Sugar Free Jelly

While dieting, I've discovered a few godsend low calorie snacks which I'd like to share.

First up is sugar free jelly - the dessert you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite!

Available in ready-to-eat pots or in sachet crystal form, a typical serving off jelly weighs in at less then ten calories! And jelly is far better that you remember it too! We've generally got at least 10 pots in the fridge at any one time, in a variety of flavours.

Top of the pots is raspberry flavour. And of the sachets, raspberry is again the king, but with honorable mentions for orange and lemon & lime.

Hartleys also have a range of "posh" jellies in larger pots, such as cranberry & raspberry. What I wouldn't give for a packet version of that flavour!

Oh, one last tip. For an extra indulgent treat, we add a little bit of low fat squirty cream. 20 extra calories, but it certainly lifts the jelly up a level!

The Big "Secret"

So what's the big secret to my weight loss?

There isn't one. Eating less calories and exercising. Hardly rocket science, and yet like many, many other people, it's obvious logic that I never took on board, yet often complained that I couldn't lose weight.

Since January, I've been limiting myself to 1500 calories per day - 1000 fewer than the average recommended daily amount of calories for a man and 1500ish fewer than my personalised RDA according to an online calculator.

A quite key motivator is a daily diary, which I used to record weigh-ins, along with details of everything I've eaten that day.

The calorie counted is supplement by a regime of exercise, more on which later.

Target reached!

In the three weeks since my last post, I've shed another nine pounds - 43 pounds in total since starting the diet. You think I'd be happy as Larry, but as my long-suffering wife will attest, I've spent the last week or so complaining about how slowly the weight was coming off.

So I've hit the target to sign up for the Himalayas and yet I still find myself hesitating. I'm certainly fitter than I've been for a long time, still following the exercise plan religiously and have added cycling into the mix, but I still don't feel as fit as I think I should to embark on the challenge.

Hopefully it's a case of "watch this space"...

Late Starter...

Sometimes a change happens in your life unexpectedly, and when it does happen, you find yourself wishing that you'd kept a record of it sooner.

Less than seven weeks ago, I was 34 pounds heavier than I am today. Thanks to a (not entirely taxing) regime of old-fashioned good eating and exercise, most of my wardrobe is now tent-like and those slightly fitted clothes that I'd tucked away in a drawer for the last few years now look fantastic.

I was never particularly proud of photos of me carrying the belly, but I really wish I'd taken a "before" shot to give me an extra bit of motivation (and pride in what I've achieved!)

Truth be told, I'd imagine that not taking a "before" picture is indicative of my general nonchalance towards diets in the past. Past form suggested that after a short-ish period of enthusiasm and very little weight loss, my efforts would be ultimately doomed to failure. Dramatic, but probably fair.

This time, dare I say it, I'm rather enjoying the diet. The daily trip to the scales is an exciting event, I'm fitter than I've been for a long time and I don't really feel like I'm depriving myself. Much more on the diet later, but long may this continue!

It became apparent within a week or two that this method of dieting was working for me, and when it did, I rather flippantly mooted setting myself a challenge - an end game, if you will. It started with a throwaway comment: when I hit a target weight (and in doing so, drop 41 pounds), maybe I could sign up for an "extreme" trek to Everest base camp to raise money for a dementia charity.

The weight continued to fall off and a target which I thought would take months to arrive is now just 7 pounds (and looking at the averages, only a couple of weeks) away. Scary.

My mind is struggling to keep pace with my body. In my head, I'm still a "big" man (hence the blog title) and despite having a fair fitness level, I still find the prospect of such a demanding trek incredibly daunting. Naturally the quick onset of the milestone fills me with some trepidation! All that said, since conceiving the idea, my enthusiasm for the trek has grown rapidly and having researched thoroughly, April 2012 has been penciled in as a potential date!

It's perhaps with some small nod to the lack of a "before" picture, that I decided to embark upon this tome. Serving only a diary of my personal achievement at the moment, perhaps over time these words will reach a wider audience who will be able to follow the happenings of a big man as he attempt to conquer mountains (in many senses of the word!)