Gradybeard's Blog

Thanksgiving

2014-11-26T11:33:00.003-08:00

It is Thanksgiving 2014! Oh boy, where has the time gone?

Just the other day I was a senior in high school visiting colleges . . .

No. Wait. . . That is my ‘baby’ brother Kevin. How is he 17 now? That’s crazy. Life flies by, but you have to capture the moments, little and big, or you will miss it. And if you miss it, what is the point?

Thanksgiving is the perfect time (when isn’t it the perfect time? I guess that is a muse for another day) to reflect on things big and small.

When I was in school, so many years ago, we were always asked to reflect on what we were ‘thankful for’, we would write out our one line or one thing, sometimes draw a picture, sometimes write an essay, but is that enough.

Maybe it’s the season, or the fact that my commute is extremely quiet on the Metra, or the fact that as I prepare to a father (only a few more weeks until we meet our little man), I have spent quite some time musing to myself on things that I am thankful for this year.

My Family:

Now as I mentioned above, my family is growing in the very beginning of January. James Michael Grady III is expected to arrive on January 8, 2015, though I suspect he is going to be a little early. With my loving wife’s encouragement and our great restraint (even though she is much better at pinching pennies than I am), we moved into our first house, just weeks ago. My heart is so full of love for the two most important people in my life, but I have to be thankful that we have such a wonderful, supporting family that goes beyond our walls.

It takes a Village:

While we have always been close to our parents (moms especially), something triggered in all of us when we found out we were expecting. Our already loving and supporting family has been there at every turn to give advice, guidance and a much needed hand (especially in moving. Thank you John!). I know these relationships will be growing even stronger as Baby G or Jimmy III or Trey (lolz, Kevin) or James or whatever you call him, comes into our lives.

It has also been a banner year for my brothers. The Grady boys have done well for themselves this year. Despite our crazy age range, all three of us have had some wonderful adventures over the last 12 months and are each preparing/ just getting started for a new stage of life. Oh, we also built and ran this little Podcast earlier this year. My hope is that we are able to pick it back up soon.

The Village gets bigger:

Now our extended families are quite large, each with their unique casts of characters. Earlier this year our Friend Family and Family Family merged as our good friend, Czarina (aka Capt’n Z) married Ashley’s cousin, Don. As I sat on the train this morning, I thought it was amazing that members of my wife’s family comment and ‘like’ things our friends post on social media because of the extended relationships we all have. It is amazing.

#Blessed:

The last year has seen a number of friends and family members passing. Each of these people has touched our lives in one way or another. I know they are looking down on us from heaven, celebrating our blessings and fighting in our corners. And we are blessed for having had these people in our lives.

Thanks for reading and I wish you a wonderful and safe holiday.

2013 in Review

2014-01-03T12:32:00.002-08:00

2012 was a great year for me. I got married, lost a bunch of weight and had an overall great year!

2013 had many ups and downs. Overall, the year was very good – my career has evolved and I was blessed with a wonderful new job that gives me a level of satisfaction that I had not experienced in years; my wife and I took our first real vacation (and her first plane trip in over 5 years); and despite a rocky year for family health, it ends with all family and friends doing well / getting better as far as health is concerned (knock on wood). There were some negatives, the year started with me being stuck in my job, lots of family spending time in the hospital and I gained a lot of weight. A lot.

Now it is 2014. A year for change and high spirits.

In 2013, I ran/ walked / completed three 5K’s. Three! Back in 2010, if you would have told me that I would one day complete one 5K, I would laugh you out of the room. Ha! Me? LOL; ROFLMAO; HAHA

It’s time for me to take this momentum and get back into shape, keep my spirits high, and rock 2014 the way it should be rocked!

At the beginning of the year, people will announce their New Year Resolutions – some with unrealistic goals, others just not plausible given that person’s empathy/ lack of motivation. In 2013, I just gave up on a healthy diet and didn’t try at all at the gym.

It’s definitely time to step back up. I will try to be better and hope you will join me for the adventure.

Year in Review

2012-10-12T20:58:00.002-07:00

One year ago today, I stopped off on my way home from a birthday celebration to join a gym. Stating very matter-of-factly that I ate horribly for 26 years, I can give being healthy a try to have a happy and long life! I committed myself to lose weight for my fiancée, my wedding, my health, my life, my closet, my future, myself.

Like everything in life, actions have a catalyst. With me, losing weight started with two pictures. The first was the engagement photos I took with my fiancée. “Who is this fat guy in the photos?” I asked. It couldn’t be me. But, of course it was. I was motivated, but it wasn’t until I saw a photo with less than a year to go until the wedding and I realized that it was getting worse (or wider) instead of better.

