Thursday, 6 September 2012
Week 1/10 Part 2/3
Lost 0.7kg, not much exercise but some DIY. Need to try harder to use myfitnesspal and also need to find exercise for the dark nights upcoming.
Monday, 3 September 2012
That's weird
Left work today in a bit of a bad mood and needed dinner and a bit of a lift, what sprang to mind was not a 12" pizza but something low calorie that would make sure I hit my daily target, at least I would get something right today was my thinking. This has never happened before!
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Week 10/10 Part 1/3
Wow, I've been doing this for 10 weeks and have lost around 7kg in weight but have also added some muscle, a couple of weeks were spent on holiday so I feel good about the progress overall.
This week I lost another kg and discovered a good reason for tracking calories even after all this time, it is easy to stop doing it once you know roughly what you should consume but at times where temptations appear it is good to have a positive motivator, it is only a small motivator, you get to finalise the day and my fitness pal tells you where you will be in 5 weeks but it works. He alternative motivator is the thought of the bad feelings after you succumb, but les face it everyone is excellent at over comming and ignoring those feelings! It is a bit like jumping into a cold pool except someone gives you cake on he way down. You enjoy now and you endure later.
This week I lost another kg and discovered a good reason for tracking calories even after all this time, it is easy to stop doing it once you know roughly what you should consume but at times where temptations appear it is good to have a positive motivator, it is only a small motivator, you get to finalise the day and my fitness pal tells you where you will be in 5 weeks but it works. He alternative motivator is the thought of the bad feelings after you succumb, but les face it everyone is excellent at over comming and ignoring those feelings! It is a bit like jumping into a cold pool except someone gives you cake on he way down. You enjoy now and you endure later.
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Fix your brain
My guess is that most overweight people can be put into two camps:
1. I've put weight on over the years without really noticing, probably because I am not as active as I used to me or have picked up some bad habits.
And
2. I often eat too much through boredom or emotional upset. I may feel very bad about myself because of my weight which only makes me more upset and that makes things worse.
I am the latter really and it is only because the diet is going well (with the aid of the blog) that that I am not turning to food as a comfort, this has worried me because what if I slip!
However, recently I found a book that has truly helped. It is by Albert Ellis, one of the founding fathers of cognitive therapy and it is called "How to make yourself happy and remarkably less disturbable." That makes is sound a little like brain washing or wagging the tail of the dog but it is not, if should really be called, "How to stop yourself becoming depressed, enraged or anxious etc and make yourself remarkably less disturbable."
I don't know that paraphrasing parts of the book will really do it justice but here are few key points I have found helpful:
1. Your worth as a human does not depend on your actions or performance. We are all human and worth the same, hence just forget self worth all together and stop measuring your worth.
2. Do measure your thoughts, emotions and actions against a set of goals. To be happy and to survive, preferably while not impeding others from doing the same.
3. Work hard to achieve these goals for yourself but be accepting when you cannot.
4. Apply the same concept to others, don't measure their worth, hate their sins (actions against those goals) but not their core.
5. Don't "awfulise", that is to make something that is bad so truly terrible in your mind that it causes terrible pain, work hard to avoid bad things but realise that even in terrible situations it may not all be bad and could possibly be worse.
6. Try to think flexibly. Avoid should, must, have to statements. Generally these just are not the case and create demands on the "universe" that can create pain if not met.
7. Try not to generalize. Avoid the verb "to be", "I am lazy" is a generalization, "I am bad" is too. They are not based on evidence and suggest you always were, will be and are in every way. Not so.
These are some key ideas that might not be so easy to grasp from a few words but from them a lot of problems can be dissolved. For example procrastination, one common cause of this is thinking that failing at a task will prove we are useless or worthless. So if you can follow #1 you know this is not true. You know that succeeding is preferable but failing does not make you a worm. Alternatively you may think that failing will be awful (if I fail to get into medical school it will be awful) well probably it won't be, you will just follow an alternative life path. etc etc
Read the book if any of this sounds sensible and if you have any issues with emotions and thoughts that are basically working against your best interests. The book is not perfect, the ideas in it need some effort to understand and indeed implementing them and making a change does too but I feel sure it is worth it, at least at the moment. I will of course Blog more, perhaps in Graham_gets_sane_and_tries_to_stay_so :)
1. I've put weight on over the years without really noticing, probably because I am not as active as I used to me or have picked up some bad habits.
And
2. I often eat too much through boredom or emotional upset. I may feel very bad about myself because of my weight which only makes me more upset and that makes things worse.
I am the latter really and it is only because the diet is going well (with the aid of the blog) that that I am not turning to food as a comfort, this has worried me because what if I slip!
However, recently I found a book that has truly helped. It is by Albert Ellis, one of the founding fathers of cognitive therapy and it is called "How to make yourself happy and remarkably less disturbable." That makes is sound a little like brain washing or wagging the tail of the dog but it is not, if should really be called, "How to stop yourself becoming depressed, enraged or anxious etc and make yourself remarkably less disturbable."
