alans0830’s BodyBlog

I’ve been holding off on entering any goals because I wanted to see how my body would react first.  Now I’m ready to set some goals.

Short-term:
I want to be at 219lbs by March 1st and have a body fat percentage of 20% by April 1st.

Long-term:
I want to lose a total of 53lbs by June 1st and be in the "normal" range of body fat (12-15%).  These are hefty goals considering the last time I weighed 200lbs I was 17 and I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a normal body fat range.  That being said, I REALLY believe I can stay motivated and be in the best shape of my life.

In other news, I’ve started keeping track of my lifting stats so I can see my progress and push myself to do better.  I’m also going to start writing down my food intake (fat, calories, carbs, protein) so I can have a record of what combination is working best to lose weight at my current pace.  I think if I can do this, then I can adjust a day if I cheat, or give myself a reward without messing up the balance (just work it into my daily numbers).  

I’m very excited about my progress and people are starting to notice.  I’ve had a bunch of comments about my weight loss and my muscles are starting to show up more so people are noticing some tone in my arms, chest and shoulders.  How cool is that?!

Well, that’s all for now. I invite people to watch my BodySpace and comment.  A lot of my progress has to be attributed to you guys because I don’t want to slack when I have people in my corner.  Thanks.

I took a picture today to see the difference and my man boobs are shrinking!  I’m not gonna post the pic (I’ve been in the habit of doing on progress pic a month and I already posted one for January), but man am I happy.  Now my friends and family can quit the bra cracks.  Ha ha, very funny.

I’m really starting to settle in to my new eating habits. I had the opportunity to have some birthday cake and ice cream the other day and I turned it down cold. That’s HUGE for me. Ice cream is my weakness and I turned it down.  A lot of people here and in the forums tell me to just go ahead and have some, but don’t go overboard.  The problem with that is that, for some of us, it’s not that easy. Here’s how it goes: 1. "I’ve been doing great so one piece of cake isn’t gonna kill me." 2. "Wow, that cake was good, I guess another piece won’t hurt." 3. "Well, I’ve completely ruined the day so I may a well get some of that ice cream too." 4. "Is there any beer at this party?". That’s it, once the sheep skin falls off the wolf goes to town.

Recently, I’ve been using my competitive side to stop me from chowing on bad food.  I’ve been competing with myself. My latest short term goal is to get down to 230lbs. and I’m so close.  I don’t want to do anything to ruin it.  I should be able to post within the week with one more goal met, so stay tuned.

Till then, take care.

I know now why people get so discouraged trying to lose weight.  I’ve been eating right and working out for 2 months now and I’ve lost about 14 lbs all together.  But it is slow moving!  I even find myself hovering at the same weight for days at a time.  It is an awful uphill battle.

The good news is I’m losing size BIGTIME!  I’ve lost about an inch around my waist and my newest progress picture really gives me the motivation to keep going.  It’s amazing what a difference a couple months can make.

I wish all these diets would stop advertising huge weight loss, though.  I think the stories of people who lost 30, 40, or 80 lbs. only help to give people false hope or make them expect to lose lots of weight FAST.  I know, in the past, that’s one of the reasons I felt like it was impossible.  I was looking for the weight to "melt" away and it wasn’t.  That just got me discouraged and I’d quit trying, thinking I was destined to be out of shape for the rest of my life.  Now, though, I’ve only lost an average of 1.75 lbs. a week, but I’m feeling great about it and I want to keep going.  I’m not even all that interested in what the scale has to say.  I used to check daily but now I might check out my weight once a week or so.  If I could give any advise to beginners, from a beginner, "Stop looking at the scale like it’s the holy grail of your fitness."  It’s only a part of it.  I think if you eat right and work out, all things will fall into place.  

My first short term goal was to get to 240lbs.  It was tough, but I’m now at 239.2lbs.  My next short term goal is 230lbs., but I’m not planning on attaching any kind of a time frame on it.  I know I can get there, it just takes time.

I am interested in getting some measurements from others with similar height and frame as me.  I’m not sure what my ideal weight should be.  I was thinking maybe 220 or 210.  I have been lifting to build muscle so I know that will effect my ideal weight a bit, but I’m not looking for a concrete number just some ideas on where I should be aiming.  I’m almost 6 feet tall with a fairly large frame and I’m big boned, so if anyone is in that ballpark, what weight do you try to maintain?

Anyway, I’ve gotten lazy on these posts but I’m going to try and do better.  I enjoy sharing my progress and thoughts with people.  It’s like having a workout group to talk to, which is really motivating.  

Later.

Well, I’ve lost over 5lbs. in my first week of dieting.  Doesn’t seem like much but it’s a start.  My short-term goal is to reach 240lbs.  I want to attach a time frame to that but I don’t know what is a reasonable time to lose about 10 more pounds.  For the sake of argument let’s make it 3 weeks.  YOU HEARD IT HERE!  I will be down to 240lbs. in three weeks.  If I’m not, I want anyone reading this to send me all kinds of hate mail.  I’ll deserve it.

Besides the 5 pounds, everything else is going good.  I find myself not feeling hungry because of my new eating habits.  I’m eating much smaller portions at dinner which, surprising to me, isn’t that bad.  One of the things I am having an issue with is what I should eat when I’m on the run.  I’m usually a pretty busy person and often no where near a kitchen where I can prepare a meal.  I picked up MetRX bars and the small packs of peanuts you can purchase at any mini-mart.  I don’t know if this is the best choice so I’m going to make a post in the Message Forum to see what others have to say.  Obviously, if you have any ideas let me know.  

All in all…so far so good.  Talk to you all next week.

The first thing I have to do is adjust my diet.  This isn’t easy to do since I LOVE food.  It’s not like an "I have to continuously eat" love, it’s more like a "man that was good, is there any more" love.  Some of you will know what I’m talking about here.   I also have a sweet tooth that is relentless for cakes and pastries and such.  So this week a made a few decisions to help.

For my eating habits, I’ve started eating 5-6 small meals a day.  2-300 calories a piece with protein in every meal to help keep me satisfied till the next meal.  I’m also cutting my fat intake dramatically by opting for for reduced and zero fat options in the grocery store.  I’m committing myself to a "no food after 7 p.m." rule.  I work out during the day so this shouldn’t effect my workout efforts.  Finally, and probably the hardest for me, is that I’ve stopped having seconds at dinner time.  I give myself a "human" sized portion and then, no matter how good it was, I stop.  I’ve found that eating multiple times a day helps me say no to seconds, which is good.

As for my sweet tooth…I bought a half gallon of frozen yogurt.  Ice cream is a real weakness of mine but it usually solves my sweet tooth attacks.  I haven’t had to dip into the stash yet but at least I know I have a healthier option if I need it.

In the past couple of months my weight has gotten out of hand.  I’m around 253 now and my short term goal is to be 240.  My workouts, for now, consist of mostly cardio activity and light "maintenance" weight training.  Once I get to 240 I’ll pick it up on the weights.  

This is the first time I’ve been this serious about getting in shape in a long time so any advice or experiences other people have is greatly appreciated.  I’ll try to make weekly updates to my blog.  I hope I have good news to report in all of them.

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