myweightlossjourney

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Great News On My Weight Loss

As I’ve stated many times on this blog I have a constant battle on my hands. Losing weight is not easy and as my fitness instructor
Mark Finn from Dockside Fitness say’s ” It’s not rocket science, work out hard, work out regular and eat better”.

Essentially I couldn’t agree more with Mark’s philosophy but in practice we all know how hard it is to beat the weight loss demon.

One thing I’ve realised over the last few months is the basic concept of exercising the right way. This has been proved dramatically to me over the last few weeks with my abdominal work. I’ve worked hard over the years trying to flatten my stomach and find that elusive six-pack – all to no avail!

What my fitness instructor pointed out after watching me for a few reps was that I was doing my abdominal work out all wrong!! Within a few weeks I could feel a dramatic improvement in my whole abdominal region. Not only was it getting stronger but it was also getting flatter – miraculous!!

Amazingly I felt connected to my abs, I’d tried many times to feel a connection there, to get the mind/muscle relationship going without much success, but now I understand what this means and I can feel my abs working throughout the day.

One noticeable benefit is the ability I now have to sit on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me and be able to hold that position easily. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is to me, particularly as a way of realising my abs have increased in strength and functionality. I LOVE IT!

I am inspired to workout harder and workout smarter simply because of the progress I am seeing and feeling.

I’ll keep you updated and when I get a decent picture I’ll show you a before and after, they’re mot washboard abs yet but I feel proud of what I’ve manged to achieve and hope I can inspire you to improve too.

Until next time workout hard and workout smart.

Group Workouts Inspire Weight Loss and Fitness

Hey Guys sorry it’s been such a long time since I posted here.

Like a lot of people who are constantly on the weight loss journey I slipped-off and was quite naughty for a while.
My main weakness in the whole scheme of things is “too much beer” and as It got hotter in the summer I drank more
beer! Then away on the road working for a couple of months eating quick food at motorway service stations – not good at all!

I’ve been working-out hard now for a about 6 weeks in the park early mornings. The thing that has me so motivated at the
moment is that we have a good group working-out together. Some mornings there’s as many as eight of us and on others
there’s only two.

Social Weight Loss

The good thing now is that it’s become a social thing as well as a workout thing. We’re helped, motivated, pushed and inspired by
our trainer Mark Finn of Dockside Fitness. One of the things that’s great about Mark is he turns up in his van and unpacks a mobile gym.

He is constantly adding new bits of kit and dreaming up new ways of using them. He recently produced 2 big thick heavy ropes about 6 or 7
meters in length. From swinging them around above our heads to whipping them up and down and even hauling ourselves up and down them
the list is endless – and great fun. They also make you ache in places you didn’t know you had muscles.

I have to say that a trainer is great inspiration but the group is a stronger motivator for me. We’ve all got each other to compete against and
cheer on, and we can all see much improvement. We had lots of photos taken by Nick Gregan so we can chart our progress.

I recommend anyone struggling for motivation to get a buddy to train with and if possible form a group as the benefits are tremendous.

More Good Weight Loss News

Well guys I’m to weeks into my new regime and it’s working well.

My stats show a 2kg lossin weight, that 5lbs in imperial measurements.
The other great news is the los of 3/4″ off my waist. 2 cm is a good amount
of width to loose.

The other crucial fact is a reduction in body fat of 1.2% – now that’s not bad!
In fact for me that’s the most pleasing measurement change, because I can feel
that it’s doing me good.

One of the worrying aspects of getting that ‘muffin top’ roll of blubber around my
belly is the effects on my long term health. Afterall as I stated before probably the
main reason for going on a weight loss mission was to improve the inner health of
my body – and hopefully it will last longer.

The other benefit is to my ego or my vanity. To be honest I’m sick of looking like a
fat slob – well almost. The thing is I can see that if I don’t take action sooner rather
than later it wouldn’t be too long before I was heavily and dangerously overweight.

Strange as it may seem that small shift n my waist measurement has meant that I
feel a difference in my trousers  now that is motivation enough my friend to get up
tomorrow at 6.30am and be by the London Dock’s for a workout session come rain
or shine. I wish you could join me!!

Lets get fit for life!!

