Three LIttle Letters to Help Keep Your Diet Moving

F-L-U.

I got it last night around 5pm, and I still feel like crap this morning. Blowing the diet should not be a concern, as the thought of food makes me want to hurl.

Wheeee!

1,750? No Problem.

So, to get my sorry butt back on track yesterday, I aimed to eat no more than 1,750 calories.

How did I do?

How does 1,588 sound?

Damn right it sounds great.

So, explain to me why my scale says I'm back up FOUR FREAKING POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!

I'm hoping it's just the crappy bathroom scale we paid $20 for being off. I mean, there is no way I've eaten that much over the last five days to put my weight back up there. I've been back under my maintenance level for the last four days, so there's no chance I've put weight on that way.

Unless the mega amounts of push-ups have already started building some more muscle - which I doubt after only two weeks - then I have no clue.

I'm aiming for 2,000 calories today. Shouldn't be a problem.

Where There's a Will...

Hey, anybody have a will I can borrow?

Here's some revealing information about the K-Dog: I can't say no to crap food.

It's impossible. Cookie? Sure. Peanut Butter Cup? Two, please. Medium grilled chicken pizza? Yep, I'll eat it all, thanks.

Yes, I ate an entire medium pizza last night.

The good news, if there is any to be found, is that I still came in at a defecit of roughly 500 calories, meaning I didn't ADD any weight. But even so, I felt horrible last night. I was riddled with guilt. I did great for roughly two weeks, then I let sickness and family stress derail me for a few days. Now I'm finding it tough to get back where I need to be.

Today is going to be tough. I'm aiming for a max of 1,750 calories to make up for yesterday. Zone bars, peanut butter, and whole wheat bread will be the order of the day.

Note to wife: Apples, Oranges, Grapes and Carrots. All should be on our next shopping list.

Working Out on My Time

So, one of the decisions I made whenI started this thing was that I was going to do it on my own - no personal trainers, no crazy diets, no expensive gym memberships. My hope was that, by losing 100 pounds by simply eating better and becoming more active, more people would be moved and impressed enough to give it a try themselves.

My plan is to jump on the push-up plan. Do two sets of 10 push-ups three times each day. Hopefully, I will also have time to go out and do some cardio work two or three days a week - playing basketball, going for a walk, attempting to jog, etc.

Here's how it will benefit me:

The push-ups would allow me to "bench" roughly 60% of my body weight - 207 pounds. Of course, I'm so out of shape, I can no longer put 200 pounds up. So, I'm doing push-ups at a 45-degree angle (using a kitchen counter), meaning I'm lifting more like 40% of my body weight - 138 pounds. So, I'm essentially doing a toning workout for my chest, back, shoulders and triceps by lifting 138 pounds 60 times each day. I'll do this for a week (maybe two), then drop to the floor, where I'll be hitting the 200 pound mark - hopefully.

Two to three days each week, I'll also try to find 30 minutes of spare time to take a long walk or jog, play some basketball, etc. Just something to get my heart rate up above resting level.

I'm also in the hunt for a cheap set of dumbbells and roughly 100 pounds of weight. Having these would allow me to add in curls, military presses, shoulder extensions, and bent over rows - all things I can do while at home with the kids.

Hypothetically, putting all of these together would give me pretty much a full-body workout, get me some lean muscle mass to increase my metabolism, and get my cardio level back up above basement level.

And all for less than $50.

So, money and time cannot be used as excuses. I can do sets when the girls are sleeping, I can do push-ups when I make them lunch, and I can do some lifting after they go to sleep at night. If I can find the time, you can.

Back On Track

Even after a family-forced stop at a local pizza buffet, I stayed a good 200 calories under my maximum intake yesterday. Not too shabby.

I'm back to my push-up routine today, hoping next week provides some time for a few cardio workouts.

In other news, the name of my blog temporarily changed to The 84, as I dropped another three pounds. But after screwing up on Thanksgiving, it's back to The 85 - which is still better than The 87 or The 100.

Tiiiiiiiiime, is on my siiiiiiide...Yes it is!

Comment Away

OK, I followed Rob's advice, and have opened the blog up to any and all comments from the peanut gallery.

Peanuts...mmmmmmmmm.

