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.