Tag: Weight-Loss

I’m still alive!

January 6, 2016 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

Ok so it has been a wee while since my last posting. I am sure that both of my readers are worried sick about what is going on with me: “Has he quit!” they might decry, “Did he fall off a steep cliff and is rotting down a gully in some far flung remote part of New Zealand?” they might fret.

Well, fret not! I have not died yet. And I try and stay as far from remote New Zealand as I can (the whole reason for this blog aside . . . ), no, I have just been slack (another recurring theme in this blog).

The Plan™ has been interrupted somewhat in the past few months. Had a business / leisure trip to Europe, a birthday, and Christmas / New Years which have been in the way. I have determined that it is nearly impossible (for me) to maintain a healthy diet in the face of all that Christmas has on offer. And it is just ludicrous to even think about any sort of Plan™ when you are on holiday.

But not all was lost. I have maintained a modest activity schedule through it all. And I had a mini-hike while in Germany at the Black Forest.

That was a great little walk actually. I was visiting a funicular railway up a hill (they called it a mountain, I laugh!) at Baden Baden in Germany, but I arrived about an hour before the railway opened. There were a number of signs up for walks around the mountain, so thought I could pass the time by walking a little along some of them, so set off on a clear but brisk autumn morning. The further along I got the more I was enjoying it, so stopped and got into my serious walking shorts and shirt (which I conveniently had in my bag). And then proceeded to shanksnag it . I darted off down a side path which was sign-posted in German so I really had no idea where I was going. But the path looked neat, it was littered with fallen leaves and the trees were all dabbled yellows and golds, I half expected to walk around a corner to find a small cottage made of gingerbread. But what I did find was a bridge over the top of the railway, which is when I realised I had half climbed the mountain (actually only 1/4 climbed it I would find, but still good). So I determined to carry on.

Black Forest

The path rose steadily onwards and upwards, a bit steep in some places, but overall not too bad. The path left the deciduous trees behind and soon I was walking through a conifer forest, which was actually quite dark, so lived up to its name.

Blacker Forest

At the top the views were fantastic, looking out down a number of valleys which were filled with the quaint town of Baden Baden. On hills around I could see the ruins of old castles and watchtowers. The best part was that there was a cafe where I could congratulate myself on not being a completely lazy git.

One of the views from the top

Actually on the week or so that I was tourist-ing around Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands I was quite happy with my fitness which enabled me to get out and do a lot of walking around towns and tourist attractions. Another feat I was particularly happy with was climbing the belpre at the Brugge town hall. This was a significant and steep windy staircase, the going down much more nerve wracking and stressful than the going up. But it was well worth the effort.

Bruge Bell Tower

The only day that defeated me physically was when I was at the Van Gough museum, which involved a lot of standing around and tourist shuffling.

Looking at my log of walking though, I have now surpassed 1000 km, I actually achieved this back in November, but it is still an achievement. The tally to date stands at: 1216.2 km walked in 281 hours 58 minutes. Which adheres to The Plan™ at about 99%.

Weight loss is not so great, I have put on 7 kg in the past three months since I went to Rarotonga. I suppose it could have been worse.

There is now only 3 MONTHS until the Milford Track. I don’t feel prepared at all really. I have come along way, but now is the time to really knuckle down and get some decent preparation in. I still want to lose another 21 kg to reach the 50 kg lose target I set so long ago. And I will set myself increasingly difficult daily walking goals to increase my aerobic exercise.

I have no time to lose!

“Uninspired” (adjective) 1. lacking in imagination or originality. 2. (of a person) not filled with excitement.

September 16, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 5 Comments

Sorry for the lack of postings over the past two weeks, I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired.

Last week started off well. I set myself a moderately difficult challenge of doing at least three 15 km days during the week with the other days just doing a bog standard 6 km – and did well. Right up to Wednesday where I did 20 km – two 10 km walks – and felt remarkably virtuous, then the week went bad. I stopped walking at lunch time, didn’t do anything over the weekend, and ate like my old self.

