Summary and reflection.. and admission

Well, once again I haven't written because I managed to lose all motivation, put on 5lbs (yes really...) and then lose (most of) it again.  I thought it was getting a repetitive.  I've managed to regain the motivation for the last two weeks so to maintain it I thought I'd reflect on the progress I have made... even though I could have made a lot more!

I'll start with weight because it's easiest.  When I started my blog I weighed about 12st 3lbs I think and now I've managed to get that down to 11st 6lbs - like I said, I'd lost most of the weight I put back on.  The last time I wrote I was 11st 4lb - hopefully I'll be back there this time next week.  I have to say, if nothing else motivates me it's the pure misery of losing weight that I've already lost - make sense?  You're making progress, but it's not as exciting as making new progress.  But anyway, it's a total loss of  10lbs.

So, with my weight at 11st 6lbs my BMI is 26.6, whereas it was 28.2 when I started.  This is still in the overweight range, but at least I'm closer to the healthy range than the obese range now.  Realising how close I was to obesity was a big shock for me - I've since calculated that it would only have taken 10lbs - the same amount as I've now lost - to put me in this category.  And I can confirm that it's easier to put it on that to lose it.  So I've decreased my BMI by 1.6 - the right direction at least.

Moving on to inches - I know I've previously report on just my waist size as an indicator of risk of certain diseases, but I've also measure my hips and thighs.  I'm glad I did actually because the results are reasonably good.  My waist measurement used to be 37", which put me at high risk of all kinds of nasties.  It's now 33" - 4" lost from there, but I know that the last time I wrote I'd managed to get it down to 31.5".  This was the top end of healthy, so I've increased my risk by putting a little weight back on, but I'm still a lower risk than when I started.

My hip measurement when I started was 40" and that's now 38" - a loss of 2".  My thigh measurement was 27" and it's now 24" - so that's 3" lost from each thigh!  If I add that all up, there's now 12" less of me in circumference than there used to be... That's a whole foot!  I'm pretty pleased with that, and I am pleased to report that I'm slowly starting to fit back into size 12 clothes - on Friday I wore a pair of trousers I haven't fitted into for.. well, years!  

Final check is whether I've brought my waist to hip ratio into a healthy range.  Close!  Originally this was 0.925 and it's now it's 0.868 - the healthy range begins at 0.85 so I'm getting there.

Three things to motivate myself now:

- Not having to re-lose the same weight!

- My cousin is getting married in 7 weeks - I must be a comfortable size 12 for the wedding

- After the wedding I'm going travelling (woopee!) and working as I go.  In physical jobs.  I figure i'll probably lose a bit of weight and tone up doing more physical work than sitting behind a desk, so if I go a size 14 it's unlikely that my clothes are going to fit for very long...

So, next week 11st 4lbs, yeah?

One pound to go... (and some horrid statistics)

This week's weigh in shows I am just one more pound away from reaching a whole stone! I've also lost another inch from my waist, which is super - my total inches loss is now 5.5.  This means today's weigh in put me at 11st 4lbs and a 31.5 inch waist.  My BMI is now 26.2 - slowly creeping towards the healthy range, which begins at 25 so I'm quite pleased about that.  My waist measurement has just hit the magic 31.5, which is the top end of healthy - phew!

I think it goes to show how warped our perception is when it comes to being a healthy weight - or perhaps just mine.  I would now consider myself a normal size; though I can see where I'm still carrying too much fat I don't feel like a 'fat person' anymore.  However, judging by my BMI I'm still medically overweight.  We've now become so used to high weights that we don't see it anymore unless someone is really obese.  

I hope that my blog has shown that you don't need to be the size of a Biggest Loser contestant to be putting your health at risk, and equally you don't need to lose an enormous amount of weight to cut your risks of developing health problems.  A recent BBC article said the NHS was backing the idea put forward by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellent (NICE), that people should 'lose a little, keep it off' - losing just 3% of your body weight, which is likely to be just a few pounds.  Put into context this would have been 5lbs for me at the start of my Fat Ass blog.  NICE claim that just this small loss would help reduce blood pressure as well as the risk of type 2 diabetes and some cancers.

