It’s Been Awhile …

… but I’m still here. And actually, even though I haven’t been blogging a lot, I’m still faithfully working out and sweating my you-know-what off. In fact, I did 45 minutes of a hard workout just a little while ago.

Also, I’m still Smart For Lifeing, although highly modified so that I can work out hard (800 calories a day while working out just doesn’t cut it), and still Eat Stop Eating two days a week — in fact, I’m in the middle of an ESE interval as we speak. And toss a little Thintuition in, and I’m a happy boy.

I’ll post a more-complete report on my progress probably later Monday or Tuesday. Overall, I’m at 250 lbs., a 75 lb. loss from where I started last December 10th. Wow. What’s more, my fat % has been decreasing big-time ever since I’ve started exercising hard again. I’m back into what I considered to be my “skinny” size 40 pants — in other words, size 40 pants that I wonder if they’re 38s or not.

My scale weight hasn’t been dropping all that much in the past few weeks, but my measurements certainly have. I don’t need to see the scale weight drop as much as I thought I would, actually. My clothes and how I look are actually more important to me right now. The clothes look good. And from what I hear, I look much better than I have in years.

When I made the decision to start losing last December, I was in size 48s. Forty-frickin-eights! Man, I can’t believe it. It’s all really good, though, and I’ve been doing well.

And a quick follow up to my Well, Damn post: I’m going into the doctor’s next Monday to see how bad the cutting is going to be on my back. Even though I’m determined not to let this throw me off schedule, I am disappointed that I will very likely have to cut back on my exercising for awhile. I made a promise to myself, though, that I will get right back on the proverbial horse as soon as I can. Plus, I at least can walk and maybe even do cardio on the elliptical (probably as long as I don’t use the arm swingy thingies).

I’ll probably update next after my doctor’s appointment. Ciao for now.

Gulp!

… both figuratively and literally.

‘Memba the old saying, “Drink 8 glasses of water a day to stay healthy” … ?

Well, not so much, evidently.

If you already knew this, my apologies (it’s been out since early April). But this is the first I’ve heard of it, and I have to admit, I’m really surprised.

It won’t change my habits, mainly because I need to drink lots of water because of my gout condition. But there’s one comment that I’d like to call shenanigans on;

There are no studies that show that chugging H2O will curb your appetite.

As someone who fasts twice a week for 24 hour periods (via the Eat Stop Eat program), I can say that during fast time, I drink lots of water. I drink more when I’m feeling hungry. For me, at least, it takes the hunger more or less away, almost right away.

I think I’ll wait to see more evidence on this one, thank you very much!

Owww…

If you’ve been following my posts at TTMembers.com about my progress in the Transformation Contest, you’ve no doubt read that my legs have been sore almost all frakin’ week. Today’s the first day they’ve felt okay.

Turns out I probably overdid it last Sunday (yep, I know today’s Friday. I am talking last Sunday). The soreness was so bad it put my workout schedule off by a day all week long, and I had to take Tuesday totally off from exercising.

Thank goodness it’s essentially gone now. I did a light workout on Wednesday (still feeling fairly sore), went heavy yesterday (altho I shortened the routine because I didn’t want to go through the soreness all over again) and did light cardio this morning. Tomorrow, it’ll be heavy again before a fun-filled day of volunteering at a local festival, with “fun-filled” being serious and not sarcastic.

The good news? I’m down to 255 as of this morning. I’m also getting off of another Eat Stop Eat fasting interval. I’m hoping that because of that (along with a healthy dinner of sushi tonight) I’ll be down even more come tomorrow, which is Official Weigh-In Day for me, in terms of keeping track of all the #’s. Wish me luck on that!

If you want to follow my daily progress, sign up for TTMembers.com today.

Computer, Disable Ignorance Mode …

Well, I broke down and weighed myself this morning. After going off the weight-loss road last week, I’ve really been hitting it hard this week, in terms of both exercise and diet. And my work has paid off — I’m at 258 this morning, which (if memory serves) is only a pound more than is exactly the same as my last weigh-in two weeks ago. Believe me, after the emotional roller-coaster that was last week, this is a big’un accomplishment for me.

