I have chatted for a million years about how stop-start my weight loss has been these past two years. 7 months into 2019 I can finally say progress is being made. It may not be much, but July has been kind to my weight loss and I felt like I should talk about it!
I had promised myself that 2019 was going to be the year I got a grip of it all and finally started to notch down those hefty (very hefty) numbers. I had targets and everything very precisely worked out. Down to what I would do to lose the weight, what I would eat and how I would be. Those plans never really came to fruition. If anything I think it almost caused a block in my brain that I just couldn’t get away from. I also had goals to look lighter for. Like Victoria and mines trip to New York and Toronto. I wanted to be a few stone lighter by March, which just did not happen. We were visiting my best friend for her wedding in May, I wanted to look good for that. I mean 5 months I should drop a good bit of weight right?
Turns out that wasn’t the case and I was a tad foolish during all of it and all I had done was keep it stable and at the same weight. In retrospect, I am happy that I at least kerbed the weight gaining but quite disappointed that I did approach things better. I had earmarked this summer to be pretty close to 200 lbs and that didn’t happen at all. I thought to myself that instead of making these big lofty goals of what I will do within a year that I would break them down a bit more. Make them actually realistic and maybe, MAYBE alter them if I succeed early.
So basically since the start of the month, I have tried to break down what I would like to achieve by months end. If I can get near the target I will be happy, as long as I am seeing progress as before I think when I wasn’t seeing progress as fast as I would have liked that I would lose motivation and lapse and either eat poorly or not exercise. By having a rough target I am not more confident in achieving what I need to.
So what have I actually done?
I have been running and more importantly walking a lot more. I used to have a target of 20,000 steps a day and I started to struggle and then I would not get anywhere near it. So, I dropped that target to 15,000 and the same thing would happen, I would give excuses as to why I needed to get the bus home or stay in the house. But in July I have been making sure to walk home and to go out with Victoria on a walk, it doesn’t have to be a long walk, but as long as I get out and stretch and work those legs after work, it is all positive in the end right?
I wanted to give myself a push with my running too, Victoria and I are wanting to sign up for races in August and September and we need to get 10km ready and the only way to do that is to get out there and run. We were both struggling with motivation even during our runs, we would get tired, so we changed up routes a little and now we are beginning to change up the type of runs we have. We would always struggle to keep going, but I feel by mixing up our running it will be better in the long run.
Eating wise I have been a lot more stringent with my diet and before in work I would try not to snack, but would inferabley fail and snack and probably buy something terrible. I would also walk home and knowing I needed to get some extra vegetables for dinner I would wander about and collect a few more items… Again not the wisest. In July however, I have gone in and made myself only go to the veg aisle and leave for the checkout, or there have been times I have dodged the supermarket altogether and just went straight to the house. Snack wise I have been just trying to drink more water or to buy a couple more bananas to keep me going to distract me. It has worked well!
Was work costing me a little with getting into a bit of consistency?
This is a weird one before I had some time off (5 whole days due to public holidays etc here in Northern Ireland) I would not be able to keep everything diet wise consistent. I think it was because I was predominantly sitting all day that I would be a little restless and I was only able to sort it enough to drink instead of a snack. But, with my time off I was able to keep me busy with house tasks, going for walks and runs etc, so I was only really having lunch and dinner, with maybe a little snack in between and a tonne of water throughout the daytime. After doing this for 5 or so days I feel I am more comfortable to keep that consistency to the point where I returned to work and I had lunch and some fruit and that was it, other than the water obviously.
I feel that I actually needed to take time away from work to sort that part of my regime out so I could gain the consistency. I never really did well over Easter and that is obviously my fault, so to get a grip of it in these five days where I knew I wouldn’t be able to do so while in work was really vital to my progress. Can I keep it up the rest of the month? Who knows, but I for once feel confident. As long as I have some lunch prepared and some fruit for a snack. I have no real reason for wanting to eat anything else until dinner time.
One instance was actually before the time off work where I caught myself. It was 2.30 pm and I for some reason wanted to eat something, but I wasn’t hungry. I almost grabbed an unhealthy snack from the office, but I thought to myself, why do I need this? So I refrained and merely topped up my water and drank that instead. I felt quite proud of that and I think it was the little boost that gave me the impetuous to do what I did during the break. I am thankful for it as I feel better for doing it.
In total I have dropped around 8lbs so far this month, yes I have a way to go, but I am proud of that and I hope that doing what I am doing now makes me more able to progress. I think I have learned to not be so hard on myself every day with everything I do. I will write a little more about that next week, so you will need to weight for another weight loss journey post then.
If you want to read a little more about my posts on weight loss check out a few of the posts below!
Regular fit or slim fit? What should an overweight guy wear?
Saying Goodbye to the larger clothes sizes
Being okay with not being body positive with yourself: Clothing
Weight loss Journey: Why I regained weight
Weight loss Journey: The 5 ways I am going to lose weight
Understanding Body Dysmorphic Disorder from a male perspective
Weight loss journey: The battle with the scales
I hope to have these up every Thursday as I am getting into my blogging groove again and I like a little schedule. For those interested, I will be making Monday thoughts posts on… Monday… Film and TV-related posts on Tuesdays, running on Wednesday and Sundays and Fridays for random things. Until next time folks!
If you want to chat more about any of my posts, please follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to also receive updates. Until next time, thanks for reading and I hope to see you again soon!
Scott H Gilliland 