Finance and Fat » Weekly Weigh-in

Monthly Weight Loss Report, August 2009

Eden — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 03:17:04 +0000

Regular readers may have noticed the weekly weight loss report has changed to monthly. On the other hand, the weekly reports haven’t happened much at all lately, so I’m not really missing out on anything here.

My weight loss efforts have been a total failure over the past few months. I weighed in at 265 pounds today, which is within two pounds of my all time high (where I started this year). I guess the silver lining is that I’m at least down two pounds for the year. But with so much weight to lose, I really need to be making faster progress than that.

My iPhone challenge hasn’t helped at all either. Frankly, I think it’s made me not even care about an iPhone anymore! I suppose that’s a good thing, but I’d feel better if it was motivating me to exercise more.

It’s not all bad news though. I actually went out for a run today. I’m running a 5K in December and I finally started training today. I’m doing the Couch to 5K Running Plan. The plan is intended to get a sedentary person off the couch and ready to run a 5K in nine weeks. I’m happy with day one. It was challenging, but not too tough that I felt like I couldn’t finish it. Today’s workout consisted of a five minute walking warmup, followed by intervals of sixty seconds of jogging and ninety seconds of walking. The intervals last for twenty minutes and finish off with a five minute walking cool down.

As usual, I feel great after finally getting myself off the couch and actually doing some exercise. If only I could remember that I would feel this good when I’m making excuses to avoid exercise. Hopefully the race in December and this training plan will help me to stay on top of things this time around.

Lessons Learned:

I feel better after exercising. Maybe this should be obvious, but apparently it’s not because I always forget.

There are no tricks or shortcuts. I have to choose to exercise and stop making excuses.

Tracking progress helps. I’m using Daily Burn to track my calories and exercise. It can be a bit cumbersome at times, and adding exercise is not always intuitive, but overall it’s a nice application and I’ve found it to be helpful (it’s free by the way). I really like the stat tracking. It helps me to see my progress built up and charted over time. It makes it seem worthwhile to go for a walk even if I only have ten minutes. Little efforts do add up!

I’m not happy that it is almost the end of August and I’ve only lost two pounds this year. On the other hand, there are still four months left in the year, so it’s far from too late to give up. I can still easily finish the year down twenty pounds or so. I think the 5K will help a lot. Even though my marathon plans turned into a complete and utter failure last year, I did reach my lowest weight of the past several years when I was in the early stages of training for it. I have a marathon in mind for the end of 2010, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself yet. We will see how the 5K goes this year.

Monthly Weight Loss Report, August 2009

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Weight Loss Update, May 2009

Eden — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:42:12 +0000

I’m late posting this update, but I want to make sure it’s here so I can look back at my weight loss posts later. On May 26, 2009 I weighed-in at 258.4 pounds (see my all-time weight loss chart here).

I’m participating in a weight loss contest with some of my family and we weigh-in once a month, so the May 26th weigh-in was my ‘official’ weight for the month. That was good for a loss of 1.6 pounds in May. I lost 4.6 pounds in April, so I suppose it’s reasonable to expect a bit of a drop-off, but I feel like I should have lost more weight in May.

I was on vacation for the past week and a half and I know I ate a lot of food so I’m not going to be getting on the scale again any time soon. My next contest weigh-in date is June 30th, so I’ll probably wait until the week before that to weigh-in again.

I attribute most of my success over the past 2 months to playing basketball. But it’s been about 2 weeks since I last played, so I need to get back on that as soon as possible. Not only is the basketball great exercise, but I have the desire to do exercise apart from playing basketball to help improve my game so that’s an extra bonus. It seems that having a sport to focus on is incredibly helpful with weight loss motivation.

I’ve also bought a few exercise gadgets lately and I’m trying some different workouts, which I will write about in further detail in the coming weeks as I have a chance to evaluate them.

Weight Loss Update, May 2009

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Update On My Latest Weight Loss Efforts

Eden — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:10:26 +0000

It’s too bad that I’ve had to start over many times with my weight loss, but I’m sure that’s how it goes for a lot of people as they try to get their weight under control after a long time of doing nothing. All I can do is act like it’s for real this time and try to make it stick.

About two weeks ago I woke up after a couple months of laziness and not paying attention to my weight. Since then, I’ve lost 3.2 pounds. I’m glad about that, but I know that I could have done a lot more exercise in that time. I only did some walking and have yet to start my 100 pushups plan restart.

What I have done well is cut back on my calories and I am replacing several meals with protein bars and drinks. I’m also experimenting with some weight loss supplements, probably not a good idea, but I did have success with these years ago and never noticed any bad side effects. If you’re interested, I’m using Ripped Fuel Extreme, by Twinlab.

I’m not recommending weight loss supplements for anyone, they can have dangerous side effects, but you can do some further research and decide for yourself if you think it might be right for you. I think the biggest benefit for me is that the caffeine in the pills allows me to skip coffee all day long and that is saving me some calories from milk and creme. These pills seem to reduce my appetite as well.

Other than that, I’m trying to be more active throughout the day and I have lots of yard and house work to do around here that should help me lose a little weight. We are entering the always dangerous Holiday eating season so I need to try to work extra hard to keep my weight moving down.

