Day 141: 14.6kg in 20 weeks (.8 GAIN)

Well, my weight went up this week. Nobody ever wants that. I fell off the rails a bit at the end of last week. I didn't drink, but I was a bit sleep deprived and was stressed at work. I really felt strange on the Saturday - perhaps overtired, or something, and so have had 3 days off from exercise and may have today off as well.

It isn't fucking easy losing weight, and if you trip up at all it all goes right back on.

20 weeks off the piss though. That is something. I'm starting to get the sober man's perspective of grog, watching people get on it, and deteriorate, like on Friday night.

Whether or not what I am doing is right is something I question sometimes, but if my head is working I am clearly in a better position. And as for the weight gain, well, I guess if you do anything for the long haul you need to expect a few setbacks. So long as the trend is in one direction rather than the other you are doing ok.

So this week I'm looking for a walk after work, then back into the hill with my mother tomorrow. I would also like to keep the food good, with no slip ups.

Day 139: Bit funny in the head

Strangely tired today. Not at my best. Having it off again. Hope to do the big walk tomorrow.

Day 138: Day off

Well, I did Cootha again on the Thursday. I'm not sure if I posted but I was rooted and did it slowly. I also ate some fried crap - potato cakes, and some bikkies.

I am having today off to recharge the batteries. I don't mind, I exercised Sat-Thur, and will hopefully be walking two big Coothas on the weekend.

I think realistically if I just cement the 15k loss on Sun/Mon then I will be doing well. You can't rush these things.

Function last night - big conference dinner with wine etc. I didn't miss piss at all and dropped a co-worker off afterwards. Having said that, I think I did feel like a beer during one of my walks after work. It is a false friend, alcohol. At least when it comes to weight loss.

Day 136: Too much

I was going a bit too hard there I think. I didn't end up doing the walk after work, or this morning, and had a bit of a late night munch of some bread and cereal as my body was in a bit of a panic.

But I'm not too worried about that. I think it is a sign of how well I am doing, and if my body wants a few more carbs to keep me powered around the mountain then that is fine. I will still go for my hour walk after work and go around the hill again tomorrow morning, which will mean I have exercised Sat, Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed and Thur.

So long as I exercise almost every day and go around the hill 4 or 5 times a week that is fine.

Day 135: Rain

Well, I walked off into the rain and walked around the mountain and did my stairs for 2 hours this morning. It is a solid effort.

I hope to go for a walk after work today as well to up the exercise to 3 hours.

Day 134: Rest day

I'm having today off from Cootha, as I did the two big walks on the weekend, and if there is any day it is smart to have a day of rest in relation to it is today. I would still like to walk for an hour after work to keep things ticking along.

I'm keen to keep up the good behaviour this week. I feel like my body is in a weight loss patch and if I just keep the fires stoked it will reward with the weight falling off, and me catapulting towards the 20kg. 15kg be damned.

I think the veges are important - good for calories, but more importantly I think make you feel better and help fill you up and stop you from eating other food.

I had a red beetroot salad yesterday, from beets I baked myself. Man, those things should come with some sort of a warning. I also ate red cabbage with my chicken for dinner. I've got some time now I think I'll use to bake an eggplant to take to work today.

I'm excited about the weight loss. You can go through periods that are flat or slow or backwards, and so when you find yourself - through hard work generally - in a position where the numbers are moving in the right direction, and you know that if you just keep it up then in 10 or 20 or 30 weeks or whatever you will look as you want to look, then that is a good feeling.

UPDATE: I went for my walk after work (1 hour+), and cooked a cauliflower soup and fried pork for tea.

Day 133: 15.4kg in 19 weeks (1.9k)

Well, I smashed that out. And it is only Sunday and I normally have Monday as the official day (the day has increased 1 extra as I did a calculation on the net and must have been out). It is certainly 19 weeks today as I started this little venture on the Monday after a hungover Sunday.

It may be that I am slightly dehydrated from my big walk yesterday, but I drank a lot of water, and frankly, don't care. I managed to get a new number appearing on my scales, crossing a boundary that I really wanted to cross. So long as I keep moving in the downwards direction, I am happy.

