Chris is Still Too Fat

Sorry. Was away at the weekend. Miles away in fact. 294 to be precise. So only got around to weighing myself today. Result : 182lbs. Not good I tell ye.

Well, it is difficult (for me) to be abstemious away on holiday and so I was not. Managed a run of some 30 mins while away but otherwise exercise has been pretty minimal once more. Just lethargic overall, with a grumbling knee which I still have not presented to the doctor these past 4 months.

Motivation lacking right now - even for writing this blog. Have to keep the desired end result in mind more. The ever-beckoning start point of 2007 is just too horrible to contemplate. But the further that old self recedes, the less I feel the need to continue the struggle. Make sense ?

I volunteered for a medical project a while back (not the Biobank one) and went for a screening interview earlier in the week. Altruism reigns. To my disgust, I was screened out because of recent weight gain ! Embarrassing for this would-be slimster here or what ?

So, thoroughly chastened, I plod on. I still look a lot slimmer than I did a couple of years ago though. Got to end on a positive note, so that's it.

Back whenever.

ChrisITF

So Spring confidently has arrived now and I am getting out and about more. Still having to be a bit careful with dodgy knee but, since last report, have managed another 30+ mins running and just now got back from a late afternoon ride on my bike of about 50 mins. So exercise coming along satisfactorily, even if munching is a bit wayward at times. Also got registered for that free swimming lark provided by the local council. Seems one can swim anywhere if registered locally. So I could get registered in, for example, York and swim in York free. At least I think that is how it works.

Mindful of last year's unfortunate clash with a soldier, on encountering dozens of them marching sullenly along in full kit going same way as me just this past hour, I decided to go off piste to avoid. Rather them than me. Mind you, they actually get paid to be walking in the woods ...

Did not manage to get out on bike or anything else on Monday due to the day trip into the Midlands and another 150 miles of motorways. It gets worse, for tomorrow (Thursday) sees Mrs CITF and myself really off into the wild north of England with another 300 miles of driving to visit family. Dunno how it has all accumulated like this into only a week but there you go. Oh, and we have to drive back on Sunday of course ! That will make about 1200 miles in 8 days. Hmm.

So, a mixture of hotel and family provided catering beckons. But I won't really be able to raid the kitchens ! Ah, woe is me. And a disruptive USA trip is pencilled in for 10 May. Woe, woe and thrice woe. But I just let it flow over me these days.

Gotta dash. Evening meal calls ! Fish tonight and I can smell it's ready.

Back whenever.

ChrisITF

Still marking time on 181 lbs, folks.

Not very pleased; more relieved it was not worse. I have had good days; I have had bad days. My resolve ebbs and flows, arguably matching my level of hunger. Ah well, it was ever so.

Feeling jaded today. Ran 30 mins yesterday morning (good) and drove about 450 miles (bad) to visit an old school friend oop in t'north; primary school, no less. Not seen him for some nigh on 20 years but email has kept contact alive. His kids had grown, mind ! So today is a day of rest with a work-related trip oop in t'midlands planned for tomorrow. Don't you just love the M1 ? Sigh. However, it seems a nice day, so I might dig the bike out. We shall see.

I can now report back to an eager world on subliminal messaging. Paid a small sum to have a little program on this here PC flash up messages of exhortation and affirmation, like 'eat more fruit' and 'I am becoming slimmer', etc., very briefly on the screen. Stop laughing. Supposed to be taken in sub-consciously and, like chinese water torture, gradually get you to accept the messages.

Crucially, does it work ? Dunno ! It could easily be argued that my static weight is due to said messages having brought my woeful over-eating (for that it had become) back under control. However, my inner feeling is that, as implemented here, it had no effect. One surprise was that the messages popping up every so often for a fraction of a second did not actually irritate me, whereas I had expected they would. I just ignored them; consciously anyway. Might work for others; who knows ? Irritates the hell out of other family members when I forget to disable the program though !

I have other sly, weight-loss tactics in field-test mode but they are Top Secret. More eventually to regular readers only. That should increase my audience !

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday) :

Calories : 1930.

Exercise : 30+ mins running.

