Archive for November, 2009

Well, here we are at the end of 44 weeks of trying to turn my life around from a health perspective.

Total weight loss -43 kilograms

It would be simplistic to say that I failed because I didn’t reach the goal of 50 kilos.

But I just have to look at the upside to know that this has been a great success so far, and I say so far because it doesn’t end here. I still have another 30 kilos plus to lose and a whole lot more to learn across a range of things – cooking, time & task management, health and my fitness.

So I am very happy and seemed to have found a renewed vigour to not only keep going but to up the ante a little, but I’ll keep that to myself for the moment and just let the results speak for themselves.

The donation function (which seems to have been disabled a little early, should be reactivated tomorrow) will continue to be available for anyone that wants to make a donation to The Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute indefinitely.

My next two goals are 100 kilos and then 90 kilos. So another 17 kilos to 100 and 27 to get to 90 kilos. From there I’ll head to 85 kilos and reconsider my goal from there, but my feeling is 85 would be a very healthy weight for me, still regarded as overweight on a BMI, but I reckon it will sit well with me. No time frames on the rest of the journey, except that this time next year I’d like to be at the 85 kilo mark, and I still have a lot to learn, understand, test and no doubt I’ll have periods of flatlining and increases as I have over the past 44 weeks – it’s just part of the journey.

I’ll continue to blog about my experiences and try and dig even deeper to give a perspective of what I have been through and and going through as well. I am looking forward to the next part of the journey with optimism and excitement to see what it will be like to feel light on my feet again, to fit good clothes properly and a whole lot of other little milestones that will pop up throughout. Speaking of hich I had a stupid one the other night, I realised that laying in bed I could see the my feet, that may not sound like much, but for as long as I cn remember my stomach has been in the way, who knows what I’ll see next!

So here’s week 44’s chart. There is one weird measurement here, my waist actually increased 2cm which doesn’t make any sense with the weight loss and the cm loss on the hips and highs. Size loss in the waist is normally inline with what happens in the hips and thighs, but I think the reason is my movements.

I bet you never thought I’d talk about this … nor did I.

I am so regular every morning, but this morning it just didn’t happen and I felt a bit bloated and blocked up. Normally I only have trouble if I have been eating poorly, but I had been very good the past 4 days, it’s weird but I can tell from the consistency of my movements (take that either way, both are relevant) how well my body is functioning and I’ve learnt how my diet at any given time alters it. So I probably missed on a bit of size loss this week and maybe even a little weight loss as well, but I’ll get the bonus of that at the next weigh in in 11 days.

Click to see larger image

You can imagine how much of a problem losing 40 kilos is, in terms of the challenges of clothes. As I am losing eight there seems to be no use buying clothes only to see them hang off me within a month or two. So far I have lost my way through 3 suits – not a cheap exercise and it wont be long until I am on to my fourth.

On Facebook yesterday Sasha Goldsmith suggested to Witchery Men that he needed a new wardrobe for Christmas, so I piped up and added that I was getting desperate and clothes were going to cost a fortune. So who knows, Laura? Maybe a little sponsorship deal?

Anyway here are some of those photo’s that usually appear in weigh loss ads to illustrate the change in size since I started in February, the most amazing one is the suit jacket, when I started I couldn’t do it up. The jeans were so tight they were digging in severely and I only wore them under sufference. The shirt .. well I can fit Declan in there at the same time.

I am looking forward to what this will look like with another 30 kilos gone.

off to the Healthy Heart Clinic and final weigh-in, will update tonight.

I’ve just read  couple of really interesting articles about The Biggest Loser. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a great show from the perspective of allowing us to see the hard work that goes into shifting large amounts of weight, it is inspiring to hear peoples story and the challenges they have to overcome.

But ..

The missing elements I think are the most important i) Cooking ii) Psychological

Imagine if Biggest Loser incorporated cooking challenges as well, had some top chefs in teaching kitchen skills and really focusing on upskilling the contestants ability to prepare and plan healthy meals. It would be huge, just look at the Masterchef success.

