Weigh in: 128 kg

Weight loss to date: 26 kg

Support Steven’s efforts – MAKE A DONATION

Hi All,

It has been a hectic 2 weeks on both the work and personal fronts. I attended A.T.E last week which is the largest tourism trade show in the southern hemisphere. It was a great success and I must say, on a personal note, great for the ego. The compliments that I received on the weight loss were very uplifting from industry colleagues that I have not seen in 12 months, since last A.T.E. Additionally the hotel gave out Dragons Abreast “Keyrings of Hope” to over 6o international buyers along with many Dragons Tale books to the media. The partnership between the hotel and Dragons Abreast has received tremendous feedback and articles have run in travel media about this.

A big thank you to the Northern Territory delegates that came up and congratulated us on the Initiative and partnership we have with Dragons Abreast (whilst Dragons Abreast is a national charity, it was established in NT) Thanks to Michelle from Dragons Abreast for letting N.T. delegates aware of what we are doing.

Now, on to the past 2 weeks – it’s been a roller coaster ride to say the least. First, I am going to say that my measurements are very impressive, to date I have lost 6 and half inches of my stomach (yes, I know still a lot more to go) and I have lost 5 inches of my chest, as well as inches off my legs and neck. I have now developed muscles on my biceps and chest – whilst small, they’re still muscles.

I have also learnt how important muscle is in helping to burn fat. I have gone down in shirt size from a 58 to a 46 and in pants size from a 60 to a 46. I tried on my suit and belt that I was wearing when I first started and it looked like one of those infomercials with me standing there and having so much room to spare.

The scales however continue to be my nemesis. I’ve had 2 weigh-ins since my last blog and I am embarrassed to say that I have hit a plateau and have put on weight. I am currently at 128 KGs as of last Saturday’s weig- in.

Please know that I do know how this happens and please if you are on a weight loss program, DON’T ALWAYS RELY ON THE SCALES. On my check up yesterday, the doctor, along with Anton, have told me again and again there are other factors to a little gain – muscle weighs more than fat and also I retained fluid. If I weigh myself after a workout, I can weigh up to 2 kilos less than if I had not done a work out. Scales are a guide!!!

Goals are worth setting and striving for. At first, I was disappointed and I had to re assess my goals, I was aiming to be 120 kilos for an upcoming family reunion on the 2nd July. Now with Anton’s guidance I have adjusted this goal to 124 kgs.

As you are aware my job entails a lot of entertaining and the A.T.E. is probably the pinnacle of this, cocktail parties are, in my opinion the worst type of function, as it is hard to keep track of what you have eaten and how many times the wait staff have filled your glass. I had 3 of these events and I must advise, if possible try to avoid them. After one such function, I spent 2.5 hours in the hotel gym the next day. Dinners are a lot easier as you can control your intake of food and drink.

While I have had a up and down two weeks, I do honestly believe while I may not have lost weight, however I find it very hard to understand the 2 kilo gain – yes I did have work nights where there were indulgences. I did keep up my exercise program, and as usual Anton put it all into perspective, my body is continuing to change and adapt every week. Last week, my routine was interrupted with 4 nights of “abnormal habits”, well, abnormal at least for the past 4 months. As a result, my body was, well for lack of a better word “in shock”.
I guess I have to be more diligent at these functions. They will not go away as it is part of my job however I again stress that if they can be avoided when you are on a weight loss program – do so. Also, let me say, that even thought I followed each day with exercise, I now notice that those nights of cocktail parties left me feeling lethargic and bloated – which is different from how I used to feel before I began this journey.

This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, say that I will never drink or eat unhealthy food again, just not at the moment.

This Saturday’s weigh-in will be very interesting to see what the scales say.

Until then,

Steven

–

About Dragons Abreast

Track donations that has been raised for Dragons Abreast or MAKE A DONATION.

The positive and the negative from me: the negative –  oh well the scales are up, but the positive is the boost of confidence from the compliments you received. Keep it up! – Denise, Dragons Abreast

Tags: weight loss

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Steve's Biggest Loser. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.