At 58 years old, Mary is looking to lose weight with her colleague and Challenge partner Karen so she can enjoy a healthy retirement.
Update 10
Whoops! Didn’t find the time to enter my diary this week!
Update 9
Time is really marching on now and Finale is just a few weeks away. The gym that offered me free sessions up until the end of the competition is working out well. The staff are all experienced personal trainers and although it is a small gym, it has everything I need and it’s convenient.
Yesterday I was at the pool and a woman said, ‘You are doing so well. Keep going!’ That was nice feedback, because at my kind of weight, it takes a long time to look different.
Food wise, all is going OK and I am pretty determined not to have dinners out and waste calories while I am striving for that 20% weight loss. I think once the Second Chance Challenge is over, life will be less frantic and it will be good not to be so focused on the numbers. The truth is that the weight I have lost so far is just a start. I am looking way beyond Finale and I intend to continue with my own, personal journey.
Update 8
A disappointing week weight loss-wise. I am not sure I can do any more or eat any less, though. I had another trip to Canberra for some personal training sessions and also did some in Sydney. While I have come a long way, it is a little disheartening to realise how much further there is to go. The countdown to Finale is on everyone’s minds, but I think that the 20% weight-loss target is pretty impossible to reach now.
Update 7
Although my target of 20% off my starting weight is a long way off, my weight loss of 2kg certainly makes me feel good!
I am really starting to feel like I have some sort of fitness building. It’s a great feeling and makes me want to work harder and feel better every day. I know that underneath these kilos there was once a Rolls Royce engine that has been damaged and left to rot over the years. When I think of December 2008 where walking 20 metres was an effort, I am grateful to have been given the opportunity of the Second Chance team. I can certainly see the benefits of being in a team and sharing the journey and competition with others, even though I am no threat! If the competition was a bit longer, now that I am hitting my straps, who knows what might have happened!
People say that I am really gutsy to be prepared to go public with my weight problem. Also Mark Richardson from a local gym called me and offered to sponsor my weight-loss journey. I have been to the gym in nearby Neutral Bay twice now and feel very comfortable and confident with it and with the professional staff. I like their saying ‘Gyms don't work, trainers do!’ I totally agree as I know that the expertise of a personal trainer has been the turning point in my ‘recovery’. Hearing from Mark has been a real bonus and a real motivator. I am going to do everything possible to get to Finale. I love a challenge!
Update 6
It was great to have Karen stay with me this week and to be able to train, swim and eat together and really feel like we are on the same path. Often, I think she is doing so much more than I am even though my weight loss has been marginally more. I am happy now that I know I am about a month behind her in fitness and exercise ability but that is OK as I started way behind her. We are both working hard and finding it tough. We are trying to work out how we can have another few days together before the end of the Challenge.
I also went to Canberra this week and there is a great sports centre with a fabulous swimming pool that I frequent. This time after my swim I took myself all dripping to the gym in the centre and asked if there were any personal trainers that could give me a couple of half hour sessions while I was in Canberra. That afternoon, someone called John led me through a proper session to my ability and a little beyond. The next session was to be with Sophie who came highly recommended by John.
Sophie has changed my life! This woman is experienced and is not afraid of a 160kg, nearly 60-year-old woman, and knows exactly where to lead, push and support. What I have found so far is that everyone I meet wants to bubble wrap me as they are no doubt scared of pushing me and I have been scared of pushing myself as well. This woman has the confidence, and I have confidence in her, to really start working at my physical recovery. My stay was extended by a few days so I have had four sessions with Sophie and will look at travelling to Canberra in the near future to continue working with her whenever possible. I feel confident to re-evaluate my gym program in Sydney now that I have seen what I can do, instead of always focusing on what I can't do.
Update 5
I am very pleased to report that I can now manage 30 minutes on the treadmill, pretty slowly, yes, but enough to get me all sweaty at the end of the session. It really is a mental thing for me to keep walking and not stop and it is such a good feeling at the end. I am not exercising enough to trigger the release of endorphins yet though. I look forward to that but I must say that it makes me feel pretty good to reach the half hour mark on the treadmill; it’s a mini high in itself!
I know that if I hadn’t been given a place on the Second Chance Challenge team I would still only be thinking about starting a weight-loss program right now. I know that this opportunity is priceless.
This week I've lost much less weight than I had hoped for, but I am living my life pretty ‘normally’ and don’t feel deprived. I do find that I notice people eating at social functions a lot more now (things like starters of cheese etc) and I can feel myself getting annoyed at them for stuffing themselves while I resist. I have always been more of a closet eater and not one to be seen to be indulging excessively. Yet, these ‘normal eaters’ can do that and then just go back to normal eating. Normal eaters never cease to amaze me.
