Day 13 - Lost 10lbs now!

Day 13 - I have now lost 10lb in less than 2 weeks!

I am starting to notice clothes are loose! I have even had a couple of people comment on it! I am starting to get addicted to losing weight! I am amazed at the rate i'm losing fat, even though it has slowed slightly, I was expecting this!

My BMI is now 30.42! YEY me!

Day 10 - Lost 8lbs in weight.

Firstly apologies for not posting in several days. My 20 month old son needed to be admitted to hospital, so my priorities have obviously been with him. At one point I was extremely worried for him, but luckily he is now on the road to recovery.

I have been working exceptionally hard to stick to my low carb diet. I have been doing well with the exception of "Carb Day", when I ate a high carb Ginsters steak slice. I decided to have 1 day a week where I would consume a normal quantity of carbohydrates, I call the day "carb day". I am finding not eating carb quite hard at times, as most foods I enjoy contain a high carb content, Pasta, Pizza, Rice, Potato etc.

I have noticed some psychological affects since starting my diet. I felt an overwelming feeling of guilt on my carb day, to the point where I didn't finish the meal. I was very anxious and thought that I would put weight on from eating the carbs.

My fears were unneccessary as I have now lost 8lbs in 10 days, which I am extremely pleased about. My BMI is now 30.72.

Day 7 - Lost 6lbs, Low carb works!

I have lost 6lbs, in 7 days! I have been sticking to my low carb diet. I have already had far more success with this low carb diet than any other diet I have tried.

Although I am expecting my weight loss to start slowing down soon, If i continue to loss weight at this rate I will be at my goal weight by the beginning of March!

Hopefully the speedy weight loss will continue. My BMI is 31.

Day 5 - 4lb in 5 days!

This Low carb diet seems to be working. I've lost 4lb in 5 Days and I feel great.

I have mainly been eating salad, vegetables, tinned tuna, a little cheese, chicken and salmon. NO POTATO, PASTA or BREAD!

I guess you could not be as strict and just minimise the Starchy foods, but I want to drop the weight quickly. I'm not recommending you lose weight too fast, I believe it is recommended 2lb a week. Although you should consult a doctor before undertaking any weight loss program or diet. I know that I don't have much will power, so I want to try and lose as much as possible while I have the strong motivation. 

I have also been making sure I drink at least 4 pints of water in a day. I don't drink Tea, coffee etc, so for me this has been quite easy.

I have been feeling a bit hungry between meals and in the evening. I have just been snacking on celery and drinking water. I is amazing how many times I confuse the feeling of hunger with the feeling of thirst!

Yey me! My BMI has dropped to 31 and I weigh 220lb!

Here is a useful tool for calculating BMI - NHS BMI tool.

Cycling to loss weight

I was googling different forms of exercise to loss weight, when I come across this article and it has inspired me to give cycling a go. Frank Kinlan was 21st when one day he woke up and decided he wasn't happy with he's weight. He was concerned about the about the health risks connected with being over weight, so at 49 years old Frank decided to get a health assessment. This confirmed to Frank that he officially morbidly obese with 46-48 inch waist and a BMI of 42. Frank's doctor put him on a initial 12 week weight loss course, which used guidelines from the British Heart Foundation. In the first 12 weeks Frank lost an impressive 2st!

Read Franks Blog here - http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/
Read the full article her - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7953197.stm

If you want to give cycling a try why not raise some money too. Go to the British Heart Foundation's website to see Cycling events (and other) in you area - http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/events/bike-rides.aspx

Writing a resume.

You CV is probably the first impression an employer is going to get of you, so you need to insure it makes a big impact. A CV should be a summary of your life history, employment history, achievements and skills. It should project a true picture of you to you prospective employer. Here are some useful resources.

• kent.ac.uk - great.
• jobsite.co.uk
• bytestart.co.uk - IT specific.
• technojobs.co.uk - IT specific.

CV templates.

• cvtips.com
• MS word templates here and here.

If you would prefer you could go to a CV writing service. These can be found here or in your local telephone directory.

Strategies for developing confidence

I found this online and thought it was useful for building confidence.

• Emphasize Strengths - Give yourself credit for everything you try. By focusing on what you can do, you applaud yourself for efforts rather than emphasizing end products. Starting from a base of what you should do helps you live within the bounds of your inevitable limitations.
• Take Risks - Approach new experiences as opportunities to learn rather than occasions to win or lose. Doing so opens you up to new possibilities and can increase your sense of self-acceptance. Not doing so turns every possibility into an opportunity for failure, and inhibits personal growth.
• Use Self-Talk - Use self-talk as an opportunity to counter harmful assumptions. Then, tell yourself to "stop" and substitute more reasonable assumptions. For example, when you catch yourself expecting perfection, remind yourself that you can't do everything perfectly, that it's only possible to try to do things and to try to do them well. This allows you to accept yourself while still striving to improve.
• Self-Evaluate - Learn to evaluate yourself independently. Doing so allows you to avoid the constant sense of turmoil that comes from relying exclusively on the opinions of others. Focusing internally on how you feel about your own behavior, work, etc. will give you a stronger sense of self and will prevent you from giving your personal power away to others.

