Weight Loss Data

DATA - Things known or assumed as facts, making the basis of reasoning or calculation

You may not have thought about it this way before, but you use data to make all your decisions.  When your gas gauge is on “E” in your car, you make the assumption that your car is almost out of gas.  You really don't know that your gar is almost out of gas, but the little needle says it's so and so you assume it's correct.  That assumption, based on available data, allows you to make the decision to stop at the gas station and add fuel. 

However, what happens when that gas gauge fails and the needle gets stuck in one spot?  What happens when our data fails us?  If data drives all our decisions then doesn't it stands to reason that bad data can also drive bad decisions?

Weight Loss Data... The Almighty Scale 
When it comes to losing weight we make a lot of decisions based on what the scale tells us.  When you step on the scale, you are not just reading a number  When you step on the scale you are collecting data.  Whether you record that data somewhere or not it really doesn't matter; your brain records the data for you and it compares the data with all the other data it has on your weight.  Though most of this happens without you realizing it, seeing that number adds to your pile of weight loss data, and that data is the basis for a lot of your future decisions.    

Since data drives decision, it's important to understand the quality of the data.  There's a lot of variability in stepping on the scale...

Scale Limitations 
Did you ever have (or do you still have) one of those old spring scales?  If you ever had one of those scales you probably remember that you could lean forward on those scales and actually see the weight drop by half a pound (to this day I lean forward slightly every time I stand on the Wii scale).  There are physical limitations to scales, and some are better than others.  Even the new electronic scales have variability.  Here’s something for you to try… Pick up your scale and carry it around the house.  Weigh yourself in every room and write it all down.  I’ll bet you didn’t get the same reading every time?  Slight changes in how level the scale is can actually have a pretty big impact on your scale’s accuracy.  What’s worse, the variability is not the same for everyone, it is amplified the heavier you are.  I tried this experiment and got a high/low range of 5 pounds.

Variability in Ourselves
Along with variability in the scales we use, there is also variability in ourselves.  The process of taking in energy, converting it to what our body can use, and getting rid of waste means a constant fluctuation of our actual weight; there's no way around it.  Weigh yourself 5 times in one day.  You can easily see 2-4 pounds of variability.  Weigh yourself every day for a week and if you are like me you could see 5-10 pounds of variability.  One of the biggest culprits is water.  You hear the term “water retention” a lot in weight loss circles.  Water retention can be listed as a legitimate problem and it can also be used as an excuse to justify poor performance; it just depends on how you want to use it.

The Great Scale Debate
There are those in the weight loss community who think you should weigh yourself frequently.  Frequent weigh-ins keeps you accountable and you just have to mentally "adjust" for the variability.  Since you weigh frequently you become an "expert" at identifying when the reading is skewed.

Then there are those who think you should weigh yourself infrequently.  It's impossible to separate true weight loss from normal variability so there's no point.  In fact, the "bad" data could cause you to make bad decisions so best to avoid the scale as much as possible.

Which way is right?  Both theories are credible; it really just depends on the person and their point of view.  If you are someone that needs to get on the scale to keep from drifting and you don’t see a lot of variability then daily or weekly weigh-ins is probably right for you.  However, if you are someone that doesn’t see the “point” to weighing frequently because of all the variability and not weighing in regularly doesn't cause you to drift, then maybe semi-monthly or monthly weigh-ins would be better.

Know Where You Stand
Everyone has to make their own decision about how often to weigh in and I’m not going to try to convince anyone that one way is better than the other.  If you scour the blogosphere you will find plenty of opinions on that subject ranging from multiple weigh-ins each day to never weighing in and everywhere else in between.  It's your journey and you need to decide what it looks like.  

In order to make the best decisions about your weight loss, you need to know how good or bad your data is.  If you don’t know the quality of your data then you are subject to making bad decisions and that's what eventually leads to you walking down the road with a gas can in hand.

-Stay Strong!

Why Do We Weigh Ourselves?

Ahhh the beloved bathroom scale; one of the greatest inventions of all time…

Simply step on this device and almost instantaneously you can have a 3 digit number that defines who you are!  The only thing more amazing than being able to get this 3 digit number is our ability to interpret its meaning.  Here are just some of the interpretations we can get from reading this number:

My most recent scale reading means…
My plan is working, My plan is not working, I’m making good progress, My progress is to slow, I must have followed my plan perfectly, I must have strayed from my plan, I will be down X pounds by (insert date here), I will never hit my goal, I’m retaining water, I am a good person, I am a bad person, I am a horrible person, The battery must be low or this scale is broken!

How many of these have you said before?  The list could go on and on, people will always find infinite ways to interpret that 3 digit number.  The truth is, you can’t conclude anything from that 3 digit number other than that is your current weight at that very moment.  That’s it.  In fact 5 minutes later you could weigh something different.  Don’t believe me?  Simply drink a glass of water and weigh yourself again.

 

Why do we weigh ourselves?  Seriously, stop and think for a moment about “why”.  If you scour 1000 blogs written by people trying to lose weight, you will see an amazing array of different styles people use to lose weight.  However, the one common element you will find is that all of them will be weighing themselves at some regular frequency.  Some people weigh-in monthly or even weekly; some as much as daily.  Is that a mistake?

Investing in Healthy Living  

Investments typically have a longer term time horizon.  If you invest in a 401K I bet you don’t check the balance every day.  Why not?  Because it really doesn’t matter what your balance is today, you don’t need that money until you retire.  You might look at it once a quarter or once a year just to make sure you are still on track but you certainly don’t need to see it every day.

When we decide to lose weight, we should treat it in the same manner; it’s an investment in healthy living.  If your end goal is to be at a healthy weight in 3 years, then why are you looking at your weight every day or even every week? Like your 401K, just a quick check now and then to see you are on track is all you need.

