Sorry about the lack of posts for the last month. I have been updating the body statistics every week. However I have several partially written blog posts on my phone and have been waiting to finish each one before posting. I never got round to finishing any of them. As I keep saying to myself every day in my work (software development), “Something of everything is better than all of nothing”. Hey, I know what it means

So I’m prompted to post a quick one today because I broke through my first milestone of 21 stone (133.36 kg). Today my weight measurement was 133.2 kg. That represents a loss of 8.30 kg in 9 weeks.I’m really chuffed with this. Although it’s daunting to switch to the next target of 20 stone (127.01 kg) as that makes the graph look significantly less impressive.

So I’m going to assume I won’t get round to uploading those partial blog posts, and just go ahead and post a mini-summary here of the last four or five weeks:

• Blood test as Doctor wanted to double check my health as I was beginning a ‘diet’.
• Blood test shows indications of Liver Damage – could be ‘fatty liver’ or Hepatitis.
• No ‘unhappiness’, but a peculiar difficulty in concentrating!
• Ultrasound scan shows ‘moderately fatty liver’.
• Further blood tests show no Hepatitis.
• Haven’t arranged a chat with Doctor yet to discus results, but she doesn’t seem too bothered.
• Massive push to get a software business off the ground that I’ve been working on for about a year. This has taken up every spare minute of my life and made a big difference to my opportunity to blog on JustBigBoned.com.
• Realisation that bad sleep habits are at the root of many elements of my health and weight issues.
• Battle for the last 3 weeks to establish the habit of going to bed at 22:00. Generally not going well.
• Habits List: Done ‘perfectly’ on all of them except Habit 5 (30 minutes walking every day), which I’ve barely done at all – mainly stemming from the sleep.

Yeah. Weight measurement still showing good progress. 1.7 kg lost last week. 6.3 kg lost in 5 weeks (1 calendar month). In ‘old measure’, that’s 13 lbs 14.2 oz.

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.

Spent most of the day driving back from the Isle of Wight, driving around Surrey, Then sitting watching National Treasure. Generally habit keeping is going perfectly with the exception of missing doing the 30 minute walk yesterday. Not because I couldn’t be bothered, but because I got a little pizzled sharing a bottle of wine with Debs over dinner and completely forgot that I was planning to walk my dinner off along the river. Totally knobbled, so that’s it for tonight, but weigh-in tomorrow morning, and I’ll “catch-up” the habits.

Drove to Isle of Wight. Mum in-law, then worked, lunch with inlaws, worked, meal at restaurant. photos of meal for blog. Shared bottle of wine with Debs. Feeling rather chuffed now. Net coherent enough to blog more. night night

Habits

Early day at work for the support rota. An excellent day for the habits too.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Again – this is getting easy now.

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

All the way, every meal.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Porridge for breakfast again. No packed lunch (due to early shift), had Spicy Potato soup and a chicken salad instead.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked 31:29 today (mostly locally around my house after 21:00 in the evening when I realised I’d only done 6 minutes during the day!).

No opportunity for the following:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Habits

Regular day working in London. Eyes feeling even better, cough almost gone. Not feeling ill is really good.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Straight though the station morning & evening, without a second glance at shops or food.

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

Did it for Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner. I actually caught myself on the second mouthful of my dinner and realised that I was ’shoveling it in’. Stopped, relaxed, and savoured the rest of the meal. Felt nicely full and content by the end of the dish.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Porridge for breakfast rather than sausage roll or muffin (this in itself is becoming a habit).

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Walked 30:38 today (station->client).

No opportunity for the following:

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Habits

Regular day working in London. Eyes feeling much better than yesterday, but still burning by the end of the day. Going to catch up on the last couple of day’s in the Habit feedback here, as well as today.

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station

Monday: Eyes burning so much that food was the last thing on my mind
Tuesday: No opportunity – day of work unable to look at a monitor for more than a minute at a go
Today: Not a problem. A little later than normal, so flew through the station to get a good spot on the platform ready for the train.

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Monday: No opportunity – burning eyes meant I wasn’t thinking about food.
Tuesday: Did indulge in blueberry, oranges, apple and bananans whilst feeling sorry for myself.
Wednesday: No opportunity – uncomfortable eyes, but not enough to need to find solice.

