Good News and Bad News

Well, I have good news and bad news this week. That said, it may be that the good news has some bearing on why there is bad news. Maybe not, I don't want to make any excuses. Let's get down to business.

My previous weigh in was 386.0 pounds. When I weighed in this morning I had gained 3.4 pounds. My current weight is 389.4.

So, where is the good news? The good news is that one of my dearest friends ordered me a scale online and had it sent to my house. Thank you again! This scale has a lot of nice features like Bluetooth so it syncs with my phone. It also measure many things other than just weight. It is awesome.

I would lean toward believing that my old scale was just inaccurate. I do not feel like I did anything over the top this week that would have caused me to gain 3.4 pounds. I think that since I have a new scale I will begin weighing myself daily but still report every Saturday. I believe that will help me to better identify things that are not helping my weight loss goals (just in case I really did gain weight). Plus, the new scale is pretty cool and I find myself wanting to weigh more often. So anyway, that is the good news. That I hopefully have a scale providing me accurate information so that I can really get on with this program. I hope that everyone has a fantastic week and I will have better news next time. Take care!

Thanksgiving 2019

Hello and welcome to my Thanksgiving week blog update. One of the most dreaded updates of the year. Was I able to lose weight despite the holiday? Keep reading to find out.

For the previous weigh in (11/24) I was at 383.0 pounds. When I weighed in this morning I had gained 3 pounds. My current weight is 386.0 pounds.

So, I have this frustrating relationship with my scale. No, it is not what you are probably thinking. Sure, I want it to always show me losing weight. But this frustration stems from the fact that it is not really very accurate. It is a digital scale but it is getting old. It is supposed to record my weight when I step on it but it acts a little bit like an analog scale instead. When I step on it, it fluctuates before it settles on a number. What it is supposed to do is lock in on a number and flash that number and then stay on the screen for a while. What it does lately is fluctuate until it eventually shuts off. So I step on it several times, this morning it was probably five or six times before it will flash and give me a number.

Now what is frustrating about this is that the fluctuations themselves are dramatic. One step on it was fluctuating around 379. Honestly the time it locked in was the highest reading of any. Usually it was around 383 to 384. I do not really want to buy a new scale right now as finances are tight. I suppose there is accuracy in a ball park figure overall as with weight loss it should be reading lower over time I suppose. Still, it is frustrating.

I need to work harder. I have been trying to be more active at work. This past week however we had off everyday but two so being at home more was not helpful either. I should have motivated myself to take some walks or something but I did not. I should also mention that my scale has been doing the fluctuation thing for some time so the previous weigh in may have also been inaccurate. Perhaps that one landed on one of the lower readings and registered. Anyway, enough complaining about my scale. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Check back next week for the new post. Later!

Wow!

I apologize for not posting yesterday which should have been weigh in day. Things got a little busy, we went to a birthday party and by the time we made it back home it was late. I strongly prefer to weigh myself I the morning. I believe that having a routine weigh in time gives me the most accurate measurement of progress.

My previous weigh in on 11/16 was 387.4 pounds. When I weighed in today I had lost 4.4 pounds. My current weight is 383.0 pounds. I am pretty happy with those numbers for reasons that I will detail below.

The reason this post is titled Wow! is because I was actually not very good at sticking with my calorie goals yesterday. I already mentioned that we went to a birthday party. My friend's son turned three. He is such an awesome kid. We played Spider-Man vs. Captain America. They would fight and he would laugh. Anyway, back to the point of this post. I ate way too much pizza and I did have some cans of Coke. Plus, after I got home from the birthday party I ended up eating after 11pm. Eating late is not good for the weight loss program.

The truth is that I started this week strong but started to lose some resolve as the week went on. In all honesty, the soda that I had at the birthday party were not the first during the past week. That is something that I will need to keep working on. I am surprised to have lost 4.4 pounds and yet excited to keep working at it. Until next time, so long!

I'm Back

Well friends, here I am again. I doubt anyone even reads this anymore but perhaps it is cathartic for me to write the blog. That is what I am hoping anyway. I keep trying to lose weight but then I end up giving up. Perhaps this time will be different.

