50extra - My weight loss journey with all the embarrassing details
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You have a positive attitude so I'm sure you will be fine.0
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Well I made it through the week of unhealthy (old normal) living and am settled into the working life in Siberia. I am back to 13.5 hour work days and in some strange sick way am happy about it. I haven't been able to get to a grocery store yet but its really only day two today. I am hoping I can get a driver to take me today and I can get my meal prep back on point. Regardless, my diet isn't really suffering, I have my oatmeal and had one leftover dish of stew in the freezer from last trip in. That got me through yesterday, today it was oatmeal for breakfast and tuna and rice for lunch/dinner.
Because of my week in Moscow I am going to be fairly harsh on what I eat for the first week or so here. I still want to be down to 219.9 by the time i get home in 2.5 weeks. I definitely won't be eating that much nutritious food for a few days because I am only focused on a calorie deficiency. I take a multi vitamin and that will be sufficient to get me through a week or so of eating the bare minimum.
Now, my first full night in the apartment was last night. I stopped making excuses as to why I wouldn't be able to do any other exercises in my room and moved some crap around. I put in Focus T25 - Cardio and was extremely happy with how I was able to complete it. Over the 25 minutes I probably stopped for a total of 2 or 3 minutes but this is heaps better than the first time that i tried it. I still can't even come close to doing a the non modified exercises but I bet I was close to 50/50. Earlier I was talking about how the workouts are impossible to do, but I am hoping by the end of week 4 I will be able to make it through most of each session. This was a real big win for me, I was beating myself up pretty bad about not being able to get through the program and contemplated many times quitting all together and finding an easier workout routine. My body is telling me today that I had a good workout yesterday by reminding of all the muscles I don't normally use. I would say that my excitement level is up close to where it was when I first ordered the program and was waiting for it to arrive.
After my T25 workout I was able to force myself to get on the bike. My original plan was to ride for 35 minutes but I think I got off after 25 minutes when my wife called me. I will work on doing the T25 plus one cardio workout per day. Something that is disappointing is it appears I won't be able to hit the pool this shift. I can't flag down a taxi by myself and get somewhere because I don't speak Russian, and my interpreters car broke down so hes not going either. I was really excited to wear my neon orange shorts in the pool here to make sure that I stick out like a sore thumb. I don't want anyone to confuse me for a local and in the land where everyone wears speedos it wouldn't be hard.
I was tossing around the idea of quitting with the photos. I originally thought that it would be a motivator by taking pictures every week but it turns out that its almost demoralizing. If I put in a real hard week and eat clean and don't see the results in the pictures it takes the wind right out of my sails. I have decided that i will continue with them now. I will take some on Monday again even though I missed the last two weeks. I know that at the end of this crazy journey I would be upset if I didn't have some photo evidence of how i progressed. I am still happy i left the tape measure and scale at home.
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Hey 50 it sounds like you're blitzing it mate. Nice work on rearranging your room to suit your exercise and for getting it done. Little by little you will notice differences and when you do your motivation will get right up there. Just think that without the scale and tape measure you will be able to have so many non scale victories in the next 2.5 weeks.
I know what you mean about the photos and I am the same. I haven't taken photos this month because the first two didn't show any difference (to my eye at least) even though I was killing myself at the gym and was eating all the right stuff. I think i'm starting to see differences now and tomorrow on weigh day I'm going to take some photos. I mean i'm starting to buy clothes a size smaller there has to be a change right?????
Even though i'm sure that being away from your wife sucks big time, i reckon these trips to Russia are awesome for you cause you get to concentrate on work and exercise and not much else. I'd go so far as to say by the end of this trip you will be smashing the modified T25.
Keep going mate you're a legend0 -
Khatmott this is what I need to look like every workout to feel like I'm getting it done. Last night was a fantastic workout and I hope to continue it today despite having legs so sore it hurts to walk. I WILL finish this. I WILL hit my targets, and I WILL do anything necessary to get there.
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you know what? I can see a bit of a change in your body shape. You're looking leaner down your trunk. I know what you say though. I get the whole tights and muscle shirt thing going so I can look the part and if my shirt isn't soaked in sweat at the end I don't feel like i've worked hard enough.
We WILL DO THIS!!!! FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION0 -
Ill be honest about the photo, that mirror is much nice than the one beside it
Ill try to work hard enough tonight to get the entire shirt soaked, not just 90% of it. 0 -
Well if sweating is an indicator of how much I burned in my workout last night, I didn't burn near as much as the night before when I took the photos above. Regardless I had a killer workout with T25 and an okay short ride on the bike. My problem is now that my legs are way too sore to ride the bike hard so I am just doing what I can to burn a few extra calories.
