2011 - a year in review

79.1kg, a gain of 500 grams from last week

I thought it might be interesting to look back at 2011 and see how my year went. To look properly though, I need to go back to about August - September 2010. Back then, I was watching as a very popular website that I used to regularly go to, the users developed a spreadsheet, where people could enter their weights and see how everyone was going. People could enter their weights twice a month. I thought that I would have no problems showing everyone how someone could lose weight. But then, nothing happened. I didn't really lose, and stopped entering my weight after a few months. I was embarrassed about my lack of progress.

However, I made a promise to myself. The promise was to restart in January 2011 and for each weigh-in, I'd be less than the previous reading. So starting in the new year, that's exactly what happened. My weight went up and down a bit but twice a month, each reading was lower than the previous reading. Sometimes I'd realise that my weight was too high, and I'd have to start a low carb diet, simply to lose a few kilograms for the weigh-in, then I'd go back to high carb again. I was also refining what I was eating. Small changes to hone in the perfect diet that I'd eat every day, and in the same quantities too.

I had my birthday, and a few days later, the earthquake happened. 181 people died, 6,500 people were injured and thousands had damaged homes, or lost jobs. 20% of Christchurch's population temporarily left the city. There were a huge number of aftershocks. All in all, it was pretty bad for a while. The pool where I swam closed, but that was the least of our worries. Just this morning, we had a 'swarm' of earthquakes. Probably 20-30 that you could feel. Usually it's not as bad as this, and sometimes you can go for 2-3 weeks before you felt an aftershock, then it all happens again.

A week after the earthquake, Becky had her birthday. From then on, I was in full-on weight loss mode. I had sorted what I was going to eat, and how much. Each of my weigh-ins on the social bookmarking website was less than the previous reading. I wanted to be the only person on that website who lost each subsequent reading, of the 500 starting.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. When I was attempting to enter the weight on the 1st of July, the spreadsheet didn't allow editing. Something was wrong. My motivation disappeared into thin air due to that simple thing happening. Surprising, isn't it? Ten days later, I told Becky that I wanted to be single, and we pretty much stopped talking for the next 3 weeks, until she moved out. That stress caused weight gain. More worries. I'd noticed that whenever I had money worries, I had this instinctive urge to eat bad food. I just couldn't help myself. Probably some evolved reaction to famine. For a month or so, I had money issues to worry about, which meant that I didn't eat properly.

While I was losing in the first half of 2010, I lost weight for 18 weeks in a row. That is exceptional for me. Before that, I'd managed 7 weeks. I put the difference down to eating the same thing every day.

My weight headed in the wrong direction for a while in the second half, and ended up about 10 kilograms heavier than what it had been. I guess it could have been worse. I've been losing (not totally consistently) since. I had a bit of a Christmas/New Year gain. That's fine.

I lost about 5.7 kilograms in 2011. 2.8kg in 2010 and about 6.5kg in the last 4 months of 2009. No one said that losing weight was easy.

So what have I got planned in 2012? Obviously reaching goal. But more than that. I want to finish my promise to myself. Each half month, I want to weigh less than I did previously. The online spreadsheet that I used in the past is obsolete now, you can now use it but only about 20 people bother. I also want to break my 18 weeks in a row loss record. I want to save up for a smartphone, and I plan on putting $1 in an old soft drink bottle next Monday when I lose. Each subsequent week, I put an amount that increases by $1, each time I lose weight. Finally, I want to complete the 100 days of running challenge I started a week ago.

So that's:

1. Reach goal weight. May at the earliest, I'd say.
2. Each half month, a weigh-in that's less than the previous one
3. Try and break my 18 weeks in a row losses record, and save for a smartphone
4. Finish the 100 days of running challenge

Speaking of challenges, this is the final post of the Give Yourself The Best Gift Challenge. How did I do? Well, I completed it! I lost about 4 kilograms in 13 weeks. No, that isn't a lot. But it's still a loss. More than that, I stuck to a long challenge. I'm presenting to myself this award: being able to display the image related to the challenge:

The image is now proudly displayed on the sidebar of this blog.