I have found that I can do little exercise in a week and move weight if I eat really well, but if I eat poorly and do loads of exercise then the weight doesn’t drop anywhere near the same degree. So food (planning and ability) is by far the most important element in shedding weight. I remember a girl I used to work with, who had a personal trainer who would work her so hard, but she would continue to eat poorly and drink too much, and couldn’t understand why she wasn’t seeing the outcomes she expected.

It’s one thing, but the combination of all things, let one thing slip and it has an impact.

Psychology, in most cases (I’d venture to say all cases, but have not stats to prove either way) there are underlying psychological reasons for overeating / obesity. It would be so cool to see how Biggest Loser support their contestants with counseling support through their journey – here I am making the assumption that they do provide daily support to help on that front. if they don’t then I am really disappointed and shocked.

The articles I mentioned ask the question “who is going to be the first to sue ‘The Biggest Loser?’”

The concern about heart attacks, unhealthy habits like severe fasting and the use of diuretics (Warney). The first winner of the US season Ryan Benson lost 122 pounds of his 330 pount starting weight (I’ve lost 88.6 pounds in 10 months, starting at 347), is now back to over 300 pounds. Others have admitted to adding 20% of their final weight since the show, one even saying that she added 31 pounds in just two weeks mainly drinking water.

The other thing the articles raise is the document  the contestents sign to say they believe themselves to be “in excellent physical, emotional, psychological and mental health”, come off it, if any them answered that honestly there would be no TV series.

Anyway check out the stories, they are an interesting read about how we can take something so serious and at times trivialise it in the name of entertainment, when the opportunity exists to be just as entertaining and have some lasting benefit for viewers and contestants alike.

The Hollywood Reporter – Who will be the first to sue ‘The Biggest Loser‘?

New York Times – On Reality Show to Lose Weight, Health Can Be Lost in Frenzy

21 hours until final weigh in of the challenge – but am not fasting or dehydrating myself, the honest story is far more compelling.

If anyone knows any of the Australian contestents from previous seasons I’d love to meet and interview them, drop me a line.

Some people have been asking for a before and current photo to see the change. Believe it or not, I don’t have many shots from january this year, but I found this one from last summer. Underneath is a shot from July 08, when I was smaller than at the Jan 09 shot.

I wonder what I’ll look like with another 30+ kilos gone?

Only a couple of days to go and we have raised $5,209 and of course I expect a bit more to flow through over the coming days, if you haven’t sponsored me yet, please join in and support my efforts.

Thanks to the new sponsors Mum and Dad, Sandra, cousin Stuart, Mark, Irving and Madge & Ian – I really appreciate it.

So here’s the updated list, finally;

