If you have come here from one of my other sites, then you may be familiar with my story. For those of you have never heard of me, here’s my story:
I am thirty-two years old, married, with two kids. I am overweight. I weighed 135 – 150 pounds while in high school. When I got married 10 years ago, I weighed 160 pounds. I am 5 feet 8 inches tall. I’ve spent some time calculating a healthy weight for someone with my height, and I should weigh between 140 and 170 pounds. After getting married, I proceeded to gain approximately 10 pounds per year, for 10 years. In December of 2005, my weight had climbed to 256 pounds. Over the past 2 years, I have gone on a series of “crash” diets, losing and gaining the same 15 pounds, over and over again. After much prayer (and a long discussion with my wife), I have decided to finally get real with myself, stop the “dieting rollercoaster”, and focus my efforts to improve my overall fitness.
My body will burn roughly 2000 calories per day, just to stay alive (BMR). I’ve decided to set a target goal of 1500 to 2000 calories consumed per day, with 30 minutes of walking, adjusting my intake and exercise as I go. But, I will not be “dieting”, that is, forcing myself into a narrow group of foods or choices. I will be eating to live. That’s all. For 10 years, I’ve focused on food. Now, I’ll be focusing on myself. I will only eat foods that make me feel better, healthier, and more alive. I refuse to be bound by a specific list. My one guideline: How will I feel one hour after consuming a particular food. So, the plan in brief:
1500 – 2000 Calories Per Day
Exercise
Foods: Quality, healthy foods that make me feel better and not worse.
December 29, 2006: 247 Pounds
January 16, 2007: 236.5 Pounds
My weight loss thus far in 2007 is: 10.5 Pounds
My short term goal for Summer of 2007 is: 47 Pounds
My long term goal for Summer of 2008 is: 87 Pounds
I’ll be creating charts, setting goals, finding resources, and tracking my progress. Thanks for stopping by!
Good For you. I stumbled upon your site via Lifehacker via No Credit Needed. Here is a suggestion for you: Read the free Hack diet ebook: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/ That helped me when I was lost my weight. Also, I have a site that I’d like you to check out to help you track your weight http://www.simpleweight.com, but we’re not quite out of our internal beta. I’ll check back to see how you’re doing. Here’s one more post you might want to read: It’s a great read about making smaller changes. I’ve been reading a book called Mindless Eating that uses scientific research to state similar concepts. Small incremental changes are better than one big heave ho. Basically, if you were to run a marathon, you would not wake up one day and run 26 miles. You would work yourself up to that goal. Well, if you want to eat 1500 to 2000 calories a day. It might be better to start with Taking only 100 calories out of your diet this month. Then, next month, take another 100 calories. This way it is gradual and you’re body gets used to less calories and you are less likely to regain the weight in the future. http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/archives/2007/01/sustainable-change-through-incremental-change.html
Good Luck and I’ll check-in later. Scott