So not really progress. In the last 2 weeks I have gained 2 pounds and my BMI went up by 2%. Not exactly the number progress I was working for. Now if I go for appearance some parts of me have thinned out some and my arms and legs have a lot more muscle. I also learned how to use one of the workout equipment pieces I was unsure of this weekend which add a few more weight exercises to my routine. Its not all about the numbers. Still going and working hard.
Monsoon season is here and it makes walking even the 5 minutes to the gym a little unbearable at times. However that doesn’t stop me from working out at home. I just do a lot more body weight exercise which when you are fat are great because you have a lot of weight to lift. I also do a lot more yoga and stretches. I am going to be getting some resistance bands for home and travel so I can limit the amount of excuses I have for not working out. Seems I can do most of the exercises I do in the gym with them. We will see how that goes. In the mean time I am going to be trying to stay dry.
Last time I was on the Paleo Path I didnt do any kind of strength training or real exercise. It was pure diet and a little walking. This time I am determined to see how adding strength training to the mix will be. Luckily I have a gym in my building that I can walk to in five minutes. Conveniant means I am more likely to go. Granted it has been there for over a year and I bought sneakers to use it last year when I went 3 times but now I am determined to make it part of my life and for the last two weeks I have.
Every day I hit the gym. I am not an hour long gym enthusiast and for now I just want to get in the gym and do something. I am finding I do a nice rotation at the machines working arms and legs doing heavy weights and short reps. I try and cycle through twice and going to work on three times next week. I am already seeing muscle growth and better body definition. Sadly my weight seems to maintain and I am not really sure of the muscle weighs more than fat excuse but I am going to go with that for now.
Thanks for reading.
This morning I weighed in at exactly 220lbs. Since I started I have lost 60lbs. Since I have started weighing myself with my Fitbit scale I have lost 20lbs towards my goal. My current goal is 210lbs which I feel is very attainable though perhaps not by my birthday. I had a few weeks of staying steady at 225 and that kind of put me off target. I cut back this week on my caloric intake which I was apprehensive about at first but I found to be easier than I thought. I switched up my breakfast to be a little bit lighter as well as lunch and dinner and cut out a chai latte and reduced the size.
Once I hit my goal weight I may aim for another 10lbs lower but I will pretty happy at 210. Like I have said before I am lighter than I have ever been in my adult life and most likely thinking back probably mid-high school.
As it gets colder here getting in my walks outside have been switched to walking in circles in my apartment. Not that exciting but I have my tv going while I do it and so I am able to catch up on shows as I walk. I still try to get in some strength training with pushups, planks, mountain climbers and crunches but they are not that exciting.
As I have lost a bunch of weight over the last few months with just diet and some walking, I have decided I need to add some weight training in to my regime. I probably should add some cardio too but baby steps. For the last 15 days I have been doing two different 30 day challenges. An arm and an Ab one. They have been really good and I can see the changes which are nice. I will probably keep going, or at least change them up once I am done with them.
Sadly I have stalled on my weight loss. Which means I either need to up my activity or lower my caloric intake. I know a couple places I could lower caloric intake (Chai, I am looking at you) but really I am pretty happy with the amount I am taking in so I will try and focus on upping my activity level. That means either more walking or some cardio or a mixture of both.
It is getting cold here faster than I would like which may mean I need to find a lot more indoor activities I like for keeping this going or invest in some snow shoes.
Anyway still going, toning up and working towards my goal but it is now not targeting for my birthday. Without doing anything drastic I may just have to live with that and be happy I am still seeing physical changes that are positive beyond weight.
My apologies to anyone who actually reads this. I totally have been traveling every other week and then not posting. Here is a post though. I have been working hard at my current goal post being obese. That goal has a date attached to it which is my Birthday in November. As of today I am Halfway to my goal from when I set it which was 15lbs ago. I am actually 16lbs down but lets just call it half. So the goal is 210 by my birthday. I feel pretty good about it. Definitely think I will make it.
