The health report – June

In dieting there is always a moment where you hit a plateau en June was that month for me. I feel I need to remind my readers that although my first post about it was in May, I actually started in February with the swimming and on the 1st of April with the very strict diet. I just didn’t get round to posting about it before the 15th of May. So I have been at it for a bit longer than this blogs reflects.

And I didn’t do that bad, it’s just that my body appears to not be very standard but then again, neither am I as a person.

Fase 1: swimming

Still going strong here. Didn’t skip one! Had a visitor last weekend and left the visitor to fend for herself for two hours in my home as I HAD TO GO swimming, lol. I know, very hospitable off me …

Even adjusted my schedule one week because the pool was closed one friday and I normally go Wednesday – Friday – Sunday. Changed it to Tuesday – Thursday – Sunday.

So 4 weeks of solid swimming, three times a week, 2 km each time. For those interested in the details. I do 500 m as warm up, then some stretching and then another 1500 m and then some more stretching. All of it breaststroke. I learned this weekend that breaststroke is more demanding than crawl! I always thought it to be the other way around because you go faster with crawl but that is apparently mainly due to better aerodynamics (hydrodynamics?) of that style. Yay for me. And yes, the most demanding is the butterfly stroke but let’s be honest, that style is nuts and would only result in me swallowing mouthful’s of chloride water with each and every stroke. I also tend to get lots of water up the nose with crawl (free style), hence my preference for the breast stroke.

Fase 2: a very strict diet

well, I wasn’t all that strict this month. Well, I wasn’t all that strict in the evening to be more precise. Breakfast and work day were still very good but I did falter a bit in the evening. This wasn’t helped by the fact the girlfriend went to Porto for the music festival for one week leaving me unsupervised.

Even with the bad evenings I must have been below 2000 kcal because I was at 680 kcal before coming home. And I didn’t pig out that much once home! It’s just well, my body doesn’t do moderation very well.

Here are the stats:

You’ll notice almost no change except the chest. Might be an error in measurement or me breathing but I have to say, I do feel more muscular. And all the swimming (24 km in the last month) must have had an impact somewhere. I have been known to bulk up pretty fast (fat when not exercising and muscle when exercising). So I might have lost some fat but more or less added the same weight in muscles with the eating more in the evening (my body reacting to finally getting some more building materials to work with). I do now need a size XL t-shirt and not only because of the belly but also because of my shoulders. Hell, an XL is actually a snug fit around the shoulders now and there is definitely not a whole lot of fat on those!

This is one of the shortcomings of only being able to being able to measure your weight. In an ideal world you should be able to measure fat and muscles. But no cheap, accurate way exists (or I haven’t found it). I’ll know more when I get a full body scan at 95 kg. One thing I cannot deny is I am still carrying around way to much fat.

Fase three: fitness

The old, strict-goals-me would have lost motivation with a zero progress month. This would probably lead to quitting the effort all together and then starting to add weight again.

Now I focus on the good:

– I still feel a whole lot better at 104 kg than I did at 115kg

– I still went swimming and I am faster/in better shape than I was one month ago

– I actually did okay diet wise until the evening

So lessons from this that I need to be very strict on the diet. My body demands it. Some people can quit drinking soda’s and lose 5kg because of that one change. Some can skip a few bags of chips and lose kg’s from that. But the sad truth is, not me. I just can’t eat a bit less and exercise a bit more and expect results.

No!

I need to put my body on a below 1000 kcal a day diet

I need to swim 3x week for 2km

And in need to add fitness to it. I knew this a month ago. The last month has proven beyond any doubt I need to do it!

I have said it before and I meant it. I do not look forward to adding 3 x of fitness a week to my schedule. I am lazy, I like being lazy. A little part of me was still thinking that the diet and the swimming was enough. That the fitness was a corner I could cut. That I could get away with half assing this. A little bit less effort but still most of the benefits! O, how I would love that!

But nope, when it comes to weight loss I cannot cut any corners.

So fitness it is as of the 1st of July.

Thing is, when I do it my body really, really likes it! My mind is shouting that this is the most boring, stupid thing one can spend an hour doing But my body. O my body loves it. My body is shouting more! More! More! Guess it’s time to start listening to my body and give it what it wants.