• Julie Long    $2 per kilo
• Mark & Marlene Fry     $1 per kilo
• Peter Applebaum    $5 per kilo
• Heather Albrecht    $100 donation
• Annie Sargood    $1 per kilo
• Peter Burley    $1 per kilo
• Larry Clark    $3 per kilo
• David Hamilton    $100 donation
• Chris Gray    $10 per kilo
• James Manolios    $1 per kilo
• Alan Long    $2 per kilo
• Marcus Lovett    $5 per kilo
• Martyn Thomas    $1 per kilo
• Jill Hennessy $3 per kilo
• Elizabeth Hoyle $1 per kilo
• Mark  Peaker $150 donation
• Amanda Daniel    $1 per kilo
• Leigh Oneill    $1 per kilo
• Declan Long    $1 per kilo
• Rob Manning    $2 per kilo
• David Chinn    $25 donation
• Craig Reardon    $1 per kilo
• Nik Kontoulas    $2 per kilo
• Simon Herd     $25 donation
• Clare Crawford   $0.50 per kilo
• Ben Cornwall    $2 per kilo
• Dani Carey    $100 donation
• Tony Hardy    $3 per kilo
• Jacqui Pinge    $1 per kilo
• Sam Stark   $1 per kilo
• Harley Giles $50 donation
• Gavin Appel  $100 donation
• Jamie Crick  $0.50 per kilo
• Rheika Tompkins    $50 donation
• Geoff and Sandra Denman    $1 per kilo
• Sue    Parker     $100 donation
• Leon DePettri    $2 per kilo
• Joy Joyous    $2 per kilo
• Dominik Gluchowski         $1 per kilo
• Sone Chen     $3 per kilo
• Andrew Aitken        $20 donation
• Jodie Fletchere    $10 donation
• Vanessa Yemm    $10 donation
• Matthew Michalowski    $100 donation
• Cheyne Winterton    $50 donation
• Jamie Mackintosh    $20    donation
• Che Carbis     $50 donation
• Jay Radici     $30     donation
• Michael Walmsley     $70     donation
• Kerry Fisher    $50 donation
• Neil Spark    $1 per kilo
• Kevin Hayes    $20 donation
• Juan Esteban Monsalve Tobon     $1 per kilo
• Lee-Anne Bishop      $20 donation
• Marc Johnson    $5 per kilo
• Claire Austin    $1 per kilo
• Verna & Brian Long $200 donation
• Sandra hanchard $2 per kilo
• Stuart Macintosh $1 per kilo
• Mark Whichelow $50 donation
• Irving Lewis $20 donation
• Madge and Ian Pinge  $1 per kilo

Thanks to everyone for your support, it’s awesome and inspiring.

Not one of my brothers yet though .. interesting! (Is that enough public shaming?)

So you’re in the final week of a 44 week marathon, do you up the ante and go really hard, or slack off and fool yourself that you can pull it back together at together at the end?

Guess what I’ve been doing?

I have just under 93 hours until the final weigh in of the saving Alan fundraising project to go now, and I need to really work hard and make up for lost opportunity over the past 3-4 days. It’s food and work, when I get really busy and a bot overwhelmed by volume I slacken off. In the past I did it without even thinking, now I am conscious of doing it. I am not sure if it worse or better?

I am about to send out a final sponsorship reminder to everyone connected with me and saving Alan on Facebook. That combined with the upcoming Sun-herald story on Sunday will be the last hurrah for trying to raise funds on a sponsorship basis, I have now decided to keep the donations part of the supporters section open, so you can keep following me over the coming year as I try and shift the final 30 kilos.

Bikram Yoga this morning was probably my worst practice, I felt less than average and  just slacked off .. interestingly it followed probably my best practice last Saturday. I need to ramp up the exercise over the coming days, so on the exercise bike tonight and tomorrow morning, Bikram Yoga on saturday morning and bike it on Sunday and Monday mornings.

Monday is the final day, 30 November.

I’ll be off to the Healthy Hearts Clinic (part of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes institute) at the Alfred Hospital for a final check up and then off for the final weigh in with my Naturopath. This figure will be used to calculate sponsorship totals, which currently stands at just over $5,000.

Not bad for a simple idea.

I travelled to Sydney last week to present at a business conference, which was great fun, lots of positive affirmation and some really interesting and smart people (Photo’s here and here). Had some great meetings as well and because the Sydney team don’t see me that often they are always amazed at how much weight I have lost and that is a buzz as well, because I live with it every day I don’t see the change as being dramatic, and I suppose it isn’t really, on average just under 1 kilogram a week.

Most of you would know that I was a contributor to the book “The Perfect Gift for a Man”, if not head over to the site and buy a book for every man in your life – go on, do it now!. Anyway through that experience and twittering and blogging about it a journalist from the Sun-Herald in Sydney found my story and was interested in talking to me further about it.

Without hesitating I agreed to meet and so on Tuesday night I met with features writer Nick Galvin and photographer Quentin (as in the famous Quentin’s Arch at Walsh Bay) to share more of my story and why I decided to go the route of being so public about my battle with weight and the depression / melancholy behind it.

