Week 46 Weighin - expected gain arrived!

Week 46 Weighin – 2.5lbs on, 14st 13lbs

Well, I knew it was coming, it's the worst my weight has been since some time in June last year. Not at all pleased with myself but at least I'm confident of seeing it come down next week. The 2.5lbs on is the result of Christmas and New Year I believe as this week I've been pretty hard at it exercise and diet-wise. If there's not a good loss next week I'll know I've got a serious problem somewhere and I don't think that's the case at all. So unlike in the past am not psyched out at all by this temporary setback/blip/what have you.

Anyway there is some good stuff this week:- blood pressure – a gradual decrease overall and a much better diastolic reading (the diastolic arterial pressure is the lowest pressure reading and is always quoted as the second reading, the systolic one is the higher one comes first – doctor told me the one to worry about is the lower one though so that's one I monitor most!). Before I started Food Optimising back at the start of last year I was getting reading such as 145/107 and 140/104 so to get it down to the last three readings which have been 134/77, 125/77 and 124/77 is jolly good so I can be pleased about that. Interesting to see how much of a difference a lack of alcohol seems to have made to these readings as over Xmas I was getting a bit worried about them. Or it could be increased activity or the lack of rich Christmassy food?? Don't know but will see how it goes! Also worth noting that am running on one drug less than I was back at start of 2007 so that's bloomin good too.

The other thing I'm pleased with this week is getting into this Times Health thing - http://paulsid.timeshealth.co.uk/ Why's it good? Well, firstly it's an opportunity to spread the word about something that I know works and can work for anyone i.e. the mighty Slimming World Food Optimising and good old exercise. Secondly, it's got this cracking exercise tracker that allows you to store details of up to three activities every day. So typically am getting running (road and treadmill), cycling and rowing (gym) into a tracking system – the other cool thing is that am using the machine readings so my calories burnt should be more accurate than the TimesHealth's estimate. It's good stuff I tells ya






Good stuff at Aldi! Fat Analyising Scales!

Have got some fat analysing from Aldi tonight, weighing wise they're 2lbs different from at group and I've had me tea since then so maybe a lb or less in reality. The fat/muscle/water figures as of today are as follows:-

Fat 32.8%
Muscle 39%
Water 49.6%

It doesn't add up I admit!!! But am hoping to report next week that fat is down and muscle is up! Have had a read through the manual and it says anything over 30% fat means a very high fat content so I can only assume I've got it set up wrong. There's two settings normal and athletic and the book says that sometimes it can mistake muscle for fat if it's on the wrong setting so am going to have a look at it at the weekend and see where I'm going wrong. Janette already hates it and thinks it's much too technical - she's probably right I'm not used to it yet I must admit.


Aldi's spec for the scales is as follows:-

• Intelligent scales that calculate body fat, water and muscle composition using Bio Impedance Analysis.
• 12 memories to store personal data from max. 12 people (age, height, sex)
• Validated measuring accuracy: ±1%
• Weight indication: 100g/0.2lb steps
• Calculation of body fat, water and muscle composition in 0.1% steps
• Measuring range: body fat content 3-50%, body water and muscle content 25-75%
• Input possibilities: age range input 6-100 years, height input 80-220cm
• Weight unit selection: kg or lb
• Battery operation: 4 × AAA (included)

Note: they'll do stones/lbs as well as total lbs and kilos.


Note for the visually impaired: picture is not actually of me.

Week Ending 15/12/2007 Stats Catchup

Haven't been keeping my exercise stats up to date for a week or two. Am definitely slacking (in exercise as well as publishing stats!!!). Did 60 out of the 70 requisite miles this week which is more than I thought and if I'd checked I probably could have rattled off the final ten miles but am just fed up of riding in the cold and tonight don't seem to be much warmer so am going to bed earlier instead!!!

Running was better got 20 miles near as damnit which is five miles better than my original target at a pace of 10mins 44seconds per mile. Have added the pace, distance and averageMPH to my weekly stats spreadsheet. Am expecting improvement with time. Certainly seeing it in the Gym. Although haven't put gym stuff on spreadsheet - goal is three 40+ minutes sessions per week which am achieving in spades so no worries there.

15/12/2007 Cycling Stats


Running stats - ignore the 9.85 mileage it doesn't count the mileage through the railway tunnel in Ashbourne which takes it past the 10 miles that was my must do before 40 years old goal.


New overall stats thing.

Still not totally happy with it - am thinking about doing something with Gym stats but it is a but dull I suppose.?

