WHATS MY TARGET?

I was asked today what my target weight was, a quick think later and i decided anything under 13 stone would be ok, then I thought id check on the NHS website, it says that for my height 5'7+1/2" i should weigh between 8 1/2 stone and 11 1/2 stone, well I'm an endomorph which means i have a stocky frame with stronger thicker heavier bones than someone who is a long distance runner so i reckon I'm going to be a bit over the 11.5 stone guideline the NHS has me down for.
my BMI has dropped to 30.9 from 34 back in mid July i think that's good going, so the target now for a good BMI of 24.9 is a weight of 11 stone 7 lbs, Jesus i think that's going to be tough going, are the NHS correct with their figures???

I've been to physiotherapy this morning, i woke up and my leg felt quite ok, not right but better, so i decided to walk to the infirmary, bit of a mistake that as i nearly didn't make it, walking up Winnington hill was excruciatingly painful, this was then explained to me by the physio as walking up hill was using the muscles that are inflaming my problem.
my problem is a partially torn Achilles tendon, this was probably done over 2 years ago when i did the Malta half marathon. id felt my calf go after 15 minutes and carried on for another 2 1/4 hours to finish the 13.1 mile race, what an idiot!!! 
anyway I've been given stretches and exercises to do twice daily, bad news is i hoped id be able to run once everything was sorted out but it appears that is not the best thing to be doing once you've had a tear, but the good news is i can cycle so i maybe becoming a bit more focused on doing that as best i can, although I've been told not to cycle out of the saddle, could make it difficult going up some hills. 

think this but further up towards the calf muscle(partial tear)

DROP 'EM

Yes this morning i weighed in and I dropped 2 things, firstly I dropped my underwear and stood on the scales looking out of my window at the busy shoppers going into sainsburys, it was 815 there werent many about in this rain, secondly, i dropped my weight too HOORAY!!!

looking down I thought, "wow, not seen that for a while", yes the figures on the digital readout of the scales read 14st 5lbs which equates to 201lbs or 91kgs, thats a loss since ive been recording the figures of 19lbs, 1st 5lbs or 8.6kg, thats quite a weight not to be carrying around anymore.

i do remember my friends wedding back in about 1991 ish when i was at the post office getting wet and shoving bits of paper through peoples doors, we decided to lose weight to look good for the wedding, i did get down to under 90 kg so its been a while since ive been around that weight. the difference is that time i did the atkins diet, all I ate was meat slices, chicken, eggs and cheese, lots and lots of cheese strangely it worked but im sure it wasnt as healthy as what im doing now. i choose wholewheat and wholemeal instead of processed stuff and my portion sizes have come down from eating for 2 down to eating enough, food is fuel after all, i even had bacon and egg the other day, just 2 rashers with the fat cut off and scrambled egg, id have probably had twice the amount before with baked beans, mushrooms, toast and HP sauce so you can see why my calorie intake is reduced.

im starting to think im going to need a new wardrobe, not a few pieces of wood screwed together but a new set of clothes, trousers are sliding off me, t shirts are very baggy but my socks seem ok!

so there we have it, some good news on this wet and windy day, im still losing :-)



28 mile bike ride

BIKE RIDE WITH ROB
click the above link to view our ride, 28 miles through the cheshire countryside,

STANDSTILL

well i feel I'm at a bit of a standstill at the moment, not because my weight has ballooned or anything but because of my calf/Achilles. i think the injury stems from the Malta half marathon i did in 2010, after 15 Min's of that i pulled a calf muscle, stupidly maybe i carried on in the heat for another 2 and quarter hours, a lousy time and agony towards the end but i finished and got some bling lol. anyway the damage was done, during the last couple of years I've just felt a stiffness in my calves in both legs, no pain really but recently on walking and trying to "jog" i.e. my attempt at running very slowly, I've been getting a very sharp pain in my right calf, sometimes its low above the Achilles and sometimes it feels higher up more in the calf muscle on the inside of the leg. I've bought a neoprene calf support which i wear during the day and a heat/cold pack for freezing and using at night, I've also purchased some knee length compression socks which were recommended by my elite running and cycling friend, they look quite sexy but I've not tried them out yet. i have finally recieved a letter from the NHS to say i can make an appointment for physiotherapy so will be giving them a ring in the morning and see what the experts say about it.

so ive not been able to do any exercise at all, no walking, no running, no cycling and no mountain climbing. ive bought a turbo trainer for my bike so i can use it as an exercise bike during the long cold summer oh yes i mean winter months coming up, click the link to see my new turbo trainer hopefully i can start a gentle workout on it without too much strain on my leg, comes with a free DVD so i can feel like im riding part of the tour de france. so until ive visited the physio im sort of stuck without exercise which isnt helping my weight loss programme but once my leg is sorted i will be making an effort to do more.

i'll be weighing in tomorrow so maybe 1 lb or 2 will hopefully be gone.

