I'm Back!

Recap of Numbers

Before getting into where I have been and what I have been doing, let's post some updated numbers:

Date	Weight
November 2007	267
June 16, 2008	229*
October 16, 2008	237
January 3, 2009	223

*Note: Judging by the parity between the bathroom scale and real scale I have most recently been weighing on, I am making the assumption that the bathroom scale is 10 pounds under.

So there you have it:

1. I lost 38 pounds over a 7 month period
2. I put 12 pounds back on in my first five months back on the job
3. I have lost 14 pounds since re-focusing on my weight
4. I am now 44 pounds lighter than I was just 14 months ago

Now about how I have re-focused...

Cliche, but hey, it works!

I started going to Weight Watchers on October 16, and, as you can see, it has worked wonderfully. I can't take credit for this decision, as it was my wife's idea. After skipping workouts, going out to eat one too many times per week, and totally pigging out on our honeymoon, she suggested that we try this program together.

This works for two reasons: I am being held accountable each week, and it idiot-proofs your diet. On the first front, I have a weigh-in every week in front of the same person. Even though the employees are completely professionaly and non-judgemental, I just hate failing in front of others (for those of you familiar with the book, I am an Achiever as noted in Now, Discover Your Strengths). Secondly, the points system is pretty easy to follow. I have also mastered the fine art of maximizing volume per point.

It is also very important to note that without Nicole and I supporting each other in this, neither of us would be seeing the success we have (she has also lost weight into the double-digits).

Plateaued...

Alright folks, it's time for me to plateau. I know that I haven't been writing on here as regularly, and, unfortunately, that has also been the case in my workouts. Over the last two weeks, I have worked out four times (compared to five times per week before), and I also ate a steak the size of my head. Here are the numbers:

	June 16	June 9	Nov 2007
Weight	219	219	267
Blood Pressure	127/80	Sunburn	160/115
Heart Rate	77	Hurts	103*

*Taken from March 10 reading

As a side note, Nicole and I went camping the weekend of June 6-8, and I walked around with a muscle shirt on all day on Saturday. I was quite sunburnt; very lobster-like.

Now back to the plateau thing. Over the past five weeks I have netted only one pound of weight loss. I blame no one but myself for it. I just need to make sure that I am getting in my time exercising while staying away from the cookie tray at work. It was certainly a lot easier to do this when I wasn't working.

I also went to the doctor on Saturday, and my blood pressure cuff might not be so accurate. Although a marked improvement from my November numbers, he measured me three times right around 148/90. I have an appointment in four weeks, and I am to bring my cuff so that he can double check it. I so don't want to be on blood pressure medication; this is yet another motivator to keep active and eat right.

Busy Times

Continued Progress

I have not gone anywhere, and I am just as focused as ever to continue down the healthy path. Here are this week's, last week's, and Novembers numbers:

	June 2	May 26	Nov 2007
Weight	219	221	267
Blood Pressure	126/82	133/83	160/115
Heart Rate	73	64	103*

*Taken from March 10 reading
I had a few Memorial Day bratwursts and burgers, and, combined with an inconsistent workout schedule, I did put on a pound from May 19 to May 26. This does not bother me at all, because the trend is still downwards.

The heart numbers are also holding strong. I still can not get over how much the blood pressure has dropped. I am almost at a healthy level!

Addition to the Equation

So now that my six month layoff is officially over, I have to manage my time so that I still can fit in workouts. This is going to be difficult because the gym does not open early enough for me to workout in the mornings, and I am going to be getting home around 6:30 every night. It is significantly easier to work out when you don't have anything to do during the day outside of watching King of the Hill on FX.

Now that I am talking through it, perhaps the challenge isn't time management so much as motivation and drive.

My motivations:

• An October 4 wedding
• Not having a heart attack way too young
  
• Actually, not having a heart attack at all
• Being able to buy more smaller clothes
  

Rewarding Day

New Clothes!

After six long months, I have finally found employment. You might be asking, "What does that have to do with this weight loss blog?" The answer is simple: I have to buy new clothes to fit my now 47 pounds lighter body. This is a pretty cool reward for having dropped all of that weight.

The goal today is to pick up 5-10 dress shirts, 2-5 pairs of dress slacks, 1-2 pairs of twill pants, two belts (one brown, one black), a couple of polo shirts, and one pair of jeans. That may seem like a lot of clothes (possibly the most I have ever bought in one trip), but I literally have zero properly fitting outfits that are not part of a suit. I am also probably going to start taking my shirts to the dry cleaner so they last longer, and my slacks will certainly be dry clean only. This means that I will need some articles of clothing in reserve while stuff is at the dry cleaners. I might also have to pick up another suit; I will be at hospitals 20-40% of the time, and it is totally reasonable to expect to have to wear a suit. Thus, I should probably own two suits.

