Soothsayer's fitness journal

I was initially going have 'crunch move my "getting into shape" thread into this forum, but I realized that it really wouldn't work so well as one is a regular thread and this is a blog... the format just wouldn't be the same. The reason for the change is that the thread has evolved from its original purpose: it went from being a group discussion / challenge to a record keeping event. Comments are still accepted and welcome.

I am reposting the original thread, in its entirety, with some basic editing for visuals

{originally posted January 29 2012 by Soothsayer}

While having a phone conversation with shadowcrunch yesterday, I had an idea... and it revolved around what shadowcrunch had said.

You see, he has purchased a membership for a fitness center. Or he was thinking about it. Or something. I don't know, I hasn't really paying attention. Anyway, I then mentioned that I was preparing to get in shape by using simpler means.

Now that you know that background...

I propose a challenge, one that would help motivate each of us. We all want to lose weight and get in shape, right? But sometimes we need a bit of incentive. How does money sound?

For losing weight, we would have our start weight, and then our finish weight. Divide the finish weight by the start weight, and you will get a percentage; that's how much weight you lost. We cannot go by pounds, because let's face it, it'd be easier for a 300 pound person to lose 10 pounds than someone who weighs 190, right? So we'd have to go by the percentage., as a percentage keeps a nice ratio going, it doesn't change because a person was fatter than an other in the beginning... it keeps track of the ratio. 300 pound person finishes at 260 equals 86%, as would a 190 pound person finishing at 165. Fair enough, right?

Now then, what about getting into shape? Haven't figured out how to do that... would it be the narrowing of the gut? I personnally like that, as I have a big gut, but really, what is getting in shape? Losing waist? Increasing bicep diameter? We'll need to work out the kinks of this.

So now for the money thing...

Money gained would be in the amount of the percentage of weight lost. Huh? Let's take the above example of a 300 pound person. He finishes at 260... that would put him at 86%. 100 minus 86 equals 14, OR he lost 14% of his initial weight. If that person wins, he would then get $14 from each of the other participants.

How's that sound? The more people we have in this, the better, but it really isn't needed. Likewise, the monetary amount could be adjusted so that the loser pays out twice as much, instead of doing a diollar per pound, but let's be realistic about it. All of us on here have families, we can't blow wads of money on a wager, so I feel a single dollar / pound would suffice. It may not be a lot of money, but this really isn't about the money.

Of course, we'll need a start date / finish date. The start date should be one where we give all people a chance to join in on this if they want (but then again, there's only two of us who really come on here, so the start could be fairly early). Finish date should be realistic, but at the same time nothing too drawn out, ie, not a year from now; that'd let to procrastination. OR we could do this on a month-to-month basis! Ooo, I like that idea: we do this for every month! Follow me on this!

Let's say start date is Feb 1st. The end would then be Feb 29th. Calculate percentage lost, blah blah blah, we have a winner. March 1st would start off a new competition, to end March whatever it is. That way, if people want to join in, they can (but only on the first on the month). If people want to stop, they can (but at the end of the month they are currently in). Beginning weight would be set on the first of the month, so you can't have the 300 pound guy from month 1 say he was 300 pounds after he lost 50, know what I mean?

I like that. I like that a lot.

...

Now that my train of thought has run its course, the next post is the OFFICIAL rules and times for this challenge.

{posted same day by Soothsayer}

Soothsayer's Weight Loss Challenge

1. The challenge begins on the first of every month; the first challenge starts on February 1st 2012.

2. The challenge ends on the last date of the month; the first challenge ends on February 29, 2012.

3. The challenge begins anew on the first of the next month, and repeats; when February ends, March's challenge begins

4. On the first of the month, contestants and weights should be posted on this thread. This will be done on the honor system! Be honest!

5. On the last day of the month, the contestants should post their weight, whether they have lost or not. Again, this is on the honor system!

6. Percentages will be determined by dividing the final weight by the start weight. Take that number and deduct it from 100, and that will show the percentage of weight lost.
300 pounds (start)
260 pounds (finish)
86... 100 minus 86 equals 14
14 is the percentage of weight lost

This number will be used to determine the winner.

7. Winners will be paid a cash amount to equal a dollar per pound lost, not percentage lost, to be paid by the loser(s) of that month's challenge.
300 pounds (start)
260 pounds (finish)
40 pounds lost equals a win of $40.

...

The first challenge begins on February 1st of 2012.

{posted on January 29 2012 by VaderXanth}

I'm all for this challenge. However, one thing that one must consider is this..

I too want to lose weight, but also gain muscle mass. I want to lose the gut, but I want to gain upper body strength. How would we incorporate weight loss if we are at the same time gaining muscle weight?

{posted on January 29 2012 by LadyLiterature}

I'd be in on this if it wasn't for the fact that NO woman would want to post her weight. Granted yes I have known three of you for half my life but egads man!

I'll have to think on this one!

{posted on January 29 2012 by Soothsayer}

Muscle mass would be a tricky one. What do we measure? We don't have access to a water tank that measures displacement. Muscle structure is different between men and women, so we can't very well measure chest and biceps... well, we could, but I don't want others to feel bad by my saying I have a 56 inch chest (and that's even before the fat).

If anyone can come up with something, that'd be great. I'm open for suggestions.

{posted January 30 2012 by Shadowcrunch}

Ow ow ow ow....

{posted January 30 2012 by Soothsayer}

Lady Lit... I can understand your hesitation. Since this is all being done on an honor system, then I suppose we could trust you to be honest about it. Or tell your hubby. Don't worry about posting it online, even though none of us knows you, since you claim to be from Alaska and all that.

Muscle mass... I will research this while at work this afternoon / evening. I'm thinking a measurement of the waist might need to be in order, along with neck... I recall having to do this while in the military, that there's a specific kind of ratio involved. Should have an answer posted tonight, tomorrow sometime.

{posted January 31 2012 by Soothsayer}

Okay, I haven't checked how to check muscle mass versus fat weight, I'll do that tomorrow. In the mean time, whether we have other people participating as of tomorrow or not, I still am. Don't care if I am doing this by myself or not.

Went and bought a digital scale from Wal*Mart yesterday, can accurately measure up to 350 pounds, so you know it's got to be good! Anyway, to make this official, I weigh in at

*drum roll*

296.8 pounds. This is with clothes on, mind you. Blue jeans, shirt. This will be my entry weight, since when I weigh myself, I'll probably be wearing the same thing.

In the event that muscle mass ever becomes a factor, I submit these following measurements, which may be off since I'm doing this by myself:

NECK 17.5 inches
CHEST (at widest) 49 inches
GUT (at widest) 55.75 inches
WAIST 47 inches
HEIGHT (rounded up to nearest inch) 78 inches

Now, I can understand my chest shrinking (used to be in the low 50s): I've heard that smoking a lot actually expands your chest, something to do with your lungs trying to compensate... that's why coal miners of those who worked at bad factories had barrel chests. Anyway, last time I had my chest measured was when I was smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, so it stands to reason that it would go back down to normal.

However, my waist kind of throws me; I wear 44/46 (in waist) pants, and they aren't tight. Who knows? Not me.

...

Just found this website, might be helpful. You just plug in your measurements, and it gives you a calculation based on what you said. For instance, with me, this is what it states

Quote :: Body Mass Index: 34.2 kg/m2
Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.71
Percent Body Fat: 41.5%
Lean Body Mass: 172.7 lb

You are overweight by 36.4 kilograms (80.1 pounds)
You need to exercise at least 30 minutes every day.
Minimum caloric requirements: 2583 Calories per day
Limit your food intake to 2195 calories per day.
to lose 2.8 pounds per month.
Your diet should contain at least 78 grams of protein per day.

