End of Week 5 - 7 kilos down

There's not much to report on a week by week basis, but I plateaued after losing the first 5 kilos in the first two weeks.

Now at the 5 week mark I have started losing again as I have been combining sugar free with some other disciplines like fasting days (unintentional ones as I have been out and about being busy) and not eating after the evening meal (totally intentional).

Feeling thinner and healthier again which is nice, and am making more meals myself so I know exactly what goes into each one.

The only real temptations I have had have been Pineapple Lumps (the kids were eating them) and they smelled AWESOME, and the Toffee Apple flavoured M & M's which I wanted to try so much.


But did not on either count and feeling virtuous for it :)

End of Week 2.

The thing about sugar free is the lack of snack foods and junk food, so sugar as something in and of itself may not be so bad. However it's presence in foods of all kinds does tend indicate the food should be avoided. Am snacking less and less, and avoiding eating at night.

All the credit can't just be for lack of sugar but it is a catalyst for me to eat better all round.

Weight this morning exactly 100.00 kilos.

Weight lost in two weeks 5.6 kilos.

Going out to dinner tonight and will be relaxing the no-sugar rule. Where the sauces and the sides will not be examined too carefully but the obvious sugars will be avoided. (so no dessert then :( )

Sugar Free Week 2

My sugar free year is not 8 days in...

Week 2 starts here

It's been a bit of an up and down week this week as I am getting used to being sugar free again, I have definitely lost weight, my final weight for the week 102.5 - about 3 kilos lighter, mostly from the fact that I over indulged in sweet and fatty sugar rich foods in a last ditch farewell to rubbish food.

I got down under 102 at one point during the week but that was due to being out and not eating all day as I had run out of time to do so, a feat I rarely replicate (nor want to).

But apart from people offering me treats, which it's easy enough to decline, it's as always the hidden sugars that get you.

My top 'denied' food for the week?

Bacon.

Dammit.

A Year Without Added Sugar Starts Here

2 years ago I stopped the dieting as a serious proposition and over that time I have regained about 24 kilos of the 46 kilos I had lost.

Lots of reasons why that happens, mostly due to eventual slacking and loss of discipline, and the proof that if I do not take it seriously then I will put on weight again.

So this time round, 2 years I have decided that one of my biggest enemies is definitely sweets and sugar contained in foods without my realizing, or caring to be honest.

So this time instead of a month without sugar, it's time to go hard or go home and try living without added sugar for a whole year.

Much harder but I know it can be done.

I read 52 books, lost 46 kilos, wrote 750,000 words, have run over 750 kilometers and all by sticking to the discipline of a years commitment and being bloody minded enough to take it one day at a time and just stick to it.

I am also doing two other projects this year, a manuscript submission per month and a piano lesson/practice every day.

Rules: No Added Sugar in anything I eat. So if it says 'sugar' as an added ingredient then it's a no, regardless of the percentage. Naturally contained sugars are fine, like in fruit or milk, but not if it is an added ingredient. Also excludes sugars under a different name like Dextrose, Maltodextrin etc...

Current Weight Day One: 105.6 kg

I'll update here as I progress, and detail some of the surprises I find along the way.

One Diet a Month - The Book Proposal

It had to happen, I'm writing a book about it.

People keep asking me when I am going to do this, and I have embarked on a separate writing project already by writing a minimum of 1,000 words a day for a year to kick start that pesky writing habit that I never did much with.(www.constantwriting.blogspot.com)

So after yet another reminder that I should get around to this from Gary's editor friend (who coincidentally very politely rejected a novel I wrote over twenty years ago, no hard feelings I swear) who when told of my plan said 'that will be easy to sell!' (or something of that ilk) which is pretty encouraging, so here I am getting around to it.

Because I am writing daily in the fictional arena (at least for now) I'll do this as a separate exercise and follow the commercial model of creating an outline and then creating some sample chapters and then sending it off to see if there is any interest in it. As I have plenty of material in my blog and a year of comments and mentions on Facebook etc... it will be easy enough to reconstruct my year of diets in a single slim volume (with pictures and some fave recipes for added flavour).

Fingers crossed.



Here's a first draft of an introduction.

 Introduction: How did it all come about?

