Losing Weight

By the beginning of 2013 I was 50, my weight had crept up to 90kg giving me a Body Mass Index (BMI) of about 28, a reading considered to be overweight. I thought it was about time to do something about this as I didn't want to turn into one of those middle aged gents whose bellies hang over their trouser belts. Also, because I'm a cheapskate I didn't want to grow larger and have to replace my clothes before they've worn out. My initial aim was just not to get any heavier.

Let's cut to the chase. If my bathroom scales are to believed, I have lost about 15kg over about the last year (2013). Hardly Biggest Looser territory but a noticeable difference.

First up I should say I have been cycling to work for years so I've already got a bit of a head start by having built regular exercise into my routine. And, part of the reason I had gained weight was because I had been ill in 2011 and was not capable of cycling to work for about 6 months. But, I didn’t really change my diet to reflect my lower energy expenditure and so I gained weight while recovering from my illness.

I restarted cycling after that and had gradually been building up to 2 journeys per day on my bike and had lost some weight without any change to my diet. Just at that point when I thought I could return to 2 journeys per day 5 days per week I came off my bike and broke my arm and after that managed to put on the weight I had lost in 2012.

Thinking about this some more; whilst I've had a relatively low fat diet for years and exercised regularly I had gradually been gaining weight in my forties.

I recognized that I needed to consume less otherwise If I’m ill again I’d probably end up gaining even more weight.

Oddly enough if I hadn't been ill and had an accident I doubt I would have realised that I needed to do something until I was further down the overweight track.

As a brief aside I believe that cycling to work (if you live reasonably close to your work) is a great way of killing two birds with one stone; commuting and getting enough exercise. I live about 12-13km from where I work and it takes me 1 hour from closing my front door to being at my desk (that includes time for showering) probably only 15 – 20 minutes longer than the bus journey.

This is what I do now.

Go shopping with a list

I've done this for years largely because I don't particularly like shopping and wandering around wondering what to buy. I also try to avoid 'adhoc' shopping for food since it is too easy to get a snack on the way. I know this because I've just done it.

A recent innovation is that I use a pre-printed list of things I buy. Weekly items down one side and things I only need to buy occasionally on the other, with space for other incidental things as well. All I need to do is fill in the quantities during the week and highlight what I need to buy on the occasional side. See the end of this blog for an example.

Dietary Changes

I have high cholesterol and after the sudden death of my father from a heart attack some years ago I reduced my red meat intake, try to avoid foods high in saturated fat, and now consume more vegetables and mostly white meat and fish for protein.

The focus of my recent change has been to reduce my intake of food high in carbohydrates such as potatoes, bread, pasta, and rice and replace them with larger servings of vegetables. For instance if I make Curry or a casserole I'll have it with vegetables rather than rice or potatoes.

I generally have the aforementioned carbohydrate type of food less than once per day on average. For instance if I have noodles for lunch I wont have bread, potatoes, rice or pasta with my evening meal. Or for another example. I went out to lunch with a colleague recently and because I intended to have Eggs Benedict for my dinner I declined pizza and had a chicken salad instead.

I find cauliflower to be a good replacement for potatoes or rice and have it with many evening meals where I might have had a potato or serving of rice previously. Cauliflower is good for you too.

I stopped buying sliced bread. Its too easy to make some toast or have a sandwich if you are feeling peckish. Some weeks I managed to get through 2 loafs. I now buy those 500g Turkish breads which can be cut into 3 or 4 pieces and frozen.

Then, one morning, looking at my serving of muesli, I asked my self “Do I really need this much?” I had a fairly generous serving muesli and so changed from 2 scoops to 1 and replaced the 'lost' scoop with a few grapes, or couple of strawberries or some blueberries. At first my breakfast looked quite small but now it seems to be more than adequate.

The key point is to change your diet gradually. I'm not on a crash course diet and I do not expect to get heavier, provided I don't consume more or drastically reduce the amount of exercise I do.

I don't starve, I have 3 meals per day 365 days a year. I rarely have snacks other than a daily apple and orange. To reduce snacking the same principle applies, change gradually. Whilst not consuming a lot of snack foods to start with I was consuming 2 muesli bars and a packet of those cup soups per week. So when I decided to reduce this I stopped the soups one month and stopped the muesli bars the next. I don't miss them.