This website can be found by clicking HERE.

{posted March 6 2012 by Soothsayer}

I might as well continue on this thread... gives me a sense of motivation seeing everything in print. With that said, I am reporting on my weight loss (or gain) for the month of February.

Wearing the same clothing I wore for the above post, I am happy to report that I weighed in at...

(drum roll)

285.6 pounds!

That's 11.2 pounds of fat gone (3.7% of original weight). And I didn't do to much to do it. Here is what I did: went from sucking on hard candy while I smoke my pipe to sugar-free cough drops, stopped drinking canned beverages, maybe about one fountain drink from the gas station a week (versus the one or two a day I used to do), and an effort to eat MORE meals a day (albiet smaller ones) than one large meal at the end of the day.

There are still some things I can do to improve my eating habits, and I will be starting that tomorrow. Maybe I'll start getting more physical as well, but I'm mainly trying to move in stages here; the first couple steps are just trying to get me into a better habit as far as my intake goes.

Tomorrow I will take my physical measurements and post them. Yes, that means I am continuing this challenge for the month of March.

No other takers yet?

{posted August 23, 2013 by VaderXanth}

So, over a year has passed... Where are we all now??

{posted August 26, 2013 by Soothsayer}

I've pretty much stopped doing this, or at least posting about it. Kind of made little sense, continuing posting something without response. I mean, well, like you noticed... it's been over a year, so why continue it, you know? But, ironically, I was actually planning on digging this up.

But, to answer your question, I had decided to go in a different direction by taking little steps. First was to get into the habit and routine of taking vitamins and supplements on a daily basis. Second was to quit smoking. Third was to drastically cut back my soda intake. Fourth was to walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator where I work (I can now go up all six flights without dying). Fifth was to cut my food intact by half. I figure by doing things like this, one step at a time (each step was one month), my body doesn't go into shock (as it were); I didn't want to do all of this at once as my body was already accustomed to things.

The next thing I'll be doing will work on two different levels: I'll be hopefully making a bicycle powered generator. This will allow me to work on my cardio (more important than weight loss) while at the same time saves money.

*A bicycle generator is essentially a bike with the rear tire off; a belt going from the rear rim to an alternator; alternator feeds an AC/DC converter; a power trip plugs into the converter. You can charge up numerous devices while at the same time playing a portable DVD player. Think about it: beside charging your devices, you could remove the battery from a PS3 controller and hook it up to the power strip (with modification)... exercise so you can play!

{posted January 23 2013 by Soothsayer}

Okay, decided to continue this thread... keeping it as a "journal" more or less. I figure, if I work on this then it may make me more motivated to do that.

Looking back, I completely forgot about the bicycle generator. May have to check into that again. I've been saving my money for a four day excursion to Devil's Lake this summer, but I think, if the price is right, I can afford this. I've already got the weight bench set up in the basement, along with my old Dell computer that runs on XP (15 years old, but it still plays Pandora, Youtube and Netflix with no problems) to keep my entertained... so why not a bike? AND, if anyone you know has any of the components I need (that they aren't using anymore), I'd be happy to take them off their hands. Even pay for the parts, too!

Okay, let's see... where am I now? Back in December, first week of December actually, I quit drinking soda. For the most part. Went two / three weeks without soda, but then started to drink one soda during my lunch breaks. Yeah, it's technically cheating, but I did cut back by a lot. Now, I only have a soda maybe, maybe, two or three times a week. Working on it, trying to make it all go away. Supplemented my soda intact with bottled non-soda drinks, such as Fuze (mixed berry or sweet tea), Hi C Fruit Punch, or Gatorade.

Has this helped at all? Yes, kind of. The digital scale I bought from Wal*Mart a long time ago wouldn't register my weight anymore; I was too heavy. I have no idea what the maximum weight allowance on that scale is, so don't ask... I just know I was over the limit. Weighed myself a couple weeks ago, and lo and behold, it registered my weight! I'm still way beyond my ideal weight (by a hundred pounds), but the thing is, cutting back / removing soda has started to have an impact.

Now, I am going forward with my next phase: drinking nothing but water and unsweetened tea that you brew yourself. Yes yes, I've become a tea bagger, screw you. By taking things in planned steps, I'm reducing system shock or withdrawals. Haven't experienced headaches or other common symptoms from my caffeine reduction, so now I can move on to the sugar reduction. Normally, I'd have gone on the water / tea thing in February, but I'm planning on reducing or eliminating something else at that time: my lunch time dependency on fast food. I'm actually going to start that earlier, like maybe today... purposefully left my wallet at home so I can't go out (have a couple bucks on me to buy popcorn). They say that it takes you doing something 28 days in order to become a habit, so we'll just have to wait and see.

This then brings us to March. I've got nothing planned for March, just a continuation of what I am already doing or working on. I want to see how much weight I can lose, without hurting myself, before I start my next phase. The first phase was quitting smoking; as I knew eating habits would increase during this time frame, I really didn't want to impede that (as I didn't want to smoke again). Second phase, the current one, is calorie reduction; buh-bye sodas and bottled drinks, reduce fast food.

April I begin the third phase: to do general exercises on a regular and increasing basis. I'm not just talking about going for brisk walks or bicycling, either. During the months of April, May and June, I'll be attempting a boot camp type exercise / fitness plan.

There is a goal to this, besides weight loss. I mentioned earlier my trip to Devil's Lake. I'll be going in late July, and I want to be able to hike to the top of the bluffs. That is my goal, to take in that scenery, knowing that I was able to make it without dying. Sure, there's the fact that I haven't seen my, err, myself in years, there's the fact that I find it damn near difficult to find pants that fit (like my height doesn't help)... but those are basic goals. Where's the reward?

I doubt very highly that I'm going to be able to lose 100 pounds in six months... but 30? 50? That seems more attainable, especially considering that most of my problem is calorie intake.

So there you have it, an updated and complete phase schedule. Methinks it is now time to rename this thread...

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Wed Aug 20, 2014 4:56 pm by soothsayer

So... according to this calculator (http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm), to maintain my weight, I should be eating 2874 calories a day to maintain my weight (at current exercise level), and should consume 2424 calories a day to lose fat gradually. Using those numbers, according to losertown, that'd be a pound a week.

Not bad, not bad... but I know I can do better. Yep, this should be something!

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:28 am by soothsayer

Just putting this in writing so I can see it / remember it better. This involves walking distances.

The block that immediately surrounds my home is roughly .6 miles. This is the same as walking to the Family Dollar (one way). From my house to the Citgo (sorry, Krist) station is .5 miles. Same as Piggly Wiggly.

Just from that, I pretty much cover everywhere I go to in town. I suppose an argument could be made about the Post Office, but the Pig sells stamps, so there isn't a real need for me to go there. If I ever have a need to do so however, it is .9 miles one way.

So then, even if I don't walk for an hour when I get home, but just walk to the places which I normally would drive to, I'll be looking good.

Regarding work...

I go to Goodwill a lot. That is 1.1 miles from the building that I work in. I also occasionally go to Walmart: also 1.1 miles. Let's say I need to pick something up from Aldi: again, 1.1 miles. Should I walk anywhere from work, I'm looking at two miles.

Sure, might be a tad time consuming, but it'll be worth it. Besides, not only will I be getting exercise, but I'll be saving gas as well. All those little trips add up!

...

