Ugh

I have lost 3 more lbs but it is bothering me I am having trouble keeping up with my blog. I know I need to do better and I will keep with the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am going to set aside morning time so one of the first things I do in the morning is my blog.

It has been a hectic week with having to mark fields for soccer, getting the house cleaned, and other things going on.

So tomorrow I will prepare a good blog with what I plan to do and my new weigh ins will be on Monday.

Making some Adjustments

It has been hard for me to keep up with the blog. This may seem weird since you would think it does not take long to sit down and just write a little everyday. I guess I should be happy I am doing so much as it helps with the weight loss.

So I am going to make some adjustments; I will be blogging on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This way I feel I have a stronger schedule.

I weighed in yesterday and I have lost 3 more lbs. I will post my complete updated weight loss in two weeks but I am feeling pretty good.  Soccer practice has started back up for my players and getting back on the field feels better this year as compared to last fall. I am feeling very motivated thanks to that and my mom sending a little extra motivation. I have a good support group so I am very happy.

Coach Class

I have an advanced coach class this weekend that will keep me pretty busy. I am almost packing a 24 hour class into 2 1/2 days. The good thing is most of the class is outside and we will be running drills. The one thing I have to watch out for is the lunch and dinners they provide, not exactly the healthiest thing.

It felt good to get back out on a soccer field yesterday. I am looking forward to next week when I get to spend more time with my players.

My goal this week is to lose at least 5 lbs. I want to get back on track with losing a larger amount of weight each week so I will have to work hard the next few days.

Weigh in and Struggling to keep up

Lost 2 lbs for my latest weigh in. It has been busy with finishing the admin part of soccer but now I get to start practices this week.

I am very excited that my soccer team is going to AYSO National Tournaments during the 4th of July week. We will have to probably raise some money and one thing I am considering is doing a competition where people sponsor my weight loss to help pay for the girls to go to nationals.

I actually saw it on Jr. vs Sr. and thought it was a neat idea. Basically you would donate a certain amount for every pound I lose. I dunno, it is something I am throwing around as an idea.

Hectic

This has been a rather hectic two weeks. Soccer has been on the forefront and has allowed me very little time for much else. Today I did get to go out and play some t-ball with my family and my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I wish it was a little warmer, we went from 70s to 40s in two days.

I am going to try to get on my bike this week and set a record for my treadmill this week.

I am starting to see some stuff fits better but I want to work into some of my smaller clothes. I am going to spend most of today still recover from being on my feet for 10 hours  at the soccer field and tomorrow I will push hard before the weigh in on Tuesday morning.

Weigh in and a new month

I lost 3 more lbs this week. This gives my total weight loss so far at 24lbs, this is after one month. Feeling pretty good and looking forward to next month.

I am still debating what I want to do with my assistant coach and good friend as far as working together for weight loss. I am thinking about getting together after practice and doing something but i am not sure how much she wants to run.

Can't talk much today I am going to get on the treadmill.

One day to go

I weigh in for the 4th time tomorrow and I will give an updated account on how much weight I have lost so far. I was able to get back on the treadmill today so I am happy for that.

I am starting the third season of Biggest Loser and I am not sure how much I will like it as compared to the first two seasons but it will serve as a distraction while I am on the treadmill.

My wonderful soccer co coach has offered to do something together as a workout, however we are both stumped on what we want to do so I am going to have to give it some thought.

Last thought of the day... if we can go just 2 days without rain I might start up some frisbee golf since it has been so nice.

Back on Track

The past few days have been hectic do to soccer starting back up. I was on the soccer field from 7:ooam to 5:15pm working on evaluations. Yesterday was the first day I did not count calories, I did an approximation but did not actually count them. I have also not been keeping up with this blog which I plan to refocus on.

Yesterday I did not feel any real pain from my foot so I think I can get back on the treadmill. I don't expect a huge weight loss this week but I feel confident I will not have a gain either. I expect to redouble my efforts starting Monday. 

I had a good sensible meal at a Mexican restaurant yesterday. I did not overindulge on cheese dip (which is my greatest weakness). I will also have some BBQ today and will watch my calorie intake and be sensible.

I am estimating losing 2-3 lbs this week and will make a plan to lose 10lbs next week by staying very strict that week after being so loosey goosey this week.

It was nice to be back on a soccer field and I look forward to practices again.