Leesburg Corners Outlet Mall, here I come!

Logistically Speaking

I have never been a big fan of flying. I am not afraid of it, but rather it is just an uncomfortable experience for someone who is 240+ pounds. Riding on the Metro is quite similar. The seats are not designed for someone much bigger than 170 pounds. I fully accept the fact my broad shoulders will always exist, but I am actually looking forward to riding on an airplane again. It will be nice to have my girth be small enough that I can actually get out a laptop. I might even be able to type on it!

Speaking to the Metro, I am also looking forward to being able to walk the 6 blocks from the Metro to the office without getting winded or sweating buckets. Being [almost] in shape is pretty cool, but do not confuse that with enjoying working out.

In Need of New Pants

Even Smaller

Like last week, I am going to put my knowledge of HTML to use and display the new numbers in a table:

	May 19	May 12	Nov 2007
Weight	220	222	267
Blood Pressure	129/90	131/75	160/115
Heart Rate	72	78	103*

*Taken from March 10 reading
To date I have lost 47 pounds! For those into relative amounts, I have lost 17.6% of my starting body weight. Admittedly, I still have a ways to go. According to the formula that the Navy uses in calculating body fat I am at 30.63%. This means that I have about 33 more pounds to go before being in the healthy range of less than 15% body fat. I like seeing this figure because weighing in at 187 pounds is completely attainable based on what I weighed at the age of 24 (between 180 and 190 pounds). There will be a major difference, however, because this time I will be healthy instead of just at the appropriate weight.

I Need New Clothes

During my days at Shaw's Clothing the owner and I would joke with customers about how clothing tends to shrink in the closet. This is especially noticeable with unforgiving-ly tailored suits and slacks. Pockets pucker; legs shorten; rises lengthen; shoulders tighten; buttons hold on for dear life.

My clothes are getting noticeably bigger while hanging in the closet. As much as I appreciate how the closet resizing gnomes (distant cousin of the underwear gnome) are working in my favor, I can not wait until I have the opportunity to raid the Leesburg Corners outlet mall. I have to replace almost every dress shirt and slack; the only spared articles of professional attire are two shirts and my new suit pants (although these are in need of alteration). Even my new suit jacket needs to be taken in around the stomach.

I won't even get into how my jeans look like my diaper needs changed...

I Can Do More

I have said it several times thus far: working out and eating right is more about being able to do more than losing weight. Of course I am proud of being 45 pounds lighter today than I was just six months ago, but I am more proud of the fact that I ran 4 miles on the elliptical in 29 minutes 30 seconds yesterday, eclipsing the 1 mile in 20 minutes I accomplished my first day at the gym.

In the spirit of "what I can do," here is a table of my strength training progress over the last two months.

	March 12	May 15	Net Change	% Change
Ab Crunch	80 lbs.	105 lbs.	25 lbs.	31.25%
Back Extension	110 lbs.	230 lbs.	120 lbs.	109.09%
Arm Curl	50 lbs.	50 lbs.	0 lbs.	0.00%
Arm Extension	45 lbs.	80 lbs.	35 lbs.	77.78%
Chest Press	50 lbs.	70 lbs.	20 lbs.	40.00%
Chest Fly	50 lbs.	60 lbs.	10 lbs.	20.00%
Pulldown	90 lbs.	140 lbs.	50 lbs.	55.56%
Overhead Press	50 lbs.	55 lbs.	5 lbs.	10.00%
Seated Row	70 lbs.	105 lbs.	35 lbs.	50.00%
Hip Adduction	70 lbs.	135 lbs.	65 lbs.	92.86%
Hip Abduction	90 lbs.	140 lbs.	50 lbs.	55.56%
Leg Extension	50 lbs.	80 lbs.	30 lbs.	60.00%
Seated Leg Curl	70 lbs.	100 lbs.	30 lbs.	42.86%
Leg Press	110 lbs.	210 lbs.	100 lbs.	90.91%

The first major improvement is that I have moved from 2 sets of 15 reps in early March to 3 sets of 15 reps today. There is a very significant difference between doing 30 reps and 45 reps. Also note that these numbers are what I have done during actual workouts; I have no idea what my max weights are on any of these machines. I suppose one day I will play around at the gym and figure out my max squat and bench press, but I do not see doing that for at least a couple more months. Endurance and lean muscle is much more important to me for the time being.

