Tag

Weight loss

Health Rewards Journey Physical Activity

I would walk 5 million steps

I set myself a step count challenge at the beginning of the year. It was to walk at least 5,000,000 steps in 2015. As of today, I am delighted to proclaim that I’ve reached my goal!

5 million steps might seem like a lot, but it all started with a few small steps and one step at a time. With new challenges ahead and a target of 7,000,000 steps for next year, it’s as good a time as any to reflect on and share the steps and changes that helped me lose 170 lbs and become more active. Steps that I will also need to read and heed.

I hope these steps help you as much as they have helped me.

• Small Steps. The first step is to make them small. Don’t try to alter your lifestyle overnight. If you are overweight and inactive you probably took some time getting there. Getting away will also take time. By making small and independent changes you can assess what works for you while not overwhelming and overloading yourself physically or mentally.

• More Steps. Walking more was key to getting me more active. You can get started anytime. I use a Garmin Vivofit (and my beloved Garmin 620), but many smartphones are now equipped with step count apps and a simple pedometer works just as well. Start by simply walking more short journeys. Try taking stairs rather than lifts and escalators and bouts of purposeful walking which can be 5 mins rushing to work or trying to keep up with a five year old. My personal favourite is trying to get to a public toilet. Which ties in with the next step.

• Drink More. Not more beer or wine, unfortunately, but water. It can help with satiety and can increase your metabolism, although this is arguably insignificant. It might be a myth, but the sage advice of drinking first when feeling hungry helped me and led to more purposeful walking. If plain water isn’t your cup of tea, have a cup of unsweetened green tea or mix it with some squash.

• Eat Squash. This, pumpkin and other high in fibre alternatives to traditional starchy foods like potatoes. Potatoes themselves aren’t that bad, according to nutritionists. It is mostly what we do with them. Like frying them and covering them in ketchup. Same for pasta and rice. Often it is a case of what we add to them and how large a portion we have.

• Don’t Go Large. My gran taught me to clear my plate, but one lesson I learned was to go small. Smaller portions and smaller plates. Also don’t be afraid, when you feel full, to stop.

• Stop. When you start exercising more it can be addictive. It releases endorphins that often make you feel euphoric and unstoppable. We enter a boom and bust mentality. We over train and struggle to maintain which can lead to injury and to us giving up, especially when our losses become less significant.

• Involve Your Significant Other. A hard lesson I learned was that it is important to ensure that you balance your desire to get healthier with your responsibilities as a partner or parent. Combine both. Go for family walks, play in the park with the kids. You might be surprised at how much fun it is.

• Have Fun. Often I am asked what the best activity for weight loss is. I love running, not because it’s a fat burner, but because I enjoy it. I enjoy races and I enjoy challenging myself. I also enjoy lifting weights, kicking pads and striking balls. I do what I love, and love what I do. The exercise or activity that will get you fitter and leaner is the one you will enjoy and the one you will do, consistently.

• Be Consistent. It is easy to get overwhelmed by early success with later smaller losses and even plateaus undermining your confidence. If you maintain your new adopted behaviours you will succeed. Stay the course, don’t give up. Don’t fall asleep on the job.

• Sleep. Obesity is often linked with lack of sleep. Causality or correlation, I don’t know. What I do know is that when I am up late, I eat more and I eat more junk. When I am tired, I exercise less, I have less self-control and stress more.

• Don’t Stress, Be Happy. One of the by-products of stress is cortisol. This can lead to increased insulin production and is often linked to the accumulation of abdominal fat. Try to eliminate or remove elements from your life that bring you down. Unclutter and spend more time on you and less time playing games on social media.

• Use Social Media. There are many great groups and people to inspire and support you. Without boring friends with pictures of salads and accounts of your latest run (guilty of both), you can get accountability and share and try new ideas.

• Try new activities and become a try athlete. Variability can make your training more fun and more productive . Set yourself challenges that will help you reach your goals.

• Set Goals. Identify why you want to lose weight or get more active and make a plan with short term and long term goals, making them attainable but stretching, realistic but challenging and specific but flexible. Your goals will change as you change and you will reap the rewards.

• Reward yourself. Consider schemes such as Vitality or Bounts that reward you for being physically active or simply treat yourself to a new pair of jeans to show off your progress.