Bit out of condition for the running, quite apart from dodgy knee, and it was all a bit laboured and sweaty. Still, I did it. But need rather a lot more of the same to redress the damage of the winter.

ChrisITF

Gosh .. is that the time already ?

Half-way through the week and no confessions. Until now, that is.

OK. Let's see. Yesterday (Tuesday) :

Calories : 1905.

Exercise : 15 mins running with Mrs CITF. Had planned more but we have to stick together in t' woods.

Watched one of those voyeuristic 8-week-blitz-on-a-fatty type programmes today. Hoped it might give me a jolt or inspiration. Matey's BMI was 39, a 40-a-day cigarettes man with weekly binge-drinking evening (10pts and 20 x vodka and orange), a sedentary job and nil exercise, other than the TV remote. Blimey ! His lung age was declared to be 66, despite him actually being 42 and plenty of other incipient problems like gallstones, liver damage, diabetes, high cholesterol and glycerides count and family history of same. But he got stuck in and visibly shrank in the 8 weeks. Good for him, I thought.

So far, so promising. Dunno when the next instalment will be, if ever. But it did remind me of some of the dangers of letting go too much. So, feeling suitably chastened, I thought I would tell you all. But recognise myself there ? Not really. All a question of degree, I suppose. Good tut-tut TV though !

That's it for now. Cup of tea waiting.

The trifle ? All gone. Oh yes.

ChrisITF

Still stuck on 181 lbs, folks. But hardly surprising.

Started the week optimistically, determined and relatively abstemiously and it lasted for about three days, then the rot set in. Finished the week on Saturday with a day out in Windsor Great Park near Virginia Water (glorious) with a group of old friends and a substantial tasty meal at a restaurant. Very nice; very calorie-rich. And Mrs CITF drove us home ...

So that, plus a surprise Easter Egg today (already gone) completes a neutral week of progress. And I am aware that one of Mrs CITF's delicious trifles is even now as I type in progress of construction. Oh, happy day !

So austerity starts tomorrow. Again.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Thursday) :

Calories : 1956.

Exercise : Nil.

Not very good. Dodgy knee curtailed exercise. Plodded round crowded supermarket with trolley though.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday) :

Calories : 1868.

Exercise : 45 mins bike ride and 25 mins walk in evening with Mrs CITF.

Mrs CITF insisted we go look for the planet Mercury, which is apparently easily visible just now after sunset. Conclusion : not around here it isn't !

ChrisITF

Calories : 1803

Exercise : 45 mins bike ride.

So out of habit writing these that I nearly forgot ! Not too bad progress yesterday.

ChrisITF

Calories : 1621 (Daily Budget 1700)

Exercise : 15 mins running with Mrs CITF

Reasonably happy with my first day of renewed daily recording. Effective in the long term, though tedious.

ChrisITF

Back folks !

Not darkened this portal for some 3 weeks now. Been away in America for a while .. and then Europe. What a peri-pathetic life I lead ! Not that it has done me much good either - apart from in the wallet - as I now stand at 181 lbs. Nope, I am not proud of that; it is a whopping reversal of the first order and it is high time I got control of my weight/mouth once more.

What has been a bit of a revelation has been the clear effect of the enforced reduced exercise regime on my weight, given the continued festering discomfort in my left knee. Nope, it is still not better. It gets 'better', then I overdo it and I am back to square one again. This happens approximately weekly. People listen and mutter 'arthritis' but how can that be ? It came on suddenly while washing the car. Came and never went ! No, the doctor is a very last resort and I am not there yet. But it is clear, to me at least, that without the exercise I am not going to make the finishing line of 161 lbs that I set myself nearly 2 years ago. Oh, the very public shame.

Local council has now implemented the free swimming for the over-60s like me. Maybe that would help ? Not been swimming for quite a while now. Bit of a chore really, getting ready etc. And then there are those that insist on swimming at 90 degrees to the direction of most others. Perhaps I should mix it up a bit; cross-train is the expression I think.

I have been lax, self-pitying and self-indulgent. No excuses. Have a good shout at me if you wish; I deserve it.

I will try to make it up to you, starting now.

ChrisITF