Back in March 2012 I was at least 126 Kilograms as the last time I had checked was back in 2010 and the 126 showing on the scales in my parents house gave me quite a fright. How did I get that heavy? And I certainly was a fairly heavy, unhealthy person like many people become without noticing how.

I accepted that I was big, probably 'technically' obese but I never really thought of myself that way. Sometimes I would catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror or in a photo and think 'I can probably afford to lose some weight' or something less flattering to my self image if I was feeling down or depressed.

But did I class myself as 'fat' in my head? No, not really – I did what I suspect most people did and just did not think that much about it. Certainly my doctor had advised me to lose some weight and every now and then if I annoyed my wife enough she'd make a comment about wanting me to be alive when our kids grew up, which was pointed and true but never sunk in. Denial is a powerful tool when left alone, which is basically how it works anyway right?

In February my sister in law got married and I was at home alone that morning and catching up with the wedding party later that day. I grabbed the shirt and pants that I was supposed to wear and found to my horror that the nice dress shirt I had bought the previous year was quite tight. Because I wear casual clothes to work (the advantages of being an IT cliché) I had no fall back position. I put it on and took a bus into the city, stopping off at work for a little while to get some things done before heading down to the Hilton where the wedding was being held.

I knew that the shirt I was wearing was too small, it felt tight and had been cutting into me for the bus ride in to town, and sitting at my desk I could feel it grabbing at me and thinking about spending the next ten or more hours in the shirt was too much to bear. That shirt that did not fit, the largest one I had was a XXL and had been a little loose when I had bought it in 2011 and here I was in February 2012 an hour before I needed to be at the ceremony standing with my wife who looked fabulous in her Maid of Honour's dress, while I was feeling like a sausage bursting on a BBQ in summer. I went out and bought a bigger shirt from a shop in K Road, who kindly ironed out the creases for me, sold me some cuff-links and sent me on my way immensely comfortable again.

This could have been my wake up call to lose weight. This SHOULD have been a wake up call to lose some weight. It was not.

I just carried on as normal and it made no difference except now I had a funny story about being so fat I had to buy a shirt an hour before the wedding I was going to. You can laugh at yourself, and we all know you should not take yourself too seriously and we just carry on with things the way they have always been. The only difference was that I now had a nice dress shirt I could wear and be comfortable in.

In March 2012 I was reading an article in the NZ Herald about a new book all about Sugar and how it was the bane of modern life. The author sounded a little unhinged and like an anti sugar zealot preaching the evils of Sugar. I instantly dismissed the idea as the raving of an over enthusiastic person selling a book based on fear and over emphasis on one 'silver bullet' solution which I have always been suspicious of. Despite this the article stayed with me for a a few days not because I thought it was true but the idea that it was almost impossible to cut sugar out of a modern diet, because it was so pervasive.

I thought about this for a day or two and got the idea in my head to see how hard it was to cut sugar out, was it that hard to do? I had no real idea about diet, the plan that would form after that first month and I had no intention of losing weight. I assumed that I may lose a couple of kilos and that could be ok, but then and there it was a bonus effect. I was satisfying my curiosity, proving the claim true or false that sugar was really that pervasive.

So I made myself a mental challenge, and told a bunch of people I was doing it and why, it was an interesting thing and it got me thinking about additives and how much we don't know about what we are eating.

While it was a 'diet' by definition, I did not do it to lose weight, not at first. Then the coolest thing happened, spoiler alert if you've not figured this out from the cover, but I lost weight and quite a lot. I had to buy some scales because I had none, I had not weighed myself in two years and the last time I did I didn't like the number I saw. I had lost nine kilos by the end of thirty days.

Nine kilos just by cutting sugar completely. Lisa, a woman I worked with told me she read about this diet that the comedian Jimmy Carr was on where he stopped eating at 6 pm and had no caloric intake after that, and that I should try that next.

From this initial curiosity, the grain of an idea of changing up the diets, my willingness to blog about the results I came to the conclusion that I would do one year of dieting in 12 one month diets.

The rules were simple, I started on the 10^th day of each month and commenced a new diet until the 9^th of the following one. The diet had to be simple, a simple rule in one sentence or a few words. If it were complex I knew I would not do it. I was pretty sure I could make it through 12 types of simply expressed diets in twelve months and post once a week on my blog.

