Diary of a Donut Dodger (General Weightloss & Healthy Eating Tips)

Member Name: buttonman

Product:	General Weightloss & Healthy Eating Tips
Date:	25/02/02 (520 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Live longer, Better self image

Disadvantages: Hunger!

I almost feel guilty posting in this section having read heart-rending tales of woe and misery from my fellow flab busters. There are however a shortage of male opinions and although I'm a fledgling dieter it'll do the ladies no harm to read of the suffering that we too endure. I've not always been a bloater. At school I won the 400m four years on the bounce and played football at least twice a week. Then came an office job and a driving license, both of which contributed, to an ever-increasing sedentary lifestyle. Once I moved into my own flat take aways were added to the flab equation and soon three flights of stairs became a puffing nightmare.

I never really saw myself getting fat but that's how it creeps up on you. Suddenly I was in Boots complaining about the fat guy who had invaded my holiday snaps! I reached a 17" collar and belts simply didn't have enough holes. I had dabbled in shifting it before and once went a month without ale losing half a stone in the process. It didn't take and soon the siren's call to Yates drove me back onto the rocks of Mount Flabmore.

But no more. Having tipped the scales at 16 stone I at last decided to do something about the bulk before it became a serious problem. My girlfriend was similarly placed having reached a peak of 10st 4lb. Always relishing a challenge I decided to make a bet of it with a contract dually signed up. Sadly I couldn't swing it being on most weight lost but we agreed that the flabby who lost the highest percentage of body mass would be paid £50 by the loser. So begineth the challenge!

27/01/02
The weigh in.

Having bought a set of scales, trimmed my nails and picked my nose we were ready for the initial weigh in. We decided to run the event over two months culminating on the eve of my birthday, March 31st. The bet will be decided on the final weigh in but weekly updates are planned to monitor progress and hopefully give encourageme
nt. The night before I emptied my flat of beer and crisps by scoffing the lot. Soon only the out of date jar of coffee mate would offer temptation. Naked as a streaker the weigh in posted my weight at 16 stone, with my worthy competitor 88lbs lighter. Only 61 days to go!

This weeks tip: Drink lots of water it bags you up and is calorie free. Courtesy Angela from the typing pool.

03/02/02

Week one day one and the novelty is wearing off fast. A man should eat around 2500 calories a day to maintain body weight. Every pound of weight added is about 3000 calories over this. We are going for a calorie-controlled diet of around 1500 calories a day. This should shave off 7000 a week and hopefully this shortfall will start to eat into our flab reserves. Sounds easy? Course its not. I'm a fan of Kebab and chips and one greasy portion of this will put me over my days allotment. Even things like sugar on my Shredded Wheat is a no-no and I find that I'm often remembering my self just as I'm about to buy some forbidden fruit or chunky Kit-Kat.

The name of the game is balance or maybe sensible. Irene is a diet expert and tells me starving your self is no answer as our primordial instincts will slow our metabolism to compensate meaning the pounds get even harder to shift. My biggest danger is the nibbles. Not being a smoker I find I'm often staring at the biscuit barrel like a cat at the goldfish bowl leaving Dooyoo as my only distraction!. Fortunately half the office is on a diet so tips and encouragement aren't hard to find. I let the typing pool in on our scheme early on as any failure would get me crucified. After even a few days I start to feel better, alcohol no longer exists in my system and I glean slight feelings of superiority (and jealousy!) from those who head to the chippy for lunch. My lunches are consisting of thin turkey on nimble bread, a pot of sugar free jelly and an apple. I feel guilty even chewing my pen!


At the Sunday weigh in the scales do their now familiar groan but settle at 221 lbs. - three pounds off Result!

This weeks tip

Suck your belly in when sitting down this will teach it to stay in. Courtesy Carolyne in the typing pool.

10/02/02

Week two starts off miserably as storms ravage much of the country. Working in an insurance office this means doing a lot of overtime and the diet means I can't treat myself as I deserve. Normally a late night in the office would merit a nice bag of Sports mixture but no more. Going home in the dark with a rumbling tum is no fun.

Still last week's result offered encouragement and I'm enjoying what little food I get all the more. Most of the dinners we eat are from the healthy ranges in Sainsburys and M&S. These are easy to spot as they are always in white boxes and more expensive than the 'proper' food. Convenience foods get a bad name but at least you aren't tempted to pile it on as you would with the home made stuff. These products all have nutritional panels on the packet and it's always a good idea to check. Look under 'energy' the figure followed by 'kcals' is the calorie value. Some of these are bordering on junk food and it's always wise to check.

I'm keeping a low profile from my pals at the moment. I literally couldn't go out and hope to drink diet coke all night. The 'Take a drink' culture is rife amongst my pals and therefore to go out will be to fail. I feel that I'm always hungry and even after my main meal my body is still looking for more.

