Finding it hard to find the time to write.

About to finish a 30 day Bikram Yoga challenge, which has been tough but fun.

Back soon

In about an hour from now a story that I filmed with Today Tonight will appear on national TV, and I suppose a lot of people who are reading this now have found me because of the story, so welcome.

My story is just like everyone else, not putting myself first, not planning, etc etc I am not unique or super strict, in fact I continue to battle into the second half of the Saving Alan program. I have another 35 kilos to go (I’ve added a few kilos since Nov) an the plan is to get of them between now and the end of December 2010. So the sponsorship is now open again, just fill out the form and commit to X amount of dollars, but only payable if and when I hit my goal weight of 90 kilos. Just click on the sponsor me tab above.

To help you understand my story here is a list of blog posts that will give you a good background. Please drop me a note, leave a message and even sponsor me .. it all helps and keeps me headed in the right direction.

If you’re interested in Bikram Yoga (and you should be) head over to Bikram Yoga Glen Waverley and South Melbourne to discover more.

• So here we go … almost
• My Son will not be condemned
• The starting point
• Over 50 and I’m super
• The first serious break
• Week 9 Update
• 80 years old
• The Physical
• ABC Richard Stubbs Interview
• Little Victories Week 19
• Man’s Week The Path Back
• Who’s right? PTs or me?
• Still Indestructible
• Week 32 Update
• A Perfect Gift for a Man
• Sunday Age – Page 2
• As seen on TV
• Wobbleguts and the Ironman
• And so 2009 comes to a close
• A late Christmas Gift

Connect with m on Facebook and Twitter as well, I need the support and keep coming back each week.

Cheers

Alan

Being a Bikram Yoga newbie is not easy, I’ve been practicing now for almost a year and it doesn’t get any easier. One day you can have a great practice where you seem to progress and then the next session feel like the very first time you’ve been in the hot room. 37-41 degrees with 70% humidity. But even on the bad days it’s better than not doing it all.

I had a two week layoff due to work and travel and got back into it last Thursday, tough class. Good Friday was awesome, Saturday was strong at a new studio in Melbourne’s Bayside and then Sunday was a bit rough. You just never know what you’re going to get.

Today I took the young fella off to the South Melbourne studio for the 9.30am class, and we were joined by former Richmond footballer Nathan Brown doing his very first class. He hung there all the way without sitting out any postures, a great effort for a first time. It was hot and humid in the room, I found it really tough and obviously had added a few cms as I struggled with postures I can normally achieve.

ex Footscray and Richmond player Nathan Brown's first Bikram Yoga session. Pictured with Declan, myself, Jacqui and Karen.

Nathan now does some work for Triple M Melbourne, and I think this session was an on air challenge of some kind. After class he interviewed Declan, who had joined the class for the floor series, and also Maggie the studio director who has been an amazing supporter of Saving Alan. So tomorrow, sometime between 4 and 6 pm we may hear Declan and Maggie on Triple M. If they podcast the section I’ll post a link later.

I love Bikram Yoga, some days not as much as others, but if I am away from it for more that 2 days my practice really suffers, so I need to find ways of making sure I can get there every second day as well as building in the personal training gym that I am also enjoying. The last piece of the puzzle is food, they say that food is 80% of weight loss, and my experiences are telling me that that is right. So it’s time to put some serious effort into getting the food balance right and watch the kilos strip back off.

Now to get my family members into the heat, so far I have three of four willing to take the step, anyone else up for joining a Saturday morning session? – I promise you’ll love it!

Could best be described by my activity over the past 3 months.

I always knew that maintaining my focus on losing weight and getting healthy was going to be tough, but I really didn’t expect to fall off the wagon for three months.

So I’ve finished beating myself up mercilessly for my tardiness and lack of attention to myself and am committed to getting things back on track getting the next 30+ kilos off.

I’ve continued to exercise, but my food / diet has been a shocker, I’ll post later about why I went back to old habits and how I am going to step forward to become the healthier version of me.

I am back, I need your help and support.

Next steps – set a new goal, with a time-line and start getting some visualisation around what it will be like to weigh only 85-90 kilos.

’til later

Welcome to all the readers who have found Saving Alan through the Sunday Age article today (Jan 17, 2010). The article on Page 2 is titled “Super sized desperate to get things into proportion‘ and covers a bit of how I have gone about losing 43 kilos so far.

Amongst the many things that didn’t get mentioned there are two things that I have found to be very importnt to my success so far and they are;

1. Counseling - understanding what is going on, how I feel and think about myself and starting to get some strategies for change. I am of the very firm belief that in a large proportion of obesity cases the mental health aspect is the underlying disease, not simply the issue of being overweight.
2. Bikram Yoga – a low impact yet intense exercise that has been integral on a number of fronts. Firstly to get me moving without putting too much joint strain, providing the opportunity for the mind to be still (meditation) and gaining a great support network without being judged (unlike the feeling I get in a gym).

One more thing, the cartoon The Age decided to put within the article is a prime example of the ridicule that obese people get all the time. I am not overly offended by it, but it does highlight the stupidity of our media at times just being damn inconsiderate to the plight of the obese and holding them up for ridicule. The outcome of stupidity and deliberate ridicule feel the same. What a shame for a serious article to be diminished by a lack of thought from an editor or sub-editor.

