A Personal Journey

Anyone that has visited our blog site in the past will have read about Jane's entrepreneurial exploits while she is between contracts. Having completed my last assignment at the end of April 2013 I had a rather more personal goal in mind.

Two years ago I felt that I was a reasonably fit 40-something. I exercised to the point that I regularly took part in 10k runs and had my weight well under control.Through a combination of circumstances, some beyond my control others self-inflicted, this gradually changed so that by May of this year I was officially contributing to the country's obesity statistics.

 At just over 6 feet tall and weighing 239 lbs I had a body mass index (BMI) of 31.5 while the recommended range is 18.5 to 24.9. This made me "very overweight or obese" according to the guidelines published by the National Health Service (NHS). For my height the "healthy weight" range translates into 140 to 189 lbs. This meant I needed to lose a massive 50 lbs or nearly 21% of my body weight!

So how to go about it? A change of diet was obvious, out with the pies and curries for example. A reduction in my consumption of real ale was also called for, which was a lot more difficult to keep to!

I also started to exercise again. At 49 my maximum heart rate is 171 so I bought a heart rate monitor to keep track and made a start. Taking things slowly at first (as if I had a choice) I began by taking lots of walks. Over the course of a couple of weeks this got gradually easier to the point where it was actually quite difficult to keep my average heart rate over 65% of maximum, the ideal "fat burning" level. At this stage I started jogging a little to keep my heart rate up and over time I have slowly (although not slowly enough to avoid taking a week out with a bad back) increased the intensity to the point where I keep it in the range of 130 - 160 beats per minute.

Over the summer I have lost 25 lbs to reduce my BMI to 28.2. This still puts me in the overweight range so I have a long way to go, but I feel I have made a good start and am determined to keep going. Even though it is painful!

Written by Mike Gamble: JEM Retail Consultants