Week 23 Weigh-in Monday 30/7/07 make mine a half...

Group was changed to Monday night this week. All went okay – lost another half pound (stats are to the right). Weight loss has slowed up considerably which I’m putting down to a number of reasons. Stopping smoking has had more of an effect than I’d expected but I’m sort of dealing with that. My actions are going well in general I’ve not had a beer since the start of July which will change when I go on me hols but am fully intending to “loosen the Slimming World corset” as my Consultant would say for two weeks and am expecting a gain when I get back of moderate proportions. I’m still debating whether I make an effort to stay broadly on track or not on my hols. I’m debating getting a bike for while I’m out there or doing the running which I started on for two nights but am so into the biking (more of which later) that I’m sort of concentrating all my efforts on that. I’ve been putting the ipod shuffle on then listening to a full album and then some of Black Sabbath, Editors, Del Amitri, Arcade Fire or Editors while I’m out and not coming back in until it’s done. This has meant a departure from the old routine of covering a set route and meant being creative on the route i.e. adding a loop here, going round Mappleton twice, not turning back towards home but going straight into Ashbourne etc.etc.

It’s all good stuff and the weight is crawling past the 14 and a half stone mark. I’m still aiming for a target of 13st 11lbs but I realise that I might not be able to achieve it anything like as quickly as I’d hoped so the small losses are something I’m going to have to get used to. Am still working on my product idea of a combination lock biscuit barrel (wait 'til I get on Dragon’s Den with that baby – I’ll slay ‘em (pardon the pun)). In general all is okay – am mega busy at work but enjoying it more and more lately.

Usual Format Figures:

Start Weight : 18st 11lbs

Current Weight : 14st 6.5lbs (93.07 KG)
Loss this week: 0.5lbs (avg: 2.72lbs per week)
Total loss thus far: 4st 4.5lbs in 23 weeks.
New BMI: 26.29 (Height: 6ft 1.5in (1.87m))
Blood pressure 10 reading average: 121 over 75.3 (in Feb 07 it was 144.9 over 91.1)

All quiet on the golfing front - wyzatt then?

Simple reason - have chucked my toys out of the pram in relation to my golf club. Our golf course seems to be under the impression that club golfers want to have rough that would put Carnoustie to shame. And by rough I'm talking 12 - 18" high thick grass all over the shop and when your ball finds it you don't even bother to look for the ball cause it's a goner. Anyway coupled with the fact that I've given up smoking it's made me mad as hell with the folks running the golf course to the extent that I sent em a letter of complaint.

And I never send complaint letters (apart from to the toadies at the inland revenue and everyone does that don't they?) so you can see how much it's got in my head! So much so that for the few weeks I've picked up the ball half way through the round and essentially given up (and I'm not normally one for giving in either). Today, I just kept on going and shot 93 off the whites in pretty windy conditions which is like a 22-handicap score really but my heart's not really in it at the moment. Plus, am spending much more time on the bike where I used to be practicing the golf a couple of times at least during the week for a few holes. So no more golfin for a week or three while I'm on holiday. Next weekend am going to see the might Derby County in a friendly against Spanish side Espanyol on Saturday then off to Mallorca on the Sunday - ace!!

Target mileage achieved 8am Saturday

I did loads of miles yesterday by doing two circuits of the Mappleton loop (about 5 miles a go) for both rides. So this morning I only needed 4 miles to get the hundred target up and got a little bit on top of that too.

Total mileage 102.23, 33mph tops, 12.9 avg, 7hrs 54 mins in the saddle. Weekly average total miles has gone up from 99.7 something to 99.91 so I reckon next week I should get it to say I'm averaging a hundred miles per week! Average speed is also up and knocking on a 13mph averages's door methinks that could be next week's primary target!!

Am going to start next weeks mileage tomorrow because next Sunday there'll be no cycling as I'll be jetting off to sunny Spain - have I mentioned that before?? Golf later so no more cycling today (unless I'm feeling energetic). Will post on Golf later as well and why I've not been posting on it (there must be a reason....)

