Thanks All for the tips and support.

All very welcomed and much appreciated.

Update from yesterday, I went down the gym, signed up, paid my cash, £25 joining fee which includes unlimited use for the remainder of the month, then £32 a month there after. I think this is quite good value for money considering my intended use of the place. I even got a discount as the mummy-to-be works for the county council!

Well, I had the Big Weigh-in earlier. No real surprises there, I knew I would be in the ‘obese’ range, and it’s all been bought and paid for and self inflicted of course – such is life – so there’s no point feeling bad about it either, what’s done (and eaten!) is done and now it’s time to do something about it!

I’ve got a good set of scales that does your stats based on gender/age/height and is very accurate. So here’s my Big Fat Weigh-in Bag Fat Start Line results!

Age: 43

Height: 6.0ft

Weight: 17 stone 10.5 pounds (248lbs) / 112.73 kg

Fat %: 41.5

BMI: 33.6

Chest: 45 inches

Gut (fully relaxed, not held in!): 47 inches

Waist: 42 inches


With that done now, it’s time to get some breakie and liquid in me before doing my induction down the gym later this morning!

J2S, you don't say about how old you are - I think us old fellas find it harder to lose weight (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it)

A few observations from my own attempts to stay healthy, some are of the "suck eggs" variety:

1. Don't forget 3rd day syndrome - when you kick off the training you may overdo it a bit and feel like crap after a few days! Fight through.

2. Look at body image as well as weight loss - You'll lose fat but rebuild muscle - you'll think you're not losing weight but in fact your body profile is changing for the better!

3. I used to deprive during the week but enjoy the weekends - Lots of training and very healthy eating during the week but would have a bit of what I fancied at the weekends - you'll get into the habit of enjoying yourself but being sensible about it.

4. See a doc or physio? If you have a problem back they may be able to give you some good stretches and exercises to help it. I found that as I lost weight and built muscle my back got better - strength and support around my spine.

5. I guess you'll be staying away from high impact stuff. I do a lot of walking, especially up hill - seems to burn the fat and keep the knees relatively happy.

Best of luck with it all, watch out for the nasty men coming here to take the p1ss and sponsor me for Trailtrekker (See my blog)

Cheers Chris, age added!

Well, I'm back and almost recovered from my induction, which was mostly chat. One interesting thing I did learn is that if you're right handed you normally have a stronger left leg, and if you're left handed etc. So, as a right-handed person, I have the whammy of having a weaker left leg through injury to the tune of 1-inch difference between right thigh and left thigh circumference when flexed. A double whammy of having a 1/2 inch shorter leg from loss of bone, which is the root of all evil in the past where my left leg is concerned. And the triple whammy of this being the root cause of why my L5 disc is pressing on the nerves to the left!

As to the gym work it will be a 3 or 4 times a week programme for the muscles together with a 3 to 4 times a week CV programme with plenty of stretching. As part of joining up I get 5 1-to-1 sessions with an instructor and he’ll be setting goals to be met over a 6 to 8 week period, things like attaining a certain amount of strides in 10 minutes on a set programme on a stepper etc.

I see him again on Friday for the rest of the programme. Til then I will be doing my physio exercises and 45 minutes cv work daily at a steady pace appropriate to my max heart rate and fat burning goal at this moment.

Thanks once again to all for your tips and advice. They’re most welcome and I’m sure I’ll refer to them as the journey continues towards better health, fitness and parenthood!

Another tip from me Johnny: resist the temptation to weigh yourself too often. Hopping on the scales daily isn't a good idea as there will be days when you'll appear to have gained weight for no obvious reason and this can be very demoralising. Even weighing yourself weekly can give a false impression. Try to leave it a few weeks between weigh-ins and the loss you see will inspire you for the next few weeks. Worked for me anyway!

Chris is right about muscle gain as well. Keep bearing in mind that you aren't following a crash diet but an exercise and healthy eating regime and if you think you are losing less than you should be, it'll probably be down to increased muscle mass.

Day Two Update.