Lately my knee has really been bothering me. I have no doubt that being overweight to this magnitude is not helping matters. The last time that I weighed (prior to today) was October 21st and on that day, I set a record. Not a good record either. In hunting and fishing, the bigger and heavier the animal, the better. But I am a man and so being bigger and heavier is bad for me. Bad for my health and bad for my life in general.

Back to the point, on October 21st I weighed in at a disappointing 392 pounds. That is the heaviest that I have ever weighed as far as I know. A mere 8 pounds from 400! Today I weighed again and I now weigh 387.4.

A couple of factors have forced me to make changes. One is my knee for sure. It is kind of not cool when your knee hurts. It really puts a crimp on one's desire to get up and move around. I don't like it! Financial issues also necessitate that I reduce my spending a bit and the first thing on the chopping block has to be eating out. I am looking at both of these factors as opportunities though instead of problems. These are opportunities to make some things right. I must seize them and use this as the impetus for a healthier future. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, but it is more likely for those that make wise decisions.

On Track

Life has been busy lately but I cannot let that impact my goals. I need to stay on track. That will be the key to whether I am able to lose weight consistently. So how did I do? Let's start with the numbers.

The previous weigh in on 5/1 was 386.2 pounds. When I weighed in one week later on 5/8 I had lost 2.2 pounds. My weight on that date was 384.0 pounds.

The reason for the success during that week was logging calories every day. It is difficult for me to know with any certainty how many calories I have consumed if I am not logging them. It can creep up on me. I know others may not have this problem, but I certainly do. Perhaps this is systemic of a larger problem. A problem of stuffing my face without really thinking too much about it.

I am pretty happy to have been more consistent this week. I am feeling motivated at the moment and need to keep up this progress. I don't want to relapse and gain weight. No matter what happens, I am determined to keep this blog going. Times that I have stopped blogging have resulted in some big weight gains. I am just tired of being overweight. Stay tuned to see where things go from here. Stay safe my friends!

5/1 2,658 calories consumed - 4,372 calories burned
5/2 2,560 calories consumed - 4,594 calories burned
5/3 2,645 calories consumed - 4,575 calories burned
5/4 2,680 calories consumed - 3,978 calories burned
5/5 3,290 calories consumed - 4,120 calories burned
5/6 2,450 calories consumed - 3,995 calories burned
5/7 2,720 calories consumed - 4,039 calories burned

Weigh In Change

Hello! So I decided to make a change to the day that I weigh in. That is why there was no weigh in or blog post last Saturday. I am moving my weigh in day to Wednesday. I will then write the blog post for that weigh in at some point over the following weekend. Let's take a look at the numbers.

The previous weigh in on 4/20 was 386.6 pounds. When I weighed in on Wednesday (5/1)  I had lost 0.4 pounds. My weight on that date was 386.2 pounds.

I struggled between those two weigh ins with consistency again. I know that it is important to keep track of calories consumed because it is very easy to get out of control and not even fully realize it. The reason for moving the weigh in date has a couple of benefits. One was that I found it hard to enjoy a Friday night knowing that there was a weigh in coming in the morning. I know this kind of sounds counter productive but in a weird kind of way it was stressing me out. I am not sure if that makes any sense. The other benefit is that it frees me up to write the blog post anytime over the following weekend. So, I guess that is kind of the bottom line. It is easier to weigh in midweek but easier to update the blog over the weekend.

I normally will try not to comment on progress since the weigh in (weigh in was Wednesday but updating the blog Friday night) but I will only say here that this has helped me quite a bit already. I have been doing pretty good at logging my calories consumed since switching weigh in days. Prior to that however, I was not doing a very good job of it. Below are the numbers and that is why there are gaps. For the next blog update there should not be any gaps. I am excited for the next blog update as I am hoping for solid progress. Until then, take care!

