I found exercise and dieting to control weight a very intensely personal project. I found over the years that it was far easier to start trying and get nowhere than it was to succeed. However, for what it is worth since mid May I have lost over 3 stone, or about 19 Kg and considerably increased by walking as I am once more dealing with our daughter’s dogs. I am out of the house by about 06:15 most mornings and then spend somewhere between and hour and an hour and a half before breakfast doing between 2.5 and 3 miles. Sometimes this is against tight time scales so the pace is usually brisk. I have been using the Google Fit application for a while and today finally agreed to increase the daily target for exercise and heart points. To be honest I had regularly exceeded both old targets anyway. This schedule is repeated in the afternoon with other periods of variable level activity during the day
I also try to keep a log of the calories that I consume. We have not used sugar for a long time, do not buy shops cakes and other similar products and avoid such horrors as processed cereals, so our scope for sugar reduction is very limited. Breakfast is based on Crushed Oats, Oat Bran and Wheat bran, raisins and hot water to soak them together washed done with about 1.2 litres weak tea using skimmed milk 50% with water. After that I drink only water Lunch is usually a pretty frugal affair as is the evening meal with both containing, but not limited to a high proportion of fruit and vegetables.
I cut out all alcohol and pretty much all snacks since mid May. I would not cope with the no breakfast idea as the level of exercise combined with the need to be ready for early morning trips across country for appointments requires me to be capable at pretty much all times of the day.
I have found that the weight loss and exercise has had almost no impact on my blood pressure. I inherited high blood pressure from my mother and am keen not to end up with the effects that it wrought on her, vascular dementia. I check the pressure regularly though not on any sort of schedule, my tablets have been changed about quite a bit but I have dropped one due to the intestinal effects and its marginal impact on pressures, perhaps the exercise and weight loss marginally helped but I cannot be sure. What does help a great deal is trying to avoid sources of stress to which my pressure reacts unfavourably.
Smoking never entered my schedule and has never been part of my life so I had nothing to gain there, but for some it could well be the key and should always be the first action point. Some now dead relatives should have read the writing on the walls or air in their smoky rooms.
My BMI is now below 23 by a whisker or two though I would like to drive it a little lower.
However, do not rush into any none medically sanctioned action plan, walking and other activities can be low cost and very useful aids but only if you were too sedentary beforehand and if the plan is medically approved and practical. Not just sitting down can be sound advice, but remember that periods of activity should be edited with periods of less active time; again under guidance. Most areas have improved their guidance and support over recent years so you should heed what they say and offer. For me a gym would simply not be practical.
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