The 15 Week Challenge

Hi there sports fans…

Nothing to major to report at the moment. Lifestyle change is coming along nicely really, I have still been good. I guess there are a couple of things I can share. Firstly, sausages – do yourself a favour, do not eat one ever again! Surprise in a bag is exactly that. I indulged at an activity we attended as a family and within seconds my mouth felt liked it had been caked in a layer of fat, I tried to eat an apple to cut through it but the layer of fat was almost impenetrable. I am not sure if you are too familiar with making gravy from scratch, but if you do and you do not skim the fat off the top of the pan juices, then put it in the fridge you will notice a very thick layer of fat will raise and form at the top – that layer of fat is what my mouth felt like it was caked in for ages. Then came the other part of eating – digestion, well let me just say it was not pretty- enough said! The one thing that I am learning from all of this is to differentiate between foods that I thought were nice and the reality of how they actually taste. For instance – Sausages, loved them, but now as I taste them with renewed taste buds, they really do taste just terrible. I discovered the same thing the other night when I was craving my favourite of foods the humble Roast Chicken - you know the store bought kind from Woolies – absolutely loved t it – before, but after indulging the other night I actually discovered that it just tastes really, really bad! Believe me when I say this is a huge change for me. The other side of the storey is, as I am discovering the real taste of foods I am finding that there are some foods that just taste absolutely beautiful and they are, for the most part very healthy. I am actually really enjoying this little phase and I hope it lasts as a reminder the next time I crave those old, bad, unhealthy foods that I used to apparently enjoy so much.

Ok on t more exciting news. My blood sugar levels are averaging around the 5.7 mark fasting with no real change 2 hours later. I am stoked about this as it falls within normal limits. As stated before my main goal is to come off Medication and control my Blood Sugar levels by diet and exercise….Ouch there is that bad word – Exercise, I am still struggling In that department. The main reason is finding the time to put in the extra that is required. I do a fair bit of walking each day but I certainly need to put in the extra which will help my situation even more, which will also help the weight to continue to come off me. In the weight loss area I think I am doing really well, my clothes seem to be getting looser and looser each time I put them on and there are more and more old favourites coming out of my wardrobe each week. I know my emphasis has not been on how much weight I have lost, but I have found that if I have a goal in mind (or written) I seem to work harder to achieve that goal. (What all that stuff about goal setting was true...NO WAY!) So here I go….and let me throw this challenge out to anyone else who needs to lose weight or feel healthier. There are now around 15 weeks to Christmas. So the 15 Week Challenge is going to begin. The idea is to lose as much weight as possible, as healthily as possible in 15 weeks. I have done a bit of research and it suggests healthy weight loss is around 1% of your total weight per week. This challenge for everyone and I would love to hear how everyone is progressing. My goal is to drop around 20 kilograms – sounds a lot doesn’t it, but that is only working on the 1% theory of healthy weight loss. If I am able to achieve this I will be pretty close to the same weight I was when I was married in 1996. Not only am I excited about the prospect, but my wife is over the moon! I can imagine how hard it has been for her to watch the person she loves eat himself to death and although this journey is something I want to do and is ultimately for my own benefit, I am happy that those I love benefit from it as well.

For me the 15 Week Challenge is about massive weight loss, for others it might be a few Kilos and again for others it may be about changing some bad habits to become healthier or health conscious. Whatever the challenge holds, I look forward to hearing about your success, pitfalls, down times, and good times. LET THE CHALLENGE BEGIN!!! (Oh and Go the Mighty Pies in September!)