Tell 'em what they've won...

Growing up, my brother, sister, and I were limited by the amount of TV we were allowed to watch during the week.  2 hours was the rule.  So once the weekend came, the 3 of us went into "binge mode".  On Friday night, we all crowded around the little black and white in my sister's room and settled in for the epic Friday night lineup of "Dukes of Hazzard", followed by "Love Boat", and capped off with "Fantasy Island".

However, during the weekdays in the summer we had the opportunity to cheat a bit.  My Mom stayed home with us during the day, but when we were just old enough to be left alone without a babysitter for a few hours, she started taking an aerobics class.

Her car wasn't even to the end of the driveway before the TV was snapped on and we were ratcheting that dial (no remotes or push-buttons back then, mind you).  There wasn't a whole lot to offer in that mid-morning weekday lineup, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

For the amount of time she was gone, we were usually able to get in episodes of "Card Sharks", "Press Your Luck", "Diff'rent Strokes", and maybe even catch "Price is Right", before we had to hastily clean up the complete state of disaster we had put the house in during the few hours she had been gone.  It was kind of like "The Cat in the Hat", but without the cat and all of the other weird shit that happens.

Anyway, I was reminded of this the other day:

Recognize it?  It's a game from the "Price is Right" .  Contestants would try to guess the prices of products, and for each dollar they were off, the mountain climber goes up the hill, often reaching the end of the mountain and falling to his (apparently hilarious) death.

What made me think of it was a graph I've kept of my weight loss efforts over the years.  In my previous post, I wrote about a food/exercise log I've kept since 2008.  I've also kept a spreadsheet of data of my weight over time.

I actually started the spreadsheet in 2003, when I started Atkins.  From that data, some previous medical records, and memory, I was able to enter data for my weight losses and gains since I graduated high school.  Here it is:

Listening to someone's weight loss story, you often hear the phrase, "but then I ended up gaining even more weight than I'd lost".  Certainly true for me, but look at how predictable the "gained back" amount has been.  You can draw a fairly straight line through each of the peaks.

I remember looking at this graph back when I started Atkins.  I thought to myself, "Wow, I was well on my way to 300 lbs."  Well, I got there.  And from what you can see, 350 and 400 aren't weren't that far around the corner.  Scary.

Continued success with the eating plan, weigh-ins, and exercise.  I'm down another 3 lbs this week, which is a pace I'm extremely happy with.  I realize this pace will inevitably slow, but hey - I'll take it while I can get it.

I've also cut down my diet soda intake by 75%, and dramatically increased my water intake by not bringing any diet soda to work with me.  That's got to be a good thing, too.

Cue the Top Gun music...

Man, I am sticking to this plan like a boss.  I've been on it for 28 days, and every single one of them except for one, I've hit my calorie target.  The one day I did go over, (day #4), was because I ate at night, which has in the past been one of the toughest things for me to resist.  Furthermore, day #4 was the only day I've eaten something after dinner.  Exercise has been right on track, and I'm down another 3 lbs.

However, I'm reaching what I would call a "danger zone".  (There it is - anyone who is a child of the 80's just had a Kenny Loggins song start up in their head while envisioning Tom Cruise land on an aircraft carrier.  By the way, this song will haunt you for the next 7 to 10 days.  You're welcome.)

I feel I'm in a danger zone because even though I remain upbeat and hyped, I know the pounds are going to start coming off slower now.  Those first "honeymoon" weeks of lightening fast loss are past me, and now it's time to dig in for the (extremely) long haul.  Motivation may be in short supply at times.  I've got to be ready for this so I don't fall off the wagon.

I'm about to reach a somewhat significant milestone, though.  I know this because since 2008 I've used this:

to log all my food and exercise.  Well not all of it, only when I've been on a plan for a consecutive amount of days.  Sadly, it's more a log of my failures rather than my success.  However, from the log I do see that once I finish this week, it will be the longest I've been on plan since 2009.  In 2008 I was on plan for 130 days, and in 2009 I was on plan for 122 days.  Both of those streaks show a lot of cheating towards the end, so I'll really have to be aware of that when I near the 100 day mark this time.

It's interesting the things some find to be motivators while others find them to be just the opposite.  I really need to keep a log to feel like I'm in control of my plan.  I like paging back through it to see how well I'm doing,  or what adjustments I need to make to do better.  My wife absolutely hates to keep a log, and finds it tedious, depressing, and demotivational.  She actually does better and is happier when she tallies things in her head and doesn't keep a log.

