My wife and I got home from a romantic weekend and I discovered to my dismay that I was at 176 pounds. Now, my ideal weight is 165 given my height (5 foot 11) and this was the heaviest I've ever been.
Mind you, it's not the health issues or even how I look, it's the clothes. I don't want to have to buy new clothes. So it's diet time.
Let me tell you a few things about dieting that you probably already know:
- Going from 2 cokes a day to water is not fun.
- Exchanging a glazed donut for an apple isn't enjoyable.
- Carrots are not nearly as good as BBQ potato chips.
So here's my goal chart which I'll be updating:
| | Actual Weight | Goal Weight |
| Week 0 | 176 | |
| Week 1 | 175 | 173 |
| Week 2 | 174 | 172 |
| Week 3 | 173 | 171 |
| Week 4 | 172 | 170 |
| Week 5 | 171 | 168 |
| Week 6 | 171 | 166 |
| Week 7 | 171 | 165 |
Week 1: Well, I didn't lose as much weight as I had hoped. I kept to the diet pretty well even walking on average 2 miles a day (4 miles on Sunday). I cut out soft drinks and candy and fudge. I did have Pizza on Sunday which probably didn't help but I also walked 4 miles and only had a salad for lunch. I'll just have to work harder this week.
Week 2: Still only lost a pound but did a better job watching what I eat. I did have a day night with my wife where I ate and drank which probably kept me from getting to 173. I've increased the amount of exercise I'm doing starting with the elypitical machine twice a week.
Week 3: Lost a pound again. I almost lost 2, just didn't get quite enough activity this past week. I've started making more use of the treadmill and elyptical machine we have but the number of steps I took per day was pretty lousy. I only had 2 days where I exceeded the 10k minimum (average: 6723) I'm much better about controlling what I eat which is probably the only reason I continue to lose weight. I'm going to try to do better this week. This week I'm going to try to get my average steps per day up while still maintaining my lowered food consumption. With any luck, I could lose 2 lbs.
Week 4: Lost another pound. I just barely got down to 172, it was a close thing. I increased the amount of exercise I got this past week increasing my average daily steps to 10,639. I think I've reached the end of the "easy" weight loss. I found out that a Panera bread sandwich has typically 950 calories so there won't be any more of those. My coke consumption is down to nil. It will be interesting to see if I can get to 171 this next week.
Week 5: Lost my pound. I didn't think I was going to do it. My average steps dropped to 7572. Part of that was the trip up north. After 3 hours in the car, it's hard to get the umph to walk. But mostly, I was just busy with work. I think there may be a little more "easy" weight loss left after all as I feel pretty confident I'll get down to 170lbs this week. I'm pretty far behind my goal weight now (3 pounds) but the steady progress is encouraging.
Week 6: Didn't lose weight this week. Between a business trip to California, Halloween candy, Halloween party, etc. I just didn't have time to exercise let alone watch my intake.
Week 7: No change.