Chris is Still Too Fat

Oops ! Forgot to weigh myself this morning and am now up and dressed, so it will have to wait. Otherwise, yesterday's data (Friday, 30 October) was :

Calories : 1889. A yogurt too far I suppose ..

Exercise : Absolutely nil (as per new regime).

So the week started with me thousands of miles away and somewhat out of control with what I consumed and ended the week much the same way, but for different reasons, and actually at home once more ! Clearly, I am not completely back on the rails of austerity yet.

Not exercising is frustrating I am finding and there is an indefinable malaise in my legs which nags that I should be out doing something, anything, rather than sat here tapping away at this, for example ! However, within the next 90 minutes I shall be off to watch a football match and will probably walk the mile or so each way; a gentle concession to exercise withdrawal symptoms therefore.

Just got back to the UK earlier this week, but already a new foreign jaunt has reached the gentleman's agreement (ie nothing in writing) stage. Feeling most unhappy about travelling to the USA as late as the requested 16 December, I negotiated a more acceptable (depending on to whom you talk) 27 December for winging it westwards to the midStates. Disappearing off does not get me any Brownie points you understand. Disappearing off and possibly missing Christmas here would take years to redress. I ain't risking it !

USA/Canada in December : deep snow, cold and dismal; I can see it now.

Meanwhile got to get my knee fixed which I think should even be a priority over weight loss, don't you think ? Not really thought of it like that before.

Anyway, sun is shining, we should win the football and a not-too-heavy lunch is doing its business inside me.

I will try to remember the scales tomorrow but don't expect miracles. I always brace myself for disappointment.

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Thursday, 29 October) :

Calories : 1761. Not too bad, eh ?

Exercise : Nil. Not good but in accordance more or less with new tactics on knee recovery.

I persevere.

Scales again tomorrow.

ChrisITF

Still catching up but here is yesterday's summary anyway :

Calories : did not keep a count (but not good).

Exercise : Nil.

Having had a week away from the daily exercise routine, my knee has given me less and less grief. This has inevitably led me to wonder if this 'resting' is exactly what it needs ? It won't help weight loss but I am sick of compensating for a weakness there, especially on stairs. So I am thinking of giving it a rest for a while. It means I shall have to be especially vigilant with eating of course.

So be it. A decision made : I shall drop the running for a bit. Perhaps stick with the bike though which is less like an impact activity on joints. Let's see how that works out.

Supermarket run today but I am relegated now to trolley-pushing by Mrs CITF. She just loves going round at peak customer hour whereas, left to me alone, I sneak round at 0730hrs or so when it is like a private personal facility.

ChrisITF

Back folks !

Sorry that I have been silent for a while. Never gave this blog a single thought whilst 4,000 miles away or so. Also to my surprise I did not eat more than normal despite the obvious culinary temptations of USA/Canada. In fact, to be specific, I am still at 189 lbs according to the bathroom scales this morning. I think that is some kind of record over this past two years or so, ie to come back not heavier than when I left. Helps to miss out meals you see.

Got into one hotel late at night where the menu was definitely haute cuisine - where 'haute' referred to the prices mostly. Added to which the menu was in French; always a bad sign for a Yorkshireman (with a smidgeon of Scots) like me. Room service, quite often simpler fare, on this occasion was exactly the same offerings but with a 'service charge'. Verging on desperation, I opened the mini-bar and spied a can of Coca-Cola. Evening meal sorted ! I guess I was more dehydrated than truly hungry. Perhaps that is often the case ?

At another hotel I tasked Room Service with providing me with just a bowl of goulash soup. I had stayed there before and it was delicious. This time however it came with what looked like chocolate muffins cut up. However, these muffins turned out to be bread of a very unusual colour - chocolate muffin colour, no less. The bill ? £12 ! I was too tired to care.

So, yes, I missed a few meals and the gravitational result was a relief this morning. However, I am now back to all the temptations of a kitchen not 5m away and all the food is already paid for. And Mrs CITF is out in the garden .. !

However, as I know you are all watching I shall behave impeccably .. for as long as possible.

Back tomorrow, hoping to resume the weary road to my target of 161 lbs (or better).

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Sunday) :

Calories : 1953. Oops.

Exercise : 45 mins on bike.

Also washed Mrs CITF's little car and helped somewhat in garden, mostly tidying up after the mess the apple tree has made of the back lawn by squandering hundreds of apples thereon. Pity there is no room in the freeezer for them. So they had to go. Amazingly found there was a queue at the Recycling Centre before 0900hrs on a Sunday. Can actually see the grass again now, but it will be fallen leaves next. Sigh.

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Saturday, 17 October 2009) :

Calories : 2374.
Not as bad as I had feared, given my reluctant pizza evening family nosh.