Thankfully I woke up with no aches and pains from yesterday's bit of phys, but then it wasn't much after all! As far as food went, I stuck to the diet's plan of 4 meals, took plenty of fluids and have yet to feel hungry or have cravings for junk food and chocie! Oh I'm sure that day will come, but today’s not their day. Tomorrow’s not looking good for them either!

My phys today will be my physio stretches, walking a mile on a treadmill at a steady, but out of breath pace and seeing if I can get 1300 strides in 10 minutes on the hill climb programme on the stepper. This may sound lame (well it is) but then I haven’t walked a mile in one go, or anything near it in 6 to 8 months and I’m a good 4 ½ stone over weight! Added to that I might even do a bit of housework to burn some calories and get more mobile as the mummy-to-be is having a hard time with 24 hour morning sickness feelings, though she’s yet to talk to God on the Big White Telephone. If it wasn’t for the fact she wretches for Britain at the smell of food, I’d say she was malingering!

How could I ever love a woman that gags at the smell of chicken curry and potatoes (291 calories, honest Guv’!)?

Don't know if you've done this already, Johnny, but it helps to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). As long as you eat fewer calories than your score - even if you have an off-day and do fcuk all phys - you'll still be losing a bit of weight. You can calculate it here:

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Day 5 Update.

Since my first post I’ve lost 3 lbs and 0.8% of body fat – I couldn’t help getting on the scales this morning, I’ve stuck to the diet and am taking in 1500/1800 calories a day in 4 to 5 meals/snacks (thanks for the link, Wedge, for the link, I can take 2247 calories without putting flab on!). So I’m quite chuffed with that. I haven’t felt hungry, I’m drinking a good 4 to 5 pints of liquid a day (mostly sugar free Robinson’s squash) and I’ve left off adding any salt to my food too. God, I miss a bit of salt on my food! So far the only down side is having less food knocking about my system means I’m peeing every two hours or so like some slack bladdered doris!

I’ve kept up with being more active, and the stretches for my back, but choose to give the gym a miss until today as I’m a bit under the weather, but only the slightest head cold, chesty cough sort of thing. But I was going to go in today, come what may, as I had the next 1-to-1 session. So now I have an upper body routine to go along side the cross trainer and treadmill.

I tried it after the 1-2-1 was over and it nearly killed me! Whatever I’ve caught, doesn’t agree with exercise! I went through one set of exercises and was dead on my feet to the extent I felt faint and sick. In reality this was the second time as I’d already done them on the induction, my programme consisting of two rounds with sets on each station, so I thought I’d be okay. What killed me was the cross trainer. My heart BPI wasn’t that high but I just couldn’t seem to get enough air in my lungs. Second time around any ‘press’ type weight was not nice to the extent I gave up on one lot, mainly because my left arm couldn’t hack it! I felt at death’s door to be honest and just sat in the changing rooms for 5 minutes or so to recover! Having thought on it a while, I’m 43, obese, back problems, very unfit and maybe was never as fit as I think I used to be.

But it was fun! And I’m doing it again on Sunday!

Right, it’s been 2 hours, I’m off for a pee followed by 400 calories!

Nice one mate. When you've dropped a bit of weight, remember to re-calculate your BMR - it will decrease as your weight decreases.

Day 6 Update

Thanks for the tip, Wedge. I’ve not thought about that before, but of course, when you do, it’s obvious!

Well, the after effects of my first day back on weights in years is, well, PAIN! Not too much in the arms, mainly in the chest and where they join the arms! I used to know the names for the major muscles, but like my 36-inch waistline, that was some time ago. I could have checked Google for the correct terms, but that would feel like getting the correct info to protect my ego in this blog, and as such, would mean I wasn’t ‘keeping it real’. So I’ll have a look on the chart for the names and report back. I plan to go to the gym tomorrow just for cv stuff. I’ll try the treadmill again, and I think I’ll have a crack at 1.5 miles on the treadmill at a brisk pace. Not too hard in the great scheme of things. Unless you’re carrying injuries and have let yourself go!

