Pure laziness is the main reason for this week’s weight gain. I can make lots of excuses: stressful days at work, too busy with various events to exercise, not enough money to buy lots of healthy foods, blah blah blah. Honestly, they are just excuses. I simply did not want to put in the effort over the past few days.
But I’m determined to get back on track over the next few days. I have hope that better times are a comin’. Keep on believing in me, peeps!
Even though I felt I had a semi-bad weekend on the food and exercise front, I still was able to lose weight. I was able to lose 3.1 lbs. over the week, so obviously I’m very happy about that! I attribute this to increased exercise, both at lunchtime and in the evening. I only walk for around 10-15 minutes at lunch; the evening walks usually last 30-40 minutes. I’m not really moving at a fast pace right now…I’m just happy to be more active. Plus, having walking buddies has been a tremendous help. Together, we’ve walked over 5 miles!
The week ahead is a little intimidating. I’m not so worried about the work week. It’s the weekend, of course, due to multiple parties, which means lots of snacks, finger foods, entrées, and desserts. Tempting for a fat guy like me, to say the least. I’m going to have to keep my hunger in check, stay busy, track what I eat and drink, and be sure that I continue to exercise.
For now, I’m happy with the weight loss for the week. I’ll worry about the weekend when I get there.
NOTE: I attended an Overeaters Anonymous meeting this weekend. Overall, it was a very positive experience. But in the interest of anonymity, I’m not going to provide any details on this blog. If you would like to hear about my first OA meeting, please send me an e-mail.
Hundred Pushup Challenge
Initial Test: 1 normal push up, 9 “knee” push ups. Yikes. Me gots no upper body strength!
When I started trying to lose weight again a couple months ago, my weight was at 317.7 lbs. Today, I weighed in at 296.4 lbs., so I’ve lost over 20 lbs.! Yes, a good start, but I still have a long, difficult journey ahead of me. Here are some of my short-term goals:
And then we have the long-term goals (which seem slightly intimidating when I read these):
Yikes. Lots to do. Better rest up…
It was another bad week. I’m now at 299.9 pounds. A very symbolic weigh-in. It’s like God is telling me that this is my last chance to turn around and start losing weight again. Or else we all know what’s next: weighing above 300 pounds again.
I still haven’t found the motivation to lose weight again, but I really haven’t been putting in the effort to find motivation either. I have received a lot of great advice from you all, and I will definitely put it to good use at some point, hopefully very very soon.
School has started up again for me so that has added an extra layer of stress to the situation. But life is all about stresses, so I know that I cannot use this as an excuse for not putting in the effort to lose weight.
What’s next? I’m not sure. Hopefully a better week. I guess the first step is to find that motivation again. I know I can find it… I just hope I can stick with it this time.
Yes, I met my little mini-goal by not gaining more than a pounds, but this is still extremely disappointing. Obviously, I have no one to blame but myself…no exercise + bad eating = weight gain.
I fear that I have lost motivation completely and that I am inching my way towards falling off the weight loss bandwagon. What to do next…I’m not sure.
I knew I was going to go up this week. No doubt about it. I didn’t work out for a week and a half. I didn’t track Weight Watchers points for a week, which resulted in me eating rather badly. I haven’t blogged in a week. I basically jumped completely off the weight loss bandwagon for a week. I think I needed a break…things seemed a little overwhelming all of a sudden. Plus, I felt a sudden need to be SUPER lazy before I can’t be lazy anymore…the school year begins in just two short weeks.
I think I should be thanking my lucky stars that I only gained 1.6 lbs. I’m looking at it as a minor setback on this journey…I knew things wouldn’t be perfect, and I am going to learn from my mistakes. I ate healthy today, and I worked out on the elliptical.
I think I’m going to give up the Wii for a little while…I got a little bored with it, to be honest. I’m also considering joining a gym sooner rather than later…probably in the next few weeks. I feel that I’m missing something in my workout, and I think that something is strength/resistance training. I was sort of getting that with the resistance band that came with EA Sports Active…but I’m not sure it is enough. It also got a little monotonous. I think the strength training machines at the gym are useful…but I don’t think I know how to use them, or at least use them properly. I’m hoping that my gym gives a free personal training session or a basic workout plan, because I really don’t have any sort of workout routine. Anyone know whether gyms will give out basic workout routines?
I apologize to all for not updating, but I’m back and ready to start losing weight again. Let the daily updates resume. 
Yikes, I’ve been on my longest hiatus yet…I haven’t updated since Friday, when I promised all of you that I would update this weekend. And I totally broke my promise. I had one of those really really lazy weekends, where I didn’t really want to do anything except relax and enjoy a quiet weekend. I think it is because law school starts again for me in a few weeks, and I’m trying to enjoy my free time while I still can.
Unfortunately, that laziness resulted in some hiccups this weekend with food and exercise. I didn’t exercise the entire weekend, and I ate slightly larger dinners. But things are OK…I lost 1.3 pounds this week, coming in at a weight of 294.7 pounds. Honestly, I think I would have lost more if it wasn’t for this weekend. But it’s OK…I remain fully on the weight loss bandwagon, and I’m still very much energized and excited about exercising and eating healthy.
