This isn't anything like as extreme as some of the other logs on here, so I won't be offended for lack of readership as this is a 'boring normal guy trying to get a bit fitter'.
Anyway, my background.
Ever had that feeling when you woke up one day and just went 'wow, when did that happen?'
I used to be reasonably fit. Lowish body fat - for someone who isn't an athlete at least ! - with a mild tone for body build, could nip down and play football and not feel exhausted at the end kind of guy....
At the peak of my fitness, I was cycling 12 miles each way to work, doing the odd lunchtime run in the week of about 3-4 miles and playing football weekly.You get the idea. I had a decent amount of exercise and I think a healthy lifestyle.
This was about 5 years ago, and I've now 'woken up' and found myself age 30, 5ft 8 and 79 kilos... or as the NHS put it 'overweight'. I'm also embarrassingly unfit.
Changing jobs has not helped me much, and I've put over a stone on since I started in June 2014. The change from working in a huge head office building that relied on face to face meetings all over the campus, to one where meetings are all on the phone and I work in a satellite office has been the key reason behind this one..... oh, and spending a week at at time living in a hotel when going away with work.
Why Change?
A key motivator is that my dad never made it to retirement, dying of a heart attack in his 50's, and battling type 2 diabetes for the last 5 years of his life. I've realised I need to wake up and deal with this now, before I get to a point of not being able to reverse it. I'm someone who feels good when I'm doing exercise, so I'm sure my mood will also improve.
I'm going to keep the approach simple. I don't want to be in a position when I watch every single thing I eat. I enjoy food too much, and I'd rather not spend every single second counting calories, or eating food I simply won't enjoy. That said, I do need to watch the quantity of what I'm eating. I've gotten fat by being silly and scoffing too much. In October and November last year I lived in our home on my own when our house was renovated. We had no kitchen, so I was eating an Indian/Chinese/Pizza most nights.
My plan therefore is to set out to eat a reasonable diet, getting through at least 5 fruit and vegetable portions a day, and try scoff 10 Mars bars as a default mid morning snack. Whilst a 'food diary' may follow in months to come, for now its about some basic restraint. I'm bad for eating sweets and biscuits, so I'll try to snack on things like nuts instead. Importantly, I'll ensure I don't skip breakfast - something I'm terrible at doing - and to control my lunchtime intake, take food with me to work. We don't have any ready meals for our evening meals, so everything we eat then will be freshly made anyway.
I've also been notoriously bad for not drinking enough and to improve my fitness (my weight loss catalyst) I need to address this. Historically, it wouldn't be unthinkable for me to only have 1 drink all day, but I am a decent amount better than that now.
I plan to increase my fluid intake, doing my best to at a minimum get through 2 litres of water a day on top of other drinks. I work in an air conditioned office, so I should be doing this anyway. Again, I don't want to stop having an occasional glass of wine or enjoying my coffee, so moderation is the name of the game and be sensible.
Exercise plan. This is the key area for my improvements.
Currently I try to cycle to work when I work at the local office - this probably has a 1 in 10 success rate, so every fortnight or so. I try to go for a run when I get a chance - and in reality this occurs maybe every 6 weeks or so. Unsurprisingly therefore, I've got almost no fitness.
I live about 3 miles from my office, so I'm actually at the point where I drive because I'm being lazy rather than its quicker - at rush hour its definitely quicker on my bike. So, the plan is to do my best to cycle to and from work every day when I'm at the local office and not in London. It's barely 10 minutes door to door, so I've got no excuse for not doing it. Discipline and routine is the change required here.
I've also joined my local Park Run group, and did my first run on Saturday. This is my benchmark, and I guess, will help be a guide for how my health and fitness are improving - the commute on the bike is dramatically impacted by traffic signals and traffic volumes, so isn't a fair comparison in my mind.
So, the baseline is this horrifyingly poor start. I did this 5k run on Saturday in 36:22.
I think that is pretty appalling and borderline embarrassing, but I imagine if I ran it tomorrow i'd be quicker simply for knowing the route and knowing how much further I'd have to go - that said, my legs are absolutely killing me today !
My initial goal is I want to get to below a 30 minute 5k before my birthday. Thats in late June, so I have 12 weeks left to try and achieve that. I think if I manage to cycle to work 3 times a week and do the run at the weekends, my fitness should improve enough to achieve that. Where I can, I'm going to try and sneak in a mid week run on a Wednesday night around the local roads. I used to do these distances before in under 30 minutes, so it isn't like I'm out to get a PB I've never achieved before. From there, I'll look to build towards other targets.
This week will be a bit of an odd one with regards me achieving my training plan. I'm only in the local office on Wednesday and Thursday, and we're away on Saturday when the run is.
The plan therefore is to Cycle on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday, go to the park to walk the dogs with my wife and I'll nip off for the run. Whilst it won't be official timing, I'll do it on run keeper again so I can compare my performance.
I'm going to try and check in each week with my weight and the time I've managed to do the run in so people can see progress.
