WEEK 3 - The Omen

WEEK 3  |  January 24, 2017  |  Weight: 311.6 lbs  |  Loss of 4.4 lbs

I can't believe 3 weeks of no eating take out and not over eating.  I'm still eating the foods I like, just as long as they are home cooked versions in controlled quantities.  I've increased the quantity of side dishes so I can decrease the main portion.  For example, instead of 2 small steaks or 2 burgers, I eat 1 steak or 1 burger and a larger side of salad.

Another what I can only call an omen is the fact that the grocery store has started selling two salads that I haven't had since I lost weight in 2012.  One of my challenges is to find a side dish I like with my meals that isn't too terrible (compared to the pizza, or burger, or steak that I'd call my main) because I just don't like many things.  In 2012, my wife found a number of bagged salads I really liked and somewhere in 2013, all the grocery stores stopped selling them.  We've kept our eye open and just recently, we noticed the grocery store is selling them again!  This makes my meals so much easier to plan because I really like these particular salads.

Now that I'm about to start week 4, I have a new challenge ahead of me.  I have to eat a reduced diet for the next several days in preparation for a colonoscopy procedure I need to get on Monday.  My older sister was diagnosed with colon cancer so we all have to get screened.  I'm going to try and be strong for the next week and hope everything goes to plan.

WEEK 2 - Stick to the Plan

WEEK 2  |  January 17, 2017  |  Weight: 316.6 lbs  |  Loss of 3.6 lbs

Another great loss on the scale but at this point does not pose much of a challenge - it's week 2 for crying out loud.  If I can't stick to a new lifestyle for more than 2 weeks there's no hope lol.  Regardless, I've made this new lifestyle change the focus of my attention.   I learned through re-reading my blog over and over that if I never made health a top priority, I'd eventually lose sight of goals, what I was trying to do and ultimately fail.

Now, I'm keeping the lifestyle change in my sights daily.  One thing I've done is stop drinking for the short term.  We used to drink almost daily in the past (yes, bad I know).  Even during my success in 2012, we drank every weekend.  This time I've decided that I am going to have a routine that I am going to stick to for the first several weeks just to get the ball rolling - pick up some momentum if you will.  I've lost faith that I can "do this" and need to show myself that I "can" do it.  That said, I've developed a routine of repetition that I'm sticking to.  No drinking, no restaurants, and regular home cooked meals.  Nothing outrages at all.  No special diets, no drastic change in the kinds of food I like.  Just removal of the excess and take outs.

Once I get over the first 6 week hump, then I'll relax a little on routine and start changing things like adding exercise and swapping out some bad food for better choices.  For now, I just need to prove to myself I can do better than just reboot over and over.

WEEK 1 - Great Start

WEEK 1  |  January 10, 2017  |  Weight: 319.6 lbs  |  Loss of 8.0 lbs

Wow what a fantastic loss.  I got a little scared at the start of this week because the day after my weigh in I gained 3 pounds, but that quickly disappeared and I started on my track of losing it.  Like back in 2012, I am counting my calories as closely as possible.  I'm not overly concerned at this stage about what I'm actually eating as long as I'm counting calories and sticking to my daily limit.

I've always held the notion that there are two aspects to food during a lifestyle change and that is losing weight and eating healthy.  Both are great goals to have but they can be mutually exclusive.  One can eat healthy and gain weight and on the other side of the coin, one can lose weight and eat poorly.

Given I failed at both, I'm focused on fixing one right away and gradually into fixing the other.  If I try to calorie restrict and eat healthy at the same time, I am setting myself up for failure because the system shock alone will be painful.  So for now, I will restrict my calories but continue to eat the foods I love in controlled portions.

2017 Fresh Start

WEEK 0  |  January 4, 2017  |  Weight: 327.6 lbs  |  Loss of 0.0 lbs

Here we are, restarting again.  I guess it's a lot like when I quit smoking finally (It's been 6 years now) - you never quit quitting.  I feel that way about weight.  I know I want to lose it, I know I need to lose it, and I try and fail but I try try again.  Stepping on the scale now however I can see I've gained even more weight than the heaviest I have been in my life.  I feel tired, sick, worn out and my latest physical shows me with high blood pressure.  I've GOT to fix this and I've GOT to do it now.  My doctor wants me to start exercising (for 15 mins a day to start) and to try to get my weight under control so let's do this!

WEEK 4 - Still On Track

WEEK 4  |  February 1, 2016  |  Weight: 294.4 lbs  |  Loss of 3.0 lbs

So here we are on week 4.  With a little bit of a hic-up in week 3, I am happy to say that I am very pleased with this weigh in.  I've been weighing every day but only recording on Mondays so I do get to see regular fluctuations and how a day of certain foods, water intake, and activity can change what the scale shows on a daily basis.  This has helped me start to form better habits again.

