week 4 weigh in

Clocked in at 281.4, down a whopping 3.6 lbs. That puts me a total of 17.4 lbs down, with 28.6 lbs left to go. So first month in the bag! This is the end of week 4 (early by a day) and honestly I surprised myself. I didn't expect the weight to come off as quickly as it has so far considering how hard I've been pushing it on the weight training side. I'm doing my best to lose body fat and retain, if not grow, more muscle.

Today is a cheat meal day and it came right on date night, so out for steak and lobster with some live music it is!

Tips on talking yourself down from that ledge

If you've ever tried losing weight in your life, or if you've been overweight at any point in your life, you will be able to relate to this.
Particularly early and long day at work as I had to be there by 6am, which meant leaving the house by 5am. Severe thunder storm so loud woke me up in the middle of the night and kept me up for an hour. Already low on energy. my low carb diet gives me no help (if you aren't familiar, low carb diets leave you drained of energy often) by the time I get home that 4th chicken breast waiting for me I cooked on Monday sounds unbearable. And there it is. Good old bran. "GO GET PIZZA AND BEER NOW!" I tell you not I was literally having an arguing match in my brain about justifying it.
"Go on your mid week gut check weigh in already put you at your week's goal."
"It won't set you back that much"
"it's so tasty, you haven't rewarded yourself in a long time for this"
"You're too tired to go to the store, shop, and cook something"

cravings to a person who love food and nearly impossible to battle away. If you've never been fat, you will not understand what I'm talking about. I would equate it to trying to stop snorting cocaine off a hookers stomach driving 100 mph down the belt line.

I'm sitting here writing this however enjoying a pulled chicken wrap with bbq sauce, spinach, and muenster cheese (7 net carbs by the way). How did I do it?

1. Give yourself 15 minutes before you cave in. Cravings like this will disappear as fast as they came on.
2. Grab a small snack, preferably something spicy. I always run to some home made beef jerky that has a wicked after kick.
3. Divert your attention. I usually play a quick video game match: words with friends, Awesomenauts, Peggle, etc.
4. Go look at pictures of people working out. Sounds dumb? Try it once. It's a quick reminder of what you're trying to accomplish
5. Hit your support group. Mine is my fitocracy community. I go read a few posts on how people are doing, and I see people struggling with the same problems I'm having. Makes me feel sane.

week 3 weigh in

My normal scale today reads 285.0 on the dot, down 3 more lbs, 13.8 lbs total, 32.2 lbs left to go for my first milestone goal.
Eating healthy and prepping all the food for the week is getting harder and harder. As my energy continues to dip down because of the lower carb diet, I'm finding myself with only a finite amount of energy and time to do everything in a given day. Work days are increasing little by little giving me less time to recover from the previous day.

I did break down on Wednesday and ordered a pizza, wings, and breadsticks. While exceptionally yummy after not having anything like it for 3 weeks, I paid for it in stomach pains and in the bathroom for the next 2 days.

Exercise

A bit about working out. You can lose weight just by nutrition alone. I'm not trying to lose weight however. I'm attempting to lose fat and retain my muscle mass. For a nearly 300 lb guy, I would consider myself strong enough to handle myself in a fight needs be. Here is my workout for approx. the next 3 months. 

Full body workout, 3 days a week. A/B/A then B/A/B. 1-2 days of cardio in between depending on what my body says. Nothing too fancy. Focuses on heavy lifting through compound exercises

Workout A

1-2 min rest in between sets

Barbell Row 4x5 80% RM 

Barbell Bench press 4x5 90% RM 

Barbell Squat 4x5 90% RM 

2 min rest 

30-45s rest between sets 

Lat pull down 3x10 70% RM

Chest Fly machine 3x10 70%RM 

Seated Leg Curl 3x10 70% RM 

 2min rest 

Planks 3x 

no side planks as I've had previous shoulder injuries. Too much weight to hold up 

2min rest 

Push ups 3x ?

Let me Ups 3x ?

Walking lunges with medicine ball twists 3x?

