759 WW & 270 FF days - Synergy in loosing weight

Gone, Goner, Gonest?

No, no, no!! You could not be more wrong! I am still here, still doing my darnest, and though I admit I have been all over the place foodwise and dietwise, I have never lost track of what I want to achieve. At the moment I weigh 146.8 kg/323.6 lbs. Which means I HAVE gained weight. That weight is fat but above all muscle. With more weight than about 6 months ago, I have less inches/centimeters to show for it.

Some of you may remember how I started to go to the gym somewhere in august 2009? That in itself was revelation for me. For a while there I thought that that much work out meant that my food intake was not that important. It would compensate when my food intake was not.........as it should be. WRONG!! Also I noticed I lost UMPH, willpower, stamina. In short, though I loved the work outs and became a very frequent visitor of the gym, I slowly slid downhill. For various reason mentally and emotionally I landed up in "darkland", and believe me gaining weight does not help at all. It makes it worse, because you do start to feel like a failure. I thought myself hideous, horribly ugly and had serious problems trying to crawl ot of the black hole.

Then somewhere in April this year I did some soul searching. I made an appointment with my dentist for some serious dental work, and finally plucked up enough courage to go visit the dearest and most wonderful of all friends I have in Washington. Can you imagine, 10 years of talking to this man, and we had never met. So in April/May of this year I went to Washington. What a fantastic city this is! I fell in love with it, as well as with the man; a brilliant tour guide, conversationalist, a man as generous as I could have wished him to be. The best holiday I have ever had. I came back a much happier person.

And so, after having recharged my emotional battery majorly, my smile fixed, my self confidence at an all time high, I reviewed what it was what I was doing to lose weight and how I could improve on it. Mind you, not what I was doing wrong, but how I could improve.

What was I doing:

1. Weight Watchers points system, but not counting points, not going to the meetings
2. fitness, 3 - 4 times a week; tred climber and cross training
3. weighing me at the gym whenever the mood took me, sometimes not for several weeks on end.
4. falling back into old habits of eating to console myself.

What did I improve:

1. Go back to weight watchers meetings, weighing on wednesday, start counting and weighing again
2a. fitness, set up a personal instruction program with Nanda, fitness coach: 10 week programme, which will teach me in fifteen 30 minute trainings how to work my body as effective as possible
2b. a minimum of 4 trainings a week (minimum of 60 mins), training muscles, cardio and balance - these are non-optional
i. swimming
ii. resistance wall and muscle training (machines)
iii. cardio training: cross trainer and treadlimber
iv. resistance training and muscle training (weights, steps, floor exercises)
2c. 2 additional trainings (minimum of 30 minutes) swimming - these are optional
3. weighing myself at least once a week, get an overview of FFM, Body fat and TBW
4. minding the old habits, keeping the momentum going

The 10 week programme set up will demand a lot of time, but as it is all my trainings are early in the morning, so by the time I come home, I can crash and do nothing. Strangely enough though I notice I have lot of energy to burn even ate the end of the day.

The last two weeks 11.2 lbs/5 kg, and I feel envigorated. My musles ache now and then protesting as they get into the swing of the excercising. I find the swimming and the sauna help a lot. They relax my musles and allow me to recuperate, strong and healthy for the next day.

I will describe the exercises as best as I can, for it will enable me to repeat them more easily.

1. crunch
Lie down on your back on the floor, on a stepper, bring your chest to your knees, while you pull in your knees, stretch and repeat. If need be use support of your hands, just to balance your self

2. resistance wall lunge, weight 4 lbs.2 kg
Stand left of a rope (horizontal along the floor) , take hold of the rope handle with your right hand. Breath in, bring right foot back, resting on the ball of your foot, the knee of your left leg bent at a right angle, the support of your weight in this leg. Step back, and lift the weight cord straight up over your shoulder, breath out.

- mirror this for the right side

3. stand ups, ball 15,5 lbs/7kg ball
St down on high stepper, feet about 1 foot away from you, about 1 feet apart, toes pointing forward. Hold the ball in front of your chest, arms pressed close to the side of your chest. Keeping your back straight, stand up, making sure you use the muscles of your legs, buttocks to lift you. Do not curl your back to give yourself extra momentum! Push the ball up, and breath out. Breath in as sit down again, and bring the ball to your chest.

4. Resistance wall, arm press 18.5 lbs/8 kg
Stand in front of the left rope, and take it in your right hand. Pull to ensure the weights are free hanging. Then with right foot, pivoting on your left foot to come to a shallow squat at a 90 degree angle from previous position. Pull with your right hand on the cord while you breath in, a short way until the hand is level with your left shouder, then breath out slow and with the left hand PUSH the right hand on to your right. Do not move your torso, do not pivot your waist; keep the squat stationary. Keep your hands about a foot or more away from your body as you push. Push until you cannot do so any further without moving your torso, then bring the hand back slowly in reverse order, step back to the initial position, breath in. Keep the abodmen and stomach muscles tight.

- mirror this for the right side

The above is testimony to a long process, a process which makes me aware that making my goal, effectively, at a good pace with out veering of the pass needs focus, determination and will power. One of the ways to do this is to organise, something I like and am good at. To see it as a project, of which I am the projectmanager.

And so I have combines all the seperate efforts in to one big one, where every part adds to the other, the synergy of which gives me momentum, and makes me smile every day.

so I would say:

Here, herer, herest