19 Down with 16 to go. Ought drop a hello here.

Derf_Smeggle

I started out by not losing my "winter weight" during the spring and most of summer. Had to buy some new khaki's at one point and bumped up a further waist size. Then I noticed I was having night sweats that didn't quite smell like my normal perspiration during the day while active.

My first goal wasn't so much about losing weight. It was about getting rid of the weird odor from sweating at night and get rid of the night sweats themselves. The culprit? Sugar. More precisely the amount of processed sugar I was consuming. My schedule for work had gotten a little crazy and I was basically living the Super Size Me lifestyle.

Starting September 1st, I eliminate almost all processed sugar out of my diet. I allowed myself for two weeks to eat whatever I wanted, so long as it wasn't full of processed sugar. No more soda, shakes, cookies, ice cream, frozen custard, cake, pie, sugary cereal, etc, etc. I still allowed myself fruit, and some bread/bun products. I became really good friends with multiple bags of tortilla chips for those two weeks also.

Once those two weeks were up the strange odor was gone and I decided to step on a scale. 3 pounds were missing. Great progress considering some days I was eating 3000+ calories to combat the craving for sugary foods and caffeine by default of eliminating soda. I decided that I would start using MyFitnessPal because the sugar addiction was better under control and Old McFatty wanted to wear some of the clothes taking up space in the closet.

Knowing me as well as I do, I set my diet goal to losing 2 pounds per week. I am not good about meeting calorie goals, and if I'm hungry I don't care if it puts me over the target. I'm going to eat a little something just so I'm not uncomfortable. It works out well for me. My starting calorie goal to lose 2 pounds a week was 1400 calories. Most days I was netting out at 1600 to 1800, which meant I was still well below the caloric intake for maintaining my starting weight. In the first month I lost 9 pounds. During the second month I lost another 6.5.

Things have slowed down a bit in this third month as far as losing pounds, but I started taking some measurements and those numbers are still going down. I practice Aikido, a Japanese martial art, two to three times a week and can really feel the difference in my joints. Getting up off the mats is a lot easier. I also do a few pull-ups on a door frame mounted bar each night. I'm up to 7 in a row from only 2 from about 8 weeks ago.