I did have a win last night though, the wind was blowing crazy hard yesterday at work, to the point that it was literally ripping the walls and the roofs off of some of the shops we have here. Apparently it knocked down a power line and our entire base was without. Because of that we got to go home early which was a nice little treat. Its sickening to think that being able to go home after a 9.5 hour days is early but that's a whole different conversation. Anyways, I work with my brother in law and him and a few of the guys were going out for beers and a bite to eat, for the first time in six years I turned it down. I promised myself I was going to hit it hard for 7 days straight to try and make up for the 7 days in Moscow that I sabotaged my weight loss.
Another plus for yesterday was I finally got to a grocery store and made meals for four days, plus a couple extra bowls of soup for emergency food that went in the freezer.
Tonight is the night that I have been fearing since I opened up the box of T25 and looked at all of the workout programs. Its Ab night. My last experience with an ab routine I have talked about on here before with the "Ab Ripper X" in P90X. That program derailed me before I even had a chance to get into any of the other DVDs, I wont let this do it to me but I am hoping that I will be able to workout tomorrow. We found all of the P90X DVDs so that could be an option to do in the future after T25 is nothing more than a bad dream.
What else.....
I mentioned the day I was leaving to Russia that I had a pair of work pants that I wanted to fit in comfortably by the end of this shift, I tried them on last night and they fit no problem, so apparently I needed to make harder goals. What I came down to was three (hopefully) short term goals.
Goal 1 - 219.9 lbs - My license states I weigh 220 pounds. I have no idea how long ago I gave them that information, my best guess is 8 years ago. To get down under that will be an accomplishment. Hoping to reach this by April 7th.
Goal 2 - 211 lbs - This will put me into the "overweight" category on BMI. Not that BMI means anything but at least I won't technically be obese anymore. Hoping to reach this goal by the end of April. As easy as this sounds on a 2 lb per week schedule, I have a family trip planned for 10 days starting on April 8th where I am fully prepared to gain 10 lbs. Truthfully the 211 pounds might be a little out of reach.
Goal 3 - 199lbs - Onderland! This is the phase one goal weight. Its the point where I will re-evaluate how everything is going, how I look, and how I feel and figure out how the next step of this process will go. My goal for this is to hit it by the end of June. As I get closer and closer to my old lowest weight I imagine that the weight loss is going to slow down significantly. 199 is still another 25/26 pounds away and the end of June only gives me about 14.5 weeks which still works out to almost 2lbs per week. Its a lofty goal but it gives me something to work on. Truthfully I will be disappointed if I don't make this goal but will still be happy if I get down to 199 by the time summer holidays hits on August 1st.
Positive things are starting to happen in two other areas of life too that I am contributing to getting healthier. Today my brother in law reopened his MFP account and is going to do the first DVD of T25 tonight. He's probably only around 205 lbs I would guess but wants to shed somewhere around 30. I contribute this to me talking about calories and the weight that I have lost as well as feeling guilty that he went out for beers last night and I am so sore from working out.
Also I was on facetime with my wife and she was really motivated and did a T25 workout back at home, she even started it at 11:45pm. Normally if she doesn't workout by 9 its not happening that day. She also mentioned that she wants to start eating healthy and that one of our goals for next time home is to research some tasty, healthy recipes. Also we have agreed that we will work on cleaning up our basement to make more room to work out in. I am going to try and find a low cost rubber style gym flooring that we can put down there.
One of the other people in motivation journals posted about those days that just seem to be better and everything feels like its falling into place. This would be one of those days for me. It just feels like life is going in the right direction and it has lifted up my mood substantially.
Now its time to get back to work, I have 15 days left this shift to focus on making healthy eating choices and to stay motivated to work out.0 -
Wow! Lots of positive things going on for you. That's awesome.
If you're wanting to burn just a few extra calories that will give your metabolism a boost for something like 48 hours, try tabata circuits on the bike. It's a specific style of HIIT. 4 minute circuit, as hard as you can possibly go for 20 seconds, complete stop and rest for 10 seconds, 8 cycles. I was doing it on a rowing machine before I hurt my back. It's hard, but doing just 4 minutes was a decent goal and did wonders for my weight weight. I can hardly wait to get back to it. I know people who are in excellent physical condition that only do 16 minutes.0 -
Thanks for the tips Jillian, I will try doing a routine like that when my current bike one gets too boring. Usually my version of HIIT on the bike is set the resistance to somewhere that I can ride in the 45 minute straight, usually between 7-10 resistance out of 25, then after I am warmed up I turn the resistance all of the way up so that I have to stand up and peddle as hard as I can for a minute, then ride for 3 minutes, then 1 minute hard again. I do this until my legs feel like they are about to fall off and that's usually around the time I get off.
