Weight loss Journey: The 5 ways I am going to lose weight

Hello! In my last post I chatted about my anger about regaining weight that I had worked very hard on losing. I promised that I would get my arse into gear ad here we are. The first day! (Well actually day 3 as I started some of this on Friday) What am I going to do you ask? I have successfully managed to stop the increase in weight and I am now at the point where I am keeping it the same with small fluctuations. Time to stop that and get those numbers down. Have a glance below at my plan!

Food/Diet

Recently I started intermittent fasting and I have to admit that it has been fairly easy to keep a track of. Of course for certain days I didn’t. But for the most part (even work events) I kept at it. I think it has been the real thing that has kept the weight at the same level as there have been a few consecutive days where I haven’t exercised and not gained at all. Keeping it restricted has helped. But I have a few things to consider, do I restrict myself a little bit more, which in all honesty with my work schedule would be quite difficult as I would sometimes walk home and then go and for a run, so I wouldn’t get home until 6 pm and then wouldn’t be back from my run until 7.30 pm (if it was a good run). Or do I go to what I said on Friday and restrict the refined carbs, so bread, pasta and rice better and only have one of those a couple of times a week?

I feel the second option is the more likely for me at the minute as I do not want to start hating my eating regime. I also have cut out more non-natural sugar goods as much as possible. I know I wouldn’t be able to right away, so reducing it slowly appears to be the best action. I think drinking more water will stop me wanting to snack on the old bad stuff. Plus with me prepping my meals again I can make sure I have some fruit and veg ready for snacking instead. I would do this all the time in my old employment when I first tried to lose weight and it went pretty well that time. Time to repeat!

Water

I drink so many fluids, but for a while I would always sneak a little fizzy drink or a pure orange drink when at work or home. Well no longer! Other than when I am out for dinner with Victoria, it will be strictly water with maybe some squash added in. A little while ago, I decided to get a 2 litre bottle of *insert a water company here* and now I consider that bottle my work bottle. I must at least drink two litres before I finish for the day. Then I have to drink another 1 litre when I am home. So a nice round 3 litres at least a day should be achievable, but it can actually be harder than you think.

I know I will become bloated for the first week or two of drinking all the water, but it will be a necessary evil as my body tries to work out exactly what I am doing to it. Also I know there is that extra benefit other than for a bit of weightless, I will have that decent clear skin!

Running

As you will know from a quick scan of my posts, I am a lover of running and so it was natural for me to add this into the plan. Another reason for this is because I have already paid to participate in races up to the 31^st of December, ranging from 10 km to marathons, so I kind of need to be in good condition to run these as my slow, slow running at the Belfast marathon this year damaged my confidence and pride a little bit. I am running the Dublin marathon at the end of October, so I need to get in some sort of marathon condition before then and then I think I will look for races in-between to keep me on my toes…

At the end of this post you will see my workout schedule and I have added my running into this as well. Other than the normal long runs, I plan to either run before or after work as much as possible. I would love to get a little streak going of at least running a mile a day. But we will see. I will be pushing hard to make sure I get into the 4 hour mark for Dublin, so a lot of training is needed and I can’t afford to half ass it as I did in Belfast. Note, running 10 miles and thinking you will be grand as you are helping someone around the course is not the right attitude to take surprisingly.

Gym/home

I have a gym membership, I enjoy going to the gym, better just go more than shouldn’t I? Victoria and I were chatting awhile ago and we realised that we do not really use the classes that our gym offers as much as we probably should. So maybe a little attempt at those will happen.

If I was honest I would say I miss my late night workouts, so they will return with a vengeance. There are few things nicer than working out at 10 pm in a quiet gym and having the weights to yourself. Even though I shouldn’t, I still feel a tad intimidated by the weight room. I did even at my slimmest so that fear is now multiplied. But there are nice down there and help if they think you need it, so back down there I go.

With the greatest intentions I had wanted to try the bodyweight challenge and I just… Didn’t. That is my own fault and I can’t even pretend to blame anyone else for it. So, I wrote those lovely plans and I have over 40 workouts written in my book. I might as well get a working! Again, you will see my workout plan for September. I haven’t done one for August as I felt just writing it down was easier. So here it is as well!

Being Consistent

I stopped being consistent with everything a while ago (read probably 2 years) and it was the worst mistake I could have ever done. Though, if I have been inconsistent at working out and eating well, does that mean I am being consistent at not doing it? Ahhh tables turned!

Take your time, take a picture, enjoy yourself.

Remembering how dedicated I was before I regained the weight shocks me. I remember having to go to work at 3 or 4pm at the cinema and making sure that at noon I was out on the tow path running a quick 10km. I had no excuses. I was in a groove and I had a point to prove. Even as I wrote here when I weigh myself twice a day and if I did not like what I saw (i.e. if it was too much more than what I started the day on) then I went for a run or gym session (or both) at around 10 pm. That may have been silly of me, but I felt SO GOOD for doing it. And I would even give myself a little treat food wise for doing it. I was able to eat badly every so often, but still lose weight because I was working as hard as I could to lose weight as I didn’t really have anything going on in my life. Now I have a home, a good job, great friends and a brilliant girlfriend. I need to BE better for them (or at least that is what I tell myself as I know they would dispute that). Consistency is key to this. No excuses this time Scott.

Here are my little schedules. Yes I designed them, they are so fancy (not really) Time to kick some fat, until next time.

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