Oh my gosh...you must all be wondering if I fell of of the blog planet!! I promise I am still here AND more importantly I am still losing weight!! I have been absent with my posts because a little thing called life has been happening these past few weeks and has made it difficult for me to find time in the day to sit down and write...but I have been seriously missing it!
So as some of you may know, yesterday was Fat Tuesday!! I don't know about you all but Mardi Gras is my most favorite time of the year (mostly because it always falls around my birthday)!! It is the time of year that you are supposed to feast upon what you desire most before the Lenten season begins!! Although I am not a religious person, I do love the Carnival season and what it means to people!! So normally on Fat Tuesday my husband and I go out with our friends and family and have really great cajun food (really fattening cajun food) and drink hurricanes and beer. So what did we do this year you ask? Well we went out with our friends and family, had really great cajun food (the not so fattening kind) and had some lo-cal beer!! So all in all we still had an amazing time but did not have to eat and drink the things that got us into this position in the first place. This was such a great lesson for me because recently I have been really leery about going out with friends and having a good time without partaking in the eating and drinking. I would literally be so afraid to eat something bad because I was positive that I would gain 2 pounds by just picking up the fork full of not so healthy food. After a lot of discussion with my husband and my trainer, they both assured me that although things in life happen and we as humans do celebrate birthdays, holidays, joys, and all of the other things we find worthy, it won't derail me or kill me to partake in the celebration as long as I am making smart choices!! I am so excited that I do not have to give up these pleasures in life!
So for all of you who have been reading this in anticipation of my new number here it is: As of yesterday I weigh 277.8 pounds!! This puts me only 1 pound shy of my first weight loss goal which was to lose 25 pounds by the end of February...it looks like I will be crushing that number! My weight loss has slowed down to about 2 pounds per week but everyday I do my best at the gym and at home to switch up my diet and exercise routine so that I can keep it up and hopefully speed it up a little more!!
Cheers to all of you who follow me and support me!
Love,
T.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Sunday, February 5, 2012
My belated first post
Teresa's been giving me grief because I haven't made any official posts on our blog, so here it goes. As most of you who know me are already aware, I have been overweight/obese most of my life. I always tried to soften those words with justifications like "I've got a big build" and "I'm pretty tall so that counts for a lot". But, in reality it doesn't count for that much. I've been on diets in the past. Many have worked very well, others not so much. Actually, that's the wrong way to say it because it's not really the diets that didn't work, it was me that didn't work the diet. Frankly, I suspect that is the case for most people who are struggling to lose weight. We think we are on a diet, and that we are doing well, but we are deluding ourselves much of the time. I have been on diets where I have eaten all the right things, but in hindsight, ate far too much of them. We sort of trick ourselves into believing things like a half-quart cereal bowl is a single serving of cereal, or that 140-calorie Nutrigrain bar is a great diet food, so it won't hurt to eat two or three. Or that ranch dressing we ate with our nice, healthy celery sticks really didn't count.
So, this time when Teresa and I decided that we simply could not go another day living the way we had been, I looked around to see what the best way to lose weight was going to be. The problem is that the marketing surrounding the weight loss industry is pretty daunting. Because everyone trying to provide info to you on how to lose weight is trying to make money on providing that info, you have to take a lot of what you see with a grain of salt. Where I finally settled on a reliable source of information was on a website that I frequent quite often called Reddit. Reddit is a community of what basically amount to discussion groups called Subreddits. One of these groups is called "Loseit" (http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit). This group is filled with several kinds of people. Some are people like me trying to lose weight. Some are people who have lost the weight they need to lose and are helping others. Some are people who have spent a lot of time looking into the science of fitness and weight loss. None of them are people that are trying to sell anything. So, I spent some time perusing this Subreddit for info, and learned a few things that I am going to use as my guardrails on this journey I am on with Teresa.
1) Weight loss is only about calories. Doesn't matter if its fat, protein, carbs, whatever. There is certainly a distinction to be made on heart health and the like, but for losing weight, any calorie is simply a calorie no matter it's source. So, while I am keeping mindful of things like fat intake and sugar and sodium, I'm not traking them so rigorously. I am watching my calories first and foremost, and trying to make healthy choices about how to fill those daily caloric needs.
