1 Year anniversary (PICS). Didn’t make my goal...

…but came pretty close. It has not been an easy journey. It never is, we all know that. My anniversary was 2 days ago, August 16, so I wanted to get my stats measured and get the final picture so I could compare with the one I took on August 16, 2011. Before I continue my rant, here are my stats and pics:
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Height: 5’9”
Starting weight: 254LBs
Current weight: ~190LBs (still going)
Starting Body Fat: 32%
Current Body Fat: 21%
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365 progress

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Me in 2010


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August 16, 2011

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August 16, 2012

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August 16, 2012 after my daily workout

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My goal was to reach 185LB, but making this kind of goals 1 year in advance for someone who has been overweight for a long time is unrealistic. My initial goal was to reach 200. Sounded like a good round number. Once I reached it, I have adjusted my weight goal by 5LB. While disappointed, I still think that I averaged around 1LB per week, which by all the standards is pretty good weight loss. And it was doable with an average working man’s lifestyle, like mine. Out of town business trips, family gatherings, drinks with friends, etc… We have to take these things into consideration and plan our nutrition and exercise around them.
What can I tell you about this experience? There have been plateaus, unexpected weight gains, which drove me nuts. Sometimes I would go 10 days and record the same weight. Ugh! But reading your comments and reading comments of success stories here helped me to stay focused on my long term goal and not worry too much about the short term progress.
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Exercise: Local gym down the street was the best thing ever happened to me. While my home gym is still around and is served as a clothes hangers and storage, I found it more motivating to get out and do my exercises outside the home. About 8 months into my diet and exercise I wanted to try and see if I could workout everyday instead of taking weekends (or couple of days) off per week. You know what? I found it that it is totally OK to workout 7 days per week. And nice thing about it, you can combine an a cardio and weight lifting workouts without worrying about missing something that day. Daily trips to the gym allowed me to do cardio and take 1 weight lifting routine per day in the same day, alternating pushing (chest, shoulder, triceps) and pulling(biceps, back, legs) exercises. AND while working out 7 days per week, this allowed my muscles to recover from the fatigue. I slowly increased my time on elliptical trainer Precor 465 to a 60 minute (level 20/resistance18) workout. I would register around 850 calories burned, which was a good calorie deficit to my nutrition.
And then I had a bright idea. Why not do 30 minute cardio, stop and do a weight lifting routine. Then complete with second 30 minute cardio, followed by a second weight lifting routine? Guess what? It worked. I was not as tired and out of breath and was able to combine cardio and with an additional weight lifting routine in a same session. With good diet my weight started to move. Yay!!
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Diet: It is no longer a diet. It is the way I eat and plan on eating if I want to maintain my weight. #1. I cook my own meals. With our lifestyles we will have plenty of opportunities to eat out. An electronic food scale (around $50. These things even come with a food database today) was the best thing happened in my kitchen. NOTHING was placed in my plate before it was checked. It will get easier as you cook and remember your food items. Still all my meats, fish, the things you cook in a large pieces and having to cut into your portions or pull out from the containers will be measured. I built my diet on more of a low carbohydrate concept. I COMPLETELY removed refined sugars. If it’s white, it is not used. Bread, pasta, crackers, rice, snacks, candy. GONE from my pantry. It is amazing that I can’t even look at the slice of bread right now. Also, salad dressings. GONE. Pam spray, balsamic vinegar, pepper and various salad spices gave me various flavors that I can live with for the rest of my life. Fruits were limited initially, but as I lost more weight, I slowly introduced more and more fruits. I am up to 60-70 grams of carbs per day and still able to lose weight. And that’s plenty to have few fruit servings daily.
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That’s my story. My final thoughts about my rant:
1. Stay focused. If you read my post so far, you probably wanted to know what I did to lose 60LB
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2. Do not get discouraged. You will succeed if you provide your body with good food and exercise. AND WATER. Make it your friend. Thanks to MiO’s various flavors, drink 10-12 cups per day. I do.
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3. Monitor your progress daily. When you get stuck, generate nutrition and exercise reports and compare. Perhaps you need to some adjustment. Whether or not you think your body is a machine, you still a driver. And you are in control.
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4. It is all about YOU. Not about your spouse, your partner, your family. You are doing this for yourself and it is the best feeling in the world to say “I did it”.
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Good luck to Ya’ll. They say life begins after 50. And some of us are not 50 anymore.