Finally Free of Week Three

Wow, what a week. I really don't like it when I start out a week very strong and then have temptation after temptation to eat poorly and then, half way through the week, give in to bad eating. The major problem with that is that a part of me gives up for the rest of that week. I think that is what happened this last week.

Sunday through Tuesday were great. I stuck to the diet and exercised everyday. Sunday, granted, was just a walk with the family, but I still did great at everything... Then Wednesday hit. If I had just fallen a little on Wednesday, I think it would have been alright for the rest of the week, but, as I said above, one slide leads to another.

Wednesday was an activity for my oldest son, Steven. He is just starting cub scouts with church and there was a meet and greet type activity. The boys were supposed to help cook a side dish and then bring their dads to the activity for eating and such. So, Steven's favorite side dish is potato salad. His mom got the recipe from my mother and it's a great dish. Well, Steven and mom made the potato salad and then I went with him to scouts. At scouts we had a choice of hamburgers or hot dogs and then lots of sides. Now here's the crux of my situation. By the time that we finally made it to Steven's activity, it was 7:00pm. I had not eaten since around 11:00 when I had lunch. I was really hungry, and that was the death of me. I did fine on the main dish, having only one hamburger (believe me, I wanted more). My killer that evening was that I had three servings of mom's/Steven's potato salad, and then, when I got home that evening, I had another helping and finished it off. To make matters worse, I didn't exercise, because I came home and went straight to scouts with Steven.

Thursday was another matter, I ate good during the day and exercised. In fact, I need to share a new favorite of mine. I take a piece of whole wheat flat bread. It's about the same size as a flour tortilla, only thicker. I added 2 tbs of hummus, 2 slices of honey baked turkey breast and then roll it up like a wrap. I hate to say it, but I have started counting calories just a bit, so here's the breakdown of that concoction.

Flat Bread: 100 calories per slice
Hummus: 50 calories per 2 tbls
Honey Baked Turkey: 70 calories per 2 slices

Grand total: 220 Calories.

I ate one of those and it satisfied me for about 3 hours. When I got hungry again around 2:00, I ate another and it was enough to tide me over until dinner.

When I got home on Thursday we ate a sensible dinner of fish tacos. I had three of those. I've substituted plain non-fat yogurt for the sour cream and Teresa made a DELICIOUS pico de gallo for the salsa on those. After dinner we went on our "almost nightly" walk. I measured the distance we go, it's only around the block once. It's 1.4 miles and it takes us anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 minutes, depending on our pace. I also started timing myself for how long I can keep up a jog. Now, I know that my time is going to make most of you chuckle, I find it comical myself for how long I can keep up a jog, but it's a start and gives me a mile marker. I'll include that at the end.

Had the rest of the week continued on like Thursday, I think I would have been successful this week, but, alas, it did not. On Friday the guys at work decided that they wanted to go out to a Korean restaurant for lunch and I didn't resist. I went, had some Kim Chi (sp) and some wontons and so bulgogi (sp) with rice. It was a lunch portion, so not too much food. I had run out of my flat bread, so I couldn't have that for a snack when I got hungry again near 2:00. So when it was time to go home, I was really hungry. I usually call Teresa when I'm on my way home from work and Friday was no different. When I called her, she said that she hadn't made dinner yet and I suggested that we try Applebees, since we have coupons for the kids to get free meals. I know, it was twice in one day, bad enough to go out twice in one week. But, I rationalized, I would just order their salad, get a vinaigrette salad dressing and then call it an evening. Well, by the time we got to the restaurant and waited in line for a table, I was starving. Restaurants and starving are a poor combination. I order the fajitas and ate every last bit. We left the restaurant and, because I was stuffed, I chose not to go walking either.

Saturday was a little better. I ate a sensible breakfast and then a fitness bar for lunch. I worked outside in the yard most of the day. We decided to invite our neighbors over, though, so the strict diet food was not much of an option. We cooked tri tip. It was great, but I probably had six pieces. On top of that I had 1 1/2 baked potatoes and then some cake at the end and a salad and and and... We ate at 5:30 but then by the time that our friends left, it was too late to go walking, and the boys needed to go to bed. My exercise in working around the yard was going to have to be sufficient for the day. Then it's time to go to bed and I'm starving again. I got a salad out of the fridge and ate that. It had lettuce, chopped up steak and I added light ranch.

So, not surprising, after all of these setbacks, I was not happy with my weigh in this morning.

