I’ve divided my weight gain goal into three phases.
In Phase 1, I put on 5kg.
In Phase 2, I put on another 5kg.
And in Phase 3, you’ll never believe, I put on yet another 5kg.
Why three phases? Well, the first one gets me back to the weight that (as far as I know) is the most I’ve ever weighed, 57kg. I completed that phase successfully on Friday.
The second phase gets me to a BMI of 18.5, which is the low end of the recommended range.
And the third phase gives me 5kg to come and go on and sits me at a nice even BMI number of 20.
So, having completed Phase 1, it’s time to reflect and do further planning.
My original aim was to complete all three phases by my birthday, 10 July. When I started this was 17 weeks away, which gave me two weeks in hand – I realized I wouldn’t smoothly gain 1kg every week. I’ve now used up both of those weeks, though, so that date may not be realistic. The first non-gain week was when I figured out that I had been over-stuffing myself and could back off a little, but I backed off too much. The second was the week before last, when I hurt my neck being too enthusiastic with the weights and had to take a week to recover. (I could have done cardio instead during that week, but I didn’t.)
So, let’s work through my 7-step change plan process and see how we go.
1. What is it that you want to be different when you have made your change?
I want to weigh 67kg, giving me a BMI of 20 (given that I’m 183cm tall). I’m measuring my progress weekly on Fridays, using fridgegraph. I’m now thinking that maybe I should do a weigh-in halfway between Fridays, say Tuesday, so that I get more frequent feedback and can correct my course more quickly if necessary.
2. What is your current situation?
I currently weigh 57kg. I want to sit down again with nutritiondata.com and look at my current diet to make sure that it’s balanced nutritionally and that it’s also delivering enough calories each day to take me all the way to my goal weight of 67kg.
3. What is the major benefit of the change?
There are two major benefits: Having a healthy body weight, which should increase my general health and put me in a better position should I get seriously ill (plus improve my appearance); and going through a personal change process, which helps me to empathize better with my clients who are going through change.
4. What are you already doing now that you can use to your advantage?
I am eating healthily and exercising. (More details about both in upcoming blog posts.)
A note here, by the way. I am deliberately not using bulking supplements. This is mainly for philosophical reasons: I like to eat things that come from a kitchen, not a lab. Regular readers will know that I’m a bit of a purist about nutrition and health, and that I prefer more natural methods wherever artificial methods are not clearly superior. I’m not totally anti-drug or anti-supplement. Sometimes a drug or a supplement is the best answer, but in my opinion this is less often than most people think. Supplements are expensive, too, and I’m aware that a lot of people don’t have the option of spending that much money in these economic times. So I’m setting out to achieve my weight gain entirely by eating a balanced, nutritious diet of ordinary food, most of which I prepare myself from basic ingredients, and by doing exercises with an inexpensive set of dumbbells that don’t require a gym membership. No doubt I could get quicker results if I didn’t limit myself in these ways, but I don’t know if they would be as sustainable.
5. What other resources do you have?
I’m a hypnotherapist, and know how to use self-hypnosis to get me over the bumps that inevitably occur in any change process. I have access to a huge amount of useful information on the Internet, and I’m also studying nutrition part-time at university.
6. What is hindering you from making the change?
This question is most applicable at the start of the process. I was, for a time, experiencing some resistance to the change. A change in our physical being is a change in our self-concept. I’ve been a skinny nerd as long as I can remember, and exercising and becoming heavier were at odds with my self-perception. I used self-hypnosis to overcome this, and am now much more comfortable about the changes in my body.
7. What are you prepared to do in order to make this change?
I’m committed to eating more than I “naturally” would, and exercising regularly.
Well, that was a pretty easy review. Over the next few posts I’ll give more detail on some of the things I’m doing in nutrition and exercise.
Meantime, what’s your change goal? And what are your answers to the seven questions?
Technorati Tags: nutrition, exercise, personal change, weight gain, bulking supplements, motivation, hypnosis, self-hypnosis
Related posts:
- Weight Gain Journey: End of Phase 2Well, the end date I set for my weight gain...
- Weight Gain Journey: the struggle sets inThis is quite a personal post. Most of my posts...
- My exercise strategy for weight gainI sometimes describe myself as a “sports atheist”1 – just...
- Losing weight – from your wallet, primarilyDave Sabat just posted about an article in the Daily...
- Slim chances for weight lossBack to our regularly scheduled program of original content shortly,...