50extra - My weight loss journey with all the embarrassing details

WifiresGettingFit

@50extra How are things going?

50extra

@WifiresGettingFit things are going really good. Been hitting weights with the wife and doing some cardio a couple times a week. Eating pretty much at maintenance as it's easy and helps in muscle development when compared to eating in a deficit. I will go back a deficit in the new year when I get back into Russia. Until then I'll just enjoy the holidays and take it easy.

WifiresGettingFit

@50extra I'm glad to hear things are going well!

50extra

Well Christmas is officially over so I guess it's time to get back on track. I regret nothing about my eating these last several days because Christmas is my favorite time of the year and there have been so many get togethers with friends and family. I do wish that I worked out more but once in a while is much better than nothing.

Tonight the wife and I did our Stronglifts workout. It's a shame I have to head back to Russia in a week because the weights have finally progressed to the point where it's getting challenging. After our lifting I hopped on the assault bike and she did the Insane abs workout DVD. 33 minutes is my new record for time on it.

I have flip flopped back and forth many times with how I should attack my month at home and it is becoming more and more clear that my best bet for continued success in this journey is to eat around maintenance while at home and work off the weight when I get back to work. I have had my calories set to a 1lb loss since I got home a month ago and have put on somewhere near 10lbs I think. (Again regret nothing about my eating) the problem with a small deficit is that when you have runaway days on the weekend it's very easy to blow up your weekly average and put you in a surplus situation. I think that if I wanted to lose weight while at home I would have to eat at a 2lb loss during the week and then the weekends would average me back up to maintenance ir a slight loss. Thankfully the losing phase of my journey is coming close to an end and all I'll have to worry about is maintenance calories and macros. That's something I will worry about in 2017.

I'm really looking forward to January 20th. This will be my one year mark on MFP. I hope to do a nice write up when I get there.

But it's now 3am and I'm going to try and get some sleep. I've been in bed for an hour and a half and couldn't sleep so I decided to do an update instead of just laying here thinking about it.

WifiresGettingFit

I'm glad you've enjoyed your holiday and time home!

50extra

Okay wow did things go south shorty after I posted that last update... Been almost a month since I have posted so I guess I should update whats been going on in the last while.

I was doing pretty good in December, I was hitting the Assault bike, lifting weights at a decent interval but was eating like a pig during the holidays. As I mentioned it was going great, and the holiday season was a lot of fun. I was up maybe 10 pounds in the month but didn't really care as I planned on shedding the weight when I got back to work.

I was scheduled to come back into Russia on January 2nd and pick up where I left off and then new years hit.

Sometime during the night I slipped on an iced over deck beside a hot tub and landed directly on my back on the edge of the hot tub. I had enough momentum that I folded over backwards right into it, I am sure it looked hilarious and at the time I didn't even notice I was hurt. At 2am on new years eve I was feeling pretty bullet proof.

So on the morning of January 1st, I woke up and attempted to sit up. Probably the worst pain I have ever felt shot down my lower back. I couldn't sit up, I couldn't roll over and quite frankly couldn't really move. After 10 or 15 minutes I managed to get rolled over and slowly sat up. New years day was basically me being immobile, but being a typical male I figured I just tweaked something in my back. I've been hurt many many times and my back has been as well. I figured i just needed some rest and I would start feeling better in the morning.

January 2nd rolls around and its fly day. Again, I wake up and try to move and can't roll over or sit up in bed. Once I finally get up I made the call that I can't fly and decided to go to the urgent care center. The doctor looks me over and basically tells me that I need to take some Advil and rest. I wasn't happy with that so I finally got myself a family doctor which I haven't had for 10 years or so. Went to the doctor, he ran some tests and sent me for Xrays on my pelvis and spine. By this point I was pretty certain that I broke my back because the pain hadn't even started to subside over 5 days.

Anyways, the Xrays came back negative so we started thinking it was a wrecked disc. I ended up going to the physio therapist 8 or 9 times and we found out that it was just some of the muscles attached to my spine were messed up. So for an extra three weeks I sat at home eating whatever the hell I wanted, mostly chips and salsa or goldfish and cream cheese and put on a couple extra pounds! My back is all healed up except for some tightness and I am ready to kick *kitten* this year again.

