When I first moved to Hong Kong in 1999, I despaired of finding a pool that was not crowded and was swimmable! The public pools were open weird hours and tended to have a lot of traffic- closed at lunchtime- go figure. Additionally many very poor swimmers thought that they should be swimming in lap lanes. There turned out to be several rather expensive options.

As I was working in Pacific Place, it made sense to become a member of the Island Shangri-la Hotel gym. At the time the fee was HKD 30,000 a year (nearly USD4000)! this took some getting use to! That said, this is a beautiful pool with a gym and spa attached- heated and open all year round. It is an oasis within the frenetic environment that is Hong Kong. A day pass is available for HKD 500 a day and a book of 10 is available for HKD 4,000 (USD 500). Other options are to send an email to the Athletic Veterans Association and ask them whether it is possible to join the AVA (about HKD 1600 per year). This allows swimming at the WanChai training pool between 12-2pm weekdays and Saturdays in two dedicated club lanes. If you are in HK for a period of a week or two it is worth it.

Stockholm Swimming Pool

Sturebadet in Sturegallerian in Central Stockholm. Very serene space which harks back to 1900 spas. Not strictly a lap pool. It only seems to be about 12-14 meters long. Was there on a hot (30 degrees C) day. Would be sensational in the winter!

Bermagui Blue Pool - South Coast NSW Australia

Access steps first built in 1939- entrance free. Presumably the natural rock pools were concreted at the same time to make them regular. One of the South Coasts Best kept secrets. Swim from 3 hours before low tide until 2 hours before high tide and avoid the pool during storms and heavy swells. The salt water flushes out regularly at high tide and there are fish to watch instead of black lane markers. At its longest length it is a little over 50 meters.

Well looking at my genuine failure to reach my goal, I need to re-consider. Things were going fine. I was swimming every day and walking to work and using stairs rather than elevators. I had just begun weight training at the gym. And I felt pretty good - I was down to 95kg without really dieting. But in June and July, I developed a nasty respiratory tract infection in Manila that did not respond to any medication. It made me breathless and unable to exercise. And then I got busy - but really that should be no excuse. So here I am - all the best intentions in the world and I am back to the same weight I was previously. 105kg! If possible - with an extra year of age - it feels worse.

I stole away down to my holiday house to be on my own. The intention was to exercise and do lots of work things such as tax, website etc. The work stuff has gone pretty well. But the exercise has been compromised by an attack of gout which has made it hard. Even kicking off in the swimming pool was a problem. And now I am commencing a work period that is crazy - even by my standards.

Pools

I have created an extra section on pools where I have swum around the world. If it is of any use let me know.

Not a good start

Manila. The Philippines. I forgot that it is a long weekend here for May Day. I stay at the EDSA Shangri-la Hotel in Mandaluyong City which is a suburb of Metro Manila. It is an excellent hotel but on holiday weekends the pool is packed to the rafters with kids. As it is a resort pool, laps are not possible when its crowded. So I missed Sunday's swim- my first "miss" since 22nd April. The management here are very helpful and rope off the area for lap swimmers from 6am-7:30am. And you can usually do laps between 8-10pm during normal times. I got up at 6am and managed 3.8km of mid quality swimming this morning. The pool is an uneven shape but it is possible to do a 35meter lap. And I am very used to uneven length pools.
The 70minutes in pool has allowed me to refine my strategy to lose 20kg by January 2011. I won't drop the weight by swimming alone - my body is pretty used to that punishment. And I can't stop the swimming because that is my best thinking time.

Got to start somewhere

This is going to be a long first blog and I swear not all entries will be like this. I set this blog up around the 15th Feb, but did not know where to start. On that day, I weighed myself and came in at a "svelte" 105.1kg- a bit over 230lbs in the old imperial measures. Clearly something needed to be done. My ideal weight both statistically and anecdotally is between 76-82kgs.
Its not like I am a particularly sedentary guy . Between 1993-2007, I swam to my goal of 1000 km a year, which works out at 2.73km a day - if you did it every day. In the real world it is simply not practical to get wet every day - so I would aim for 4km every time I got in the pool and let the events of your life decide your rest days - but it is still pretty obsessive compulsive. During the 14 years, I only missed the target one year and that was because I had a broken leg followed quickly after by a broken wrist - which I feel is a pretty good excuse for failure.
Sadly, the exercise program had gone a little AWOL. Since 2007 my workload and travel has been pretty brutal - more of that later. Even though I was still swimming pretty regularly - it was nothing like the previous tough schedule. And the pounds have piled on.
So I am starting this thing on the 1st May. I have gone back onto my swim program. Since the 15th Feb, I have swum nearly 235km which puts me nearly 10 days ahead of the 1000pa/ 2.73km a day schedule. I am weighing in at 99kg which means I have dropped 6.1kg (13lb)
I have looked at some weight loss blogs and feel that I am easily obsessive compulsive enough to join that crew - I particularly like www.gregstransformation.com - because that guy takes obsession to a new level. I congratulate him - the combination of bloody mindedness and techi-ness (is that a word) makes for strangely compelling reading. There are charts and weekly pictures and extensive diet reckoning.The good news is that Greg looks like he will hit his goal.
Nevertheless all the bloggers eventually complain about the boredom - the diet, the slogging etc etc. Everyone seems to eventually meet the same point - and that is understandable.
I also have a pretty low boredom threshold. So what I am going to do differently to keep myself interested in the process of weight loss and blogging about it.
Firstly, the standard stuff. I have equipped myself with all the tools that good obsessive weigh loss bloggers have. I have always had an Excel spreadsheet which has monitored my swim progress since 1993 formatted resplendently in swimming pool colors of blue and green. I have a POLAR RSD400 heart rate monitor which allows you to download every details of your exercise into a computer program and analyze it. And thanks to the weight loss bloggers I have all these cool calorie monitoring tools from the web.
I note that a lot of the bloggers have locked themselves into padded cells for the duration of their weight loss mission and agonize about having to spend a weekend away from home for work because of the temptation of the road. Sadly that can make for pretty boring reading. They may look great but they never go out and appear to have limited social lives - what's the point of that. Tree falls in the forest stuff! No wonder they blog
I have some challenges of my own. I think I said I travel a lot- the reality is that I spend less that 20 days a year at my home in Hong Kong! I am frequently on a plane, alternating between parts of Asia, Australia, Europe and Eastern Europe. I am exposed to multiple cultures and I am generally staying in a hotel or serviced apartment. I am also an incredibly social animal. My big challenge is that diet becomes a tough issue. I can't always cook - and don't want to. Anyone who has ever tasted Som Tum in the streets of Bangkok or cevap in Sarajevo knows the challenges.
So there we have it. The pluses are obsessive compulsiveness, and the fact I generally have easy access to swimming pools, gyms etc. The downsides are I am constantly traveling and I have to frequently be at functions - and I have a low boredom threshold.
So my program has to address these externalities. How are we to do it? The goal is 79.5kg (175lb) in 8months- I want to be at my goal weight by my birthday in January 2011. I have some ideas how to do it but suggestion are welcome.