I felt that joining multiple games at the same time (you can only do 3) would make the most of losing more weight when you first start dieting. Problem is, I have already lost about 25kg over the preceding 18 months. I needed to get from 97kg to 93kg in four weeks.

That’s not where I went wrong though, I got the weigh-in date wrong.

My first game finished 6 December 2017 but then I entered a game that had already started, and forgot it would end sooner – what a dollop! Friday evening I decided to have a Chinese takeaway – I know, stupid. But I was in the zone and well on track to hit the target…woke up, push notification from DietBet, game nearly over and soon you need to weigh-in, you have 48 hours to submit…WTF?

I jumped on the scales and weighed a whopping 95kg, how am I going to lose 2kg in 48 hours? Ok, don’t eat anything and go to the gym everyday, oh no, my buddy is coming round later for a few beers.

This was gonna be tough – went straight to the gym. What drops weight fast? Running. Makes me sweat like a guy betting on himself to lose weight at an all you can eat buffet. I did a 5km at a good pace (usually I run as a warm up 2km tops). Then hit some weights and then 2km on the rower. Then only drink Gin and Slimline and scotch….ate some pulled lamb too, no carbs, no sugar.

Next day, get on scales, 94.7kg – noooooooo (I know, that ain’t bad after the night before).

Ok nothing to eat for the rest of the day except a late lunch. Went to the gym, another 5km, alternative weights set and the rower again. Get back, jump on scales, 93.9kg – huh? Nearly a kg lost by going to the gym, maybe there is hope. Have the late lunch, 94.6kg – FFS. I’m not going to make it, need to weigh-in before 8am next morning.

Do I quit or get up at 6am and get to the gym and try to burn this off? Never quit – get up, jump on scales, 94.2kg, hellllllp, this ain’t gonna happen. Go for what I can only describe as an elephant sized wee wee, get back on scales, 97.2kg. Nod head in disbelief, jump off, jump back on 97.2kg – that a kilo of urine, ew.

Go to the gym, another 5km on the runner and straight to mini-circuits on the floor mats – ultra high intensity, my body shaking and flooding sweat throughout the duration of the plank.

Leave gym, shoot home, jump on scales 92.9kg – BOOM! Take weigh-in video, submit!

That was intense man – amen for running. It’s not only liquid it used up but is a great fat burner – it’s superb for weight loss, I’m going to run much more in the future and spend slightly less time on free weights.

All this because I got the date wrong. In reality, I had actually made it, and I’d be shocked if I buggered up my final two games…we’ll see.

DietBet Winner – one from three….so far.

The post It’s come down to the wire | Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? | DietBet Diary Post 3 appeared first on National Dish.

Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? I have and it’s going…

I am now 2 weeks in to my bet and things are going well, a little harder than I thought though. Trying to lose weight is so hard and those around just do not help.

In open conversation people will discuss, at length, dieting, food choices, exercise and of course, other people behind their back. Not necessarily in a bad way, but because it’s too scary to talk to them directly.

No-one will ever have a frank conversation to your face though – you’re really overweight, you need to sort that out, look at yourself, have you no self respect? That’s bad, right – wouldn’t it help if they did?

What people say…or not?

The problem with life and obesity is that honesty seldom makes an appearance. What do I mean by that?

My dearest friends and family gave me mixed messages. Your family will tell you that you look fine, it’s OK, you carry it well, don’t give yourself a hard time.

Colleagues would never say anything, because you can’t actually say anything to anyone at work of a personal nature – although, after a few beers, peers seem to.

Finally friends, the most confusing group. I am in a group of great mates who take this piss out of each other, often brutally. Yet, they would never go near my weight. Whilst in normal conversation some of my friends would address me as ‘fat boy’, which didn’t upset me but seemed OK to say. A dear friend of mine told me recently, after I had lost 25kg (4 stone), how he felt my weight was terrible, couldn’t believe the size of my gut and the way it hung over my belt.

“Dude! I love you, but why the hell didn’t you tell me that before, rather than now?”

Let’s assume that most people would like to lose weight. Similarly let’s suggest that motivation and willpower are serious barriers. Surely, if everyone were more honest with each other, that would be a real motivator, right? A genuine reality check.

To my friends and family reading this, don’t feel bad, no-one wants to discuss this stuff – it’s a social nightmare.

