Skip to main content

Monday 9th March - Geting My Move On



Today began the transition into an active life. I’m starting slowly but I want to ensure that my TDEE is going to stay above 1900 because if I allow my metabolism to drop below that I know I will find it very difficult to keep the weight off once I have lost it. So far I have been working on the premise that I live a sedentary existence.


At the start of this diet my lazy-arse TDEE was 2072 calories, easy enough to stick to on non-fast days and just over 500 calories on a fast day, but as the weight has slowly receded so has my TDEE I’m now at 1939 calories. That’s 133 calories I’ve shaved off my daily ‘normal’ intake in the space of 8 weeks. Admittedly it has been a gradual process and I haven’t noticed overly much but I think I might struggle to maintain a daily intake of 15-1600 which is what it would be if I don’t get a little bit active.


I’m starting out slowly with some morning yoga and meditation, 40 minutes of Hatha yoga (that’s the slow and steady one) will use approximately 140 calories. It’s not a lot but it’s a step in the right direction. My intention is to do the yoga every morning, including Sunday’s, and an hour’s walk three times a week (definitely on non-fast days). I will also do half an hour’s walk on Tuesdays and Thursdays, not because I’m particularly vigilant but because it’s a 15 minute walk each way to my Greek lessons. 


I’m not sure whether I’ll start this week or next (it depend how my knees are feeling) but I also have two ’30 day’ challenges to complete. I’ve adjusted them somewhat in the sense that I’ve doubled the length of them by doing each number of exercises on two days rather than 1 and putting in weekend breaks rather than one day every 3 days. I don’t feel bad about it I like to keep my weekends mostly clear because that’s when I get to spend time with my husband.


My plan is this; As long as the calories used in exercise over the week justify the increased calorie intake I’m doing well

For example;

Weekly exercise as detailed :     7x 40 minute Yoga     =             1034 calories

                                                        3x 1hr Walk                 =             1149 calories

                                                        2x ½ hr Walk              =             383 calories

                                                        Total                             =             2566 cals burned / week (Cb)


Lightly Active (La) Weekly Calorie allowance                =             15561

                                                                                                                -

Sedentary (Sed) Weekly Calorie allowance                     =             13580

The weekly calorie difference (Dif)                                   =             1981



As long as (Cb) > (Dif)  (i.e. 2566 > 1981)I will still lose weight. The added bonus is that if you exercise you get happy dolphins (you know I mean endorphins but happy dolphins sounds better) running through your veins AND you end up looking better. Yes I am THAT vain.



Obviously the number of calories burned changes with your weight but then so does the calorie allowance so you will have to recheck your numbers every week but it’s worth keeping an eye on.


All of the figures seen above are for my current weight of 89.4kg and will change whenever my weight does (hopefully on Friday?).


Decision made, I’ll start the challenges next week when I’ve had a full week of my first bit of exercise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hot Weather:Activity Ratio - It's terrible

No matter how determined you might be, when the weather gets too hot, motivation to move goes way down (unless you have a strange fetish for being drenched in your own sweat). Hot weather has thoroughly beaten us here in Cyprus. While we're used to the usual Mediterranean climate, this year has been weird. Winter, winter, (can't be bothered with Spring) mild winter... Crap, it's May already. Here have SUMMER! And BOOM! Straight from low 20s to high 30s (that's degrees Celcius) in just a couple of days. I won't lie, it has drenched me in my own cooling fluid for nearly a week, and my motivation to move has been somewhere subterranean. Just as I had gotten into a routine of walking and quick bursts of high-intensity activity, I now have no desire to move at all. Don't Beat Yourself Up I have a half-baked theory that we shouldn't try to push ourselves too hard in extreme temperatures. I'm heavy, and like many others who struggle with their weight, it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday 18th January

I’ve had a naughty but perhaps not so naughty weekend, we had a Domino’s meal for dinner on Saturday night and I also shared a bottle of wine with my hubby on Friday, however on neither day did I exceed my TDEE (yay!). This week I’m replacing normal milk with almond milk (400ml = 100kcal) on my fast days, as an experiment into whether I will do as well on the fasting if I manage to eat, rather than just drink, the daily <500kcal. Tomorrow is a fast day so it will be a good day to try it. I’ve had soup today, it might not sound exciting but there is something really comforting about chicken soup with crusty wholegrain bread, especially when it’s cold outside. I have also discovered quinoa and bulgur wheat (yes, yes I know all about “wheat belly” but I can’t give it up completely and bulgur wheat is classed as a whole grain). A wonderful dish, that my neighbour taught me how to make, is pougouri pilaf . It can be eaten as it’s made or you can add meat or ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Running – Oh My GOD!

I’m not a runner, I have monumentally knackered knees, a VERY large bosom and I suffer from perpetual fear of ridicule. I’m fat, you know this if you’ve been reading my posts, and I hate exercising where people can see me, I feel ridiculous. That feeling that you are completely surrounded by fit, thin people, all of whom are judging you for allowing yourself to be so unfit and overweight. In practice I’m sure this isn’t true (almost sure).  I’m going to start running on Monday. Okay scratch that I’m going to start walking with brief periods of running thrown in to get me started. It’s not much but it’s a start and I’m pretty sure my knees are never going to get strong enough to run unless I start to run. My main issue is bounce, I have a single sports bra that stops the bounce but it’s not all that comfortable because I feel like a trussed up turkey. The problem is that I feel like I’ve been tied and bound in all the sports bras I’ve ever tried. I’ve tried running ...
Post a Comment
Read more