3min rest 

15min HIIT (high intensity interval training) cardio: 15s sprint, 45s recovery speed 

Workout B 

Facepull 4x5 90% RM 

Standing Military Press 4x5 80% RM 

Deadlift 4x5 90%RM 

2min rest 

30-45s rest between sets 

Lat pull down 3x10 70% RM

Chest Fly machine 3x10 70%RM 

Seated Leg Extension 3x10 70% RM 

Push ups 3x ?

Let me Ups 3x ?

Walking lunges with medicine ball twists 3x?

3min rest 

15min HIIT (high intensity interval training) cardio: 15s sprint, 45s recovery speed 

week 2 weigh in - more travel

This Saturday morning I clocked in at 288.0 on the dot. Down 1.4 lbs, total of 10.8 lbs down. This weeks' weight loss is more realistic to what you should be seeing. 1-3 lbs a week, with 2 lbs being the average. Once again I had to weigh in on not my scale, but the gym one down in Illinois. This time is was the 3 year old birthday party, which meant another 3 days out of town unexpectedly, which threw everything into chaso yet again. I didn't get home until 8:30pm Sunday night which meant I had nothing cook, didn't go to the store, and had nothing to eat heading into week 3. Seems what was suppose to be an event free 4-5 months has turned into being out of town every single weekend.
This leads to me saying again you can't plan every little detail, every meal, every workout, you can only keep in mind your goals and make the best choices possible. I didn't however :) I had no choice in my meals Saturday as I didn't have access to my car or anything healthy all day as I was away for the party. Saturday night we ended up going out on a date night to a tapas restaurant filled with wine and Spanish delicacies. Sunday was a little better, but the night ended up with pizza as I was on the road for 7 hours. All you can do is hop right back on after life's little side tracks.

week 1 - weigh in & unexpected travel

Sunday  morning I weighed in at 289.4, which puts me down 9.4 lbs, with 36.6 lbs to go. I weighed in not on my scale, but a scale at an Anytime fitness, 100 miles away from home. This brings me to a topic I planned don talking about later: what to do when you're away from all your control areas!

Due to an unexpected family emergency, I had to leave town in a moments notice, no food cooked or packed, and was gone for 3 full days and nights. Life happens. You can plan and plan as much as possible, but things come up. When you're inevitably going to be out of town, you just need to keep a few things in mind.
1. Eating out: Happens a lot. You don't have a kitchen usually, you're out with other people, and out of your element. Just mitigate the damage as best as possible. Make smart choices, stay away from alcohol and you'll be fine. We ended up at a chili's, and I had steamed broccoli, grilled chicken, and 1/4 rack of ribs. not too bad.
2. Pack snacks. I packed 4 quest bars, beef jerky, and 3 bottles of whole green powder. Made some quick meals.
3. Workout. You can always do body weight exercises, run outside, walk, stretch, etc You don't need a gym.
4. Let people know you're on a diet. Generally most people will understand, try and support you in a weird awkward way, and move on with life. It takes the pressure off of having a drink, or getting that deep fried yummy piece of food with your friends.

* also no pictures for week 2. Didn't have a camera or time :(

Spinach Shake Recipe

All credit for the recipe goes to Drew Manning. This sounds like a weird combination, but it actually tasted good and rather refreshing. Enough so where I foresee having this into my meal rotation for a very long time. 

1 large handful of spinach

1 scoop protein powder ( I like chocolate personally, vanilla does taste good too 

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 banana 

3 large handfuls of ice

Blend everything together and you're done.

*Through trial and error, I've found sometimes the shake isn't liquid enough to even drink. I add 1c of water AFTER it's blended, and blend for another 30seconds. I'll keep adding more water as needed to reach a consistency I enjoy. 

** This can last in the fridge about 1 day at most. After that it turns to pure liquid. I generally make them around 8pm at night for the next day so my neighbors don't hear the blender at 4:30am. 

Grocery List week 1

Here's my grocery list for week 1. These are the actual costs from the grocery store near my house ( some numbers rounded up a little). As you can see from the notes some of this stuff is good for multiple weeks even.
$176.89 for all the food I'm going to eat for the entire week. Seems like a lot? Consider this:
Food cost per day: $25.27
Food cost per MEAL: $4.21

Eating healthy is actually a fraction of the price of what I've been eating throughout a week. Hell going out ot dinner once is usually $80 with drinks.

