Twenty-Five Pounds
Our Biggest Loser weight loss challenge at work is exactly two weeks away from our final weigh in. As of today, two months in, I’ve lost 25 pounds. Twenty. Five. Pounds. I know that’s not a lot in comparison to some folks in the world, but man it feels good, and more importantly “I” feel good.
When grabbing 25 pound bag of dog food I can only think, “Holy crap, was I really carrying this much around as part of my body?” And I was, and when you can visualize it in such a way, it’s brings it pretty clearly into focus.
Now you may think I’ve gone nuts and worked out like a fiend and only eaten sprigs of parsley this whole time, but that could not be farther from the truth. The only thing I’ve really done so far is to eat less and eat better. I only really drink water and coffee now for the most part. And I use the application LoseIt! on my phone to track calories and try to stay under 1600 a day. I do okay MOST days, but not all. And if you look at my flickr or Foodspotting streams, you’ll see I’ve eaten some really good food these past two months.
The point I’m trying to make is, I didn’t make a whole lot of changes in order to lose these 25 pounds. If I can do it, you can too. Watch what you eat and eat a little less and that goes a long way.
Now early on I was walking a mile at lunch, and I bought a FitBit Ultra to track my steps. FitBit wants you to hit 10,000 steps a day. On a typical day I’ve been hitting 3,000. Yes, ONLY 3,000 and I’ve still shed the pounds. I really have not exercised much, it at all.
For the next two weeks (the homestretch of this challenge) I’m going to exercise by walking, using our Gazelle at home, water walking in the pool and limiting the calories even more. I’m going to go nuts for these two weeks and see what happens. Each member of the winning team gets $250 bucks, and that my friends, can buy a lot of sprigs of parsley.
July 11, 2012 @ 2:45 pm
Way to go! Good luck winning it.
July 11, 2012 @ 2:48 pm
Day-um. Nice work Grey. 1600 calories for a dude is not a lot of intake. I have tried in the past to stay under 2000 and I can’t seem to hack it. So mad props but I’m also curious how you are managing that? What ‘better choices’ have worked for you?
July 11, 2012 @ 3:06 pm
That is wonderful! I love my FitBit and even when I run sometimes I don’t hit 10,000 steps! I can really see how only drinking water would really get your calories down and make you feel better. Congratulations and hope you win!!
July 11, 2012 @ 3:14 pm
Congrats!!!
July 11, 2012 @ 3:15 pm
Thanks everyone! Well Ed, I’ve been doing the water/coffee thing pretty exclusively. Those both have no calories, and I use spenda so there’s that. I’ve been choosing a lot of grilled chicken breast dishes, and also trying to do salad a lot more too. So a salad with a little bit of chicken and some vegetables works pretty well.
I’m avoiding breads and pastas which are always high in calories. My one weakness is rice though, so when I eat asian, I try to limit how much I do.
Early on it was hard to eat less, but now that my body has adjusted, I don’t feel quite so hungry. Sometimes when I DO get hungry, I just have a coffee and that helps.
My family has been great too. They’ve bought me a ton of 100 calorie packs of snacks, and we even have Klondike bars that are only 100 calories. So when I need a little snack, or something sweet, I can go that route.
The 1600 calories are what LoseIt! tells me to do in order to lose two pounds a week, my plan is to get to where I want to be, and then change that to simply maintain weight rather than lose. At that point I’ll have more calories to play with which will be nice.
July 11, 2012 @ 3:52 pm
Good stuff John. Congrats!
July 11, 2012 @ 3:56 pm
Awesome job John. I’ve lost 25 lbs through bike riding. Feels great to shed the pounds. Feels even better buying clothes you used to fit into 25 years ago. Congratulations and keep it going.