On a side note, from a certain admin's house to his work site in Marinette? One mile. Forget a zombie jogging app! tongue

{EDIT}

Just worked out my dietary plan. There's plenty of room in this for flexibility, but essentially is this: it's roughly 1800 calories a day (which is a good thing, no starvation), and spreads protein intake throughout the day (important so I don't lose muscle mass). After doing a lot of math, I learned to maintain my current weight, I need to eat 3175 calories a day. With what I have figured out, coupled with my walking goals, I'll be losing about five pounds a week; goal is set for three pounds a week, but when you add the walking, it actually becomes more like seven pounds a week.

Seven pounds a week? While maintaining a proper daily intake? And from simply walking?! All told, I could be easily looking at a weight of 220 pounds by the first week of January. Remember, starting weight is 303 pounds, losing three to seven pounds a week (averages to five pounds). 19 weeks until the end of the first week of January (starting next week)... 95 pounds lost. Yes, I know that that would put me at 208, but cut me some slack: 220 is the goal.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:32 am by soothsayer

Okay, here's what I'll be working with, as far as daily consumption goes.

One cup of rice (precooked), alternating between brown long grain and white enriched; one can of vegetables, alternating green beans and peas; one can of condensed soup (no water added), alternating between cream of chicken and cream of mushroom; one meat, alternating between a can of tuna, diced ham, or diced chicken breast (boiled).

With those ingredients, there is enough variety for twelve meals, without repeat.

Anyway, cook up rice, mix the ingredients, and done. This makes for about a 1200 calorie meal at the highest. This gives at least the daily recommended allotment of vegetable / protein / grains / calcium, all within one bowl of slop. But, because that 1200 calories is a lot to eat in one sitting, I've done the smart thing and divided it in half, so now I have one bowl of slop for lunch and another for supper.

Anything else I eat during the day would not count against me, as those extra calories would ensure that I don't do a drastic starvation diet. A couple yogurts, or some oranges, perhaps hard boiled eggs (breakfast), and things don't look so bad.

How does this break down to cost? The soups, and those are about 79 cents apiece at Aldi. The canned veges are about 50 cents, give or take. Tuna is, what, $1 a can? Something like that, I don't know off-hand; I'll just use the tuna as a reference for the ham and chicken, as those are cheaper. Oh, rice. Pfft, practically free! We'll say it costs about three dollars to prepare the slop; each meal then costs $1.50. Add a salad, then each meal would be no higher than... crap, lemme grab the calculator here... ooo, still under $2.00 per meal. Remember all those "How to live off of $5 a Day" stuff we would see growing up? I guess it's true!

I'm also dividing up my walking. Doing four to five miles at a stretch might be good for cardio, but it's a pain on my knee (still recovering from Devils Lake I guess). I'm doing roughly two miles at lunch and two miles at home, with the fifth mile being whatever I walk as a normal part of my day. That's roughly 500 calories gone right there. Coupled with my calorie reduction by two thirds / half, and that initial goal of 220 by January might not be too far off. I'll just have to start incorporating some strength training... which is coming up soon, probably next week or next month, which ever is first.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Thu Sep 18, 2014 10:28 am by soothsayer

Having done the math of what I am currently eating, I'm consuming 592 calories a meal, at the most. I'm also sticking to diced chicken breast / cream of mushroom (reduced fat) / sweet peas / white enriched rice. I now a little variety would probably be for the best, but this is cheap, and I actually like the taste of it... and that in itself will go a long way.

My walking I've been lax on, but I'm trying to do better. Hoping to do at least two miles a day, which would then put me at three miles (counting the moving from work and home). Been walking during the lunch hour, roughly two miles at a time, or doing about two miles at home; some days I'm doing both.

I haven't weighed myself since starting this, almost don't want to. I know I should, but at the same time I don't want to be encouraged or depressed by some number. Instead, I've taken to noting physical changes.

When I first started this diet thing all those months ago, it was because I started to develop back fat and side boobs. That's just... that's not right. Anyway, with the initial dieting, the back fat went away, as did a good (great) portion of my side sacks. As of now, I can push a little bit into my side boob, but not nearly as much as I could before: my cup size has all but disappeared.

Even more telling is the fact that I no longer have such a massive gut. I can't say it's flush with my chest, but it doesn't roundly protrude as it did. Also, instead of having one gut, I now have two. Yes, two. Kind of hard to explain, but what I think is happening is that I might be losing fat quicker than the skin can retract... the second bottom-most gut is connected to the top one with a massive amount of stretch marks. My belly now hangs over my belt, but it's a loose belly. It's kind of gross actually, reminds me in part of the child eater in Pan's Labyrinth, but at the same time it makes me feel good that I have all these stretch marks and that I have saggy skin, but yeah, now I have saggy skin.

I just need to motivate myself to do some freaking sit-ups and push-ups.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Wed Oct 01, 2014 8:31 am by soothsayer

1. There hasn't been much of an actual weight change to speak of, even though there are some physical changes. *shrugs* I have no idea what's going on.

2. Okay, I know I can maintain a healthy eating habit, I just have to keep reminding myself to drink. As odd as it may sound, I've noticed that, unless I mentally force myself to, I don't drink anything while I'm at work, and I don't really drink that much when I am at home either; a couple large glasses of milk seems to be it. This leads me to believe that, even though there is an apparent lack of physical activity, how much of my stored fat is because of that, or because of a general lack of water intake... I'm I retaining liquids from the foods eaten?

3. Walking 2-3 miles at a time now with no ill effect, all under an hour. Going to finish the week out with my normal walks, and then I'm going to start incorporating a weighted vest I bought years ago. It weighs 50 pounds, but you can reduce the weight by removing one pound packs from one of the many pouches. I think I'll start off with ten pounds a week (starting next Monday), and add five pounds a week after that... of maybe add a pound a day. May not seem like much of a difference, but there is.

4. Speaking of walking, why is it I can comfortably walk faster on a road than I can on a treadmill? Is it because I have more room to actually move? Is it because of my stride? Because I'm not afraid of breaking the road? I have no idea, but it's true. Walk outdoors, I can go about 3 miles an hour. With treadmill, even when the incline is at 0*, I'm doing between 2.2 - 2.5. Another one of those 'not much of a difference', but there is. I like the treadmill, and will probably get some use out of it come winter for those really bad days, but...

5. Gotta gotta gotta start doing some exercises, swear to gawd I do. Since today's the 1st, today should be a good starting point. Trying to find some basic exercise routine on the internet, but can't seem to find anything that closely matches what we did in boot camp. I'm using boot as a reference because we did a gradual build-up, so many one week, so many the next, and so on. Suppose it wouldn't be that hard to make one myself... I just have to actually do it and follow it.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Wed Dec 17, 2014 2:01 pm by soothsayer

Here we go again, another planned attempt at losing weight and getting into shape (a shape other than the one I currently reside). If anything, I've proven that I can come up with good plans... it's just the follow through that I need work with.

This newest plan starts with the beginning of the new year, as does most other people's. I'm going to take what I've learned in my past attempts, couple those experiences with some new stuff I've been working on, and go from there. I've got to stop making excuses for myself and actually start doing things... need to stop convincing myself to do otherwise, and actually move forward. I know I can do it, it's just a matter of finding... I don't know. I have motivation: health and potential future job (still thinking corrections some day); inspiration: yes, I'm taking a cue from prepping, survivalists, and samurai... I just don't have the determination. I've been going about this with an "ehh" mentality, and that's what has to stop.

1. I'll be mounting heavy duty tie straps to the beams in my basement's ceiling, so I can do that whole suspended body weight work-out. Those will be going up this coming weekend. Thought about attaching a pulley system so I can make my own total gym bench, but you know what? Forget it. I like that device, but for the price they're asking? Oh, and about making my own... that's what the straps are for anyway. Strength training, boom, done.

