Hello Everyone or Anyone!

Stumbled across this website the other day and got carried a little carried away by it!

I am 33 years old, and on April 29th of this year (2009) I weighed in at 234.8 pounds. I had noticed I had been getting bigger over the later part of winter but this year something really upset me about it.

I went through this process last year as well. Last spring I weighed in at 233 lbs, went on a big binge, peaked around 210lbs and quit in frustration. Unfortunately what I wasnt aware of at the time was recent workout changes had began building a fair amount of muscle in a hurry... and trusting the scale was my bane. As I lost fat I developed muscle so the #'s werent diminishing as fast as I would have liked and like I said, I got frustrated and quit.

This year, I took a lot longer to get myself mobile and took a serious look at my lifestyle and why I was fat. It came right down to my eating habits. I realized I had certain things / times / etc. that were triggering my desire to eat... I spent a good couple weeks trying to identify these and figure out WHY they caused me to eat. In most cases, it came to a matter of immediate gratification.

2 months ago, my daily diet intake was approximately:

2-3 BIG cups of coffee (ea. with 2 tbsp of sugar and a few tbsp of hazelnut flavored coffee creamer).
I would have a dinner sized lunch, often all you can eat chinese food.
I would eat until I couldnt eat anymore at dinner... until my stomach actually felt "bulging" like too much turkey at christmas. Daily.
For me to bake up a 9" pan of spaghetti at 11pm and devour the entire thing was a regular occurance.

Top all that off with 8-12 hours a day of sitting on my ass in front of a computer or my playstation 3 and its a recipe for L A R D!

The 2 hours a day I spent doing any amount of activity just didnt cut it. The sheer volume of really unhealthy foods I was eating was slowly killing me as well.

It was time for a change!

About the middle of may I began making my changes. I began by starting walking 8km every day. I stopped drinking coffee altogether and began replacing alot of my foods of choice with things a little better than me.

From the middle of may to May 28th my average daily food intake consisted of:

1 cup of green tea (nothing added)
1 Smoothie (1/2 cup skim milk, 1/2 cup light yogurt, 1 banana, 1 tray of ice cubes, 1/2 cup of any other fruit)
1 bowl of rice (white) with 1/2 cup of skim milk, 2 tsp of brown sugar, 2tbsp raisins.
1 piece of thick whole wheat bread, often accompanied with a slice of cheese.
1 burger with all the fixing (cheddar, ketchup, lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard) on thick whole wheat bread.
(If I am still hungry late in the day I may have a light snack of leftovers ( a burger patty minus all the fixings and bread as example).
*Throughout the day I will consume as much water as I am comfortable with... between 6 and 10 bottles (591ml).
*I eat snacks of celery stalks, carrot sticks or a banana as I see fit.

As of the morning of May 29th, 2009 I weighed in at 213.6 lbs. I had lost 21.2 lbs in my first month!

So im getting close to a week since I last weighed myself. I am still excersizing regularly including a long walk every day. I have upped the amount of work I have been doing to include:

Walk (8 km distance. Do it twice every other day now).
Every 2nd day I do 1 hour of weight lifting, chin ups, crunches, etc. in my shop. (Today I managed 10 chinups, 2 reps of 10 pushups and a ton of crunches in a variety of positions).
On the days I dont lift weights I have been getting on my treadmill for a 30 minute go. Getting between 4.8 and 5.2 in distance travelled so I feel I am moving at a moderate speed. The treadmill is definately a far heavier workout than my 8km walk... I sweat like a pig (soaked t-shirt and shorts).

Determined to not get on the scale again until the 29th of June... Long haul.

Hey there NotSoSlim! WElcome to the site!

Well done on your loss so far, and on making the change to healthy! Seems like you ahve a good handle on the exercise, and it's awesome that you have changed your diet and gotten rid of all the bad stuff!!

Keep up the good work!

ps... you will have to change your name to SoSlim when you get to your goal weight

Another warm sunny day here in Williams Lake! Gonna go bust out my walk before it gets too hot outside.

Had to tighten the string on my jogging pants today! Forced myself to look in the mirror... the "slab" is certainly different in shape and appearance than a month ago!