Actually, peanuts are OK, if you only take about an ounce at a time. Great source of protien.

My FitDay is back online today, as well.

Thanksgiving was a speed bump, not a road block.

Thanksgiving: The Day the Diet Forgot

Turkey, Lions, Broncos, homemade peanut butter cups, more turkey, then sleep.

Back to being good tomorrow, I promise.

No, I haven't quit.

But these last four days have been tough.

I can't go into a lot of detail, but we'll just say that there has been a lot of family stress and drama since Saturday, and I haven't been handling it well. And with Thanksgiving coming in just 24 hours, it likely won't get better until next Monday.

But you have my word that I am not done. Not by a long shot.

I posted this blog to keep myself accountable, but also to help motivate others. Well, today, an old friend of mine followed my lead and made his own weight-loss journey public. That's enough to keep my head in the game for a while longer.

Go visit his page, and give him some support.

Kicking My Butt

This cold blows.

I think there's a pun in there somewhere.

Anyway, I'm WAY below my max calorie intake because I'm too sick to want food. I'm floating right around the 1500 mark for the last few days, even though I haven't put any of it in FitDay.

Hopefully I'll start feeling better tomorrow, and I can get back on track with the whole documenting my physical transformation thing.

Because if you're still reading, you're addicted.

91 Days (I got lucky)

So, if you go check out my FitDay from over the weekend, you'll see that I could have - maybe should have - killed my diet.

On Saturday, Beck and I went shopping for birthday gifts for our daughter. We were gone for over eight hours. As you might guess, I guy gets hungry when he's out and about for eight hours. So what do we do? Well, we ate fast food THREE FREAKING TIMES.

The first stop was at a Japanese eatery called Tokyo Joe's. Keeping my diet in mind, I went as healthy as I could go - all-white meat chicken, brown rice, diet Pepsi. Not bad, especially considering it was all we'd eaten at that point in the day. Fast forward a few hours. We go to my brother's to pick up the girls, and they ask us to stay for dinner. Great. What are we having? Sesame chicken and shrimp. Battered, fried and doused in sesame sauce. Again, I tried to stay healthy. I ate just a few tablespoons of rice, and three-four pieces each of chicken and shrimp.

Finally we got home, put the kids to bed, and lounged on the couch.

For a few minutes. What do I foolishly do? I go to freaking Chik-Fil-A, and I get us each a CHick-Fil-A combo - and I get me an EXTRA sadwhich.

At 9:45 at night!!!!!!

For what it's worth, I felt sick as a dog after I ate everything, and I seriously regretted it. Luckily, upon getting all of the calorie info into FitDay, I SOMEHOW ended up at 2210 calroies. Just about 100 above the 2100 I'm trying not to top.

I got lucky.

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Calorie Defecit goals and results for the week:

Daily defecit goal - 1,500 calories
Basal Metabolic Rate - 3,653
Daily intake goal - 2,150

Daily Defecits
Monday - 1,760
Tuesday - 1,225
Wednesday - 1,545
Thursday - 991
Friday - 1,937
Saturday - 1,443
Sunday - 1,633

Total Calorie Defecit - 10,534

Estimated pounds lost - 3.009

94 Days - 95 was not so good.

I'm a cheater. I admit it.

Out of laziness, we decided to order pizza last night. Not a great idea for people in the middle of new diets and weight-loss programs.

I went into dinner needing roughly 1100 calories to fill my daily limit of 2200. I ended the day 420-ish calories OVER my daily maximum. The good news is that I was still 1000 calories under my base rate, which doesn't kill my diet too badly - it just slows it down.

In other news, I was flipping through an old Men's Health, and I found a great 20+ page feature on a five-week life transformation. Included are recipies, a great full-body workout (that only takes 30 minutes), stress reducers, and bedroom tips.

Not that I need any, because I don't. I'm serious. I know pretty much all a man can know about that area of life. You're welcome, honey.

I'm hoping the plan adds to me experience here over the next 13 weeks.

Stay tuned.

95 Days

Some quick hits, then a pleasant surprise:

> Diet going strong. Staying at or below my 1,500 calorie defecit with realtive ease. Not TOO hungry during the day.

> Still have NOT worked out once. I'm struggling to find the time with the craziness of our schedules.