2. Did the math today. I work in a three story building which has four flights of stairs. Walking four flights of stairs three times a day burns 60 calories. So, if I walk the four flights once an hour at the top of each hour (or as close to it as possible), that's nine walks... 180 calories. Walking one mile burns at least 140 calories. Do this at work during the cold months, use the tread mill I have during the cold months, and I could easily do three miles worth of walking a day. At least. To the steps every day, push myself to do more, to better my timing, and that'll take care of my cardio. With the walking, heck, once it starts to warm back up again, start walking outside again. From work to Goodwill (or work to Walmart), one mile one way. From home to Dollar Store, one mile. At home, going around the small block, 7/10 mile. Three miles a day should be nothing. Is nothing.

3. Basic daily exercises. Start off small and gradually work my way up. Push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, body builders, knee lifts. That's it, nothing hard about it. And this would be, what, five... maybe ten... minutes a day? A few minutes before going to work, a few minutes before going to bed? Why haven't I been able to follow through with this before? Strength training and cardio.

4. I've got the weight bench downstairs, I've got dumb bells and bars and weights. No reason why I can't do some reps of something each day, or every other day if I do the straps exercise.

Look at that. Just by doing three simple things a day, I get all the exercise I need. And none of this takes into account the normal stuff I do throughout the day either. A few freaking minutes an hour, a few freaking minutes a day... there is no excuse for me, for this, any more. Just a little effort is all it takes. Now then, onto dieting.

1. I was doing really good with my diet and watching what I eat. Still am, for the most part. I'm not drinking as much as I should; rarely drink during the day. I'd wager that most of my weight is due to water retention, keeping water in me like a damned camel. Need to drink (more). Drink at least five mugs of tea or water a day at work, drink three mugs of tea or water at home at night. That isn't hard or difficult, just need to make it into a habit.

2. Make my lunches (again). By now we all know what my lunches are or should be. I just get lazy and fail to make some. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that there is no reason why I can't do for supper what I do for lunch. Does this mean making separate meals for me and wife / youngest? Yep. Does this mean not eating what wife cooks for supper? Yep. This isn't about hurt feelings or making extra dishes, this is about me and my needs right now. And what I need is to lose weight.

I should stress something: even though I'm probably considered obese, I am not unhealthy. According to my annual physical and blood work, I am damned healthy. Everything doctors look for in blood work (like cholesterol) is textbook perfect, is what they should be if I were a male in good physical condition. Except my triglycerides, those are a wee bit high (love my cheese way too much). If I'm that good without exercising, without being in shape, how much better would I be if I were in shape?

So with that said, I don't need to lose weight. I want to lose weight. I want to look good again, instead of like the aliens from the movie Explorers. I want to be able to do things I normally can't; the hiking at Devils Lake this past summer proved that I can do things, but also showed that there's a cost. I don't want to pay those costs anymore. I want to be able to know, with confidence, that if push comes to shove, that I can push and shove, that I can walk into the woods and last for any amount of time, that I can step into the midst of a street brawl and hold my own.

There's no reason why I can't do this, not any more. No excuses.

{edit}

Remembering how much I was sweating my arse off last summer (no, two summers ago), I finally broke down and purchased my own Playstation Move bundle. Comes with the standard Sports disc, some Medieval game, and one wand (oh, and the camera). As a little extra, I also picked up the wand attachments (sword, racket, golf club, bow, and, umm... something else. I think). I'm telling you, that sword fighting game? Damn!

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:16 pm by soothsayer

The time is almost upon me to restart this thing and kick it into overdrive... or perhaps first gear would be a better starting pace. I believe I have everything in order; I haven't mounted any tie down straps to my basement's rafters yet, but that'll be coming by this weekend.

The one thing I have to do is find a way to prevent myself from getting bored. Need to keep things interesting. Sure, having a goal in mind is always the best, but if I lose interest, then what? And then I remembered... a while back, I emailed 'crunch the Witcher's Workout. Looked it up, and found something interesting: there's a whole slew of plans. Mad Max Workout. 30 Days of - . The Batman Challenge. Train Like a Super Saiyan. And on, and on. Sure, one really shouldn't go by the name of a workout, but hey, if it was enough to draw my attention, then hopefully it'll be enough to keep my interest.

NR Project - Fitness Made Easy

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Fri Jan 02, 2015 10:00 am by soothsayer

I've gone through the NR website, and decided to get into shape before I actively participate in the daily challenges and what-not. As such, to start things off, I'll be doing the 90 Days of Action program (it can be found by following this link). According to that site,

Quote :: The 90 Days of Action is a comprehensive three month non-stop fitness program with visual easy-to-follow daily exercise routines. The 12-week regime will help you get in shape, stay on track and stay committed throughout your entire journey. It will help you form a habit for daily exercise, continue with your fitness journey and go even further.

I thought about over-lapping some of the programs; I like the 30 Days of Strength, 30 Days of Gravity and 30 Days of Cardio Blast, but I need to get into the habit of doing stuff first, which the 90 days will do if I follow it. I can always include the Daily Workouts, so it isn't as if I'm really neglecting anything... and the dailies will definitely mix things up.

My workout routine will also incorporate the things learned previously (think I've mentioned that in a previous post). At the top of every hour, walk the four flights of stairs not once, but as often as I can within five minutes; this way, I'm not away from the desk for too long, and it'll get the heart-rate and breathing up... good for cardio. At the bottom of every work hour, drink a mug of tea or water to flush the system; I know I lost more weight quickly when I was drinking "plenty of water"... it's just a boring habit. When I'm home, hopefully walk a mile or two; just around the block a couple of times, or even on the treadmill if the weather is bad enough.

Tomorrow is going to be a gross kind of day. I'm going to be taking my measurements once again (haven't done that in years): breast, chest, waist, hips. And yes, I'll be posting them (though probably as a "spoiler" so only those who really want to see will. I'm also going to post a couple pictures of me in the now so I can compare later on down the road. Hopefully those can be a spoiler as well... I'll test that in a bit. Not for the faint of heart!

Okay, that's that. I've finished printing the 90 Days program, and it's time once again for some more stair walking.

{edit}

I originally had posted how, if I were to walk a set of stairs once an hour (a set being four flights here at work), that'd equal to walking a mile. From walking and timing myself this morning, I've seen that I'm able to walk three sets in roughly 4.5 minutes at the top of every hour. Let me do the math real quick... that's 560 calories burned if I keep that up. Or, if I go by this chart, as seen on fitnessforweightloss.com,

Soothsayer's fitness journal - Page 2 Mile10

... that would put me somewhere near the 180 calorie range per mile, or just over three miles. IF I weight 300. Won't weigh myself until tomorrow. But right now? Only about a mile's worth.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Sun Jan 04, 2015 3:47 pm by soothsayer

Decided not to hide my measurements as spoilers. I put them on here on day one, so there really isn't much need to do so again, is there?

Neck - 18 inches
Breast (measured across nipples) - 52 inches
Chest (just under the boob fat) - 48 inches
Stomach (across belly button) - 56.5 inches
Hips (just under belly fat)- 50 inches
Weight - 305 pounds
Height - 6' 5.5"

Using the body mass index site as seen in the opening post, this is how it looks:

Quote :: Body Mass Index: 35.8 kg/m2
Waist-to-Height ratio: 0.73
Percent Body Fat: 41.4%
Lean Body Mass: 178.7 lb

You are overweight by 42.1 kilograms (92.7 pounds)
Minimum caloric requirements: 2563 Calories per day
Limit your food intake to 2178 calories per day.
to lose 2.8 pounds per month.
Your diet should contain at least 106 grams of protein per day.

