Archive for December, 2009

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.

I’ve finally got around to editing the cooking lesson that Nick K gave me, showing me how to prepare and cook Chicken Cacciatore.

I worked a treat and is on the lunchtime rotation.

Ingredients;

• 8 skinless chicken thigh fillets
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 2 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Small amount of oil
• Small tub of kalamata olives
• Small bunch fresh basil
• Dried oregano
• 2 stock cubes (chicken is the preference but it won’t really matter).
• Whatever vegetables you like to eat on the side…

A few problems with lighting and camerawork, hopefully it adds to the charm

Chicken Cacciatore

Nick K came over and showed me how to cook an Italian classic, Chicken Cacciatore and I have finally got around to editing and posting it.

Here’s the recipe ingrediants.

8 skinless chicken thigh fillets
2 cans of diced tomatoes
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
Small amount of oil
Small tub of kalamata olives
Small bunch fresh basil
Dried oregano
2 stock cubes (chicken is the preference but it won’t really matter).
Whatever vegetables you like to eat on the side…

Not the best week and half of weight loss, ok maybe weight loss is the wrong description as I went up a little, another wave in the pattern.

I am not too concerned though as I understand exactly what has been happening and how I have reacted to things around me.

As before when work intensity and demands increase I stop putting myself first and take the easy route to putting food in, this is especially apparent in the evenings, when I leave the office and head home only to crank up the computer and continue to work.

I feel back to the old pattern of eating takeaway almost every night until last weeks weigh in, and look at the impact it has had, during this period I was eating well at breakfast and lunch, but the evening meal is highlighted as having a massive impact.

My self justification has simply been that I am too busy to prep and cook a meal at home and it’s easier to grab something on the way home, eat and get back to the outstanding work that needs to be done. The reality is different, it’d be easier to prep and cook and not to mention cheaper as well.

I‘ve had a second thought as well. Some of you may know or realise that I shot an interview with Today Tonight that hasn’t aired as yet and I’ve been using the thought that when that airs people will see me buying takeaway and either pick me up on it or shoot be me crappy looks, so I’ll have to be good and restrict it back to Fat Food Fridays.

The real outcome / learning is that I am still battling to put me first when it comes to food and I need to get back to planning my meals better.

Instead of beating myself mercilessly for a bad week I am going to take a bit of advice from this quote and make sure the next few weeks really count: “Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past.” Tyron Edwards

It’s Christmas part season, but that is not causing any challenges as I really don’t drink anymore and so drinking water and watching everyone else get wasted is sort of an interesting sport (not in a mean way). With family functions I can plan an give myself some good options, and the family are right behind me so there’ll be no sneaking lollies or other goodies.

So here are last week’s results, the see-sawing continues, but at least I have definitely put he 40 kilos mark to rest forever and now the target is set at 50 kilos. I am still confident that if I eat well, almost regardless of the level of exercise I will drop weight consistently each week. It’s all about the food for me at the moment.

So a week where I gave all the previous weeks loss back, it’s been a common story, 2 steps forward and one step back, but it’s just part of the journey and it doesn’t mean I’ve failed, but just learnt a little bit more.

This could be titled “The Tale of Two Brothers”, I’ll leave the other two aside for he moment, yes I come from a larger family of six children, four boys and two girls.

The six of us were born over an 18 year period (’54 – ’72) and all have a pretty good relationship with each other, at times testy, but that’s to be expected in a family of any size.

My younger brother has never dealt with weight issues, although no doubt has confronted his own challenges over the years, as a father of three and separated he has some of the same situations as me, but thankfully a pretty good relationship with his ex-wife.

As kids growing up I was closer in age to the brother above me and as we reached adulthood we had a lot of friends in common and so became quit tight, whereas little brother was 4 years younger and the relationship not so tight as kids. That has changed and developed as we grew older and no doubt will continue to.

I am incredibly proud of my little brother, he is the Ironman to my Wobbleguts – first let me explain Wobbleguts.

When I first started on the Saving Alan journey one of my forms of xercise was Aqua Aerobics, keeping the weight off my ankle joints and feet which were really suffering due to my size.

