lighten up
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 9/13/10
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: 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!!!
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
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.. .
Weight: 366.6 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (58 days): 49.4 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 57.0 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
So close!!! I want that 50 pounds!!!
Did well yesterday… went out to the habit and splurged (while staying safely below my calorie limit) and had a double cheeseburger, tempura green beans w/ranch dip and a diet coke.. it was one of my higher calorie meals (1130 calories) but it was something that I was craving and it was so good!
My health is about the same… neuropathy the same… exercise about the same (meaning non-existent)… mood is hit and miss…
Weight: 367.0 pounds
Loss since 8/12/14 (57 days): 49.0 pounds
Loss since top weight (423.6 on 9/13/10): 56.6 pounds
Yesterdays food log is HERE
I have been floundering for a couple of days… eating more foods that aren’t the best use of my calories… I have lost some of the initial motivation… but then… out of the blue… I get a big weight swing… lost 4.6 pounds since yesterday… I have lost exactly 49 pounds in 57 days,, and I am feeling better now 😉 I got through the 370’s and am 1 pound short of 50 pounds lost…
I have to admit that for a long time I told myself that I couldn’t lose significant amounts of weight… I have a strange schedule.. I’m too old… I enjoy life and that includes eating large meals… Once I started losing I still had that little voice in the back of my mind saying that I wasn’t going to be able to continue this weight loss… Well today it is silent… I’m sure it will be back when my motivation lags… I just need to continue to ignore it and power through!
I am renewed with the ‘I Can’ attitude
So my wife and I got a rare chance to go to our favorite place for the weekend. Avila Beach is near San Luis Obispo, California and is about a 3 hour drive from home. The hotel that we stay at there ran an incredible special and we couldn’t pass up the deal.. and we both needed to get away SO bad…
So great trip.. lots of fun and very relaxing.. great weather… we had a BLAST! Now the down side is that there are GREAT places to eat there… and places that are not real Lighten Up friendly… so we decided to take it easy, and to really watch our snacking… and we did.. but I went off on the meals, not like I would have in the past, but definitely not on the program. For example I have breakfast ands had fruit instead of hash browns.. but I also had more protein on my plate than I am allowed in a full day… and I ate it all!
One diner I had three types of grilled fish.. steamed veggies and a baked potato… but I also had Breaded, Fried Green Beans for an appetizer and a bowl of clam chowder…
So anyway I expected to gain a small amount of weight… I hoped it wouldn’t be more than 4 pounds.. so was I in for a shock when it was a gain of 9-10 pounds (can’t tell exactly since I had to back to the old POS digital scale since I was over 350 again)… so that was Monday when I weighed 356.8…
That morning I went back on the food mover and now I am down 4 pounds… on track again and getting back on track with the exercise tonight.
It really taught me how easy it is to convince yourself that it is okay to take off this day or this weekend (or this meal for that matter) and how devastating it can be to your progress. I have been at about the same weight for a month now and I am tired of it. I need to refocus all my efforts and be serious again… I need to get below 300 and not be stuck here in the 340-350 range.
Next trip away I will still have a great time with my wife and we will eat at the same places.. I will just have to make the right choices and stick to it!