Culture is Everything

How being a CEO helped me lose 10kg

In the last 143 days, I’ve lost just over 10kg’s. The skills I use everyday as a CEO helped me get there.  Here’s how…

• Create a vision - On my bucket list (you do have one, don’t you?) is a dream to finish an Ironman Triathlon, so I’ve entered! I’ll be competing in Ironman Australia at Port Macquarie in May 2012.  For the past 8 years I’ve pushed myself hard in my professional career at the expense of my health and fitness. It was time to change. Putting a deadline on my dream made it real. 

• Learn from the experts - Over the last few months, I have read a LOT about triathlon! Two things that helped me lose the excess 10.5kg’s is the knowledge that 1) cycling is often the most important leg in triathlon 2) power-to-weight is critical to being a good cyclist. Therefore, get lean! (Lance Armstrong explains it right here - jump to 2:15 if you’re in a hurry). 

• Set mini-goals - After learning how important it is to get lean, in September 2011 I set a goal to get from 82.5kg to 72.0kg by January 31.  I then broke this goal down into monthly, weekly, and daily(!) goals (remember Reverse Engineering?).  I no longer had to lose 10.5kg’s, I just had to lose 74 grams per day. Easy!

• Measure what you manage - I measured and recorded my weight every morning.  As I got closer to my goal, sometimes I weighed myself a few times a day (crazy, I know, but it worked).  By knowing my progress, it helped me make decisions about what I could and should eat.  When I was ahead, I could have a treat. When I was behind, I ate a bit less.

• Don’t let failure stop you - Some days I put on weight. It was frustrating.  In the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, I gained almost 1kg.  But, by measuring what I managed, I knew what I had to do and I re-focussed on making it happen

• Make it fun - Weighing myself every morning and sometimes during the day became a game in our house.  KW got involved in the last month and we both had some fun entering our weight into the True Weight iPhone app every day.

• Celebrate successes - I made my 72.0kg target on Jan 30 (one day early).  This week, we’re celebrating! (I’ll still measure what I manage, but, I’ll take it a bit easier and enjoy what I’ve achieved for a moment).

Being 10.5kg’s lighter not only helps me on my bike, I feel much better and have heaps more energy (despite training 14-16 hours per week!).  For me, measuring what I managed was the most important approach to hit my goal.

*NB - I visited a medical doctor before and during these 143 days.  The measure what you manage approach worked for me, if you want to lose weight, get the right advice.

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**This post is from the 2012 series ‘What I’ve learnt this week’. If you’d like to receive these and other Culture is Everything posts in your email, subscribe here.