The NHS reports on a 2013 study of the nation's obesity crisis goes further by saying that the UK is the "fat man of Europe" and it's scary to see that the NHS statistics back it up.  Did you know that 1 in 4 UK adults are now classified as obese (BMI 30+), and 2 in 3 adults are obese or overweight (BMI 25+)?  They're shocking statistics and the forecast is equally so - more than 50% of adults could be obese by 2050!  Imagine the disease that could be avoided if we all lost a little weight - the strain on the NHS must be enormous.  In fact, obesity has been blamed for 30,000 deaths per year with 9,000 of those being people younger than retirement age.  Having a BMI of 30-35 has been found to reduce life expectancy by three years; having a BMI of 40+ could take up to ten years off of your life - you may as well have taken up smoking for your whole life.  

We all expect the best treatment from the NHS when we find out we're unwell - but are we really doing anything to help ourselves?  Not everyone will be able to get themselves below the magic '25' BMI number, we are all different shapes and sizes and no one is perfect, but perhaps we could all lose 3% if we needed to?  I challenge you to lose 3% if you need to - let me know how it goes.

My favourite quote from the NHS article, which really sums it up:

'"People don't choose to be obese," says Professor Jebb.  "It just happens for a number of reasons... We've all got the potential to be far.  In the environment we live in, it's easy to overeat and be less active.  Some people need to work harder than others at keeping weight gain in check."'

Nobody (except Homer Simpson in his moo-moo episode) wakes up one morning and thinks to themselves, "Hmmm, I fancy being obese and putting my health at risk", but I'm sure plenty of people (like me) wake up and think, "What the hell happened!!"

Finally, now I've scared you all silly, the Race for Life is on Tuesday and I'm just £15 away from my target.  If you'd like to you can sponsor me on my Just Giving page - and thanks to all those who already have, whether online or in person.  Dig deep people :-)

Finally, finally - I found my 'before' photos the other day and they're horrendous.  I decided that once I have some decent 'after' photos they can all go on the blog - NO SHAME!

Sponsor me for the Race For Life

Anyone who read my last post will know that I signed up for the Race For Life in Stoke, which will take place on June 10th.  Training has gone.... not great, and I still can't run a kilometre, but I'm determined to run, jog or limp the 5K of the Race For Life.

You can sponsor me (please) either by visiting my Just Giving page or because it's now the 21st century, you can donate by texting KILBY88 £amount to 70070.  You can donate £1,2,3,4,5 or 10 by text.

Please donate whatever you can - I've already seen two families this year who have lost loved ones because of cancer, and hopefully in the future no one will have to go through what they have, not only this year but the past few years when their relatives have been fighting hard.

Thanks all :-)

Race For Life and Secret Eaters - calories in your glass of wine...

Definitely counts

It's been weeks, I'm sorry - I'm a terrible bloggist.  It's been a hectic few weeks and to be honest I've been avoiding writing anything in the last week or two because, to be honest, there hasn't been a great deal of progress.

Since my last post I've been up to 11st 9lb and down to 11st 5lb, and when I weighed myself this morning I was expecting to be at the top end of that scale - or worse, way over (or should I say 'weigh' over....).  I haven't been brave enough to measure my waist recently but I bit the bullet this morning.

I'm pleased to say I appear to have settled for 11st 6lb and a waist measurement of 32.5 inches.  This means since my last post I've lost 2lbs and an inch and a half.  I wish it hadn't taken me a month to do it though!  So my BMI is now 26.6 and I'm only an inch away from the 'healthy range' of waist measurements.

So, a running update.  Firstly, I've signed up to do the Race for Life in June (so you can all expect to be harassed for money quite soon...).  The Race for Life is a 5K walk/jog/run/dance and is around one month before my five mile JCB Mud Run, so my aim is to be able to jog the Race For Life as a practice for the Mud Run.  