I've been doing my best to follow in my footsteps from 2012 and referring back to my activities from then as well.  I was even able to pull up my meals from Loseit from 2012.  Right there that was a valuable thing.  I know exactly what I had to eat every day back then and it's amazing to compare what I was doing then with what I am doing now.

That said, it seemed to be that I was eating lower calories but the quality of the food didn't matter and I can sort of get that when I went from pure takeout and junk to losing weight.  To stay on track back then I had to ensure I was focused more on portion control vs. food quality.  Asking someone who's been eating takeout 4 days a week to start eating veg and other high quality low calorie foods is setting them up for failure.  So this time I'm really only focused on calorie and sodium intake.  As I get further along, I'll do what I did back then and start swapping out foods for better quality ones.  So far, doing this, here I am on week 4 and still dropping!

WEEK 3 - Weaknesses

WEEK 3  |  January 25, 2016  |  Weight: 297.4 lbs  |  Gain of 0.5 lbs

In looking back at my Week 3 from 2012, I saw that while I had a great loss, I also had a cheat day where I indulged in food I should not have had.  This week 3, I had a similar set of incidents.  If I had kept it to one occurrence, I think I would have been fine however it was more than one.  I am calling it a weak week.  Most of the week was actually pretty good but I had 2 events that caused this gain.

First, I agreed to go out to the pub after work with a co-worker.  My plan was to escape early and go home for a home-cooked meal or some other low calorie option.  What ended up actually happening was a giant pizza and hot wings.  Damn you pub food why do you have to taste so good!

The second event was sheer laziness.  My wife and I were going to roast a chicken on the weekend but we were both caught up in doing our own thing that we decided to go the easy route and just order food.  This was my second mistake.

Today (the day of posting, 2 days after my weigh in), I've already lost 2 pounds so I think some of this gain was sodium based water retention which is a good thing and makes me feel like I haven't fallen flat on my face all together.  Onward and Downward!

Week 2 - Movin Along

WEEK 2  |  January 18, 2016  |  Weight: 296.9 lbs  |  Loss of 2.6 lbs

Week 2 is a great success and I'm glad to see 2 solid weeks of positive weigh ins.  As I assumed, week 1 crazy weight loss was just my body's way of correcting itself and preparing for the new me.  This week's weight loss is something I expect to see regularly now.  Perhaps not 2.6 each week but an acceptable loss of 1-2 pounds a week rather than crazy high numbers like 8.

That said, I am not at all disappointed in this weeks weigh in and I am proud of myself for week 2.  I'm looking forward to the challenge of week 3.  If I can get the next few weeks under my belt, I will be confident I am no longer bouncing up and down like I have for the past 3.5 years and I'm moving along the right path.  Let's do this!

Week 1 - New Beginnings

Today is my first re-posting on this blog.  In the beginning of 2012 (as can be seen in this blog) I began a journey that was to change my life, and for a time it did.  I weighed over 300 pounds and at one point I actually made it all the way down to 247.  I was feeling and looking healthy and great.  I went away on vacation that summer and fell off the wagon completely.

Mind you prior to 2012 I ate very poorly in every meal and every day which caused my gain in the first place however between the summer of 2012 and now, I've been in some sort of different place where I sort of eat healthy for a few days and then mess it all up with a bad weekend of bad habits.  This new struggle is even worse than the first attempt at weight loss because not only am I back to over 300 pounds, I'm not even eating the delectable junk food that I like 100% of the time.  For 3 and a half years I've been fooling myself and on my 43rd birthday in December, 2015 I finally said enough.

This blog reminded me of HOW I lost over 60 pounds and how I could have kept going back in 2012 and so, I have decided to start again.  I began Monday, January 4th with a weight of 307.8 pounds and a new resolve to get to my healthy weight however long that takes.  Now today, I am 1 week in and 2016 IS my year to get it right.

WEEK 1  |  January 11, 2016  |  Weight: 299.5 lbs  |  Loss of 8.3 lbs

My first week wasn't that tough simply because I was full of resolve.  I used to smoke and remember trying to quit so many times, right after I finished smoking one.  It's always easy to say you're going to stop doing something when you've just finished having it.  The real challenges are yet to come.

That said, I am still very proud of having a very successful week.  It's been the first FULL WEEK of eating right, avoiding drinking (mind you I'm not quitting, just reducing) and even getting some walks in.