Anyways today is day one in Siberia. I am back on an eating plan and will step on the scale when I wake up tomorrow to see what the damage was. I had big plans on doing a nice one year write up about my journey but since this setback happened its not worth doing. I am going to hit the diet and the cardio real hard this shift and see if I can get back down to a reasonable weight and then will do a write up.

I know I am rambling but since its been so long that i posted I have a ton to say. Since I am just getting back into this I will leave it until tomorrow until I get my head wrapped around where I am now and where I want to be.

Thanks to anyone that is reading this. This wall used to be my biggest motivator and I am going to try and get back to that point this year.

tcunbeliever

I hope you do get back to posting, I miss you when you are gone! Sorry you were injured, but glad you are recovering!

WifiresGettingFit

Glad to see you back! I'm glad that the back injury wasn't too too serious and that you're recovering well! I look forward to reading you next update and I don't think any of us mind your ramblings! haha It's what your journal is for!

50extra

I will for sure be here again daily, at least until the end of my shift which is on Feb 18th.

So the dreaded weigh in was this morning. After I took the battery out of my scale and warmed it up so it had enough juice I stepped on the scale and seen 218.6. Truthfully I am happy with this. It means that from November 29th until this morning I only gained 9.3lbs. Now that may sound like a lot but that is essentially two months of not moving and not recording what I ate. I was hoping for right around 10lb gain. I feel like taking the time off in December and then again for the first 2/3 of January from my injury has re-motivated me.

So yesterday was an interesting day, I traveled through the night to Siberia and like normal got to my apartment at around 4:45 unpacked and laid down for my hour of sleep or so before work. I decided to cut the day short and only worked 11 hours instead of the typical 13 or so. As soon as I got home I finished unpacking, set up my laptop and decided this trip was going to be all about T25 again. I would love to do Insanity but knowing what it did to my knees it's just not worth it. Thinking I was still as fit as I was in November I decided I was going to jump right into the BETA workouts. Put on Beta Cardio and realized when I ripped my DVDs to my computer I only ripped the commercials and not the actual workout. I didn't let it get to me and put on Alpha cardio and on my god... A few months ago the 25 minute workout was laughable at best. It would have been a real nice warmup and last night I had to completely stop three times and sit down. Today my quads and my *kitten* are so jacked up I can barely walk. (Truthfully having some DOMS again feels kind of nice) Anyways after the 25 minutes of T25 I sat and let my heart rate drop back down to a more normal state and hopped on my stationary bike. I was planning on going for a 45 minute ride but had to shut it down at 25 minutes.

The way I'm looking at it is 50 minutes of hard work my first night in was a real good way to start off the shift.

I have my calories set to lose 2lbs a week and am going to keep them there this shift. My goal is to get back down to 209.3 which is what I weighed on my final day here last shift. Will it be possible to lose 9.3 pounds in like 25 days? Probably not, but the big lofty goals worked good for me this time last year, I am going to bank on the fact that they will work for me this time around. My nutrition might not be there for a few days as I will be eating mostly packaged foods until I get to the grocery store. It's -30 today but in a few days is supposed to warm up to around -18. Until then, its canned tuna, oatmeal, protein bars, eggs, packaged rice and protein shakes.

I truly am re-motivated and it feels really good!

WifiresGettingFit

@50extra Do you think it would make a difference in your progress if you continued to check in even while you're home? It kinda seems like you have the pattern of losing weight while working and then gaining it back while home and I completely get wanting to focus on your family time while home especially given how your work schedule is and the fact that you travel and are away for extended periods of time but isn't that basically just yo-yoing? Wouldn't it be better to start building sustainable habits you can continue at home or since that may not be possible with how things are set up there and the fact that it is a completely different environment then maybe coming up with a plan of action for when you get home for those things you may not be able to continue while home due to family obligations and time constraints to keep you moving forward?

Compared to what you were going through during that time with your back and everything, I don't think a 9 pound gain is that bad at all but let's put a different perspective on it just because I think it's important sometimes to look at the bigger picture. If you gained 9 pounds for every 2 months, you'd be 54 pounds heavier by this time the following year.

