Weight ?
Weight loss to date ?
Funny story, I forgot to weigh in this week...
I had a pretty big workload at the end of last week and I had to put all my attention on getting the jobs done that needed to get done. It wasn't until I was standing in a bikeshop with my buddy Shaun looking at bike trainers that I even knew it.
We were looking at different models of bike trainers and Shaun asks "so what do you weigh right now"? I said..."huh, .....that's a good question, I have no idea" and that is when I realized I had forgotten I was even loosing weight. I had no concept in that moment of what I weighed because I have weighed so many different things over the last few months.
It might have been the first time in 20 years that I had no sort of weight awareness just being in my skin. It was cool and surreal.
Anyway, I forgot to weigh in and now that I've missed it I'm just going to let it ride one week and make sure to make the Friday weigh in.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Iced AeroPress coffee
Just a few pics of Todays afternoon Iced coffee.
A nice smooth Brazil that went down good over ice on a hot 4th of July weekend. :)
A nice smooth Brazil that went down good over ice on a hot 4th of July weekend. :)
Friday, July 4, 2008
20th week weigh in
20th week.
Weight 228
Weight loss to date 42#'s
I don't even need a calculator to to the average this time it's 2 & 1/20th #'s per week. :)
I'm good with that average and happy with my results here at week 20. I suppose if you would have asked me on day one how much weight I would have lost at this point I'd have said 50#'s figuring I'd loose 10#'s per month. But I would not have accounted for weeks where I only loose 1# or even weeks where I don't loose any weight but can tell my body is re-adjusting. Now that I've done that enough times I feel like it's important. it's something my body wants to do for whatever reason and I just continue doing my thing....a few days later the scale starts moving again and I think it's probably healthy.
Quick notes about loosing this first 40#'s in case anybody ever reads this blog for ideas..
So far I have not deprived myself of food to the point of going hungry for any length of time. I do get hungry but when I do I eat asap. I eat 4-5 times a day and might even have a small snack or 2 depending on the day. My past weight loss experiments that involved going hungry for hours on end and using will powered deprivation are FAR behind me.
It's mainly a mental game. The absolute hardest part for me so far was getting used to the pace of progress. Now that I have 20 weeks behind me it's a breeze but weeks like 8, 12....you are months in and those 2#'s per week seem so small. Your brain tries to tell you "nothing is happening". It's difficult at first to accept the pace . I think the reason is that in order to get yourself ready to loose a lot of weight you almost have to do the equivalent of throwing something super heavy with somebody when you say "ok on 3...1....2.....Three!" and it requires you to get some swings going first for the momentum or else you could never throw it. In weigh loss it's like you are getting up that momentum and say "1,2...Three!" but once you get to 3 you have to hold it out there for a few months before you can let go.
You do not get to see real time results based on immediate actions.
You have to find ways to mentally deal with that and accept it.
Work today pays off tomorrow and work tomorrow pays off next week and you need to keep on working next month for it to pay of next year....I sometimes ask myself if I want to be in shape for Thanksgiving 2010 or not just to think out into the future and keep the right perspective.
Enough for week 20 but I do want to say that my post for what diet am I on part 1 turned into more of a rant than I intended. I think it's because as I get further away from it and look back at myself and food...the relationship we had I get really pissed off. I'm mad at myself, food marketers, the food itself, but mostly myself. I'll get back into it on part 2 but the gist of it as whenever I think about the gimmick diet I get very aggravated. Instead of directing that aggravation into a general rant maybe I can figure out how to use that energy in a better way.....we shall see.
Week 20 42#'s down Very cool!
Weight 228
Weight loss to date 42#'s
I don't even need a calculator to to the average this time it's 2 & 1/20th #'s per week. :)
I'm good with that average and happy with my results here at week 20. I suppose if you would have asked me on day one how much weight I would have lost at this point I'd have said 50#'s figuring I'd loose 10#'s per month. But I would not have accounted for weeks where I only loose 1# or even weeks where I don't loose any weight but can tell my body is re-adjusting. Now that I've done that enough times I feel like it's important. it's something my body wants to do for whatever reason and I just continue doing my thing....a few days later the scale starts moving again and I think it's probably healthy.
Quick notes about loosing this first 40#'s in case anybody ever reads this blog for ideas..
So far I have not deprived myself of food to the point of going hungry for any length of time. I do get hungry but when I do I eat asap. I eat 4-5 times a day and might even have a small snack or 2 depending on the day. My past weight loss experiments that involved going hungry for hours on end and using will powered deprivation are FAR behind me.