I often wonder what being a ‘normal’ eater would be like. What it is like for someone who has never had a weight problem and who ‘eats to live’ and doesn’t ‘live to eat’. Someone who takes for granted that they have periods of indulgence and then the body says ‘enough!’ and then there’s a return to normal eating. What would it be like to have just a few lollies and then get sick of them? What it would be like not to have to eat secretly and have supplies hidden around the house? What would it be like not to feel a sort of creeping panic to know that the supplies have all gone and yet still search the usual hiding spots in vain? I bet normal eaters no more understand someone like me than I do them. I wonder if they really appreciate their normal association with food and with eating.
Update 4
Not a lot to report really. I have been swimming more and I have been to the gym a few times. They have not had anyone my size at the fitness centre before and they had to research what equipment that someone who weighs more than 150kg could use safely. It was not very encouraging, but I suppose that at the moment I am not fit enough to get on most of the equipment anyway. I do feel that Camp Biggest Loser would offer so much more support for me personally being the weight that I am.
Karen is powering along and I feel quite inadequate when I think about how much exercise she is doing at the gym compared with me. The idea of being a team is not really working that well for me as we are not able to train and push each other when it is really needed. We have discussed this and have asked the Second Chance Challenge group via email about their thoughts.
Update 3
Well, another week has gone and overall, it has been a pretty good one. I had a drinks party at home last Sunday and although I put together some really interesting food, I stuck to the good choices myself. Luckily alcohol does not interest me, so having soda water is not an issue. In some ways, it would be easier if grog was an issue, as those who give it up seem to whip off the weight!
I find the online food diary keeps me on track and shows that it is fine to eat some foods (in moderation) and still remain on track calorie wise. I had some jelly beans recently (which I typed into my diary). I am not sure having them was a good idea as the swing from a high blood sugar to a low one the next day could easily have set me back. I felt quite flat the next day and felt that I needed something to help lift me. I can only put this down to eating those sweets. However, I managed to resist temptation and I felt great about that.
Swimming is going well and I have increased the amount I am doing. I do 40 x 50 metre laps now, most of this is with flippers and kicking as it gets me puffing more than freestyle. Today I am meeting with the health and fitness manager of the swimming centre (which also has a gym) to see how I can add some gym work to my workout. I must admit, it is not something I am looking forward to. Let you know next week!
Update 2
Exercise is such a mental block. That’s because it is so difficult and painful for me. However, this week I managed 20 minutes on the treadmill, which considering I started at just two minutes is a big improvement. I know that I need to do it regularly. It is ridiculous as I feel so good after actually raising a sweat! This week also saw the demise of the swimming routine and I am blaming this on the atrocious weather. Not that there isn't an indoor pool, but I had it in mind that I would swim and get a tan and be outdoors for this activity. Instead, I ended up on the treadmill but I almost sabotage my best made plans every day. I know that the only way the excess weight will come off is with exercise being part of my life, but somehow I manage to not find time given the chance. The food is going OK. There are lots of social events springing up, so I really need to watch what I eat.
I love the group photo of all of us in the Biggest Loser Club Second Chance Challenge. Even so, the picture of me really is one of the worst I have ever seen! Generally, I look OK in photos but this is revolting! The photographer kept telling me to put my chin up and there, in all its glory, is this huge under chin, which I didn’t even know I had! I should have worn a darker colour also, as the pale pink does nothing against the white background. All-in-all I found this photo quite depressing...
Update 1
It’s a relief to know I need never be this heavy again in my life. I am at a stage and an age where being the weight that I am is literally killing me. I also have a very demanding full-time job but I have managed to take the whole month off to get myself sorted. It looks like things are coming together, albeit a bit slowly.
The biggest challenge for me this first week has been exercise. However, I have started with swimming and I just love that feeling of buoyancy that comes with exercising in water. Swimming has been good for me in the past and it has helped me get to a level of fitness from which I could do other things, like walking. I am also doing the occasional 10 minutes or so on the treadmill and I know that I need to do this every day to build up my fitness. By nature, I am a very ‘outdoors’ type of person and naturally athletic, but this overeating disease has spoiled many years of enjoyment I could have had with outdoor activities. Now I have to look forward to a better quality of life having been given a second chance.
I think that the Club website is excellent. The online diary is a good way to keep track and the auto updates are very impressive too. The food has not been an issue so far, it is actually great being hungry and ready for tasty, healthy meals. I enjoy the Shakes and Snack Bars, however I have not tried the Soups and the Meal Replacement Bars are not a favourite, but they are convenient and fill the gap when time and life intervene!
It is very good having a partner doing this Challenge with me. Karen and I speak or email several times a day and both of us face the same issues. We both know that while exercise is crucial, it is also the most challenging factor for us at this point.
At the end of this first week I feel that the support has helped enormously and I am sure that once the initial euphoria of eating well has worn off, I would have been back to looking for something else if I didn’t have this to keep me going.
Talk to you next week!