Losing Weight – the First 10 Pounds

Losing Weight – the First 10 Pounds

Losing weight, the first stone

The picture says a “stone”, which is 14 lbs; that’s more than 10 lbs!

Yes, I wanted to ensure I’d genuinely nailed the first 10 lbs before I wrote this first article, and slipping a bit over for a reasonable period (roughly 4 weeks) gave me that confidence. So how did I do that? This article is the first to describe my latest attempt at shedding a few kegs (metric terminology ‘ish’).

After my sporting days finished, I started to add weight. My playing weight was a lean 11 Stone – 70 kgs, and although it took a few years, I inevitably rolled, literally, onto just over 16 Stone – 100 kgs, putting me well into the obesity category. I always maintained a good activity level but overdid the chip butties, curries, chocolate, and wine way too often!

I did a little research on why I had easily moved into this less than ideal diet and sedentary lifestyle, you can see some of the reason we might put weight on in this article – Motivation to Start Exercise.

For many, many years, I had cursed my obese body. I had one period many years ago when I was cycling to work in Melbourne, from McKinnon to the city and back, not far off 40 km a day, and I did start taking a better shape. For those who know Melbourne, negotiating the St. Kilda junction via the Nepean Highway was more mortally perilous than my actual weight problem!

So, what have I attempted up to now?

Well, I’d tried the personal trainer and increasing physical activity, but that didn’t last too long and wasn’t cheap; I’d purchased a few apps, including Noom, Nutra check, and a keto plan, and finally just tried to rely on willpower and common sense at times. Although I thought I knew what looked like a healthy weight loss diet, actually, I didn’t have a scooby doo. I thought a salad sandwich on white bread was fine, so I’d have two. I also thought vegetarian pastries were fine, so one on the way home from work is acceptable. Not to mention, having a couple of bottles of wine on Friday or Saturday night to take the edge off was way too frequent occurrence.

So now I’m 60, how do I make this the new 40?

Fortunately, the company I work for pays for a complete annual health checkup from Bupa. This checkup takes around three hours and includes all the tests (including blood and a bike) and an extensive hour-long discussion with the doctor on all the results.

If you have access to this type of checkup, I highly recommend getting one. It can really help motivate and sustain weight loss.

The good news is that my cholesterol was significantly down from a few months ago. You can see my article on tackling cholesterol here. Nearly all other factors also looked good; only one thing stood out (shown three ways below).

A screenshot of a chart Description automatically generated

The bad news is that I’m overweight to the point of being in the obesity range. My height and weight were recorded on 13th September 2024 as 176 cm and 99.6 kgs, giving me a BMI of 31.2, well over 25, which is the top of a healthy weight. Everything else not associated with weight was looking good.

BMI Obesity Range
What a belly in the obesity BMI range looks like!

What is my vehicle now to lose the first 10 lbs?

In my latest attempt to lose weight, the three main ingredients required (pun intended) to give weight loss a red-hot go are:

  1. Don’t stop looking for the right vehicle for you that works to lose weight.
  2. When you are on that journey of weight loss in the best vehicle for you, when you make a wrong turn, get the map out and get back onto the weight loss road immediately.
  3. The program or plan that works for you should have the rules and guidelines that you find reasonably easy to work for you,

Living in my sweet little village, Elsenham, I’d seen advertisements for SlimmingWorld at the train station, the local monthly village booklet, and various other places over the last few years. I’d thought about it, but pride and ego may have been getting in the way. I mean, who goes to these slimming places? Only women and…., well, I’ll stop there now.

One anecdote to add, however, is that my mother, who was morbidly obese, went to Weight Watchers back in the 70’s. I remember it vividly, and I was thrilled. The two weeks mother attended; she was ‘piggy in the middle’ both times. That was it. My mother never tried again and died long before her time.

Prompted by my Bupa report about losing weight, I looked to try another ‘vehicle’ to lose weight. I fancy the idea of having some ‘group’ support, and given the locality where I live, I thought I’d try SlimmingWorld. There was an option to do the program online, but I liked the idea of a weekly group, and I knew where I’d tell them where to go if they thought they had a ‘piggy in the middle’!

So, I initially went on a reconnaissance mission, but for some reason, there was no session, and the course leader, Sarah, was quite busy. I was given enough information to whet my appetite and signed up the following week.

My first session was informative. It was a steep learning curve on how they tackled weight loss, but Sarah was excellent, supportive, and knowledgeable. More importantly, there was no Piggly stuff at all, just a lot of encouragement and a very ‘oh well, go again’ for those who hadn’t managed to go in the right direction,

I’m not going into the details of how SlimmingWorld works. You can do that yourself on their website, but they used many mechanisms that worked for me. These included many food items you can eat without measuring or counting and focusing on making sure you know what else you are putting in your body, which may not be great for losing weight.

The first few weeks saw some reasonable success. The key to learning was to get better organised and have the right foods in the cupboard. I also had a psychological issue in that I had an urge to use up all the ‘high syn’ foods that I still had. Bread was my kryptonite. It’s not allowed, well, just a little wholemeal.

As I progressed, the one week when my weight did increase had a lot to do with my 60th birthday, but I was also still learning how to work the SlimmingWorld program. When losing weight, there seem to be tight margins. If you make a few choices that are not food-optimised (the SlimmingWorld terminology), you won’t get the results. Once you start documenting what you eat, you realise precisely how much food goes in without realising it!

What was I doing now?

SlimmingWorld was very numbers-focused. You are weighed each week, and much conversation is based on this weekly measure. I understand this is an essential part of accountability, and I’m getting used to using it to my advantage, but I was focused on changing my relationship with food. What really helped me was that Slimming World had a reasonable, friendly plan to stick to, which was strict but still reasonable.

Is it easy? Yes and No.

Yes, you are given a set of rules to follow, and if you follow these rules in the letter, you will lose weight.

No, you are trying to change years of habits and hardwiring. There are genetic reasons why we like to have some extra energy available to burn. You can read about that here, with some exercise motivations.

It’s all about mindset, mindset, mindset. First, you have to take back control of what and when you eat. It’s not easy, and it will take time to get right, but it is possible to start retraining your taste buds and dietary habits. This is where I am now. I’ve dropped weight consistently over the last 8-10 weeks, some weeks better than others. The not-so-good weeks are when I have a few ‘reward’ days when I return to some prior eating habits, but I’m getting back onto the program as soon as possible. I need to remember that this weight isn’t going to drop off by itself, given that I need to burn 7000 calories to metabolise a lb of fat; it is a journey. One critical change I’ve managed is a significant reduction in my alcohol consumption. That stuff has many syns in it!

Losing Weight – the First 10 Pounds

You can find Sarah here.

To close out this first article, I need to mention a few things: firstly, I need to mention the SlimmingWorld consultant, Sarah. She is excellent and a critical part of the process and program. The fact that she reminds me of Eddie Izzard and can be just as entertaining also helps the sessions and makes them much more enjoyable. Second, I knew my nighttime frequency was already becoming more significant; it had increased significantly during some weeks of weight loss. The reasoning is related to introductory chemistry; the two bi-products when the body metabolises fat are carbon dioxide and water; one we breathe out, the other we sweat or piddle.

As I finish this first article, I move towards reducing my BMI from obese to the top of overweight, which mentally will be an excellent step for me. I intend to continue this journey, as being in the healthy BMI zone will give everyone the best opportunities to enjoy a fullife!

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