August Update

So, it's been two months or so since I last updated my blog.  I wanted to assure everyone that I am still chugging along.  I broke two important psychological barriers this last month.  I have now lost > 50 lbs, and I also weigh less than 300 lbs.  I couldn't tell you when I last weighed under 300 lbs, but I am guessing it was some time in high school (so ~15 years ago).  I've definitely noticed a difference in my size, but it's not too much of a drastic change.  My pants are getting to the point that I'm going to need to replace some of them.  I bought a pair of jeans, and I have gone down 4-6 inches in waist size.  It seems like adding more holes to my belt has become a monthly routine.  Every day I get more excited, and I hope these last 49lbs are more dramatic in my appearance.

Weight: 299 lbs
To Goal: 49 lbs
Lost: 56.5 lbs.

Update

It's been a couple weeks, and I wanted to make sure I gave an update.  Vacation went well. I did go backwards a couple pounds over the ten days. Not to bad though. I got back to where I was by the end of the next week. This week, I broke through the 40lb barrier, and I'm plowing towards 310 with a vengeance. Everything is continuing along. I'm really starting to see the weight fall off. Every day I find myself squeezing my stomach to gauge how much is left. I still don't feel too different, but my clothes are getting bigger. I'm almost forty percent of the way to my goal!

Weight: 314 lbs
To Goal: 64 lbs
Lost: 41 lbs.

Week 11 Update

May 29nd, 2013
Day 77
Weigh In:   318lbs

To goal:        68lbs

After another week, I've lost another 3.5 lbs or so.  I decided to do just two fast days this week because of Memorial day.  I fasted Tuesday and I'll fast Thursday.  I'm going to do my best to take it easy on eating.  Next week is my 9 day out of town trip.  I'm going to struggle to keep caloric intake low.  I don't want to stress out about it too much.  I'm sure that even if I do nothing, the worst case is that it puts me back a week.  Nothing I can't handle.

On a side note, I have reached a kind of big virtual accomplishment.  I entered my weight in to a calculator and have found that I am no longer morbidly obese.  At a BMI of 39, I have crossed the threshold.  I've also lost over 10% of my starting body weight.  Not to bad of a start to my diet.  Now I just have to keep it up.

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Week 10 Update

May 22nd, 2013
Day 70
Weigh In:   321.5lbs

To goal:        71.5lbs

So, it's been a couple weeks since I've written an update.  If you feared I had fallen off the wagon, you can sleep soundly.  I've just been busy with life.  I've now lost 34 lbs.  Yes, that's 34lbs in just over two months.  I have to say that it gets me excited for the future.  I still can't tell a ton of difference when I look in the mirror, but, I know I've been getting smaller.  I'm pretty shocked that it's as unnoticeable as it is thus far.  I think the next 35lbs will be much more noticeable.  I have only had one random person ask me about my weight loss.  I've told my family, but I didn't want to broadcast anything, because I fear judgement if I fail.  I don't anticipate that as an issue now.

I did get a kick out of a conversation with one of my relatives.  When I told them what my goal was to lose another 75lbs, they were shocked.  They thought I'd be a twig.  I explained that my target was 250, which is still 50lbs above "Normal" for my height and build.  They didn't believe it.  The sad thing is, according to this calculator, I'd still be extremely overweight at 250lbs.  :-(  I hope they were just being kind, because it's clear as day to me that I still have a far way to go.


I have a trip coming up soon, and I don't know if I'll be able to continue with ADF for that week.  I'll play it by ear, but my guess is that it will be unrealistic.  I'll try to squeeze one or two fasting days in, and I'm sure I can at least get a couple middle ground days squeezed in.  I just don't want to have to explain my diet to my in-laws.

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 48

Wanted to check-in.  It's been a week since I last updated my progress.  Nothing new to report, other than my new weight of 331.5.  That's 24lbs down from my start weight.  Only 1 more lb to go till I reach 25lbs.  I think I'm going to have to go to Sams and lift a 25lb bag of flour.  Or I could lift three gallons of water.  I think that will help put my progress in perspective.

Pants are still getting bigger.  I'm going to need to add another hole to my belt in a few more days.  I'm hoping that I'll break below 330 this week.  That's a pretty doable result.  Of course, if I don't, there is always next week.  :-)  I'm not going to stress out about it.

