JOE’s Weight Watchers Challenge Week 5

This week saw the three lads finish their fifth week of JOE's Weight Watchers Challenge, so let's take a look and see how they got on.

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Joe Mulligan
Class: Ted Lavelle's, Achill Island
Starting weight: 21st 10lbs
Current weight: 20st 2lbs

I lost a fair bit this week, considering I wasn’t feeling too good – I’ve been a bit ill. I only got exercise for five of the seven days as a result. I thought this would be the week that I’d put on weight. I thought the body would fight back and retaliate on the weight loss to date, so I was delighted to see I went down by four pounds.

There is now a very real possibility that I’ll see 19 stone registering on the scales soon enough. The first week we started, our leader Bronagh set me target of one stone in 7 weeks, so I’ve managed to surpassed that… just by a little bit.

I was out walking today and I’m now convinced that walking is the best way to go about losing weight, for me at least. To put it into context, the nearest gym to me is half an hour drive away, so I drive for an hour to get maybe 30 minutes exercise - if I’m lucky. Now, I still don’t like walking, but I’m coming around to the way of thinking that it’s definitely worthwhile.

I’m sticking comfortably within my ProPoints limits. Breakfast stays the same every day. I have porridge and I really enjoy it. I find it very filling and I’m led to believe there is some sort of science behind it so that it releases energy slowly and it’s good for you. Dinner isn’t a problem thanks to my wife. She’s been absolutely brilliant and a great help.

Much to my surprise, I thought after the first three or four weeks the novelty of JOE’s Weight Watchers Challenge might wear off, but as my weight continues to come down I’m actually finding myself motivated to continue to drive it down further. I’ve only three pounds to go before I see 19 stone on the scales. That’s a huge milestone for me, as far as I’m concerned.

I thought for better or for worse, that I’d put my updates on Facebook on a weekly basis. I’m getting an awful lot of supportive comments from people. I spent 20 minutes one day talking to a lady who said it’s nice to meet someone ‘real’, because it’s hard to tell whether those case studies are real or not.

I’ve been reading on the internet and they say that a loss of two pounds per week is healthy, so if I reach that next week I’ll be happy.

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Darren Savage
Class: Carmelite Community Centre, Whitefriar
Starting weight: 17st 13lbs
Current weight: 16st 12lbs

I lost three pounds this week, so I’m happy enough with that. I’m glad I kept some consistency and that I’m not dropping off by breaking even or gaining weight, so that a plus.

I’m happy with the weight loss, I didn’t think I’d be down that much. I had to go to different classes this week so I wasn’t sure how things would pan out. I was happy to be down three pounds. Got back into the swing of things with the gym this week, because that kinda slipped the previous week. I’ve just been trying to manage my diet and get a better consistency with everything that surrounds it.

I got two books during the week, one tells you what points are in foods when you’re eating out. A lot of the bigger chain restaurants have their meals laid out with what ProPoints are in them so that’s handy, and the other one was a cookbook called 'Cooking for Two'. They’re pretty interesting, a good few recipes in there that I tried out and it helps.

I’ve started walking to work every day, its only 1km but it’s still something. In the gym I’ve been keeping to weights and swimming. I have a weights programme made out so I try to keep to that and keep to watching what I eat. It seems to be working so far.

The temptations are starting to creep back now. Like it’s tempting to revert to old habits, but I’ve kept with it and I haven’t lost control too badly just yet so I just hope to maintain what I’m doing.

I’d like to see a bit of consistency next week, so maybe two or three pounds again, just to keep a gradual decrease going. Starting off I was 15 stone and now I’m down over the stone since I’ve started and now I’m passing my 5 per cent weight loss mark, so it’s all about just setting a target and reaching it.

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Aaron Chalke
Class: St Mary's Parish Hall, Haddington Road
Starting weight: 15st
Current Weight: 14st 9lbs

This week went well for me. I managed to lose 2 and a half pounds so I was happy considering I didn’t do so well over the past few weeks. That’s behind me now so I’m just going to keep looking ahead.

I had a few work events and a wedding that I had to attend during the week, so I thought I wouldn't really lose anything but luckily I did! I stayed away from temptation and kept focused. I got back out on the road too. Getting out for a walk and jogging really helps. It’s not always easy to get up and get out, but once I do I definitely feel the better of it.

I just need to keep the exercise going and get into regular rhythm of heading out every other day or three times a week - something like that. I’ve been starting to get used to counting the ProPoints now too. I think getting into a routine helps out a lot. If you start to slack off or forget to count half a day’s worth of food then it throws the whole ProPoints system out of sync, so at least I have the hang of it now.

Hopefully I’ll keep a bit of consistency and lose another two or three pounds this week, but we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll be happy once I don’t gain anything extra.

Check back next week to see how the lads are getting on in JOE's Weight Watchers Challenge. For more info on weight loss and healthy eating for men check out the Weight Watchers website.