Weight: 340.3 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (126 days): 75.4 pounds (1 pound lost every 1.644 days)
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 83.0 pounds
Percentage of goal lost: 38.08%
Next Milestone: 76 pounds (0.6 to go)
Yesterdays food log is HERE
Long time since my last post.. usually that signals that I have not been doing well and can’t face the music… but this time the reason was just lack of time and focus. While I haven’t done as well as I could have and there have definitely been some backtracking.. but in the last 24 days (the last time I posted) I have lost 8.5 pounds… a pound every 2.8 days… well above my goal loss rate… small victories are still victories. What is amazing to me is what I have done in that last 24 days and have still lost 8.5 pounds which puts me at just 0.6 pounds away from my first huge milestone… at 76 pounds this will be the largest single weight loss I have ever made… beating the 75 loss in a year back when I was 18-19 years old, going from 273 to 198 pounds…
November 27th was Thanksgiving. I did pretty well with it, going only about 60 calories over my limit… I only had about 5 calories all day before dinner. I wouldn’t do that in a normal day but this seemed to work pretty well.
On December 7th we went to my favorite place to eat Fogo De Chao (we went to the Beverly Hills, CA location)… we had been planning on doing this for a few months… nowbefore this post becomes just a glowing praise for Fogo, I must show you the menu…
Fogo is an authentic, all you can eat, Brazilian steakhouse.. let me emphasise ‘ALL YOU CAN EAT”… Meats like Filet Mignon, rib eye and my favorite.. the house special.. Picanha…
Picanha is a prime cut of top sirloin, lightly seasoned with sea salt and garlic… AMAZING!
Okay so that dinner was the first real cheat dinner of my diet.. I went in knowing that I was going to throw caution to the wind and just eat and enjoy myself… and that is exactly what I did… I didn’t think once about counting anything… HUGE shrimp cocktail, every meat you can think of… salad bar, more meat, rolls and more meat (seriously I ate a lot of meat).. drank a lot of Brazilian Lemonade… the Lemonade, which is really Limeade, is delicious and it is endless refills (as is the Iced Tea.. the sodas are served out of a can/bottle and are not free refills)… it is about 152 calories per 8 oz glass… and here is a recipe that sounds pretty close… I finished off the meal with their incredible Crème Brule…
The aftermath wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.. I gained 3.8 pounds.. I was at my lowest weight so far, so it helped it not be such a big issue for me.. that and I was expecting more than that… That night I did try to calculate a rough caloric intake for the day… I got 3378 calories or 1038 calories over my limit (really hard to calculate since nothing was weighed. I think it is close but it realistically could be higher or lower by quite a bit)… I was back down below the pre-Fogo weight by the 11th… this was one backtrack that was planned for and handled really well. If you can ever go to a Fogo De Chao I say do it! It’s expensive, around $60 per person plus drinks (Brazilian Limeade is endless refills as is the iced tea… sodas are served from cans/bottles and are not free refills), seafood selections and desert, but in my opinion it is worth every penny!
Back to reality now…
After that, we had Jake’s birthday and my birthday… there was pizza and hot wings and other foods that I have been trying to stay clear of… so I did eat some of it and I did go over a few times on my calorie goal, but I didn’t go crazy…
And a huge thing for me.. I bowled!! I didn’t bowl well, but I bowled… I think it has been over 6 years ago since I bowled last… I stopped because when I would bowl I would have horrible pain in my left knew for a few days.. I mean bone deep pain… and then a while back I had a protruding disk in my back so I have been babying it a lot.. Not bowling was huge for me.. I love it.. at one point when I was in middle school I was in 4 leagues a week.. As part of his birthday, we had a group of kids surprise Jake at the bowling ally and I decided to bowl too… and it felt great… my back was fine.. my left knee was fine.. my right knee started hurting for some reason, but I bowled 3 1/2 games (the time ran out) and lived to tell about it… the next day I felt like I had been hit by a truck… even my butt muscles felt like I had done 1000 squats… then the day after that all of my muscles hurt.. and now still today, 3 days later my forearms feel like someone pounded on the muscles… sad that I am so out of shape.. or as Dr. lee would say “deconditioned”… but I bowled.. and I hope to do it again soon!
Weight: 348.8 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (105 days): 67.2 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 74.8 pounds
Percentage of goal lost: 33.94%
Next Milestone: 76 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
100 days of calorie counting… Results have been good… could have been better but overall results are good.
This chart show my loss and trend line for the last 100 days: 
As you can tell the rate of loss has slowed especially in the last 30 days or so.
This shows my loss since my all time high on 9/13/10
The previous big loss on this chart is when I was on Weight Watchers… It was about as dramatic but not as long, getting down to 354 pounds before gaining again…
So it looks like where I am at now is where I failed during Weight Watchers and I think that is mainly because my lack of staying power… my waning motivation… this is where I have to succeed where I didn’t that time.
