On the 15th of September 2009 I weighed 118,6kg (261.5 lbs) a year later I had lost 34,6 kg (76.3 lbs). I reached the 35kg lost mark on the 16th of September.

All in all I consider it a jolly good effort.

The situation

I have a spinal injury that prevents me from doing any strenuous workouts, but at this point I went to the local rehab pool and worked through a 1 hour program at least once a week. Since the age of 18 I had gained about 3 kg per year. I was very much aware of the situation I was in and my neurologist kept telling me that I needed to lose weight.

In 2008 I had shamefully suggested gastric bypass as a last resort, I knew the downsides and was truly afraid of this operation. My neurologist said he’d recommend me for the wait list.

At the start of September I had a bout of mild pneumonia and was put on a rather hefty dose of antibiotics. It help against the pneumonia but it felt as if it took a lot of strength from me. On the 15th of September I woke up and tried to get out of bed.

It was impossible.The more I tried the more tired my muscles (weak as they are) became, at the end I had to use a home alarm I have installed (due to my handicap) and request help. I had used it a few times for when I had tripped and fallen (and couldn’t get up from the floor by myself) but never for something like this.

I felt ashamed.

I just could not wait for the gastric bypass wait list to get to me.

The first month

During the first month I read through various diet plans and tried to find something that looked sensible. The only thing I knew was that I had to find something. Even if this meant I had to improvise a system for myself. Atkins, LCHF, GI method, Weight Watchers just didn’t seem right to me.

It might sound strange but I lay up at night trying to work out a path for me to follow, I even considered inducing an eating disorder (I had done so in my teens, long story). But the plan I kept coming back to was.

1. No Time Limit, it’ll take the time it takes.
2. 5kg stages, I thought of the stages of Tour de France
3. Make sure I get enough protein, I didn’t want to lose muscle mass.
4. Find the list of fat/protein/carb/fiber/calorie per 100g of the most common food stuffs I downloaded the second to last time I tried to lose weight.
5. Count calories.
6. Keep records.

It took me 4 weeks to get to this point, during which time I had cut back on my pasta and bread intake (which I admit was VERY high). However I had not gotten on a scale, when I did I saw that I had only lost 3kg. Not much but I saw that I was on the right track.

The charts, spreadsheet and scales

The nutrition list was located and consulted. And for a brief time I considered going vegetarian, but came to the conclusion that this wouldn’t work because

1. I love meat.
2. I hate beans.
3. Beans contains a lot of energy.

So I decided to put together some recipes based on veggies with meat on the side and try to stay away from the pasta and bread I loved to much. A kitchen scale was an essential tool for this venture, and I soon had a few recipes lined up.

At this time I’d like to go back and mention that I had made many attempts to lose weight and knew what I needed in the recipes, the biggest problem I had encountered was that I kept ignoring how much energy there is is pasta and rice. And how EASY it is to eat a lot of pasta or rice.

I had to find something to replace the pasta in some way. Lightly pickled shredded cabbage was my solution. It worked for me, might not work for others.

Record keeping was another matter. The first couple of weeks I kept a diary where I jotted down everything I ate and what I weighed in the morning and evening. However I soon stopped doing that when I started spreadsheet on my computer where I only registered my morning weight. It was much easier to use that data as the source for a weight loss graph.

Another strategy I put into place at around this time was to keep my family and friends updated on my progress, if I had kept my marathon a secret I think I may have failed. The support I got from my friends was invaluable. I also decided to take pictures of myself in the same pose front, back and side at least once a month, so as to be able to see the progress. But I kept these to myself until early this summer.

Later of I read a Richard Wiseman teaser article for 59 seconds, that pretty much outlined the strategy of keeping new years resolutions. I covered most of the points I had covered. I don’t know if I could have heard about this on a podcast before I started using them. But I don’t think so. It gave me a bit of a boost during the winter, where the rehab pool I worked out in had closed and the holidays and the foods associated with the holidays made my progress slow down.

But I persevered.