Progress at last

I'm finally seeing some results with the latest diet & exercise plan after stalling for a while.

The first week I was super-strict and lost a touch over 4 kgs but it was a routine I couldn't keep up so I tried eating a bit more and backing off the exercise only to find I lost a disappointing .5 kg the following week. However, after increasing my exercise again and taking more care with my eating I still only dropped .4 kg in week 3.

I made the decision not to be concerned by this though and soldier on satisfied that I'd made the right choices following my week 2 analysis and this week I'm pleased to see a 2.1 kg loss and an inch from my girth. :)

So what works?

Well, I'll have more of a testimony when I reach my goal weight (and stay there) but at this stage I'll say the following:

• A total mental commitment on a daily basis.
• A determination to succeed no matter what
• Recognising the difference between real hunger, a craving and the desire to eat.
• Not eating if not hungry
• Eating regular small meals 5 or 6 times a day. It's much easier to eat less and not eat in between meals if I know I've only got a couple of hours until the next one.
• Feeling hungry before every meal. If you're not experiencing hunger regularly you're eating too much and won't be losing weight.
• Having a big glass of water before every meal and whenever I feel hungry
• Avoid everything with sugar (specifically fructose) in it. If you suffer from strong cravings like I do (did) then you're addicted to sugar. Quitting will make the cravings go away after a week or three.
• Eating only real food like veges, meat, whole grains, nuts and fruit.
• Stopping eating when I no longer feel hungry, not when I'm full.
• Not going back for seconds or desert.
• Cardio (cycling, walking/running/swimming etc) for at least an hour every day.
• Timing my cardio over a set course and trying for a new record every time.
• Weights for 30-45 mins, 3 - 4 times a week. I constantly try for an extra rep or a little extra weight every time but I don't sacrifice form for weight. If it's too heavy, it's too heavy.

The jury's still out on how effective Duromine is for me but I'm reluctant to change anything while I'm succeeding so I'll see out the prescription.

I strongly suspect my old bathroom scales were reading about 5kg lower than my actual weight so my 120kg nemesis was actually more like a 125kg nemesis. The way my clothes are fitting and the way I'm scooting up hills on my bike now would appear to back that up as well, even though I'm still a whisker above 120 kgs.

I'm hoping I'm now through the toughest sticking point anyway and I'll continue with decent numbers from here on.

Still stalled

Still no shift on the scales this morning and since I've been doing all of the right things I'm starting to get concerned. Time for some self-analysis.

• Last week when I started losing weight quickly, the only thing I did differently (other than dropping all foods with added fructose and reducing my portion sizes) was to revert to my old 60 min cardio in the morning and weights in the afternoon routine. I was enjoying it but by mid-week I was feeling tired so I went back to alternating 30min weights & HIIT cardio sessions. That may have been a bit premature...
• The last couple of months I've been following the alternating 30min weights & HIIT cardio exercise plan and it's also during this time that my weight has also gone up (possibly quite a lot if my previous bathroom scales were accurate). It would seem obvious now that the only reason I felt better during this time was because my body was more rested and this routine just doesn't work for me.
• I was becoming disappointed in the effects of duromine but yesterday I went to the park with the kids in the afternoon and something very interesting happened. I started out feeling lethargic but made an effort to play with them and within a few minutes of running around I lit up like a Christmas tree. Later in the evening my appetite was gone and I had trouble sitting still.
• Riding the road bike during a HIIT session during the week I was almost taken out by a careless motorist. Later it made me think that riding my bike for exercise amongst the peak hour motorists who are all pissed off, stressed and distracted trying to get some place they don't really want to be is probably not the best idea, especially when I'm mere minutes from a peaceful state forest with a trail network for mountain bikes.

So, I'm thinking that since I spend most of my time on my butt in front of a computer, maybe the 30 min routines just aren't enough physical work to compensate for that for my type of body. Even though I was eating less as well (and feeling every bit of it), my metabolism just slows down very quickly under those conditions. Hence my current stalled progress.
Conclusion: I need to eat a bit more and exercise more.