 

Reasons Why We Say We Need to Weigh-in

“To track my progress” – Ok I get this one, you want to see progress.  However, the big problem here is that we create linear goals.  We’ve all done it; “I want to lose 50 pounds in 1 year”.  Somehow that translates into “I should be losing 2 pounds every week”.  So now you need to measure yourself every week to see if you are “on track”.  Weight loss doesn’t work that way; in fact it’s more like a curved line, taking longer and longer to lose weight as you get closer to your goal.  You don’t really need a scale to measure progress, when you walk down the street and your pants fall down because they are too loose, you will have your progress report.


“It motivates me” – Oh, I see, daily losses and gains of 0.2 pounds sounds really motivating.  How motivated are you when you suddenly gain 2 unexplained pounds over the week.   If anything I think the scale becomes a de-motivator.  The sad part is that all too often our gains and losses on a daily and weekly basis fluctuate due to a variety of factors.  We all have played the game before, have you ever started your diet weighing in in the evening only to have your first weigh-in in the morning?  Or how about starving yourself the day before the weigh-in just so you can be motivated by that number the next day (or just so you can hopefully break even and somehow salvage a bad week).  Wouldn’t it be more motivating to see 25 pounds lost after 2 months?  It’s harder to game the system when you spread those weigh-ins out.  Wouldn’t it be more motivating knowing that you had the confidence in your abilities to stick it out for a month or two without weighing in? 

“I use it to confirm that I’m not doing all this hard work for nothing” – Are you serious?  If you feel like you have to suffer in order to get some reading on a scale, then you probably shouldn’t be trying to lose weight because you are likely doomed to fail.  Unfortunately I think this is something that happens a lot; we need confirmation, we need something to tell us we are good.  Unfortunately if you are seeking confirmation and you don’t get it, it can cause you to abandon you plans.  A number can’t tell you if you are good or bad, it’s just a number.

 

“It gives me an out” – No, you probably don’t say this (at least not to your face), but subconsciously you might be sabotaging yourself.  Sometimes we look for a reason to fail because failure is the easy path.  As soon as the scale stops telling you what you want to hear you have the permission to quit.  Sounds crazy, but I bet it happens.

All About the Number

Weighing ourselves has become an obsession.  If people notice you’ve lost weight the first thing they ask is “How much have you lost?”  They don’t ask if you feel healthier or if or if it’s easier to climb the stairs, it’s the number that counts.  I’m not going to try to convince anyone here to completely abandon weighing in, in fact, I still plan on getting on the scale myself.  However, if I can get you to stop and think about what weighing in means and maybe some of the pitfalls associated with it, then this post will have been successful.  We are more than just a number on the scale and if you can see that you might find that the need to see that number just isn’t that important. 

The Search for Automatic Weight Loss

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I have spent more time “thinking” during this weight loss adventure than I have on any other previous attempt at losing weight. When I started over, I told myself that I knew exactly how to lose weight, so now I needed to figure out why I don’t. If you know how to do something, but choose not to, it does no good to re-teach yourself how to do it. Instead you have to focus on why you choose not to do it.

Self-reflection can be difficult. It’s sometimes hard to pull yourself out of your normal way of thinking and explore questions that might fly in the face of what you know in your mind to be true. This morning I’ve been sitting at my desk at work reflecting on my life and my situations. As I was doing this I came across a thought that related to weight loss…

“I’m wasting more time and energy trying to automate my life than I’m spending actually living it!”

What does that mean?

I’m an engineer through and through. I love data and systems and tools that are designed to help you get the most efficiency out of anything you are doing. I spend my days trying to automate just about everything.

At work I’ve setup my job so that I can automatically collect the data I need to make decisions. I’ve spent hours and hours setting up spreadsheets so that 3 pieces of information can be entered each month and instantly create 15 different metrics that can be used the track the state of my department.

At home I’ve automated my system for selecting stocks to invest in. I spent MONTHS building a spreadsheet that allows me to enter a stock symbol, click a button, and then it automatically collects 20 years of data, sorts through it, and gives me a score AND a buy and sell price.

What does that have to do with losing weight?

Everything I do is with automation and efficiency in mind… that includes weight loss! If I had a way to track every calorie that went into my mouth while simultaneously tracking every calorie that I expended throughout the day, I would be in heaven. In my mind, if I know exactly what I need to eat, when I need to eat it, and how much I need to move around in order to have my metabolism fire at its most efficient rate, then I have created the most efficient weight loss program possible.

Here’s the problem… I’m trying to build an automatic weight loss system, one that I don’t have to think about what I need to do each day because it’s already been calculated out for me. Does anyone think that really exists? I’m spending so much time focusing on how to make things most efficient (how to lose the most weight with the least amount of effort). Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Why am I trying to be so efficient about my weight loss? Does it matter if I only lose 2 pounds when I could have lost 3? Does it matter if I choose to work out at a time that not optimal for burning calories? Do I really need to know that I should be eating 2200 calories per day instead of 2300? What is any of the data I’m collecting tell me that I don’t already know?

When it comes down to it, the only equation I need to worry about is this:

Eat Less + Move More = Lose Weight

At the end of the day I should be asking myself 2 questions:

1. Did I take steps today to try to eat a healthy, reasonable amount of food?
2. Did I take steps today to try to get more physical activity?

All the energy I spend with spreadsheets and scouring the Internet for that next little piece of information that might make my diet more efficient could be instead be spent running around outside with my kids or teaching myself to prepare a great meal that’s both satisfying to my appetite and tastes great.

Sometimes I get so hung up on the metrics I’m tracking that I forget what it actually is I’m trying to do. I want to be healthy, that’s the ultimate goal. It doesn’t matter what my weight or measurements are, how many calories I’m eating, or how many minutes I spent with my heart rate at a certain level. Yes, those numbers are a good way to measure progress, but they are outputs and shouldn’t drive behavior. Maybe if I stop focusing on the wrong things, the right thing will actually happen!