It's mainly a mental game. The absolute hardest part for me so far was getting used to the pace of progress. Now that I have 20 weeks behind me it's a breeze but weeks like 8, 12....you are months in and those 2#'s per week seem so small. Your brain tries to tell you "nothing is happening". It's difficult at first to accept the pace . I think the reason is that in order to get yourself ready to loose a lot of weight you almost have to do the equivalent of throwing something super heavy with somebody when you say "ok on 3...1....2.....Three!" and it requires you to get some swings going first for the momentum or else you could never throw it. In weigh loss it's like you are getting up that momentum and say "1,2...Three!" but once you get to 3 you have to hold it out there for a few months before you can let go.
You do not get to see real time results based on immediate actions.
You have to find ways to mentally deal with that and accept it.
Work today pays off tomorrow and work tomorrow pays off next week and you need to keep on working next month for it to pay of next year....I sometimes ask myself if I want to be in shape for Thanksgiving 2010 or not just to think out into the future and keep the right perspective.
Enough for week 20 but I do want to say that my post for what diet am I on part 1 turned into more of a rant than I intended. I think it's because as I get further away from it and look back at myself and food...the relationship we had I get really pissed off. I'm mad at myself, food marketers, the food itself, but mostly myself. I'll get back into it on part 2 but the gist of it as whenever I think about the gimmick diet I get very aggravated. Instead of directing that aggravation into a general rant maybe I can figure out how to use that energy in a better way.....we shall see.
Week 20 42#'s down Very cool!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Houston we have chin ups
It took over two weeks and about 80 "at bar"s but I can now do one rep chin-up sets.
As soon as I did the first one I took 30 seconds rest and repeated with 3 more sets of one. Niccccccce!
Not sure if it was only a physical barrier or if some of it was mental because as soon as I went over the bar I "knew" I could do more. It wasn't a smooth pull either, I got stuck in the normal spot of just 2" shy but instead of doing my slow decline I added a second pull and toped the bar. The next reps were smoother pulls.
This was sort of a hard fought victory to be honest getting to the 1 chin up club and it might make most people laugh but my foot is in the door now baby....let's see if it's laughable in 60 days. ;)
Cool, after about 20 years I can do chin ups again....
As soon as I did the first one I took 30 seconds rest and repeated with 3 more sets of one. Niccccccce!
Not sure if it was only a physical barrier or if some of it was mental because as soon as I went over the bar I "knew" I could do more. It wasn't a smooth pull either, I got stuck in the normal spot of just 2" shy but instead of doing my slow decline I added a second pull and toped the bar. The next reps were smoother pulls.
This was sort of a hard fought victory to be honest getting to the 1 chin up club and it might make most people laugh but my foot is in the door now baby....let's see if it's laughable in 60 days. ;)
Cool, after about 20 years I can do chin ups again....
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
What diet am I on? (part 1)
With 40#'s weight loss now people have started asking me (every 24-48 hours) "What diet are you on".
This is becoming a problem because 1)I don't have a prepared answer for them. 2)They are not prepared to hear the real answer. The answer is a lot easier to say than explain so I've got to figure out how to come up with a concise explanation that works.
The simple truth is the oldest diet philosophy in the world sums up my "diet":
Eat healthy foods and get some exercise.
Yesterday I tried to give those exact words as my diet and it didn't work at all. :
There is such a powerful marketing force in out food industry that it clouds people's judgment and confuses them against what they already know. We know that broccoli is more healthy than lean pockets. They have created zillions of things like lean pockets, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, and weight watchers Pizza that people buy into as healthy food. Making an ice cream sandwich with less fat and sugar in it does not make it the nutritional equivalent of brown rice.
So healthy foods do not mean (alternative versions of unhealthy foods that have reduced fat, sugar, or are now made with fortified whole grains) healthy foods are real foods that are healthy PERIOD. Somebody said if your great grandma would not know how it grew/was raised don't eat it. There is no Lean pocket tree. It's an oversimplification but that is the idea.
Good clean healthy real foods are what I try to eat as often as possible. It's the absolute most important thing I've found that you have to get into your mind. Shift away from fake, processed, engineered diet foods. Shift away from obviously unhealthy foods and move towards as much good clean healthy food as you can eat and do that 99% of the time. If that is all I did I'm sure that (it would be slower) but I'm sure weight loss would be inevitable.
