Doing The Blogger Diet

Over the past ten years, I’ve watched my weight ever so slowly creep up over time. When I first came to the UK, I weighed about 11 1/2 stone. Now I’m practically 13 stone. Feeling inspired by Chris Pirillo and now Jeremy Zawodny both blogging about their weight loss experiences, I’m going to redouble my efforts to follow the same sensible advice. More on that below, along with what on earth a stone is.

I already know what I need to do. I’ve done it before and easily lost weight:

• Stop snacking in between meals
• Stop eating so many desserts
• Exercise more

Unfortunately, habits are hard to stop. Still, I had a pretty good success a few weeks ago. I’d been reading about Chris wanting to lose weight, such as the start of his journey here. I was inspired. I’d finally reached a point where I wasn’t running flat-out to prep for a conference or working late several days in a row. To break the habit, I needed to start some new routines.

First rule — no chocolate after meals. Honestly, even I could see I was acting like a Pavlovian dog. I love chocolate — I adore it. I’d have a little something after any meal. But that treat became a habit, a craving. Skip the chocolate, and exactly as Jeremy wrote yesterday, you immediately have fewer calories to burn off.

Second rule — no chocolate in the evenings. We usually have dinner around five, then if all goes well, kids are asleep, stories are read, last minute search engine calls are done, and I rendezvous for a little TV with my wife around 8 or so. Almost immediately, I’m after that box of See’s chocolates I brought back from my last trip to California, or a Hershey bar, or whatever might be in the chocolate drawer (yep, I’ve got a drawer full of chocolate).

Chocolate makes me hungry. As soon as I’ve had some, I’m then after something savory, something non-sweet. And when I’ve had that, how about a little chocolate! So no — no chocolate in the evening.

Third rule — exercise. I’ve got a great rowing machine, a Concept 2 that I recommend to anyone. In our old house, it was a hike to the garage and a hassle to remove the dust cover to use it. Now I’ve got a nice spot for it in the new house, with easy access. My goal’s always been to do at least three days a week for 30 minutes, burning 300 calories per session (plus get some needed aerobic exercise). And with a TV in front of it, it’s a great change to watch a little Serenity or some other program I have on DVD.

I did all this for about two weeks in April. Just cold turkey stopped the chocolate, had slightly smaller meal portions, exercised 4 or 5 times per week — and the weight started dropping. I went from 12 stones 12 pounds to 12 stones 6. And that’s a good point to talk about stones.

British scales weigh you primarily in stones, with kilos the secondary metric (and meaning little to a pounds-boy like me). Naturally, Wikipedia has an entire entry about stones. Here’s another explanation. And here’s a nice conversion chart.

Basically, it’s 14 pounds to the stone, so over my 10 years of living in the UK, I’ve learned to think in base 14, I guess. 12 stone 12 pounds is 12×14 = 168+12 = 180 pounds. That’s pretty heavy for someone who has always wanted to be in the 155 range and typically was at 165.

My drop took me to 174 pounds, and it would have kept going, but then the routine was disrupted. There were a few long nights to get ready for leaving for some trips. Work late one evening, and suddenly wolfing down that chocolate to keep going seems fair game. And then traveling itself, it’s always hard to resist having a nice full dinner or the inevitable snacking.

Well no more. I’d already been thinking about getting back on the weight loss wagon when Jeremy came in with his story of success. Meanwhile, the scale tipped at 13 stones yesterday — 182 pounds. Enough was enough.

I’m now Day 2 into trying to restart my routine. I’ve said no to chocolate successfully, resisted the urge to get up and hunt for mid-meal snacks, and I’m already feeling better. I’ll be back on the rower tomorrow, and I know from experience that the longer I can build up the just say no/just stay on the routine factor, the easier it is to go forward. Goal? 11 stones 6 pounds or 161 pounds would be great, dropping about 20 pounds. I’d love to stay in the 11 stones (154 pounds) to 11 stones 6 pounds range. Time to go for it.

If you’re thinking the same, Chris has finished his series with a 50 Weight Loss Tips wrap-up. Jeremy’s starting his rundown all this week, so watch his blog’s home page, try his tracking spreadsheet and here’s his starting advice.