Week 22 Weight Stats from 26/07/07 Weighin

Have decided to do a summary of journey so far rather than just a week's worth. Reason for this is that I'm now posting a lot more (biking seems to be a hot topic of late!), so it's hard to see the progress, hence this change to the format! Have managed to hang on in and maintain this week which has been good for all the reasons I've mentioned before!!

Blogger has a real problem with tables so I'm putting the progress in as an image to get round that!

Usual Format Figures:
Start Weight : 18st 11lbs
Current Weight : 14st 7lbs (93.07 KG)

Loss this week: 0 (avg: 2.72lbs per week)

Total loss thus far: 4st 4lbs in 22 weeks.

New BMI: 26.62 (Height: 6ft 1.5in (1.87m))

Blood pressure 10 reading average: 118 over 75.6 (in Feb it was 144.9 over 91.1)

Worrying thing is that over the month I've only lost 2.5lbs - nightmare!

Weigh-in Result - Managed to maintain

It says something about Food Optimising that I've been able to maintain 14st 7lbs and survive my two kid's birthdays in as many weeks with the inherent cake issues that brings in. My consultant C told me "The most under-recognised achievement in slimming is maintaining" and by crikey, is she right? (yes she is!). Have had a right old time of late with one thing and another and I totally expected a gain this week so to stay the same actually feels grrrrrreat.

Will update with stats and stuff in due course. July has been really slow for me weight-loss-wise but it's coincided with stopping smoking so am not totally disappointed really. The good news is I'm alright in my head now, have not had a beer for three weeks (as of tomorrow) and am going to keep dry this weekend so I'll have done a solid four weeks before I jet off to Spain.

Oh my giddy aunt - what do you look like?

Blimey, here's something I wouldn't have considered five months ago! Only me wearing cycle shorts (and size medium at that I might add). Not totally sure about the slightly camp pose but luckily the picture is slightly out of focus - the camera evidently has a lens self-protection mode!

While on the biking info side I've managed to do an average of nine miles per ride this week and have over 54 miles on the clock with four days to go so well ahead of schedule.

Not been running tonight as I was late getting away from work. Hoping to get cracking again tomorrow. On the positive side my knees are getting a break which is nice for them!

Hoping the Garmin will arrive tomorrow.

Tuesday - No run tonight

Have decided to give the lil ol' legs a rest from running tonight as I've hobbled round like an old crock today. Going to do a few more miles on the bike instead. Was up to nearly 30 miles after this morning's run so well ahead of schedule!

Am going to get running again from tomorrow night. Just need to go easy on these dodgy old knees!!

Am testing out my RSS feed tonight - have signed up to my own blog - how sad is that??

Oh lordy, what have I done now?

Only gone and bought a jacket off Ebay cause I liked the colour! - am losing it I tell you! - must see my mate Jamesy and buy some duty-free ciggies off him before I start bidding on anything expensive!!!

Tell you what's good though - before I started food optimising the last jacket I bought was a dinner jacket from a special shop for big blokes (can't remember the name - will ask Janette, was in the Spot in Derby), anyway, I digress, the point is that jacket was a 50" chest, this one is a 42" chest and it'll fit - the dinner jacket I wore at the Slimming World do in June (see 16-06-2007 Slimming World Summer Ball 2007 )was a 42" and I've lost more weight since then. If Janette's still speaking to me when she finds out about the Garmin and this jacket I'll get her to take a picture of me in it when it comes - you'll see! Not only that - in October last year in Mallorca I had a pair of 42" black Jean I wore on a couple of days, on Saturday I was wearing 32" waist golfing trousers, and not only that, used to have 18.5 or 19 shirts, today was wearing a 16 at work - all good stuff, thank you very much Simming World.

