3 Months, 3 Stone: Balls to the wall!

Only down a mere 1.5lbs this week, meaning I weigh 16st 6lbs.

I was working a lot this week (which involves a lot of driving/sitting on my ass). So I haven't been active at all, although I felt my diet was generally alright. I was expecting a bit more of a loss, to be honest, but hey ho, such is life.


In an attempt to cheer up myself, i've booked two things this week.

One is a few days in Salou in October. Cheap and cheerful, means I'll not gain back the weight as the rollercoaster seats still haunt me, and they're opening a new rollercoaster and area of the theme park over there so I figured it'd be something new (and I dont know what the seats are like on the new coaster, so that'll scare me thin if nothing else).


The other thing I booked, is much more immediate. I booked a fortnight in a cottage in Kerry. In February, I shall embark on my own to a cottage in the middle of nowhere. Just myself and my car filled up with an assortment of exercise gear (most notably my hiking boots and bike). I'll also bring some dumbbells and such too.

Idea is to just be left alone to do what i want for a fortnight and have no one bother me, try break bad habits (popping into shops and buying sweets etc) and live day-to-day food wise (meaning cycling to the shop every day or two to pick up some food). The cottage doesnt have a proper freezer (an unintentional god send, so i cant just stock up on food and over-eat each day). I've never been to this place before, but it seems remote enough that i'll need to cycle everywhere. Then the roads look grand for cycling and there's a mountain nearby that I'll attempt to wander up sometime too im hopeful.

Plan is to use the car for only two things - getting there, and getting back.

I always wanted to get a week away to myself, but always thought it'd be best to opt to do it abroad. Never pulled the trigger on it though as always thought 'what if i hate it, get bored, fed up, etc.' but at least this way i can just drive home, though i doubt i will). Plus it's a 4 hour each-way drive, so I'll not be popping home for milk :P


I dunno what the interwebs will be like, so it's possible I'll end up disappearing off here for a short while, but I'll be sure to say goodbye and post updates if i can Shall be entirely fitness based (or at least, that's the aim anyway).

(NOTE: This is a long rambling post, the gist of it is looking for opinions/advice from anyone on my 'taking a fortnight to focus on exercise' idea).


Little update here; I didn't weigh this week as I couldn't get in to Slimming World (had a clash of events.. literally do nothing all week, and then everything happens at the same time!).


That said, in the last week I got myself a little plaque from participating in the Raheny 5 Mile road race (8km). 8km is the longest distance I've ever done, and I got pretty much exactly the time I was aiming for. I finished in 48:19 (averaging about 6 minutes per km - the same general pace I had for the 5k's I've done before, so I'm happy that it's not slowing significantly over the longer distances being done. I'm on course for a one-hour Boyne 10k in April, and I really want to finish that in under an hour).







I'm off to Kerry for my fortnight on Saturday. I will most likely not be on here until my return (I may well be posting here, but I'm just assuming, based on the rural-ness of the place I'm headed, that internet will be non-existant for me).


I don't know what I currently weigh, but if I presume I'm the same as last week (16st 6lbs) then I think I'd be happy with dropping a stone over the next 2-3 weeks, and hopefully becoming a bit stronger in the process.

I know two weeks is not really a good enough time-frame to be able to do anything of any significance, but I'll be out of my comfort zone a bit, so I won't have the habit of popping to the shop for sweets, or sitting at the PC watching TV Shows and eating crap. I'm hoping the two weeks away will be like pressing the Reset button on the Mega Drive.


I've a little camera that shoots video that I'll bring with me to film myself a bit (something to do) but don't think they'll get shared. I may however post a before/after if there's anything worthwhile different.


Ye guys know the way I like 'da rasslin'? Well I'm a bit of a Brock Lesnar fan (I don't actually watch WWE anymore, admittedly, but I'd watch a few random clips here and there, but was a big fan back in 2003 or so when Lesnar debuted). Anyway, for Christmas, my brother got me a pair of 'replica' Lesnar fight shorts. They're pretty class. Unfortunately, the only place you can really get them is Hong Kong megastores due to copyright and licensing issues, so as you can expect, they didn't arrive on time for XMas. haha.

