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

February 27, 2010 Weigh In: 412 lbs, Lost 0 lbs

Another zero sum week for me. Looking back at what I ate there were a few days I approached 1900 cals but stayed around 1500 most days. I think the main culprit is that aside from working out side in the snow yesterday I didn't exercise once this week. I have to change this.

I did have a big loss last week, and I didn't gain any weight which is good. I have to figure out a way to make it a habit to exercise. I have a reminder in my Blackberry that comes up every day at 8am. This week when it popped up I was usually getting ready for a conference call or something and I just pressed "Dismiss". I'm going to try changing the time of my workout and I'm going to ask my kids to stay on me to do it.

I won't give up.. and I will find a way to work exercise into my life.

ETL

2 Years To Go And Another Goal

When I started this journey and this blog I thought long and hard about goals that would keep me motivated. Things I wanted to accomplish as part of my weight loss. The majority of these goals are centered around health, fitness and a good lifestyle which makes sense. None of them are really self-serving goals though.. you know.. the kind of things that make you feel really really good. OK I know eating right and being fit will make me feel good but you know what I mean... real ego boosting type goals.

Well here's one... I want to be interviewed by Sean Anderson! For those of you who may not know, Sean is the author of the blog The Daily Diary of a Winning Loser. From time to time Sean interviews people who have reached their goal weight. When I reach my goal weight of 220 lbs I want to spill my guts to Sean on the phone and tell the world how I did it. How I relished in the highs and struggled through the lows of a 212 lbs weight loss trip, long and strange as it may end up being. I can visualize myself right now, on the phone with Sean, answering similar questions that he asked of Anti-Jared and Jack Sh*T. Tears in my eyes as I explain what joy my lifestyle change brought to me and my family. Reciting interesting anecdotes about how I narrowly averted fast food temptations and kicked myself in the ass when I slacked off on my exercise plan.

This would of course mean emerging from anonymity and presenting my face and name to the public (something I plan to do at some point). Why would I want to do this? Why would I want to proclaim my story to Sean? Why would I want people to know what I REALLY went through? Simple answer... I want to pay it forward. In 2012 when I'm a strapping 220 lbs dude who can run 2 miles and race my kids around the back yard I will want that 430 lb guy or gal who is just starting out to have example of how they can do it. How if they stick to a good plan and abandon a life of freestyle eating they can reach their goals. How it can be really hard at times but it's so worth the struggle. How if you change your approach to food you can change your body.

We are all in this together. No BS. The food companies, the restaurants, the work place are all conspiring to make us fat. Just kidding.. I truly believe managing our food intake and exercise activity is what shapes us physically and we control our own destiny. However, we are in this together. We are a community of people who are all fighting a disease called eating addiction. If I can help bring people together and help people find a healthier life I will feel like I have accomplished something even greater than my own transformation. My family, my friends, my fellow bloggers have all helped me and will continue to be there when I need them. I want to make sure I do the same for others long after I reach my goal weight.

So do I really want Sean to interview me when I reach my goal weight? Well, it would be cool because I'm inspired by his blog and I know others would hear the message. But it's not really a goal. Anti-Jared, Diane and Jack Sh*t have done a fine job of telling their tales to Sean and inspiring others including me.

What's most important is that others will have a chance to learn and benefit from what I will go through these next 2 years. For me, imaging and visualizing helping people down the road helps me stay on my mission to become what I want and need to be.

ETL

Daily Reminder... Stay Focused

I'm into this about 6 weeks now and all is going great. I've lost 20 pounds, I'm starting to exercise.. I'm starting to see noticeable results. This is the scary time. Why? Because I feel like things are starting to become routine. I found myself saying.. do I really need to add this or that to MyNetDiary?

Like last night I attended a fundraising event and had to eat dinner there. They had a small spread which included some pasta, salad and bread. I made myself a moderate plate and enjoyed it. When I got home I was tempted to fore go my usual habit of entering my meals into my Blackberry rationalizing that I was well within my daily limit. But... I caught myself and entered the data.

This is the habit that has made me successful. This is the habit I am going to stay with no matter how much success I have. I can't afford to slack off and trust myself. Remember I am an over eater.. I am addicted to eating. I have to remind myself of this every day in order to stay on track. If I start to stray from this.. I will fail and I don't want to fail.

ETL