Week 18
May 15
Counting Calories 5/11 – 5/15
I was able to cut back on the processed foods a little — for better or worse, it translated into less snacks between meals and larger meals.
Monday (1,460 calories)
6 a.m.: Oatmeal, 2 slices of raisin toast, banana = 400
Noon: Strawberry banana smoothie = 410
6 p.m.: Cheeseburger on wheat toast w/ chips = 650
Tuesday (1,795 calories)
6 a.m.: Shredded wheat cereal, banana = 395
Noon: Cheeseburger and fries = 850
6 p.m.: 2 heaping cups of leftover spaghetti w/ toast = 550
Wednesday (1,550 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Honey Nut Cheerios w/ jam toast = 380
Noon: Turkey and cheese sandwich w/ chips = 550
6 p.m.: BLT w/ chips = 620 calories
Thursday (1,970 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Lucky Charms w/ granola bar = 460
Noon: Cheeseburger and fries = 850
6 p.m.: Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon = 660
Friday (2,360 calories)
6 a.m.: 1/2 cups of Honey Nut Cheerios w/ granola bar = 390
Noon: Cheeseburger and fries = 850
9 p.m.: O’Charley’s Bayou shrimp (1/2 serving) w/ salad = 950 est
9:30 p.m.: 2 chocolate chip cookies = 170
I think I need to lay off the cheeseburger and fries next week.
May 18
This is the last workout pledge I’ll do on the elliptical.
This time, I want to reach the absolute limits of the elliptical machine. I’ll be on level 20 (out of 20) and I want to stay there 99 minutes, the most the machine will allow.
Here’s how you can make me stay there that long:
- Post a comment = 20 seconds. Each comment made to this post will add 20 seconds to my elliptical workout. It doesn’t get much easier than this, folks.
- Follow me on Twitter = 30 seconds. I need friends. I also need to lose weight. Follow me on twitter and we’ll be able to solve two problems at once.
- Subscribe to RSS feed = one minute. If you haven’t already, subscribe via RSS or email to my blog. By doing so, you’ll get my posts delivered to your RSS reader or inbox. Oh, and you’ll make me workout for another minute.
- Link to 344Pounds.com = two minutes. You can post a link on your website, blog, MySpace, etc and add two minutes to my elliptical workout. I don’t care if you’ve already linked to me before, linking again will add another two minutes.
Pushing the limits of the machine: 99 minutes at level 20 out of 20…
Can you guys make it happen?
UPDATE: Closed. 61 minutes, coming right up.
May 20
Eighty.
May 20 weight: 264.2
May 13 weight: 267.4
May 06 weight: 272.8
April 29 weight: 275.8
April 22 weight: 279.6
I’ve lost 3.2 pounds in the last week and 80 pounds in 17 weeks. Want stats from past weeks? Check out my entire 17 week weight loss progress.
While I’m happy with losing 3.2 pounds, I think I could’ve dropped 1 or 2 more pounds. I had a few extremely fattening meals (Outback pasta, anyone?) over the weekend, in addition to the several cheeseburgers I ate last week.
Let’s make this week the week I hit the 250s. You can help — email your mom, co-workers, friends, neighbors, etc. I’m not asking you to pull out your wallet, I’m asking you to spend 20 seconds spamming forwarding a link to someone.
In return, I’ll show you on Friday what my body is capable of doing.
May 21
I became accountable for my weight when I created 344Pounds.com.
Being accountable means stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for your weight, while publicly declaring your desire to change.
Granted, your accountability doesn’t have to be as public as a blog, nor does it have to be as elaborate — but it does have to be public for it to mean anything.
The people you open up with about your weight are called your accountability partners (if you’re reading this, you’re one of mine).
While this is hardly a new concept, accountability partner(s) are people that you can open up to and share with anything related to your weight — past struggles, diets, workout routines, recipes, reasons to lose weight and most importantly, motivation.
Here are a few ways you can become accountable for your weight:
Workgroups. A lot of workplaces have “Biggest Loser” competitions — these are great opportunities to find accountability partners. While you may not be broadcasting your desire to lose weight to the world, being in a group of five-plus people, all of whom are trying to lose weight, is great accountability. Best of all, it’s accountability you experience constantly, every work day.
Social networking. Considering most of your friends and family are probably already a part of your social network such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., posting messages and updates about your weight loss progress should be a fairly easy transition for you to make. It would also be easy for your followers to post feedback, praise, encouragement, etc.
Email list. Just like with your social network, your friends and family are probably already in your email address book. You could send out weekly or bi-monthly progress reports on your weight (with pictures, links to Youtube videos, stats, etc) on certain days. Your friends and family would start to expect and anticipate your weekly/monthly emails, much like some of you expect me to lose 10 pounds every Wednesday weigh-in.