Exercise : 30+ mins running.

ChrisITF

Well, folks, it's not a lot but I have lost 1lb over the week. Yesterday's data (Friday) for completeness :

Calories : 1644. Yay !

Exercise : 50 mins on bike.

So I now weigh 189lbs, or 13st 7lbs if you prefer, and this yields a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 26.5 which is creeping towards the 'normal' category. Normal category of BMI is reached for my height when I am at or below 178lbs. A fair way to go yet thus and especially annoying that I have been below it recently but I have to forget that and concentrate on the future.

To my surprise I have kept within my calories budget for 4 days in a row (almost unprecedented) but tonight is takeaway night these days and pizza is the family concensus for a communal nosh. I voted against but was outvoted ! I also voted (vociferously !) against a meal out. I have enough trouble with food I can supposedly control without being faced with totally and suspiciously unknown contents. So, pizza it is. But it's only once in a while ...

Thus encouraged by my slight weight success, I am ready for more. However, the recently mentioned trip to the USA has been brought forward and I will now travel to Minneapolis on Wednesday (21st) in the coming week and I shall mostly likely go silent here for a while.

So, on that slightly ominous note - USA I mean - I will try to stick to my own rules for the project while absent. Traditionally difficult, but not impossible, I suppose.

Let's see how I manage once more.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Thursday, 15 October) :

Calories : 1684. Yes, three within-budget days in a row. I have definitely earned myself a Mars Bar !

Exercise : 30 mins on bike to/from gym class. Plus gym class (45 mins).

Not too bad, eh ? But will it translate to weight loss over the week ? Revelation tomorrow if I remember.

The fragrant mistresses in Physiotherapy require me to attend gym class for another two weeks at least. Worse, they have given me more 'homework' in the form of extra tedious and fatiguing exercises. They mean well, they really do. Have to humour them to escape, I suppose.

ChrisITF

Brief summary of yesterday (Wednesday, 14 October) :

Calories : 1680. Blimey .. two days in a row within budget ! This, despite :

Exercise : 60 mins running. But I can feel the effects of this still today.

Summat happened to my self-discipline these past two days : much improved. Will it continue ? Tune in tomorrow to read the next gripping instalment.

Off to gym class for my wounded knee this morning. I hope to get discharged as I have discovered they do not have a magic wand after all. Perhaps my next foreign jaunt (25 Oct ?) will provide the rest from all exertion that my knee probably really needs. We shall see.

Exciting times, eh ?

ChrisITF

First a summary of yesterday (Tuesday, 13 October 2009) :

Calories : 1671. At last; within budget !

Exercise : 45 mins on bike. Got collared by Mrs CITF to help her with a rare visit to launderette with duvets. Managed to sneak out on bike while she was otherwise engaged on hands and knees weeding flower borders. But had to fix a puncture first ..

A mixed week so far. Exercise coming on satisfactorily, rare to miss a day, though nothing special. At least I am not injured, other than my festering knee, which is actually improving. Probably get discharged from gym class tomorrow. Depends how I play it really.

Still ricochetting between gluttony and starvation with food, depending on mood it seems. All I have to do is lean slightly towards abstemiousness and stay there ! But that is now easy to say after munching a bowl of sultana bran flakes ... Yes, problems seem different, trivial even, with a full tummy.

Back tomorrow.

ChrisITF

Pains me to recall this day in terms of 'progress'. However, :

Calories : 2470.

Exercise : Nil whatsoever.

Had very welcome visit from close family member, so brought out the fatted calf for celebration. Well, I exaggerate .. beef mince actually. Followed by trifle. Get the picture ? So today is a day of austerity and is already looking a bit difficult to see how I can fit in an adventure in the woods on the bike.

Now that Mrs CITF is no longer gainfully employed, my degree of freedom to lounge around and do what I please, eg nothing, is proving to be limited. Feared as much. But I will give it a try while she is not looking, being glued to the TV watching something she recorded yesterday while, like me, otherwise occupied.

Sssh, not a sound ...

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Sunday, 11 October) :

Calories : 2020.

Exercise : 45 mins on bike.

Also went for a walk in woods with Number 2 Son as it was reported there had been an aircraft accident there. Found it to be true. The wrecked aircraft was still in situ and will require rather more than a lick of paint to fly again. No one badly hurt, though some trees have been put back a few years.

See http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=58692 for photos (not mine) if interested.

Best get on. Visitor coming today so am being sent to supermarket for suitable titbits to eat.

ChrisITF

Oops ! Missed end-of-week-report yesterday .. again. So let's catch up.

Friday's data :

Calories : 2137. No comment.

Exercise : 45 mins on bike.

