peterbirks: (Default)
[personal profile] peterbirks
New Year's resolution is to get down to 11 stone (a fit 11 stone, not a starved 11 stone) by the end of the year. I'm virtually exactly 12 stone at the moment, so I should be able to lose 14lb, surely?

Step one has been to adopt a slightly healthier eating and drinking regime (yes, I know it's not New Year yet, but you know what I am like for being early). I've stopped drinking coffee after 3pm. I'm also not eating for a couple of hours before bedtime. I'm going to try to take some brisk exercise after my early evening meal. And, shock of shocks, I'm eating muesli for breakfast. I've also cut down significantly on carbohydrates, except for just before the gym.

Not any old pre-packed muesli, obviously. This is dry-roasted wheat/oat/bran flakes (allowed to cool, obv), with various dried fruits and nuts and seeds, plus 4 dessertspoons of low-fat yoghurt.

The net calorie level is probvably no lower than a bar of Twix. But the plus to it is that the sugars in the dried fruits are far slower-releasing, which means that you don't feel hungry again as quickly. And, buggray me, it seems to work. It's also bloody delicious, btw. I've added my own touches, including some dry-roasted cumin seeds.

Oh well, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. We'll see how well I am going come the end of March, when I'll try to put in a general "Birks progress report".

___________

Date: 2008-12-30 02:20 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Suggest you get some weight-loss bets struck. Now is the time of year when people are absurdly optimistic about their new health regimes.

matt

Date: 2008-12-30 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ribmeister.livejournal.com
we all know pete will end up getting bad beat as usual and putting on half a stone.

Date: 2008-12-31 03:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peterbirks.livejournal.com
The problem with striking a bet is that I would rather fail than reach 11 stone through dieting rather than through "healthy eating and more exercise", which is the only way that weight loss can be made sustainable.

PJ
(deleted comment)
From: [identity profile] peterbirks.livejournal.com
Dear me. Swimmming pools have clearly changed since I was a youngster. When did they end the practice of separate pools for men and women?

Or perhaps I'm getting confused with the local synagogue.

Seriously, when I was young, Camberwell Baths did have a "first calss" and "second class" pool. And Lambeth Walk Baths was actually just that -- a public baths, not a swimming pool.

PJ

Date: 2008-12-31 03:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jaybee66.livejournal.com
You are 12st? I made it to 11st 13lbs the week afore Christmas. Probably even less now that I am bed ridden with some virus or other. I remember you as a typical knee-high Londoner so you must have plumped up a bit.

I too breakfast on cereal (Oatiflakes) with a yoghurt (fruit of the forest flavour) dumped on top of it. I hate milk.

It's taken since the beginning of April to reduce myself by 4 stones. I feel healthier but I am now suffering the first winter illness in 20 years. The lagging had its uses.

Date: 2008-12-31 03:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peterbirks.livejournal.com
Well done James!

When you first met me I had just given up drinking, but I was still smoking. By January 20001 this had reduced my weight to something like 10st 1 lb, easily the lightest I had been for 20 years (food poisoining in 1977 got me down to 9 and a half stone, I think). However, I then gave up smoking and I was up to 11st 8lb within 16 months, thus causing my first ever visit to a gym. That training period lasted just nine months (September 2002 to mid-2003) and then I gave up again until the start of 2005, but I've been at it on and off ever since, never getting below 11st 4lb and never going above 12st 7lb (weight levels only reached if I give up on gym work entirely). I know that I should be something like a healthy 10st 12lb -- that would be a low level of fat for my age and (hopefully) reasonable muscle build.

PJ

Date: 2008-12-31 04:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jaybee66.livejournal.com
You did a good job of hiding the smoking habit. Never once did I see you smoke in the Regency.

Talking of smoking, it's not banned from restaurants here in Spain so eating out is impossible. I'm rapidly going off Spanish food anyway. There are only so many things you can do with a chorizo.

Swimming pools and changing rooms

Date: 2008-12-31 07:32 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
My Uncle Martin told me about this thread. Yes the pool that we all went to did have very strange changing room doors. I find the easiest way for ladies is to face away from the door for putting the top half of swim suit and to stand facing (almost touching) the door for the bottom half. A one piece swim suit is MUCH trickier for obvious reasons.

Ladies involved in sport quickly get used to inadequate changing facilities. You either have to lose your inhibitions or not play because several times a season you will be faced with either changing in the back of the coach or sharing a changing room with the men’s team. Sharing a changing room works quite well providing people are sensible. All the ladies in one corner works if you are fairly broad-minded, much better is standing the two teams back-to-back for dressing or undressing with nobody peeking! Swimming is the most difficult of the activities simply because you are taking everything off. The adventures I had supervising the under-18 girls swimming team would not make for suitable reading in polite company.

August 2023

S M T W T F S
  12345
6789101112
13 14151617 1819
20 212223242526
27282930 31  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 15th, 2025 09:52 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios