The Weighty Issue: Part Two. Goal Weight nearly reached

I hesitated before posting this. It all seems a bit narcissistic (but then again, this is a Blog, what do you expect?) But it’s all a bit

“Look at me, look at me! - I’ve lost weight!!”

(But, honestly; have you seen me? I have lost weight! ;)).

I’m not skinny now and I don’t have this toned, buff body but I am now comfortably within the ‘healthy’ range of the BMI charts, which was my goal. If you want facts and figures then I’ve lost nearly two stone since January.

Why am I writing about it? Is it that important in the great scheme of things? Probably not, particularly as I detest body fascism (or fascism of any kind, for that matter). I really don’t like the way in which your worth, especially if you are female, is tied up with how much space you take up or how much flesh oozes over the top of your jeans. But weight isn’t just about aesthetics, is it, it is also about health. According to NICE In 2007, the direct cost of obesity to the NHS was £2.3 billion and the direct cost of being overweight, but not obese, was £1.9 billion (Foresight tackling obesities: Future choices).

A more recent estimate of the direct cost to the NHS in 2006/07 of people being overweight and obese was £5.1 billion.

So I thought I would share how I reduced my weight, and a couple of the positive side effects of being more active, just in case anyone else was interested in doing the same thing.

People are a bit brutal about the whole weight thing aren’t they? They say; it’s just calories in vs calories out, as if any of us who are overweight are just plain stupid. Move a bit more, eat a bit less, they say, but again, it is getting the motivation to do this and doing it in such a way that doesn’t feel as if you are going to be living the rest of life as some kind of ascetic; wearing hair shirts, drinking tepid water and eating nothing but raw kale. In the past I have just given up on the whole attempting to reduce my weight thing, citing the ‘you only live once and I want to enjoy my life’ ethos as an excuse for abandoning the diet. (A quick word about the word diet here, I hate it and avoid it at all costs. I do believe that traditional ‘dieting’ makes you fat and as soon as you tell yourself that you are on a diet, you will unconsciously try to sabotage yourself as an act of rebellion...Or, is that just me?)

You may think that I’m being disingenuous here and that there is no way to lose weight without being on a ‘diet’. And, yes, I have lost weight partly through eating less, but I don’t consider what I did and am still doing to be a diet, not in the traditional sense. I ate/still eat the same food, just less of it. I do try and stick to a daily calorie limit and I do eat relatively healthily but I also have the odd bit of chocolate and glass or two of wine (two of my favourite things in the world), just probably less than I used to. And if I eat toast, I’ll have one slice instead of two (but I do have butter on it - meticulously weighed out). So that whole - ‘eat a bit less, move a bit more thing’ can be ever so slightly expanded upon in my case in that:

1. I did and still do lots and lots of walking
2. I did and still do Calorie counting

Firstly, the walking:

Walking is brilliant: it’s free, you don’t get (terribly) sweaty and you don’t need any fancy equipment. It’s good if you can monitor how much you are doing. I got myself a Fitbit tracker* and aim to do 10,000 steps a day. I usually meet my goal; even if it means stomping around our tiny living room for half an hour, avoiding perilously placed toys and children’s hands as I go. Whether you are hiking around the lakes, walking along a dual carriageway or moving from living room to kitchen and back again in an endless loop (like a caged polar bear) you are still moving and it still counts (despite the fact that my husband says it’s cheating). You know those patronising magazine articles, where they tell you that perhaps you should try and make small changes and get off a bus stop earlier to build more exercise in your life, I think that it would be more realistic if they told you to get off four stops earlier, or skip a bus journey all together.

*other fitness trackers are available.

The calorie counting:

I used and still use an online calorie counting ap (I’m sure you know the one I mean but I won’t do their advertising for them). The great thing about the fitness tracker is that it syncs in with the calorie diary thingy and tells you how many calories you’ve earned through exercise. So you know exactly how many calories you can eat. This panders to the anally retentive part of me that loves to be in control and know exactly what I’m dealing with, it’s far more accurate than thinking - oh yeah, I walked to the shops, how long did it take? Was it fast or slow pace? And trying to add it manually to the food diary. You might think that this calorie counting spoils your enjoyment of food but I have found that, for the most part, it is helpful to know that you can happily dig into that jacket potato with gay abandon and know that you still have enough calories left for your dinner later on in the day. I’m not saying that I never feel hungry but then being hungry isn’t so scary and helps enhance your enjoyment of your next meal. (I’m fully aware that I sound rather sanctimonious here, so sorry, but our society is geared towards us eating and consuming constantly and never experiencing hunger which is very unhealthy!)

So anyway, this combination worked for me; try it, don’t try it, it’s up to you. We all know that exercise is good for us. My other half wears the fitness tracker too and his blood pressure has gone down since he’s been using it. I find that I sleep better and find it easier to destress. So, just as weight is not just about appearance, exercise isn’t just about losing weight. (Again, apologies for the sanctimony, bit hard to write about weight loss without it.)

Now that I’ve lost weight, can I now bear seeing photographs of me and do I now feel happier and more confident in my own skin? No! Now my insecurities have found myriad other channels, but that’s another issue, right, just focus on the partner’s lowered blood pressure and my better sleep!

NOTE: I am very well aware though that this weight loss is only significant if I can maintain it, so come back and see me this time next year, where, hopefully I won’t be looking like the librarian from the Blade films.‘bye…