Yesterday was a fast day.  I skipped breakfast and lunch again.  I've been doing that pretty consistent for the last two weeks now.  For dinner, I just had a 280 calorie healthy choice dinner.  I cooked up 8oz of mushrooms (just plain mushrooms and a tiny bit of Pam to keep them from sticking) and threw them in with the meal.  That really helps make the meal seem more substantial.  I LOVE mushrooms, and they are so low in calories.  I rounded out the day with a big bowl of popcorn.  I've been eating too much popcorn.  I just like to snack, and it's a pretty filling low calorie snack.  It's just a shame to fill half of my caloric intake for the day with such fluff.  I have a book from the library filled with 100 calorie snacks.  I should take a look through it for ideas tonight.

Day 41

Yesterday was a fast day.  It went very well.  I was busy at work, so I ended up skipping lunch.  My first meal of the day was dinner.  I had a Health Choice top chef steamer dinner.  They're pretty good for what they are.  The quantities are low, but they taste alright and are much closer to a balanced meal than anything I would be able to cook quickly.  When I get home, I'm typically pretty beat from work, and I don't want to stand around cooking too much.  The meal was 280 calories.  I rounded the day off with a half cup (before being popped) of popcorn (air popped).  That got me close enough to 600 for the day.  My wife and I went for a walk in the neighborhood since it was so warm out.  We were walking for about an hour.  I get a good laugh sometimes looking at my phones pedometer, because I often burn more calories walking than I ate for the day on my fast days.  I know some people will allow increases of calorie allotment based on calories burned on fast days, but that seems like a slippery slope to me.  I'd rather just loose more weight.

Today was a regular day.  It was a little more difficult.  I was considering skipping breakfast, since I wasn't too hungry, but I decided to compromise with myself and eat a banana.  I made it to lunch without too much hassle, but I ended up going out for lunch.  The only place that's close to my office is a Wendy's.  They've got a nice coupon/promotion going on for a free chicken flat bread sandwich if you buy a small fry and drink.  Unfortunately, they wont let me trade the fry in for a baked potato.  I was pretty hungry, so I went with a large fry and a small diet coke.  I had them ditch the honey mustard that they normally put on the sandwich and replace it with regular mustard.  That alone saved at least 100 calories from my meal.  After the fries, ketchup, and sandwich I figure I ate 800 calories.  It left me feeling full, so I can't complain too much.  For dinner, my wife had been planning an outing with my Grandma.  They wanted to go to Red Lobster.  I'm sure I'll never know exactly how I did, but let me just say that those biscuits are not diet friendly.  I figured my meal should have been around 1000 calories if they made it properly.  I think I had 4 biscuits, which would equal about 600 calories.  All in all, not too bad, but I never know what to think, because most restaurants undervalue their calories.  Either way, at an estimated 2500 calories for the day, I should be all right.  With my weight, I can eat 3500 calories and break even.  For the most part, I think I'll do really well if I can just stay away from the big five C's, (Chocolate, Cookies, Candy, Cake, and ice Cream).

I weighed in this morning at 335.  That puts me over the 20 lbs lost mark.  Still not seeing too much of a difference in the mirror myself, but I know it takes time.

Week 5 Update

April 18th
Day 36
Weigh In:   337.5lbs

To goal:        87.5lbs

I'm roughly one month in to my diet plan.  I've lost a total of 18 pounds.  I know I've got a lot more to go, but I'm trying to be optimistic.  I haven't told many people that I'm dieting, because I really don't want my attempt to lose weight judged by others.  I'd prefer people notice I've lost weight themselves instead of pretending to notice I look slimmer after I tell them I've been dieting. 

I was pretty skeptical about being able to get over hunger when I started ADF.  I've fasted before for different reasons, and it wasn't a pretty sight.  The first few days were pretty difficult, but it really did get easier.  I do find it hard some days, and I have to be careful not to focus too much on all of the good things I can eat the next day.  I've had a couple occasions where I almost had a checklist of the foods I wanted to eat the next day.  I found that if I do that, I will most certainly over-eat.  The sad thing is, I can honestly say that even my worst normal days on the diet have been more or less typical of how I lived pre-diet.