15kg. All the exercise from the past few weeks is paying off. Perhaps too the veges are paying off.

I guess it is all paying off, especially, let's not forget, not getting pissed every week and having "one or two" every night. Weight loss is impossible doing that, for me.

Anyway, that is enough with the victory speech: what's next? This is just the start. Confirmation that my approach, which I might add involves no hunger whatsoever, is working, and I need to keep it up, keep it up, keep it up.

I really want to knock off another 10 before I do Milford - that is, 25kg is my goal for Milford.

But 5kg chunks are easier. So my next mini-goal is to get to 20kg. So how am I going to do this:

1) no crap;

2) cootha 5 or 6 times per week, 2 big walks on the weekend;

3) stairs following cootha twice per week;

4) obviously no piss;

5) try and cook and eat at least one vegetable a day.

Pretty motivating getting into numbers above 15kg. The weight loss is real, at this level.

UPDATE: Well I got of my fat, 15kg less arse and went around the hill for the second day in a row - the big one! It is a solid fucking walk let me tell you. I haven't been timing it, but it takes at least 3 hours - closer to 4 really. So that means I've done 6-8 hours of serious hill walking this weekend. I'm really motivated at the moment. Hope to cook seafood tonight.

Day 131: Food musings

I had my day off yesterday. Food was pretty good. I baked the sweet potato in the morning and ate it on sandwiches during the day with avo and a little pork. I had a leave pass for tea and was feeling a bit all over the place and could have ended up eating anything. Instead I had a hankering for something wholesome and bought some lamb cutlets and ate them (pan fried with salt, pepper and olive oil) with a salad of lettuce and tomatoes (dressed with olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt) and broccoli salad (boiled and dressed with olive oil, salt and pepper). Delicious! I had some berries and yogurt for dessert.

All with some crusty bread of course.

Good healthy, sustainable, fabulous living there. Veges, salt and fat are the cornerstone of the mediterranean diets of the world in my view - specifically, using salt and fat (typically olive oil) to transform an inedible vegetable such as broccoli or an eggplant into something delicious you want to eat forever.

I did cook thai for a long time (5 years), but it is so hard and I've got a view that asian cooking is about flavouring rice with slight of hand, with rice being the heart of the meal, whereas in mediterranean cooking the vegetables are the heart of the meal (and are transformed using simple techniques involving salt and fat, as I said). I want to eat more vegetables than rice, and I want it to be easy. Asian cooking also uses a lot of mystery sauces out of asian factories that I'm not too fussed on either from a real food perspective.

What I hope for today is to do the long walk around the hill, getting back into it (after my day off). But I will wait until it is sunnier, as it is a Saturday.

This is of course a risk in that if I get too comfortable I won't do it.

I am feeling better, whether or not I lose weight this week. I feel smaller, and more alert. A co-worker claims to be on a crash diet for a health check and this week he has been ratfaced at least twice, including a full afternoon on the turps at a French restaurant. How on earth could you come out of that losing weight, being healthier or looking fitter? It is just impossible, and I do speak from some experience in relation to that having bashed myself up in a similar fashion for a decade.

That sort of hard living only leads in one direction.

UPDATE: Well, I did the long walk. I was much stronger than I was even two or three weeks ago, when I last did it. I think it is the stairs I am doing, as well as the other walks of course. Back and feeling fine. I hope to do the longer walk every Saturday and Sunday. It takes over 3 hours up and down the hills of mount cootha, and will sort anyone out.

Day 130: Not quite 15kg

I had a sneak on the scales this morning. I wasn't at 15. I never learn my don't peak lesson.

I should.

Anyway I'm having this morning off from the hill. I don't want to overdo it. I will walk after work perhaps or have the day off and try and knock out the big one tomorrow. For anyone interested in the food I had a tomato and olive pasta last night with some baked eggplant.

I did have a nice steak and chips for lunch though.

I'm baking some sweet potato now to take to work. I've found that baking is a really easy and delicious way to cook veges, which I'm trying to eat more of. Microwaved frozen veges make me want to puke and are no way to live. Baking with salt, olive oil and perhaps some garlic and rosemary is a much better way to make veges that are suited to baking taste good!

