Inspiration

Several things have inspired me to make this change in my life.  I think finding inspiration is an important part of making such a big change.  Weight loss takes time and effort.  It requires tracking, exercising, and limiting how much we eat and what we eat.  It requires a fundamental change in behavior which can only be maintained through a fundamental change in mentality.  Inspiration is what gives me the motivation to make this change.

My family is my first inspiration.  I have a wonderful wife who provides accountabiltiy for my actions.  She asks me lovingly if I'm tracking my food and if I'm going to exercise today while being very careful not to nag.  I've also got an adorable son who deserves to have a dad who can still throw a ball and run around with him when he gets older.  I've got a dad who challenged me to a weight loss competition last year and then lost 91 lbs while I basically lost nothing.  I've got sisters who have done and are doing wonderful things to improve their health and be active people.  My family is showing me that it can be done and that it's worth it.

A few months ago my wife and I also started watching "The Biggest Loser" on Netflix.  I have now seen several people completely transform themselves on that show.  While not everyone should be losing 5 - 20 lbs a week, they're showing that real people who have struggled with weight their whole life can make a change.  These people are making a fundamental change in their behavior.  That show has taught me that getting healthy and losing weight is a lifelong effort.  Getting thin and then going back to eating whatever I want isn't really a good plan.  It's been another inspiration.

My suggestion, find something that inspires you.  A picture of how you want to look or a goal of how far you want to run.  Look to family or friends.  Join a community online like Sparkpeople where you can find countless stories from members who are going through the same thing you are.  If you're going to take this journey, give yourslf some inspiration.  It'll keep you on the path.

A New Start

It's been quite a while since my last post.  I got down to 260 lbs and then let myself take a little bit of a break.  I don't recommend that.  I lost my momentum and got behind.  The one redeeming part of this is that I didn't put any of the weight back on.  I have been between 256 and 265 every time I have weighed myself for the last few months.  Today I weighted myself and was right at 260.  The sad thing is that if I had stuck with it, I would have reached 220 by now.  But now it's time to start again and pick up where I left off.

Here is my next challenge.  Next week I will be traveling for work.  This means that my schedule will be all over the place and that I'll be able to each as much as I want.  That's usually a bad combination.  My plan is to track everything.  I've learned that tracking is the only way I can consistently lose weight.  Just trying to eat less or better doesn't do the trick.  Not if I want real numbers.

So here I go.  I have to start all my exercises over again since I'm not as strong as I was a few months ago when I was following a routine.  My plan for the rest of this week is to get back into tracking all my meals.  Next week, while I'm traveling, I intend to run at least 3 times.  I'm brining my running shoes. 

Onward and Downward

I'm a couple days behind but I did weigh in on Monday and came in at 272.6.  I was hoping to get down to 272.5 but I'll take it.  Despite my couple weeks of little loss, I am still just ahead of my goal which is an average of 2.5 lbs per week.  I'm already off to a good start this week.  I'm really excited to weigh in next Monday. 

I also realize that I'm behind on my measurements.  I planned to measure myself at the beginning of the month.  I will get on that and post those new measurements soon.  I'm excited to see how things have changed already.  I do know my clothes are a little looser and my belt is almost out of holes.  I'm definitely moving in the right direction.

A Little Disappointed, But Not Discouraged

So I weighed in this morning at 275 lbs.  While I'm still a little ahead of my goal of 2.5 lbs per week on average, I have averaged less than that for the past two weeks.  I think the big disappointment is that I weighed myself yesterday and came in a pound less. 

However, I'm not discouraged.  I've lost these 13 lbs so far without really increasing my exercise.  And today, I plan to start another program.  So far, I'm two weeks in to the hundred pushups challenge.  Today, I'll start the couch to 5k program.  That will get me walking and jogging at least 3 times a week.  I'm actually really excited to keep this up.  Julie told me yesterday that she is starting to be able to see a difference.  I'm planning to take measurements tonight so we'll see if there has been any improvement.

