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- Another week, another update…
- Weekly Update: March 7th
- February Highlights
- My weight loss update: Feb 29th
- 5 Tips on How to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau
- My Weight Loss Update - Feb 22nd
- Ok, Elmo Live is just going to drive me nuts (but it is cute!)
- 5 Sites that will Help You Stay Motivated
- My Weight Loss Update - Feb 15th
- Weight Loss Tip: Eat a good breakfast
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Another week, another update…
I don’t know why, but there always comes a point where commitment drops away and you start to slip back into old habits… that’s pretty much what’s happening to me now. My weight this week has actually gone up slightly and I’m already finding myself questioning whether I have the resolve to continue this.
It’s certainly not ideal, at least last time I lost 20kg before I struck this point, today though I’ve got some serious issues to work through if I’m going to tough it out and continue dropping weight (and really, it’s something that I have to do, so I’d better sort it out now!).
This isn’t meant to be a whinge or anything, losing weight throws up a lot of challenges and I plan to work through them… one thing I need to do is start posting more to this blog again - at least I have a new topic to look into… how to keep going when quitting seems so much easier! (I’m just not sure how to start it yet, lol).
Share this article, I appreciate your support.March 17, 2008 | Filed Under Updates
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Weekly Update: March 7th
I know, I know… I’m running a little late with the update and my number of posts have dropped off — I guess it’s a combination of not losing the weight as quickly as I have set for myself and my increase work load with the number of projects I’ve taken on lately 
As I mentioned in my highlights post, I’ve taken on the role of u5’s soccer coach, lol, that’s going to be a sight to see I can assure you… I still don’t really know how I’m going to handle this yet, only a couple of days out until our first training session though so I’ll have to sort something out by Tuesday.
What’s my weight at this week? it’s continued to go down slightly, but still pretty slow going and I’ve still eaten too much junk. Currently at 128.2kg, so a loss of 0.3kg for the week.
One of the other projects I’ve started and is slowly starting to build up a bit of steam is another blog that focuses on Keyword Analysis and Search Engine Marketing for Bloggers and Niche Marketers… keyword analysis is something that I’ve done for quite some time (not my main work focus, but definitely a part of it), so starting an outlet for it with this blog will be a nice distraction, especially since so much of the information out there hasn’t really changed since I first started mucking around with this in 2002, yet the Internet has come so far since then. There’s not much on the new blog just yet, but it’ll get there over the next few weeks.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.March 9, 2008 | Filed Under Updates Leave a Comment
February Highlights
Now that we’re into a new month, I thought it would be a good idea to go back and highlight the main posts to lose40kg.com from the last month. If you’ve just stumbled upon my blog, then these posts are a great place to start.
To start things off, I set up a lose40kg page on Squidoo, here’s my Squidoo update post that tells you all about it.
Here’s a brief introduction to social networks and how they can help you lose weight… we haven’r really used Twitter all that effectively on here yet, but I still think it is a great tool to use.
5 Weight Loss Tips for counting Calories (or should you even bother?) give some advice on how to use common sense when you change your eating habits to a more healthy lifestyle.
…and on a similar theme, Why cutting bread from your diet can get you off to a good start talks about how this one simple change can really kick start your weight loss if you’re a big bread eater.
5 Sites that will Help You Stay Motivated was our most popular post of the month, all 5 sites mentioned offer some really great help with motivation - make sure you check them all out.
and finally, 5 Tips on How to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau deals with bypassing that annoying stage of not losing weight despite keeping up with your best efforts… what is it, and how you can avoid it.
March should be a great month, I’ve just been roped into being one of the coaches for my sons u5’s soccer team, so that should provide some interesting challenges over the next few months… nothing like a group of hyperactive 4 year olds to keep you on your toes… I’ll probably get just as much exercise as them from our weekly training sessions, apparently games where they have to chase the coach around are good attention grabbers… should also prove to be quite funny for all the onlookers I would imagine!
Share this article, I appreciate your support.March 5, 2008 | Filed Under Blog Leave a Comment
My weight loss update: Feb 29th
Ok, that time of the week again… thankfully this time I have turned things back around and heading in the right direction again, although I’ve still fallen short of my monthly goal of 4kg weight loss.
My current weight is now 128.5kg, so that’s a 2.5kg loss for the month - I’m going to have to pick up the pace more if I want to reach my 12 month goal.
