Food journal for last week!

Weight: 209 lbs!!!

The visual food journal is apparently working! Here's that photo I promised of last week's food intake. Yeah... I know there's some junk in there, but this week I am doing a lot better. Trying hard to eliminate excessive sugar and drink more water this week. Regardless... As of yesterday and today I am down to 209!! That's 5 pounds gone! Maybe my body has finally kicked into gear instead of being stubborn. Hopefully, now that I'm in the groove, I can get on a roll. 

End of week update: Inches vs Pounds

Weight: 212.5
Body Fat: 39.3%


Everyone keeps saying I look like I have lost weight and gotten thinner, but the scale says otherwise. So I've been figuring that it's just people's imagination. I mean, yeah... it's great to get the compliment. But when I step on the scale and it says 213 or 212, I can't imagine that a couple of pounds gone is really showing on me.

Then last night, a fellow martial artist asked me where my belt was and I said "honestly, it's so tight, I can't breathe when I wear it." To which he replied "Why? You haven't gained weight. You're smaller than you were." This made me think "Huh. Maybe I'm gaining muscle and losing inches."

I just measured my abdomen. Now, I am measuring straight across my abdomen, not technically my "waist". The first time I did it a month or so ago it was at 42''. The second time... 41''. Today it's at 40''.

I'm not taking this as complete truth because I am factoring in human error. Maybe the first time I measured I went over a different location. But I'm pretty sure since the last time, I was consistent. I think it's safe to say I've lost an inch! 


Some progress is better than none!

In Other News...

I've photographed everything I ate this week! Tomorrow I will post a photo collage. I believe this is helping for a few reasons:

1) Every time I go to eat something I think to myself "Do I really want to take a photo of that?" This helps me avoid having little handfuls of random crap.

2) I can SEE what goes into my body. All at once. It's quite daunting when I've had a bad day, and see all that stuff. Really makes me stop and think about how my body could possibly process that effectively.

3) Overall... ACCOUNTABILITY! I can't just eat something and then pretend it didn't happen. Or "sneak" a little of this or that. The photos don't lie.

My inspiration for this whole idea came from a British show called "You Are What You Eat". This feisty, blunt, little Welsh lady goes to people's houses and catalogs what they eat for a week, then at the end of the week, gathers up everything they put in their body and sets it out on a big table for them to see. Then she makes comments like "You had 150 cookies this week!! No wonder you're fat!" and makes them face it. Most of the time, the people don't even realize how bad things are, until they see it laid out in front of them like that. Once she showed this lady who loves cheese, what the extra weight on her body looks like... in cheese. We're talking 80 pounds of cheese. And she goes "Go on, then. Lift that." I encourage everyone to look this show up on youtube and watch a little of it. It's funny, but also very real, and helpful.

Facing it, really looking at it... that's motivation right there. Because when you're looking at the 20 cans of coke, 8 servings of fries, 30 cookies, etc etc... that went into your body... it's pretty hard to deny that there's a problem.


Tomorrow's post will include exercise report for the week, and photo catalog of my food intake. 

Not real proud of myself this week... But today is a new week and a fresh start.

This week started off good, but ended on a bit of a downer. 

For the first half of the week, things were going well. I was photographing my food, feeling good about things... I even lost another pound! So for several days I was at 211 and very excited about it. I didn't really get any real exercise, but since the weight was going down, I figured I'd be ok.

Then I had a couple days where I wouldn't remember to take a pic of my food every time, and thought "well this is pointless if I don't get everything, so I will start fresh next week". That I think, was my first mistake, because without the visual reference I really let myself eat crap.

My second mistake was to let myself get really really hungry before going out for indian food. When I'm hungry like that, I want way more than I need, which is bad for my body AND my wallet. Two samosas, a whole thing of garlic naan, mango chutney, and a little rice and korma later... I'm up to 213.

My week concluded with a big meeting at work, followed by spending the entire day there with an enormous table of chips, candy, bagels, sandwiches, cookies, etc. And of course... I "grazed" on that all day. By the the end of the day I was on some massive sugar/carb crash and feeling icky.

It's a new day, and a new week. I am 213 pounds, and hoping that I can use this week to "catch up" and get back down where I was. I'm going to have to practice some serious self control today, as there is still two rolling racks full of junk food at work. Hopefully photographing what I eat will keep me from just popping random stuff in my mouth all day. Wish me luck...

Big News! And Photos!

This week I stuck to my plan. I photographed everything I ate and I used my fitness app to track my workouts. No special diets. In fact, I ate pizza and fast food a couple times! But I remembered to eat only when I was hungry and stop when I didn't "need" to eat anymore. I also made an effort to drink more water.

The result? I'm down to 212 and holding steady there!! AND I bought a couple new shirts and was able to buy mens MEDIUM for the first time in years! I remember when I was an XL-XXL. This is amazing! 


Everything that went in my body this week:

• Small portions of fast food
• Some really good salads
• Lots of coffee and crystal light
• A little diet soda
• Oatmeal
• Soup
• A couple of sandwiches
• A little chicken and beef
• A couple of sweets
• Water
• Small portions of potato chips
• Milk

My workouts:

I made it to the gym twice this week and one karate class. I didn't do enough that I'm hurting, but it seems to have been enough to help! I'm following a light routine where I complete a little cardio followed by some rapid weight lifting at weights that aren't difficult for me, and then I repeat. 

We now have a balance ball at the house and I am going to start supplementing my workouts by doing that at home. 

All in all, very motivating and a great start to what I hope will be continual improvement :).