New Kid on the Blog.....

Hello.
My name is Fatfighter 5.
I would like to lose about a stone in weight (heard that one before??)
Unfortunately a toxic combo of work (lots of travel), client entertainment (always easier with a drink in one hand) and flagging motivation means that my attempts normally last about a week and then stop.
Over summer however, I did manange to lose 85kg in one go - by ending a very stressful relationship.......
And then I signed up for Weightwatchers - but gave up demoralised when it became clear that my main source of calories was fine wine....
Ah well....

Less of me

A colleague said that to me on my first day back at work after the summer. "Is there less of you?" Well, haha, yes there is. 13lbs less of me. Almost as much less of me as my boycat Harley weighs (he's a lump).

Natch, there's so much more of me to go that it's really hardly noticeable. My jeans require constant attention to keep them up, but that's about it.

Weight Loss Resources has been a huge help so far. Obsessively weighing everything on my brand-new electronic kitchen scales and putting it all down might not be the way of the long-term future, but it seems to be the method that suits me.

As the Fatfighters seem to be embarking on a period of Lenten sacrifice, what shall I give up? I am tempted to say that I will give up my Fridays off. Fridays usually commence to start with a sausage butty and continue with fish, chips and beans. By which time there's no point in denying myself for the rest of the day is there? And then it's the weekend and who needs to deny themselves on the weekend? (Can you see the pattern?)

So shall it be that?

One that got away

In a similar vein to the previous post, I have given up drinking. For good. It's all down to Allen Carr, who in his book Easy Way to Control Alcohol, applies the same approach to drinking as he does to smoking. Rather than making you think you're missing out on something, he makes drinking seem like some kind of prison from which you're lucky to escape.

If not ruining my life, drinking was making it hard for me to face up to certain truths about my life, for example how little time I spent with my sons and how little energy I had for doing anything other than, well, drinking. I was tired and dehydrated almost all the time, and had forgotten what it felt like to get up in the morning full of energy and enthusiasm. I had even forgotten what it felt like to go to bed sober, and lie there for a while waiting to go to sleep.

I feel a great deal better now. Carr says, near the end of the book, that you must never, ever question your decision to stop drinking. Inevitably, the thought occurs to me often that perhaps I've made the wrong decision. Those thoughts I nip in the bud as quickly as I can. But there are far, far more occasions when I think myself lucky to have escaped from something that was draining the life out of me, not to mention costing me about £100 a month. Stopping drinking isn't for everyone, I know, but for me there are so many other great things in life that I really don't feel I'm missing out.

Abstinence makes the heart grow stronger

I have now been off the booze for... [counts] twenty days. In that time I have been up close to glasses of wine, have been offered them, have seen people all around me everywhere merrily drinking. To my astonishment, however, in all that time, and even at the weekends, I have not felt the urge to break my resolution to myself. It's surprisingly easy, and it becomes easier the longer you do it, because you're building up a pattern of something that becomes harder to break. The longer I resist, the more shameful a lapse would be ... Until I get to October 5 (my birthday) and can drink again.

The other evening though, leaving the gym after work and traveling up the escalator, looking out at the bars clustered alongside at Staunton Street packed with shrieking revellers, I suddenly though that a nice, cool glass of Sauvignon Blanc would be perfect. I went home and had a cup of tea (Scottish Blend).

I realize also how often we drink out of boredom, or to cover up nerves in social situations; and keep on drinking beyond the point of enjoyment. These are all lazy excuses to pour nothingness down your throat.

Chocs away!

This is the kind of news I like: Real Age. Now, I wonder whether I can stretch it to Lindt Lindor?

Madrid as a hatter

Madrid fashion week - or, rather, the people responsible for MFW- has banned models with a BMI of less than 18. Good for them, I say, although I'll only really be happy when women of an average size are allowed to grace the catwalk. Some of the comments on the BBC website make frightening reading. What are we up against in our quest for normalcy?

