Week 4 - 1 Month Down

Another week down rounding out the first month.  It saw me make another 900 gram loss on the scales.  At least that was the specific figure this morning.  The weekly average however, was 600 grams.  A figure I am sure my dietician would be happier about.

To be fair, I do expect to be a little heavier tomorrow, maybe by anything up to 500 grams.  This is why I imagine that the dietician prefers the weekly average approach.  I'm keeping track of both and it will be interesting to see how they compare over time.

The reason I am counting on being a little heavier on the scales tomorrow morning is that I am not confident that I re hydrated properly after MMA training last night.  It was a great grappling session, but, it was also pretty humid.  Testament to the fact was that the mat was covered with sweat from one end to the other and it was not just from me this time!  Everyone was doing their fair share.  I just know that I put in a good effort on both my contribution to the dampness as well as the session itself.

Whilst I did make an effort to take in water during and after the session.  I'm pretty sure that I did not replace all of the fluids prior to going to bed.  As such I imagine that my weight this morning was a little lower than what it should have been.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

What a fascinating story eh....

At the end of this the first month of living light heavy, I have dropped 6.9kg on the scales.  A great start!  I'm already feeling like I am carrying around a stack of energy instead of the weight.  It's really helping to allow me to push harder in all my training efforts.  Whether it be rowing, strengthfit or in MMA sessions.  All are easier than they were a month ago, but, harder at the same time because I can push myself.  Really looking forward to seeing more improvement and where I am placed this time next month.  I am sure the weight loss will be less, but, no doubt the results will be no less satisfying.

MMA...Are you crazy?

About a year ago, I was at a turning point in relation to the training I had been doing.  For over a year I had been working towards competing at the National Indoor Rowing Championships.  It was then that I received the news that after having been postponed previously, the competition was being cancelled indefinitely (it has just recently been brought back to life some 12+ months later).  I was shattered.  After having put in hours upon hours of arduous training, I had the proverbial rug pulled out from under me by circumstances completely beyond my control.  The effort was not without rewards however, as I was fit, had lost over 40kg and felt great.  Having said that, it was a big blow to my motivation.

To fill the motivational gap, I went searching for something to do with my new found fitness.  I came across Tough Mudder.  It seemed like a real challenge that I could use to finish off my weight loss and improve my fitness whilst preparing to participate.  The trouble was, whilst I genuinely committed to the idea of taking part, it didn't end up motivating me enough to continue the hard work required.  So over the period of several months, I went away from what had been working for me and fell into old habits.  About 20 hard earned kilos lost now found again, I went in search of something different.  Unfortunately, Tough Mudder turned out not to be right for me.  It did do something for me though, it helped me in a small way in my move towards taking up Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Whilst searching for more information about Tough Mudder I went looking for training information in order to prepare myself.  On their training page they have to this day a video of someone now known forever as "The Moustache Man", which is a combination of funny and impressive at the same time.  Some of the exercises he does are certainly beyond my abilities.  You can check out the video on his website.  Here's a direct link - Tough Mudder Training.

I sought to find out a little more about The Moustache Man as I tend to do when I find something or someone that interests me.  I came across his website and a blog that he writes.  One article in particular sticks with me to this day.  Not only is it very well written, but, its sentiments resonate strongly with me.  The article is called Meet Fred Ettish.  Whilst I won't spoil the interest of reading the article for yourself, the crux of it is about a man who competed in the very early days of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and the impact he had both on The Moustache Man and perhaps more broadly across the martial arts world.

The UFC was then and remains to this day, the premier arena for testing martial arts skills. It really served as the birthplace of modern MMA as it appears in the mainstream consciousness today.  Having said all that, the blog post tells the story of the impact that Fred Ettish had on The Moustache Man and beyond. I have to say, whilst I don't share many of his experiences, Fred's story certainly had an impact on me too.  If you do nothing else, take the time to watch this short clip about Fred Ettish.

History Of MMA: Fred Ettish from Bobby Razak on Vimeo.

