Conclusion from the 20 day weight loss challenge
Hello fellow Protagonists,
I have now completed my 20 day weight loss challenge.
The aim was to follow certain eating guidelines but nothing I felt to be too strict, something I know I could easily follow. you can see those guidelines here. There was no measuring of food and plenty for me to eat.
My starting weight on morning 1 was 118.2 kg (18st 8lb). I was even heavier the evening before to show how much weight we can lose through the night.
My ending weight after 20 days is... Drum roll please.
115.1 kg (18st 1lb- just about)
That is a 3.1kg (7lb) loss in only 20 days.
I am very happy with this result. When you think about it 20 days is really not a long period of time. To lose around half a stone, comfortably, in this window is something I see as an achievement.
I want to offer 5 key lessons and pieces of advice from this short experiment to support any of you who also want to shave a few kilograms off.
Weight is a funny thing
Even in this short space of time my weight did fluctuate day to day.
Take a look at this impressive graph showing off my IT skills.
Weight seems to move more like stocks and share prices than a smooth gradual slope. At one point I was even lighter than my final weight.
The important things is what the trend looks like, generally are we moving in the right direction or not? I also believe that this is an argument for weighing ourselves daily, as I discussed in a previous post on this journey, sometimes we just have a heavy day or a light day.
There are a lot of factors in play that determine our weight each morning. More than we can constantly focus on. I may have had more salt one day, drank more water than usual, or had bigger portions.
Weight is mostly about our habits
As soon as we change our eating and drinking habits, our weight starts to reflect those changes, for better or for worse.
Food habits and choices are far easier to begin to change if we are still eating things we enjoy. For example, I strangely like the taste of broccoli. If I didn't then I wouldn't eat it, or I would at least hide it by putting it into something else that overpowers the taste.
Cauliflower, on the other hand, is the devil.
Mmmm appetizing!
Though I did eat steak 3 times!
Eating certain things at similar times of day also helps build a habit. I know that I will always eat breakfast before I leave for work. I never understood those who choose to eat breakfast at their desk.
Eating protein for breakfast really does help keep you fuller for longer
You will recognise the difference instantly, eating something like eggs or yogurt for breakfast rather than cereal or toast.
I used to be a nightmare for eating my lunch at work by 10:00am because I had become hungry again. This did not occur once for me in the 20 day experiment.
Eat things that release energy slowly rather than fast energy punches to the face.
Messing up is all part of the process
There were days when I knew, that despite following my rough guidelines, I did not make the best choices. This is OK, although this was a 20 day experiment the idea is to see the impact of how trying to change certain habits can have great positive effects on how much I weigh, but also how I feel.
Move on and try and make the next meal as good as you can. We do not permanently gain weight by eating a huge takeaway pizza, it is when we do this more frequently and wash it down with a milkshake.
You can make noticeable changes in a short space of time
As mentioned previously I am now back to my weight in March this year. 20 days of focus and I have managed to reverse 6 months of weight gain.
The focus now is to carry on implementing new habits and on moving in the right direction. To weigh 100 kg by Christmas this year sounds nice but lets focus more on the journey. After all, once we do reach a weight we are content with we still have the rest of our lives ahead of us.
If I have managed this then so can you.
The full chart I have completed now looks like this for those who have been following.
Start weight - 119 kg
Day 1 - 118.2 kg
2 - 117.4 kg
3 - 117.7 kg
4 - 117.2 kg
5 - 117.2 kg
6 - 116.6 kg
7 - 116.6 kg
8 - 116.5 kg
9 - 116.3 kg
10 - 115.6 kg
11 - 115.5 kg
12 - 116.2 kg
13 - 116.2 kg
14 - 115.8 kg
15 - 115.4 kg
16 - 114.9 kg
17 - 114.4 kg
18 - 115.4 kg
19 - 115.3 kg
20 - 115.1 kg
GLHF (Good Luck Have Fun)
Warrick
Missed the first post of the 20 day weight loss challenge: read it here
GLHF
Warrick
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