A progress photo...

This was taken after AJ's baptism on 6/24/07. I am roughly 200 lbs here.

I think they call them "Non Scale Victories"...

Is that an official Weight Watchers phrase or what? Maybe somebody can clue me in with a comment. I've seen that term used a lot in the weight loss blogosphere...

Anyways, since I've lost 35 lbs, there have been a lot of these NSVs (for short) to comment on:

• The first is actually a scale victory I guess, but with a non-scale kinda feel. My official scale at the gym is one of those doctor-ish scales with the weights that slide from left to right. (I've added a picture to help out here). When I started this thing I was very clearly on the 200 lb bottom weight and slid the top weight over to 36 (for a total of 236 lbs). It was quite a rush when I was able to slide the bottom weight over to the 150 lbs. Now I basically slide the top weight all the way to the end, but still...it is awesome to at least be on the correct "big" weight. Am I rambling? I'll move on...
• The second is definitely non-scale in nature and it's a mixed blessing. In addition to my weight falling, my clothes sizes have dropped as well. When I started, I was a 38w pants size and moving to a 40. Most of the pants / shorts I like to wear are a size 38. Now I am easily a size 36 and moving towards a 35....which is awesome. The problem is that I'm a cheapskate on certain things, and do not want to go out and buy a new wardrobe until I hit and maintain my goal weight for a bit. I do get comments that the pants I'm wearing look a little silly in my new body. My belts are cinched all the way to the last hole as well. I do have some older clothes (think 3 -5 years ago) that fit me again and I am putting them back into the rotation to get by...
• The third is the positive comments I get from people. This started happening around 2 months ago, but has really ramped up in recent weeks. The first comments came from family, employees who work for me, and from salespeople who want to do business with me. I thought that those comments were just people with, shall we say, incentive to flatter me. But when people who you barely speak to at work, come up to say they notice the change...that really pumps me up. Some even ask what I am doing to lose the weight and I really don't fancy myself a weight loss expert...it's nice to share war stories though...
• Fourth and last...feeling confident to go topless at the pool / beach. My body is no where near being "Baywatch" ready, but I do feel a lot better taking off my shirt at the pool. I've never been a big beach guy and one of the main reasons is that my body has been too scrawny (ages 13-18) or too fat (ages 20+) to feel comfortable in that environment. I hope to be close to there by my trip to Cape Cod in mid-September and I will definitely be there by next summer. Hell, maybe I'll even have some semblance of a 6 pack (the good kind, of course)...

That's it for now...thanks for letting me share my positive stories...hopefully they inspire just a little bit...

What works for me?

You know what? It's been 13 weeks doing this thing and I've lost 35 lbs already...Some of you out there must think that I'm cheating by taking pills or starving myself. There's no way a person that much weight...Well, I did...

I thought it would be informative to post some of the things I am doing that I believe are keeping me down this path of weight loss. Perhaps it will set off a light bulb in your head...

1.) One of the biggest things I inadvertently did was to set myself up for a weekly weigh in on Monday at the gym. There are actually a couple of things going on here:

1a.) One, by weighing in weekly, I allow myself to not succumb to daily weight fluctuations. I also set myself up for posting a large number. Stepping on the scale and losing a 1/2 lb or 1 lb is certainly nice. Stepping on the scale and losing 3 lbs or 5 lbs really gives you a sense of accomplishment and pumps me up for the upcoming week.

1b.) Two, by weighing in at the gym, I force myself to the gym at least once a week. If I used a scale at home, I would have one less reason to hit the gym. Instead, I look forward to getting to the gym on Monday to see what the "official" scale shows.

1c.) Three, by weighing in on a Monday, I set myself up for getting my exercise in each week. If I am excited to get to the gym on Monday and put in a solid hour, I am setup to get in 2 more appearances for the rest of the week. If I miss Monday, it's a lot easier to miss Tuesday and then Wednesday, etc...Getting that first workout of the week completed first thing makes the rest of the week that much easier.

2.) Speaking of exercise, I try to put in a balanced workout each time I go. If you look back at my earlier posts, I try to blend 20 - 35 minutes of cardio, with a little ab work, and some kind of strength training (legs on time, chest / arms another). I know there are people who say that strength conditioning is the real way to lose weight, but the balanced approach has really worked for me.

3.) Staying on exercise, although I get to the gym 3x a week, I've also got a set of weights in my bedroom to knock out some arm exercises. I also have been trying to add some pushups into my routine. While I do not expressly look to do these as part of my routine, doing a quick set of arm curls, keeps my muscles on thier toes (and muscle mass = increased metabolism = weight loss).