The weight fell off initially because I was doing something, anything to improve the way I related to food. I added exercise somewhere around the halfway mark of the year and by the end of it all I had done thirteen separate diets in that year. I had lost forty five kilos in weight alone, I had changed my wardrobe twice and even ended up on Television in Australia's Channel 9 talking about my plan.

I'd like to claim credit for being a dieting genius and having a goal and sticking to it, weight and health wise. In reality this was a lucky confluence of events that changed my life for the better and in ways that still surprise me have inspired others to make similar changes or take on some of the many, many lessons I have learned.

I blogged about my progress every week for the 52 weeks, and daily in the last few weeks when I was heading to the finish line and creeping up the to the magical mythical number of my BMI. A number if you had asked me at any point of my life after turning twenty until just before I got to the end of my year of diets, I would have said was impossible.

In the end it was not impossible, it was not even improbable.

It was doable.

Favourite Diet Foods: Rocket and Bulghur Wheat Salad w/Pear, Dates and Feta

So technically this is a salad I started eating AFTER my diet ended, but as it did my food habits have gotten a lot better anyway, and this is one of my faves currently.

Meanwhile weight is maintaining in the 86/87 range and I have been at this for about 2 months now (comes and goes from 85 to 88 at times but not much outside of that) and other than the two fasting days per week I eat what I want, it's just that what I want these days excludes most junk food, fast food and red meat is on occasion, and I would estimate vegetarian is over 50% of my week most weeks.

Ingredients

1C cooked bulghur wheat

1 packed cup rocket

1/2 C pitted dates chopped

2 Tbsp feta

1/2 pear cored and thinly sliced

2 Tbsp sliced almonds toasted

Dressing 

3 Tbsp EVO

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp maple syrup

salt to taste

Assembly

Mix dressing together in large bowl.

Add bulghur wheat and dates to dressing, toss.

Fold in feta and pear.

Plate onto rocket.

Sprinkle almonds over the top.

Note:  Substitute feta for goats cheese. Use couscous or quinoa instead of bulghur wheat,  walnuts instead of almonds.

Favourite Diet Foods: Asian Salad w/Spicy Peanut Dressing (caution, may contain nuts...)

A few weeks back I decided to add some recipes of my favourite diet food, and promptly did no such thing.

I have been concentrating on my writing blog and cracking through on the one thousand plus words a day goal but that then takes up all my attention and by the time I finish writing I am no longer interested in finding, writing and posting the recipe.

So now I have posted on this blog first and will go and bake my Monday Cake and THEN head to my 1,000 words (which is closer to 2,000 these days).

So here it is, spicy peanut dressed salad. Definitely not boring.

asian salad with spicy peanut dressing

Ingredients: Salad

red cabbage shredded

carrots (use peeler to slice into ribbons)

cucumber (cut in half, remove seeds and    use peeler to create ribbons)

capsicum (red or yellow) finely sliced

mung bean sprouts

coriander (chopped)

spring onion (finely chopped)

peanuts

Ingredients: Dressing 

4 Tbsp smooth peanut butter

2 Tbsp lime juice

3 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tbsp finely chopped chilli

water for texture

Directions

Combine cabbage, carrot and cucumber ribbons and sliced capsicum. Add coriander and spring onion.

Mix together the dressing, adjust to taste. 

Add to salad and toss.

Top with mung beans sprouts and peanuts when plating.

Goes great with grilled fish. 

If mangos are in season. Peel and slice a cheek into strips, add to salad, it offsets the chilli with a bit of sweetness.

Favourite Diet Foods: Celery and Apple Salad w/Walnuts

Celery and Apple Salad w/Walnuts

At various stages through my dieting adventure people would ask me how hard and how painful it was dieting, as if the only food I could eat was plain, tasteless and more effort to eat.

Far from eating bland and tasteless food I actually rediscovered my taste-buds and change the way I looked at certain types of food, particularly the fresh variety.

Salads became less of a thing to dodge, to a filler with healthier meals, to a main course in it's own right. By the time I had made it to the Raw Food Diet month I had a number of salads I had eaten with frequency from my Vegan and Vegetarian phases, and had taken up a notch by transiting to totally Raw.