2) It doesn't matter when you get your calories. Some diets say eat 5-6 small meals. Others say 3 a day plus small snacks. Others suggest a variety of other strategies for "maximizing metabolism". When it comes down to it, for weight loss purposes, it doesn't appear to matter when calories are consumed. Weight loss is a long process, and the total calories in less the total calories expended determines ultimate long-term weight loss. So if I need to skip lunch and make up for it with a bigger dinner, it's not going to grind my metabolism to a halt. Now, there are other health reasons why you shouldn't be skipping meals and not balancing out your daily intake, but for weight loss it simply doesn't matter.
3) Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. If you don't eat right, you can lose weight by killing yourself working out every day. I wanted to work out, but I didn't want to do it "Big Loser" style and spend all my time working out. So, I am concentrating most of my weight loss effort on my diet, and I am using exercise to improve other areas of my health such as strength, cardiovascular health, and endurance. That I'll lose additional weight because of it is icing on the cake.
4) There is no such thing as a "slow metabolism". I used to joke with people that my skinny friends could eat a cow and not gain an ounce, but if I sniff the back of a bubble-gum wrapper I gain 5 pounds. One of the scientific studies that was discussed recently on /r/loseit was a study that looked at the metabolic rates of a large sample of people. As it turns out, the number of daily calories expended by this wide variety of people each day does not vary much from person-to-person, even among people who characterized themselves as "having a slow metabolism". What comes down to it is that I have spent years justifying being fat because I have a slow metabolism, and I need to stop blaming that phantom excuse.
I'm fat because I thought nothing of coming home and eating half a bag of tortilla chips and salsa in one sitting. I'm fat because I would stop on the way home and get a Super Size Double-Quarter Pounder meal at McDonald's to take home for dinner, and would order an extra "road burger" or an extra order of fries for the ride home. I'm fat because going out for fajitas or other Mexican food includes 2-3 baskets of chips and way too much food on the plate totaling thousands of calories in a sitting. There are thousands of other reasons that I'm fat, but they aren't going to be excuses any more. Teresa and I have decided to spend more of our time on selecting and preparing better, healthier, higher quality food in much smaller quantities than we have in the past. As of this writing we are exactly one month in. When I started, I didn't weight the most I ever have, that was back in the 90's. The most I weighed recently was 449 pounds back in September 2011, when Teresa and I decided to start spending more time at the gym. When we really set our minds to start on a new course in our lives one month ago today (Jan 5th), I weighed 441 pounds. As I write this I haven't weighed in the last week, but my last weigh in was 423 pounds. Teresa says I'm cheating to count my starting weight of 449 last year as my starting point, but I don't think it is, so I'm counting down from 449. My ultimate goal is to get to 250 (that's 199 pounds to lose), then we'll see at that point whether we go any farther. Technically, by most measures I would be overweight unless I was below 215 or so, but I don't know if I even want to get that low, we'll see. At 250 at least I wouldn't be technically obese. I don't have a specific time frame for losing that 199 pounds, as I'd rather set time frames for shorter-term goals. I set out on Jan 5th to be below 400 by the end of March. If I keep progressing at the rate I have been, slow and steady, I will beat that by a few weeks.
Teresa, my love, thanks for being patient with me about not having written this yet. I will be making the time for much more frequent updates. I will also update the blog with a links section to interesting info I find on weight loss. Here's to the future, and to all of you seeing a lot less of me.
Rich
So, this time when Teresa and I decided that we simply could not go another day living the way we had been, I looked around to see what the best way to lose weight was going to be. The problem is that the marketing surrounding the weight loss industry is pretty daunting. Because everyone trying to provide info to you on how to lose weight is trying to make money on providing that info, you have to take a lot of what you see with a grain of salt. Where I finally settled on a reliable source of information was on a website that I frequent quite often called Reddit. Reddit is a community of what basically amount to discussion groups called Subreddits. One of these groups is called "Loseit" (http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit). This group is filled with several kinds of people. Some are people like me trying to lose weight. Some are people who have lost the weight they need to lose and are helping others. Some are people who have spent a lot of time looking into the science of fitness and weight loss. None of them are people that are trying to sell anything. So, I spent some time perusing this Subreddit for info, and learned a few things that I am going to use as my guardrails on this journey I am on with Teresa.