Treats at Work

Yesterday, at work, we celebrated the retirement of a coworker.  Along with that celebration there were some great treats.  We had a cake, some fruit, a meat and cheese tray and soda.  I'll admit, I had a piece of cake.  But that was ok.  You see, I logged it into my daily calories and was able to adjust my dinner last night to the point that I didn't go over my calorie limit for the day.  I stayed within my goal range.  I had also forgotten my lunch which worked out perfectly, so I had some fruit and some meats and cheeses.  I honestly felt like I succeeded yesterday because I stayed within my calories.

Today, we celebrated another coworker who will be leaving to go on to new things.  There was fruit and there were donuts.  I had some fruit.  I avoided the donuts completely because I knew they would put me over my calories today.  I'll be honest, it was a bit of a let down at the time.  But when I look at my page on Sparkpeople and see the calories that I'm eating today and the weight I've lost it picks me right back up and I feel excited about where I'm going. 

I know the road is long and it's not easy.  In fact it's really easy to give in "just this once" but unfortunately that usually turns into, "oh well, I'll start again next week".  The real trick is to stick to the diet every time and not let "just this once" ever happen.  And then, if it does, you have to pick yourself back up and not wait til next week to start again.  Life is full of things that knock us down.  Picking ourselves back up, dusting ourselved off, and moving forward is the key.  And doing that now rather than letting ourselves sit on the ground for a few days first is what gets us to our goals.

A Hundred Pushups

I've decided that dieting alone isn't going to be enough for me.  While I know I'm losing weight at a good pace, that's not all I want to do.  I want to look and feel great and in order to do that I need to exercise.  So I've looked at a few programs that I think can help me get there.

First, on the Sparkpeople website there are numerous exercise suggestions, not to mention a number of groups for several other exercise programs.  That's where I heard about the Hundred Pushups.  Actually, it was a post that my sister made on Sparkpeople.  She had started the Hundred Pushups challenge and posted about it on her page.  So I decided to check it out.  You can find it at http://hundredpushups.com/.  This site has a routine that you do 3 times a week where you increase how many pushups you do each day.  The idea is that in 6 weeks you will be able to do 100 consecutive pushups.  The workouts are based on how you do on the test every two weeks.  It might take some people longer and some people shorter but in the end, you'll get to 100.

So I started.  Two days ago I did the test and got 17 good pushups.  Then yesterday, I did the first workout based on that test.  It went well.  It didn't take long and I just did it while watching TV.  But I did it and that's what matters.

Since I found the Hundred Pushups challenge I started looking around and found another cool site.  It's called 7 Weeks to Fitness and can be found at http://www.7weekstofitness.com/.  It's got several workout programs for pushups, situps, pullups, getting ripped, etc.  Next week, I'm going to start the jump rope routine.  Between pushups and the jump rope routine I think I'll have a good start.  Then, later in April, I'm going to start the Couch to 5K program.  I started this once before and I can't remember now why I stopped... But this is another program that starts at a beginner level of jogging/walking and gets to you where you can go 5 kilometers without stopping in 9 weeks.  That one is at http://www.coolrunning.com/.  The nice thing about each of these routines is that they take you from a beginner level up to a more advanced level.  After all, how many people do you know that can do 100 pushups without a break?

Two Weeks Later

It's been almost two weeks since my last post.  Today, I weighed in at 277.2 and that makes me pretty happy.  After about 3 weeks of dieting I've lost almost 11 pounds.  But I've still got a long ways to go.

Let me tell you about my experience this last Saturday.  I got up in the morning and had a yogurt and an apple before leaving home to run a paintball event.  For lunch, I brough a Fiber One bar, an apple and an orange.  So far, it's looking pretty low calorie (much less than normal).  But, when the event ended, I had a dinner activity to go to an no computer to look up how many calories were in what I was eating.  I was going in blind (as we usually do when we eat at events).  So I ate a reasonable dinner, but the dessert looked too good to pass up. 

In the end, when I calculated my daily calories for Saturday, I had eaten over 3000 calories.  This would be pretty good compared to my normal eating habits.  But for the last 3 weeks I've been eating around 2000 - 2200 calories per day.  I was afraid this would set me back a little.  Fortunately, I had played a lot of paintball that day and I had been really good during the rest of the week.  So in the end I still lost around 4 pounds this week. 

