1. Davant’s Journal

   Well here I am, a 40 year old guy living in County Durham with my wife and son. I’m 6′ 3″ and weigh 235 lb. I’m giving myself 120 days to tone up and get my weight down to 196 lb and I think I can help myself by posting my progress daily on this site, possibly posting a few photos along the way. I might be the only person to even read it, but I’m gonna do it anyway and at very least I can look back at it in 4 months and smile.

   DAY 0 – 235 lb
   I lead quite an active life. I cycle to work (desk job) each day, around 70 miles each week – I aim to do this every working day of the year. I also play cricket during the summer months, each Saturday from 2 – 8pm. Here we are in October and I intend to replace the cricket over the autumn and winter with running, something I am not very good at. I also have good sets of barbells and dumbells in my garage which have laid untouched for nearly a year.

   My diet isn’t terrible, but has one big underlying issue – red wine and evening snacks. I can easily enjoy a full bottle of wine in one night. I know the problems this can cause with weight loss and I see this whole process as much an issue of dropping the bottle as it is dropping the weight.

   Right, here goes, each day going forward, progress reports food diarys and all my exercised logged.

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2. Welcome aboard. Some good stuff there. Going to break down targets and stated issues to see if there is anything I can add that could be useful, obviously feel free to ignore me as I am sure many have before.

   Weight loss from 235 to 196 with toning in 120 days. Will say the toning will increase muscle mass by 1 pound which is very little and exceptionally pessimistic but makes the math easier.
   40 pounds of fat lost in 120 days means 1/3 pound lost every day.
   Fat is 3,500 calories a pound requiring a calorific deficit of 1,166 calories per day consitantly to achieve this.
   The loss you are aiming for is slightly above the maximum I would normally advise, 2 pounds a week, but as a person used to being active I would say this is plausible with real dedication.
   Consider that if the weight isn’t going down as fast as you like it could be lean mass gain just as easily as lack of calorific deficit. Be very careful using weight as a guide and only ever use it in trends, not daily assessment.

   Whether or not you are good at something is not relevant, whether you enjoy it is. If you like running do it, if you prefer weights do that instead, varied training is most beneficial. If you want guidance on some exercises for begginers on weight training try Goldfish’s guidance here http://training.fitness.com/weight-t…t-3-34522.html very good generic stuff that is balanced and suitable for all abilities.

   Snacks are going to be an issue losing weight, so try grabbing something rewarding but less calorific, like fruit or a really rich small treat that you will savour over the evening not munch down.

   Going to have a whine about the wine now. You are not in any way unusual in imbiding a bottle or wine in an evening or using it to wind down, in fact is teetotallers like me who are the freaks, but you have to take control here for more than just your weight. You’re my age and gender and if you aren’t aware that we are the main group to be expecting early heart disease I would be very surprised. 7 mile cycling commutes could easily be saving your life right now, with no exaggeration, and if you speak to anyone who’s had a heart attack, most aren’t fatal, they will tell you to be very thankful you haven’t and avoid them if possible.
   I am going to guess you aren’t new to the wine drinking, people consuming that much generally need time to build to it, so will not be saying to go cold turkey unless you really think you can. Below is why, you may already know it.
   Alcohol is a depressant, so slows the signals transmitted by desensitising or ‘softening’ the nerve endings, making many more relaxed therefore happier, as well as less reactive and co-ordinated. Occasional exposure means the body is shocked each time, daily or constant exposure forces the body to adapt by ‘hardening’ the nerve endings, this defines you as either alcoholic or alcohol dependant, your nervous system needs the alcohol to funtion at normal levels, like it or not at this time you are physically addicted to alcohol.
   Sudden removal can have dramatic side effects which include loss of motor co-ordination due to overload of signals passing through your nervous system, something no cyclist is going to want, especially a commuter. The relaxing that alcohol induces is already the norm so you will get counterswing as a withdrawal, constant nervous stress, making you snappy at best.
   Personally I would advise cutting down over time to allow your body to adapt at a pace it can handle safely without putting you or anyone close to you at risk. This would involve assessing how much you drink a week and setting a target to reduce it by a manageable amount, so if it was normally 4 bottles you might say 3.5 or 6 dropping to 5, you call it. Do this weekly until it is at a level where you still enjoy it but it doesn’t control you.
   This could easily mean the 120 day target becomes 150 or even 180, but keeping it real here, we’re 40 years old, what’s an extra month or 2?

   Good luck and welcome to the forum.

   Last edited by CrazyOldMan; Oct. 14/13 at 07:24 AM.

   If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re probably right – Henry Ford

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3. DAY 1 – 235.2 lb

   Exercise
   Cycling (7 mile, around 40 mins)
   Walking (4 mile)
   Total cals 750 (source myfitnesspal.com)

   Food and drink
   Crunchy nut cornflakes with milk, 1 banana, rocket salad , beetroot, sweetcorn, sliced ham, cherry tomatoes, white fish filet, courgette, peppercorn sauce, onion, popcorn, 1 bottle red wine.