So I've gradually modified my diet reducing my food intake (though not drastically)

So what do I eat?

Breakfast: A ½ cup (125 ml) scoop of muesli, plus 2-3 chopped up strawberries or handful of grapes or blue berries with soy milk
Lunch: most days I have chopped vegetables 1-2 carrots, 1 tomato, ½ cucumber, ½ red capsicum (pepper) or soup and bread and small tin of fish. I also make my own soup; tinned soup, even those that claim to be 99% fat free, can have a lot of sugar.
Dinner: fish or white meat (chicken or pork) plus a carrot, peas, broccoli and cauliflower. Pasta once per week. Poached eggs and sliced salmon on Turkish bread once per week.

I also take the view that a variation on this infrequently will do no harm. So I don't worry too much about what I have on social occasions.

I drink wine and beer and I guess I average 2 standard drinks per day.

Snacks: One apple and one orange per day.

What don't I eat?
SUGAR - I avoid the non diet varieties of soft drinks (and try not to have too many "diet" drinks as well). I also try not to have more than about 1/2 a glass of fruit juice per day. Sugar is sugar whether you get it from soft drinks or fruit juice. There may be benefits of fruit juice over coke (for example) but would you eat the 3 - 4 oranges or apples it would take to make a glass of juice in one sitting? I don't need sugar in tea or coffee or keep things like cookes, cakes or biscuits at home.

My diet may sound monotonous and routine but I like it. I also believe by having a fairly routine diet helps me keep my INR (International Normalised Ratio) between 2 and 3 reducing the frequency with which I have to have blood tests and with which my medication dose has to be changed.

Results

One morning whilst doing up my belt I noticed that I was able to do it up tighter than the very well worn belt hole I had been using for ages. More recently I have been able to fit comfortably into pairs of trousers I had grown out of and hadn't got around to giving away to a clothing charity. I might have to give away my larger clothes instead.

Whilst doing a bit of background reading about weight loss I note that there certainly seems to a lot on reducing carbohydrate intake rather than just fat per-se to reduce weight and that consuming carbohydrates can actually cause hunger. This certainly seems to have worked for me as reducing carbohydrate intake is the largest change I’ve made in quite a few years. I'm doing the same amount of exercise as I was before I was ill and I'm sure I'm lighter now.

I had considered consulting my doctor about loosing weight as she had mentioned it on occasion but I'm glad I didn't because I suspect a dietitian may have started me on totally new alien diet straight away and as you may know many weight loss diets are extraordinarily hard to stick to.

So dear reader no I'm no diet expert but what's worked for me may work for you. I suspect its better aimed at the moderately overweight like myself rather than those who are morbidly obese. I believe I have a healthy balanced diet. I seem to be less hungry, have a smaller appetite and have been sleeping better of late.

The take away points are:

• Change gradually; eating less and exercising more. Even a moderate amount of exercise, such as walking for 30 minutes, will do you good.
• Cut down on foods high in carbohydrate and replace them with vegetables which can be just as filling.
• Use a shopping list.
• It takes time, possibly the most important point. Apparently loosing a lot of weight quickly can cause health problems. I suggest you Google Margie Cummins

Avanti Inc 2

As of the end of 2013 I'd spent about a year, on and off, looking for a commuter bike that doesn’t have the drawbacks of Derailleur gears, namely picking up dirt and grime plus frequent maintenance and adjustment. I eventually settled for an Avanti Inc 2.

Initially I was a bit worried that 8 gears would be not be enough but after trying several similar bikes I became convinced that a bike with an Alfine 8 speed hub gears would be fine for me. The lowest gear is low enough to cope with the short steep hills on my commute. The highest is adequate for level surfaces, thought it maybe not quite enough if you like to pedal fast down hill.

The gear change seems to prefer the rider to relax pressure on the pedals momentarily when changing gear. You can feel resistance to moving the gear change lever when pressing hard on the pedals, particularly when changing up. Of course one of the best things about the hub gears is being able to change gears whilst not pedaling at all and particularly when you are stationary. It’s also possible to change through several gears very quickly, this can be particularly useful when changing down.