I’m still trying to enjoy these last few days of freedom, so I probably will not exercise today. However, I am getting back on track tomorrow. I will be away from home, but I have decided to find a way to exercise at the hotel I am staying at, either at the on-site gym or by walking around the premises for an extended period of time. I would be content with doing either option.
I want to thank everyone again for your continued support…you guys are the best!
Today, I reached my first milestone: I have lost 5% of my starting weight by weighing in at an even 296 pounds. I also reached a mini-milestone by being under 300 pounds for the first time in a long time (I think it’s been around eight years). Good news all around!
Obviously, I’m happy with my progress thus far, but I know I still have a very long way to go. I can’t let myself get too giddy. In the past, I would celebrate a good weigh-in with a day and night of not tracking points. Naturally, I would eat like a pig and feel OK about it since I was celebrating. But the celebration would continue into the next day…and then for the rest of the week. Before I knew it, I had gained the weight back and would have to get to the same milestone again. Usually, I wouldn’t get to it again, because I had gone too far. I had eaten too much the week before, so I usually decided that I had fallen off the weight loss bandwagon and that I would need to start all over again…after a few weeks of binge eating, of course. Yo-yo dieting, indeed.
Today, I “celebrated” by continuing the same routine of dieting and exercise I have been following. And I feel great about it. Granted, I ate a slightly larger dinner than normal, but certainly nothing too extreme. I’m still very much on the weight loss bandwagon.
People may be wondering if I notice any change in appearance. At the moment, I don’t see a difference, but I can feel it in somewhat subtle ways. I wore a polo shirt today that used to feel rather tight, but it feels a lot more comfortable on me now. My jeans and khakis are getting loose, but they aren’t too big to wear yet. Instead of having -50 muscles, I feel like I have -10 muscles. These are all small things, but they definitely help raise my confidence in the weight loss program that I am following.
Here’s to reaching many more milestones. Thank you everyone for your constant support!
Now I know what it must have been like to be the ’86 Red Sox when they almost won the World Series, or Tom Watson when he almost won the British Open yesterday.
Well, not really, but you get the idea. I weighed in at an even 300 lbs. this morning. 300! My body couldn’t have given me that extra tenth of a pound, so that I could be at 299.9??? Instead of beginning my next milestone, I’m still stuck at my first milestone of getting below 300. Frustrating, to say the least.
Obviously, this isn’t as bad as I am making it sound. I still lost 1.3 lbs., and I have now lost a total of 15 lbs. I ate healthy and worked out every day, so I don’t really have anything to be ashamed about. But still…I like the sound of “under 300″ more than “lost 15 pounds.” And I feel like I ate healthy enough to have lost at least two pounds.
I’m beginning to wonder whether I miscalculated or underestimated certain food point values in Weight Watchers. For example, on Saturday and Sunday, I had chicken fingers for one of my meals. In Weight Watchers, the generic entry for chicken fingers is “Chicken Tenders, Restaurant Type 1 serving: 6 points.” I was calculating this as one meal of chicken tenders, but now I think it might be 6 points for EACH chicken tender. Oops…that might explain the disappointing weight loss a little bit.
I’ve also learned that I shouldn’t trust the weight that Wii Fit gives me every day. For the past couple days, it has put me around 297 or 298. I suppose I should have known that the weight shown isn’t entirely accurate, since the balance board isn’t a scale. Regardless…FALSE HOPE! BAD WII FIT!
Now I have extra motivation for this upcoming week of eating and exercising…maybe my body was sending me a sign.
INTERESTING ARTICLE OF THE DAY: Check out this Boston Globe article regarding how the recession has affected exercise and eating habits. Now that I think about it, I do find it kind of odd that I started my weight loss journey in the middle of a recession and while I’m a poor student. I guess I should be thankful for my summer job…and student loans…and the wifey’s income.
In the words of the immortal Johnny Drama…Victory!
I was a little nervous about this morning’s weigh-in, because I did a stupid thing and checked my weight last night. Whoo boy, that was not good. It was basically the same weight as last week. I was flabbergasted…I ate under my points target the entire week, I worked out 6 out of 7 days, and I didn’t lose?
But this is why I need to weigh myself at the same time every week. The morning came, and all was right in the world…I was down 3.9 lbs. to be at a weight of 301.3 lbs. Good thing too…I probably would have gathered all the fat people in the world and started an uprising against God to demand an answer to why I didn’t lose any weight. I’m glad it didn’t come to that.
I had a little mini-celebration by going to the British Beer Company for dinner with the wifey. I ate less than I normally do there, but it was a lot compared to my dinners over the past couple weeks, and I felt so full that my stomach almost went Boom Boom Pow. It’s OK though…I needed some sort of mini-reward. Besides, I basically ate a cardboard sandwich for lunch.
My friend Rich sent me a great link to the Couch-to-5K Running Plan at the Cool Running website. This is exactly the plan that I’m going to follow once I’m ready to run on a regular basis. Cool Running has lots of other great articles and a gigantic amount of race listings, so I’m sure I’ll be checking there regularly in the future.
Onward to Weigh-In Day #2…hopefully next week, my weight scale and I will hug it out.