Day 50 - Weight Loss Results

Starting Weight – 330

Day 40 Weight – 314.8

Current Weight – 316.8
Period Weight Loss – +2 Pounds

Overall Weight Loss – 13.2 Pounds


Clearly not a great week.  Not that I want to make excuses, but I've actually been quite sick for the last 10 days.  That's why I haven't been posting, and I knew that my results would not be good.  The good news is that as of this morning I'm finally starting to feel a little better and I am ready to get right back to it.

What Went Well

Despite being incredibly sick for most of the last 10 days, I did do surprisingly well with maintaining my diet.  On the worst days of my illness, I did succumb to eating some "comfort foods", but for the most part I really ate pretty well.

Areas to Improve

Obviously being sick, I didn't get any exercise in.  I made a conscious choice to try to get as much rest as possible so as to not stay sick for too long.  I also didn't do well with drinking water; though I drank plenty of Ginger Ale. 

Moving Forward

No changes in daily calories or water consumption (both seem to be working fine). No new adjustments to my plan.

Goals for this week (Next 10 Days):

I highly suspect that the 2 pounds I gained are really nothing more than water retention from being sick.  Because of that, I'm going to shoot for 6 pounds in the next 10 days. Wish me luck; Stay Strong!

I'm Down... But Not Out!

I just wanted to drop this post in to let everyone know that I'm still around.  Shortly after I posted my Day 30 Results, I discovered that my PC had contracted the dreaded "Google Redirect Virus".  If you have ever had this problem on your PC (which is not actually a virus), you know that it can be very difficult to remove and also has the potential to open your PC up to other more nasty exploits.

After multiple days of trying to fix this problem, I finally decided the best course of action was to wipe my hard drive completely and reload my PC.  Currently I have completed my backups and have formatted the hard drive; tonight I will begin the reload process.

So my PC is down, but I'm here to say I'm not out!  In fact I am excited to see the results of these last 10 days.  Even though I haven't posted it yet, I have completed my failure analysis that led up to my poor weigh-in last period.  I could probably be exercising a little more as this computer problem is eating up my time, but I have done extremely well with my diet, water, and my mental state as well.  The entire time I've been fighting my PC, I've been telling myself that it's not a reason to give in to temptation and so far I've managed to stay strong.  Even though I could probably be exercising more, I have managed to squeeze it in as much as possible.  This is something I've struggled with in the past; I'm used to abandoning exercise altogether when I get too busy.  I'm considering it a small victory that I managed to get something in. 

I really think I have a good chance of hitting my short term goal of 5 pounds.  I will be weighing in on Friday morning, which is actually 1 day early.  My daughter's birthday is this weekend and we have a lot going on so I thought it best to just weigh-in on Friday instead of Saturday.   

Once I get my PC back up and running (hopefully this weekend) I'll be back to blogging.  For now, I hope everyone enjoys their Valentine's Day.  Stay Strong!

Day 20 - Weight Loss Results

Starting Weight – 330

Day 10 Weight – 322

Current Weight – 319

Period Weight Loss – 3 Pounds

Overall Weight Loss – 11 Pounds

3 More pounds!  I'm happy, though I had set the period goal at 4 pounds and didn't quite get there.  One thing I forgot about, since I'm weighing in every 10 days instead of every week there will be some periods where I will go through 2 weekends between weigh-ins.  I've said before that weekends are my toughest time, and I probably should have taken that into account this time.  Regardless, I have lots of good things going on right now and there's still lots of opportunity as well.

What went well

My first highlight of the period has to be my performance on the Friday (1/18) right after my last weigh-in.  On the day before (The day I posted my last results), Virginia had a pretty severe snowstorm.  Well, not actually severe in my book (I lived in Maine for a while), but definitely enough to wreak havoc in the area.  No kidding, I had literally just posted my 10 day results and was getting ready to go read some of the blogs I'm following when the power went out at my house.  I live in a rural area and given the magnitude of the wet, heavy snow, I figured we might be getting ready to see an extended power outage.

By morning, my concerns appeared to be coming to reality as we still didn't have power and it was pretty cold in the house.  I had to go to work so I took a shower in the dark with what was going to be the last of the hot water.  It's funny, I didn't even think about healthy eating until after my shower when I suddenly realized that I couldn't cook my oatmeal and didn't dare open the refrigerator to get out some hard boiled eggs.  Not only that, but I didn't have any snacks or a lunch to bring either.

Now folks, let me tell you that these types of events in my life are exactly what I use as an excuse to stop eating healthy.  When I look back at my past failures, you can definitely see a pattern of me utilizing changes in my routine (vacation, special events, new job, etc) as a great excuse to stop living a healthy lifestyle.  What has me so proud is that this time I recognized it and told myself that I was going to have to find a way to deal with it.

I stopped at the local Sheetz for breakfast.  I was thrilled to discover they sold oatmeal at their deli; I got 1/2 cup of oatmeal with dried fruit, a small veggie breakfast wrap, and a cup of coffee.  For lunch it was back to Sheetz for a roast beef wrap, an apple, and a banana (I never even realized they sold fresh fruit!).  At dinner time I took the family to Red Robin and I had a plain burger with lettuce and tomato and a side salad instead of fries.

Fortunately, by the time we got home that evening the power had been restored!  I didn't even try to estimate the calories, but I suspect that If I did go over my 2500 calorie limit, it wasn't by much.  I might not have hit my calorie target and I certainly didn't get to spread my calories out over 4-6 meals, but this was a small battle that I won that could have had huge consequences if I had made different (poor) choices.

Although overshadowed by the power event, another aspect that went well for me was the beginning of establishing my morning routine.  I know I said I was going to write it out and put it on my bathroom mirror, but I didn't.  However I did see progress and I believe that by the end of the first 30 days I will be well on my way to following my morning routine every single day.  In fact, I actually got up this morning (on a Sunday) at my normal work week time and followed my morning routine.