Grocery List week 1	cost	Notes
bananas	4
apples	3.5
containers of blueberries	2.5
container of strawberries	2.5
Frozen chicken breasts	15	10 chicken breasts in total
Frozen Fajita Meat	5.3	2 meals worth
turkey deli meat	3.23	4-5 meals worth
turkey bacon	2.8	good for 2 weeks
Atlantic Salmon	10.2	2 filets = 4 meals
Mayo	3.5	1 bottle for 3 months
Mustard	2	1 bottle for 3 months
Oil Based Vinaigrette	3.5	1 bottle for 3 months
meat marinade	0.75	1 bottle for 3 months
Almonds	8	20 servings
Beef Jerky	10	*bought in bulk.  10 weeks work for $48
Eggs	1.3
Unsweetened Almond Milk	3.5	good for 2 weeks
Zero Calorie Butter Spray	3	good for 3 months
Natural Peanut butter	4.25	1 jar is good for 3-4 weeks
Crystal light packets	4	24 packets
1 jar of salsa	3.25	good for 2 weeks
Whole wheat Pita Pockets	2.5	good for 2 weeks
asparagus	4.31
spinach	2.5
cucumbers	0.75
peppers	1.5
Total Groceries	107.64
Supplements weekly cost	69.25
Total Food bill for 7 days	176.89
Food cost per day:	25.27
Food cost per meal	4.21

Day 1

First day of my weight loss "Journey". I really hate that phrase by the way. "Weight loss Journey". I'm not really on a journey, I'm not going anywhere. Except either to work, home, or the gym on a regular basis. So I've been pretty overweight for a while, enough so where my doctors have finally said it's time for you to be less of you. Make sense, as I carry the weight of probably 2 sprinters carrying a backpack full of bricks.

why now? 

Good time to start. July 2 through Christmas, there's not much going on. I have some idea in mind for Thanksgiving built into my diet, as well as my Birthday. Also, I have 10 days off from work (stay home vacation) so my body can adjust to the sweeping diet changes that have started today. I have spent the past 2 weeks easing into it so it won't be such a shock, but you know how it is. 

Information time!

Diet will be from 7/2/12 - 12/16, final weigh out on 12/17. 23 Glorious weeks of healthy eating and living. Goal would be to lose 46 lbs ( 2 lbs a week) for this diet time line which would put me down to 252.8 lbs. Yep, I said down to 258, which means I'm a whopping 298.8 right now. Now 250s still isn't a healthy weight, but for now that's my goal. Eventually I'll be setting up a similar plan in January with the help of my doctor & dietitian to change to a more sustainable diet structure. Speaking of diet: 

In essence it's a high protein, low carbohydrate style diet. I'll have tons of vegetables at my disposal and the majority of my carb intake will be from fresh fruit. My diet also is very liquid heavy. Meaning lots of water, and 1 meal that's just a nutritional packed shake. 

If anyone ends up reading this blog, I plan on tossing out a lot of information on the diet side. Reason being is losing weight is 70% mental, 20% nutrition, and 10% exercise. Good recipes that are quick and easy to cook in bulk, along with actual food costs. I have grocery lists and I plan on tracking the cost of eating healthy. I think many people will be surprised how inexpensive smart food choices can be compared to running out to eat all the time. 

Also to note, I do use various supplements throughout the diet of which no one would ever need to use to lose weight. I'm personally choosing to for 2 reasons: 

1. I'm lazy. It's easier to grab some protein, toss in some spinach, banana, peanut butter, and almond milk into a blender than it is to prepare ANOTHER MEAL. 

2. I have issues hitting specific protein intake goals without it. 

starting statistics: 

weight: 298.8lbs

body fat: 40% (taken on 4/27/12) 

chest: need a cloth tape measure still. 

waist:

hips:

upper arm:

thigh: 

Starting Strength Metric: 

Max Bench: 235lbs

Max Squat: 250lbs

Max Deadlift: 235lbs

As far as tools go, I use Fitocracy to track my exercises. Yes those are real numbers. While I'm 300 lbs, I've been weightlifting for over a year now, and on and off my whole life. While I'll get around to posting my workouts, I don't expect anyone to follow what I do, ever.