My Weight Loss Blog

According to the Big Fat Blog The Gap has decided to no longer carry XXL sizes for men.  As I don’t shop at the Gap this decision does no impact me (I still need to buy XXXL at speciality stores) but I find it fascinating that it can make this decision in light of the fact that people are getting bigger in general, at least if the news is to be believed.  Presumably their sales have shown that guys who need to wear XXL clothing don’t shop at the Gap. 

But really, this kind of news would not generally cause me to make a post - I wanted to just make a simple comment on BFB but I couldn’t because of the constraints Paul makes on his readership (which is certainly his right).  I subscribe to the blog because I like the writing and the topic.  But when I decided I wanted to comment on this post I found I needed to register, and when trying to do so was presented with the following rules:

Please don’t register if:

• You are on a diet;
• You are interested in losing weight now (or possibly in the future, maybe - like you’re actively planning on it);
• You are having, or are interested in having, weight loss surgery of any kind;
• You believe fat is a disease which must be cured;
• You want to post one comment and vanish forever;
• You like posting about your caloric intake, what you ate today, etc.;
• You run a diet blog;
• You think this is a dating site or want to pick up some “hot fat chicks”;
• You think this site has anything to do with Old Navy and/or Mo’Nique.

Despite my wanting to lose weight I have absolutely no problem with someone who follows fat acceptance.   But apparently the reverse can’t be said.  Talk about unwelcoming.

I am sure the genesis to taking this hard-line stand is the vitriol that those practicing fat acceptance receive, and I can appreciate that.  And obviously this post isn’t going to get me welcomed into the community, even though I will still be lurking about reading occasionally.

Anyway, I guess I just wanted to get that off my chest. 

Felt like I got slapped in the face.

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Amy,

Do you remember back in January when we were talking about the weight I had lost and you asked me what was making the biggest difference in my success? What I told you was, to put it simply, eating less and exercising more.

But there was something I didn’t tell you.

Since August of last year, almost a year ago now, I started this weight loss blog as a way to document my Journey from Fat to Fit. I was pretty confident that being public and open about my struggles with weight loss would help me in being successful when I have failed so many times before. Remember a few years ago when I went on Atkins and lost about 40 pounds? Next thing you know it was all back and more. I really wanted this time to be different.

But I was afraid it wouldn’t work. And I was afraid that if I told people I knew “in the real world” about this blog, like you, that when it didn’t work out and when I didn’t lose the weight, that I would feel like an even bigger failure.

So what I expected to happened was that it either worked, or it didn’t. If it didn’t work then I would erase the blog, and just move forward as though nothing happened and just wait for my next effort. But if it worked, of course I would tell you so that we could celebrate my success together.

That night after we talked about what I was doing to be successful, I started writing this post. At the time I told myself that 259 would be a great milestone that would signal to me that my weight loss efforts were paying off, and that this blog, and being open and honest about everything, was a significant factor in why I was able to be successful. So, my plan was to hit 259 (just a few pounds more) and then celebrate by confirming this blog was going to be a permanent part of my life and than include you in that.

But then a funny thing happened, as it is happened before when I had weight loss success. It started to go the wrong way. I stopped eating less and I stopped exercising more, and in fact I stopped, or at least significantly decreased, my posting here.

But no more. I’m back on the plan and even though I haven’t hit that 259 milestone I had hoped to hit before I acknowledged this blog was working, I am now ready to tell you about it. I was prepared to do this back in March when I wrote a post called 9 Tips for Kick-Starting you Dormant Weight Loss Blog where I offered this tip:

Tell someone about your blog. Still blogging anonymously? Tell someone in the “real world” about your blog and your weight loss journey, and ask that they support you. It’s too easy to disappear off the face of the blogging planet if you nobody in your life knows about your weight loss blog.

But then days turned into weeks and into months, and here it is July and I am still nowhere near my low weight and I am only just getting around to telling you about this part of my life.

I’m sorry to have kept this from you, and I hope you will forgive me.