I'm certainly feeling like I'm losing weight, which is why I snuck on the scales like a loony. I think I'm feeling the effects of ramping up the exercise over the last 3 weeks. That really is the key, and drives good feelings and good behaviour.

It's a long game though, which is why it needs to be a lifestyle choice rather than a diet. I can keep up eating more delicious veges as a lifestyle, because I enjoy them. But I can't keep up microwaved steamed veges - within 2 months I would sooner poke a spoon in my eye.

Similarly with exercise. One thing I've done in the past is go out too hard and burn myself out within, again, 2 or 3 months. You need to build it up and be able to keep it up. You also need to enjoy it, at least most of the time. Otherwise you won't do it. And you need to do it for the long haul - it needs to become a lifestyle ie the way you lead your life on an ongoing basis.

Pretty simple I guess. If you want to look like the fit, healthy guy, then you need to lead the sort of lifestyle you expect the fit and healthy guy to lead. Does he get shitfaced on a Friday night and eat pizza, or does he eat normally and get up on Saturday and go for some exercise, feeling and looking better for it?

That's my thinking anyway. Not sure why i'm writing so much today. I also posted a comment on Claire's year off the piss blog which I'll also post here. It was in response to her getting shitty about people who judge people who don't drink:

I've been on both sides of the fence. Probably most normal people following this blog interested in their own drinking have. But I tell you, the perspective I'm seeing now is really changing my perception of drinking, and drunks. It is not pretty. You are not better looking drunk. You are not wittier, even though you laugh at your own jokes. You do not dance better. Often enough, you are a disgrace. At least by the time the witching hour arrives, and you have been on it for 3 or 4 hours, you are drunken mess, whether or not you realise it. Conversations mean nothing. Words are slurred. Some men get aggressive or obnoxious. Some women cry. It is not how I remember it - not at all.

And it gets much less cool as you get older. Ever seen your mum so pissed she can't speak properly, blubbers, shags a random, and vomits in the sink? You wouldn't want to. And there is no difference.

But, having said that, Jamie's point about doing some crazy ass shit on the turps is true. I've had my wildest outings drunk, including with the ladies. From a man's perspective anyway, if you don't tend to hit it then often the lady you are with doesn't either, and perhaps her inhibitions are not as cut as they would be if you were drinking (which combined with your dutch courage can really go places).

I see the good things about drinking that I am missing - and there are many - as collateral damage to a greater war to improve my quality of life (including my fitness). For many, this sacrifice would not be worth it and I'm no holier than any of those people. I think there is no right or wrong with drinking. But not drinking is a choice, and it is the right one for me at this time as I'm on a year long fitness campaign.

People who are really down on you making that choice do really irritate, even though chanting "join us" is the natural reaction of a piss head (which I can say with some authority).

Day 129: Drinks function

We had the drinks function last night. It just occurred to me that I did not for a second think about having a drink, or feel I was missing out by not having a drink. Not for a second!

Instead I watched people have fun, and then slowly but surely descend into the abyss of slurring words and obnoxious behaviour. I had to skip from group to group, escaping drunken fools the way a pretty girl escapes from predators. Eventually I had nowhere to go - the stayers were all pissed and offensive. It was no place for a sober person.

Luckily I was able to drive home, and even give a young lady a lift.

It does sadden me a bit to think that I have been one of the drunken 'stayers' on many occasions. How many people did I offend with my raucous behaviour? Many, I suspect.

Even though I was late to bed I made the effort to get up from my deep sleep at 4.50, and join my mother around the mountain, and up and down the stairs, for over 2 hours again this morning. That is a bloody good effort, no matter who you are.

I've walked Sat, Mon, Tue, Wed and now Thur, with 4 of those efforts being around 'the hill'.

Had I gotten on the sauce last night there is no way I would have exercised today. None at all. And I would have had crap during the day for the hangover.

Instead I am one step closer to my 15kg goal.