I was liking road biking because I could get an effective 30 min HIIT session while I needed at least an hour on the mountain bike to get a decent ride.
Conclusion: I think now that I need an hour anyway on either bike to gain a benefit so it may as well be out on the mountain bike amongst nature where the air is clear and no one's trying to kill me.

Duromine seems to need that metabolic kick in the afternoon to do its work (at least for me).
Conclusion: Going back to my afternoon gym sessions should be just the ticket to make that happen. This is probably why I was enjoying my old 2 session a day routine so much during the first week.

While I am still concerned about physical burnout, I think by making my mountain bike rides challenging but not HIIT and varying the effort according to how I feel on the day and/or skipping a session or two as necessary I should be able to manage.

Let's see how we go next week...

Monday Weigh In

First weigh-in after a week on Duromine and the results are pleasing. I've lost 4.1 kgs, 1.5cm off my girth, 3cm off my butt and 1cm off my thighs. Very surprising to see it drop from my lower half rather than the middle.

In the 4 days since the weigh-in I've only lost .3 kg but that's to be expected in the second week and I have been eating a little more so I'll have to toughen things up and we'll see how things progress next week.

My morning workouts have been going great except when I've skimped on sleep. It's impossible to get enthusiastic about anything without sufficient sleep.

I'm starting to suspect that the duromine isn't as effective as I hoped. I still get cravings and I'm still as hungry as ever and whatever effects I was feeling in the first few days don't seem to be apparent now.

There are reports around the web of people suffering breathing difficulties or increases in asthma attacks while on phentermine and I think I may have suffered the first asthma attack I've had in more than 20 years at the start of a bike ride last Saturday. However, the day was particularly hot, humid and still which are conditions that usually knock me around anyway. Other than that I haven't experienced any of the other reported phentermine side effects.

It seems losing weight is hard and there's no way around it. It never gets easy. The hunger never goes away but if you're not hungry, you're not losing weight so hunger should be seen as a positive thing. But the body still hates it and the will rails against it so you're constantly at war with yourself, day by day, hour by hour and sometimes even minute by minute.

It is some consolation though that I am winning most of the battles now and things are moving in the right direction. One day perhaps I'll have won the war and I can trade the fighting for mere vigilance.

Drinking lots of water and going sugar free definitely help and in many ways are more effective than duromine anyway. At this stage if I was giving someone weight loss advice I would say that drugs are certainly worth trying as part of the "try anything and everything" approach but they're not the answer in themselves.

Duromine

A couple of months back my usual Doctor was on holidays so I got to see a different one. Ripper! A chance for a different opinion and some fresh ideas perhaps.

I explained about my 120kg nemesis and after checking my records he suggested I might be a candidate for the appetite suppressant drug Duromine (aka Phentermine). He also told me it had a "speed" like effect which increased metabolism but warned that it may raise my blood pressure a bit. However, it mostly does this by increasing heart rate and since I already had a low heart rate due to my activity level it was unlikely to make a dramatic difference in that regard. I decided to take a raincheck to mull it over for a while and check around to see what other people were saying about it before I committed.

It certainly has its share of knockers and fans and I changed my mind at least 14 times before deciding it was worth a try. While I wasn't expecting anything dramatic from it, I hoped it might give me just enough edge to get over the shitty sticking point that's plagued me for the last 3 or 4 years.

Third day in now and I can report that it does make a difference, however the difference is somewhat subtle (as I expected). I'm certainly not a super-excited motor-mouth by any stretch of the imagination but I am definitely more enthusiastic about things. So enthusiastic in fact that I decided to go back to my twice a day training routine, and the last few gym sessions and bike rides have been amazing. I just wanted to push harder all of the time even when I knew I was low on energy.

However, last night I felt a turn and knew I couldn't keep up that pace for much longer, and this morning on the bike those fears were realised. From the first hill I got to I knew I was seriously depleted. The mind was still willing but the body was cooked.

