Weight Loss Challenge: The 1st Week

Today marks the first week since the start of my Weight Loss Challenge. I wrote in my blog a week ago of my target to lose a certain amount of weight and inches this year, as part of my resolution for the year 2008. Goodbye to the old fat and unfit Izwan, and by the end of this year hopefully we can say hello to a brand new and fit me.

I believe one of the challenges faced by anyone attempting to lose weight would be to manage his/her expectations of the results achieved. You kinda expect to see the weighing scale to show a favourable reading just because you took half the usual portion of your lunch on the first day of your diet, and feel disappointed when the reading still shows the same weight (if not more!). I guess I'm no different here in that sense. I've been looking at my side profile in the mirror more regularly than usual in this last week, and I still look no different from a woman who is 8 months pregnant. Sheeshh... I keep having to remind myself this is only the first week, and I have over 40 weeks left in the year to meet the target. This Weight Loss Challenge is a marathon, not a sprint and it is important to keep that into perspective so as not to get easily demoralised.

So what have I achieved in this first week? The following are the KPIs I've set myself, and the results achieved after the first week:

Physical Indicators
Start weight: 81.1kg
Target weight: 72kg
Achieved after week 1: 79.6kg

This might seem a small reduction to some, but considerably huge leap for me. Breaking the 80kg barrier has been rather difficult for me and ducking it in the first week is a welcome result. One cheer here!

Start waistline: 38 inches
Target waistline: 33 inches
Achieved after week 1: 39 inches!

This has come as a surprise. With my weight pointing downwards, I was kinda expecting the waistline to move in a similar direction. Granted however, I did not actually measure my waistline when I indicated it as my starting weight, only based it on the size the waisline of the biggest jeans I've been wearing. Maybe the starting line was bigger, I don't know. I did get someone commenting saying my tummy looked slimmer recently. Maybe it was the shirt I was wearing... anyways, more work need to be done here.

Exercise
I have been rather bullish on this front. The exercise theme this week was cycling, and I had had 3 sessions of cycling covering a distance of 40km altogether. Bought myself a new pair of swimming trunks, so next week might see some variation to my exercise regime. Another cheer here!

Food
I have to admit that I've not been very disciplined on the food front though. For the record, I've been taking fast food numerous times this week (the most recent being the visit to Domino's Pizza this afternoon), and I've been taking ice creams and cheese cakes (it was Affeedz's birthday last week remember) like no one's business. I guess progress would have been more impressive had I had a stronger will when it comes to restraint on my diet. Gotta try harder on this one...

Summary
Although result has been mixed, the physical exercises have had the effect of making me feel active and more alert, hence having a multiplier effect on most of the things I do in the week. The saying a healthy body breeds a healthy mind is true, and I believe should this Weight Loss Challenge of mine becomes a success, I will reap more than what I am bargaining for. The first week has been a relative success. Hopefully i can shed the image of that 8 months pregnant man from my mirror in a couple of weeks time.