By the way, I have updated my weight and body fat charts. It’s always fun (and sad) to see the big picture of my weight struggles. Hopefully you can learn something from my many failures and few successes.

Update On My Latest Weight Loss Efforts

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Monthly Weight Loss Report and a Wii Fit

Eden — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:15:59 +0000

I decided to drop the weekly weight loss reports since it was hard to keep up with them and I don’t really think the weekly weight fluctuations are worth reporting anyway. From now on I’ll post my weight loss progress approximately once a month.

During my previous weigh-in on August 4th, I was 259.2 pounds (my heaviest weight of the year) and at my last weigh-in on August 26th I was 257 pounds.

Most of those 3 1/2 weeks were spent eating too much food and not doing much exercise. On a positive note, I gave up hydrogenated oils around the end of July so that has likely helped my weight move down a little bit.

Just this week we bought a Wii Fit and we’re really having a lot of fun with it. It is by no means a replacement for intense exercise like weightlifting or running, but it is perfect if you need help getting off the couch and simply adding more activity to your life (exactly where I’m at right now). I will write more about the Wii Fit in the future after I’ve had more time to evaluate it. My early impressions are very positive and if you can afford the rather high cost ($90) I think it is a worthwhile fitness investment.

I will continue to update my weight loss charts each week when I weigh in, so if you’re interested feel free to visit that page and see more details about my weight loss progress.

Monthly Weight Loss Report and a Wii Fit

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Weekly Weight Loss – Fat and Confused Edition

Eden — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:52:29 +0000

I had a great week last week. I did four days of cardio exercise for 30 minutes per day and I did two days of the 100 push-ups challenge. I did a pretty good job with food too. In fact, I gave up all hydrogenated oils and diet soda at the start of the week. Maybe that was too much healthy living for my body to respond to because when I stepped on the scale this morning I had gained 3 pounds!

My weight was up, but my body fat was down by 0.8% (a 2% decrease). I’m going to chalk the weight gain up to one of those strange weight fluctuations that happen from time to time. Honestly, the weight gain is a bit discouraging. It’s easy to think why should I bother with the exercise if I’m going to gain weight anyway, but I’m not going to fall into that trap. I feel much better after last week and I need to trust that continuing with the exercise and improved diet will bring the results I am looking for.

As far as the 100 push-ups challenge goes I was going to give up on it after day 1 because I was having a lot or wrist pain. Saving a long story, I had an accident years ago that required surgical repair of 3 tendons in my right hand. I still get some pain and stiffness from those repaired tendons and the normal push-ups were putting a lot of stress on them. Later in the week I decided to try doing push-ups with my hands closed instead of open and that relieved all of the stress on my tendons and I was able to do the full set of day 2 push-ups. I decided I will re-do week 1 (again) this week using this new push-up form. I think that was the change I needed to get through the program.

Below is the weight chart for this week, also see my updated weight loss graphs page with all of the latest numbers. These weren’t the results I was hoping for, but I’m not going to let the weight gain slow me down. I just need to make sure I work even harder this week. I can’t wait to get on the scale next week!

	Current Week	Last Week	Week Change	Start on 11/28/07	Total Change
Weight	258	255	+3 (+1.18%)	254	+4 (+1.57%)
Body Fat	38.4%	39.2%	-0.8 (-2.04%)	38.2	+0.2 (+0.52%)
BMI	33.1	32.7	+0.4 (+1.22%)	33	+0.5 (+1.53%)

*Note about this weight loss chart. When I started this blog I weighed 266 pounds and I was only tracking my pounds lost each week. On November 28, 2007 I started using a new scale that tracks body fat and more (the numbers you see above). I report the figures from that scale in these weekly posts and I still track my total pounds lost in the Weight Loss Goals section in the sidebar on my site.

Weekly Weight Loss – Fat and Confused Edition

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New Weight Tracking Page Proves World of Warcraft is Evil

Eden — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:49:56 +0000

I created a new page with charts tracking my weight, BMI, and body fat percentage. The charts make a nice way to track my progress over the long term and I actually find the chart view to be a little extra inspiration- it feels really good to see the lines trend down (and it hurts more to see them climb). Visit the page to see how I’m doing and maybe find a little inspiration for your own health and fitness efforts.

I also added comments at certain points on the charts where significant events occurred that may affect my fitness progress. For example, my weight seemed to start trending down nicely when I quit playing World of Warcraft in October ‘07. Sadly, my fitness seemed to level off and start moving in the other direction after I started playing again in January ‘08 (I knew that would be a mistake).

Of course I’m (mostly) joking about World of Warcraft being evil. It is entirely possible to play the game and still make time for fitness. The only problem is, the game demands huge amounts of time to make any decent progress and it can be highly addictive. Quitting again would likely be a wise move. I have a pre-paid subscription until October, so I’ll have the game on my computer, but I need to do my best to avoid it and make sure I never play before I have done some exercise.

Anyway, take a look at the charts and let me know what you think. At the very least, I think this will be a nice long term view of my fitness progress and the comments will make for some interesting analysis as I look back at how I’m doing.

