Today is day 1 of tracking calories again. I haven't weighed myself yet because I'm scared of the number,. I'm going to get things in line for a few weeks first then weigh myself. Anyhow i'm using MyNetDiary (http://www.mynetdiary.com/)  from the Apple Ap store on my iPhone.

So far so good.

Plans Aren't For Fools

Hey guys,
I'm gathering not a lot of folks come here anymore. I haven't posted in a fear years. It also seems almost all of the pics in my posts are gone because I switched hosts and forget I had a lot of stuff linked here. Anyhow, here's a quick update since we last chatted:

- I no longer live in the Philadelphia PA area. I moved to San Jose California is early 2012 to work for my new employer, a popular online auctions company...

- My kids are older, as you'd imagine. My son will be 4 in July and my daughter 3. With that comes a busier schedule. Less "me" time.

- I'm still active in that I ride my bike a lot including to work almost daily. In fact I just recently purchased a car after going almost a year without.

- I weigh more than I did when we last chatted. I'm certainly not on the levels I was when I started this blog (300+ lbs at that time), but I'm not near the lowest either ( high 190's). I'm not happy with whatever my weight is, but most importantly I feel tired all the time. I know I need to get back on the horse but I'm being very lazy.

- I've tried some things over the past few years to get back into the run of things, but nothing has stuck. I got back into running again but then my California allergies kicked in causing a pause in my running which I never picked back up. It's been that way for about 5 months.

- I'm still doing things to improve myself such as , I've always hated my stupid crooked teeth, so I got braces .  I'm 6 months into that, and have about another year before that's done. Better late than never eh?

- I'm looking to start feeling better about myself both physically and mentally again, and I need to figure out a way to do that. Holding myself accountable and having you folks keep me that way was HUGE to me back in 2008-2007 when I started this. I'm back to do the same.

Hopefully some of the original folks are out there, and maybe there will be a few new ones.

Anyhow, posting this is hopefully the first step on my comeback train.

Talk to you soon.

-Brian

p.s. I forgot to mention I also have grown a ridiculous mustache and feel kinda like my dad. I think I'll keep it for a while.

"title goes here"

I weighed myself on Saturday to find 238.2, which is cool. It seems like I'm losing something lie 1-2 pounds a week I guess. That's pretty good. Looking at my past logs I don't think I've been in the 230's for that long in over a year or so. I'm happy about that.

I need to really get serious about building some muscle if I'm going to keep weight off. That's my thought of the day.

So I'm still in weight loss mode. That's always been easier for me than maintenance mode.

Anyway, thanks for the comments on my last post. You guys have always been so supportive and still read this even after what, almost 4 years? I really appreciate it.

Eat It

Hello,
I'm not going to start off with apologizing for not posting for a while. It just is what it is, at this point in my life I'm probably not going to post a lot. Eat it.

In any event, last time I posted back in September it looked like i was trying to get back on track weight wise. I got off that track. I don't know what I got up to weight wise and I don't think I will ever know, but it wasnt pretty.

I spent this past Christmas being the heaviest I've been since loosing 100 pounds in 2007-2008, I'm sure of that.

Like all of the other slackers, I started doing something about it Jan 1. Not as much because it's a new year, but more because I'd started a new job. A job with a gym, and job I could get back to cyclo-commuting to.

I also went on a sort of South Beach thing. Basically doing low carb, but not paying a lot of attention to volume or calories.

It's worked. I don't know exactly what I dropped because I didn't weight myself when I started, I couldnt take the number. Didnt need the dissapointment.

Now I'm right at 240 and still going strong. I've been getting some exercise here and there, but most of this has been diet.

My goal is to get to about 220, so another 20 pounds. My lowest weight was around 203 or so, but I really can't maintain that unless I'm doing lots of cardio all the time and eating spot on. 215-225 if more what works for me, and looks good. In fact if I put on more muscle like I want to it could even be higher.

but right now I want to get to 220 or so.

Things that are different this time than say, 2007, is that :

- I'm not weighing myself every day. Some people may agree with this or not, but at least during this phase I don't want to do it. I don't want to be obesessive, I just want to do my thing without having to "monitor" progress or stats all the time. I just want to be normal.

- Low carb not low fat - I did low fat the first time, but I also counted calories and everything else. I'm doing low carb just because. I don't know if one is better than the other, but I figured i'd try something new. I do think low carb or at least South Beach makes you lose weight fast at first, which is something I needed for a mental boost. Long term I think South Beach is crap and not realistic.

