Archive for April, 2009

People constantly surprise me, sometimes by their total lack of indifference and other times thankfully for their generosity, support and care when it’s least expected.

I had an experience of the latter kind today. The other day I was cruising through Facebook having a look at what people were up to and remembered a commitment I made some 4 years ago to a friend. Someone I’ve known for 20+ years but catch up with very rarely. We caught up last some 4 years ago, when I was at my lowest point after the divorce and when access to my son was limited and she was starting out on an exciting new adventure, having just returned from States after completing training as a Bikram Yoga teacher, and was looking to open a studio in Melbourne.

4 years down the track she owns 2 studios, Sth Melbourne and Glen Waverley and she is so passionate about what she does it is infectious. At our lunch I promised that when I had dropped 20-30 kilos I’d come down and give Bikram Yoga a  try, mind you at the time I was probably only 140 kilos. But I stayed true to it and dropped her a note to say hi and let her k now about Saving Alan, and of course tell her how happy I am to see her business thriving.

You can see her response for yourself in the comments of Support Alan offering to get right behind Saving Alan with free access to classes, plus getting everyone in the studio to support what I am trying to achieve. Maggie, thanks.

If anyone has been curious about Bikram Yoga (where the room is heated to 39 degrees C for the 90 minute workout) visit the website and let Maggie know you got there from Saving Alan. Check out her website for more information.

So my first class will be in around 10 days, well I suppose I put it out there for support and got it, now to follow through adding another exercise option to my week.

I don’t know about that, I started out about 10 kilos lighter than him and aim to end up a little heavier than him, my ultimate aim is somewhere between 80 – 85 kilos.

Bob, the winner lost a staggering 87.6 kilos, 52.5% (or thereabouts) of his starting weight. Incredible.

He has done that in the same time I have lost 24 kilos … it must be an amazing gift to be on a show like that where they focus on your health and training non-stop, I wonder what I could have achieved?

But my challenge is like so many others, I have a job, a child and other commitments day to day and need to find a way to make it happen over an extended period of time within my normal life and without the support infrastructure that the contestants have, plus no-one is going to give me a chance at $400,000 at the end of it.

I hope you’ll support me, with comments, encouragement and even help me help research into Heart and Diabetes research through Baker IDI.

I am sure over the past three weeks Ger from the gym has been close to picking up the phone and harassing me to get back into it. I haven’t stopped exercising, just now doing a variety of things to keep myself amused. It’s also become a little easier as I am 24 kilos lighter than when I started.

This weekend I did four different forms of exercise; Fri night – played table tennis for a while (you build up a good sweat), Sat morning 4.5km walk, Sat afternoon gym session and Sunday morningAqua Aerobics.

I am really enjoying the walking and now winter is coming it will be a challenge to get out there on windy cold days, especilly as my choice of venue is a track by the Bay. It’s great to pick a point in front of you and as you get closer just challenge yourself to go that little bit further, I am only restricted by the time I have available.

Table Tennis is a hoot, the company bought a table to get the staff to mingle, as we are across a number of floors, and it has been hugely successful. I am through to third round in the inaugural championship and play Dom on Tuesday afternoon. I should be able to get past him but then come up against a much tougher assignment, but let’s get Dom done first.

I enjoy the gym, but I do suffer a little from being inadequate compared to everyone else, I know you’re not supposed to care, but it is a challenge to get over it and feel comfortable.

Aqua Aerobics is a bit of fun every now and then and when my son is with me gives us the opportunity to spend an hour in the pool together afterwards which is always awesome, and has given rise to a new super-hero in our storytelling – I’ll explain another time.

Now I am thinking of doing Bikram Yoga .. I made a promise to a friend who now owns two studiios – Glen Waverley and South Melbourne (Free plug for you Maggie) that once I had lost some weight I’d come down and give it a go. I am traveling this week, presenting in Canberra, so next week.

Sleep beckon

Don’t forget to sign up and sponsor me if you haven’t already.

Ok, I’ve lost 24 kilos in 12 weeks .. that must be proof that I am serious about this, now for the important stuff – raising money for the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute. I’ve written before that the idea of doing good will help me stay on track, providing extra motivation and importantly a sense of purpose for the SavingAlan project that isn’t necessarily focused on me alone.

I delayed opening the sponsor function for a couple of reasons;

i) proof that I can lose the weight

ii) Govt had to approve me

Now it’open, it’s all tax deductible, and it’s easy,

Check out Support Alan for all the details.

Thanks in advance.

Earlier this year my father turned 80, and along with the family we gathered and celebrated, as families do.

In the back of my mind I kept looking at Dad, he was pretty much fully recovered from a hip operation and he’s a pretty spritely, wondering how I was going to get around at his age. I could see a wheelchair, or maybe one of those cool scooters, and an oxygen mask – not a very positive outlook. But if I didn’t start this change, maybe that’s exactly what I was looking forward to.

