Rest

Apparently every day is a bad idea.  Something called "rest" is required, especially after strength/weight work.  Barely managed even my cardio warmups today.  Been instructed to take a couple of days off.  Confident about this weeks weigh-in/measurements though! Looking forward to Wednesday.

Again!

Yesterday I had to force myself to go, today I was eager to go.

Tried some weights mostly, since a lot of my limbs seem unable to keep up with the cardio attempts I'm making (quads and calves mainly).  Did warmup and cooldown with some more cardio though, another 250-300 calories between the two, and an hour of weights in between.

Leg extensions, leg curls, vertical traction (lat pulldowns), shoulder press, chest press, low row, leg press and pectoral butterfly.  Sets of 12-16, low weights, going for the slow burn.  Aim is to trim/tone rather than bulk.

Even bought fruit today and enjoyed an apple, hell yeah! (if that makes no sense, I usually eat fruit about once a year, and never buy it by choice, so this is pretty important eating it by choice two days running)

Returning

Surgery was cancelled, at the last ****ing second.  I was in my gown, being wheeled into the anaesthetists room when the call came down that my special bed wasn't available.  Can't remember if I wrote before, but they refuse to operate on me unless theres an intensive care/high dependency bed available.  One was booked more than a week before my operation date, seems the booking didn't hold much weight.

So what did I do with my time? Put it to good use? Sadly no.  I took the opportunity for one last evening out with my Uni work colleagues on the Friday, which turned into a 5am finish.  Also on the Sunday, there's a little gathering we do every 23rd in honour of a late friend - I was able to attend afterall... turned into a 5am finish.  Didn't crawl out of bed until nearly 4pm on Christmas Eve to go home to my family.  Felt like death half of Christmas Day.  Also spent horrendous amounts of money over the two nights.

Quite disappointed in myself.

Finally got back to the gym today after procrastinating for the last two days (aren't all out-of-shape people Master Procrastinators?).  Struggled with the arm bike thing, but was happy with the other stuff I did.

My 10 minute warm-up walk turned into a fast walk with 5 minutes of jog on the end (not tried running in yeaaaarrrsss).  20 minutes on the arm bike was only 15 minutes, but I partly blame the horrendous music in the gym (I forgot my earphones, and at that point in time they decided to put Adel on).  20 minutes on the regular bike, 20 minutes (pushed it to 23 minutes to reach 300 calories) on the cross trainer, and a further 10 minute cooldown walk.

710 calories worth altogether.  Also got some tips from one of the trainers to try next time.  Oh, and I walked to the gym instead of drove.  Small steps! But they will all add up.

I've skipped weighing/measuring/photos this week owing to Christmas food.  Suffice to say I have no doubt I put on weight and inches.  My plan is to get a good swim in on one of the weekend days, and another gym session the other (probably swim tomorrow, gym Sunday).  I'm going out for a fancy dinner and many beverages for New Years Eve, so won't be returning to normality until Wednesday.  Coincidentally, weigh in day.  I'll get new stats up then.

Happy New Year until then!

Week #2 (19/12/12)

So the gym timing hasn't been as often as I wanted, owing to the time of year and many social engagements (especially with surgery tomorrow, meaning that's me pretty much done with Christmas now).

Kept up the good diet though, and here's the weekly update.

 

 The image controls for this site are awful, but never mind.


Weight: 19st 3lb / 122.0kg / 269lb (-3lb)
Chest: 46" / 116.8cm (-1")
Stomach: 47.25" / 120cm (-1.25")
Waist: 43" / 109cm (unchanged)
Collar: 17.5" / 44cm  (unchanged)

Not bad for what was really only two proper gym visits and a short session on clapped out company equipment.  The change of eating habits has been the biggest factor so far.  My energy levels and daily motivation were like nothing else last week, not felt that alive in years.  Definitely given me a taste of what I can be like with more activity in my life and has me really looking forward to getting stuck in properly in the new year.

Hospital tomorrow, been told I can't exercise for 10-14 days, and also have to continuously eat/drink/talk to stop my throat from closing up afterwards.  I'll try and focus on the drinking and talking rather than eating!

I appear to have a whopping 3-5 readers so far, so a Merry Christmas to you all and see you in the new year!

Saturday 15th, ups and downs

Minor success, minor confession.

Managed a pretty cracking session at the gym on Wednesday night, nearly 750 calories worth of cardio and felt fantastic after.  Had a very good day at my teaching job Thursday, with comments from a couple of colleagues that I was looking trimmer already (they didn't know I'd been gyming it up either).  Staff party was Thursday night, according amounts of alcohol (I avoided the lager though! bonus points) were consumed (boo), but even had a bit of luck with the ladies (yay).

Friday alas was a disaster.  Forgot to take my narcolepsy meds in the morning and spent the day as a zombie.  Got sent home from work after pretty much crashing on my desk and spent the evening in a daze.  Bad food was eaten, compounding the already bad feeling.