Oddly enough, this week was also the same week I caught a nasty cold and spent some time in bed sick.  Did that impact my weight?  I don't know but I did my best to stick with the meal plans I had laid out for myself for the week and I did just that.

I also came to accept that much of this is water weight from the copious amounts of sodium I ate the previous week so I won't expect to lose these kinds of numbers on a regular basis.  Looking back at my blog, I see that I settled into what I would expect to be normal weight loss of a pound or two a week after the 2-3 weeks.  I hope for the same this time around.

Wish me luck.

WEEK 56 - In the Groove

Week 56 | February 1, 2013 | Weight 262.6 | Loss of 2.6 lbs | Total Lost: 48

I'm quite happy that I seem to be back on track.  I am trying my best to get out of the bad food habits that I formed over the holidays and I've been walking almost every day for 45 minutes.  I can't wait for spring so I can get back to running again like I was last summer.

My wife and I are planning our vacation this summer and we'll be doing our regular camping trip as well as spending a week in New York city.  Us frozen ass Canadians enjoy both a good beach and appreciate a giant city atmosphere, that and the fact that my wife has some sort of obsession with Manhattan that I still don't quite understand.

I've been preaching around the house that I'm not going to let us go overboard like we did last summer and after the vacation, back to strict diet and exercise.  Given I've been doing this a year now, I'm fairly confident in knowing the warning signs of what and how I fall off track and I think I'll be able to catch them before I do any serious damage.  (Christmas was quite damaging).

I'm about 15 pounds from the lightest I've been and I'll consider myself fully back on track once I reach that weight.  As for eating, I'm actually doing quite well on the weekdays but the weekends add several more hours of "awake time" than the weekdays so right now, late night evening snacking are my trouble spot that I'll need to work on.  I remember last year, we turned to fruit platters to help curb it so I may give that another try again.

WEEK 55 - On My Way

Week 55 | January 25, 2013 | Weight 265.2 | Loss of 2.2 lbs | Total Loss: 45.4

I am well on my way once again with my weight loss journey.  I can't believe it's been a year since I started hitting this hard.  There have been many lessons learned, a couple of stalls and one out right screw up but I'm happy to say that things are on their way once again.  I'm now about 10 pounds heavier than I was at the start of Christmas and I'm about 19 pounds heavier than my lightest weight last summer.   My short term goal is to get back to my lightest weight before the end of Spring and then stay on track right through the summer.

There were two major events that occurred last year that have caused me to fluctuate so much.  The first is summer vacation.  It was 2 weeks of not tracking anything, pretty much pig out on whatever we wanted.  I only gained a few pounds from this but the major problem was after the vacation, I just ended up maintaining my weight.  My desire to run and workout disappeared and I sort of just fluctuated within a 10 pound range right up till Christmas.  What's disheartening is that I pretty much didn't make good use of the last 6 months of last year with losing anything.

Then came December and everything went out the window.  I think we had maybe 11 home cooked meals the entire month and the first week of January.  I actually started to really feel like garbage at the end of that as well.  So here we are once again.  Happily I didn't gain back everything I lost last year so hopefully I can get back to my lightest weight in short order.  I won't say I regret everything that happened with my diet and exercise.  Not only did I get to eat a few things I really enjoy but I also learned some valuable lessons in that a couple times a year I can certainly indulge but I must do so in moderation.  A smorgasbord of a meal on a particular weekend is not a problem at all, as long as it's only a few times a year are not weekly or even daily (like this past Christmas season).

So let's get to this!  A total loss of 14 pounds over the past few weeks (yes I know most of which was sodium and water from Xmas) makes for a great head start.

Reboot

So, I fell off the wagon pretty hard and put on a bunch of pounds.  Happily I'm not starting over as my loss from 2012 was pretty big and the gain in the last few months has been disappointing.  That said, I've started again like all good rezzies.  As of today I am still down over 42 pounds from when I started this time a year ago and my goals are still the same.

That said, I've learned a lot over the past year.  One big lesson was to not be over ambitious with anything.  Weight Loss, blogging and everything else.  One tends to peter out fairly quickly and is probably a major factor in why many New Years Rezzies give up and fail after a month in.

I'm back on my diet and started walking again.  I don't think I can run like I did last year without becoming pretty winded so I'm starting up slowly.  I expect in a couple of months I'll be running 5k like I was last summer and be half way to my goal once again.

I don't expect I'll be blogging every couple of days like I did before.  That becomes tiring quickly so I'm going to try my best to post here once a week on my new weigh in day which is Fridays.  I wish you all the best of success and hope we can continue this journey together!

