16 weeks of dieting

10 weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about my diet progress.

I am now 16 weeks into my diet and have made great progress.

I have continued to use the myFitnessPal Android application which I can’t say enough good things about – it has let me monitor how many calories I am eating each day and how many calories I’m burning through exercise. It also lets me compare foods so I can decide what to eat each day. I don’t feel like I’m skimping on food – last night, I went out for a meal with my girlfriend and had a delicious ribeye steak and a dessert. As long as you balance what you are eating, you don’t need to skimp or only eat rabbit food…

I decided to try to get fit as well as losing weight, so I enrolled in the Couch to 5k (C25K) programme which is a structured training program which takes you from doing no exercise to running 5km (30 minutes) in 9 weeks doing 3 runs per week. I’m currently at the start of Week 6 and did a 4km (20 minute) run a couple of nights ago – that’s the furthest I’ve run since high school. To help with the training, I have been using the Rundouble Android application which has been excellent – it tells you when to run and when to walk, it tracks your speed and distance via GPS and gives you a map of your run and statistics about your pace and distance at the end. While the NHS podcasts are good, I prefer the extra features offered by Rundouble. I also bought myself a Garmin Forerunner 410 GPS Sportswatch with Heart Rate Monitor which gives me more information including my heartrate – this satisfies my inner geek. You can see how I’m doing on my Garmin Connect profile.

I’m so confident that I will be running 5k soon, I have signed up for the Bupa Great Winter Run on January 5th 2013. This is a 5km run through Holyrood Park in Edinburgh, around the base of Arthur’s Seat. Although it’s not a long run, it is hilly and it’ll be very cold!

To give my self more incentive to keep training, I’m asking for sponsorship from friends and family at JustGiving – all the money I raise will go to Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland who do some great work.

So, in the past 16 weeks, I’ve lost 19kg (42lbs) – exactly 20% of my original bodyweight and it’s been easy!

If you doubt you can lose weight and get fit, don’t – get out there and do something about it – it’s not hard. If you’re not going to do that, ease your conscience by sponsoring me at JustGiving g

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