Fat chance

I freely admit, August has been a wicked month. Truly terrible in so many ways that I can only be described as a Fatembracer, not a Fatfighter. The only running I've been doing is in the opposite direction from anything healthy.

I therefore vow (and not for the first time) to do better from now on. For a kick-off, I am giving up alcohol for September.

Anyone care to join me?

Treadnought

Better uses for a treadmill than running on it.

Virtuality

I LOVE the internet. You can do anything on the internet. I give you (tada) My Virtual Model.

And I give you me as I am now (although I have a feeling that the simulators only go up to a certain weight, so it's approximate). Note the short hair! In fact, it's quite spookily like me...



And me as I will be this time next year. Probably.



Can't wait.

Addendum: My Tae Bo DVD arrived yesterday. I watched the introductory steps bit with a fag in one hand and kedgeree in the other. I will be very pleased with myself if I can get to the end of the warm-up without crying...

Pie-eater chart

From The Onion

Work it out

One day, not long after I turned 30, I finally woke up to the fact that I needed to do some exercise. Other than yoga, and a desultory bit of running which I never managed to get into, I really had not done any exercise since I was at primary school. I got away with it for a few years, but after 30, as everyone knows, your metabolism slows and you start to balloon if you continue to eat too much and exercise too little.

The first step I took towards getting fit was to buy a fitness video. Somewhat shamefaced (because after all there is something a bit sad about exercising at home alone, in front of your TV, following orders from a complete stranger), I browsed in HMV until I found a video that didn’t look too bad. It was Tae Bo.

It sounds a bit daft but I would credit Billy Blanks, Tae Bo’s energetic protagonist, and his hard-faced sidekick, Shelley, with giving me the impetus to start exercising and with showing me the benefits of regular exercise. Packed with motivational catchphrases (From the sublime: “You gotta wanna work at it, baby. You gotta wanna DO IT!” to the ridiculous: “Walk by faith, not by sight”), the videos show a group of (mainly) women exercising vigorously to a thumping soundtrack. The moves are easy to follow and involve kicks, punches, jumps and squats, adding up to about 30 minutes of exercise and stretches.

After a bit of wheezing and cursing, and stopping half way through, gradually I started to be able to do the whole programme straight through and I realized that getting through the whole thing made me feel really good about myself.

You can’t help wondering about who these people are, and I was particularly intrigued by Shelley, who had abs of steel, and rarely smiled. You can’t help warming to Billy too. He means so well, and he tried so hard, and he cares about his people. Let’s face it, this is no soap opera, but the diversity of participants (big and small) makes this an exercise video that’s truly democratic. And it worked for me.

Promises promises

Day 1 was meant to be the first day of recess. Ha. Anyway, today I have started. I am making no promises because people never believe my promises to myself because I never keep them, so fair enough.

I have registered with this website Weight Loss Resources and I encourage my fellow fatfighters to have a look at it. Basic calorie-counting, but there are many little tools and tricks, such as the wee pie chart that you can click on that shows you the proportions of fat, carb, protein in what you've et. Fascinating, I hear you cry. Well, yes, but it has fairly opened my eyes to what a fatty diet I was on without realising it!

And on the exercise side? Well, I have also just found this site mapmyrun. No, I don't intend to run anywheres (not yet anyhoo), but have a look at it - it's got a wee facility thingie that will tell you what you've done and how many cals you've used doing it. I intend to walk.

Last night's exercise was bringing my abdomeniser thingie down from off the top of the wardrobe. It needs dusted, which will be tonight's exercise. Harley Cat is most distressed because he's been using it as a bed for the past 18 months. I shall post a pic of him with it as soon as I can get him to sit still long enough...

On another subject, has any of my fellow fatfighters had any experience of Tae Bo?

PS Again: Has anyone else noticed how the blogger spellcheck wants to change "fatfighters" to "beautification"?

A feminist issue?

Interesting article about the (largely - no pun intended) US-based movement asserting that fattism is the same as racism.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/woman/story/0,,1813081,00.html

I can't help feeling that this is a bit self-serving, but perhaps that's just a hallmark of my own prejudice.

