One year on...

And my first post since May, I know.

However, the good news is that the weight loss continued even though the blog didn't! At my last post, I weighed in at 15st 10lbs / 220lbs / 99.8kg. Now, the only issue I have is that I haven't been weighed since before the Christmas and New Year holidays. And as you may have read last year, Jamie don't diet over that holiday. Before Christmas I was at a 10-year low in terms of weight. I was 15st 2.5lbs / 211.5lbs / 96.4kg, bringing the total weight loss to 3st 11.5lbs / 53.5lbs / 24.3kg. OBVIOUSLY, I'm not still going to be at that weight now, but I'm hoping that I've put on 'only' about 5lbs. I'll be getting weighed next Monday evening when I return to Slimming World, so I have this week to get rid of whatever damage I've done over Christmas.

On a much happier (and slightly scarier) note, it's only 6 and a half months until Chloe and I get married. So we're on the final push to get to where we want to be for that. For me, that means I need to lose (from my pre-Christmas weight) 1st 2.5lbs / 16.5lbs / 7.5kg to get to my initial target, but as I've been saying to anyone asking, I'd rather go by what I look like, rather than a set weight. Basically, if I can get rid of the belly and man-boobs, I'll be happy.

As far as fitness is concerned. I've signed up to do Men's Health Magazine's 8 week new year challenge. I'm going to stick to the workout plan, but not the food plan as it's too expensive and not entirely Slimming World friendly, but I'm hoping it's still going to help a lot. That one starts today before I start work. Can't say I'm looking forward to the subsequent pain over the next few days... but, no pain no gain, right?

See you next week!

P.S. have a recent picture of me (and WWE Hall of Famer, The Godfather!) for comparison with the one in my first post!

Down another threshold!

It's been just over a month since my last entry when my weight was sitting at 16st 3.5lbs / 227.5lbs / 103.2kg.

Well I can now happily report that I've come down into the 15st area and I'm now at 15st 10lbs / 220lbs / 99.8kg, so in addition to coming down a threshold in stones, I'm now also below 100kg! This brings my total loss to 3st 4lbs / 46lbs / 20.9kg.

I've still not done as much with regard to fitness due money troubles (caused by a silly mistake of mine at work...), however I have been out walking instead. Every little helps! Starting from today, I'm also incorporating ab crunches and oblique ankle touches in a super-set (20 reps of each over 5 sets) as well as a pyramid workout of press ups, starting with 10 and working down to one with 30 seconds rest between each set. I'm hoping that I've reached a point with my weight that these toning exercises might actually make a visible difference (and not just form muscle hiding under inches of fat!)

So, all this means that I'm now 1st 10lbs / 24lbs / 10.9kg away from my target weight. I think I can almost start calling it the home stretch! My aim is to lose 10lbs by the end of June, possibly a little ambitious but I'm up for the challenge. By that point I'll definitely be viewing it as the home stretch!

A bit of a hiatus.

I'm still here, and I haven't given up. In fact I've lost a wee bit more since the last entry. I'll explain my absence first though.

As some of you may know, I've been aiming to become a music teacher. I'm nearly finished my higher English course at college and I had applied to do a post-graduate teaching course at university, to start at the end of summer this year. I was offered an interview and audition for this, so a lot of my time was invested in practicing (particularly piano) to try and get good enough in such a short space of time.

Alas, this year it wasn't to be. But at least I have an idea of the benchmark for next year!

What also hampered me was my gym membership expiring at the end of February. I wasn't able to afford to renew it thanks to being unemployed. But the good news now is that I've got myself a job back where I worked a couple of years ago: in Glasgow University's leisure facility. I've managed to get in the gym and restart the cardio training and the extra walking up and down stairs during the shifts is also helping me out.

So, last time we spoke, I was at a total loss of 2st 7lbs (15.8kg or 35lbs).

As of Wednesday this week, I'm now at a total of 2st 10.5lbs (17.4kg or 38.5lbs) meaning I now weigh in at 16st 3.5lbs (103.2kg or 227.5lbs). So, I need to lose 1.5lbs to reach the 40lbs lost mark, and I need to lose another 4lbs to get below 16st.

I feel like I've had a really good week so far, and if I can keep it up until my next weigh in on Thursday, hopefully I can get at least one of those milestones.

I'll report back on Thursday!

