Before Christmas, the scales I regularly clambered on nudged 16 stone, and now I’ve hit 13 stone 7, with another half stone to lose.
I’m not posting this as a humble brag, or as a de facto guide to weight loss and I certainly wouldn’t recommend some of the actions I’ve been forced to take, but there are, hopefully, some useful pointers.
First up is: exercise
Now, I’m a real walker (checks spelling). I often spend weekends or days off in the Yorkshire Dales, Chorley, Bolton, the Peak District or Snowdonia (just the once this year on my birthday in April).
But.
Having a dog, Cassie Walton, my rescue border collie, living with me in Manchester, means that walking is not just going up hills or mountains, or across moors.
No.
I walk 10,000 to 30,000 steps every single day from my brutalist base that is now home in Miles Platting, north of the city centre. What a base it is too. There is not just one minging canal to choose from – I am spoilt for choice with two – the Rochdale Canal closest to home and the Ashton Canal.
When I’m not being harangued by swans or Canadian geese, I like to look at the teeming wildlife in each – wheelie bins, Beryl bikes and litter and wonder about a quick wild swim in each.
But, mingingness to one side, each towpath provides plenty of varied walking and I often end up at the Castlefield basin and then wend my way back home, via Deansgate, Noma and Angel Meadow, which are all lovely.
Manchester is a compact city, but, I think, quite pedestrian and dog-friendly, and I easily rack up 10,000 steps most mornings before 9am.
Second is diet
I’m clearly running a calorie deficit to shed such weight, but there have been some deliberate dietary choices. I eat out most days, either lunch or dinner (dinner or tea if you’re like the natives) and sometimes for both. I don’t gorge myself though but eat quite healthily with gluten free sandwiches, pizzas at Pizza Express (where I’m known at HomeMcr and Piccadilly Gardens) using their generous money-saving app. I don’t drink alcohol ever and have been teetotal for almost 7 years, but the dough balls, curries, Vietnamese fare are all walked off as I tend to go to each place on foot. The odd fish and chip treat is now monthly, not weekly, and even then I walk to Shudehill tram stop from home and catch the Metrolink to Prestwich.
Mainly though, I don’t snack any more and I’ve massively reduced portion sizes. Cheese, once a regular snack, is consigned to very occasional and chocolate and crisps are rare treats.
Third is I’ve stopped using the car
I bought my Polo GTi in December and some 9 months later, have added just 4000 miles to the odometer. I walk or tram everywhere now on a daily basis and am considering selling the whip after a mammoth road trek to Aberdeen and Glasgow this week. I don’t do “big shops” at the supermarket weekly now, and didn’t really in Norwich, my former home, when we ditched the car in October 2022.
I can always hire one from a car club if the mood takes me – and what I save in costs, I can put towards more meals out.
I was warned by a friend though recently that I was beginning to tip from a healthy look to too thin and I am conscious that my current weight, and not target weight, is perhaps something to maintain instead.
What I have enjoyed too is selling all my XL clothes on Vinted and buying new M or L clothes in Patagonia, Carhartt and Ellis Brigham / Cotswold Outdoors – all four within easy walking distance, all dog-friendly and all close to Siphon NQ, Ezra and Gil, Michaels in the Royal Exchange Arcade, where I now choose iced coconut latte as my favoured tipple.
I do like the new me, the thinner me, the fitter me, and it’s all been a part of my transformative journey of finding myself, improving myself and loving myself, since moving to Manchester last December.
So three tips – well four, if you count the canals – walk, watch what you eat, reduce car use.