Fit bit is still my favorite tool for keeping me on course. My scale gives me three fun numbers to play with. My weight, body fat percentage and my BMI. Sure people say BMI is bullshit and it might very well be but you know what is cool watching all these numbers go down. I will take it.
Of course as I lose weight my fitbit page adjusts my calorie intake to reflect how much I should eat to meet my goal. That number also keeps going down which means I need to make some sacrifices in my eating or kick up my activity level. First compromise which has worked well is switching from my beloved Venti Chai Latte to a Tall (or Mezzo as they call it here). That little move shaves off 120 calories each drink and since I am an addict I have 2 a day and that saves me 240 calories. That is awesome. Means I can eat like half a sausage or something stupid.
My daily meals routine is roughly the same.
Breakfast: 2 pieces of Bacon and 1 egg
Morning Snack: Banana and a tall chai latte
Lunch: 2 sausage and some peppers. onions and mushrooms with tomato sauce
Afternoon Snack: tall chai latte
Dinner: Beef stew with carrots, mushrooms and onions
Desert: Maybe another Banana
Activity for me is on average 10k steps. Though I am working hard to get more than that in a day to help offset the ever decreasing calories I am able to have with my lower weight. More activity means more food and I like this reward.
Also with Winter looming ahead I need to find an activity that will replace some of the walking that will not be happening in the snow. Walking was easy and getting myself to walk more wasnt much of a challenge. But what to do when walking isnt an option. Considering more Yoga, some of those 30 day challenges or maybe even P90X.
I am hoping my all or nothing behavior will kick in for one of these and I will ride the train to awesome fitness. We will see.
Till next time stay groovy.
So life has been good. Today I earned my 15lbs lost badge on Fitbit. This based on from having my Aria scale for about a month now so the amount lost is from my highest weight I hit while having it 153 and I am now 137. Which is great and an all time low for my adult life. I keep repeating this because seriously I have been obese all of my adult life. That is kind of crazy to think about but it is true. The reality is I was obese all of my teenage years and a good portion of my youth. So now at 35 I am making the right changes to make that not the case. I am well on target for a personal goal I want to achieve before the end of this month. Then I have another for my birthday in November.
I was gaining weight or really maintaining weight and not really understanding why. I was doing lots of stairs, doing my 10k of steps and 5 miles a day. I thought I was tracking my calories correctly (no reason to lie to myself about what I was eating). I cut out fruit, I briefly cut out my Chai Lattes and still just standing still or losing then gaining.
So I looked at my intake and realized I was missing some important information. Liquid Calories that were not being recorded. I drink a lot of water but I also drink Almond milk because it is way tastier than water. I was drinking a lot of it. Since it is 80 Calories a cup and I was pounding down more and more a day I was not tracking it well enough to realize I was blowing through extra calories. So I cut out the Almond milk, increased my water, had a chai or two and looked at my portions as a whole and BAM back to a steady weight decrease.
For food I have cut down my breakfast portions slightly. I was doing 2 eggs and 3-4 pieces of bacon for breakfast and then a bunch of fruit for a snack in the morning. I now moved to one egg, 2 pieces of bacon and a banana for breakfast. No more fruit. Lunch is still baby spinach salad and I add raw mushrooms and some grilled chicken strips. Dinner this week has been a small pork chop and some Brussels sprouts and carrots. Keeping the portions reasonable and recorded. I might now be over estimating my calories vs before where I was underestimating but that is ok.
I still try to do 9 flights a stairs at a time but if not I at least do bursts of 4-5 at a time. I am averaging about 40-50 flights of stairs a day. I am steadily doing 10k steps a day with the occasional rest day. Like Saturday I did 500 steps total which was me moving from my bed, to kitchen to couch to bathroom etc. It was a blissful rest day. I watched a lot of episodes of the Vampire Diaries. This week I have been working on going to bed earlier and waking up earlier to fit in some Yoga in the morning. So far it has gone well and have done it 3 days in a row. I started some Yoga in the evening as well right before Bed. We will see if that one lasts but I do like that I am able to add some more healthy habits as I go along. I may get back to Dance Central as a periodic cardio thing to break up the other stuff or as an addition but for now I feel I have made great strides from being sedentary to being more active.
