13 Stone 4lb lost in 32 weeks, now slimmer of the year 2007 runner up

Thursday, 30 August 2007

Week 31 Triple milestone achieved

Wow Wow Wow......



Just got back from seeing my CDC and I am sooooo happy I have done it!!!!!!

yes I have today hit three milestones all in one go....



I have this week had my "official weigh in" after a 2 week break by my CDC for her holiday, you may recall that I have been keeping a track of my weight on my own scales well today surpassed all expectations



I lost another 5lb taking my weight down to 12 Stone 8 lb.
Why is this a triple milestone, well let me tell you I can hardly type fast enough for my excitement.
1) I am now less than half the weight I was when I started

2) I have now lost exactly 13 stone in exactly 7 months!!!!

3) I am now classed as healthy, with a BMI of 24.5, for the first time ever I have hit the healthy target.

I don't think I have ever been healthy, I was always the fat kid, now look!!!!

I have posted some new photos taken yesterday, They do show me in clothes as they were taken to submit with my slimmer of the year nomination form. I can do some more showing my wrinkly skin belly if people would rather I continued the same theme as all those previous photos.

I am now on cloud 9, Yippee

I will be starting maintenance next week and am so looking forward to a healthy future.

Its been another whirlwind week, back to work after my hols.
Sorry cant write anymore I have to dash off to inform the people who read the forums.....

oh I am so excited...........

Thursday, 23 August 2007

Week 30 Weigh in results

Just jumped on my scales for my week 30 weigh in......... 4lb lost this week!!! (I must stress that this week and last weeks reading have been taken on my scales as my CDC is on holiday, my scales are usually +/- 1lb to what my CDC's usually show)

Wow I am now under the 13 stone mark!! just look at my little car in my ticker at the top of the page, its about to fall off the end!! I now have a BMI of 25.2 so very nearly healthy

I cannot believe I have lost 12 stone 9lb in such a short period of time.
This week has been a bit tough at times, I have been on leave from work, though not actually away on a holiday (could not bare going anywhere and not eating a morsel)
It always seems harder to drink the required amount of water when at home, probably because I have been busy doing things, its not always easy to drink the water. Don't get me wrong I have always drunk at least 10 pints each day, however this has sometimes consisted of up to 4 pints in one hour then nothing for several hours (I know this is wrong but I had to be practical! One of the places we have been this week is Legoland, well it started with a 3 hour motorway journey (should have been one and a half if no hold ups!!) How could I keep drinking and peeing whilst on the M25, then once in Legoland we had to queue for rides for anything between 45 min and 1 1/4 hours, again I could hardly reserve a spot in a zig-zag queue whilst I just nipped off to the WC could I !!!! Anyway I am happy to show a 4lb loss this week and hope this is reflected in my "official" weigh in with my CDC next week. I intend starting maintenance when I reach 12 stone 7lb and hope to lose the remaing 7lb on the maintenance steps (fingers crossed).
Back to the subject of Legoland.... well it was fantastic getting on all those rides, rides that previously I would not have fitted (adrenaline junkie here) It was a great feeling. I still really want to spend a couple of days at Alton Towers staying in the water park hotel and riding all the great roller coasters without feeling ashamed to swim at the hotel and being further embarrassed by being moved off a ride because the safety bars will not close!! For anyone who has not experienced this embarrassment it is difficult to tell you how it feels, you just sit on the ride at the head of the queue with 100's of people looking on and one attendant calls over another (already enough to cause people to glare over) when the second attendant arrives they both push, pull, squash and even kneel on the safety bar in an attempt to close it. "Its no good sir you will have to get off, sorry" you then exit the ride with your tail between your legs, by this time the whole of the other riders are looking on with anger as this has delayed the start of their enjoyment. You feel like you want the ground to open up (would need a bloody big cavern) and swallow you up. That experience happened to me twice and was enough to stop me going back to a theme park. .... I cant wait to go back!! maybe even Florida!! I wish....

