A tale of my Ex’s

This is not a story of long-lost love, fond memories and random fumbles in darkened nightclubs. No, we are talking a whole different type of ex here. To be more precise, I need to discuss three of them, XXX.

XXX, with an L at the end was the size of T shirt I bought for myself back in April. It was comfortable, it also came with an optional ground sheet, pegs and poles such was the size of the thing. I remember looking at the label, XXXL and wondering where it had all gone wrong. I had a wardrobe full of T shirts I had picked up at races that were L, or occasionally XL and once they had fit me (once being 10+ years ago). I was lucky if I could even get them over my head now, and considered stitching a few of them together. I remember getting my first XXL item of clothing and was a bit concerned, so XXXL should have set some seriously loud alarms off in my head. In a way I suppose it did because not long after I was on my journey.

Four weeks ago I put on a XL T shirt and it was loose, I put on an L and it was a nice fit, an M was tight, but not splitting the seams. This week I put on all my L T shirts (not at the same time) and they fitted, some were even a bit baggy. As I haven’t been an M for 20+ years I didn’t really have anything to try on, and not sure the kids would be happy me stealing their clothes.

I am very aware that I have lost weight – I can see my toes again – but sometimes it is hard to comprehend what it really means to my physical shape, how have I changed. For me it is only when I put on a pair of 40 inch waist trousers and they instantly fall down, or I put on one of my favourite T shirts and it looks like I am wearing a night dress that it gets to me. All my work shirts look ridiculous on me at the moment. They are all 18 1/2 or even 19 inch collars, and last night I measured my neck at just short of 16 inches. I know weight loss advocates warn you of this, but it is strange when it happens, and it also gets expensive. I am in the process of pretty much replacing all my clothes as I am starting to look like a child forced to wear his older brothers hand-me-downs.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my waist size was 40 inches, and probably getting close to 41 or 42. This is a red flag warning sign, and acknowledged as being one of the key markers of future poor health prognosis. I have included an article below (it is in PDF format) from the Mayo Clinic on the relationship between waist circumference and mortality. The article is Public Access so not violating any copyrights here, feel free to share it.

Today I went shopping for a new pair of jeans. There was a very good reason as the picture below shows:

Those jeans are, I think 40 inch waist (label had fallen off). I had a guess I was now about a 36 inch waist, so grabbed some jeans off the rack and went to try them on. Wasn’t expecting to find that I could not only get my thumbs in the top of them once they were on, but I could get my whole hand in. Back to the rack, lets go 34 inch. I think my last pair of school trousers were 34 inch waist !!! The 34 inch jeans pretty much slid on very nicely, and to be honest, there was still room on the waist. Had I achieved something I really thought was impossible, got to a 32 inch waist ? Well I wasn’t able to find out today for one very good reason. I have calves, big meaty calves, finely honed from many many hours in the gym lifting some seriously heavy weights. Two weeks ago I leg pressed 250Kg for 10 reps – would have been more but ran out of weights. I then did a calf press and managed to move it. Big calves and regular clothes are completely incompatible I have found. Go into most high street clothes shops and they are full of long-distance track stars, easing themselves into the latest skinny jeans, there is not a thrower to be seen.

Back to the 32 inch waist jeans. I sort of got the top part past the calves, then they started to snag, I pulled, they moved a bit more. I pulled again and then they wedged solid, acting as a pretty good tourniquet for my feet. Another tug and I knew that the seams would give. Once my toes started to turn black I knew I should try and get them off. The waist part of the jeans had got half way up my thighs and they were going no further. They weren’t even skinny fit – they were ‘straight fit’. Peeling the jeans back off my legs I decided to hastily retreat from the changing rooms and purchase the 34 inch waist items instead.

My waist size has gone from nearly 42 inches to something probably just south of 34 inches, IN EIGHT WEEKS. I genuinely was not expecting that much of a change, I will take it, don’t get me wrong, but even for me, that was a bit dramatic.

I am writing this on 26th July, I have been on my journey for 80 days today. I am now thinking of transitioning out of the 800 calories per day and start to get towards 1500 – 1800 calories per day. I have 12 days left on 800 per day, and that then brings me to 3 months on Fast800. I haven’t yet decided what I am going to do afterwards. I think my current option is to work towards 5/2 where I will be on higher calories for 5 days and 2 days per week will be on 800 calories. Will probably transition through 2/5, then 3/4 then finally 4/3 and that will probably take me another 80 days to complete. I have moved my weight targets slightly – 95Kg by end of August, 90Kg by end of year, 85Kg by May 2020, which would be a total loss of 40Kg or 88lbs.

Today I weighed in at 99kg, 15st 8lb a total loss of 4st 3lb since May 7th. BMI is 29.6, body fat is 21.8% (end of year target 17%).