Hi everybody.

This diary thing seems like a pretty good place to start my quest.

Here's some info about me:
I am 42 years old, married and with a 5 year old daughter.
I currently weigh 311 lbs, and am 5'11" in height.

My eventual goal is to get down to 200 lbs. I have no idea how much time that is going to take to accomplish, and I don't want to set a hard deadline and then get disheartened if I can't make it by then.
I think that incremental goals are a good idea, and my initial goal is to get to 280. I am hoping to be able to accomplish that within four months.

I want to be happy. I want to like myself.
I want to be able to live a long and healthy life, to watch my daughter grow into the remarkable person she is going to become.

I plan to accomplish this by modifying my entire way of life. I want to eat better, and less, and feel good about what I eat. I want to live a more active life, and I want both of these things to become natural parts of my being, not a discipline that I have to impose on myself (although I know that this is how it is going to have to start).

I am blessed with a wonderful and supportive wife, who is also learning to eat a healthier diet (by my terms she is already in good shape and I wish I could eat half as well as she does). My friends are also the supportive type, except that they all live in other cities and I don't see them very often (thank you email and Facebook, for helping us stay in regular contact!).

I have already started making the first changes. I am getting some kind of exercise every day. I am trying to stop drinking cola. I am consciously trying to eat less garbage.

What stands between me and my goals is mainly my love of junk food. Cola is my primary weakness, followed by fries, chips and the like. I like to eat fast food, but the options are limited in the small town I live in and that helps a bit. Also regular exercise is hard for me to maintain, and I easily slip back into sloth mode.
I, like many on this site as I have noticed, am a stress/comfort eater. I turn to food, specifically junk/fast food, when stressed, depressed, or just plain distressed. This is going to be a problem.

My current activities are walking, nordic walking, pounding on the heavy bag, and stationary biking (to cool down after pounding the heavy bag). I love to swim, but currently can't face the idea of going shirtless in public. I tried cross-country skiing once this winter and enjoyed it. I have also joined the local fencing club. Although it isn't a particularly strenuous activity, I very much enjoy archery.

I think that sharing my progress, successes and stumbles, will help me stay on the path.

Hi, Cord, and welcome! This is a great place, and I'm sure it can help you achieve your goals.

You sound like you have a good plan in place. Just be forgiving of yourself, especially at first. You are changing your whole lifestyle, not just for awhile, but forever, and slow change "takes" better than fast change does. When I first started this process, I gave myself two weeks to just pay attention to what I was doing and to start easing into a healthier lifestyle (notice I said *start.* It did NOT happen in two weeks!)

And I know what you mean about junk food. I was a cola junkie myself (diet), but now it's very rare for me to drink anything other than water, not because I don't allow myself to, but because I've learned to actually taste what I'm eating and drinking, and sodas are just too strong.

Anyway, I don't want to write a book here. I just want to say hi, welcome, and we'll be keeping an eye on you!

Thanks, Sonnet, I appreciate the support.

I'm on day 5 of being cola-free. I actually keep a couple of cans at work and at home just so that I can say "If I wanted one I could have it, so not having one is a conscious choice. I'll have some water instead".

I'm drinking weak tea as well. Gives me the caffeine without the sugar.

We bought a two-liter of Coke last night and I drank way too much... I love the stuff. But I usually don't keep it in the house. My laziness beats my craving every time.

First diary entry:

I started the process on the 2nd, so I will start there. By the way, it ain't a pretty sight, food-wise, so steel yourselves.

April 2:

Tale of the Tape (and scale):
311lbs
Chest 55"
Waist 53.5"
Hips 52"
Neck 17.5"
Biceps 17"
Forearms 13"
Thighs 30"
Calves 20"

Breakfast - 1 square cornbread and 4oz milk

Lunch - 2 eggs, 1 hamburger patty, hashbrowns, 2 slices white toast with peanut butter, 1 pint choloclate milk

Late afternoon - 1 orange

Supper - large chicken salad (6oz chicken, lettuce tomato, dried cranberries, croutons, light ceasar dressing)

Exercise - 20 minutes workout on heavy bag (strength/aerobic), plus 10 minute cooldown on staionary bike.

April 3

Breakfast - 1 slice 50% ww bread with almond buter, 4oz milk

Lunch #1 - 8 potstickers with honey garlic sauce

Lunch #2 - Hamburger and fries

Supper - 1 oz pasta and 1 slice 50% ww bread with tomato sauce

Evil late night bacon binge - 5 slices bacon

Exercise: 1 hour nordic walking (approximately 5 miles) - too much at this time, was quite sore later that evening.

April 4

Evil breakfast bacon binge - 6 slices bacon (really not proud of that and felt quite ill afterwards)

Mid-morning snack - 1 banana

Lunch - 4oz mennonite sausage (lower fat than regular sausage, but it's still freakin' sausage, fer cryin' out loud) and veggies (1 tomato, 1 carrot, 2 sticks celery, 1/3 cucumber)

Supper - 6oz oven-roasted chicken breast, huge quantity of mashed potatoes, carrots and corn, 8oz milk (felt quite overfull and ill after supper)

Late night binge - 2 scoops ice cream

Exercise: 20 min on the NordicTrack, at setting 2 (pretty low)


See? I told you it wasn't pretty...

Hello
Well, it's ture , I also eat when I am feeling down. Any kind of negative emotion makes me want to eat the fridge and it makes me feel good afterwards, dono why but it does and it really sucks.