Areas to Improve

As I said above, there is still plenty of room for improvement.  For starters, my water intake slipped a little.  I missed my water target 5 of the last 10 days, but what was more troubling to me was that I missed it for 3 consecutive days during the week.  I know my body and I know that the weight does not come off that well if I don't get my water in each day.  I actually believe I would've lost another pound and hit my target for the period if I had done better with my water consumption.

The other area that needs improvement is exercise.  Daily exercise is not a full blown habit for me just yet.  To be honest, I believe I only exercised on 4 of the 10 days this period.  As I lose more and more weight, it will get much harder to keep moving forward if  don't establish daily exercise as a habit.  However, I am far from beating myself up over this.  50 days ago I quit smoking!  20 days ago I started eating healthy!  I know I can't be perfect and change everything at once and I already have a lot of change going on right now.  At the moment my philosophy is this: Any exercise I do each day is better than what I used to do.  Some day soon I will need to work on this, but that day is not today.

Moving Forward

Like last time, I don't see the need to make any changes to my plan just yet, but their may be some small tweaks on the horizon (after my first 30 days).  I did hit my target for sticking to plan; I stuck to all the individual elements of my plan 76% of the time.  This was a little less than last period, and was mainly due to exercise (40%) and water (50%).

I'm setting this period goal at 4 pounds again.  I'm actually excited to get through these next 10 days; if I can lose the 4 pounds I will have lost 15 pound in my first 30 days. Not too shabby, in fact I only managed to lose 17 pounds during a 30 day weight loss challenge and I was starving myself and miserable the whole time. This time I'm much happier and so far (knock on wood) the change hasn't been too difficult.  Good luck to everyone out there!

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!

What Went Wrong?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

OK, so I have no intention of dwelling on the past, what’s done is done and I can’t go back. However, there is something to be said about understanding what went wrong and then learning from it. That is the point of this post; to evaluate my most recent failure and determine what adjustments I can make to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Failure #1 – Un-sustainable Path

Have you ever been in a triathlon? If you are reading my blog regularly, then probably not :) but I’m sure you’ll still follow the analogy. Triathlons are one of the most grueling endurance races out there. Many entrants never even finish; occasionally you will see highlights of people who literally just collapse… their bodies are done and they can’t move one more step forward. These people failed because they were on an unsustainable path, the pace they set for themselves was too much for their body to handle.

When I look back at my past posts, I see that I started at 297 in November 2009 and ended up at 270 by the end of March 2010. 27 Pounds in in 5 months doesn’t seem unsustainable, but if you look closer, I was at 288 at the start of March 2010. I lost 9 pounds in the first 4 months and then 18 in the last month.

When I did the 30 day challenge, my diet and exercise regimen became unsustainable. It became more important for me to win than it did to be healthy. By the time I was done with that challenge I was completely burned out emotionally. What you don’t see in the blog is that Big D. and I started a second challenge in April. We didn’t even finish because we were so burned out; we just both agreed to stop about 2 weeks in.

Failure #2 – Loss of Accountability

Why did I start blogging in the first place? I started blogging for several reasons, but one of them was to add some more accountability. I truly know quite a bit about losing weight (just not keeping it off), but you can’t write about weight loss if you’re not losing weight. Somewhere along the line I convinced myself (in the midst of being burned out from the 30 Day Challenge) that I was spending too much time blogging and not enough time focusing on losing weight. What a crock! Once I stopped writing it became easier and easier to cheat. In fact, after about a month, I stopped weighing in altogether. Not only did I lose the accountability from the blog, but then I started losing accountability to my family and friends, and eventually to myself.

Failure #3 – Failure to Stop the Backslide

If the unsustainable path was the first domino in my failure, then failing to stop the backslide was the last. The road to weight loss is never a straight line. Think about how many times you’ve said to yourself “If I can lose 2 pounds every week for a year I will have lost over 100 pounds!” Ever know anyone to do it that way? Plenty of people have lost 100 pounds in a year, but I can guarantee you no one did it by losing exactly 2 pounds per week. Weight loss has its ups and downs.

After I was burned out and after I stopped blogging, there was a time when I could see myself backsliding into the bad habits. Instead of choosing to get back on the wagon, I used my small failure as an excuse to keep on failing. Have you ever said to yourself “well I already cheated today and blew the entire week (on Tuesday), I might as well enjoy it and start fresh next week.”? That’s what I did, but weeks actually turned into months and eventually 2 years had passed.

Failure #4 – Forgetting Your Priorities

I ‘ve mentioned it a few times before, but my heaviest weight ever was 349. When I hit 349 it was still just me and Mrs. FogDog; the little tikes hadn’t shown up yet. At that time I vowed that I would make my health a high priority in my life. Then all this other stuff starts to happen to you; kids, career changes, moving, etc. Just a few months after I stopped blogging, I actually received a big promotion. It was a completely different kind of job than I had in the past and it involved managing others. I’ve been successful my entire career because when I get into something, I tend to bulldog it until I do it near perfectly. This job was no exception and the next thing you know I was working 60+ hour weeks and pretty much ignoring everything else around me except for my new job. That lasted for just about a year. With all this going on, I still had other commitments as well, so my health became the casualty. The results show, not only did my weight take off, but now I’m on blood pressure medication from all the stress at work.

Learning From Your Mistakes

As I said, I’m not going to dwell on the past, but I do intend to learn from it:

1. No more challenges, contests, or visions or “Biggest Loser” type weight loss numbers. Just stick to a sustainable plan that I can live with

2. Keep Blogging (Even if no one is reading) and keep holding myself accountable

3. Prepare for failure! Eventually I will have a backslide so I need to be prepared now. Once it happens, accept it, get back on track, and move on.

4. Don’t forget your priorities. Every morning when I take that BP pill I remind myself why my heath needs stay near the top of my priorities.

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!