Made a very deliberate effort to do better today.  Back to good food, even opted to go into work for a peace of mind.  I was convinced that my gym was open until 8pm though, and I've just found out it shuts in 25 minutes (5pm).  Very unhappy.  There's a treadmill in the office though, so going to get something done at least before I go.  On a very minor success note, I've resisted all the christmas food and drink offers that have been rotating through the office today, and actually felt better for it.

Off to visit a friend in another town tomorrow so no gym opportunities there either, but he knows what I'm aiming for so we might be able to get something done up there perhaps.

Knowing how much better I've felt, slept and apparently looked this week after just a few good evenings, I intend to make the most of my time left and exercise every night next week before hospital on Thursday.

EDIT/ADDITION - managed a quick bash on the office gear, treadmill, bike, some weights.  Good dinner of chicken & salad.  Not all I'd hoped, but the treadmill had a habit of sliding on foot-fall so couldn't do too much.  Monday evening will be intense.

Week #1 (12/12/12)

So, a starting point.  This is where I am now and where I hope to move on from.




Height: 6'2" / 188cm
Weight: 19st 6lb / 123.5kg / 272lb
Chest: 47" / 119cm
Stomach: 48.5" / 123cm
Waist: 43" / 109cm
Collar: 17.5" / 44cm (this one is important for the apnoea, anything over 17" is apparently bad)


My original thinking was to do these weekly, and I will commence that in the new year (also when I intend to sign on for WW).  For the rest of 2012 though I'll just post some weekly numbers and a breakdown of what exercise I've done, how my eating has gone and so on.  Reason for this is I'm going into hospital for some surgery next week and have been told I'll be off my feet for two weeks (that's right, right through Christmas and New Years Eve, wonderful).

In general though, onwards and upwards!

Background

So a little about me, on the remote chance someone else actually reads this.

Actually I'll clarify that latter comment first as it sounds a little wishy washy.  The goal of this blog is personal motivation, not public exposure or cries for attention.  It'll make more sense in a minute.

I'm a 32 year old fella from the UK.  I'm a big guy, simply put.  At 6'2 and pretty broad in frame I look stocky and "normal".  My secret? That frame allows me to hide the fact that I'm very overweight.  At just under 19.5 stone (123.5kg, 272lb for the rest of the world outside England) I am in no way a dainty guy.

I've always been big, and I wonder if I'll ever be able to get to that stage of "toned".  I'm willing to try though.  Physical appearance is not the goal though (although improved confidence from being less self-conscious is certainly an additional motivator).  Health is the main drive.

I have narcolepsy, kicked in when I was 18, was diagnosed at 20/21, and it's been a minor annoyance at best (my symptoms are mild compared to many).  This year however it's taken a turn for the worse (it advances in stages) and in addition I've developed 'severe obstructive sleep apnoea'.  In recent tests I was shown to stop breathing on average 55 times an hour.  Yes, I stop breathing almost as often as every minute.

One aspect of my narcolepsy is the early onset of dream sleep, which means my conscious mind is awake and I get no rest.  I wake up feeling tired, as my mind has never shut down.  Sleep apnoea results in the brain instinctively waking you up to start breathing again, meaning you get no rest.  Ever gone for a few days without sleep? That draining feeling, every muscle aches, every movement is a chore, everything irritates you or drives you to anger.  No motivation, no energy.  I run a business and also teach part time.  Both of these have suffered heavily this year as I simply have no "umph" to get anything done.

That's been me pretty much every day this year, and I've had enough of it.

I can't fix my narcolepsy, but I damn well can try and fix the sleep apnoea through weight loss.

Now we've all tried this before, I've done it several times.  I sign up to a shiny gym, I hardcore it for a month, lose half a stone and then give up for some excuse.  Not this time.....     hopefully.  I have a very tangible motivating force in my health and wellbeing (sleep apnoea as severa as mine plays merry hell with the heart and blood pressure, on top of everything else), the stress and exhaustion has given me a stomach ulcer, and we can even throw in a couple of bouts of kidney stones this year too.  It's been a crap 2012.

My plan is simple - slow and steady.  My inspiration in this is my family, particularly my sister and mother. They've been at WeightWatchers for about 9 months now, and in that time have lost phenomenal amounts of weight for very little effort.  More importantly it's helped completely change their outlook to food, appetites and portion control (something I definitely need too).  I'll be signing up myself soon, but I've also signed up to a pretty big gym only 2-5 minutes walk from my home.  

The gym is because I want to exercise.  I don't just want to lose inches, I want to get fit too.  I used to do a lot of sports, squash, swimming, weight training, athletics.  I was a pretty fit teenager.  Now though, I'm sick and tired of nearly collapsing when the lift at work breaks down and I have to walk 5 flights of stairs.  I'm ashamed that when I'm with work colleagues they always take the lift because they don't want to make me take the stairs with them.  And I just want some bloody energy and motivation back in my life.  

So why the blog? Simple.  I'm going to put up weekly progress.  A photo.  Figures.  Measurements.  I'll write what I've done each week.  What I've eaten.  If I fail, I have to explain it rather than just justify it in my mind.  I don't have a gym partner, so I'm going to use this instead.  If someone ever stumbles across it and decides to follow me then feel free to give me a verbal kicking any time I screw up.