• The Office Exercises You Have No Excuse for Skipping (weightloss.org)
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• Waist Management: The Real Way to Lose Weight (lifescript.com)

Weight Loss Mission & Injuries

Well it ghad to happen sooner or later – I’ve got an injury – surprise surprise!

It’s a pain in the ass but when I think about it rationally it had to happen , or
more importantly I was an injury waiting to happen.

Some of may want to ask me the question, what was a 48 year old man doing
sprinting up and down the side of the London docks at 7.30am in the morning.
I agree, I agree but suddenly I was overcome with this vision that I was Usain Bolt
whilst I was chugging up and down at a snails pace.

When I think about it, I’m a couple of stone overweight and all of a sudden this
fairly overweight guy starts putting his body through intensive physical activity
that it hasn’t done for a few years and of course it breaks down – oh what a surprise
I hear you say.

And what can I say apart from – you’re right! – and you are.

But this brings into question the intensity of exercise we do as a fairly unfit person
when we’re on a mission to get fit. What we have to realise, especially if we haven’t
been exercising for a few years is that fact that our bodies may not be ready for the
mind set we have.

Once we begin our mission with the correct mind set – that is I’m going to get fit, I’m
going to lose weight and I’m going to do it quickly. With this attitude it’s all too easy
to race gung-ho into exercise when the body just isn’t ready for it.

The moral of the story for like minded individuals is o ease gently into exercise and
not to push the body too hard initially, gently increase the intensity of the exercise
regime as and when the body can accommodate it.

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Working Out For Weight Loss

Worked out by the docks this morning, it was lovely and sunny compared to yesterday.
I’ve been working out with my personal trainer Mark from Dockside Fitness.

Dockside Fitness

We’ve been working on using my considerable bodyweight as opposed to weights etc.
Lots of exercises that included things like up and down flights of stairs, chin-ups
( almost impossible at the moment ), simple squats and things like laying down and
standing up etc etc.

I know that these don’t sound too exciting particularly when we know about fancy health
clubs with all of the latest computerised machines, funky group classes and every type of
weights you can imagine. But with someone motivating you and pushing you along you can
really get a sweat up.

Going back to basic’s though is not such a bad thing, one of the reasons is that as a man I should
be able to move my own bodyweight. Many of us heavyweights are fully aware of the difficulties

in getting up the escalator stairs, rustling up a bit of speed as we run for a bus or simply carrying
our shopping home.

Admittedly It’s hard work but I have to keep telling myself that I am on a mission to lose weight
and change my body shape.

Guys keep reading and keep comenting.

Weight Loss And Exercise Related Articles

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Weight Loss In The Rain – And Loving It.

Heavy rain this morning meant my workout in the park was damp and cold. But like a trooper I struggled through it, braving the discomfort of the rain and wind. But hey, if you’re on a mission you’re on a mission. And that’s me.

My mission plan has always been to alter my diet by sticking to a fairly harsh diet for a few weeks, combining this approach with an increase in the intensity and regularity of my exercise regime.

Sometimes it’s hard to motivate yourself to get out of bed and do the exercise. This morning was one of those days but I leapt out of bed ready to take on the challenges of the day ahead. Namely do my exercise, watch what I eat and overcome the boredom threshold and the reulting snacking late on a night.

I have to say that today was a great day, I felt invigorated whilst working out in the rain at the park, I’ve not craved too much for sugary things, I’ve eaten well especially this evening eating grilled fish and a beautiful salad.
I feel an urge to meaure myself and see if I’ve lost any inches or weight but I am not going to do that until Sunday, two weeks in.

I’ll keep you posted guys.

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My Weight Loss Journey – Magic Results

So I’m one week in and already I’ve got results – which is a lovely surprise to me. I’ve lost a kilo – yes a whole 2.2lbs.

My mission on this weight loss journey was to loose weight on a fairly rapid basis by using a strict diet plan. Then once the bulk of the weight was off my intention was to cut back on the strictness of the diet.

The object then was to moderate my lifestyle to keep the weight off. Well that’s the plan and it seems to be working.

I thought I’d jot down the basics of what my diet is and that way you guys can better understand my journey. So here it is:

My Weight Loss JourneyFor the first two weeks,

1)     No processed food – the idea behind this diet is to eat ‘clean.’

