“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”
Stephen Covey
The final post
I started this blog on 1 January 2013 with a dual purpose: to lose weight and to change my lifestyle in a positive way.
Over the first 6 months of 2013 I succeeded in achieving both purposes, whilst not ultimately reaching my goal weight.
I confess that in the last 6 months of 2013 I have lost some of the focus on diet and put back on 5kgs. That said the lifestyle changes made have stuck with me: so much so that I can not remember the last time I had a Big Mac or ate to significant excess which had become a hallmark of my life before this year.
As this year draws to an end so does this blog. I will not be posting here again and the web address will change to operation100.wordpress.com from tomorrow.
I want to thank all of you who read this blog, supported me on the weight loss journey I went on and gave me a kick I the bum when I needed it. 2013 has been a life changer in more ways than one and now I look forward to the challenges that 2014 will bring.
I will be setting myself a new challenge from tomorrow so check out my other blog shumpty77.com or my twitter feed @shumpty77 for details.
Operation 100: A day at the cricket … bad for the diet but good for the soul!
I was lucky enough to go to the cricket today at the Gabba. To say I had a great day would be an understatement but it would also be fair to say that any thoughts of maintaining a good diet went straight out the window the minute I walked into the ground.
The fact is that unless you wish to starve or have had the time to do a grocery shop and make salads you are not going to get any healthy food at the Gabba.
I ended up having a couple of four and twenty pies, a cornetto, a bottle of coke zero and a couple of bottles of water. That is a lower load than I would have had in previous years but equally is more bad food than I have had in one day in a long time.
Whilst I am disappointed about that, and disappointed that the Gabba does not deign to serve healthier food, I have to say I still had a brilliant day because cricket is, frankly, like a drug for me and I definitely got my fix today.
Operation 100: Memo to self
I thought I would save myself some time last night by cutting up all of the fruit for my fruit smoothy before I went to bed. Worried that the apple might brown in the fridge I placed all ingredients in a bowl in the freezer. That was a mistake I found this morning when the orange pieces revealed themselves as a large hail stone like mass and I nearly blew up the motor in the blender trying to break it down.
So the lesson learned, obviously, is not to freeze the fruit overnight. That is the last time I try to give myself my time in the morning before work!
Operation 100: Fruit smoothies … where have you been all of my life?
I have never been much of a fan of fruit. Indeed, probably the biggest failing of Operation 100 so far is that I have not increased by input of fruit. The purchase of a blender on the weekend has pushed me towards eating more fruit because of the ease of using it to blend up a smoothie.
My favourite so far has been made with the following ingredients:
1 x Pink Lady Apple
1 x Navel Orange
1 handful of Raspberries
1 handful of Blueberries
1/2 cup of Baby Spinach
1 tablespoon of LSA mix
4 x ice cubes
250ml of water
Cut up the apple and orange and put it all together in the blender and press the button. It is as easy as that. These ingredients make enough for two servings.
I have had more fruit in the last 2 days through having a couple of these smoothies a day than I have had in the last month and am looking forward to trying new combinations as I push hard again on “Operation 100: Redux”.
Operation 100 Redux: time to start again!
I have written a couple of times in the last months about getting back into “Operation 100” and the goal of running a half marathon.
I have failed in my goal of running a half marathon. I have also failed to keep weight off. I jumped on the scales this morning and I am back up to 110kgs. To say that has disappointed me today would be an understatement!
To be fair: I have had some very important personal things going on in the last couple of months which has begat a significant loss of focus not to mention a lot of dinners and nights out.
The bulk of those personal things have passed now and, off the back of a short holiday, I am more enthused and focused than I have been in some time to get back into losing weight and exercising.
I know it is a silly time to be starting again: 5 days of cricket at the Gabba is about to start, my birthday is coming up and there is only 5 weeks till Christmas. Equally, Operation 100 was more about lifestyle change than anything else so if I am ever going to be able to focus and deliver during this period now is the time.
It has been mentioned to me that I have lost focus because I have stopped writing about Operation 100 and I suspect that that is something to do with it. Writing about it, even if no one is reading, kept me honest and renewed my focus when I was struggling.
I have decided to set monthly goals on a rolling basis rather than an having an overarching goal of losing a ton of weight. I figure that approach will help me maintain focus rather than going off the rails once a long term goal is reached.
So here are my goals for the next month:
1. I write on this blog every day.
2. I will between today (17 November) and 17 December loose 5 kilograms.
3. I will exercise: walking / running 25 kilometres a week.
I am looking forward to this renewed challenge. It starts today!
Slackness, struggles and new strategy
I have a confession to make: I have fallen completely off the wagon when it comes to diet and exercise in the last couple of weeks. Particularly my focus on diet has gone out the window. AND I have put on weight.
I am gutted to be honest both with my lack of self control and loss of focus. Of course, as I mentioned in my other blog today (shumpty77.com) I have been struggling with some depression problems of late which also always effect my focus on diet.
I know you have heard me say I would get back my focus and get back on track and, in the past recent I have failed. I will not bow to failure this time: tomorrow is a new day and the start of a new week and time for me to recommit to the goals of Operation 100.
I am going to do so by both reinstating my focus in diet as well as committing to walking at least 12,500 sets a day whilst running home as much as possible. It is time to start again!
Operation 100: A false start and a new beginning
I wrote earlier in the week that I has been struggling a bit for focus and that last week was going to be a restart of Operation 100 and a boost in my training.
Unfortunately it did not happen: migraines, stress and negativity got in the way. So another week has passed and I have not advanced my training for the half marathon on 1 December and I have not been sticking to my diet.
Time to consign this week just gone to the history books and focus on rebooting (again) this project starting on Monday. It can not be a worse week next week as last week was. Bring on the training and dieting and the focus that comes from it!
Operation 100: Time to get back to work!
It has been some time since I posted to this blog. Having gotten to 30 June and been overjoyed by my ultimate weight loss I set myself a new goal of training for a half marathon.
I am pleased to report that I am pretty happy with where I am at on the training side of things but I will confess that I have lost a fair bit of discipline in recent weeks on the diet side of things. I jumped on the scales this morning and was disappointed to see the scales roll around to 108.6kgs.
I confess that I have missed the focus that recording what I have been eating has brought and I have missed writing about diet and lifestyle stuff. So it is time to get this blog going again and to write about what I am eating, how I am training and general lifestyle stuff.
Today is a new line in the sand with my goal still being running a half marathon on 1 December 2013. It is time to get back to work!
Posted with BlogsyOperation 100: the week off #operation100
After reaching the end of my original 6 months target period, I decided to give myself a week off this last week to allow myself an opportunity to enjoy whatever food, drink and activities I wanted before I reset myself to start on the final run to 100kgs and to start my next challenge (a half marathon on 1 December).
So what has this week off taught me? Well I ate some rubbish food including McDonalds, Ice Cream, chips and chocolates. Honestly though I ate less of them than I ordinarily would have and, frankly, I hated the McDonalds I had.
What I have learned then has been simple: I have made lifestyle changes through the Operation 100 process that have stuck with me even when I gave myself time off from the focus of the diet. Those changes, including eating in moderation, not eating late at night and still exercising are ones that sound simple but have taken six months to become ingrained in my mind.
I turn now to the next challenge: I can not wait to get started!
Operation 100 