Anyway, to get to the point - They don't fit me. My expanding waist over christmas means I can get them up to my waist, but not close them, and they're so tight on my thighs I'd be genuinely fearful of cracking the printwork/logos on them. So I have a set of wonderful photos of them (barely) on me. So I'm hoping my next before/after will be a few weeks (4 to 6 weeks im guessing) from now, wearing those shorts and them fitting me properly.

So that's my motivation at the moment. Then I'll live in them and wear them so much that they'll need to be surgically removed.


Can I ask, anyone here ever taken a break away for the sake of fitness/health before? Any advice/tips?

My plan is to jog, cycle and walk a lot, and bring down some of my home gym gear (bench, set of dumbbells, kettlebell, sandbag.. think that covers all areas?). Can't justify bringing a barbell for squats/deadlifts as the associated gear (all the bumper plates, squat rack, etc.) would take up too much space in the car. I do have a 20kg weight vest, and a 30kg sandbag, so I reckon I could combine those for squatting and deadlifting. I have a slamball I'd like to bring, but don't think I will as to use it anywhere would require it making it's very loud noise when it hits the ground, and I think it'd be a bit inappropriate (but might bring it anyway, and see can I find somewhere isolated to use it).

Was also planning on downloading some of those '30 day' challenges (30 day squat challenge, planks etc.) and double them up to try and get through them in the 14 days.

I won't know anyone, and I'm not bringing a gaming console, don't watch general TV shows, etc. so the only thing I'll really have to keep me occupied is the fitness stuff (so i'm trying to run several exercise goals simultaneously to fill the days). I will bring a book or three with me, though (but again, fitness related).


Anyone got any ideas? Or even ideas of worthwhile body-weight exercises and such? I always struggle with bear crawls, so figured I may try to do a lot of those, and lunges and stuff I'm just generally poor at.

tony stark

Did you go to Kerry? What happened? This thread is a great read and so inspiring! Brilliant

jennyhayes123

I to an curious as to how your trip went

GapMinder

I'm also very curious!

SmallTeapot

Hi KKV, would love to get an update as to how you're doing? Hope the trip to Kerry was a success

moonshadow

Did anyone check Kerry ?

JJayoo

Why have you abandoned us?

Alf Veedersane

He tried to buy a field. As an outsider. It got messy.

Hi Folks!

I came back to resurrect this thread with a new-found effort, but I wasn't aware that I didn't update after Kerry!? Sorry about that.

That's a bit mad! I was fully sure I posted here after the Kerry trip! :eek: Someone should've sent me a private message to return and fill ye all in, and I'd have happily done so. I don't get notifications or anything when people reply here (must see can I turn them on or something).


Kerry was a great trip! I booked 14 days away in a cottage that was completely alien to me. All I knew was it was rural, and that I had the coordinates for it. When I got there, the place couldn't have been any more perfectly suited for what I wanted to do.


I unpacked my gym gear into the kitchen of it (weights, etc.) and set up an area of mats for my bicycle. I parked the car up with the intention of not returning to it until I needed to drive home. There was a 4.5km road beside the house that lead to a little harbour kinda place (Cromane is a fishing village, I discovered).

I jogged 5k down (and a little bit back) the road each morning, and walked the other 4k back. I ate 3 times a day, and all relatively healthy foods that I had cooked or thrown together, or that was pre-packaged, but had a low calorie count.

I did a cycle every second day, and i cycled to the nearby shop (about a 30 minute round trip on the bike). I was amazed at how fast I progressed on the weight lifting end of things. I did about an hour of weights each day.


Unfortunately, I had to leave early, as work interrupted, but I did get 11 days out of it. It wasn't overly expensive either. It was pretty cold in the cottage, though, I will admit that much.

At the end of it all, I did lose a bit of weight. Exactly how much, I can't recall, but i believe it was around 8-9lbs. I kept this off for a few weeks after returning back to normal life.

I kept at the running and signed up to a rake of events. Unfortunately, along the way, i had a little leg injury that i never really mentioned to anyone, but it made running a bit of a chore. so i started being a little bit hermit-y and stopped running, except for actual events I signed up to.


My biggest achievement was doing a Cystic Fibrosis 10k in Duleek at 2pm on a Sunday (time was 1:02:24), and then also doing another one at 9pm the same day; the Virgin Media Night Run (time was 1:09:53). So that was 20k in a day for me. The most I've ever done. Unfortunately, straight back into sore-leg territory.