By the way, check the adjustment of the gears after delivery. Mine, as delivered, needed adjusting as when I first rode as it was jumping out of gear and I was experiencing non-commanded gear changes, just like a Derailleur that needs adjustment. Fortunately adjusting the gears its very easy and doesn’t require any special tools. Put the gear lever in 4th and adjust the cable until the green marks, visible in the window on the gear box, line up.

I thought the lack of suspension on the front fork might make for a less comfortable ride but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Also the handle bars are noticeably wider than on other bikes but again, for me anyway, it seems to be OK. The saddle is also comfortable enough for my 45 minute commute.

The Inc 2 is labeled as a commuter bike. Now, in my book a commuter bike should, among other things, have full length mudguards, a rack and a stand. As far as I can tell Avanti doesn’t have any of these accessories for their Inc bikes. At the time of writing there is no section for accessories on their website.

There’s only one set of lugs on the rear of the frame for a rack and mudguard so they both use the same mounting lug. This isn’t too much of a drawback but the bike it replaces had 2 sets making it easier to fit mudguards and a rack. I was hoping to pinch the mudguards off the my old bike but this wasn’t possible as I had trimmed the stays on the front guard and they were not long enough to fit the Avanti which has the lugs further forward and just under the brake assembly.

After a bit of research I settled on Zefal 50mm mudguards on the grounds that they were adjustable. 

The front mudguard wasn’t too difficult to attach but it needs a very long bolt to secure it to the fork. I used an M6 x 60mm which is available from Super Cheap Auto. I also had to adjust the stays so that they attached to the mudguard at the very bottom as the lugs on the fork are very close to and just below the brake actuator and there’s only just enough clearance between the brake and the lug for the mudguard stay. 

Figure 1. Only just enough clearance for mudguard stays

The rear proved to a bit more of a problem. I bought 50 mm guards so that there would be plenty of clearance between mudguards and the tyres (width of 37mm according to Avanti) but found the frame is not wide to accommodate the rear mudguard at the bottom of the frame near the pedals. I had to trim about 5mm bit off each side of the mudguard to make it narrow enough to get it to fit. 

Figure 2. Trimmed Mudguard

The rack was no problem. I’m sure the frame on my bike is a different more conventional shape than the one as shown in the illustration on the Avanti website. This is good as between the time I ordered the bike and took delivery I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t take a standard rack.

Initially I bought a center mounted kick stand but that turned out not to be suitable. The bike would topple over when I had a load on the rack as the foot needed to be further away from the bike. Those kickstands that attach to both frame members (the horizontal and slanting ones) near the rear wouldn’t fit either because because of the rear disc brake assembly. I eventually managed to find a kickstand on eBay that attached to the horizontal frame member only.

The fitted bell not very loud unless you strike it the right way.

Finally, the supplied manual is for a generic Derailleur bike. Something more relevant to the bike I actually bought would have been good. The Inc models have been out for well over a year  now, time enough to write a manual I would have thought.

Pros:

• The Inc 2 is a fair bit cheaper than equivalent bikes with similar specs i.e. a carbon belt and an 8 speed Alfine hub gear.
• The bike is also easier to clean as the frame is less obstructed by the gearing mechanisms of a more conventional bike and the belt only needs to be wiped now and then.

Cons:

• Fitting accessories. There may be better, easier to fit options, than the ones I chose. Two sets of lugs at the rear would have been good as well as better positioned lugs at the front. Though I acknowledge that disc brakes may limit the position of accessory lugs.

Overall, I’ve had the bike for a month now and I’m very satisfied, despite the hassle of fitting some accessories.

Update, June 2015.
I've had the bike for about 17 months now. Whilst I am still satisfied I am very dissapointed with the  the brakes, as supplied. They have a very short life, for commuting use anyway. I'm lucky to 5 months of use out of them, the last set only lasted 4 months . Additionally, the design of the front brake is such that when the pads have worn right down the brake mechanism rubs the cable eventually cutting through it!