Getting Healthy

On-track so far.

John — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:50:18 +0000

We’re now almost two weeks in to the new year, one week from my last update. My weight is continuing to drop slowly but steadily. This morning I checked in at 220.4, dropping the trend weight to 222.6. I’ve been working out slightly more often so far in the new year – averaging three to four days a week versus two or slightly above for most of last year. Some of those are lighter days of pure cardio, but so far I’ve been working with my trainer 3 times a week. That will go down to 2 starting next week simply due to financial concerns, but I’m hoping to keep in the habit of getting to the gym three or four days a week total. I’m eating slightly better this year too, although I’m not eating nearly as well as my trainer or study dietician want. I’m cutting back on carbs and sodium, even from where I was, but not tracking anything very closely. I’m munching on sunflower seeds almost daily, which seems to help reduce my meal sizes since I’m not as hungry, but there’s so much salt on them that I have to mix a bag of salted and a bag of unsalted or it’s borderline unpalatable. So far, things are happening nicely, at the pace I want them to happen – my target is about 5 lbs a month, and at the current pace I’m slightly ahead of that curve (3.2 lbs in 2 weeks).

New Year’s Resolution

John — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:17:31 +0000

So I’ve not updated here in over a year. There are several reasons for that, the largest of which is that I stalled out in a major way on the weight loss. Well, I’m resetting some things, and one of the things I’m going to try to do better is chronicle my journey. My low point was 218 in September of 2010, in 2011 I bounced back up to 230, hovered around 225 for most of the year, and only now am coming back down towards the two-teens. I’m at 222.4 today with a trend line at 223.3 (trend line is determined by a 10% exponential smoothing of the daily weights). I started the year at 223.6 (the trend line from 2011), so I’m down slightly. I’m enrolled in a diet study and on a low-glycemic diet, since I started that I’m down slightly, so that’s good.

Overall, I’m feeling a lot healthier, feel like I’ve traded some fat weight for muscle weight, and am quite satisfied with how I’m starting look. Yes, I know it’s a bit vain, but part of the reason for starting to work out and work with a trainer was to improve my physical appearance, not just to lose weight. I’ve got more bulk and visible musculature in the biceps, quads, more definitions in the hamstrings and triceps, and I feel like my back and chest overall are more muscled and defined.

With all that said, I still want to lose a significant amount of weight – my goal weight is 170, so I have just over 50 lbs to go. My current goal is 200 lbs by my birthday, July 3. I’m going to be really disappointed in myself if I can’t make that.

Back again

John — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:41:06 +0000

218.2 this morning – a very slight loss from yesterday, but in the right direction nontheless. Hopefully I can keep with the program for the next week or two and be down to under 215 when I go to CA…

Hello all

John — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 14:44:36 +0000

218.4 this morning – dropping slowly, but still dropping. This is good.

Hrm.

John — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:50:51 +0000

219.4 this morning – went up night before yesterday, stayed up last night. Need to get that moving back down again. At least it wasn’t over 220, but I’m still not happy it went up. I know it was stress that caused it, but meh. Need to get it down.

Hello Again

John — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 15:06:50 +0000

217.6 this morning. Not much of a loss, only 0.2 pounds, but enough to make me happy. Might spoil it tonight, since I need to get some “soul food” into me…

Possible progress

John — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:52:49 +0000

Clocked in at 217.8 this morning. I’m pretty sure that’s an all-time low – or at least an all-decade low. I might have dropped to slightly lower for a day a while back, but not sustained. Had a lunch that I brought from home today, so I’m hoping that helps keep it down tomorrow morning, got to get something healthy for the movie night thing tonight.

Been a while

John — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 14:47:08 +0000

Yeah, I’ve been getting slack again. But this morning I was at 218.4, so the little bump upwards I had over the past 2 days has settled back out. Finally. Let’s see if I can make it stick this time and keep dropping.

Finally… maybe…

John — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:02:15 +0000

218.6 this morning. I seem to finally be firmly below 220, which is more of an “about damn time!” than a “hooray!” type thing. Let’s see if I can keep it up – err, down…

Some Good News

John — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:55:29 +0000

Clocked in at 218.6 this morning. Before my morning workout. Which was an hour session, and yet again kicked my arse up around my ears. Holy cripes… I can handle the half hour sessions no problem, the hours just absolutely kill me.