There you have it, my baseline.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Sep 14, 2015 4:09 pm by soothsayer

Here we go yet again, yet one more attempt to lose weight. A couple weeks ago on Facebook I announced that I was going to make a samurai costume for next year's Halloween, but in order to look right, I needed to lose roughly 100 pounds. That isn't too bad, all things considered: from what I have read, that is a very logical and safe goal. In the weeks since then, I've been trying to get into the habit of reducing some foods, of eating other foods, eliminating canned drinks, and attempting to take the proper vitamins on a daily basis. This last one I'm doing because, if I'm cutting back on what I eat, I better supplement whatever vitamins or minerals or whatever I've been lacking out on.

The walking I've ben working on, more or less. During the month of July it's been a lot less than more (a good portion of August as well for that matter). Too damn hot. And not once did I even touch my treadmill during that period. Coming up with excuses, I suppose.

So anyway, today I had the results from my annual at the VA. Bloodwork is excellent; everything is textbook or better. My urine (and everything that is tested for) is excellent. Everything is so excellent that the doctor even commented on if I had changed diets or something... a definite ego boost right there. Hell, my heart rate is even good: 130 over 58, with 80 bpm. Granted, the heart rate could be a little lower, but with all this, everything points to someone who is in good shape. Not athletic shape, oh no, but good health non-the-less. At least, up until myweight was taken. 310.4 pounds.

I've gotten healthier, but I've also gotten heavier. I'm thinking, instead of making a samurai costume for next year, I should go as The Kingpin. Neutral

At any rate, I must be doing something right, judging by the exam results. I've just got to work at the actual exercise portion of things. Get my heart rate going, work on the cardio. Instead of walking my three - four miles an hour, walk a little bit faster. Sweat. Instead of being comfy with myself, push just a little bit more.

It'll happen. Like I told the doctor, I'm a work in progress. I quit smoking, didn't I? That took how many attempts? With this, with losing weight, I know what I have to do, I just have to not lose hope, keep the goal in mind... it's only two pounds a week, after all.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Sep 14, 2015 7:44 pm by Shadowcrunch

Based on the heart-felty attitude of the last post, I was going to try to stay serious while also throwing a Subway Jared diet meme in here, but sadly the only ones I could find quickly now involve footlongs in prison. Well, not sadly, but it just doesn't work. After reading your post, I wanted to throw a "you can doo eet!" your way, especially after you mentioned 2 pounds a week, which got me thinking.... how the hell does that stuff actually work? I mean, say you want to drop two pounds in one week, and you normally eat 4 pounds of food in one week... could you eat 2 pounds, and your body takes care of the other 2? I know it wouldn't be exact cuz of calories and nutritional content and that, but how much does quantity have to do with weight gain/loss? I spose I AM on the internets, and could google... maybe tomorrow... unless you know the answers already?

Anyway, I was thinking about some stuff I've been doing with a big ass chunk of pipe at work lately and I remembered somebody sending me a page of "witcher workouts". Are you the one that sent them? If not, check out this page! http://darebee.com/workouts.html I have found lots of neat (and quick) workouts on there (which I obviously haven't done enough of, but looking is kind of a start, right?).

AND.... since we have the whole "Japanese culture does some stuff better" thing, I googled for Japanese workout routines. Didn't find much except their morning calisthenic crap, but I accidentally found a neat video! It's neat cuz it's a sword/broom, and the guy looks/sounds like a young Dean Stockwell, and he's a bit over the top. Give it a watch... might give you ideas for trying something different (this is kind of what I've been doing with the big ass chunk of pipe).
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And...Never forget what Kamina told you, down there Thumbs Down

*Edit: where's my frickin sig?!

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 15, 2015 8:54 am by soothsayer

For two pounds a week, this would be equal to 7000 calories either eliminated or burned. Or to make it more simple, 1000 calories a day.

Walking an hour a day will burn at least 415 calories, depending on the distance walked and weight of individual; the heavier you are, the more you'll burn. So just with this right here, that takes care of almost half of my requirements.

The next simple measure is the elimination of sugary drinks, such as soda or energy drinks. This can, on average, reduce your caloric intact by about 200 calories. I've been buying those individual drink mix packs from Walmart (one pack for ever 16 ounces of water).

For me, the next big thing is the elimination of unnecessary snacking or munching. I've caught myself doing this at work a lot, where I'll buy a bag of chips from the vending machine, or maybe a bag of popcorn. Even when the chips are the "healthy veggie chips", that's still 240 calories. Microwave popcorn? No idea, but I can only imagine. I don't do that every day, but it does add up.

Then there's proper eating. I just have to eat in proper portions, or rather, I should eat because I'm hungry and not because it tastes good. Splurging every so often is fine, but not eating in excess all the time. Need to reduce my carbohydrate intake, that's what's hurting me I think. Too many breads and noodles. I'm also working on eating one salad a day, in place of a meal.

With the darebee site, yeah, I showed you that. I keep looking through the stuff, keep printing the workouts, but haven't started any (yet). I will be, now that I found the right motivation and desire. I just hope I don't get bored... you know me, I go all out when I do something new, but then it just kind of fades away. Just got to keep myself motivated.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:01 am by soothsayer

On a side note, a few weeks ago I picked up a book on Japanese swordsmanship from Goodwill. Goes on about proper technique, stance, grip, the traditions and history involved, and on and on. Will have to look through that book, see if it goes along with the video.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:45 am by Shadowcrunch

I just like how on the video the guys all serious and "now I will show you the hoochie coochie" then swish he's got the book out "the hoochie coochie is a traditional stance whereby...." If a dude can make the stuff fun that's an added bonus!

And those workout routines based on games or characters, like the Witcher one... I printed that one. I set it on a box next to a wide open area at work. I looked at the jumping exercise and pfft that's easy. 10 of them? Pfft! The one that's like axing a tree? You're just squatting and swinging you're arms! 10 of those? Pfft! 10 minutes later I'm panting, sweating, and my legs are on fire. Shit works, but it does get stale fast. I have noticed since I got my bacop (big ass chunk of pipe), that squat chop exercise feels like it has more purpose, and there's something weighty and solid to worry about. Another reason I think that video or your book might make things less repetitive.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 15, 2015 11:45 am by soothsayer

The way it looks to me, in regards to the darebee exercises, is that the workouts are a one time thing, not meant for a day after day routine, which would explain the filters on the bottom of that page; the challenges are meant to coincide with the other exercises, and not to be used solely as an exercise program; and the programs are the actual daily exercise routines.

Right now, I've printed both Foundation bodyweight training guides (low impact, ease the fat man in) and the Total Abs program to gradually work on losing belly fat. I'll be running both these programs at the same time to start. They're 30 days each, and will make for a good starting point for when I get into the other programs. I've also signed up to receive the daily workouts; doesn't mean I'll do them, just gives me an idea of what I could be doing during my lunch break or something.

So yeah, the program is the day-to-day, and the workouts break up the monotony. Or something. I could be wrong.

I did notice that many of the equipment free exercises might be improved upon by including a weight of some kind, whether a dumbbell or a kettle weight. Might give that a try; would improve my overall strength and cardio, that's for certain.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Thu Sep 24, 2015 8:05 am by soothsayer

The other day I purchased the Perfect IQ Band (details can be found here. Thought it would make for a good visual aide for my walks and whatnot. Boy, I could not be more mistaken.