Back to my 30 minute morning routines, alternating gym with HIIT bike rides, but I might throw in a few easy paced night rides on the MTB if I feel up to it. (As a side note, I've found I've started waking up before my alarm recently. I guess my body has become more accustomed to the demands placed on it at that time on a regular basis now so it's learned to prepare for it).

Diet wise I'm making an effort to drink more water, trying for 5 litres a day as suggested by Jason Stathan to "cleanse the system and fill me up". I found it's not that hard if I use a large 400ml glass and drink one before and after every meal 6 times a day. You do pee a lot though...

No more biscuits, cakes, lollies, chips, ice cream or added fructose of any kind including condiments. I'm watching my portions and avoiding going back for seconds, and I'm keeping breads, pastas, cereals and dairy to a minimum. Mostly I eat lots of chicken, tuna, eggs, veges, oatmeal and some fresh fruit.

So far so good. Normally I'd be lucky to last a day without cheating in some way on this sort of diet but at this stage I've had no worries sticking to it. I've definitely still experienced some sugar withdrawals, especially in the evenings, but these pass soon enough and I'm getting through them. Hopefully they'll disappear completely over the next few days or weeks.

Although I know I shouldn't, I've been jumping on the scales every morning and so far have been dropping around 1kg per day. No doubt that won't stay at that level for much longer and I'll drop back to something around 1 or 2 kgs a week very soon.

My blood pressure surprisingly has dropped and I'm now down to 135/77.

With a combination of going sugar free, eating healthy, eating less, drinking heaps of water, the right exercise plan and the assistance of duromine to help me stick to it all I'm feeling really confident I'm going to be successful this time. :)

Dammit!

Just got a new set of bathroom scales and my latest blood test results and the news isn't good. :(

I know I haven't been watching the diet as closely as I should, but part of switching exercise to the mornings and exercising less was supposed to help with my appetite and I guess I was waiting for that to kick in naturally rather than making a concerted effort.

The new scales show I'm a lot heavier than I thought. I expected I was around 125~ish kgs at the moment but I'm actually just under 129! They also indicate my body fat % is closer to 35% rather than the 25% my suprailiac caliper measurement indicated. However, I did think my suprailiac calculation was a little conservative at that because it put my lean weight still at close to 100 kgs and when I see pictures of lean people around that weight they're either a foot taller than me or have 20" arms (which I don't have yet).

The weird thing is I've been feeling a lot better lately with the new training principles. There's been a spring in my step, I've been faster on the bike and my clothes are fitting comfortably. I've even finally managed to gain a cm on arms and there's extra definition visible, but I'm clearly not healthy at all. :(

Blood pressure is up around 140/80 (on medication) but has been as low as 125/70 when my weight was lower.

My blood test results show my LDL still around 4.19 mmol/L (below 2.0 is desirable) which is at the point where I could be on medication to control it.

Glucose was at 6.6 mmol/L which is approaching diabetes levels (normal is in the range of 3.5 – 8 mmol/L).

eGFR was a scary 57 ml/min (normal is around 90 while anything under 60 for more than 3 months is considered to be chronic kidney disease). However, the Dr reckoned this was most likely dehydration, especially since I'd done a training session on the bike just prior to the test and had really only drank a cup of coffee since getting out of bed that morning.

These are all obesity related and have the potential to turn into real problems very soon if I can't get my weight under control.

Time to get serious. At least I know what works for me now to make it happen.

Watch this space...

Real bikes

For a long time I’ve held a certain snobbish disdain for all thing utilitarian and mass produced. That’s not to say I don’t own such things. It’s just that I don’t necessarily like them (or even give them a second thought) even though they may do a fine job.

My crappy Ford land barge is a perfect example. As much as I loathe its ugliness, I couldn’t think of a better tool for the job.