I've been doing the NHS Couch to 5K program - or as the NHS likes to infuriatingly abbreviate it, the C25K - and so far I'm on week four.  This weeks its running for two blocks of three minutes and two blocks of five minutes with short breaks in between.  I know that for most of you that probably doesn't seem like a difficult thing to do but it's just about my limit at the moment.  Terrifyingly, at the end of next week I'm expected to run for twenty minutes.  Twenty.whole.minutes.  Without a break.  I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, but I'll give it a go.  Fortunately, the knee and hip pain I was moaning about last time has subsided, but my shins hurt pretty much all the time at the moment.  I have to keep reminding myself of the progress I'm making - in week one you do eight blocks of one minute and I was struggling with that three weeks ago.  Now I don't even notice the minute has gone by, it doesn't hurt and I've learnt to control my breathing while I'm running.

My next task is to invest is some decent running shoes (I've had mine a while) so if anyone has any recommendations I'd gladly hear them.  I've been looking into the 'Barefoot' running theory (i.e. with shoes that don't feel like you're wearing shoes) but I don't know if it would be any good for my ankle weakness - let me know if you've ever tried it!

Finally, I've been watching a lot of Secret Eaters recently.  If you've never watched it the basic premise is some overweight people are confused as to why they're putting weight on.  There are a lot of 'I eat healthily' and 'I cook all my own food fresh' claims and then when they have been put under surveillance for a week it turns out they eat takeaways, cover salads in high calorie dressings and drink loads of booze.  I mean loads.  One bloke, in one night, drank the equivalent calories of eating three donner kebabs.  So, here's my fun fact of the evening from Secret Eaters: clearly, the substance with the highest calories per pound is fat... but did you know that the substance with the second highest calories per pound is alcohol!  A 250ml glass of wine can contain around 228 calories - have a look at the Drink Aware page for more information.  It might be a liquid, but it most definitely counts!!

Waist loss but no weight loss...

High and lows but I'll keep it brief.  I have managed to put on a pound this week meaning I am now 11st 8lb (boooooo) but since I last measured my waist I've lost nearly two inches so my waist is now 34 inches.

If you remember back to my first ever post (A full analysis of my fat ass) you'll remember this little nugget of information:

"You have a higher risk of health problems if your waist size is:

• more than 94cm (37 inches), if you're a man
• more than 80cm (31.5 inches), if you're a woman

Your risk of health problems is even higher if your waist size is:

• more than 102cm (40 inches), if you're a man
• more than 88cm (34.5 inches), if you're a woman"

So at least now I have made it in to the 'second band' of risk - I don't want to celebrate too much but it is a milestone.  And very good news in a week where I've put on a pound.

Speaking of which, I'm not going to think too much about that one pound.  In the last seven days I've cycled, walked and been running three times so it's not like I need to feel guilty about sitting on my fat (slightly less fat than when I started) ass all week, and I haven't cheated on food either.  

A quick running update - my shins and ankles ache, my knee aches, my hip aches and I've managed to split the back of my ankle (it's as grim as it sounds) but fingers crossed if I keep doing my ankle exercises and carry on running gently I'll get there.  After all, come July I don't have a choice - there will be five miles to run in the mud so I'll just need to get a grip and carry on!

Oven chips, pugs and running through the mud...

Well, yes it has been a while but (almost) all for a good reason.  The last three weeks have seen birthdays, trips to London, hangovers and long walks, but to catch up on progress...

The first few weeks of my absence saw me not shift a single pound.  Or even a quarter of a pound!  To be honest it was more surprising I hadn't put weight on as the diet has slipped a couple of times - the day of the hangover saw me eating oven chips for breakfast and Dominos for dinner.    I stayed exactly the same, until Thursday of last week when magically I'd managed to lose two whole pounds.  Probably due to the run (I'll tell you all about it in a minute) which I'm sure almost killed me.

So, that brings me down to 11st 7lbs.  Eleven and a half stone!  It really does feel like a milestone because I can't remember the last time I was eleven and a half stone.  I've got so used to being 'twelve stone' that it feels a bit weird actually.   This means my BMI is now 26.7, a bit closer to that nice green section of the BMI chart!  I haven't measured my waist and as I'm writing this in bed, I'm not going to now either - it'll make next Sunday's weigh in full of suspense.