I think doing a 50 minute workout after not working out for 2 months is a lot to expect your body to do. Not saying you aren't capable and I know you're the type to push yourself and that's great but I don't think going from 0-60 is the best idea especially given the injuries/pain you've been dealing with. My suggestion is to start slow and work your way up.

Just my thoughts. I have no doubt that you will achieve what you set out to do and be successful and I'm glad to see you so motivated again! I look forward to your next update!

50extra

Oh finding something sustainable is definitely the only way that this will work out. I contstantly yoyo but I've been trending down for the last year so it's still slowly working. I'm sitting at about 217 right now and summer before last I was 252. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do but it's how things have been going.

My problem when I get home is I have all of these great ideas about all of the stuff that I am going to do but since I've been gone for a month everyone wants to party, we love hosting get together and me and the wife like going out for a few fancy dinners each time I get home. Now those are all excuses. The real reason I gain weight at home is my night time snacking. I LOVE tortilla chips and they are absolutely packed with calories. I stay up late sitting in the couch snacking and that's what typically kills me at home. This journey would have already been finished if I just worked for four or five months straight

As for the workouts, I don't have such a thing as starting slow, somewhere inside of me I still feel as though I'm 18 and playing competitive sports 6 times a week. My 33 year old body disagrees. I have a nasty case of DOMS from the T25 workout but I'm gonna hop on the bike here again tonight and hopefully it might help loosen up my *kitten* and legs a bit because right now I can barely walk up or down stairs. I probably look crippled. It hurts so bad but feels good to know I worked the muscles again. All of the pain should be gone in two or three days and then I'll do another T25 workout.

So last night light I wasn't going to do anything for exercise but I was a bit behind on calories so I went for a 35 minute ride on the bike. Nothing hard, I didn't even wear my HRM because I was taking it easy. I just put my Fitbit in my sock and let it track steps or peddles. I was able to work up a small sweat and get back to my 2lb loss calories so all was good.

Today I am much more sore than I was yesterday but for me the second day is always worse than the first. I went on my business trip today so I sat in a car for almost 9 hours and ate a nice greasy KFC meal for lunch. KFC is my Interpretors favorite so I figured what the heck. I only eat out once or twice a month over here so I indulged. I had a 9 peice chicken strips and a good part of a large fries. Thankfully I'm still not hungry because I need to burn some calories off asap to get down to my proper deficit. I'm hoping to go for a fairly long ride once I'm done typing this message but my enthusiasm is pretty low for it. It would be so much easier to just go to sleep! I'm really hoping to get back down to the 209 mark by the end of this shift so I'm going to ride for as long as possible.

Well I gotta hit the bike! I'll check back in tomorrow.

WifiresGettingFit

@50extra I was hoping that whole paragraph didn't come off as me saying you hadn't made progress or denouncing all your hard work because it was definitely not intended that way.

I'm that way with Pringles. I think I can just have a few and put the can away but I can't. Sometimes just giving myself a serving and putting the can away helps but here lately I just don't buy them. haha You know the journey is never really over. haha Once you reach your goal, you still have to work to stay there. But I have no doubt that you can do that!

Yeah I've learned that about you from reading your journal that you can't just start slow but I put the suggestion out there anyway because I don't want you to permanently injure yourself.

I've been wanting KFC for forever. I need to have it soon. haha

I hope you enjoyed your workout, I look forward to the next update!

50extra

Nope I didn't think that!

Last night I forced myself to ride the bike and somehow was able to ride for 70 minutes. I plan on going for a nice long one tonight too because in the last 12 hours or so the only reason I have left my desk is to goto the washroom. I have literally been sitting all day long. At least I haven't eaten much today so I know I am still in my deficit. I really need some groceries.

50extra

So after I wrote my last message I packed up my stuff to leave the office. Well I ended up helping someone with some computer issues after and stayed real late. I used that as my excuse for not having to work out last night. Since the calories for the day were already low it didn't matter that I didn't exercise.

Today's a new day and am hoping to get back on track with the fitness. As a bonus I found a serving of chili in the freezer so I actually have real food for dinner! Everything is looking up!

WifiresGettingFit

I'm glad things are looking up for you!

50extra

So last night again I didn't work out. Went out grocery shopping and then did some cooking so I'm covered for meals for the next two weeks or so. Stayed within the calorie budget kind of. I might have had a small bowl of food right before bed to make sure it was edible!