Day 128: Going ok

Well, walked Mon, Tue and now Wed (mon and wed around the hill). I finished today with 10 stairs, built up from 1 over 5 weeks.

Cooked and eaten real food so far this week.

Got a drinks function for work tonight, but I'll be the sober one (even thought I had to pick the beers....). No dramas with that.

I've been eating quite a bit, but it has been honest food, not takeaway, which with exercise should see me in the right direction. Cooked a mean lamb stew on Monday night which I had for lunch yesterday with a salad and will again today.

Had an omelette and roast veges for dinner.

I've been thinking about the 15kg and 20kg. Would love to reach each of those as milestones. 15kg to show I'm serious and 20kg to show I'm credible and have made some progress.

You can't argue with 20kg.

Most things have to go right to lose. The main thing is the exercise and not eating crap. And keeping it up.

Day 126: 13.5kg in 18 weeks

Well, I am back to moving in the right direction, which is excellent. I might go out on a limb here and have a goal to lose 1.5kg this week by walking every day, at least once, not eating any crap, and trying to eat less generally.

Day 125: No walk!

You should always exercise at the first available opportunity. Today's an example of that.

Bit worried about having a weigh in tomorrow. Ate heaps on the weekend and just feel as though it won't be good. But over time the numbers don't lie, and a meal here or there doesn't make someone 10 or 20kg heavier. So I think I just have to do it.

I do want to walk in the morning though.

Wanted to do a lot of cooking today but didn't manage it.

Goal this week is to walk every day.

Day 124: Food

I ate a lot yesterday. I was exhausted and I bought some crap for dinner. Not horrific, but really if you buy something to eat up and premade salad you are asking for a bit of trouble.

I need to get better organised, and perhaps freeze some stew or something or always cook pasta or eggs if I think I am knackered.

Feel a bit like crap today I think because of the food last night. Want to try and go for my big walk (or at least the little one) today but I didn't sleep all that well.

Lots of complaints today hey. Guess you have good days and bad.

Day 123: Progress and musings

I have had a cracking week exercise wise. I ended up going for another hours walk last night and am generally feeling good. I even had an exchange in the kitchen which I will relay for anyone looking for motivation:

Fit girl: Have you lost weight?

Me: I'm trying to.

Fit girl: Well whatever you are doing, it's working

which is pretty exciting. One thing I have noticed about myself though is when I am really doing a lot of exercise (eg I do big walks 4 days out of 5) my body goes into a bit of a panic and demands that I eat calories/a lot of food/crap. I have seen it before and it happened again yesterday.

If I cut back on the exercise for a day or so then the distress goes and so do the demands.

I have seen this all before. What in fact happens is if I push through with the exercise, keeping up the intensity, then the distress my body is going through fades and the irrational demand for crap/calories goes with it. It's when that happens that I'm in "the groove", or golden exercise and weight loss/looking better and better by the day period.

So I don't feel too bad about yesterday. If I'm ever going to eat a bit of crap, doing it on a day I've exercised over 3 hours is probably a good choice.

I'm having a "rest day" today. I have been going like a champ all week, and it probably makes sense. I also have to go to work early.

Tomorrow though, I want to do the big walk again. And Sunday. If I can do these big walks on both days each weekend then I'll be in a good position. They are about 3.5 hours each, so that would be 7 hours of hill walking on the weekend. Pretty hard to do better than that.

I was speaking to a mate last night who asked me about when I missed the grog. I said I was pretty well over it but in some, limited circumstances I felt I was missing out. Generally though, I don't even think of it any more.

And I tell you what, I've got a good feeling about my weight in the next week or two. I think I can smash the 15kg barrier which would be a bloody good thing as it means I'm back in business and have 20kg in my sights.

I've got a lunch today with someone I used to have outrageous sessions with that descended into all sorts of things that you look back fondly on. It's a bit of a perspective change not drinking, and undoubtably not as fun or expectant.

But I count that as collateral damage. 15kg here I come.

Day 122: Fitness improving

I woke up a little sore today from my walk yesterday, but in a good way. 30 minutes after that I was walking off in the not so dark morning with my trusty mother. Was a little stiff around the hills but it ended up being a cracking walk that finished with 9 flights of stairs.

