Well, I made it through the weekend, not terrible but not great, had probably 10 -12 beers but it was Bud 55 so like 550 to 600 calories in beer for the day, I took a party sub that I made with lettuce tomato, fat free mayo and Turkey and Low fat cheese, turned out really good, and I ate a couple slices from that, another friend was a savior and brought a shrimp boil with corn and shirmp and it was awesome and fewer calories then the brats and burgers that were there. probabyl had 10 -15 srimp. I did have a bowl of potato soup but went with a smaller bowl then they had out, had a few chips with dip, did not put them on my plate, figured I had around 2200- 2500 calories, so not to bad but not great, I am gettting back on workout program ASAP. Thanks again for all the encouragement, and good luck!!!!

Weekly Update - Week 9

Starting Weight - 260 lbs
Current Weight - 220 lbs
Loss This Week -1 lbs
Total Loss - 40 lbs

Well, I was kind of worried about this. With losing 5lbs last week and weighing-in the morning after my second biggest binge on plan it frankly could have been worse. I was really hoping for at least a 2 to get into the 210's, but hopefully I will see a bit of an extra bounce next week not carrying post-Superbowl weight

Also overall it was a decent week, but not one of my strongest, especially in the gym. This week I'm on the road most of the week, so hope I can do a good job and keep making progress.


Nutrition Observations

Mon - 1624 cals
Tue - 1789 cals
Wed - 1221 cals
Thu - 1820 cals
Fri - 1744 cals
Sat - 1895 cals
Sun - 2973 cals (Superbowl potluck party)

Well the only thing interesting this week was that my overall calories was a little higher than usual but still within my targets except for Sunday. That might be correlated to my lower loss, but I'm not going to make any adjustments yet.

Did a pretty good job on eating to be honest, it seems to be getting easier and easier.

The obvious outlier was the Superbowl party which I posted about earlier today. One thing to add to that post was how crappy I felt after my poor eating Sunday night. I didn't feel that bad mentally, because I prepared for that evening all weekend, and didn't cheat that much more than I was prepared to. But I really felt crappy physically later that evening and this morning. It was the most suger and fat I've had in over a month so I guess it's not surprising...well I guess it is, because 2 months ago I could have eaten way more junk food than that and felt fine.

I'm going to take that as a good sign!


Exercise Observations

Monday - Gym
Tuesday - Gym
Wednesday - Gym
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Nothing
Saturday - Gym
Sunday - Rest

Well, this week was a little worse than usual in terms of hitting the gym. Thursday and Friday were super busy with appointments and constant meetings and I just couldn't get away during work hours and had plans after work both days. A little disappointed with Thu/Fri b/c I probably should have found a way to go to the gym at least one of those two days.

The 4 days I did go to the gym though I had good workouts, put a lot into it and worked it out pretty good. My overall fitness level is increasing slowly.

One big accomplishment was this week I ran a mile on the treadmill consecutively for the first time sine I started this process!!! That was great, I usually do multiple miles each trip, but jogging has hurt and I just haven't been able to just run a straight mile.

I was doing my walking warmup, and just turned the treadmill up to 6 to run a bit at the end of the warmup. I felt really good so just kept running and ended up doing a mile!


Looking forward to next week
Challenging week this week as I'm on the road for 3.5 days. Going to continue to try the same behaviours that have worked for me in the past.

Good job last week, 1 pound with the binge is great!!! Also congrats on the mile run straight I am trying to get there as well!!!!!

Hitting the Gym hard today.

Way to go and you will be in the 210's before long

Later Tucker

Feb 9th - Good start to this trip

I'm about halfway through my longest trip yet on plan. So far really proud of myself.

Made it a priority to go to the gym at home yesterday before heading to the airport. Did another 2ish mile airport walk. Then had a great healthy salad from Chipotle when I arrived at my destination.

Today I went to the grocery store and stocked up for 2 dinners, found a new grocery store with lots of great healthy deli choices. Got some brown rice sushi, shrimp, salad, fruit, and a couple of small steamer dinners.

Also went down to the gym after work and got in a solid full workout.

Great start to the trip! Just need to stay strong for 2 more days!

Feb 10th - "Struggling" with weight

I was browsing the introductions forum and saw someone post the following sentence...

I've been struggling with weight for a long time

I sort of glanced over it because that sentence gets posted a lot around here and I think it myself often. But for some reason when I read it today I had a bit of a personal epiphany about the use of the word "struggle". Not sure if this will make sense to anybody else...

I've never "struggled" with weight gain or being large. Struggle implies that I'm trying (expending effort) and failing. When I have gained weight or been stagnant at a higher weight, it's because I'm not "struggling". When I struggle (i.e. work at it, think about it, work on it) with diet/exercise issues I lose weight, or at least maintain at a healthier weight.

So I want to "struggle" with weight because if I'm not, it means I'm being lazy and apathetic towards it which is a guarantee of moving the ticker in the wrong direction.

I'm not sure if that makes sense on paper, but it sticks out clearly in my head

Feb 12th - Nailed this last trip

Well my 4th business trip on plan is in the books. I'm super pleased, I absolutely killed it (in a good way!) in terms of nutrition. Especially in comparison to my normal 3 meals out.

Here was a very typical travel day's worth of eating out before...

Old Breakfast - 2 biscuits and gravy, 4-8 pieces of bacon, scrambled eggs, maybe a little fruit.

Old Lunch - Large sub (like a philly cheesesteak) or a big burger with all the fixins (bacon, guac, etc) with fries.

Old Dinner - Most of a meatlover's pizza with a candy bar in room, or if out, a cream based soup followed by a large seafood alfredo pasta with lots of bread, dessert and usually a few drinks.

On this trip I had the following meals

Breakfast (all 3 days b/c I loved it) - fresh cooked eggbeaters omelette with a little ham, lots of mushrooms and spinach. 1 cup of canteloupe.

Lunch 1 - Cup of chicken noodle soup, and salad bar with low fat dressing
Lunch 2 - Chicken Salad from Chipotle with no dressing and extra salsa
Lunch 3 - Grilled chicken and broccoli from TGI Friday's

Dinner 1 - Chicken Salad from Chipotle with no dressing and extra salsa
Dinners 2/3 - Random assortment of grocery store stuff, shrimp, brown rice sushi, sugar snap peas, small healthy choice frozen food, etc.
Dinner 4 - Grilled chicken Salad from McD's with the low cal vinegarette

I not sure of the exact total, but I'm pretty sure we are talking about at least 5,000 calories of difference over 3 days probably even more. Tack on another 1,000 - 1,500 calories in exerise that I used to avoid, and this 3 days was probably 2 net pounds different from my old habits.

And best thing was I was actually pretty full all the time, I did not skimp on volume.

Weekly Update - Week 10

Starting Weight - 260 lbs
Current Weight - 217 lbs
Loss This Week -3 lbs
Total Loss - 43 lbs

Great to have a solid week. I was pretty sure last week's 1 was a bit artificially low (like the 5 the week before was a bit artificially high), but there was still the nagging concern that maybe I was at a plateau. But feeling good about posting a 3 this week. I'm chasing towards the 50lbs lost mark now, WOW!

Also aso I look at my last 6 or so weeks (after the "low hanging fruit" numbers of the first couple of weeks).

3, 4, 4, 3, 5, 1, 3....

That is a really nice consistency and I think healthy amount for me to lose at this point. I'm really loading up on the protein and doing a lot of weights so hopefully I'm at least maintaining muscle mass.

This week is also very significant for me, it puts me past the 40lb mark which is the amount I lost the last time I worked on this process (mostly through excessive exercise). So as of this week I have lost more weight than I ever have before!

On the downside, 10 weeks in, I find it easierto become apathetic about key behaviors. This is dangerous, as I think one of the biggest things I've done well is to be intentional about my behaviors. I need to stay focused on that.


Nutrition Observations

Mon - 1330 cals
Tue - 1686 cals
Wed - 1835 cals
Thu - 1270 cals
Fri - 1968 cals (V-Day's dinner out)
Sat - 1800 cals
Sun - 1570 cals

The biggest success by far was keeping my calories well in line while on the road M-Th. This was mostly attributable to doing dinners from the grocery store instead of out, but I also made good restaurant decisions.

Friday was my best and worst meal of the week at the same time. The missus and I did Mexican for dinner. On the bad side I ate too many chips, and too great of a volume overall. On the positive side I only had 1 fajita tortilla, and mostly filled up on fajita chicken, beef, quail, and shrimp. Higher in fat that I normally want to be, but skipped the sour cream, guac, and cheese to help some.

I did have 2 mini-reeses cups on V-Day which was the first candy-bar like item I've had in 10 weeks!

Exercise Observations

Monday - Gym
Tuesday - Gym
Wednesday - Swimming
Thursday - Some airport walking
Friday - Nothing (snowed in)
Saturday - Gym
Sunday - Rest

Couple of notes this week... I forgot how much I love swimming, it's such a full body workout and really tires me out, but I don't feel bad while I'm actually doing it. I'm going to try to do this more on the road, since my local gym does not have a pool.

The only big negative for the week was Friday, we were snowed in so I couldn't hit the gym, but I somehow turned that into not working out at all, when I should have easily done 30 minutes of Wii, or something around the house. I did play and roll in the snow some with my daughter, but should have not taken the whole day off.

2 great fitness things from this week though. On Saturday I ran a mile and a half without stopping at a 6 on the treadmill. This is the furthest I've run consecutively in about 4 years. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I've struggled with leg pain on the treadmill, so I feel my running is behind my other areas of fitness. My cardio and breathing actually could have gotten me to at least 2 miles, but my calves were done at 1.5 miles.

Also I went up another 15 lbs on the vertical press. Started 10 weeks ago at 95 and now am doing the same reps at 155! I actually did 10 pushups yesterday with my 30 lb toddler on my back


Looking forward to next week
I am home this week so hope to have a straightforward good week. I'm gearing up for 3-4 straight weeks on the road, so would be nice to lose another 3 or so this week and stay focused.

I'm starting to think it is at least possible (but still a stretch) to reach 200 by the birth of my 2nd child in about 6 weeks. That would require continuing at the pace of 3lbs lost per week which I think is asking too much, but it's a stretch goal!

I read page one and the skipped to the end to see how you were doing! Great I see! Makes me want to go work out- back-ache and all so off I go- thanks!

Fantastic, hope you made it to work out. Although you're the one that probably has lots of advice and motivation after loosing 100 lbs! Wow!

Great job, you are doing great. I have seemed to hit a wall??? I can't lose weight, I have been working out 4 to 5 days a week, feeling really good about that at the Gym, and I have been eating 1300 - 1600 calories a day, I did cheat a little on V-day and a couple of weekend days with more beer then i should have but it is 55 calories, so I don;t know what is going on!!!!!

Oh well just keep plugging along here

Tucker

Tucker, first of all awesome job on sticking with it even though the scale results haven't been what you hoped for so far. I bet you have felt better with getting that much gym time.

A couple of comments, but feel free to ignore any of it.

1. I think you might not be consuming enough calories. 1300-1600 is really low for you, you should be able to do 700-800 calories more than I and have the same defecit, I would try getting up more in the 2K range. The problem is making those healthy calories, lots of protein, not just sugars/carbs.

2. I think eating too little combined with cheats causes problems because I think it makes your body hoard those cheats. There's debate on this subject, but if I were you I might think this way and give it a shot.

3. I lose weight slower when I go to the gym often, but then often it whooses off if I have a couple of days away from the gym (but still on eating plan). This is because muscles retain more water when they are being used. So nothing wrong with this. I've gone to the gym 4 days this week, been exactly on plan, had killer workouts, and the scale has read exactly the same each day. This has happened in the past, then I won't go to the gym Sat/Sunday or something, and my weight drops by Monday. That muscle water thing is tricky, I just know working on my muscle is helping my fat loss, it's just lags by a good bit.

4. Considering a number of the posts you've made in this thread mention beer, I think you also know another area to try to tackle. The calories in beer are more "empty" than others and it's probably not helping. I've given it up completely for now.

If I were you I'd try to get through a whole week more in the 2k healthy calorie range with lots of protein, cut out the beer and cheats (even for 1 week) and see if that gets the scale going. At least it will help you narrow down the culprits!

You make alot of sense!!! I just can;t make myself eat that much, I have been eating healthy and 2000 calories, I feel like I amk constantly eating!!! Thebeer thin you are riht, I will give it a week and try and get between 1800-2000 calories and workout, and forego the beer, maybe LOL!!!!

Thanks again for the encouragement, and the advice I need all the help I can get, you are doing terrific and are a big reason I have been sticking to the gym, you and my little 3 year old girl who has Spina Bifida, and I see her do things that amaze me and everytime I want to cut it short I think about her never giving up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks again

and keep up the good work.

Tucker

Friday Feb 20th - Binging ........ on cereal???

Well I share successes and failures on here, so I have to be honest and admit that I totally binged last night. The odd thing was that it was on cereal....

For some reason I was really in the mood for cereal for dinner last night, not the healthies thing. I guess it was because I've really cut back on carby things and sugary things, and cereal is a combination of both.

By the end of the binge I had 2 really large soup bowls full of Vanilla Almond Special K, something like 5-6 3/4 cup servings. Adding insult to injury it was with 2% milk, the only thing in the house since I never drink milk so it's just for the kiddo.

While it didn't really blow my calories it was definately a binge for 2 reasons. 1st I had a second bowl for absolutely no physical reason, I just wanted it. 2nd I ate till I didn't want any more instead of at the end of a preset amount that was appropriate to eat.

So the lesson for the day is that you can eat healthy small portions of "unhealthy" foods like desserts, but you can also binge on "healthy" foods like Special K.o

Yep! Been there, done that!

It's like... you eat the first bowl, then the first bowl eats the second bowl... if you see what I mean. That's why cereal can be a "trigger" food...

Look back over the day, or the last few days. Were you low on protein? Were you under on your calories up to that point? Sometimes that gives a push...

Always count portions, even if you've decided to eat more than a serving. So, suppose a serving of that cereal is a cup (I don't know exactly, for the cereal you ate)--measure out how many cups you put into the bowl. Measure the 2% milk you pour over it. Sometimes just the act of seeing that you're eating 3 servings of cereal and 2 servings of milk can help slow you down...

Jay

Been a while since I checked, in how is it going??