I fell off the diet wagon into a pile of food, and didn’t even try and catch up.

In this instance my friends are not really friendly. I have been too social, and with social comes eating. I’m not blaming them (I am), they are very supportive and all that, but I might have to become even more antisocial than normal. Ok, maybe not antisocial so much, just not throwing massive food-fests at my place for them.

I actually had a meat hangover on Monday, I kid you not! I didn’t know it was a thing until Monday. Then, when walking to work, feeling hung-over but not having had any alcohol, I realised it could only be the result of chicken wings, beef brisket, and pulled pork tacos, in abundance – washed down with chili-cheese dip (there were carrot sticks . . . possibly it was the carrot stick’s fault). Oh there was cheesecake too. Mmmmm . . . .cheesecake . . .

Inspite of all this, I still managed to meet my walking goals for the week, but that was due to the big effort on Wednesday.

However, this week is going a little better. I haven’t set any phenomenal walking targets; just want to put in a steady effort. I am also trying to catch-up to the diet wagon (I’ve tripped over a few left-overs, but they are all behind me now). I really wanted to have lost 40 kg by the time I jet off to Rarotonga next week (23^rd September), but that is not going to happen. I am not even going to weigh myself before then because I don’t need that bad news.

Rarotonga is going to be a challenge. I need to figure out how to exercise and diet – while holidaying and enjoying myself. For some reason the two concepts seem to be a mutually exclusive. So between now and the 23^rd I have to convince myself that diet and exercise IS holidaying and enjoying myself (as if).

I’m sure I will find plenty of opportunity to exercise: walk, swim, walk some more; that’s if I can pull myself away from lazing on the beach sipping Pina Coladas (or whatever they drink there).

I got the second shirt from Earth Sea Sky yesterday. I love those shirts. I now feel like I need another one. There is a huge array of clothing I want from them, but will never be small enough to fit them. Drat it.

So if any of my thousands, hundreds, couple of readers have any good ideas for what to do in Rarotonga that won’t make me fatter, please comment and tell me.

Thanks

Very-Mini Hike: Riverstone Bush Walk

August 31, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

On my Saturday morning walk around the neighbourhood I decided to go a different route than normal (I was getting a bit tired of the same old route) and discovered a little sign pointing to “The Riverstone Bush Walk”. So I decided that would make a nice change. And what a wonderful little walk it was! It climbed up a gully along a stream, through native bush I didn’t even know was there. I had seen the sign for the top entrance to this walk before, but it looked like it just went off into gorse bushes so it didn’t really excite me too much. And the last bit was just through gorse, but the rest of it was quite pleasant, and nice to know that there is a little bit of nature so close to home.

The 12 km / day challenge has come to a mostly successful conclusion. Except a bit of a fail on Saturday I did in excess of 12 km a day, and didn’t eat much more than 1000 calories most days.

Monday – 13.6 km
Tuesday – 13.4 km
Wednesday – 14.3 km
Thursday – 14.3 km
Friday – 13.0 km
Saturday – 5.0 km (lol)

All up it was a good week, having walked a total of 73.68 km, which is a new Jordan Week Record. I lost about 4.1 kg in the week as well. I have to say, it was an effort. I feel pretty good for it, but it was difficult at times and I really had to make myself get out in the evenings to finish off the goal.

This week I am only going to try for 10 km a day. I also want to go out swimming each evening during the work week because my holiday in Rarotonga is coming up in just 3 weeks now, and I want to get a bit of swim conditioning in so that I can enjoy the snorkelling and stuff while I am there.

I have brought my main back-pack to work and will be wearing it on my botanical gardens walks from now on. I can carry more weight in it comfortably, and need to increase my conditioning in the load carrying area. I am starting with 12 kg in the pack, and will increase each week.