July 11, 2012 @ 4:02 pm
Nice job, I lost over 5 stone (70 pounds, or 32 kilos for our international viewers) a few years back. What worked for me was limiting sugar/carbs rather than calories. Good quality produce, no processed food, no beer, but I didn’t really watch the calories and certainly not my fat intake. Calories were still around 2000 a day. Its a big step but if you can stay away from bread, pasta, and beer you can lose weight that stays off (and still have a nice steak or rack of ribs – just watch the BBQ sauce and fries 😉
July 11, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
Thanks Alan, good job yourself. And FYI, BBQ sometimes isn’t bad. The one I have has less calories than most of our salad dressings… Guess who has been having BBQ Salads? 🙂
July 11, 2012 @ 4:40 pm
Great job, John. Keep up the excellent work! As for rice, know that brown, red, black, and even some of the more exotic types are great and keep the weight loss in-check. Basically, white rice breaks down into sugar faster, so eating a lot of it will add to the waistline if one has a slower mentality or higher caloric intake.
Think of it this way. If sticky rice caused mass weight gain, Korea, Japan, and China would have an obesity problem. Overall, sticky white rice, common in many Asian restaurants is around 170 calories per cup. But, some cuisines add oil to the rice, which doubles the caloric intake. Indian restaurants use Jasmine rice with oil, whereas Far East tend to steam the rice. So, ask questions to stay safe. Or just play soccer a few nights a week and don’t worry. 🙂
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. For me to stay healthy, I know more about how food interacts with the body, than I ever wanted to know. Perhaps this knowledge can be of use. …and the next time I’m in Chicago, I’ll save a sprig for you.
July 11, 2012 @ 5:54 pm
Trust me Bill, I follow your advice. In fact use your hangover cure exclusively! Thanks!
July 11, 2012 @ 4:45 pm
Nice work! Congrats!
July 11, 2012 @ 5:53 pm
Thanks Kathy. As always, thanks. You’ve been an inspiration with your running. If only I could be THAT dedicated 🙂
July 11, 2012 @ 5:31 pm
First off – congratulations! Your success is giving me a little much needed inspiration. I’ve got a case of “I know exactly what to do, I just need to pony up and do it” when it comes to my own weight.
Second, I’m new to the whole blogging atmosphere. I don’t know how or why I’ve manage to stay living under a rock, but in spite of being a writer at heart, I’ve missed out on the whole experience. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you see it), we are very slow at work right now, allowing me the time to browse and expand my new-found blogging universe. It all started out of a simple curiosity as to how any one actually made money (a little or a lot) by writing and maintaining one. At any rate, somehow I bumbled around some and made my way to your blog (thank you FB) – which after perusing a few of your older posts, it blew my mind as to discover just how long you’ve been keeping one! Outstanding and kudos to you! So there again, you’ve provided some my needed inspiration/motivation. Sooner or later, I guess, I will get with the times!
So my thanks to you! I haven’t started my own blog yet or kicked the weight management into gear, but I think it is finally in the works. I need to do a little soul searching as to a focus and purpose(s), and then away we go!
July 11, 2012 @ 5:52 pm
Hi Deanna, glad you found the blog here. FYI, for me, it’s been such a huge boon to me personally and professionally. I’ve met many of my friends in the IBM Software community specifically because of the blog.
That said, I would only do it for the love of writing and documenting your life. If you go in trying to make money, it feels too much like a job. Make it something you utilize to be creative and get ideas out there, and everything else will follow.
As for the weight loss, all it takes is to just do it. I had planned on doing it as I want to be healthy and be around a good long time for my kids. It just so happened that they started up the contest at work, and that gave me some extra motivation.
If you have questions on either blogging or the weight loss, you know where to find me 🙂
July 11, 2012 @ 6:18 pm
Good job, John!
July 11, 2012 @ 6:57 pm
Thanks Garrett!
July 11, 2012 @ 7:19 pm
Congratulations! I hope your contest team members at work are as dedicated as you are. 🙂
July 11, 2012 @ 7:46 pm
Way to go, sir!
July 11, 2012 @ 8:26 pm
You rock John. Soon you will be half the man you used to be.
July 12, 2012 @ 10:05 am
I’m changing my lifestyle too 🙂 That’s a fantastic achievement!
July 17, 2012 @ 10:10 pm
Well, my Fitbit Ultra arrived yesterday… Already impressed with it. Thanks for the motivation. My aim is to lose 20 kg over the next year, so we’ll see how it goes.