Hi guys, I bet you thought I had disappeared off the face of the earth and put all my weight back on...well the answer to both is no!
I am so sorry I have not been updating my blog in the past few months, there is not excuse really, apart from my motivation to keep updating the blog. I does take a lot of time and I have been really busy with work, plus I am a lazy so and so when I put my mind to it!
So, let me update you on how 2008 has been going. To sum up my weight loss, the best way to descibe it is up and down!!! I have been losing weight, then gaining it the next week, then gaining a bit more then losing a bit again, so all in all, I am a few pounds heavier than I was in January but that's all. I have been going to WW meetings every week and I am totally dedicated and committed to losing all of my excess weight before the end of the year!
It is a long journey to get to my goal weight, and many of you probably thought I was having it easy, with big losses every week and being so focussed. But let me tell you, even me, Glenn Smith can struggle at times. You see, that little voice inside your head that says you deserve a treat, or you look good as you are now keeps coming back. I think I have fooled myself that that "inner voice" was dead. It wasn't dead, just asleep! The thing I have come to realise is, once you are over weight, you will possibly always have to watch your weight. I feel amazing and I am going to feel ever better when I get to my goal, and I am NEVER going to be fat again, but I now accept that I will always have to be careful.
I do feel so much more in control of my eating, even during the naughty weeks, I knew what I was doing and I knew I would never go back to fat Glenn. I guess I have just taken some longer detours on my journey!
So here I am, motivated, inspired and focussed on losing weight again. I won't take me long to shift those extra pounds I have gained and then it will be down ill all the way (in a good way!). I will try my best to keep you updated on how I am doing. Please feel free to e-mail me anutime you like, my address is now glenn_smith@live.co.uk.
The other exciting news is I am in the July edition of the Weight Watchers Magazine...hope you like the feature. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.
Remember, this road is often a long road, and it's about you taking contol of what you eat, and making a decision that you want to be slim, more than you want to be fat. Nothing tastes better than being sim!
Hi everyone, as this is my first post of 2008, Happy New Year to you all!
As you know, I did gain a few pounds over Christmas, well I had my weigh in yesterday, and I have nearly shifted that extra weight, so next week (all being well) I will be back to losing! Ten stone lost, here I come! Please forgive me for being sketchy about my gain, but if I admit it on here, it feels more real, I would rather shift those few pounds quietly and focus on being a proper loser in 2008!
Anyway, the theme for this week is success or failure. Three things have happened which have made me think about this. One is my own gain over Christmas, second is, my sister only lost 1lbs yesterday and she was gutted and third is a lady called Linda on the WW message boards, who had gained and she asked me how I coped with gaining weight.
As you know, I have only ever gained weight once since I started losing weight, and that was a couple of weeks ago, so this is all new to me. It's how you emotionally deal with a gain, or a stay the same, or a disappointing loss that separates the men from the boys so to speak. You can decide to let it get you down or you can deal with it and move on!
If you have had a disappointing week, you need to look back over the week and see why. Has it been your fault? With my gain, of course it was my fault, I ate a bit too much over the Christmas period! So you need to recognise that it was your fault, learn from it, dust yourself down, draw a big line in the sand and move on. Sometimes it is not obvious that you have done anything wrong during the previous week. That is when I would always say write everything down and look back over your food diary and really look at the food you have eaten. You might have slipped into a bad habit, or your portion sizes might have been a bit on the generous side, or you might have been eating things you forgot to write down. If you are not sure if you have done anything wrong, take your food diary to to your weigh in class (if you attend one), or ask a friend's advise, or even e-mail me and I will have a look.
The more difficult thing to deal with is if you have done nothing wrong at all, and you have gained weight, or stayed the same. If you can totally say that you have been good all week, then you just have to shrug your shoulders and move forward, difficult as that may be. What's the alternative? Dwelling on it, and having an even worse week the following week! Remember, our bodies are funny things, sometimes our bodies can work a week behind when it comes to losing weight, so what you see on the scales if really what you did the previous week. Sometimes if you are a lady, you will gain a bit of weight during time of the month, sometimes, if you have had a couple of good weight losses, your body doesn't let you lose for a week, despite you doing everything the same. The other reason could be exercise, if you do not exercise for a few weeks, or you have just started, sometimes, because of the extra calories you are burning, your body tends to hold onto the calories it can, because it thinks you might be starving it (this still needs some research to prove properly) and remember, if you are buliding muscle, when a muscle is first developing, it does hold water, but this soon goes. I am not a scientist by any means, but you can see, there are so many reasons for a disappointing week at the scales.