The grumbles do die away and with lots of coffee and water I get through the pangs. Irene who jogs three nights a week is putting me to shame but her weight is fluctuating more than mine. The cash is in the bank! After two weeks I've had no take aways, beer or chocolate and I miss them like lost children, but hey suffering is good for t
he soul!

At Sundays weigh in my bulk is shown to be 218 lbs. another three off. Slow but sure progress but can it be maintained. Yes, just hide my Luncheon vouchers!

Tip of the week

Sliced peppers, carrots, celery and cucumber with a low fat crème fresh dip make a nice guilt free nibble. Courtesy Irene, Assistant manager.

17/02/02

Weight loss is seemingly 80% diet and 20% exercise. I don't know how true that is but it is obvious that exercise is a necessary part of a healthy life style. I used to be quite active but soon learned I could get a paper much quicker by taking the car than by trotting the 400 yards to the paper shop. My brother lives on the third floor of a block and even that has become a tiring ordeal.

So it was with no little trepidation that I took the lads up on their offer of an hours five a sides. Fives is a fast paced sport and to be any good you have to be able to run for an hour. No chance of that but I did enjoy my little spurts of energy and ended the game still standing. This will be a regular outing and will hopefully signal my return to the full team next season.Berti Volgts take notice!

One of our first hurdles came this week with an invite to friends for dinner. After fighting over who was to drive and therefore could avoid the booze we made our slimline entrance. The food was nice and real but at least I refused seconds. To be sociable I had half a bottle of red wine and enjoyed it greatly. I am finding that diets are becoming my only topic of conversation and that I'm becoming really boring. Often I'll be discussing calorific values whereas once I'd be too busy stuffing the deep fried pizza into my face. Still it's a hobby!

A diet chart in a magazine gave my ideal weight as 12 and a half stone only 42 pounds to go! Anyway I'm not over weight I'm just under height!

This week's weigh in was an unexpected triumph with the scales
barely moving as I stepped on. Well not quite but a 4lbs loss means I'm 10 lbs. down in three weeks. If this trend continues I'll have disappeared by 2004! Irene too is doing well and we are both at around 4.25% of body weight lost. Not that we're counting!

Tip of the week

Sleep into lunchtime and you'll have less time to think about eating. Courtesy Stephen, Claims department.

24/02/02

Weighing yourself can be a tricky business. At some points I've jumped on the scales to find a sudden 6lbs. gain much to my horror. There is no point in kidding yourself but to get a balanced reading you should weigh your self under the same circumstances each week. A pint of fluid weighs a pound so if you?ve just quaffed a couple of litres of orange squash it will add to your bulk. Similarly hair cuts, nail clipping and toilet visits have to be carefully timed to keep the figure accurate. Am I becoming obsessed? You bet!

As a month of dieting approaches along with the half way mark in our challenge it's time to take stock. With ten pounds lost I feel the benefits are more mental than physical. Although I feel lighter on my toes I doubt it's really affecting my daily life but I do feel better. A good way to visualise it is in terms of sugar. A bag of sugar is two pounds so in effect I'm no longer carrying five bags of sugar. Sounds better that way.

Thursday night saw me at Grant's for the Rangers Vs Feyernood game and thoughtfully he'd laid on pies. Me and my chum Crow ate apples as the rest demolished some of Gregg's finest. Still they'll come around eventually! There still is some stigma to dieting with cries of 'Have a pie ya big poof' still ringing in my ears.

I am starting to feel my clothes looser and have attracted my first 'Are you losing weight comments'. I?ve yet to falter although you may catch me sniffing the vents of my local kebab house. It is
tough especially as those gits at Rowantrees have brought out white chocolate chunky Kit-Kats - how evil can you get?

Four weeks in and I'm another two pounds lighter. The rate is slowing but I'm now 15 stone 2lbs and hopefully we'll have seen a stone (seven bags of sugar!) off by next week.

Tip of the week

Make a sugar free jelly with half water half lo-cal lemonade for a tasty treat. Courtesy Angela, typing pool.

03/03/2002

I read my diet sheet today, oh boy
10,000 calories to be lost this week
And although the calories were very small
Someone had to count them all
Now we know how many calories it takes
To not fill Steve up at all

Apologies, I'm getting light headed!

Quite a tough week on the diet front and there's worse to come. It was Irene's birthday on Saturday and although we didn't fall off the wagon completely we did feel a treat was in order. Clearly the three orders from the Chinese was out but we did have a nice grilled steak and a bottle of Cava. It was almost like eating properly! The worse to come is in the form of a five-day trip to Brussels home of beer, chocolate and pate. I don't know the Flemish for 'How many calories in this mate' so we'll have to watch. I won't however let it stop me enjoying myself because what would be the point of dieting only to have a miserable existence. Moderation will be my mantra.