First off, unbeknownst to me, at least until after I purchased and setup the product, all this does is keep count on the steps you've walked. It's an expensive pedometer, plain and simple. And like all pedometers, it has its drawbacks: wear it as a wristband, and it may not register the swing of your arm if you are carrying something or if you naturally walk with little arm sway; wear it as a belt clip, but don't clip it to a loop, oh no, clip it in a vertical position.

And then the device is supposed to be bluetooth compatible. Sync it once, should always be good to go. When the device gets within bluetooth range, it'll download information so the app can generate a graph of your progress.

Pfft.

Connectivity sucks. Every time I activate the app, I have to sync the device. I haven't gotten around to the actual graph portion of things, simply because it's been infuriating me so far... going to try it today.

According to the app, the device calculates your stride, based on the weight, height, and age you enter. Apparently, from my house to the garage, from the farthest parking spot to my building, and one lap around the building, it is only 574 steps... according to Google Maps, it's about 692 feet from my car to the front door. This tells me that one step is less than a foot; my shoe is a size 13, or thirteen inches in length. Apparently I'm shuffling.

So far, this is not worth it. I highly doubt any of these types of devices are worth it. Going to play around with it a little bit longer and see what I can do to improve its readings, will also try to figure stuff out from the website (although, according to the included instructions, you just turn on, sync, and are good to go).

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:55 pm by soothsayer

Well I'll be damned.

After ranting about the crap that is the Perfect IQ Band, I noticed that, as a pre-installed app on the smartphone, was an app called S Health, with the description being found here.

I'm finding this app to be a lot better than the IQ Band. For starters, you don't have to set it up / activate it every day, it automatically runs in the background, tracking your every step, or whatever else you want it to track. I'm doing steps right now; I would do walking as it keeps track and sets goals of how much to walk, but that looks as if it relies on tracking your location... ie, consumes data. Unless you're blindly walking, I don't see a need to track your distance; if you've planned your route or are using a treadmill, you're good to go.

Another thing I like about this is that, not only does it keep track of your steps, but it records the time as well. As an example, it shows I took about 450 steps between 6a and 7:30a, and another 6000 during the noon hour. I'm "required" to take 6000 steps in one hour; did it in 45 minutes. Based on your age / height, it somehow calculates how long your stride is or something, because it says I walked 3.62 miles so far today... based on that, it says I've burned 337 calories.

I don't know how accurate those calculations are, since according to Google Maps the route I walked during my noon hour comes out to about 2.25 miles... maybe I should track it one day with the GPS feature, just so I can get a more accurate reading. Still, 2.25 is a long way off from 3.6.

Oh, and this also keeps track of things on a day-to-day basis, which is nice. I didn't know that this app is always on, so it graphs a pretty good representation of what I've been doing and when. It's definitely nice to actually see what you are doing, kind of gives you a mental boost when you hit the achievements (and beyond), instead of simply relying on yourself to keep you going.

There may be better apps out there (I know 'crunch recommended Endomondo), but those seem to be heavily dependent on your data package. I want to go through a month with my family using the phones normally before using extra features... that way, I can try to figure out what our data usage would be

Anyway, yes, this app is much better than that band.

...

Haven't weighed myself yet since the VA appointment. Probably should, so I can see what's what. All I know is, one meal a day has been replaced with a salad; two handfuls of chopped lettuce, a bunch of cucumber slices, a sliced up Roma tomato, a handful of diced ham, and a sprinkling of sliced black olives. Oh, and fat free ranch. So that I don't get bored with this, whenever I feel myself getting sick of the green all the time, I'll eat a salad at supper instead, mix it up a little. Or I'll get a salad from Subway (chicken instead of ham). Anything to trick or fool my body.

Also been drinking A LOT of drink mixes. You know, "add this to 16.2 ounces of water". They're 5 calories a tube, and my bottle holds 34 ounces, so that's 10 calories a bottle. Better than soda; I would drink tea, but I hate drinking warm stuff when it's warm. I'm also drinking two of those bottles a day at work, plus a third bottle on the way home / during the late afternoon / evening. That's 102 ounces of water a day, not counting whatever water or milk I drink at home, or moisture I get from meals. While the belief of eight glass of water a day is true, according to the Mayo Clinic, eight glasses of liquids works just as well; that works out to 64 ounces. The Mayo Clinic says that for men, 13 cups is better (for women, 9 cups)... that's 104 ounces for men, 72 for women. I'd say I'm getting the proper amount, easily.

I've also been lifting weights. I may have made mention of this before, I don't know, can't see any previous posts. When I get home, depending on what's going on, I'll walk two to three miles (about 45 minutes). If I can't do this right away, I'll try to squeeze it in somewhere. Started doing this during my lunch break as a "just in case", which means the afternoons should be "extra", which is always nice I suppose. Anyway, after the walk or whatever, when I'm sitting down watching TV, I'll lift weights. Some days I'll be working two dumbbells, other days bench pressing a curling bar (lying back in a recliner); using the curling bar because the center curve fits nicely around the cat that's sleeping on my chest.

So... I have the eating down, I hope. The drinking is good, damn near excellent. Getting the walking in, and with the above app, it keeps me happy to see the results in numbers and graphs which motivates me to do more. Lifting weight to not only help in getting rid of my man boobs, but gets my upper body in shape... though truth be told, it hurts my right elbow (tennis elbow from a few years back, 2004 to be exact). Next up, as of the 1st of October, sit-ups, toe touches, and cardio will be added to my routine, thanks to darebee.com

*fingers crossed*

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Thu Oct 01, 2015 10:59 am by soothsayer

Not posting this here for comments or anything, just for the sake of completeness.

I weighed myself yesterday. I wasn't going to, I was going to weigh myself on October 16... a month after my VA appointment, so I could keep track of things at one month increments. I figured, with only loosing 2 pounds a week, weighing myself once a month would be good, and would more accurately reflect what I am doing, instead of once a week (and having the scale go + / - either way).

But, weigh myself I did. Did it mainly because my "fat" pants have been sliding off of me. I call them my fat pants because they have that elastic sure-fit band in them. The length is thew correct length for me, puts the waistband where it's supposed to be (just above my hips), but that's also above my gut line. Thus, fat pants. Anyway, they're sliding off if I take more than a few steps; I can't wear them below my gut, as I'd be stepping on the cuffs... suppose I should go to the normal pants, shorter in length, but the go up to my gut.

Okay, so according to the scale, I now weigh around 295; that's a fifteen pound reduction in two weeks. I don't know how accurate that is, but that's what it says. I was dressed the same as I was when initially weighed at the VA (minus shoes). I can't see how I've lost that much in two weeks time, but my pants situation speaks for itself.

I know at some point I'm going to hit a plateau, but here's hoping I can at least continue with two pounds a week.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Oct 05, 2015 1:28 pm by soothsayer

At one point I was going to take a "before" picture, but there are a few of those on Facebook already (with my guy exposed). And though I was going to take these new ones as a reference like they show on all the dieting commercials, I decided against it. Not worth it, and no one wants to see that.

However, I am going to post a couple pictures here. Why? Well, again, I initially wasn't going to, at least not until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. My shirt, a size 19, a shirt that fit me well before, from last year when first purchased, doesn't really fit as nicely as it once did. In fact, I think it's beginning to take on the same characteristics as my "fat pants".

You can see in the right image, where my belly button would be, how the shirt has taken on a wrinkly appearance around the shirt button, indicating that that is where the material has been stretched. Ahh, but look at the left image... look at all that extra material now! And notice how loose it is around the next and under the arms!