> Zone Bars rule. They taste great (in most cases), and get me through my snacky periods.

OK, as you can see, the name of the blog has changed. No, I didn't lose 13 pounds yesterday. I did however, weigh myself for the first time in over a year. I had been estimating my weight based on clothes sizes and appearance - both were the same they've been for the last year. But we purchased a home scale last night, and I weighed in at 347 - 13 pounds less than I assumed.

While I'm not totally convinced it's correct, I'm going with it, anyway.

87 more to go by 5/11/07.
47 by 2/11/07.

96 Days

Yesterday wasn't bad. I'm sick (gotta love colds), so my energy level was non-existent, plus having the two kids doesn't help. That said, I totally crushed my calorie goal yesterday.

My aim was to eat roughly 1500 calories less than my Basal Rate (roughly 3,750). So, anything around 2,250 would be fine by me. Well, as you can see on my FitDay from yesterday, I ate most of what I wanted, snacked on some veggies, still had a sweet snack, and experienced very little in the way of hunger pangs - and I still came in 300+ calories under my goal.

If it's TRULY that easy, I'll be losing around 3.7 pounds each week from diet alone. Toss in three or four good workouts, and that number comes very close to the 4.3 pounds per week I mentioned yesterday.

And the good news is, I'm not starving myself, I'm not getting too drastic and eating only paper, and I'm OK with it.

All-in-all, I'm pretty happy with Day One: Part Two.

97 Days

I need to average 4.3 pounds per week of weight loss.
I'll be eating at a calorie defecit of roughly 1,500 per day, which should give me a three pounds per week weight loss before factoring in my workouts.

I'll be working out 3-5 times per week, for an hour each time.
Thirty minutes of weight lifting burns an average of 259 calories.
Thirty minutes of moderate effort on a stationary bike averages 605 calories burned.

At best, I'll be burning 864 calories per workout for the first two weeks, before I move to jogging/running. If I workout three days per week, I'll burn off roughly 3/4 of one pound (2,592 calories). At four days, I'll burn 50 calories less than one pound (3,456 calories). And if I manage five days, I'll burn about 1.25 pounds per week.

So, let me sum it up:

Diet Plus
3 workouts - 3.75 pounds per week
4 workouts - 4 pounds per week
5 workouts - 4.25 pounds per week.

I'll need to toss in some extra activities - walking the mall, a short hike, increased playing with the kids, walking to Target; not driving - to give me a little extra boost.

It's gonna be close. The odds are kinda stacked against me.

Oh, well. What's new?

FitDay - Follow Along

If you're curious what kind of foods I'm eating to meet my goal of 60 pounds by Feb 1, you can follow along with my daily caloric intake HERE.

I've reset it for this 97-Day push.

Failure

OK, so the first two weeks or so of this program haven't gone well.

My diet hasn't changed, and I've had no time to get to the gym. Working 25-30 hours from home while raising two kids (one of which needs CONSTANT attention), has been wearing me out. I'd essentially already given up.

Why bother?

Then I talked to my dad.

He's getting remarried in February - just over two years after my mom passed away. I've never met his new fiance', but she seems great. If my dad is marrying her, she must be. Well, it was made known to me that, at the wedding, each individual family will be having portraits taken. So "Mr. I don't like to have my picture taken" is going to HAVE to have his picture taken in roughly 15 weeks.

It should also be mentioned that I don't own a suit (not even a dress shirt) that fits the super-sized frame. And we're not really in the position to go buy the 46 yards of fabric that it'll take to make a suit to fit me, either.

So, that leaves me with only one solution:

Get serious.

As of today, Sunday the fifth of November, it all changes. The diet, the laziness, the determintation level - everything. I've asked my brother (who is in MUCH better shape than I am, but who has still mentioned the desire to shape up a little) to commit to three nights each week as my workout partner, knowing it's much easier for me to do this with somebody there with me. If he can't or won't do it, it'll be up to me to push myself.

My new goals - to be completed by February 11, 2007:

Lose 60 pounds
Run 1.5 miles with no breaks
Increase bench by 30% of current

And here's a lesson learned. Had I just manned up and started this thing when I said I was going to, I'd likely already be well on my way to meeting these goals. But, because of my laziness and excuses, I'm two weeks behind.

Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts should be interesting.