Here's what I've learned this week:

1. Don't allow myself to get to the starving stage. Eat less but more often
2. Make sure that I exercise in some way everyday
3. Say no to restaurants for the next month or so, to get myself situated on how I should be eating.
4. Don't give up after a bad day.
5. Don't eat when I'm depressed.

Okay, so number five doesn't really have anything to do with me, because I haven't been depressed and I didn't eat when I was. I added that more so that in case anyone reading this was depressed at my progress this week, they wouldn't be tempted to eat. :)

As for this evening, I should have gone walking again, but it started raining and we had a bit of a storm that lasted until late, so we didn't go. I did take some cool pictures, so I apologize for adding pictures that have nothing to do with my diet, but I thought that they were beautiful. There's a few of them. They were all taken after it was dark and the sun had completely set. If you'll look at them, you'll see a shiny spot in the upper right hand corner of the pictures... That's Venus, pretty cool!

Onto the results of this week's endeavors:

Journey's starting weight: 260
Week's Starting weight: 251 Pounds
Current weight: 250 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 1 Pound
Total weight loss: 10 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .4%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.8%
Time jogging without stopping: 2:40

Now, the next pictures were of the amazing thunderstorm that passed through for a couple of hours this evening. Enjoy!

Steve

Week Two, Now Through!

Well hello faithful followers, all 8 of you! I'm sure that you have been waiting with much anticipation for this week's weigh in.

As I write this blog, I have to say that I'm pretty amazed by television writers that, on a daily or weekly basis, write television shows, come up with new stories and captivate audiences week after week. I'm sitting here now, trying to think about what to say and realizing that I don't have a lot to say about this week. Maybe once my fingers begin pressing keys, they'll take over and my brain won't have to think about what should be typed. At the least I hope that I can keep your attention until the end of the blog.

In my life, I've lost a significant amount of weight two different times. The first time was when I was 19. I weighed 210 pounds and went on a church mission to Venezuela. Venezuela is the northern most country of South America. When I arrived I had a rude awakening about life outside of the United States. In South America wealthy people have cars. Everyone else rides public transportation, unless you can't afford that, and in that case you walk. Well, even though we were missionaries and, most of us, from the United States, we didn't have the luxuries that most Americans have when they travel. We used public transportation. When we ran out of money, which was not uncommon, or when the public transportation was offline for whatever reason, we walked. As missionaries, we had areas that we were assigned to work in from one to six months. I remember one week when the bus drivers were on strike in a place called Barquisimeto. We lived 3 miles outside of our work areas. We had to walk to our area to work and then walk from one side of the city to the next. We walked an average of 12 to 14 miles in a day during that week, whereas a typical area would only require 6 to 8 miles a day. As you can imagine, going from no exercise to 14 miles a day is going to do wonders for your body. When I returned from the mission, two years later, I weighed 152 pounds. Contrast the walking that we did as missionaries in South America, or the amount of bike riding that people did in the last place that we lived in Germany with the our lackadaisical attitudes here.

I tell this story to be comical, but this proves my point as to how comfortable we are with our lifestyle in America. I won't mention anyone by name, but I was talking to someone that I care about deeply from Bakersfield, California. She was returning home from somewhere and pulled into her driveway with her car. When she parked, she realized that she forgot to check the mail. Instead of getting out of the car and walking to the end of the driveway and getting the mail, she put the car in reverse and pulled in front of the mailbox, got the mail and then pulled back into the driveway. An just to clear things up, her driveway was the length of three cars. Sorry, I had to tell the story, thinking about how comical that is and it plays into the theme of this week of exercise.

After being back from my mission for a couple of years, I started gaining weight again. I got back up to the 200 pound mark and shortly after I joined the Army. It was in basic training and advanced training that I lost a significant amount of weight for the second time, losing 40 pounds.

Well, needless to say, I have gained all of that weight back, and more. During this week and thinking about those times that I've lost weight, I've had an epiphany, one of my few "ah hah" moments. I've realized that I can eat what I want, if I'm willing to do the exercise necessary to burn off those extra calories consumed. With both of my weight loss experiences, the only thing that has changed was the amount of daily physical exertion that I engaged in. When I finished my mission, I stopped walking and hiking and moving around so much. When I finished with the Army, I stopped exercising daily and worrying about my weight. Now, I don't use this as justification to eat what I want, but as a realization that I can lose weight, without starving myself, if just make exercise a part of my daily routine.

I mentioned in other posts that I love food, and I do. I hate starving myself, too. To lose weight, without exercising, I'm going to have to starve myself, and I think I will eventually give up if I do that. If I am going to lose weight and ... here's the important part... keep it off, I MUST exercise regularly. Now, this may be different with different people, but with me, I will need to exercise in order to lose the weight that I want, and I will have to exercise in order to maintain the weight that I want once I get there. As I go along this journey, I am going to continue to make changes to my diet, which will help me to continue to lose weight.