This little story is a perfect example of what usually happens when I eat out.  The only way I have to make sure I don't go overboard is to track everything, even if I know I went over.  It's best to track it beforehand in order to only eat what fits within my goals, but even if I can't do that, I still need to track it all.  Eating too much on Saturday helped me have greater resolve to eat right on Sunday which I did.

3 weeks and 11 pounds later I'm feeling pretty good about where this is going.  My energy level is up (a little) and my pants are a looser (again, just a little) and I'm heading in the right direction.

A Week In and Getting Better

Yesterday officially made a week since beginning my new resolve to lose weight and get into shape.  Yesterday I weighed myself and I was at 284.8 lbs.  That means I lost 3.2 lbs my first week.  To be honest, I hoped for more.  You see, I've done some dieting in the past and it'd not uncommon to lost more your first week and then to settle into the 2-2.5 lbs a week standard.  But despite hoping for more, I'll be happy with it.  It's a start.  And as far as losing weight goes, slow and steady may not win the race, but it'll definitely get me to the finish line.

Last night, I decided to finally take some measurements as well.  I'll just take these once a month so I can hopefully get soem change between measurements.  Here they are right now.

Waist (1/2 inch above the belly button): 50.5
Hips: 51
Thigh: 30.5
Upper Arm: 16
Neck: 18
Calf: 19
Body Fat (according to my scale) : 37.4%

So there's my baseline.  I'm hoping that a month from now I can see some noticeable difference on at least some of these numbers.  The next step in my weight loss plan will be to continue counting calories (1,780 - 2,130 per day for me) and to start getting more active.  Last week I played some soccer on wednesday and did some gardening and outdoor work on Thursday and Saturday.  This week, I need to be a little more deliberate in my exercising and make sure I put in the time.  90 minutes of actual cardio exercise this week will be my goal.  That's 30 minutes, 3 different days.

It's Begun

Over the last couple of days I have made an attempt to eat better.  Basically, I've tried to cut the calories and eat more protein and less fat.  I have been mostly successful.  Not a lot of change so far but then again, it's only been a couple of days.

I have decided that I'm only going to weigh myself once a week.  There's too much variability in daily weighing, and if I weight myself every day, then when I have a bad day it'll really get me down.  It'll get me down even more if I have a good day and just don't see much of a change in my weight.  So I think that spreading it out to a week will allow sufficient time between weighings to get a significant enough change.  So there it is, every Monday morning I'll weigh myself first thing.

The next thing I need to consider is measurements.  I think I'll measure myself monthly for the same reason that I'll weight myself weekly.  I haven't decided yet which measurements to take but I'll get that worked out.

My sister just recommended a site to me called Sparkpeople.  I went ahead and set up an account.  It looks like that will help me track my progress as well as offer diet and exercise plans.  I'll use it for a while and post what I think.  One of my goals on Sparkpeople over the next two weeks is to keep a journal of my efforts.  So here it is, I have committed again to keep this blog updated with my actions, plans, and progress.

The Start of Something Good!

Lao-Tzu said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

Here is my first step.  Over the course of my life, I have fought a battle with my weight.  At some points I had it fairly under control, but most of the time, I didn't.  Today, that all starts to change.  My journey of 100 pounds has begun.

You see, I don't think that a journey of a thousand miles only starts with a single step.  Rather, a journey of a thousand miles is made up of single steps.  It starts today, continues tomorrow, and will eventually end.  Along the way, some of my steps may not be in the direction I want.  Sometimes I might stumble or backtrack a little.  But as long as I get back up, face my goal, and keep walking I'll get there.  And once I'm there, a new journey begins.  That journey will include maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

So there it is.  I begin today at 288.0 lbs.  I don't know if my goal is 100 lbs or not.  To be honest, it'll depend a lot on when I feel healthy and look how I want to look.  And really, it doesn't matter.  That goal is too far away and too big for me to concern myself with it now.  What matters is that I start with a goal that I can attain through steps that I can take now.  So for now, my goal will be 10 lbs.  And my other goal, will be to make myself accountable here, to you.  As I work toward my final weight goal, I commit myself to updating this blog regularly with weight info, plans, weekly goals, actions and so on.

My journey of 100 lbs has begun.