30 Day Challenge - And the winner is...

First, a review of the rules:  The purpose of the 30 day challenge was to see who could lose more weight in a month; me or my good friend known as Big D.  The idea was to create a challenge that was tough, motivating, and also allowed both players to be in control of their own destiny.  The result was setting a goal of 15 pounds.  If both players lost at least 15 pounds, then whoever lost more received $1 (for bragging rights).  If however the goal was not met, then the loser paid $20 for every pound short of 15!  The stakes were high but as long as you lost 15 pounds, the most money you could lose was a buck.  Both me and Big D. had advantages and disadvantages which made it an interesting bet.  Could my family support and stable schedule beat out Big D's youth and his advantage of not already being on a diet (everyone knows when you start a diet you get great 1st week numbers)?  The answer was discovered at 7:00AM this morning...

My performance over the month was very good.  My wife helped me to remain accountable for ALL my calories and I learned that in the past I have grossly underestimated what I was taking in.  For the duration I held my calories constantly at 2000-2100.  I did go out to eat twice during the challenge but on both occasions I behaved reasonably well.  As far as exercise went, I did start to slack off a little in the end.  In week 3 I missed a few workouts, but only in the name of doing other activities that required exertion.  In the last week I caught a nasty chest cold and didn't workout one bit.  I should probably cut myself some slack because it was a really bad cold, but I do think I should've found a way to get some exercise in.  The lack of exercise in the last week really had me nervous, but there were some signs of doing well such as people noticing I looked thinner and being able to adjust my belt in one notch.

Big D's performance was also very good.  He avoided fast food completely and also only ate out a couple times during the event despite making 2 trips to visit his girlfriend in NY.  He ate several small meals each day, got plenty of protein, drank lots of water, and avoided salt as much as possible (I did actually give him some advice before we started and was happy to see he listened).  For exercise he walked his dog every day and went to the gym as much as possible to workout on a bike (he even went to some spin classes with his girlfriend when he was out of town).  At the start of the challenge he was walking 3 miles each day and by the end he was up to 6!  I was actually amazed at how much Big D. changed his ways during the challenge.

When Big D. arrived at my house this morning we both talked about how we thought we might come out.  I thought maybe I hit about 10 pounds.  I had been sick all week and felt extremely bloated like I might be retaining a bunch of water.  Big D. thought he might hit about 12 pounds but said there was no way in the world that he hit 15.  Then he accused me of trying to mess with his head and he mentioned that several people at work had noticed I lost weight.  I did truly think that I only lost 10 pounds (12 max).  We flipped a coin and I lost so he made me get on the Wii scale first...

FogDog Starting Weight - 288.1
FogDog Final Weight - 270.9
FogDog Total Loss on the 30 Day Challenge - 17.2 Pounds

You could have knocked me over with a feather!  Of course now Big D. was convinced that I had been messing with him (truly I was not), but he congratulated me on hitting such a high number. 

Next was his turn; after posting such a big number, clearly you could see he was really worried that he was going to lose...

Big D. Starting Weight - 256.4
Big D. Final Weight - 235.0
Big D. Total Loss on the 30 Day Challenge - 21.4 Pounds

The winner by 4.2 Pounds ... BIG D.!

To be honest, I was thrilled to see how well he had done, and was happy to give up the dollar.  I had told him a few days before that he deserved to win.  Don't get me wrong, I worked hard to lose my weight, but I was already on that path; I simply amped up my efforts.  Big D. made a total transformation and to me that was quite impressive!  More importantly, I think Big D. recognizes what he needs to do to keep the weight off and that's a victory in itself.

Although I lost the bet, I still have plenty of things to celebrate and I am thrilled with the results.  This weigh-in brought me a bunch of victories all at once:

1. I met the 30-day challenge goal
2. I hit my mid term goal of 275 and now get my reward (bring on the mountain bike!)
3. I helped to inspire a friend to make some healthy changes
4. I have now reached a weight that I have not seen since before my freshman year in college
5. Finally (and this is the biggest one for me) I have now crossed over the half way point in my journey to 199!  I started at 349 a couple years ago so 275 was a big number for me.  I cannot, and will not be stopped!

So my hat's off to Big D. for a great race.  By the way, we've already started planning the next challenge and the first rule we decided on was when we weigh in, if our starting weight is higher than our current weight from this morning there will be severe penalties.

To my other friend DJ (whom I have a longer term bet with) I'll say this:

I might be way ahead of you now, but don't give up! All it takes is a spark to get it going again and I know you can do it.  If you need a little incentive, just start thinking about how much money you are going to owe me if you stay where you are at.  I'm going on vacation in Maine in July and if I can keep it going, I might just be stopping by your house to collect!

To all the rest of you out there, I hope this story inspires you to keep on going.  It may be hard and it may be slow, but the small victories are what keep us going.  Just keep chipping away at it and don't let the setbacks rule your journey.  If you don't give up, you too will get to feel what it's like to hit your halfway point.  Trust me on this, after hitting that mark, my resolve to see it through to the end has never been stronger!

Now I'm off for a vacation so I probably won't be back in the blog world until next weekend.  My goal is to not gain any weight while I'm gone and I will be resuming my normal weekly weigh-ins (and catching up with everyone else's blogs) starting next week.  Good luck and stay Strong!

30 Day Challenge: Week 2

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted on my blog!  Sorry folks, I've just been real busy these days.  The good news is that I've been real busy staying active which should pay some real dividends at the end of the 30 day challenge.

Week 2 was a great week for me.  I can almost feel the weight falling off as I have stuck to my diet and have increased my exercise considerably.  My wife has been making some great meals and we have avoided dining out altogether.  That is until this last Saturday when we decided to go out for Chinese buffet.  I am happy to report that my trip to the Chinese restaurant was mostly successful.  I did eat 2 full plates of food, but 1 of them was nothing but sushi and peel-n-eat shrimp.  The second plate had a lot of my favorites, but absolutely no fried foods like chicken fingers or egg rolls.  Desert was a bowl of assorted fruit.  I might have eaten more than I should but it wasn't bad for a cheat meal and I could've done a lot worse.