Monday 23-07-07

Daren’t go near the scales today!
Diet-wise have been severely off track since Phil’s birthday on Thursday if there's no temptation I'm great however, if stuff is left on the side looking delicious I can hardly be blamed for devouring said item can I? I mean, I've stopped smoking and people want to leave cake based products in my vicinity, what's that all about??.

Rant over, moving swiftly on, exercise-wise I’m up on the norm – pleased to have had a crack at running again as this is what I’ll be doing in Mallorca in a couple of weeks. Early doors I’ll set off from Palma Nova and run to Portals Nous and back which should be a couple of miles or so. Either that or will find somewhere to hire a mountain bike for a few days maybe, we’ll see.

Got a solid 10.2 miles in this morning on the bike but my ankles were telling me not to go running first thing so I’m going to run a couple of miles this evening I reckon, weather permitting.

** UPDATE ** Been for another two mile run (didn't collapse again - but my knees know about it), then did seven miles on the bike, have almost got my 100 biceps curls done too (never mentioned them before have I? Mainly cause I find em so boring I only ever do 'em every other night!! - but going on holiday in a fortnight and want them muscles sorting (you never know, they might not look like knots in cotton as my gran'd say!!)).

Winning on Ebay at the right price

Just thought I'd post my thoughts on getting an item at the right price (in particular where it's an item that's new and being listed by a dealer). The Garmin Edge 205 is a case in point. They're available for £174 on Amazon but you can get them cheaper online outside of Ebay. However on Ebay you get pretty much anything cheaper (in my opinion, one or two things to watch out for but most things cost less). Here's what I did to get the Edge for a good price. First of all put loads of them in a watch list. Then made a note of all the prices they'd gone for and put them in a spreadsheet. I then took out all the ones that went for more than £60 as there was no way I was bidding £60 for one with £13 on top for delivery and insurance. Any way after I'd done that I knew that a good number had gone for between £54 and £56 and the best times were 8am, 2pm and 8pm (by best I meant going for less than £60!). I then bid on 16 before winning the item for £54.56 which with the p&p and insurance came to £67

So here's the key points:

• Research price thoroughly
• See what times the item sells in the price range you want to get it for.
• Be persistent - keep bidding again and again on the same items but no more than the max you want to pay for it.

2 mile run and didn't collapse (bonus!)

Did a two mile run tonight (2.16 miles to be exact). Felt knackered about half a mile from the end but decided to keep on running. Quite pleased - by the way know it's 2.16 cause went on my back on same route ten minutes later on the bike and that's what the computer said!! Progress. Am going to add it to my daily routine if I can.

Cycling Stats 22-07-07

Ha Ha, got the 100 miles up before 11am on Sunday.
Total mileage:101.17 average speed 12.6mph 8hrs 1min on the road.
Good stuff, next week will be taking even more stats with the Garmin (can't wait!!)

I thought I'd get all the stats together as am considering moving my blog over to myspace (have registered on Facebook too but haven't got my head totally round it yet!!). What they show is getting on for 1400 miles done since April and near as damnit 100 miles per week on average (99.74) which I think is bloomin good so I do.


Overall Stats since April as follows:-

Weekending Miles AvgSpeed
21/04/2007 65.27 10.25
28/04/2007 102.66 11.05
05/05/2007 130.86 11.6
13/05/2007 99.91 11.3
20/05/2007 99.77 10.9
27/05/2007 101.05 11.4
02/06/2007 100.57 11.7
10/06/2007 103.23 11.2
17/06/2007 83.27 11.1
24/06/2007 108.99 11
01/07/2007 94.919 11.4
08/07/2007 102.2 12.5
15/07/2007 102.6 12.5
22/07/2007 101.17 12.6

Woohoo! got a Garmin Edge 205 - am in trouble now!!

Have been stopped smoking for three weeks now and there's not a biscuit barrel safe in the East Midlands! Does stopping smoking affect your dieting?? - not bloomin half!!