Really disappointed with Derby County. They didn't play bad but there's no cutting edge upfront like we seemed to have last season. There was nothing they could do to stop Middlesboroughs goal, a volley from a cross into the top corner is pretty much unstoppable so today was no disgrace but also no more points. Hey ho that's football.

Week 33 Weighin - happy with a gain???

Another slight gain this week - but not bovvered. Not bovvered at all, reason being I've not really been food optimising well this week at all. Reason for that - Phil is doing Food Technology classes (same as "Domestic Science" in my day, or "Home Economics" in my mum's day,"cooking lessons" in my Grandma's day probably!!). Anyway he's doing these lessons and thus far his homework has been flapjack, swiss roll, pineapple upside pudding and an all-in-one cake (picture down below). Anyway he's doing all this cooking and bringing stuff home that is gorgeous and absolutely loaded in Syns (loaded, I tell you) and it'd crush his confidence if I didn't partake in his education so I've had to partake in family consumption of said items. I'm not joking if it wasn't for the lack of cursing and obnoxiousness you'd think you had Gordon Ramsey in the house the cookings that good!!!

Anyway next week I'm away on a trip so next weigh-in will be in two weeks time. I'm going on a cruise but I've checked that there's a gym so am going to be doing some serious exercise as well as some serious dining!! Anyway 14st 7lbs is my sort of unofficial target (it's unofficial cause am not really happy with it but body seems to be just happy at this weight), if I could stay at this weight til Xmas without too much hard work maintaining it I'm going to make it my official target.

An example of Phil's handiwork - he's good, honest he is!!, just a bit over the top in the chocolate application department!!!

Wahey! Week 30 Weighin - Not as bad as I expected!

A weird sort of a week. Monday I was 14st 9.5lbs and mad at myself for having a bad weekend even though I’d not been too much off-course and had done the 150 miles on the bike in the week. This week without cycling and stuck at home while good lady is sunning it up in Gran Canaria I expected it to get worse and worse so I developed my a house-bound exercise regime that involves step aerobics (sort of), weights and golf swing practice and weirdly it seems to have paid off because today am weighing in at 14st 6lbs. Which is very good all things considered. I was talking about changing target weights from 13st 11lbs which is a body mass index of bang on 25 (the very edge of being a healthy BMI against being an overweight BMI) however after talking with Caryl and Margaret I’ve become convinced that this isn’t the right target weight for me to aim for. Before today I was toying with the idea of changing my target to 14st 7lbs which is what my weight seems to keep returning to lately. Now with my new exercise regime working a treat and getting back to around 14st 6lbs I’m considering 14st 4lbs as being the target as this gives me something to keep working for. This would mean a total weight loss of fourt and a half stone from the original 18st 11lbs so would be simple to remember and seems to be about right!!!

Am a bit more confident now of getting there too, four days with no cycling and I haven't gone to pieces so am pleased. Might do a post tomorrow about my 'extreme' step aerobics exercise!!

Graphs and tables and stuff:-

Good stuff - weekly average weight loss still just over 2lbs a week after damn near 7 months - a testament to Food Optimising even if I'm not doing it quite as well as when I set out in February!

Looks like it's flat lining but am technically at my lightest for many, many years, am not unhappy with that (you just can't not appreciate a double negative can you not??).

End of the Week Stats Roundup

Cycling stats to be proud of!! Have seriously ramped up the mileage this week - it was the only target I set for myself that I met!! All the Food Optimising targets I set I missed - need to get on board again proper style!! Have added new stats for Golf - ace eh?!? - shows that I've added distance to my driving but suffered a loss of accuracy. Can work on both!!




Janette is away for ten days now (taking her handicapped brother to Gran Canaria for a his 50th birthday) so am going to need to be creative on the exercise front as cycling is out as have got the two ankle-biters to look after! This is an opportunity to get on with some weights at home and the gym at work and to put in twenty minutes a day on the golf swing (if don't get too bored!!) - we'll see!!

Golf - great to dire in a week.

Funny round of golf today - some good bits but a lot of rubbish along the way - would have shot 90 from the whites but got hacked off towards the end! I suppose the good thing to take away from it is that distance on drives that ended up on the fairway were averaging 224 yards up on last week - the bad thing is that accuracy was only 58% quite a bit worse than last week. There was a boomer of a drive on the 5th which was 255 yards but downhill so we ought to ignore that one but I hit another boomer on the 10th which is flat and went 245 yards and on the 8th I went 241 yards - all of which is positive progress. The worry was that slow play ahead got into my head and it took me four holes to get into gear. Scored two points for first four holes and thirteen points over next five holes by way of comparison. Funny old game golf - your best round is immediately followed by your worst round is immediately followed by your best round is immediately ... (ad finitum)


Stats breakdown - some good drives surrounded by utter tat!!