1) Weight loss is only about calories. Doesn't matter if its fat, protein, carbs, whatever. There is certainly a distinction to be made on heart health and the like, but for losing weight, any calorie is simply a calorie no matter it's source. So, while I am keeping mindful of things like fat intake and sugar and sodium, I'm not traking them so rigorously. I am watching my calories first and foremost, and trying to make healthy choices about how to fill those daily caloric needs.
2) It doesn't matter when you get your calories. Some diets say eat 5-6 small meals. Others say 3 a day plus small snacks. Others suggest a variety of other strategies for "maximizing metabolism". When it comes down to it, for weight loss purposes, it doesn't appear to matter when calories are consumed. Weight loss is a long process, and the total calories in less the total calories expended determines ultimate long-term weight loss. So if I need to skip lunch and make up for it with a bigger dinner, it's not going to grind my metabolism to a halt. Now, there are other health reasons why you shouldn't be skipping meals and not balancing out your daily intake, but for weight loss it simply doesn't matter.
3) Weight loss is 80% diet, 20% exercise. If you don't eat right, you can lose weight by killing yourself working out every day. I wanted to work out, but I didn't want to do it "Big Loser" style and spend all my time working out. So, I am concentrating most of my weight loss effort on my diet, and I am using exercise to improve other areas of my health such as strength, cardiovascular health, and endurance. That I'll lose additional weight because of it is icing on the cake.
4) There is no such thing as a "slow metabolism". I used to joke with people that my skinny friends could eat a cow and not gain an ounce, but if I sniff the back of a bubble-gum wrapper I gain 5 pounds. One of the scientific studies that was discussed recently on /r/loseit was a study that looked at the metabolic rates of a large sample of people. As it turns out, the number of daily calories expended by this wide variety of people each day does not vary much from person-to-person, even among people who characterized themselves as "having a slow metabolism". What comes down to it is that I have spent years justifying being fat because I have a slow metabolism, and I need to stop blaming that phantom excuse.
I'm fat because I thought nothing of coming home and eating half a bag of tortilla chips and salsa in one sitting. I'm fat because I would stop on the way home and get a Super Size Double-Quarter Pounder meal at McDonald's to take home for dinner, and would order an extra "road burger" or an extra order of fries for the ride home. I'm fat because going out for fajitas or other Mexican food includes 2-3 baskets of chips and way too much food on the plate totaling thousands of calories in a sitting. There are thousands of other reasons that I'm fat, but they aren't going to be excuses any more. Teresa and I have decided to spend more of our time on selecting and preparing better, healthier, higher quality food in much smaller quantities than we have in the past. As of this writing we are exactly one month in. When I started, I didn't weight the most I ever have, that was back in the 90's. The most I weighed recently was 449 pounds back in September 2011, when Teresa and I decided to start spending more time at the gym. When we really set our minds to start on a new course in our lives one month ago today (Jan 5th), I weighed 441 pounds. As I write this I haven't weighed in the last week, but my last weigh in was 423 pounds. Teresa says I'm cheating to count my starting weight of 449 last year as my starting point, but I don't think it is, so I'm counting down from 449. My ultimate goal is to get to 250 (that's 199 pounds to lose), then we'll see at that point whether we go any farther. Technically, by most measures I would be overweight unless I was below 215 or so, but I don't know if I even want to get that low, we'll see. At 250 at least I wouldn't be technically obese. I don't have a specific time frame for losing that 199 pounds, as I'd rather set time frames for shorter-term goals. I set out on Jan 5th to be below 400 by the end of March. If I keep progressing at the rate I have been, slow and steady, I will beat that by a few weeks.
Teresa, my love, thanks for being patient with me about not having written this yet. I will be making the time for much more frequent updates. I will also update the blog with a links section to interesting info I find on weight loss. Here's to the future, and to all of you seeing a lot less of me.
Rich
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