One day after class my son and I played in the wave pool and mucked around with a story about a super hero and a villain. I decided to give the superhero the name of Wobbleguts, because ion the swimming pool my belly wobbled like you can’t imagine, much to said sons amusement.

So I am Wobbleguts, he has lived on since that day in the pool some nine months ago through our bedtime stories. We create stories around Captain Wobbleguts and his merry men including Monster Guy, Dark Knight and Golden Ninja – a formidable foursome of force.

When we first started the stories, all my son wanted to do was kill Captain Wobbleguts, but we made a deal that we could only let him die when my belly was pretty much gone. So Wobbleguts, your days are numbered!

Back to my brother. A few years ago he started going to the local gym and getting a little more serious about his body shape (enter vanity comments here …), dropping his golf off which I never thought he would do as he was an avid golfer and was able to get his handicap down to single figures.

He seemed to find a little community and click at the gym which motivated him and the change was evident. From being just a normal lean 40 year old he started to develop some serious guns and went shirtless at every opportunity – so would I with the shape that he developed and how hard he had obviously worked.

But something else happened, the kid who was never into running started to get a bit serious and before I knew it he had clocked up a couple of marathons, sheer lunacy in my book, but little did I know that was just the start.

The next thing to appear was a racing bike (bicycle) and out came the lycra – well it was a great opportunity to show off the physique and the tan! He told me he had joined a Triathlon Team called Tribal, this was going to be interesting because couldn’t really swim very well, how was ever going to survive the swim leg of a Tri?

With gusto he threw himself into the training and now 12 months later he just completed his first (I fear there will be more) Ironman length Triathlon. I am so incredibly proud of him and what he has been able to achieve, how he has gone about it, his single-mindedness to prepare his body and mind plus his ability to juggle his everyday life and still deliver on being a father to three gorgeous kids, a worker, brother, friends and partner.

Our stories are similar in that we have both set out with a goal in mind and are focused on the journey and what we have to do to get there. We both needed to learn more about food and diet, exercise and how our bodies work and their current limitations, and we both need to plan ahead to be able to get everything into our sometimes complex and confusing lives.

So last Sunday I was tracking his progress via the web, saw that he had a great swim, a couple of minutes under his expectation, but the bike didn’t seem to be panning out as expected and so I thought he must have gone into complete meltdown after going too hard in the swim. I’ll let him pick up the story from here in an email he sent around last night;

Hey Everyone,

I am now officially an IRONMAN!!

Didn’t quite break 12 hrs. It was 12hrs 18min. But I am absolutely rapped.

The day was hot and windy. 30+ degrees, sunny and windy. Not ideal conditions. At least the water temperature was under 24 degrees so I could wear a wetsuit.

Did the swim in 1hr 18min. A couple mins quicker than planned. I swam really well. Controlled and easy. It felt awesome for a guy who couldn’t swim 100m 12 months ago. 143rd out of 194 in my age group (there must be 51 absolute nuff nuff swimmers…lol). This was by far the biggest thing I achieved. I have carried a fear of swimming and deep water for 30+ years.

Everyone wants to know about my 12min transition. That is embarrassing. But by the time i did my hair!!! I cant believe it was that long. Something to work on!!

The ride was a little disappointing. I rode to heart rate (77-80% of max heart rate) and just couldn’t get the speed up to what I wanted because it felt like we were riding into a head wind all day. It was probably a cross wind that was only a tail wind for a few km’s each lap. I decided to keep to heart rate rather than speed and destroy the legs for the run. I had a little mechanical problem towards the end of the first lap. Had to stop twice because the cadence sensor came loose and was hitting the pedal/crank. Fixed it ok the second time. Struggled on the bike around the 140-150km mark. Didn’t help that they ran out of sports drinks at the drink stations and only had warm/hot water or cola left. So I had to adjust the nutrition plan a little (Kath taught me well). But I coped. So I did a 6hr 20min 180km ride. 144th out of 194.

The run was fantastic, if you can say that after 180km ride. During the first 2km, I was thinking Olympic distance tri’s are a lot better option (10km run)…lol. But I got into a really good rhythm. I worked out I had to run a sub 4hr marathon. But it would have meant pushing my heart rate beyond 85% for the whole run. I again decided to run to 78-80% of max heart rate so I wouldn’t blow up. Which meant at the end of the first lap (14km) I knew I wasn’t going to break 12hrs, but I didn’t care.