• Show off. Be proud of your success and don’t dwell too long on your mistakes. Most weight loss journeys encounter bumps and detours before we reach our destinations.

My final tip is not to wait. Not for January or even until Monday. What steps can you take now to make 2016 and beyond healthier and happier for you and your family?

November 13, 2015 4 comments

Health Journey Obesity

Sugar Rush

written by Stephen Morrison

Now that fat is no longer the bogeyman, we have a new villain carrying the can (pun intended) as the main cause of obesity.

Step up sugar and soda drinks. They join bacon on the list of things we love that seemingly hate us and our bodies.

As someone who has lost 12 stone and who is a Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Ambassador, I applaud Jamie’s efforts to highlight the sugar content in many soft drinks. I think we can all agree that many of us drink too much soda and our waistlines and gum lines are paying the price. A reduction in sugar consumption has shown to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce blood sugar levels and fat in the liver. I cut my sugar drastically and now look younger, have better skin, lowerered my blood sugar and even cured myself of sleep apnoea. Of course, I also cut my calories and lost lots of weight, which might also have contributed to my healthier look. It’s never one thing, as my friend Rannoch will often say.

The idea of introducing a sugar tax and displaying more clearly the sugar content on foods is not a new one and it has been successful in other countries; notably Mexico which saw a 6-12% reduction in soft drink purchasing over two years and up to 17% reduction in lower income households. Some research suggests some simply purchased cheaper brands, but the impact on the soft drink industry in Mexico is real.

Taxation can work. A 20% sugar tax could generate £1 billion each year. Money that our NHS and partners could use to fund health initiatives. Money that could be spent on saving lives and educating future generations.

We constantly read about how much the obese cost the NHS with greater need for larger beds, larger machines and increased treatments. This tax could help to address this burgeoning bill while possibly helping us to trim our waistlines.

What’s not to like about taxing sugar?

Well, for a start, it IS a regressive tax. Sugar consumption is greater in poorer communities and obesity is more prevalent in poorer communities. We already heavily tax people’s smoking and drinking habits and simply taxing another unhealthy product shouldn’t be much different. Yet, we are seeing a backlash. People are reading every day that something new is killing them, that something that was killing them is now good for them. They are confused and they feel that they are being told what they can and cannot do and what they can and cannot consume. This is fuelling apathy and mistrust.

Yes, we can shake our heads and our fingers and suggest that they accept some personal responsibility, but I cite my FSEM Lay View that suggests that we need to win both hearts and minds.

Before we rush to demonize sugar, it does have some benefits. Ask any runner how much they love Jelly Babies and sugar has proven to reduce cortisol levels caused by stress. It is never one thing.

We should look beyond the proposed sugar tax and look at the other (less controversial…to consumers, at least) proposals that Public Health England support and call for. Proposals that need to be considered before a sugar tax is implemented.

Reducing portion sizes. Am I the only person who buys family sized bags of sweets with the intention of making them last and then races to the bottom of the pack? We could, of course, show some self constraint, but many of us that are obese have a destructive relationship with food. Urging us to eat less does little to reduce our urges to eat more. Increasing a litre of Coke by 20 pence will not necessarily prevent people from still buying it.
More regulation of how high sugar goods are marketed, especially to children. For me, cereal manufacturers are almost criminal in their pursuit of young consumers. The shapes, flavours and marketing of breakfast cereals entice children and too many parents associate a bowl of cereal as a greeeeeaaaat way to start the day, not knowing that often a third of the bowl is sugar.
Further controls over how high-sugar foods are displayed in stores. In my local Tesco (naming and shaming, but not alone), the end of every aisle has high-sugar foods on promotion. These goods are heavily discounted to the extent that it is often not much more expensive to buy four of five bars than one. Again, we could criticise people and parents, but does that actually achieve anything? Instead, let’s encourage better promotion of healthier options and motivate and inspire people to make healthier purchases.

Sugar isn’t just found in huge quantities in soft drinks and sweets. It’s hidden everywhere. Ready meals that are so convenient often have up to 40 grams of sugar in each pack; barbecue sauce has as much sugar as a glazed doughnut and often fat free translates to extra sugar. Manufacturers want their foods to both taste better and be preserved for longer. Sugar achieves this.

