4XLT

Today’s Weigh-In: 298.0 pounds
Next Goal: 295 pounds
Days to Go: 1
Pounds to Go: 3.0

For the first time in eight years, for the first time since high school, I weigh less than 300 pounds. I’m never going back.

Today’s Weigh-In: 301.4 pounds
Next Goal: 295 pounds
Days to Go: 7
Pounds to Go: 6.4

Still here. Still watching my eating. Still watching a bit of an direct correlary to the amount of food I eat and how much I lose, but not in how your would suspect. I wonder if that by going so low on my caloric intake (sub 2000) for several days in a row that my metabolism starts to shut/slow down and so it holds on to any food and water for dear life, thus the fluctuating weights? And when I eat more than my minimum maintenance level, my metabolism kick starts again? I dunno, that’s just my best guess so far.

My water intake’s been right where it needs to be, and I know that keeping hydrated and flushing toxins out of my body at a firehouse rate certainly helps things.

That’s about my only guess. Past that, there’s not too much to write – or more honestly, not too much I want to write about. I guess you can say I’ve been really questioning this blog and why it exists and if I’m comfortable with what I’m writing here (in the sense of putting myself out there in regards to certain parts of my life).

I can’t say I’ve come up with a conclusive answer, but I do know that when I blog consistently, I am thinking more about my health and weight loss, so I make better choices, and end up losing weight. That right there is a good reason to keep it up, but I may change focuses to write more strictly about the What, When, and How of my weight loss rather than the Why.

Today’s Weigh-In: 303.8 pounds
Next Goal: 295 pounds
Days to Go: 9
Pounds to Go: 8.6

My body is fighting me really hard to get through to the 302 mark, much less 299. I weighed in Saturday morning at 204.6 after eating fine on Friday. Weird and frustrating.

Saturday, I helped some friends move all morning and worked up a good sweat. Things were going just fine. My nutrition was okay, sans the two big homemade cookies and Barq’s Root Beer I had while moving, but I figured I could dial back my nutritional intake the rest of the day and come out ahead. That was all fine and dandy and going pretty well until about 11:00 that night when I hit up Applebee’s with some friends… and had a burger, fries, and beer.

Well crap. or so I thought. I woke up Sunday morning at a svelte 303.2 – the heck?!

And to make matters even worse, I ate right spot on all throughout the day Sunday, even refusing to eat a single thing at Red Robin after church. And my weight in this morning? Back close to 304. Bah.

PS: Go read this article: Seven Keys to a Successful Body Transformation – it’s a really good overview to things. My favorite line(s): “When you turn on the TV and come across a show about weight loss, you’ll see a lot of crying, hugging, and syrupy-sweet one-liners about having a positive attitude. Well, fuck that. In the real world, successful people get pissed off…Now, how does a self-pitying whiner deal with discomfort? He quits. How does a guy who’s willing to be an asshole deal with it? He gets ticked and fights through it. And he wins.”

So, I’m not going to sit here and complain about things. I’m going to go home, cook some chicken, throw the sandbag around, sweat some, and win.

Today’s Weigh-In: 303.2 pounds
Next Goal: 295 pounds
Days to Go: 12
Pounds to Go: 8.2

Well, I hit another weight loss spike yesterday, but I can’t claim it’s anywhere as surprising as the one from earlier this week. A friend of mine from college (Go Pokes!) plays in a band called Other Lives (formerly known as Kunek). Really great stuff – kinda this Radiohead meets Sigur Ros meets folk thing going on. Well, I ended up going to bed pretty late as a result, and that in tandem with my two beers shot me right back up to 304.6 yesterday.

And in a supreme sense of oddity, I ate pretty poorly yesterday and was prepared to see a 304 or even 305 (gasp) this morning, but ended up at 303 again. Weird.

Well, the weekend is approaching, and I’m dead-set on hitting 301 by Monday morning.

Enjoy your weekend. Have fun. Live on purpose. Lose weight.

Today’s Weigh-In: 303.4 pounds
Next Goal: 295 pounds
Days to Go: 14
Pounds to Go: 8.4

I am reminded of something my friend and fellow weight loss / health blogger Billy said to me once: “Work hard to change yourself now, and when the time comes unless the best Will possible on the world.” I can’t remember if it was in an email or a comment here at my weight loss blog, so I may have mangled it slightly (or greatly), but the sentiment remains.

I feel that I’ve got so much awesome change – and the potential and desire for so much awesome change – going on in my life, that it’s easy for me to try and become better at everything all at once: health/weight, socially, professionally, personally, etc. And in doing so, I just end up spinning my wheels. And when I spin my wheels, I get nowhere. And in getting nowhere, I just get frustrated.

But when I take a step back, I come to the realization that there are some pretty important things I want to experience and become (forgive me for being somewhat vague). And for these parts of my life, becoming healthy (aka thin and strong) is by necessity a significant portion of the foundation that must be in place first.

At times (like today), it makes me consider becoming some kind of a health hermit until I reach all my related weight loss goals. Not that I would become completely anti-social (hard for an extrovert like myself), but that I would commit so specifically to changing this aspect of my life first and foremost that it would trump anything else for the next several months. Part of that would be to just be at the gym way more than random hangouts. Another part of that (HUGE part of that) would be the mental discipline to disengage from a lot of the superfluous or otherwise pointless (at this point) mental entanglements that can snag me so often.

Sure, it may not be just the very most exciting life, but if I’m thinking about the long term and creating the life I want to live instead of settling here at 300 pounds and all that goes with weighing three bills, it may be just the solution I need.

One Third of the Way Through My 21 Day Challenge

A week ago, I decided to give myself three weeks to lose 15 pounds (roughly) in order to weigh below 300 pounds for a quick weekend trip to see my family. I’m exactly on track for that. I needed to drop four pounds a week and have lost just that.

Although, I have to admit that I’m still pretty chapped about my mystery two pound weight jump yesterday. Yeah, I know that weight fluctuates and day to day weigh ins don’t matter as much as the long haul, but still – it irritates the fire outta me because I should be at a 301 right now and I’m a pound and a half up. The only thing I can figure is that someone must have spiked my peanut butter with a ridiculous amount of sodium.

Regardless, I should be satisfied that I’ve stuck to my plan and my word, worked hard the last week (the easy weekend notwithstanding), and dropped exactly the weight I needed to drop. However, finally being back in the swing of things and being so close to 299 makes it hard to be satisfied in anything else than that.