WEIGHED IN

yesterday I weighed myself, i actually do as youre not supposed to do and i wiegh myself every day just to see what effect my daily calories and hard work has on my body.
when i started this blog i was 220lbs and i felt like a blob, i also looked like one and acted like one so i must have been one, anyway so to the weigh in

naked apart from a nervous smile i ran down the stairs like a child on christmas day, ok as id just got up i trudged downsatirs to where the scales are and stood on them fingers crossed and waited for the beeps, one beep when it registers the weight, then 5 beeps as it counts down to the end and displays wieght and body fat %,

result as follows, 14st 9lbs or 205lbs, thats 15 lbs or 1st 1lb lost, quite pleased with that after a few weeks, im quite into the calorie counting now and im averaging around 1200 calories but the 2 days where i "fast" i aim for 600 but went over today, consider myself told off but there wasnt one bit of crap food in that, today ive had shredded wheat, quorn sausages, sweet potato, carrots and peas so I'm definately being a good little boy. 

calorie counting

ive been calorie counting now for about 2 weeks, i seem to be doing very well on that count, ive set myself a target of 1500 calories a day apart from the 2 days i only eat around 600 cals.
i am doing this by monitoring them on my iphone app myfitnesspal, he is a link to my profile on there so if youre bored and interested click here and see what ive been eating, it might surprise you.

im weighing in tomorrow so will post results then of weight and body fat % according to my scales

UNDER 15st

well i thought id share some good news, i weighed myself on friday and for the first time in a long time i am now under 15stones!! since July 8th ive lost 10lbs, not really been trying that hard but have cut back on pies and crap, basically most of what i ate lol, nah seriously i have cut back and i hardly eat bread now and have vowed not to buy a pie ever again for myself.

DOCTOR DOCTOR

Well ive had enough, walking briskly isnt getting my heart rate high enough to make me breathless, when ive attempted to jog and ive only done it in short slow bursts my calf and achilles on my right leg give me so much pain i have to stop and hobble. ive tried rubbing in deep heat, ibuleve freezing gel and ibuprofen all to no avail so ive been on the phone, made an appointment and seen the Doctor, she has referred me to the physio so ill be seeing him for my arm and my leg now! 
i also told the Doctor about my right knee giving way under me on Sunday, not sure if the dancing and walking in Blackpool was the best thing for an ageing old fart like me, seems im falling apart, maybe ill be the first Bionic man one day, who'll lend me the money?

diet change

if youve read my introduction youll realise ive struggled for a long while with my weight, yes seriously!! im not the waif like athlete you thought i was, probably since i left the army in 1988 when my exercise output dropped immensely. ive been on a lot of different diets, cabbage soup diet, cambridge diet, slim fast and the atkins diet, i loved the atkins diet, who wouldnt, bacon, meat and cheese all the time and i did lose a hell of a lot of weight, i even got into 34" trousers back then. well i watched an interesting programme the other night about fasting dieting, more of a way of life than a diet, the guy presenting it Michael Mosley was so impressed by the research he found in America that he decided to follow the routine one of the doctors devised for him. i wont go into too much detail, the link to watch it is HERE.

Basically, he has "fasted" 2 days out of 7, fasting in this instance is eating 600 calories at the most, the other 5 days he has eaten normally. after 5 weeks his results were as follows, he'd lost over a stone and his IGF1 levels were reduced by 50%, doing the fasting apparantly makes the brain produce new neurons, this helps the stave off the effects of dementia, it is also believed to considerably reduce bad cholesterols, increase good ones and reduce the risk of cancers. its an interesting and good programme i reccommend you watch. 

so after seeign the doctor today i asked about this fasting, she was a little perplexed about it, she had never heard of it and would only suggest i stick to NHS advice and to cut down and exercise, i said im trying to exercise but until my leg is fixed im struggling, anyway she said it was up to me but she doesnt see it being a risk to my health, so today ive only eaten 600 calories including drinks, well actually 597 so i could eat more lettuce if i get peckish later. might turn into a rabbit!!!!!!!

EXPERIMENT

i was weighed in the surgery, 97kgs or 15st 3lbs so lets see how the fasting has an effect on that. i had bloods taken a few months back so have records of those so im going to stick to this and see how they change if at all, 3 months time it'll be November and ill go back and have bloods done again and be re-weighed, fingers crossed there will be a positive outcome to this and hopefully by then the physio will have worked a miracle and ill be able to do more exercising.

