100 days challenge

I am joining Räkan's 100 day challenge. Great to have some extra motivation and the more people the better.

The challenge starts on 8 August and ends on 14 November - 100 days - and everyone sets their own goals. My goal is to weigh less than 60 kg and to have run more than 250 km. That is an average of 18 km per week. Spread out on 3 running sessions every week that is totally doable.

Yay, this is exciting :-)

-1.5 kg in 6 days

Sounds like a tabloid headline but that is the result of the first 6 days. I know it is mainly water but I also feel lighter and less swollen so I am very happy with this. Now the challenge is to keep the positive trend and to stay motivated but so far, so good!

Home sweet home

I am a regular on the cross country service but this time I brought my own food. Very excited about coming home again after a week without a scale. Wonder if the scale will show results already? Feels like it, I have been quite disciplined in spite of some emergency food the other day. I wont weigh myself until tomorrow but it will be difficult to stay away...

How I will lose weight

So, we now got the current situation and the desired outcome but the steps in between are still missing.

How I will lose weight:
- Running 3 times per week / 300 - 500 kcal burned per running session
- Daily calorie intake of 1500 calories /
- Restricted carb intake / <50 g carbs daily
- Eat 3 regular meals and no snacking in between
- Schedule time for workouts and preparation of healthy food
- Don't replace real meals with snacks
- Drink more water: 2 liter spread out evenly throughout the day

Here it is important to break down the weight loss in small steps that you can stick to on a daily / weekly basis. 

Emergency food

All my good intentions of being well-planned and scheduling time for work outs and healthy home-prepared food vanished on my first day back in the office. After a long and chaotic day, my boss ordered pizza and I was too hungry to say no. I only had two small slices and I am still below my calorie limit though so I won't cry over spilt milk

What I want to achieve by losing weight

In the last post, I explained why I want to lose weight. But what do I want to achieve by becoming smaller? These are my goals:


- Wear a smaller size
- Have a healthier body
- Become a faster runner

This is what I normally would have written. But let's think business - these goals are too wishy-washy. Goals need to be precise and measurable.

These are my personal goals:

- Wear a smaller size --> UK size 8
- Healthier body --> Increase blood pressure, decrease heart rate while running
- Faster runner --> run marathon in 4.5 hours

Glamorous morning

I do not know what you did at 5:00 AM but I was frying lean ground beef for breakfast. Whatever you need to do to get skinny, right? Not sure this is an activity skinny people regularly engage in, but then I have never been one if them so what do I know?

I could not actually bring myself to eat anything though. Smelling raw meet in the morning certainly does not stimulate my appetite. But at least I am prepared for lunch.

Why I want to lose weight

One of the biggest challenges to overcome in my weight loss project is staying motivated. The first days are always easy. I remember how bad I felt when I saw those numbers on the scale or when trying things on that don't fit anymore, I have a strict plan to follow, and my energy is boosted from having made the decision and I am full of confidence I can make it. After a couple of days motivation falls, and it falls quickly. It starts with me already feeling a tiny bit thinner - losing water weight goes quickly. Then I start allowing myself to relax my strict rules - I'm already seeing some results, hey. Finally I forget how bad I felt that day on the scale. And I think that I am actually doing quite well now.

So to stop myself from forgetting why I am doing this, here it is black on white.

The reasons why I want to lose weight:
- I feel heavy
- I look thick in jeans and I can't wear certain types of fashion because of my weight
- I think people judge me because of my weight
- My face looks round and swollen
- My eating habits irregular and unhealthy
- My old jeans don't fit and I am now buying larger sizes...

I just realized all of these reasons are extremely subjective. I had to struggle to come up with some objective reasons - my clothes size. This must be why I lose motivation so quickly. As soon as something more important or urgent comes along, like work, my weight loss reasons become less important and I re-prioritize. I need to find reasons that are waterproof even in stressful situations..!

Full of energy and motivation

After yesterday's soft start on my weight loss project, my official first day began with 2 eggs, fresh spinach and a handful of sliced mushrooms, all fried in a pan. Very tasty and I am still full although the meal just had around 300 calories. I wanted to take some pictures but decided to spare you since the pale eggs made it look quite non-appetizing. Wonder why. I did not remove the yolk and the eggs are supposed to be free-range organic eggs which usually have a strong color.

I am working from home today so I have more time for planning meals and cooking. The problem is when I am away. I have to be better prepared for stressful days so later on I will make some lunch boxes for the week with whatever is in the fridge. How many different meals you can make with spinach, zucchini, mushrooms and lean minced beef?