Week 8 of My Weight Loss Journey - Hello Carbs!

Last I reported, I had to get a molar extracted. All in all, it went very well and I never had any pain. I did a really good job not using straws and only eating soft foods. Too good of a job with soft foods. I went crazy with the pasta and breads because they were soft and easy to eat. I also had oatmeal every morning for breakfast. I hadn't had oatmeal since I think I was a kid or maybe when I had little kids of my own. But even that would be 20 years ago. 

Last week was 197.2 and this morning I weighed in at 198.8. I'm honestly not even that worried about it. I know what I need to do to get back on track so I can lock in again this week with the eating habits. 

I am happy to report that I managed to keep up with my resistance training. However, I did not do very well on my daily steps. In fact, I don't think I went over 4500 steps any day this week. 

I did get sick on Thursday, which is very rare for me. I credit it to the L-Lysine I take which is an anti-viral supplement. I take it for cold sores and it works great! I hardly ever get them anymore and if I do, they tend to be very small and barely noticable. But - back to being sick. I felt it come on Thursday with a sore throat and then on Friday I felt like total garbage. Today I'm actually better. I feel stuffy, but overall pretty good. My wife has been sick for the last week so it's possible I got it from her, but I doubt it. I think I probably got it from shaking hands with strangers this week at work. 

I do have to go away AGAIN for work this week, but I usually do pretty good on trips. I can easily walk and eat right when it's just me - most of the time. I still have the tendancy to "reward" myself for a job well done when I'm on the road. 

But,like I said; The tooth (or lack of) is healed nicely, I'm feeling better from my cold or whatever virus I picked up, and it's time to lock back in. I really want to get below 195lbs. I think psychologically, that will be a big win for me. Just like when I got back below 200. 

Week 7 of My Weight Loss Journey

Week 7 Update: Started Blog at 205lbs - Now Down to 197.2lbs

Well, I'm seven weeks in to this plan and so far so good. This morning I weight in at 197.2lbs. I do have to say that I can't trust this number to hold as there were extenuating circumstances this week. 

Once again, I was called out of town for work. However, I did hit my 10K steps on Monday and Tuesday and even managed 9K steps on Wednesday, the day I drove home. But Thursday was a different story. The hotel didn't have a gym so I brought my resistance bands and did 3 sets of exercises in the hotel room.

Turns out that I had conveniently forgotten - or didn't want to think about - a dentist appointment. Turns out that after two failed root canals, they just ended up having to pull on of my molars. Luckily, it is way in the back by my wisdom tooth so it's not noticable. However, it did mean that from Thursday morning until Friday lunchtime, I didn't eat anything. I had ZERO appetite! In fact, I was also told not to elevate my heart rate to aid the blot clot in forming so I didn't do any walking or weights.

I actually weighed in at 195.2 Friday morning as a result of not eating. I did make myself eat on Friday and I have more of an appetitie today. I'm limited to soft foods so I've stopped trying to watch my carbs and am instead enjoying jell-o, pudding and flavored yogurts for a few days until I can eat more solid foods again. I did push the envelope today and I had a deli-meat chicken sandwich with havarti cheese. All soft foods and I took little bites on my good side to be extra safe. 

I know what you're thinking. Since you've started this blog, you've only lost 8 pounds! It's true. BUT - I can see some muscle tone I didn't have before. I feel better. My clothes fit better. I have more confidence. But most of all, I don't really feel like I'm lacking anything. Sure. I'd love to eat more sweets, but here's the thing. I have had sweets and I'm still losing a pound per week. Over a year, that's 52 pounds and again, I don't feel like I'm dieting. It feels more like being more aware. I can have ice cream. I can have cake. Would I like more. Yep. Do I need more? Definitely not. Before, I'd have given in to the moment but now I'm making smarter choices. 

Week 6 of my Weight Loss Journey - Work Got in the Way

Week 6: It's hard to Make Progress When Work Keeps Getting in the Way

Well, honestly, it wasn't the worst week. I just didn't make any progress and I did take a tiny step backwards but I'm not too worried. Actually, I just double checked and I only went from 194.4 to 200 this week, which is pretty darn good considering I didn't work out until today. 

I didn't do anything Monday and on Tuesday, I had to go out of town for work for 3 days which was unexpected. I found out Tuesday around noon, and I was on the road at 5 p.m.  