If we are to reduce the amount of sugar to the recommended level of 5-10% of our daily calorific intake, we need to encourage and enable people to cook simple and wholesome meals. If we are to tax sugar, use some of the proceeds to create nationwide cooking campaigns that bring children and parents together and make learning to cook fun. We need to address the myth that eating healthy is more expensive and we need to look at how our food manufacturers and retailers produce, promote and price food.

The largely ineffective Responsibility Deal provided little incentive to businesses to fulfil their pledges and it has been argued that many of its successes would have happened without it. We cannot rely on food manufacturers to think of anything but their shareholders and, as such, they need to be regulated and given incentives (or penalties for non-compliance) to reduce sugar levels in food.

And finally, let’s move more. Being active doesn’t give you a free ride (well, unless you are cycling) but it can allow you to have a little of the things that we enjoy. Remember, it is never one thing.

October 28, 2015 5 comments

Health Journey Obesity

The Secret to My Success

written by Stephen Morrison

After 4 weeks of Personal Training with Scott Devenney PT and Christine Docherty , weekly classes of Zumba, Metafit and Kettlercise with Southside Metafit and Kettlebells, some active travel, more sleep and healthier food choices, I am starting to see results.

The scales say I have lost 11lbs but this is only half the story.

What encourages me even more is seeing that my arms and legs are in fact bigger (arms are an inch bigger) and my body fat has dropped by over 6% according to my body fat scales. More telling and more pleasing is that, according to my girfriend, I am developing nice hard bumps across my entire body. My jeans and tops are fitting me (again) and I’ve lost inches off my chest, waist and hips. I have more energy and and more determination to continue. I feel less self conscious, more confident and happy again.

When I was piling on the pounds and not running, not training and overeating, I feared that I was going to be yet another example of huge weight loss followed by huge weight gain.

I had lost my enthusiasm, my spark and my awesomeness (don’t worry, that’s back). I saw no way of climbing out of my spiralling descent back into inactivity and felt like a fraud as I wrote blogs for Spogo and National Fitness Day.

If you are wondering what the secret to my recent success has been, to me getting more active again and putting away the cake, it was the same things that trigger and motivate most successful behavioural changes.

I identified goals (Oz in Dec and Paris Marathon in April) that I wanted to be fit for. I joined several weight loss group (Man V Fat, a FaceBook group and Weigh in at Work) to give me accountability and a little competition.

However, more importantly I was encouraged, supported and joined in my efforts, by my girlfriend, Teresa.

On nights when I’d have happily sat on the couch, she urged me to get up and join her at her local classes, where I might of been one of only two men, but where I was made to feel welcome.

We cannot underestimate the importance of a nurturing environment and supportive social interaction.

Teresa and I train together and we have fun together. We use My Fitness Pal together, we run together at Great Run Local and we compare results together (Teresa’s competitiveness is frightening). Together, we are an awesome team.

Teresa is too modest, but she is experiencing similar results and if anything is looking even better than I am (although she always has, obviously).

The changes we have made aren’t ground breaking. We’ve cut down on snacking, are reducing our portion sizes and are trying to make better choices, more often. We are doing activities we enjoy (more about them later) and trying to be more active, throughout the day.

There are no magic pills, juices or shakes. No shortcuts and no quick fixes.

It’s unlikely that I’ll have a six pack in 9 weeks (regardless of what certain men’s magazines promise) but I will feel more comfortable in shorts and in the water.

The prospect of “Taps Aff” won’t also fill me with dread.

October 16, 2014 2 comments

Journey

Eat Till You Drop

written by Stephen Morrison

At my heaviest I ate a lot. I ate a lot of the time and I ate a lot of the wrong stuff. Had I not seen “that” picture, there was a real danger that I would literally eat till I dropped. I loved eating that much that I once went to the toilet in a “Eat All You Want” pizza restaurant to make myself vomit. I wasn’t anorexic, I simply wanted to create more space in my stomach so I could eat all that I wanted to.

But all that has changed and if anything I now eat too little.

Too little!? Surely if I cut down on my food, I’ll simply lose fat more quickly? That was how I used to think. Luckily I have many friends who are Personal Trainers, Nutritionists and Medics. While in addition to being a geek, I am also embarking upon my own fitness education journey with Faster who are not only supporting my continued training but also my professional development.

But not everyone has the circle of friends and mentors that I have. Most are confused by the marketing of slimming companies, of food companies and even by health professionals and purveyors of multi level marketing products.