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

Monday: Yes, porridge for breakfast is real pleasure and I relish it. Lunch was ok. Dinner was hard work. Took my time, but wasn’t really able to enjoy.
Tuesday: Again, so much pain that enjoying it wasn’t on the cards, but took my time and chewed plenty.
Wednesday: Porridge for breakfast again – high point of the day. Pause, took my time and enjoyed all of my food today.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest option

Monday: Couldn’t have my lowfat porridge, but didn’t feel guilty having the normal stuff as I knew I was having the healthiest option available (ie not muffins!).
Tuesday: Couldn’t decide between tuna or egg mayo for brought lunch sandwiches. Brought both, had half of each. Didn’t scoff all of both.
Wednesday: Porridge for breakfast rather than sausage roll or muffin.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Monday: Walked just over 1 hour (station->client and client->station).
Tuesday: No opportunity – doctors, family, then sleept all afternoon to try to help my eyes rest
Wednesday: Walked just over 61:12 today (station->client and a some wondering around outside at lunchtime).

Established Habits – don’t forget them!

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

In 4 weeks I’ve lost 4.6 kg.

I only had chance to do the weight measurements this morning (will do the size one’s tomorrow morning).

Good steady progress, but to be honest I’m expecting this ‘easy’ early weight loss to slow down soon and I’m a little suprised that I lost 0.9kg this week. I’m guessing the walking habit as a lot to do with that, and I think more physical ‘activity’ habits need to be in the pipe-line.

The process of focusing on positive Habits rather than the fundamentally negative of ‘eating less’ is working fantastically for me. My wife starting to change her eating habits having seen “the effort your putting in and how well you’re doing” makes me proud of myself too. And it increases my accountability more by making me feel responsible for setting a great example for her.

Best of all I had a great weekend with the family at the seaside. I enjoyed the whole thing without feeling guilt-ridden for eating fish & chips (I left the least healthy bits to one side and left plenty of chips), and without feeling guilt-ridden for not wanting to spend long on my feet on the beach with the kid (I paced myself and enjoyed sharing a 2 hour long walk with them).

I guess the suprising thing is that the most enjoyable part isn’t seeing a number getting small on the scales, it’s feeling like I’m taking control of this facet of my life. That I’m gaining momentum with it, getting steadily better at being a healthy person.

The “Tone Up Wheel” arrived last week, and I think that needs to be the basis of my next habit.

Habits

Sunday on a ‘mini-break’ in Hasting with the family. OK, I’ll mention up front that this was a seaside mini-break, and the family decided fish & chips for lunch was non-negotiable.

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

This (and updated Habits).

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

Took my time and enjoyed my breakfast, lunch and dinner. No problems.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Porridge and toast for breakfast rather than my normal holiday fare (Full English). Yes I did have fish and chips for lunch eaten from the paper with a wooden fork-thing whilst watching the crazy-golf. But I didn’t eat any batter, and only half of the chips. I couldn’t decide if the bitty crispy chips or the big potatoey chips would be least unhealthy, so had a mix of both. Copious chewing made up for the lack of chip quantity and I left the beach satisfied.

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

2 hours walking along the beach more than qualifies.

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

Habits

A Saturday with beautiful weather. Walked this morning (see previous blog), did bits and bobs round the house. I’m pre-blogging this as we’re off to Hastings now to settle into a hotel, get dressed ready and go off to a wedding reception, then back to Hastings for the night. I anticipate my 30 minutes walk tomorrow to be walking off breakfast along the beach So here’s where I’ve got to so far today, I’ll post another update it if anything changes….

Habit 0: Blog on JustBigBoned.com every day

Walk through the woods, this (and updated Habits).

Habit 2: When I’m feeling poorly I deserve as much fruit to eat as I want

Bananas and apples today to stave off the ‘feeling crappy’ blues.

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

Still going strong with this.

Habit 4: Always choose one of the top 2 healthiest options

Had cheese toasties for lunch, but ‘cut’ the cheese using a potato peeler. Thin enough that I’m quite happy it was a healthy option. I’m anticipating this being the challenge tonight at the reception, but it’s a carefully worded habit – I don’t have to eat like a rabbit all the time. I just have to choose one of the healthiest options available. This way I get to feel good rather than bad if I eat a bit of something ‘naughty but nice’. It’s about building habits and gaining momentum in the right direction, not living like monk!

Habit 5: Walk a minimum of 30 minutes a day (or 500 steps in bad weather).

Previous post explains the hour long saunter through the woods that I had with my son this morning.

No opportunity for the following though:

Habit 1: Take a different walk through the train station