Here we go !
Anyway, my background.
Ever had that feeling when you woke up one day and just went 'wow, when did that happen?'
I used to be reasonably fit. Lowish body fat - for someone who isn't an athlete at least ! - with a mild tone for body build, could nip down and play football and not feel exhausted at the end kind of guy....
At the peak of my fitness, I was cycling 12 miles each way to work, doing the odd lunchtime run in the week of about 3-4 miles and playing football weekly.You get the idea. I had a decent amount of exercise and I think a healthy lifestyle.
This was about 5 years ago, and I've now 'woken up' and found myself age 30, 5ft 8 and 79 kilos... or as the NHS put it 'overweight'. I'm also embarrassingly unfit.
Changing jobs has not helped me much, and I've put over a stone on since I started in June 2014. The change from working in a huge head office building that relied on face to face meetings all over the campus, to one where meetings are all on the phone and I work in a satellite office has been the key reason behind this one..... oh, and spending a week at at time living in a hotel when going away with work.
Why Change?
A key motivator is that my dad never made it to retirement, dying of a heart attack in his 50's, and battling type 2 diabetes for the last 5 years of his life. I've realised I need to wake up and deal with this now, before I get to a point of not being able to reverse it. I'm someone who feels good when I'm doing exercise, so I'm sure my mood will also improve.
I'm going to keep the approach simple. I don't want to be in a position when I watch every single thing I eat. I enjoy food too much, and I'd rather not spend every single second counting calories, or eating food I simply won't enjoy. That said, I do need to watch the quantity of what I'm eating. I've gotten fat by being silly and scoffing too much. In October and November last year I lived in our home on my own when our house was renovated. We had no kitchen, so I was eating an Indian/Chinese/Pizza most nights.
My plan therefore is to set out to eat a reasonable diet, getting through at least 5 fruit and vegetable portions a day, and try scoff 10 Mars bars as a default mid morning snack. Whilst a 'food diary' may follow in months to come, for now its about some basic restraint. I'm bad for eating sweets and biscuits, so I'll try to snack on things like nuts instead. Importantly, I'll ensure I don't skip breakfast - something I'm terrible at doing - and to control my lunchtime intake, take food with me to work. We don't have any ready meals for our evening meals, so everything we eat then will be freshly made anyway.
I've also been notoriously bad for not drinking enough and to improve my fitness (my weight loss catalyst) I need to address this. Historically, it wouldn't be unthinkable for me to only have 1 drink all day, but I am a decent amount better than that now.
I plan to increase my fluid intake, doing my best to at a minimum get through 2 litres of water a day on top of other drinks. I work in an air conditioned office, so I should be doing this anyway. Again, I don't want to stop having an occasional glass of wine or enjoying my coffee, so moderation is the name of the game and be sensible.
Exercise plan. This is the key area for my improvements.
Currently I try to cycle to work when I work at the local office - this probably has a 1 in 10 success rate, so every fortnight or so. I try to go for a run when I get a chance - and in reality this occurs maybe every 6 weeks or so. Unsurprisingly therefore, I've got almost no fitness.
I live about 3 miles from my office, so I'm actually at the point where I drive because I'm being lazy rather than its quicker - at rush hour its definitely quicker on my bike. So, the plan is to do my best to cycle to and from work every day when I'm at the local office and not in London. It's barely 10 minutes door to door, so I've got no excuse for not doing it. Discipline and routine is the change required here.
I've also joined my local Park Run group, and did my first run on Saturday. This is my benchmark, and I guess, will help be a guide for how my health and fitness are improving - the commute on the bike is dramatically impacted by traffic signals and traffic volumes, so isn't a fair comparison in my mind.
So, the baseline is this horrifyingly poor start. I did this 5k run on Saturday in 36:22.
I think that is pretty appalling and borderline embarrassing, but I imagine if I ran it tomorrow i'd be quicker simply for knowing the route and knowing how much further I'd have to go - that said, my legs are absolutely killing me today !
My initial goal is I want to get to below a 30 minute 5k before my birthday. Thats in late June, so I have 12 weeks left to try and achieve that. I think if I manage to cycle to work 3 times a week and do the run at the weekends, my fitness should improve enough to achieve that. Where I can, I'm going to try and sneak in a mid week run on a Wednesday night around the local roads. I used to do these distances before in under 30 minutes, so it isn't like I'm out to get a PB I've never achieved before. From there, I'll look to build towards other targets.
This week will be a bit of an odd one with regards me achieving my training plan. I'm only in the local office on Wednesday and Thursday, and we're away on Saturday when the run is.
The plan therefore is to Cycle on Wednesday and Thursday, and on Friday, go to the park to walk the dogs with my wife and I'll nip off for the run. Whilst it won't be official timing, I'll do it on run keeper again so I can compare my performance.
I'm going to try and check in each week with my weight and the time I've managed to do the run in so people can see progress.
Here we go !