It does feel like a bunch of stuff is looking good right now, could just be feeling good from eating well and working out and am just now starting to realize it but who knows.
The workout last night was pitiful to say the least. I was unable to do about 50% of the exercises in the ab video on T25. Half of them I can't do because I am not flexible enough and never have been, and the other half make my hip pop out of joint and shoot pain up my back and down my legs. After the workout I got a crazy headache which I have gotten in the past from doing abs. I was hoping to make up for the lackluster performance on the bike but didn't have much energy to do anything there. My night turned into a popcorn and chocolate binge that put me over my daily food calories by 1000 and over net calories by 500. The only good news that came out of it was that my 5 week projection still says I would lose weight if every day were like that.
I did get a chance to take some photos last night. I think that I am starting to get a little bit thinner in the torso and there's less fat around my knees. It appears that my belly used to stick out past my chest and now they are close to the same. I would have thought that 20 pounds would make a bigger difference then it did but maybe at 30 it will start to show more. Please forgive the underwear shot, I wanted to take as close to the same pictures in the same clothes as I did on February 1st so that when I look back I have a good comparison.
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Ok so a couple things to add for today.
Yesterday I did some research on different Beach Body programs and what they are good for. A general consensus is that T25 is cardio based and great for fat people trying to lose weight. This makes me happy because it means that I have the appropriate workouts for what I want to do with my body. Then I read that Insanity is the next level up from T25, the workouts are 45 minutes long and when it came out it was the hardest workout ever put on DVD (before insanity asylum). Yesterday I ordered Insanity! I have now come to the realization that its going to be damn hard but I will get through T25, it was lower focus day and was 25 minutes non stop of high knees, squats and lunges. I killed it only having to stop for a few seconds each move. I will then move onto Insanity and see if I can complete it. By the time I finish Insanity, unless I fall off of the wagon hard, I will have reached the end of my phase 1 - weight loss. This will put me right smack into summer.
Once summer holidays are over and I have gained my customary 20 pounds from eating like a king and drinking like a sailor I will start P90X. The best definition I have heard about P90X is that its good for people who have lost a lot of the their weight and need a more muscle focused workout to achieve the final results they were hoping for. Once P90X is over I will start to think about a weight training program.
Now I guess I should say that its really easy to make long term plans when I'm sitting at my desk over here and that I have no idea whats actually going to happen in real life but as of now this is my long term weight loss plan.
In other news, I updated my profile to state that my starting weight was 242 and not 241 like it was when I opened MFP a couple of years ago. Once I did that it updated my calories for the day and took away another 100 leaving me with only 1470 a day. Being a 220 pound male, this sounded way too low even for me who is desperate to get fit so I did some research. I can't find a single source that says that this can be in any way healthy or good for me. Its weird to me because I have been eating low calories for two months and typically never feel hungry but everyone says that I will lose all of my muscle. I was alright with the idea of losing some when I first started but not the amounts that people are talking about. Many people on MFP easily lose weight sticking around 1800-2200 calories a day and many of them are smaller than me. This has led me to my next point.
I am significantly upping my calories when I get home in April. I will change my weekly weight loss from 2lbs a week to 1 lb a week and that will give me around 1900 calories a day. The difference is once I up my calories I am going to try and not eat back my exercise calories unless I am hungry. I would start this immediately but smart me purposely left my scale at home so I wouldn't be able to monitor how I was progressing. This process was always about slow and steady and most importantly permanent and I feel that this will put me one step closer to a lifelong change being that it will be much easier to survive on more calories then constantly being restricted.
That's all for now!0 -
Wow mate you have had some seriously productive days happening there. You have inspired me to write down my goals and set them a little firmer than just vague aspirations in my head.
As for losing muscle when you exercise i'm calling BS. I have been doing gym work now mostly cardio type stuff with a bit of strength for 6 weeks and eating around 1300-1400 cals a day. Now my BMR alone is 1623 cals. I'm losing weight but i'm also seeing significant muscle gains. MFP tells me i can have 1740 cals a day. Thats with a 0.5lb a week weight loss goal. I never reach 1700 cals and i never eat back any of the cals I burn in exercise either. Not in this first intensive weight loss phase. Perhaps down the track I will. If you eat enough protein and green foods with fibre typically you shouldn't feel hungry. Not physically hungry anyway. Maybe head hungry but thats a whole different demon altogether.
