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!