We have lift off!

I'm pretty excited. This morning I weighed in at 296.8 lbs. Holy cow, I've lost almost 18 pounds since the 19th of this month.

I was hoping for a pound loss this morning on the scale (since I obsessively weigh every day), but whoa!

All the Medifast foods are tasting better now that I've figured out how to jazz them up without effecting cals and carbs.

My next goal: 289.

One Week On Medifast

Today marks one week on Medifast. Seems like a month. ;)

I weighed this morning and weighed 300 lbs. That's 14 lbs in one week. Surely that's a world record. Ha!

This diet is totally livable and doable. I'm just afraid of the sure-to-come "plateau." Maybe I'll luck out and miss it entirely.

I can do it. Right?

Medifast "plan," day 3.

Weighed this morning and I was down to 305. Huh? Did I have that much water to lose?

Had the blueberry oatmeal this morning. Not horrible so that's a plus. That was 7:30. by 9:00 I had finished my chocolate mint bar because I was hungry.

I have cream of broccoli soup to look forward to for lunch. Woo-woo. I need to get some excitement going. No one said this plan was going to be easy.

Medifast - Day 2

Well, I'm not feeling quite as hungry today as I did yesterday. I weighed this morning and the scale read 307. I must be losing a lot of water weight. Had a cup of coffee

Had the scrambled eggs this morning. I must have put too much water into them because I ended up with a hot and clumpy egg shake. Mmmm. Actually I both ate and drank it and it wasn't bad.

Had the chocolate bar for mid morning break. Good tasting.

Tomato soup for lunch. Uh...needs salt and pepper and splenda to make it palatable. Not bad with the added ingredients. Had a cup of coffee with lunch.

Vanilla shake for mid afternoon snack. Not too bad.

As with all the Medifast foods, you really have to get inventive and fix up the taste. But guess what, if I lose as much weight as they claim I can, I'd eat dirt.

Medifast To The Rescue

Well, here I am back at the starting line again.

A good friend of mine suggested I check out the Medifast Plan. I thought, "why not?" Then I started reading up on it on the internet. It was created by John Hopkins University. That was a big plus. The last thing I want to do is start on another trendy diet.

I've been on them all. Weight Watchers, Atkins (twice - back in the 70s and in the 90s)...the list could go on.

I've also seriously thought about getting a gastric bypass operation except that it is dangerous and the weight can jump back on you if you don't have your act together.

No, I'm going to go full guns (full gums?) into Medifast and watch what happens. No cheating. If all goes according to plan (theirs) the weight should start dropping off of me.

Yesterday I was supposed to get the Medifast box of joy but didn't receive it until the end of the day. I went on an improvised Medifast plan just because I didn't want to wait anymore. I weighed in at 314 lbs.

This morning I weighed in at 310. Not sure why there was such a drop, but oh well.
I've been on the Medifast plan all day today and so far, I've lived through it.

The food I tried was borderline nasty, but I ate it anyway, because this is going to work. It all tasted like hospital food. Maybe the next choices won't be as bad.

P.S.

I forgot to tell you that I became a vegetarian about four months ago. My daughter is the one who finally convinced me to go for it (she's been a veggie for years).

Funny thing, it hasn't been tough at all. And that's coming from a Texan who was raised on BBQ!

I'm hoping this kind of diet will aid in weightloss too. Anybody want some asparagus?

Down but not out

Here I am again. The man on the perpetual diet.

This weight loss thing has been the hardest thing I have ever - ever - attempted to do. I currently weigh 297 pounds. Yeah, that's a lot. What's really depressing is that it's been three years since I started this blog and this is where I'm at.

Who or what can I blame? Really, nobody or nothing but me. No one is force-feeding me. Nobody is keeping me from exercising.

I fall down and get back up again. I was exercising regularly up until November of last year when I let the holidays throw me off track.

A few months ago I had a change in medication that made me gain almost 15 pounds in two weeks! Switched to another, and I've spent the last few months trying to lose what I regained. So I'm down another 18 pounds or so. That's great, I just wish I was being consistent.

I'm keeping a food diary most days. I need to get back to exercising. I think blogging regularly should help. Also Spark People (www.sparkpeople.com) has a great community. Being involved in that would probably help.

So here I go again. Nothing to stop me, but me.