I ran in the Boyne 10k about a week later, and I really, really wanted to get under the hour on that one. Unfortunately, my legs were still sore from the week (a full week!) before, I ran it in a disappointing 1:02:31.

At the end of the Boyne 10k, for the last 400meters (I'd guess) I really went all out, and I ran like never before (thinking I might still have a hope of getting under the hour). It felt great darting by so many people, and I was shocked I had the energy, but I paid for it for a while to come afterwards. Could barely walk for days/weeks after it.


So the sad part is, I'm typing this as a much fatter person! I've gained back a fair bit of weight, although, thankfully, I'm not quite back to where I started. A fair bit of this is, if I'm honest, injured leg meaning I couldn't get out, so boredom and generally feeling sorry for myself kicking in and eating for the sake of it. Straight back into old routines.


So... My weight at the moment is 18st 1.5lbs (my original starting weight was 19st 4lbs when I made the thread). However, I'm a lot fitter than before, and I think my general body composition has changed a tad (I seem to be putting weight on my belly a bit more? Possibly due to the fact I'm still a bit active, but the diet has gone downhill). So I've started to move from a body that's fat, but generally well proportioned, to the typical 'big belly' body we all know about (my legs and ass etc. are still fat, don't get me wrong, but the belly is soaring ahead it would appear).



So I need to get my act together again, and I've decided this time to force myself to put the effort in. As the thread itself shows, when i make an effort, the weight really comes off.

So this time I have 5 months, to drop about 4 stone.



So this is my new effort:

Current (starting) weight: 18st 1.5lbs
Goal weight: 14st 0lbs
Deadline: 31st October (5.5 months / 24 weeks)


This time my motivation is in the form of a sky dive! I signed up for one, and told a few people about it. I have paid for it, so I have committed to it (€265). The end of skydiving season is October 31st.

The thing is, for my height, they will not allow me to do it unless I weigh in and around 14 stone. So in order for me to get into (and out of) a plane, I need to drop about 4 stone. I'd be pretty embarrassed if i didn't get to do it, because of my own laziness.


I'll keep the thread updated once a week again (I actually found that posting here helped me out a good bit before. The generally attitude of posters here was great and very motivating).


Apologies again about the lack of an update from Kerry! I knew i hadn't posted here in a while, but i was fully sure i wrote a summary of how that went. Sorry!

Alf Veedersane

No need to apologise, man. There's a whole big real world out there!

I do think you need to address the eating side of things though. You are fitter but you've undone a lot of the good work during the time you haven't been able to train or get exercise in.

You do need to reframe your relationship with food and how you use it.

I have had to do that myself through CBT and I've come out the better for it. It's not the only way bit a way I can recommend from experience.

Life will often get in the way of training and for your own sake, if you don't address it, it may become demoralising of you put all this work in and undo it when you can't train.

Firmly in Team KKV so not trying to be critical. Just want to see the best results from the hard work!

JJayoo

Did you keep up any of the home gym work?

And don't you leave us again...not you

Alf Veedersane

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

No need to apologise, man. There's a whole big real world out there!

I do think you need to address the eating side of things though. You are fitter but you've undone a lot of the good work during the time you haven't been able to train or get exercise in.

You do need to reframe your relationship with food and how you use it.

I have had to do that myself through CBT and I've come out the better for it. It's not the only way bit a way I can recommend from experience.

Life will often get in the way of training and for your own sake, if you don't address it, it may become demoralising of you put all this work in and undo it when you can't train.

Firmly in Team KKV so not trying to be critical. Just want to see the best results from the hard work!

I would never really think of any one here as being critical (although naturally, constructive criticism is always welcome)

You're absolutely spot on in what you say. I'm well aware i have an unhealthy relationship with food, binge eating seems to be the order of the day for me. Can go so long without it and then, bang, about 5 or 6 thousand calories will go down my throat in an hour or two. Even though i am conscious of it whilst I'm actually doing it. It makes no sense.


If you found CBT helpful, can I ask how you got started on your road to dealing with it?

JJayoo wrote: »

Did you keep up any of the home gym work?

And don't you leave us again...not you

I have been in and out of the gym on and off. I haven't kept a structured programme going, but I've passed an hour or two in it here and there. I think part of my issue with the gym is that I realise I havent used it in ages, panic, do a workout plan up that takes about two hours to complete. Bust my hump for the two hours, do it again two days later, and im so exhausted after it that the thoughts of doing it all again kill me.

