Lucas’s Blog

Hey there
Well, the “new look” Saving Lucas site is coming along well! We have a new BMI tracker (which is automatic and uses your height and weight entries to automatically calculate your BMI). We got rid of the Professionals system, and instead made a “Friends” system – you can give your friends access to one or more of your tools, and they can comment on or “like” various entries, a lot like the way facebook works.
Anyway, talking about smoking, I’ve never smoked myself , but my Mum has smoked since she was 14. She’s tried to give up a few times over the years, but found once she stopped smoking she started eating more and piling on the weight.
This year she was put on Zyban (NZ Government subsidised) and since February this year she hasn’t smoked at all! Cold turkey after 51 years… that’s just amazing. Zyban kills the craving for food which was the trick she needed. So if you’re looking to give up, give Zyban a shot or see if your Doctor will prescribe it for you. Zyban is also called Bupropion, Wellbutrin or Amfebutamone.

More info here: http://www.quitsmoking.com/zyban/index.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bupropion

Hi all
I’m still in the 150s and making great progress – I’m only seeing my nutritionist fortnightly now… it’s like the training wheels are coming off!
I’ve tried the Flor-essence tea and it’s doing a great job – doesn’t taste wonderful, but its OK to drink and actually quite filling – anything that kills hunger pangs is a good thing!
We have a new design in the works for the website and lots of new features, so stay tuned, and feel free to jump on the forums (http://www.savinglucas.com/smf/) with ideas and feedback.
How strange to have once been 210kgs!
How awesome will it be when I’m 110kgs and the kids at Wu Shu aren’t so scared of me falling on them… lol… only 45 or so kgs to go….

Here’s a useful article: http://www.livescience.com/health/7-Biggest-Diet-Myths-100430-1.html

That’s right, I knuckled down for a few weeks and broke the 160kg barrier!

My nutritionist gave me some more great food advice, and recommendations:

Kelp powder! It’s salty and a bit strange at first, but very good for you – I even add it to my shakes!

Flaxseed Oil: Full of Omega-3 and other exciting goodies. This goes in the shakes as well. The great thing about the shake is that the banana in it pretty much overrides every other flavour (how does banana do that?!). So now my shakes are: banana, milk, kelp powder, flaxseed oil, strawberries/blueberries, handfuls of lettuce and spinach. Sounds disgusting, looks disgusting, and tastes… ok. You get used to it. but wow, great energy kick!

I’m going to be trying Flor-Essence tea soon as it apparently cleanses toxins. And for lunch now I have raw broccoli & cauliflower with some almonds, for a bit of protein to help with the Wu Shu martial arts.

Now, you might think I’ve gone over to the other side, but I still love meat! Every Tuesday is my “night off” where I have a roast from one of those takeaway roast places, a few RTD drinks, a few chips. You gotta keep it real you know

Oh and exciting things are happening with Saving Lucas! For a start – we’re making it completely free! I’ve been wanting to do that for ages but had to find a way to keep the business partners happy at the same time. So.. there will be a few banners on the site, but don’t worry. I’m a web designer – I hate ads and popups as much as you do, so we’ll keep them as unobtrusive as we can. Oh and we’re going to build in a lot more social features – where you can compete with your friends, or set up groups of friends to compete with each other, seeing who can meet their goals the most consistently. And I’m finding a way to be able to give something back, by rewarding you for meeting your goals. But the reward will benefit the world in some way – sponsoring a child in Africa, provide a well in a drought-stricken region, donating to charity… I’ll keep you up-to-date as it all plays out

Yesterday was a great day for me – I actually got a high-five from my nutritionist. My weight was the lowest it has ever been since I started the Care Plus program and started going to the Apollo Health Centre – 167.4 kg.
That means I’ve lost 43 kg since I started.
I also got my blood test results back and I’m in the perfectly normal ranges for everything including cholesterol and blood sugar.
My secret this year was:
- See my nutritionist weekly (No time for naughtiness to get out of hand)
- Set myself a weekly personal goal of losing 2 kgs
- Use a cool and funky weight tracker app on my iPhone (Weightbot) to track my weight

Now, every time I eat bad foods or eat too much, I feel so bad and disappointed in myself that those negative feelings override any temporary happiness I may have gained from the food itself.
Yay! 2010 rocks

Hi everyone!

Well, I’m seeing my nutritionist every three weeks now. My weight is down to 168.5kg – it’s a struggle getting thru the 160s, I tell ya – but I’m going to Wu Shu 4 times a week, and getting up at 5:30am to go for a run and do stretching exercises for a couple of hours with my flatmates. So everything’s going well but it’s a hard slog! The Saving Lucas site is in it’s final stages now, I’m just fixing up some bugs and adding content, and it should be live any day now – exciting!

I started Wu Shu a few weeks ago, it’s quite an athletic Chinese Martial Art. I also started taking digestive enzyme pills before each meal (both those and the flaxseed oil are Udo’s – http://udoerasmus.com/products/1_index_en.htm)

In the last week I lost 2.8kgs and 4 cm around the waist, making me 176kg and 134cms – sweet! The digestive enzymes seem to have killed my appetite so I hardly feel like dinner now

I had an appointment with my diabetic nurse today and my HbA1c is a nice healthy 6.2

She wasn’t too fussed about my weight loss stalling, she said “you’ve got years to lose the weight if needed” – I’m eating healthily and exercising and my blood pressure is 110/70. BMI is 48 and waist 145cm. I’m still taking flaxseed oil every day as well as probiotic capsules, and my interval training is starting to kick in. But she said “listen to your body, and don’t over-exercise”

Hi all

As the new site nears completion I’m getting back into my blog. I just had another blood test today for my hBa1c so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I’ve hit a plateau weight-wise although my diet has improved. I’ve been down with the flu a bit which has hit my gym schedule.

I’ve just read a very inspirational book by a guy called Jon Gabriel called “The Gabriel Method” and I highly recommend it – he lost a huge amount of weight without doing any “dieting” as he believes diets put stress on your body and puts your body into “famine mode” where it just stores fat. He used positive visualisation and the addition of healthy foods and supplements to his eating in order to lose weight. Check out the site – www.gabrielmethod.com I’ve asked my nutritionist to read the book so I can get her backing to try his process out.

By the way I’m taking 2 tablespoons of Flaxseed Oil and a probiotic every morning to help with Omega 3 and digestion.

Work has kept me very busy for the last couple of months, I’ve been working into the evenings and over the last week been dealing with the flu! But I did manage to drag myself to the doctor on Monday and had a blood/urine test. urine’s all good, and my Hba1c is down to 6 which made my diabetes nurse very happy!

In the next few weeks we’ll be putting one of our developers back onto the new SavingLucas site as we’re really keen to get that finished and out there for you to use, so I’ll let you know when that happens.

I have a new nutritionist now called Claire who’s a lovely lady and very into organic foods. Although her recommended morning tea of hummus and carrot sticks has been difficult to get into, her home made muesli (made from a selection of nuts) is delicious