Change

My lifestyle had changed, my confidence had changed, my body had changed, my appearance in clothing had changed and people’s attitude toward me, changed.

You get a lot of compliments, shock and general positivity. It’s then, and only then that people talk about how you were before, and how much better you are for it. During the process, this is a enormous motivator, probably the strongest – it’s amazing.

But, for goodness sake, why couldn’t I get that honest feedback when I needed it? I appreciate that the hypocrisy of society makes that difficult.

After a while, I found the compliments to be rather embarrassing. A reminder of how disgusting I was. Yup! DISGUSTING, VILE, GROSS – that’s how ‘I’ felt. You might very well disagree, but that doesn’t actually help people who want to lose weight or NEED to lose weight – it’s not always about how you look.

I recall a few years back having a few beers around the pool with a mate in Vegas. He was telling me how he’d let himself go and referred to himself as a ‘fat fucker’. More importantly he made the point that it went unnoticed, he didn’t notice it and no-one said anything.

He said that as soon as he realised he addressed it – ‘I was a fat fucker’ – brilliant. I bet, and this is a betting related article after all, if someone has mentioned it to him he would have addressed it sooner.

That does not mean you should tell your friends that they are a ‘fat fucker’ though – as funny as it is.

Honesty

To anyone that knows me, I would be grateful if you could call me out if:

• I start to put on weight again
• You don’t feel that I am exercising enough
• I’m eating too much
• You see me reaching for Haribo, Maynards or those giant snakes with the foam bellies (I am addicted to sugar – damn!)
• You think I’m not looking after myself

The latest position from friends, family and colleagues is ‘don’t lose any more weight, you’ll look ill. Your face will be gaunt’.

Really? I am still in the yellow zone for BMI 26.3 and that means overweight. Guys, please – the NHS, Britain’s health service, widely regarded as the one of the best in the world, is telling me that I am overweight. That’s it!

I need your support and honesty, not some ill guided rhetoric to make me feel better, losing weight will make me feel better. Love ya though…

Progress with DietBet

I thought I would nail this and actually reach my goal weight of 88kg, I don’t think that’s going to happen. The target weight for the bet is 93kg and I am 80% likely to reach that, according to my recent update from DietBet.

I have recorded a weight of 92.6kg about a week ago, but since then I’ve ended up at Five Guys and sunk too much booze over the weekend, plus I think I weighed myself at a stupid time, naked too. DietBet requires you to have some light clothing on – so I am actually at 94.4kg and still well within reach.

I started at 96.9kg so I think losing 5 1/2 lbs isn’t bad at all – gotta keep going.

The post Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? | DietBet diary post 2 appeared first on National Dish.

How much would you gamble on yourself to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks? That’s what I am about to find out. I’ve invested, if that’s the right word, hard cash in a bid to lose weight, no, win some money…huh? Would you bet on yourself to lose weight?

I’ll explain below, this is the first post in a series to diarize my attempt to lose weight through gambling – it already sounds wrong.

A bit of background first.

I am, or was, morbidly obese – the stats:

• 18 Stone – 114 kg – 252 lbs.
• That was a UK size 40 waist or ‘equator’
• I’m just under 6ft 3″ – 190cm
• Making my BMI a whopping 31.5 – the healthy BMI range, according to the NHS, is 18.5 to 25.
• I couldn’t wear anything yellow in NYC without getting hailed
• Lost 25kg
• Almost instantly I stopped guffing

11 January 2016 was that day. The day the scales screamed ‘get off me’. I have struggled with weight for most of my adult life, as a young adult, I was super fit – so bloody what? Who wasn’t?

Taking action

Lifestyle change! I’m ‘time poor’ which is a real blocker and didn’t exercise. When I sat around the house, I sat AROUND the house.

So it started – exercise, initially at home and a gym membership. Smaller portions, no sugar, no booze (apart from odd binge – can’t go to Twickenham and not get on it), cutting down on fat and eradicating as much carb as possible. This also resulted in saying goodbye to Gluten and farting – who knew?

I am not suggesting that I followed a particular diet (Paleo maybe), although I did create a funny little excessive regime (I might cover that later), but the early results were good, very good in fact:

MyFitnessPal, graph shows that I have put a little back on, don’t get me wrong, it’s not too bad, but a worry. Plus, I never actually reached my goal weight. Ultimately – I failed!

