Has anyone seen my butt....

I started this wild trip almost two years ago. I went to visit my mom for Christmas, and, as I walked in the door she patted my rather ample belly and said, “you’re getting fat!”. Only a mom can do that! I came back from that trip and had a chat with my wife and owned up to the fact that I was indeed getting fat, I was down to about two pairs of slacks that I could actually fit into and had jeans that I hadn’t fit into in quite a while. I’m 54 and 6”4” tall.

I realized I needed to do something. My wife mentioned that a guy had opened a personal training gym in our small town so I decided to stop in and talk to him the next Saturday. I did that and discussed my need to get something going, some motivation, someone to kick my butt into gear, but I had a few constraints. I travel for my job and am out of town at least 4, sometimes 5, days a week so I could only get to him on Saturdays. He said he could fit me in with the caveat that I would do stuff during the week while I was on the road to continue exercising. I agreed to that. I also have cronic lower back pain from a combination of sciatic problems and probably taking a couple of good shots to the back from hard landings while flying a paraglider several years ago. Patrick, the owner of the gym, said he could work around that.

The gym is small, he has one other trainer and his wife (who is about 98 lbs wet and REALLY in shape) trains as well, so, at most there are only 3 people in the gym at any one time. So, I started doing that one day a week and doing cardio (long walks, elliptical, etc,) during the week. I quickly realized that I NEEDED to do stuff during the week or the Saturday workout would REALLY hurt. The first 3 months or so I would get up on Sunday or Monday aching in some place from the Saturday workout.
I don’t know what weight I started out at, Patrick didn’t believe in scales at that time and didn’t want his clients to stress out on what the scale showed, he has since changed his mind. But, within about 3 months my clothes fit a lot better and I got into those jeans (size 42 waist) that I couldn’t get into before.

After about a year I realized I had plateaued with the workouts and was inching up in weight again since I hadn’t changed my eating habits. I started looking for an iPhone app to do a food diary and stumbled on MFP. And, I’m glad I did. I started logging my food, and, coincidently this was the same time that Patrick bought a scale for his gym. My first weigh-in there was at 256 lbs.

I have become a fanatic at logging my calorie intake, exercise and water. The other trainer chided me for drinking so much diet coke and not enough water after I had complained about cramping. I realized that the only water I was drinking during the week was during the workouts! I changed that and cut out the diet cokes except when I am on a plane (kind of cheating since I fly a lot, but I’m down to 1-2 cans/week).

About 4 weeks into using MFP I convinced my wife to start as well and we bought a home scale so she could weigh in and I switched to using that as my baseline since I could weigh in first thing in the morning on Saturday and not wait until getting to the gym after having breakfast.

People say they have a difficult time when they eat out. I eat out… A LOT!...not only every day, almost EVERY MEAL! Even when I am home on the weekend my wife and I usually have dinner out at least once during the weekend. I simply try to determine serving sizes prior to going out, or choose lower calorie items when I’m out. For example, lunch today out with a group of co-workers, I had a Caesar salad with Salmon, dressing on the side. Push the croutons off to the side, 1 tbsp of dressing, more than enough, 380 calories (two steamed shrimp from a shared shrimp cocktail).

I bought a heart rate monitor recently to get a better handle on calories burned during workouts. I found that I was drastically underestimating the calories burned during my Saturday workouts. I had estimated 500-600….is actually closer to 700-800. I eat most of my workout calories back and Saturdays have always been my big day in that regard. If I know I’m going to be going out with the work crew after work I’ll get up early and do 30 minutes or so on the elliptical, usually good for 300 calories.

Today is my 90th day on MFP and I have lost 36 pounds so far with an initial goal of 20 more. That will put me at 200lbs, a weight that I was at, maybe 20 years ago? The jeans I couldn’t fit into before starting working out are now too loose, and the 40 waist jeans are also too loose. I have a pair of 38s in the closet that are just snug. I have to go find some nice work pants because the ones I have on now are falling off. Need to do that before something embarrassing happens. Oh, and if anyone has seen my butt, I seem to have lost it. Not that I want it back, but I want to make sure it has gone to a nice home, someone that is taking care of it, along with more than half of that ample belly.