By the way - a funnier title for this post would have been "Yee-ha, Jester's dead!", but I'm not sure how I could have related it to weight loss/fitness.

One ring to rule them all...

Do you know what an "NSV" is?  I'm guessing you do, especially if you've found your way here from another weight loss/fitness blog or forum.  I didn't until I started frequenting the "3 Fat Chicks on a Diet" forums in my list of links at the right.

In case you didn't know, it stands for "non-scale victory", and it's exactly what it sounds like - any small weight loss/fitness related "victory" that doesn't center on a number on a scale.  It could be fitting into that pair of pants you haven't worn since acid-wash was cool, running into someone who hasn't seen you in a while almost not recognizing you, or even the simple act of (see one of my earlier posts) comfortably fitting into a restaurant booth.

I know lots of times these happen spontaneously, which is kind of why it feels so awesome when they do, but I've got a number of them I'm looking forward to.  I've got the requisite pants and shirts hanging in my closet, waiting their turn.  I'm looking forward to the day a coworker looks at me with that semi-befuddled look and says "Are you losing weight?".  But here's the one I'm looking forward to almost more than any:

my wedding ring.

When my wife and I married (19 years ago), I was hovering just a bit above 200 lbs.  I felt embarrassingly fat at the wedding, and cringed when I saw the photos.  It's ironic that I'd kill to be back at that weight right now.

Anyway, my ring was sized to fit me at that weight.  A few years went by, I stepped on the scale one day and it said 215.  That was my first real attempt at losing a significant amount of weight.  I went the Slim Fast low calorie (less than 1200/day) route.  Over a period of 7 months, I lost 50 lbs.

Then one day, out of the blue, my ring just fell off my finger.  I had lost so much weight it wouldn't even stay on my finger if my hand was at my side.  I still remember the ping it made when it hit the floor.  Awesome non-scale victory.  I got it re-sized, and even kept the little piece of gold they took out of it.

However, like all of my weight loss attempts since then, all those pounds came back (and then some).  As I went up and up in weight, that baby was most definitely not going to fit.  I quit wearing it, and didn't have the heart to get it re-re-sized.  In the drawer it went.

Fast forward to our anniversary about 5 years ago.  My awesome, loving, understanding, caring gem of a wife took it to a jeweler and had him put the little piece of gold back in.  What an awesome anniversary gift, I was so touched.  I went to slide it on my finger, and could barely get it over the knuckle.  Non-scale fail.  Big, hefty, stinking non-scale fail.  (Seinfeld fans' ears just perked up at that obscure reference.)

I don't know at what weight I'll be able to get it back on and wear it comfortably, but I'm tellin' ya - it is going to happen.

Hurts so good...

This thing:

Just completely kicked my ass.  Well, it actually kicked my ass about 36 hours ago, but it's the gift that keeps on giving.  It's called a kettlebell, by the way, just in case you haven't seen one before.

I wanted to incorporate some type of muscle building resistance training into my routine.  I've done free weights in the past, but haven't been all that excited at the thought of weightlifting as I had done in past attempts to get fit.

I read some article somewhere about these things and became intrigued.  When used with proper technique, it's suppose to strengthen your core.  I've never really worked the core muscles before, only the "showy" ones like biceps, triceps, shoulders, etc...so I thought it might be worth a try.  I enjoy golf, and I've heard that strengthening your core can really help your game.

So off to Amazon I went.  After a bit of research, I purchased the above kettlebell and this book:

They arrived promptly within 2 days (gotta love Amazon Prime), and for the next 12 months it made an excellent 16 kg doorstop.  I really wish I had taken a pic of what it looked like after I lugged it out to use it yesterday.  The layer of dust that had formed on it was beyond impressive.

After looking through the book and watching some demonstration videos online, I figured it was now or never.  The guy in the book recommends you start with something called the "russian swing", and master that before you go any farther.  I'm certainly not fit enough for timed interval training, so I just did 5 sets of 16 russian swings.  I took about a minute or so rest in between each set, and the whole thing probably took 10 to 15 minutes.

It definitely worked some muscles I wasn't used to pushing, and it was a good cardio workout as well.  In fact, I tried to do my 30 minutes on the elliptical right after, and wasn't able to  quite get through it all.

When I got into bed last night, I remember feeling that "good sore" you get with a new exercise.

When I got out of bed this morning I remember thinking, "Wow, I'm a little more sore than I realized".

By about 3:00 today the shit started getting real, pants-crappingly real.  Actually, crapping my pants right now would hurt way too much.