4/20 2,620 calories in, 4,028 calories out

4/21 3,210 calories in, 3,555 calories out

4/22 2,190 calories in, 5,171 calories out

4/23 nothing logged, 4,703 calories out

4/24 4,290 calories in, 4,190 calories out

4/25 nothing logged, 4,689 calories out

4/26 nothing logged, 4,675 calories out

4/27 nothing logged, 4,229 calories out

4/28 nothing logged, 4,154 calories out

4/29 nothing logged, 3,948 calories out

4/30 1,810 calories in, 4,795 calories out

Disappointed

It is very hard to stick with updating this blog. This past week has been very bad for me. I really have no idea how much I may have gained back from simply recovering from being so sick and how much of it is due to my own failings. I am sure it was a little of both that equaled a huge setback. Let's get to the numbers.

The previous weigh in on 4/13 was 374.6 pounds. When I weighed in this morning I have gained 12 pounds. My current weight is 386.6 pounds.

The bottom line is that I know that I messed up a lot. I did not keep track of the calories that I consumed this week. I have to do better. I lost focus this week and just felt too busy to log calories. Which is kind of comical because it really doesn't take very long to log. I am pretty disappointed and discouraged right now.

I am going to go ahead and enter what I did log even though it is incomplete. I need to get focused and motivated. I felt like I did more from an activity point of view. Let's see if that is reflected in my calorie burns. Here are the numbers. Again, the calorie consumption numbers are incomplete. The calorie burns are accurate since I always wear my Apple Watch. I hope to something better to write about next time.

4/13 3,200 calories in, 3,911 calories out
4/14 2,098 calories in, 3,933 calories out
4/15 nothing logged in, 4,118 calories out
4/16 nothing logged in, 4,658 calories out
4/17 nothing logged in, 4,618 calories out
4/18 2,370 calories in, 4,353 calories out
4/19 nothing logged in, 4,591 calories out

Sick

I have had quite the week. I hope everyone had a much better week than I did. Even when times are difficult there can be positive outcomes. This may be one such occasion. I will write about that in more detail shortly. Let's begin with the numbers and go from there.

The previous weigh in on 4/6 was 384.0 pounds. When I weighed in just a few minutes ago I have lost 9.4 pounds. My current weight is 374.6 pounds.

How did I lose this much weight in one week? It is pretty easy when can't keep anything down. I was so sick. I cannot remember the last time that I was this sick. That may not be so unusual given that I am getting old as dirt. I missed quite a bit of work and technically when I went back was still having problems. I don't want to get too graphic but it was a very rough week. I barely ate anything and drank lots of fluids to try to stay hydrated.

Unfortunately I don't know what else to really say about the week. I am going to post the partial numbers that I have below. I apologize that I failed to log calories on some of those days. Hopefully I can keep most of this weight off without any rubber band effect since I am starting to feel better. I am going to do my best. Hopefully the next blog post will be a bit more interesting than this one. That said, I do like the numbers. Stay safe my friends.

4/6 2,070 calories in, 4,794 calories out

4/7 2,260 calories in, 4,047 calories out

4/8 sick, nothing logged, 4053 calories out

4/9 sick, nothing logged, 4,213 calories out

4/10 sick, nothing logged, 3,543 calories out

4/11 sick, nothing logged, 3,893 calories out

4/12 2,535 calories in, 4,248 calories out

Failure

It is that time again. I have to admit at the outset that I did not want to write this blog post. Prior to weighing, I knew that I had a rough week. I was afraid that I may have gained everything back. I will get into that more shortly. First, let's get the numbers out of the way.

The previous weigh in on 3/30 was 383.2 pounds. The past week resulted in a gain of 0.8 pounds. My current weight is currently 384.0 pounds.

I am actually pretty relieved to see that number. This past week I had very little restraint. I feel like a hypocrite writing about temptations that I recognized last week and yet I succumbed to them this week in a big way. I am disappointed and feel like a failure. This was responsible for my reluctance to write this blog post.

Yet, I know that for me, this race is not going to be easy. No one is going to run it for me and I am going to stumble. I have to get back up. I have to fight. I have too much on the line. I will force myself to write about it when I fail because failure will not be an option for me. I will only be a failure if I give up. I hope that anyone reading this blog will be able to relate in some way and understand that if I say something one week that I may miss the mark the next. But my intentions are sincere.

I am very embarrassed to post these calorie numbers from the past week but I own this shortcoming. This was my fault. I will not paint it as something it was not. I need a better week to write about next time. Until then, goodbye!