To me, whilst I do not have a martial arts background, both the Moustache Man's post and Fred Ettish's story combined speak to me so much of what MMA must have meant to those practising the more traditional styles across the world.  A revolutionary change that no doubt would have shaken many of their beliefs to the core.  I find the concepts and the history of it all quite fascinating.

Without any experience in martial arts other than as a fan of MMA and the UFC more specifically, this story gave me the inspiration and wherewithal to take a chance on trying out an MMA class where I now train regularly at Synergy Self Defence and Fitness.  What I found, is everything that I have always envisaged the culture of martial arts to be about.  The measure of the man is his character not how old he is or any of the other myriad of superficial traits we can so often get caught up in.  Perhaps most importantly, you get out what you put in, both in terms of your physical effort, but also in what you give of yourself.  The people at their core are their to better themselves and contribute to the betterment of their counterparts at the same time.

No matter what direction my MMA journey takes the nearly 40 year old me, I take a lot of encouragement from the story of 53 year old Fred Ettish.  The man who stepped back into the cage to answer only the humble questions he had for himself, after all the impact, good and bad that he had across the globe.  Chalk another one up for Fred, who certainly still inspires me to make more of myself.

Week 3 - Settling Into Routine

Results are in for week 3.  I'm not sure how long I will count the weeks for....Can you imagine me reporting on week 173?  Perhaps it will be until I hit my weight goal at least.

Speaking of weight, this morning's weigh in saw the smallest loss so far, a mere 900 grams.  This takes the first three 3 week total to a nice round 6kg.  Nothing to sneeze at.  Whilst I am still a very long way from reaching any of my end goals, I have a few short term ones on the horizon to help motivate me.  Additionally, I am feeling so much better already, just thinking about upping the output in training sessions is motivating in of itself.  The hard work is feeding itself.  It is enabling me to work harder each and every session with my mind being the muscle driving the show.

My visit to the Dietician last week has got me thinking of my approach to measuring my weight weekly.  She has given me a simple spreadsheet where I weigh myself daily and the weekly average change is taken from all of the measurements combined.  Interestingly, my numbers are a little off on a Wednesday to Thursday cycle this week as I started in the middle and made estimates at the days I was missing, but, this week would have seen me lose less than 300 grams on average.  I'm going to keep an eye on this system as I have to report back to the Dietician weekly anyway.  It may be that over time, I change to this method over my single day weekly weigh in.  It would be a more genuine reflection of the whole week, rather than a single day.  As on any given day I can see a kilo or more variance in my weight.  It just so happens that today was my lightest day of the week, if only by 100 grams.

Another highlight I guess you could say is that my effort is starting to show results in terms of my girth.  I am down between 5 and 7 centimetres on my chest, waist and hips.  Hoping this trend continues. I am sure it will should the weight loss do so as well.

I feel like the whole picture is pretty solid at the moment.  Diet is controlled.  Fitness level is rising as is my effort towards it.  I am settling into a very good routine and motivation is high.  Focussing on the 20kg I still want to lose with a fervour I haven't had for some time.  A new training partner at MMA who is not only a weapon skill wise, but, is the same age and size as me was absolutely awesome.  Doesn't hurt that he seems like a genuinely nice guy either.  Soaking up the positives right now.  I'll need to revisit posts like this when the tough times come as they invariably do in such endeavours.

Mystery Solved!

I'm educating or at least I am re-educating myself with regards to what it is to be healthy and how to stay that way as part of the process of reaching a state of good health.  As part of that endeavour, I went to see a sports' dietician today.  Interestingly she has a martial arts background having trained and competed in Taekwondo for 7 years as I found out today.  I went to see her to find out a number of things like how realistic my weight goals are and if my approach to diet and nutrition is sound.

I came away feeling very positive.  She offered me some sensible tweaks to my daily macro-nutrient targets. Macro-nutrients are your basic nutritional building blocks of protein, carbohydrate and fat.  Within my daily calorie intake goal there is a percentage of each required to maintain good health.  You can adjust the intake of each to ensure you have enough energy to exercise and repair muscles after working out.  This can be done on a daily basis depending on the activities you plan to undertake.  More broadly speaking I have set daily targets of each to ensure proper nutrition.

Good Carbs!  We like them.