Can I please just say, a loss is a loss! Losing one pound is the equivalent to a tin of beans, or two blocks of butter, do please celebrate any loss. Losing a pound a week is losing nearly four stone a year!
So, it's completely up to you how you decide to deal with a disappointing result. Do you dwell on it and end up having an even worse week? Or do you try and look at why the weight loss isn't as good as you want, dust yourself down and chose to move on and lose weight the coming week. That is what I decided to do, and the weight is coming off, I feel motivated and cannot wait to get to my goal weight. I am also so proud of myself, for drawing a line in the sand and moving forward. I could so easily have carried on with my old bad eating habits, but I didn't. I am not preaching to anyone, all I am saying is, you have a choice.
Good luck to you all this week, and remember, even if you have a bad week, decide you are not going to let a bad week become a bad year.
Hello everyone, I do hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. We did, lots of lovely presents, spending time with our family and friends and lots of lovely food!!?
I did not weigh in yesterday, I haven't been feeling too great over the past couple of days, so I gave it a miss this week, but I will be there next week! In the meantime, I have seven days to undo and naughtiness from Christmas! I would always strongly recommend that if you attend a weekly weigh in, you ALWAYS go, even after a bad week. Human instinct would be to stay away and hope you can put things right the following week, but trust me, this rarely happens, and one bad week leads to two bad weeks, and so on. Anyway, I am feeling a bit better now, and excited about the New Year.
I did have lots of treats over Christmas, but I tried to follow the Glenn plan that I discussed with you a few weeks ago. I can feel I have put on a few pounds, but not too much, and I am back on WW already. If you were really naughty, do not worry about it, I hope you had a great time, now draw a big fat line under it, and knuckle down to a healthy 2008. As the title of today's blog suggests, make 2008 your year to lose weight. I am so excited that I will be at goal in a few months time.
A couple of very exciting bits of media news for you. Please go out and buy the latest edition of Slim at Home Magazine. You should find it in most WH Smiths or a good newsagent. I am in it, look for the men's page! The weight info is a bit out of date, but hopefully people will enjoy reading it. If you have come to my blog because of the article.....welcome! Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think, glenn52@btinternet.com.
Secondly, there is going to be an article in my local paper, the Evening Telegraph on Monday 31 December. So hopefully, that will inspire some people, particularly men to come along to WW and lose weight with me and the other fab people at Donna's meeting.
Anyway, that's it from me today. All that remains to be said, is Happy New Year, I hope you have a blessed and happy 2008, and I hope you chose 2008 as your year to lose weight.
It's nearly Christmas! Are you ready? I have to admit, I am now starting to feel Christmasy!
I know you have all been keeping your fingers crossed for the magic 10 stone today, so I put you out of your misery, I didn't do it...sorry! I lost 1lb this morning, taking my weight down to 16st 4lbs, meaning a total loss of 9st 12.5lbs. I am not too down about it, these things happen. There is no particular reason for me not losing more, I have been 100% good all week, but I have had 2 weeks of quite high losses, so it's probably my body's way of catching up with itself if you know what I mean!
Still I have lost inches this week, particularly around my waist, I can tell because I have gone down a notch in my belt. In fact I have learnt an important lesson this week, it's not all about what the scales say, it's how you feel. I do place so much emphasis on my weight, I suppose it's what keeps me motivated, especially because I have lost quite quickly so far, but I need to remember to look at my body and celebrate how I look and feel. So if you have a small loss, or none at all, think about how your clothes feel, because you could still have lost inches.
Another nice piece of news is that my BMI has come down another point. When I started in April my BMI was 50 which is morbidly obese! It is now 30.9!! When I hit 29.9 I will only be overweight and not obese, so thats another nice target to aim for after Christmas.
I am still feeling great, looking better than ever and concentrating on Operation Slim and Gorgeous! I will hit target in March 2008, how exciting!!