I feel like things have slowed down a little bit, but in the grand scheme of things, they really haven't.  I've been dieting for just over a month, and I've lost 18 lbs.  I mean, that's a half pound per day.  I figure that I lose about 1 lb every fast day.  That's just crazy to me.  My only regret so far is that I didn't start this years ago.  I wonder how much my life would have changed if I wasn't as overweight as I currently am...That's a scary though.  I'm pretty happy with how much I've lost, but I find myself being impatient.  I know that I didn't gain the weight in a day, and it's going to take a long time to lose it.  Only 89 pounds to go!

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 27

So I just completed my fast day yesterday, and I weighed myself this morning.  The scale showed 340lbs.  I was pretty shocked that it was so low.  I was 344.5 yesterday morning.  I'm happy to have a new low weight, but I have a feeling I'll be lucky if I can match it after my next fast day.  It definitely helped get my excitement back up.  I know that losing 15.5 lbs in 27 days is not slow.  Heck, losing 10 lbs in 27 days is not slow.  I've just been hoping that by the time things really start to slow down, I've lost enough to give myself the encouragement I need.  It's pretty easy to get discouraged when you've lost 15 lbs and no one can tell.  I'll keep at it.  I haven't been below 340 lbs in 10 years for sure.  I can't wait to see the 330's.

I had my now standard start to the day for fast days.  No breakfast.  A cup of baby carrots (70 calories), and 2 hard boiled egg whites (44 calories) for lunch.  Dinner was a pretty crappy frozen diet dinner of Lean Cuisine steak tips and broccoli (150 calories).  It just didn't have nearly enough to make it a meal.  I ended up cooking two medium sized potatoes, which added ~240 calories and added some ketchup for flavor (20 calories).  I didn't eat anything else, even though I had 75 calories to go.  I just figured the potatoes may have been more, so better safe than sorry.  All in all, I didn't go to bed hungry.  I woke up and just ate a banana for breakfast.  I've been trying to have a light breakfast on my regular days.  Just some fruit or a packet of oatmeal.  I know that I'm going to end up having a ton of calories at dinner time, so I need to keep breakfast and lunch low.  I don't want to be hungry, but I need to fill up on low calorie density foods.

Week 3 Update

April 8th
Day 26
Weigh In:   344.5lbs

To goal:         99.5lbs

I'm getting myself upset with the scale. It is quite inconsistent. I expect fluctuations between weighings. It's inconsistency between stepping on the scale that's hard. For example, yesterday I gained a pound by peeing.  I bet you've never done that before.  I need to care less. That'll be hard.  My weight is a two pounds more than my lowest weight so far.  I took it on a fast day morning, so tomorrows weight should be significantly better. I just need to not get upset if it's not better, or even higher. 

So it's been a little over three weeks now since I've started ADF. So far so good. The hardest part so far has been the social aspects. Whether it's been my meal times with my wife, or having to double up regular days to allow for special occasions, it's definitely held me back a bit. I haven't made it a full week yet without having to squeeze an extra regular day in. Last week it was Friday. My uncle was in town, so my grandma had all of the family over for dinner. I did better than I could have, but I should have done better still. 

My wife has been difficult as well. She's not a very punctual person, so trying to time my meal for the same time as hers is difficult. I'm also very hungry when I get home from work, so I kind of need her to be ready to eat, not still unsure of what she is going to make for herself. On Saturday I decided to make dinner for both of us. It was ready and waiting when she got home. Of course I still had to sit and wait ten minutes for her to go do some laundry which really could have waited. It wasn't a big deal, but it kind of cheapened my gift of dinner to me. 

Other things that I need to work on is getting rid of temptation before it grips me. My wife gave me an Easter basket (something I really wish she hadn't, but she likes to give me things). I should have put stuff away. Came up with a plan on how to get rid of stuff without eating much of it. Instead, I put it next to my chair and it sat. A few days later, I had an itch for a snack. I ended up eating a thousand calorie chocolate bunny. After eating the bunny, I decided not to let that happen again. I opened all the eggs and put the twenty chocolate kisses to the side. I figured I'd bring them to work and let my coworkers easy them. Of course I forgot to bring them the next two mornings. So I ended up eating them all. I did let both slip ups happen on regular days, so it wasn't really a "failure" so much as an extra speed bump.

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 20

Almost three weeks on. It doesn't seem that long. My main struggle is living with my wife who is eating normal. It definitely hurts our meal times together.  She's still nursing the baby, so she needs to eat every day. Maybe in a few months she'll be able to get on board with me. 