One of the most interesting facts I learned in today's visit and for quite some time was to do with how carbohydrates can impact the early stages of weight loss.  You may remember in my week 1 weigh in, I lost 3.7kg.  I reflected on how in the first week I have found that it is possible to lose a disproportionately large amount of weight for the effort expended.  Amongst other nifty things, carbohydrates snaffle water.  I learned today that every gram of carbohydrate holds with it 3 grams of water.  It was like an epiphanous lightning bolt struck me.  What a concept!  I can really see how carbs could get a bad wrap.  Not only can the wrong type that we eat so much of get easily converted to excess fat, but, they do actually retain water.  Double banger or what??

A good mixture of fast and slow release carbohydrates is, however, very important to feed our muscles and brain for all the activities we choose to undertake.  The right balance is the key.  Because they do capture water, they also have a big role to play in our hydration.  But, what about the initial big weight loss when you start a diet?  Well I now put it down to the gross excess of carbohydrates that at least my diet obviously contained.  When I allowed my body a normal intake of carbs and the opportunity to purge itself of the excess loading I was feeding it, 3 times as much water as carbohydrate went with it.  Carbohydrates are large molecules that when converted for use by our body are stored in our muscles.  Because they are so large they tend not to be retained for very long before either being used by the body for fuel or converted to fat.  So by reducing my carbohydrate intake to a healthy level, my body burned up the excess and a stack of water went with it.  Those two little tidbits combined equals a big drop on the scales week 1.  Mystery solved!

So the trick from here on out is to, what is now so plainly common sense, get the balance right.  Eat the right types of carbs for the level of activity I am participating in.  Slow release (complex) carbohydrates before training and quick release (simple) during and after to maintain energy in long sessions or for recovery.  Carbs are not evil.  They are necessary for proper health.  In the right amounts you will rock the planet.  Consumed incorrectly and you will be somewhere on the spectrum of an lethargic under-performer to a bloated toady.

I learned a great deal more from my visit to the dietician today and have added to my arsenal of health weaponry.  This little series of carbohydrate factoids though really resonated with me.  So straight forward when someone lays it all out for you.  Just like someone pointing out where in fact Wally is hiding in plain sight....

Week 2 - The Journey Continues

Weekly weigh in time this morning.  As I guess a lot of people must experience, my enthusiasm remains high in these early days for any number of reasons.  That's a big positive of course, but, whether it is the pesemist in me I don't know, invariably, I always prepare myself for the worst on Thursday mornings.

This week however I was very pleased with the results.  Despite a big week 1 loss, I managed a 1.4kg drop.  This brings my two week total to just over 5kg.  Whilst those sort of results will not continue, it is a good mental lift to be encouraged on the scales as a result of working in the kitchen as well as the huffy puffy stuff. This battle will most definitely be won and lost in the kitchen.  At least as far as my efforts are concerned.

The B.M.I. Chart

Something that is never far from my mind when it comes to getting healthy and losing weight is something I mentioned back in my first post, the Body Mass Index, or B.M.I.  Now here's the thing, every time I have asked a doctor about my weight, whether it be for confirmation of my approach to weight loss or even affirmation of my opinions of my current situation, they invariably either ask my weight and height or measure both and race for the B.M.I chart.  That's all well and good if you were born in the mid 1800s and trust their science and methodology to this day...Despite it forming part of my goals in this endeavour, it does tend to leave me somewhat cold.

Picture my most recent visit to the doctor prior to me starting this process I am working my way through now.  It went pretty much as I just described, except this time my doctor had the wherewithal to say out loud that I fit into the obese range of the scale.  Not many of them will actually come out and say it.  Whilst that bugs me to be classified in that way in so much as it is entirely my own doing, the truth of it is, I know that realistically, I am probably not what most people would call obese to look at.  Small comfort to go with the label, but it is what it is.

I read a post on the blog of George st Pierre (GSP), an athlete and MMA fighter that I admire greatly.  It speaks of the inherent conflicts of using the B.M.I. as a reference to your healthy weight.  GSP is an amazing athlete and nothing like what anyone would consider to be overweight.  Yet, according to the B.M.I. he is exactly that.  It also states that the dimensions of the current UFC heavyweight champion place him squarely in the obese category with me!  He has cardio for days and is certainly not obese by my definition.