Either way you are doing some awesome work and you continue to inspire me to try harder every day0 -
I'm really surprised at the calories you've been allotted too! My understanding is that male and female calorie allowances will naturally be different, but I'm only 5 pounds lighter than you.... I'm set for 2 lb. loss/week and get 1630 calories. I imagine the 1900 will do wonders for you, especially the amount of cardio work you do.0
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Yes the low calories that it gives me blows my mind. I have it set to 2lbs a week and sedentary because of how long I am forced to sit on my butt when I am at work. Either way I look at it, I am going to continue eating at this deficit until I get home and then watch the scale as I add in more food. If the scale starts to slow down or even worse then that, creep up I will come back down to the 1500 mark. I eat when I am hungry, I have emergency food on hand for that. I always have two scoops of protein powder waiting in a shaker cup as well as a bag of pistachios near by for when I get hungry. I'm not starving myself and I don't feel like how I am eating is harming my body but literally every thread says its too little. But I'm going to focus on that in a couple weeks time.
So last night I was able to make it to the pool. Its the first time that I swam laps in well over a year I would say. I'm in the water all summer when I go down to the lake but its not like I swim for exercise, more just to cool off from the hot sun. I swam for a total of 21 minutes but not straight. I think I was able to make it 9 minutes before I needed to stop for 30 seconds or so and then went for another 6 or so and then just did 100 meters three or four more times after that. The triathlons that I want to do are only 500 meter swims and I definitely swam more than 500 meters but couldn't do it non stop. Its not my cardio that is forcing me to stop swimming its my shoulders and my triceps. I hope to be able to hit the pool a couple more times this shift, maybe on a mon, wed, fri rotation if it all works out. I can get dropped off there and I think I have a good enough handle on the bus system here to get back home. It wont be as big of deal when it warms up some more and I can think about walking home.
So after I got home I was wiped and thinking about just hitting the sheets. Thankfully I scraped together a tiny bit of motivation and completed the last workout for week one of T25. All I have to do tonight is stretching so that will be a nice change of pace. I started the workout at like 11:15pm and I wasn't able to do much of it but at least I gave it an honest try, by body is just tired. To give you some insight as to how I feel after a week of doing it, my calf's hurt, it hurts to walk, getting out of my computer chair is a task, I have to roll out of bed because my abs hurt too bad to sit up, sitting down on the toilet is a chore and i have to use the sink for leverage, sneezing almost kills me because of my stomach, and my butt cheeks hurt to just flex. None of the pain is injury pain, its all just soreness. Clearly this program is making me use muscles that I don't normally use and that is a good thing. I have done all of the Alpha videos now so I know exactly what I am getting myself into and I feel confident that I will continue.
In other news
Over the last couple days I have been putting together something similar to this journal but doing it on video. I don't have any intentions on publishing it ever but it gives me another way to reflect on my journey. I don't know where its going to go, or even if I will continue to work on it but its not going to be an every day update kind of thing. I'm thinking maybe once a week or every couple weeks and it will give me something to look back on when I get to the point where I can slow down a bit and just maintain.
That's its for now, hope everyone is having a great week, its almost over now! I just wished I actually had weekends off!0 -
Hey 50 why don't you put your videos on YouTube. You can set the privacy so that no one sees it but you and the only way others can see it is if you invite them. Might be a good way to watch them. You can make your own private YouTube channel.
I know what you mean about sore. I'm not as bad as you but now my fitness is improving I am pushing myself harder and have noticed a bit of Ab, biceps and thigh soreness. No pain no gain right???0 -
Kell, I think for now its just going to stay on my computer. I don't know what I will do with it down the road or even if I will continue with it tomorrow. Its just something that felt right to start a few days ago. I have a YouTube channel already but its just got videos of my car on it
Yesterday was a "day off" so to speak. I never thought that a 35 minute bike ride would feel like a day off. It was stretching day with T25 and my body surely needed it. My legs feel great, my abs are pretty much loosened up and the only thing real sore is my triceps and this is from the swimming the other day. T25 kicks back off tonight. I don't get an entire day off because I am not doubling up my last two workouts of the week, my body isn't prepared for that. The thing I have to figure out over the next few hours here is whether or not to go swimming tonight. I love going to the pool but it bags me. I have T25 cardio tonight which I know I can do after swimming but my issue is tomorrow is T25 total body circuit and its a ton of pushups and planks. If I go swimming tonight, my arms will be dead for tomorrow and that will ruin my workout capability. Also I know if I go swimming, then do T25 I will have nothing left in the tank for a bike ride and that's where I sweat the most making me feel like I'm burning the most calories. Decisions, Decisions...
