Major Milestone Achieved

August 8, 2010:

I decide that enough is enough. I weigh in at 350 pounds. This is not the heaviest I have been (weighed in once at the DR office at 362) but it is heavy enough. I told TJ (Wife) that I wanted to change the way I eat. I realize that I need to change everything about my eating habits. I eat wrong. I eat at the wrong times. I eat the wrong things. I eat the wrong amounts. I eat for the wrong reasons. That changes August 9th, the first full day of my new life.

I plan to lose 130 pounds in 12 months.

August 15, 2010:

After one week on the modified eating plan, I have lost 12 pounds and decide it is time to up the ante. I need to increase my activity. I decide it is time to start walking. Up to this point I have walked for a while with a cane and then only when I deemed walking to be entirely necessary. You know, there is usually someone that will get that for you, or go into the store for you, or do the errand for you. While being helpful, my wife and kids enabled my excuses. I put excuses behind and take a walk around the block. It is one/third of a mile. It took me 20 minutes and I came home breathing hard and sweating.

August, September, October, and November:

The distance I walked on my daily walk increases. I usually do 2 miles but have had days of nearly 4 miles. November 11, I pass the 100 miles walked for exercise mark.

My daily calorie intake has dropped over 70%, from over 3500 to around 1050 calories.

Today:

It has been 113 days since I changed my life, literally.

My waist has gone from 58 inches to 47.5 inches.

My hips have gone from 60 inches to 48.5 inches.

My BMI has gone from 53.2 to 43.3.

One hundred thirteen days and my weight has dropped from 350 pounds to 285 pounds. I have lost 65 pounds. That is half of the 130 pounds I plan to lose.

Sixteen weeks and one day and I have lost 22 inches from my waist and hips. Even my wedding ring is nearly too large for my fingers. My face is smaller. My feet are smaller. I can bend over and touch the floor again.

This is the new me.

Today, I am half way to the me I will be again!

Thanksgiving success

It was a great thanksgiving, for which I am grateful.

I didn't go over in my calories and enjoyed practically all of my holiday favorites. I had: Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Green Beans, Corn, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, and Baked Mac-n-Cheese. I had them all in moderation.

My weekly calories prior to T-Day were:

Friday - 1149

Saturday - 1019

Sunday - 1013

Monday - 1117

Tuesday - 890

Wednesday - 707

And, my calories for Thanksgiving Day .. 1022

The average calorie intake for the seven days including Thanksgiving is 988 calories a day. The daily average for the month of November (so far) is 1015 calories a day. (Now, before you fuss .. I am being supervised by my doctor and she is good with my calorie intake as long as everything keeps functioning properly.)

I can't really say that I was concerned about overeating yesterday. I knew my new eating discipline would prevail. (Although, it did look like a lot of food on the plate.)

I did stay away from all the pies. There were (and still are to some degree) apple, cherry, pecan, and pumpkin pies. I will, at some point this week/weekend have a small slice of pie, but even then it will be much less than my last years normal eating.

Let me be the first to say, I don't feel I have given up anything in this new eating plan. I still eat the things I love. I eat them with a new moderation, but I still eat what I like. I think one of the biggest downfalls in dieting is the idea that you have to give up the foods you love. It is not necessarily true.

My favorite sandwich is simple and loaded with fat and calories. It is a bologna and cheese sandwich with Miracle Whip and onions. I used to eat them many times for lunch. Unfortunately, I would normally eat two of them, to the whopping calories total of well over 1000 calories. I don't do that now. One sandwich, on thinner bread, eaten every now and then.

We cook better. We use lighter substitutes. We don't compromise taste. We cook lighter and eat less.

It was a greatly successful Thanksgiving Day.

I hope yours was as well.

And .. my weigh-in for today .. 288 pounds .. down one more pound

What? A new size ?

OK, so most of my pants don't fit anymore. I still have a few pair that I can wear. Some of them only bunch up a little under my belt. I posted recently that I found a pair of khaki's in the closet that I looked at and said to myself, "Those will never fit." They were waist size 50. A couple hangers over were another pair of pants that I used to wear that were a waist size 60.

Just to see how much farther i had to go, I tried on the 50's. To my shock, I didn't have to go any farther. They fit!

