Bliss, rugby in the morning, honestly its one of my happy places! Although my team where not successful in the game, they still played well. I didn’t do any weight in before i left for rugby, it always comes after!
So what happened when i got home? 113.0 kg, thats -0.5kg from the day before!
I also once i got home from rugby did my DDP Yoga to help stretch my old muscles out a little
I am one tight little boy these days!
It wasn’t a big step day either, i pretty much veg’ed after rugby for the rest of the day and tried to have a pretty chill day!
Food intake remained consistent with a net total calories of 1424! The main thing is that i am keeping both calorie intake and my net calories are low!
Hopefully over the next few days i would have broken the 113kg barrier!
Lets start with some amazing news! My son, the blonde boy in the middle of the picture won his schools house rugby competition today. There is nothing more special than seeing our shared love for the game of rugby but more than that my admiration for him as he excels me in life! Couldnt be prouder!
This month has been a real journey for me! Firstly its been good to have the weight coming off at a good a steady rate. I am proud of that fact, i am proud that for a month i have been able to stay consistent and see a downwards trend, but i am also aware that i cant have false hope, and what may be coming off can soon go back on and i will need to stay consistent for a long long time.
I started this month on Jan 1st at 119.7 kg, and i finish the month at 113.5 kg. Thats – 6.2 kg, thats – 13.6 lbs, and just shy of 1 stone!
Thats a lot of weight for one month! But its only one month, and i need to ensure that this continues into February.
When i look back over the month i have weighed in daily. I have tracked calories daily. I have walked and collected steps daily and i wanted to reflect over this post about the individual elements i did and where i am.
One of the elements i collect is my blood pressure. My blood pressure has not been good recently. I have been collecting my information with a withings blood pressure monitor and noticed i am consistently having high blood pressure. What i have noticed towards the end of the month and specifically after i have sauna blankets is that i have seen some good blood pressure readings!
The other interesting fact is that this month is my highest step count this year. I logged 634,242 steps in January 2023! Over half a million steps!
Not every day has been a great step day. You can see my weekends often dont meet my goals, but thats totally fine, and i deserve some recovery at points.
Sleep has been one of my bigger weaknesses. I am sleeping poorly and i dont fully recover each day. I feel that now, i feel tired, and my weight loss journey does improve when i get a good nights sleep. Thats something for me to try and improve over Feb.
One thing is for sure i am loving being back on DDP Yoga, especially after a days walking. My original intention was to do a DDP yoga session each day, but frankly i am so tired after work and walking that at points i just cant face it. I think thats fine, but its something for me to be aware off. I was great the first two weeks but my consistency did not pay of in weeks 3 and 4, but i have tried to be consistent in week 5.
My Calories and controlling my eating has also been a major contributor to the journey. I have ensured i stuck under 2100 calories a day. I have made sure i log my intake each and every single day. I have made sure to select the right choices and not nibble on everything.
At the same time i have continued to drive for a calorie deficit. My Net Calories have stayed way under the 2100 limit, which again is a factor for my body using its fat reserves! and i have some fat reserves!
I have logged every single thing i have eaten or drunk! Its given me some time to also reflect on how much tea i drink in a single day !
And similar to the DDP Yoga, i have tried to keep my peloton journey moving forward. Doing some weights or other mindfulness activity!
Its been a good month, but that does not lead me to be inconsistent! My next goal should be breaking into the 100’s kg mark. Get underneath goal 2 of 110 kg and slowly start to see the double digits in front of me!
I want to make a positive difference to my life, i feel unhappy mentally, but know i can turn that around with seeing the differences to what i wear and what i see in the mirror!
So 6.2 kg is the number to beat for Feb. Which means i want to aim for 107.3 kg. Now Feb is a shorter month, and there is a risk of my birthday also! So need to make sure i keep my eating and drinking on track!
And so it goes….. the treadmill calls and the work week is underway!
Weigh in time…. with the sudden big drop i expect some increases to take place, and today was an increase day. 113.6kg +0.2 kg from yesterday…. boooooohhhhh
Perhaps some consistency of the working week will help focus things for this week and get the trend the other way!
Ended up crunching through the steps again, lots on, i ended with just over 20k steps and over 10 miles walking!
