Body talk
I’ve got a confession to make…I’m on a diet, well not a diet exactly more a lifestyle change. Last year I got the big shock that my dad was diagnosed as diabetic, and there have been some quite nasty consequences of that but right now he’s doing great. But his sister (now deceased) had it too and that’s scares me a bit as to my genetic inheritance - mainly because my father has never been overweight in his life and that’s supposed to be a common factor in developing type 2 diabetes.
I’ve seen my weight creep up over the years, I enjoy food! At uni I was 10 ½ stone, but I was going to the gym 2/3 times a week and clubbing nearly twice a week as well! Was 11 ½ a few years ago but I recently tipped the scales at 12 st 8 lb!
Now I am not a waif like creature - my skeleton alone would not fit in a size 10! I’m 5’9” and built more like Lucy Lawless than Natalie Portman.
Edging closer to 13st and the fear of diabetes has meant I’ve being researching all this Glycaemic load/index GI/GL gubbins. Makes sense, have more wheat, vegetables and unprocessed food and avoid over processed and sugary crap. So I now eat things like sweet potatoes and have wholemeal bread a lot more which I hope balances out the odd chocolate bar!
Anyway, back to this ‘non diet’ diet. There was a BBC Horizon documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc last year presented by Dr Michael Mosley and he was himself concerned about some potential hereditary medical condition he was heading towards developing and for the programme tried out a fasting diet, basically for just two days a week you limit you calorie intake to 600 calories - men, 500 - women. For other five days you can eat what you like, have that pizza, go for a meal with friends - doesn’t matter, you’re body responds to those two fast days and you loose weight!
I mentally made a note to try it one day, and given the increasing coverage in the media and a new book recently I though it was finally time to give it a try. Last month I began it and have found it really easy to do provided you’re in the right mindset and plan what you’re going to eat the day before. Knowing that I can have that Chunky KitKat the next day makes it worth doing!
The outcome? Well I have lost 8lb, now hovering around the 12 stone mark, aiming to get down to at least 11 ½ again this month.
Now another motivation is that I’m going to a convention in July - Star Wars Celebration Europe II in Germany. I’m actually thinking that I might *gulp* cosplay for the first time! Now the obvious thing would be to go as a Star Wars character -despite any more weight loss I won’t be doing the slave Leia cosplay! May be a Clone Wars character, I don’t know yet. But I do remember at the Star Trek convention last year - amongst the klingons and Seven-of-Nines was one chap dressed as Doctor 10 which looked great - the idea of mixing up the fandoms really appeals to me for some reason!
I’ve seen my weight creep up over the years, I enjoy food! At uni I was 10 ½ stone, but I was going to the gym 2/3 times a week and clubbing nearly twice a week as well! Was 11 ½ a few years ago but I recently tipped the scales at 12 st 8 lb!
Now I am not a waif like creature - my skeleton alone would not fit in a size 10! I’m 5’9” and built more like Lucy Lawless than Natalie Portman.
Edging closer to 13st and the fear of diabetes has meant I’ve being researching all this Glycaemic load/index GI/GL gubbins. Makes sense, have more wheat, vegetables and unprocessed food and avoid over processed and sugary crap. So I now eat things like sweet potatoes and have wholemeal bread a lot more which I hope balances out the odd chocolate bar!
Anyway, back to this ‘non diet’ diet. There was a BBC Horizon documentary http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc last year presented by Dr Michael Mosley and he was himself concerned about some potential hereditary medical condition he was heading towards developing and for the programme tried out a fasting diet, basically for just two days a week you limit you calorie intake to 600 calories - men, 500 - women. For other five days you can eat what you like, have that pizza, go for a meal with friends - doesn’t matter, you’re body responds to those two fast days and you loose weight!
I mentally made a note to try it one day, and given the increasing coverage in the media and a new book recently I though it was finally time to give it a try. Last month I began it and have found it really easy to do provided you’re in the right mindset and plan what you’re going to eat the day before. Knowing that I can have that Chunky KitKat the next day makes it worth doing!
The outcome? Well I have lost 8lb, now hovering around the 12 stone mark, aiming to get down to at least 11 ½ again this month.
Now another motivation is that I’m going to a convention in July - Star Wars Celebration Europe II in Germany. I’m actually thinking that I might *gulp* cosplay for the first time! Now the obvious thing would be to go as a Star Wars character -despite any more weight loss I won’t be doing the slave Leia cosplay! May be a Clone Wars character, I don’t know yet. But I do remember at the Star Trek convention last year - amongst the klingons and Seven-of-Nines was one chap dressed as Doctor 10 which looked great - the idea of mixing up the fandoms really appeals to me for some reason!