CHESHIRE IS NOT FLAT

well Sunday the 29th July was the day I rode from Manchester to Chester for Breakthrough Breast cancer, when i signed up to do it, it was billed as a gentle ride through the pleasant scenery of Cheshire, it appears the author of that statement is a certified escaped lunatic. Despite cycling up Kelsall hill a few times in my training for my French escapades i believed the rest of Cheshire, apart from the hill Beeston castle sits on, was as flat as one of my old inner tubes.

arriving at Platts Fields in Manchester the heavens opened and the few riders who had assembled as early as possible were getting a soaking, myself included. My Dad dropped me off and i stuffed a banana into my face to give me some energy and i clipped into my pedals and rode to the start, i got to the start and soon realised my left shoe was stuck to the pedal, panicking id fall flat on my face in front of others i gently put my right foot down and smiled as I struggled to free my left foot, others commented on how my tyres were like razor blades, i laughed as i knew they weren't aware of my problem. the shoe came away from the pedal and i took it off to inspect it, somewhere between Paris 2011 and Manchester 2012 one of the allen screws in my cleat had vacated its proper position. luckily i had packed a set of allen keys and managed to tighten up the remaining screw to enable me to clip and unclip safely. the time was here and i approached the start line, set my garmin forerunner to start and set off, in the rain, through the puddles and over the absolutely rubbish pot hole ridden streets of Fallowfield and away we went. I'm not a cyclist who can bimble along at the start, i have to get going and get into some sort of rhythm, so i overtook a few people dressed for the mountains their bikes were made for but the traffic lights were holding me up, at one set i was overtaken(the cheek of it) by one of these mountain bikers wheelying passed me, i was quite impressed actually as i sped away from him, HA.
The rain soon ceased and I managed to sight see a few things, Christies hospital, several private golf clubs, Wythenshaw park as we headed off from the urban sprawl and into the countryside. the route meandered through posh areas with some lovely houses and industrial estates with decrepit units, i recognised Ashley post office where i used to collect mail on a Sunday when i worked for the royal mail, after then there was an ever increasing smell of cow manure and some of that was on the roads mmmm reminds me i need to clean my bike. we crossed the busy A556 by the Swan Hotel and were well into jungle by then, rain was holding off and the sun even poked his head through the clouds to say hello. the route was well signposted direction wise but the water stops weren't, the first one at the Kilton Inn in Mere went in the blink of an eye, no warnings just a sign as i went passed it, i decided maybe stupidly to not turn round and top up my water bottle and just keep going, id done 18 miles by then and felt OK so off I went heading towards my home town of Northwich. we skirted by Arley, Great Budworth and Comberbach, at this point i was beginning to feel a little stiffness in my left ankle, this is unusual as its normally my right calf and ankle that cause me problems, maybe it was the curse of the cleat screw attacking my good leg. i stopped at the Spinner and Burgamot for a stretch and a drink, not an alcoholic one just the remains of my water bottle. a quick rest and off i went, through Little Leigh and down to the River weaver, we crossed under the rusty bridge on the A49 and headed off to Crowton, took a right turn up the first steep hill of the ride, I'm unashamed to say i had to get off and walk up the hill, i wasn't the only one!! stiffness and thirst were attacking my psyche but you cant stop an old soldier, we just carry on no matter how slow. the next water stop which was signposted wrongly was at the Tigers head pub at Norley, i missed it and when i got to the next Marshall i complained and he kindly topped up my water bottle, this gave me chance to have an energy gel which id had since the 2011 big battlefield bike ride to Paris, it wasn't in date but it worked, i got some energy and pushed on, slowly!
i knew we were heading through to Delamere forest, i just didn't know it all seemed to be uphill, again I got off my bike before i stalled and fell off and walked up another hill. once we were almost at Delamere the thoughts of it being all downhill to Chester were soon battered, screwed up and thrown to the back of my mind in anger. as we rode up and down and up and up through the forest i was see sawing with a lad on a mountain bike, he was upset too as he was told this ride was a 3 on the difficulty scale, the same as the Manchester to Blackpool ride he had done 3 weeks earlier but he said it was much more difficult, I agreed as i walked up another hill,

 i stopped again for another out of date energy gel and an isotonic drink, surely that will get me to the finish now. as i got to Tarporley the heavens opened and a 5 minute deluge of biblical proportions drenched my pink t shirt, i decided to carry on through it as skin is waterproof and the rain was quite warm. a large sign telling us there were 10 miles to go came into view, it was a flat 10 miles but did seem to drag, the signs were 2 miles apart and obviously in 2 mile reductions and seemed to take an eternity to appear. the last mile was one where a smile ran across my face, i knew id made it and as i turned the final corner in the Christleton Law College i could see the finish line, the cheers and applause rang out and i smiled for the camera as i dipped over the finish line.
53 surprisingly hilly miles were complete and i slumped to the ground and downed another bottle of water, £100 although not the greatest amount in the charity world was raised by my kind friends and will hopefully do some great work for the Breakthrough Breast cancer charity.

surprisingly my body didn't take too long to recover, slight bit of crepitis in my left ankle but not the aching legs i thought i would have, so all i need to do now is think of my next challenge!!

me at the finish 

MANCHESTER TO CHESTER BIKE RIDE