I have been out regularly this week walking my pooch, come rain or shine (mostly rain this summer!!) I am really enjoying the exercise.
Today I have been on the second part of my course with free lunch again, aww this time it was huge baguettes with lovely fillings, kettle chips and double chocolate muffins!! I left the others to get on and eat whilst I drank a pint of water in the car park and phoned my wife to see how her day was going. Incidentally she lost 3lb this week according to our scales.
My wife is going to stop sole source at the same time as me, she will not have got as quite as low as she wanted but will have lost just over 8 stone and be wearing size 14 so is quite content to stop. She may stick on the 1000 plan stage when we go through the maintenance steps if that works for her so at least she can join me and the rest of the family for 3 meals a day whilst still losing the odd pound.
We have been doing loads of menu planning this week using the weight watchers points system to score a healthy 4 week rotating menu to use long term after I finish all the maintenance steps reintroducing food.
My wife cant believe that I can sit looking at recipe books for hours and be writing menus, yet not want to eat, it drives her mad just talking about food (she is suffering a bit at the moment with hunger pangs) I really enjoy it,
I want to be as in control of my future as I am now, I am very motivated to keep this weight off and very very focused at my goal. I have even modified a spreadsheet I found to calculate my daily points and chart my food diary using excel so I can keep on track and monitor my future!!

I am feeling so great being a slimmer man, I really want to stay this way... I have loved this journey and feel that I have learnt so much along the way
Best wishes to all fellow dieters either on their journey or just considering embarking on the Cambridge Diet.... Do it this diet is amazing!!!

I hope to appear in the CD magazine one day and have told Kerensa (CD PR lady)that I will happily "pose" for some photos / tell my story,if they would like me too of course!! I am hoping that I can be a real inspiration to many people in the future.
Best Wishes
Alan

Thursday, 16 August 2007

Thursday Week 29, What a week!!

Hi everyone,
Its been one of those weeks this week, been a bit busy, My daughter has gone away to the South of France on a school water sports holiday (lucky thing 29 degrees + where she is) My wife has been very hungry this week and has "cheated" slightly however only using Cambridge products. Sometimes she has 4 or 5 of the products as opposed to her normal 3, this has on occasions been 2 bars in one day. This has meant that she has not had a great week and has only shown a neutral week neither losing nor gaining any weight.
I have found myself feeling a little more hungry too, not sure if it is because I am menu planning for the future and thinking about food more. Maybe its just because the end is within my grasp now. I however have not cheated and have shown a 4lb weight loss this week!! This is fine considering that I am so close to my target, I have drunk loads of water and even survived going to a wedding and not eating anything from the wedding breakfast or evening buffet. This was not as hard as I thought it would be. I even sat and admired the food whilst I drank a bucket full of water and ate a cranberry bar. What I did find was that it was the people around me that had the problem, some of these other people felt a little uneasy eating in front of my wife and I, but we were cool with it!! I am so motivated to achieve my target!! Just look at my BMI its now 0.8 away from healthy status and starting to re-introduce food!!
Our weigh in this week has been based on my home scales, weighing at an identical time to my usual weigh-in with my CDC, however she is on holiday for a couple of weeks so we are checking ourselves (my home scales usually match my counsellors within +-1lb). It will be nice when I next see my counsellor to be at my healthy BMI. This means I need to lose another 7lb over the next 2 weeks to get myself down to a BMI of 24.9!!
I have been on a training course today (Day 1 of 17 of a day release Health and Safety course) There was a superb spread of food laid out at lunchtime, Pork pie, scotch egg, sausage rolls, various sandwiches, salad, cakes fruit and fruit juice... all very yummy!! I think people thought I was a bit odd when asked why I was not eating only for me to say "I am on a diet" since now I am thinner than a lot of other people!! Anyway I resisted the buffet, and the cakes and biscuits that appeared at each tea break, My life as a slim man is worth so much more to me!! I have another 16 weeks of those buffets to contend with!!!
Here's to another good week ahead, hopefully not too many more people are going to tell me to stop losing weight, I think I have told most people I know how much further I have to go and how I need to reach my target for my own self praise and I also feel that I need to get to a figure where I really feel I am at a point worth staying at!!
Hope to post soon, however I will be back definitely next Thursday at the latest (I may be busy again this week my puppy can go out and about from this weekend, I foresee lots of nice beach walks coming up!!)

Thursday, 9 August 2007

Thursday Week 28

Hi everyone I will start with my good news!! I have just been for my weigh in where this week I have shown a 9lb loss, that's more like it after last weeks unexplained blip. I have now successfully shed 12 stone 1lb in 28 weeks, yes just since the end of January this year!!