So an update on the progress of The Plan™ at the end of Week 23; I have walked a total of 636.1 km over 146 hrs and 48 mins. Which is 117% of what I have set myself to-date. I have also lost a total of 34 kg – 68% of my current weight loss goal.

Still so much to do!

Hitting the Weight Loss Wall

August 3, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

I think I have hit a weight loss wall. It might be a bit early to start complaining, but after such heady weight loss, I haven’t lost a gram in the past four days, despite essentially doing the same as I have been for the past 7 weeks.

The week started out so well. In the first 3 days I had lost 2.1 kg, and I was thinking that I was creaming it in the weight loss dairy. But then it just stopped. To the point that I thought my scale was busted. The today I have put ON 500 grams. Come-on!

I think I have hit the bottom range on my “set-point”.

I watched a very interesting, enlightening, and thoroughly depressing TED talk the other week on weight loss. And it revolved around how our brain has an idea of what weight range we should be, and when you move outside that range your brain employs an entire range of tools to make sure you get back to where it thinks you should be, even if that subconscious ideal is not a healthy weight.

What makes it worse is that although you can adjust the set-point UP, it is very unlikely you will ever set it DOWN. So my brain has decided I need to be this weight and now that I am daring to venture outside that range it is fighting tooth and nail to stop me. I now think that the drop in my resting heart rate (from 70+ to 56 bpm) has less to do with fitness and more to do with my metabolism tanking.

It’s also probably why I am thinking about pies all the time as well. I think I am even hallucinating the smell of pies. And nachos (go figure). Oh, and grilled cheese on toast. Man, this is making me hungry.

In non-weight loss news, I saw my doctor this past week as he wanted to check my blood-pressure again. And it was perfect. He was pretty thrilled with my weight loss and activity levels. So that is good to know. Besides being a fat bugger I am in perfect health.

My walking this week has been pretty good too. I got up to the gardens 4 times this week, and went for a 10 km walk around the bridge circuit on the Hutt River. So at the beginning of week 20 I have walked a total of 471.9 km in 110 hours 53 minutes.

1356% Better than Average

July 27, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 0 Comments

I’m loving (most of) the Fitbit reports that I get now I have wasted money on the premium service. My current favourite is this graph. Never thought I would see something that tells me I am 1356% better than average when it comes to activity. This is “very active minutes”, and I am not entirely sure what makes one minute “active” and another “very active”, I’m sure there is a FAQ about it on the Fitbit website. I should take a look . . . well, now I know. It is when you are exercising at 6+ MET . Active is only 3-5 MET. 1 MET is your body at rest.

Now you know. Comment if you feel your life was enriched by that knowledge.

This past week has actually been pretty good. I got up to the Botanical Gardens 4 times. I would have made 5 but had to take Friday off with “gastrointestinal issues” (the less you know the better for you). And I’ve started taking the steepest street to get to the gardens, which really gets my heart-rate going. It’s been really good. Even on Friday I still managed to get out and do a 6 km walk around the neighbourhood in the afternoon, so was very pleased with myself. All up last week was the most active week I have had since I have been on The Plan™, I managed to walk a total of 59.57 km which is nearly double what The Plan™ says I should have done. I’m a machine.

So at the end of the 18^th week on The Plan™ I have walked a total of 411.9 km in 97 hours and 43 minutes. That is clocking in at 113% of what I have planned to do. Not too shabby. Oh, and I’ve lost 23 kg in the past 6 weeks. So nearly 4 kg a week. At this rate I should reach my weight loss goal sometime in mid-September. Oooo, in time for my trip to Rarotonga!

At the Thorndon Lookout in Wellington Botanical Gardens

Here is a photo I took of myself last week up in the gardens.

I have been back in contact with the lovely people at Earth Sea and Sky around some of the details for my custom made shirts from them. So am looking forward to getting those. They have made me an official ambassador for them, so go buy their stuff. I suggested the best ambassadorial work I could do for them was to dress in their competitors clothing so that people are put off wearing them. They laughed.

