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so I decided to go to the gym instead of weight watchers today. It turned out that it had to be one or the other so I hit the gym and will go to WW in Friday or Sat. I weighed myself on the scale at the gym which is usually higher than the WW scale and I did it after my workout which usually seems to be higher than before I work out. The scale said what I was afraid of… 260. I am going to work very hard and hopefully the WW number will be a pound or two less than that. I wanted to see as high a number as possible so that I will be as motivated as possible. It’s always hard for me to get going again after taking time off. But I’m eating very well today and have already worked out so this is going to be a + day!

On another note… i have like 2 pairs of jeans that I wear most every day. One of them is a bit too small and the other is wearing out (my big toe got caught in a hole this morning and made a minor problem a bit bigger). So I have decided that I’m not going to buy any new jeans that are the same size as the ones I am wearing. I will wear these until I can fit into the next smaller size (which I think is a 36). So either i am going to drop a size pretty quick or I am going to wear increasingly deteriorating jeans along with my uncomfortable ones… or I will lose weight and my other jeans will fit better and I can buy some new ones that are smaller. Just another step in making health more comfortable than habit.

Yes! This has been one heck of a week with many struggles, but many positive experiences as well.

Food: I only had one drink that was not on the core plan (a couple of glasses of wine last night). I managed to cut back on sweets and increasing fruit and vegetable intake. I took my lunch three days out of the five. I did not have any food at the movies Saturday night (Fool’s Gold was a fun movie).

Exercise: I did one more day of walking 2.2 miles during lunch on Wednesday. Yesterday and today, I finally got to exercise with my workout buddy, Jason. Both days involved 20 minutes on the elliptical (aka the torture rack for my quadriceps), 20 situps, 15 leg lefts, and then 30 minutes on free weights, machines and bench press (Monday and Wednesday on one group of muscles, a different group on Tuesday and Thursday). My legs and arms were Jello yesterday. Today, they were just plain sore.

I mentioned in my last weigh-in that I would post my menu. I’ll list it below after the “more” link.

Although one weigh-in months ago took me to the 40 pounds lost mark, I consider it a fluke as it dropped back down almost 9 pounds the following week. So, in my books, today’s weight loss of 36 pounds is my personal lowest.

Starting weight: 319.0 lb
Previous weight: 285.2 lb
Current weight: 283.0 lb
Current loss/gain: -2.2 lb
Total loss/gain: -36.0 lb
Distance to 50: 14.0 lb
Distance to WW Goal: 33.0 lb

Cross-posted to WebCudgel.com

(more…)

That is the headline in this morning’s issue of the Men’s Health Daily Dose. A real attention grabber, don’t you think?

SAVE YOUR PROSTATE… AND YOUR LIFE

More than 200,000 American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. It kills one guy every 18 minutes. Beat the disease: Move around, eat your vegetables, and drink more. Two new studies conclude that such behavior eating a diet high in vegetables and lean protein, drinking moderately, and working in an active environment can reduce your risk.
Make yourself even safer with wisdom from MH: Having more sex or at least regular orgasms is just one of 10 recommendations for a cancer-proof prostate. And the things you eat can help, too: Get more flavor and protection against the disease with curry, shark, and five more edible cancer shields.
If you’re looking for exercise and beer suggestions, you know we’ve got you covered: Check out our list of five beers that do all kinds of stuff to improve your health, or try the grueling workout the Marine Corps is using to get battle-ready.
If you’re in the unfortunate situation of thinking you might have prostate cancer, use our symptom-checker and find the right doctor.

When I started pushing myself to exercise this week by walking, one of the factors that becomes important in recognizing progress is just how far I am walking.  Naturally, the simplest method is to drive the route you walk.  However, I don’t really want to waste the gas (and it costs more than it used to) and I may want to try changing things up.

Well, I found that the best means of mapping your walk is to use Google Maps.  I go to my starting point in the map and then right click on it and select “Directions From Here”.

Enter one of the next locations in the route.  It will now show full directions between the two locations along with distance.  You can then select points along that route and drag them around the map to create a very specific route.  Once you have the route you want, you can note the total distance of the route on the lefthand side.

This is really cool because you may decide later to extend the length to a specific distance (such as 3 mi which is close to a 5K run).  All you have to do is drag the route around until you get the proper distance.  It’s really pretty easy once you get the hang of it.  Below is a link to the route I’ve been using the last two days.  It doesn’t show inclines and slopes, so you don’t realize just how much this one hurts.

