It's 26 weeks today since I started a sustained effort at reducing my weight, improving my health and increasing my fitness. I've had half-hearted (though they didn't feel like it at the time) attempts previously, which I now chose to see as practice attempts.
So far I've lost 14.5cm each from my bust and hips, and about 6cm from each limb, and 18.2 kilos (an average of 700 grams/week), making me the lightest I've been since an ill-fated run of NutriSystem in 1991. My BMI has dropped from a morbidly obese 43.4 to a just obese 36.9, and in the last two weeks I've bought extra-small t-shirts from (vanity sizing) My Size, and a pair of size L workout pants by Bonds. I also have to wear a belt with my work pants, and am comfortably fitting in to jeans I could pull past mid-thigh last year.
There's definitely still room for improvement - I keep falling off the exercise wagon, for a start, have the odd insane binge for another - but I'm heading in the right direction. I've got a couple of short term goals, including being fit enough to keep up with my sister and her husband for three one-day hikes in Washington about fifteen weeks from now. I also aim to lose at least about ten kilos by then; the last time I weighed that was when I was eighteen, when I put on thirty kilos in about six months. so, clearly there's still a way to go, but even though the initial weight went on virtually overnight, the mind set, self-image and residual weight have been with me a long time, and my goal is sustained, sustainable change rather than rapid oscillation.
After six months I've also decided to start weaning myself off Lite'n'Easy. As of next Thursday I'm only ordering dinners for a month, substituting menu planning and cooking for plastic bags. I hope the transition is successful, more environmentally sustainable, and cheaper than Lite'n'Easy, but will have no problem returning to deliveries if I find my diet falling in a heap. My aims are at least two serves of fruit and five of vegetables a day, 1500 calories a day, under 40 grams of fat a day, and a variety of food instead of the same things over and over.
Undaunted by the juice debacle I'm also going to create my own three day (or perhaps one, I'll see how it goes) transition program, and am only waiting on a juicer to arrive before launching into it. I'm quite happy with the ability of my body to effectively remove toxins unaided, so the aim of the exercise isn't to detox, it's to reset my relationship with food.
I'm also restarting the C25K next week, after a disappointing start. I doubt I'll ever love running, and suspect I'll have to repeat several weeks, particularly at the beginning, but I really like the idea of being able to run with ease, and as I've got fifteen weeks in which to work through an optimally nine week program I hope to get there before my trip. The other advantage to running is that it requires minimal equipment, which is a definite plus while travelling - this will be my first trip away since beginning this process and I really don't want it to derail just because I'm going away. In some ways the ten day or so trip to the US is training for a four week trip to Europe later in the year, from which I'll return about a month shy of my one year transforming anniversary. - Alex
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