Step 1 – Getting Started – Weight Loss 101

Weight loss is not easy – I know the bajillion books in the diet industry and The Biggest Loser makes it seem like the weight should just fall off, but that’s not the reality. The Biggest Loser isn’t a typical weight loss situation (nor should it be) and the whole journey can really screw with your mind sometimes.

That being said – if you are overweight or obese, losing weight is going to take work and commitment on your part. You can’t blame anyone else or anything else if you are overweight. You made the choice to stick more food in your mouth that your body needs to operate. And your journey to lose weight will not end when the pounds come off. If you think you’re going to live on 1200 calories a day and then go back to your old habits when you are “done” - you will fail. Losing weight and keeping off is a total life change.   

The goal of Weight Loss 101 is to write down the things I wish someone would have told me up front when I started losing weight 4 years ago. I’m still a work in progress and I have a ways to go, but I have lost and kept off 60 lbs over the last 4 years. Weight Loss 101 gives you baby steps to build a foundation for the life changes that need to be made in order for your journey to be successful.

Here’s the first three blocks of your foundation:

1) Know where you are starting from. You need to know where you are at right now so you can know how far you’ve come. One of the things I regret is not taking measurements four years ago when I started. I know my weight was 315 at the time, but that’s all I really know. 

The Bare Minimum you need to do:
Weigh.

The Middle of the Road approach:
Weigh
Take the following measurements:
Neck
Chest (Nipple Level)
Upper Arm (I take both right and left)
Waist (this is the Narrowest part of your Abdomen)
Stomach (at the bellybutton)
Hips (I take both right and left)
Thigh (I take both right and left)
Calves (I take both right and left)

If you are going full bore, do the middle of the road approach plus:
Front view picture
Side view picture
Back view picture

And if you feel like going over the top, do the pictures in a sports bra and shorts if you are female or in shorts if you’re male.

2) It’s about energy in and energy out. The energy out has to be more than the energy in for the body to access the fat stores. 

In order to figure out what you’re eating and how much you are expending in energy, log your food and exercise. Start by tracking what you are eating (no fibbing!). Figure out how much activity you are doing. 

Your Food and Exercise Diary can be a notebook, a spread sheet or a food and exercise logging system such as the one found at Sparkpeople.com. If the number of calories being eaten is greater than the number being expended, you’re gonna gain. If the number of calories being expended (through exercise and other activities) is greater than what you are taking in through eating, you’ll lose weight.

3) Weight loss does not happen sitting in front of a computer.

I lost the first 40 lbs just by getting a job working retail. I’m not saying you have to work retail to lose weight. What I am saying is that I wasn’t sitting on my keister in front of a computer all day like I had been, my eating habits were still crap,  but I still I lost the weight because I was more active than I had been.

Start with walking. Start with doing yard work. Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes a day. If you can’t do 30 minutes all at once, do two 15-minute periods or three 10-minute periods.

Log it.

I’ll post a general calorie burn for general activities in the next few days.  

Do this for a week. Then we’ll talk about the next blocks of the foundation.

Modified Version of Leigh Peele’s Challenge – My Guidelines

One aspect of Leigh Peele’s Challenge just doesn’t work for me – the one meal a day concept. I’m traveling for work during the next month and that means no kitchen to cook in on at least 3 days, maybe more. So I can’t offically enter her challenge – instead I’ll continue to do old school tracking at Sparkpeople.com (Here’s my food intake). The other parts of the challenge work well so I will use them – if you can’t make a plan work with the life you got, then you have problems.

The ultimate goal is to get back on track and back into the habit of working out and eating right. The last two months have been full out havoc on those two things. I’m also using the framework to move forward on some other goals I have for myself, which has been outlined on the previous day’s post.

So what do my guidelines look like??

MACROS
Calories a day: 1900
Protein: 160 Gram a day Minimum
Fat: 42 Grams a day Minimum
The rest of my macros can be a mix of Carbs, Fat, and Protein.

Supplements
MultiVitamins
2 Fish Oil Caps

Training
2 Weight workouts a week from TNT
Low Impact Cardio on the Days that I don’t weight train
MAX OUT Pushup Program (Do as many full pushups as I can 3X a day – this could be interesting because right now that number is 0)
Mobility/Recovery Work

Pictures and stats will be posted later this evening!