I do admit that I have been fairly frustrated at my arm progress. I suspect that I might have started too heavy on some of the machines. The bicep curl is the prime suspect; at one point I actually dropped down to 30 pounds and worked my way back up. On a positive note, I have noticed a significant difference in how the sets feel. I can see the arm numbers moving up at a steady pace from here on out.

I have been extremely pleased with how the leg and core numbers have turned out. I have doubled (or nearly doubled) my capacity in doing the back extension, leg press, and hip adduction. With my strengthened core I have felt almost no back pain during my day to day activities, and I am hoping that the trend will be the same with my knees as my legs get stronger.

The next step: correcting my softball swing so that I can use my legs and core instead of relying solely on my arms.

Welcome to Goodburger, home of the Goodburger, may I take your order?

By the Numbers

Not a whole lot went on number-wise. Here are this week's numbers in the This Week (Last Week, November) format.

Weight - 222 (223, 267)
Blood Pressure - 131/75 (128/80, 160/115)
Heart Rate - 78 (77, 103 on March 10)

Like I said, this is nothing to write home about, but the numbers are definitely in the right direction. I also did measurements this week, and the results are similar; the format is This Week (April 21 Measurement, March 10 Measurement).

Hips - 43 (43, 43 3/4)
Waist - 44 1/2 (44 1/2, 46 7/8)
Chest - 46 1/4 (45 1/2, 46 3/4)
Neck - 17 1/2 (17 3/4, 18 1/4)
Biceps - 15 1/2 (14 3/4, 14 7/8)
Thighs - 25 3/4 (23 1/2, 28 3/4)
Calves - 17 (16 1/2, 16 5/8)

Once again, this is nothing to write home about. I do see these numbers going in the right direction. I like seeing the biceps, calves, and thighs getting bigger (they are all pretty lean at this point). I am somewhat surprised by the chest measurement, but I think the increase in size has been caused by back as opposed to the pectorals. I am pleased to see the neck go down in size, and I should see it drop another 1/4" before it is all said and done. Finally, the hips and waist staying the same are expected; my butt is small enough already, and most of my stomach weight is carried above the belly button (that is, my stomach is smaller at the girth-iest point, but the waist measurement is actually at the belly button).

Healthy Burger and Fries

A couple of posts ago I laid out how I manage my diet, and now I have a really good example of a healthy version of one of America's favorite meals: the hamburger and fries. Take a look at this masterpiece, an actual picture of Saturday night's meal:


Before your eyes is 1/2 pound of fries, a 1/3 pound burger on a kaiser bun, and buttery corn on the cob. Click on the picture to make it bigger; take a deep look at the textures; inhale the sweet scent of grilled meat.

Are you hungry, yet? Well do not run out to Wendy's and order a Value Meal until you read this following chart. The Wendy's column assumes a 1/4 pound burger, large order of fries, and corn on the cob slathered in butter.

	Homemade Meal	Wendy's Meal
Calories	846 1/2	1135
Total Fat	30 3/8 Grams	49 Grams
Saturated Fat	6 1/8 Grams	13 Grams
Fiber	13 3/4 Grams	9 Grams
Protein	58 Grams	36 Grams

Admittedly, this is a fairly high calorie meal, but I did plan ahead and watched what I ate the rest of the day. Also, my target caloric intake per day is still around 2000 calories, so I can still get away with this many calories. I also tend to eat most of my fat during dinner, and you do get 70-75 grams per day.

The key piece to take away from this chart is the difference in home preparation versus eating out. I ingested 288 fewer calories, 18 fewer grams of fat, almost 7 grams less of saturated fat, and added nearly 5 grams of fiber and 22 grams of protein. To accomplish this meal, this is what I did.

Burger

First off, I substituted lean ground turkey instead of ground beef; in my opinion, it tastes better. I also added some minced onion, garlic cloves, and a slice of wheat bread to the patty. By doing this I made a great tasting patty that does not require flavor adding (and bad for you) condiments like ranch or mayonnaise. I also used a whole wheat kaiser bun instead of a white bread bun; once again, this bun tastes way better than white bread.

Fries

The obvious piece is to bake the fries instead of fry them. The not so obvious piece is that I used sweet potatoes. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil to make the seasonings (reduce fat grated Parmesan cheese, black pepper, garlic powder, and onion salt) stick to the fries. I love these fries, and from a strictly flavor standpoint I would take them any day over Wendy's French fries.

Corn on the Cob

This one is really simple: use spray butter instead of real butter. It tastes the same, and it is the nutritional equivalent of salt.