3/30 2,869 calories in, 5,030 calories out
3/31 3,200 calories in, 4,312 calories out
4/1 3,828 calories in, 4,551 calories out
4/2 4,680 calories in, 4,775 calories out
4/3 3,842 calories in, 4,182 calories out
4/4 2,943 calories in, 4,895 calories out
4/5 4,050 calories in, 4,629 calories out

Numbers

It is time to weigh in! It was interesting to be back on the weight loss routine. I definitely noticed a couple of things that were temptations and points of failure prior to starting this up again. I will get into that shortly. First, let's see take a look at how the numbers for the first week stacked up.

The previous weigh in on 3/23 was 388.0 pounds. My past week of effort was rewarded with 4.8 pounds of weight loss. My current weight is now 383.2 pounds.

Two things very much stood out to me this past week. One was that I have a problem with eating very late at night. That is not a healthy habit because you don't really give your body a chance to burn any of those calories. I was so tempted to eat late at night. I was not perfect on this front. I believe that a couple of times I ate after midnight. To combat this, I counted those calories on the next day's log which reduced the calories that were available to me going into that day. Still, I know that is not a good habit and I will make every effort to stop that. The second thing was that when I am super busy and do not get to log my calories at the time I eat or before I eat again, problems happen. If you refer to the calorie log below, the two days I consumed 3k plus calories both happened on days that were busy and I ended up logging calories at the end of the day. Then I was disappointed to find out how many calories were in some of those items. I will also make more of an effort to log calories in a more timely fashion.

All things considered, I have to say that I am pretty excited to have lost nearly five pounds. I have a long way to go and I know that this was probably going to be easiest weigh in that I will have. Based on prior experience and common sense, things will only get more difficult from here. Still, I know that I can do this and I am motivated to stay the course.  Thank you to everyone that offered me encouragement and kind words. I appreciate you all so very much! Take care!

3/23 - 2,238 calories in, 4,424 calories out
3/24 - 3,083 calories in, 4,315 calories out
3/25 - 2,558 calories in, 4,436 calories out
3/26 - 2,578 calories in, 4,509 calories out
3/27 - 2,130 calories in, 4,672 calories out
3/28 - 3,362 calories in, 4,802 calories out
3/29 - 2,670 calories in, 4,907 calories out

Way Too Long

I am reticent to even write this post to be honest. Putting oneself out there on a subject like weight loss is great when you are doing well but what I have found is that I begin to feel like a phony when I attempt to start again. I have heard many times that the most successful people in the world failed quite a bit before becoming successful. I am hoping that this can be true of my weight loss journey as well. Anyone that has followed my journey will know that I have started and stopped many times now. For those that have followed it since the beginning, I did lose close to 100 pounds the first time. I write all this because it is difficult for me to put a stake in the ground and tell you that I am going to do this. In my mind, there will be those that say, "Yeah right, we have heard that before." But that assumes anyone even reads this blog. Haha. At least I have not lost my sense of humor.

Still, I must decide to do this. The thing that helped me in the past was knowing that I was going to make my weight loss journey public and that would keep me accountable. So, here we go. I just weighed in this morning and my current weight is 388 pounds even. I have a lot of work to do. I plan to weigh in weekly now simply because that affords me a weekend to write these blog posts. I will log my calories with the Lose It app. Let me know if anyone wants to follow me there. I will log my activity using my Apple Watch. I may or may not log my weekly calorie consumption vs. burn numbers inside each blog post. I had made a separate post for that in the past just for my own records.

I am pretty excited to start this process again. It is very much needed. Hopefully some people will find this content interesting or perhaps even find motivation as well. That would be incredible. To that end, I will be posting links to my Facebook account. Hopefully people do that find that super annoying. I am always conflicted by it but on the other hand it is very similar to a regular FB post in that I am sharing how I am doing and what is going on in my life. Anyway, I will stop rambling now. Check back next Saturday to see how much progress has been made. Oh, I forgot to mention that my goal is the same as it has always been. I want to weigh in under 200 pounds. Technically, I would love to get back to my high school weight of 175 pounds but that would be the extra push after the big initial goal. Until next time, goodbye!