WEEK 37 - Moving Again

Week 37 | September 25, 2012 | Weight 248.2 | Loss of 3.7 lbs | Total Loss: 62.4

I'm finally moving in the right direction!  This past summer was the worst when it came to my weight loss journey.  At the beginning of the year, we didn't get to do a lot of outside activities as it was way too cold but when the summer hit, it was BBQ and backyard camp fires!  Once we took our scheduled vacation and break from dieting, I went back to eating pretty healthy again but every now and then a bad habit would sneak back in such as hitting up a fast food place once a week when we should have made home cooked.

While I didn't gain any during this time, I didn't lose any either.  I was bouncing around the 250's all summer long and now it seems I'm finally into the 240's and plan to stay there.  We're completely back on track to where we were before vacation this summer and eating the same way we did as well.  Exercise took a nose dive and I'm starting to get back into that regularly too.

My wife made her first goal and she is finally in the "Normal" weight category!  WOW!  At almost 50 pounds lost I am very, very proud of her and can't tell you how amazing she looks!  Perhaps this picture from her last 5k race will do :)

WEEK 36 - Birthday!

Week 36 | September 18, 2012 | Weight 251.9 | Loss of 2.8 lbs | Total Loss: 58.7

I am dedicating this post to my daughter.  Today is her 11th birthday so Happy Birthday princess!  Along with a great day for a birthday, I've even lost weight!  And I'm sort of surprised by that because of all the pizza and potato wedges I ate over the weekend.  OMG pizza!  My daughter had a sleep over for her birthday so 8 pre-teen kids were sugared up and looking for food.  5 pizzas came to the door along with chicken wings, breadsticks, potato wedges, pasta and more.

Needless to say I piggied out along with the kids LOL.  It was not one of my better moments but I still somehow managed to drop a couple of pounds during the whole ordeal so that's great!  I'll have to admit that during the week I am eating quite well, under my calorie budget every day.  I just have to get my weekends back in check and I think I'll break into the 240's and stay there!

WEEK 35 - Sick!

Week 35 | September 11, 2012 | Weight 254.7 | Gain of 3.9 lbs | Total Loss: 55.9

Last week was horrible!  I was sick in bed all week long.  I couldn't even get the energy to get up and weigh in.  This also meant very few home cooked meals.  My wife's father took sick as well so she spent a lot of time in the hospital so we were pretty screwed the entire week when it came to the diet front.

That said, we still had to eat, and the kids had to eat so it was fast food pretty much all week long.  Not good!  I started feeling better on the weekend and while I still have a lingering cough I'm able to get to work and cook some meals once again so now it's time to hit it hard!  I am determined to break back into the 240's and STAY THERE!

WEEK 33 - Bam!

Week 33 | August 28, 2012 | Weight 250.8 | Loss of 3.1 lbs | Total Loss: 59.8

Now that's what I'm talkin about!  Excellent loss and puts me right back on track (even this morning's private weigh in brings me back under 250!).   So now I'm right back to where I was prior to vacation.  Whew!  That was a bit of effort but happily I feel like I did before I started in on the smorgasbord of eating during vacation.  I don't feel a desire to hit up Wendy's once again and I even started back running.

On Monday I ran Week 4, Day 2 on the C25K program and it was tough, but I completed it and I'm very happy I did.  I'm going to try and keep going because I enjoy the way I feel when I'm doing it.  My wife keeps encouraging me to enter a 5k race (she's done 2 already) and I most likely will, but will wait till next spring before I sign up for any.  I still feel like a fat guy and by medical standards I still am, but I am defiantly going in the right direction!  With luck and hard work, perhaps I will enter my first 5k race early next year.

Week 32 - Get off the Couch!

Week 32 | August 21, 2012 | Weight 253.9 | Loss of 1.8 lbs | Total Loss: 56.7

OMG Where does the summer go?!  It's been way too long since I last posted and I'm such a bad boy for neglecting this blog.  I guess that just made me no different than many others who try this journey.  Anyway, after a couple of weeks off I'm now happily back on track.  I'm losing again and (yes I know late post for this week) as of this moment, I'm only a pound away from where I was before vacation started.

I've learned that 2-3 weeks of eating VERY badly takes almost double that amount of time to get back to normal (for me anyway).  My wife is already back on track and below her last weigh in before vacation.  Good job!

I discovered that during vacation it was just too easy to hit up fast food and overeat.  It was plain and simple.  I even recorded most of the days in Lose It and I can see it right there in RED - I ate TOO MUCH!  That habit is gone once again and I'm back to my regular routine.  The only part missing right now is the exercising which I must get into.  I've decided to not go hard like I did as that's not maintainable.  I'm going to workout 3-4 times a week which will be a mix of strength training and running.  I found that not to be too difficult to achieve vs trying to work out 5-6 days a week.  Now.. let the fat fly once again!