When it comes to “things”, I love stuff with one or more of the following qualities;

• built to last
• made of quality materials
• built with style as well as functionality (even if it doesn’t perform as well as something created with functionality in mind first
• something salvaged and repurposed
• something customised and individualised
• mechanical rather than electronic
• stuff that’s fixable rather than throwaway

Old Harleys, hot rods and customised muscle cars, Zippo lighters, Leatherman tools and KitchenAid appliances are classic examples but you could include most things steel or cast iron in my list of favourite things.

I was reminded of this recently when I started thinking about a bicycle that could serve me better for longer trek type rides off road. Such a bike would involve gears and suspension so as to not be as taxing on my body as my rigid single speed is. The single speed is perfectly suited to my 1 – 2 hour trail rides in the forest close to home here but I don’t think I’d go the distance if I joined one of the longer, hillier, bumpier rides that some of my mates like to do from time to time.

I started drawing inspiration from some of the bikes in the $2000-3000 range such as dual suspension 26” wheeled like the Giant Trance X series, or hard-tail 29ers like the lovely new XTC 29 1 29er or any of the many Gary Fisher rigs.

After a while I realised I had a problem. I wasn’t drooling. I could toss a coin and be happy with any of them, but I wasn’t excited by them. When I looked at their alloy frames and derailleur gears, subconsciously I was looking at stuff I knew was going to break and wear out and play up with monotonous regularity and it wasn’t going to be cheap to replace each time.

The solution is another steel framed 29er. Brand undecided yet but I have a bunch to choose from.

Up front will be a reasonable quality squish fork (that I can service myself) and up back will be Alfine hub gears. The Alfine isn’t officially certified for off-road but plenty of people have been doing it. While it’s no Rohloff, it’s much more affordable and seems to be still well up to the job. However, we‘re talking long distance trek style rides here anyway rather than aggressive trail riding so it shouldn’t be stressed any more that it was designed for.

I could even start with upgrading my current rig with these items and swap them over to another bike when the right frame (and funds) come along.

Other bikes I like:

The Rigid Single Speed Steel 29er.

The ultimate low maintenance, all weather, trail blasting machine. It can be blinged up and customised any number of ways and doesn’t cost the earth.

Got it: Tick!

The Steel Single Speed Roadie.

Perfect for training rides on the road, blasts around the peninsula or racing around city streets. Grab a steel frame (old is best but new is fine), strip the gears, add some bling wheels and other shiny stuff. Plenty of inspiration at fixedgeargallery.com.

Got it: Tick!

The Classic Cruiser.

Perfect for quick trips to the shops or cruising board walks. My wife thinks these look like girl’s bikes but she can go bite her bum. I just love the classic retro styling including those full steel mudguards.

Got it: Not yet. :(
The problem seems to be finding a new one of these made out of proper chromoly steel with quality components so I may have to hunt around for an antique and rebuild it.

Maybe I should start my own brand of steel single speed bikes with a roadie, a 29er and a cruiser…

Adapting to Morning Training

Having decided to do my training in the mornings for some good reasons, at first I was sceptical that I'd be able to handle it. My previous experience with weight training in the morning hasn't been good because I haven't been able to achieve the same intensity level that I can in the PM and I've also thrown up on more than one occasion.

This time I thought I'd counteract those problems by:

• going to bed at a reasonable time so I get a good 8-9 hours sleep
• waking up 30-40 minutes before commencing training so I have time to wake up properly (I'm generally not a morning person)
• having breakfast first so I have something in my tummy
• spending 5 minutes on the stationary bike to warm up and shake loose any remaining cobwebs before hitting the weights

Another one I thought of this morning is to use my breakfast/pre-workout time to centre my mind, set targets for my workout and visualise myself achieving them. All too often I do this while lying in bed the night before or while I should be thinking about something else and it's pointless and counter-productive being psyched up to train at those times.

So, how am I going?

At first it sucked as expected. I had difficulty raising a sweat and every rep felt monotonous and laborious. In the last week or so though I've had a number of excellent workouts so I am starting to adapt to it. Mind you I still sometimes stay up too late or stupidly allow myself to get distracted by something I could easily worry about some other time so not every workout is perfect but I'm definitely getting there now. :)