Weight loss / the bet

Early August I did a bet with a friend of mine (see previous post here) that involved me dropping 5 kg in weight. I had until end of October for this. Well, now we are around one month into the bet, so I thought I better give an update.

Short version: Bet won

I have for a few days now been below 90 kg (lowest 88.8 kg) so I consider the first phase of the bet is done; now the second phase is to keep the weight another month. Well, guess what, that’s not my goal any more. My next goal is to drop another 5kg, within the old time frame. Do note, this is not part of the bet ;-)

So next goal is below 85 kg before end October. Is this realistic? Hell yes, of course it is always easiest to drop the first kg but as long as I can keep the current eating plan then I should be set for 85 kg.

I don’t consider it a diet any more but a change in eating plan & thinking. I’ll write more about that in an upcoming post, which will include links to nice Low Carb food, my own experience…

How I lost the 5 kg

The main reason why I was able to drop in weight so fast was of course the Low Carb eating plan but I also think that been a bit more active have helped. Not that I have been overly active but if I compare with in the past then I was a lot more active ;-)

Exercising

I’m put together a program from the book Fit ohne Geräte: Trainieren mit dem eigenen Körpergewicht,  (English: You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises), but only executed them 6 times in August and once in September (Then I got sick and took a break). Got to say that after one of the sessions I had muscle pain for days, just shows how inactive I was in the past.

Swimming

Okay, I only went swimming twice during August and once in September but to my surprise I was able to swim much father than I ever did. Keep in mind, I do breast stroke and probably with very bad technique and I swim slow, no fancy stuff with head under water.

First time I did a total of 20 lanes (of 25 meters each), with a lot of small breaks. Just after I started I was sure I could max do 5 lanes.

So I set myself a goal, one day to do 10 lanes without break and another goal, 40 lanes in one session. The weekend after I went over to swim again and managed to do both goals. I was shocked. First 10 lanes without any real breaks (quickly stop up, get my breath and off again), then 20 lanes with breaks and then I got a silly idea, do another 10 lanes without breaks. Mission accomplished but took me a total of 70 minutes; that could be better.

Today I did 20 lanes without stopping and then another 10 lanes.

No new goals here, just want to improve the technique and do the 40 lanes again (Without stops!!)

Biking

Lets not talk about this, was only on the bike once in August…

Low Carb

I’m not going into detail with my eating plan but just want to highlight a few things. I changed to Low Carb diet/eating plan at the start of the weight loss bet. The reason why I don’t consider it a diet is that I do eat a lot ;-) but just have to consider what I eat.

Skipping pasta was a hard one, as I often had pasta every evening, especially when my kids are staying with me. Lunch mainly consisted of sandwiches, breakfast of cereals.

All that had to change and to my surprise it went smooth. Breakfast is often omelet (with meat, cheese, spinach…), lunch some home baked low carb bread or a salad. For dinner I often have some meat with broccoli/spinach/salad. So not only do I eat nice portions but compared to before I don’t eat that much junk and generally I eat less calories. I actually found it rather interesting/inspiring to do research on the net about low carb and the various foods that can be eating. Also found lots of interesting recipes.

I sure don’t follow the low carb 100%, I had raclette twice, had a chicken burger at BK, went eating with my son where we had some nice cordon bleu, I had pizza and on my birthday I had cake (for 2 days). So I’m not a low carb fanatic ;-)

I will follow up with more Low Carb content another day ;-) with examples of my various meals.

Sweets / drinks

I only bought a few pieces of chocolate (okay, failed yesterday and had 245g of M&Ms) and I seldom find my carving for sweets. I did buy 1 or 2 cokes and had a few zips from the kids but otherwise I was mainly drinking water and a bit ice tea.

So, on to the next 5 kg and a healthier life style.