My Motivation

I know that I have mentioned this a few times, but I am getting married in August 2012. I fiancee is a wonderful woman who has been by my side in good times and bad, prosperous and times when I didn't have a job, and no matter how big I was, she has loved me and I her.

In early October, we went out with a few friends and as friends with fancy smart phones will do, they took a picture of us. When I looked at this picture, it was the final straw. I needed to lose weight. Not for myself, but for Ashley. Ashley who has done everything she could to make our wedding wonderful. I know that wedding pictures last lifetimes and I wanted to look back on our wedding photos with pride, not "Oh my God!! Ashley is beautiful and I am a blob in a tux next to her."

I wanted to post the picture that finally got my butt off the couch and into the gym.

My face was rounder than I have ever seen it and a shirt I had just purchased and wore one time prior, no longer fit.

This weekend, we went out and got smart fancy phones of our own. With it, my fiancee took a picture of me. While I still need to lose weight, the 20 + lbs that I have lost is evident.

While not looking directly at the camera, you can see that my face has lost some weight and believe me, clothes are definitely fitting better.

Week 6 Results

Sorry for the lack of posts this week everyone.

As I mentioned before, I had two Thanksgivings this week. This means that I get to have twice as much turkey, stuffing and the fixin's!! This also means having to manage with twice as many carbs. I decided well before this festive American Holiday that my diet would have to, let me repeat that HAVE TO go on a shelf a couple of times this week.

This week should be summarized as the good, the bad and the painful.

The bad:
On Thursday then again on Saturday, I overloaded on carbohydrates, both simple and complex. Ranging from mayonnaise and potatoes through bread stuffing to my favorite of favorites, pumpkin pie, the carbs were there en masse! Coupled with these two days of deliciousness, I was unable to go to the gym both of these days.
The painful:
After weeks of dieting and watching what I eat, two days of over eating has caused a painful stomach ache. Though i am layed out at home this morning, plenty of rest should knock this thing out.

In preparation at the gym, I kicked it up a notch this week. I discovered that if you max out the incline on the treadmill, you can burn upwards of 800 calories at the gym.
I start the workout at an incline of 15 at 2.5 miles an hour increasing it up to 3.5 miles an hour over a FIFTEEN minute interval. Then I will go back and forth between 2.5 and 3.5 MPH and decrease the incline 1 full degree every ten minutes.
At 15 minutes, I decrease to 14 degrees
At 25 minutes, I decrease to 13 degrees
At 35 minutes, I decrease to 12 degrees
At 45 minutes, I decrease to 11 degrees
At 55 minutes, I decrease to 10 degrees

Over 5 days of going to the gym this week, I burned between 500 calories and over 1000 between the treadmill and other cardio. This extra hard workout was worth it, but was painful getting started and with a work schedule like mine, very difficult to get through every day.

The good:
Besides the excellent food, of course, which I could go on about for days; the premptive workouts, keeping to the diet on the rest of the week (despite the promise of left overs) and getting more than one night of 8 + hours of sleep, I have positive results this week.

At weigh in this morning, I am at 205.4 pounds which means I lost .4 LBS this week. Not great results for a normal week, but seeing as this is Thanksgiving week, I am more than happy with these results.

Today also marks the last Sunday of November, which means that at 205.4 LBS, I have exceeded my goals for Novmeber! My goal for December 1st is 210 LBS. This also means that I am 5.4 LBS from my Decmeber goal, but with Chrstmas, family, friends and work functions, hitting that 200 LB mark may be the most difficult pat yet.

Overall, I have less than 31 LBS to go! Having maxed out in May of 2011 at 230 LBS and starting the diet in the beginning of October at 222 LBS, I feel much healthier than I have felt in a long time. 17 pounds is about one third of the way there, and I have no idea if the next 17 will be easier or more difficult to lose.

Week 5 Results

I've been told countless times that I don't look my weight: 'You weigh how much?'; 'I don't see you weighing 230'; 'You just don't look THAT big . . .', etc.

This being said, here is a copy of one of the engagement photos taken some time between the 230 weigh in and the 222 diet start:

As you can see, my fiancee is in shape and my shape was very round.
Even the brand new shirt I bought for the engagement photos was tight. This is a primary example of why I want to lose weight for our wedding. Ashley is stunning and I just know that she will indescribable at our wedding. The photos that will last lifetimes and I want to look my best for her.

Here we are five weeks into the workout and diet and I am happy to report the results from this week, which more than make up for last week's gain.

As of Sunday, November 20, 2011, my weight is at 205.8 LBS. This is almost a loss of five pounds from last week and over 24 LBS from where I was almost a year ago when I weighed 230 LBS.

If I can maintain this weight through my next weigh in and TWO thanksgiving dinners, I will call that a big Win!

Holidays- Turkey with carbs, carbs and oh no carby pie!!!

Next week is Thanksgiving, which means a Thursday and Saturday (Saturday is Thanksgiving Day for the fiancee's family) Dinner full of Turkey, sides, desserts and carbs carbs carbs. Looking at the typical Thanksgiving at my mother's we have: Turkey, rolls (Carbs), mashed potatoes or potato salad (carbs), Green Beans, stuffing (carbs), pumpkin pie (carbs), deviled eggs and cranberries. Two days later, I get to do it all again.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I am going to go to the gym a full five or six days, maybe even on Thanksgiving night.

For Christmas, we have two Christmas Eves and Christmas Day which makes things even more difficult for the diet and going to the gym. Luckily, I have a full week off work between Christmas and New Years. To maintain this routine and reach my goals, I will have to hit the gym as much as possible between now and New Years Day.

