Day 10 - Weight Loss Results

Starting Weight – 330
Current Weight – 322
Period Weight Loss – 8 Pounds
Overall Weight Loss – 8 Pounds

It’s hard for me to be critical about anything when I lose 8 pounds in 10 days, but as promised, I will look at both the positive and negative aspects of this last period:

What went well

Obviously I was doing something right to lose that much weight in just 10 days.  Without a doubt, my biggest success came from what I ate.  I stuck to my plan of 5-6 meals each day and kept my calorie total below 2500 calories on all but about 2 days (and I was only over by about 100 calories on those days).  I ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, and had a nice big breakfast to start my day off right.

I posted my plan this week, but I haven’t posted my goals yet (but I will soon).  One goal that I haven’t mentioned in any of my posts yet is that I am trying to stick to all the components of my plan 75% of the time.  What does that mean?  I have a list of items from my plan on a piece of paper in my bedroom.  Every night I put a check next to all the items that I met the target and at the end of the week I can add it up to see my % to plan.  I like this because it’s hard to be 100% perfect all the time.  In the last 10 days I was able to stay on plan 79% of the time.

I also did extremely well with my water consumption.  My goal on water is 100 ounces each day.  I did not have a day less than 80 ounces and that only happened twice.  The rest of the time I hit my target.

Lastly, I did a rigorous workout last Saturday.  Weekends are my Achilles’ heel; I have a tendency to become a lazy slob on the weekends.  Not only did I eat well all weekend, but on Saturday I completed 60 minutes of strength training first thing in the morning.

Areas to Improve

Although I had a great 10 days, there is still plenty of room for improvement.  For starters, I still haven’t been able to establish a morning routine.  As I’ve said before, this is very important for me to do.  I did well for about the first 2 or 3 days and then I started “ignoring” the alarm clock.  I think I need to write out my morning routine and post it on my bathroom mirror.  It might sound silly, but maybe that will help motivate me by seeing it every day.

Because my morning routine didn’t go so well, my exercise plan also died out as the days went by.  At first when I missed my morning workout I made it up in the evening, but eventually I started missing days altogether.  Sunday was an exercise disappointment after such a great workout on Saturday.

Finally, I also realized (too late) that I might have pushed myself a little too hard with the strength training.  Although the workout on Saturday was satisfying, by Sunday I was too sore to do anything and I basically felt that way up until Tuesday this week.  I’m not saying that’s the only reason why I didn't excercise, but it didn't help.

Moving Forward

I’m not going to change much for the second 10 days; I’ll be keeping my calorie and water targets the same.  I am going to set a goal to write out a morning routine and post it in my bathroom and I want to put some effort into doing it every day.  As for a new weight target, I’m going to go with 4 pounds in the next 10 days.  It was great to hit 8 pounds this period, but I know some of that was just water weight and it will be a little harder to shed the pounds in the next 10 days.  Best of luck to everyone else out there!

Day 1 – And my starting weight is… Unknown???

Ok so the new year has come and gone, time to get this weight loss started. I just got back from vacation on Monday and decided I would start on Tuesday (yesterday). There were really 3 big reasons why I chose January 8th:

1. I wasn't ready with my plan and goals at the start of the year
2. I was planning a vacation on January 5-7
3. January 8th marks 30 days since I've quit smoking

Part of my new plan is to have a morning routine that includes some exercise so I got up yesterday at 5:30AM. Obviously since it’s the start of my new weight loss journey, I wanted to get on the scale and see my starting point. I got on my Wii Scale and prepared myself for my starting weight. The result… “oops you’ve exceeded my maximum weight limit”. I stepped off and then back on again (you know, because somehow if I stand a little different, maybe lean forward a little, the result might change). No good, I’ve exceeded the weight limit of my Wii scale. I had just weighed in at 327 before Christmas, so my guess is the scale tops out at 330 so that will be my starting point.

I’ve had this Wii scale for 4 years and this is the first time I’ve managed to exceed the weight limit on it. Oh just how far I have fallen! My wife seemed to be bothered by it; I think because she thought it was going to be a de-motivator for me. The truth is, I said to myself “Perfect, you’ve just hit rock bottom! Nowhere to go but up.” And that’s how I started my day.

I made it through the day quite easily; I wish all the coming days would go so well (not likely). I met my calorie intake goal, got almost 60 minutes of exercise in, and met my water goal. By the end of the day I was pretty tired so it was off to bed at 9:30PM.

That brings us to today. I managed to get up on time so I could get a workout in before work. Of course as still curious about my actual weight so I got on the scale again this morning. SUCCESS! It worked; I weigh 329.7. I typically don’t weigh myself more than once per week but I really wanted to see just how close I was to 330. Now I know.

So now it’s on, let the weight loss begin. In the coming days I’ll be posting my goals and my plan, both of which are quite a bit different from the last time. Best of luck to all of us!

Starting Over

 

I really can’t believe it!  Has it really been almost 2 years since my last post?  So much has happened to me since then that I’m not even sure where to begin.  These last 2 years have not been kind to me.  Actually that’s an understatement; I think someday I may refer to them as some of the “darkest” years of my life. 

When I decided to write this post I spent a long time trying to decide how to restart this blog.  Should I just delete the old stuff and start over?  Should I create a whole new blog that talks about more than just weight loss?  Should I just pick up where I left off?  Eventually I decided that I would keep the blog as it is (Though I may change the tile in the weeks to come).  My reasoning is simple:

Things rarely go the way you plan.  I started this blog as a way to hold myself accountable.  When I stopped, the accountability stopped as well and the results show it.  If I were to delete that old history and truly start over, this blog wouldn’t reflect the struggles I’ve faced over the last 2 years.  When I was writing 2 years ago, I was doing everything right and the results were beginning to show.  In order for me to move forward, I need to remember the past and I want everyone to see just how easy it is to go astray.  As I said, things don’t always go as planned; by now I was expecting to be at 199lbs. having completed my mission and enjoying the rewards I had laid out for myself.  Not only did I miss the boat on that, but I went backwards…by a lot!

So where am I now?  I’m still trying to quit smoking.  I turned 40 this year and my doctor put me on medication for my blood pressure.  In my last blog post (March 2010) I weighed 270.  When I weighed in on Sunday morning I was at 326.  This was not the condition I expected to be in when I hit 40!

OK so I got all that out and it’s time to move on.  As I thought about the last few years I realized that part of the process for moving forward for me was to acknowledge my past mistakes, learn from them, and then let it go.  I can’t change the last 2 years no matter how hard I think about it.  I’ve hung my head in shame long enough; it’s time to get going again.   In the coming days I’ll start posting my plan which has started today.  I’ve got some new ideas and I’m going to try a few new things so we’ll see how it goes.  If you followed my blog before, the format isn’t going to change much.  I’ll be posting regular articles about my progress and I’ll be sprinkling in some articles about specific weight loss techniques.  I welcome of all you to join me in my new adventure and wish all of you the best of luck if you are on an adventure of your own!