Monday, 13 September 2010

Finished :)

Finished collecting the money for the Hospice. Managed £277.11

Got a nice thank you certificate from them. The best thing isn't the recognition but the feeling you get when people of good will connect with you and support you in your cause. I've found 100% of people whom I asked helped.

Fantastic! Next up is the photo competition. Read about it here: http://carpedmphotography.blogspot.com/2010/09/photo-competition-with-woking-hospice.html

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Moving along

Miriam has finished week two of her challenge with the result of 1.2lbs. The most exciting part of it was that quite possibly next week she will have reached a milestone weight she'd aimed for at the start of the first challenge. Very exciting!

Will keep you posted

Daniel

Sunday, 8 August 2010

New 14 week challenge is on!

Tomorrow ends the first week of the new 14 week challenge Miriam is doing herself this time, whilst I still haven't come up with a good follow up to my previous one. I'm still collecting money from all people who pledged to help but it won't be easy as a lot of them are out on their annual leaves this month.

Never mind, I'm really looking forward to Miriam's success - no pressure - as the targets are really reachable.

I'm on your side and will keep cheering all the way!

Cheers

Dan

Monday, 2 August 2010

We've won!

Miriam lost 7.2lbs!!!!!

I finished at 12.8lbs which is less than I thought I would lose when I started the challenge.

We're very pleased and looking forward to future challenges.

Tomorrow I start collecting money for the Woking Hospice. This will be very uplifting for me and I can't wait, although I know that a lot of people are taking their holidays now and it won't be easy to gather everything at the same time.

Nevermind, keep calm and carry on ;)


Thank you

Daniel

Tuesday, 27 July 2010

I've won!

but not just yet... ;)

Yesterday's weighing showed that I had lost 11lbs and thus reached the promised goal. There's one more week, and I will strive to lose another pound or two, but in the worst case scenario, I will stay the same.

No! There will be no worst case, I WILL LOSE ANOTHER POUND OR TWO!!!

See you next week

Dan

Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Weight loss is easy

With the right motivation. What we do is secondary. I couldn't motivate myself enough to lose as much weight as I did and neither would you Miriam. We're on our way, keep going, not far left to go.

Yesterday's weighing: I lost 1.8lbs, and you lost 1.2lbs. I am plateuing quite obviously. Fortunately There isn't much more to lose to collect the pledges.

Keep calm and carry on...

Monday, 12 July 2010

We are winning!

Miriam has lost 2lbs and I have lost 4.6lbs over the last week. I think my result was a bit exaggerated and that in fact it should have been about 3lbs. Never mind though.

My challenge partner is doing fantastic and I'm pretty sure she will surprise me yet. She has 7.5 lbs to go to be able to collect the money for the charity, and with three weeks to go, it is only 2.5lbs per week - VERY achievable! I believe in you Miriam!

We also agreed on a 60-40 split of the money so that the charities win regardless of our results. We both thought that was sensible as this is not about us, but about the people we're trying to help. Collectively we have over £300 of pledges which is a respectable sum bearing in mind there's only the two of us.

My diet hasn't changed, it consists of fruit, protein shakes, veggies and chicken, eggs, etc. I only eat a small meal of meat and veggies, sometimes rice and potatoes in the evening, but trying not to have it past 8pm. It's two protein shakes and about 6-8 portions of fruit throughout the day and lots and lots of water (makes me pee a lot but it's supposed to be cleansing, so I do it until someone smart tells me otherwise). Bread in any form or pasta are banned for the duration of the challenge and I will reintroduce it afterwards in a form of a limited treat.

Wednesday, 7 July 2010

I'm winning! (and a new charity discovered)

Yes Miriam, I'm gently rubbing it in :D:D:D Keep at it, be focused, you're doing fantastic!!!

Miriam lost a respectable 1.4lbs in the first week and I lost 3.4lbs which puts me in the lead.

Come on people, help Miriam, cheer her on! The good news is that we're both closer to our weight loss goals.

Today I told the folks at the office that I'm walking to town and asked whether they wanted me to get them anything. Neil, one of my biggest supporters said: 10kg bag of potatoes. He didn't think I would do it. Imagine the look on his face when 12.5kg bag of spuds landed on his chair...