Every day is a change for the better. Any step backwards I analyze and improve upon. I will be the perfect me.
So I have to say I love my fitbit. Since I acquired the fitbit I have been trending towards a more active and balanced life. Doing paleo is great and I feel better and eat better but it wasn’t getting me to be more active. Or maybe it was but not to the extreme I have taken things at this point.
I actively strive to hit my daily goals. Over the last few weeks I have been slowly hitting my goals across the board. It makes the experience very personal and something I enjoy. Where I would have just sat on my couch when I get home, I instead look at my fitbit and go for a walk instead. If I see I am near an achievement I will put in some extra time to do it.
This week I hit a number of cool goals. I lost 10 lbs on my aria scale. I did 75 flights of stairs and then the next day I did 100 flights of stairs. I have made it into the top 5 of my friends which is kind of hard since the 10 3 exceed my 7 day totals by a good bit but in time who knows.
I also balance out my eating plan by tracking my daily intake. Not something i have to do but something I do just to get an idea of my eating habits and see when I may stray. I am being honest which is important because when I see fluctuations in my weight I have pretty good idea how it happened and now what to cut out as I go forward.
There is probably a bad habit of checking numbers and my scale. I weigh myself every morning. I may be a little obsessed with it. I am ok with it though because it keeps me on track and don’t get discouraged I get encouraged and determined to better myself.
I feel bad for neglecting this space so I will write a few things here.
As I said in an earlier post I got a fitbit. I will post more on that soon. So far I love it.
I was on vacation and was a little bad about eating. However I have gotten back on track. I am very happy with what I am doing.
Right now besides eating Paleo I am counting calories and watching my intake. The great thing is I really dont have to but to give myself a better idea of how I eat and how it affects me I am logging it on fitbit.
I realized contrary to my earlier belief dairy does have an effect on me. So I am cutting out my chai latte. I may have one once in a while but I was lying to myself that I could have one every day. Besides being 320 calories I also wasnt feeling great after drinking them. Now that I listen to my body more I am making sure to listen. So chai latte out.
Walking to work and home from work everyday now. The walk is getting better back home. I still feel like I want to die a little but I get something like 25 flights of stairs on my fitbit from doing it. So win.
I stopped stairs at work up from the bottom floor but decided to try it after lunch today. It wasnt awesome but it wasnt awful. We didnt end up moving to the 5th floor so I am still on the 9th floor. That walk is a beast but it is good for me. I will work harder to sneak it in.
Still no Yoga. Need to work on that.
Buying a fitbit scale this weekend so I can actually track my weight and not guess.
That is all.
I was on vacation last week and decided to pick up a fitbit since a good number of my friends have been doing it. So far I really enjoy it. It lets me see how active or inactive I am. I can set a goal for weight loss and I can keep track of my calories eaten and those burned. With the weight loss tracking it sets a limit on my calories in which is great. I like when I burn more by being more active I can take in more calories to balance it all out or not. For the game designer in me I really like all of the gamification aspects of this product.
It tracks my number of steps and gives me a daily goal of 10000. I have yet to reach that but get pretty close each day and I am sure I can do it once I actively put myself towards that goal. I have 10 floors of step goal which is easy for me to hit. I have water intake goal which I fail at. Calorie goals, miles walked goals and all of it just helps motivate me to do more.
I can add in more activities I might do like Dance Central or Yoga. I like that a lot.
Really the Fitbit is just one more thing to help me stay on track and be a healthier me. I will report more on it as I go but first week with it and I love it so far.
You can add me as a friend on fit bit at cmmifsud at gmail dot com.
Chris Does Anything 