What’s more, I think I’m down even more in terms of pure fat loss. I put on a pair of jeans today I have never been able to wear (size 40s — I’m here, bitches!). And when I say I put them on, I mean I put them on to frakkin’ wear today; not just to see if they fit. So that is a major accomplishment.

I’ve also noticed a bit more definition in my arms, legs and even my abs today; that tells me I’ve probably gained even more muscle. Believe me, I’m very far away from getting a six-pack, devil ears, etc. in the ol’ abs/lower trunk area. But I am starting to actually see progress. So I got that goin’ for me. Which is nice.

Additionally, I’m in the middle of another Eat Stop Eat fasting interval today. So hopefully I’ll be down even more in time for my Smart for Life weigh-in tomorrow. But even if I don’t lose an ounce of weight between today and tomorrow, I don’t care. I’m a happy, happy camper.

All of that, plus some good news with my work/career-related stuff (that I can’t talk about right now), and I’m going into this weekend on really, really high notes. Life is (very) good.

Then on Sunday, it’s Day 1 of the Transformation Contest for me! My next post will come on Sunday, and it’ll have all of the titilating “start” stats for this next major phase of my fat-loss life. See ya then!

Ignorance is …

… well, just ignorant. But that’s what I’m doing this week: Being ignorant … about my weight.

Last week, during the family emergency, we (my wife and I) did our best to stay on plan. And to be fair, we exercised quite a bit while we were gone. But we pretty much fell off of Smart for Life. While we didn’t gorge ourselves, we did likely cause some damage to our fat-loss efforts.

We’re back on track this week, including an Eat Stop Eat fast on Monday into Tuesday, and another one scheduled for tomorrow into Friday. Because after all, life happens. We know we can easily get back on track and do fine, so we do. As long as we don’t fall off too often, which we don’t.

I weigh in on Saturday, and then I start the Transformation Contest on Sunday. I’ll update on both of those days.

And as for the family emergency? Let’s just say we had quite the scare, but things are much better now, thanks for asking.

Weigh-In, 4/26

Well, weighed in at Smart for Life today. I came in at 258, which is a 4 lb. loss. Pretty good. What’s more, my morning weigh-in (the number I really keep track of) was at 257.

Weight, what a funny thing. A constantly moving target. You never truly know what your weight is, which is why you need to do your “keep track” weight at the same time when charting it/remembering it/whatever. Usually that’s first thing in the morning, after you’ve done any bathroom business you need to do.

This week was week 1 of the multi-layered week, in terms of what I’m doing exercise wise and nutrition-wise. To sum up:

• Exercise: Turbulence Training Introduction program for bodyweight/resistance and Pace Fitness for interval training 3x a week; slow-go cardio for 30 minutes the other 3 days
• Nutrition: Smart for Life w/1 extra protein shake daily; Eat Stop Eat 24 hour fasting for 2 periods; Thintuition to know when I’m hungry and how much to eat

I’ll keep this up (while switching the TT program to the Beginner’s program probably the week after next) for … well … for as long as it works for me. Hopefully, that’ll be for a really long time, as I really like doing all of this.

Another bit ‘ good news. When I weighed in, the S4L doc (a great lady, BTW) weighed me on the extremely high-falutin’ Tanita professional scale (that could help you hack into the Pentagon). While I don’t remember the percentages, my body fat was down from a month ago, but my muscle mass was up! This means I’ve lost even more fat than what the overall “scale” number indicates — which is why I hate our society’s over-dependence on the “scale” number. It’s extremely inadequate.

I may even have to add another protein shake in during the day, which would be cool. I think that it would spike my metabolism even more. I’ll give that a week or two, though.

She even said I’m “ahead of schedule” in my weight-loss efforts. Cool.

So all in all, a great week! Looking forward to another one this week, especially now that I’ll be working out in my home.

A “Big” Announcement

… I always hesitate using the word “big” in a blog about weight loss    .