2)     So, no bread, pasta, rice. Avoid all ‘simple’ carbohydrates that can be broken down into sugar too quickly. If your sugar levels (blood glucose) levels are constantly spiking throughout the day, your body will release insulin to control this. High insulin brings about a release of the hormone cortisol, a stress hormone. (This is the chemical that is released into your body to wake you up in the morning.) Normally the levels should then drop during the day, but if you have constantly high doses pumped into your system, the body is put into a ‘stressed state’ – a primal state ‘fight or flight’ state which encourages it to hoard all calories as fat.

Well these are the first two main points of the diet regime, some of you may say it sounds like the South Beach Diet and I have to admit that it does to a certain extent particularly in the area of balancing the sugar levels to stop the craving for sugar. That up and down feeling that the body gets into with the spiking of the bodies blood sugar levels.

I have noticed that especially over the first few days I did feel a desperate need to have some sugar. I suppose we don’t really realise during our daily lives how much sugar we intake and what the effects of sugar are on the body.

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Weight Loss Diary Day One

Being the sort of bloke who loves his food I find it incredibly difficult to ration myself to one potato or a sliver of cake.
I always have to fight the twin demons of my own weakness and mild greed getting the better of me.

I tend to easily loose my concentration – well that’s what I call it.

So what I thought I’d do with this site was to make a bold statement to the world and to my friends. I thought I’d follow one
of the principles of  basic psychology and that was to make a statement, write it down and let everybody know about it,
especially the people whom like and respect. Then if I find myself weakening or find that the task is too difficult I can always
remind myself of the promises I have made to the people I like and respect.

I’m hoping that the thought of telling my closest friends and family that I am on a weight loss mission will spur me on and
keep me focused on the real issue and the real target – which to me is weight loss – but not simply so that my jeans will fit me
better. This is one of the main reasons obviously, but at my age ( approaching 50 ) I think it’s important to be aware of the health
issues that being over weight causes.

So in the spirit of writing things down I thought I’d jot down my goal and some unpleasant but vital statistics.

My goal is to loose 1 & half stone or 21lbs. It kind of rounds up to 10kg more or less. It may seem like a lot of weight to loose and it
is but I am a big guy as you can see below. My other main goal to coincide with my health issues is to reduce my body fat % down to 20%.

Weight   17st 5lbs      or 110kg
Waist      44 & 3/4″   or 114.5cm
Neck       18 & 3/4″   or 48.5cm
Chest      46 & 1/2″   or 118.5cm
Bicep      16 & 1/2″    or 42.3cm
Thigh      26″              or 66cm

Body Fat 27.9% = 30.7kg

Guys please leave your comments whether they are in aid of my motivation or ideas for exercise.

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Weight Loss and Jogging – The Conundrum

Jogging is a great way to burn calories, but many overweight people, myself included find that jogging is too hard. One of the major problems I generally encounter with running is the effects it has on my joints, in particular my knee’s and my lower back. These are common problems I know from other people but I also understand and can confirm that as I loose weight I find that the whole jogging and exercise procedure becomes much less destructive on my body.

A healthy lifestyle will incorporate the elements of good nutrition along with exercise. A low fat diet is part of the recommendations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The guidelines also recommend that you engage in approximately 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity most days of the week. Following these recommendations will have important health benefits.

Weight Loss and Maintenance

A 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that at least 150 minutes per week of moderately intense exercise helped women maintain a normal weight. Weight gain occurs when your caloric intake exceeds your calorie burn through activity. Cardio exercise is an effective way to burn large amounts of calories in a short period of time. An hour running at 8 mph will burn over 900 calories in a 160 pound person, according to Mayo Clinic.

Hello Weight Loss World!

This is my first post and I really just wanted to say thanks for stopping by and reading.

My intention with this site is to give regular updates about my constant struggle with my weight. My weight loss journey is exactly that, my journey on the weight loss road. I’ll give you all of the gory details, the successes and the failures along the weight loss road.

Hopefully it will inform and motivate you guys to follow a similar path on your own weight loss journey. I don’t intend to preach at your nor do I want to try and bully you guys into submission – as we all rebound to this type of stimulus.

I look forward to getting to know you guts better over the next few weeks. Please feel free to leave comments and your stories as we all need constant motivation on this very difficult road.

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