   Crazy Old Man – thanks for all of your words! Really appreciate your input. This is exactly the kind of thing I want – some fresh ideas, encouragement and some realism (never too old to learn).

   I too did the maths when I set my targets….

   Daily loss = (My BMR + Cals burned through exercise – Cals in) / 3500
   Is (2062 + 800 – 1700) / 3500
   Equals 0.332 and therefore over 120 days = 39.84 lbs lost

   This is based on me burning 800 calories a day through exercise, and consuming/eating 1,700 cals. Seems straight forward, but as you say, to do it consistently over 4 months takes some real dedication. I also take on board and agree with what you say about the lean mass gain. Toning up might mean that the scales don’t reflect the level of fitness achieved, I can understand this – muscle is heavier than fat, yes? So it might be worth investing in a good mirror or a tape measure. I’m still going to record my weight for completeness, but I will certainly bear in mind what you say.

   I really do not enjoy running – forced into cross country at school I found it boring and painful. I picked up running again last year having just turned 40 and after 2 months of running 2 or 3 times a week, was able to complete a 6 mile circuit around my local roads. However, I soon became bored of it, having no one to run with, coupled with the dark evenings and lack of scenery. Is there any way I can mix it up a bit? There’s a group of people who meet on a Saturday (Parcrun) and run 5k around my local park. Times are recorded and posted on their website; also special achievements (personal bests etc) are recognised. Maybe this is the way forward? Gonna give it some thought. Cycling 14 miles Monday to Friday leaves little energy left during the week for running, but Saturday morning is a possibility. I’m also going to try get out at lunchtime and walk more. Walking seems like an easy win to me. Doing it solid for an hour at lunch can burn me over 300 calories.

   Alcohol – I’ve read what you have written all the way through, and then read it again. Being 40 and at the risk of a heart attack is a real eye opener. It’s even more so of a shock to be told that my daily cycle commute could be saving my life. I need to cut it right back, but to be honest, I don’t think I could go cold turkey – it’s going to have to be a gradual thing. What can I say? You’ve shocked me. I don’t even know how much I drink right now, but I bet if I did actually measure it, it would shock me even more. Guarantee one thing – over the next week, we’ll see how much I drink, and whatever it is, it’s gonna come down!

   Day 1 of 120 is in the bag – a great start to the day but let myself down in the evening.

   Thanks again.

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4. I am a real sad case and love running, cycling needed to have a purpose but I will run just for the hell of it. Target driven stuff like the park run is a good, and would likely enable you to meet other runners your level. Other things tha can help are distractions like music, mine is very much the opposite to easy listening so really keeps me there, I have to be careful due to my habit of miming words as I run and some of my music has lyrics people shouldn’t lipread.
   The alternative of course is find something you do enjoy instead. I tend to say enjoyment is priority number 1 on any training because hating it usually means stopping it a while down the line. It is worth giving things time to grow on you, not mould, but if you truly hate it find something else. School has a lot to answer for on sports, it made me hate most team games along with being weak and unco-ordinated. I still hate team games but have a bit of a chip on my shoulder now about being strong and mobile that has made me something I like.
   Walking is great. One thing that is really nice about where I work now compared to before is how quiet and picturesque a lot of the area is, makes going for a walk at lunch a pleasure, when I am not running.

   Good to see you did your math first. Truly amazing how few do so and set targets requiring calorie deficits more than their RDA.

   Classic advantage with training with a more aesthetic goal, which weight loss and toning usualy is, the scales only need to be a guide not a god. If the mirror shows something you like and obviously your wife likes too, you’ve cracked it. In 120 days you could have lost under target, gained a bit of muscle, be getting smiles from the better half and not care a jot about the scales.

   To give some idea how fixed in heart attack danger zone we are. I had a major epileptic seizure almost 2 years ago, didn’t know I was epileptic at the time. Paramedics turned up ECG test showed heart not only OK but strong and healthy, they were totally lost what to do next. Someone in late thirties having a seizure with no previous history = heart attack in their book. My family history would have backed them up too, both parents had heart issues before that age, one having a heart attack directly attributed to mix of inactivity, bad diet and long term alcoholism. She went cold turkey out of sheer dread and the shock gave her the worst few weeks of her life, so your gradual approach will save you some serious pain. For some time she worked hard on her activity levels, but diet has always been high in sugars and heavily processed. Nearly 20 years later she is back to drinking occasionally (aparently) still eats junk and has a heart murmur making activity difficult to maintain, unfortunately the damage she caused proved too much to permanently fix. You dealling with this now will mean avoiding such damage and pay you dividends. There is no reason not to enjoy a drink, only freaks like me are teetotal, but it comes down to who has control you or the bottle. Looks like you have a plan in place to make sure you are.
   Most assume that it was my upbringing that made me teetotal, children of alcoholics are usually one or the other. Reality is I tried it and didn’t like the effect so stopped. Replaced it with things that were more likely to kill me fast than slowly, so no drink or drugs just ridiculously stupid activities that kill many every year in the search for adrenalin. I do love people assuming my life was so clean because of lack of substance use, shows such limited understanding.