On more clothing news I have had to retire my old suit because it is just too big and baggy for me now, I can barely wear the trousers they are so loose. I popped into Harford’s where I have my suites made up (because I needed updated chest measurement for Earth Sea Sky) and while there it was pointed out how bad my suit was fitting. So I am getting new trousers made up (I will hold off the jacket because if I continue to shrink at the current rate it won’t be cost effective). Luckily I tried on an ‘old’ suit I had in the closet, and it fits me again (it isn’t really old, it wasn’t worn much before I expanded beyond its confines). I can also wear my dinner suit again which was made for me in 2007, so I am going to wear that to a work function this week; because I can.

Upping the Ante

July 17, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 3 Comments

This week I have seriously started to up the ante on both diet and activity. In addition to the near on hourly walks around the block, I have also started to take lunch time walks (weather and schedule permitting) up around the Wellington Botanical Gardens. I managed to do two walks up there this week on Monday and Tuesday. Work and life interferred the rest of the week.

I used to walk around the Botanic Gardens a fair bit in past years, so it was really nice to get back up there. There are alot of meandering paths around the hills there to take and explore, and looking a map of the gardens I haven’t been to about two-thirds of places there. So I am looking forward to spending more time up there exploring. And on a nice day it is a really lovely place to be. Winter it isn’t so pretty, but it will be spring soon so there will be lots of nice pretty flowers. This week the weather has been (at times) beautiful, so had nice views of the harbour and up the Hutt Valley.

I’ve also subscribed to Fitbit premimum, because it has some cool reports, and I am a sucker for such things. Fitbit has actually been fantastic and motivating me to get up and about and active. Especially now I am logging my eating in it as well (Fitbit Inc. is getting all my health data now ). And my eating has been pretty good the past week. Although it started bad with me having some old friends around for dinner, so I cooked up and storm and over ate. I also experimented with McDonalds last Saturday to see the affect a Big Mac w/ Steak Mince n Cheese Combo. Not pretty. Won’t do that again for a while.

Didn’t even enjoy it that much.

What I did like was the Italian Meat Ball and Mozzerella Pie from Z Energy, pie of the week. I decided life isn’t worth living if I didn’t have that pie in my gob. That happened yesterday, so I skipped lunch and dinner and no damage done

I bought new replacement scales (although my brother insists that the other ones aren’t broken . . . whatever) So far, after 4.75 weeks of my “try not to eat” diet I have lost 18 kg. Have to say, it feels pretty good. Kate Moss was right. Still a long long long way to go, but I am actually optimistic that it might be achievable. A non-fat Jordan, can you even fathom such a thing? I am also not struggling with the hunger so much. I am kind of hungry all the time, but not flat out starving. I am actually starting to enjoy the hunger, it feels good.

So an update: at the (near) end of week 17 of The Plan™ I have walked a total of 334.4 km in 80 hrs 35 mins. That is an efficacy of 100%! Yea! I’m glad to be back in the black after the Mangatepopo Slump.

4 weeks until a go/no go decision on the Milford Track (i.e. I pay for the tickets). Gotta say it is looking positive.

Earth Sea Sky

July 3, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 1 Comment

Yesterday while walking back from an across town meeting I spied a pop-up Annual Sale store for the adventure clothing manufacturer Earth Sea Sky. As I was feeling in a modicum of an oppimistic mood I thought I would pop in and see if they had anything my size – they didn’t. But that’s not thier fault. No one ever does.

I got talking to the very helpful lady in there (who turns out is the Operations Manager of Earth Sea Sky) and explained my quest for the Milford Track, and my current hunger games with my body, and how it is difficult to get out and active when you can’t buy clothing that supports that. To cut a long story short she said that she could get thier designer to make some shirts up for me! On the condition that I continue with going on the Milford Track, and losing weight. So she took my measurement, we discussed size, fit, and colours and once she returns to Christchurch she’ll get back to me with details like cost and so forth.

