FatBloggers.net A little push to lose the tush.

I bought 3 pair of new jeans this weekend and it is official, I have gone from a size 44 to a size 38! I also bought some large t-shirts at the Old Navy outlet. XXXL to L!

The t-shirts fit, but they are a little too revealing. I need to lose another ten pounds and slim up my side saddles before I can wear them.

The t-shirts got me thinking about how far I have come and how far I have left to go. In all my celebration lately I have forgotten that I am still severely overweight. ..at least according to all of the charts. I am really proud of what I have accomplished, but the truth is I have a ways to go to be really healthy. I think it is good to keep reminding myself of that. It keeps the fire alive.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about my goal. My original goal was to get down to 220 pounds by my birthday next year. My birthday is still 254 days away. To get to my goal I would only need to lose 0.386 lb. I have decide to change things. I am leaving the weight the same but moving up the date.

My new goal is to reach 220 lbs by Christmas. Don’t panic but Christmas is only 14 weeks away! I can’t believe it either.

14 pounds in 14 weeks.

Over the past 4 months I have averaged a weekly loss of 2.5 lbs. If I can keep something even close to that average I may even be able to make my goal by Thanksgiving.

After I reach 220 I will set my next goal. 220 will leave me just a touch on the obese side of the scale. So my next goal will be to get down to “moderately overweight”. I’ll make it official in a few months but I think my next goal will be to lose 21 pounds and get under 200.

Step right up! Participate in the process! Exercise your RIGHT!

yadda… yadda… yadda

I’d like to get some sugggestions from my fellow FatBloggers on some new poll questions. If your question is selected, you will WIN!*

*A warm feeling of accomplishment. 
Feeling is not guaranteed to be warm, or even a feeling.

I got back into the swing of things now that school has started.  Hitting the gym, on the treadmill.  However, with each day that I walked, my right knee got sorer and sorer.  I could hardly walk on it last wed. after I walked.

Finally went to the Dr. on Friday, and the knee is full of arthritis.

I am on some drugs to take away the inflammation, but if it doesn’t get better, I’m off to another Dr. for an MRI.

I’m pretty discouraged and everything tastes good.

The Australian Government is floating an idea to pay people $170 to enter an accredited weight loss program.

What do you think?

When you have time, take a look at the list of blogs that have joined the FatBloggers network by linking here. There are some beneficial blogs in the list on the right.

234! That’s what it said on the scale this morning. A loss of 2.4 lbs.! And 14 straight weeks of loss.

I feel really good about this week. Over the last two weeks I have finally settled in to a way of life that feels sustainable. I’m obsessing less over what I eat. I still track my calories everyday, but I don’t feel like I need to be so uptight about what I eat. I have come to a point where this is my regular diet vs. being on a diet. My body knows what it needs now. And exercise has started to become more routine. Less of a chore and more just part of my every day. Let’s hope I didn’t just jinx myself by talking about it.

I realized this morning that this is very close to the weight where I first started thinking I needed to lose weight. My first major push to drop a few pounds came during the year leading up to my wedding, which would have been 8 years ago. It’s amazing that I have accomplished in 6 months what I have been trying to do for 8 years. And it’s all because of the help and support I get from you guys! Thank you.

Another thing I realized this morning, those large white t-shirts are starting to fit pretty comfortably. Unfortunately, my only remaining pair of jeans are starting get a little big. May have to hit the outlet mall this weekend.

As for the quantity of white t-shirts I own, I only have 4. I use my daughters Pip Squeak Washable Markers to write the number on and wash the shirt each week. Sorry to  destroy the illusion.

Have a great weekend everybody.

Tony
9/14: 234 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
14 lbs. to go

I had a bad weekend, I felt like I was eating too much and I was having a very difficult time with my willpower. Throw in the traffic and the stupid people that are taking over my town this week and the blocked off streets, mix in 90 degrees, my wife and her friend are doing a booth (ka-ching) this year for the Round-Up festivities AND my kids are hawking newspapers to the aforementioned stupid people (ka-ching!). It all adds up to a stressful week, and we’re only halfway through it!

It is Tuesday night and that means weigh-in!

Anton, a drum roll if you please…

Starting Weight (Dec. 22, 2006): 392 lbs.
Starting BMI: 51.7
Weight Today (Sept. 11, 2007): 323.8 lbs.
Current BMI: 42.7

Weight Change This Week: -1.2 lbs.
Total Loss: -68.2 lbs.
NEXT GOAL: 75 lbs. (6.8 lbs. to go)

Cross-Published on I Reject Your Reality…

I swear I am not on a crusade. I was ready to leave the whole Britney thing alone after yesterdays post. I had said my piece and made my point. And then I opened up Yahoo News and was hit with this headline:

Harshest Words Saved For Britney’s Body

In general it is a poorly written article wrapping up the “she’s fat” / “no she’s not” reactions to Sunday nights performance. Again I was ready to leave it alone until I saw this quote from Glamour Magazine executive editor-at-large, Suze Yalof Scwhartz.

