Today’s Weigh-In: 334.6 pounds Total Weight Lost: 105.4 pounds Days Till Next Mini-Goal: 26 Next Mini-Goal Weight: 330 Pounds To Go: 4.6
Alright, alright, alright.
I let Friday be an “off / cheat” day, and really enjoyed all sorts of bad food. Honestly, I didn’t plan on it being a cheat day, but had been going hard and strong for the past two weeks plus, so I took it easy. And no, I don’t regret my fast food and french fries and Dr. Pepper. It was delightful, so can it!
But, past that, Saturday I got right back at it with the right eating (and a 240 calorie Ho-Ho snack that was figured into my calories) and a lot of walking downtown in the 98 degree heat. Today, more of the same with keeping my nutrition under control.
Ill write more tomorrow on my experimental, around-the-house lifting program that I’ve been doing while I’ve been in super save money mode (so, no ten miles round trip drives to the gym or anywhere else).
Today’s Weigh-In: 336.6 pounds Total Weight Lost: 103.4 pounds Days Till Next Mini-Goal: 28 Next Mini-Goal Weight: 330 Pounds To Go: 6.6
As I’ve mentioned a time or two before, I’ve always been a big guy. Yeah, I am pretty stoutly built naturally, with big bones and wide shoulders, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’ve been a big, fat guy. In high school, I was around the 280-300 mark as an upperclassman and wore size 42 pants. That means I could buy my jeans at Old Navy and The Gap.
At my heaviest weight of 440, I wore a size 50 pant (THAT’S OVER FOUR FEET! GAH!). Much like the first time I crossed into wearing 3XL shirts from 2XL right after high school – and again when I hit the 4XL mark, it was an exercise in intense shame whenever I had to go to Casual Male (the fat and tall guy store) or the “Big and Tall” section of the department stores to buy pants. But in time, tragically, the shame – and any unction to change myself that could have gone with it – faded to numb resignation.
Round One: The Airport
But having started on this journey of weight loss, I seem to be having some entertaining episodes with my shrinking waistline and baggy pants. In June, I was in an airport about to miss my flight. I had on an old pair of size 50 cargo pants and was hauling my fat… well, you know… to my terminal like a locomotive. Too bad my pants were too big any more and started to drop quicker and quicker.
I had to keep on hand pulling my britches up and tight on my waist while running full sprint to catch my plane. It was not my finest moment, and while I was back, I went pants shopping. I tried on a size down, 48, only to find they were too loose as well. In fact, it ended up being 46s that I fit in.
It felt good to be back in the 40s and only two pant sizes away from were I was in high school.
Round Two: Safeway Street Crossing
Safeway is across the street and maybe a block away from my apartment complex. Unless I’m running other errands, or have to make a mad dash for something in the middle of a football game’s commercial breaks, there’s no need for me to drive.
So, like any other day, I went across the street to pick up a couple essentials. (Side note: as a single guy and much to my mother’s dismay, I typically don’t stock my cupboards. Instead, I buy what staples I need as I need them. That’s just how I roll. In fact, there’s a loaf of bread and jug of Diet Go2 Cola in my truck as I type this.) No cars, casual stroll, no problem.
I come back out with my groceries, and traffic has increased. Hmm, no prob – it’s just time to go into big, nasty D-Line mode and haul my way across. Some cars – I charge the gaps easy enough, full on sprint, pants start to drop!
ohcrap ohcrap ohcrap ohcrap mypants!
It’s all to familiar to the sensation i had at the airport a few months back. But, as my shorts began sliding down my pitiful, flat excuse for a butt (not that I’m complaining about not having a bus-sized, fat guy butt), I flail my free hand to keep them up while holding onto my groceries in the other.
I make it to the other side of the street none the worse for wear, and more angry that I have to buy some new shorts than embarrassed at them starting to fall down.
Oh well, time to cinch up the belt another notch. I wonder how the 42s will fit this time?
Today’s Weigh-In: 337.8 pounds Total Weight Lost: 102.2 pounds Days Till Next Mini-Goal: 29 Next Mini-Goal Weight: 330 Pounds To Go: 7.8
Now with the 100 pound mark officially met, I need to take some time to think out my next set of goals. I had mentioned them yesterday, but as it turns out, today I get some news that changes what I was planning on.
I had originally planned on being 299 pounds or less by the first of the year, but I’ve gotten word that my sister and her fiancé have set their wedding date (officially, this time) for December 12th. Interesting – that’s almost four months away to the day. I can lose forty pounds between now and then!
Forty pounds is a pretty big chunk to tackle at one time (although it was the first goal I aimed for at the beginning of the year – I wanted to be under 400 pounds in time for my birthday in March). Fortunately, four months and forty pounds lends itself pretty easily to a ten pounds every month until December set of mini-goals. So, that’s what I’m aiming for.
First up, 330 pounds by September 12th. Following that, my mini goals will be 320 in October, 310 in November, and finally crossing the threshold into the upper 290s by my sister’s wedding on December 12th.
This won’t not happen.
Seductive Photos!
I’ve been self-taking photographs in the bathroom mirror to record my weight loss. Stupidly, I haven’t taken any from the side – and that’s where I suspect most of the dramatic weight loss can be seen (in the big gut and back flab regions). C’est la vie.If you want to see some less-than-flattering photos of me, you can click here.