A few people have since been asking advice on what to eat when on certain diets and what my favourite recipes are, so with some help from my chief cook, designer and photographer here's one of my favourites.

celery and apple salad with walnuts

Ingredients

1 Cup celery finely chopped

1 granny smith apple chopped

spring onion finely chopped

1/2 Cup walnuts toasted

cos or iceberg lettuce to serve

Dressing 

3 Tbsp low fat mayonnaise 

3 Tbsp light caesar or ranch dressing

1 tsp honey

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Combine dressing ingredients. 

Add to chopped celery, apple and spring onion, toss. 

Plate onto shredded or whole cos/iceberg lettuce leaves.

Top with toasted walnuts. 

(Obviously if you're going raw, don't toast your walnuts, go with raw) 

(Also can be bulked up with added diced leftover chicken, or small cubes of cheddar)

Unexpected Side Effects of Weight Loss

May 2011 to May 2013

83 Kilos again, back on track.

In a few days it will be one month on from my year of dieting and my transition from one diet a month experimentation to ongoing sensible diet and maintenance. Not quite as snappy as one-diet-a-month is it?

Much less punchy and quirky and much harder to explain.

One of my good friends at work found a photo of me from May 2011 a year before I started this project April last year. A number of people were struck by the change in me, and because the change happened gradually over the course of 12 months it was not easy to recognise the man I was. I surely don't.

So I happened to be wearing a red shirt by sheer coincidence and got another good friend to take a new picture of me on the opposing wall and a few magic photoshop minutes later and voila! Before and after shots are immensely gratifying.

Which brings me to unexpected side effects of dieting, the things which I never thought about but all of a sudden either happened or changed.

1. I lost weight in my feet. Surprisingly not long after I noted that I need to downsize my belt and my pants, I found that my shoes (I usually went for wide fit) were loose and my socks were loose too. I was still wearing the same size shoes and socks, but they had stretched around my feet and now I fit shoes which I had found too narrow before.
2. General weariness has lessened and I feel healthier and better all around. When I had a bit of a binge after the end of my diet I actually could feel (psychosomatically perhaps, but there none the less) the food having an ill effect on me. Like that scene in Super Size Me where the consumption is making Spurlock feel ill.
3.  Taste changes. I still like sweet things and still like some junk food, but now I find that I have trouble stomaching much of it. I find it hard to overeat even when I really like something. Likewise in certain salads and vegetables, I had no time for before I now really enjoy. Food actually tastes better, must be all the processed crap clogging up the buds. I have no scientific basis for this, but hey works for me. 
4. Warding off sickness faster. In the time BCE (Before Consumption Ended) I would catch a cold and be sick for 1-2 weeks and rely on anti-biotics and inhalers, generally being miserable. In the time AD (After Diet) I have had two serious colds, each of which last about 2 days and I took no drugs, saw no doctors and needed nothing but a bit of sleep. Immunity boost FTW!
5. I don't recognise myself. As above when I see old photos of myself I look like another person. When I see myself reflected in a shop window or similar, I don't recognise that person either. So my self image is POV, but not when I see myself relfected, in pictures or on video.

Continuing the diet is not as punishing or as hard as I thought it would be without the short term end point to leverage off. Instead it is more a matter of when I see weight creeping back up it worries me and I take action. A few weeks ago I put on 6 or 7 kilos and hit 88 in short order after ending my year.

By following my plan and sticking to it in general terms, the new Uber Diet is working pretty well and I am 83.3 Kilos again, which is a nice weight to be at.

3 weeks later - settling into a better rhythm

Back down to 84 kilos, my new goal is to stay as much as possible in the lower 80's - where I feel best and healthiest without resorting to excess ugly foods rich in sugar and fats.

That means a lifestyle change of sorts. Without resorting to a short term diet plan, or punishing myself with a long term (the idea of dieting with no end is depressing) diet, I have settled on the idea of a new lifestyle, one that serves the basic concepts of what I have learned about food and myself in the last year and makes a regular regimented schedule that is easy to maintain and allows me to enjoy food without guilt or excess.

The idea is, for the evening meals:

Red Meat - once a week.
Chicken - once a week
Fish - twice a week
Vegetarian - three times a week.