"Obese" UFC Heavyweight Champ Cain Valasquez

In my own experience, the fittest I have ever and no doubt will ever be was towards the end of one particular pre-season for Rugby.  Being young and with little responsibilities, I had exposure to excellent coaching and a lot of time to train.  The result was excellent fitness and much lower body fat than probably any other time in my life.  Yet, I was high in the overweight range of the B.M.I..  Actually, I was 3kg shy of obese.

So what context does that bring to me now?  As stated, the magic number in my head is 93kg.  That puts me at the very top of the healthy range of the B.M.I.  Somewhat humorously, having told me I was obese, the doctor then proceeded to tell me that I should aim to sit at around 104kg as an ideal weight target.  That of course is 11kg into the overweight range for someone my height.  So I find it hard to imagine that the B.M.I. is held in great esteem even with doctors.  Ironically, the common sense part of my thinking dismisses the B.M.I. as a useful reference for finding myself a healthy weight goal.  The emotional part of me desperately seeks my own internal approval by attaining that healthy range, even if only for a single day, before settling into a more sustainable weight for my body type for the rest of my days.  Perhaps the most poignant part of that concept is the burning motivation that it brings to my diet and training.  So for now, the B.M.I. is one tool in my arsenal, used to drive the change that I am seeking.

Week 1 Run and Won

The thing about weight loss is that the first week always presents the very motivating prospect of somewhere between a good and great change on the scales.  Digging deeper into it and the change can quite often be associated with several contributing factors.  The major one as I understand it is usually fluid loss.  This is meant in a good way as often when our diet is poor, we are dehydrated and our bodies retain water.  At least that is how I understand it.  There are other things that will affect the expected initial dip on the scales that can be quite uplifting after struggling through that oh so difficult first week.  But, I am no expert and will not pretend to explain many of the different theories I have heard in gyms and a variety training sessions over the years.  Suffice to say week 1 can be a good one with regards to losing weight.

With that in mind, I hopped on the scales wearing just a smile as is the routine on Thursday morning weigh ins.  I was pleased to register a 3.7kg weight loss for the week.  A nice moment of satisfaction ensued with a brief mental recap of the efforts of the past week involved in gaining the result.  As this moment passed, my mind turned to reflect on the impending weigh in for next week.

As good as week 1 can be, week 2 can be tough.  If you have done things right with regards to diet and are a little on the lucky side of things, you could be passed the detox symptoms that can be associated with the early stages of seriously improving your diet.  Your body still craves things like sugar and caffeine that you have most likely been used to over indulging in.  On the other hand, you may have been lucky enough not to get them at all.  If so, I despise you....well not really.  Headaches and irritability are a couple that my beautiful wife can attest to me displaying.  So now that those things are potentially behind us, what is so hard about week 2 then?  The impending weigh in at the end of it!

So you've smashed it on the scales this week.  The challenge from here is to mentally prepare yourself for a small loss, if any, in week 2.  Worse still, the prospect of actually having a small gain.  Your body should be nicely hydrated and not retaining any water by now, so that opportunity for a somewhat false positive that had you grinning broadly this week, has now come and gone.  What remains is the prospect of a really hard effort, put towards consolidating what you have done, both in terms of maintaining your healthy eating and building on the exercise regime you have undertaken all in the hope that at the end of the week, you have managed to hold onto the weight loss from the week before.  The ultimate prize will be a further, if smaller, drop in weight.

To be fair, this week's drop is probably more than I had expected.  I have worked hard exercise wise and been pretty fastidious about my nutrition.  All the more reason to be wary of next week.  The key for me will be to get my mental state right.  Being prepared for the emotions, including disappointment if the result is not stellar.  I firmly believe that it will be a key to keeping on the right path.  For now, what's wrong with being at least a little proud of the week that was the first.

*Another disclaimer - Just for the sake of consistency, whilst the image in this post is a dude (like me), it is also not me.  But, you probably knew that already.  Although I do think his moustache is quite fetching.