I was going to do food, but I'll save that for another post...

Holy cow...did I just post more than once a week? What's the world coming to!

Weigh In - Week 14

Ugh...


I guess it was bound to happen...


After 13 straight weeks of weight loss, I finally hit the bump in the road. I posted a 3 lb weight gain!


I thought that perhaps I would break even this week or perhaps gain a pound...but 3 lbs caught me for a loop...

Now, I know most of you out there will not be throwing any pity parties for me. I've made the weight loss seem effortless, but I guess that means that I have to keep on the program to keep it off. Let's recap the bad things I've done this week:

• Worked out only 2x again this week. Once at the gym and once at the hotel where I stayed on a business trip. The hotel facilities were somewhat limited and I just did an extended cardio routine on the elliptical.
• I actually did pretty good on the "business portion" of my trip (Wed Eve - Friday Afternoon). My only transgression was eating Taco Bell at 11PM on Wed night when I got into Denver...Probably not the best idea. But I did exercise at the hotel in Phoenix on Thursday night...
• What really sunk me was extending my "business trip" to a "pleasure trip" by staying at my brother's place in Phoenix. My exercise consisted of a round of golf and lounging in his pool. My diet consisted of bacon, egg, & cheese burritos for breakfast, burgers, dogs, ribs, fries (first time I had fries since March), and LOTS of beer. There were not many opportunities for me to eat anywhere near healthy from Friday afternoon through Sunday.

I had a great time, but it really hit me that I need to focus to keep this weight loss going. I actually stepped on the scale on at the hotel gym on Friday night and still weighed 198. So I gained the 3 lbs in a period of roughly 3 days....that's impressive and scary...

My plan this week is to hit the gym 4x (M,Tu,Th,Fr) and get back into the good eating groove. Hopefully I can grab back those 3 lbs pretty quick....they haven't been on my body for that long...

Here's the progress chart with the unfortunate bump:

Weigh In - Week 13

I haven't posted in a while...blah, blah, blah...

I'm not beating myself up about the non-posting thing anymore...Someone said it is tough to post when you have a kid and they are right!

So, as you can see, I have posted yet another 3 lb weight loss. At the rate I am going, I will not only hit my goal weight of 50 lbs by the end of summer, but I will hit my "aggressive goal" weight of 176 by that time as well...still waiting for my plateau time to hit...

Some interesting notes from this week:

• I only got in 2 workouts this past week (although I tried to balance it by trying to kill myself in one of the workouts)
• My reason for not working out was a trip up to CT for an in-law party on Saturday and AJ's baptism on Sunday. We needed to travel up to see the pastor on Friday (Friday is usually a work out day for me).
• I was good with the food all week (as usual), but Saturday and Sunday morning were pretty bad. The Saturday party was Mexican themed and it was all about cheese and meat. I didn't really hold back and had plenty along with lots of Mexican beer...I expected to lose 1 lb this week and again beat expectations.

I haven't really posted about the "non scale victories". I need to do that. Here's an interesting one for now:

• Since I am now down below the weight when I was engaged, my wedding ring has gone from being firmly fitted on my finger to extremely loose. I now have to take off my ring when I am going into the pool or anything else where my finger are wet. Today when I was exercising on the elliptical machine, I wiped some sweat from my hands and the ring popped right off...Fun!

That's it for now...I'll be hitting the road for business for a few days and ironically I may have more free time (bored in my hotel room) to put in a post or 2...be on the lookout!

Weigh In - Week 12

Well, at least I get 1 post in a week these days...sheesh!


On the positive note, my weight loss continues nicely. Another 3 lbs loss brings total weight loss to 35 lbs in 12 weeks (roughly 3 months)...


A few funny things about this week...I've gotten a little greedy in my weight loss and have been checking the scale more often. On Friday, I was still at 204 after working out. Since this weekend was Father's Day, I decided to let loose a little and have a buffalo chicken sandwich (so tasty!) and a few hefewiezens (beers) at a local watering hole. So I was positive that I was going to lose a max of 1 lbs this week (or break even for the first time).


I'm not quite sure what happens to my body over the weekends, but when I checked in at 201 last night, I was pleasantly shocked to say the least...I'm not going to argue, but I figure I am overdue for the "plateau effect" to kick in.


On another note, I haven't told my wife about this site, but she does know about my goal to lose a pound per week over 50 weeks. While she has been cheering me on (after all, she gets the benefit of having a healthy, leaner husband as well), lately she's tamed down the enthusiasm. When I told her about my 3 lbs loss last night, she even questioned whether the weight loss was healthy for me...