That is weight loss....fat loss...very nice but that is only part of it and health/fitness is the next part.
We could loose lots of weight/fat on the cabbage soup diet or the Diet Coke diet I'm sure but it will not be healthy.
To be healthy we need....and here comes the next million year old idea:
We need a healthy balanced diet that provides all the nutrients required to sustain good health. We need vitamins, minerals, carbs, protein, fats, and all the other tiny things it takes to run the machine. We can get really skinny on the all white Rice diet or the Micheal Beal diet of one apple and one can of tuna per day but just like it did him we are going to pay a price for doing that to ourselves.
How exactly to divvy up those individual food items is too complicated to say right now other than more age old wisdom a "healthy balanced diet".
I do eat plenty of meat...I wold like to eat less someday but I like this quote from Micheal Pollan:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
So that is the part 1 just to lay it out. In part 2 I'm going to try and make a short answer that explains the above in a way that people will accept. People strongly want to believe that there is a new whiz bang package diet program or product that will make them loose weight easily without having to..
Eat healthy foods and get some exercise. :(
to be continued...
This is becoming a problem because 1)I don't have a prepared answer for them. 2)They are not prepared to hear the real answer. The answer is a lot easier to say than explain so I've got to figure out how to come up with a concise explanation that works.
The simple truth is the oldest diet philosophy in the world sums up my "diet":
Eat healthy foods and get some exercise.
Yesterday I tried to give those exact words as my diet and it didn't work at all. :
There is such a powerful marketing force in out food industry that it clouds people's judgment and confuses them against what they already know. We know that broccoli is more healthy than lean pockets. They have created zillions of things like lean pockets, Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches, and weight watchers Pizza that people buy into as healthy food. Making an ice cream sandwich with less fat and sugar in it does not make it the nutritional equivalent of brown rice.
So healthy foods do not mean (alternative versions of unhealthy foods that have reduced fat, sugar, or are now made with fortified whole grains) healthy foods are real foods that are healthy PERIOD. Somebody said if your great grandma would not know how it grew/was raised don't eat it. There is no Lean pocket tree. It's an oversimplification but that is the idea.
Good clean healthy real foods are what I try to eat as often as possible. It's the absolute most important thing I've found that you have to get into your mind. Shift away from fake, processed, engineered diet foods. Shift away from obviously unhealthy foods and move towards as much good clean healthy food as you can eat and do that 99% of the time. If that is all I did I'm sure that (it would be slower) but I'm sure weight loss would be inevitable.
That is weight loss....fat loss...very nice but that is only part of it and health/fitness is the next part.
We could loose lots of weight/fat on the cabbage soup diet or the Diet Coke diet I'm sure but it will not be healthy.
To be healthy we need....and here comes the next million year old idea:
We need a healthy balanced diet that provides all the nutrients required to sustain good health. We need vitamins, minerals, carbs, protein, fats, and all the other tiny things it takes to run the machine. We can get really skinny on the all white Rice diet or the Micheal Beal diet of one apple and one can of tuna per day but just like it did him we are going to pay a price for doing that to ourselves.
How exactly to divvy up those individual food items is too complicated to say right now other than more age old wisdom a "healthy balanced diet".
I do eat plenty of meat...I wold like to eat less someday but I like this quote from Micheal Pollan:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
So that is the part 1 just to lay it out. In part 2 I'm going to try and make a short answer that explains the above in a way that people will accept. People strongly want to believe that there is a new whiz bang package diet program or product that will make them loose weight easily without having to..
Eat healthy foods and get some exercise. :(
to be continued...
Friday, June 27, 2008
19th week weigh in
Weight today 231
Total weight loss to date 39#'s
I've started averaging 1# loss per week lately and if that holds for next week I'll have lost 40#'s in 20 weeks for a flat average of 2#'s per week.
Slow and relatively steady has been the trend so far.
I think it's cool that in July I'll be in the 220's. That's not something you normally hear people say but if earlier this year they weighed 270 and it's just now mid year then the perspective is different. The idea that I'll be around 210 and possibly looking at the 200-single digits for Thanksgiving this year is pretty outstanding actually. That will put me at ~70#'s weight loss inside a calender year that did not even start in January. Not bad.
There that was my mental check but there is another side....
I'm not feeling as mentally "changed" as I'd like to.
I'm really trying to feel more like my body has changed to and is changing towards, more healthy, fit and in shape. I feel it physically...I'm getting stronger everyday. That isn't an issue but I'm finding that my mental self image does not mirror the scale. When you loose 20#'s it does not auto-transfer to the brain and make the correction.