My goal was 88kg, that puts me a 1lb under 14st. I managed to get to 90kg at best I reckon and then it crept back on – I yo-yoed a little too. I am now 95kg and want, no actually, need, to reach 88kg, but how?

Gamble

It’s vice that got me in to this mess, so it can be vice that gets me out.

I’m gonna gamble, back myself to win. I’ve downloaded DietBet, a weight loss community betting app.

I did attempt a similar thing a while back with a good colleague of mine, we agreed to bet against each other – £100. It didn’t quite work out, we couldn’t quite nail how to weigh-in – which is a bummer, cause I won – he knows who he is….! It’s that incident that inspired me to download DietBet – I reckon it’ll work.

The principle behind DietBet

Once registered you find a game – in this case a Kickstarter (I’m playing three at the same time). A game sets a weight target over a time period – 4% in four weeks. Anyone can join and in turn they will bet real money on reaching that goal (it’s American so USD $).

Those that hit the target share the pot made up from those that didn’t, minus a rake from DietBet (they take between 15% and 25% dependent on the game). The worst case scenario for a winner is that lots of people reach their goal and they don’t win any money – they would get their money back and have lost 4% of their body weight – so that’s a massive net win, right?

I have bet a total of $235 (£179).

The ‘weigh ins’ are timed and controlled. A code is provided which you must write on a piece of paper. You stand on your scales and take a photograph of the reading and the code on the paper. You then take a full body shot of yourself, in minimal clothing stood on the scales. Sometimes videos are also required. This is then submitted and reviewed by a human referee.

Cheating, there could be I guess, but I am in this to lose weight, so I don’t need to cheat and don’t care for other that try. I’m gonna win!

All the pics and videos are confidential, but I am going to publish mine as part of this feature.

My goal

I am in three games – two @$100 each and one @$35. There are 779 people taking part with a prize pool of over $45,000 (£34,000).

• First weigh in was 48 hours before the start.
• My first game started 8 November 2017 and finishes 5 December 2018 – 4 weeks.
• First weigh in came in at 97.2kg (15st 4lbs)
• That means I have to lose 3.9kg or 9lbs (just over half a stone).
• My first progress weigh in came in at 95.1kg – I am 54% of the way there.

I have become rather confident and motivated. I am fascinated at the prospect of this project, which is why I have gone for three games to run simultaneously. This is the maximum permitted.

Here are the three games if you want to take a look – you can even join them still – they have different names, are run by different people and often have spot prizes:

1. BET BIG – 2X WINNINGS PRIZES!
2. $500 in BONUS PRIZES! NOVEMBER KICKSTARTER
3. Kris Gethin’s Fat Free in 4 Weeks

@ Follow me

I’ll be updating on this site – please share it with anyone you think might be interested.

But also:

• Instagram – @nationaldish
• Twitter – @nationsdish
• FaceBook – facebook.com/nationsdish/

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated to any of the platforms mentioned in this feature, I am not being paid by any person or organisation. This is my project, for my benefit, with my money, using my time and effort. The reward, if I am successful, is the weight loss. I don’t even care about winning any money, I don’t want to lose it either. So if any of my fellow competitors are reading this – good luck to you and I hope you win.

The post Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? | DietBet diary post 1 appeared first on National Dish.

You know how some things have names that sound exactly like they are? Well, a chowder is one of those things and what a wonderful thing it is. So much more than a soup and not a blitzer in sight. This chowder is based on the New England recipe, but rather than just clams I’ve lobbed in loads more goodies.

The post How do you make a New England, USA Mixed Fish Chowder? | What is the national dish of New England, United States? appeared first on National Dish.

Mexican ribeye beef Fajitas – that’s right RIB EYE steak
Photograph: Wayne Morgan – nationaldish.co.uk © 2017

Fajitas isn’t necessarily the national dish of Mexico, but if you were to ask a group of people, it’d come up for sure.

This quick, easy and flavour packed recipe uses Beef Rib-eye as the main ingredient, and for good reason.

The post Mexican Fajitas with rib-eye beef | Fajitas | What is the national dish of Mexico? appeared first on National Dish.