   If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re probably right – Henry Ford

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5. DAY2 – 233.75 LB

   Exercise
   Cycling (15 mile, 80 approx mins)
   Walking (2.5 mile, 45 mins)
   Total cals 1000 I’m getting my cals burned through exercise stats from myfitnesspal.com – hoping its a fairly accurate source. My cycling is done at a decent intensity, so although it’s not super fast (I only ride a mountain bike, not a road bike), it does have some good climbs which I get stuck into.

   Food and drink
   Crunchy nut cornflakes with semi skimmed, grapes, banana, homemade soup, cherry tomatoes, white fish filet, courgette, 4 garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, onion, leeks, sugar-free lemonade.

   For the first time in a long time, I feel proud of myself – for the simple reason that I swapped a wine bottle for a lemonade bottle! How do I feel?? Pretty amazing actually – I slept sooo well. I’ve woken up feeling fresh, clear headed and with more energy. It’s a small step, but very significant to me.

   By the way, I actually type these notes on the morning following the day I’m writing about – hope that makes sense…..so its now the morning of day 3…

   Little bit pushed for time this morning, so having to keep this very short. A little shift in the scales today good news (though I’m well aware their could easily be daily fluctuations and weighing once a week is probably better). Even if the scales hadn’t shifted, I still feel really happy with the fact that I had a clean night, no alcohol, no snacks, and that I feel rewarded right now for being fresh.

   Thank you again Crazyoldman – I read intently and you seem to make a lot of sense. Really apreciate the input.

   Laters,

   Davant

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6. I use runtastic to measure my running, there are plenty of others of this type. It uses GPS to monitor how far you have gone and uses this along with your bodyweight to guage calorie usage. In fairness myfitness pal and others like it will be pretty good as you still input bodyweight and distance and these are the two main factors on cycling and running. It goes seriously wrong when monitoring weight training etc. but there is nothing out there which will tell you with any precision how much energy that burns, for good reason.

   Really good stuff. Anything that helps sleep has to be good. It is one of the least respected and most important things we do. Sleep (dreaming to be more accurate) is neuro-recovery time, the body can rest while awake but the nervous system doesn’t.
   Obviously anything that makes you feel good has to help too. Nothing beats feeling a postive reward direct from your body as encouragement to continue the good work.

   If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re probably right – Henry Ford

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7. Food and drink
   Crunchy nut cornflakes with milk, 1 banana, rocket salad , beetroot, sweetcorn, sliced ham, cherry tomatoes, white fish filet, courgette, peppercorn sauce, onion, popcorn, 1 bottle red wine.

   I thought that said “cigarette” haha. Good stuff though. Keep it up!

   You tell ’em I’m coming, and Hell’s coming with me.

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8. Look we may be a bit strange in the UK but we don’t eat cigarettes, not unless you’re from Norfolk anyway.

   If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re probably right – Henry Ford

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9. Like sugar, alcohol goes straight to the brain’s reward center, thus the reason it is a hard habit to break. For me the only way was cold turkey for many months, then I could do the occasional social glass of wine. Mostly I don’t though because if I have that glass, I want more – seems to put the idea in my head.

   Figure out what works for you and stick with it. Some days will be better/stronger than others, the key is to keep going in the right direction over the long haul.

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10. I know the theory to cellular level regarding alcohol and it’s effect. I grew up seeing what it did but it was so omnipresent I considered it normal so didn’t think of it as harm.
    This is definately something where I am all theory, no practice and I admire people who reclaim control from this or any other substance.

    Alcohol makes me insanely violent, no cause or provocation I will simply lash out at anyone I can reach, without remembering a thing. When I did drink for a short time many years ago I was tiny and quite weak so the usual pattern was drink, hit someone twice my size (basically anyone) they would retaliate with a few friends and I would wake up in the morning covered in blood, mostly mine. Now I am bigger, stronger and trained to do some things I felt necessary to know when I was travelling alone a lot, so the same situation would see me waking up in prison without a release date.
    The effect of alcohol, something I had grown up seeing as harmless scared me to the extent I didn’t risk any other substances. Everything I know about them is from books or observing others. As a young adrenalin junky many of the people I knew were into hardcore substances so it was always there for me but I didn’t dare. Crazy to think I was more scared of narcotics than dying from the activities I enjoyed.

    If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re probably right – Henry Ford

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