We must be doing something right, because the weight is coming down. Moving about helps.

On a completely different note, I was approached by a lovely young lady by the name Claire in Woking. She was helping raise money for Friends of the Earth foundation which helps to raise awareness on many pressing issues and lobbying governments for meaningful changes in legislations. Personally I couldn't afford a monthly subscription, but there are many ways to give a pound or two at https://www.foe.co.uk/ways_to_donate.html

Thursday, 1 July 2010

a little more weight loss every day

Third day of the challenge. Miriam has been fantastic! I didn't realise how many occasions she has to have unhealthy food all day long. The many times she texted me how she politely had to refuse sweets, ice cream, cakes or biscuits proves it. She bravely goes through it all without complaining.

I'm sweating now after a short exercise circuit. Glass of water to fill up the reserves. I'll have another HL shake in a minute with the vitamins. Cottage cheese is an option as well like last night, but have to do it early - eating late helps with fat retention.

Monday, 28 June 2010

It's began!

No turning back now :)

I weigh 12 stone and 2.2 pounds, Miriam weighs... I can't tell you, it's private for her.

Nothing more to add

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Over £200 pledged for Woking Hospice!

Wow! What a response! I've had people at Semmco, Pit Stop Cafe, Noodle Nations and Maria shop pledge together over £200 and it's still growing. I am so excited for this challenge!

Tomorrow is the first weighing. Miriam is coming over in the evening and we'll be using my posh Tanita scale. I will take the measurements in both stone and lbs and kilos. This will be repeated each Monday.

There is one part of our "rules" that after speaking to our supporters we may possibly change. Because this challenge is not all about us, but mostly about the charities it would be unfair to leave the loser's charity completely with nothing. We may then split the winnings in such a way that the winner would take 50% of the loser's money. This way there's all winners and both sides' supporters are happy. On the other hand if there was no challenge, there would have been no money anyway and therefore one might argue that the "loser's charity" wouldn't had been any worse off than before.

I think that this we will need to have a chat about with Miriam, but perhaps anyone watching our challenge has a say on the matter? We would be thrilled to have your input on this.

Keep popping in, there will be at least one update after each weighing.

Saturday, 19 June 2010

Weight Loss Charity Challenge (duel)

Me and Miriam have a double bet on. We both have to lose 5kg (11lbs) each in five weeks and the one who loses more at the end of it wins. Stakes are high, as charities are involved...

It all started last year when I ran my Weight Loss challenge with HL. Miriam was my first contestant. I wasn't participating, I was only running it. I had already brought my weight down and didn't need to go any further. Miriam managed to lose about a stone in the twelve weeks and we have become good friends.

In November I started working in an office again and let loose all my bad eating habits. The weight slowly crept on until it reached 76kg - a 7kg increase. It's not bad considering it's only about 1kg per month (I had to keep fooling myself that it's not bad).

I knew I had to do something with it and remembered a colleague in one of my previous jobs who did a weight loss collection for Comedy Relief. He signed people up and when he lost weight as he'd promised we all paid up. He lost weight, Comedy Relief got their funds and we all felt better about ourselves.

Recently I suggested such a challenge to Miriam, but because my trousers had not been buttoning up for quite a while now (when sitting down - making me very uncomfortable), I decided that we both should do it.

This meant that both of us had to chose a charity; Miriam chose Christians Against Poverty, and I went with my bosses suggestion - Woking Hospice. We both have to lose 5kg or 11lbs each to be able to collect money from our friends who will be "betting" against us, and, here's the best part: if I win, Woking Hospice gets both of our collections, and if Miriam wins, her charity gets the funds.

There are only two ways to motivate someone: a carrot or a stick.

In this case the carrots are:
  • losing weight
  • feeling lighter
  • feeling good about helping the charity
and the sticks are:
  • competition with each other
  • responsibility to the charity
  • friends keeping on our tails to pass the funds to "their" charity
Here I will try to keep an update of our progress. We will be working together, rather than against each other. The challenge starts on Monday 28th June and last weighing will be the 6th August.

Keep popping in to cheers us on and follow our successes! (no failures allowed!)