Thank You, Everybody
2009/02/14 at 8:00 am | Posted in Discipline, Exercise, Food, Health, Inspiration, Life, lifestyle change, Milestone, Motivation, Photos, Progress Photos, Victory, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers | 2 CommentsTags: diets don't work, Discipline, Exercise, weight, weight loss, weight loss blog
Click to enlarge
<< BTW, this is NOT the best picture of me. My face looks…well, deformed or something.
This is a goodbye of sorts.
As you may well know, I started 200by40.com with the intent of tracking my weight loss progress as I tried to reach my goal of weighing 200 lbs. by my 40th birthday.
Today is February 14th, which is also happens to be my 40th birthday and, as you may also know, I reached my goal of 200 lbs. on September 27, 2008—way ahead of schedule.
I have decided that, while I have derived great pleasure in blogging about everything having to do with [my] weight loss, it’s time to put things into perspective and temporarily walk away from the blog.
While this may not be the final post here, it may well be the last one for a long time as I will now concentrate on training for the Disneyland 5k—my first one ever—taking place this September. In between now and then I will do a few 5k walks and, should I have a camera with me, I will post pictures of the events. And don’t worry—all posts will remain intact as will the domain, meaning anything you may have bookmarked will still be in the same place.
Once again, I would like to thank everyone who left comments, e-mailed me, or simply came by to visit (except for you spammers who try and get past Askimet’s death grip–you’re fools for trying!). I do find it a bit humbling and amazing that a normal guy like me would inspire many, many people to get motivated into losing weight. What started out as a simple goal turned out to be something life changing to those who recognized that it’s entirely possible to lose weight if they put their minds to it.
Before I sign off here, I would like to wish all of you good luck with your weight loss program. Regular visitors know that it wasn’t uncommon for me to say things like “You can do it!” or “Never give up!” in my posts. What many don’t realize is that those weren’t just words; I meant them from the bottom of my heart. If I can do this, I have no doubt that anybody can.
Why? Unlike those trying to push diet pills, I’ve been there. I can relate to and understand the struggles of weight loss and being overweight. I know what it’s like to wear size 48 pants, run out of breath when playing with my son, have clothes get smaller and smaller, be ridiculed about my size, be stared at when going to fast food joints, barely fit into the seats on the train, look in the mirror and not like what I see, be intimidated when entering a gym.
But I chose to change all that. I challenged myself to get busy and change my lifestyle and here it is, my 40th birthday and I weigh 197 lbs. I went from a sloth to someone who is going to run in a 5k. Think you can’t lose weight? I beg to differ. (By the way, at today’s weight I have finally reached the golden 100 lbs. lost level.)
While I could go on forever, I want to share with everybody some things I learned about weight loss since starting this blog. In no particular order, here is that list.
Phase 2 Weekly Weigh-In #1
2009/01/14 at 6:11 am | Posted in Health, Weekly Weigh-In, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers, wii fit | 4 CommentsTags: bmr, fit 2 fat, lose it! app, podcast, weight, weight loss, weight loss apps, weight loss blog, weight watchers, wii fit
Okay, so I know it hasn’t been a full week. Don’t expect much as a result, but at least this will give me a chance to go over things I’m doing different this time.
- Weekly Weigh-In #1; Phase 2: 202.5 lbs.
- Phase 2 Starting Weight: 203.3 lbs.
- Gain/loss of: -0.8 lbs.
- Pounds to Go: 12.5 lbs.
- Weight Loss to Date: 94.5 lbs.
The scale was acting funny this morning, fluctuating between all sorts of numbers. My weight for today is an average of all of them and for the first few days I’d say that’s not too bad. We’ll see how things pan out over the next few weeks.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I’m going to do things a little different this time around just to shake things up. First and most notably I have decided to abandon my Weight Watchers Point Excel chart for the month, and there are a few reasons for this: a) I need something different and b) after listening to a great podcast the other day, I discovered the importance of BMR.
What is BMR? It’s your Basal Metabolic Rate, or the amount of calories you burn by simply doing nothing–even sleeping. No matter what you’re doing, you burn calories and how many you burn depends on your height, weight and age. (To determine your BMR, go here.) After determining what your BMR is, it’s important to know that that number–mine is 1954.49–is what your body needs in order to maintain your current weight. If you want to shed some weight, simply take in less than your recommended BMR or exercise some more.
My next change also goes hand-in-hand with the BMR thing. I discovered a fantastic (and free) iPhone/iPod Touch app on the iTunes store called Lose It! This app is probably one of the best I’ve come across because it keeps track of everything: weight, calorie intake, activities/calories burned, goal date, and also has a thorough database of foods to choose from when entering what you’ve eaten. If it’s not there, you can create your own data for it and save it for future use.
In my case, I was allowed 1,637 calories–just slightly lower than my BMR. Calories are tallied up as you enter your food intake and the app determines how many calories you have left to consume to stay in your safe zone. And if you add activities, the appropriate number of calories is subtracted from your total. Can it get any simpler than that? I don’t think so!
And let me tell you: seeing intake in calories vs. Points is a real kick in the gut.
On the Wii Fit front, I have chosen to run the Island Lap while holding 5 lb. dumbells in each hand. I started that last night and noticed a considerable difference while “jogging” as I sweated much more than usual. Also, I found a little hidden extra in the “jogging” portion of the game. If you follow the different colored dogs, you run at a swifter pace than following a standard Mii. I tried it and yes, it does seem much faster!