I think that I mentioned last week that I felt that this week, of all weeks, would be the most difficult. I said that because I have tried several fad diets and with all of them I have crashed and burned on week 2. I have done Atkins diet for 2 weeks, South Beach diet for two weeks, weight watchers for two weeks, fit for life for two weeks, and several others that I don't recall. I've changed my outlook now, I think every week is going to present its challenges and difficulties. I fully expect to go through the weeks over the next year and have failures, but I must convince myself to keep going every week, or else I will be right back up there at 260 pounds and living a less fulfilling life.

Well, I think I'm done philosophizing for this post. Here is how my week went.

I started exercising, as I mentioned in one of my comments this week. Teresa is a great motivator. She goes walking everyday, whether or not I'm there, and is always setting the example for me with exercise. So, this week I exercised 5 days out of the week. We walk for about 30 to 45 minutes around the block (Hey, that block is pretty big). It's probably a little more than a mile. I try to change it up a little bit and have started sprinting between light poles with my oldest son, Steven. Thank heavens I'm still able to beat him. He's a little slower than me and it's nice to rub his nose in his failure. He's gotten to be a little cocky and it's nice to humble him every now and then. All of his brothers ride their bikes and so I've not been able to beat them. Steven's bike just got fixed on Saturday, and now I'm not able to beat him anymore, but it was good while it lasted. I take solace in knowing that, since I'm bigger than him, if he annoys me too much I can just tell him to get off of his bike and sprint with me. It's nice being the boss and being able to affect so much control over him. I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets older and starts showing more defiance. Well, back to exercising. I said that I like to change it up a bit. This week I also tried putting on roller blades that I hadn't worn in years. Holy cow, if your as out of shape as I am and would like to roller blade, get ready for some sore shins, calves, back, stomach, neck, arms (from holding on to things) and lungs. That was a beat down like no other beat down on me in five years. Here is me getting ready to give myself a near heart attack.



As far as food goes this week, I've done better, I've done worse. I need to improve my eating habits still. I got up for work a little late every day this week and didn't have a salad ready for me to go to work. Three times I went out to a restaurant for lunch. Twice I went to Subway and had their Chicken Breast Sub. I would have been fine, had I only had the 6" sub, but I got the foot long both times. The other restaurant that I went to was Shoney's buffet. Buffets, while on a diet, are bad, ok? They're just bad. I had two plates of salad and then, to top it off, had some green beans, broccoli and mashed potatoes with gravy. I ate reasonably because my plates were small, but the mashed potatoes and gravy are diet killers.

So here I am on Sunday, a week where I should have eaten better, but I started exercising more, and here are the results of my journey for week 2.



Starting weight: 253 Pounds
Current weight: 251 Pounds
Weight Loss last week: 2 Pounds
Total weight loss: 9 pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: .8%
% Weight Loss total diet: 3.46%

It's not great, but a weight loss beats a weight gain every time. And I did mention that I planned to take a year to accomplish my goal.

Thanks for following. Look for more again next Sunday!

~S

Week One, is now done!

Before you continue, I must warn you that there is an explicit image below of a beached whale standing on a scale. He has pants on, but no shirt, and it's a sight for sore eyes!

Well, week one passed with a modicum of success. Let me take the time to highlight last week's accomplishments. Last week, being at the beginning of the competition, I was the most excited and the most pumped about my ability to lose weight and have a change of lifestyle that will bring me the type of body that I want... permanently. The thrill of making that decision was strongest during the first 6 days, with the excitement of being thin fading and the realization of what "losing weight" really entails steadily growing. After day 6 my determination started to wane, especially, like I said yesterday, with the evils of restaurants tempting me. Okay, they're not so evil, they are just bad when it comes to trying to change your lifestyle.

I had a temporary change in schedule for the last two weeks. I started work at 3:00pm and then went until 11:30. I thought that this would wreak havoc on starting a diet, but it actually worked out well. I ate a reasonable breakfast and then a salad for lunch and then went to work and ate a salad for dinner at work. It was actually quite easy to follow the schedule. My worry is, though, now that I'm changing back to a normal nine-to-five schedule that I'll have a more difficult time.

