Short Term Goal: Lose 20 Pounds in 3 Months

May 2, 2012

I love setting new short-term weight loss goals.

Even if I fail at reaching a goal I set, which I have before and surely will again, short, difficult but obtainable goals are something to strive for in the near future.

Declaring a goal makes a clock start ticking in your head.

Short term goals put a stop to the open-ended invitation of “oh, I’ll get around to losing this weight” and changes it to, “It’s time to get busy.”  I turn 27 on July 26th, just about three months away from today.  It’s time to get busy.

Can I lose 20 pounds in three months and reach 193 pounds for a total of 150 pounds lost?  Absolutely.  It requires me making a series of choices for the next twelve weeks.  I have to lose, on average, about 1.7 pounds every week.

1.7 pounds is a high number, especially since I don’t plan on starving.

Here’s what I’ll need to do to lose 20 pounds in the next three months:

- Maintain 2,000-2,200 calories a day.
- Perform at least 30 minutes of cardio a day.

It’s really that “simple.”  The difficult part will be not heading out to Outback or Applebee’s on Saturday night and following it up with a big Sunday morning brunch 16 hours later (several thousand calories in total) like I do now.

I love moderation, and it’s easy to enjoy a few meals a week that are “free of calorie counting” and still lose weight, but I can’t do that over the next three months and expect to lose an average of 1.7 pounds a week.

While I could just lower my goal, or extend it to “lose 20 pounds in 6 months,” I don’t want to do that this time around.  I want to dream big.

I still know practicing moderation is the only way to sustainably lose weight.  I wouldn’t recommend anything else to someone just starting to lose weight, but there’s nothing wrong with temporarily tightening the belt a little and reaching new ground.  You should consider doing the same if you’re in a rut.

I’m tired of sitting above 200 pounds.  It’s time to push through to new ground.

I want to see what the view is like.

How Losing Weight Can Strain a Marriage

May 1, 2012

Claire wrote via e-mail:

When you first started your weight loss journey, did it put any strain on your marriage? I know I need to stop finding excuses on how to start (though I’ve started several times), but I’ve found that my lack of motivation comes from my husband’s inability to just let me do what I need to do, and always find a way to sabotage my efforts. He talks about his need to lose weight and be healthy, all the while drinking a beer or having a second helping of dinner. I just don’t know what to do sometimes. It’s really becoming frustrating. 

It’s fair to say (but not easy to admit) that it put a strain on my marriage.

This is such an interesting topic for me.  I wouldn’t say my wife was unsupportive of my weight loss efforts.  Understanding?  Absolutely.  Encouraging?  You bet she was.

But she was also annoyed.

My wife has come to accept the new me over the last few years, but it was rough at the beginning.  She was supportive of my efforts and encouraged me to keep counting calories, but at the same time I could tell she was annoyed with some of it.  I went from this guy that loved going out to eat every other night (this was pre-children) to wanting to carefully watch my portions at home and avoid any temptation. I also went from lounging in the living room all evening with her to heading off to the gym every single night.  I went to the gym around 8-9 PM when I first started losing weight, seriously reducing our quality time.

I also changed from being this passive, lazy kind of laid back guy into this hybrid type A personality with an unmovable daily schedule, rigid goals, etc.

I was no longer the man she married pretty much overnight.

The biggest friction we had at the time had to do with the food we kept in the house.  She wanted cookies, chips, and the other typical foods you’d find in your average cupboard.  I was weak when I first started losing weight and would rather not have had any temptations in the house.   While that kind of food can be found in our kitchen today and it doesn’t bother me, it did at the time.

“Why don’t you support me?  Why do you bring this into the house?,”  I’d ask.

Looking back, those kind of questions were pretty selfish.  My wife was already supporting me by allowing me to do what I needed to do (count calories, go to the gym nightly, etc.).  Sure, it would’ve been great for my weight loss efforts if Coke and cookies didn’t have a presence in the house — but she liked them, so they did.

It wasn’t fair of me to ask her to change, as well.

I understand how couples become one with marriage, but we all make our own choices.  We still have our own individual hobbies, traits, and goals.

As individuals, we also decide what food we put into our mouths.

If it helps, think of counting calories and losing weight as a hobby.  I know it’s tough seeing your husband with a can of Budweiser as you finish your twelfth glass of water for the day, but that’s his hobby, that’s his choice.  You have your own set of choices to make.

BodyMedia FIT CORE Armband

April 30, 2012

I’ve mentioned my CORE Armband a few times since I started using it earlier this month, but I’ve had a lot of questions about it.

I’m not going to give a sales pitch on it or list all of its features – its website does that just fine. I’ll answer the questions I’ve received and talk about the features of it that I use and find to be most beneficial to losing weight.