Almost dont wanna go for a walk this morning.... not a cloud anywhere. But looking at my treadmill is making my legs ache...

Noon: Just got in. Damn its hot out there, air isnt moving at all. Can see the air quality in town is crummy... dust everywhere. Good walk though! Gonna make myself a chicken breast sandwich and down some more water. /afternoon

2pm: Been playing around at Fitday... I approximate I burn about 3400+ calories a day. Now I plugged into it that I would like to go from 211 lbs down to 175 lbs by the end of august, so I have to lose 2.78 lbs / week (it says is too high, i know.). However, its saying that at burning 3400 calories a day - 1490 calorie restrictor = can consume 1910 calories a day.

I have been entering my daily average food intake, and for the most part I average per day:

1750 calories, 47g fat, 230g carbs, 105g protein.

Am hoping this is enough... I dont feel hungry and the amount of water im consuming lately lets me know as soon as I am.

Looking good so far!

Damn but I want the chocolate ice cream thats sitting in my freezer.... big huge pail...

I got work in an hour thankfully... gonna keep myself busy till then without the ice cream

how tall are you?

I love green tea, one of the best choices i ever made was to switch from coffee to tea...it's amazing.

thanks for stopping by my journal!!

Im 5'11. I have been drinking 1 cup of green and white tea in the morning before I go for my walk most mornings.

Nice to meet you! Thx for stopping in

Blah! Today will be the 5th time in the last 10 months the company I work for has messed up payroll and I havent been paid... gogo 5 weeks in between paycheques for the lose! Not a great way to start my frickin weekend...

2 cups of java so far, complete with an @$$load of sugar. frickin go me. but not for a walk. goddamit i h8 life!

What a totally crappy day.

2 cups of coffee complete with 2% cream and 2 tbsp. sugar each.
2 cups of Special K with 1 cup of skim milk
2 thick slices of 60% whole wheat bread
2 cans of beer

Only going out for my walk now... nice and cool. Hope I dont get nailed on the highway by a drunk... Hate living so close to a bar

Gonna have another beer when I get home. Maybe two. Along with some home made mac and cheese (pasta, cream cheese, cream, margarine, some spices and some ground cheddar!).

Think im gonna cave and weigh myself in the morning as well. Its been a week today since I weighed myself. Really wanted to hold out for the 29th but thats a hell long time away.

*crossing my fingers*

Well, can't totally disagree with you, guy.

You definitely didn't have a great day, food-wise. You need to eat a more balanced diet, I'd say. Everything you ate today was brown, white, or yellow.
Throwing some fruit and vegetables in there is essential. Mac and cheese (even homemade) washed down with beer isn't really an ideal dinner. Although your mac and cheese does sound good...

However,
Look at what you were eating a couple of months ago. Even today was better than that - at least you didn't eat until bulging, then do it again later.

But yeah, you have to eat better.

I have a friend who lost a pretty huge amount of weight, and when asked what she did, her response was "Canada Food Guide - who knew?"

Yeah yesterday wasnt the best for food intake... wasnt a good day in general though so I think I did ok given that im prone to binge eating when im stressed.

Anyway..... *inserts drum roll*

Weight: 208.6 lbs, down from 213.6 on May 29th! VERY Happy with this.

Somewhere in the next 3 lbs I will be the same weight I was 14 years ago when I met my wife! WOOOOOOOOOOOT!

I REALLY wanna be below 200lbs by July 14th! Only 8.6lbs to go! /excited!

That's excellent!

How exciting!!

I think being under 200 by July 14th is a very reasonable goal.

Don't worry we all have "bad" days. But just like Cord says, be aware and remember what you were eating a few months ago.

Hope your weekend went well.

Thanks guys.

Anyhow, end of another successful week so am pretty excited to see how next week is going to go! Im eating alot less... primarily focusing on my triggers and making myself think before I eat about whether I am actually hungry, etc. My diet is alot better now all in all but I am still eating some no-no's. I have no intentions of giving up everything good. I think its all alright taken in moderation.

Fun Foods I ate over last week:

2x Cadbury Caramilk bars
4 cups Chocolate Ice Cream
Shared my wifes English Toffee Cappucino before work each night
6 beer