Any-who, the big news is I’m going to join the Transformation Contest when it starts back up. Cash and prizes, plus the ultimate in accountability (a contest!) — you can’t go wrong. I’ll post details as I come across them. Click on the link to see the winners from the last contest. The winner is kinda hot, too.

Coming up tomorrow or Sunday … an update on my weigh-in this week — the first full week of Turbulence Training with some Pace Program tossed in, with side dishes of Smart for Life and Eat Stop Eat and a dash of Thintuition. Could I fit more things into my life right now? Eh, maybe. But for now, this’ll do, reader, this’ll do.

BTW – the weigh in? Let’s just say I have a really good feeling about it. After all, I’ve had a sneak peek at week-to-date results.

Quick Update

Thought I’d update quickly, especially because this marks the first time in 3 weeks it has been a Wednesdy and I haven’t been in the midst of a gout attack. Can’t tell you how happy that makes me.

Anyhow, I’ve exercised every day (Sunday and Tuesday “heavy days,” Monday and this morning “low-and-slow cardio), and am feeling fantastic. I’m down to 261, but if my lower-end Tanita scale is to be believed, I’ve lost more fat than the overall weight number indicates. Which is good — I’m about losing fat and clothing fitting even better more than watching one dumb ol’ number that doesn’t even directly relate to how I’m doing with losing fat. Yep, I feel pretty strongly about that.

To help us out with tracking more than just overall weight and fat loss, I bought a high-falutin’ Tanita scale — the Tanita Ironman BC554 (scroll down to see it). Let’s just say that this scale is so advanced, if you put jet engines on it? Yep, it’d fly.

We also took all of our tax refund (plus a little extra, but not a lot), and bought an elliptical for the house. With this, we’ll be able to dump our gym memberships and save money in the long term. Plus it’ll save us travel time in the morning, which, if you live in DC or have heard about our traffic, can be considerable.

We got this bad boy: the Octane Fitness Q47e. If you could exercise and sweat your you-know-what off and do it all in a Cadillac at the same time, this would be the machine that would do it. Oh. My. God. I’ll tell more about its virtues after we get it delivered. 

Quitting the gym isn’t a big deal, though. Since I’m doing Turbulence Training, it’s all bodyweight and dumbbells, and we have those already. Don’t need a gym for that. And when my wife’s knee gets better, she can either do TT or combine our old Bowflex with the Q47e.

Sweet!

By the way, we’re Eat Stop Eating again tonight. Wish us luck!

Eat Stop Eat, Update

Wanted to quickly update on my experience with my first fast, via the Eat Stop Eat program. And I’ve gotta say, wow!

I didn’t think I could make it. But with just 40 minutes left, I can say it was easy. The key to success is to time the 24 hour period so that you actually are eating every day of the week; you’re just fitting the 24 hour period in around it. So, for example, we started at 6 PM yesterday (and essentially skipped dinner), but we’re picking up today after 6 PM (and eating dinner). So we only truly fasted 16 hours, as we slept for 8 of them. And even though we “fasted” on Sunday and Monday, we ate on those days, too!

Another key is to eat normally (whatever that is for you); don’t gorge yourself before or after the fast period.

Brad explains it all (and explains it well) in his book. And it doesn’t cost a lot of scratch, either. I don’t want to give away too much here, because he’s a good guy and I want to see him succeed with this book. So if you’re interested, I suggest you go to his site and buy it. I get no money for referrals, either — I’m just happy to help. Seriously.

Niiiiiice

Just wanted to quickly alert y’all to a comment in the post immediately below this one (here’s the link to it, in case you’ve stumbled across this post and not the whole blog). It’s from Craig Ballantyne, the guy who came up with Turbulence Training. I’ll let the post explain it all. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Well, aren’t I becoming *the* magnet for health, workout and nutrition celebs! First, Craig comments at this blog. Then I get a comment from over at the ttmembers.com message board from Eat Stop Eat writer Brad Pilon. I’ve actually put that comment in the comments section from the above-referenced posting, since it directly relates there.

So, this blog post has been upgraded from “Niiiiiice” to “Very Niiiiiice”!