Rough Days

A few days without being on the treadmill has been rough. This blister on my foot has made walking hard and has severely limited my working out. I am not sure if I lost weight this week so far. I also bent a little to temptation on Tuesday. I ate right at or possibly more than my recommended max calorie intake. I did better Wednesday and today so far. 

I am the type of person that can be single minded at times; especially, when I am focused on  something specific. So losing the treadmill for these past three days has been discouraging but I hope that this time off will give me good results if not next Tuesday then the Tuesday after when I pick it back up again.

Random thought, do people with tourettes type curse words?

Weigh-in and the 4th week.

Well, I lost my 5lbs for the week. I almost regret eating the lasagna I did but I need to be happy I lost weight and just learn from my lessons. The bad news is that the blister on my right foot is not healing as fast as the others I have had and I think will keep me off the treadmill for a couple more days. So I will need to work on losing weight without the treadmill until this heals.

 I know I can lose 2lbs a week just doing my calorie tracker but I don't want to lose weight at such a slow rate. I know some people lose weight by that and I am supportive of that but I have so much to lose that I should be losing more than the recommened 2lbs a week. If not it will be... a long time before I get to the weight I want. Granted it will be a while anyway but the more I can cut down the happier I will be.

So, since I will be off the treadmill today and possibly tomorrow I will work with some weights. Today I will do the P90x Chest and Back and tomorrow I will possibly do the P90x Arms. I will set a steady schedule for the P90x once I get close to 250.

If there are recommendations for workouts that keep you off your feet (or at least keep your feet from stomping) I always welcome it.

Also, do you feel these blogs are too short or a long enough for an everyday blog? Feel free to let me know.

Random Events

It is crazy how random events can distract you from workouts. We planned to go out as a family and play soccer or some baseball and I found out that my hot water heater is leaking. It could have easily taken us away from our plan but calm measures and I think we can get the hot water fixed and do some soccer/baseball.

I made some lasagna this weekend and while I had just planned to have just one square each day I ended up with two. Thankfully I made to where each square only had about 550 calories in it but it was still more than I was planning on. Thankfully I was still under my planned caloriesfor both days and I am still planning on losing some weight tomorrow (the amount may be different than I had originally planned).

I am hoping to have lost at least 5lbs for this week. We will see tomorrow.

It felt like I just went swimming

I was on the treadmill for about 2 and 1/2 hours yesterday. The result was my clothes were drenched in sweat (and a little bit of spilled water from trying to run and drink at the same time). I burned over 1150 calories and consumed about the same. I may try this one more time today because I am not sure how much of a workout I will get this weekend.

I thought I would be exhausted from my workout but I actually felt pretty good; I was still able to play with my son and clean up my backyard a bit. I can already feel the results of being on teh treadmill for two weeks and I hope by the end of one month I will be able to run two miles in 24 minutes.

It can be discouraging at times because I use to be able to do that. At one point I was running a 7 minute mile and I do miss that. In many ways it feels like I have to start over and I guess I kind of do. What got me discouraged in the past would be things like that but  feel like I have a better mindset now. I am not focused on what has happened in the past (but I am aware of it so I can learn from it). I am focused on my weekly, monthly, and total goals.

Almost bent to temptation

I have managed to make it through a poker party, Super Bowl party, and eating out numerous times and I have not really felt the temptation bug; however, yesterday I almost gave into it. All it took was me sitting around the house by myself and being kind of hungry.

In the past, this is how I have gained the most weight. I would be doing homework or something and just get kind of hungry so I would make an extra meal or I would make my lunch or dinner bigger than I needed. I did not give into temptation this time and felt pretty good about it.

Today I plan on trying to burn more calories than I take in today. I have not done this yet and I know it will be hard, especially if I eat a healthy 1200-1500 calories. I am not sure if my body will be up for it yet. The rough part about working out when you are over weight is sore feet and chaffing (oh god the chaffing).  I think I am getting past those initial problems but we will see. It does make me respect the "Biggest Loser" contestants because according to them they can burn up to 10,000 calories a day. It probably helps they are well into the 300-400lb range but even then I would think I would be comatose.
This was their 7th week at the ranch, maybe I can do the same thing in seven weeks?

I would be happy with a consistent 2000 calories a day burnage.

Weigh In and the Third Week

Last week I mentioned I was worried because typically the 2nd weigh in results in little to no lost weight. I weighed in today and discovered I dropped about 6 more lbs. Pretty good for the 2nd week and this was a week where I ate out three times. I feel I am doing pretty good so far but I know I will eventually run into that week where I don't lose or dare I say gain something.