The hotel mentioned a fitness center but I couldn't find it anywhere. I'm actually going back this week so I'll figure it out. I could have done in-room body weight exercises, but I was honestly pretty beat. Work, combined with 95 degree heat - and really hot heat if you know what I mean - was not conducive to exercise. In fact, the last few weeks, it has either been unbearably hot and humid or it's been pouring rain!

On the trip, I knew I'd end up eating fast food given my travel budget but I had a workound of sorts. Breakfast was served at the hotel and I just had eggs and sausage. For lunch on the two days I was away, I just had those little "lunch on the go" chicken salad and Tuna salad kits. They come with a cookie, fruit cup, tuna or chicken salad and crackers. They are somewhere around 300-400 calories. 

Dinner however, was another thing. Chipotle the night I got there. Burger King one night, and Dairy Queen the night I left to come back home. Where I also "treated" myself and got a cookie dough blizzard. Supposedly, it was over 1,000 calories for a medium according to the Google Health fitness app. I found that hard to believe, but I guess it is what it is. So that was my "Cheat Day" since the other days were more in-line with calories even though I was way over on carbs all the days. 

I got home late Thursday and Friday was another travel day for me and I let the day get away without any exercise. But today - Saturday - was much better. I did my ankle exercises, I worked out with my weights and kettlebell and I hiked around 3.75 miles. 

Since I have to travel again on Monday and be gone Tuesday & Wednesday, I will be better prepared. I plan on taking my resistance bands with the handles and if it turns out that there isn't a gym, I will have something more than just body weight exercises I can do. And I will do them. I am comitted. I think I'll even make a video of my "Hotel Room Workout". 

Progress Photos at the End of 6 Weeks

I did want to show my progress at the end of 6 weeks though. This is what I look like going from 212 to 199. I'm pretty excited actually. Hard to believe my gut is that much flatter. Sorry about the underwear shot. I took it for my own benefit. It was to shock me into action with how gross I felt and I gross I thought I looked. But it was then the only picture I had once I started losing weight. Again, that was at 212lbs and my heaviest was actually 213 although I don't think a pound would look any different. As I mentioned above, this after pic is me at 199lbs although today I did weigh in at 200 with going away for work. But the after pick was technically at the end of week 5, but again, I don't think a single pound is going to look to drastically different. I was just so excited to get below 200, that I took this picture on that day. 

 

Weeks 4 & 5 of my Weight Loss Journey. I've Lost 14lbs So Far

Week 4: July 5th - 11th

I finished my 4th week but not much had changed. Despite little change, I'm super happy about it. Why you ask? Well, this past week was my 11 year anniversary which also coincided with a week of vacation. Typically, people gain 10lbs when they go on vacation. I only gained 1.2!! 

Only gaining 1.2lbs includes eating and drinking on my anniversary. I didn't track anything. I just enjoyed the day. It also includes me missing my Thursday workout. Well...I could have worked out, but again, I focused on my anniversary which was amazing. 

Once vacation was over, I was ready to get back on track. Three workouts per week, watching my carbs and tracking my food same as before. 

Week 5: July 12th - 18th 

Keeping to my macros but honestly getting a little closer to my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), I lost 1.8lbs this week. There was one small difference. After 4 weeks of using the same weights for the upper body part of my workout, just 10lbs, I increased the weight to 15lbs. I know it doesn't sound like to alot to most people, but with no rest between exercises, the arms fatigue very quickly. I tried to go up to 20lbs just to see, but my form was breaking down too much so I was smart and went with 15lbs. 

I only did one run this week and no track workout. However, the 1.47 miles I ran was a hard effort and with the hills, I still eeked out a 12:30 pace. Slower than my mile time, but again, a half-mile farther and with hills. 

So, as of the end of this 5th week, I'm down 6lbs since I started this blog, 14 pounts since I said "No More!!" when I hit 213lbs. It's nice to know that all that knowledge I had came back to help me. I guess I just had to reach a breaking point where my "should" became a "must". 

Weight Loss Journey - Week 3

It's the 3rd week of documenting my weight loss journey and things are going good. I woke up and got on the scale and weighed in at an even 200! I've very happy because I'm making progess. I'm not feeling hungry. And I've lost 5 pounds since starting this blog. It is said that 1-2 pounds per week is a good range for weight loss because it typically means you're losing fat and not muscle. So, what have I been doing?