If you’d like to follow my story as it unfolds, connect via Facebook as well as subscribing to the RSS feed on this page.

A gift to myself really.

Since the weigh in at the end of November I gave myself a fair bit of leeway on food and exercise and the result was adding 6 kilos over 3 weeks and quite a few cms.

For the first time I can remember the addition of cms felt damn horrible, I did care (that is a big change). My suit felt tight, belt slipped forward a notch and exercise became that little bit tougher (I had some very rough Bikram Yoga classes through that period) and I could see the changes in my shape, specifically my gut.

It was all about my intent and how I was thinking about things, I was getting that old victim / self pity crap going again. Well toughen up young fella!

So at my last weigh in on 21 December I set a target of 117 kilos for weigh in on January 7 (today). Up until Boxing Day things weren’t looking so rosy, I had exercised a lot, but food had been a bit hit and miss but not a blow out.

From Boxing Day onwards I just stuck to my guns, even though I so desperately wanted to eat garbage for the sugar hit or to feel full. Holidays are traditionally a tough time to lose weight as the routine goes out the window, if we look back at my progress and check out the holiday weeks during 2009 I think I added weight in each holiday period.

Not this time though, I set out with the intent of making 2010 a great year on all fronts and most importantly my health. I will get to 85 kilos this year (a total loss of 73 kilos since the start of Saving Alan). I have made a flying start with a 6 kilo loss over the past 2 weeks and I’ve set a target of another 2.5 kilos by next weigh in on January 21, my intention is to surpass that. It’s not that hard to do really, it’s just hard to action, to stay in check, not to give in, not to say “oh, it’s only one thing”. Fat Food Friday helps out a lot in terms of providing a release of anything I may be craving, it gets it over and done with, I feel horrible after it and then I move straight back into the plan.

So I am currently 115 kilos, (-43 kilos), and am really keen on breaking through the 108 mark as quickly as I can, not taking another 20 odd weeks to remove the fifth 10 kilos like it did the fourth.

I am walking every day (40-50 minutes), doing Bikram Yoga three times a week and most importantly eating well. Simple plan, simple outcome.

I ventured onto a tennis court yesterday for the first time in 10 years, it felt good, it felt comfortable and I am looking forward to adding a weekly tennis game to the routine in the near future, I am just not quite mobile enough at the moment .. good news ….. the serve is as mean as ever.

So let’s see what I can achieve in the next two weeks, feeling very motivated after the weigh in.

Sometime over the next couple of weeks is a story on Today Tonight, not sure when as yet but that will keep me on track a little as I couldn’t think of anything worse than walking into a fish and chip shop and someone asking me if I was that guy from that TV story.

So here are this weeks results, enjoy the heat (if you’re in Melbourne)

Very happy, during a time when most people put weight on, I was able to remove 6 kilos. Not as many cms as I would have liked but they will come.

I’m sitting in McDonalds at the moment!

Talk about a test of will power, the smell of fried food is overwhelming and I would love to scoff down a hash brown or two. The simple reason I am here is because they provide free wi-fi, so it is a chance to post the occasional blog.

I’ve just been out for a 50 minute walk along the beach and cliff faces at Mornington, a great way to start the day, and the good news is no blisters on the feet. But I have worked out I can walk about 50 minutes with no problems but if I push out to more than an hour I’ll have the same old problems, so I’ll top and tail the day with a few different walks of around 40-50 minutes.

Last night I went for a walk with my beautiful niece Gemma. It’s always amazing to spend time with nephews and nieces and just to marvel at the adults they have become from the beautiful little babies and todddlers we played with and spoilt. She’s a wonderful and strong woman and a credit to her mother’s sacrifice and struggle (as is Eve of course). I am looking forward to continuing the conversation on tonight’s walk and importantly seeing her spend time with my son and watching their bond grow and develop. One thing is forever .. family.

Sitting in McDonald’s drinking a bottle of water (I had to buy something to overcome the guilts of using their wi-fi) I remember in the late 90’s living in Sydney and catching the ferry to work every morning from Mosman to Circular Quay. There is a McDonalds prominently located between the wharf and the office in Pitt Street and I recall seeing people flocking in there for their breakfast. I could never understand the fast food brands, I was never a fan of McD, Red Rooster, KFC or any of the other corporate fast food joints. I was a more fish and chips sort of guy and that is definitely not a breakfast food, even for me.

One morning I decided to see if there was anything I’d like in McDonalds – error No.1.

I discovered the celebrated hash Brown (celebrated in my mind).

So I bought one, unsure whether I’d like them, added some salt and whammo what a good start to the day.

This soon become a morning ritual, but 2 Hash Browns soon turned to three, then to four, then to six. I’d hide down the corner of the store and eat them in case anyone from the office or that I knew would see me consuming what I knew to be a poor choice breakfast.

Six was about the maximum I thought I could eat, but sure enough it soon became eight Hash Browns for breakfast. I could see the look of surprise and disgust on some of the staff’s face as I ordered, they knew it was just for me, no matter how nonchalant I tried to be.