So I've started to try and use it more frequently, but for less time. I try to do the same routine each time, but i dont get to caught up in it. this week has been good, for example, as i still feel interested in going back into it, rather than dreading it.

Alf Veedersane

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I would never really think of any one here as being critical (although naturally, constructive criticism is always welcome)

You're absolutely spot on in what you say. I'm well aware i have an unhealthy relationship with food, binge eating seems to be the order of the day for me. Can go so long without it and then, bang, about 5 or 6 thousand calories will go down my throat in an hour or two. Even though i am conscious of it whilst I'm actually doing it. It makes no sense.


If you found CBT helpful, can I ask how you got started on your road to dealing with it?

My introduction to the world of CBT came from a different starting point but the principles could be applied for a multitude of situations.

Sometime after my mother died prematurely, I found myself in the grip on an eating disorder. I didn't find myself there until a long time after I was in that grip. But I was referred to the Cognitive Behavioural Therapist linked to the doctor I originally spoke with.

But you can go directly and it makes no difference. The ultimate thing you need is to have someone you feel comfortable with and who you can talk openly and frankly with. The relationship is an important determinant of success.

We would talk, they would ask questions and tease out different things - some that would give a greater insight for them, some that wouldn't. They're basically just talking to you and essentially mining for the root of the problems.

The food thing is often just a manifestation of something unrelated to food so it's good to understand that and come up with how to address that.

Cheers for the reply there Alf.

It's something I must google a bit and, to be honest, I won't go running to a professional just yet in all honest. I will keep it in the back of my mind all the same though, and try to learn a bit more about it.

Weighed in this week with a loss of 3.5lbs, meaning my current weight is 17st 12lbs, down from last week's 18st 1.5lbs.


3.5lbs per week buts me on course for my goal weight, so I'll hopefully keep the ball rolling with that. Headed up Croagh Patrick this week and enjoyed it. But as I was in Mayo, i also ate out a bit, so they hopefully balanced each other out a bit.


Hoping that next week I'll lose a bit more than 3.5lbs, but I'd be happy with 3.5lbs again, if I can get it.

Weighed in tonight with a loss of 6lbs, meaning my current weight is 17st 6lbs, down from last week's 17st 12lbs.

If I got that again next week, I'd be the happiest chappiest you ever did meet. But I won't get my hopes too high up. If i get 3.5lbs again, i'll be thrilled

Weighed in tonight with a loss of 3lbs, meaning my current weight is 17st 3lbs, down from last week's 17st 6lbs.

I'd have liked to knock off the extra half-pound whilst I was at it, but I'm still slightly ahead of where I want to be at the moment. So there's all to play for as I head into next week. Eyes down for a full house

Dtp1979

Any update?

I have been working a bit lately so havent been able to get to ye olde slimming world scales to keep an eye on how ive been doing. My guess is that i probably haven't really gained or lost much since i last weighed, but i know i'll definitely be able to get there for next week so that'll be a proper update.

Weighed in this week, and through some weird kinda miracle, I'm exactly the same weight I was when I last weighed in. So I'm still 17st 3lbs.

I can see good and bad in that. It's great that I haven't gained any weight back, but not so great that I've let a couple of weeks go by without any progress at all.

I'll point the finger of blame firmly at everybody but myself, of course!


But really, I've been doing a fair bit of work lately, and it's kept me occupied. I haven't been exercising much nor have I been overly watching what I've been eating, so in order to weigh in at the same again is okay I suppose.


So I practically have no work now for the next 3 weeks or so (a day or two here and there but nothing major).

I keep forgetting about it, somehow, but I have Tough Mudder next Sunday. It completely slips my mind that I ever signed up for it. Normally I'd be madly enthused about something like that and be out pushing myself, but every time I think about it I keep thinking 'sure that's ages away'.

Considering I've completely fecked myself over, become much lazier and gained weight, I reckon Mudder will possibly be a bit of an embarrassing venture and one that I'm not really going to enjoy. I'll still do it, but I'm a bit pissed off at myself over it (and in fairness, it's my own sheer laziness that is to blame).


But sure I'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed anyway.

Tylerdurex

Deleted User wrote: »

Cheers folks.



This post ended up being longer than I anticipated.. and it's mostly nonsensical rambling so you can feel free to ignore it.