Today’s Weigh-In: 339.8 pounds Total Weight Lost: 100.2 pounds Days Till Next Goal: 6 Pounds To Go: GOAL MET!
I have lost 100 pounds!
I may have squeaked in by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin this morning, but you know what? I’ll take it! I’ll take it, and then I’ll earn it solidly tomorrow by eating right and working out today. When I see 338.X show up on the scale, I’ll feel like I can gloat legitimately (but that won’t stop me from doing it today).
One hundred pounds from my fattest weight – that’s so freaking awesome. I got to admit that I am totally pumped. So pumped, that I did an endzone dance / fist pumps / caveman grunt combo in my kitchen when I saw 339.8 come up on the scale three times in a row.
What I’ve Learned So Far
I could tell you all about my macronutrient intake and what it should be. In fact, I’ve got a handy sheet printed out listing how my 40% protein, 40% carb, and 20% fat ideal intake looks like split over five equally sized meals through the day. More carbohydratess in the morning; more protein gets eaten at night. I know roughly what my caloric intake should look like on my lifting days and on my nonlifting /cardio days (all without having to buy a stupidly expensive BodyBugg that the inane 24 Hr. Fitness trainers try shoving down my throat).
After my food intake, I could tell you why full-body workouts using nasty compound movements and lifts are great. And why High Intensity Interval Training is the king of cardio in whatever form you do it. I’m learning the names of muscles and variations of different lifts. I’m learning about hypertrophy and the difference between muscle growth and strength.
I could go on and on about the theory of weight loss and make it sound really, really complicated. And, in truth, much of it is, because the human body is complicated. But when the rubber meets the road, here’s what I’ve learned that’s really helped:
Watch your calories and keep them under your daily limit. In a move that won’t gain me many fans, let me admit to taking advantage of McDonald’s dollar menu and their McChickens. At 350 calories, they are an easy and cheap meal. Are they the healthiest food in the world? Of course not! Is it the smartest move ever? Nah – in fact, as my weight continues to drop, I know fully well I’ll have to implement my food intake plan more stringently. But for now, just counting my calories works well.
Lift weights with a plan – not randomly! There are a hundred different opinions at play here. If you want to learn everything you can about the subject, do yourself a favor and visit T-Nation. I’ve seen too many people approach their lifting in an ad hoc manner and wonder why they aren’t seeing results. Get a plan and stick to it – preferably a plan that works your whole body with compound movements that involve multiple muscles. I’m talking squats, deadlifts, and the like.
If you want to do cardio, do HIIT. Intervals will amp up your metabolism and burn more fat in the long jun than just jogging at the same pace for half an hour. Plus, you get done quicker!
Track everything in a food and lifting journal. If you’re like me, you forget things. A lot. So, for me to stay on top of my health efforts, I have to track my food intake AND my lifting. Else, I forget exactly how much I’ve eaten earlier int he day or forget how much I was lifting earlier in the week.
Get help. The blog – and moreso the encouragement from everyone in the FAT Coalition – has been key to me going strong. Community is so vital. ‘Nuff said.
Screw everybody else. Along the road, people are going to patronize you. Well meaning folks will tell you that you’re great the way you are when you know better. Love yourself – sure, but don’t be content with yourself. And if anyone gives you any grief, screw ‘em and leave them behind. You got better, more important things to do than be drug down.
Staying Realistic
However, the fact remains that, even at a hundred pounds lost, I’m still three hundred and forty. I’m still, definitely, very much a fat guy. And I don’t like that. But, the one thing that the last seven months have taught me is that I don’t have to be the fat guy anymore.
Surprisingly, that was the single largest hurdle for me in this whole weight loss journey: the mental game. For a long time, I thought that I was always going to be the fat guy – that the token big, funny, “you’re like a brother to me” role was just my lot in life. I might as well accept it.
I’m done accepting it. And now, seven months and a hundred pounds later, I am making headway into not being that guy any more. I flat out, absolutely refuse to return to that life – that’s the entire reason I got the 440 tattoo in the first place. It’s always there on my forearm; I can’t not see it. It’s always there, reminding me of where I’ve come from – and where I don’t want to return.
From Here
I’m keeping my eyes set towards the future. And right now, the future for me is to get back into the two-hundreds for the first time since high school.
My next set of goals breaks down the forty pounds into three mini-goals of fifteen pounds a piece to get me bellow three hundred pounds by 2009: 325lbs by October 1st, 310lbs by November 15th, and finally 295lbs by January 1st.
HERE WE GO!
“Never Face Defeat” by No Innocent victim
…I’ll never again face defeat
never again misguided
I’ll never face defeat
a thousand armies you could send
I’ll never face defeat
I know who wins in the end
I’ll never face defeat I might get knocked down but I’m winning the war
Today’s Weigh-In: 341.8 pounds Total Weight Lost: 98.2 pounds Days Till Next Goal: 11 / 1 Pounds To Go: 1.8 pounds
Got eleven days to go until my 08-18-08 goal, but just one until my preferred goal of 08-08-08 and barely until two pounds to go. I am going to do everything I can today to see if I can demolish two pounds and hit a hundred. Not healthy, not anything I’d ever advise for any long term progress, but I’m interested in a two day surge to get me into three digits of weight loss.