Yesterday, my wife was at a local buy out store. They buy out lots from stores that are overstock or closeout merchandise. She called me to tell me they had some black St John's Bay dress slacks for $2 and asked if I wanted a couple pair. Well, I do need pants and $2 was a great buy. I told her yes. She said they had 50's and 48's. I told her to get me the 50's as it was what I was wearing.

She came home with two pair; one size 50 and one size 48. I figured I could wear the 50's and work on fitting into the 48's. I tried on the 50's. They fit just fine, but I do have to hem them.

So, I tried on the 48's to see how close I was to fitting into them.

Oh My Gosh !! They fit ?!?!?!

I fit into a waist size 48 pants for the first time in I can't remember.

Let the good times roll !

Late Weigh-in

I didn't get the opportunity to weigh in this weekend as we were busy and didn't visit mom's house. I use her scale for several reasons; a few of those being, it is a DR type scale, it is where I weighed when I began, and it is far enough away to prevent me from obsessing and weighing every day.

So, this weekend's weigh-in was pushed back until today.

The results of the weighing are that I lost another 2 pounds last week. This brings my total weight loss to 61 pounds in 14 weeks. I have gone from 350 pounds on August 8 to 289 pounds on November 15.

I can not even begin to catalog all the changes that losing 61 pounds brings. Someone asked me if it felt better being this much lighter. I had to say yes, but, I feel better in ways I wasn't aware that I felt bad.

When you gain weight slowly, you grow accustomed to the limitations and restrictions gradually. Sure, you notice the big differences. You notice how hard it is to get up and out. you notice how much more effort it takes to do things. You notice how clothes fit tighter or how you have to buy bigger sizes.

However, there are changes you don't notice because they happen so gradually, or it isn't something you do all the time.

There are changes in how long you can stand before pain makes you sit. There are numerous endurance limit changes.

I notice now how I can stand for much longer periods without having to sit down. I notice how I am not constantly shifting my weight from one leg to the next to be comfortable. I notice I walk down steps one step at a time instead of making half steps. (This is where you bring a foot down to one step and then the other foot to the same step, and repeat.)

I notice I don't hurt as much. I don't breath as hard. I don't snore as loud (well, I didn't notice that one. I was told.)

So, yes, it does feel much better. It feels better in ways that will only be evident as I encounter them, but, encounter them, I will.

289 !!

100 miles

August 8th, I was 350 pounds. It was not the heaviest I had been, but it was plenty heavy enough. I decided to change my life.

August 17, one week into my new lifestyle, I decided that walking would be good for me. Later that evening (11ish) I took off for a walk around the block. Firstly, I live in a small town (pop. 5600,) so; it was safe to be out walking around that late at night. Secondly, it was just 1/3 of a mile.

It took me 20 minutes. Yes, I was walking at the blazing speed of one mile per hour. Oh yeah, it wore me out as well.

August 18, I did it again, albeit much earlier. August 19, I did it three times that day and reached my first mile walking day.

By the end of August, I had walked one 1.8 mile day and had walked 9.75 miles for exercise. I only count the walking I do specifically for exercise.

By the end of September, I had walked a personal best day of 3.28 miles and had walked 43.78 miles that month and achieved a 53.53 mile total.

By the end of October, I had walked a personal best day of 3.9 miles and had walked 41.25 miles that month and achieved a 95.05 mile total.

November started out badly for walking. As you may have read in the previous post, I didn’t walk but one day in the first week. Yesterday, I was determined to get back into the flow of walking. I walked 1.4 miles on Wednesday. Today, I walked 2.4 miles. This brought my total miles, in one week shy of three months, to 100.67 miles walked.

Now, my brother is a runner. He runs 5 to 7 miles a day. Some days he runs 10 or more. He is preparing for a marathon. 100 miles is a couple weeks to him. But, for me, it is a major thing. I was not a walker or runner. Now, I did run in high school, but that was decades ago. (35 years to be exact.)

So, just endure me while I celebrate reaching the 100 mile walking milestone.

Yip yip yippeeeeee !

getting back on track

The last seven days have been rather hectic and detrimental to exercising. There have been Doctor visits, hospital stays, surgery, son's wedding planning, daughter's moving, and car selling. Yeah, seems like an average week. In the seven day stretch, I managed to get in one hour of walking.

This morning started out trying to be busy (son-in-law issues) but I was determined. I walked 1.66 miles, including a stop at the courthouse to file the marriage license from last nights wedding.