New Weight Tracking Page Proves World of Warcraft is Evil

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Weekly Weigh-in July 21, 2008

Eden — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:25:14 +0000

It has been two weeks since I hit the scale and I’m happy to see I have lost 1.2 pounds, though I know I could have worked much harder…so I can’t get too excited about the weight lost.

The week before my vacation was a good one, I met my goal of 3 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise and I started day 1 of the 100 push ups challenge. However, the week after my vacation turned into a lazy one as I didn’t do any more exercise. I had some good excuses and some lame ones, but that is in the past now and I need to focus on working harder this week.

This week’s exercise goals: 4 days of 30 minutes of cardio exercise; 3 days of the 100 push ups challenge week 1.

	Current Week	Last Week	Week Change	Start on 11/28/07	Total Change
Weight	255	256.2	-1.2 (-0.47%)	254	+1 (+0.39%)
Body Fat	39.2%	39.4%	-0.2 (-0.51%)	38.2	+1 (+2.62%)
BMI	32.7	32.9	-0.2 (-0.61%)	33	+0.1 (+0.31%)

Weekly Weigh-in July 21, 2008

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Weekly Weigh-in Vacation Edition

Eden — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:32:55 +0000

I’m skipping the scale this week because my wife and I took a long weekend vacation to Northern Arizona. Here is a picture from the center of town in Sedona.

Sedona is probably best known for its ‘red rocks’ but I didn’t get any good pictures of those. I guess we’ve been there too many times to take notice. You can see some more pictures at the Visit Sedona website.

Last week was a good one for me and my exercise goals. I did 3 days of cardio, 30 minutes per day and I started day 1 of the 100 pushups challenge. I didn’t make the best food choices on vacation, but I did do a decent amount of walking so I hope that made up for it. I need to get back on track now and get some cardio and pushups done with only about half a week left, but I think I can make it. I will be back on the scale next Monday.

Weekly Weigh-in Vacation Edition

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Weekly Weigh-in July 7, 2008

Eden — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:34:06 +0000

I started off last week by realizing I had gained 5 pounds. That motivated me to eat better last week and exercise, but now that I look back I only exercised one day- not good! I did a lot better with my diet…until the weekend. Fortunately, my weight did go down, but only by .08 pounds.

I need to do better this week. I’m putting my exercise schedule here and on my calendar. I need to schedule the time and plan ahead and make sure I don’t have another week like last week. My plan is 3 days of cardio and 1 day of weightlifting.

The plan- Tue, Wed, Sat will be 30 minutes of cardio exercise. Friday will be a weightlifting workout. This is on my calendar and I have email reminders set up. I’m going to treat this just like I schedule my job or anything else important. I hope this works better than last week!

	Current Week	Last Week	Week Change	Start on 11/28/07	Total Change
Weight	256.2	257	-0.8 (-0.31%)	254	+2.2 (+0.87%)
Body Fat	39.4%	38.5%	+0.9 (+2.34%)	38.2	+1.2 (+3.14%)
BMI	32.9	33	-0.1 (-0.30%)	33	+0.3 (+0.92%)

Weekly Weigh-in July 7, 2008

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Getting fatter and spending more money

Eden — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:51:24 +0000

The title sums up the last few weeks of my life pretty well- I’ve been eating junk food, rarely exercising, and getting a bit frivolous with my spending. I’m not sure what exactly my problem is- lack of motivation and discipline I guess.

I really hate seeing my weight in the 250s again, so this is a wake up call to get back on track right away. My thought right now is to try to simplify the process, cut down the number of goals that I’m worrying about and the different things I’m trying to do this year with my fitness, and just focus on losing some weight right now. So, my new fitness goal as of today is to lose 10 pounds in 8 weeks.

I’m going to mostly use the Body for Life exercise plan and Eating For Life plan. I do not plan to follow these plans 100% because I have learned over the years that I just can’t do that. I think 80-90% of the plans will be good enough for what I want to accomplish right now.

A quick note on my spending- I’m not getting too crazy, certainly not using credit cards or anything, I’ve just been spending a more on food and non-necessities than I have for a while. I need to try to tighten up the wallet a bit as well.

Current weight: 251.8 pounds

Weight lost since starting the blog: -14.2 pounds

Progress since starting with the new scale: -2.2 pounds, -1.4% body fat, -0.3 BMI

Last week’s diet: My diet was bad for just about the whole week. I ate a lot of junk food and didn’t make much of an effort to cut calories or make wise choices.

Last week’s exercise: I worked out once and I pulled weeds one morning- that’s it! I hate looking back on the week and seeing all of the missed opportunities to exercise- even just 20 or 30 minutes of walking thrown in for a few more days would make a big difference for me right now.

	Current Week	Last Week	Week Change	Start on 11/28/07	Total Change
Weight	251.8	248	+3.8 (+1.53%)	254	-2.2 (-0.87%)
Body Fat	36.8%	37.4%	-0.6 (-1.60%)	38.2	-1.4 (-3.66%)
BMI	32.3	31.8	+0.5 (+1.57%)	32.6	-0.3 (-0.92%)

Getting fatter and spending more money

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