Now over the past year I haven’t been 100% on top of this weight loss thing. Unfortunately, my weight has had a tendency to fluctuate up and down drastically (I am talking 5 pound swings in a day). Over the past year, I was able to lose over fifty pounds, reaching an all time low of 178 pounds and being able to pull off a medium consistently.

With stress and business from the wedding and getting back in the swing of things with work and new home life (the wedding was a smashing success fyi), I have put back on quite a bit of the weight. I blame not going to the gym consistently for the last four months as the primary reason. I currently weigh in at between 192 and 197 pounds depending on if it is morning or after dinner (like I said 5 pound shifts [crazy, right?]). For the first time in my life, I have been consistently less than 200 pounds for a significant number of months. I plan to keep it this way.

I am ready to re-commit to going to the gym and losing weight. My ultimate goal is 170 pounds and to keep myself there this time.

After this weekend and my birthday, I am swearing off my new found favorite vice:

DOUGHNUTS. Gourmet Doughnuts!

I am also going to limit drinking to one night a week. No more after work beer nor Monday bottle of wine with the wife (don’t think she will be too happy at first, but will love the results).

Hopefully these two things as well as going back to what works for the diet will help jump start everything and knock this weight back off fast!

Thanks for reading and I will be sure to post more from the progress!

Have a great weekend!

We're Moving . . .

2012-03-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hi all, I am moving the site to wordpress. This should be up by this weekend. The new address will be:
gradybeard.wordpress.com

I look forward to all of your comments and follow on this site.

Best,

Gradybeard

Happy March

2012-03-20T18:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while and I wanted to say that I haven't really lost any weight, but I am still keeping my weight the same. Hoping to get back on track and posting more soon.

End of the month goal

2012-02-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

February 29, 2012- 11:05 PM- Squeaked to my February goal of 185.0 LBS

This means that my current BMI is 29.0!

Feels good to move a full digit away from Obese.

Week 19 Results

2012-02-26T10:28:00.001-08:00

It doesn't feel like I have been at this for 19 Weeks, but it has been a struggle to get this weight off.

After taking a week off from blogging, I am finally below where I was before my travels and diet cheating ways . . 188.4.

Let's hope this weight continues to come off and for the 1st time in 4 months, I have NOT hit my monthly target. To be honest, its extremely disappointing, but I have lost over 40 pounds from where I was almost a year ago and well over 30 from when I started this crazy diet experiment.

Thank you for keeping up with me and keeping me honest. To another 19 weeks and hopefully 30 pounds!

Have a great couple days! Let's hope George Clooney walks away with Oscar Gold tonight.

Week 17 Results

2012-02-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks, I traveled quite a bit. To Philly and then to New York over the last few weeks, led me to skip the gym much more than I should. Not good stuff at all.

My weigh in was 192.4. This is a gain of over 3 LBS. I am going to double down on my efforts as you can see here.

I really need to step it up so that I can hit my new goals.

Thanks for reading.

Not Good Enough . . .

2012-02-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

Ever since I dropped below 200 LBS, my weight hasn't dropped as quickly or as easily. I am completely to blame for this, which is not a fun thought at all.

I haven't gone to the gym as much (usually 3 times a week in stead of the typical 5) and I have eased on the diet much more than I should have.

To motivate me more, I have decided to do take the following steps:

My new goal is 165 LBS. This is ten pounds more than my original goal (175 LBS)

By March 31st, my goal is 180 LBS
By April 30th, my goal is 175 LBS
By May 31st, my goal is 170 LBS
By June 30th, my goal is 165 LBS

Until I reach 175 LBS, I am going to abstain from going to Starbucks.

While I typically will get regular coffee, I have ordered lattes with more frequency than I would like to admit.
I am not saying that I won't run to McDonalds for an occasional coffee at lunch, but no more Starbucks.

No alcohol until I reach 175 LBS. I have gone out with friends a number of times and alcohol is usually involved. Alcohol and mixers are extra calories that I really should not be consuming.
I am going to run/walk in at least TWO 5 Ks before the wedding. This will help me train more and keep me motivated.
I am going to try to blog at least twice a week to keep me honest and on track for the diet.

Not looking forward to tomorrow's weigh in. Wish me luck!

Week 16 Results

2012-02-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday Everyone! As Americans, myself included, get ready to watch the showdown between the Patriots and the Giants to claim the title of 2011 - 2012 Super Bowl Champion (which could have a 1950's monster movie- George Washington leading the fray against a group of giants- pretty cool), I am happy to announce my best weight results so far!
For the first time in my adult life I weigh 189.2 LBS. This sets me at just over 14 LBS from my goal of 175 LBS. This weight also lowers my BMI to under 30, as mentioned in the post here.

This week set up some milestones:

No longer obese

You can test your BMI by checking on this NIH site

Finally after weeks of trying, my weight has fallen under 190 LBS
I have started to modify the diet to focus on calories taken in, rather than limiting carbs
I have begun training for a 5K

More about all of these later on.