I did manage to do something yesterday that I haven’t done in a long time… I actually swam a few laps of the pool! Iit’s only a 10m pool, lol, but I managed 12 laps (a bit over two laps of an Olympic sized pool) which isn’t really much, but I had a 4yo jumping on me in between each lap, so that’s something I’ll work on more over the next month.
Anyway, time to start focusing on next months goal, my theme for March will be to add in some more exercise to my day - things like swimming and kicking the soccer ball around with my kids will probably form the bulk of it at this stage, but I’ll work up the intensity where I can.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.February 29, 2008 | Filed Under Updates Leave a Comment
5 Tips on How to Avoid Weight Loss Plateau
Photo by Wolfgang_Staudt
Most people have heard of the weight loss plateau - it’s that annoying little tendency for your weight loss to suddenly grind to a halt after weeks of seeing the pounds tumble away… it’s going to be a problem at some point for everyone losing weight, but fortunately there are ways to avoid getting crunched by the dreaded plateau if you start now.
Before I plunge into my tips and tricks on how to bypass the effects of the weight loss plateau it helps to understand what is going on and why it happens… so a quick little bit of scientific mumbo jumbo first.
Here are the facts - I’m going to reference one of the foremost scientific journals for this type of research… yep, that’s right - if you want to understand the how, why and what of weight loss plateaus, you need to read this article on Oprah.com… if you’re a little on the impatient side though, here’s the quick summary:
Our bodies Basal Matabolic Rate (BMR) is the energy required to keep our core bodily functions operating smoothly while at rest, and it accounts for about 60-70% of the calories you burn every day. One of the biggest factors in determining your BMR is your weight - the heavier you are, the harder everything needs to work to get the job done. This is also true for any exercise you do - swimming 10 laps of the pool doesn’t burn the same number of calories for each person, the heavier you are, the more work your body needs to do and the more calories are burnt.
So what happens when you start to lose weight? For starters, your BMR starts to drop with it - so all those fun things like breathing, pumping blood around your body and wriggling your toes no longer burn as many calories as they did a couple of weeks ago… what’s more - that walk you do every day to fulfil your exercise quota isn’t giving you as much bang for you buck as it used to either - can you see where I’m going here? If you’re burning less calories, but still sticking to the same diet, then eventually your calories in vs your calories out will start to reach an equilibrium… and when that happens, you’ve hit the weight loss plateau.
So here they are, my five tips to avoid weight loss plateau:
1. Take small steps, change one new thing each week
By making a small change to your diet or exercise each week, you’re going to offset that reduction of automatic calorie burning from the weight you lost by either eating a little less or burning a little more. It’s your choice how to do it, but make it a goal to take one small step each week.
2. Try to build your muscle mass as you lose fat
It might slow down the weight loss you see on the scales because muscle weighs more than fat, but you’ll definitely see a continuous reduction in your waistline and because your BMR is based on your overall weight, you’ll lower the effects of lost automatic calorie burning while still slimming down.
3. Mix it up a bit, vary your exercise and diet
Keeping things interesting by varying your daily routine will help keep you motivated and will also force you to continuously reassess the benefits and strategy of your diet and exercise plans. It will also help you to prevent slipping back into bad habits brought on by complacency.
4. Increase the amount and intensity of your exercise each week
Make yourself a promise that each week you’ll push yourself that little bit further and that little bit longer. That might mean something simple like extending your daily walk, or averaging a higher speed on the exercise bike… going that little bit extra each week will help to offset that reduction in BMR and keep you burning those calories.
5. Reassess your calorific requirements regularly
When you first started to lose weight, there’s a good chance you worked out how many calories you can eat each day to obtain the weight loss goals you’re seeking. A major part of that calculation factors on your current weight to work out your BMR etc. As you lose weight, that calculation is obviously going to change, so if you’re one to keep a close eye on the numbers (and as the weight loss slows down, the becomes more and more important), then you need to constantly reassess your requirements. This could be weekly, fortnightly, even monthly, but it needs to be done.
There you go, I hope that’s given you a few things to ponder - the dreaded weight loss plateau is real and is something that you will need to deal with at some stage. The sooner you start planning for it, the easier it will be to avoid and you can bypass yourself a lot of heartache.
Share this article, I appreciate your support.February 26, 2008 | Filed Under Weight Loss Strategy Leave a Comment