Oh yeah! I almost forgot. I seen a guy today who I haven't seen since February 8th. He walks up to me and has a stupid grin on his face. I asked him what, and he said, "Mate, you're but a shadow of the man you used to be. Are you dieting?" I said counting calories and immediately he tried to give me advice on how to properly fast. I said not for me but thanked him. It was a nice way to start the day especially after telling my wife I am not happy with the progress photos comparing February 15th to now.0 -
So I just ran into another guy that I also haven't seen since the start of February and he asked me if I had been working out. Talked about what I have been doing and where I am trying to go. Turns out he did the first month of Insanity but ended up going to a different camp where there was no open space to continue with the second month. He agrees that the program really is as hard as people say it is. This guys real fit so I am inclined to believe him. Might have to try Insanity Max 30 before advancing right to Insanity.
Apparently something must be changing even if the progress photos are being slow to show it.0 -
We never see the changes in ourselves but others do. You're obviously doing all the good stuff and it's beginning to show. Way to go man.
As for the exercise. Remember it's a marathon not a sprint. Perhaps save the swim for a day when you're not going to be impacted so much on the next days activity. You're not going to gain 10lb if you don't go tonight. You're already doing enough0 -
Yeah I called my interpreter and told him I wasn't going. I went out into the shop today a few hours ago and am giving maintenance a hand fixing some units. I have worked up quite a sweat so far and have over two hours left so I'll call that good for today to replace the swimming. My main focus (no pun intended) right now with working out is Focus T25. I want to give it an honest go so that I can give and honest review and show real life results for people that are interested in starting it. I'm 100% certain that if I had decided to go destroy my arms swimming tonight, my workout tonight would be crap, and tomorrow evening would be mediocre. By not going tonight I will be able to give it everything I have tonight, and then everything I have tomorrow. I struggled last time on the Total body focus routine because of the push ups and that's what tomorrow has in store.
I hope everyone has a good kick off to the weekend!0 -
So last night I had somewhat of a breakthrough or a victory, or something that I haven't had in the past.
The night of the 25th as I stated above I skipped going to the pool. When I got home from work I was completely wiped, like to the point of my eyes falling shut in between messages from the wife when we were talking. I ended up letting her go so that I could go workout before I fell asleep and wasted the day. I was able to have a killer workout with T25 and was real happy that I made the decision to get off of my bed. After my workout I hopped on the bike and gave up/quit after 17 minutes. My head just wasn't in it. Regardless I was able to have a net deficit on my calorie consumption after subtracting workout calories but just barely.
Then last night I get home and it was T25 total body circuit. This shouldn't be called total body, it should be called T25 planks and pushups. I swear there are 100s of them. I have been really struggling with pushups this go around. I figure its because my arms are too weak to lift my massive torso. My workout ended up being terrible because after the first round of like 10 of pushups I literally couldn't do another one. After T25 I got on the bike and again quit and gave up. The problem was I gave up after 3 minutes. My head wasn't in it, my legs were burning and I was out of breath. I let myself believe that I couldn't ride anymore so I got off the bike. Rather than hopping in the shower like I normally would, I went and did my dishes and promised I would try again in a bit. Thank god I did that. I was able to get back on later and go for over 30 minutes doing HIIT the whole time. 2 minutes riding, 1 minute on the maximum resistance as hard as I could peddle. By the end I was a sweaty mess and felt great. If I would have given up up when I wanted too I would have missed a fabulous workout and a great calorie burn. I burned off 259 calories which is great and is a believable number for a burn of that amount of effort.
After I cooled down from the bike, I decided that I needed to work on my pushups because if I don't, every workout that has them in T25 will be a failure. I did 3x10 reps of good quality, nice form pushups. Its not much but its a start. A few years ago when I lost my weight, I could do 50,40,30,20,10 sets with 30 seconds rest in between which is why being so weak now is frustrating.
Today I have changed my macros around. I have been eating a ton of carbs lately (200-300grams) and I want to see if it is causing me to hold a bunch of water. Today I have designed a different menu that will either have me at 160grams or 115 grams of carbs depending on if i eat my fajita mix with a wrap or not. I know water weight doesn't mean anything really but I'm curious to see if I cut down on them for two days if it will make me appear smaller. The plan for today puts me 400 calories over my limit but I would be eating assuming that I have a successful workout tonight and burn them off. I am not an advocate for eating back exercise calories but its been too hard to not be hungry these last few days and I need to.
Never again will I leave the scale at home. I was hoping for it to be a driving factor to work hard and get constant results. It turns out I need the daily validation that what I am doing is working.
Hows everyone else doing?
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