I was not angry at the guy. Instead, I remember thinking 'I am sitting here in my car and this guy can still tell that I am fat. Boy, I must really be fat.'
Lots of people who lose significant amounts or weight have this point of realisation. I have a friend who once was about to make fun of someone she saw in a shopping centre because the person was fat. Very fat. Just before the words came out she realised she was looking at a mirror. Today, this friend is quite lean.
My car park incident changed things. I did not eat any chocolate chip cookies. I did not eat any chips. I did not eat any cheese. I happened to sell my car and this led to more walking than I was used to. I did not weight myself, though this was more happenstance than by design.
At the age of 25 I decided to join a gym. As part of their assesment of me, I was weighed. The scale stopped at 83kgs. I went from 98 kgs to 83 kgs without really realising it. As far as I could tell, I did not do anything drastic. I just stopped being a pig and a sloth.
For me, losing weight meant a little deprivation and a modicum of exercise, but nothing so drastic as to make the compromises unbearable.
To summarise the last seven years of my life I went from 98 kgs to 81 kgs to 88 kgs. At 88 kgs, I was panicky.
As for my better half, I do not know what she weighed when I met her, though she was a slight, petite girl. I do not know what she weighs now - she will not tell me. She is visibly less slight than she was when I met her.
Both of us find apperance in important, both for ourselves and each other's sake. So we made a vow. The vow, like so many other people's vows that New Year's Eve, was to lose weight. Our difference was that we would not do anything so drastic that we would not be able to adhere to it. Instead, we would encorporate what I knew about good eating from the weight loss experience I had previously and from research I had done subsequently. We would abide by The Rules for one month. My target weight is 84 kgs - or to lose 1 kg a week for that month. My other target is to fit into a pair of pants I have which are the 'I am slim now' benchmark. If I abide by The Rules and meet my targets, The Rules must work.
So what are The Rules then? Read on, my friend ... They are contained in my next blog.
posted by bloggerpaul at 5:52 PM
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