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I’m No Longer Obese! February 28, 2006

I just noticed today that my Body Mass Index (BMI) has dipped below 30, for the first time in at least 5 years.

OK, it’s still 29.9. That’s high by any measure, but at least it’s steadily dropping. Having a BMI under 30 means I’m no longer officially Obese (I’m now merely Overweight :-) ), so this is something worth celebrating!

Your BMI is simply your weight (in kg) divided by the square of your height (in meters). Medical experts have found BMI to be useful in evaluating health risks for individuals, since it encapsulates both height and weight. In a nutshell, BMI tells you how overweight you are for your height.

The BMI formula was developed by the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet in the 19th century.

Read this very good overview of BMI and its interpretation and limitations.

Weekly Weigh-In 2006-02-26 February 26, 2006

1.2 kg! What a great week for weight loss!

I was amazed I did so well this week, especially given that I only exercised 4 days. I think a big factor was keeping my weekend under control. We went out to dinner one night, but I had prawns for an entree and salmon for a main – both probably had a lot less calories than most other options on the menu.

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Weekly Weigh-In 2006-02-19 February 19, 2006

I was able to keep things under control better this weekend, mainly because we didn’t go out for a meal or have people over or anything. My daily weight measurements have dipped down to around 101-102 kg, which is pulling the running average down nicely too. If I’d been able to get out exercising for those few extra days I missed (one was a sleep-in after a late night, one I missed my alarm, and one was due to rain), I might have even hit the 1 kg target for the week.

The week ahead is looking good, with no big temptations looming. It won’t be long now until I earn my iPod Shuffle 100 kg reward!

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Australia’s Biggest Loser February 17, 2006

Although I’m not a rabid fan, I’ve been watching some of the Australia’s Biggest Loser TV show lately. I caught the first weigh-in on Friday night, and was amazed. Several people lost over 8 kg (22 lbs) in that first week, and one guy lost 15.5 kg (34 lbs)!

I found those high losses amazing. Surely much of that is just purging the rubbish out of your system, and maybe some fluid loss etc. There might also be a bit of gamesmanship between the initial weigh-in and the first weigh-in – things like eating and drinking heaps before the first weigh-in, and then going into the second weigh-in a bit dehydrated and on an empty stomach. I don’t expect they’ll get anywhere near those results week-over-week from now on, though.

Still, good on them. They’re doing something about their problems, and are much better off at the end of the week than they were at the start.

Here I am struggling to lose 1 kg per week! I’ve lost about 6 kg over two months, and most of these people did that in a week.

Sure, I only exercise for half an hour, maybe 5 or 6 days per week. I watch what I eat, but I’m not fanatical about counting calories or anything. Plus those guys are starting from a much higher baseline, and have a lot more excess weight to lose. But it’s intriguing to wonder what you’d be capable of losing during a few weeks of strict diet and all-day exercise.

It’s certainly inspiration to exercise a bit harder, and a bit longer, and a bit more often, to see what may transpire.

Photography Podcast – Tips From The Top Floor

Here’s a great podcast for anyone that’s into photography (especially digital photography):

Tips From The Top Floor

The host, Chris Marquardt, is a sound professional (see Top Floor Productions), so this show has high production values and is very easy to listen to. He’s also a quirky and fun guy, providing great entertainment.

In Chris’ own words:

And here it is: the tips from the top floor are my way of trying to share helpful information around digital photography without overwhelming the listener. I’m trying to make this helpful for the beginners, but I have also received feedback from professionals who said they did find some good information in my show.

iPod Warning February 16, 2006

It’s official – the iPod is a killer device.

An Australian woman living in London was knocked from her bike and killed in a traffic accident, possibly because she was listening to her iPod and couldn’t hear the traffic noises around her.

Reports from Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers contain warnings from police about the use of ‘distracting devices’ in potentially dangerous situations that require your full attention.

I highly recommend the use of iPods while exercising as a source of entertainment and/or motivation, to make the activity less boring and to help you keep going. I stress, though, that you need to make sure their use is not distracting your attention and putting you in danger. It’s one thing to wear your iPod while walking in a park or riding an exercise bike at the gym, but it’s another thing entirely to be taking on city traffic while loud music drowns out what’s going on around you. So many of the safety cues we receive in those situations are auditory in nature, and you are literally risking your life if you choose to block them.

