Week 15 Results

With a stomach bug most of the week and traveling the second half of the week, I didn't get to the gym this week.

Today's result was 191.8 lbs.

This week I traveled for work and for first time in a long time and my suit fit well. More blogging and more going to the gym this week.

How I got started . . .

I wanted to take a post to go through what I have done so far . . .

I started gradually:
First I cut down big ticket carb items-
Sugar
Bread
Pasta
Rice
Oatmeal
Potatoes
Sweets (Muffins, Cookies, Candies, Scones)

Over time, I have added:
bananas
corn
beans

They have low-carb bread and tortillas, probably other things too. We buy these instead of normal bread.

I limit myself to two a day (which may seem like a lot, but it really isn't). The goal is to limit total carbs to under 70 grams a day.

After a week on the diet, I joined a gym.

I started slow, going 3 - 4 days a week and walking on the treadmill.

After about two weeks of this, I started increasing the incline of the treadmill. The sharper the incline, the more calories you lose.

Right now, I am slowly starting to eat normal, but I am watching my calorie intake. I am about 15 pounds from my goal. I will probably try and lose more weight, but its tough getting there.

This isn't a diet where you drop 10 pounds a week, but should be able to drop 2 - 5 pounds a week.

I hate getting sick

Without fail, I ALWAYS get sick in January. Every January, I get sick. It is crazy and is like clock work. I started off this week with what I originally thought was food poisoning, but think its more of a stomach bug. I won't get into the details too much, but I have had painful stomach cramps which did not let me get to the gym the first half of the week.

During the second half of the week, I have been out of town still feeling the stomach sickness that has plagued me all week. The last two weeks have knocked me off of track for the diet, which is horrible. I will try to post more on here to update what I have been doing with the diet and exercising.

Let's hope that I am able to keep the weight under 200 pounds and am feeling better so that I can hit the gym hard this weekend and next week.

week 14

I didn't get a chance to weigh myself this morning. We celebrated being engaged one year today.

I will post a Week 15 total. The great news is that I hit my lowest weight of 190.0 LBS this morning. . .

Week 13 - Results

This has been a great week for the diet! This week, my fiancee decided to join the gym and she jumped completely on board hitting the gym five days this week. I also hit the gym five times this week, with great results!

When I weighed in this morning, I hit a new weight of 192.6 LBS.

This means that I am under 20 LBS from goal and have lost 30 pounds since I have begun this diet and almost 40 pounds from my all-time-high of 230 LBS.

I have a number of comments on the blog that I will respond to soon, hopefully today or later this week.

A milestone . . .

I have been a big guy my entire life. Growing up overweight was tough, and it seems to be tough on all large people growing up. Maybe you just ate too much, or were depressed, or were picked on, or were bad at sports, or had a lousy dating life because of it . . . whatever the reason or the outcome, being fat sucks. I have been fat my entire life.

Today I have reached one milestone, I had once thought long impossible- while fully dressed, the scale read under 200 lbs. I am looking to the day where I will weigh 175 LBS and I may even change my goal, given the excellent success that I have had thus far and reach for an even lower end weight, but that will come in time.

If I keep up my routine and lose as much weight as I have been in the last several weeks, over the next two weeks, I will hit yet another milestone- having a BMI under 30. As you may recall from my post on body mass index, found here, the NIH and the World Health Organization use a simple calculation based on weight and height to determine if you are obese.
To see your BMI, you can use this handy NIH Calculator. Having a BMI under 30 means that I will no longer be considered obese.

On a side note, I really hate the word obese.

For more information about the World Health Organization's (WHO) definitions of obese and overweight, you can visit their website here.

Week 12 - Results

With my leg still sore this week, I took it easy at the gym. Rather than going full pace and risk hurting myself, I started to build back up my endurance on the treadmill.

I went to the gym five days this week, and while my workouts were not as intense or as long as they had been in the weeks leading up to the Christmas and New Years Holidays, I have great results.


At weigh in today, I was at 195.2. This is the best I have seen yet and a loss of over 3 pounds from last week.


My fiancee is looking to join the gym with me, though she has already lost enough weight through joining me as my support team on this diet.

Starting Back Up

Yesterday I went back to the gym for the first time in ten days after pulling a muscle in my leg. Not wanting to hurt my leg again, I took things very slowly, I spent 45 minutes at a slower than normal pace on the treadmill at hardly any incline, 25 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 minutes on the elliptical, before taking an extra mile walk outside. Overall, I burned about 500 calories, which is much lower than I have been used to burning.

Taking a full week and then some off of the gym taught me a few things.

• When taking time off of a diet and exercise routine, it is very difficult to get motivated again
• When exercising through an injury, it is important to watch for signs of pain
• Even one week off of the gym, kills your endurance and energy
• As my routine grew over the first 10 weeks, I was able to get more energy after exercising and I didn't feel tired and sore the next day
• After one day of starting back up, I am very tired and a little sore.
• I have to push through the next two weeks of exercise to build up this endurance

I have just under 24 LBS to lose to hit my goal. With 30 LBS gone, I have become complacent and unmotivated to push myself. Being around 200 LBS is an achievement for me, but it isn't good enough.

I am going to go to the gym as much as possible over the next two weeks. My hope is that my leg fully recovers over the next few weeks and that I continue to lose weight. Once my leg is at 100%, I will re-evaluate where I am and how I can best reach my goal by May 1st

Week 11 - Results

Happy 2012!

At the end of Week 10, I pulled a muscle in my calf. With the sore muscle, I decided not to go to the gym this week.

With the holiday festivities and not going to the gym, I gained a little weight this week. My weight is up to 198.8 LBS. This is a slight gain this week, but I am still under my December end goal of 200.0 LBS.