March Challenge: All Over

Today is the last day of March, and the last day of my March Challenge to lose 10 kilograms. I did my final weigh-in this morning. The results were as I had expected earlier: I did not lose enough weight to get an iPad. No big deal, I didn't know what I would do with one anyway :)

I lost a total of 8 kilograms (17.63 pounds), falling 2 kilograms short of my goal. The following graph shows my weight loss over the month in kilograms and days. I think that big initial drop was some water weight or something. I remember my first few runs took a bit out of me, sweated a lot and weighed myself right after the runs. In recent weeks I've been eating light lunches and don't even feel hungry (shrunk stomach?)

My regime was strict. I weighed myself each morning, typically before breakfast. I stuck to a slow carb diet and avoided all white carbohydrate foods (rice, flower, sugar, potato, etc). I did not have one day off a week as suggested in that diet. I did crave foods, but not badly enough to require a day off the diet. I ate a lot of beans, meat, and vegetable, with one piece of fruit most days (technically fruit is bad, natural sugars and all). I kept making the same dish (chili con carne with tons of kidney beans) and ate it one or  two times a day. I also had a week and a half of canned tuna lunches. I mostly stuck to a small serve of baked beans for breakfast. If we ate out, I carefully chose my dishes, focusing on lean meat and vegetable. I did not stop drinking coffee (black, no sugar), and stuck to a glass of red wine each night (a man needs to relax). I did have one sneaky beer over the whole month, it was worth it!

I walked for 1 hour every work day (I do anyway), and I ran 5km most days either before or after work. I qualitatively noticed more wait loss when I stopped running for a few days!? Once I noticed, I stopped running all together (last week and a half of the month). This might just be the inertia of my system or an interplay of cardio and the diet...

I also measured the circumference of my belly at the belly button each day. I have sort of a pair shape, so this seemed an effective measure of mid-section fat. I lost a total of 6.55 centimeters (2.57 inches) from my belly! The following shows my belly circumference decrease in centimeters and days. That data shows a lot more variability than weight.

I feel that the month was a success regardless of meeting the initial (and aggressive) 10kg target. I feel fitter and I also feel like my brain is working better. I have been more productive both at work and in my after hours pursuits. More recently, I've been abuzz with ideas, and am furiously writing blog posts, talking peoples ears off and writing a lot.

My wife has proposed a 15 kilogram challenge for March through to the end of April. That means I would need to lose a further 7 Kilograms over the next 30 days (easy enough). I am sticking with the daily measuring schedule, exercise, and diet. If I make the April 30 weigh-in then that is a bonus. Ideally, I would like to hit close to my running weight, but I'm still a fair way off.

If I had to do the challenge again, I would change the design. A loss is a bigger motivator than a gain. Rather than gaining an iPad for winning the challenge, I should have had to buy an iPad for someone else, putting my out of pocket for losing. To make it more interesting, I should have to buy an iPad for someone I don't like very much, or for someone who doesn't need or want it. That being said, I don't want to do that for the so-expanded March-April challenge.

I will re-visit these graphs at the end of April.