This coming week, out of all weeks, will be the one that is going to be most difficult. My problem with food lies in three primary areas:

1. Addiction to Food: I love food. Not only do I love food, I love ALL food. I love the taste of food, I love the smell of food, I love the look of food, I love to cook it, I love to eat it, I love to... okay, I think I'm being counterproductive now. Suffice it to say, I love food. I honestly think that my love of food will have to be conquered before I will be successful at being healthy.
2. Portion control: Ahh, what a great problem to have when I'm addicted to food like I am. I don't want the 9 oz steak, which may fill me up. I want the 22oz steak which I can gorge on and fill me so full that I want to vomit for 3 days after if anyone mentions steak. Don't believe me? I ate here (The American Steakhouse), three times in the past year. Look at their menu and go down until you see the 650 gram rib eye steak. I've eaten that twice. 650 grams = 22.93 oz. That's right, I ate 1.5 pounds of steak and had room for sides and drinks. Again, let me reiterate, I love food and I love LOTS of it!
3. Monkey see; Monkey Eat: Okay, that is a twist off of the adage monkey see; monkey do, but it fits. Teresa has pointed it out to me on several occasions. If I see food laying around, I eat it.

So, how is this going to cause me a problem in the week? Well, now that I'm going to be getting home around 6:00 in the evening, I'm going to be eating with the family. As much as Teresa will cook healthy food, she can't cook everything like I am going to need it made and still keep four kids happy. She will need to make something for them which is going to be less healthy for me, something other than salads, and I'm going to be tempted to eat it. Now, you're probably going to say, "But Steve, you need variety." Well, that would be nice, if I didn't have a problem with #2. I don't eat just a tiny bit, I eat everything on my plate, bowl, dish, platter, cup or whatever else is in front of me. This is going to test every bit of my self control. Being around kids and seeing what they are eating (Goldfish, string cheese, cookies, crackers, hot dogs etc,) isn't going to help either. I'm going to be very tempted to reach my hand in the package and grab some for myself. Again, this week will be my biggest test. On top of that, I am resolved to exercising enought to get my heart rate up for at least 30 minutes per day three times a week this week, that means being even more disciplined. Folks, if you want to see if I'm really serious about this change of eating habits and change of my life, you will see it reflected when I tell the weight of next Sunday's blog.

Well, enough about my last week. You know what I'm up against this week to come. To end this week, I'll finish it off with my results of my weigh-in.

Without Further Ado... And no, I didn't take this picture on the 31st of January, 2008, I just haven't set the date on the camera yet. I'll get to it for next week, I promise!


Starting weight: 260 Pounds
Current weight: 253 Pounds
Total Weight Loss: 7 Pounds
% Weight Loss this last week: 2.7%
% Weight Loss total Diet: 2.7%

Well, wish me luck, this week will try and test my will!

TTFN

Steve

Week One, Almost Done!

Well, I've come to my first mile stone. One week on my journey to change my life permanently. This week has, for the most part, gone by very smoothly. Today was the only day that I didn't go 100% of how I should have eaten. Teresa got a babysitter and asked me out on a date. Well, I can't turn that down. We're in a small Georgia town and about the only thing that there is to do here is eat or go to a movie. The only movies that are playing here, that what we'd be willing to watch, were Julie and Julia (I think that's the name of it) and then The Time Traveler's Wife. Well, I wasn't interested in either one of those. Can you guess what we did then? That's right, we went out to eat. Let me tell you, for those of you who have dieted before, restaurants are diet KILLERS. Needless to say, I didn't eat as well as I could have. We went to a steakhouse (http://www.millhousesteakhouse.net/), on top of that, too. I got a pound of crab legs and steamed broccoli. I also had two bread sticks. So, I didn't eat as well as I should have.

Anyway, other than that, the eating has gone well. I only exercised once this week, which I am going to start doing more of next week.

I'm not writing anymore tonight, only to say that tomorrow is my first weigh in with pictures. Stop by tomorrow evening and see the weight.

I told a friend that I didn't think I was going to lose weight tomorrow. I haven't looked at the scale yet, so it will be just as much of a surprise for me as for you. I wanted this first week to be focused on changing my eating habits of eating primarily meat to primarily fruits and veggies. I did horrible with fruits, almost ate exclusively veggies, which I will need to change for the coming weeks, too.

So, until tomorrow, hold your breath and wish me the best!

Steve

I loved all of the supportive emails, comments and facebook posts. I am thrilled that so many people think highly enough of me to comment. For those who've committed to lose the weight with me, welcome aboard. Let's be strong and fight this together!

Now, for the rest of my day, this had been relatively easy to start my lifestyle change, until the end.

