I have been heavy for a long time. Not all of my life, but for most of my adult life. On May 9, 2011 --42 days ago-- I went on a diet. My friend Michelle, who also struggles with her weight, had been following The 17 Day Diet by Dr. Mike Moreno and she had amazing success with it. I decided to try it too.
Deciding to diet was harder for me this time than it had been in the past. I have a food addiction. I eat to celebrate. I eat when I need a pick me up. I eat for just about evey reason you can come up with. To make matters worse the only things I don't like to eat are sweet pickles and the Trix/Froot Loops/Fruity Pebbles style of cereal. I am a hardcore foodie.
My biggest obstacle is portion control. It has always been a big deal in my family to eat a lot. Buffets and restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory and The Claim Jumper that serve huge portions were my weakness. If the food is there I will eat it.
42 days ago I weighed 322 pounds. Yesterday I weighed 293. That's 29 pounds in 41 days. It's a good start but I know I have a lot more to lose. People I work with are starting to notice a difference. My clothes are looser. My size 46 belt is too big to hold my pants up. But I know I need to do more and I decided to start this blog to motivate myself.
I weigh myself every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday using a Wii Balance Board and the Wii Fit game. I have a high tech scale in my bathroom that measures body fat, skeletal muscle, body mass index (BMI), and visceral fat but it tops out at 300 pounds. Now that I am under 300 I will start using both systems to evaluate my progress.
I know with any diet you need to have goals. My initial goal was just to lose weight. I didn't have a target weight goal at first because I didn't want to be unrealistic. But as things progressed I decided I needed a good long term goal. I initially thought 199 pound would be a good target because I haven't been below 200 since college. However, every time I weigh myself the Wii Fit Body Test reminds me that I am obese because my BMI is just under 40. Hearing the electronic "fail riff" and the taunting, "That's Obese!" from your gaming system is a rough way to start the day. I looked at the BMI scale and the heaviest a 6'0" male can weigh and still be considered normal is 177 pounds. So that's my official goal and that why I named this blog "The Road to 177."
I haven't weighed 177 pounds since high school. That's when I was in the gym every day lifting weight and playing basketball for 2 to 3 hours at a time. Today I have a desk job and work long hours. I have lost 29 pounds without exercising but I know that won't work much longer. I need to exercise more.
My plans for this blog are to share my weight loss progress as well as any other statisitcs I can come up with like my BMI, change in clothing sizes, etc. I also will post what I am eating and how I prepare the food or have it prepared for me. And finally I will talk about exercise and what works and doesn't work for me. I will try to be as specific and as candid as I can be. I will mention the exact name of the products I am using because I think the things that work should be credited. Some of my posts might read like a paid commercial but I'm not going to wory about that right now. If I the highly unlikely circumstance occurs and I do get paid for writing about something I like, I will only do so if I believe in the product.
Enjoy!