Start a blog. I decided to let everybody I had ever met (plus some, apparently) know about my weight problem and my dedication to losing 100+ pounds, so I started 344Pounds.com. While I never intended on having thousands of people across the globe and members of the media contact me (Newsweek, to name one), it’s been wonderful — it keeps me extremely motivated.
Keep it intimate. Weight is an extremely personal issue (gee, slight understatement?) and even when somebody is committed to losing weight, we simply can’t break the shell we’ve created over the past several years or even decades to protect ourselves from the harsh reality of being overweight or obese. If this is the case for you and you still want to be held accountable for your weight, try to find at least one accountability partner — a significant other, close friend, coworker, pastor, etc.
Week 19
May 22
Thanks to everyone who participated in the workout pledge!
While I was hoping to reach 99 minutes, 61 minutes isn’t anything to scoff at; I burned 900 calories on the elliptical machine tonight thanks to you guys.
This was a lot tougher than I thought it would be — I was running on fumes for the last 10 minutes. Also, I’m still really dehydrated (90 minutes after the workout) due to the enormous amount of sweat I generated.
Water never tasted so good.
May 23
Counting Calories – 5/18 – 5/22
The first meal of the week was pretty healthy — it went downhill from there.
Monday (1,890 calories)
6 a.m.: Blueberry oatmeal w/ banana = 260
Noon: Chicken wrap = 680
6 p.m.: Zaxby’s boneless wings and fries = 950
Tuesday (1,950 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Apple Jacks = 310
Noon: Outback chicken pasta (Sunday leftovers) = 850 est.
6 p.m.: Homemade chicken pot pie = 790 calories
Wednesday (1,860 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and granola bar = 400
Noon: Cheeseburger and fries = 850
5 p.m.: Several crackers = 60
6 p.m.: 2 cups of spaghetti w/ toast = 550
Thursday (2,100 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and banana = 420
Noon: Egg salad sandwich w/ french fries = 760 est.
6 p.m.: 3 slices of Domino’s supreme pizza (medium) = 920 calories
Friday (2,190 calories)
6 a.m.: 1 1/2 cups of Apples Jacks and granola bar = 400
Noon: TGI Friday’s Sizzlin Chicken and Shrimp = 300
3 p.m.: Oh Yeah! Protein bar (chocolate w/ almonds) = 170
6 p.m.: Longhorn’s salad and rocky top chicken w/ fries = 1,320
My diet consists of kiddie cereals, little fruits or vegetables and fried food. I guess I’m trying to prove you can lose weight eating junk food.
I’ll give the whole “balanced meal” thing a try again next week. It’s not that I lack discipline (well, maybe) to eat balanced meals, it’s more of a lack of motivation — I still see the weight drop every week eating this “‘crap” food.
May 24
I wanted to beat the machine once and for all. And so I did.
I went to the gym tonight planning to workout for 45 minutes on the elliptical. I even posted on twitter I was going for 45 minutes. Well, once I stepped onto the machine something just “snapped” and I entered 99 minutes.
22 minutes left:
Almost done:
Finished:
Getting on the elliptical machine Monday will be like restarting the Nintendo five minutes after you just rescued Princess — just to do it all over again.
Where do I go from here?
May 26
I’ve made a new section for my before and after weight loss pictures. Take a look at the newest addition below of me at 264 pounds:
That’s an XL shirt, down from 4XL just 4 months ago. And what?
May 27
Less than pleased.
May 27 weight: 262.2
May 20 weight: 264.2
May 13 weight: 267.4
May 06 weight: 272.8
April 29 weight: 275.8
I’ve lost 2 pounds in the last week and 82 pounds in 18 weeks. Want stats from past weeks? Check out my entire 18 week weight loss progress.
I’m not happy with my weight loss progress this week.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely thrilled and humbled with losing 82 pounds in four months — but I’ve been getting lazy over the last few weeks and my weight loss progress has reflected this.
Being complacent and comfortable when losing weight can slow your progress — it appears this might be the case with me.
In particular, my diet is getting really sloppy and lazy and I think it’s time to tighten the belt again. Figuratively and literally.
For starters, no more cereal for breakfast. Next, no fries. Cheeseburgers, occasionally. Fries? No. And while we’re on that subject, nothing fried. Not a thing. I also need to add more fruits, vegetables and seafood to my diet.
When it comes to exercise, I’ll now work out 45 minutes a day on the elliptical instead of only 20 minutes, which is how long my workouts have lasted everyday for the past several weeks.
I guarantee you we’ll enter the 250s next week. Guarantee.