One of the other things I want to work on is a bit more sleep and in a regular pattern. I sleep ok, but not enough and not very regularly. If I choose, I can watch late night stuff on TV til say 2 a.m., but I’m still woken up by the mummy-to-be getting up at 6.30 a.m. Ok, I can go back to sleep for a couple of hours, but it’s not good and not healthy I feel. Worse of all, it doesn’t have to be that way as I ‘choose’ to go without the sleep just to watch the TV ‘because I can’. It’s almost like a self imposed sleep deprivation ex’ for the sake of some ‘interesting’ documentary!

I had lamb hotpot for dinner (300 calories!). I missed a bit of salt on in, particularly on the spuds.

Day 14 Update

Well, the end of today marks two weeks of both being on a calorie controlled diet and a fitness programme.

So far the diet has gone really well. I’ve stuck to having a ballpark figure of 1500 calories a day based on what the diet provides, supplemented by fresh fruit. I haven’t been hungry on it as such. But I do find I need to eat the snacks provided or fruit between meals to stop feeling hungry and I think I have a tendency to fixate on ‘I must eat something NOW’. So I’m eating something every couple of hours during my waking day. I think the longest I go without have something to eat is in the evening between my main meal (still only 300 calories plus some fruit) and bedtime. And of course, drinking lots of water too.

The phys part of the regime has been a bit more of a struggle though. I put this down to firstly being under the weather to do it at the start, secondly to being given a weight programme that is beyond my ability and thirdly being more unfit than a person should be! I can manage the cv part of my programme well. This involves 10 minutes on the cross trainer set to cross country and the goal is to hit 1300 strides in the 10 minute, which I can do. It doesn’t leave my heart and lungs screaming, just my legs for the last couple of minutes which are on the most resistance part of the 10-minute set. This is followed by 15 minutes on a treadmill, again on a cross country programme, with the speed of 5.0 kmh or more. Again, this doesn’t leave my heart or lungs screaming. The most surprising thing from these two exercises is so far I haven’t had my usual lower back pain and numbness in my left leg whilst doing them, which is pleasantly quite surprising.

What is killing me though is the weights. I have 3 sets to do, chest presses, shoulder presses and pull downs of 18 reps each. To be honest, the weight/reps for the chest and shoulder press are too much for the level of strength I have at the moment, and I can’t get through the whole set of 18 reps without needing to stop, which is cheating on the cheese, I’m sure you’ll agree. I can manage the pull downs ok though. At the end of these 3 sets I’m totally chin strapped! I’m talking ‘let me lie down I want to be sick’ for a good 5 to 10 minutes on completion. Which kind of sucks as I still have one more exercise to do, leaning on one of those big ball thingies and sitting down then rising, which I can’t do without a long pause between the end of my weights. And then I’m supposed to repeat it all again aiming for a minimum of 16 reps per weight set or best effort above the 16.

So the question I think I want answered is this; how should I play around with this programme to be able to complete it? Should I cut the weight on the chest and shoulder presses in able to do the 18 reps? Should I cut the number of reps to be able to do the weight? Should I take a few minutes out between sets (I was told to go from one straight to the other, no break), so I’m not chin strapped before my last set?

What my brain’s telling me to do is cut the weight on the chest and shoulder presses to be able to do the 18 reps and have 2 minutes ‘down time’ before moving on to the next set whilst working towards increasing the weight and cutting out the ‘down time’. What my brain’s also telling me is don’t give up and once you’ve got a good level of fitness back, don’t lose it again!

The past two weeks have been well worth it as fair as the health and well being benefits are concerned. I feel a lot more ‘alive’, less lethargic and with better cv fitness just to do normal daily things I’d shy away from before just because of the effort involved. I feel a bit more flexible in my back and my usual aches and pains don’t seem as bad and don’t come on so soon when doing things, though they’re still there below the surface. I feel a lot happier for doing this and I’m getting that part of myself respect back that despised and detested the state and shape I had fallen into!

I’m doing another ‘Big Weigh-in Day’ tomorrow to see what the stats say. The only ones I’m really interested in are the fat percentage (even though this isn’t entirely accurate) and what the tape measure says.

I’m still thinking of this as a 7-month end goal to be ‘above average’ fitness wise so I can cope with the mummy-to-be being ‘the mummy-that-is’ and the sprog as well. Of course, once I’ve got my waistline and fitness back, I not only want to maintain them, but improve on them too!