I know that I will go over my carb amounts on both Thanksgivings and on Christmas. This should be okay as long as I monitor portions, sugar and keep up the exercise.

Exercise Update

I thought I would update on how exercise and diet are coming along as well as go into my routine this week.

It is important to remember that I am 26 and in relatively good health.

The diet is going well. Eating out and daily lunches make low carb diet difficult. While I have enjoyed salads and yogurt and fruit and veggies, I miss bread and bagels and english muffins and pasta!

This week, I have begun the 8 weeks to run that I spoke about earlier :8 weeks to run
I have also added a 30 minute walk at a steep incline. With combining these two, I have been able to knock of at least 600 calories, 3 of the 4 days I have gone to the gym this week.

I am also switching out the bike, leg and back equipment daily to focus on other trouble areas. One obvious area that I have not tackled is my stomach. While some of the fat has poofed away from this routine, I have not done any ab crunches.

Now I am not one to shy away from tests or challenges, but I just don't know how to use the ab machines at the gym. I do need to start working on this, my most troubled 'trouble area' and will plan to do this in the near future.

Right now I am most concerned with making that number go down and hit my goals. Because I have given myself January to keep the weight off, I will try to work on the ab crunch machine come the New Year.

Week 2 - Complete

Two weeks into the new diet and exercise lifestyle, and I am feeling good! I call this a new lifestyle, because it is. For the first time in two weeks, I exceeded my allotted carb amount for the day. This Saturday night, I allowed myself a 3rd carb. While this might not seem like a big deal, there was much convincing of myself to do this. I went out with a number of friends yesterday, many of them groomsmen, and of course, we had to have a couple drinks and go out to dinner.
Adding together my two drinks:
Bacardi and Coke Zero (no carbs in the coke Zero) and a Twisted Tea (my favorite beer alternative)
and my dinner:
Grilled Shrimp Tacos (awesome, if I may add)
This adds up to more not allowed carbs in a short period (about 4 hours) than I have had in almost an entire month.

Hopefully, I won't find an excuse every week to take a break from the diet, but I know a couple that will for sure be treated very cautiously- Thanksgiving and Christmas. I will talk about these in a future post.

Here are this week's stats:
Gym

• I went to the gym FIVE out of SEVEN days this week. Spending over 90 minutes each time. 
• Week 1 - I had family come to the gym with me, I can bring a friend with me unlimited numbers of times, three of the five days I worked out which helped keep me there longer.
• Week 2- My fiancee was able to go with me once, which had similar outcomes, but I have noticed that I peak at about an hour and a half if I am there alone
• I have not figured out if the bike is helping or a waste of time. While an excellent source for cardio, miles on the bike and miles on the treadmill do not result in the same number of calories burned/ mile. I may change my routine to focus on treadmill, other cardio machines, and weights and leave the bike for weekends when I can get a full two hours in.
• Weights: I have added a number of weight machines to my workout, most working out my legs and back. 
• I gain a lot of weight in my legs. Working out the various muscles in my legs, will help tone the muscle and shed this weight.
• I want to focus on my back, so when I begin doing abdominal exercises or more extensive workouts, I do not want to hurt myself.
• I have started adding in different weight machines from time to time, but again not a focus

Diet

• Other than one extra carb out on 'Boy's Night' - I have stuck to the diet. 
• My hope is to add more vegetables to the diet and increase the variety of my lunches for future weeks, I ended up having lots of yogurt two days this week due to my lack of preparedness

Continued Goals/ Things to Work on

• During the week, with this new schedule, I have not been as attentive to cleaning the apartment as I should be- dishes, picking up, laundry, etc. have all been put aside one time or another due to my new schedule
• Vitamin C- I need to ingest more Vitamin C and maybe get a flu shot over the next couple weeks with everyone around me getting sick. I have fought off a cold thus far, but can see it coming in the near future.
• Schedule. I want to try to make it to the gym 5 days a week, if not more. I will have to figure out how to structure this when I travel for work.

Week 2 Results
At my Sunday morning weigh in, I was at 211.4 LBS. This is a loss of just under 3 LBS for a week of work outs and diet.
As this is October 30, 2011, I can say proudly: October Goal: 218 LBS- Achieved!
Upcoming Goals:

• By November 1- 218 lbs
• By December 1- 210 lbs
• By January 1, 2012- 200 lbs
• By March 1, 2012- 185 lbs
• By May 1, 2012- 175 lbs

 At this point, I am less than 37 lbs from my goal and 26 weeks to go to May 1. If I can average 2 lbs a week, I can achieve my end goal.

The beginning

For as long as I can remember, I have been overweight. I have horrible memories about gym class in grammar school and not being able to run long enough or far enough or fast enough.

Through high school and college, I gradually accepted my bigger than 'normal' status and my weight fluctuated throughout.

About 4 years ago, I fell in love with this wonderful girl, Ashley. In January, we became engaged and about since then, I had been saying that I need to lose weight. In May, I weighed myself and was at an astounding 230 pounds. This was the largest I had ever seen on a scale, though there is a good chance, I had weighed more in college and high school.

I began watching what I ate and some pounds fell off. I lost 12 pounds by limiting sugar/ sweets and only taking cream in my coffee. I thought I was doing good, until the beginning of October, 2011. By October, I began gaining some of the weight back. I didn't realize how much of the weight I had gained back until I went out with some friends, and as friends will do, pictures were taken.

After seeing a photo of myself from the previous night on facebook, I made the decision to make some serious life changes and look good for my fiancee in our wedding photos. She is always there for me and for her, our wedding and our future, I am determined to lose weight, get in shape, and hopefully adjust into a healthy lifestyle.