I'm working a 3:00 pm to 11:30 pm schedule this week. That really messes with the eating schedule, which I would like to get on to help me make these adjustments. My problem is that I get home from work around 12:30 and by that time I am famished. I had wanted to not eat anything in the evening, but I had to break that due to the schedule. Next week, I'll start sticking to the goal of nothing after 7:00 pm.

A friend suggested that I keep a notebook handy and write down everything that I eat for the next couple of weeks. I think that's a marvelous idea, here is what I ate today.

Breakfast:
Bowl of corn chex cereal and 1 cup of milk

Lunch:
A HUGE salad, and I do mean huge. Here's what the salad had in it...

1/4 head of iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped ham
1/4 cup chopped grilled chicken
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 can of corn
10 baby carrots
1/3 cup croutons
3 tablespoons ranch dressing

Dinner:
Oscar Meyer Deli Creation Ham and Swiss

Candy:
1 hard candy mint (I had to freshen up my breath)

After hours:
1 bowl of 1/2 grapenuts and 1/2 corn chex cereals with 1 cup milk

So, before you go off on me about the late night meal or the processed food with the Deli Creations, let me tell you what I had in one day, just last week:

Breakfast:
2 Ham and Cheese sandwiches

Snacks: 2 brownies left over from the night before

Lunch:
3 cups of chicken, broccoli and cheese casserole

Dinner:
2 medium pizzas with extra cheese, sausage and mushrooms.

Now, this is very embarrassing that I ate that much in a single day, but I use it so that when you compare that to what I ate today, you should see a dramatic difference.

Now, enough of food. Let's move on to exercise.

My father in law, Roger, suggested that I exercise for 1 hour a day, three times a week. He has lost a lot of weight, even after being on a heart transplant list because of a diseased heart. He sets a remarkable example for me to follow. So, although I didn't go for an hour, I did keep my heart rate up by walking on the treadmill at work for 30 minutes.

Keep the comments coming, pipe in when you have suggestions or anything to say.

Steve

Steve's Weight Loss Journey

Okay, so I should begin by telling everyone a little about myself, so here goes...

My name is Steve. I am thirty-five years old and in the best shape of my life... Oh wait, I'm supposed to be telling the truth now. Let's start over.

My name is Steve. I am thirty-five years old (that part wasn't a lie.) I weigh 260 pounds and I'm at the heaviest point in my life right now. Now, I'm not writing this blog to play the pity party. I take full responsibility for the condition of my body right now. After being a big guy nearly all of my life, I have finally decided that it's time for me to lose weight and be healthier. This, unfortunately, is not going to be easy. I LOVE to eat and I HATE to exercise. That is a combination for Heart Disease (runs in the family,) Diabetes (runs in the family,) high blood pressure (runs in the family...) I'm sure that you get the picture. I am not healthy and I would like to be healthy for myself, my children and most especially, my wife.

So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm starting a blog about my weight loss Journey, hence the name of the blog. I will blog on a weekly basis giving the status of my "Weekly Weigh-in" and include a picture of me at the weigh in. During the week I will also blog what I can on what I ate, how much exercise I did, any milestones that I reached and other personal feelings.

Now, why do I think that this attempt at a lifestyle change is going to work? Well, I've always felt that the only way that I would lose weight is if I'm held accountable to someone. I would like to be held accountable. I want your encouragement, your comments, your thoughts, your criticisms (if you so desire,) or anything else that you can think to contribute. I would also LOVE for you to tell me about your weight loss theories, stories or suggestions. If anyone would like to participate with me and lose weight with me, I'll have a separate section for those comments. I am not going to advertise this blog directly to anyone, so if you're here its because someone told you about it, or you read about it somewhere that I posted it. Either way, I hope that you, along with me, can gain something of value here.

Now, I didn't gain all of this weight quickly, and I don't expect to lose it quickly, so this is going to be less of a diet and more of a diet /lifestyle change. Here is what I plan. Today is the 9th of August, 2009. In one year (9 Aug 2010) I would like to lose 30 to 35% of my body weight. That equates to a weight loss of between 78 to 91 pounds. I also have an exercise goal. Cardiovascular exercise is always what I've had the most difficult time with. I would like to either be able to jog 10 miles without stopping, or I would like to be able to bike 50 miles without stopping. I don't know enough about exercising yet to be able to put the times that I would like to be able to accomplish that. I'm sure that will come with practice / experience.

Well, I think I've explained enough about this. Please pass this address on to anyone who you think would like to participate in this Journey of a lifetime challenge. I am challenging myself to get in shape and would love for anyone else to take the challenge with me.