Is that ray of Sunshine ?
Has the tide turned on my weight loss battle?
BLOGS
Mike Gibson
3/3/20263 min read
Following on from the tone I set in last month's blog, here's a cheery opening: It's really easy juggling the management of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia and Chronic Pain Syndrome while also trying to lose weight !
Ok - I might be lying, but after a very bad month in December, I do have some progress to report.
But more than that- I have some very exciting news to report at the end of this blog - so stay tuned !!
Regular readers of my rambling drivel will know that in December, I lost a little weight but then put almost all of it back on again.
It is understandable to a degree because Christmas is always a time of over-indulgence but in truth, I was quite disappointed because I didn't really over-indulge.
But in early January, I resolved to work a little harder at both the diet and exercise as I reported in my previous blog and Episode 5 of the Video series that tracks this weight loss programme.
When I weighed myself on 1st January, there was a marked decrease of 1.6 kilos which definitely made the freezing cold weather more bearable! I really can't stand cold weather and this has noticeably got worse since diagnosis. I have no idea whether that is coincidental of not, (or whether it's just a factor of getting older) but I definitely feel the cold a lot more than I used to. Or maybe I just spent too much of my life in Florida.
By the middle of January, two strong weeks had brought the weight down to 148.2, a reduction of 4.5 Kgs in January alone.
I was as chuffed as a chuffer whose chuff was chuffed beyond measure.
It then stalled at 148.2 on 22nd January but resumed its downward trend, finishing the month at 146.8 kgs.
It's been a really successful month (and as I mentioned earlier, there's a big announcement coming at the end of this blog) and I couldn't be happier about it. I've lost a total of 5.9 Kgs, which is just a hair short of one stone. I know it's only one of the eight stone I want to lose, but it is n achievement that I am celebrating.
It's 12.5% of my goal and it's a huge step forward.
For the coming months, it's simply a matter of keeping doing what I'm doing.
I've found a process and approach that work for me and I'm delighted that I now feel like I have a good understanding and control of the process. There is a structure and a discipline to it - or to put it in words that are warm and familiar to me professionally - I have a Project Plan !
Numbers don't lie !
A Huge Step Forward
Huge News !!
We're finishing on a high!!!
If you watched "Striving For Sixteen" from the very beginning, you will know that I set myself some interim targets (with the ultimate target being getting to 16 stone, as the title of this series unimaginatively suggests !). The idea is that achieving my interim targets mean I will achieve the big one of getting to 16 stone.
One of those tasks just seemed so impossibly difficult when I started this project back in late November 2025. It was beyond my wildest expectations at that time and it seemed so impossibly unsurmountable.
But I am incredibly proud to report that I have successfully ticked off one of my goals - and it is one that I thought would take me many many months to achieve. If you'd asked me which one I would achieve early, this would have been near the bottom of the list. I won't ruin the surprise for you, but you can hear all about it by watching Episode 6 of the series.
The announcement comes at timecode 03:40 but why not watch the whole thing...just for fun?
This is not a pithy marketing slogan. It encapsulates how I live my life now, given the hand I have been dealt. But I offer it to anyone who reads this nonsense. It is a rallying call for us all and for each one of you, whatever you are going through. It means that you are not alone. We are an orchestra, not a soloist.