Eat less fat, eat more fat, eat no carbohydrates, eat only complex carbohydrates, don’t eat fruit, only eat fruit and a million other lose fat quickly diets and drinks that are usually based on eliminating certain food types, drinking expensive and heavily processed shakes and drinks or by reducing calories.

Now, there are those who say calories don’t matter. There are those that say ditch the scales. And guess what? Both are probably right.

But let’s be honest. Every fat person who wants to lose weight counts calories and stands on a scale….often daily and throughout the day.

And every fat person thinks I ate too much and got big, so I’ll eat less and lose weight. And I’ll eat a lot less and lose weight even quicker.

And we will. And probably quite a lot. At first. Eventually our bodies will respond to being starved by slowing down, by conserving energy. It’s a smart cookie ( sorry, shouldn’t mention cookies). And the weight loss will slow down and eventually stop.

I could bore you with all the science and research ( there’s lots of it), but we all know what we do next.

We reduce our calories further. And we start doing more cardio. My next post will focus on why that’s the second mistake most of us make, but for now let’s concentrate on the calories.

We reduce them and the scales start again moving in the right direction. But and it’s a big but ( no puns please), the weight loss isn’t necessary fat loss. Our body (smart cookie, remember) is worried. It’s went from having an abundance of lovely food to now being starved. And it’s not sure how bad it’s going to get. So it decides that it’ll keep the stored fat until it really needs it and starts looking for other sources of energy. But we aren’t eating fat, carbs or anywhere near enough calories so the body starts breaking down lean body tissue…ie our muscles. Rather than losing fat we are losing weight and our metabolism slows further. We find that we put on weight if we even eat a little more than normal.

So we cut calories again and do even more exercise. It’s a vicious cycle and minds smarter than mine have written extensively on the dangers of metabolic damage. Google it.

So, what should we do? What is the right way smarty pants, I hear you ask.

Well, I’d recommend that you calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the amount of calories your body needs to simply survive. General advice is that you then aim to eat about 500 kcals less. With some suggesting that obese people can reduce it by 10-30%

But here’s an idea. Rather than cutting calories why not try switching foods. Eat more veg (chips don’t count) and ditch your refined white bread and pasta for leafy green veg and rice.

But please don’t go down the route of very low calorie diets. It’s a recipe ( always food) for disaster. It’s so tempting to stop eating and to exercise more. I know this because, despite my knowledge, I am STILL guilty of it myself.

I know I should eat more. Especially as I now weight train. But, I’ve conditioned myself to believe that eating food is bad. I’ve been dieting so long and lost so much that part of me resists my new found knowledge. Thankfully I’m improving. Like many, I want to rid myself of the fat that limited my life and my happiness. And I want to do it now.It took me 10 years to go from a normal weight to over 25st and I can’t expect to reverse that overnight. Better to adopt healthy eating that will sustain me and be sustainable. Food is fuel for my body and it will not run smoothly on an empty tank.

Eat more and drop a dress size. Now that’s a diet that should sell.

August 13, 2013 0 comment

Health Journey Mental Health Obesity

All The Bad Things…

written by Stephen Morrison

Although I will no doubt, at some point this week, look back on my highlights of the year and in many ways it was an amazing year (any year that we and the ones we love experience good health, is, I suppose a good one), I firstly wanted to reflect on something else; on something maybe a little different from many of the other end of year blogs and on something that might just reveal (maybe a little too revealing) a few things about me, that might just resonate with a few of you and hopefully, if anyone recognises similar “things”, might make you take action now.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I’ve accumulated some extra baggage these past few weeks and I’m determined not to let a slip derail me. So it got me thinking.

What are the things I don’t miss? What are the things that the old Stephen hated and what are things that I never ever want to see, feel or experience again? What are the Bad Things about being not just obese, but morbidly obese?

This year, I intend on experiencing many new things but first let’s look at some of the old things I that I’ve thankfully put behind me. They’re not in any order other than when I think of them (this blog maybe isn’t as polished as most, as I just write what I’m thinking).