Going to be eating fairly high salt for the next while, I am expecting the weight loss to stall for a bit and then whoosh once I go back to a regular amount of it.

50extra

Yesterday was a good day except for the eating. I ate my lunch and dinner much to early and then snacked quite a bit. Feeling guilty and I ended up hitting my bike for a touch over an hour and was happy to wake up to a 1.6 pound loss. Works out pretty much exactly how it should be, I'm set for a 2lb a week loss and after 5 days I was at 1.6.

For this week I am not going to try anything too crazy, just try to keep my calories around the 1500-2000 mark and get some good workouts in and keep slowly dropping weight.

50extra

So I struggled last night with eating. I even took my time and ate a little bit, then waited, still hungry and ate more, waited. I ended up eating around 2500 calories and could only muster up the strength to ride my bike for 30 minutes.

I'm hoping that this is just some stress making me want to eat so much. I started up a company just after the new year and there is supposed to be a meeting today where the company I am trying to work for picks it's contractors. If they pick my bids then it will mean I no longer have to work over here in Russia and its weighing down on my conscious. The problem is I have no idea if I will have to wait a week to find out or a few months. This is going to be stressful!

tcunbeliever

some days are hungry days, I usually try to up my fat on those days, for me it helps

WifiresGettingFit

Everyone has some off days, just try to make the next day better! I hope the job works out for you and that you don't have to wait a long time to find out!

50extra

So yesterday was a good day. My calories were a bit high at 2200 but I killed it on the bike at night so it levelled everything out.

Today was even better! I'm sitting right around 2000 calories but I killed it on the bike. I rode real hard for 45 minutes total. It was kind of cheating because every 5km I got off and went to check a download on my computer but all in all I still rode for 45 minutes. Sweat my *kitten* off and it felt pretty good. It's only wednesday and I am already looking forward to my official weigh in on Monday. The scale has been nice to me these last couple days and I have dropped another pound or so by the look of it. The only issue might be that we will be planning our once a trip out for dinner and three to four liters of beer, that always sets me back a few days.

On a positive note, the pain in my legs from the first day of T25 is completely gone. I seem to be more tired this shift and don't see myself having the enthusiasm to do another one for a while. I will still be getting on the bike and working hard, it's just that the beachbody workouts are so damn hard.

WifiresGettingFit

Sounds like you're on the right track, keep it up!!

50extra

Yesterday I was lazy. I got home from work early and decided F It! I'm not working out today. My calories were pretty much on point, maybe a little higher than I would have liked them with no exercise but the scale told me I was beautiful still this morning so all is good.

Now today is going to be a different story with eating. I may be able to stay under my calorie mark but the pigs in a blanket for lunch just aren't "healthy" foods and I already feel kinda gross for eating them. I will have to get on my bike tonight and ride out the giant lump of bread and wiener that I have in my belly now.

Turns out the meeting I was waiting to hear about was moved until Friday afternoon so the weekend is going to be rather stressful sitting around and waiting to hear if I got the bid or not.

50extra

Oh wow, I didn't realize it had been three days since I wrote on here! I must be slipping a bit.

Friday Feb 3rd I went for a mediocre ride on my bike and my calories were right where I needed them.

Saturday Feb 4th I came up with a new way to get my exercise in. I really love to online game so I started a new workout. I warm up on the bike for 5-10 minutes and then hop onto my laptop. Every time I die in the game I hop back on my bike and ride until a new game starts. This can last anywhere from 1 minute to about 12 minutes. It's actually really effective way to be able to game all night and not feel like a lazy sack. Calories were again on point this day.

Yesterday, Sunday Feb 5th I got home and immediately changed into my shorts and fired up my laptop. By the end of the night I had rode around 18km which was more than enough for a nice workout. I like to keep my workouts above the 15km range. Calories were good at 1910.

MFP and Fitbit are set for me to lose 2lbs a week and they have my activity level set on sedentary so this is only giving me 1500 calories. By making a conscious effort to move a little bit during the day instead of just sitting at my desk for 13 hours and then coming home and laying in bed for the rest of the day, I am able to get my calorie allotment up to the 2000 mark. 2000 calories is fairly simple to stick to provided I don't choose hugely calorie dense foods.