Anyroad up, one of the things that they tell you on the Fresh Start programme I'm on to stop smoking is to put the money to one side and reward yourself. (How am I doing on justifying this purchase?).

So three weeks of not smoking 20 ciggies a day (even if they were duty frees) has got to be at least £70 worth of saved cash. So.... I bought a Garmin Edge 205 gps cycle computer off Ebay. Got it for £67 which is a saving of at least a £100 on RRP (£174 on Amazon).

Let me tell you about it - you can program your regular routes into it, it analyses your performances over the routes, it gives you gradient profiles and loads of stuff. They're ace, my colleague Sean at work has got one so I've had a look at one - they're grand!!

You get distance, speed, time, altitude, climb, descent, gradient profiling (what you're knees would tell you if they could talk it represents graphically) and you can upload your routes to a website called motion-based!!

Wait 'til the missus spots it on the bike though - big trouble then!!!

Cycling Websites of interest

http://www.bikeradar.com/ is a sort of all things Bike Website that I think is the replacment for CyclingPlus Magazines's site. Very good from what I've seen so far.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/ Bike Route Toaster is pretty good although I can't fully use it yet (am after getting a Garmin 205 for next to nowt on Ebay). What it does is allow you to plot your route on a Google Map like interface and then output it to GPX for input into the Garmin see next post for a bit of info on the Garmin!

Cycling for Weight Loss

One of the key things in losing over 4 stone for me has been a commitment to exercise. I’ve always played golf (although the way I’m playing now you’d think I’d started a week ago) so there was always some exercise in my lifestyle but adding the cycling has really turned out to be an enjoyable and effective way to accelerate my weight loss. Here’s my tips for anyone wanting to get into Cycling for weight loss.

1). This is IMPORTANT! Exercise on it’s own won’t do it !!– diet and exercise go together, balance them and get great results. In Slimming World groups they call the exercise component “Body Magic” see http://www.slimming-world.com/ for more info. There's bags of other info out there but SW has really worked for me (am I becoming a Slimming World evangelist d'ya recokon?) so I wholeheartedly (sincerely) recommend it - it's easy, healthy and realistic - no daft drugs, tablets just common-sense food advice and brilliant support.
2). Set yourself a realistic goal – I aim for 100 miles every week. I’d really love to do 120+ but I haven’t got the free time available to do it. That 100 miles takes me the best part of 8 hours a week I think which is managed in 40minsto an hour trips which are enough not to get too tired on.
3). Get yourself a bike computer – there’s no better way to record your stats! I’d recommend recording total weekly distance and average speed (so the cheapest Ebay speedo will do the trick!).
4). Monitor progress – it’s rewarding to see how your average speed increases as you lose weight and build up muscle tone.
5). Get a GELSEAT, particularly at the start! I'm told cycling shorts are a good idea for the same reason - posterior protection. I've only just got round to getting cycling shorts purely from an embarassment "does my bum look big in this" factor.
6). Consider changing tyres? If you’re always riding on the road (my favourite) then you don’t want nobbly mountain bike tyres (even if you’re on a mountain bike). I swapped from MTB to some slicks that I got off Ebay and it’s just much easier to get up hills, which is great cause I hate hills
5). Back to the how to fit it in - I do two runs most days - when I get up (about 6am) , pick up newspapers on the way back in and the second run is usually after kids have gone to bed so some time after 8pm. If you're serious you'll make time for it - the target of 100miles helps on Friday I'm already at 75 miles so another four runs out will do it!
6). I got an Ipod from my boss at Xmas which is great - they can help when you're getting bored with the same track but you have to be careful with the volume as it might mean you don't hear a dirty great big truck approaching from behind!


That’s it for now.

Weighin 19-07-07 Good News! - 2lbs loss, back on track and other stuff

Weighed in this evening at 14st 7lbs, lightest I've been in 25 years plus. This is a 2lb loss over last week (but had put a lb on last week so really it's a lb loss on a fortnight ago). Not to worry it's progress in the right direction.