This is great, they make great clothing and i’ve always wanted to be able to buy and fit some (one of the reasons I went into the store was for inspiration and motivation to keep getting smaller) so i’m really stoked. And hopefully these will hold me over until I am skinny enough to fit thier standard range.

Maybe I will inspire them to make a permanent range for the fat man – a OneFatHiker range

Otherwise this week is going well, better than well actually. The diet is holding up well. I am hungry most all the time, but am getting used to the feeling. My activity levels have been pretty high. I have been making sure I hit the 10000 step goal every day. I have set my fitbit alarm (it vibrates rather than dings so it doesn’t bother anyone) to remind me to get up and walk every hour. So i’ve been doing 2 laps of the block around work (sometimes 2 blocks) and feeling pretty great for it. And i’ve stuck to The Plan™ well this week. I can’t believe that I am nearly at the end of Week 15 of the plan. That means that in 5 weeks time I have to make a go/no go decision on the Milford Track, and book it. Once i’ve done that there is no turning back.

I have been harbouring a hope that it will sell out before then, but I looked the other day and there are still plenty of spaces. It still frightens me to look at the track maps and think that I will have to do that. But I am confident that if I stick to what I am currently doing I will be in good condition to do that walk.

Another thing my Fitbit does is monitor and track my resting heart rate. And that has steadily come down over the past month – from 73 bpm to 61 bpm. I take this as a good sign that I am getting fitter – rather than a sign my heart is about to give out . . .

I also went for a swim this week on Monday. Man swimming is hard. I meant to go back again later this week, but haven’t yet. Too hard to leave the house once I get home. Something to work on I suppose.

It’s a Bittersweet Symphony this Life

June 27, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 2 Comments

I think I have myself back on The Plan™ It’s been a difficult couple of weeks to keep on The Plan™, last week was very wet and cold, and the beginning of this week was not much better. On the bright side I got to try out my waterproof hiking trousers, and even my thermals underneath. It wasn’t quite cold enough for the thermals I still ended up sweating by the end of each walk, but better that than be cold. Unfortunately walking in all that wet and cold gave me a cold. A proper cold, not man-flu (it’s a real thing!). So that stopped me on Thursday and Friday, I decided I needed to keep out of the cold and wind. On Thursday I managed to keep my activity levels high and get my 10000 steps in for the day by getting up from my desk every hour and walking twice around the block. I’m quite proud of that I will have to do that more often. It also made me go up and down the steps quite a bit too.

I’ve started taking my iPod with me (yes I still own an iPod classic) on my walks. I had been resisting doing that because, I don’t know, I thought listening to music took away from the gravitas of the activity. But actually it’s quite good, except I can’t not sing along as I walk, so the neighbourhood gets to hear my rendition of my “Top Rated” playlist. I also find that when Bittersweet Symphony is playing I get quite a belligerent purposeful stride. Go figure. It’s a good walking song.

The diet has been going well. I am getting used to the lack of food, and even enjoying the salads, which is pretty much all I am eating. I’m generally keeping myself to less than 2000 calories a day, which is well below my target. That leaves me with about a 3000 calories a day deficit, which is 3 times more than what I am trying for. This week I am about 16000 calories under budget, that’s the equivalent of not eating anything for four days. Oh yeah!

I had planned to not weigh myself until the end of July, to give myself time for there to be a noticeable change, and also because my scales at home can’t handle my weight as it was, so I didn’t want to stand on it and just get an “err” on the screen. That’s just demoralising. but I couldn’t resist this morning because I thought I was looking thinner, and lo and behold not only have I lost enough to actually be measured by the scale, but I have lost double digits – 11 kg in two weeks. If I keep this up I will lose that 50 kg in eight more weeks! Unlikely, the weight always comes off quick to start. But it did put me in good spirits.