As regards letting the stuff get into my head I've bought a book on the mind which I'm going to try and see if I can get to grips with - think my temper threshold had really come down since stopping smoking - in fact am convinced of it.

Biking Stats 020907 - 080907

Biking stats - steady this week, a total of 117.97 miles at a super average of 13.7mph which is well up on previous bestest of 13.3 so am happy with that. Also managed to get past the elusive upper speed barrier of 40 mph on the run to my mums last Sunday, which for those in the know is the speed at which you cannot actually breathe such is the awesome speed of it all - some day man will invent motorised vehicles that will be capable of achieving these speeds and more ...


Weekly mileage totals.



The week in more detail than anyone can possibly be interested in...

Woohoo New Stats - only golf related!

EasyGPS – the answer to my problems!!

Have found that manipulating gpx (mapping xml data) is a total pain in the butt. That was before I found EasyGPS. If you’re someone who like me likes to get stuck into the nitty gritty of a bit of software this is the answer you’re after for fiddling with the GPX data to get routes and information out of GPX data.

Image from EasyGPS distance from active point indicates driving distance of 224 yards+ on first hole. Satelite photography underneath it next!

With EasyGPS I found out that on average I’m hitting the driver 206.7 yards and my maximum on Saturday was 235 yards on the eighth (probably wind-assisted but do I care?!?!, not on your nelly). I took three drives out of the average calculation - one stopped in a hole, one hit a tree and came back, and the one on the tenth I just flat smothered it 70 yards along the ground.

Interestingly (for me) I hit the 5 wood off the third tee near 180 yards (177.05yds) and 170 yards off the twelfth into the wind so that’s an interesting option at around 175 yards on average and damned straight with it.

Now that I know my driver distance fairly accurately (allowing for a bit of error in the old GPS), I can see it’s puny for a fifteen handicapper. I ought to be averaging 230/240 not under 210 but now that I know and importantly have the facility to measure it properly I can set myself a goal of getting it to 220 average by next start of next season. Now I need to look at what I can change to make this happen – easiest thing would be to change to a distance ball. I might do that on Saturday just to see if there is an immediate improvement when you hit a rock. Problem with that is that when you hit a rock you lose all sense of feel, which I kind of like for my short game which is improving a bit after a rubbishy start to season.




Paul driving off at Golf Park Puntiro, Mallorca in 2006 - a little bit heavier then!!

Link: http://www.easygps.com/default.asp

Week 27 Weighin 1lb on!

Have put a pound on this week somehow. Feel like I've been good but somehow not lost anything. I was 14st 6lbs first thing in the morning which would have been a one pound loss but by time for weigh-in this had risen to 14st 8lbs which is the opposite of how weight went during the day when I set out. One thing's for sure I need to change something to get the weight going in the right way again.

Did a chart in Excel to map total weight loss against time - clearly shows that for the last few weeks my weight has pretty much flat-lined at 60lbs loss (around the 14st 7lbs) apart from that week in Mallorca. Still have ten bloomin pounds to go though.



I ought to be happy with losing over 4st but am being a 'big girl's blouse' as me mum would say! Makes me think of a Bill Hicks (r.i.p.) quote I saw recently -

>>

"I think I've learned exactly how the fall of man occured in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, and Adam said one day, "Wow, Eve, here we are, at one with nature, at one with God, we'll never age, we'll never die, and all our dreams come true the instant that we have them."

And Eve said, "Yeah... it's just not enough is it?"

<<

Think I'm being Eve a bit on this! Here's the full stats table:

Bloomin eck have spent half a rotten hour on this post - am losing it, I tell you!

6am and there's ten mile of road out there waiting. Catch you later. Big old food diary post this evening to come.