The consistency of walking must be burning calories and keeping me in check!
I have decided this week i would do DDP Yoga every day. Where i have no yoga sessions in my course i will fill that up with Below the Belt 2.0. DDP Yoga with all the walking is keeping me stretched out…. and i need it!
I am still keeping my calories under control and really proud of that
I feel my eating habits changing, but want to be careful with going out and eating rubbish.
Anyway, thats me for now, best i have a review of the month from tomorrow
One of my true joys is coaching rugby on a sunday. I am the head coach for my sons U12s rugby team. Its one of my two coaching roles i perform, the other is for his school team. Today was a pure joy day, as my team played so well and beat a local rival. I couldnt be any prouder of my kids.
My son is the blonde one in the bottom right corner crouching down!
For the game this morning i ended up being the referee. I did my England Rugby Award and getting as much game time as i can. Lots of running around and keeping up with play.
When i got home it was weigh in time! I did 3 weigh today, 2 really close together and 1 an hour or so later after a cup of tea.
The first two weigh ins were 113.2 kg and then 113.1 kg thats a whopping 1.5 kg. The last weigh in was 113.4 kg and to ensure i did not feel like too big a drop i will take 113.4 kg as my weigh in, which is 1.2 kg down. I can live with that!
As we have been discussing over the past few days, sleep is critical, and when i reflect on my sleep from last night at just over 8hrs. Thats way better than the 3hrs i was getting.
With all the running about on sunday, i ended up with my step counting being just over 11.6k and 6.6 miles.
As the evening progressed, i ended up finishing with my DDP yoga and a bit of time in the sauna blanket!
Thats it for now, but so glad to be in the 113s , i feel i have truly met goal 1, and now focused on goal 2!
As i say, with a big weight5 drop i am always conscious of the next few days ahead and some increases, and thats exactly what has happened today.
114.2 kg, + 0.2 kg from yesterday. I am always so blown away in fluctuation of my weight, and how it just bubbles up and down so easily. I don’t know why i have this challenge but i just do!
Today was a good but chopy start with walking, i ended up in the morning going to help a friend who has a business with some IT advice, so i did some of my morning work and calls from his desk.
Once i got home i hit the treadmill, clocked up my miles, at the end of the evening i had a call with the parents association and did some further walking.
I felt tired, i felt like i didn’t really want to do the walking today, and i felt inconsistent.
I did a light Yoga and Weights just to keep the momentum and switched off pretty heavily after.
One thing i am finding is my sleep has been poor this week, i feel like i have lots on my mind and cant quite throttle down to chill out and relax.
Last night was only 6h 30mins of sleep, and a small percentage was the good stuff!
Tomorrow is late night wednesday. There’s lots on at the moment at work with redundancies being announced and the sadness that this brings. Its confusing and stressful to everyone at the moment. And a lot can just change in an instant!
Over this last week i have been majorly overwhelmed with things, its been busy, crazy crazy busy. I am juggling a few things between work, rugby, parents associations, and kids. And so i ended up losing a bit of consistency this week but trying to get things back on track. As i said consistency consistency consistency is needed for this journey.
I want to go back and cover all the days i have missed so thats what these next series of posts are going to do. They are not in depth, they are filling the gaps of the journey as at the end of this year 2023 i want to look back and reflect on where i was to were i ended.
On the 22nd i did NOT step on the scales! My eating stayed consistent
And net calories have stayed under the line.
Anyway, this is a catch up of the last week so lots of little quick posts coming up to get me to the 29th Jan!
First thing is weigh in, 115.4 kg -0.1 kg from yesterday. It’s funny with the weight being reduced, an interesting observation is that the fat mass % is increasing which is a bit weird. Given how structured and healthy i am eating AND the fact that i am adding a fair bit of activity in my life i would expect the fat mass % to be dropping. It may just be an oddity on the withings body cardio scales.
Looking at the table in Garmin the various analysis done does fell very out of wack
Today was a long day in the office, lots of doc writing and reviewing others information. But also, lots of calls and calls went on till late today.
Walking was as always positive, 32k steps and just over 16 miles walked. Although i ran into a few difficulties over the day as the belt kept drifting to the left. I need to spend some time to fix and address that.