Current figures:
Start Weight : 18st 11lbs
Current Weight : 14st 7lbs (93.07 KG)
Loss this week: 1lbs avg: 2.85lbs per week)
Total loss thus far: 4st 4lbs in 21 weeks.
New BMI: 26.62 (Height: 6ft 1.5in (1.87m))
Blood pressure ten reading average: 11.7 over 75.5 (in Feb it was 144.9 over 91.1)

Look what I got!!

How cool is this - a Season's worth of the finest side in the East Midlands playing and beating loads of the Country's top footballing sides! Woohoo! Come on you Man Utd let's see yer!

Have sent off me subs for the DCFC Ashbourne Supporters club this morning so have nothing to organise for next season. Have given season tickets to Nephew for first game vs Portsmouth as I'm going to be in red hot bestest place in the world Mallorca!!

Favourite Slimming World Snack

My favourite snack is the common or garden eating apple. Specifically “Golden Delicious” apples which I find to be both sweet and satisfying. Best of all they’re a Slimming World free food and any Slimming World Consultant will tell a member that you should “Fill your Face on Free Foods” (the four Fs!!). But more than that they’re good for you too! The phrase “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” comes with more than a bit of good science behind it. I found this on the “Good Foods Glossary” at
http://www.thirdage.com/cgibin/glosdb.cgi?glos_name=goodfoods&action=view&term_name=Apples

According to that page it says apples do the following:
Lower blood cholesterol levels
Treat constipation and diarrhea
Help control diabetes
Strengthen immune system
May lower risk of heart disease
May help prevent cancer

And it’s my favourite snack – how cool is that??

16-07-07 Group moved back to Thursday

Weigh in is going to be Thursday after all which is good for my stats. Found an interesting US-Based site called myfatsecret.com which I kind of wish I'd found in February but ho-hum, such is life. It's like a community for dieters and looks to have a lot of supportive content. Very good.

Anyway, am considering my weight to be 14st 7lbs (203lbs/92.16kg) at the minute so that;s okay BMI still in the 26 range so still a bit of work to do.

16-07-07 Virtuous Weekend pays off - 14st 7lbs on Monday morning.

Good news and stuff – got into work, had a quick weigh 14st 7lbs – well pleased (it will go down by time of proper weigh-in tonight and should be well-down by Thursday). Feel like I’m back on track and can still do it! Stuck to the actions pretty much over the weekend (didn't explode the biscuit barrel, but then again didn't buy any biscuits either) - zero alcohol, stuck to Slimming World’s healthy extras for cereals, checked out Slimming World's website (http://www.slimming-world.com/) for a bit of inspiration. Not only that but my Slimming World consultant emailed me with a whopping list of things to try and a lot of reassurance - couldn't see the wood for the trees a bit last week so that helped tremendously!

Not only, but also – got up a bit late this morning (5:45) so was late on my bike ride and only clocked up 8.5miles – however, because I was late I whizzed those 8.5 miles at 13.6mph average – over a 1mph faster than last weeks overall average so well chuffed indeed.

Weekend Update of all things

Been a good weekend in some respects and and a bad 'un in others. Weather has been diabolical today when me and Lucy were supposed to go to the Highland Gathering in Ashbourne. However, managed to get sunburnt yesterday - see pics in previous post to see what I mean!

Mileage for bike was achieved - 102.606 at an average of 12.5 mph which is okay as I now to do the Tour De Ashbourne run which means plenty of hill climbing and one short 32.3mph max descent.

Me and Lucy went swimming this morning which was okay - Lucy's only just seven so she's not yet brill at it but she did manage 24 widths of the pool with me in close attendance - I'm not the greatest swimmer in the world so it was good for me to get back into the swing.