Challenge Goals – The Next 30 Days

These may be modified after I get the actual Challenge guidelines from Leigh.

But here are my goals for the next 30 days – It’s time to stop procrastinating.

1) Meet the guidelines outlined in the Challenge for the next 30 days.
2) Use one of my cameras every day.
3) Write something everyday in a non-journal site.
4) Get everything cleaned up at my house.
5) Get stuff listed and sold on ebay.

It’s time to get off my ass and start working towards my dreams.

Leigh is at it again

The FatLossTroubleshooter, Leigh Peele, is at it again. She’s running a 30 day challenge that winds up just before the Thanksgiving Goodness (here in the US that is) is unleashed upon the world. Checkout the challenge at her web site.

Back at It

I’m back at it after basically a month of resting – no exercising except for helping with yard work, eating pretty much whatever I decided I wanted within reason, trying to sleep. I say trying because my sleep has been pretty messed thanks to the hurricane business. I’ve been using Tylenol PM to help me sleep through the night.

This week has found me in the mood to do something physical beyond yard work. So I did yoga one night and last night I did the first lifting routine in TNT.  I feel better and for the first time in a while, I was able to sleep through the night and go to sleep quickly. Sleep is good.

The Importance of Rest

I haven’t been posting much. I haven’t been doing much of anything. There have been two big events in my life in the last month and half.

Back in August, my brother Randy passed away. It meant arranging a trip to California, attending a memorial services and not getting a lot of sleep because I was busy trying to get things taken care of and share information with my family. It was a good chance to catch up with my family and in some cases get re-acquainted with nieces and nephews I haven’t seen in a very long time.

Then came Ike – hurricane prep, evacuation of my home and not sure what I would find when I came back, the actual night of the hurricane, and then several days of operating in emergency mode, living with out power and most importantly, living without my own space. 

I’ve been incredibly tired for what seems a long time. I just get back my energy levels and the next crisis seems to hit. Hopefully there won’t be any more crises this year.

After Ike I would have loved  to lift if not to relieve the stress, however, this would have been counter-productive in terms of recovery and not wearing myself out.  In the mean time, I eat, with moderation of course,  what I want; I eat healthy food; I take my vitamins, I drink plenty of water, and I get as much sleep as I can. All of this helps and gets me back to the place where I feel like moving again.

Month 3 completed and a name change

Month three has been completed. This month was all about maintenance since life has been more about being stressed out than anything this month. Two Hurricanes that did nothing, a death in the family paired with a trip to California and being more tired than I can remember in a long time. I’ve taken done an okay job of taking care of myself and trying not to eat out of stress.

One thing I did catch myself doing is eating out of relief – a crisis would pass and I would want to stuff my face out of relief. I felt a little strange about that, but I’ll figure out what is going on.

The cool thing that did happen was I got my new driver’s license from the State of Texas. I ended up putting my pictures side by side and was absolutely amazed by the changes that have happened over the last 6 years (for whatever reason the state of Texas has a 6 year cycle for renewal).

WEEEEEE look at me, I look like a whole different person

The other thing that is going to happen is a name change to this blog. I am switching the name from “A Year of Paula” to “Weighty Matters” because weight loss and being healthy are weighty matters in the lifes of many Americans and other people around the world. The name change will also allow me to expand the topics I cover instead of just focusing on my stuff.

3 months almost done

Sorry for the lack of updates, Life has interfered and my priorities have been offline and not here.I’m down 20 lbs and have kept the 20 lbs off despite numerous challenges. 

Eduardo turned out to be el-duddo but it was a good practice run. A few days after that I found out my brother passed away after dealing with a numerous health problems. The last week and half has been spent traveling to California, going to the funeral, and spending time with my family, particularly my sisters – with the rest of the time spent getting back into the work groove.

The goal right now is to drop sodium intake, rest up and recover from the last month, and work on my stretching for the next month.  The drop in sodium means food intake will have to be cleaned up.

A Little Fitness Humor

This is just cool!!!

I love watching strong women do stuff like this!!!