- less exercise - not on purpose, it's just that this time around life is different. Even though I can ride my bike to work it's twice the distance so more of a time commitment, and I have 2 kids as compared to none in 2007. I have to be more strict on diet.

- Build Muscle - I'm not doing this yet, but I really think I need to build more muscle otherwise I'm always going to be flip flopping like this. in 2008 when I weighed 203, I was fit but not toned. 220 with more muscle mass will look and perform way better than 203 and no tone. Cardio was what I did all the time because it was what was easier for me to do. I need to do more muscle building stuff this time. I havent started that yet.

- be normal - in 2007-20008 I was crazy. Posting on this blog daily, cario a few times a day, lifting 3 times a week (for a while anyway), eating spot on. But none of that really is what normal people do. It's what someone trying to lose 100 pounds does. And I did it, in 6 months. But this time I need to do this a different way. I need to just take my time, not worry about things as much, but just consistently be good with food and exercise.

I'm at a point right now, even at 240, that I feel pretty good about myself. Don't get me wrong, I'm going to lose another 20, but I at least don't feel like a failure, and a borderline fat slob like I did 2 months ago. Part of that is because I'm not obsessing over numbers. I truly don't care what waist size my pants are, or what the scale says today. My progress gauge is just, how do I feel? Am I happy with myself?

So the answer is yeah, kinda. I'm happier than I was. I'll be happier in another 20 pounds, and I'll get there.

So that's where I am right now. I probably need to switch up the low carb thing soon because I'm starting to get more workouts in, and I feel like my body is getting too used to low carb. We'll see.

One way or the other I'll get to 220. Definitely by the first day of Summer, if not sooner. Perhaps I'll post again then, if not sooner.

The good the bad and the ugly

Hello,
The good news is that I ran 6 miles on Sunday morning. That's the first time I've run that far in probably 10 months. I was slow at about a 10 minute mile average, but the stamina was there. I'm happy about that. It double the amount of anything I've run recently.

The bad news is that this morning I weigh 246. Now I do have some soreness from the run and I suspect that 4 lb jump is most likely water retention. It certainly wouldnt be the first time I've had a 4 pound jump from water retention. In fact many runners will tell you that they often find they've GAINED weight while training for a marathon for example.

With that said even taking into account those 4 pounds I'm less than impressed with my progress thus far. I'm trying not to get discouraged though. I do realize I still need a solid plan in place that I don't have. I'm just struggling to come up with a plan that is so adaptable based on my hectic schedule. My schedule is no excuse for my diet though and it's still not what it should be so I should be looking there.

So I'm thinking about trying an actual diet of some sort. I don't know what yet, so I'm open to suggestions. In the end I can probably eat about 2200-2400 calories a day and lose about a pound a week. I'm just struggling with doing that.

Until next time.

Plugging away, maybe running in place

I'm still around. Progress is slow and this week was difficult from a workout perspective. I only ran once so far, but I hope to again tomorrow. Eating has been maybe a 6 out of 10 on the perfect scale. As a result I'm sticking around the 242 ish mark. Kinda spinning my wheels I guess, but at the very least I know where I am and I'm not gaining.

Plans for the future are to really start running more and training for a 5k and maybe a half marathon. Like I've said in the past I really operate more efficiently when I have clear goals and a path ahead of me. I need that right now.

Ok

Kindof hanging around the same weight arent I? Maybe this is the normal rate of weight loss for someone? I don't know. I'm watching the calorie and fat intake. I'm running or hitting the gym 3 times a week. I have had a bit of a cold which has kinda kept me pretty inactive aside from the workouts but I'm doing what I can.

One day I had a 239 weigh in, then a perfect eating day, then the next day it was 244. What the hell was that about? I dont know but I'm not letting it change anything.

So I'll just say I'm still working at it, I just don't seem to have much in the way of numbers to show for it yet. It's been 2 and a half weeks though and I am down 5 pounds give or take, so I'll take that for now. I really need to be firmly in the 230's though by October 5th or so. Maybe that's a goal.

On an unrelated note, I'm attempting to get this blog current. I really don't want to dwell on what I've done in the past. That said I will leave some of my accomplishments up because they do motivate me to move forward, get back to that spot, or even improve it.

I've also cleaned up the blogs I follow. I deleted any blogs that haven't been updated in the past 3 months, though most had not been touched in over a year. I need new teammates who are into this thing with me so we can help motivate each other, so if there is anyone who is reading who is keeping a fat loss blog, please send me a note so I can add you!