So there I was, in no time flat I went from 1 to 8 Hash Browns every morning. I was so hooked that when I went and got the newspaper on the weekends I’d nick down to the local McDonald’s and knock back another eight Hash Browns.

Today, I’d still like to have a Hash Brown or two, but the fact is one turns in to eight pretty quickly and the fact is while I like Hash Browns, Hash Brown’s don’t like me!

Hope everyone had great Christmas and New Year celebrations and got loads of cool stuff from Santa, family and friends.

I focused on health related gifts and received the Jane Kennedy cookbook “Fabulous Food minus the boombah”, the CSIRO total wellbing diet and an hilarious but confronting book “Skinny Bastard”, more on the latter soon.

I used some gift vouchers to get myself some kitchen bit and pieces during the Boxing Day sales and picked up a Food Processor, Slow Cooker and a big Casserole dish.

So the kitchen has the missing pieces, now to start cooking more and experimenting with different dishes and make 2010 a relative culinary delight. I have been able to get my son to start eating some different foods which will make it easier to experimenting with a wide range of tastes myself.

I need to ramp up the ‘Cooking with Al’ series, so all who have either shown interest, made a promise or have something to share, I’ll be calling upon you over the coming months to make it happen (you listening Richard?).

I’m knocking off for a couple of weeks holiday, not sure if I’ll be posting much while I’m gone as the only place with free wi-fi is McDonalds .. good marketing – bastards!

I still haven’t decided on New Year resolutions, or targets for the year but I’ll work that out over the coming weeks.

So Christmas and New Year have been and gone. Most people would expect to ad weight over this period, but I have taken a bit of different approach and on Thursday I’ll see what results I got out of being good with food and exercise over the period. Mind you I needed to as I had let rip a little (ok a lot) since the end of November and added 6.2 kilos in the space of 4 weeks.

I know it was madness and I intended to keep it in check but the Christmas cheer and relief that I had lasted the 10 month challenge just meant I gave myself too much slack. That’s now been tightened up .. a lot.

My final weigh in of 2009 (21 December) put me at a total loss of 37 kilos (121 kilograms), down from the 30 November figure of 43 kilos lost (115 kilograms). So I set a target of 117 kilograms by 7 January, 2010 reversing some of the madness that I had carried on with pre Christmas.

I am hoping that I’ll be able to improve on that, but I’m not so sure if it is coming off as quickly as I had thought, we’ll have to wait and see.

I’ve been walking and heading to Bikram Yoga a lot (pretty much every second day) and eating relatively well, not perfectly but much, much better than the weeks leading upto Christmas. The other standard influence has been still working too many hours – my own fault but sort of unavoidable.

Here’s the update from pre Christmas, not particularly proud of it, but it is what it is – just a bump in the road.

So here I sit on NYE 2009, just an hour to go until the new year comes and with it more hopes and dreams that I need to find ways of turning into realities. I’m not sure if I am ready, but I wasn’t really ready 11 months ago when I et out on this journey.

It’s been a pretty amazing year by anyone’s standards, here are some of the highlights and lowlights of the year and stories that made it into the 130+ blog posts during 2009.

• Launched Saving Alan, sharing my journey through a blog and social media.
• Appeared on Channel 7 News in January 2009 regarding obesity and genetic research.
• Having a fitness age of 80 and a BMI of over 50 putting me in the “Super Obese” category. (BMI now 37)
• Reducing my risk of heart disease substantially.
• Running a fundraiser for the victims of the vic bushfires with a couple of other local bands and raising over $3,500 in one night
• Lost 40+ kilos from a starting weight of 158 kilograms.
• Sponsorship of $6,400+ for Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute.
• Become a Yogi, loving Bikram Yoga and going on average 2-3 times a week.
• Cooking, skill improved and filmed 8 Cooking with Al sessions, more to come next year.
• Reconnection with old friends and colleagues.
• Generosity, love and support of family and friends.
• Putting myself first sometimes more often.
• Better understanding of what makes me tick and why I make certain choices.
• I like myself a whole lot more.
• Temptations – the failures and the successes, both equally as important.
• On air interview with Richard Stubbs on 774 ABC Radio Melbourne in May.
• Part of Perfect Gift For a Man book for the Inspire Foundation.
• Featured in an article in Sun-Herald on December 13.
• Story coming on Channel 7’s Today Tonight.
• Openly discussing depression and my darkest moments publicly for the first time.
• Started a new band  (a second one)
• Axed from original band of 7 years for personal reasons that they wouldn’t share – don’t you love 30+ year so called friendships.
• Resigned from new band – now selling one of two drum kits.

The key thing was a happy year with lots of time spent with my son. Most of ll I m in a much better and healthier place than this time last year and I have so many wonderful people to thank, which I will, but at another time. It’s getting late, I’m tired and I want to make the 8am Yoga class and set my intent for 2010.

I am enjoying the journey with all it’s highs and lows and twists and turns and look forward to 2010 as an absolute breakthrough year.

I’ll share resolutions / targets with you in the New Year.

Meanwhile have a safe and happy New Year.