lose 20 pounds

I just weighed myself: 285 lbs. This is down from 290.
I can hardly believe it, I’m thinking something is wrong with the scale. Here’s my last several weighings:
07/30/07 : 291
08/05/07 : 289
08/11/07 : 287
08/16/07 : 288
08/19/07 : 285 (that’s today!)
What do I attribute it too? (1) Well, counting calories, plain and simple. Before counting calories, I felt I had to stop drinking beer, stop drinking coffee or coke, eat like a rabbit, do tons of exercise every single day, in order to lose weight. But it turns out that’s not quite true… undoubtedly if you did all that you’d lose weight, but it’s possible to lose weight without living like a monk. I bought a “diet journal”, a book in which to write down my daily calorie consumption, and have consulted calorieking.com a lot while I updated my daily entries. I didn’t hold myself to any daily limit, simply observed and logged. The result of course is as I became more aware of my calorie consumption, I began moderating it without even really trying. I still drink beer, more than I should. I still go many days without doing exercise. I still have coffee, and have large lunches which don’t seem conducive to weight loss. And yet, I have lost a few pounds. Just imagine if I kicked it up a notch? wow. Since 7/27 through yesterday, my average calorie intake was 2800 calories. According to something I read, to reach and maintain 250 pounds weight, with light activity, I could average 3250 calories. That sounded wrong to me, but maybe it’s right, if with 2800 calories I’m starting to lose weight.
Being calorie conscious has caused me to: drink a tad less beer; a lot less coke, I always have water with lunch now; eat less bread – I often ate the free bread at restaurants, now I still do but much less; skip donuts, ice cream, cake, the other bullshit they throw at you in your typical office environment – I don’t miss these things at all, I never cared much for them anyways, was just being polite and social; drink less fruit juices – I used to drink too much juice at home each day, now I limit myself to 4 to 6 ozs a day; for lunch I’ve been having more “meal”-like meals, rather than sandwiches – that is, chicken with rice or potatos, that you cut up with knife and fork and eat, rather than a hamburger with fries – I’m very satisfied with the food, but it’s a little less calories on average.
The other thing I think helps is (2) I eat breakfast, and a 4pm or 5pm “teatime” snack. Like this, I’m eating something, albeit small amounts, more often, like every 4 of my waking hours. I still have big lunches, but perhaps a little less big due to breakfast. The late afternoon snack (granola bar, apple, or yogurt) has been very influential in causing me to not eat a big dinner, which I typically did before. Now my dinner is often just another snack.
So… I’m very encouraged. Will keep you all posted.

In past two weeks, have weighed myself about every other day. Weight fluctuates between 288 and 292, for an average of 290.
Last week bought a calorie counter book, and a journal to keep track of what I eat. Starting logging on Fri 7-27-07. Calorie total was 3600. Next day, 1916. I don’t have a calorie-per-day goal in mind yet, first step is just logging.

Didn’t do the exercise thing at gym ag 6:30am in mornings. Still intend to, only, going to do it at home at 6;30am, I have a mini-trampoline (rebounder), and a tai-chi videotape, and intend to do some morning sessions this coming week. We’ll see.

Been drinking a little more beer than usual this past week, just due to social situations. Normally I would have played soccer on Tue night, and tennis on Wed night, but South Florida summer weather sucks, and it rained both days, so instead, we got together and had beer each night. Blame it on the rain I guess, but I need to exert a little more willpower there. Once I’m counting calories regularly, and see that beers are like 200 or more calories each (16oz/pint), that may help me slow that down.

For the record, I did Atkins low-carb diet in 1996 for 6 to 8 months, and lost 50 pounds with that, down to 215 lbs weight. However, I consider it was unhealthy. I think I ended up gaining more back in the end due to altered metabolism from Atkins. I actually did the extreme version where you measure your ketones in your urine to be sure you’ve achieved “ketosis” where you’re really burning off fat reserves. No doubt you are, but no doubt the body is paying attention too, and thinks “aha, we’re in starvation mode, we better build up the reserves even more, next time we get a chance”.
I do, however, continue to believe that simple carbs are good to avoid. For now, I’m going to just try to approach of counting calories, even though I know its argued by many that not all calories are equivalent and you should avoid fat or sugar or carbs more etc.