Some clothing progress

4 weeks or so in now and another 2lbs off this week means that I've lost 9.5lbs in that 4 weeks (I put on half an pound last week but we'll not dwell on that) for a total loss of 2st 7lbs / 15.8kg / 35lbs.

Chloe and I went for dinner with a couple of friends of ours in Dundee last week, and I decided to try on a shirt that Chloe bought me last summer. The tag was still on it because the last time I tried it, it wouldn't even fasten. Well didn't I just go and wear that damn shirt for going to dinner?! I was so happy! I've been wearing the same 2 shirts for the past year now on special occasions because they were the only ones that fit me. Now I have at least one more and I've yet to try on some of the other under-used items hanging up in my wardrobe. What's more is that I put a belt on with my jeans and I've moved up to a new belt hole. I'm seeing progress again and I like it.

The main goal (clothing-wise) for me this year is to fit into a Saville Row shirt that I bought about a year ago. Again, it was no where near fastening when I bought it but I refused to return it. I tried it on be other day and it buttoned up...

However I was one deep breath away from hulking my way out of that sucker and breaking some windows with the subsequent bullet-button effect. 

Anyway, I'm just back from a Saturday morning mile run, which I'm managing to do a bit quicker each time (did an 11 minute mile today) and I can't wait to get back onto the scales next Thursday to see if I can get any closer to that elusive 3st / 19kg / 42lbs mark.

Into week 3

My apologies for the gap in posting. It's been a bit of a busy week!

I kept up my gym commitments last week. I even managed to get back on the treadmill (albeit with my foot plastered up where it blistered) and completed 2.km in under 19 minutes! Again, I know that's not terribly quick in grand scheme of long distance running, however when my initial target is a sub-40 minute 5km, I feel like I'm doing pretty well!

I also got weighed on Thursday night and lost 4.5lbs! So that's a total of 8lbs in 2 weeks! I'm delighted with the progress that's being made with this programme!

Total weight loss (from heaviest):

2st 5.5lbs / 15.2kg / 33.5lbs

I'm aiming for another 3lbs off this week, however, I'm getting weighed on Saturday morning instead of Thursday night due to another commitment this Thursday.

I'll make sure I update the blog on time this time around. 😀

Week 1 weigh in and a running injury.

My first week of this new plan is now complete, and I've lost 3.5lbs! Which bring my total weight loss (from my heaviest weight) to 2st 1lb (13kg or 29lbs). All-in-all I'm pretty happy. Hopefully I can get the same, if not more off next week. I'm hoping that my body has just been getting used to the cardio work this week and the weight loss effects will have a nice boost from now on.

On a more painful note, I ran just over 2km on the treadmill yesterday morning before having to stop (I was aiming for 2.5km) due to a rather nasty stinging sensation on my right foot instep. See the picture below for reference. It's about an inch and a half long blister. Ouchies. So I'm off the running for a couple of days. Today was a rest day, with it being the day of my weigh in, but I'll be back in the gym tomorrow for 6.30am again only this time I'll be on the bike. Hopefully I can get back to running by the weekend but it all just depends on how quickly this blister heals!

I'm still going!

Yes! It's been nearly 5 days and I'm still keeping this up! So many times I've been determined to do a programme like this and I've given it my all on day one, half effort on day 2 and it's gone entirely by the third day.

I was in the gym again just after 6.30am this morning (accompanied this time by my beautiful fiancée, Chloë!) and managed 2km on the treadmill at a pace of 7.5km/h which means 8 mins per km. Now, when I did ParkRun at Strathclyde Loch, my best 5km time was 40.19 which is slow for a 5k obviously, but that's going to be my target for the next time I do a ParkRun: sub-40 minutes.

In addition to this exercise, Chloë and I have been indulging in Slimming World meals which has resulted in some excellent low fat meals so far. We had spinach, chicken and tomato curry on Satirday night with some boiled rice, homemade onion bhajis and homemade vegetable pakora made with curried mash potato. See pics attached for this one. And last night (Sunday) we had a tomato and vegetable pasta with chunks of reduced fat sausage meat throughout. This was Chloë's work, no recipe, so credit where credit's due! On tonight's menu we have smoked gammon steaks with a selection of veggies on the side and new potatoes. 

Over halfway to my next weigh in! I can't weight (sorry) to see the results. Hopefully all this hard work will have paid off and it'll encourage me to get working even harder next week.

So here's the pics from our Saturday curry.