I think I'm going to have to collect some "proofs of improved fitness" to the game as evidence for my brain to evaluate when it provides my self image.
Hmmm, Angie was telling me yesterday about the closest 14ers to Durango Co. and we are planning on riding that Durango Silverton RR in a few months.....I think it's time to put the research and planning to my 14er project......
Total weight loss to date 39#'s
I've started averaging 1# loss per week lately and if that holds for next week I'll have lost 40#'s in 20 weeks for a flat average of 2#'s per week.
Slow and relatively steady has been the trend so far.
I think it's cool that in July I'll be in the 220's. That's not something you normally hear people say but if earlier this year they weighed 270 and it's just now mid year then the perspective is different. The idea that I'll be around 210 and possibly looking at the 200-single digits for Thanksgiving this year is pretty outstanding actually. That will put me at ~70#'s weight loss inside a calender year that did not even start in January. Not bad.
There that was my mental check but there is another side....
I'm not feeling as mentally "changed" as I'd like to.
I'm really trying to feel more like my body has changed to and is changing towards, more healthy, fit and in shape. I feel it physically...I'm getting stronger everyday. That isn't an issue but I'm finding that my mental self image does not mirror the scale. When you loose 20#'s it does not auto-transfer to the brain and make the correction.
I think I'm going to have to collect some "proofs of improved fitness" to the game as evidence for my brain to evaluate when it provides my self image.
Hmmm, Angie was telling me yesterday about the closest 14ers to Durango Co. and we are planning on riding that Durango Silverton RR in a few months.....I think it's time to put the research and planning to my 14er project......
Friday, June 20, 2008
18th week weigh in
Weight today 232
Total weight loss to date 38#'s
I should see the 220's and a 40+# weight loss for 4th of July weekend. Sweet!
The hardest part of this for me remains to be the mental game. Developing patience and accepting weeks without weight loss, or working very hard for minimal progress can be frustrating but that's the way it goes.
It's hard to keep "defocusing" on the time line you WANT and accept that the realistic time line to loose a significant amount of weight is much longer than you would like it to be....a year, a year and a half, two years....? Could be. ;)
The thing I keep trying to remember is that a year or two goes by anyway and I'm also going to want to be fit then. The race to loose weight fast is a mental trap and unless you have impending serious health risks that require it, averaging that 1-2#'s per week with intermittent periods of no weight loss is what experts suggest to be the best approach. It's hard to deal with because we all want instant results and particularly if we are working hard we want to get "paid" NOW!
Even at a pace of 5#'s per month that is 60#'s weight loss in a year...100#'s in a little over 1.5.
It's a mental battle but we have to fight it to avoid the pitfalls that await with quick weight loss gimmicks, tricks, and unhealthy schemes that only offer temporary results at best.
Total weight loss to date 38#'s
I should see the 220's and a 40+# weight loss for 4th of July weekend. Sweet!
The hardest part of this for me remains to be the mental game. Developing patience and accepting weeks without weight loss, or working very hard for minimal progress can be frustrating but that's the way it goes.
It's hard to keep "defocusing" on the time line you WANT and accept that the realistic time line to loose a significant amount of weight is much longer than you would like it to be....a year, a year and a half, two years....? Could be. ;)
The thing I keep trying to remember is that a year or two goes by anyway and I'm also going to want to be fit then. The race to loose weight fast is a mental trap and unless you have impending serious health risks that require it, averaging that 1-2#'s per week with intermittent periods of no weight loss is what experts suggest to be the best approach. It's hard to deal with because we all want instant results and particularly if we are working hard we want to get "paid" NOW!
Even at a pace of 5#'s per month that is 60#'s weight loss in a year...100#'s in a little over 1.5.
It's a mental battle but we have to fight it to avoid the pitfalls that await with quick weight loss gimmicks, tricks, and unhealthy schemes that only offer temporary results at best.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Chin ups are hard!
I got a chinning bar and (as I expected) can not do 1 pull up.
I've been working at it for a few days now and can get the bar just below my eyes...I can do 2 eye ups. :)
I'm working at that and controlled declines, I bet I will be able to do 2-3 chin ups in about a week or so. Slow and steady right?
The good news is that I'm building up quite a nice home gym with the various dumbbells, kettlebell, bar, sandbag, TRX knock off, swiss ball...I've got several options beyond all the bodyweight stuff, yoga and other workout dvd's, before I even touch my full Olympic weight set and bench. Not too shabby.