Links: Bill Hicks (r.i.p.) genius in a bitter and twisted way: http://www.billhicks.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/doc_bhick.shtml

Job done, back to work in good time

Got up later than last week as planned, had gorgeous SultanaBran for breakfast (it's the future, I tell you). Set off at almost bang on 6am and got to the office for just before 7:45 so about the same, maybe a little quicker than last week. Good news is that I modified the route a tiny bit to miss the big hill upto Pentrich out, I'm now going up the road that takes you to Oakerthorpe a bit then turning up I think it's called Riley Lane which is a bit steep at first but not as bad as the one I used to use! So this morning's ride was non-stop all the way in if a minute or so longer! Avg speed for trip was 13.1mph which is okay over that distance on MTB gear (wait til I get a racer then you'll see some pace!). Route in all it's glory is here: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=3803536

Just had a quick look at my stats for the ride and noticed top speed was 39mph which I'd imagine would be at Turnditch - might have to have another go next week to see if I can get 40mph down that hill!!


The Riley Lane Modification missing out Wood Lane (marked in red to indicate extreme steepness)!

Job's a good 'un, as they say. Also worth noting that as planned the 100mile target has been exceeded by 2 miles a couple of days early. Currently stands at 102.76miles at 13.0mph average, total of 7hrs 53mins in the saddle according to the Garmin 205, my trust cycling stat machine.

Motionbased are tight in wanting you to pay them cash to view any routes stored other than the last ten so am thinking of hosting my own routes as it's dead easy to do using GPSvisualizer and GoogleMaps and a bit of freely available webspace.

Week 26 - Back to 14st 7lbs! Well Happy

Lost 3lbs since weighed a fortnight ago in Mallorca (didn't weighin during second week of holiday as was at House of Katmandu - posted about it last week). Which, with drinking on quite a few occasions, big meals on quite a few occasions, ice cream and all manner of junk that I don't touch normally ('new normal' not 'old normal'!) is a good start. Have done a big bike ride tonight and will be doing the same at 5am tomorrow going the other way so am burning a lot of calories too (1164 according to Garmin Training Center - how does it work it out I wonder???) .


Blood pressure ten reading average (didn't take blood pressure monitor to Spain so it goes back a bit) is 125.3/76.9 so up a bit.

Looks like not much happened since end of June but... stopped smoking on 2nd July, went on hols for two weeks in spain with additional alcohol so am not disappointed an in any case 4st 4lbs in six months is alright with me!

Focus now is to get another 3.5lbs off which would make my overall weight 199.5 lbs which would be another sort of a landmark passed. Think it's going to take two weeks though so am not holding my breath.

200807 Great News - Bike Back in Business

Rang Lumbards up who are fixing my bike, John who's returned off his hols (see post from a fortnight ago) has stripped the bottom bracket and fixed the whole thing for the princely fee of just £17!, well chuffed!



The bearings were absolutely shattered on one side and the axle needed replacing. So picked it up just before they closed. And took it out for a spin with the Garmin on board. Did a route that I've decided will be officially called TourDeAshbourne on the Garmin. It kind of goes down towards Mayfield, through Okeover Park, Mappleton round to the start of the Tissington Trail, down through the railway tunnel, out past Ashbourne Leisure Centre, round station street, up the main street of Ashbourne past the Green Man and the bottom of Buxton Hill. Then go past the rec and up towards Queen Elizabeths Grammar School, back into town, down Buxton Hill, turn right past the George, up the big hill, then down the super steep hill (35mph max) back through Mappleton, Okeover Park and back to home.

Anyway at the end of the week I should have sussed the Garmin out proper. Am going to do same route again in morning.

Thursday Early Doors - Mileage Done!

Thursday 7:21, why aye, it's 7:21 in the big brother household and Paul has completed his 100 mile target for the week with two days to spare.

Had a bloomin puncture on Tuesday (these tyres are supposed to be puncture protected - suspect sabotage from son number 1!) and chain locked up in the drive wheel or whatever the heck proper cyclists call the front lot of cogs that the pedal cranks attach to this morning so it's been fun and games and no mistake.

Have since found from my local technical exper Sean that it's correctly termed as a chain ring that the chain got jammed in, this morning. Thought I'd be walking from Mappleton which is about 2.5/3 miles so was mighty pleased to unjam it with a helpful tyre lever.

Am dropping the bike off at the repair shop on Saturday so heopfully they can have it sorted out for me in due course. Have suffered 1400 odd miles with the dodgy crank and bottom bracket (more technical terms but essentially meants that when I pedal the bike it makes a right old racket and jumps out of the higher gears with alarming regularity - a right old pain in the butt to summarise).

Good news, though is that I managed to complete the mileage so will be on time for 8:30 meeting this morning and have got my Avg MPH up to 13.1 so that's one mini target from last week met! Trip time was 7hrs 56 minutes so I might work out what the exact avg speed was as it was on 13.2 until the chain jammed up in Mappleton.

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.

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

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.

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.

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??)