For now my focus is trying to average a 5lb weight lose, at least until I get around 250/240lbs. This week will be similar to last week. I plan on cardio for the most part, which means the treadmill and continuing the biggest loser series. This is, unless my feet start hurting again, then I will probably try some more yoga or other training.

One of the things I have to continue to focus on is consuming at least 1200 calories a day. When trying to lose weight it can be easy think about eating less and yes that is what you are suppose to do. However, if you eat under 1200 calories a day your body can go into starvation mode and stop losing weight. That is one of the reasons people don't lose weight after the 2nd week or don't lose weight when they try to lose weight faster and faster.

The "myfitnesspal program I have has been helpful with this. While I have went under the 1200 calories a couple of times over the past two weeks I have made a stronger effort to reach that goal. There are sometimes I go well over that too, but as long I as I do not go over my calorie max (which was set by "myfitnesspal" I should still lose some weight.

I look forward to this coming up week and after 4 weigh ins I will give an overall weight loss result.

1000 Calories

Didn't workout much this weekend since I had to rest my feet. I started back today and burned over 1000 calories on the treadmill. It was my first time since starting back with my workouts that I went over the 1000 calorie mark so I few pretty good, but tired at the same time. My feet are feeling better to, I may even try to burn another 500 calories for the day after I rest up.

I am pushing hard today because my "weigh day" is tomorrow morning. I am not sure how much I have lost but I am interested to see it.

On a different note:

Last week I started my daughter on conditioning for soccer. I am always hesitant to make 11-12 year old girls run but last year I could tell the difference in my soccer girls compared to some of the teams that did conditioning. I am still going to try to incorporate most of my conditioning into drills but the girls will still run some.

I am hoping I can condition myself as well so I can do some along with to be supportive. Anyway, my daughter has started conditioning and I hope to get her to fully active before the season starts. We have all taken winter off in my family so I do not want her to start off cold when the season starts.  She has done very well so far.

I look forward to a good weigh in tomorrow.

Good Night (not the go to sleep one but the happy time out one)

I had a good night out with one of my friends last night. While I am watching my calories I am also trying to make sure I don't eat three pieces of lettuce in front of my friends because;

A. I don't want to make them subconscious about what they eat

B.I don't want to appear to be that weirdo that is not eating when a group goes out to a restaurant.

I was able to go out to Applebee's and eat a good meal and go out to the club and order a screwdriver (no I am not a 17 year old girl, its a good drink) and still come under my calorie count for the day. It did help that I was on the treadmill for 6ish miles yesterday.

The downside to being on the treadmill for long distances is I now have two blisters on my left foot. The first blister just started to heal when the 2nd one popped up last night. I have been making a strong effort to not look like a pirate when I walk. I will probably need to stay off the treadmill today and tomorrow while my feet heal. It will be difficult to do other workouts during the weekend while my wife is home because I always feel weird working out in front of her.



I feel like I have lost some more weight so I am hoping my 2nd weigh in will be a good one. Still 3 days away so we will see.

There are a lot of Calories in that

My father has come in for a few days so I was distracted and did not make my post yesterday. My fault, but also blaming my dad can be fun.

One of my apps that I use on my iPad keeps track of how many calories I eat a day. It is a nice app because I can scan in the upc code or do a search for the item. Just to humor myself I did a search for a few items that I use to eat and it is kind of startling to see how many calories are in some of these items.

McDonald's double qtr pounder with cheese - 840 Calories. (I would eat two of these for lunch)

McDonald's large fries - 460 Calories

Large Coke - 310 Calories (I would refill this once or twice if I was in the restaurant.

Jack's Biscuit and Gravy - 420 calories (I would eat two of these)


These are just a few examples. It has been nice having the calorie tracker and the recommended amount of calories needed per day. Another thing I do is slice a little bit of cheese with meals, which usually adds about 270 calories to a meal easy. It is crazy how many calories I have consumed in a day.

When I have lost weight, it will be important to remember how easy it is to consume calories when not thinking about it.

I dream of Yoga

Yesterday, after my run on the treadmill, I noticed a blister on the back of my foot. I do believe that will hinder my ability to get on the treadmill for at least today. So I decided to do some yoga from my P90x. To show how out of shape I am, I was only able to do 30 minutes of it. Nothing more embarrassing than when it is to hard to keep your arms in the air. I think I will add Yoga every other day so I can eventually get through the DVD.