I don't know that paraphrasing parts of the book will really do it justice but here are few key points I have found helpful:
1. Your worth as a human does not depend on your actions or performance. We are all human and worth the same, hence just forget self worth all together and stop measuring your worth.
2. Do measure your thoughts, emotions and actions against a set of goals. To be happy and to survive, preferably while not impeding others from doing the same.
3. Work hard to achieve these goals for yourself but be accepting when you cannot.
4. Apply the same concept to others, don't measure their worth, hate their sins (actions against those goals) but not their core.
5. Don't "awfulise", that is to make something that is bad so truly terrible in your mind that it causes terrible pain, work hard to avoid bad things but realise that even in terrible situations it may not all be bad and could possibly be worse.
6. Try to think flexibly. Avoid should, must, have to statements. Generally these just are not the case and create demands on the "universe" that can create pain if not met.
7. Try not to generalize. Avoid the verb "to be", "I am lazy" is a generalization, "I am bad" is too. They are not based on evidence and suggest you always were, will be and are in every way. Not so.
These are some key ideas that might not be so easy to grasp from a few words but from them a lot of problems can be dissolved. For example procrastination, one common cause of this is thinking that failing at a task will prove we are useless or worthless. So if you can follow #1 you know this is not true. You know that succeeding is preferable but failing does not make you a worm. Alternatively you may think that failing will be awful (if I fail to get into medical school it will be awful) well probably it won't be, you will just follow an alternative life path. etc etc
Read the book if any of this sounds sensible and if you have any issues with emotions and thoughts that are basically working against your best interests. The book is not perfect, the ideas in it need some effort to understand and indeed implementing them and making a change does too but I feel sure it is worth it, at least at the moment. I will of course Blog more, perhaps in Graham_gets_sane_and_tries_to_stay_so :)
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Weigh to go
Weight is the force we apply to the ground, why then do I care about it? OK so when you have extra fat you press on the ground more than you would if it just vanished so it can be helpful to monitor changes in fat levels.
But weight is an indirect measurement of fat, even clever scales don't really measure it, you need CT or MRI or total immersion in water or something. Lots of other things effect it, in particular hydration levels and the contents of bowels and bladder. So you exercise and burn extra fat but you also build muscle, that adds weight! Should you feel bad? NO because muscle burns energy and that will mean more fat burnt. But it is frustrating as you are measuring your progress via weight change and you always feel unsure about the measurement. So you can do a few things to help like measure yourself, photograph yourself (even just your face) and also just consider how you feel. That way you are not a slave to the force you excerpt on the earth's surface.
Another thing I have found helpful is simply just to say "my weight is below X kg or lbs, a few weeks ago that would have been impossible no matter how little I drank and how much I went to the toilet or indeed worked out." our weight fluctuates so much it can make you feel like he ultimate dieter one week and a failure the next but this mind set lets you see the important drift.
But weight is an indirect measurement of fat, even clever scales don't really measure it, you need CT or MRI or total immersion in water or something. Lots of other things effect it, in particular hydration levels and the contents of bowels and bladder. So you exercise and burn extra fat but you also build muscle, that adds weight! Should you feel bad? NO because muscle burns energy and that will mean more fat burnt. But it is frustrating as you are measuring your progress via weight change and you always feel unsure about the measurement. So you can do a few things to help like measure yourself, photograph yourself (even just your face) and also just consider how you feel. That way you are not a slave to the force you excerpt on the earth's surface.
Another thing I have found helpful is simply just to say "my weight is below X kg or lbs, a few weeks ago that would have been impossible no matter how little I drank and how much I went to the toilet or indeed worked out." our weight fluctuates so much it can make you feel like he ultimate dieter one week and a failure the next but this mind set lets you see the important drift.
Week 9/10 Part 1/3
Ok so this week I have been a bit confused, I weighed myself mid week and it seemed like things had gone so well, I had lost a stone in fact more overall. But I then deleted some older weigh ins from myfitnesspal from before I started this program, that caused a "gain" of 0.5kg in my total and then when I came to weigh myself at the end of the week I was heavier than mid week. Why did I weigh myself mid week? Regardless I did not over eat and got plenty of exercise so it can't be all bad, stay tuned for more wise words on weighing...
Friday, 17 August 2012
It takes all sorts
Diversity is a good thing when it comes to exercise, the last two nights I have been mountain biking. It has been a bit of a struggle finding trails but I'm getting there helped in part to my Garmin edge 800, a gift to myself for losing a stone and a seriously handy device for finding my way due to the OS maps on it. Also uploads straight to Endomondo which is perfect for me.
What I have learnt and not for the first time is that if you get your self out there you find opportunities, seek and ye shall find and all that. Found places I did not know existed, very interesting stuff.
What I have learnt and not for the first time is that if you get your self out there you find opportunities, seek and ye shall find and all that. Found places I did not know existed, very interesting stuff.
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