In the spirit of further exercise I bought a pair of running shoes. Fifty quid! I won't be able to afford to eat at that rate. I waited until I'd lost some weight before making this investment in case the people in the shop laughed. As it was they did - all the way to the bank! The good lady has the sniffles so the shoes won't get an airing for a few days so I've still time to find where she hid the receipt!

At the weigh in I was dead on 15 stone so that's one down two and cha
nge to go. My rate of flab shifting has settled at two pounds a week which is OK but I preferred those four pound weeks. Irene lost two pounds too so a percentage gain for her this week. Having reached my first target of losing a stone my next is to get to 14 stone 4 pounds or 200lbs dead with four weeks left it's doable but only if the Stella Artois factory is on strike!

Tip of the week

Eat Fruit and Fibre every morning and see the pounds flush away. Courtesy Dave, Brother. (I've yet to try this one!)

11/03/2002

Back from chilly but nice Belgium having sampled some forbidden fruits or rather lagers along the way.Not wishing to spoil our well deserved break we put the diets on hiatus but didn't abandon them totally.

The city was great but that's for another op.On the food front things were excellent and I don't think we've eaten as well abroad before.We sampled the whole four of the unholy quartet namely Tex-Mex,Pizza,Curry and Chinese and weren't they great!

The city is also a beer lovers paradise with wheat beer,blonde beer,fruit beer any kind of beer you could wish for.Take these elements in tandem with a hotel buffet to die for you can guess that the scales were dreading our return.

On the plus side we did a lot of stomping around and didn't give in too often to the sweet trolley.An (ill fated) expedition to locate the statue of Tintin burned a few hundred calories as did riding the subway after dark!

So with weigh in a day late how did it go? Well no loss but happily no gain either.Pretty good considering four pig out dinners and a few (loads) of beers.Lesson of the day is therefore enjoy yourself but not too much!

Tip of the week.

Do badly at French so that you can't order any decent grub.My laughable 'Je voudrais un baggette avec fromage et du jambon' met with a baffled look and no calorie gain!

17/03/2002

To
percivere with a diet you have to have something to aim for.A chart I found in a frankly rubbish book said that to get out of the over weight category and into the 'normal weight' zone I'd need to be 175lbs or 12 1/2 stone - and that't just getting in the zone.To be mid normal I'd have to be Ally McBeal during a famine in which Bob Geldof hadn't shown up!

Prior to this weeks weigh in I'm 210lbs or 15 stone.My first target was to lose a stone and this is now completed.With the next stone so far off I've been looking for more immediate mile stones.First up is 201lbs which will signal a 10% body mass reduction - a bit like losing your head.

After that to get below 200lbs is achievable and will signal my entry into a slimmer weight bracket namely 100-200lbs! Next up is 198lbs which is the weight of my currently slimmer brother.Dave used to call me gros (fat) after he learned advance French so this target won't pass without a mention!

Ultimatly the target is to see oneself in a window and not think 'Who's that fat git?' - some way to go I can tell you.

After last weeks stalling this weeks weigh off was a triumph all round.I had wasted away to 206lbs - a 4lb loss with Irene 2lbs lighter at 130lbs.Back on track and raring to go! With two weeks to go and two weeks and a day to my birthday the end is in sight.A reservation has been promised at the local Tandoori with Bombay aloo till the cattle come through the kitchen door.

Tip of the week.Eat your lunch whilst pedelling on an exercise bike.The fat won't have a chance to stick!Courtesy of Irene's mental pal Odette who is a teacher for goodness sake!

31/03/2002

Cue music - Europe 'The Final Countdown'

Yes after two tough months it comes down to this.Last wek saw me at 202lbs and Irene at 130lbs.The bet is on percentage terms and I was a show in 10% against 6% of body mass lost.A hetic wek la
y ahead though.

On the Thursday 'a few after work' went onto finishing time with only two diet cokes punctuating a sea of lager.On the Friday a night out to see Glasgow Vs Edinburgh at Rugby lead to another hangover.At leastthe lack of red finger nails told me I hadn't succumed to a kebab.

Irene on theother hand was upping the ante and had just done a 17 mile run for her marathon training prior to the weigh in - gamesmanship or what?

The final totals were close but a win for formally fat Steve who is now reclassified as 'Chunky'.I ended up at 204lbs and Irene was 127lbs.This equated to a body mass of 91.17% against 93.38% Hurrah.Being generous in victory I took only £20 of the offered £50 seeing as my grocery bill hadn't been paid off yet.

With the deal over I am sticking to the regime and have set my self a long term target of 175lbs or twelve and a half stone at which point I'll be 'normal.Today I was 14 stone 2lb so the two stone loss is near.I have enjoyed the diet and feel better for it.It can be tough but if you focus on the long term benefits and avoid the biscuit aisle you'll do fine.Go on you don't need that last bit of easter egg....*


Tip of the week:Just eat what you like life's too short for rabbit food.Courtesy various friens and relatives.







*can I have it?

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