Today was a little higher on calories than normal. Not a massive amount and i still stayed within the limits of my constraints.
But the net calories continue to be positive, with my activity helping me burn calories off throughout the day.
Tonight, after i came in, i still ended up doing both DDP Yoga and Peloton. Although DDP Yoga was just a stretch class, but still a 20 min stretch class which i need for walking, however the peloton weights class was tough. I am not 18 anymore…. that’s clear. I just cannot lift the same weights that i use too (today!), it’s going to be a journey but i will get there.
I know lifting weights is important. Lifting free weights burns calories because it is a form of resistance training, which causes muscle fibers to contract and break down. The body then needs to repair and rebuild those muscle fibers, which requires energy in the form of calories. Additionally, resistance training can increase muscle mass, which can lead to an increase in resting metabolism, meaning that the body burns more calories at rest.
I need to carry on both the free weight training and the body weight training and keep accelerating my body to burn calories!
Right, time for a shower and then bed and then the long Wednesday awaits!
After a day’s recovery i felt the need to get back on it today…. so a typical working day walking, then late night DDP Yoga, Peloton Strength class and an hour in the sauna blanket. So, I hope tomorrow will be a good day!
However, the weight for today was slightly up 115.5 kg +0.2 kg
I think i will be fine with this after the weekend, it may be a trend we need to keep track of. I didn’t do enough exercise and the weekend before my weight slightly increased also! Let’s keep an eye on this over the next few weekends!
Today was a solid walking day, almost 26k steps and 13 miles.
I don’t feel too bad after it, but i think that’s because i am consistent on the DDP Yoga to stretch me out. Although tonight i did do a 20 min strength class.
After i spent a very hot and sweaty hour in that sauna blanket!
Eating was also super balanced! and making sure i keep to the calories i need!
So still staying consistent, i thought i might have a jitter by now, but hopefully i can get through to a month’s consistency.
Tonight, its going to be a short post, just mentally and physically worn out. Plus we ended up at work having a late-night call for some planning work.
Key facts ;
Weight today 116.4 kg
-0.2 kg from yesterday
DDP Yoga Fat Burner 2.0 Complete but really worn out
Peloton Strength class done, but arms like jelly – 10 mins only
Food intake around 2100 calories
Fasting in good order
Tired!
So i am going to totally veg and do nothing but drink water and eventually fall asleep to YouTube!
The last 3 days have been hard going, they have bled mostly into my evenings for a variety of reasons, but this has made it also extremely difficult to keep focused on my goals;
Tuesday – I am the chair for a non-profit and my evening was spent running a meeting for this
Wednesday – Late night work calls for my official job. Running from 9pm till late. That the challenge when you work for a Seattle based organisation
Thursday – Rugby coaches meeting, focused on some fundamental challenges the juniors section has.
Basically, each evening has been a balancing act. The other challenge has been winding down! My sleep was shocking last night, i woke up multiple times and was massively over thinking things, plus the weather was bad and the wind was howling. I also at points wake up worried that my little office at the end of the garden is going to get blown away and i will have to have an argument with one Neighbour, but thats another issue. Annoyingly i didn’t wear my watch last night as i feel asleep while charging it!
Down to business, my weight went up today, 116.6 kg , thats + 0.2 kg . Again i wonder if thats the poor nights sleep! and just poor day yesterday all round! i mean i was tired and unmotivated and felt a massive desire to eat!
I got back on form to DDP Yoga tonight, so almost complete of a week adding Fat Burner 2.0, and i also got my weights class in at peloton.
It was still a good day walking, almost 26k and 13 miles! But my legs feel a bit tired still. I look forward to Saturday and just unwinding a bit! Just letting the little legs of mine recover.
I have been off the sauna blanket also over the last few day. I just have not had the time in the day to factor that in.
On a separate note i did get a message from my sons school today saying that rugby training will resume next week, i lend my time to coach rugby at my sons school, and i love that interaction and coaching aspect!
I am hoping over the next few posts i can give some more context/reviews on some specific items. Its almost 2 weeks complete, and i think i should dive a bit deeper on some aspects!