Seems I’m finally getting somewhere. Though I have not started the workouts with the workout buddy, I have started pushing myself to exercise anyway. Yesterday and today at lunch, I did a 2.2 mile walk in about 40 minutes. Today’s walk was tougher than Monday’s because I went a different route that turned out to have a larger number of inclines.

Hopefully, tomorrow, I’ll be working out with Jason and exploring new levels of pain. I’m looking forward to it because I could never make myself do it, but to have someone else encouraging me will make it easier. At least I keep telling myself that; I’ll let you know more when I finally experience it.

As for food, I’ve been making myself take my lunch more. I prepared a few meals ahead of time on Sunday so I didn’t have to think about it or rush off without it because I’m late and then buy fast food I don’t need to have.

I’ve also started pushing myself to write down what I eat and plan on posting my meal “plan” next weigh-in. This will have an limiting effect on my choices. After all, if I don’t want you to see something on that meal plan, then I have to decide not to eat it. So I just might skip that donut at work, because I know I’ll have to tell you guys too.

Starting weight: 319.0 lb
Previous weight: 287.6 lb
Current weight: 285.2 lb
Current loss/gain: -2.4 lb
Total loss/gain: -33.8 lb
Distance to 50: 16.2 lb
Distance to WW Goal: 35.2 lb

Cross-posted to WebCudgel.com

Recipe of the Week:  Easy Mexican Rice

• 1 can Rotel tomatoes (undrained)
• 1 can corn (undrained)
• 1 can black or kidney beans (undrained)
• 1 cup brown rice
• Season to taste (I used cumin and fajita seasoning)

Pour everything into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce to low and let simmer covered for about 10 minutes or until rice is done.  Makes 4-6 servings.  If you are on Weight-Watchers, the recipe is core for those on the core plan.

I want to thank you guys for including me in this venture. I am at a point in my life where I truly believe that being overweight is the #1 thing that is keeping me from being as successful as I could be. I am working on making my health a focus in as many ways as possible and you guys are helping me do this and I am very thankful. Breaking patterns has been a focus in my life in many areas and the patterns that have caused me to be unhealthy seem to be among the most difficult to break. I have been trying to be committed to weight loss since August of last year and I lost 20 pounds fairly easily. It always seems that after those first 10 - 20 pounds is when I begin to fail. I only gained a portion of that back in the meantime and I really want to keep this commitment going before I get back to where I was. I’m at 256.5 pounds now and I started at 270. I recently joined Weight Watchers and as long as I can be disciplined in that, I think it can work. I am treating it like an AA program because to me, an unhealthy lifestyle can be just as much of an addiction as anything else.

So… speaking of patterns, I’m running into one right now. Many times when I begin to workout after not working out in  a while, I get sick. I never know how much to do when I get sick and I usually don’t do anything except try to get better. I get behind in work and things in that time and then it is a while before I get back in the gym again. This kind of thing happens quite a bit. So my question to all of you is: Should you work out when you are getting sick or are sick? Does it make it harder to get better, or does it speed the recovery process by getting your body going? When I don’t feel well, it is easier than ever to make excuses why I shouldn’t work out. I really want to do what will work the best so if any of you have any advice, I’d love to hear it!

According to my scale at home, I have already lost 2 lbs since Tuesday. I owe part of that to my personal trainer, Mikki. I get 2 sessions per week as a part of the Weight Warriors challenge. Let me tell you, she is wonderfully brutal. She has me doing exercises that I had never tried before. Guys, I did ‘assisted’ pull-ups! I’ve NEVER been able to do one, so I hadn’t tried the assisted version. Another exercise that I was shocked I could perform, triceps push-ups. Ooh, both burn GOOD!

Here is what Mikki wrote about me in her blog:

We began on Monday, the beginning of the beginning. John did awesome, he put out the effort to meet each and every challenge I gave him. Each rep and set was tough but he stuck with it, soreness and all. John has a visual goal, so we are using heavier weights and less reps. We begin with 15 minutes of a cardio warm-up, next is the strength training session followed by an additional 30 minutes of cardio. He was instructed to add another day in between to round out a 3 day strength training week as well as 45-60 minutes of cardio on the off days, totalling 6 days per week. This schedule is not for the weak at heart, but John is ready to rock and roll.

The reason I haven’t been going anywhere recently, according to Men’s Health magazine, was that my body was bored. With Mikki cracking the whip… my body isn’t bored anymore!

Did anyone else notice that the gravity field was stronger today? Well, if only it were that easy to blame my gain on anything but me. However, we all know the fault here lies completely on me. Lemme see… just what did I do?