So, the run.  I've signed up to do the JCB Mud Run in July as part of a team of four.  The JCB Mud Run is 5 miles of muddy, obstacled (is that a word?) chaos.  There are a few important facts to take into consideration when you think about me running. 

Firstly, I haven't run any kind of distance since I was at school and even then, when I was at peak fitness, I was at the back of the cross country group with the fat kids and the smokers.  

Secondly, thanks to joint hypermobility my joints are, for lack of a better word, useless (there are better words, but there might be children reading).  Basically, where most people's joints are supported by tendons or what have you, mine are a bit floppy so the muscles have to work harder to provide the support.  This means a jaw that cracks because it can't stay in place, knees that crunch because they bend back too far and a thumb that comes out of place almost as and when.  Plus that party trick where you can twist your arms too far round.  I know - what a freak.  Most frustratingly though it means my ankles are a bit weak which causes pretty bad lower leg / ankle pain when I run as the muscles are working extra hard and tugging where they join to my bones.  Minging.  I've just got to a point where they're actually getting better but it's taken SO LONG.  As in years, rather than months.

Finally, I'm the only girl on the team so my natural pace is a bit slower than my team mates (I should mention, my very supportive team mates)... oh yeah and I'll be dressed as a duck - a pretty risky word to type when you're doing it in the dark I might add.

So, last Wednesday the team and I went for a run.  The route was two miles.  I made about a quarter of a mile before I stopped the first time, and from then on it was pretty much every couple of hundred yards.  I can't even tell you how tired I was when we'd finished.  My thighs stopped aching on Saturday - my lower legs / ankles haven't stopped hurting yet.  

For everyone's sanity I've decided that before I go running with my team again I'm going to do the couch to 5K program, so I've downloaded the NHS version from iTunes and went for my first run tonight around Westport Lake.  In week one you do a five minute warm up run, followed by 20 minutes of alternating walking and running and then a cool down walk.  I was out of breath, but not totally destroyed which felt good.  My lower legs and ankles were hurting but actually I think it did them some good.  I'll keep you updated on my progress but I'm feeling pretty positive about it at the moment.

And most importantly of all, Westport Lake is great for dog spotting! Tonight there was even a pug!!

Burger King and Fish & Chips

Confession time! Well, sort of.

At the weekend I went to Burger King and had fish & chips on the same day.  But I didn't go over 1400 calories, would you believe it?  It was tough, but...

When I think Burger King I think double Whopper with cheese meal please, with lemonade... Large?  Oh go on then.  Having found myself in their on Sunday afternoon I realised I had to find another way to go about eating there - clearly it's not going to be a regular thing, but at some time or another over the next 10 weeks I'm probably going to come across the same problem a few times.  And let's face it, the last thing I want to do after putting all this effort in to lose my fat ass is to grow a new one!

I had a good look at their menu and they do a few low calorie options.  I had a sweet chilli chicken wrap which came in at 296 calories and wasn't too bad in the fat stakes either (though I didn't check the salt).  I was also pretty tempted by the chicken caesar wrap and the veggie wrap.  All the big fast food places now seem display their food's calorific content in the store (admittedly in very small type so you really have to get up close to the menu) and online so you can always check before you go if you don't want to hold the queue up.

I'm not going to say it was easy - all I wanted was that Whopper - but also I really want to lose that two stone.  And I want that more than the Whopper... but only just.

So, on to the fish & chips.  Needless to say they weren't from the local chippy!  It was home cooked fish & chips, baked in the oven and I didn't even feel sad that it wasn't the 'real thing'.  I found the recipe on the meal mixer website I keep banging on about - it really is worth a try and I'd managed to save up my calories in the day so I could have two slices of bread and butter with mine.  Admittedly, after that I couldn't 'afford' mayonnaise but brown sauce was a good substitute.  It even passed the Chris-test so it can't have been bad!