Couldn't tell you what my shirt size is right now. I can see that it isn't a 19. I believe a 19 equals a 3XL, which is what I've been wearing for a while now. May have to dig out some 2XL shirts for comparison. I should note that I love and prefer baggier shirts... East Indian / Arabic style shirts come to mind... but they really don't equate well for the work place.

Still have a loooooong way to go; it's only been three weeks, after all. If anything, these pictures act as a reminder for myself of what it is I'm working towards.

Soothsayer's fitness journal - Page 2 Shirt10

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:22 am by soothsayer

Yet another weight loss attempt come and gone. I was doing... not so much "good", but "better" with my eating habits. Then I got lazy again. And I've started yet again in attempting to lose weight.

The way I look at it, it took me how long to quit smoking. Quite a few times, some with medication. First tried in 1998ish, then again around 2006 and 2011, and then finally quit a couple / few years ago. This is in addition to all the other small attempts, the dates listed were just attempts with medication (the patch, wellbutrin).

This past weekend, I looked at my weight loss in a similar fashion, putting dates to to what I weighed so I could get a better picture of where I was and what I needed to do. Something interesting happened. Here, let me make a graph to show what I mean.

...

Okay, can't make a graph at the moment, but that's okay.

1990 - 135 pounds graduating high school
1990 - 165 pounds, getting out of boot camp
1994 - 185 pounds, getting out of service
1998 - 210
2006 - 260 pounds
2011 / 2012 - 350 pounds
2013 - 325 pounds
2014 - 280 pounds (at lowest)
2015 - 300 pounds
2016 - 290 pounds

In looking at this, there has been a gradual increase in my weight since getting out of the service; my only explanation is being married made me soft. It's a good thing, don't get me wrong. The thing is, I was eating, regularly. AND I noticed that my significant weight gain was always around the times I tried to quit smoking. Makes sense, as it follows everything that's ever been said about smoking. But then I also noticed that while the time line / gain looks like a normal bell curve, the past few years of my wanting to quit is more steeper; there's some bumps in there, yes, but the numbers are still going down, quicker than they went up. It may have taken me 15+ years to gain 170 pounds, but it's only taken me three years to lose 70.

And while I still want (or need) to lose around 100 pounds, there isn't such a drive or push for me to do so. I'll be happy if I lose and keep of 30 pounds this year.

Never give up. Setbacks are expected, but I should stop taking those setbacks as a negative, and focus on what those mean down the road.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:04 am by soothsayer

Boy, I certainly haven't been keeping up with this at all, have I? So here it is, gradual weight lose attempt number 6,482,112. What's sparking this latest attempt at losing some weight? The last streak of overtime, where I was working 16.5 hour days here. By time I got home, it was already late / I was too tired to take a shower, and getting up the next morning was difficult, so I got into the habit of (go ahead and laugh) sponge baths here at work. As a side effect, I could see myself in the mirror... I mean really see myself in the mirror.

I wasn't happy. Clothed I look... well, fat, sure... but nude? *shudders*

But this particular post isn't about losing weight. No? No! It involves a little experiment I've been doing this past week, and I'd like to share the results with you.

I've been "starving" myself. No, don't worry, nothing like that. I would go a day without eating, all the while drinking water or those fat people shakes (breakfast and lunch). On day two, liquids but then a salad for supper. Day three, just water and the fat shakes. Day four, liquids and then a "normal" meal, and by normal, what I would normally eat in the evening (which is surprisingly a lot I discovered). So as you can see, there was a 24-36 hour cleanse then a meal, followed by another cleanse and a meal; nothing to worry about, just enough so my body could remove whatever and just work on that particular meal.

With the salad, I felt... good. I had more movement, my legs seemed to have a longer or fuller stride. I was also more alert and oddly enough quite active, especially considering all I had was the salad (spinach leaves, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, black olives, ranch dressing) and the fat shakes.

With the normal meal, or rather following my normal eating habits, I felt... heavy. Weighed down. Sluggish. I was tired, moved at a slower pace, and really didn't want to do much / lack of ambition. I'm not going to list what I all ate, let's just say that, looking back, it was quite a lot. And upon further reflection, that's my normal eating habit!

So what am I trying to say here? Am I going to preach the virtues of salads and greens? Hell. No. I'm just saying, for myself at least, processed foods (at least in excessive amounts) is physically draining.

I do like these fat shakes though. It only took a day to get used to them / for me to not be hungry during the day. I think I'll continue taking them and see what happens, break myself of the habit of eating candy bars and chips during the work day (in addition to fast food for lunch). So far it's working; I've got cravings, but nothing I can't handle or wait off.

What I'm drinking is the Equate brand of nutritional shakes (vanilla flavor). Looking at the bottle, it provides 25% to 50% of a lot of things one needs in a day (vitamin speaking), in addition to other things, for only 220 calories. Since I'm taking two of these (morning and noon), that's 440, something that I would have normally consumed with chips or whatever from the vending machine (and sodas, I've become a big soda drinker this year for some reason). I'm also drinking about three 20oz bottles of water with the powdered mix additive a day at work (5 calories per bottle). So, all told, 415 calories at work.

Regarding my intentions for supper. As the past six days have shown, I can skip a day or two without having to eat. Am I going to continue that? Hell no, that'd be crazy and completely unhealthy, even with the multivitamin supplements I'm taking in the mornings (another way to balance out the good things I'm missing by not eating during the day). I thought about doing a complete liquid diet... after all, knowing my personality and habits, it is far easier for me to jump into something and go extreme than taking the patient approach... but that wouldn't be good, not at my age, body condition, and the fact too many people would be concerned. Remember those "have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner" commercials? There you go.

Some days I may skip eating a supper and just do a liquid thing; it's hot, who really wants to eat, right? Those days, I can see having some soup or a bowl of cereal or whatever (see, I'm not planning to not eat). Other days it may just be a sandwich, or it might be a meal; in looking at how I normally eat at supper, I can use that as a personal guide, a "what the hell are you doing" thing.

...

Okay, know what? This is what I ate between coming home last night and going to bed. Five hours. I don't eat like this all the time, but...

Two brats with buns and brown mustard. A bowl of chicken casserole. A pack of crab legs with shrimp sauce. A handful or two of pretzel goldfish crackers. A handful of Doritos chips. Can of Dr Pepper. Tall glass of milk. Two chocolate fudge pop tarts.

This could have been simply because I was hungry, as I don't normally eat all that in the evening. Remove the pretzels, crackers, soda, and pop tarts, but keep the portions of the main, and that'd be it. So, taking that info, as long as I remove at least half of what I normally eat, that'd be my "sensible" meal.

Weekends will be a bitch though, since I'll be home with the family. One tends to eat more when other people are eating. Will have to try some self restraint, I suppose.

Before I post this, as my train of thought has departed, I weighed myself this past Monday: 310 pounds. Whatever it is I've been doing or not doing, at least my weight has been maintaining itself. Let's see what happens when I remove my daytime eating habits.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Mon Sep 19, 2016 8:09 pm by soothsayer

Motivation

I've been working on losing weight for a few years now. Some months I do good, others not so much. The only consistent is that I've maintained my weight and that I keep plugging along. Much like when I was smoking, the desire is there to quit, there just wasn't that much in the way of motivation. Well guess what?

Today I had my annual with the VA. Weight, lab results for my blood work, blah blah blah. Surprisingly I'm in pretty good shape for being 100 pounds plus over-weight. Blood pressure is 120 / 74, heart rate is 78. Cholesterols and blood cell counts are excellent. Everything indicates that I am in excellent health... with the exception of one tiny thing.

Triglycerides.