I had a dream a couple of nights ago that was rather odd. I dreamt that I was back in high school and it was my senior year during football season. The bummer of it was I did not start in any of the games. I was a 2nd or 3rd stringer and never saw any playing time. Most of my dream was being bummed out and when I went to the coach and asked why I was not starting he said I was to fat. I looked at myself in the mirror (that was on the football field) and saw that I looked the same that I did in high school. My senior year of high school I was in pretty good shape, maybe a little chubby. Needless to say, it was a weird dream and I woke up kind of bothered by it. I knew that I had the dream because I have had losing weight on my mind for a while now.

Alright, I am going to take a shower and clean house... EXCITING!!!!

Weigh in and the 2nd week

Did my first weigh in and I lost around 9 lbs. Not to bad for the first weigh in; I know I could have lost more but I am happy with the amount. The 2nd week is usually the rough week for workouts and weigh ins. Typically weighing in after the 2nd week produces little weight loss. My hope is by being consistent with the first week (not going super extreme) and upping my workouts this week I will have another good loss for the 2nd weigh in.

I guess we will see in one week.


My plan for this week is similar to last week. Last week I did cardio just to get the weight down and I plan to do the same this week, just more of it. I probably won't worry much about actually working out muscle till I get down to around 250. My thought is by then I will be pretty consistent on the treadmill and could possibly be leveling out weight loss wise by then. By doing weights I will shock my body and increase the steady weight loss.

So here goes an exciting week of cardio/treadmill.

Huff, Huff, Huff

First of all, that was a great Super Bowl game last night. I knew there was going to be quite a bit of temptation at the party I went to so I made sure to reserve at least 1/2 of my daily suggested calorie intake for the party. I have been under that suggested calorie intake every day since I started because I would like to lose more than 2 lbs a week. At least for now.

So I did quite well and I am pretty sure I stayed right at if not a little under my suggested intake (not really a sexy word when you think about it).

So I weigh in tomorrow and I wanted to make sure I pushed hard today. I went 5.5 miles today on the treadmill thanks to my new shoes I purchased. My old two pair either had no support or cut the back of my foot like a vengeful dwarf.

I am a little pooped because that is a little more than I have been doing so far but you need to push yourself a little bit or you will stagnate.

My wife has a choir performance in two weeks and she has to wear an outfit that shows off the figure. She said she may have to lose a bit of weight herself. I may try to talk her into a hike or something.

LOL Biggest Loser

As I said in an earlier blog, I am watching biggest loser on my iPad while I am on the treadmill. I am still into season one and it is funny to see how basic it was to what it has become. It is also funny how many people get injured on that show. What is scary is that I think Gillian has not aged any and therefor could be a cyborg.

In the past I have tried to explode into workouts like they do on the biggest loser but that can be hard when you are on your own. I can go for a while but without Bob or Gillian yelling/motivating at me I have one rough day, then another and then I revert back to a couch slob.

When I had lost most of my weight I had made a strong effort to make it a lifestyle and I do regret not keeping it that way. I am making the same effort now to keep it a life style. If I were to miss a workout (have not yet) I will not get discouraged and if I splurge on a meal (still not yet) I will just correct the mistake for the future.

I have 3 days until my first weigh in an feel good about it.

Temptation Averted

I missed a post yesterday so I might post twice today. Yesterday we had a poker party at our house with pizza, chips n cheese dip, alcohol, and other wonderful things (chocolate fudge cake). It was very tempting to say I will just have a little here and there. I was under my calorie tracker for the day but I knew that if I started to eat a little bit there was to much potential to grow and grow. Perhaps in a few months if I am doing good I consider this type of "reward" but for now I need to stick to not splurging.

I will say this about last night. It is not as much fun when there are drunk people and you are not one of them.  But I guess I make myself a guaranteed designated driver, so maybe I will be invited to some parties.

Last time I was on the treadmill I wore a hole in the back of one of my shoes. This caused wonder chaffing which means I need new shoes. I will hopefully get those today so I can get back on the treadmill. I feel like I have lost a little bit of weight but I won't be sure until next Tuesday.

See you later today.

60 minutes down

On the treadmill for 60 minutes today and my feet are bruised. That stinks because a bruise takes a bit to go away so I might have to be creative on some of my workouts. Besides that I am doing pretty good, well for three hole days into a workout.