I mentioned to a fitness-knowledgeable friend at work what I had done and he said, "Yeah, you 'shocked your core'.  It's going to get worse before it gets better, but you should be fine by about Wednesday or Thursday".

He's right, it got worse, but I think I've reached a "pain plateau".  Getting up and sitting down hurts the worst, but not much else - I was actually able to do my 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical.  I did let out an unexpected shriek of pain when I got up from the dinner table though, to the delight of the rest of the family.

I'm sticking with it, however.  It will be interesting to experience what it feels like to have a "strong core" when this starts to pay off.  Building muscle should also help my metabolism and speed up the fat loss.

The bane of my existence...

Restaurant booths.  God do I hate them.  It didn't use to be that way.  I remember thinking "Wouldn't that be nice if we could get a booth?".  It's your own private little place in the restaurant.  No servers or customers running around you, behind you, and bumping into your chair and table.  Maybe the occasional kid peering over from an adjacent booth, but for the most part, not too bad.

But now, oh restaurant booth, oh how I have (literally) grown to hate you.  Mind you, it's entirely my fault, but I still hate you.  If you see on the news that some guy went ape-shit on an empty one with a baseball bat in a Red Robin, it was probably me.

The ones that are connected to the wall are by far the worst.  At this point, I'm not quite fat enough enough that I can't fit, but fat enough to be significantly uncomfortable and in a bit of pain.  Most of these restaurants I'll avoid all together.  I've got the booth scene pretty much scoped out locally, so I know what places to avoid.  I've definitely skipped more than one get-together with friends or coworkers because I knew booths in the place were bad news for me.

Some places have tables that aren't attached to the wall, and can be slid back and forth a bit within the booth.  This allows for somewhat comfortable seating, but can ramp up the embarrassment factor.  The table gets pushed a comfortable distance away from you, and when you look at the person next to you, they have this huge chasm they have to deal with.  If there's another bigger person there, sometimes we'll share a secret psychic look with each other while everyone is being seated, knowing that we should try to position ourselves on the same side.

I'm looking forward to a lot of things changing as I lose weight and get healthier, but for some reason conquering the booth is right up there as one of my favorite goals.  Once I can fit comfortably in them again, I'm going to look at each booth I slide into as a badge of honor, remembering how far I've come.

Continuing good news from the scale:  I'm down 3 lbs this week, which makes it 15 lbs total.  I'm probably still at the point where a lot of this is water weight, but it feels good to be heading in the right direction.  Motivation is still high, and I've had no problem sticking to my food and exercise plan.

Exercise-wise, I'm hoping to add in some kettlebell core strengthening exercises that I'll do 3 times a week in addition to the 30 minutes I do on the elliptical 5 to 6 days each week.  I've done the free weight thing before, but I think this may keep me motivated a little better as it's something different.

Let's do this...

Hello world.  I’m starting this blog as a sort of “self therapy”.  I’m not sure if anyone else will ever see or read it, but who knows.

2 weeks ago I started a (yet another) weight loss/fitness/quest to be significantly less fat journey.  I made that dreaded trip to the bathroom scale, and let out a resigned sigh as I looked at the number that stared back at me – 303.  Not quite the ideal weight for a 5’5” 43 year old man.

If you’re reading this, you most likely have started journeys like this in the past as well.  Perhaps even as many times as I have, (it appears I’m going for some sort of record).  Some of those journeys even led to temporary success, but never lasting success.

I’ve tried many of the fads – Slim Fast, low calorie, Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach to name a few, but this time I feel that I need this attempt to be “my” plan if it is going to work.  And not even a plan for that matter, a lifestyle.  “Plan” makes me think temporary, “lifestyle” feels more enduring.

Anyway here’s what I’m starting with as my mantra:  move more, eat less.  Specifics you say?  All right: calorie intake at least 1600 but not more than 2000 per day, avoid enriched flour and sugar (what I call “bad carbs”) as much as possible, 30 minutes of cardio every 3 out of 4 days.

That’s it (for now).  The plan, wait – lifestyle, is definitely a work in progress.  There’s definitely room for improvement and more specifics, and that’s kind of by design.

I’m going to make about a post each week not only detailing my progress, but to wax a little bit philosophic about weight loss, fitness, and what everyday life can be like for us 300 pounders.  If you’d like to follow along, maybe we can lend each other that always comforting mutual support.

Oh yeah – the good news:  I’m down 12 lbs over the last 2 weeks, but you know how those early pounds are sometimes more than happy to jump ship (this ain’t my first rodeo).  See you in a week!