On the diet front, I will be completely honest and say I count approximate calories, and try to be sensible with my eating and avoid binge-eating on Haribo and such (but unfortunately, it does tend to still happen!).

I don't know what Keto is, and I'm only mildly clued into why you'd intentionally eat a low carb diet. I know why people favour protein foods generally, etc. But most of the general diet advice I get or see around the place, I opt to ignore, to be honest.


I can't really cook properly, and I like having a caloric number, so most of my foods are store-bought ready-made. For example, I often buy a Spaghetti Bolognese ready meal that's made by Birds Eye. It's about €3. I find it filling, and I know that it's bang on 280kcal. I don't have to figure out portion sizes, spend time batch cooking etc. so it suits me.

I eat a lot of shepherd's pie. I eat a lot of bread, too (I know bread is the devil, etc.). I only eat Brennan's 'Be Good Wholemeal' bread, though, because I find it tasty, makes good toast, and it's 60kcal a slice (which is very reasonable, in my opinion).

I'll often bang a tin of spaghetti hoops in the microwave (210kcal for Heinz tin) and have it over a slice of Be Good Wholemeal bread.

Lidl do a €2 ready meal frozen dinner with a choice of chicken or roast beef (it's a sunday dinner style meal). It's in and around 350kcal and has spuds, meat, veg, gravy. Very filling, very cheap, very easy to cook, very easy to calorically calculate.


I'm not a big fan of fizzy drinks, but will opt for Diet Coke or 7up Free over the higher-calories options, and although I drink an enormous amount of tea, I don't measure, weigh, etc. my milk portions (I use low fat milk, though). I eat sausages and rashers, but opt to grill them instead of frying them. I'll have Turkey/Chicken Burgers from the local butcher now and again too (grilled also). I'll usually have these with a slice of Be Good Bread and a dash of red sauce (Heinz reduced salt ketchup is low enough in calories).



To be honest, I pay attention to my diet, in that I'm not completely oblivious to it. I know 'you can't outrun a bad diet' is true, but at the same time, I don't get too into the small details of it, because it'd quickly become a chore.



I find calories are kind of like money. If you're unemployed and get €500 per week, you'll spend that money on anything and everything. You'll splash the cash and not have a care in the world. If you work 50 hours a week, and get the same €500 per week, you'll appreciate the money a lot more, and you'll be very careful about how you spend it, and will be wary of wasting it.


I find this is true of calorie counting. If a packet of Cheese and Onion Tayto is 200 calories, and you're just lying around the house, then you'll chomp them down like it's no one's business. Sure what's 200 calories?

But if you've just spent an hour jogging the bollocks off yourself and are sputtering and coughing like a mad thing because you pushed yourself as hard as you could.. and you burned 200 calories... all of a sudden that packet of Tayto seems like a much bigger sacrifice to make. Those 200 calories have much more meaning to you because you invested so much time and effort into them. You're not as likely to waste those calories.


When I stop exercising or make an effort physically, the diet usually slowly but surely dies with it. But if I go out jogging, cycling, swimming (or whatever your preferred choice of exercise is) then i find it's much easier to make sensible eating decisions because all of a sudden the food that's loaded in calories just seems like it's not worth it.


You can read for hours, days, weeks on end about diet related topics (I have), but at the end of the day it's all just common sense. Unfortunately, common sense would tell you not to binge eat on sugar-loaded nutritionally-void foods, but we all still do it. So it's a balance of keeping a clear head and not being one of those people (like I did over Christmas) who has a bad day, then deliberately ruins a week because 'sure it's all ruined now anyway' :rolleyes:


Everything in moderation, as they say. The only food that I have completely ruled out are biscuits. I simply can not justify them in any capacity. I will never buy a packet of biscuits and only have one or two. I always eat the whole packet. A digestive, or a HobNob etc are generally around 70cal per biscuit. I know you could say "well just eat two of them you fat prick", but I know I will always eat more than that, and usually finish a packet off in a single sitting. So I just don't entertain them at all.


But yeah.. other than that I don't get too worked up over diet. It's the most important part in weight loss, no doubt about it, but for me, mentally, it's the exercise that keeps the diet in check, so i focus more on that and the diet tends to just fall in line.

As long as you do these 4 things what you eat doesnt matter

1.Get in enough protein daily (100-150g)
2.Weight train 3-5 times a week
3.Eat in a caloric deficit
4.Enjoy your what you eat