I felt strong and was moving really well. But the run leg was like a battle zone. People doubled over with cramp, vomitting and struggling to just walk. I can’t believe how many younger and fitter guys I ran past (they all went too hard in the ride and paid the penalty). But the highlight was interacting with the crowd. I played it up alll along the run. Ordering beers, hamburgers, taxi’s, singing, high 5ing kids, and generally joking with different groups. I did this so I would look forward to seeing these groups at different parts of the course.

The last lap i started to feel it in the legs a bit and slowed. But it wasn’t about time at that stage, it was about taking it all in. And not walking at any stage, which I am happy to say i didn’t walk….ran all the way. Running down the finishing chute was unbelievable (the true highlight of the day). The support crew was towards the start of the chute. Hi-5’s all round and then sucked in the last 150m. It was awesome coming over the line. I felt like i could have done another lap. I was not in distress at all. So i ended up doing a 4hr 20min marathon which I was rapped with considering the amount of people i passed. 43rd out of 194 (266th male out of 966). Somehow running has become my strength.

So over all 12hr 18min. 90th out of 194 in my age group. 463rd male out of 966. And i am now an ironman, and planning the next.

Kath gave me some fantastic advice on Friday night. If I wasn’t smiling for 95% of the time, I shouldn’t be there. It was so true. So I decided to take that into the race. So I joked and chatted my way around the whole bike and run course. And it just puts you in a different mindset. It made my day so enjoyable. There were lots of people who went quicker than me, but I doubt that there was many who enjoyed it as much as I did. The spectators and volunteers were awesome.

The Tribal (the Tri squad i am a member of) cheer squad was awesome to. It was great to see Kath and a mate Nathan every lap. There smiles almost matched mine. It was great to have someone special watching along the way and at the finish and to talk about it afterwards. The coach was over here to and was great to have him here to keep an eye on me.

The house I am staying in is a Rockstar party house. So it should for $5000 per week (thank god we filled it with close to 10 people for most of the week). Wait for the pics on Facebook. Although there are 19 stairs to my bedroom. They have been a struggle until today. The legs are recovering well. I have shared the house with 2 Pro triathletes (one competed at the Olympics last year). And a few others have come and visited and it has been a great week. Just the 3 of us left now and heading back to Melbourne tomorrow.

So it has been an incredible journey and experience particularly for my first ironman. Now I have to prepare for my next. Port Macquarie. Very hilly and demanding, but it will a great challenge. Sis has already volunteered to come down as support.

Well that’s all for now. look forward to seeing everyone very soon. And i can tell you all about it in person. Thanks for all your messages, they have been appreciated.

Paul (Official Ironman)

The moral of the story – if anyone notices me starting to follow little brothers path – stop me! It’s starts with a bike and ends in lunacy.

The real moral of course is I just need to do things in the moment, for the fun, for the enjoyment, for the journey. I need to enjoy the personal challenge and you never quite know what I’m capable of.

So my journey continues with no defined events to compete in etc and I’ll pick up new things as I go and discard others as ell, most important is that I find things I enjoy and that enthuse me.

At 158 kilos no form of exercise got me excited, but things change if just give yourself a chance, schedule your world a little, live in the moment and with intent amazing things can be achieved.

Bro, thanks for letting me post your email, you inspire me.

So I posted last week that the November 30 deadline wasn’t going to be the end of the challenge, I am going to keep going until I get to the outcome I am after, no matter how long it takes.

But the mind is a weird thing, I’ve really slacked off on the food side of things over the past week and a half, since the final weigh in of the fundraising challenge. But I am fining my body actually demanding healthy meals, I want a good serve of vegetables and so getting the program back on track isn’t tough, it’s all in the planning. A common theme has been when work get really busy I have fallen off the perch a little and so the next two weeks will be difficult on that front as will the start of next year with a fair bit of business travel over the Feb, march and April.