Anyway, have a joyful, peaceful and enjoyable Christmas, God bless, and I will speak to you all next weekend. We have a WW class next week, so I can tell you how much weight, if any I have put on.
I hope you are all OK today, and still feeling motivated to lose a few extra pounds before Christmas. I went to weigh in this morning and I have lost another 3.5lbs! That now takes my total lose to 9st 11.5lbs. Please keep your fingers crossed for next Saturday morning, if I lose another 2.5lbs, I will reach the 10st lost mark. Trust me, you will hear me screaming wherever you live! I still can't believe it. I have smashed my Christmas target and I am nearly at my original goal target of 16st. It all seems so wierd, I know I am doing very well, but its almost like a dream. I am no longer a fat man, I am still over weight, but I am so close to being at goal and being a heathier and happier person. And I will never be fat again...ever.
I have re-set my ultimate goal this week. When I started in April, the prospect of losing so much weight was very scary. The goal of 16st seemed miles away, and I thought I would be happy at 16st, but I'm not going to be. Even though so many people keep telling me to not lose anymore, I know I need to. People can see I have a slim face, and my body is so much smaller, but I know I still have a bit of a tummy on me, hence I have decided my new ultimate goal is going to be 14st. This will still make me slightly over weight according to the doctors, but I think I will be happy at that weight. I do feel amazing, and I know I look great, but I still want to look better!
I went to my company's annual awards dinner last night, and had a great time. I decided to be good because I had weigh in this morning. I only drank water (no hang over this morning, yay!) and I made sure I had plenty to eat during the day, so when the meal came, I was not hungry. Call me silly, but I want this so much, I am not going to let anything stop me. If I didn't have weigh in this morning, I would have had a few drinks and I would have eaten the meal, but Saturday mornings are very important to me, and I wanted a good result. As I discussed last week, you have to still live when you are losing weight, which means enjoying yourself, having a drink or three, and eating naughty things every so often, but it is all about balance.
I did feel a million dollors in my dinner suit last night, I will make sure I post some pictures on here soon to show you. I need to update my pictures anyway, because I keep losing weight, the pictures become out of date very quickly.
I hope you all have a great week, remember, you can still have a great festive season, including drinks and naughty meals, read my post from last week. Also remember, you can still lose some more weight this week in preparation for Christmas. Even if you are having a party or a meal out, try to be extra good for the rest of the week, remember a week consists of 21 meals, not just one.
I am back feeling refreshed from a lovely week's holiday in Malta. I got weighed in, as usual this morning and I lost 6.5lbs. Yes, you did read that correctly, I LOST 6.5lbs! I can't quite believe it, I go on holiday and have an amazing weight loss afterwards! I now weigh 16st 8.5lbs, so I am in the 16's too. You may remember that I wanted to be 16st something for Christmas, well I am, so another target reached.
So, my topic of conversation this week is, How to survive a holiday the Glenn way.
As I see it, there are a few ways to deal with going on holiday.
1) Pig out! Don't even think about losing weight. You only live once, and, after all, you need to enjoy yourself on holiday, you deserve it. This is one way to do it, and a perfectly OK thing to do.
2) Be boring! You go on holiday, and you seriously think about everything you eat. No alcohol, you only eat salads, and you exercise every day. Again this is a perfectly good thing to do, but will you feel a little cheated? I would.
3) The Glenn way! This really is a bit of a mix between the two plans above. You see, I deserve a holiday, I work hard, and every now and then, I need a break. When I go away, I want to have treats, and feel like I am on my holidays. After all, this is life, and I can't go away every year and be boring! So this is what I do. I limit my alcohol to the evenings only, and I avoid having too much beer and wine. If I want alcohol I will have a short drink like gin, with a low cal mixer. I drink loads of water and diet drinks, like Coke. I try and eat salads and fresh meat when I can, but I do not go without. I do have bread, I do have puddings and I do have sauces. I try not to pick at too many sweets, in fact I took some KitKats and Curly Wurlys for when I wanted a chocolate treat. I did swim a few times, and I did go on a couple of walks. But most importantly, I had a fantastic holiday!