At least you are being honest with yourself, and now you can look at what you are eating closely because you wrote it down and try to find ways to change it around, maybe substituting certain nasty foods with more healthier foods. Being healthy is a lifestyle and it's a process that needs to be learned and I think that as long as we keep trying and working at it that we will eventually find out what works best for us and it will become easier and easier each day. I am a newbie as well so it's not like I made a 360 with my life, I still am learning how to deal with cravings, cutting out the bad stuff and portion control. I jsut had dinner and I honestly think that I could have NOT eaten as much as I did but hey, we can do it.
The ball is in our court.

Good luck with all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had days that were so much worse than anything in your post, so don't sweat it. If you beat yourself up about it, it'll just kill your motivation at this point. Tomorrow is another day, right?

Is the bacon binge a regular occurrence? Or did you just have bacon in the fridge? If it's a particular problem, I'd suggest keeping it out of the house. I mean, bacon is awesome, and bacon grease is an awesome cooking oil for those who don't care about their cardiovascular health, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

No, in fact I very rarely buy bacon, but I do love it so. It may be the tastiest food in creation.
I just happened to have bought some right before making my decision to change. I'm cooking it in the oven so that it doesn't sit there in the pan, frying in its own fat. That makes it ever so slightly less dangerous.

I'm still just starting, and am more in the 'analysing my food intake' mode than I am 'modifying my food intake'.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

By writing down your current diet you can now see more clearly what can be changed a bit at a time to make your diet more healthy and achieve your goals

Great effort !!

Yeah, that's why I was asking. I had BLTs last night, but I almost never buy bacon, either. It is mighty tasty, though.

Establishing a baseline so you know what needs to change is a good idea. But a few days is all you really need to do before making some changes.

Just don't make my mistake... I ate way too little all day and had to force myself to eat more so I wouldn't get a headache.... I mean, I wanted to eat a lot more, but I was so adamant about being good today that I overshot it.

Cord, from where I sit, you are doing everything exactly right. First, as someone has already said, you are being honest with yourself and you are keeping yourself accountable to us by writing down everything you eat. That's a HUGE first step.

And as you know, just developing that awareness of what you are eating will help you.

But your diet is NOT as bad as it could be. You are eating (some) whole grains, fruits, and veggies. That means you only have to work on eating more of those things are fewer of the good but bad stuff (like fries and bacon). Burgers: get some Laura's 4% lean ground beef. No additives, and 4 oz = 140 calories. Grill it so you aren't adding extra fat, and put it on a whole grain bun with lots of veggies and low fat mayo (or just mustard) and 2% cheese. Yum! And you can oven-back some steak fries. I microwave potatoes, then cut them in wedges, spray with Pam, season (pepper, garlic, cumin and chili powder) and put them in a 400 degree oven until they are brown. McDonald's can't TOUCH that!

Just work on finding healthier versions of all the stuff on your list. You'll be dropping the pounds before you know what happened

Sonnet, thanks for the inspiring post! For burgers I am a big fan of buffalo - incredibly lean and tasty - and always go for the whole wheat bun when available. We also like to make over fries form the weight watchers cookbook - they are quite similar to yours.

Here is April 5:

Breakfast: 1 slice bread with almond butter (I like almond butter because the all-natural kind tastes good to me, unlike all-natural PB)

Mid-morning snack: 1 orange

Lunch: leftovers from yesterday's supper - roasted chicken breast, mashed potatoes, carrots and corn

Supper: pasta primavera (pasta w/ a little olive oil tossed with fresh veggies and a little feta - fantastic!)

Late-night comfort: 6oz cocoa

Exercise: mid-morning: 15 min. stretching, 10 push-ups, 10 crunches, 20 back raises and 20 squats

mid-afternoon: 10 pushups, 10 crunches and 20 squats

late afternoon: 30 min. nordic walking (approx 1.7 miles).

A much better day overall, but I pulled something during the push-ups and crunches and was sore later that evening. Fine today, though.

And I know 10 push-ups, 10 crunches doesn't sound like much, but ya gotta start somewhere...

Wow, Cord--that's a BIG difference in diet from one day to the next. (And is that whole wheat pasta you're eating?)

Have you started tracking your calories over at FitDay yet? Especially since you are adding in the exercise right from the beginning, you want to make sure your calorie intake doesn't get too low.

As for your exercise, I'm impressed that you are doing so much so early. I have every confidence you're going to drop weight like crazy!

Yeah, boy, let's do this!

I 2nd the FitDay recommendation. It really helps to be able to see how many calories you've eaten. And the custom food thing is nice for me, since I make a lot of recipes from a book with nutrition info and can enter each recipe in advance. It's a powerful tool, and possibly even worth the money for the premium, though I'm not there yet. :P

Some people shy away from counting calories, but tracking your diet on FitDay just helps to keep it in a good range. You can set goals, track your weight, and loads of other things.

Anyway....

Have a good day today, and keep us posted!

Another day, another entry!

BTW, I'm already finding this diary to be incredibly helpful, mentally at the very least. I'm logging my food and activity in a notebook as well, but it is a whole 'nother animal to be posting it for everyone to see. Makes you think...

Anyway, Here's Monday, April 6:

Breakfast: 2 slices bacon (the last of the bacon in the refrigerator!), 1 slice toast w/margarine.

Supper: 5 oz. pan-fried buffalo, 1 cup mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn, salad.

Exercise: 1 hour on stationary bike in the morning, and 1 hour strolling through the park with family in the afternoon.


Note: I wasn't trying to skip meals or anything today. I just got so busy that I didn't think about food until dinnertime.

I had plans to jump on the bike again before bed, but stayed up on the computer too late and decided to get some sleep instead.