In May of last year, on impulse, I decided to join the local gym where my brother is a member.Thinking that I’d get his support, meet some people he knows and basically make that environment less confronting. For a larger person a gym is a place full of fear and dread and a constant reminder of what a weak bastard you are. It’s full of fit and healthy people, it’s not designed for people like me. All the fit people look you up and down, as though to ask “what the hell are you doing here? It’s way too late pal”

I didn’t start SavingAlan until February of this year, so I took advantage of the delays (read: procrastination) to take less care of myself than before and added another 10 kilos in the 7 months. The only reason I know my weight then was that I took a fitness test with Vanessa (personal trainer) and she set up a program for me. As part of the outcomes of that test is that Vanessa put the details into a database to measure me up against others, and provides me with a rating based on age .. so you see what I am getting at right?

Here are the outcomes;

SavingAlan's Fitness Age & Ratings

It’s pretty sad that at the age of 46, my physical fitness is rated as 80 years old. So you can see clearly the importance of getting SavingAlan started and implemening real change.

At the end of May I’ll do an update for comparison sake.

It’s been an interesting week. After increasing in weight last week by half kilo and extending fat food Friday an extra day I set out to just follow the process and not be too concerned with what I felt I was missing out on or would love to eat.

Many time especially from Monday I wanted to pig out on comfort food, but instead I just stuck to the eating plan.

The big difference again this week is I increased my exercise, walking Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Wednesday and found some days harder than others, got a little bit of leg and back soreness, but nothing sever enough to divert me from my plan of taking back that half kilo from last week with interest.

So this week I lost 2 kilos for a 12 week total of 24 kilos, and average of 2 kilo’s a week. My aim is to average 1.5 kilos a week for the 44 week SavingAlan project, that would leave me at around 92 kilos with a loss of 66 kilos

The week ahead has some interstate travel, heading to Canberra Wed and Thu for a speaking engagement, so I need to make sure that I eat well, go for a walk and/or a gym session while I am there (or 2 if I can fit it in).

Tomorrow I am going to head into the pool for a Aqua Aerobics session early in the morning and then to the gym late in the day for some weights, Sunday will be a gym session on the bike and x-trainer, Monday I am heading out for walk with two of the girls from work. For the first time I’ll be walking the Tan (the running track around the Botanical Gardens), yet I have worked within a couple of minutes of it for the best part of 20 years, should be an interesting challenge.

So here’s the measurement update;

Week 12 of SavingAlan

I suppose this week delivered what I thought it would, a small increase in weight, but cm loss in the lower body as the walking starts to have its impact.

All Easter Eggs are finally out of the house, with the exception of my sons, and so I need to buckle down and just get on with eating well and exercising, while not giving myself any little outs or excuses.

weight loss week 11

I use a site called Zelaog to chart my weight and exercise. The aim is to give myself so visual stimulus and somewhere public to commit to asides from this blog.

Check out my charts on Zealog. Soon I’ll be adding my measurements to get a visual on those as well, as they play just an an important part as the overall weight loss story.

What does surprise me is that some of the people on there weigh themselves each day. For me that would be a nightmare as there is no doubt I would beat myself up badly on bad days, while not getting the big high of a good week like the last.

Anyway Zealog is a pretty new site, launched in February ‘09, and at the recent Launch Pad event at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco they were one of only 5 businesses to pitch on the Keynote stage.

While there, one of the founders, Aaron gave a zeaLOG “reviewcam” demo to InformationWeek Editor-at-Large David Berlind, here’s the clip that featured a little bit of SavingAlan.

Five years ago I went on a weight loss charge and lost close to 50 kilos – I’ll talk about it later, but the key difference is that I had a supportive wife who cooked meals to plan, so I didn’t have to worry about managing my food and more importantly meal planning, preparation and cooking. These days it’s a bit different being a single father (divorced).

One of the amazing things I found last time was that because I have detoxed my body when Easter came around and I indulged, I broke out in hives as a reaction to chocolate. I was devastated as a chocoholic that one of my favourite foods could do that.

So today is easter Sunday and I have consumed a fair bit of chocolate – not as much as previous years, but still a fair bit and I know I am going to have to work it off , or should I say walk it off, that’s the flip side of indulging. This weeks weigh in will interesting to see if I can counterbalance the indulgence with exercise. last week was great because I was on leave I could go for a mid morning or late afternoon walk, this week I need to a bit more structured with the pressures of work returning, speaking engagements, music rehearsals and the like.

I still reckon I can lose at least 1.5 kilos .. let’s see what happens!

I know I have already posted three episodes, I filmed this a while but lost the tape, so I had to film it again. It is only the second dish I have ever cooked from a recipe on my own.

This has become my favourite lunch dish – Chicken Madras Curry, great for freezing and taking to work. It has a nice bit of heat in it, and is super healthy. I am sure it would be great on rice, but I’ll have to wait