Still Doin' It

I just thought I'd send  quick update to let everyone who reads this (no one) know that I'm still doing this. I havent weighed myself in a few says, but at last check I was hovering around 245, or about 10 pounds since I got started on this.

The eating has been pretty good. The exercise is still a slow start as I've been so busy with work and life. I havent even been riding my bike to work, which annoys me. I hope to change that soon.

In any event, I'm still moving forward, or downward in weight, however you want to look at it.

Gotta be patient

I've been having stomach pain over the past few days. Not like an "i'm hungry" pain but moreso an upset feeling. It always goes away when I eat something, so now I know they must be hunger pains of some sort. I've been eating well below my  "lose 2 pounds a week" number, especially one day when i went on a 50 mile bike ride.

I guess I'm just saying here and to myself, I have to be patient that losing this weight is going to take time. I need to slow down a little. By that I mean I need to eat a little more.

Anyhow, my first weigh in last thursday was 254.6 i believe, and now I'm around 250, so that's the right direction.

Gotta get more exercise though. I'm coming up with a plan to do that.

That's it for now.

-Brian

Weigh in/ Observations

I did the initial weigh in the other day expecting to see around 260 and instead saw 254.2. Ok, better than nothing I guess. Since then I've been at it. 3 hour long bike ride yesterday, good eating going on I think 4 days now. I had a 252.2 weigh in the day after the first one, so I'm hoping to get below 250 reasonably within a week or so. Maybe earlier.
I was just reading through my blog from the past almost 6 years. here's a few observations  some of which I'd forgotten:

- I started out at 50 pounds heavier than I am now, and it took 100 days to get to what I weigh right now. So I havent totally gone back to the beginning, that's good.

- I lost nearly 100 pounds in 183 days the first time.

- I was averaging about 3 pounds weight loss a week. (i hope I can do this again, obviously). I know I probably won't be able to work out as much as I was before though.

- I more or less kept all the weight off for almost 18 months. It wasn't until 2 years after my goal weight was met I'd packed on about 20 more pounds. This coincided with major lifestyle changes, some of them planned.

- I've been 240lb + for about 2-3 years now.

- My original goal weight was 215 which i achieved Jan 2008, however i got as low as 198 during that year.

- I pretty happy in my clothing when I'm at least 230, ideally 215-220. I was never completely happy with a shirt off.

So, those are just some things I've been thinking about. I can't believe it was so long ago i first started this journey. I'm glad that lots of the good things I learned during that time stuck with me, but I hope I can find a way to better adapt to life's changes while still maintaining a comfortable weight.
That's the hard part.

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.