As far as exercise goes, I've really made an effort to increase my activity level.  I completed all of my 1 hour workouts during the week, and in addition I walked 3 miles on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  On Friday I painted my living room ceiling, on Saturday I walked another 6 miles, and then on Sunday I helped Big D. run electrical in his basement.  By far this is the most activity I've had in a while!

Big D. is also doing pretty good.  All of those extra walks I did were with him and it's a challenge just to keep up with him.  He's now up to walking almost 4 miles a day with his dog, and he's still eating healthy.  Hid big test will come this Friday when he travels up to New York for the weekend.  If he can eat healthy on the road, then he's got a legitimate shot at hitting the 15 pound mark.  Time will tell!

So now we are into week 3.  Unfortunately I've missed my last 2 workouts; I missed Sunday because I was helping Big D. and then I missed yesterday's because I had to go to a soccer meeting (I'm coaching soccer this season).  Although I've missed a couple workouts, I'm still eating really well.  Tonight I get back on the wagon and I'll get a good workout in.

I also have to say that I'm dying to get on the scale and see where I'm at.  My guess is that I've probably lost around 7-9 pounds so far, but that's really just a guess.  You never know how the scale will treat you until you actually get on.  Only 10 days to go before the big weigh-in, so I guess I can hold out until then.  Stay Strong!

30 Day Weight Loss Challenge

(Editor's Note - The original post had the goal set at 20 pounds in 30 days.  Originally the challenge started at 15 pounds in 30 days, but due to male egos, some last minute discussions caused the ante to be upped to 20 pounds.  Since then reality has set in and the original agreement of 15 pounds in 30 days has been re-instated)

Ok, I've talked about this in my last few posts and now it's time to share it.  A good friend and I have entered into a 30-day weight loss challenge.  The challenge is tough and the stakes are high.  What makes this one interesting is that my friend and I have quite a few differences that give us advantages or disadvantages in the challenge.  I'll go through some of them in a minute, but first let me lay out the details of the challenge.

The goal of the challenge is for both of us to lose 15 pounds in 30 days!  To make it more challenging, it's not even 30 days.  We weighed in Thursday evening and our final weigh-in is on the morning of March 26 so it's really 15 pounds in 28 days.  I know it seems like a lot but we will both lose 5 pounds in water weight this first week (I've put on 7 pounds this week but most of that is just water retention).  After that initial big loss, it will still be hard to get to 15, but certainly possible.  Also because of schedule problems we had to weigh in on Thursday evening and our final weigh-in will be in the morning so you can expect another pound or 2 just from weighing in at a different time of day.

Now of course we are men and a challenge isn't a challenge if money doesn't change hands.  If we both meet the goal and lose at least 15 pounds, then the only money to exchange hands is $1.  Whoever loses the most gets it.  However, if only 1 person meets the goal, the person who doesn't make it has to pay more.  If someone doesn't make it they have to pay $20 for every pound short of the goal.  This means someone has the potential to lose $300.  I like this style of challenge because you are in control of your own destiny.  Regardless of how well the other person does, as long as you do what you are supposed to do and reach the goal the most you'll be out is $1.  If neither of us makes it, then it's still $20 per pound but it's based on the difference between our losses.  So for instance if I lose 14 pounds and he loses 12, then he owes me $40.

So here's a little breakdown of the challengers:

Stats

	FogDog	Big D.
Starting Weight	288.1	256.4
Height	6'	6'5"
Age	37	28
Goal Weight	199	220

History

FogDog Background - Most of you know my story, but I'll offer a brief background anyway.  I'm married with 3 kids and have been overweight most of my life.  At my peak I hit 349 pounds and several years ago I started focusing on improving my health.  I've come a long way and I've learned a lot about losing weight, but have always seemed to struggle with the mental side of the weight loss equation.  Most days I eat a very healthy diet, but I'm definitely not as active as I should be.  My goal is to break the 200 pound barrier before I turn 40.

Big D. Background - Big D.'s story is in complete contrast to mine.  Big D. is single and lives by himself.  His girlfriend is in NY so he travels frequently to visit her.  He's young and very active and has one of those metabolisms that I would kill for.  Unlike me, Big D. has never been overweight, but the years of eating lots of junk food are starting to catch up to him and his metabolism is slowing.  In addition, he had major knee surgery about 2 years ago which has slowed his active lifestyle a little bit and presents some challenges as he starts to workout regularly. 

Advantages

Metabolism - Advantage goes to Big D.  He's younger and has a more active lifestyle.  Currently he eats a ton of junk and still manages to not gain a lot of weight

Experience - Advantage goes to FogDog.  I've been dieting my whole life and know a lot about what works for me and what doesn't.  Big D. has really no experience with dieting.  I have been coaching him a little to help him out a little, but he will need to find a plan that works for him.

Support - No advantage.  I'm married and have the support of my family.  Big D. is single and lives alone with his dog.  The reason why I give no advantage here is that having my family to support me can be as much a disadvantage as it is an advantage.  My wife can help make nutritious meals, but I also have to watch her when she decides to eat a piece of cake.

Lifestyle - Big advantage to FogDog.  I lead a boring lifestyle; I work Monday-Friday and have a very repetitive daily routine.  Big D. works 12 hour rotations, half on days and half on nights.  From day to day his schedule changes plus he travels regularly to NY.

Determination - I'm going to give a slight advantage to Big D.  I don't want to lose money, but honestly my head isn't into this as I would like at the moment.  I'm hoping that as I get into it more, my determination will also increase but right now I'm struggling in my head.

Plans

FogDog's Weight Loss Plan - My plan is fairly simple... Keep doing what I've been doing but make a couple small tweaks.  I currently take in about 2500 calories each day.  I'm going to adjust that down to 2000 calories (this has been harder to do than I originally thought).  I'm also going to increase my exercise levels to 1 hour each day 6 days each week.  It will consist of 30 minutes strength training followed by 30 minutes of cardio.  I will also be targeting 120 oz. of water each day as well.  I will still allow myself 1 cheat meal each week, but I will not be "taking it easy" on the weekends as I have been lately.