I'm back in the saddle again

Howdy folks (folk). I am going to give this blog another chance to live. I fell off the blog wagon for this site, but I'm still working on my weight.

Lot's to tell, but no time to tell it. Suffice it to say, I am working out most week days, watching my diet and trying to find new ways to bust through my weight loss plateau.

So...here we go.

Fortune Cookie Love

I found a Chinese restaurant here in Salem that will cook your food to order. Oh happy day! Now I an order a Chinese meal without breading, frying and all that other evil stuff that adds up to a weight problem. I wonder how many other Chinese restaurants would be willing to do cook our food that way, but we've never thought to ask?

Food, food and more food

Okay...it's Saturday evening and it's time to review the day in regards to eating. My wife and I got up and had breakfast out, lunch out and dinner out. We haven't been to the grocery store in eons and so we're forced into eating out.

Breakfast was at a place called Elmer's. Crummy name for a place but they serve a great breakfast. So we split the "ranch breakfast" which consists of 2 eggs [we ordered a side order of 2 more eggs] hash browns, 4 sausage links and a blueberry muffin. The hash browns took up half the plate themselves. I took a portion that was about a third of what they provided.
Calories for breakfast= 700 (yikes!)

Lunch was at Los Dos Amigos down the street from our house. We split the fajita lunch. I had two fajitas (meat, onions and bell peppers) skipped the rice and beans and had about 7 corn chips with salsa. Yum!
Calories for lunch=I don't want to know

Dinner was our first time to try out a Chinese restaurant down the street from where we live. Again we split dinner. Egg drop soup, pulled pork and cabbage, pork fried rice, General Tso's Chicken and a crab cake appetizer. Great food!
Calories for dinner=I really don't want to know

It's not that we ate large portions - we did split each meal - but the items themselves are high in calories. We also don't eat like this during the week, but the calories do add up.

Maybe that's why I'm not losing weight as fast as I want, huh? Time to tighten it up!

I'm losing steam...

Losing weight is a war and I'm getting tired of fighting. My weight hasn't budged in months. Sometime I wonder if I'll ever be able to lose the weight I want to lose so badly. Apparently I don't want to lose it bad enough. If I did, I would be working out more, being more careful with my food choices, etc.

I refuse to gain the weight back. I weigh every day because I want to be hyper-aware of where I'm at with my weight.

I don't really have any cravings for anything. I'm tempted to look into the stomach operation thingy. I have a friend that did it and lost 90 pounds in only a few months. It's taken me two years to lose 40 pounds.

Then I think, nah. I'll keep trying to lose weight the hard way. Exercise and right eating.

It's just that I'm not really excited about that right now.

Chondroitin and Glucosamine seems to help

I had an MRI done on my knee a week or so ago. Showed I had a torn meniscus, the start of arthritis and some fluid on my knee. In other words, messed up. I’ve been taking some chondroitin and glucosamine which seems to really be helping with the pain. I can continue to play drums, but no more elliptical machine at the gym. He said to try the stationary bike, which I did this afternoon. It wasn’t half bad. I was able to read a book while I was exercising which was a big plus.

I’m at 297 lbs. today. I have cut down some more of my calorie intake, so between that and the exercise, I hope I can start losing again.

Too much to lose to start gaining

Weighed in at 299.4 this morning. Way too close to 300lbs! I'm sure some of it is water weight, but good grief, this is frustrating! I'm back to excercising on a daily basis. It should help. I think my body wants to stay fat for some reason.

You can't have your cake and lose weight too

I just got back from a week's vacation in Northern California with the missus. We stayed at a fantastic B&B. For the most part, I ate true to my new lifestyle. I did have dessert almost every night though...oh yeah, and some lovely bread rolls.

So, I'm back to reality and it looks like I gained about 3 pounds. Well let me tell you something...this fat boy has worked too hard to gain back weight, so I am turning up the heat. I have to get the eating under control and resume excercising daily.

I thought briefly about joining L.A. Weightloss (my bro-in-law lost a ton of weight on it) but I'm thinking...maybe not. I'm just going to cut back on the calories and turn up the excercise heat and hope for the best.

Time is on my side

The anniversay of my effort to lose 100 pounds in one year has come and gone. I didn't lose 100 pounds - I lost 40. I'm not discouraged though. I will keep on with the excercise and proper eating habits and try to continue to lose weight at what has become a very slow pace. At least I don't feel like I'm on a diet though. Choosing the right foods and right portion sizes has become second nature by now. Being consistent with excercise has been harder.