“Girls aren’t looking as skinny this season as they did,” said Suze Yalof Scwhartz, executive editor-at-large for Glamour Magazine. “There’s food backstage. They’re looking sexier.” At Glamour, she noted, a model won’t be featured “if she shows too much clavicle.”

A lovely, yet all together hypocritical sentiment apparently. Recently a few keen observers spread around the blogesphere have noted that Glamour Magazine did an impressive Photoshop job on America Ferrera for their latest cover. Take a look at the pictures and you’ll notice her face and arms have been considerably thinned out.

While it does sound like America has lost some weight since the first photo was taken, there is no way those arms are her real arms.

I know Photoshopping covers is a common practice. In fact the company I work for has been asked more than once to Photoshop 10 or 15 lbs. off of a celebrity. It is something we do with no small amount of ridicule for said celebrity.

My ridicule turns to anger however, when a magazine like Glamour feels the need to “tighten up” and digital tone a women like America Farrar, a woman whose career has been built on the idea that every body is beautiful just the way it is.

This is a serious problem. Especially when the editor at large turns around and claims her magazine is part of the solution. Sorry Miss Scwhartz, if you continue practices like this you are just as big a part of the problem… maybe even a bigger part of the problem…than the hundreds of snippy reporters blasting away at Brittney for her paunch.

I now officially retire my soap box. I promise the rest of my post this week will be all about me!

Tony
9/11: 236.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
16.4 lbs. to go

Cross published at Guess How Much I Weigh

I could care less about Britney Spears! I need you to understand just how much I don’t care about Britney Spears because it is the only way I can bring myself to talk about her. So now that we all know that I am not some closeted teeny bop idol lover I can get on to talking about Britney Spears.

Once again this morning, Britney is all of the news due to her “disastrous” performance at last nights MTV Video Music Awards. I happened to see part of the performance on the Today Show this morning while waiting for the weather report. I will agree, it did look bad and was probably an ill advised comeback attempt for someone not ready to be back in the spotlight. There is however one thing that is bugging me about all the media coverage.

Here is a quote from an AP article on Yahoo news this morning:

“As in most train wrecks, it was hard to focus on just one thing as the Britney Spears disaster unfolded. There was just so much that went wrong.

Out-of-synch lip-synching. Lethargic movements that seemed choreographed by a dance instructor for a nursing home. The paunch in place of Spears’ once-taut belly.”

Can you guess which part of that quote I have a problem with? Nearly every news report I have seen on last nights VMA’s mentioned Britney Spears’ weight as one of the things she “did wrong” last night.

Ok, now take a good look at these pictures. Do you see the paunch? Sure it’s not a set of six-pack abs, but I think Britney has a lot more to worry about then being ten pounds overweight and a little soft in middle. To me, she looks incredibly healthy. The only hint of a “paunch” is in this final photo and that may just be because of her pose and the angle of the photo.

But, here is the message I hear going out to young girls. “Be skinny or else people will make fun of you.” Sure I am super sensitive to this issue due to my current obsession with my own body. But as a father of two little girls it worries me to see how nonchalantly we can call a 130 lb. woman paunchy merely because she is a celebrity who once had a rock hard body. She has had two kids for cripes sake.

So here is my point, if you have young daughters who read the newspaper or watch the news or listen to the radio or watch MTV, do me a favor. Let them know that while Britney Spears may be a little off her rocker, she is a healthy looking young woman who doesn’t need to lose any weight.

Encourage your kids to live healthy lifestyles but at the same time be sure they understand what it means to have a healthy body image. And for the betterment of us all buy them some Ani Difranco or Tori Amos or Cat Power CDs. Please!!!!

Tony
9/7: 236.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
16.4 lbs. to go
Cross published at Guess How Much I Weigh.

p.s. Check out Tori Amos’ take on todays young female roll models.

At the same time that many of you are shrinking, the popularity of this site is growing.  And that’s a good thing.  Here are some stats for your Sunday morning reading:

Also, we’re up to almost 90,000 distinct hosts served since March.  Hopefully all of those people are using this information to make some changes in their lives and get skinny!

Have a great remainder of your weekend everybody.

This one is a bit different……. My last weigh in, I was down significantly, but I had just returned from El Salvador; a week of the hardest physical labor I’ve ever done in my life. Since then, I’ve been unable to work out due to a non-serious medical issue. And the lack of routine has been pretty brutal on me this summer. So I’m going to compare this weigh-in to my last weigh-in prior to El Salvador. Bust my chops if you’d like, but I’m back in my routine, and we’ll move forward from there. lost since Week #20 - 4.6 lbs. Total loss after #29 - 31.6 lbs.