March 27, 2010 Weigh In: 409 lbs, Lost 2 lbs

Hey there all. Well another 2 pounds down the drain. It's been difficult for me to find the time to post here but I am still on the stick and with the weather warming I've been walking more. Work has been really busy but that is a good thing. A few people at work noticed I lost weight so I let them in on my situation and goals. The only sad thing is that I'm not going to meet my goal of being under 400 lbs by April 1 but I will set a new goal tomorrow. The goal still kept me focused which is the whole point. Thanks for all the great comments and support. I'll try to post more often

ETL

Mid Week Update

Doing great with calories this week.. Staying under 1600 each day. Eating good foods. Exercised twice so far and will do it two more times this week.

With baseball season starting soon I'm worried about snack stand resistance. Lots of food landmines there and when I'm rushing to coach an evening game my habit was to eat a few slices of pizza at the snack stand for dinner. I'm going to plan ahead this year and my goal is to not eat any food from the snack bar... we'll maybe coffee but that's a beverage.

ETL

March 13, 2010 Weigh In: 411 lbs, Lost 1 lbs

I often tell my boys that baseball is a thinking man's game. Well losing weight is a thinking person's game as well. For the past two weeks I subjected myself to a little experiment with the goal of figuring out just what my metabolic rate really is.

MyNetDiary's software computes my BMR at 3180. WebMD and other web based calculators confirm this number to be about right for my age, height, weight and level of daily activity. I've been very meticulous in recording EVERTHING I eat since I started this journey on 1/6/10. My average per day for the past two weeks has been 1945 calories which means I should be burning 1235 per day, 1 pound every 3 days...RIGHT? So I should have lost about 4 pounds, RIGHT? Well, during the past 14 days I've lost only 1 pound. Why are the numbers off? I've come up with two reasons:

First, I have not been exercising. If I move my ass I will burn calories. It's that simple and I take total responsibility for not following through on this goal. The weather is getting warmer. I will be coaching two baseball teams soon. My activiy level will increase. All good things. But I also need to get into a routine of daily activity. I will work on this.

Second, the BMR calculators are wrong in my case. I have a slower metabolic rate than the average 411 pound, 49 year old, 6 foot man. I have to believe that based on my two week experiment my actual BMR is more like 2000. To prove this I went back in the records (thanks MyNetDiary) and looked at my caloric intake for those weeks when I was shedding pounds a month or so ago. My average intake was 1500 calories per day. Hmmm.. Well numbers don't lie!

Conclusions:

BMR calculation software may not be right for everyone as a measuring stick. My BMR is actually around 2000. A 1500 calories intake per day should allow me to burn around 500 calories each day (with activity, more). Which is about 1 pound a week. If I have a day where I go 1600 or even 1700 that will be just fine. But 1700 is the absolute ceiling for me.

I need to get myself in the habit of being active. I will burn more calories and lose more weight when I do this.

The big positive is that I am eating good foods and have not gained any weight back. Trust me, I don't take these two accomplishments for granted. However, I now understand the rate my body burns calories and I will do my best to use this knowledge to achieve my goal.

ETL

Conquering Eating Addiction... The Tests Continue

I'm very happy with myself. I passed two eating addiction tests this week on my way to total control of my eating habits.

Friday night is pizza night at our house and prior to January 6th I would go to the local pizzeria and pick up the order. Confession time... I had a little secret habit of buying an extra slice of Sicilian pizza (a corner slice of course) and eating on the way home... cold. Then I would eat 3 slices of pizza at the dinner table. All together this was around a 1400 calorie dinner.

When I changed my life I asked my wife to take over the duty of picking up the pizza on Fridays. I didn't think I could trust myself and I didn't want to slip into that habit again. Last night I didn't have a choice. I had to go there because my wife was busy with something. As I drove the the pizzeria I thought about it. I told myself I would not give in. Then I heard a voice say, "it's only a slice, you can make it up tomorrow". I almost bought into my own rationalization but I caught myself. I told myself I have come this far and I'm not going to F this up now. How could I face my family if I closet ate like this?.. how could I lie to myself?

I parked the car, went into the place and made pleasant conversation with the owner who said "hey, haven't seen you in a while". Amazingly during the exchange not once did I think about the asking for the extra slice. I just talked, paid, picked up the order and split. BTW.. I now have a grilled chicken salad on Friday's nights with 1/2 slice of pizza.

When I got in the car I really felt great about what I had accomplished. This was a major step in conquering my eating addiction. I visualized coming back to the pizzeria a year from now and the owner saying... "man, you lost a lot of weight". To which I would reply "yeah, remember when I use to order that extra slice?" and us both having a laugh about it. The reality of it is that it's no laughing manner.

I had another test Thursday at lunch. I was in NYC and took a few co-worker for lunch at Friday's. Fortunately, NYC has calories on the menu because Friday's menu is a food land mine. What you would think is a healthy choice is loaded with calories. I ordered a Cobb salad minus avocado and cheddar cheese with vinagrette dressing. When it arrived it had chunks of blue cheese and bacon on it. I ate the lettuce, black olives, tomatoes, sliced boiled egg and diced grilled chicken. When the waitress removed my plate she took away the pile of bacon bites and blue cheese. The old me would have eaten those piles first. The new me left them there untouched. I felt real good about that too.

These were both serious tests for me. Having passed them I now feel like I can control myself around food. It's a great feeling. However, I still think I have some behavioral issues I need to be aware of and I will not let my guard down.

BTW... I decided to weigh myself every two weeks so next Saturday will be my weigh in. I did a check this morning though and I'm down one pound since last Saturday. I also fit into a pair of jeans that use to fit me like a sausage skin on me. How cool!

All the best...

ETL

Pineapple and Pondering Comments

Sorry the blog has been silent this week. I've been real busy with work and personal stuff. Thanks for all the great comments.

My eating habits have been consistent. FogDog's comment has me thinking that I may not be getting enough calories (1500-1900 per day) and my metabolism may be slowing. According to MyNetDairy I need 3200 calories per day to maintain my body weight. I feel like if I ate 3200 calories I would gain weight. It's just too much food. I've thought about stepping it up to 2500 calories per day but I just feel like that's too much food for me as well. I'm going to keep my intake at 2000 per day for the next few weeks and see what happens. I'm also thinking about weighing myself every two weeks. Maybe every week is too often.

Above is my current BMR... I'm focusing on the last sentence of the explaination. I just want to try to keep things as simple as possible so eating right and exercise become natural for me.

I took our dog for a walk on Sunday which was great. I'll be exercising today and Friday. This should help speed things up inside my body.

My new favorite breakfast... 1 cup of diced fresh pineapple with lo-fat vanilla yogurt on it.. and a scrambled egg on the side. It's 326 calories and a good balance of protein, fat and carbs.

That's all for now.

ETL