When I landed back in the UK, I was straight back on WW, no take aways to finish off the holiday, I was a very good boy. To be honest, I was really looking forward to a big plate of vegetables! So I guess, this plan worked for me. Do what you feel happy with, but for goodness sake, have a good holiday when you do go. Do not feel like you are going without.
This is going to be the same for me at Christmas. I am going to have some treats, and I am definately going to have a huge Christmas dinner, with pigs in blankets and bread sauce and roast potatoes! I will have a few mince pies, I will have Christmas pudding and some sweets, but I will also not make Christmas last for 2 weeks of solid food eating like I normally do. Have you thought about how you will cope this year? Again, you can pig out, and just get back on it in the New Year, or you can be boring, but I prefer some middle ground.
Anyway, that's me for this week. Thank you to those of you who e-mailed me saying I was missed. Have a good week, and make sure you do not make excuses for not losing weight. There is no excuse apart from your state of mind. Make a decision to lose a few more pounds for Christmas, even with those parties and buffets coming up, you can still lose weight if you want to.
I'm still here, despite someone being worried I had fallen down a drain!
I have been on holioday in Malta for a week, and returned yesterday. My weigh in before I went showed a 1.5lb loss, so I have now lost 9st 1.5lbs. It looks like I have put on 1.5lbs on holiday, but Il will do what I can to shift that before weigh in on Saturday.
I am popping off to Germany again this weekend, so I will not be able to make my usual Saturday morning weigh in, so I got weighed in this evening.
Dispite weighing in 2 days early, and in the evening when you tend to weigh more, I lost 1.5lbs. What a result! I have now lost 9 stone exactly!!
Anyway, just wanted to share the good news with you. Onwards and downwards to a healthy weight.
One piece of quick news too, I was made member of the month at my gym for last month. They awarded me because of my outstanding weight loss and my dedication. So a good week all round.
Just going to have some tea and then off to the gym.
Have a good week all. You know you can do this, so do it!
I hope you are all feeling motivated this week. I had my weigh in on Saturday, and I lost 5.5lbs. Don't quite know how, but needless to say, I am delighted! I have now lost 8st 12.5lbs, so I can almost smell 9 stone!
Operation slim and gorgeous is still going well!! It has become such a routine now, I just get on with it. I never feel like I am being punished, and I never go hungry. As I have discussed before, if you treat losing weight as a diet, you are more likely to fail. For me, this has been a life style change, for the rest of my life. My WW leader was concerned last week that I am so focussed on losing weight, and I am such an all or nothing person, that if it goes wrong, or when I get to goal, I am just going to blow it again. That was the old Glenn, remember, this is the third time I am losing weight. Although this is, by far the most successful time. The new Glenn has made a decision that he wants to be healthy and happy for the rest of his life. You see life is about making choices. Everything you do is a choice. I chose to fat by eating too much. I chose to come on line and write this blog today. I have now chosen to take control of my life and be slim for ever. Does this make sense?
One of the articles in the Christmas edition of the WW magazine was a person who has lost weight and they talk about rediscovering their old self, the slim person. I have never been slim before so I am discovering a new person all together! The fat Glenn was confident on the outside and happy and funny (I think?!), but it was just a mask I hid behind. I am now discovering the real Glenn, the person who was always there, but just buried behind layers of fat. I feel genuinely confident and self assured, ready to take on anything. People are seeing the physical differences in me but also the personality differences. I like the real/new me! Are you hiding behind a mask? Do you lack in confidence? Do you over compensate for your lack of confidence by being funny or loud, or quite? We are all different. But let me tell you, losing weight is amazing!! Not just for your health, but for you.
I'm rambling again aren't I?! Sorry, it's just that I am brimming over with enthusiasm for WW and losing weight in general, and I want the world to hear what I have to say. Hopefully my passion will rub off on some of you and help you lose some weight.
I have added a few more pictures that I have takien in the past week, hope you like them.
Sorry this is late, but extrapounds seemed to be having technical problems at the weekend, so all my posts were lost! They're back now, thank God!
So, another nice weigh in on Saturday, I lost 2lbs, so I have now reached the 8 and a half stone mark. So, I spent the whole day walking around with a spring in my step.
Thank you to all of those that e-mailed me last week, it's great to hear all your successes, and I'm glad I can help to provide some motivation.
I will try and post a longer blog later in the week.