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Saturday's data (10 October) :

Calories : 1945 which, alas, includes a Mars bar at football match in coastal Essex.

Exercise : 30+ mins running, yes, despite the away football match.

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Finally got around to weighing myself and it is a disappointing 190 lbs. So no apparent progress over this last two weeks. Yields BMI of 26.6.

My spreadsheet, which now tracks both calories intake and exercise energy use suggests I should be down to 188 lbs by now. Why is it not so then ? I scratched my head and came up with a list of reasons .. excuses if you wish :

1) underestimating calorific content of food consumed (quite possible);

2) missing recording some food items (highly likely, given I do not dash to the PC every time I take a mouthful);

3) increased muscle mass due to increased exercise (possible, attractive even, but extremely difficult to estimate);

4) exercise not as effective at consumption of energy as I think (also possible).

All in all, perhaps I should not be too surprised at the scales' verdict. I know what I need to do; it is simple, but not easy. Just got to persevere.

And so week 129 starts with renewed vigour.

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Thursday, 08 October) :

Calories : 2046. Another disappointment.

Exercise : 30 mins on bike to/from gym class. Plus gym class I suppose.

A so-so day and I really put my back into it at gym class. But why was I the only mug who ended up dripping with sweat in the gym, eh ?

Probably because you were the fattest, Chris.

Oh, I see ...

Weekly supermarket run this morning, solo : like a kid in a sweetie-shop I'll be.

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Wednesday, 07 October) :

Calories : 1850.

Exercise : 60 mins running. Still not used to this distance and could cheerfully go back to bed right now but my gym class beckons shortly.

Miserable, wet but mild day where I avoided the rain by chance on my run. Evening football match as spectator where I avoided Mars Bars too (for once).

ChrisITF

Yesterday's data first (Tuesday, 06 October) :

Calories : 2064. Tut tut.

Exercise : 45 mins on bike.

Slipped up a bit this week so far. The sharp-eyed will note Monday's data is missing. Bit of a shambles of a day as I went round to son's flat to let decorators in to sort out damage from a flood that came through the ceiling a while back. Hung around making cups of tea, eating son's biscuits; that sort of thing. Also it poured with rain pretty much all day and I never got out for my planned run.

Irritated, I really forced myself out on the bike yesterday with zero enthusiasm, once the rain had just about stopped. It was still so wet and muddy that a run was even less appealing than being on the bike. Mudguard broken so came back filthy. But I suppose we really needed the rain because the lake in the woods has only got the merest trickle over the little outlet weir even now, after a very wet 48hrs.

So, yes, I have effortlessly slipped into one of my 'why bother ?' moods these past few days and my tenacity to the task has been severely eroded. However, without looking outside yet - it is still dark - I plan to go for a run, regardless of the weather. Easy said sat here right now of course but we shall see.

USA trip coming up in less than 3 weeks' time but, for a change, I am rather looking forward to it. The autumn colours over there can be glorious. Pity it is preceded by 9 hours in a metal tube, squashed in a tiny seat; the very cheapest I can find, naturally.

But that is a bit off yet. Meanwhile there is plenty of food to be avoided.

Of your charity, pray for me brethren, do.

ChrisITF

Late report about yesterday (Sunday, 04 October) :

Calories : 2045. Too much of just about everything really.

Exercise : 50 mins on bike.

Late today because flat-sitting for son (decorators). Just got back.

ChrisITF

History repeating itself : I forgot my Saturday report again yesterday. You will have to be patient as the weighing scales languish in the bathroom, unused for a week, and will remain so until I happen to remember to weigh myself. So there !

Anyway, for completeness' sake here comes Friday's data ;

Calories : 1834. A teensy bit better but still OTT.

Exercise : 45 mins on bike.

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And now Saturday's data :

Calories : 2144. 'Chinese takeaway' mucked things up here but it is only once in a while. I was doing alright until the family concensus ran to a chinese.

Calories : 30+ mins running with Mrs CITF.

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Not a brilliant week from a self-discipline point of view. Jekyll and Hyde syndrome ever present. Persevering still. Just annoyed with myself but largely philosophical about vulnerability.

More tomorrow - if I remember.

ChrisITF

Lamentable summary of yesterday (Thursday, 01 October) :

Calories : 2205. Oh dear .. just totted it up. Not a good day at all. Dunno why.

Exercise : 30 mins on bike to and from gym class, which latter also got me hot and bothered.

Must do better today. Difficult not to. Starts with dawn raid on the supermarket; a danger in itself ... !

ChrisITF

Summary of yesterday (Wednesday, 30 September) :

Calories : 1894. Chunky shortbread biscuit .. mmm.

Exercise : 60 mins running, so it will be a stagger through gym class this morning.

ChrisITF