Golf was lousy again - managed a few pars but got hacked off from the start when pulled my first drive and because Ashbourne Golf Club is such a mess for club golfers at the moment I couldn't find my ball which wasn't a great start and for the last four holes I picked the ball up in a bit of a huff - blame it on stopping smoking. On the positive side the majority of drives found the fairway if a little bit shorter than of late.

Stopping smoking is going very well apart from the behavioural changes - mood, irritable - no good excuse for it but at least I'm off the ciggies. 2 weeks in and so far it's okay.

Food Optimising is going much better - have not strayed from the path at all so am expecting a better result tomorrow if we weigh in monday - am continuing to weigh in on Thursdays in any case for sake of consistency in my records.

Bargains Bargains - Charity Shops in Ashbourne

Went looking for a casual jacket today in the Charity shops of Ashbourne. Didn't get a jacket but got two great quality unworn Nike dri-fit top things for £8 - one of which looks ideal for cycling the other ideal for going to watch the might Derby County play in the premiership in as it's v similiar to last season's away strip!!!!

Went into Help The Aged - not very good, British Heat Foundation loads of stuff but quality not hot and full of folks, MIND was lastest and bestest got the Nike tops and have asked 'she who must be obeyed' to have a look at pastelly blue casual jacket next time she's up town.

What's great about my Slimming World journey so far is that rather than having to look for XXL sized clobber and not having a lot of choice I now have the problem of loads of choices and go through the racks and mentally say too big, too big, a little bit too big which is BRILLIANT!

Loads of books and cds, almost bought a Stevie Ray Vaughn cd as well but as I've got loads of stuff on the IPOD my boss kindly bought me at Chrimbo that I've not listened to I thought I'd better give it a miss.

New pastime for Saturday mornings that will keep me away from temptation of a food type for an hour or so!!

Calm down, Calm down

Was getting a bit too sorry for myself yesterday (well all week really), however there was one good thing that came out of the last post and that was setting some actions to sort things out. I said no alcohol this weekend and went to the pub last night and nursed a beautifully alcohol-free diet coke - wierd night too - no ashtrays on the tables, me mate John nipping out in the rain for smoke - good of the government to give smokers a choice wasn't it? Not that I'm a smoker at present - 13 days gone and no cigarrettes so far, so good, so what as they say...

Anyhoo, that was one action I set which has been good for one day so far (it is only Saturday after all), another was to only go for Healthy Extra cereals rather than any old cereal and I said I'd avoid my current fave which is Aldi's version of Special K they call Benefit. Well here's a picture of Saturday morning's breakfast - called (in our household at least) 'Yogurt Surprise" - essentially it is two weetabix (Aldi variant 79p for 24 biscuits) on a bed of 'Aldi Optifit Yogurt with wheatgrains' topped off with a chopped banana also residing on a bed of Yogurt. Not also black coffee - gave up white coffee back in february and don't miss it at all, in fact white coffee now tastes horrendous.

This means that breakfast was pretty much syn-free - weetabix is Healthy B choice, yogurt is free, banana free. A good start - I got the focus back and I've not even put the 'stop smoking' nicquitin patch on yet.

Didn't really do lunch as such as was golfing at 12:20, just did the fruit thing going round. Over the day I had five apples and three bananas.

For dinner it was breaded cod and syn-free chips with mushy peas so that's where the syns will come from (will try and find out what the syns total would be but I don't expect it to be too high). Pudding was yogurt surprise as you'd expect!!!

Watch this space...

12-07-2007 Week 21 Weigh-In – Disaster Strikes – 1lb Gain - Aaaagh

Disaster has struck on two fronts: Wednesday night I dropped my googles4u.com rimless glasses and broke them like a fool. More importantly and definitely more worryingly is that yesterday's weigh in revealed I’d put a pound on this week.