My CDC now has her CD slimmer of the year nomination forms and she cannot wait to nominate my wife and I. I would absolutely love to get shortlisted it would be the pinnacle at the end of my fantastic journey.
I am getting close now to a healthy BMI, I need to get to 12 stone 11lb to fall into the "Healthy" weight category this figure incidentally falls to the exact pound of where I become "half the man I was"!!! yes half of 25stone 8lb (starting weight) is 12 stone 11lb. How bizarre is it that these 2 figures are occurring at the same time. What an occasion that will be. I have not been classed as a healthy weight EVER!! of course I did once weigh 12 stone 11lb and under but at that time I was at school and still had a sky high BMI so to be classed as healthy will be a momentous occasion to me personally. I was always the "fat kid"

Thanks to everyone who left me comments / emailed me after my post last week and my suit photos (scroll down , they are amazing) The picture of two of us in the old trousers (56" waist) is me and my daughter (not my wife), she is only about 8.5 stone and 5'10 tall!! with an underweight BMI !! My wife is plodding on with sole source and has lost 7 and half stone in the same period as me. She does however look fantastic and will happily pose for a picture to be posted on here at the end of her journey (she wants to lose 10 stone in total)

I have had more and more people telling me to stop the diet and an increasing number of people enquiring about my health fearing that I have something seriously wrong with me.
I met a guy today who I have not seen since prior to Christmas and he just looked me up and down and said "how on earth have you done it?" gesticulating his hand up and down at my body in complete disbelief.

I am off to a wedding at the weekend "best wishes to Paul & Vikkie" the weather looks great however I will still be eating a CD bar and tetra in place of the lovely food planned!! it may be difficult!
My wife and I have noticed this week an increase in the feeling of hunger, I have drunk plenty of water and just put it down to the knowing that its getting close to the end. But my wife has a different theory, we have been having problems with our son (17 years old and a real Kevin & Perry) and she feels that the stress and anxiety has caused the feeling, she may be right. Its certainly another trigger to keep an eye out for once we have finished the diet and recognise the symptoms and take action should they occur in the future.

Hope everyone else is doing well with their diet journeys, keep up the good work

Wednesday, 1 August 2007

Before & Current suit pics, Week 27

The first 4 pictures below have been taken tonight with me in my 58" chest / 56" waist suit that I was wearing in january this year.
The last 2 pictures have also been taken tonight with me in my "new purchase suit" 42" chest / 34" waist
Wow they are amazing

















Wednesday 1st August Early Weigh Day, week 27

So today I have been for my weigh in and was gobsmacked by the reading on the scales, so much so that I got off and back on again. I have put one pound!! how the hell has that happened???
I have had a totally normal week even more bizarre though is that my wife put on a pound last week! I have drunk all my water eaten all my meals with the same number of bars, only used water flavouring one day and mix a mousse one day. so what has changed, is my body holding onto its last reserves for dear life? On e thing for sure it had better improve next week, a whole week without eating only to find that i have gained a pound. I even came home and tried my scales and for sure its true. It has to be water retention I am sure, I have been "regular" for the week so no problem there.
I feel gutted!!!

I need to shift this last 2 stone for my own peace of mind but cannot be gaining without eating!

I have now taken a look at the big picture and put things into perspective I have lost masses of weight over the last 26 weeks and listed below are my before and current clothes sizes, this is really to inspire me on after a bad result this week!

Before Now
Casual Shirts 5XL L
Formal Shirts 21.5" 16"
Chest 58" 42"
Waist 56" 34" look at this difference 22 " lost off my trouser waist size!!!
Shoes 10 9 yes even my feet have shrunk a little!

I have been out to buy a new suit as I have a couple of weddings in the next few weeks and have shrunk well below my previous smallest suit. I have to admit that I think I looked pretty good in the new one, very "normal" instead of just plain ol' Fat Ba*&%$d Me in a 34 waist and 42" jacket is almost unheard of.

I will take a picture soon of me in the new suit and in the original 56 /58" just to show you the difference. Taking these pictures will help keep me on track for my last few weeks after what seems like a dreadful day today.
Albeit my weigh in is 1 day early this week (counsellor busy) and I did have jeans on whereas usually I am wearing work trousers, That will teach me to have a week off and dress casually lol

I have come back from my counsellor today loaded with 4 Weeks worth of products as she is going on holiday after next week and wanted to ensure we all had all the supplies we required, so £400 lighter( mine and my wife's supplies for 4 weeks + some spare to allow for variety but not for use as"extras") I now have a dining room that represents a counsellors supply cupboard

Keep an eye out for my suit pictures coming soon, hopefully later this evening if I get chance.
Here's to a better week ahead