I've still got (iced) Christmas cake left, and one camembert dip that needs to be finished off tomorrow.

Will be a while before I'm properly losing weight.

Need to drop some weight this year, it’s been steadily building the last couple of years. 14st 7lbs on the scales last Friday - weigh in day tomorrow

I dropped from
13st 11.8lbs in early June 2025
down to
11st 8.2lbs this morning

My 32" waist trousers now need a belt, whereas in late May I was thinking of buying some 36" jeans.
All of my 34" jeans are in the loft now (just in case)

I don't want to drop too much, but may try and hit 11 and a half stone, but no more.
I'm finding it very easy to keep the weight off which is lucky

It's nice that my BMI is under 25 for the first time EVER.....

I just had to buy 34" trousers for a funeral. I was not happy about it.

Worst part is that they were still probably too tight for me.

Today's weigh-in.....

Beginning of Jan - 119.7kg
17-01-25 - 119kg

I'll take that given how little exercise I've done.

Now at 4.5 months of zero booze and really enjoying it and feeling the benefit.

Although I'm very much unmotivated to attend pretty much every social event that comes up but that's more to do not wanting to be around drunk people rather than being tempted myself.

Onwards and downwards.....

I never really noticed any real difference to my fitness / general health drinking vs not. Was always quite jealous of people that had a decent reason to stay off it!

gairym wrote: ↑Fri Jan 17, 2025 9:35 am Now at 4.5 months of zero booze and really enjoying it and feeling the benefit.

Although I'm very much unmotivated to attend pretty much every social event that comes up but that's more to do not wanting to be around drunk people rather than being tempted myself.

In what way do you feel the benefit. Not a trick question and possibly very difficult to quantify.

I'm at a whopping 17 days ... its easy at the moment. But it's my birthday a week Saturday ...

Can't say I feel any different. I wasn't what I think of as a heavy drinker, certainly no George Best, or Oliver Reed, but I had 2 or 3 bottles of decent ale pretty much every night.

Hey, no problem and no, not difficult to quantify at all.

Vastly improved sleep, much much less 'recovery eating', obviously no hangovers and the absence of days of general background anxiety following big nights out.

I've always been very binary with drinking. Totally ok with zero intake BUT.....if I'm drinking then I'll likely be the most enthusiastic and thirsty of participants.

As I've aged I found I was falling into the habit of automatically defaulting to 3, 4 or 5 beers a night with actual large amounts for nights out and it just wasn't working for me.

I did frequent dry months but I then found that I'd count down the days and then properly kick the arse out of it, to celebrate, once the month was up.

And so at the end of a dry august last year (and the resulting 3 day reacquaintance with booze) I decided enough was enough and I decided on a year off (at this point I'm thinking quite likely more).

Totally happy with no booze but it has exposed which friendships are totally booze / escapism based and which stand more of a chance of surviving my abstinence.

Oh and I found that the benefits took a fair while to arrive and so maybe you're not quite feeling them yet???

Great reply. I think I have a slightly different relationship with beer.
I just REALLY enjoy a GOOD pint. I've been in a lot of pubs and turned round and walked out if there's no real ale on. I won't drink Doom Bar or John Smiths simply because I don't like them.
And a good 'session' for me would be 5 or 6 maximum.
Singlespeed World Championships in Belgium in 2022 .... I was hammered .... free Tripel Karmeliet @ 8% on tap and the damn Slovenians with a MASSIVE hipflask of slivovich .. tried riding the Jones back to camp and fell straight off 3 times, gave up, properly fell asleep in a ditch ... luckily I have a lot of Belgian friends who took care of me.... not been drunk since !

At the moment I think I could keep going .... but suspect it'd be a bit of a fun sponge .... I like stopping for a pint on a ride, especially bikepacking.
We'll see.

Target 72kg

11/2 - 78.6kg
17/1 - 78.2kg

Was kind of hoping for a little more than that. Snacking much more under-control and diet healthier. The odd treat has been had. Let's see how it looks over a few weeks.

On the subject of alcohol, I was considering going beer free for Jan but instead will allow a couple of beers on a Saturday. Doesn't help that I've had a beer box turn up. Mind you, I think I'd like some sort of reward for being good over a week.

---- Starting Weight ----
04/01/25: 75.0kg (Heaviest I've been for over 12 years!)

1st Target: 64kg, 25th May 2025. Around 0.6kg a week loss (doable, assuming I don't get off target by too much).

---- Past X Weeks (7 Day Rolling Average) ----
11/01/25: 74.2kg (-0.8kg)
18/01/25: 74.2kg (-0.0kg)

Still eating Christmas food. Will be a while until diet cleans up.

Richard G wrote: ↑Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:23 pm ---- Starting Weight ----
04/01/25: 75.0kg (Heaviest I've been for over 12 years!)

In 2005/6, after spending a year living in a grass hut in Malawi (no electricity, no running water etc...), I dropped 1/4 of my body weight to go from my (then) heaviest ever weight all the way down to 76kg

I was pretty damn svelt and that's the heaviest you've been!

(Ok, those numbers aren't exactly fair given that I'm 6'2" / 187cm)

Still, made me chuckle.....

Heaviest for 12 years. Been as high as 98kg, and was in a properly sub standard state when I was (mentally and physically).

The sad thing is, due to sub standard genetics I only have to be slightly overweight to have a serious belly. Between 60kg and 75kg (9 stone to 11 stone) I'll go from a 28"-30" waist to a 34-36" waist.

No weight today, nor yesterday or the day before. I'm working away from home. Been trying to continue to intermittent fasting but sometime you just go into COOP and buy loads.