This is going to be long haul.
I can’t say that I’ve lost even a pound since establishing this goal on 43things 5 months ago.
But I am making modifications to my lifestyle.
I will persist, and I will not give up till I begin losing some pounds.

Four months ago I said I wanted to lose 20 pounds in 2 to 3 months. I didn’t stay with the plan, didn’t make updates here in 43things. But I did implement some modifications in lifestyle that have been beneficial. Firstly, I began logging my beer and coke consumption. Then, starting a month ago, I succeeded in cutting back considerably on these. Plus, I cut back on coffee. I had previously been drinking 2 to 3 cups a day, always with sugar, whereas now I drink about 2 cups for every 3 days. Also starting a month ago, I’m making a conscious effort to eat something for breakfast every morning. I used to just have a cup of coffee. Now I have a glass of diluted juice, and some cereal, or a piece of bread with cheese.
The exercise, I did not maintain regularly. The idea of working out during my lunch hour lasted all of two times. The problem is I work up a sweat, and even though I shower, I still sweat for an hour or so afterwards, so it makes working at the office uncomfortable. Plus, it’s hard to fit even a 30 minute workout in a 60 minute lunch hour. My lunch hours lasted 1.5 hours those days, not something I could do often without causing a conflict with my job. So I have exercised only sporadically since my first entries four months ago, averaging only about one exercise session a week.
I did buy a scale, but did not weigh myself regularly. Now going to start to. Today I weighed in at 286 lbs after exercise, without clothes (but after two very large glasses of water). That’s 4 pounds improvement over my entry 4 months ago, so at least I’m going in the right direction.
I now intend to: update my log here in 43things from time to time; go to the gym for 30 minutes most week mornings, and do biking on weekends, plus one soccer session every other week, and one tennis session every week; continue to diminish by beer, coke, and coffee intake; continue to eat a sensible breakfast; bite the bullet and start counting calories; weigh myself regularly.
I thought about joining WeightWatchers. I looked up info online about when and where they meet. I called the once. I looked up the info again and keep it on an index card in my briefcase. But every time I remembered about it at the end of my workday, and said to myself, hey, I could go today to see what it’s like, I just couldn’t do it. Have some sort of mental block against it. Whereas, when I think about going the gym regularly, or starting to monitor on my own what I eat, I’m game for it. So for now, I’m not going to make myself go the WeightWatchers. Going to keep trying my own thing, as described above. Ok, that’s it for now.

I weighed myself at the gym… first dressed for exercise, before exercise, weight was 295 lbs. After exercising, without clothes, 290 lbs. I lost 5 lbs! Just kidding about celebrating that… I’m a big guy and I fluctuate 5 lbs no problem. I always find it humorous when women remark to each other they lost 2 lbs, since I fluctuate more than that in one day. But now I know where I’m starting at. My goal is to weigh in at that same gym scale at 270 lbs or under. I’m not doing any crash diet or anything, so the most I’ll look for is an average of 2 lbs lost per week, which means it will take 10 weeks to lose 20… so say May 1st.
I went to the gym today during my lunch hour from work! That’s an accomplishment. First time I ever did that. I just started a new job and the gym I’m a member of (LA Fitness) turns out to have a gym just a couple minutes drive from my new work. Excellent. So I will go twice a week during lunch hour, once on weekends, plus play soccer one night a week. This should help. And, cut back on beer… I’m going to try to see if I can make my average consumption across the week be no more than 16 oz’s daily average. Today I didn’t have a beer, nor coke, so that’s good. All right, I’m easing out of the gate! lol.

Day 0. I’m not even sure of my weight. First thing I’ll do is start weighing myself, tomorrow (I have to buy a scale tomorrow). I’m 6 foot, and last time I weighed myself it was like 285 lbs. ouch. I really need to lose like 60 to 70 pounds, but I’ll start with 20 :) Let’s see how it goes. My plan: I currently do exercise only about once a week. I will increase this to four times a week. Twice at gym near my new work during lunch, once playing soccer in the evening, and once on the weekend at gym near my house or vigorous bike ride. Food-wise, my plan at first is to simply cut back on beer and coke. I sometimes drink coke with lunch, I’ll drink water/no-ice, or mineral water instead. (Not diet coke—too many chemicals for me, my body doesn’t like it). And, I drink way too much beer… 5 out of 7 days of the week, 2 to 4 beers at a time.