Finally, I had mentioned earlier a podcast I discovered so I thought I’d give it a mention. It’s called Fat 2 Fit and it’s pretty much a couple of guys talking weight loss on a human level. Nothing complicated; no degrees in anatomy required. You just listen to what they have to say about their progress, answer listener e-mail, get tips from others, and discover Web sites or other valuable information. (That’s how I found out about BMR!) It’s a good listen and I’d recommend it to anybody who wants to lose weight but doesn’t know where to start.
You can give the Fat 2 Fit podcast a listen here: 
I think that’s enough for today. If you don’t hear from me the rest of the week, I’ll see you here next Wednesday. Stay focused!
—
Share this post:
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
: 
Phase 2: Refocus and Commitment
2009/01/12 at 6:07 am | Posted in Discipline, Exercise, Health, lifestyle change, Motivation, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers, wii fit | 2 CommentsTags: diets don't work, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers
With the New Year in full swing, I’m sure many of you may have made the resolution to lose weight. If you have, I salute you and wish you well.
But even after losing my weight, I’m not entirely satisfied.
If you recall, because I had reached my goal so far ahead of time, I committed myself to getting down to 190 lbs. I had referred to this next step as Phase 2–and it starts tomorrow.
Yes, after taking it easy and staying within a range of +/- 5 lbs. over 3 months after reaching my goal, I have decided that it is indeed time to take the plunge and get to 190 lbs. by my 40th birthday which is a little over a month away (February 14th). At my current weight of 203.0 lbs., that means I need to lose an average of 3.25 lbs. per week, slightly more than my doctors’ recommendation.
I’m not going to get too confident and call this a piece of cake. In fact I shouldn’t even try to lose it so quickly–13 lbs. in a month may be a bit lofty, but I’m going to try my best to make it. Even if I only lose 10 lbs. then I’ll consider it a success.
I started tonight by engaging myself in an hour of Wii Fit as opposed to my standard 30 minutes. My son and I also rode our bikes a little over a mile today and I drained, cleaned and waxed our spa. Hey, every little bit of activity helps, you know. My next step may be to buy My Fitness Coach since, even though it has proven itself as very efficient, Wii Fit’s activities can become quite monotonous after so long. Note that I said “may” about My Fitness Coach because I’m still up in the air about it, even if I do have a few gift cards to burn.
This also means that I will be breaking out the Weight Watchers Points Excel chart and that the Weekly Weigh-Ins are back if only for 4 weeks. I haven’t done either since reaching 200 lbs. so I think now is the time bring them back! About the only change there is that they will be posted on Wednesdays instead of Tuesdays as in the past. This Wednesday is the 14th–exactly 1 month from my birthday, which falls on a Saturday this year. I’m beginning with today’s weight and taking it from there.
So now I need to shift my focus and re-commit myself to losing the weight I promised myself I would lose. I’ve noticed some dangerous behaviors in the last 3 months–snacking being the real killer–and I know they must change. And while I’ve tried to keep myself busy I know I can do better.
I’ve already bought the right foods for at least this week’s lunch; I will buy more healthy goodies on Friday when I get paid.
There you have it. Again, My current weight is 203.0 lbs. and it’s time to get this rockin’. See you Wednesday!
Note: I’ve added a new button to the “Share This Post” clutter at the bottom. If you would like to e-mail this post, simply click on the “via e-mail” icon and your default e-mail program will open up with a link and some generic text. From there you just add recipients and whatver other text you wish–I did all the hard work for you 🙂
—
Share this post:
: : : : : : : : : :
Without Whom: Products
2009/01/10 at 12:49 am | Posted in Discipline, Exercise, Food, Video Games, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers, Wii, wii fit | 1 CommentTags: diets don't work, ipod shuffle, reebok, thank you, trader joe's, trek bikes, Victory, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers, Wii
Okay, so I’m a little behind…
Here’s the post where I thank the products that helped me make it through my journey. For a list of people I thanked some time ago, you can click here.
Ready? Then here we go. Please note that I am not a compensated spokeperson for any of these products; I mention them out the kindness of my heart for helping me reach my goal.
Hi All!
2009/01/09 at 9:54 pm | Posted in Discipline, Exercise, Food, Inspiration, Life, lifestyle change, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers | Comments Off on Hi All!Tags: diets don't work, disneyland, weight loss, weight loss blog, weight watchers
Hey, remember me? Yeah, it’s that guy that used to post here quite frequently when he was losing all that weight. In case you’ve forgotten, my name is Dave. Nice to make your acquaintence again 🙂
At any rate, this is just a quick “hello” to you all that have either a) checked back and wondered how things were progressing and b) have come here for the first time and were wondering why last post was almost a month ago.
To sum it up, everything’s fine. I’m maintaining my weight and feel fantastic. It’s been over 3 months since reaching my goal and I still fluctuate between 200 lbs. and 205 lbs. maximum. No big deal; I’ve sort of conditioned myself to make those extra pounds feel like the 97 lbs.+ I lost total. In short, I refuse to go beyond that.
And just to show you that I’m holding up, here’s a picture of me while I was on vacation:
I took the family to Wrightwood, CA so we can all throw snowballs at each other. And boy, did we ever! Note that I am wearing a pretty big jacket so that may add a little poundage to the image, but you guys still aren’t getting a picture of me shirtless. Well, not until I lose those handles I’ve had all my life 😉
That’s all for now. I will be posting something shortly after my nightly Wii Fit routine. Thanks for checking back and see you later. And remember–stick with it and never give up! I’m proof of what you can do when you set your goal and go for it!
—
Share this post:
: : : : : : : : : :
Blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.
200by40 - Weight Loss the Right Way 