Ch-ch-ch-Changes

Wow. So, yeah.

Not exactly sure where to start, here. I guess you can figure out part 1 on your own; If I've revived my weight loss blog, I probably need to lose weight, right? We'll come back to that in a minute.

Let's discuss where I was during the majority of the time I was writing here many years ago, shall we? Married. A sportswriter for a small magazine. Loving Colorado. Two amazing daughters under four.

And now? Divorced. Working as a Loss Prevention Manager for Lowe's after five years at Target. Dealing with Clarksville, TN. Self-published a book. Oh, I have a beard now! And my oldest turned 13 a few months ago. My youngest is 11. I only see them 1-2 nights a week. Damn.

Ferris Bueller was right. Life comes at you fast.

As for the weight loss part, yeah, I'm back. For the better part of the last several years, I've hovered around 305. That's just where my body liked to be, even though I knew I needed to be lighter. At times I'd spike to 315, and others I'd get on my horse and drop to 268. That number is still the lowest I've been since I hit 377 in 2005. I'm not even sure of my weight today. I already drank a ton of water, ate an apple, and took a quick 1.5 mile walk. I'll start tracking that tomorrow.

What I do know is that I'm not where I want to be. I'm 41, now. Single, and not wanting to be. And while I refuse to let this new chapter in my fitness journey be about some imaginary woman who I want to impress if I find she ever exists, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least a little bit of my motivation. If I ever meet her, I wanna look GOOD.

But at the end of the day, I just want to be proud of myself. I want my girls to be proud of me. I want to feel good. And most days, I just don't. I've always felt I could be more than what I am, and now more than ever, that fuels me. So it's time to be more by being less.

I lost 105 pounds while blogging here, and using 5-6 others on the same journey as motivation and encouragement. Thank God I don't need to do that, again. But 40? Sure. That's probably a good enough goal.

So starting tomorrow, I'm re-starting the Four Phases. Four goals of 10 pounds lost. No crazy diets, just cutting back on sugar and bad carbs. I'll be very low carb with a lot of lean meats, beef jerky, apples, and veggies. One cheat meal a week, one cheat snack a week (gotta keep it normal so my daughters don't hate me).

No gym memberships. Walk 4-5 mornings a week until I feel I can pick up sprinting again, toss my 45 pound kettlebell around a bit a couple days a week. Just be more active, and make good choices.

I was talking to Rob, who will be joining me with his own unique set of challenges, and we've spent years trying different diets - Keto, Paleo, Atkins, Starvation - and we've had the formula the entire time. We've both been here before and lost a ton of weight. We didn't need magic, we needed hard work, and the ability to brush off failures, and get back up and try again. We can't outsmart our bodies when it comes to weight loss.

I don't know if any of you are still out there, but I hope you'll follow along and encourage if you are. And if I find new friends who need to make changes, or who want to encourage me as I make mine, you're MORE than welcome to chime in as often as you'd like.

Let's do this...

Calling all FAT members

Is anybody still here? Will anybody see this?

I'm putting out the call. Hoping some will answer...

Five Phases

Gonna simplify it a little. Five 10-pound phases on my way to 50 pounds.

So, 316.2 was my new starting point. Phase one ends at 306.2, Phase 2 at 296.2...and so on, until I hit my end goal of 266.2. So, I'm 20% of the way to my Phase One goal...for what that's worth.

Later!

Day 2

Yesterday, the worst thing I ate was a handful of animal crackers when I got home from work. While I'm there, I try to spend more time walking the floor than I do spinning cameras, just so I can get a little activity.

I have a gym membership, but I still can't get over that intimidation factor, so I don't take advantage of it.

Weight: 315.2
Down 1.0 pounds

Day 1...Again.

Let's just get this out of the way. Daily weights to be posted. Ugh.

2-28-13
316.2

Time to go Back to the Basics

Been a long time since I've posted here, huh? I won't bore you with the details, but I'll just say that I've kept my yo-yo dieting streak intact, much to my dismay. I do great, get lazy, gain weight, start over...

Consider this the latest "start over" phase.

Last May I dropped to 278.6. Tomorrow, I assume I'm going to weight right about 315. Yeah, 315. And I'm ashamed to post that publicly. But I also know that putting my struggles and wins out there was a huge motivation for me when I went from 366 to 270. So, I'm back, feeling sick about who I've let myself become again.

Let's see what I can do this time around.

FYI

Operation: San Juan.

Follow along?

How My Weight Loss Looks

First, please feel free to join my Facebook page HERE.

Now, here's how things have looked for me over the last two months, or so:

July 2011: Weighed in as high as 316.2
August 2011: Tried to recover, ended up hovering around 309
September 2011: Not much change. Lost a pound or two through zero effort
October 1, 2011: Weighed 307.2. Rebooted my weight loss
October 22, 2011: Weighed 296.6. My lowest in well over a year

It really has been a great October. It's all about my food intake. I haven't had more than 2-3 cheat meals in three weeks. I've re-inserted whole grains, and removed simple carbs. I stop eating at 8pm, unless I'm working until 10. A little dairy, but not much. Snacks are now 1/2 a PB sandwich, or a snack pack of jerky, and not candy bars or a donut. I've had a lot of water, too.

I don't want to say it's been simple, but I will say that it hasn't been much work. Next goal is 289.8.

I'm already wearing a pair of my 38 jeans, again. It feels good...

Funkiness

Just a quick update for any who may read the blog.

I've been eating clean(er), and getting more active, yet my weight has been pretty stagnant. I was briefly at 303.6, then I jumped to 309, then I got back to 303, and today I sit at 305.6.

It makes very little sense to me, but I know there are a couple of reasons for it. The main one is that I'm still not putting in 100% effort on all of this. I'm doing better, but not good enough. Secondly, now that I'm in my mid-30's, this doesn't come as easy. I used to be able to put in 70% effort and still lose some weight, but that's not the case, anymore.

So, we find ourselves back at this question: How badly do I want it? I know I can drop another 20-30 pounds with relative ease, but it's just a matter of DOING it.

Thanks for reading...

The Right Way

Short and sweet today.

At 304.6, this is the lowest weight I've been without the aid of a fad diet. This is just eating better, getting even slightly more active, and not stressing or obsessing.

We're going to try to go camping this weekend, and my goal is to eat well (Zone bars, grilled chicken, nuts, wheat bread, etc) all weekend, then hike, toss a ball or frisbee - just generally be active.

Who knows? Maybe I'll come back at 299 Tuesday morning.

Yup. No Magic Pill.

Well, I decided to stop my "fad" carnivore diet. Why? Well, I ate a normal meal a couple of days ago - with a normal amount of carbs - and you'll never guess what happened.

Oh. You CAN guess what happened? Almost six pounds came storming back? Yeah?

Yeah.

One meal, 5.4 pounds back on. That took me from 302.2 to 307.6 overnight. Since then, I've gone back to the basics - smaller amounts of better foods, including complex carbs. I'm hovering back at 306, which I'm not thrilled with, but it's better than seeing a 314+ like I saw two weeks ago.

So, here's the general idea of what I'm planning to eat:

Lean meats.
Whole grains.
Fruits.
Veggies.
Low-fat cheeses.
Almonds, and healthy nuts.
Beans.
Low-fat milk.
Eggs.

I got the list straight from the Men's Health Abs Diet plan. I followed it near-perfectly when I dropped 96, so I'm going to go back to it, now. Go with what you know works, right?

On the activity front, I still haven't done a thing. I've been fighting off a cough for almost two weeks, and it's been kicking my butt. Still, I'm hoping to spend a lot of time this weekend getting outside and moving. Hikes, frisbee, tossing a football...I'll take any of it at this point.

Later, all...

Coming Out of Retirement

Yeah...again.

So, a very brief update. I was recently as high as 316 pounds. Seeing that number was a slap of reality across my face. Even so, it took some time to get moving. Last week, I started a modified caveman diet - eating only what I could kill or grow - including potatoes and rice - and allowing myself to have salad dressing, ketchup, etc.

I quickly went from 314.4 to 302.2, and I was ecstatic. But then I added some more carbs to my diet for a day, and - POOF - I'm back up 3 pounds.

