Mark Crostons Blog » Weight loss

2008, fitness, weight and other stuff

Mark Croston — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:18:58 +0000

Still neglecting my blog. I have been back in the UK for nearly 4 months now, and have made a good start on fitness, but a shambles of my weight management. I put on a stone while travelling, mainly because of physical jobs and skiing lots when I settled down in the Queenstown Area.

It all went wrong at Christmas and has not improved since then – I am eating the wrong foods and eating when bored / down. I need more activites to fill up my time and prevent the boredom that sets in at home…… Which I am working on. The target is 22lb in 12 weeks – which takes me neatly to my first summer holiday.

Exercise wise, I started the c25k plan in January, and ran a 3 mile race for Sport Relief in March which I was happy about. I have now extended to run 5.2k outdoors and up to 7k on the treadmill, without the shin injuries that took me out last time. Cycling is a strong point as well – getting out on the weekends in Wales mountain biking, and also having bought a road bike (more on this another day) I have been logging the road miles and commuting to work (not as often as I would like).

I have moved to a new gym with a swimming pool, which brings me on to this years target – the Helvellyn Tri, which involves a mile open water swim in Ullswater, 38 miles on the bike over the Kirkstone pass and finally a 9.1 mile run up and down Helvellyn. I have some sprint tris and 10k races booked in to help me towards this aim…

Finally I have all my photos of my travels to sort out and post. Should keep me busy, along with some new websites to launch around all this running and biking I will be doing…….

The Fat Loss Thing Redux

Mark Croston — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 01:31:50 +0000

I seem to be finding it had to motivate my self at the moment to lose weight. I can eat clean during the days – but at night I have nothing to do and go back to eating. Living within 200m of McDonalds is killing me as well. I have about 12 weeks before I fly to my South East Asia adventure, and I really want to be less self conscious on the beach.

So heres the thing – I work manual jobs, spend a lot of time skiing, so its only the diet that keeps this gut on me. Therefore if I eat properly, I should be sorted for Thailand. It disgusts me that I have been so lax over the last 6 months. I have done this before, and I WILL do it again…..

Currently about 73kg or 160lb. The aim is to drop 10kg or 22lb in 12 weeks – I have previously managed 2lb a week so its possible. The aim is guessed on how much I think I need to loose before my abs show through just a little. I am now 8lb heavier than my absolute low, so thats where I am starting from.

The diet will basically be eating between 1700 – 2000 cals per day – more than before as I am not sedentary anymore. Exercise is in the form of 20 – 35 hours manual labour plus 10- 20 hours skiing a week. I also have a bike which I will get out on when its not suicidally icy! I will also can the drinking, except for my Friends birthday and a night out before I leave New Zealand.

Diet Return

Mark Croston — Mon, 14 May 2007 03:13:31 +0000

Back to the Diet again. I have been awful living in Queenstown the last 2 months – I have McDonalds 100m from my flat, plus Pizza Hut, KFC, Fergburger and any number of other Takeaway places.

I have the following targets:

Eat less than 1900 cals per day
3 Resistance Workouts per week
Plenty of Cardio
Drinking Once a Week

The food target is based on my previous successful weight loss stages – and will be spread out over 3-5 meals per day. Ideally 5, but my schedule is a bit flexible over here.
Resistance workouts will have to be bodyweight and resistance band based as the gym is expensive – especially when I find myself jobless.
Cardio opportunities abound – I have a mountain Bike and loads of good downhill runs within sight of my flat. The ride up to them should get me fit for the Ski Season. Once the snow comes, I will be skiing lots and it will take care of itself.
I’m on my year long trip to New Zealand, so I need to be able to go out and enjoy myself. Hence a few beers once a week is allowed.

Weigh Ins will be Tuesday as usual (but 11 hours ahead of GMT). I’m close to 75kg now, which puts me 5kg up from my best, and 30kg below my worst weight.

Back on The Diet

Mark Croston — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 01:41:47 +0000

Now I have decided to settle down forÂ a bit in Queenstown, I have decided to go back on the diet I was following. I have spent the last three and a half months travelling, partying and eating bad foods. The result of this is that I weighed in yesterday at 162lb – up 10lbs on the weight I was when I started travelling. I did weigh in late in the day and fully clothed, but its still at least half a stone gained.

So now its time to stop drinking, cease any association with McDonalds and get on it. I will post my progress here on my main blog as blogger is still not posting to my SFTP account. You can always use the category menu on the right to filter out all the other random posts if you wish.

I will weigh in on Tuesdays every week again. Hopefully the gain will fall off pretty quick, and maybe 2007 will end with a six-pack .

New Visitors!

Mark Croston — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:41:58 +0000

It seems I got mentioned over at MSN UK’s 30 Top Blogs – they linked to my weight loss blog. Traffic was up 300% yesterday to that blog!

In case you missed it, I have lost 78lb in 14 months – the full story is in my other blog.

The Diet

Mark Croston — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 08:53:57 +0000

I have recently signed up to Colin Devroes “The Diet“. If you are coming to this site looking for my weight loss blog, theres a link at the top. Or heres a link for your convenience.

My weight loss mission started in August 2005, when I hit 16 stone 7 lb (231 lb). I am now 11 stone 13 lb (167 lb) thats over 4 1/2 stone (63lb) lost, and theres still a bit to go.

[tags]the diet,the-diet,diet,weight loss[/tags]