When I had lost enough weight for people to notice; I was asked the inevitable question, “How are you doing it?” My answer, “Eating less and moving more”. I was always amazed by the fatalistic response, “I just can’t do that”.

One night, I was watching Finding Nemo with my kids; Dory’s mantra “Just keep swimming” struck me as a pretty appropriate philosophy for those times when you feel like there is no point. When people would ask how I was able to stick with the change in lifestyle effective weight loss demands, I would tell them, in the words of Dory, Just keep swimming!

I’m embarrassed to say; I stopped listening to Dory.

Last fall when I started Grad School; there was always something… books and articles to read and papers to write. The late nights, studying at the library, and lack of exercise caused the weight to start creeping back. WIth a pound here and a pound there I dismissed them thinking I just needed to get back on track. After all, I had lost 134 lbs!

School got more stressful… then the separation, divorce, and the accompanying drama… pizza, ice cream and beer were my friends. Add to that the need to streamline my finances… WeightWatchers and my old gym membership went into the dustbin (an $84 savings!).

Last night Robert and I joined Club 24 a card-lock gym. Its in a nice location, the price is right and it’s open 24/7!

Just keep swimming…

Starting Weight: 412 lbs
tarting BMI: 54.4
Last Weigh-In: (04/28/09): 301.6 lbs
Weight Today: 320.8 lbs.
Current BMI: 42.3

Weight Change: +19.2 lbs (yikes!)
Total Weight Lost: –91.2 lbs. (still, not bad)

I weighed in this morning as I got out of the shower. Wednesday sounds like a nice day for these weekly reports.

The overriding goal of my life was to hit my goal weight (225 lbs) by the time I hit 40. That was last week. Let’s say we adjust that to 41?

Wish me luck!

Starting Weight (May 25, 2009): 285 lbs.
Starting BMI: 39.7
Weight Last Weigh in: (June 29, 2009) 276 lbs.
Weight Today (July 6, 2009): 274.5 lbs.
Current BMI: 38.4

Weight Change This Week: -1.5 lbs.
Total Weight Lost: 10.5 pounds
Loss Streak: 6 weeks in a row
NEXT GOAL: 260 lbs. (14.5 lbs. to go)

I still haven’t weighed myself, but just this morning the next notch up on my belt slid in quite naturally.  It’s where the previous notch felt before I started this up again, so I feel really good about that. 

Last week, I picked up a half case of Full Sail’s Session Lager, which I believe is one of the finest brews coming out of the Pacific Northwest right now.  Apparently, it won some international award in Europe a few years ago.  It has a very light, crisp taste, and goes with just about anything you can throw at it.  More importantly for us Fatbloggers, it comes in an 11-ounce bottle, not twelve, so you can dial back just a bit when you’re keeping track of calories.  If it’s at all available where you live, give it a try!

Technorati Tags: Dieting, weight loss, beer, Full Sail,

Read the article at logmyloss.com.

1. Serious undereating. Cannot have been good for the metabolism.
2. Exercising to the point of burnout.
3. Relying on daily improvements in my weight for motivation.

It’s kind of fun, in a way, to fix a severe short-term goal: I would want to see a lower number — even 0.2 pounds lower — the next morning so much that I’d eat even less, exercise even more, etc. The feeling of success was tremendous, and so motivating. But, one big meal somewhere brought back a few pounds of water weight, which was heartbreaking. It set back a week of “progress” and made my numbers much, much less superhuman.

This is just me rehashing for myself, guys, and trying to drive home my lessons learned. They were: eat less, not too much less. Exercise more, but lightly or moderately, something you can tolerate. And, above all, weigh no more than once a week. Don’t get sucked into competing with yesterday’s number! I’m happier, losing weight, and I don’t really care how long it takes, since I feel fine. The only hard part is maintaining all this patience!

My routine:

1. Consume 1800-2200 calories daily. If I’m not hungry or am too tired, I have some wine or a cocktail to reach my minimum, which feels great. No more 1300-1500 days allowed!
2. 1 hour on treadmill at 10 degrees incline per day, every day, at 2 mph — burns about 400 calories. I play fast-paced, fairly simple computer games to make this go very quickly. (I suggest plantsvszombies.com and surfshelf.com)
3. Eat out, but lightly, and only foods that will be easy to enter into my calorie-counting software! Its too easy to lose the routine once you start leaving things out.
4. Big attitude change: only Monday’s weight “counts”. I’ll weigh myself other days, but I never write it down or enter it in my software, and it gives me some context if the next Monday turns out not to be my best day of the 7. I am not banking on dramatic weekly improvements, either: I can wait to see a two- or three-week trend, and if it’s more than a pound a week, awesome.

Last, I’m not calling myself successful here. I read that telling people your plans gives you a premature feeling of completion. Well, this is just getting started. No success yet here. I’ll be done when all my clothes fit well, when I’ve gained back a couple of belt notches, and when people notice that I’ve lost a lot of weight. I’m thinking it’s going to take 2-3 more months for sure.. but we can do that. Thanks for letting me use this space to reflect on it!

That didn’t go according to plan. I’ve hit some financial snafus and was unable to hit the gym on a consistent basis as I would have liked. On top of that, work was a little exhausting and the only thing I could think of doing was sleep the moment I got home all the way until I had to get up and go back.

The goal of being 214 lbs. or reasonably close to it was a failure. The closest I got was about 220 lbs which is only down approximately 2 lbs. Faaaaail.

On the upside, I’ve cut out almost all of the crap that I normally eat and have been avoiding cravings and boredom eating and I’m starting to lose weight that way. As you can see, I’m already under 220 lbs.

I really wish I could get out of this financial hole and start hitting the gym again. *sighs*

Perhaps I’ll have to incorporate a lot more walking just to make up for it.

Starting Weight (May 25, 2009): 285 lbs.
Starting BMI: 39.7
Weight Last Weigh in: (June 22, 2009) 278 lbs.
Weight Today (June 29, 2009): 276 lbs.
Current BMI: 38.5

Weight Change This Week: -2 lbs.
Total Weight Lost: 9 pounds
Goal Streak: 5 weeks in a row
NEXT GOAL: 275 lbs. (1 lbs. to go)

My weight loss efforts went unscathed.  We actually took quite a bit of food with us, and ate just one meal out a day.  This was kind to both the pocketbook as well as my diet.  In the evening, we found some great places to enjoy some fresh, local seafood, and of course take in a local brew or two.  We were even able to hit up Mo’s a couple of times.  Hey, when you’re on the Oregon Coast, you’ve GOT to go enjoy some fish and chips and a bowl of chowder at Mo’s.  It just wouldn’t be right if you didn’t.

I kept track of my calories every single day but one, and on the day that I didn’t, I’m fairly certain I didn’t go over by much, if at all.  My theme seems to be enjoying good, healthy food in moderation.

Good, consistent exercise still eludes me, though, and we still don’t have a scale.  I have no idea how much weight I’ve lost, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was eight pounds or so.  I just feel better overall, and my 38 shorts are fitting me much better.  I’m still going to give it a couple more weeks before I venture into my 38 pants.  Also, I recently dropped some bucks on some new clothes for a new job I have starting this fall, and I bought 38’s because they’ll fit me then, not because they fit me now.  I have every bit of confidence I’ll be in them in a month or so.

Technorati Tags: dieting, weight loss, vacation, Oregon