I did just that yesterday, but today been looking at my belly as I went through the day. Started it at 0445ish (the day, not looking at my belly). Early early morning prayers then a 37 miler mixed mtb/road commute to work down in Filton somewhere. But due to running short on time, it became an 18 miler.

No breakfast before departure and almost 3 hours out on the commute (departed at 0600, arrived to work on time at 0903). Checked the belly bloating and it'd worked, the body had taken from itself as I'd not given it anything except water for breakfast as well as the commute. This earned me a nice coffee with sugar - made it badly in the haste as I was also trying to clear the muck from my boots and trousers!!

Anyway, just a couple of coffees, a small chocolate desert pudding (that didn't taste good, so it must be good for me ). Right, where was I... OK, so later in the day - like 1700 so at least 10 hours after that commute - I've had the weetabix and milk/brown sugar that I so fondly carried all the way from Severn View Services Travelodge.

Ride back is about 12 miles and I think I may have ordered a few segments of muddy singletrack. So the scones and sugary yoghurt will have been well earned. Maybe even a pot of cheap (but Malaysian manufactured) chicken flavoured noodles!!

Lovely, p off you flying belly. You're not welcome here!!

2 weeks in and have managed to drop 5lbs

Down to 14st 2lbs

Beginning of Jan - 119.7kg
17-01-25 - 119kg
24-01-25 - 120kg

Meh. Just a little upturn. Not done anything different to the usual this week but put a little on.

I'm on day 06 today of using a little plunge tub thing I borrowed from friends to do a quick ice bath each day.

It's been pretty consistently 2°c in temperature (with air temps between -4°c and 1°c) with only one day I didn't need to break a cm of ice on the top to get in.

It's non-subtly horrific to get into but after a minute the terror subsides and it's possible to sit with it for a bit.

Meant to be loads of long-term physical and psychological benefits to do with resilience, stamina, circulation and so on.....

I'm quite enjoying it.

5/1/2025 76.45kg
15/1/2025 76.15kg
25/1/2025 76.25kg

The good news is that all the chocolate biscuits are gone and left over sweets have been donated to the kids. Now I just need to motivate myself enough to get out for a run more than once a week. The missus is on the mend so hopefully I’ll be able to get out with my trail running group soon.

Target 72kg

11/2 - 78.6kg
18/1 - 78.2kg
25/1 - 77kg

Bigger drop than expected but taking it anyway. Feeling better for it even at this early stage.

Well it's now Post birthday... we were away in Fishguard on a bit of a Under Milk Wood themed birthday break.
We were FORCED to visit The Ship in Lower Town where the cast and crew drank... would have been rude not to have a beer.

So the Alcohol Free bit lasted 22 days. Then three days with modest beers ( 3/3/5 ) a couple of meals out and loads of walking (13,000 steps on Friday & Saturday)
Sunday was back to Alcohol Free.

Weds I was 15st 5.5lb .... if I'm anywhere near that come this Weds I'll be happy

Jan 1st 16st 1.5lbs about 102kg
Jan 7th 15st 7.25lb 98.5kg
Jan 22nd 15st 5.5lb 97.5kg

Well done you lot. Keep it up. Yesterday I took the little one on his first big road trip (ie. more road than off road) to get some organic/raw milk. Which reminds me to add on here (if anyone wishes the reminder/push, though I'm happy to agree to disagree) that if we can eat healthier. Even though it might seem more expensive, it definitely is worth it.

Like they say, health is priceless, right!! On that note, the regular (raw, Palestinian if I can afford it) olive oil ingestion I've been doing for a couple or more years now if definitely paying off. No more heart-disease, or blood clot in the legs type pains Alhamdulillah.

In other belly-news. Despite having a few off days where biscuits were destroyed (Mcvities Hob Nobs in case you wondering) I'm generally on target. No more verbal-slang high quality semantics (did I use the word correctly, to say that she flags me off very intellectually about the belly getting big) type abuse from the wife.

Alhamdulillah on the last belly assessment she was happy that it's still getting flatter. Look like from high school was some of the words so, and today's, 'nothing eaten yet, except for some milky coffee, no sugar!

Keep up the good work all. Never give up, giving up (food, the nasty thing ).

Feckin birthdays derailing my good work.
I don't even think I was that bad.... but the scales say otherwise.

15st 8 3/4 this morning up 3.25lb ... genuinely not sure how.

Been alcohol free for 3 days though.

Jan 1st 16st 1.5lbs about 102kg
Jan 7th 15st 7.25lb 98.5kg
Jan 22nd 15st 5.5lb 97.5kg
Jan 29th 15st 8.75lb 99kg

Onwards and downwards

Good work. Keep it up

01-01-25 - 119.7kg
17-01-25 - 119kg
24-01-25 - 120kg
31-01-25 - 117.9kg

That'll do me.

A week of intense work and a very mild gastro thing meaning a few missed meals.

Also more Ice Bath fun, a game of squash and a walk or two.

gairym wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 8:08 am 01-01-25 - 119.7kg
17-01-25 - 119kg
24-01-25 - 120kg
31-01-25 - 117.9kg

That'll do me.

A week of intense work and a very mild gastro thing meaning a few missed meals.

Also more Ice Bath fun, a game of squash and a walk or two.

Good work fella !

15/1/2025 76.15kg
25/1/2025 76.25kg
31/1/2025 76.0 kg

Going in the right direction with snack avoidance but a combination of weather and a cold meant that I didn't get much exercise done this week. The missus is on the mend so I should be able to restart trail running next week.