I’ve got three kinds of clothes. Fat Guy clothes, Medium Guy clothes, and Skinny Guy clothes. My Fat Guy clothes are now hanging on me. I can now wear my Medium Guy clothes comfortably, and I’m pulling them out of storage to put them in the rotation in my closet. And just for fun, I tried to slip on my Skinny Guy clothes, a pair of pants that I haven’t been able to wear comfortably since some time in 2001. They’re still tight, but I can actually button them. Six weeks ago there would have been no way. I predict a month from now I’ll be a lot closer to actually being able to wear them.
Just another intangible measure of progress. I’m encouraged.
I’ve added a poll section to the right hand column. It would be great to get your feedback! If you’re reading from a blog reader, come on over to the main site and take a few seconds to pull the lever. This first one is just, “How much weight have you lost?” That’s partly to get an idea of how our readers and fatbloggers are doing, but it’s also a trial run for me to work on implementing it into this site. I’ll be making some minor adjustments to its layout as we go along. Specifically, if you know the css code to get the text inside to push further to the left, I’m all ears.
Also, and just as an aside, I just peeked in at our stats and it’s amazing at how many different people are reading us. I’m not doing this for the numbers, but it’s definitely nice to see that other people see us as worth checking out. We appreciate your readership!
This guy takes over 6 minutes to say what could probably be said in 2, but this is quite an impressive video. If nothing else, it shows what is possible, even for fat guys like us. Sixty-five pounds lost, waist size from 44 to 32. Way to go, dude.
Some of you know that I’m working toward my school administration credentials. I just started a class this evening that’s going to absolutely kick my rear end. Four weekends over the next month and a half. Not to mention the day job stuff and family things I’m already committed to. Already, I feel my stress and anxiety levels going up several notches. I’m worried most about maintaining my weight loss program through this whole thing. The traveling, the late nights, the deadline-driven projects…all of which encourage a fast food, eat-on-the fly lifestyle. And nobody else in my cohort is watching their weight.
Take a deep breath.
I can do this. I’ve done it so far, thanks in no small part to the blogging community right here.
It takes some planning. Maybe getting up a little earlier, maybe writing things out a little more the night before. But I can do this. Don’t skip the breakfast, have a granola bar on hand. Good lunch, be sure to save some yogurt for the afternoon. Have a Diet Pepsi on hand just in case. And for Heaven’s sake keep up with the online food diary.
Good news for you that like a good ale now and then: You can enjoy a Fat Tire without it turning in to a spare tire around your middle. Weight Watchers has a great article on the nutrition facts and some misconceptions about beer. A few things they point out:
12 oz. beer with 5% ABV (alcohol by volume) is just 3 WW points.
16 oz. of the same beer is 4 points.
A few light beers, specifically Samuel Adams Light and Guinness draft are just 2 points for a 12-ounce bottle.
There may be some health benefits for men over 45. More isn’t better, though. The key to this is moderation.
They quote one nutrition expert as labeling the idea of a beer gut as a “silly myth.” Beer drinkers with weight control difficulties also have a high overall calorie intake. In other words, it’s not the beer that makes you fat. It’s the chips, peanuts, etc… that usually go along with it.
This article also gives a few warnings:
The terms “light” and “lite” have no legal definition. Check the label on the bottle if you’re unsure.
Beer is very calorie-dense, almost as much so as fat. One beer won’t effect you. Three or four probably will. Again, moderation.
So if you’re on Weight Watchers and felt that you had to skip over the beer cooler aisle at the grocery store, you’re in luck. Just count it in with your intake for that day and no problem.
Four out of six members of the Thomas clan came down with the stomach flu this week. As the week progressed, I discovered that MOST of the members of my church had the same affliction. The first thought was food poisoning from the potluck we had last Sunday as a farewell to our Pastor, but then why would someone want to poison the ex-pastor, and take out the entire membership instead? Turns out there was such an epidemic of stomach flu in Pendleton this week that our local hospital had people on gurneys in the halls and the EMT’s spent the good part of three days doing nothing but stomach flu calls. There were over 10 staff members at one local elementary school that were sick on Wednesday.
I’m telling you this story not so that you will be grossed out by the thought of an entire town with the stomach flu (and the accompanying emissions). I’m telling you this to show you why I thought that I would lose a BUNCH of weight this week. Doesn’t it go to figure that when you spend the two days immediately prior to weigh-in ‘ejecting‘ the contents of your digestive system that the scale would show some love?
It seems the scale is a heartless wench.
The anti-climactic results of the Thursday morning weigh-in…
-0.2 lbs for a Week 16 total -26.6 lbs.
PS: Rick is a show-off AND/OR an over achiever… you decide
I’m still yo-yoing between 235 and 237. Just call me Duncan. At least I’m not getting any heavier than that, so hopefully things will pull forward again soon. It’s getting better weather here now, so hopefully more walking is in the near future. I seem to do better when I have some kind of routine, and the routine has been suffering as of late, so maybe that’s partly to blame for my lack of attention to exercise and eating healthier. Thanks again for all those who are supporting me.
Speaking of supporting someone, I just got a visit from my buddy Greg, from http://www.fatguyblog.com. He’s still hanging in there, he just hasn’t had much time to blog lately. His heel spurs are still acting up, though, so exercise for him has been much lessened. I tried to give him some encouragement. I enjoyed his visit, even though I wish I wouldn’t have been at work and spent more time with him. Greg is one of those guys whho, even though I haven’t known him that long, I feel I can talk to him about nearly anything. He’s a lot of fun to talk to, and I’m grateful that his blog led me to contact him and make a new friend. We have a lot of similar interests and I always am enlightened in some ways when he has time to visit. I know a lot of you that read my blog also read his, so I thought I would let you know he is doing okay.
Honestly, I didn’t do anything differently this week than I had the week before. Maybe last week I was just weighing heavy or something. Yeah. Anyway, drum roll please Anton…5.2 pounds this week, for a grand total of 25.6 pounds lost since March 4.
I might have mentioned once that I did the Prism diet, about 8-9 years ago, and lost 50 pounds on it. At the 6-week point back then, I had lost 35 pounds. I am MUCH happier losing 25 pounds on Weight Watchers now than I was losing 35 pounds back then. I believe that with WW, I’ll be able to ease in to maintenance much better when it gets to be that time.
I’m feeling great, but there’s still a ways to go. I’m definitely encouraged, though.
We tend to measure success in our weight loss endeavor by things that we can measure. Pounds and inches lost in x number of weeks/months, for example. Today, I had two things happen to me that we normally don’t measure because, well, it’s tough to place a number on it. But today, I had two people, independently of each other, comment that they had noticed my weight loss (thanks Tracy and Joyce!). They didn’t even know I had been doing Weight Watchers. This was the first time anybody has noticed without me telling them about it firsthand.
And this morning, as I was getting ready for the day, I noticed that I was now buckling my belt comfortably up two whole notches from where I had been when I started this whole thing. It’s not something that I had been consciously doing. Usually, I just put the belt through the loops, yank on it to where it feels comfortable, then find the nearest notch.
So there are always little things to feel good about, even if we can’t put a number on them.
What are the little things you are celebrating with your weight loss?
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