So an update for the end of Week 14: I have walked a total of 247.8 km over 61 hours 48 minutes. That is pulling in at an efficacy of 94% to plan.

I haven’t done any mini-hikes or even longer walks since Mangatepopo, so I should probably do that.

I am also considering going for a few swims next week to up my activity level even more.

I Miss Food :-(

June 16, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 1 Comment

So dieting sucks. I remember now why I don’t do it very well. And it’s only day two of . . . well . . . the rest of my life (please God! Let it be short).

Yesterday I kicked off the “gotta lose weight by not eating like a fat pig” diet in order to get to the required (by me) 50 kg of weight loss before the Milford Track (presumably next March). I’ve turned to my Fitbit® to help me in this endeavour. I know from previous ‘successful’ weight loss campaigns that calorie counting and food journaling works well for me, but instead of dusting off my old bespoke spreadsheet, I thought I would try Fitbit’s food tracking option.

First I had to step through its wizard. “How much do you want to lose?” – 50 kg “How difficult do you want to make it? . . . at first I clicked “Easy” and it tells me I’ll get to my goal weight sometime in 2025. Eventually I have to select “Hardest” where I am shooting for a 1000 calorie a day deficit. That gets me to my goal in July 2016 – meh, close enough.

So now Fitbit it gives me a nice little graphic showing how much I have eaten and how much I have left to eat each day, and it’s dynamic! It changes depending on my level of activity. Smart! Yesterday I went under goal by 1560 calories (thats 6527 kj) And that was after a bit of a “toast, butter, and salmon pâté” bender last night.

I’m starting to research ‘friends of Anna” websites to get ideas because those guys know about not eating. I’m sure there is something they can teach me.

Last week was also a bit of a bust as far as adherence to The Plan™ went. I can blame it on work (lunches) and friends (child minding duties) and weather (sucked), but really it was just more inertia from me. I’ve lost a wee bit of focus, and the lack of a short term goal doesn’t help. However I am struggling to come up with a decent short termer. I could dream up another hike, but in winter it is not an attractive proposition. I think I am starting to enter a more “hard slog and determination” phase of The Plan™ and just need to suck it up and get on with it.

While constantly thinking about food . . . Mmmmmmmm . . . food.

Sick, Slack, and Sad

June 9, 2015 / Jordan Setters / 1 Comment

(some people think alliteration is silly, superficial, and simpleminded, but I say they are stupid)

Things haven’t been going all that well this past week as far as the The Plan™ is concerned. Firstly I came down quite ill on Tuesday. That knocked me down for at least 3 days. After that I just didn’t feel like walking, so ended up having a really slack week. I did have an idea to go for a 10 km walk around the river, but just didn’t.

When it comes to quitting I am generally considered a world champion. If quitting were an Olympic event, I wouldn’t win – I would have quit before getting there. So knowing this I could see the danger signs coming, so made sure I went out for a walk on Sunday afternoon. I just did 4 km around home, and I did it without a pack, which surprised me how easy it was to walk without a weight on my back. So I am starting to get back on The Plan™.

It has also come to my attention that I will probably have to lose around 50 kg before I can effectively do the Milford Track. It has also come to my attention (due to a visit to the Doctor the other week) that I have put on 5 kg in the past 5 months. Damn it!! It is time to really get serious about this – next week (because everyone knows that diets that start next week are more effective).

So an update on the plan at the beginning of Week 12 of The Plan™ I have walked 200.8 km in 51 hours and 27 minutes, running at about 95% adherence to the plan. That is low because of last week, so I will see what I can do this week to get that back up.

I’m also considering ways that I can get more exercise into my program; maybe some swimming, maybe starting to cycle to work again. But I am a little reluctant to do too much and overdo it, causing the aforementioned “quit reflex” to kick in. It is also why I haven’t attempted to change my diet considerably; I just wanted to focus on getting the walking habit underway; 12 weeks in it might be time.