Here's my take: As I've said all along, I don't believe that a weight loss program should include anything that you don't plan on doing when you get off the weight loss program. For example, I am not taking any of the fad pills out there to help me lose weight. Why? Because simple logic dictates that I need to keep taking the pills to keep the weight off. The pills are a temporary and expensive crutch for temporary weight loss.


The only things I am doing differently are:

• Working out 3x / week.


• Cutting out a lot of sugar (mostly in the form of cola).


• Cutting out a majority fried / fast foods.


• Having a healthy breakfast each morning.


• Add in more salads / fruits / nuts into my daily routine.

So here are my questions to myself:

• Do I dislike any of the changes that I've instituted?


• Are any of these changes overly expensive or time consuming?


• Do I view any of these changes as something I just have to do for a specific period of time and then, when the weight is off, resume my old lifestyle?

The answer to all of these questions is "no". There is a slight increase in expenses in food and $50 / month for a gym membership. I am blessed (or cursed) with a job that pays well enough to offset the increase in expenses. But really, is $1200 in additional annual expense too much to pay to live a healthy lifestyle.

So to answer my wife's question, I think my weight loss has been healthy. If my body decides that my current eating and exercising regimen results in 2+ lbs of weight loss a week, who am I to argue?

Bonus: No need to guess on this week's route marker, huh?

It's been a while...

...hasn't it?

While my weight loss continues, my blogging pace has certainly slowed down somewhat. For those who still stop by, I am sorry about that...

I think it's part of my overall trend to start off with a flourish and then not be able to keep up with my original pace...It's happened more times than I care to say actually...

I don't think this will happen with the weight loss program, but my blog posts may come down from the 2+ a day pace I was on at one point. I'm not sure I need to blog my food choices and exercise on a daily basis unless I plateau and need the daily journal to keep me on track.

Perhaps a general post on recent food choices or perhaps a weekly post on highs and lows in regards to food and exercise....that might do the trick.

I must say that blogging is not the easiest exercise in the world. To you folks out there that do it on a daily basis and keep it interesting, my hats off to you!

Weigh In - Week 11

And the beat goes on...

I was a little worried that I would start plateauing this week after hitting the magic 30 lb number...

As I said in my last weigh in, I cheated the number down just a bit to hit the 30 lbs in 10 week number..

But this week isn't a fluke...If anything, I could have cheated it down to 203 this week, but I'll save that extra 1/2 lb for next week...

I was starting to get a little greedy with the expectations of 3+ lbs per week. If I can take 1 or 2 lbs off each week, I'll be a happy camper from here on in...

Bonus: We did get a correct answer last week with the answer of Washington State. I dare anyone to guess where this route marker is from. I'll give you a hint that it's not from the US.

Babysitting advice...

Looking for more advice...

It's probabaly too soon to go down this route (AJ is still <2 months old), but I'm looking for some advice on hiring a babysitter. Here are the questions:

• How old does AJ need to be to hire a sitter?
• What is the going hourly rate for a babysitter?
• Is there any prep work to be done prior to hiring a sitter?

Some context: We would be looking to hire a babysitter to allow us to get out at night once in a while. So we would be looking to hire a sitter to let us get out from 7-10 or 8-11PM on a Friday or Saturday night. The next door neighbors have a daughter who turned 16 and have offered her up for babysitting service when the time is right. I think she has little to no experience, so we would probably need to have her over a time or 2 to teach her the basics....

Thoughts?

Weigh In - Week 10

Well...here we are at Milestone #1...the 10 week marker...

My (apparently very conservative) goal was to lose 10 lbs by this point in time...That would have put me at 226...

As we know by now, I lost 10 lbs in week 2...

So, now I have gone from trying to lose 1 lb per week to really wanting to lose 2 lbs this week so that I can say I've lost an even 30 lbs in 10 weeks...

Did I do it?

Just barely...If I did one of those electronic scales, it might have registered something like 206.2...but I'm not playing by those eletronic scale rules (not yet anyway).

Back to to the milestone thing...Since I weighed in at or under 226 (way under in this case), I get to play a little golf, guilt free...This actually ties in pretty well with Father's Day coming up. How can my wife say no to letting me play a little golf on Father's Day???

Bonus: Can you guess the state this router marker resides in? It should be pretty obvious, but I thought it was a cool marker anyway...I wish my state had a cool shape like this