Cory Hickton
The last couple of weeks has been a rollercoaster of emotions for me. The company where I work are going through several redundancies at the moment, which has hit hard with me. Stress is not good for anyone at the best of times. If you’re an emotional eater like myself, it makes it even harder.
All has not been too bad though. I have been able to keep some form of discipline when it has come to food. There haven’t been any takeaways or big hits like that. Comfort food for myself is bread and cheese, I’m not a chocolate person.
My wife has been a big help recently which is why I’ve likely kept to some sort of track. We’ve been cooking from fresh again in the evening. The meals taste so much better than processed foods. It just needs more time and effort, which has been helpful to sidetrack my mind from other things. Cooking meals in the evening has meant leftovers can be eaten the following day at lunch, another meal without going off the rocker.
Speaking to people around me about how I feel is something I don’t do. I’ve always been a person who just gets on with it and deals with it later. But, in light of my mental health and knowing I need to make some changes, I have found talking helps. I find it hard to talk, but I’ve tried it during these stressful times. I’ve not been comfortable talking, but I do think it has helped. Doing it more often in future will hopefully make it feel comfortable to talk about my feelings and will lead to more stability.
Something must be working though, I have managed to lose the last two weeks at the weigh-in. Which has made me feel better about myself. It has shown I can keep the focus on something when it’s really hard and I don’t just give in. It would have been so easy for someone like me to blow up these last couple of weeks and potentially undo a lot of hard work.
Half a kilogram is what I’ve lost, it may not seem a huge deal to some over two weeks… but let me tell you. When you eat your emotions and you’re feeling everything is against you right now, it’s an amazing feeling to know that I’ve not gained weight. More importantly, it means I’ve stayed away own goals when playing MvF Football each week! The next few weeks will still be hard, but I now have this feeling of ‘I’ve got this’ and I can move through it.
Steven Mason
Week 7:
MyFitnessPal username: LiangMiUK
Starting Weight: 140.4KG / BMI: 35.81
Current Weight: 125.1KG / BMI: 31.91
Total Weight loss: 15.30KG (10.90% of weight)
Weight loss in the past week: 0.7KG
Week 8 and Season End:
Starting Weight: 140.4KG / BMI: 35.81
Current Weight: 125.8KG / BMI: 32.08
Total Weight loss: 14.60KG (10.40% of weight)
Weight loss in the past week: +0.7KG
Achievements earned this season:
- Biggest loser in week 1
- 5% of total weight lost
- 2nd biggest loser in week 2
- Biggest loser in week 3
- 2nd biggest loser in week 5
- Achieved number 1 spot for weight loss % for current season for entire club week 5
- Jean size dropped (40 waist -> 38 waist)
- 10% of total weight loss achieved
- Remained number 1 weight loss % for the club week 6
- Remained number 1 weight loss % for the club week 7
- Reached 75% of my goal of 20kg in 20 week (with 13 weeks still to go)
- Ended season as number 1 ranked weight loss.
This week was my first weight gain, but weirdly I am happy. I was down for a long weekend with family and had a great time out with food and just enjoying myself. I wasn’t counting the calories but was still mindful of what I was eating. Life is life and seeing family with my baby son was more important this week than diets. I am grateful that my new way of thinking of food did keep me in check as the old me would have gone off the rails and probably put a few KG’s on rather than keeping it under 1kg.
One season joined (halfway through) and one season ended and what a season. With my fellow Jaffa’s I personally hit the number one ranked weight loss player for the season, our team was ranked the number one for weight loss, and for combined and on the pitch, we ranked second only to those amazing Reds, who killed it all season. It would be fitting that our final game was with them with a deserved win.
As I look back at the 9 weeks I have been doing it, I see a difference, not just in weight loss and my journey, but in how I have done it from my prior attempts. With the other diet plans I have done it just feels like no accountability where here, every week I have never wanted to let myself or my team down, knowing that I might not be good on the pitch but I can damn well get the goals off it to make up for that. It has been a radical change in my thinking about my weight loss.
With next week being awards night and friendlies I look forward to the new challenges that the next season brings. I have been lucky so far to do this fantastic weight loss on just diet alone and seeing that towards the end of the season I had to start putting more effort into exercise just to get small losses doing 5km walks a day. I see the next season being much tougher with me hitting the bottleneck. So committing to continuing my 5km walks in the evening and doing some gym to continue this fantastic progress and journey I am on. With only 5KG to go to reach my intended new year goal of 20kg in 20 weeks to be at a healthy weight, I will probably have maybe another 5KG on top of that to be and look proportional to my height.
Andrew Shanahan
It often seems to me that I’m like a jukebox when it comes to weight loss – I’ve got a series of excuses that I play in rotation. Sometimes it can be hard not to feel a bit hopeless. I’ve had points this season where I’ve lost weight quite easily and enjoyably, and then at other times life gets in the way and my eating goes to pieces (of cheese).
The issue recently has been work and family matters. I’ve been travelling away a fair bit with work and I’ve found it hard to work long hours and still manage to keep making healthy choices. The other big issue is that I still have far too much of an either/or approach when it comes to eating. I’m either being good and avoiding the carbs, or I’m crashing a large baguette train straight into the heart of Breadsville.
Football is great for accountability though and although I’ve missed a couple of sessions, just the fact that I know I’m turning out for the Red Hot Chubby Fellas is enough to keep me from too many carb crimes. Here’s hoping for a quieter March and some more solid appearances on the pitch.