Have a great and safe Day!

BMI . . . again

2012-02-03T19:03:00.001-08:00

I weighed in this morning at 189.2. This is the lightest I have weighed in probably over a decade. A DECADE and I am 26 years old.

I don’t know why I waited all this time to do something about my weight with diabetes running rampant in my family. But I can proudly say that I am no longer OBESE!! That evil and vile word.

There's an App for That

2012-02-03T19:01:00.000-08:00

I have decided that I am going to change up my diet. After 12 + weeks on a low carb diet, I have decided to switch to a low-calorie diet to finish off the diet.

While the low-carb diet was difficult getting started, the low calorie one has been a tough transition as well. How do you know how many calories something has? How do I keep track of these things?

I turned to my cell phone for help!

I started using this application on my phone a few weeks ago called Lose it. This app allows you to track calories eaten and calories burned through exercise. We will see if this change in the diet works as well. Wish me luck!

Week 15 Results

2012-01-29T12:54:00.001-08:00

With a stomach bug most of the week and traveling the second half of the week, I didn't get to the gym this week.

Today's result was 191.8 lbs.

This week I traveled for work and for first time in a long time and my suit fit well. More blogging and more going to the gym this week.

How I got started . . .

2012-01-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

I wanted to take a post to go through what I have done so far . . .

I started gradually:
First I cut down big ticket carb items-
Sugar
Bread
Pasta
Rice
Oatmeal
Potatoes
Sweets (Muffins, Cookies, Candies, Scones)

Over time, I have added:
bananas
corn
beans

They have low-carb bread and tortillas, probably other things too. We buy these instead of normal bread.

I limit myself to two a day (which may seem like a lot, but it really isn't). The goal is to limit total carbs to under 70 grams a day.

After a week on the diet, I joined a gym.

I started slow, going 3 - 4 days a week and walking on the treadmill.

After about two weeks of this, I started increasing the incline of the treadmill. The sharper the incline, the more calories you lose.

Right now, I am slowly starting to eat normal, but I am watching my calorie intake. I am about 15 pounds from my goal. I will probably try and lose more weight, but its tough getting there.

This isn't a diet where you drop 10 pounds a week, but should be able to drop 2 - 5 pounds a week.

I hate getting sick

2012-01-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

Without fail, I ALWAYS get sick in January. Every January, I get sick. It is crazy and is like clock work. I started off this week with what I originally thought was food poisoning, but think its more of a stomach bug. I won't get into the details too much, but I have had painful stomach cramps which did not let me get to the gym the first half of the week.

During the second half of the week, I have been out of town still feeling the stomach sickness that has plagued me all week. The last two weeks have knocked me off of track for the diet, which is horrible. I will try to post more on here to update what I have been doing with the diet and exercising.

Let's hope that I am able to keep the weight under 200 pounds and am feeling better so that I can hit the gym hard this weekend and next week.

week 14

2012-01-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

I didn't get a chance to weigh myself this morning. We celebrated being engaged one year today.

I will post a Week 15 total. The great news is that I hit my lowest weight of 190.0 LBS this morning. . .

Week 13 - Results

2012-01-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

This has been a great week for the diet! This week, my fiancee decided to join the gym and she jumped completely on board hitting the gym five days this week. I also hit the gym five times this week, with great results!

When I weighed in this morning, I hit a new weight of 192.6 LBS.

This means that I am under 20 LBS from goal and have lost 30 pounds since I have begun this diet and almost 40 pounds from my all-time-high of 230 LBS.

I have a number of comments on the blog that I will respond to soon, hopefully today or later this week.

A milestone . . .

2012-01-14T20:35:00.000-08:00

I have been a big guy my entire life. Growing up overweight was tough, and it seems to be tough on all large people growing up. Maybe you just ate too much, or were depressed, or were picked on, or were bad at sports, or had a lousy dating life because of it . . . whatever the reason or the outcome, being fat sucks. I have been fat my entire life.

Today I have reached one milestone, I had once thought long impossible- while fully dressed, the scale read under 200 lbs. I am looking to the day where I will weigh 175 LBS and I may even change my goal, given the excellent success that I have had thus far and reach for an even lower end weight, but that will come in time.

If I keep up my routine and lose as much weight as I have been in the last several weeks, over the next two weeks, I will hit yet another milestone- having a BMI under 30. As you may recall from my post on body mass index, found here, the NIH and the World Health Organization use a simple calculation based on weight and height to determine if you are obese.
To see your BMI, you can use this handy NIH Calculator. Having a BMI under 30 means that I will no longer be considered obese.

On a side note, I really hate the word obese.

For more information about the World Health Organization's (WHO) definitions of obese and overweight, you can visit their website here.

