Killing Fat Softly: A Fistful of Calories

By Jon Chaddock

This is a collection of entries from the blog I wrote after I started seriously dieting. I am neither a trained athlete or a health professional so all of my advice is anecdotal. I started writing because it helped me stay on track with the diet, and continued it because it allowed me to explore new ideas I had and why they did or did not work. Hopefully it is also slightly entertaining for people to read! In these collection are the first six months of entries, complete with all the trials and tribulations suffered and survived.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 21, 2014
• ISBN: 9781291844993

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Killing Fat Softly: A Fistful of Calories

Introduction

Hello! If you're reading this, first of all thank you very much for taking the time and spending your interest on my anecdote-ridden journey into dieting and weight loss! I'm not a nutritionist, an athlete, a dietician or any other form of so-called 'expert' on the matter - I'm just someone who needed to lose weight and decided to write down my experiences.

My hope is that you, as a reader and possibly a fellow dieter, will gain something out of reading my experiences. Be it inspiration, reassurance, information or just plain old entertainment; while I am dieting for me I like to think the lessons I've learnt can help other people.

What follows is a collection of my first six months of diary entries. I would advise that you read each entry individually and put the collection down until the day after before continuing but, like dieting and so much else in life, your reading habits are your own. So read on and enjoy however you like!

Jon Chaddock

Monday, 4 March 2013

First Steps and Thin Aspirations

I am fat. For two years I was in denial, and then for a third I ignored it, as if it would go away. For the last year, the fourth, it has slowly ground me down into a depression. I’m not morbidly obese – except according to my Wii Fit – and I don’t have any issues getting up in the morning or breathing or anything that serious, but every now and then I’ll find I can’t move the way I wanted to because my gut gets in the way, or I have to move the car because I’ve parked too close to another without realizing I wouldn’t be able to get out. Frustrating, depressing and basically undesirable.

Until I was twenty-one I was in pretty good condition – almost a black belt and working out three or four times a week. Then I had a year abroad in America, I did less walking to places, I ate less healthily and generally got a bit lazy. Then I got a lot lazy when I came back home, and never really kicked the habit.

So today this changes. I am embarking upon a campaign to get back in shape. I have in the past promised myself this but let myself down and, quite frankly, failed. Why is this time different? Well, I have a plan:

Monday-Friday is going to be an intense change of lifestyle. Gym every night, walking everywhere as much as possible and those all important dietary changes – fizzy drinks? No. Snacks? No. Dessert? Right out. Any form of batter is also being removed from the list of acceptable foods – and that’s going to be something I miss. Chips and fries are going to be avoided whenever possible as enemies of health, and fast food or takeout is strictly limited to special occasions.

Weekends are going to be slightly more lax so that I can enjoy myself a bit and not go completely cold turkey. However, I’m maintaining the ban on batter and the avoidance of chips and fries as this is a good way to for me to cut calorie intake. I’ll avoid snacks and fizzy drinks away from meals/nights out and stick to beer, cider or shots where possible to avoid mixers.

Motivation is the difficult part, really. Making plans and even doing them is a very minimal effort compared with keeping focus on doing so and not getting distracted or procrastinating. And that is I am starting this blog; a once a week record of my progress. Hopefully it will keep me focused and I can kick bad habits while picking up good ones. And maybe learn to enjoy salads.

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Food Rage

I had a bit of a breakdown in Boots yesterday. It was about crisps and how their makers are slowly choking the life out of the populace.

To explain; I downloaded the myfitnesspal app for my phone under recommendation from my cousin. We started out okay – I was overjoyed to discover that the ham salad sandwiches I make at home are about 30% less calorific than those sold in most sandwich sections at retailers. However, we quickly had a falling out; I was informed I could only have 1670 calories a day. This, I’m sure, was in part due to my slightly critical description of my lifestyle [‘mostly sedentary’] and the rather ambitious goal I set myself of losing two pounds a week – weight, not money. Two of my sandwiches come to 464 calories, over a quarter of my daily intake. I consoled myself in the knowledge that one was breakfast and the other most of lunch and I could still afford a comfortable dinner.

And then I went to Boots. Normally, I get a packet of crisps and a drink