As I vented about it on Facebook, it was the comment of an MMA fighter whom I've never met, but had watched fight for years, that sunk in.

"Don't diet. Eat and live healthy."

Is it that easy? Really? It can't be. There has to be a catch, or a fad, or a miracle. Right?

And then I started thinking about the CRAZY diet I was on four years ago when I dropped 96 pounds:

I went from simple carbs to complex, whole grain carbs. I cut back on the sugary crap food. I still had cheat meals. I got more active.

No pills. No trainers. No fads.

I was just eating and living healthy.

And that's why I came back to this blog. This is where it all happened. It wasn't always easy, by any stretch of the imagination. But reading over these posts makes me realize that it's still possible to get where I need to go.

This morning I am a 6' 8", 305.4-pound guy who wants more form his life. And being healthy and fit is going to be step one in getting it.

For Those Who Still Want to Follow...

I am now journaling my journey at my personal site:

www.kevinantcliff.com

Becky is also back, as are Rob, Rip, Kristen, Melissa, Carrie...and a bunch of others. And we're on Facebook. Just search for "New FAT Coalition."

Hope to see you there.

No Looking Back

Alright, so just finished vacation with some friends, and we did not even try to worry about our weights this week. Should have, but didn't.

So, tomorrow's weigh-in will likely be NASTY - I'm thinking 306-ish. But Beck and I are pretty fired up, and we're hitting this HARD in the morning. We allowed ourselves to take a week off, now we just need to get back into the fitness mindset.

So away we go!

Really, really quick update...

Weighed 299.0 today. Been doing well.

See? Told ya it was quick.

Later!

My Jacked-Up Body

That pic pretty much describes my weight loss to a T. I was back down to my low-mark, 303.0 this morning.

Here's what I've learned over the last 96 hours:

- Screw lame diets. The low-carb thing worked for 48 hours, but my body doesn't like it.

- Normal eating is key. Yesterday I did nothing special, just kept it clean and ate something every few hours.

- Gotta be active. Again, nothing special, but went out and tossed the football in the heat, just to do SOMETHING.

- I'm a very impatient person. I still don't get why my body added weight those four days, but I know better than to panic like that.

So, tonight is a cheat meal day - our first in over a week. We're having pizza, and I'm having three pieces. That's it. I would very much like to be at 299 early next week. I'm sick of seeing a 3 on that scale every day. Driving me nuts.

Have a great weekend...

Read the post below this one, too

Week One Summary

Starting Weight: 310
Ending Weight: 305.2

Total Lost: 4.8

It looks good on paper, but the frustration is that I was at 7 pounds lost four days ago, and I put in 2.2 pounds over those four days. It's frustrating as crap, as outlined in the post below this one...

Up, Up, and Away

I need to step away from all of this for a while. I have some intense personal stress right now, and that may be contributing to this, but I also can't stand to keep seeing this scale go up for no reason. I'm up another 1.2 pounds today.

Not going to say I ate perfectly yesterday, but I didn't go much above my calories, and most of what I ate was salad. Nothing in my diet yesterday should have resulted in bouncing that high.

I'm beginning to think that I just can't lose this weight this time. I dropped 96 before, and it was almost easy, but I was four years younger. Now, I've spent the last two years not being able to break back into the 200's for more than a couple days - especially in the last 12 months. I get to about 302, and that's as far as I go - my body just stops losing, no matter what.

But I have too much going on right now to be able to handle seeing that scale go up every morning. For anybody wondering why I weigh every morning: http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006851.html

I really don't know what's next. I have zero motivation to keep working only to see no results, but I also hate being who I am right now. If I could afford a trainer, or some Muay Thai lessons to whip myself into shape, I'd be all over it. But it's just me, my diet, and my basement, and that's not enough, it seems.

I just don't know...

BREAKTHROUGH!!!!

I dropped back down by 0.2 pounds!!!! That's right!! ZERO-POINT-TWO pounds.

Screw this.

Stupid

Right. So, another day of clean eating, a 4+ mile bike ride, tons of water...

...up another .8 pounds.

I've now gained 1.2 pounds the last two days.

A little too ticked off to blog right now.