Going down in more ways than one.

A strange pattern has developed recently with weight loss, lose a bit gain a bit.

It resembles a bouncing ball, where each bounce goes up a bit less each time, as you can see from the graph above. The positive is that the overall trend is going in the right direction.

Weight loss is important, but the speed of weight loss is more important. To this day the overall thing that stands out to me, is how few people comment on how much I have lost. This is from those that see me daily, to others who, having met the other day in the pub for a drink, that I had not seen since January this year.

Pub? How can I be going to the pub and lose weight, truth is that these days it is a rare event. Also I have no fear in being too rigid, as the line in the Passenger song goes "Life is for living"

Going back to the trend, it is very much tied in with walking our dog Blue. Each week my wife Sue or I take turns in taking Blue out for his dawn walk, normally around 5:30 am and the weeks when it is my turn is the week that the weight goes down, and then the week when I am not walking him, it bounces up. Talking this through with Sue, it must be what kick starts me in the mornings, so a good tip is, if you want to lose weight, get yourself a dog and take them out for those early morning walks. They will enjoy it as much as you would.

Since we have come back from holiday, I have got a 13 week pass at the local climbing centre. My aim is to go 2-3 times a week. This is excellent cardio exercise, whether you are working out on the auto-belay or improving your technique in the bouldering area, wearing a heart monitor to check calorie burn, it only takes around 30 minutes climbing and there goes 300kcal.

That is how much I burn off but when you see others down there, they probably couldn't eat enough calories to match their exercise workouts. 

For me personally, it is more rewarding than going to the gym or running the streets. Though a word of caution if you climb, climb safely because pain and injury will severely restrict future activity. But join your local indoor wall climbing centre and have fun, no matter what age you are.

Over the last few weeks my wife has referred to me as her "skinny action man" and it is quite an endearing thought, but one that I seem to live up to. Down over 11 kg since the start of the year, continuing to climb, kayaking across Upper Loch Torridon on holiday and now there is one more string that I am looking to add to my bow.

When I say string, actually it is a rope, and this rope will be used to abseil down the iconic landmark that soars above Reading town centre, The Blade.

This abseiling event is for charity, a worthy cause in support of Naomi House Hospice. Where their residents face life's daily challenges with far greater need than most of us could imagine.

The event will take place on 28th June 2015  to find out more follow the link below............

Finally a shot of me in the Kayak

Liatach looms large over Upper Loch Torridon under cloudless clear blue skies

An early birthday present from Sue & Blue

Thank you for such a stunning special treat.

Weight shifting (Slowly)

Time to tighten the belt.

One more week has passed, and the effort to loose weight is paying off, yesterday morning I tipped the scales at 81Kg, a loss of one more kilo.

The key word in the above statement is effort, you get nothing in life for free, somewhere somehow you have to pay. Just flipping that on it's head, you pay, if you do nothing, your health ultimately suffers, a warning I received a few years back, where an irregular visit to the GP sounded alarm bells.

I was the classic male person, over 40, very few health checks, a drinker, ex smoker and poor eating habits, but that was then and this is now. There were valuable lessons learnt, but old habits can return.

This week the loss of a kilo came from sensible eating of regular meals, good health food, apart from a couple of "treats" that were planed, but not rewards. Every day I walked the two miles to work and the return journey home. Three evenings upon arrival home, dropped off the work bag and went with my wife Sue for a walk with Blue, monitoring my steps with a Garmain Vivofit, each day exceeding 16,000 steps and once over 20,000 steps.

Monday night indoor climbing at Reading Climbing Centre for an hour, managing 75% of the auto belay and numerous easy routes in the bouldering area. As I am looking to improve my fitness and climbing skills, I am also reading a book "Learning to Climb" by Eric J. Hörst which gives a good all round approach to indoor climbing.

A good training / climbing session should require 30 - 60 minutes actual climbing, though most people are in the arena for longer, on account of belaying, observing and socialising. Although I am only half way through the book, so far, the quality of advice has been sound.

Tuesday and Thursday lunchtime, four games of badminton each session, meant not sitting at a computer lunchtime. Good for building reflexes and explosive movement, helps with hand eye co-ordination.

Then we come to fuel, food and drinks; Most meals have been a combination of fish, pasta, chicken vegetables and a little bit of meat. My wife Sue is an excellent cook, and has gradually introduced me to the finer culinary delights, Using various cook book recipes with a few spin offs to suit our palate, not one meal is missed. All our meals are sat at the dinning table, including breakfast cereal. The plates are left clean, no leftovers.

Those that may struggle with portions, it is worth while to spend a little time counting calories, I did this a couple of years ago, weighing and counting all my food intake. Now to be honest, we know the foods that are calorie heavy and eat accordingly, I was once told, if you wish to follow a healthy diet, buy a recipe book for those with diabetes, but never go without a meal to loose weight.

Can the weight loss over the last two weeks be sustained, I really hope so. This week is my turn to walk Blue, our German Shepherd, for his before dawn walk, so the day will start with a twenty minute stroll. You can't call it a walk, as it is "his time", and he likes to sniff the recent activity. Mind you if he had his way, upon sniffing a nearby cat, he would prefer that I could run like Linford Christie, truth is I run more like Agatha Christie.

This week coming there will be no badminton, so I am going to supplement this with a lunchtime walk, and maybe try doing some "star jumps" which do get the heart pumping.

Calculating my body mass index, I am still obese, and will remain so until my weight drops to 78Kg given that is only 3kg away, dependant on when I reach 80kg, that will be my next goal.

Finally, how do I feel, actually the main feeling of bloated-ness has dissipated, but the "podgy belly" reminds me when I glance my reflection, there is still work to be done. Mentally, I feel very good within myself, probably as I am doing this for me at my pace. 

One piece of sound advice, check with your GP on your medical condition, and visit at least once a year, so you don't cause any unnecessary harm or injury to yourself, and those people with family, don't exclude them and they will support your unselfish actions.