Big D's Weight Loss Plan - Big D's plan is centered around not eating junk food.  He's going to try to stay away from all the fast food joints and focus on creating healthy meals at home and buying pre-packaged healthy meals such a Lean Cuisine.  For exercise, Big D. will be walking his dog everyday for 45 minutes and he will doing cardio workouts at the local gym whenever his hectic schedule allows it.

So there it is folks, the 30 day challenge has begun!  I will not be posting weekly numbers for the next month as we both agreed that we would only weigh-in at the beginning and the end, but I will be posting regularly to let everyone know how I'm doing.  Based on what I've written, who do you think will win FogDog or Big D.?  Do you think either of us can reach the very tough goal of 15 pounds?  Got any advice for either of us?  Leave a comment and let me know. 

Weigh-in #11 - 1/23/10

I met my weekly goal!

Starting Weight: 297 lbs

Last Weigh-in: 286.8 lbs

Current Weight: 285.3 lbs

Weekly Loss (Gain): 1.5 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 11.7 lbs

This makes 3 straight weeks of losses!  I'm getting close to reaching my 270 milestone and the timing is perfect.  I promised myself a mountain bike when I hit that target and spring is just around the corner.

Weigh-in #10 - 1/16/10

Back on track!

Starting Weight: 297 lbs

Last Weigh-in: 287.5 lbs

Current Weight: 286.8 lbs

Weekly Loss (Gain): 0.7 lbs

Total Weight Loss: 10.2 lbs

Not exactly a home run, but I'll take it.  This puts me back to my lowest weight since I started and I've now crossed over 10 pounds lost.

Weigh-In #7 - 12/26/09

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Starting Weight: 297 lbs

Last Weigh-in: 287.5 lbs

Current Weight: 288 lbs

Weekly Loss (Gain): (0.5)lbs

Total Weight Loss: 9 lbs

Not my best week but it could've been much worse given all the temptations I faced during the week.  Even though I just started this blog, I've actually been trying to lose weight all year.  I started 2009 at 320, so I am happy that I have lost 32 pounds this year.  On Christmas eve I watched a home video of our Christmas in 2008 and I could not believe how different I look in just 1 year!  To actually see some real results was cool and is giving me more motivation to do even better this year.  Good Luck to us all!

Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board

Journal Update 12/18/09

It has been a while since I last made a journal entry. I have decided to start posting my journal entries at the end of the week rather than at the beginning. It was starting to feel like my journal entries were more about explaining why I lost or gained weight instead of actually writing about how I did.

From my last weigh-in you can see that I did not have a stellar week. Because of my previous victory in the week before last, I cut myself some slack over the weekend. Part of that slack included 2 trips out eat and one of those was to a buffet where I definitely ate more than I should have. Mind you, I’ve been much worse, but I definitely lost control on that trip. In my last journal entry I indicated that I wanted to start exercising and I set a goal to exercise at least 3 times during the week. Unfortunately that did not happen. Instead I put it off and put it off until there were only 3 days left. Of course as fate would have it, I ran into issues at work that required me to work 2 extremely long days leaving very little opportunity to get some exercise in. Thankfully, the busy end to my week is probably what saved me from actually gaining weight. I was on my feet most of the time and missed dinner twice settling for a small snack instead. I knew it would be tough during the holiday season and I am grateful to have remained at the same weight through last week.

This week, however, has been a different story. I have managed to get some workouts in this week. Though I have not finished hammering out my workout plan, I decided I couldn’t put it off any longer. I did three 30 minute workouts this week and am happy to have accomplished that goal. On Monday I did strength training and focused on my upper body and on Tuesday I did an elliptical workout. By Wednesday I was a little sore so I took a break but then on Thursday I did another strength training workout and focused on my lower body. I am a little sore, but I did take my own advice on exercising and started out slowly. Today I had planned on another workout, but mother nature had a better exercise plan. At this point we have received 10 inches of snow so I decided I better get shoveling as we are expected to get another 10 inches overnight. My driveway is about 100 feet long so I got a nice workout shoveling snow for about 90 minutes.

I also ate really well this week. We did go out over the weekend, but we ate at Subway and I just got a footlong veggie sub and water. I had my one cheat meal on Wednesday (we took the kids out for ice cream) and the rest of the week I’ve managed to stay on my plan. My wife has been a great help; she’s made some really good meals lately (including a great vegetarian dish this evening) and she only makes just enough for everyone to eat plus 1 meal for my lunch the next day. It’s good because if I want eat too much at dinner I don’t because then I won’t have enough food at lunch the next day. I also got 60-80 ounces of water in each day, which always helps me lose weight. All in all I have to say it’s been a really good week and I am looking forward to getting on the scale tomorrow morning. Of course there’s always that chance that the scale won’t reflect the work I put in so I prepared for that. In the end I know I’m on the right track and right now that’s all that matters. Hopefully this weekend I’ll have time to complete my workout plan so I can get started on a regular routine. Wish me luck.

Your Eating Personality

In order to lose weight you have to get a solid understanding of who you are and how you got to be overweight in the first place. Only then can you learn to recognize the “triggers” for your overeating. Below are a few personalities of overeaters and some of the mechanisms that trigger the behavior. The groups are not meant to be exclusive to each other; you may find you fit in several. However, there will probably be one that describes you better than the others:

The Closet Eater
To anyone who knows the closet eater casually, it’s hard to understand why they are overweight in the first place. Usually this person is seen eating relatively healthy, eating small amounts of healthy fare whenever in the public eye. But once at home they binge on anything and everything they have in their cupboards. Typically the closet eater doesn’t care to go out to restaurants; he/she prefers to get take-out and bring it to the confines of their home. Their addiction is well hidden from the rest of the world and they take great strides to hide it from others. If you’ve ever gone to a fast food drive through, ordered a ton of food, and then ordered extra drinks just so the cashier doesn’t know it’s all for you then you might be a closet eater.