I was talking to my daughter last night. My daughter, normally a wonderful child has been on a preteen tear lately. I will not go into specifics but her mouth has been getting her into trouble (no swear words). This has put her in a bit of trouble with my wife and I (grammatically correct?). I sat down with her and told her that the next month will be hard on both of us. I told her that it will be discouraging at times to have to earn our trust back. It will be easy to look out 3-4 months in the future and wish for everything to be fixed, what will be hard is to look at each day and realize you have a long way to go.

I told explained to my little one that I am in the same situation. I have lost weight before so I know it is possible but I also know it takes a while and can get a little discouraging. It is easy to think as long as I continue a healthy eating style and workout that I will be skinnier and that will be awesome. It is harder to look at the day in front of you and say "time to workout and have my tummy growl."

February will be a rough month for my daughter and I (still grammatically correct?) but it can be done. I am looking forward to getting out of this month because as long as I continue what I am doing it will become a pattern rather than a burden.

Please no pat on the backs or "you can do its;" I am not looking for easy kudos. I will perhaps look for them 40-50lbs from now.

Weighing in

I have been debating how often I want to weigh myself to check progress. Everyday? Every other day?

After watching "Biggest Loser" I figure I would go for every week. The downside is if I don't change weight after an entire week it could get a tad depressing.

After three days with no caffeine I am surprised to experience no withdraws. I am not sure why but it appears to be a lot easier this time around compared to last time I tried to cut out soft drinks.

I saw an interesting article that stated a University in California stated that sugar is just as bad to the body as cigarettes and alcohol. I am not sure how correct that is. The article also stated a lobby group is trying to push for a bill that would either put an age limit on being able to buy candy or putting restrictions on how much sugar can be in candy.

Are you also going to limit the purchase of sugar itself? I agree that sugar isn't probably the best thing in the world but almost anything in excess can be bad for you. I blame myself for weight gain, I do not yell at the bag of M&Ms for making me eat them. I knew full well that candy isn't great for me, Children are also taught this. I am not sure that we need government to tell us how to eat, it seems just one more thing that is taken away from us.

Day 1

Today is day 1 of my workout and smart eating regimen. I am using my IPAD for several different things to help me. The first thing is a downloadable app called "myfitnesspal," recommended to me by a friend. This app monitors what I am eating and keeps track of my workouts. It recommends a daily calorie goal; as well as carbs, fat, protien, sugar, and sodium.

The nice thing about this app is you do not have to do the calculations for most of the stuff you eat as it has a large library of foods. If it is something that has a scan bar you can scan it with your ipad and put in the info automatically. This makes it pretty easy. Overall it seems to be a good FREE app to use.

Another thing I am using the IPAD for is watching netflix episodes while I am on the treadmill. I am going to start of with the "Biggest Loser" series. My goal is to be on the treadmill at least for 90 minutes and build up to 120 minutes. I still do not know if I am going to try this everyday or every other day yet; I guess we will see how I feel tomorrow.

I also plan to use P90X or some other type of workout tool such as the Wii or simple outdoor games and exercises. Soccer season is coming up and I would like to be reffing several games a week without passing out. I would also like to be able to outrun a 12 year old girl if the situation came up. Perhaps that is petty... I call it competitive.

The first two weeks are the hardest... so I am 1/14 the way through the hardest part. Is that a good way to look at it?

Introduction

Hello Readers,

Before going into a what is sure to be a riveting set of blogs I figured I would tell you a little bit about myself and the purpose of this blog. I am 31 years old, a recent graduate of the University of Alabama Huntsville, a father of two children, and currently a house husband.

The big thing about me is well, I'm big. I am just hair under 300 lbs and have gotten that way due to stress eating (thanks college) and poor nutritional choices (thanks McDonalds). Now, rather than blame other things, which is kind of what I just did, I am going to blame myself. I make choices in my life and while some of the choices where good at the time (eating way to many happy meals); I have to pay for those choices now.

I love my life and my children and have no want to leave it any time soon, plus since I coach my daughters soccer team I would also like to not look ridiculous having to show soccer moves. There is much I want to do in this world and most of those do not allow a person of my... figure to do so.

So for the foreseeable future I will be documenting my weight loss, sharing my life with my children and wife, and funny stories to break up the monotony.

I encourage readers to offer suggestions to my workouts, tips to make my blog better, and all around general advice (as long as it is positive and not simply "you suck").

Tomorrow we begin with day one.