One of my most frequently failed goals is to shed the extra weight I've had since high school, and to make regular exercise a part of my daily routine. I was slightly overweight in high school (78kg) and not very active (although I did do some soccer, judo and comp tennis, and did my bronze medallion and bronze cross lifesaving qualifications). I gained weight during university, and then slowly put on more weight over the years, despite being interested in healthy eating (CRON) for longevity and did some occasional activities (SCUBA diving, skiing, hiking etc.), but not part of a daily routine.
There have been several times when I've stuck to my 'healthy eating' plan for 6-12 months and gone regularly to the gym, but overall the weight slowly increased over the years of having a sedentary office job and not much interest in exercise for fun. (having extremely bad eczema getting 'hot and sweaty' was never a fun time for me). My last serious attempt to reach my 'ideal' weight (around 75 kg) and go regularly to the gym three times a week was well underway just before Covid began. Then the combination of occasional 'lock-downs', gym closures and working from home undid all the good work in fairly short order, and it has been a struggle to get back into the routine of sticking to a meal plan and doing regular walking and gym sessions.
So, this week I began a '90 day challenge' via the Pro Physique 'New Year New Start Transformation Challenge'. Paying $50 to join up and posting a (very embarassing) photo for 'day 1' was a good motivation to get started again -- and this time it will have to be for the rest of my life. No more snacks and lollies for me!
Anyhow, my basic 'plan' is:
<1,800 kcals/day -- and using 'intermittent fasting' to not eat after 7pm then delay 'breakfast' until noon. Having a 'brunch' instead of breakfast and lunch helps keep the total daily calories in check. I'm also aiming for >100g protein/day, and <15% fat, but need to replace some more carbs with protein to meet that target.
Do daily walking (around the house) of at least 10K steps/day. Doing a short stint every hour as a break from staring at the computer screen is good - but I just need to remember.
Go to the gym for some weight training 3x per week, and do '5BX' at home on the 'rest' days. I had been going once a week to the gym, so this week I'm adding in a second session, and will start three sessions a week from now on.
I'm expecting to be able to lose about 10kg during the 90 day 'challenge', and should be able to get down to my 'ideal weight' by the end of this year. Looking at my weight over the past 20+ years it is certainly 'doable', but the trick will be to stabilize once I hit my 'ideal weight'. I have a bad habit of going back to 'ad libitum' eating with a lot of junk food and lollies as soon as I stop focussing on tracking my food intake and exercise is minute detail.
ps. There is a correlation between my wt and nw, but correlation is NOT causation! Both are simply due to time/age.
Subscribe to Enough Wealth. Copyright 2006-2024
No comments:
Post a Comment