I've been doing a simple resitance training at home with my dumbells and kettlebells. It only takes me about 10 minutes so it's something that I can do even if it gets late and I just want to go upstairs to bed. With the dumbells, I do 10 x arm curls, hammer curls, tricep kickbacks, overhead press, side raises and front raises. I take no rest in between. I go from exercise to exercise. Once I'm done with those, I switch to the kettlebell and do the following. 15 x Goblet Squats, kettlebell swings, deadlift. On my last workout I did add 15 x single leg RDL (Romanian Deadlift) switching legs of course to work both sides. I really felt this one and could tell there was some weakness there. This exercise will become a regular as I know it'll help my running.

Speaking of which; I ran this morning at the track above McCormick Field. It's a really nice track and not crowded on a Saturday morning. At least not this Saturday morning. I did one of my favorite track workouts: Sprint the straightaways and jog (or in my case today, walk) the curves. It's basically a HIIT workout on the track.  

As far as eating goes. I am tracking as best I can. Some things just aren't in the database but I can add somethings if it has a nutrition label. For other things, I'll take a picture and ask AI to estimate the calories and macros and then manually add it based on those numbers. It must be fairly accurate becuase it's working for me. If I happen to have a sweet, which has happened, I will focus really hard on no or very little carbs the rest of the day. This has been working too as I haven't felt deprived of eating what I like. It just requires more planning for the rest of the day. 

In fact, just yesterday, I planned for ice cream at the end of the day. I left myself enough calories and carbs in reserve to have two scoops of ice cream (vanilla and chocolate) with chocolate chips. 

April 9th I was 213 and started losing weight just trying to move a little more but I ate pretty much the same. From April 9th until June1 I just focused on moving more and that got me to hover around 208-210 the whole time. Since I've cut back on the carbs, I've noticed that the old adage is true - Weight loss is done in the kitchen. Obviously, moving helps too, but the carbs are what as moved the needle the most for me. At least so far. 

My Weight Loss Journey: 2 Week Progress Report

It's Been To Weeks: Progress Report

Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. I was really doing great. Low carbs, resistance training twice per week but then I got off track after Father's Day. 

I had lost 4 pounds in the first week which was mainly water weight due to eating fewer carbs. But I was still happy. Going back to April 9th, when I was 213, being at 201 was so great!

But lately, I keep going over on carbs and the water weight is coming back. However, I do feel like I look better. I see little areas that definitely look better. I can't really say what it is, but my clothes fit better. The other day I took my belt in a notch was really motivational, so even though the scaled has crept back up, my clothes are fitting different. Another way I can tell is that my gut is much smaller. I no longer have to suck in my gut to see the numbers on the scale. 

It's amazing what a difference just a few pounds can make. 

In addition, I found a mile road race in August that I have signed up for, so I now have another layer of motivation to get back in shape and lose weight. While not a hard and scientific number, it is a rule of thumb that for every pound a runner loses, they speed up 1-2 seconds per mile. So if I can drop 10lbs by August 22nd, I should be 10-20 seconds faster than I am now. On top of that, with working out and doing speed work, I should get faster as well. 

I did a time trial today and ran a 12:18 mile. 8 weeks from today is the mile race. My goal is to run it sub-10. My Oh Shiz Goal is to run it sub-8 but that is going to be REALLY tough. But then again, like I said, that's my "Holy Shiz" goal. 

I may not get there in 8 weeks, but I will get there.

 Video Walkthrough of My Macro Calculator

I wanted to show you how my spreadsheet works for calculating my macros. If you like this tool I made, let me know and I'll be happy to share it with you.

Unfortunately, there is a size limit to videos I can post, so I had to give up the sound to get it to fit.

Basically, I walk you through entering your information in the green fields. At times, you may need to enter a result from a yellow field but most of the time, the cell that needs it, will pick it up automatically. 

You'll enter your age, weight and goal weight. If you know your height in inches, great! If not, and you're bad at math, I have a mini-calculator you can use. The next thing to enter is your gender and then your activity level. 

Once these are entered, you'll see your BMR or Base Metabolic Rate and your TDEE or Total Daily Energy Expenditure. If the "For Weight Loss" field is red, you are too low. Simply click in the formula bar and adjust the default -500 to something lower like -300 or -250 so that you get to where your "weight loss" calories are higher than your BMR figure. 

You'll see your macors below. Botht the calories from each macro as well as how many grams you can from each macro. 

The way I did this was simple. I took my goal body weight and multiplied it by 1 for protein. I then took 35% of my current body weight to calculate my fat needs. What remains is what I can allocate to Carbs.