I could say “it’s okay – it’s first time it’s happened in 21 weeks of steady losses”, however, the truth is I’m gutted and worried at the same time. I know I’ve only been food optimising 70% for the past few weeks and I reckon I’ve become blasé about it and now I can’t sustain the weight loss. I had five pints of lovely Stella Artois last weekend at my cousin’s wedding so I could blame it on that but the truth is I’m not on track diet-wise. I’m certainly fine on the exercise front getting an hour to an hour and a half every day but the food has gone to hell of late and needs looking at carefully.

On the positive side I’ve not had a ciggy for 11 days now which is a good thing! The downside of not smoking seems to be a sudden hunger which is taking some dealing with – didn’t have this at all for the first twenty weeks which I smoked through all the way so need to look at the danger areas and work through it!

Immediate actions:-
1. Zero alcohol this weekend
2. Minimise bread
3. Explode the biscuit barrel.
4. Only Slimming World Healthy Extra Cereals not Aldi Benefit no matter how gorgeous and Special K-like.

5. Check out http://www.slimming-world.com/ for some lifeline online inspiration.

6. Possibly ought to be first - start a food diary from Saturday!

Current figures:
Start Weight : 18st 11lbs
Current Weight : 14st 9lbs (93.07 KG)
Loss this week: -1lbs (Gain! avg: 2.76lbs per week)
Total loss thus far: 4st 2lbs in 21 weeks.
New BMI: 26.62 (Height: 6ft 1.5in (1.87m))
Blood pressure ten reading average: 117.9 over 75.2 (in Feb it was 144.9 over 91.1)

Goggles4U Cheapo Prescription Specs

Goggles4u.com - New bins for next to nowt. Got some new specs for next to diddly-squat from a company in India called http://www.goggles4u.com/

Was able to pay by PayPal so used some of the money taken for the hats I been selling on Ebay for folks with big (size 7¾ and above) heads like my goodself (the cranially endowed brainboxes of this Earth are my customer base!). Anyway, got two pairs for about £32, take that VisionExpress you over-charging swines! You go to their website enter your prescription, select the frames, pay em and wait about a week or so. Got a pair of prescription sunglasses and a pair of rim-less for work for next to nowt – well chuffed! Will post a picture of my Svenlike frame-lesses when get camera out!

Bike stats and stuff. week ending 8th July 07

Not got no time to do anything these days let alone keep a blog up-to-date! Stats for the bike are 102.20 miles at an average of 12.5 (would have been 13ish but for Phil wanting to tag along this morning - dropped from 13.0 to 12.5 in 7 slow-paced miles!).

Have posted a picture of the little beggar taken before my cousin's wedding last Friday - look, you can see he's already plotting to ruin my average - it's in those scheming eyes and the cunning grin, I tell you.

Can you tell it's a week since I packed up the ciggies or was I always like this??

Is it me or does little Phil look more at home in a suit than me? (Future saleman perchance??)

Stop Smoking Update

It’s day four of non-smoking and have not succumbed to a crafty one as yet.

I had chronic stomach ache on Tuesday (to the extent of going a deathly shade of white and having to go home at 3pm) and had a weird stitch/chest pain this morning on the bike so there are hard times ahead but not really had cravings, which is what I need. Patches are irritating on the skin for the first 20 minutes after you put them on but okily dokey after that. Am using the Nicquitin CQ 21MG patches at the moment and they seem to be doing the trick. Watch this space.

Week 20 Weigh-In– 05-07-07 – 1.5lbs loss – slowing down but 4st 3lbs gone

Comparatively pleased this week. Me and the bride went out Saturday night for a meal to celebrate 16th Wedding Anniversary (how old am I??!!) and I took the opportunity to have fillet steak with real chips, sticky toffee pudding and wait for it…. 4 pints of delicious Stella Artois. I felt absolutely hammered but to still lose weight after that lot is testament to the power of Slimming World’s food optimizing. Put that on top of the fact that I’ve not had a ciggy in four days, my bike is going like hell with the new tyres and I have a whole bunch of reasons to be happy!!!

