The Slim Path

05/02/2024

It's time for a January review.

This year for me personally is all about finding my own sustainable Slim Pathway. My thought process here is a little unusual I guess given the usual advertising and promises from various weight loss companies, gyms and plans etc. "You could lose......"

I am choosing to make small sustainable changes as a priority, with weight loss and how long it takes to do it a very distant second.

It's something I spoke about in my weight loss groups last in January 2023 for anyone who was there at the time. The grand gestures like Dry January, and cutting out x y or z are great for immediate weight loss but not necessarily for sustainable weight loss. If you like a drink, then giving up drinking alcohol won't last a lifetime etc. More exercise leading to weight loss means that exercise needs to be kept going forever.

I've been there before myself and seen it many many times in my years as a consultant. Slimmers who made big sacrificial changes at the start found it harder to maintain losses and momentum as time went on. Don't get me wrong. This isn't true of everyone, just in my experience of a majority.

So as mentioned before my plan this year is go make loads of little changes and amendments to my own habits. Small changes 50 to 100 calories at a time.

50 calories of a change a day is worth 5lb of weight change over the course of a year. 1lb a week is close on 4 stone in a year. These are small changes figures that have huge results given some time and some patience.

Week 1 - Down 7lbs (expected to see a bigger loss here than 1 to 1.5lbs I would be happy with just from the emptying out effect I posted about before)

Week 2 - Down 1.25lbs

Week 3 - Down 1.5lbs

Week 4 - Down 1lb

Week 5 - Down 1.5lbs

Total loss 12.25 lbs

Yes I've lost exactly 12lbs in one mad week before. But this 12 lbs was done still enjoying food, having a few drinks, indulging in a takeaway or two and without any kind of major exercise uptake. In other words, a very sustainable loss. A good January 🍺

11/01/2024

Back to school for everyone this week. Here's a maths / perspective lesson.

Meet anyone in the street who has lost 4 stone in a year and you're thinking WOW. Someone said to you they'd guarantee you 4 stone off this year you'd likely grab that with both hands.

After initial losses from first week or two (where losses tend to be higher for various reasons discussed before) losses of 1lb to 1. 5lbs a week are not uncommon. More often than not slimmers are disappointed with this. "only a lb", I've seen people throw tantrums and give up their slimming journey from the disappointment and frustration that their efforts only lost one single lb.

But if you average 1 single lb a week loss, over the course of a year that's 52 lbs. Or a fraction under 4 stone!

4 stone off in a year is amazing.
1 lb off a week is equally amazing.

Last week I weighed in 7lbs down on my first week back. This week 1.25 lbs down. I'm equally as happy with both of them. 😊

06/01/2024

New Year New Me and all that bull crap 😂

In my seven years experience helping people lose weight I've picked up more than a few nuggets of wisdom from my own experience and from those who were members of my group.

One that sticks with me to this day is to stick the expression New Year New Me firmly in the bin. It's a new year, same you, but a better you that you're aiming for. Thinking like you need to be a brand new person is not good for your subconscious self esteem.

31/12/2023