I'll let you look that up yourself, but in essence a good level would be 150 points or less: I am at 344. This puts my sugar levels at 6.4, which is apparently borderline diabetic (6.5). What I was told was this "I have four different medications I can put you on,but then you'd be required to take it every day for life." {note: not taking four pills, but one of those four; he just had four different types of med} "Or," he continued, "we can try for another blood test in six months, but you'll have to make some significant changes."

Hmm... anchored to medications for the rest of my life, or use this as a wake up call? "Let's try this again in six months." Now, what got me to quit smoking, or at least to get off of cigarettes and onto pipe (which worked amazingly well) was my walking up one flight of stairs to put laundry in the boy's room and I couldn't breath. And now I have this to motivate me: medicated for life, diabetes... no thank you.

So. Six months. No sugary or fatty foods or drinks. More exercising (I should clarify, more regular exercise). I was doing this already, off and on. I just have to stay on.

***

Oh, my weight? 315.6. Don't know what this is naked, but that's the number I'm going with.

Measurements:

18 inch neck
48.5 inch chest
52 inch moobs
58 inch gut
46 inch hips

Deadline: mid March, 2017. I don't know what "significant" means in this regards, but I'm gunning for 100 pounds in six months. That's roughly 16.5 pounds a month, or four pounds a week. I'm sure 50 pounds would be reasonable; that'd put me to where I was back in 2006 - 2007, and would only be 8 pounds a month / two a week. Should I shoot for that, make it a maximum of 100 / minimum of 50? Either way, this weight's got to go.

And now, for the "before" pictures. In six months, I'll post the "after". And I do apologize ahead of time. Ready for this?

Soothsayer's fitness journal - Page 2 20160910

Soothsayer's fitness journal - Page 2 20160911

{edit}

Adding info from sites I've posted earlier.

Soothsayer's fitness journal - Page 2 111

maintain body weight: 2927 calories a day

To lose four pounds a week, that'd be 2,000 calories a day; don't even know where to lose them. I've got to be eating and drinking stuff I'm not, so it seems like I'll be doing more of the same (but this time going beyond my three weeks and I'm done routine. No breakfast (never ate in decades, so why start now). I'm thinking a walk to Walmart every lunch hour to buy an apple or cucumber will keep me satisfied for the work day; gets me walking two miles, then eating something healthy. Thought about doing those nutrition shakes, but those contain a lot of fat and sugar and that's something I cannot have, not any more. After work, get home and walk to Piggly Wiggly to get a salad from Subway, one with meat (chicken / turkey / ham) just so I get that protein... should I buy salad stuff in advance (and save a bit of money in the process), then I should do a two mile walk to compensate. Daily doses of Omega 3 tablets, multi-vitamins, and perhaps a calcium supplement; since I'm cutting out milk and the multi-vitamin only covers 21% of the calcium... Weekends I'm free. Not entirely free, still will stay away from breakfast and take the tablets / vitamins and walk three miles plus, but the main meal may be a bit bigger, as we might be out on the town or something.

Oh, should go back to the Darbee website, give some exercise plans a try. I seem to recall a few "90 Days of" routines

See? It's just more of the same, except that now I've got to do this.

Sadly I can't do my noon hour walk today, as I'll be heading to the bank to withdraw some money to get a pair of decent walking shoes and the vitamins / supplements. I know, excuses excuses.

50 to 100 pounds in 180 days... I can do this.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:34 am by soothsayer

Darebee now has apps! HERE are the descriptions; both apps are on Google Play.

Besides those apps, it looks like I'll be starting with Darebee's Foundation program. It's 30 days, but it's enough to get me started. After a month, I'll be set to work up to the next level.

Okay, I'm off to download and install the apps and to print off the Foundation routine.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:25 pm by soothsayer

After crunching numbers and looking up information all day, I've developed my "need to lose" calculations.

First I had to figure out my BMR, or what my body naturally burns on a daily basis if I'm just a lump. Based on weight, height and age, my BMR is 2441. I need that many calories to exist.

Figuring out how many calories I need to lose on a daily basis if I want to drop 100 pounds in 180 days, that comes out to 1945 calories. So, without doing a damned thing at all other than existing, that means I get a surplus of 496 calories (ie, I get to eat).

That's... damn near impossible, and probably downright unhealthy. Talk about malnutrition! Even with the multi-vitamin and supplements, that's high risk right there. Nope, a healthy amount of calories required is 1800 (for men). So... there's the walking.

I easily walk 3 miles a day at work, between roaming the building and the trips to Walmart or whatever. Factor in the noon hour jaunts (instead of driving), that'll go up to 4 miles, easily. Add another two miles (at least) at home. That's 600 calories, because a rule of thumb is one mile equals 100 calories. That brings my consumption up to 1100 calories.

From what I've seen, that is a good number. That is, as long as I eat a good amount of vegetables for the vitamins and nutrients. So there I go, I have my nutritional intake goal.

Let the fun begin.

Re: Soothsayer's fitness journal Thu Sep 22, 2016 10:01 am by soothsayer

Daily Account, September 22On the 19th of September, I was weighed at the local VA outpatient clinic; the scale read 315.6. That was fully clothed and with hiking boots on (not steel toe). I weighed myself yesterday with my home scale, wearing nothing but socks and underwear, and the scale read 305. Did that a few times, and the results were always the same.

There's one of four possibilities: my clothes and boots weigh 10 pounds, the digital scale at the VA is wrong, the spring scale at home is wrong, or I lost ten pounds in 48 hours. I'll weigh my clothes and boots tonight to eliminate that possibility.

**Going to try to make a daily entry, just to keep things moving along. If I write stuff down, then I can look back to see what worked and what didn't, and maybe others can offer suggestions.**

Walked to Walmart during the noon hour yesterday, bought a cucumber, and ate it on the way back to work. Don't know how big it was, but it looks like a one pound cucumber contains 70 calories. Not bad, especially since they're full of vitamins and other good stuff. After work, went to the grocery store, bought a cucumber and a bottle of Wishbone Light Thousand Island; got home, cut the cuc into fourths, scooped out the seeds, spread in some Thousand Island, and inserted two slices of turkey lunch meat. 70 calories from the cuc, I want to say probably around 80 or 90 from the dressing, and about 180 from the meat (two servings). That's what... 340 calories for supper. Had some homemade sugar cookies and a glass of milk later in the evening; I'll guess and say the glass hold 2.5 cups, so that's about 250 calories. Cookies unknown. Regardless, I had my fat and protein for the day, along with the daily vitamins and nutrients. I'm not going to be able to eat cucumbers all the time, will mix things up with salads here and there, and maybe sub in a couple eggs or ham for the meat product. If anything, this shows it can be done with little or no effort in trying to think of things to eat.

According to the S Health app on the phone, I took 7454 steps (need to take 6000 a day). I know I did more than that, I just didn't have my phone on my all the time. So anyway, according to the app, that was 3.7 miles and 598 calories burned. I definitely burned off what I ate (except for the sugar cookies). If my BMR is accurate, that means I burned 2440 calories for existing and another 600 from walking, making a total of 3040 calories lost... not quite a pound, but I'm not looking for that. I could do it, I've got the fat stores, but I don't want to do "extremes".

Can't get my walking in during today's noon hour as I've got to hit the bank, so I'm going to try to do what I can at work and at home; the wife is home this evening, don't know what supper is, but I should be able to get a good hour walk in (weather permitting).

{edit}

I realized I made an excuse. Our bank has a branch in the grocery by our house that is open until 6p; I can easily hit the bank after work. Hell, the bank in town is open until, what, 5p I think. Just checked the weather radar, and the skies look storm free for the next couple hours at least. Walk to Walmart is a go.

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