“Wow you are half the man you used to be”
Mum
You only turn 50 once is what many say and yes it is a big milestone, although one that held no real significance to me. For this birthday my family gifted me a Life List present of my first cruise. I am grateful for the experience and thoroughly enjoyed myself…actually I enjoyed myself a little too much.
I ate and I drank, and when I wasn’t having a meal I was having another snack. Three meals a day, plus snacks, plus countless drinks and very little exercise took it’s toll.
Let me first say I was never a physical specimen to begin with but my weight after the cruise topped out at 87.7kg. Now thats not morbidly obese but it is the heaviest I have weighed in my life and it frightened me!
Ever expanding waistline
As a reference, In 1993 I weighed 67.5kg when I was boxing. By 1997 I had increased to 74kg, I know this because of this photo. Taken on my first Bungee Jump. Look at the writing on my hand.
87 kg is a significant increase and I was very displeased with what I was seeing in the mirror. Now I never expect to see a ripped body with muscles protruding from a lean carcass. I have never looked like that and quite frankly I am not a fan of the gym. But I have always felt physically fit and quite sporty.
Time for a change
I decided it was time to make a change. But how? What was I willing to do? It all seems very daunting. Much like anything you do for the very first time there is a feeling of trepidation. So I made a pact with myself. I will exercise everyday for the next 100 days. I will do 30 minutes minimum of something. This something could be anything physical. Jogging, walking, running, cycling, boxing, paddling or lifting weights (boo we don’t like them at all!)
Great I had the start of a plan. One that was flexible enough that I didn’t resent straight away. This is an important key to success. If you want to continue to do something long term you need to enjoy it. If it becomes a task or a chore then it is doomed from the very beginning.
The next and most important step for me to lose weight was to track my food consumption by calories (kilojoules if you prefer) and then calculate my expenditure via exercise. Okay so how do I do that? Well I chose to track my exercise through an app for my smart watch. I used Strava as I had an account set up already. There are any number of different apps you can use but this is my preferred. I also used My Fitness Pal to track my daily intake of food and water. Which is a great app that links directly with Strava.
How do you lose weight?
Its very simple EAT LESS FOOD THAN YOU BURN OFF IN EXERCISE. Honestly its that simple. I set a goal to lose 15kg in 100 days. The app calculated I needed to consume a certain amount of calories per day to do that. If I exercised I sped up the process but it also allowed me to eat more calories without adding any weight. I just followed the formula.The beautiful thing here is there is no rigid diet to follow. Just eat smaller portions and eat a healthy style of food. You learn pretty quick a packet of chips costs a lot of calories for a very small amount of food.
Rewarding yourself along the journey
Sometimes during the journey we need to reward ourselves. This is so evident when conducting a 100 day challenge. I made a point of throwing in an extra km on a run or 10km on the bike some days so I could safely reward myself with a chocolate bar or a scoop of ice cream. Without these little treats the exercise just becomes mundane. I had a goal but I don’t want to completely sacrifice the fun things. Im not a spartan!
Healthy body Healthy Mind
My exercise program was recorded everyday on Strava so I could see times, distances and the types of training I was doing. This allowed me to compete with myself. Each time I would travel the same course I could race against my previous time. I also challenged myself to increase the distances I travelled. I began by jogging around my block, 3kms in total. Wow it was tough. My lungs were bursting and it was a real struggle. I was running each km in about 6 and a half minutes. Which was 20 minutes in total, then I followed that up with a further 10 mins of walking. By not destroying myself over the first few days I was still eager to continue, I was excited to achieve my goal.
I was varying my training between, running, cycling, kayaking and swimming. This kept me interested and allowed me to transition from exercising my lower body to my upper body so fatigue did not set in. It also allowed me to mentally focus. My speed improved, my distances increased and the weight poured off! 3kg gone in a week…2kg the next week, 1 kg then next and it just continued. I was hooked.
I was running and cycling such long distances that I began to download podcasts that i would listen to as I trained. Not only was I boosting my body but I was boosting my mind. The whole process was rewarding. I could see and feel the difference, so could those around me. My mother saw me about a month before I started the 100 days and next saw me around day 90. The first words out of her mouth were “WOW. You are half the man you used to be”.
So what did I learn?
I can commit to something when I set my mind to it. 100 days of consistently doing anything requires commitment. Especially when its a task that requires effort.
Exercise is fun. I really enjoy raising a sweat and working my muscles. Day 1 might not be, but just make it bearable. Don’t punish yourself at the start. There is plenty of time to do that to yourself once you get a routine. Just get started.
I can push myself further and harder than I ever believed I could. I ran a half marathon 21.1 kms in 2 hours (without water- a stupid error on my behalf). Mentally and physically I was confident I could do it, I had trained hard and had faith in my ability.
I learned I am a powerful human being capable of living an abundant life.
In the end I over achieved on my goal to lose 15kg in 100 days. I ended up losing 15.4kg. I was able to keep a record of my achievements. In 100 days I have run 399.7 kms, swum 24.9 kms, Paddled 11.1 kms, walked 9.4 kms and ridden 989.8 kms.