WEEK 29 - Vacation Ouch!

Week 29 | July 31, 2012 | Weight 255.5 | Gain of 6.2 lbs | Total Loss: 55.1

So we're finally back from vacation and wow!  Thinking back about what I ate during it and it was pretty insane.  Large bags of chips, chocolate bars, giant steaks, burgers galore and then the fast food.  A few trips to Wendy's for some triple baconaters and fries!  I can't even count the number of times we hit fast food joints.  Then of course there was the copious amounts of booze.  Yeah, 6.2 pounds after all that?  No shocker there.

That said, we had a fantastic time away and break.  My wife gained more than I did but it's starting to slowly come off again now that we are eating clean.  It wasn't too difficult getting back into the routine and even though we were not weighing ourselves during vacation, we knew it was time to stop and couldn't actually wait to get back to good clean eating.

Running on the other hand, now that's going to take a bit more effort.  I haven't had a run in a few weeks now and I've got myself another week of vacation but I'm just hanging home with the kids relaxing so there's no need for the fast food and eating clean is easy to do while I'm here.  That said, I plan to attempt a new run starting next week.  This coming weekend is our August long weekend so I can't promise I won't eat poorly this weekend as it marks the official end to my vacation but I am ready to get back at it full steam ahead!

WEEK 25 - Rebound

Week 25 | July 3, 2012 | Weight 249.3 | Loss of 0.7 lbs | Total Loss: 61.3


So it looks like I've lost the weight I gained last week which is great!  I didn't do so well this past weekend but I didn't mind.  It was a 4 day weekend for me and we celebrated Canada Day here so eating right wasn't a top priority but I didn't go overboard and probably still feeling some effects from last week's BBQ.

That said I'm doing my best to eat lean and clean this week because vacation starts next week which is going to be pretty much two weeks of gluttony LOL.  I won't have access to a scale on weigh in day next week nor will I have access to a computer the entire time (phone coverage if I'm lucky).

I fully intend to hit the routine hard when we get back but until then, it's going to be interesting to see what these next two weeks will bring.  I'm hoping the past 7 months have caused me to develop some good eating habits so I won't become the eating machine I once was.  We'll see by the extent of the damage this will cause but that's ok, it's what vacation is all about hehe!

WEEK 24 - Running and BBQ!

Week 24 | June 26, 2012 | Weight 250.0 | Gain of 0.7 lbs | Total Loss: 60.6


Well it's official - the first gain in 24 weeks!  Yes, I've had ups and downs and gains and losses but this is the first time a gain has appeared ON my weigh in day.  Funny how that happens LOL.  Anyway, after this past weekends events, I am not surprised.

This past weekend was my wife's first 5k race.  I never expected anyone in my family to be able to do anything quite like this.  It was exciting and fun and energetic!  Even though it was raining and I wasn't the one running LOL.   She placed in the top 10% of all the runners and I am so very very proud of her!  She is an amazing woman and pushes herself to her limits on a regular basis.  She motivates me to be better than I am!  Great job babe!

Afterward, that evening, we had a BBQ and it was the day my wife and I planned to take off from thinking about what we ate.  So let's see, what did I have?

• Smokies
• Meatballs
• Salami
• Cheese
• Ritz
• Ruffles Chips
• Doritos
• Salmon
• Steak Kabobs
• Cheeseburgers
• Strawberries
• Marshmallows
• Pineapple
• Bananas
• Peanuts
• Chocolate
• Beer
• More Beer
• Shooters
• Lots of other various drinks LOL

So yeah, it was a big party and it was a blast!  

WEEK 23 - Memory

Week 23 | June 19, 2012 | Weight 249.3 | Loss of 2.2 lbs | Total Loss: 61.3

What a wonderful milestone!  It's been 13 years since I've weighed this much.  I remember it well because it was a turning point in my life.  The last time I weighed in the 249 area, I was putting a wedding ring on the hand of my beloved wife.

It was a beautiful day and I had no idea what was ahead of me other than I was hand in hand with the person I wanted to travel the earth with.  I also had no idea the pounds I was going to put on over the next 13 years either LOL.  That said, I'm back to the weight from that day and I'm happy to say that I'm not done yet!  Nope - while I was a big boy even in my mid 20's during my wedding day, I still have more of this journey to take and I fully intend to keep going.

My ultimate goal will see me at a weight when I was 20 years old.  So, I hope you all find someone to travel with like I have and here's to the journey!