Because they don’t overeat in public they can rationalize that their eating is not really a problem. Often closet eaters are single making it easier to hide their overeating, but it’s not a requirement. There are plenty of closet eaters out there who hide it from everyone including their spouse and children.

What triggers the closet eater to eat is the feeling of reaching their safe zone. They’ve fooled the world again and now can reward themselves with a gallon of ice cream.

The Social Eater
Everyone knows the social eater; they are usually the loudest, funniest, and largest person at every get-together. All plans by the social eater require food in some way; Movies require dinner beforehand; Work meetings should include lunch; Getting together with friends needs to be at the local bar and grill. Social eaters don’t hide from being overweight and some actually wear it like a badge of courage.

Social eaters rationalize that they don’t have a problem because they are happy all the time. Most people think the social eater has a very happy and fulfilling life, but that’s not really the case. Often the social eater puts on the happy, “life of the party” face in order to hide the fact that they are really unhappy about their weight.

The trigger for a closet eater is any gathering of people where food is involved

The Emotional Eater
Emotions can trigger overeating in all the personality types, but the emotional overeater’s entire diet is based on how he/she is feeling at the time. If depressed or sad, the emotional eater will eat comfort foods. If stressed or angry they will eat crunchy foods. How they feel directly determines what and how much they eat.

Emotional eaters rationalize their eating by treating it as a form of therapy. If it changes their mood, then it’s worth the few extra pounds. Unfortunately the mood change is usually short-lived and they end up in a cycle of feeling bad and eating to get out of it.

The obvious trigger for the emotional eater is any event that causes unwanted emotions.

The Constant Eater
The constant eater never stops eating. Their days consist of a never-ending routine of trips to the vending machine and stops at the convenience store. Anytime there is an opportunity to get a snack, they are going to get it. If someone brings cookies to work, they’ve got to try them. If they pass the local Starbucks, it’s time for a coffee. If the constant eater goes to a party, they usually just hang at the food table and snack as others pass by.

Constant eaters rationalize their eating because they never eat a lot at any one time. They know their weight is a problem but often they understand why because their regular meals really aren’t that bad. The snacking becomes unconscious and they often don’t realize how much they take in each day.

The trigger for constant eaters is any opportunity that presents itself for a snack whether it’s walking by a vending machine, working at a restaurant, or stopping at a gas station.

The Binge Eater
Opposite the constant eater is the binge eater. The binge eater doesn’t eat vast quantities of food for most of the time, but then has episodes when extremely large quantities of food are consumed all at once. The idea of a proper diet for the binge eater is to deny any of his/her favorites and eat as little as possible. The strategy fails, and ultimately the will power of the binge eater wanes and it’s off to the races eating anything in sight.

Binge eaters rationalize the binge by saying they’ve been good for a while and they deserve a break. Unfortunately once that break begins, it turns into something more than just a little indulgence.

The trigger for binge eating often is stress or depression

The Subconscious Eater
The last personality is the Subconscious Eater. This person eats heavily all the time and doesn’t even realize he/she has eaten too much until it is too late. Often subconscious eaters come from families with a history of unhealthy eating. It’s part of their culture so it isn’t even considered. The subconscious eater eats with his/her eyes, often selecting the largest quantities of food and shoveling it in without even taking the time to taste it.

The subconscious eater doesn’t rationalize the behavior because it is perfectly normal for him/her and there really isn’t any trigger as the subconscious eater generally eats this way most of the time.


So what’s your eating personality? As I said before, you may fit more than one of these categories, but one probably describes you better than the others. For me, I’m a subconscious eater with some tendencies toward binge eating. Knowing and understanding your eating personality is a big step toward correcting the behavior. By understanding the triggers you can learn to recognize them when they show up and that can help you to do better. You won’t get it right every time, but as time goes by and you get better and better at correcting your behavior, your habits will change and you will be the healthier for it. Good Luck.

Journal Update 12/6/09

This was quite a satisfying week! I lost back everything I gained during Thanksgiving plus another pound for good measure. I mentioned before I thought I might have been retaining water last week and it appears I was correct. Normally, I would have looked at my weight last week and decided to give up, but I knew how well I had done on my trip and I decided to push on.


My eating was pretty good all week long and I drank a lot of water (probably about 60-80 ounces each day). I did have a couple cookies early in the week (remnants from the prior week) but for the most part I stuck to my plan. In a typical day I eat 5-6 times throughout the day:

1. 7:00AM My morning starts with oatmeal and blueberries.
2. 9:30AM A small protein snack and a piece of fruit.
3. 12:30AM Lunch (usually the leftovers from my previous night’s dinner) and a piece of fruit
4. 3:00PM Another small protein snack and a piece of fruit.
5. 6:00PM Dinner consisting of 4 ounces of protein, 1 cup vegetables, and a ½ cup of some carbohydrate
6. 8:30PM A Light Snack – Usually a fiber bar and a cup of green tea

A few times this week I missed one of my snacks, but it didn’t seem to bother me. I think my body is getting used to eating less food each day. It used to be that if I went more than 3 hours without eating, I would be starving and end up overeating the next meal. That wasn’t the case this week.

I still didn’t exercise regularly; I came back from my trip with another cold! I’m not sure why, but this winter has been tough on me with regards to being sick. Toward the end of the week my cold was diminished so I worked out on the elliptical trainer on Friday. I got a good 30 minutes in doing an interval workout.

I really want (and need) to get going with the exercise. This week I’m going to try to get at least 3 sessions in and then go from there. I have free weights in my house and of course the elliptical trainer so I really have no excuses not to get started.

One thing I have to say is that I’m really happy with my progress so far. I know it’s only been 4 weeks and I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’ve found a nice balance here. I’m not feeling deprived and yet I’m still losing weight regularly. I think If I can just incorporate the exercise, I’ll be good to go. Wish me luck.