It is difficult to stick to.. period… when you have lived with horrible eating habits for a long time sticking to relatively normal ones gets hard… there are no tricks to it… no magic pill… it comes down to mind over matter.. sheer willpower… ans this is where I am at now.
I have ‘backtracked’ a lot recently… over the last 100 days I have actually lost 101.1 pounds… which means I have gained back 37.9 pounds in that same period of time. It is impossible to lose weight everyday without ever gaining anything back, but this shocked me. Going back to one of my Top 10 Diet Motivators, this video talks about ‘backtracking‘… Les says “Why do you want to go on that same journey again?” I have lost focus on this and I need to get that back today!
Going back through my Food Diaries, specifically the ones from the first month, I was eating much simpler, much more often and I had a lot of treats… ice cream cones, salt water taffy, Italian ice, etc… I was also eating more frozen prepared low calorie meals and almost no diet soda… based on all that I need to reevaluate how I am eating as well as what I am eating.
My goal for the next 100 days is to reduce my weight by another 63 pounds (total weight goal of 289.8). I will meet this goal by focusing on what and when I eat, remaining committed to this journey, trying my best to no ‘backtrack’ and adding exercise to my daily routine.
Weight: 352.8 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (101 days): 63.2 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 70.8 pounds
Percentage of goal lost: 31.92%
Next Milestone: 76 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
100 days of calorie counting… Results have been good… could have been better but overall results are good.
This chart show my loss and trend line for the last 100 days: As you can tell the rate of loss has slowed especially in the last 30 days or so.
This shows my loss since my all time high on 9/13/10The previous big loss on this chart is when I was on Weight Watchers… It was about as dramatic but not as long, getting down to 354 pounds before gaining again…
So it looks like where I am at now is where I failed during Weight Watchers and I think that is mainly because my lack of staying power… my waning motivation… this is where I have to succeed where I didn’t that time.
It is difficult to stick to.. period… when you have lived with horrible eating habits for a long time sticking to relatively normal ones gets hard… there are no tricks to it… no magic pill… it comes down to mind over matter.. sheer willpower… ans this is where I am at now.
I have ‘backtracked’ a lot recently… over the last 100 days I have actually lost 101.1 pounds… which means I have gained back 37.9 pounds in that same period of time. It is impossible to lose weight everyday without ever gaining anything back, but this shocked me. Going back to one of my Top 10 Diet Motivators, this video talks about ‘backtracking‘… Les says “Why do you want to go on that same journey again?” I have lost focus on this and I need to get that back today!
Going back through my Food Diaries, specifically the ones from the first month, I was eating much simpler, much more often and I had a lot of treats… ice cream cones, salt water taffy, Italian ice, etc… I was also eating more frozen prepared low calorie meals and almost no diet soda… based on all that I need to reevaluate how I am eating as well as what I am eating.
My goal for the next 100 days is to reduce my weight by another 63 pounds (total weight goal of 289.8). I will meet this goal by focusing on what and when I eat, remaining committed to this journey, trying my best to no ‘backtrack’ and adding exercise to my daily routine.
Weight: 354.2 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (80 days): 61.8 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 69.4 pounds
Percentage of goal lost: 31.3%
Next Milestone: 76 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
Happy Halloween! I haven’t in 9 days… I’ve been busy but mainly I notice that I tend to avoid this if I don’t feel like I am on track… and I didn’t feel like I was until 2 days ago.
In the last 9 days I have had ups and downs, luckily more downs than ups when it comes to my weight. I have lost 7.8 pounds in 9 days which sounds like I have been on track the whole time… not true… I was floundering and then 2 days ago I got back on it and lost 8 pounds in 2 days…
I know weight fluctuates and that most diet ‘people’ tell you to only weigh yourself once a week… I don’t agree… Here is an article about it
Halloween means candy and usually by this time I have purchased many bags of candy (knowing that we get only a few ‘Trick-or-Treaters’) and would have eaten all of what I bought and gone out and bought more… this year I fought the urge.. I haven’t bought any candy yet. I will be going to the store this afternoon and buying a bag or two… and I am going to try to get types that are not among my favorites. It’s been tough at times, but I have to be stronger than the urges.
Oh, this year I am dressed as Half Bearded Pumpkin Man…
Happy Halloween!!!
Thia is one of those debates where what works for you may not work for others.. When I am dieting I try to weigh myself everyday and monitor that using charts… of course some would go crazy doing that… Here is an article that covers pros and cons with different weighing schedules.
How Often Should You Weigh Yourself & When Is The Best Time?
Regardless of your specific goal, one of the easiest and most common ways of tracking your progress is by weighing yourself regularly.