I’ve kept exercise up though over the last week or so doing Bikram Yoga on Sat, Sun, Wed, Thu, Sat and Mon . Just need to get back on the exercise bike which sits in the lounge room mocking me as I walk around it

Good news is that I have 3 weeks off after Christmas, so I’ll be able to really control the food intake (with the exception of Boxing Day) and up the ante on exercise and give me a great start to the New Year.

I can’t be perfect, no matter how much I’d like to think I can be, it’s just not possible. So the alternative is to be consistent, it’s what I do every day, not once and a while that will have the positive outcome, so I am going to stop beating myself up for eating poorly over the past 10 days and just get back to what I know works and I enjoy. I’ve got the rest of my life to get it right.

You’ll have to wait a little longer to find out what the last post is all about! Sometime next week.

On Monday I visited the Health Heart Clinic run by the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute to get another check up see what the changes I have been able to benefit from physically during the Saving Alan project. At the last visit in September I had reduced my risk of Heart disease substantially, but this time wasn’t as good a picture.

Not bad though, considering my weight and that i still smoke, my bloods etc are all good, it just seemed that the blood pressure was up a little – probably due to my stupidity in having a cigarette just before going in, we smokers are playing with loaded guns – and we know it.

My next visit will be late May 2010, and I am confident that the moles will be gone by then and I should be below 100 kilos, so we will see the pendulum swing back.

Here are the comparative results from my visits so far, click to see a larger version;

Smoker: If I stopped smoking then I would get my overall risk factor cut by half to 3.5%, which is low but higher than what it could be.

Systolic Blood Pressure: was up this visit, we think it could have been th influence of a cigarette, I’ll make sure next time there are no smokes

Diastolic Blood Pressure: This is the pressure coming in to the heart, it remains good if not excellent.

TC (Total Cholesterol); Well within the healthy normal range

HDL (Good Cholesterol): Still needs to come up a bit, but my diet has been a bit off lately so if I get with it we’ll see an upward move..

LDL (Bad Cholesterol): All good here

Triglycerides: Nice and low

Glucose: have I mentioned that I am indestructible?

Weight: Heading in the right direction.

Body Mass Index (BMI): Down to 37.2 – and I used to over the 50 mark.

Waist circumference: Another 30cm to go.

Heart Health: Risk factor has dropped from 9% to 7% a low risk to have a cardiovascular event in the next 5 years. My target absolute risk is 2.5% and I am 2.8 times more likely than a person with a low risk profile to have said event, down from 3.6x.

Diabetes Health: My risk of developing type 2 diabetes within 5 years is High, and with this risk level I have a 1 in 7 chance. This hasn’t moved since the start, so weight and waist circumference are the two big indicators here..

The Heart Clinic is based at the Alfred Hospital in Commercial Road, Prahran (between Punt and St.Kilda Roads) and you can call them on 03 9076 3398 to organise your own check up. The first time you go takes about 40 minutes and all it consists of is a questionnaire, blood pressure and a blood test. The blood test is cool compared to what I have been used to, instead of taking a syringe to you and extracting a heap of blood, they just prick the end of a finger  and take  small amount of blood through a tiny little straw .. it just runs up there on its own.

Then they analyse the blood in a little machine and that provides results on cholesterols, triglycerides and glucose levels. These combined with blood pressure, weight, body mass index, waist measurement, age and whether you’re a smoker all combine to provide a risk factor.

So give Jan or Liz a call now, it’s free and the information is worth knowing before you end up in the Alfred proper.

Just got a message via Facebook from Jan, I’ll share it with you;-

“Longie. I had no doubt that you would. NOW though is where you get my real support. Whats the next goal? Don’t give me a weight goal, give me an event. x”

I must admit I have only had a weight goal that I thought would give me a good omfortable feel about myself physically, I never had an intention of doing any event of ny kind to prove my fitness or that I had achieved something.

But I m open to the idea of participating in an event although I really don’t know what is out there. One thing we can knock out straight away is the idea of doing a marathon, just not interested in running for 43 kilometres (that’s what cars are for).

So I need your suggestions for something I can target as a goal for next year.

I’ll collate the ideas and put them to communal vote and that will become a goal.

Over to you!