Week 12 - Results

2012-01-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

With my leg still sore this week, I took it easy at the gym. Rather than going full pace and risk hurting myself, I started to build back up my endurance on the treadmill.

I went to the gym five days this week, and while my workouts were not as intense or as long as they had been in the weeks leading up to the Christmas and New Years Holidays, I have great results.

At weigh in today, I was at 195.2. This is the best I have seen yet and a loss of over 3 pounds from last week.

My fiancee is looking to join the gym with me, though she has already lost enough weight through joining me as my support team on this diet.

Starting Back Up

2012-01-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went back to the gym for the first time in ten days after pulling a muscle in my leg. Not wanting to hurt my leg again, I took things very slowly, I spent 45 minutes at a slower than normal pace on the treadmill at hardly any incline, 25 minutes on the stationary bike and 15 minutes on the elliptical, before taking an extra mile walk outside. Overall, I burned about 500 calories, which is much lower than I have been used to burning.

Taking a full week and then some off of the gym taught me a few things.

When taking time off of a diet and exercise routine, it is very difficult to get motivated again
When exercising through an injury, it is important to watch for signs of pain
Even one week off of the gym, kills your endurance and energy

As my routine grew over the first 10 weeks, I was able to get more energy after exercising and I didn't feel tired and sore the next day
After one day of starting back up, I am very tired and a little sore.
I have to push through the next two weeks of exercise to build up this endurance

I have just under 24 LBS to lose to hit my goal. With 30 LBS gone, I have become complacent and unmotivated to push myself. Being around 200 LBS is an achievement for me, but it isn't good enough.

I am going to go to the gym as much as possible over the next two weeks. My hope is that my leg fully recovers over the next few weeks and that I continue to lose weight. Once my leg is at 100%, I will re-evaluate where I am and how I can best reach my goal by May 1st

Week 11 - Results

2012-01-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012!

At the end of Week 10, I pulled a muscle in my calf. With the sore muscle, I decided not to go to the gym this week.

With the holiday festivities and not going to the gym, I gained a little weight this week. My weight is up to 198.8 LBS. This is a slight gain this week, but I am still under my December end goal of 200.0 LBS.

Last Week of 2011

2011-12-30T16:44:00.000-08:00

As we were ending last week, I pulled a muscle in my left leg. That painful move has sidelined me from going to the gym this week. Rather than aggravate a sore muscle and turn it into something serious, I have taken this week off from going to the gym.

I have kept to the diet and hop that the results are still positive at the end of the week.

Week 10 Results- Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I wanted to make a quick update for my weekly results. This week, I was able to go to the gym 5 days and was able to stick with the diet.

I had to cut the gym visits short a few times this past week and ended up pulling a muscle in my leg tryng to get some extra work out on Friday.

Its healing up nicely and I fully expect to get to the gym a few ties this next week.

This week, I am down to 197.2 LBS. This is a loss of almost 2 LBS from last week.

As this is the last Sunday in December, I am please to post that I have hit my End of December goal of 200 LBS as of last week.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

This Blog

2011-12-22T13:14:00.000-08:00

The reason I keep this blog is to keep myself accountable for everything I do with this diet and exercise. Keeping a real time log of each weekly weigh in, articles I find interesting and what I am doing to lose this weight gives me the ability to review what worked and what hasn't.

Making this public and updating facebook and twitter with each update allows friends to monitor what I am doing and celebrate my successes with me. My hope is that my story will be an inspiration for those who are also struggling to lose weight. On my 26th birthday, I was in the worst shape of my life. At this point, ten weeks later, I am coming close to being the lowest I have weighed since I was a high school freshman.

This being said, I recently came across an article from Men's Health that said that keeping your diet and fitness routine a secret could help you lose weight by avoiding those all too common 'one piece of cake won't hurt' and 'you have done well all week, you can take a break on Saturday' type of temptations.

My thought is if you don't have the will power to say 'Thanks, but I can't. Maybe next time.' OR if you do have that piece of cake, stay an extra 20 minutes at the gym to make it not matter, a diet might not work for you. . .

Diets are TOUGH. Sticking to a diet where you have to cut out most of your favorite delicious foods is even tougher.

I am glad you all are enjoying the blog. Have a wonderful Christmas and/or Hanukkah!

Week 9 Results AND Week 8 correction

2011-12-18T14:09:00.000-08:00

So I re-read last week's results and realized that I typed the wrong weight. Last week, the correct weight was 202.0 LBS.

This week was very tough. The holiday season throws around everyone's schedule and getting to the gym is difficult.

I was only able to get to the gym four times this week. Sticking to the diet and getting to the gym has helped me reach my December goal early.

Today, I weighed in at 199.0 lbs at a loss of 3LBS.

With the holidays diets are difficult and getting to the gm may be very tough over this next week.