My Weight Loss Program for Antarctica

One obese Horse 24May2012

This is the start of my weight loss journey back to Antarctica. So I thought I would share this with you as I go. I'm a lazy sloth who doesn't care much for exercise, and I love beer and chips. I am in my early fifties and obese.

Just before you go, holy hell, I'm not reading all this to discover a weight loss program, I need to give you a bit of a background into my weight loss program, and the reason behind it. If you don't have a bloody good reason to lose weight in the first place, a driving force, it ain't gonna happen.I don't believe that just losing weight because your fat is a good enough excuse because people seem to except that heaps of others are fat also, so why not me. You need a "what am I missing out on or what am I about to lose," if I don't do something about it reason. I love Antarctica,its working environment and the people that live and work there. Its a special place that only first hand experience can offer one the senses it creates. Not being able to go due to being overweight after being there a number of times already, was not going to happen. So I need to do something about my weight. 

Before one can even go to Antarctica with the Australian Antarctic Division, you have to jump through a number of medical and phycological hoops along with the usual interviews. The interviews are a combination of team building sessions to ascertain your willingness to participate in teams and problem solving. They also assess you in a social atmosphere.This is conducted over two days with you sharing a room with a complete stranger overnight.The phycological tests are conducted by the Armed forces (army) and is in 3 parts. You know the ones. You colour in little rectangular boxs that apply to the answers to the questions they ask. Really a no brainer. The third test is more of an interview with an Army Captain to ascertain if you are as nuts as your colouring in indicates.The medical only comes as a result of you passing all the afore mentioned hoop jumping contests.

Not in Good Shape Horse

The medical is very comprehensive with them testing you for next to every disease known to man. After they've nearly sucked every drop of blood out of you, you have a chest xray and then its off to the doctor for a closer examination.With the doctor you anwser a stack of medical history questions which is good because half of them I had to ask my mother or father about the family medical history in the first place.At the doctors you get weighted, height check, and all your body measurements taken. You know, chest waist and hips. The weight and height measurements form the formula to ascertain your Body Mass Index(BMI) which is your height divided by your height in metres x your height in metres. Now for someone like me who is short and stocky this a problem. The cut of point for the BMI as I understand it is 35. When I went to do my medical it was 34.5. The doctor fidgeted in his chair when he calculated this.Hmm, close. A healthy BMI  falls in the 20 - 25 range. For me at 1.71m height, I need to get down to 60 - 75 kg. I was at the time of the medical 101kg or 222 lbs. I have been as high as 115kg or 235lbs.

So, I hate diets. It implies you have to give up all the good stuff like beer and chips. I like to call it my Health and Wellness Attitude Adjustment Program. I know, I know, its a bit of a mouth full. I hate exercise because I lack the energy to get my sorry butt up and about. My first requirement is to get my energy levels up. I have discovered that most of what I eat is not too bad. I just drink too much beer with my salads and veges. However after a bit of research I have discovered that much of what we eat lacks the vitamins and minerals that we need. It would appear that the land which we grow our natural food stuffs is lacking. My intial reaction to this was, hell now I've got to pop a thousand pills each day. Well its not a thousand as I've discovered. But if I was to get that 21 year olds energy back and get my butt of the seat I was determined to give it a shot.

I still have a beer, just not every night, 1 or 2 maybe a week. I want to insure my journey is a success so if others are inspired by it they may choose to do something similar.My goal is to reach my upper BMI of 25 in six months. This means a lose of 25kgs or 55lb. Breaking this down further 1 kg per week. For me this sounds a bit easier to chew than 25kg. Anyway, if you've read this far come back next week and I'll give an update on how I'm going. If your really interested in the program I'm using go to No Limits Living.I'm currently down to 97.5 kg or 214.5lb from the medical 101kg 3 weeks ago.