Weight Wait : Slow Progress, but Progress None the Less

Getting below 215 pounds has been a drudgefully slow experience like trudging through deep snow made ofmolasses. I would get down to 215, then bounce around between the 215 and 220 marks on the scale for a few days, then back down to 215. This has been going on basically for the last month.

It didn't help that we went to visit grandpa-inlaw or that my dad and siblings came into town (and treated us to dinner several times). It didn't help that the frozen lunches I had made to bring to lunch were meat-and-potatoes type meals. And it certainly didn't help that I was doing consulting instead of exercising in the evenings.

Hooray!

That's behind me now though! (I hope!). For the last four or five days I've now been bouncing between 214 and 217. My spreadsheet says that I need to lose 0.5297 pounds per week for the rest of the year to reach my goal. I would rather do better than that so that in November and December I'm not trying to lose weight over the holidays (just trying to maintain it).

Plan : Eat Less, Garden More

Being a highly environmentally conscious person (joke), I've been known to eat the remaining four pieces of sausage just so we don't use a ziplock and put them in the fridge. After I've already had breakfast. Including three pieces of sausage.

My new plan is the same as the old plan. Eat less, exercise more. Here are the specifics:

1) I'll leave half of my lunch in my scooter's trunk. If I really get hungry or stay late, I can go get it. If I don't use it for lunch it I can eat it for dinner.

2) I'll go weed the garden like I should be doing anyways. I should probably weed for 30 minutes two or three times a week to keep them under control. That's more exercise than I'm getting now and as long as I do it near dusk I enjoy being outside.

Weighing Less Is Nice

Weighing about 215 is a nice feeling. I have more energy, my clothes fit better, I probably even get better gas mileage on my scooter. The best thing for me so far though was that when some friends invited us to go to the pool last week I didn't feel embarrassed when I took off my shirt.

Wii Fit, Gym Membership, Stroller or Something else?

Weight Weight, Don't Tell Me

I've hit a weight floor it seems. I've gotten down to 215 pounds (From a new-years weight of 240) three times now, and each time I'm back at 220 a few days later. I realize that I should expect fluctuations, but this has been over a three week period, so I'm starting to worry that I'm going to have to change my methods a bit more.

My weight loss plan thus far has mainly been eating less and eating more responsible foods. I have been playing more sports than I did last year, but no one would ever call twice a month a workout plan.

Added to the mix is the fact that my wife is now fully recovered from the baby we had two months ago, and is also wanting to lose weight. We've both agreed that we need to be more active to achieve our goals, the question now is : What form of activity would fit our lifestyles the best?

What would you get?

In an ideal world an exercise purchase would :

• Cost very little


• Be usable any time day or night


• Be something we could do no matter the weather


• Be fun


• Would let us work around the kids


• Help us lose weight


• Be something we could do together


• Be something we could do outside

The current candidates are : A Wii Fit, A gym membership or a double stroller.

The Wii Fit fits most of those options, but we're afraid we'd get bored, we're not sure if it would actually burn enough calories to make a difference,

A double stroller would let us go running / walking outside, but winter here involves snow and ice, and it rains from time to time too. We're not entirely comfortable walking around our neighborhood at 1:00 AM when we're done with projects either.

A gym membership would be fun, and they'd watch the kids, but a family pass at the local rec. center is $30/month, more than we'd like to be paying.

Compromises

I don't think there is anything that will perfectly fit our needs, and we're ready to compromise. The question is where to compromise. Do we compromise on cost with a gym membershipt? Do we decide we'll get a stroller and use it now through October (when it will get too cold)? Do we get a Wii Fit with the risk that we won't like it or that it won't be effective enough?

What would you do in our situation?

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Image from Prognatis' Flickr photo stream

Losing weight and making money

What do losing weight and managing money have to do with each other?

1. Well, for starters, unless you're a freegan or a self-sustaining farmer, you're paying for your food.
   

   We recently (March) noticed that we were spending about $500 per month on food. For a family of 4 in a reasonably priced part of the country, this is way more than what is needed.

2. Both require making and sticking with plans
   

   I have been aware of my increasing weight for several years. Between 2003 and 2008 my pants size increased from a 34 to a 36, and even that was starting to be a bit snug.
   

   Over Christmas holiday (2007) I stepped onto a scale and realized that I was up to 240 pounds. I committed to eat more healthily for the upcoming year, and the first several months of this year that was as firm as my commitment got. I ate less, and ate smaller portions but it wasn't until I also created a spreadsheet to track my progress that I was able to actually control myself and start losing significant weight.

3. Both are exercises in self discipline
   

   People, or at least me, are lazy. On our own, we will take the path of least resistance for most things. Controlling appetites is difficult weather you're trying to reign in a budget or a waist.

So now I'm down to 215 lbs from 240, and I am on track to reach my goal of 200 well before new years. I think these last 15 pounds are going to be harder than the first 25 though. I'm going to need to find some sort of regular exercise regimen to follow to burn off the fat.

For what it's worth, my weight loss plan thus far was mainly dietary. I now rarely snack late at night (when I'm programming), I try to drink more water, eat less meat and fatty stuff. I did play racquetball occasionally last semester, but 25 pounds worth of it.

Weight loss isn't fun. I hate passing up delicious food in order to become more healthy, but that's the way it is. I am already enjoying more mobility, more endurance and more fulfilling play time with the kids.

I like to eat

I like to eat. A lot.

My preference is to eat until I'm full, then continually top off for the next couple of hours while hanging out with friends and family. You know, like at thanksgiving time.

That eating style, along with being busy as a student and working full time (no time to excercise) left me at 240 pounds at the end of Christmas break in December 2007.

Recognizing that 240 pounds is too much for a 6 foot 3 inch guy, I looked around to see what I should be weighing, in order to be healthy. I know there are a lot of ways to calculate what's healthy, I ended up deciding to target a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI).

Using the handy calculator at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/, I found that I need to be below 200 pounds!

New Years being what it is, I decided to try to lose 40 pounds by next new years. That is:

• I will weight 200 pounds by December 31, 2008

As a non-specific sub goal, I'd like to be more active and live a more healthy lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, there's little I enjoy more than a good solid meal at a churrascaria, but I don't want to be obese anymore.

Later this week I will outline my weight loss plan, and how it relates to finances.