Oh yeah… I guess I should’ve skipped the Celtic Kiss I fixed for myself one night. Oh, and the several brownies I’ve had over the week. Plus other sweets and stuff. Good grief. I knew I had a bad week when I had a minor gout attack hit me Sunday evening and finally go away last night.

Of course, on the upside, I did situps 3 nights, pushups 2 nights, leg lifts 1 night, a 20 minute slow walk with my wife and our dog on Sunday followed by a 30 minute fast walk by myself and a 20 min walk today at lunch. My workout buddy got the flu on Friday and had to miss the last two days. Hopefully he’ll be back tomorrow to start in on our workout plan.

I’ll just have to push myself harder to stick to core and avoid the sweets. They are really my downfall right now. I have been enjoying more fruits and veggies, but I haven’t avoided the chocolates and desserts either.

Starting weight: 319.0 lb
Previous weight: 284.8 lb
Current weight: 287.6 lb
Current loss/gain: +2.8 lb
Total loss/gain: -31.4 lb
Distance to 50: 18.6 lb
Distance to WW Goal: 37.6 lb

Cross-posted to WebCudgel.com

Update 2.6.2008:
My workout buddy finally came back to work today after the flu, but was still too weak to deal with working out.  So our plans are postponed until Monday when we attempt to start fresh (again).  He also already signed us up for a 2 mile fun run on March 8th.  Unfortunately, I don’t do any work or exercise on the Sabbath and can’t seem to convince him of that.  So we’ll see how I can get out of this without hurting him.  After all, I’ve always wanted to do a charity run, but they’re almost exclusively on Saturdays when I observe the Sabbath.

found a great list of fifty easy ways to lose weight. there are quite a few really good things in there, some of my favorites:

53. Passionately kiss your partner 10 times a day. According to the 1991 Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, a passionate kiss burns 6.4 calories per minute. Ten minutes a day of kissing equates to about 23,000 calories — or eight pounds — a year!

13. Serve your dinner restaurant style (food on the plates) rather than family style (food served in bowls and on platters on the table). When your plate is empty, you’re finished; there’s no reaching for seconds.

18. Avoid white foods. There is some scientific legitimacy to today’s lower-carb diets: Large amounts of simple carbohydrates from white flour and added sugar can wreak havoc on your blood sugar and lead to weight gain. But you shouldn’t toss out the baby with the bathwater. While avoiding sugar, white rice, and white flour, you should eat plenty of whole grain breads and brown rice. One Harvard study of 74,000 women found that those who ate more than two daily servings of whole grains were 49 percent less likely to be overweight than those who ate the white stuff.

25. Eat slowly and calmly. Put your fork or spoon down between every bite. Sip water frequently. Intersperse your eating with stories for your dining partner of the amusing things that happened during your day. Your brain lags your stomach by about 20 minutes when it comes to satiety (fullness) signals. If you eat slowly enough, your brain will catch up to tell you that you are no longer in need of food.

26. Eat only when you hear your stomach growling. It’s stunning how often we eat out of boredom, nervousness, habit, or frustration — so often, in fact, that many of us have actually forgotten what physical hunger feels like. Next time, wait until your stomach is growling before you reach for food. If you’re hankering for a specific food, it’s probably a craving, not hunger. If you’d eat anything you could get your hands on, chances are you’re truly hungry.

the whole thing is well worth a read, so go check it out.

[cross-blogged at ...love is the movement]

One of my co-workers has volunteered to be a workout buddy.  This gives us both accountability since he wants to get back into a regimen just like I want to start one.  However, I have a feeling that I’ll be completely wasted by the end of next week.

We’ll be starting Monday at lunch with a 1.5 mile walk/jog, then 20-30 minutes weight training at the fitness room in his building (I work in the executive offices where there is no fitness center), then I walk/jog/crawl back to my building.  He works in the other building so he’ll start off by jogging over to my building where I join him for the trip back.  He gets in the full 3 miles before weight-training whereas I only have to do half.  I’m sure I won’t get anywhere near a jog on the trip back.

Now he plans for us to do this Monday through Thursday.  He’s already given me a list of specific stretches to do before he gets to my building.  He also has given me homework of 30 situps every night until we start (he says this will help with any back issues I may have starting out).

I just completed 27 situps (my abdominal muscles then called for a revolt so I quit).  I followed up with 10 pushups (on my knees, I’ve never been able to do full body pushups).  I’m now gonna crash for the night.

If I don’t post Tuesday night, it will be because I couldn’t even move my mouse I’ll be so tired.