Some of the Recent Dishes for Lite Dinner

Evening meals should be low or no carb, leftovers (particularly carb ones) will be lunch the next day. So for example we had fresh Terakihi Fillets tonight with chips and a salad on the side. The kids ate fish and chips, I ate fish and salad, but will take leftover fillets and the chips to have for lunch tomorrow.

The plan also includes Intermittent Fasting which is a very good way to feel virtuous and in control of any days where I snack or eat a heavy meal, which I will undoubtedly do. On Tuesday and Thursdays I'll stick to the IF plan and basically have a fruit lunch (filling but lo cal) and then have a lite salad and/or grilled fish option for dinner.

Weekends are always going to be the hardest as during the work week it is easy to stick to a sensible plan and be far too busy to be snacking anyway. Fasting is incredibly simple when you are busy, but when you are home it's easy to lose focus and pick away at whatever is around, especially when the kids are grazing animals interested in a constant stream of small amounts of food and resisting meals wherever possible, as a strategy I know that will not work for me.

So there's the plan, weekends will be the upper end of my weekly bell curve, it will dip on the tues/thurs fasting combo and by having a porportional idea of what kind of food we will be eating, it will become second nature.

Now to see how well I can stick to this. It's more open ended and that's something I struggle with as a concept, but I just started getting new clothes and they fit me now, so I need to stay in this range to stick to my goal of never buying a 'size up' again.

15 Days Later - Reality Vs Normality

2 weeks afterwards, the reality of returning to normality has hit home.

While I would like to think that my habits had changed, it was shockingly easy to allow myself to eat terribly and start to undo the work I had done. And in a surprising amount of time. In less than two weeks I had put back on approximately 6-7 kilos.

Chocolate and sugary foods were the worst culprits. Because I had so little in the last year I ALLOWED myself little splurges, (one or two pieces can't hurt too much on their own?, I can't keep it up and won't do it again!).

Apparently I am lying bastard. Now it might seem harsh, but the more I look at it the more I see that it's all on me. I chose to accept this and my choices put me on the path to eating rubbish when I simply don't need to and ultimately don't want to. No one was trying to get me back on the chuck-wagon, most people know better than to try and convince me of anything let alone direct me to do things I don't want.

At first I was okay with it, because I expected to put on some weight and I had said to myself that 85 kilos was a good weight, having been down to 81 and feeling that it was a little too thin, and even getting comments from others to that effect.

But then it kept going, and I found myself eating crap food without thought to consequence, or worse, thinking that because I had lost a tonne of weight already, I had wiggle room. My stated goal of having to never buy bigger size clothes was still the 'upper' limit of what I could do.

This simply meant I was making excuses for eating badly.

My body rebelled and punished me, it felt lethargic and weary and the aftereffects of eating crap showed up immediately. My mind though had plenty of patterns and habits to fall back on and I kept making excuses for it.

Just one more won't hurt, I'll plateau and it will stop, I'll take it more seriously tomorrow.

You would think after a year of hard (ish) work to get where I am, losing 45 kilos, disciplining myself without  fail and mostly without exception (I can count exceptions in a year on one hand ) that I would not be so fucking stupid and let that happen.

But I did, and was okay with it.

For about 2 weeks.


To me this what a drug addiction is like - just without all the scary and much more serious and immediate consequences? I don't actually know this for sure, and don't meant to belittle serious and life threatening  addictions in anyway - but this is a good metaphor for me. I have to treat myself to my own version of rehab.

So while I am not going back to the strict regimes of my Uber Diet and I am not going back to the diet roundabout of a diet a month, I am regulating my diet again. 

Maybe I have to do this for the rest of my life, it's not that hard and I still enjoy food and am far from the picture of a miserable and self hating dieter, but obviously it can be so easy to put it all back on again. Maybe that's hyperbole and I'd never put it ALL on, but why put any of it back on really?

I feel fantastically better when I eat well. I sleep better, its better for my wife and kids, it's just better full stop.

I do have to buy new clothes, but dammit I am buying them and getting ones that fit, not settling for having slightly bigger clothes that I know I can 'eat up to'

That way lies madness.

Post Year of Diet Breakdown: 365 Days, 13 Diets, 45 Kilos

After a year of dieting I would have a lot of data to display, piece by piece I'll add them to my blog for interest's sake.

