Month 1 Update: Diet Fail !!

Diets are easy.

No I'm being serious ! If you completely ignore them and do what you want, dieting is really easy.

We all know that some of us will put on weight if we so much as look at food, whereas others may eat like a shot-putter but still have the figure of a marathon runner. Yeah - life's not fair. If it was, I wouldn't be fighting leukaemia and chronic pain. But it does feel a tad unfair that in addition to those two delightful cards that have been dealt into my hand, I should also be blessed with a constitution that regards healthy choices as evil and food as blessed nirvana.

But, we are where we are, so let's get on with this blog, shall we?

As we discussed last time we were chatting together (https://gibboblog.uk/managing-the-unmanageable) I've started to go through a weight loss journey. I don't want to call it a diet because that's only one element of weight loss. It's also about changing what I eat, about doing more exercise more regularly, about making sensible choices that will improve my quality of life. As I explained in the last blog, I'm doing this as part of a "marginal gains" process in order to try to make my existence a little less miserable.

So - I know you're all desperate to know how it's gone. You at the back! Stop snoring!!

The answer is: Not well. You can see all about the sorry mess here: https://youtu.be/baJdwJbBSAU or on see Episode 5 "Failing Through December" on the Video page of this here fine website, which you can find by clicking on this lovely link here.

I think I started the process at the wrong time. It was mid/late November and the round of Christmas festivities was just ahead and that's never a great time to start watching what you eat! But it was a decision I made consciously and with full understanding of the challenge of Christmas. If I had said "oh you know what? I'll just enjoy Christmas and then get at it in the new year" then it's just more procrastination. It would have been lazy and easy to accept 'putting it off til later' and it was that kind of bad decision-making that landed me at 154 Kgs in the first place.

No - it was important that I grasped the nettle and got on with it right away. So with my hand still stinging from the bloody nettles, I set off on the good ship Weight Loss. The problem was, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing !

It's probably only now - and with the benefit of hindsight - that I realise I had no plan and no strategy. I think I hoped that if I did a little more exercise and ate a bit less, some great cosmic force would come and sweep away all of my excess fat and I would be lither than a hyperactive pole-dancer on speed.

To cut a long story short (I can almost hear you all yelling "Oh God - yes please!!"), this is how December went.

As you can see, it has not gone well, and my lack of a plan has spectacularly backfired on me....

Yes, I had a good start in the first week but I had put all but put it back on by the end of December

Clearly I need a new plan. I was fortunate to find a really helpful app that the local health body uses that addresses the whole area of weight loss-inspired lifestyle change. It trains you to understand that you need a clear strategy - calories in versus calories out is a big part of it, but it is not the whole picture. Not by a long shot.

So, come January, I knew I need to have a better plan. I needed to be smarter, better informed and more structured. So I developed a strategy that had four main areas to it.

1: Reduce Stress, Depression and Pain eating

Like most people, I 'snack' or reach for food at times of pain, depression, stress or just general unhappiness. I will be the first one to tell you that as my pain episodes become ever more severe and frequent, I regularly reach for that chocolate biscuit (or more likely, several chocolate biscuits!).

I need to identify these patterns and reduce them. Note that I say "reduce" not "stop". I'm not looking for perfection here. If I can keep my mind occupied, I will not reach for the biscuits. If I can intentionally tell myself "no" and understand how I benefit from making that choice, then a lot of better choices will add up to a lot of better outcomes.

2: Reduce Stress, Depression and Pain eating

I am learning more every day about what types of food are good for us and what are not. I never realised the damage that Ultra High Processed Foods did to the human body - and not just from a weight loss perspective. Now, while I haven't got rid of all the bad stuff, I'm definitely making better food choices. Perhaps most of all, I'm eating lots more fresh vegetables - so I am farting like a steam train at full speed. Which is nice.

But eating better helps digestion and even encourages the burning of calories, which must be a good thing, right?

3: Exercise

Exercise and I have always had a complicated relationship and it's worth watching Episode 4 "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (click here or find it on the Video page of this very website, which you can find by clicking on this lovely link here).

I'm never going to be a gym-lover (although I wish I did enjoy it as much as they do) but I genuinely do enjoy exercise. I love getting out on my bike and of course, I need little urging to get out on the golf course. But that needs to be tempered by the understanding that a wave of pain can come at any time and if I am out on the golf course and a wave of pain knocks me off my feet (as it has done on several occasions), then I have a problem. It's an even bigger problem if one knocks me off my bike into the path of an oncoming vehicle.

As I talk about in Episode 4 of Striving for Sixteen, one of my key goals is to work hard enough that I can walk 9 holes of golf without being utterly exhausted. In November of 2025 that seems as likely as climbing the north face of the Eiger but goals should be difficult as well as smart.

Riding the bike, for now, will be limited to repeated laps round a local circuit that loops around our house where there is minimal traffic.

But, as I say in the video, it will not be rigidly scheduled. It will simply be limited to ensuring I do at minimum of 150 minutes exercise per week. Small steps...

4: Counting Calories

For the first time ever, I will be accurately and resolutely counting how many calories I put in my body. An average man of my age would consume around 2000 calories per day.

I am allowing myself a maximum total of 1500 per day with a stretch target of 1200 per day. And I am monitoring and recording it all very accurately (there's an app for that!).

So there we have it. A four point plan designed to help me improve that graph by early February.

I'll keep you updated !

Stay Strong. Fight Hard. Laugh Lots.