Next is some sort of cardio machine like a tread mill, elliptical, or what Angie wants a tread climber, (pretty much a combo of a treadmill and elliptical). Until then I have plenty of low tech cardio options that are kicking my butt on a regular basis anyway.
I expect to have dropped some weight on Friday's weigh in and I'm feeling really good....strong....no complaints right now.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Kettlebell
I have not had this overpriced hunk of iron long enough to know it's full potential but straight away it seems to be a very nice addition to a workout toolkit.
When I first saw kettlebells and swings I thought it was just idiots using horrible form doing useless swinging. I can get an 80# dumbbell and use poor form to swing it up into something that looks like a curl but so what? I was misunderstanding what the swing is all about. It works your back, trunk,...cardio...it's sort of a beast to be honest. I had fashioned a makeshift kettlebell that was "OK" but the real thing is of course better and I'm glad my buddy Shaun goaded me into buying it. :) The thing is that these marketing guys know when they have a hot product and I know that in 2 years these things should cost 50% less than they do now. Oh well, waiting for the price to go down $20-$30 isn't really worth it for all the workouts I would not be able to do while waiting.
Damn supply and demand... I picked this thing up when it was still in the shipping crate (they had to enter it into their system before they could turn around and sell it to me), the guy told me they sell them about as fast as they can order more.
I have not ventured into the more complicated lifts as the cornerstone basic swing is enough to keep me busy for a while.
More on the kettlebell will follow I'm sure... ;)
Friday, June 13, 2008
17th week weigh in
This week held at 234.
No weight loss....ask me if I care.
I don't.
I've had enough weeks now to know that this happens and that I am doing my thing so there is nothing else to be done right now. If it turns to a trend I'll know it's time to change something up but for now everything is as it should be.
My nutrition is solid and my exercise is solid, I'm fine with a static week.
I'll post up tomorrow on my new toy an official kettlebell. :)
No weight loss....ask me if I care.
I don't.
I've had enough weeks now to know that this happens and that I am doing my thing so there is nothing else to be done right now. If it turns to a trend I'll know it's time to change something up but for now everything is as it should be.
My nutrition is solid and my exercise is solid, I'm fine with a static week.
I'll post up tomorrow on my new toy an official kettlebell. :)
Friday, June 6, 2008
16th weigh in
Week 16
Weight 234
Total weight loss to date 36# avg loss of 2.25#'s per week.
Cool!
This pushes me over the hump of the high 230's and sets the 220's right in my line of sight. It's really exciting to me that I'll be weighing 220 something soon after weighing 270+ just a few months ago...man it's a trip.
What is really wild is how at some point I am going to drop below 200 and weigh in the 100's. Not having a 2 in front of my weight will be like going back in time to when I was 21 years old.
My mood is good right now because my food and exercise are pretty much in check at this time. What I have now is pretty much second nature to me at this point so I'm happy to continue on monitoring my progress and make any needed adjustments whenever they might be needed. But for now I'm sort of set on autopilot.
234....I don't see any reason I will not be at/below 230 for 4th of July and be able to represent 40#'s of fat loss at that time. If I make 237.5 it will be 45#'s or 50% of my total goal....if that does not happen by the 4th it's still going to happen in July and the 50% mark will be a super cool milestone.
John F
Weight 234
Total weight loss to date 36# avg loss of 2.25#'s per week.
Cool!
This pushes me over the hump of the high 230's and sets the 220's right in my line of sight. It's really exciting to me that I'll be weighing 220 something soon after weighing 270+ just a few months ago...man it's a trip.
What is really wild is how at some point I am going to drop below 200 and weigh in the 100's. Not having a 2 in front of my weight will be like going back in time to when I was 21 years old.
My mood is good right now because my food and exercise are pretty much in check at this time. What I have now is pretty much second nature to me at this point so I'm happy to continue on monitoring my progress and make any needed adjustments whenever they might be needed. But for now I'm sort of set on autopilot.
234....I don't see any reason I will not be at/below 230 for 4th of July and be able to represent 40#'s of fat loss at that time. If I make 237.5 it will be 45#'s or 50% of my total goal....if that does not happen by the 4th it's still going to happen in July and the 50% mark will be a super cool milestone.
John F
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
2 35's
Today's daily weigh in was 235. I have ironically lost exactly 35#'s at the 235 mark making 2(35)'s.
Trippy. :)
Trippy. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