Simple and obvious enough, right? But like anything else, there are still important questions that need to be answered. For example, how often should you weigh yourself? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? And when you figure that out, when is the best time to do it? Morning? Afternoon? Night?
Your answers to these questions can result in some HUGE differences, so it’s important that you get them right and know all the facts…
Here is an article from Lifehack.org that may help with motivation issues…
8 Things Highly Motivated People Do Differently
Everyone has a burning drive inside of them. For some, they need to learn from others to find it. For others, the drive comes naturally and pushes them to do great things. See what those naturally highly motivated people do differently and what they can teach us.
1. They move on
Highly motivated people don’t dwell on problems. If they mess up on a speech in public, fail a test, or do something embarrassing, they don’t try to push it away. They don’t let their mistakes stop them from achieving their goals…
Weight: 362.8 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (70 days): 53.2 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 60.8 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
Writing this on 10/22/14… Didn’t have a chance to write yesterday and forgot to weigh myself this morning so I am combining yesterday and today into one post 😉
The weekend and early this week didn’t go as well as I had hoped… I had trouble staying under the calorie limit and felt kind of out of control on my eating… I didn’t go completely out of control but just feeling like I might was horrible… Sunday was the worst day as I went over my calorie limit by 429 calories… the most I have been over since I started this…
I have started eating things that I wouldn’t have thought of eating the first 30 days of this diet… Cheesy Mexican food… McDonalds breakfast, etc. and that shows in the slowing of my weight loss…
So I am going back to basics… something that I haven’t focused on enough is water intake… I know how important that is especially when trying to lose weight… I have been drinking a lot of diet sodas which is something I was staying away from early on… I also have been drinking Gatorade more frequently… So as of now I am using my how to drink more water trick… I have my bottle of water with each cup marked off with the time I need to be at each mark and will be following this starting today!
Another thing I am going to do is review the first couple of weeks of food diaries and see exactly what I was eating… based on that I will be adjusting my current diet to more closely reflect the original foods. Just a quick overview shows I ate much more frequently… smaller dinners in general… Skinny Cow Ice Cream at night… and the big one, Zero Point Spicy Veggy Soup… that is something I will be making today…
Am am reemphasizing my Personal Health Mission Statement which I last revised in February 2011..
I will make myself (my health specifically) my number one priority. I will take steps now to be more active each day. I will prominently display my weight on a graph over my scale and on my blog and update it everyday. I will focus on making the right choices for my food intake both in quality and quantity. I will not punish myself for lapses in my focus.
Which brings us to being active… I have still not added activity to my diet routine and I know this is a huge issue…I have it in my mine everyday and I plan to be more active but it hasn’t happened… I haven’t even been making excuses.. I just don’t do it. This needs to be done now. I will be searching for tricks to make myself more active today and will post what I find that I think will work.
I will keep this quote in my mind…
“Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people.” – the late Randy Pausch in his ‘Last Lecture’
I am trying to take this very seriously and regain control now… I want to accomplish this weight loss goal… speaking of goals… next milestone… I was going to set it at 100 pounds lost, but I am setting it as 76 pounds lost… that will make it the largest weight loss I have ever had (beating the 75 pound loss I had back when I was 17-18… going from 273 to 198 in one year)
Weight: 365.0 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (69 days): 51.0 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 58.6 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
This article from Syatt Fitness is a little long, but has some good information in it.
Being hungry sucks.
Whether you’re prepping for a figure competition, cutting to a lower weight class, or leaning out for beach season is irrelevant.
You’re dieting, you’re hungry, and you want to eat…a lot.
With only a couple hundred calories left to spare in your daily quota you find yourself walking back and forth between the refrigerator and dry foods section, on the hunt for a satiating and at least semi-decent tasting snack.
This goes on for 15-30 minutes before you:
- Chug water and get out of the kitchen ASAP
- Eat an entire head of lettuce while trying to convince yourself that it tastes like General Tso’s Chicken, or
- Say “f*** it” and eat the whole tub of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream which you were supposed to be saving for your next “cheat meal.”
Funny because it’s true
I’m sure many of you reading this are nodding your head in agreement and thinking “haaa…been there, done that!”…
To read the remainder of the article please click here
Weight: 364.8 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (65 days): 51.2pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 58.8 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
Big milestone passed… I have lost 50 pounds… in 65 days… that’s an average of 3/4 of a pound a day… If I were able to keep up to that pace I would hit my goal of 218 on April 25, 2015… 191 days… I know that losing as fast as I have been won’t continue… but that was really amazing to me.. less than 9 months since I started this…
Been tough couple of days… still hung in there with the calorie counting.. went to a Mexican restaurant on 10/12… it was fabulous… after eating the way I have been it seemed so decadent… but so good 😉
Moving forward.. .