The graph below is a ’snapshot’ of what’s shown on the Feedback Body Stats page on the ‘chart’ sheet. The ‘Next Target’ in the graph is 21 stone (an arbitrary initial target I gave myself to aim for).

Other measurements are still all over the place contradicting my experience that my clothes are getting looser and looser in all ways. So this is just showing how much error there is in the measurements. As we build up more and more measurements over time though, the underlying trend should start to show through.

This is my Day 30 post, which means (by my measure) I’ve “established” Habit 0 (Blog every day). However I’ve got an evil case of Conjunctivitis, aggravated by staring at a PC screen for 12 hours yesterday (including 4 hours from 23:00 through until 03:00). I really can’t use the computer much right now, so this is going to be a very brief blog.

My wife took my measurements and updated Body Stats page. There are some inconsistencies in the way she takes measurements, so some numbers are up on last week. What matters is that I know my clothes feel more comfortable each week. I know I’m in the right direction. Hopefully the measurement technique will be more consistent from now on and show that.

Doing well on the Habits, but haven’t updated Habits stats for 2 days. I can’t use the screen much more now so will have to wait. I haven’t let myself down yet, so still happy with progress.

Finally, had phone chat with my Doctor on Monday to discuss blood test results more. Tests raised some questions, and I need further tests! This was unexpected and knocked me back. I won’t go into details until I’ve had other tests. Either way though, I think it’s good that I’ve already started this journey toward health!

Habit updates and more info as soon as I’m able.

Some of the blood test results came back yesterday, and apparently my cholesterol level is 6.2. Some googling leads me to believe that is at the top end of ‘Slightly Elevated’. Not a major worry in it’s own right, but coupled with my weight, it’s something else I should be addressing, so it’s on the body feedback list too. I suspect most everything I’m doing will help this anyway, but putting in the body stats helps keep it as a focus.

It’s been interesting to read that in the UK the recommendation is that a level of 5 or lower is healthy, whereas most of the rest of europe think that 4 or lower is healthy. I prefer to err on the side of caution, so I’ll aim for the 4 I think.

Thanks everyone for reading, and stick with me, with your help it’s working well and I’m confident I can maintain the momentum.

A quiet Sunday. Didn’t get out of bed until about 10am, and then spent most of the day in front of the computer, programming. Debs brought me all my meals, so she made my choices for me today (hence habit 4 being a “didn’t get a chance” one).

Weigh-in this morning’s looking good – total loss of 2.6kg since the first measurement 2 weeks ago. Happy that there’s little error in the weight measurements, but the other statistics from those scales seem to be all over the place. For those, and the Blood Pressure measurements, I think I’ll take the first 2 weeks average as my starting point, but since the weight has shown very very steady progress throughout, I’ll stick with the measurements I’ve taken as being accurate enough.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits & Body Statistics).

Habit 3: Pause before eating. Take your time and enjoy

Every meal. I’m getting into this a little more now, in that it’s becoming a bit more automatic.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station
Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want
Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

First thing this morning after waking up and having a wee, I took all my measurements. It’s 4 days since I did the tape measure stats, and 3 days since the scales stats. Not much has happened (not great feedback). In fact as many stats saw progress as got worse.

I have to recognise that both in using the tape measure, and with the scales, there’s a reasonable error built into each reading. Hopefully over time, the underlying true statistic change will show through, but right now it just looks like noise. Of course this isn’t helped by the fact that all I’ve done so far is address my eating habits and not my exercise habits.

So this isn’t positive feedback. In fact it’s slightly negative. Not negative because I’m doing something wrong though. But negative because I haven’t shown progress when I’ve been doing ‘good’. I have to recognise that. So where do I find the positive in it? Well I’ve taken the measurements again, which is building the Habit of doing it regularly. And I’m also building up data which will help estimate the error in each reading.

So focusing on and building on the positive aspect, the best way to establish the error is to take lots of readings without an expectation of a change in the underlying measurement. Right, so I should do the measurements every day for this week, and maybe next week. I know the numbers will be bouncing everywhere. But how much they bounce shows me how much ‘noise’ there is in each measurement. When I know that, then I can know subsequently when a measurement has changed by an amount that represents a significant change in the true underlying statistic.

Anyway, my Body Statistics Feedback page has been updated today, and I’ll try to do the same stats every day this week.