Read the full article here - http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Self_confidence

Get cashback on all your online purchase!

Quidco - The secret to smart shopping!

This year I have decided that I need to be more sensible with my money. I come across this site Quidco.com All you need to do is sign up by clicking the link above, you get £1.25 just for signing up. Then every time you purchase online go to your favourite online retailer via the quidco website.

They currently have over 2,000 online retailers participating. They also have loads of voucher codes to  use online and in store.

Their list of retailers include:-

·         Weight watchers

·         Apple

·         Dell

·         Tesco

·         Vodafone

·         Amazon

·         Pixmania

·         Play

I joined on the 7th December 2010 and in less than a month I have got £52.99 in cashback! You can very easily save £300 - 400 in a year, just by buy normal products. eg. Car/house insurance, mobile phone, entertainment, books, shopping etc.

An equivalent site in the USA is http://www.fatwallet.com/ - Although I haven't used fatwallet.com, I have ready many, many reviews online.

www.nutridiary.com - The web's leading free nutrition analysis, weight and body fat management tool

I have been using http://www.nutridiary.com/ for a few days now and it is great! There is a free version, which is really useful and easy to use.

Description :- Free food and exercise logging web application that tracks, analyzes, and graphs calories in, calories out, nutrients, weight, body fat, and BMI. Also allows weight goal and nutrition target setting. 

 On the free version you will need to add all the nutritional info about all your food (available on the food packaging) to build up your own database. If you want access to the food database, you can subscribe for a small yearly fee (about $20), but once you have been doing it for a couple of weeks you will start to build up quite a database of your own.

This site really is a great help. I really think it helps me keep an eye on how many calaries, fat, carbs and protein i am consuming, as well as giving you BMI etc.

For a UK specific site, you could try http://www.foodfocus.co.uk/. It has quite a big database of food from UK brands aswell as other European and American brands. This site is also free.

My low carb menu

I am trying a low carb diet for the first time today.

Breakfast:-

2 egg omelette with ham and cheese
Pint of water

Lunch:-

Salad (lettice, cucumber, spring onion, peppers) with tuna and light Mayo.
Pint of water

Dinner:-

Grilled Chicken breast
Green beans
Sweetcorn
Spinich
Pint of water

Snacks:-

Celery
Peppers

Another quick tip:- If you're feeling hungry, have a drink first. As it might be you are hungry rather than thirsty!

How to dress for your body shape.

Here are some great tips for dressing for your body shape.

If your are overweight/obese:-

• Ensure your clothes aren’t too tight
• Don’t wear tops with sloped shoulders
• Don’t wear bold patterns
• Wear low-rise bottoms
• Empty your pockets
• Wear V-neck shirts
• Wear three-button blazers
• Stand up straight
• Avoid bulky blazers
• Wear pants with a longer hem

If you are skinny/underweight:-

• Buy blazers with small shoulder padding
• Avoid slim-fitting shirts
• Tailor your blazers
• Wear jackets at the right length
• Wear flat-front pants
• Choose bulky fabrics
• Wear turtlenecks and crewnecks

Read more here - http://uk.askmen.com/fashion/fashiontip/32_fashion_advice

I'm officially obese!

Ok, so I need to lose about 50lbs! I weight 224lbs (on 1/1/2011) which means I am officially obese! My ideal weight is about 175lb, so I need to lose about 50lbs!

Obese? Let's think about that for a second! Here is the definition of obesity taken from Wikipedia - for the full Wikipedia page look here - wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity

"Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems.[1][2] Body mass index (BMI), a measurement which compares weight and height, defines people as overweight (pre-obese) if their BMI is between 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2, and obese when it is greater than 30 kg/m2.[3]

Obesity increases the likelihood of various diseases, particularly heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breathing difficulties during sleep, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.[2] Obesity is most commonly caused by a combination of excessive dietary calories, lack of physical activity, and genetic susceptibility, although a few cases are caused primarily by genes, endocrine disorders, medications or psychiatric illness. Evidence to support the view that some obese people eat little yet gain weight due to a slow metabolism is limited; on average obese people have a greater energy expenditure than their thin counterparts due to the energy required to maintain an increased body mass"

There are some scary words in there!

• Reduced life expectancy
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Cancer
• Osteoarthritis

I can tell you now that Cancer scares the S**T out of me! I never actually thought that being obese could increase my chances of cancer! I don't smoke and don't really drink, so assumed that I was in a low risk group!

To be honest my main motivation for losing weight was my body image and how people perceptions of being overweight, but these are secondary to the health benefits! I have 2 young sons and the thought of not seeing them have their own children etc is a scary!

I am really motivated now, I started a low carb diet yesterday. Once I have been doing it for a few days I will let you know how effective it is!

See if you are obese here - http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

2011 is here, it's time for change!

It's time for the new year resolutions! No doubt you'll have made some!

Most people make resolutions like:- Lose weight/get in shape, improve career/finances, improve social life or improve yourself in some way.

Well I created this blog to keep me motivated and maybe help you guys out too!

Here are my goals!

• Lose 50lbs
• Increase Salary by 25%
• Spend more quality time with family
• Improve my image
• See more of my friends

Share your goals, by adding them in the comments!