As the year comes to an end, I thought I would take another look at weight loss, which I last spoke about at the end of last year in a blog post about juicing…

Now always seems like a good time to look at our goals for the past year and see how we did and where we need to improve for next year. Business wise I didn’t do as well as I hoped… Personally I seem to be getting there… stopping smoking and the weight loss detailed below are two things I am particularly proud of!

I don’t know how it happened, but once upon a time I became fat. It hadn’t really occurred to me quite how large I had become, despite family members making the occasional joke, until I went skiing at Easter this year.

When I rented my skis they weighed me and I was 115 kg. For those who work in pounds  that is about 253lbs and for those who work in stone that is just over 18. If it hadn’t been for my experience skiing I would probably have ignored it but…

…I was barely able to move the first couple of days.

I like to think this was because I hadn’t skied for a few years and so I was using muscles that hadn’t been seen for while but honestly it was because I had got very large and unfit.

Needless to say after my skiing experience I swore I would do something about it. Having said that getting in shape had been a new years resolution for the past I don’t know how many years but a lot. Indeed you can see in this post how I was planning to become a juicing fanatic back on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately I found the whole making juice experience horribly messy and inconvenient and so it lasted I think 2 juices!

However finally in September I decided to finally do something about it again!

Almost 2 years ago a friend of mine told me about something called couch to 5K. This is a training program that gets those who aren’t taking any exercise of their couch and starts them running gently. After a couple of boring injuries and 9 plus weeks of running and taking exercise and tracking what I eat I am finally beginning to see some results.

The photo below whilst perhaps not the best shot shows I think a significant reduction in double chin size, it also shows a weight loss of just under 13 KG or 28 lbs or 2 stone! But don’t think you are going to see any before and after blubber shots! 🙂

2 stone down... Justin Wheeler - finally losing some weight

If all goes according to plan by this time next year, not only will I be at the normal weight for my height, but I will probably be the fittest I have been since school. I might even write another blog post about it!

Would love to hear your thoughts on fitness and getting back in shape below… Please don’t feel the need to congratulate me on losing weight… I am more annoyed with myself for allowing myself to get so fat!

These are the resources I have been using to help me get in shape:

The Couch 2 5K training program – Developed by a software guy called John Clark back in 1996, it has become a global phenomenon.

An App on Android for Couch to 5K called Run Double. I prefer this to the original C25K app because it also includes additional training runs which as I finish the 5k training will come in useful.

Fitocracy – The Facebook for Fitness… Full of people motivating each other to take exercise and more. I find tracking my workouts here keeps me accountable to myself so well worth doing.

My Fitness Pal – I use this to track what I am eating and to make sure that generally I am on the right track so far as eating less calories than I am burning….

Love to hear your thoughts and comments below: