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Yeah, I'd go with D. I might increase to 500 cals just on general principles, but tomorrow is another day, whether you eat too much, too little, or just enough. No point in eating food that you don't really need or want just because you were hungry earlier that day.
You just don't want to make it a habit to undereat, especially when you're trying to lose. Jay |
Good, sounds like D was the consensus.
And I agree about not undereating. Sometimes I don't have time to track calories more than once a day and I unfortunately haven't been at this long enough where I can do it in my head. I'll get there. |
Thursday 1/14 - New Workout
Decided to try something new at the gym today. My gym has a short 1/16th of a mile track (a little larger than a basketball court). So today I tried the following. Walk the 2 short ends and one straightaway, then for the other straightaway I would alternate between a forward sprint, backward sprint, and sideways sprints (one each way). So I was essentially alternating sprinting/walking with about 70% walking and 30% sprinting by distance. I did a total of 20 laps like this for a distance of 1.25 miles, and did this as half of my cardio. It was pretty hard, didn't feel real natural which is probably good. I felt like a fat person sprinting instead of an athlete sprinting, but that will hopefully change in time. It was a nice change from the normal machines. Had a good day eating. Had Taco Bell for the 2nd time since being on plan (almost 6 weeks). I'm pretty sure Taco Bell is solely responsible for at least a third of my weight gain;) But I was good and only had 2 Fresco Chicken Burritos for 640 total calories. Put me exactly at 2,000 for the day the upper limit of my target range. Got in 136g of protein also after getting in 169g yesterday! |
Thought of the Day - The struggle between immediate action and non-immediate results.
So reading a lot of posts has me thinking today about this topic. When many of us start on this journey (myself included) we are not "experts" at it. We have to think about everything, solve lots of barriers/issues, constantly fight our old habits, etc. For any Dave Ramsey fans I think of "gazelle" intensity, picturing the intensity with which a gazelle runs when trying to escape a lion. Clearly maintainers have to continue to work hard, but obviously the more you make behaviours normal, the more natural it becomes in at least some struggle areas. I'm sure some folks who have been doing for 3 years can get to the end of their day and within 100 calories figure out exactly what they consumed, or maybe feel a little bit more natural need to go to the gym. So on one hand those of us early in the journey have to think about it and work on it all the time, dozens of times a day or more. But there is an obvious issue there and that is that every individual decision does not directly equal an immediate result in the one measure we all care about...fat loss. We want to think "I bypassed that co-worker's birthday cake today, bye bye 0.05 lbs". Or "I jogged the longest I've ever jogged before, bye bye 0.8 lbs". Even though we know this isn't how it works, the fact that we have to focus on every behavior and decision makes it hard not to. So the net result is when you don't see the results you expect or feel you've "earned" it is frustrating to the entire effort. Or say you have an off day but somehow your weight still drops by a pound, then you are confused. So I think there is this struggle between the the "gazelle-intensity" that a lifestyle makeover requires, with the fact that the lifestyle makeover (and resulting weight loss) is the cumulative sum of all of those little decisions over time. I'm not sure if this is making any sense, and I don't have an answer for this struggle, but I think it's an important one for many of us newbies to recognize. For some people this might mean weighing or measuring say once a week or less. For me I cannot do this and maintain the daily intesity in each decision that I am shooting for to build new habits. For some people it just has to mean that you separate the behaviors from the results and focus on developing right behaviors with the understanding that the results will come but not necessarily on some arbitrary time schedule you think if "fair" Anyway this is my musing for the day... |
Fri/Sat Jan 15-16; Dodging temptation and dealing with cravings
This has been a tough weekend for me, I haven't been off-plan which is the worst, but I have been having a really hard time staying on-plan which is frustrating. It's kind of a mental drain to have to "try" so hard sometimes, and keep wanting it to get easier. In some ways it is, but not this weekend! Saturday I knew was going to be really hard since I had 2 kiddo birthday parties to attend. When I got up, I realized (should have thought more the night before) that I couldn't make it to the gym that unless I left right then for a quick trip. Temptation 1 Of course as soon as I'm ready my wife is like "but I've got all the stuff ready to make omelettes". I was hungry and it sounded so much easier to stay in and eat, but I decided the gym was more important, especially since I was in charge of the little one on Friday so couldn't go to the gym. Temptation 1 avoided....to be honest it helped that I already had my gym clothes and was almost out the door. On the plus side my wife put all the omlette fixings in the fridge and I had a nice filling healthy omelette after my workout to get some protein in. Temptation 2 First birthday party of course there is pizza and cake there. Normally I would just lounge around while the kids played and unknowingly polish 4-5 pieces of pizza and a large slice of cake. Temptation 2 avoided....turned out the whole omelette thing worked out well as I was still really full from that. Craving 1 When we left Birthday Party 1, we had to go straight to the next party about 1.5 hours away. I was hugely craving fast food (even though I wasn't really hungry). It was almost like I wanted the satisfaction of my old habit of stopping at a drive thru and getting food I didn't even really want or need. I just ignored it and drove on, luckly most of the 1.5 hour drive was out in the boonies, so wasn't passing a lot of places anyway. Temptation 3 By now it's 2pm and I'm pretty hungry. The sunflower seeds I brought aren't cutting it this time. Of course at this party is super cheesy enchiladas, chips, 5 kinds of dip, obv more cake, etc. I lucked out again a bit on temptation 3 as there was also a crock-pot full of what I was pretty sure was quite healthy mexican chicken soup. It was basically broth, chicken, peppers, etc, I can't really think of anything bad in it. I had a few chips with salsa. To be honest if that soup wouldn't have been there I would have been in trouble. I had a meal bar in the car, but it just wasn't going to happen... Craving 2 Took the kiddo over that evening to a friends house around dinnertime. Was really really craving pizza (I'm guessing since I passed up earlier), but instead of ordering, we made a little pasta. Pasta wasn't ideal, but the portion size was pretty small so that was great. Craving 3 On my way home I had by far the worst dessert craving I've had in my 6ish weeks on-plan. I was dying for an old standby, the large Dairy Queen chocolate extreme blizzard! This used to be a weekly regular for me. I couldn't get my mind off it the whole way home and was really lucky I did not pass any Dairy Queens on the way home, before pounding 2 60 calorie SF puddings... BTW I looked up the nutritional value of that blizzard today...1430 calories and 68 g of fat:dizzy::dizzy: WOW, glad I skipped that! So in the end I did good for the day, partially due to good decisions and partially to "luck" being helpful in a couple of key spots. You'd think I'd be pretty happy about the successes, but am a bit down today. I feel frustrated that it was so hard yesterday. For really the first time in 6 weeks I'm wanting that carby stuffed feeling. I guess it's a combination of all the little meals and drastically reducing the carbs I'm intaking. Hopefully this will pass, or else I might have to tweak the eating and see if I can come up with something that will help, I need to rely less on willpower than I did yesterday... |
I can totally relate to your weekend. I have been on plan and exercising for a good three weeks straight not really craving anything. Well my weigh in day is on mondays and I decided on Saturday to take a look at the scale and see where I was for the week. The scale only said I had lost like .4 pounds. Seeing that minimal loss kind of messed with my mind a little bit I guess because after that all I wanted to do was eat for some reason. I got through saturday fairly well but I cannot say the same for today. My husband ends up fixing waffles and bacon for breakfast which he never does but i managed to just eat half a waffle and only one piece of bacon so I felt pretty good. Then we had a church dinner today and it has gone down hill from there. Did ok with portion control but I took carrot cake and came home with about half of it and have now eaten two more pieces of it this afternoon. I am so ready for this weekend to be over and hopefully I can get my mind right for tomorrow.
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Weekly Update - Week 6
Starting Weight - 260 lbs Current Weight - 229 lbs Loss this week - 4 lbs WOW! As tough as I was feeling yesterday (see previous post), today is the opposite! After getting 4 last week, and seeing the scale bounce all over the place this week, I was thinking week 6 might finally be the week I saw a 0, or 1lb loss. To see 4 instead was a really big surprise. I did not expect to lose a combined 8 lbs in weeks 5 and 6. Also excited that this puts me >30lb loss in a month and a half and more than halfway to the big 200 number! I also feel like looking back at my nutrition and exercise that I have not short circuited anything and have done it right, hopefully... I nailed my plan pretty well this week. Really didn't have any major excuses this week, just a few small things (in retrospect, not at the time;)) that I had to deal with. Nutrition Observations Mon - 1453 cals Tue - 1850 cals Wed - 1579 cals Thu - 2005 cals Fri - 1469 cals Sat - 2100 cals Sun - 1500 cals As you can see my calories are still bouncing all over the place. This mostly because I do not (like many on here) meal plan to hit a certain number. I guess the real reason I am counting is to make sure I am eating enough, and better understand my "calorie/pleasure" curve, I'll explain that one in a future post. I did not have any cheat days or even cheat meals really this week. Since I am not restricting any specific foods, I define a cheat meal as one where I eat a lot of calories or inappropriate portions (something like >800 cals). Also was able to keep my protein well above 100g every day. I do need to start mixing up my food more, I'm not eating quite as many vegetables as I would like to/should. At this point I need to start expanding my food "repretoire" further to avoid any ruts. Exercise Observations Monday - Gym Tuesday - Gym Wednesday - Gym Thursday - Gym Friday - Wii - EA Active Saturday - Gym Sunday - Rest (although did a short Wii - EA Active) Great week of exercise. Continue to mix it up every day. The stair stepper still kills me compared to the other machines. I tried alternating sprints this week and did some jump training (OMG that was hard!). Today I went up another weight bar on the machine bench press. I am now doing 50% more lbs on the bench (same reps) than I was 6 weeks ago, WOW! I really need to go get fitted for running shoes, I'm really sick and tired of everything above my knees feeling like it can do more, and everything below my knees slowing me down. I hope new shoes will help. Looking forward to next week I am not travelling this week again (yes!) so no reason to not have another great week. I think this week the mental battles will start up worse. I need to start mentally preparing myself for a week of hard work followed by a -1, 0, or +1. If you look at my overall results there would be nothing wrong with that, but I think it will be tough for my brain. However it is probably inevitable so I need to prepare for it. Other than that, onward ho! I need to keep focusing on making the right little decisions every day, thinking ahead, happening to my life instead of the other way around, and moving on quickly from mistakes. |
only 3lbs
Well after another week, I only lost 3 lbs, this is the second week but after losing 13 first week, this was a bummer!!! But i did have mnore beer this week and had a huge steak dinner Sat, so i guess I have to march on and it is a loss!! I also have not got into a exercise routine at all!!! I need to get my but in gear ASAP.
Your post about the cravings was outstanding totally relate. Hang in ther ethough u are doing great, you are in the 220's WOW!!! I have to get motivated to exercise!! Keep up the good work. Tucker |
Quote:
Definately try to get the exercise going. Doing some rough math in my head, almost half of my calorie defecit has come directly from exercise. And my losses have pretty closely aligned with my calorie defecit. Also the exercise gives a lot more energy and makes the eating a lot easier (esp if you are counting calories). Now when I think about binging on something I equate it to # of minutes at the gym, and it makes it easier to pass. Keep trucking, have a good week and I'll be you are in the 200's next week! |
Tuesday Jan 19th - I just realized something fun!
I'm surprised I just thought of this today, it would have been a great mini-goal. As of this week I have lost an amount of weight greater than the weight of my almost 2 year old (who is pretty big for her age - 98th% in both height and weight). I carry her a lot obviously, but it takes some effort to haul her around for long distances, your arm gets tired after a while and you keep switching. Crazy to think that 6 weeks ago it was like I was hauling her around 24/7. Anyway off to play with her actually, puts a new spin on that! |
Wednesday Jan 20th - A Down and an Up
Down Well I've had a great start to the week, but today when it came time to go to the gym, I just really really didn't feel like it. There was no reason, no excuse. I had time cleared on my calendar when I like to go, was ready to go, etc. This was a bit depressing for me because this has not a significant struggle for me so far on plan. There are already enough "hard" things on my list to stay onplan that I didn't need one more. But I got in the car and went anyway which was good... Up While at the gym for part of my workout I went to the basketball court and just ran around some, shot some baskets, did some sprinting/jumping/jogging etc. I was wearing these standard athletic shorts, you know the kind with the elastic waistband. And all of those that have been heavy understand what I mean when I say that I was not making the elastic happy when I would wear them 6 weeks ago. They were one of only a couple of pairs I could reasonably get on. So I happen to be wearing them today, but as I'm jumping and running I start to notice them slipping. They started to come full off several times to the point where I actually had to tie them to keep them on. So that brought my spirits up! |
u did it!!
Well you did it, u motivated me to go to the gym, I am going here in a little bit with a coworker to her gym!!! Hope she doesn't try and kill me.
Thanks for the motivation Tucker |
Quote:
GL, I bet you'll feel great about it tonight/tomorrow. |
Friday Jan 22 - What am I afraid of??
First the boring stuff. I've had a solid week, nothing off plan from an exercise or diet perspective. I'm seeing the scale go down more mid-week this week, which likely means it will inexplicably go up over the weekend;) Musing of the day I'll be honest and say that (mostly because I'm a guy and my personality), I can't really get into/understand a lot of the more emotional posts on this board. It seems like for a lot of folks here, a big part of this journey is overcoming emotional barriers/attachments/issues. It's hard for me to truly understand that, which is why you won't see me post much in those threads. However something recently happened that made me think there's more of an emotional issue there with me than I might think. So I was having a conversation with my wife the other day and I found myself making it very clear to her that I didn't want her discussing my weight loss with anybody, even close friends/family. She is obviously proud of my progress, and would be naturally inclined to "brag" on me a bit in certain circumstances. I was pretty adamant in my request, to the point where afterwards I wondered why? I am getting to the point now where more people are going to start mentioning it to me just based on physical differences. I think I'm right on the cusp where it's almost obvious enough to say. Kind of like when you see a woman who is like 5-6 months pregnant and it is pretty obvious, but you're just enough worried that she's not pregnant that you don't say anything:D So why do I not want to talk about it myself in my real life, or have my wife do so? Here's a couple of options. A) I don't want to prideful B) I don't want to receive a lot of unsolicited input/advice even if well-intentioned C) Admitting that I've lost noticeable weight = admitting that I had gained a lot of weight = admitting I've failed D) I'm afraid that if I make a big deal about it and I fail in the future it will be that much more noticeable E) It's somehow a bit of a "taboo" topic for guys While I wish it was mostly A, this probably isn't really the case. I am proud of what I've done thus far and it does make me feel good when people notice/comment, although I do find it pretty awkward and usually respond with a casual comment like, "meh, I've been trying to get to the gym a little more often". B is really annoying, but I do not think it is a major factor. I do find it difficult to have real life discussions on this topic. I am obviously still considerably overweight therefore how can I really pretend that I know what I'm talking about? If I had the answers wouldn't I weigh 170? So I just find these conversations difficult, so I strongly avoid them. Maybe I'll be more comfortable after I've been maintaining at goal for a year or so. I think C is a really huge issue for me. Nobody, and especially me, likes to admit that they've failed. Even though it is visibly obvious (hello size 42 pants) to others, because it is not really discussed in the open it's almost like an unspoken secret. This is obviously delusional, but I think it is true for me. It's like I want to sneak back to a good weight and pretend like I never failed in the first place. This is laughable, but I think pretty true for me, even if only subconciously. D is clearly a huge issue with me. No matter how much we think we've learned from past failures, or how committed we are the the "lifestyle" concept, I think there is a nagging part of each of us that thinks there's a chance we will gain it back. Especially for the majority of us that have previously lost and regained weight. So this is like the opposite of the paragraph above, it's like I think that if I don't tell anybody or discuss it, if I fail and regain it will be a secret and I haven't "failed" again. Clearly this is also delusional, but I think very true for me. This comes back to accountability. While I have used this forum to a degree for accountability, it is not true accountability. I could never make another post here tomorrow and no-one might ever notice. So I do think that this issue with me is also about avoiding real life accountability, which is obviously a problem. While less than C and D, I think E is also an issue. It's just not something that is talked about to the same degree amongst guys. I think for a lot of guys their perspective is either "who cares, I'll eat what I want" or "just man up and lose the weight". Very simplistic. You won't really ever find a guy that will have a conversation like "Well I've turned to food for comfort ever since my parents divorced when I was 11 and it was my only friend" even if it is true for them. Despite the posts I make on this forum, you would never see me have conversations like this in real life with one of my guy friends. And that's wrong. Anyway I'm not sure there is a point to all of this, just something that was on my mind... |
Got back did about 30 min of eliptical burned about 350 cals and feel great, not to hard but enough for first time. firs ttime on that machine, use to do stairmaster and that thing sucked!!! Feels really good to get out there
Thanks for the motivation Tucker |
wow
Quote:
Seriously you just summed it up for me!!!!!!!! u r not alone, I hate failing at anything too, sometimes a little over competitive, but every statment you made I feel the same way, but I realize if u fall off the horse get back on that thing, you are doing great, and I would miss the motivation if u stopped writing on here!! keep up the good work Tucker |
Friday Jan 22 - Part 2
Couple of random thoughts... 1. I ate at Pei Wei last night. For those of you that aren't familiar it's kind of like a less fancy PF Changs. I did some looking before I got there and had these awesome Vietnamese Chicken Salad Rolls, that was only like 200 calories for 3 large rolls. Great stuff! Have to be very careful with the sauces though, the Thai Peanut is pretty high calorie. I actually ate some of the meat and veggies from my wife's dinner for more calories, although the salad rolls were actually pretty filling, and I'm guessing for most of the ladies on this board, would be more than enough for a meal. We went as my increasingly pregnant wife was having a Chinese craving. So I'm really pleased with my choices, as typically I would have just ordered delivery and gotten some 1500 calorie high fat monstrocity. I'm really working hard to have this "pregnancy" cause me to lose 30-40 lbs instead of gaining 30 lbs like last time. Haha sounds like I'm the one pregnant... 2. This is going to sound weird but one slightly negative consequence to all this weight loss and plan stuff is that I look forward to the weekend much less. I used to not be able to wait for the weekend for obvious reasons. But I find myself now somewhat dreading all the additional obstacles that will be thrown in my path. I suppose that will get easier with time... |
I feel you on the "C" option -- though with me I think that it's more that if I admit I'm intentionally losing weight, then I admit that I cared that I was fat/getting fatter, and if I cared about that, then why didn't I stop it in the first place? My mom was a classic yo-yo dieter for most of my early life and absolutely hated herself when she was heavy. My dad was a beanpole until, oops, he suddenly had a belly. And then he was on the weight train, too. My sister's been anorexic for almost 20 years.
I never wanted to have my diet MATTER to me the way that it did to them -- one reason that I'm doing calorie counting -- but then I had a metabolic shift (or so my endocrinologist tells me) when I was about 26, and wham, there came the weight. And because I couldn't admit -- even to myself -- that I cared about it, I didn't allow myself to do anything about it. So here I am 10 years later, and I'm finally able to admit that I care about it and that I'm trying to fix it. But I still am not at the point where I want anyone else to know. At any rate, I really appreciate your posting your thoughts/progress/plan like this -- I relate to your viewpoint, though our lives are very different, and I am enjoying following your journey. |
Sunday Jan 24th - WARNING! Going to sounds like a "chick" for this whole post
I was going through my closet pulling out some clothes to take to the dry-cleaner in anticipation of a 3 day trip I'm taking this week. I noticed a group of pants that had obviously been dry-cleaned together and not been worn (hangers still bound together actually). So I took them out and saw they were all a size 38 waist. I must have literally travelled with them, and they got so tight I just gave up and bought some new pants before my next trip, how sad! Anyway I was like "what the heck" and tried on a couple of pairs and they all fit. Like fit normally, not even tight! I started this journey on that bridge where even my 42's were getting too tight and that was part of my wake-up call. So down 2 pants sizes already which is great! This great news was also tempered by the sobering realization that when I was bursting out of those 38's several years ago was the first time that I tried this process and made a lot of dumb mistakes after losing weight and gained it back. It was a reminder how I need to fix some things to be sure the loss sticks around this time! And now I don't need to go to the dry cleaner for this week's trip haha:D... |
Weekly Update - Week 7
Starting Weight - 260 lbs Current Weight - 226 lbs Loss this week - 3 lbs Solid week, no complaints here. Pretty great to be at the end of week 7 with my lowest number being a 3. I'm also a little encouraged because I actually saw a lower number this weekend, but for consistency's sake I'm going to stick with my Monday gym weigh-in for the official tally. Stretch goal for the next 2 weeks is to hit 219 by this time 2 weeks from now. That is aggressive, especially given my travel this week, but possible I think. Nutrition Observations Mon - 1786 cals Tue - 1970 cals Wed - 1533 cals Thu - 1386 cals Fri - 2280 cals (Dinner out) Sat - 1093 cals (OOPS!) Sun - 1970 cals Well my calorie target is 1800-2000 per day. I only hit that 2 out of 7 days this week. Some whopping variations but I'm not going to rock the boat as long as my current rate of loss stays about the same. If it changes a lot I might try to lower the variation. Ate out twice this week, one of those meals I did pretty well (at Pei Wei) and the other not so much where I had some pizza. But pretty good overall, still getting in a ton of protein. Not much to talk about or a challenge this week to be honest (I wish I could say the same for the upcoming week). Exercise Observations Monday - Gym Tuesday - Gym Wednesday - Gym Thursday - Gym Friday - Short Run/Walk Saturday - Gym Sunday - Rest Solid week of exercise, nothing too notable or different from last week to be honest. One positive thing was that early in the week I did my nemesis the stair climber and actually killed it pretty good this time! Inspired by a blog I read, I'm toying with the idea of doing some exercise challenges just for fun. While I'm not ready for this yet, here's one I'm bouncing in my head. Climb Mt. Everest I've been watching these documentaries about climbing Mt. Everest and they are so amazing. Obviously the hard part about this is the cold and lack of oxygen and other physical factors that that extreme elevation brings. However I thought it might be a fun physical challenge to do the stair stepper for an equivalent height from base camp to the peak (like 8K ish vertical feet). I need to the math to figure out how long on the stair stepper that would be to see if it would be like a 2 or 3 day thing. I kind of think that once every three weeks or so doing a more "extreme" gym session (or a couple over several days) would be good for my fitness level and help my body burn. If anybody else has suggestions to a fun concept of a challenge that could be done in the gym I'm open. Not sure I'm quite brave enough to try it yet, but am toying with the idea. Looking forward to next week Well the last two weeks have been easy at home weeks. My work schedule has allowed for good gym time, and I frankly have had no real barriers to having two great weeks. Now it gets harder! I leave tomorrow for a trip up north and don't return home until late Thu night. And even Friday is already packed when I am at home. This week will for sure be a lot tougher, but another chance for me to succeed with my travel behavior changes I've targeted. Hopefully I'll have enough time to keep this thread updated with my success or failures, hopefully more of the former. 1st mini-success... I actually checked to make sure I am staying in a hotel with a mini-fridge. So I plan to stop by a grocery store between the airport and hotel to pick up a few things... |
nice
Nice job on the 3 pounds!!! especially on week 7, keep it up!!! I am going back to gym today, I walked/jogged Sunday for about 2 miles, but it was to the local Eagles Club where I drank beer and gained back the calories I lost in the short distance!!!! But so far so good.
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thanks
Thanks again for this blog, it helps me stay on track, just got done doing 40 min eliptical and I feel great, really pushed myself, feels good to actually do something positive.
Thanks again and you keep going and u will be to 200# in no time!!! |
Tuesday Jan 26th - First time in 6 years
For the first time since I started this job that requires a lot of travel, I darkened the door of a grocery store. Bought some food for my trip here to help with dinners/snacks/etc. Anyway really happy I did that, would have been so much easier to hit a restaurant or fast food on the way in and start relaxing sooner... EDIT: Ok haha, very funny. Which one of you jokers decided to phone my hotel ahead of time and instead of the typical pillow mint, replaced it with an entire normal sized bag of M&M's?!?!?!! Seriously? Really? Lucky for me I didn't notice them until I had eaten my fill of more reasonable food I picked up at the grocery store. So I threw them in the trash (literally). Take that! |
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I remember when I was gaining a lot and would go to the gym like once every 2 months. Afterwards I would always think "This feels great, why don't I do it more often". I find it weird that I can go to the gym feeling sluggish, work hard for an houra, and feel better when I leave. But I'll take it;) Keep going, be sure to post when you get out of the 3's! |
Thanks
Thanks for the encouragment. I still have not reached the 300 # mark and I can;t understand it yet, it went up a pound, but I have been eating and exercising more?? Oh well I have only been working out solid for a week, and I will be montioring my calories more closely. I will get there!!!
I feel great after working out, my back had been hurting from actually working muscles that have not been used in quite sometime!!!! But after I worked out yesterday I felt great!!!! Continued luck on your quest, and keep up the good work!!! Thanks again tucker |
Jan 26-28 ---- Thoughts from Business Trip #3
Well I'm back from trip #3 on plan. It's been a light travel schedule which is great over the last couple of months. I'll start with some griping, this trip just stunk. The whole thing start to finish was a pain. First of all I had to travel to Detroit, it was insanely cold (I am from the warm sunny south). Then my hotel was oven an hour from the airport. Then despite the fact it was close to 0 outside, my hotel had the A/C turned off and the windows wouldn't open so my room was so hot the first night that I couldn't sleep. Then it was my first day with a new client which meant that I had to be extra nice, happy, perky, etc which is a big energy drainer. Then I was mildly sick, so after the first day I went completely and totally hoarse (could not make sound come out of my mouth). Then it was still unbelieavable miserably cold. Then I got to the airport to fly home and had a middle seat. Then there were huge delays at my home airport after we took off so we spent an extra hour in the air and another hour sitting on my home runway. So I was in that middle seat for over 5 hours without moving. Then when I got home it was pouring rain, which is rare for where I live. So the whole trip pretty much sucked. Why is that relevant, besides venting? I think it is clear that staying on plan takes energy, physical energy, mental energy, willpower energy, etc. When there are a lot of things in life that sap available energy it makes it so much more difficult to stay on plan. For some this might be work stress, home stress, physical pain/limitations etc. I think I did pretty well on this trip overall, but it was hard. I really wanted to to just say "screw it", esp Wednesday night. Couple of comments/observations... 1. I went to the grocery store on my way into my hotel to stock up on some food for both days. This was great as normally I would have stopped and picked up fast food. Also since I was on expense account I could get pretty much whatever I wanted and it was cheaper than a restaurant. And all it really "cost" me was about 15 extra minutes. 2. I've started to notice the behaviors of "skinny" people more. Several of my clients are small women, and they just eat differently than I do/used to. They order different food, eat it more slowly, half portions before they even start, etc. Some of this isn't obvious, but not that I'm thinking more along those lines it is easier to spot. 3. Wednesday night was rough. I was tired, somewhat sick, and all I wanted to do was order a large pizza and pop a movie into my computer. I was browsing this site actually while I was having this mental struggle in my head. I ran across a thread in the Maintainers forum about "Things maintainers do well". I was hit by several posts, notably one by Mandalinn who has similar travel challenges to me, and all said something along the lines of "I work out even when I don't feel like it". That provided just enough encouragement to get out of my room and go get in a light workout. Also since I had gone to the grocery store I still had plenty of healthy food available so was able to eat well for dinner also! 4. At this client apparrently Thursday is "Thai Thursday". This is a problem since I don't really love Thai and know there are only a few things (none of which are remotely healthy) that are safe, especially since I was going to be flying that evening. So I ordered a normal meal which stunk, but happens. One interesting thing happened. It was a pretty large portion, which never has been a problem for a 260 lb guy in the past. I was eating, and trying to convince myself to be good by leaving some on the plate (a behavior I never do). I ate about 3/4th's of it and actually didn't want any more. This might sound small to some of you ladies, but this is pretty monumental to a big guy like me. I don't know why, but I actually felt pretty full and left the rest on my plate! 5. My airport behavior has changed significantly. I got to the airport with about 90 minutes to kill. I used to go to a TGI Fridays or a Chili's or something and have some massive calorie fried appetizer with several beers. Instead I chose to walk for about 45 minutes from one end of the terminal and back several times (probably 2 ish miles, like 4.5k steps on pedometer). While I was doing it I was scouting every single restaurant to identify the best food option for me to take and buy on the plane. So sort of combining diet/exercise behaviors in one. This is a relatively subtle change but between the food difference and the walking I probably saved 1000+ calories just in this hour alone. Anyway just wanted to put down some thoughts after this trip. Working to recover today. Still feel pretty bad, flying with even a minor cold seems to really exacerbate things. Tonight's challenge. BBQ restaurant with a friend for his birthday. Any suggestions? |
excellent
Sounds like you turned a terrible trip into a pretty good one, health wise!!!! Sounds like you are doing a really good job at being consciencious of your eating habits and patterns, good and bad!!!! That is what it is for me noticing and stopping old behaviors before I start. The biggest one is the beers, but I have switched from 110 calrie beer to 55 calorie beer, so right there is half!!! and only one or 2 nights a week not 4 or 5 like I was, something about having a cold one afterwork, but instead I head for exercise!! Good luck tonight BBQ, hopefully they have salad with like smoked chicaked, or maybe a smoked fish, smoked is good, its the damn sauces that get me everytime, like you I am going to a reverse raffle for a local charity, $100 dinner raffle with all u can drink and ribeyes!!!!! I will do my best
Good Luck Tucker |
Friday Jan 29th - BBQ Bomb
Well let's just go ahead an move on from last night;) We had agreed to go celebrate dinner with a friend to celebrate their birthday with 10 or so folks. And it was our church's free child care night so it was a nice adults only meal! We found out is was going to be BBQ so I was planning in my head...keep the meat reasonable...light on bbq sauce....green beans/corn for sides instead of potatoe salad and bread, etc.... Well we meet up, and come to find out we are going to this special place that is only open 3 nights a week. It is an all-you-can-eat rib buffet:devil: Not a restaurant with a buffet option, just the buffet. Good game me:(.... So we get there and here was the buffet... Ribs (which is the main feature) Sausage Brisket Turkey Potato Salad Coleslaw Bread So in general I had a pretty bad meal, to give myself some credit I could have pigged out more, I ate a fair bit of turkey (instead of sausage) to go along with a few ribs. And stuck with coleslaw for the side, which I'm sure wasn't great, but it was actually not too mayonaissy (yes I know that is not a word). The only real failure was going back for a small plate of seconds. I really didn't need it, and I'm pretty sure that half the reason I did it was just because half the table was getting up to do the same thing. Peer pressure I guess! I was pretty low on calories for the day heading into that meal, so don't think it killed me, but I haven't calculated yet. On to the next day! |
Weekly Update - Week 8
Starting Weight - 260 lbs Current Weight - 221 lbs Loss This Week -5 lbs Total Loss - 39 lbs Wow! Big time happy dance. I was expecting a 3 this week, hoping for a 4, and not really thinking about a 5. How exciting. That puts getting into the 210's squarely in sight for next week. I had a very random week, with 3 days of travel, a mild cold, and a few other wrinkles so was not really sure what would happen. The mild cold I had from wed-sat might have played some with the results this week, so I'm not going to get my hopes up too high for next week. Let me stop for a minute and say that I feel really blessed with the scale results thus far. I know there are probably some people who read this that work as hard or harder at this than I do and hope for a 5 in a month. I recognize that I have been very blessed to see 39lbs through 2 months and feel very grateful about the whole thing. I've gotten a few compliments here and there, but Sunday was crazy. I probably had a dozen people make a comment to me, and at least that many made a comment to my wife. It's nice, but really awkward for me. When someone says "are you losing weight, you look great" I tend to respond with a casual remark like: a) No, I'm just ungaining weight b) Meh, I'm trying to get to the gym more often c) You're just comparing me to my 8 mos pregnant wife;) (as a joke only with close friends and yes it gets me play slapped anyway) I am noticing that my appetite is decreasing. It's causing me to not be as focused on my between meal snacks as much. It might just have been the fact that I was a bit sick, but I used to feel like cutting down to 1800 cals I needed to eat every couple of hours, and I haven't felt that in the last week which is making it harder to stay disciplined in breaking up my meals and spacing my calories. I've been thinking some about my calorie defecit. Losing 39 lbs means that eating the same calories/exercise, means my defecit is something like 400-600 calories lower each day than it was when I started. However I have no plans of lowering my calories at this point, the results have been great, and I have no need to continue to lose as fast, so am fine if it slows down. I've found that 1800-2000 range to be "livable" and not a strict diet, and that is important to me. I should be able to lose down into the 190's in this range, it'll just be slower than my current progress. Nutrition Observations Mon - 1392 cals Tue - 1776 cals Wed - 1675cals Thu - 1578 cals Fri - 2031 cals (ate way too little + huge cheat meal) Sat - 2073 cals Sun - 1334 cals I'll give myself a B this week on diet. The really good part was I went to the grocery store on my trip and as a result ate miles better than my normal trips. Really proud of that effort. The other good part was staying in a decent calorie range all week. I did the following things wrong... a) No breakfast on Thursday b) Not great on snacks/calorie spacing Wed-Sat c) Friday was 400 calories until dinner followed by a whopping 1600+ cheat meal that included competely unnecessary seconds at a buffet Exercise Observations Monday - Gym Tuesday - Gym Wednesday - Short/light Gym (slightly sick) Thursday - ~2mi casual airport walk (slightly sick) Friday - Nothing (more sick) Saturday - Gym Sunday - Rest To be honest, my lighter workout schedule this week probably helped my # this week. I'm probably carrying a little less "muscle water" than previous Monday's. I did ok on exercise this week and was glad I made a difficult and conscious effort to move on Wed/Thu when I wasn't feeling 100%. I'm really starting to notice my upper body be more pronounced, and shirts that used to be tight around the belly are feeling more tight around the chest/shoulders (which is good!). These first 39 lbs have made a pretty big difference to a casual observer, but I don't feel like I look ton's different proportionally with my shirt off. But I can tell I'm on the cusp of making huge strides there and I bet the next 20 lbs will be less noticeable to others, but huge difference in muscle definition, etc. Looking forward to next week Have another week at home so nothing too special or complicated. Should be able to stay focused on another good plan week and hopefully getting into the 210's next week! |
Tuesday 2/2 - Cheating and ok with it?
Today for the first time in 2 months on plan, I purposefully and intentionally cheated. I've cheated over the last 2 months but this was the first time I thought about it and planned on doing it. I've been doing really well and have been thinking over the last week about having a cheat item or meal, many many choices came to mind;). What I've been missing the most is chips, and I've specifically been really craving a bowl of chips and salsa from Chili's (I dig both the thin chips and salsa). So I decided tonight was the night, I was in great shape calorie-wise for the day. I actually ate some about 90 minutes before I went, as my goal wasn't to have a huge Chili's binge (hello TriplePlay!) but specifically to treat myself to meet a craving. So I had Chili's chips and salsa, my wife had a dessert, and it was awesome. We had fun, and it tasted as good as I hoped it would. And the best part is that I don't feel bad about it at all since I really thought about doing it and it was a conscious and planned for choice. I'll be curious to see if this indulgence triggers any other cravings over the next several days, but hopefully not. |
Wednesday 2/3 - Type 2 Diabetes???
So I was having a nice day until I stumbled upon this innocent thread about how much water was appropriate to drink... http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...uch-water.html Anyway I realized that I used to have the severe thirst (even right after drinking a lot) described as a very common symptom of Type 2 diabetes. I have no idea how I never discovered that before. It didn't seem like a big deal at the time, I've always liked water a lot. I now remember somtimes being so full of water at night that I would be uncomfortably bloated, but still getting up several times to drink a full glass of water... Let me interject here one of my biggest personal weaknesses...I HATE going to the doctor. I have been to the doctor one time in the last 12 years, and that was for a well visit my wife forced me to go to. My thought was always "I know I'm overweight and have high blood pressure, and I undersand the implications of that"... In my original post at the top of this thread one of the reasons I listed for starting this journey was... "8. Knowing that I have high-blood pressure, and probably have gotten to the point where I am pre-diabetic. I for sure have unbelievable energy swings, and some periods during the day where I "crash" so hard I almost can't get off the couch." So today after that thread of course I went to my main source for any medical problems, my personal doctor....webMD:D Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes 1. Increased Thirst --- huge check 2. Increased Hunger --- ??I was super overweight and ate all the time so I guess??? 3. Dry Mouth --- huge check 4. Nausea and Vomiting --- Haven't thrown up once since childhood so no 5. Fatigue --- huge check, this was a big problem for me 6. Blurred Vision --- ??I have been very nearsighted since childhood so wear glasses all the time, haven't noticed anythin unusual here. 7. Numbness or tingling in hands/feet --- yes, not frequently 8. Frequent skin infections/slow healing infections --- not frequent, but I've had one or two that stuck around forever So I can't really come to much other conclusion that especially in the last 6 months before I started the plan that I was either right on the verge or fully in Type 2 land. Kind of a bummer. The Good News The good news is that I haven't had any of the symptoms since I started the plan. None. This took a while to think of since I didn't really think of the things like out of control thirst as a symptom. But I have not had any of that since on the plan. Also my blood pressure has dropped over 30 points since the last time I checked (which I'm sure wasn't the highest). So What Now I don't know really:?:, this sort of snuck up on me unexpectedly. The obvious answer is to go to the doctor for the simple test to see if my levels are out of whack. But I'll probably convince myself that I am already solving the problem, and haven't had any symptoms since eating right and exercising which is what the doctor would probably say. So I'll probably not go unless I have more symptoms come up...I know that's not the right answer...aarrrggghhh I HATE THE DOCTOR!!! I guess it also gives me more motivation to stay on plan. More at stake:( |
Hey randomcards,
I had another thought. These days a lot of drug store chains have in-store clinics where you can go and get some tests done, like blood pressure, blood glucose, and so on. They aren't free, but it's an alternative to having to make a dr. appointment. Usually they are staffed by nurse practitioners or physician assistants. I think you did dodge a bullet by starting your new program! :bravo: But find out some numbers anyway? Jay |
yes!!!! but oh no!!!!
I am in the 200's!!!!!!!!!!!! granted it is 299 but hey what the ****, the kicker though is it is Superbowl weekend, and it will probably all go to ****!!! I am planing on taking healthy snacks this weekend, but I know there will be several adult beverages consumed!!!!!!!!!
I will post Mon or not??? |
:woohoo:
Hang in there, tuckr!!! Stay together today and tomorrow, and keep with the idea of healthy snacks! And enjoy the SB! Jay |
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I'm about to make a post with my plan for this weekend. I would encourage you to at least think about what you are going to do and try to stick with that. That might well include snacks, beer, etc. But at least think about it ahead of time and decide what you do and don't want to do. That way you are controlling your food, not vice versa. And don't make your plan include anything dumb like only eating carrot sticks. Yeah right, not on Superbowl weekend. |
Friday Feb 5th - Preparing for the Superbowl
I'm really trying to continue strong attention on this concept of me happening to my life and avoiding my life happening to me which is a subtle but important difference. For example this weekend is the Superbowl. Here's what I know. -I enjoy watching the Superbowl -The Superbowl is usually a weekend-long bingefest -I am attending a party with lots of friends and ridiculous amounts of unhealthy "Superbowl party" type foods I know this today, so there is really no reason for me not to think about it now and try to decide how I want to handle this. So far I've ruled out.... ---Staying on plan on Sunday :devil: But here's what I'm thinking of doing. I think this is reasonable... A) Friday and Saturday: Go a little below normal calories somewhere in the 1600-1800 range. B) Saturday: Go for a longer than usual workout, really kill it at the gym with lots of weight training. C) Sunday (before Superbowl party): Try to stay at <600 calories up to the Superbowl party. D) Sunday (right before party): Drink a protein shake shortly before party. These fill me up decently and I think will help me limit the amount of junk food I eat to a less horrifying amount. DO NOT GO TO THE PARTY STARVED!!! E) Sunday (during the party): Don't stress about the plan. Attempt to do the following.... Only use small plates.... When small plate empties wait until end of quarter to refill... drink diet beverages. F) Monday AM: Count all my calories from the party as well as possible so I can own and be aware of my choices from the night before. K that's all I've got, I think that's doable. |
Quick Update
Ok I've pulled off A-C of my Super Bowl post thus far. Of course those were the easy ones, now I've got to pull off D-E the rest of today....I can do it! |
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I did really well up until the party and probably a little worse than I wanted to at the party (and I was already planning cheating:D). But on to a new week. And even better I put Drew Brees on contract for the next 3 years in my FF league at the beginning of the season! |
Monday Feb 8th - SuperBowl wrap-up observations
Well, glad to get that out of the way. So I did really good on my plan the whole weekend. Even drank a protein/fiber shake on my way to the party to help. It didn't help much:devil:! I had definately planned to cheat, but still ate more than I had expected to. Our friend potluck parties are an orgy of unhealthy food. What really got me were those stupid peanut butter cup cookies again (same as New Years Eve grrr!) and mini-pigs in a blanket. I mean they are mini so I can have like 20 rights:) So the net was my second biggest "cheat" day on plan. But here's the good news, I compared yesterday to my largest binge day (New Year's Eve) and my behaviors thorugh the weekend made a big difference. Because I was very good on plan the whole weekend up until the one party, the net was I only came out at just under 3K calories yesterday. Which I'm ok with, not thrilled, but a marked improvement from my performance on New Year's Eve under very similar circumstances. On to another week. I'll post tonight from my hotel the results of this week and how the SuperBowl feeding frenzy did or didn't impact my results this week...stay tuned;) |
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