Up until I the wedding late last year, I was just about keeping on top of it although I was still about three-quarters of a stone over where I wanted to be. After the honeymoon, we both started on a 3-month course of a set of three detox tablets (seaweed, black radish, other natural stuff that you’d not likely eat out of choice), and although this went well for six weeks, once I got out of the habit of taking the tablets each morning, my weight seemed to go up.
My new goal is to reduce my weight, get a little fitter, and look a little better, with an arbitrary deadline of the end of July when I’m off to the WordCamp in Chicago.
Exercise
I don’t really enjoy doing exercise for exercise’s sake – I’d rather be doing something competitive and get fit as a by-product of trying hard to do well at that. It keeps my mind off of the hard-work, and having to play against other people means you don’t get chance for a rest.
Previously I used to play badminton a couple of times a week, including in a league (we were rubbish), as it’s something I enjoy. In Malaysia I was playing badminton, squash, futsal, and doing swimming within my social week, so I was keeping active. Since we’ve got back though, I’d not got around to finding a local badminton club.
Well, now I have. Unfortunately, they run on a Thursday night, which means I’m already missing at least one a month as I organize the Basingstoke Tweetup, but it’s a start – one and a half hours of near constant movement. I may try and attend another local badminton or squash club later in the year.
In terms of other exercise, given that I sit in front of a keyboard all day, and the occasional walk into town for lunch, I’m trying to make an effort and doing some of the exercise DVDs that the missus bought but doesn’t use. I’ve not got into a ritual of doing them yet, but any time I have a mental block about what work to do next, I’ll go downstairs and do a work out for a bit.
Healthy Eating
In terms of healthy eating, it’s definitely more miss than hit, but I have started making a conscious effort to cut out the obvious problem foods – I rarely have fizzy drinks, I’ve stopped eating crisps, and I’ve limited myself to one small treat (and even just one biscuit) a day.
I am eating some fruit (still not enough) most days, and I go through phases of making sure I drink lots of water. I’m cutting out tea (and I never drink coffee anyway) for the whole of June, so my plain water consumption should be high until I can hopefully get into a habit. I’ve already gone without tea for the last 10 days anyway, so I shouldn’t end up so lethargic as I did the last time I cut out caffeine for two weeks.
Summary
I’ve got a long way to go – I’d ideally like to drop about one and a half stones of fat, and gain about half a stone of muscle, but I’ve not set that as an actual target – anything I improve is a good thing.
If you’ve struggled to get yourself fit and healthy, and succeeded, what tips can you give?
Comments
2 responses to “Healthy Efforts”
Eh Gary – welcome to the club.
As a young man I could eat anything, but as you say, as you get older.
I started getting fit when my doctor told me that I should weigh the same in middle age as I did when I was 25.
I bought a bench and a few weights and I’ve exercised ever since.
Put on a little muscle and start burning off that fat.
Good look with your fitness routine – stick at it.
I have no advice on getting healthy, but I can tell you that I’ve dropped about 26 pounds since Christmas by doing nothing except giving up sweets and dairy. I was not aiming to lose weight (even though I could certainly still use to drop another 26 pounds at least). I have an addictive nature when it comes to sweets and treats, and food in general, and have discovered that for me going cold turkey is the only way. So I cut out the treats. I also decided to stop paying food manufacturers to poison me *grin* so I started avoiding stuff with high fructose syrup and hydrogenated fats and various artificial sweeteners and stuff like that. That in effect lead to eating more fresh fruit and unprocessed foods. And while in the start I allowed myself sugar in coffee and tea, I have now switched completely to stevia. The only processed poison I still use are instant cappuccino sachets – sometimes I need them to get through a busy month. But I’m slowly weaning myself off of those, too, as I greatly enjoy green tea which is quite an effective substitute for coffee and black tea.
As I mentioned, I cut out dairy, too, because I noticed that over the years I wasn’t really tolerating it any more – it tends to give me headaches. So I switched to soy-milk and oat-milk. Yes, the taste takes some getting used to (especially in Earl Gray *hihihi*), just as stevia does, but once you get used to it it’s great. 🙂
I have a very sedentary job (I’m a translator) so I was amazed when I climbed onto my scale and discovered I was loosing pound while sitting at my computer. 😀 Now I need to move my but and get myself into shape!
I can tell you this, though… Once I gave up most of the processed foods I was eating, I stopped having food cravings. Now I eat only when I’m really hungry and I eat smaller portions. But they’re not smaller because I don’t allow myself to take more, they’re smaller because I no longer have the need to take more. And if I really, REALLY feel like having something sweet (which happens rarely, but does happen nonetheless), I make myself a banana milkshake. Yummy and sweet, fills you up, gives you energy and quashes the craving instantly. :)))