I hate when I don't get to walk.

I never thought I would be one of those. You know who they are. You see them out all hours of the morning, throughout the day, and even late in the evenings. You see them in their walking suits or jogging suits. You see them walking, oblivious to the weather and other distractions. you see their headphones in as they go along. They are the 'walkers'. I never thought I would be inducted into their tribe.

Yet, there I am, in the morning, putting on my walking pants and tightening up my walking shoes. I am checking the battery in my mp3 player (I listen to the Bible as I walk.) I am checking the time to know how long it took me to walk my walk. I am making sure I have my phone for emergencies. I am checking off the list.

Phone ............... check
MP3 ....................check
Key .....................check
Sunglasses ........check

So far, my longest walks have been in the 3 to 4 mile ranges, which takes me 60 to 80 minutes. No extra hydration needed on my walks. I am, however, on the lookout for the dreaded 'fanny-pack' for the time when my walks grow to longer distances and times that might require some additional H2O.

So, today, determination in hand, I got back to the walks.

59 pounds and the next wall to fall

My latest weigh-in yielded the results of 59 pounds lost in 13 weeks. That is astounding to me. As I have said in the past, I wish this was the hardest thing I have ever done, so I would have an excuse for not doing it 20 years ago, but it isn't. It has been easy for the most part. The hardest part, probably, was coming to the place where I said I was going to do it.

I have gone from my starting point of 350 pounds (not my heaviest) to today's weight of 291 pounds.

The next wall to fall:

I was in my closet looking for clothes to wear a couple days ago. All my jeans and slacks fit me if I don't mind holding the extra 6 inches of waist material while I walk. Or, if I don't mind 6 inches or more of material bunched up under my belt. I did find one pair of khaki's that looked (in my eyes estimation) to be way too small. I checked the size and the tag read '50 waist'. "There is no way these will fit," I told myself.

So, I put them on, and to my amazement, they fit and fit right. A 50 !! No freaking way !!

So, the next wall to fall (since the 300 pound wall fell) is the 50 inch waist wall. I am looking forward to the day when my pants waist size will be in the 40's.

I am leaning against that wall now.

Pushing !!

The Cost of Carelessness

We were busy yesterday running numerous errands and my wife neglected to lay out anything for supper. This was not that big of an issue, as we did have 'carry out' options available. TJ wanted pizza, so we headed to the local Little Caesar's for some hot and ready pizza.

Now, the local joint doesn't cut their pizza's very well. This is fine as we re-cut them at home and make them a 10 slice pizza instead of an 8 slice pizza. This makes them about 200 calories a slice. The 1/8th slice is still only around 250 calories, which isn't terrible, either.

Well, when I went in to pick up some hot and ready's, I found a large line and an empty pizza holder thingie. Their hot and ready's were neither hot nor ready. The worker told me it was going to be 25 minutes until pizza's were ready. I wasn't in the mood to wait, nor go home and come back, so we went to the Pizza Hut which was about a half block away.

We decided to eat in at the Pizza hut. We ordered the large meat lovers for the three of us. I drank water (I hate paying $2 for a soft drink at restaurants.) Normally, knowing I would be going to a restaurant, I will research the calorie contents to make sure my choices are good, but this was a spur of the moment choice. I assumed the calories would be similar since it was still bread, meat, cheese, and sauce.

WRONG !

The difference was staggering, as I discovered after eating. I had three slices of pizza, thinking I would be in the 600 to 800 calorie range. I had less than 400 calories in the first two meals of the day and figured 800 would be fine. It would put me a little above my average, but still within what i consider acceptable.

1 slice of Pizza Hut's Meat Lovers Pizza is 480 calories !!!

Oh My Gosh !!

In that one meal, I had taken in more calories (1440) than I had taken in on any day (total) in the past three months. The total for the day was 1859 calories.

Sigh .. It is just a one day thing, I tell myself. It was just the result of carelessness. It will not change the fact that I have lost over 50 pounds. It will not change the fact that I am more active and feel better than I have in years. It will not change the fact that I have lost 9 inches in both my waist and my hips.

It will change how I eat in restaurants. I will ask for a nutrition guide before I order if I do not already know the calories and such.

This is much too important to get careless after 12 weeks of hard work.

Viva la revolucion !