How accurate are the “calories burned” that it reports?
I’ve compared it to a few of the calorie burning calculators around the web and it’s right on par with those. It’s as accurate as I can tell.

What exact model do you have?
I have the Core Armband (without display) that costs $149. There is a required monthly fee to use the service; $6.95 is charged to my credit card monthly.

Does it bother or irritate you being on all day?
No. It annoyed me the first hour I wore it, but then I completely forgot about it. I’ve gotten into the shower a few times with it just because I don’t feel it.  It also stays in place during the day, even when running, playing basketball, etc.

Do you think the armband will fit me? I’m XXX pounds.
It should fit you. The armband that comes with the package for $149 is large and elastic. It would have easily fit me even at 344 pounds. Even if it didn’t fit though, there are larger armbands available for a few bucks on Amazon.

How long does it take to charge?
I wear it 23 hours a day and some change (I take it off to take a shower) and I have to charge it about once a week. It takes about 10 minutes to fully charge.

How does it compare to the Fitbit?
I don’t have personal experience with the Fitbit, but the reviews on Amazon for it looks fantastic. The Fitbit seems to offer the same information as the Core Armband, but without a monthly fee. That’s a big plus. Otherwise, the biggest difference as far as I can tell is that the Fitbit has to attach to your belt loop or sit inside your pocket all day.  Personally, I prefer an armband.

Are you still using MyFitnessPal to count calories?
Yes. I don’t use BodyMedia’s tools (which come with the monthly subscription) to actually record the food I eat – I still use MyFitnessPal for that. For the graph you see on my weekly weigh-in posts, I manually enter the number of calories I ate for that particular week. That’s an important point. If you forget to wear your armband to work one day for example, you can get home and manually enter the amount of calories you estimated you burned (or ate) that day.

You definitely don’t want to make that a habit, though.  The armband is simply meant to be worn and forgotten, constantly monitoring your activities.

Should I buy the armband to help me burn calories?
It’s a luxury. If you have the extra funds and like data (it helps if you’re borderline OCD like I am), then I’d recommend it. I look at the data it reports every night and try to beat it the next day. It’s a good motivating tool that keeps me wanting to take more steps, burn more calories, and even get more sleep.

I highly doubt that last one it going to happen anytime soon, though.

As always, counting calories and losing weight isn’t about spending hours in the gym or burning a bunch of calories. It certainly helps, and I wouldn’t try to lose weight without some daily physical activity, but weight loss starts and ends with the amount of calories you put in your mouth.

Your choices in the kichten are more powerful than any tool or service for sale.

Weight Loss Progress and Calories for Week 169

April 27, 2012

Weight loss progress, indeed.

Daily Averages (April 20-27) according to my Core Armband:

Current weight: 213.4 pounds, 0.8 pound(s) lost since last Friday, 130.8 total.

Avg. daily calories burned: 3,443 calories
Avg. daily calories consumed: 2,091 calories
Avg. daily calorie deficit: 1,352 calories
Avg. daily physical activity: 2 hour(s) and 13 minutes (basketball!)
Avg. daily steps taken: 11,548 steps
Avg. daily sleep duration: 7 hours and 16 minutes

(First time readers: I’m a work in progress. Go look back at where I started.)

I’m on a roll to get rid of my fat roll.

Some changes are taking place.  I can feel a noticeable difference in the amount of fat I have around my lower stomach, as well as my upper arms.  It seems as if I might have a bicep somewhere underneath all of the fat.  It’s small progress, but that’s the only kind of progress that’s obtainable at this point.  I’m more than pleased.

As the Beastie Boys sang so eloquently, there will be no sleep ’til Brooklyn.  There will be absolutely no stopping this ride until I step onto the scale (with a camera for your viewing pleasure!) at 194.2 pounds.  Reaching 150 pounds lost is the major goal for 2012.

Once that’s out of the way, I’m sure we’ll find something else to conquer together.

 

Six Failures Followed by a Success at the End

April 26, 2012

You’ve tried losing weight before and failed miserably.  Why try again?

Or, maybe you can’t even count how many times you’ve failed at losing weight. Why in the world would you want to try again?  What’s different this time around?

Maybe nothing.  Maybe everything, though.

It’s important for folks to know that I had never been successful at losing weight prior to January 2009.  I can count six “major” tries at losing weight in my lifetime, all of them abandoned within a week.  I had doubt, as I always did, that this time around would actually be the time that I finally succeeded and lost weight.

That doubt is poisonous.  You’ve got to get rid of it.

The more you dwell on your past weight loss failures, the more it encourages failure this time around.  You have got to believe that this time is your time to shine.

As the saying goes, fake it until you make it.

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