Most of what I listen to while walking or jogging is spoken word – podcasts, interviews and audio books. While music tends to completely drown out background noise, I find that spoken word audio allows much of the background noise to come through in the natural pauses between words and phrases. It just doesn’t ‘fill up your ears’ like most music does. Even so, I only listen to it when I’m exercising in a low-risk environment.

The bottom line is: Use your common sense, and be safe out there.

Weekly Weigh-In 2006-02-12 February 12, 2006

This week was good! I lost 0.8 kg, very close to my goal of 1 kg per week. As always, the weekend saw the weight loss slow for a couple of days, but as for each past week I’ll be pushing on through the week ahead.

The mornings are now getting darker – it’s almost totally dark at 5:30 am now. So G isn’t waking up before I leave, which means I can go harder and jog a bit without a stroller to push. Hopefully I’ll get at least 3 or 4 of those kinds of sessions in per week so I can build up some more fitness and endurance. G does enjoy her walks, though, so I don’t want to leave her out completely.

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iPods Just Got Cheaper And Better! February 9, 2006

For anyone wanting an iPod to use while exercising, the models I recommend just got cheaper!

The iPod Shuffle prices have been reduced to USD$69 for the 512MB and USD$99 for the 1GB version. For daily exercise, the 512MB one is fine and holds plenty of audio (8 hours or more, depending upon recording quality). As long as you sync once a week or so, you’ll have plenty of fresh stuff to listen to.

There’s a new, lower-capacity iPod Nano out. It has a capacity of 1GB and costs USD$149. This is plenty of storage for exercise audio – you should be able to fit around 240 songs or 16 hours of audio on it. That means you could set up different playlists for different types of exercise or different days, or you can queue up a bucket-load of podcasts and audio books so you only need to sync once every few weeks.

The Shuffle and Nano are both solid-state iPods, meaning there are no moving parts or delicate hard disks that could be damaged if you knock them around a bit during exercise. They’re also much lighter and cheaper than the bigger iPods, making them more convenient to carry with you and less of a financial risk to leave in your gym bag.

I dread the prospect of having a $400 iPod lost/stolen/broken, but losing a $69 iPod Shuffle wouldn’t bother me anywhere near as much. That means I’m more likely to take it places with me and actually use it, rather than leave it at home in a safe place.

At these prices, everyone in the family should own one!

Weekly Weigh-In 2006-02-05 February 5, 2006

I’m still making good progress, but I’m finding it hard to reach my target of 1kg (2.2 lbs) of weight loss per week. It’s always the weekends that beat me!

This weekend we spent three days away with friends in a quiet little village down the coast. We had all the usual derailing factors – beer and wine, peanuts, chips, cooked breakfasts, crackers and dips, ice cream, etc – plus I wasn’t able to take a decent stroller to take G for walks with me. We also stayed up late both nights, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten up early to go walking anyway :-) . So that was three days of no exercise this week.

I really need to get my weekends under control. My weight loss graph always kicks up slightly every weekend, slowing my progress. If I could maintain my discipline through the weekend, I’d lose an extra 0.2 – 0.4 kg (0.4 – 0.9 lbs) per week! That’s got to be worth trying for!

That said, I was actually a little surprised that my weekend blowout didn’t derail me more than it did. My daily weight measurement today only jumped 1 kg (2.2 lbs) compared to Friday’s measurement. Given the amount of junk I ate, I think I got off lightly!

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Tightening The Belt February 3, 2006

I noticed a cool thing this morning – I need to tighten my belt up to the next hole! That means I’ve lost about an inch from my waist, which feels great. I can see by the wear marks on the belt that the two holes above the one I’m now on are quite well-worn, whereas the one I’m on now probably hasn’t been used before.

As I said a few days ago, these little things are great to keep track of, and really help you notice the progress you’re making.

There are only two tighter holes left on my belt, so I’ve now set myself the goal of needing to buy a new belt in April. That’s about an inch off my waist per month, which is probably fairly achievable.

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