I now consistently weigh in between 293 and 294 lbs. I really could lose 100 more pounds and be near my right weight. It will be a challenge to figure out how to do it, but I'm up for the challenge.

I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in.

I had my yearly physical today. First off, I got kudos from the staff for the weight loss so far. That was some nice encouragement. Doc said my heart sounded great. Blood pressure: 128 over 80. Not to shabby, eh? The good doctor scheduled me for some xrays and such for my knee and thumbs. Hopefully I'm not getting arthritis. I've got a lot of drumming and drawing to do yet.

What can you do about getting older, except fight the aging thing as hard as you can through excercise and eating right - and having as much fun as possible!

I started a self defense class two weeks ago. It's quite a workout. This is the last thing I ever thought I would try to attempt, but look at me go! Ha! Also doing a lot of gardening - mainly consisting of digging holes and pulling weeds - which is also another great way to work out. In fact, after working in the yard for a few hours, you discover muscles that you had no idea existed.

So, I'm still plugging away, eating normal portions and trying to get as physically active as I possibly can. I've got a long way to go, but I've come a long way.

I will fear no man!

I get coffee most every day at a little place not too far from where I work called "The Beanery." Over the course of the last two years that I've been having coffee there almost every day, I've noticed a martial arts studio a few doors down.

I don't remember exactly how the idea got stuck in my head, but one day I thought, "that would be great exercise and a lot of fun." I actually walked up to the door of the studio once or twice to talk about signing up, but chickened out. Well, I finally did it. I've signed up for 5 weeks of training. I will fear no man! Ha! I just hope to get some good exercise out of it and learn a thing or two. Generally, I'm just trying to get more active.

I'm down to 291 now. A far cry from where I wanted to be when I started this thing last year, but, I at least I've dropped almost 35 pounds and kept it off. By my 1 year anniversary in July, I hope to at least lost 40 to 45 pounds total. I know...it's not 100 pounds, but they will come off. It's just gonna take a little longer than I originally thought. And I'm a far cry from the almost 346 pounds I was 4 years ago.

Daddy needs a new stereo

Well, I’m feeling pretty durn good today. Got up early this morning and weighed and I’m now at 295.2 pounds. Yeah! I think the plateau I’ve been on for the last two months might be breaking.

At work someone started a “Biggest Loser” competition. It was $25 to get in on it and the winner gets the money pot. C’mon baby! Daddy needs a new stereo! On my first weigh in since the initial one two weeks ago, I’ve lost 6 pounds according to the company scale (which weighs heavy by the way…see my earlier blogs about that).

I’ve been consistently exercising now for over 3 weeks. I can’t tell you how much better I feel – and how much stronger. I’m weight lifting 3 times a week and using the elliptical 2 times a week for 20 minutes. I hope to build up to 30 minutes and beyond soon.

I’ve also been trying to cut calories a little more. I was staying at 2,500 calories a day, but over the last couple of days, I’ve cut down to 2,000 and under a little.

This lifestyle is getting easier and easier to live with.

Slow as molasses

I’ve got to get back into the habit of blogging again.

I’m a little frustrated right now. My weight has stayed the same for almost two months now. I fluctuate between 296 and 300lbs. I don’t know what’s up.

I am exercising daily (well, consistently for the last 2 weeks anyway). Three mornings a week I lift weights and 2 mornings a week I work out on the elliptical machine. I am still keeping my calories at around 2,500 a day which should be enough to lose at least a pound a week. I’ve got to be slipping up somewhere. Maybe I need to lower calories even more? Egads!

I did find this website http://www.wwfamilyforum.com/ which is pretty encouraging. It’s a Weight Watcher’s site.

I do feel stronger than I have in a while though. There is just no way though that I will reach my 100 pound goal this summer. That is disappointing but at least I’m trying.

So, I am super frustrated right now, but hoping I'll be able to break the pound barrier again soon. Here's to trying.

Hole number 4

My son gave me a belt last year that I couldn't even put on when I first tried to wear it. This morning I made it to hole number 4 without turning blue in the face. Yeah!

I'm still losing about a pound a week, but the inches are starting to disappear. My best guess is that it's due to the weight lifting I've been doing.