Graph One: Weight At the end of each Diet.

Graph Two: Amount of Kilograms lost per Diet.

 Graph Three: Weight Loss as a Line Graph with figures

It's all over, Rover! BMI Weight Achieved!

So after the final fast day I finally get where I never thought possible.

I am now officially (technically, or whatever you want to call BMI) a healthy weight.

My BMI (Trefathen calculation) is under 25 and now at the very upper range.

Also this marks the loss of over 45 kilograms in a year marked by 13 diets, the reintroduction of exercise and a quantum shift in my eating habits and taste.

It's been a quick year in some respects, not as hard as it sounds and certainly fascinating.

Will it make a good book? No idea, but considering the response that such a change gets from people and the apparent inspiration it gives people it's worth a crack.

IF I can write it without being holier than thou, without being a dick, without being an expert, without knowing what I was doing and without being humourless.

Most importantly, without an extra 45 kilograms.
(OK it's obviously not going to be without a little self-satisfaction).

I'll work on some stats and figures for my final blog post for this project - I'll check back maybe once a month and keep myself honest on my ongoing weight - which I expect to rise, but not more than the clothes size I currently wear.

I'll wait a month before buying a new wardrobe, that way I should know what size I will settle at.

My friends should be well over this by now, but thanks to everyone who supported and encouraged - even though I rejected all such notions initially, once I was underway the ego boost was significant and bloody helpful in some doubtful times (the plateaus).

 

The New Plan - Day Sixteen

The last day - a year later.

The final day is today and I will be fasting for the day starting at a weight of 82.4 kilograms.

Yesterday I consumed less than a thousand calories, I was not fasting but I was not that hungry so I just ate what I ate which was all vegetarian and sugar free with a fruit based dinner.

Seems like this day has been coming for a long time since I started the final countdown and Uber-Diet phase and now that it's here it's a bit odd to think that it will all be over in 24 hours.

The rest of the week will be interesting to see how I adjust to life with no restrictions, I have lunch booked on Wed, Thu, Fri and dinner out on Saturday. Will I be a cheap date and eat like a bird or will I make up for it with eating everything that looks good?

Not sure I'd go that far - but the menus at Hard Luck and Molten are very enticing.

The New Plan - Day Fifteen

Two days to go, still under goal weight.

With approximately 48 hours before the year is up and I am at 82.8 kgs (slight rise from yesterday as expected with a normal eating day of over 1200 calories approx) but with a day in the office (easier not to overeat when you're busy) and a final fasting day tomorrow of less than 600 calories then I expect to finish in the lower 82's (all things being equal and provided I don't overdo it today).

Busy today - loads to catch up on after a weeks holiday from work.

Thinking about the impending writing deadline and the fear of publishing raw copy every day.

Push the boundaries and commit to it right?

Write.

The New Plan - Day Fourteen

The last few days to go.

This morning I got to my stated goal of anywhere 82.9 (or better) with a drop to 82.4 from yesterday's 83.2 (largely due to a long day painting and running about with and early fruit only dinner).

I still clocked in at 1700 calories out of the 1900 or so I need to maintain my weight.

Having been doing this multi-diet for a couple of weeks now I can see the benefit in doing the sugar-free, no carbs at night, preferably a lite and/or Raw dinner with the Intermittent Fasting restricting caloric intake 2 days a week. No snacks also helps.

Put all these together and you get a very efficient but not punishing diet plan.

I have a new regime that makes it quite hard to eat a lot of heavy food, I had a couple of home-made pies for lunch yesterday and they sat in me quite noticeably until my eventual dinner around 4:30 ish - which was some grapes (a decent bowl full) and 3 plums.

A this was Raw and fibrous and sweet and B this was as much as I could eat as I was still feeling pretty good from lunch 5 hours earlier.

Went out to a BBQ and this time the smell of cooking lamb on the BBQ was very alluring, the smell was fantastic. BUT as I don't actually like lamb it was not that tempting just smelled delicious.

3 days to go and one more fasting day.

Who knows I may even just squeak in on my BMI provided I don;t celebrate my goal weight with too much of the wrong kind of food today.

4 days until I have to start writing daily.

Not sure where to start. I will publish what I write every day on my blog, so the diet book may be an aside project - or I may just start the introduction and a few chapters so I can submit to a few publishers maybe.