So sick

I've been ill, and as the soon-to-be Fatfighter5 says, there's nothing like a good old illness to make the weight drop off. But it's also profoundly dispiriting not having any appetite. Perhaps this might be the key: if you only eat when you really need to, then maybe that will work. The problem is that generally speaking I've lost my sense of when I really need to eat. Only when I'm ill does any of this really fall into place: I am currently eating as much as I can given that I'm not hungry at all, and so I stop even before I'm full because I have nothing invested in eating more than I need.

Who amongst us hasn't rather guiltily envied the anorexic for their self-control? Let's have some thoughts from the other Fatfighters who have been eerily silent of late.

Stuff and nonsense

Don't get uppity, Fatfighter2.

I've been away
But now I'm back
Still got a talent
For eating crap

I've been participating in races, which means chiefly that I've given myself carte blanche to eat anything I fancied. If all the bad stuff I've eaten in the last week were laid end to end it would stretch from here to the nearest cake shop, which is some way away.

I've a feeling we need to rally round here, with some new goals, some new promises which we encourage each other to keep, and new determination to see off the flab between now and, let's not make this too daunting, August 1. What do you say?

Down, but not yet out

OK! OK! I'm still here, honest. It's shame keeping me from blogging. I've been hanging on by the skin of my teeth waiting for recess. And not so much fighting the fat as lying down and letting it kick the cr*p out of me.

It seems that my recess has started early, thanks to a particularly nasty dose of sinusitis. At the moment I can't eat for sneezing, but this morning I had to give up on my toast because of the pain in swallowing. I have things to do tomorrow and this weekend so I am fighting it off with Berocca, honey and two packets of Tim Tams.

I have plans for the next nine weeks but my screen is now convered in sneeze so I shall sign off and retire (after brushing Tim Tam crumbs out of my bed).

Call my buff

This is getting ridiculous...where is everyone? This is going to be my last entry until someone else does one! It's been nearly two weeks since anyone else posted and I've had enough. In any case, apparently blogging comes under the ever-expanding list of things we're not allowed to do on our PCs at work, so I might be doing it less anyway.

So, on to more fatty topics. On Channel 4 this week I watched the first episode of a new show, "How to Look Good Naked". An incredibly annoying presenter (described by the Guardian as "a manic stylist called Gok") - my god how I wanted to tell him to stick his awful glasses where the sun don't shine - aside, it was inspired and inspiring viewing. This week's subject, Sandra, hadn't let her husband see her naked for three years. By the end of the show she was happy to allow her naked body be projected on to the side of a building in the middle of London. A well-fitted bra, a fresh new hairstyle and make-up, and some flattering, curvy new clothes stood in for exercise and calorie-counting. Most refreshing. I can't wait for next week's programme, but Gok has got to go!

Dumpster

In the absence of any proper blog entries (and my fellow bloggers, it would appear) a top tip from the Viz website:

WEIGHTWATCHERS. After reaching your ideal weight, maintain it by weighing yourself before and after a dump. The weight difference is the amount of food you can eat before having another dump.

And another:

SUPERMARKETS. Help promote healthy living by putting your cakes, ice creams, pies etc. in aisles that are too narrow for fatties to fit through.

Virtual weight loss

I've discovered a website that, for a mere £19.99, allows you to upload a recent photo and shaves the pounds off so that you can see yourself at your ideal weight. It's called, self-explanatorily, "Seeyourselfslimmer". Who's going to give it a try first?

Sub-bourbon dreams

Following my paean to the bourbon biscuit, one of Fatfighter2’s colleagues found this awe-inspiring picture of a giant bourbon biscuit (see actual size bourbon biscuit on the left for comparison), a project created by Tom Vigar and featured on http://www.pimpthatsnack.com/ (check out the site for the most mind-boggling confections you’ve ever seen, and vote to bring this grand biscuit gesture back to the number 1 spot where it belongs). (Picture reproduced by kind permission of the artist.)

It’s a miracle!