All of that brings me to this morning and my Monday weigh in day. I am down to 213.8 which means that I am right on track to getting down to the 209 mark like I planned when I weighed in once I arrived here. My food choices for today will be spot on but we are going out for dinner and drinks tonight which always throws me over on calories by a huge margin. I am going to have to work extra hard for the rest of the week if I plan on getting my 2lb loss this week. I have exactly two weeks left so I need two more consistent 2lb losses.

I think I can do it, just need to stay focused!

50extra

Last night went well enough. I ended up doing a 20km bike ride but after the ride I was STARVING! Ended up being over on calories a bit for the day and woke up this morning to the scale showing me a slight gain. I will take care of that over the next couple days.

It is looking like I might be able to sneak home a week or so early this shift. I will find out by the end of the week but I might fly to Germany and have a meeting and then quietly head home. It always feels really nice to get out of here early.

50extra

Nothing to report today, got home last night, made dinner and immediately crashed. Calories were low at 1600ish but that's what MFP gave me because it was a fairly sedentary day.

I guess I needed the sleep, been getting 5-6 per night for the last couple weeks and the 9 hours last night felt pretty good.

On a positive note, I have enough food cooked to last me for the rest of the shift and even some for when I get back to russia that I will freeze. (that is if I have to come back, still have my fingers crossed that my business will get the contract I am working on)

WifiresGettingFit

Sounds like you're still heading in the right direction! keep it up!

50extra

So last night when I got home from work I stepped on the scale and it was showing higher than what i thought it should be. I basically immediately decided F* IT! I'm not working out tonight. I laid down on my bed and started reading a book while feeling sorry for myself. Shortly after that my mom called me and let me know that my grandma passed last night at the ripe old age of 96. It wasn't a shock to me but put a new pep in my step. If I even want to get within 20 years of that I have to continue taking good care of my body from today on.

I ended up hopping on my bike and riding for a straight hour (with a two minute break in the middle to fill up my water bottle) and felt great afterwards. The only issue with the long workout was that I was starving hungry after and ended up eating a couple hundred more calories than I would have liked. I still ended the day under my calorie goal for a 2lb a week loss so I am good with it.

Thankfully when I woke this morning my scale is back down to where it was before making everything kosher again.

I can definitely tell that the shift is starting to wind to a close, my enthusiasm is wearing thin, I'm more tired each day and I am really am wanting to get home. This shift I will have missed my daughters second birthday, my grandmas passing and valentines day. These are just some of the life events that are sacrificed to people working in the oil patch all over the world and sometimes it really wears on a person.

I am still planning on finishing the shift strong, whether that be for another 10 days like originally planned, or a few less if I end up heading to meetings in Germany.

WifiresGettingFit

@50extra I'm so sorry hear to about your Grandma! It always suck when you lose someone!

Hopefully you'll get the deal you want for your business and you can kiss this being so far away from home for extended periods of time crap goodbye. I really hope it works out in your favor so you won't have to miss out on anymore future life events! I can only imagine how hard that must be.

Keep pushing forward! You've got this!

50extra

Well the last two days fitness wise and food wise have been atrocious. Friday night we decided to do our night out. I was right at my calorie limit before I went and ended up drinking 1600 calories of beer, plus sushi, plus a little bit of pizza (which didn't make it onto my diary) and was way, way over.

Following up any heavy beer night, especially a drought night is a nasty hangover. That was my day yesterday. For me the only way to cure a hangover is to eat eat eat, so that's what I did. Then to top off the day I didn't work out to burn any of those new found calories off. I woke up today almost 2lbs up from my low on Thursday morning and am assuming at least one of them are going to hang around until I can burn it off.

There is a bit of good news, I will be leaving here on Wednesday heading for Hannover Germany. I will be there for three nights for meetings and then I will be able to head home on Saturday instead of Sunday so that makes me happy. It always feels great to sneak home early, even if it is only for one day! Also the hotel in Hannover is pretty nice and has great food so it will be a nice change from my crappy IKEA bed that I sleep on over here.

I won't be leaving this shift at the same weight that I was last shift but I will be within 3 pounds or so and I consider that a success.