Maybe.

We'll see.

The New Plan - Day Thirteen

The last few days.

Still in the low 83's and not fasting again until maybe tomorrow or the very last day Tuesday.

A process that feels slow but certainly is not considering that I have lost approximately 5 Kilos in 12 days (from a high of 88 to a low of 83) and expect to drop by at least 500 or so in the next 4.

Yesterday was a non fasting day and I ate well, exercised a little less but stayed to the basic rules of eating sugar free, no carbs after lunch, zero snacks and all within 8 hours (with a Salad dinner).

I had a steak sandwich for lunch yesterday and that comprised the largest part of my food for the day and sat in me for several hours, I had to eat dinner (a salad) by 4:30 but was still a little full and not that hungry by te time that rolled around.

According to the 8700 app I got from some Aussie health website I should be consuming around 1900 calories per day to maintain weight now and I consumed around 1700 and felt quite full especially after lunch. This bodes well for not putting a large amount of weight back on when this is all over next week.

83.2 Kgs

Going to a BBQ tonight and have to eat by 5 pm to finish within my eight hours, and of course it will be Raw so it'll be the salad, but still thats the rules.

I would not mind a wine or a beer but that amount of calories in the evening so close to the finish line would not be helpful.

Definitely going to have a drink with a dinner out next week I think.

Looking forward to eating occasionally without thought to the larger plan.

The New Plan - Day 12

The last few days to go.

83.0 - crawling towards my goal.

I did not achieve a fasting goal yesterday and instead consumed around twice what I should on a fast day - by inattention more than by intent. However I did eat more than expected but less than enough to gain weight.

I have been looking at the various figures for BMI and surprisingly even though there is a math to it - not guess work, a lot of the weight ranges vary when they should not.

So going back to the drawing board on BMI I find that there are two calculations available - which explains some of the confusion.

The original BMI which would put my target weight at 79 kilos and the Trefathen BMI (AKA New BMI) which is apparently more realistic and would put my target at 81.6 kilos.

Either way there is no real rhyme nor reason that shows causation to accept BMI in my opinion, it is a nice goal and statistically aligns with good health. As i have said before though, thats not math or science but common sense, that you can express it mathematically to a range and approximation still is not evidence that this magic number is in any way magical. (unless you equate magic with fiction - in which case it's just magical enough).

I hvae 1 more official fasting day on Tuesday and I am considering a replacement day for yesterday on Sunday. It's not necessary to do this, but there is some satisfaction in going out on my healthiest weight possible.

I feel no different or slimmer than I did say 20 kilos ago, which is interesting. People notice me getting thinner, but I have not really since last year. Gradual changes creep up on us I guess, and now that I have smaller clothes it seems less of a difference to me.

However 43 kilos, I know people who weight that much or less - and thats more than the combined weight of my children.

In 5 days time I'll start my new project of 1,000 words a day.

The New Plan - Day 11

The countdown continues, day 11 and only six left to go.

Relatively close to get to target weight or better with less than 0.5 of a kilo to go.

Today is the second to last fasting day, with my final day also being a fasting day.

All things being equal I should get to my goal this week, however the trick as always is making it through the weekend without weight gain, which is expected after ending the fasting cycle.

When I do gain weight this weekend I should return to my lower weight on the other side of the final fasting day on tuesday next week.

83.1 kgs today.

The New Plan - Day 10

The last week starts here.

So my final day is rapidly approaching and I have 2 more fasting days between here and there.

Around 0.8 kilos left to lose, it's entirely possible I could get there by Friday if I stay low-cal and low carb today and then have the 4th of 5 fasts tomorrow.

Then it's the weekend and that seems to be the biggest challenge - getting through that without the usual rebalancing that seems to happen in that period.

I had a breakfast out this morning and while it was a couple of hours ago now, I still feel quite full.

As usual with the intermittent fasting, the first day is relatively painless, the day in between easy enough. Tomorrow as always is the key.

1 week to go to what is probably not my BMI - but is my goal none the less.

43 kilos down.

After this is all over my writing blog will start. First project a book about my year of dieting, need to put the pun-making part of my brain into gear for a title.

And recipes, diet books are full of recipes.