Let’s go on more walks.

Love, John

Given the success of my goal setting last week I decided I would try again this week. In yesterday’s update I mentioned my schedule was a little turned around this week with a travel day but I was only talking about my work schedule - I completely forgot that my wife and I are going to Boston this Fri, Sat, Sun so this week is going to be a big challenge after all!

Goal #1: I am going to complete week 4 of the One Hundred Pushups Challenge.

Goal #2: I am going to run Tuesday night. Why this goal? Because Tuesday night I’m going to be at work staying in a hotel. Exercising while traveling for work is one thing I need to continue to work on improving.

Goal #3: I am going to run in Boston. First, it’s fun to run in a “foreign” city. But most importantly, as in Goal #2 I need to incorporate exercise into my vacation travel as well.

Goal #4: I am going to replace 4 meals with a whey protein shake. I really liked the feeling of doing this last week and believe incorporating these into my diet is going to be a big help for me.

Unlike last week I did not include a “lose X pounds goal.” I did this not because I think such short-term achievement goals are not useful (I think they are) but because I will not be doing an official weigh-in this week since I will be out of town on Sunday. However, I am hoping I can continue to push that chart down and in a couple of weeks when I do record my official weight I’m expecting to see it down a couple more pounds.

Here’s to a good week!

• Diet starting weight: 295
• Week starting weight: 277
• Today’s weight: 275
• Week weight loss: 2 lbs
• Total weight lost: 20 lbs

Last Sunday I established three goals for myself this week and I am pleased to say that I accomplished all three. I am particularly happy to have lost the two pounds that I set out for myself as my weight loss chart is now looking like it could be turning in the right direction this week.

Things I did well this week:

• Completed week three of the one hundred pushups challenge.
• Ran a total of 8.2 miles, which is the third most for me since I started this journey almost a year ago.
• Had very good eating days almost every day - I don’t recall binging once.
• Took the time to visit and comment on a lot of other weight loss blogs.

Things I did not so well this week:

• Only did strength training one day.
• While I did run 8.2 miles, that was only 2 sessions - need it to be more regular
• Not enough water.
• Did I really need all of those margaritas?

One of the strategies I employed this week that I really believe made a big difference is that I replaced a couple of dinners with a whey protein shake. This had two main benefits - first, that I did not have a high caloric dinner and second, that because the shake filled me up and reminded me that I was on a diet, I found myself able to get to bed without indulging in a late night snack. I’ve just started to experiment with these shakes but so far I like what I am seeing.

My schedule will be a little turned around this week with a travel day but I am going to work extra hard to schedule my workouts around that and to be diligent when it comes to eating away from home.

If I can put the same sort of effort in this coming week as I did the last week it should show on the scale again.

I’m always looking for ways to give back to my readers, which is why I occasionally hold free giveaway contests. Being able to send a free bike valued at $400 to Mama Bear June was one of the high points on my blog this year.

This time, I’ve take a little different approach. I’ve combined a couple of logical products to form a Soap & Water giveaway contest, with the soap coming from GymSoap and the water from Aquasana. If you haven’t already, click on those links to read a little more about each product.

In this contest I am giving away 3 bottles of GymSoap each valued at $11.99 retail and a grand prize of a combo pack from Aquasana, valued at $199.99 retail!

How can you win, you ask? Very simple. The contest is open through the end of July at which time I will pick the 4 winners through a random drawing. You earn entries into the drawing in the following ways:

1. Comment on this post for 1 entry.
2. Stumble this post for 2 entries.
3. Link to this post for 3 entries.
4. Write a blog post about this contest for 5 entries.

The Grand Prize from Aquasana will only be shipped to U.S. residents, however the GymSoap will be shipped anywhere in the world, so this contest is open to anyone with the understanding that if the Grand Prize winner lives outside the U.S. that a second drawing will be held until a U.S. resident is selected.

What do you have to lose? You are all sweaty from working out, now win yourself some free soap and water!