I’ve dealt with enough journos over the years to have a healthy mistrust of being misquoted or worse misunderstood, but Nick was fantastic and we had a wide ranging chat about my life.

I don’t consider my story, my life or what I am doing now as that amazing or inspiring (this is not a fishing expedition for support) but I do get that the weight loss story has enough different issues that there will be something there that will resonate with most people if they have some level of insight.

Nick’s opening line was “so when is the book coming out?”

I am really not considering a book, a movie or anything else, I just want to get rid of the weight and teach myself the skills that enable me to reach that end and keep it off for good. I reckon the last thing the world needs is another bloody diet book, although that I would never attempt. They say never say never, so who knows? I saw a clairvoyant in April ‘08 and she said that I would write a book about something that I had achieved, so maybe I will or maybe I wont?

Anyway next Sunday (29 November) there will be a story on Saving Alan in the Sydney newspaper the Sun-Herald. I hope they can get it published in the Melbourne Age as well, fingers crossed, and I hope that it generates that last minute fundraising push that I am after.

Thanks Nick and Quentin, for being interested in Saving Alan and for the care and support you showed during our chat.

Last week I caught up with two mates that I went to Uni with 30 years ago. We all lived in the same area and so tended to do group assignments together and when we left Uni the three of us got the plum jobs in Melbourne (Clemengers, Masius and George Pattersons).

All three of us have had some great successes, have been best men for others weddings and have even worked together. Tuesday night was the first time in probably 20 years (maybe more) that the three of us got together. And so the theme of reconnection continues.

Three years ago one of the guys had a serious heart attack, and I mean serious it, ended in a quad bypass and he is lucky to be with us and his family today.

He had been at the Rolling Stones concert in the evening and woke up with chest pain around 5am. Like all of us males we self diagnose and the answer was some ENO, and then a run to the chemist for some Mylanta. Still the pain didn’t ease.

He organised for his wife to drop him at the office, as he had left his car there the night before as he was going to have a few prior to the concert. By the time they left for work he still hadn’t been able to shake the pain, and on the way the pain increased to the point where they decided to go to the hospital to check it out. On the trip he couldn’t sit still and he lost feeling in his left arm, (but of course he didn’t tell his wife that part), so they arrived across town at St.Vincents in Paddington and she waved goodbye to him, not realising just how serious a situation he was in and what was about to unfold.

As he walked into the hospital he knew how much trouble he was in, or maybe feared for the worst because he knew the deadening of the arm was a bad sign. Upon speaking to the triage nurse he was trolleyed and quickly the hospital swung into action gathering the finest surgery team.

And so he underwent open heart surgery and a bypass on all 4 valves and thankfully woke up afterwards.

The cigarettes went, other things he shouldn’t have been doing went, the beer stayed, but most importantly an exercise regime kicked in and healthy eating was a priority (although I had always considered him to eat pretty well).

He was not a big guy, didn’t carry that much extra weight, but he had trashed himself pretty hard for close on 20 years or more, and with a family history of heart disease it probably wasn’t the smartest of lifestyle choices, but damn he was good at it!

When I heard a day or two later,  I feared for him, but once the crisis had passed  it didn’t have any affect on me, in terms of my own lifestyle choices. I didn’t kick into action and correct my things, instead I rationalised it that he had thrashed himself harder than I ever could and each time I got myself checked out all my bloods etc were good so I had nothing to worry about.

Can you believe that, one of your mates has a quadrupole bypass and it doesn’t put a worry in your own mind that the same could happen, even though I would have been close to twice his weight .. what the hell was I thinking .. hmm, denial maybe?

I am just so glad he is still around for his family and friends, and that on Tuesday night the three of us had the chance to sit down and talk for a few hours, that was the highlight of my week.

Mate, thanks or letting me tell the story.

Found this online, this may have been handy a year ago, now it’s just an aid for poor decision making. Thought someone may like it!

Check out the full chart at BuzzFeed