Current figures:
Start Weight : 18st 11lbs
Current Weight : 14st 8lbs (92.62 KG)
Loss this week: 1.5lbs (avg: 2.95lbs per week)
Total loss thus far: 4st 3lbs in 20 weeks.
New BMI: 26.49 (Height: 6ft 1.5in (1.87m))
Blood pressure ten reading average: 114.9/74.5

Wednesday 04-07-07

Stopped smoking Monday, 2nd July 2007. Have nicotine replacement therapy going on, in the form of patches which are slightly irritating to the skin at first but you get used to them. Have got an NLP thing happening too (not from Paul McKenna’s thing in the Times I hasten to add) but similar where if I think I should be going for a fag I give the patch a bit of a rub and imagine that that will release more nicotine into the system like I’ve just taken a long draw on a beautiful B+H Gold. It doesn’t do anything but I imagine it does and that’s getting me by at present! Watch this space for progress.

Aldi Rocks!! - Extra Trimmed Bacon - spot on for Slimming World!

Took Phil to Aldi in Derby on Sunday morning (he buys tools for his toolkit every week it seems) and discovered “Extra trimmed unsmoked rindless back bacon” in their ‘Be Light’ range. “Why is this such a find ?” I hear you ask – because Slimming World’s Food Optimising Bible says that Bacon is free if all the fat is trimmed off and guess what Aldi does that for you with this product and at £1.09 for six rashers it’s a bloomin steal. Only 161 kcals per 100g which if there’s six rashers per pack (which I think there is) means each rasher is about 50Kcals. Am going to see if there’s a smoked version next time I’m in but this is a top product for Slimming World members in my opinion. I’ve mentioned Aldi products before now and am thinking of putting together a list - at the minute my favourite Aldi products for Slimming Worlding with are as follows:-

• Optifit Yogurts with Wheat Grains (have two or three everyday – great and only 29p each. These are just plain ace - syn-free in Slimming World Food Optimising terms and they last much longer than Mullerlites which are nice but not as good in my opinion.


• Wheat Bisks (Weetabix at 89p for 24 biscuits – Healthy B option)


• Wholemeal Sliced Loaf – not good really in a dieting sense but ideal for bacon sarnies and better than rolls 59p


• Diet Red Thunder – stimulation drink. Slowed down on this a bit as on top of the super quality ground coffee I get at work I might end up switching addictions from Nicotine to Caffeine!!


• Diet Cola dead cheap - not bad and has the advantageous side effect of blowing the stomach up during a meal (this might be in my head but if I believe it it's true!). £1.09 for 6x500ml bottles
• If you don't fancy coke there's diet bitter lemon or diet tonic water at 99p for 6 x 330ml - can't go wrong!


• 6 x Golden Delicious – 99p! Absolute essential.


• Bananas – vary from about 58p for four decent size ones upwards dependant on weight.
  
• Don't forget sugar-free gum at 45p for 35 sticks. Spearmint is the best of the flavours and lowest in terms of calories at 1.7KCal per stick - as near as damnit free and a worthy smoking substitue.

Wow - New Tyres from Hell!!

I got some Schwalbe City Jet 26 x1.5” slick tyres off Ebay for £16 which is quite a saving over Internet retailers, brand spanking new. Took em out for a nine mile spin tonight (over 18miles today) and they go like a rocket - average up to 12.8MPH (from 11.2 last week) already! Well chuffed!!!

Biking Stats Week ending 01/07/07.

Ha ha, biking stats not too bad after all! Have cycled to Uttoxeter and back this afternoon to fetch some stuff from Wilkinsons so that's added another 25 miles to the total. The other good thing about the Uttoxeter route is that for the main it's pretty flat with just one longish nasty hill just before Rocester.

So the mileage stands at 94.919 miles and the avg mph is 11.4 which ain't bad, total time on the bike was 8hrs 21mins. For a view of my route click on the link below - it's not the whole route because for some reason the logger went wrong on the way back at about Norbury.