In all 1 hour 50 minutes of serious exercise up and down hills. Not bad any time, but a good effort before I go into work.

If I keep this up, and don't go silly with the food, the weight will fall off.

Day 121: Walk after work

Well, I walked Sun, Tue and now Wed afternoon. So not around the hill, but after work. I did do some hill work - probably 20 minutes or so up and down stairs I found in Kangaroo Point. No, not the cruel stairs I used when training for Kokoda. The friendly stairs I have found at the top of the cruel stairs.

Had a bit of a twinge in my calf going up the stairs, which is a shit, but there were no blowouts.

Ate some roasted veges during the day.

Day 119: Cracker around the hill

I had yesterday off, but I had the best sleep of my life last night and just walked around the hill for 1 hour 45 minutes then walked up and down the stairs of the school across the road 8 times.

I feel great.

Jeeze that sleep is important. One thing about drinking I didn't know is that even a small amount can throw your sleep off. I noticed the difference after about 3 or 4 days, which is incredible, just as others noticed my increased fitness around the hills within 7 days.

Anyway, after my huge walk Sunday, and shoddy sleep Sunday night, I was tired last night and went to bed before 8.30. I pretty well slept until 4.50 when I got up to go for my walk.

All fired up to try and lose some weight this week. I think I'm back in the groove exercise wise and just need to try a little harder with the food.

I feel positive though and that's the main thing.

Day 118: 12.6kg in 17 weeks

ok, well, that's ok. My goal now is to knock off 12.5 kg in the next 12 weeks to make for a 25kg loss.

Want to exercise daily, not eat shit, and not be a guts.

This week would love to knock off a solid kilo.

Can't ask for more than that really.

Day 117: 17 Weeks

Well bit of a milestone today in that I did the big walk.

May not sound like much, but it is over 3.5 hours around Mt Cootha, up and down hills in the bush.

Big effort. Just got back distressed me a little, but all my training to date meant I was in pretty good nick.

I want to do this at least once per week, preferably twice.

you can't go wrong after doing a massive walk like this.

Day 115: So far so good

Well, just so you don't think I've got it on easy street with the grog, without temptation, I did have another flash lunch on the river yesterday at one of the best joints in town, with beautiful wine and beer for all that wanted it.

To be honest, I didn't get a pang at all. Not really. Not until they started talking about beer in great detail, but really I didn't feel as though I missed out. That passes.

And I was able to go back to work and be productive, and drive home, and think about going for another walk in 10 minutes around the hill (I know I can...............).

So it's been a pretty good week so far, with walks Sun, Mon, Tue, Thur and hopefully in 10 minutes Fri. Food wise I haven't been munching my soup as much as I would have liked - hopefully I will have that tonight.

I have been feeling better. Whether or not it is actually happening I feel as though I'm losing weight, although my belt is on the 2nd last hole and a month ago it was on the last hole and I dreamt of ditching it for a smaller one altogether. Something to work towards!

I got another comment that I looked younger and my skin was better off the turps which of course was great. I never thought about my skin before. I wonder if I should be using skin products? I never would have said that when I was younger, but who wants to look old? Noone really. It's cool till you are about 30 then it's a bit crap. Then 15 years later it's really crap. The only problem is the web and shops are full of bullshit about skin products. I wonder if any of them actually do anything for you?

I'm 35 now. How old do I look? Well, I don't look like a fit 25 year old, let's put it that way. I think how fit you look really affects how old you look. A fat, drunk slob looks like crap any which way, whereas if someone stays in good nick then they catch people's eye even if they are a bit older.

Anyway, I had best put my shoes on and get out the fucking door if I'm going to do this. That's what you have to do, put your shoes off and get out the fucking door. You never regret it.

Day 114: Feeling fine

Well I feel great today. Walked around the hill again (takes about 1 hour 45 minutes) and then followed it with 7 goes at the stairs near my house, so a really good exercise effort there. Had yesterday off but have exercised Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday now and feeling better for it.

Want to go for a big walk on the weekend. That will sort me out. And need to start using my backpack.