Candida- I’m nothing, if not honest and apologies to those that I’m possibly about to disgust, but I believe in warts and all. This is one weight related complaint that I’m happy to be rid of. The smell, the rash and the moisture that it caused under the folds of my skin weren’t the most attractive and were one of many things that made me constantly self aware.
Plantar Fasciitis- Every morning, makng those first few steps was agonising. I would struggle to make it to the toilet and on many occassion had to reach out to the wall for support.
Sitting Down to do the Toilet– Well it does lead on from the previous. The folds of my belly (ies) made the traditional means of urinating impossible and I had to sit down, taking extra care to direct my stream. This is maybe a little too honest, but I more than once had accidents caused by the fat around my mid section.
Intimacy– Not only was it physically difficult to make love, with a sore back, poor stamina and breathlessness, but my obesity severely affected my ability to attain and maintain an erection (hell, I’m even surprising myself with the openness of this revelation, but then again, it’s basic science). I was also never comfortable being naked. I thought that my form would disgust my wife, just as it disgusted myself. Even now, I’m still not 100% comfortable with how I look naked, but then, who does? Even cuddles were impractical as I could never hold someone close or hold them tight.
Self Loathing– Despite telling others I was fine, despite puting a smile on for the camera and despite being the first to self depricate, I hated what I had become. I often felt hopeless and useless. I hated myself for being unable to change; for being unable to restrict my eating and for being unable to control my cravings.
Cravings– One biscuit, sweet or chunk of chocolate was never and will never be enough for me. In the bad old days, I’d eat some junk only to go hunting for more….lots more! And I was like a bloodhound. I could locate the stashes of sweets that my wife felt compelled to hide from me. And once those stashes were exhausted I would then eat the stuff that initially I had ignored for tastier items. I was like a shark, frenzied by blood. I make no bones about using the animal references as my behaviour was that of a wild animal. Be it leptins or plain greed, I was never satisfied and once made myself sick so that I could eat more. Now, that’s what I call an eating disorder!
My Mum’s Tears– This one is maybe cheating, as she has only recently revealed this to me. But my mum used to cry herself to sleep worrying about my weight; worrying about how her son was likely to enter an early grave and how she would have to bury him. Just knowng, that I’ve taken just one weight (pardon the pun) off my mum’s shoulders is ammunition enough to keep me rightous.
My Own Tears– I’m not afraid to admit it. I cried. Maybe it was the increased estrogen in my moobs ( I’d like to say that I’m well shot of these too, but still got a bit to go), or the fact that I’m a sensitive guy, but I was never blind to my obesity and would regulary share a tear when I was…
Feeling that Everyone was Laughing at Me– Some argue that obesity is becoming socially acceptable…not in my world. Everytime I struggled to get on and off the bus ( I used to stand at the front, regardless of whether there were seats); everytime I entered a clothes shop and looked in desperation for size xxxxl jeans and shirts (soon all I wore was baggy, loose fitting sweat pants and jerseys…..not ironic, just really sad); everytime my belt snapped or trousers ripped with the pressure; everytime I had to explain my job role was a “Lean Practitioner” (like Six Sigma); everytime I took off my winter jacket, only to realise that I had soaked my shirt in perspiration: everytime kids said; “Mummy, look at that fat man” and everytime I ordered a Diet Coke and two Quarterpounders I worried that people were just about to burst out laughing. And sometimes my fears were warranted, Because, laugh they did.
Isolation– Ok, this one was partly self imposed but it was still mainly (I’m still quite shy) weight related. I didn’t go out. I didn’t attend work parties. I stopped playing badminton and football. I didn’t want to be seen in public and eventually I didn’t even attend my my parents in law’s Sunday dinner. I’m still not exactly a social butterfly, but I’m no longer housebound.
Fatism-People are Fattist. FACT. And let’s ne honest, can we blame them? How stupid must I have been not to recognise and act on my obesity? How greedy must I have been to get so large and how lazy must have I been? Everytime I applied for a job, only to see someone less talented get selected; everytime I made a valid point in a meeting or everytime I saw somone looking at me disdainfully I felt judged on how I looked rather than who I was. Even now, it pains me to see how fat people are portrayed and treated. But, at least now, I’m not victim to it.

I could go on and might some day revisit this list (with maybe some more light hearted “things”) but this has been quite emotionally draining and as cathartic as it’s been, it’s all a bit dark. Prior to this blog my earlier writing was lighter, funnier and easier to read. Let me know what you think and in 2013 I might try to make you smile a bit more.

January 2, 2013 8 comments