Easter was fun. We cooked lamb. I tried to eat better than I normally would have, but that was still a ton of food. Monday was a fast day. Went really well. It was eight o'clock and I still had 250 calories to burn, and I wasn't hardly even hungry!  Maybe that was from the entire bag of salad I had for dinner.  :-)  I celebrated by making a large bowl of popcorn. It's nice to go to need full. 

Scale came up at 342.5 this morning. That's 13 pounds lost so far. My scale only does half pound increments, so it's hard to get precise numbers, but it feels like I'm losing 1.5lbs every fast day.  That's an incredible amount to lose in one day.  When I divide my fast days by pounds lost, it equals 1.625 lbs per fast day.  I know this wont hold up long term, but I'm really liking it for now.  

I've got my annual exam scheduled for Thursday, and I'll get to see the results of my blood work. So far so good.

Week 2 Update

March 28

Day 15

Weigh In:   345.5lbs

To goal:         95.5lbs

So I'm down 10 pounds from where I started.  It sure came off quick.  I've got to stack two normal days together so that I can have Easter be a "normal" day.  I'm a little worried about gaining from all of the extra eating days.  Hopefully I wont undo any of the work that I've been doing.  Saturday will be a fast day, so that'll be good.

I ate a little too much today, due to some bad circumstances.  I had to get some blood work done before I went to work, so I couldn't eat breakfast at home.  I was hungrier than normal since the day before was a fast day, and I had to abstain from eating everything from 7pm onwards.  I ended up getting some fast food, and I'm sure I had at least 1000 calories.  I wasn't planning on doing anything special for lunch, but I was invited out with some coworkers to a Mexican restauraunt, and I'm sure I ate way too much.  I had a fairly sensible dinner of sandwiches and an orange.  Unfortunately, my wife pulled out a big bag of M&Ms later in the night, and I ate way too many.  It's amazing how much easier it is to have self control when you have the hard limits of a fast day.  It's almost as if there is some freedom in the restrictions.

Looking at my health so far, I still feel pretty normal.  My pants are definitely feeling a little too big.  I had to make a new notch in my belt, as it was a little too lose.  I don't notice much change in the mirror, but the scale doesn't lie, and I AM losing.  I'm really looking forward to getting past Easter and back on to my new normal ADF schedule.

Going forward, I think I need to make and follow some hard standards for when I have to have extra normal days.  We'll find out at my next post fast day weigh in on Sunday if too much of my hard work was undone.

Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Day 13

Yesterday was a fast day. It went really well. I didn't have time to cook anything for breakfast, so I left the house with an orange I planned on eating. I made it till lunch without being hungry, so I skipped the orange. I had a cup of carrots and two hard boiled egg whites for lunch. I got home from work, and decided to just eat a lean cuisine dinner. That left me with 268 calories, so I made a late night air cooked popcorn snack with a little butter.  All in all it turned out to be a good day. I really wasn't any hungrier than a regular day.

I weighed myself this morning. I was pleasantly surprised to see I've lost ten pounds. I didn't expect to lose quite so fast. Onwards and downwards.

Day 12

Yesterday was a normal day, and I probably had a few things I shouldn't have.  We went out for breakfast after Church, and I got my normal breakfast.  It's anything but light.  Dinner was a bunch of beef and broccli that I'm sure I would have been just fine with eating significantly less.  I ate some pie that I took home from my Grandparents house on Saturday.  Overall, it was pretty normal.  My hope is to keep my non fast days below my pre-diet normal.  I need to eat, because I don't want my body to slip into starvation mode, but if I can keep my calorie count low enough to still have a calorie deficit for the day, that would be awesome.  I don't think I managed that goal yesterday.  I'll need to come up with some tasty items I can order for breakfast.  I like the unhealthy stuff too much for my own good.

Day 11

Yesterday's fast day was both difficult and easy.  Hunger was not an issue.  I had three fried egg whites for breakfast,  a half cup of carrots for lunch, and then a giant chicken salad with tomatoes for dinner.   When all was said and done, I came in right at 600 calories.  I had a hard time finishing the salad because it was so filling.  Hunger was the easy part.

The difficulties were an unexpected offer for lunch.  I was at my elderly grandparents house fixing a computer problem, and of course, they wanted me and my wife to stay for lunch.  It was pretty hard to tell my grandparents that I couldn't eat any of the stuff they made.  I mean, even my grandma's salad was a layer salad with more calories in a single serving than I could eat on a fast day.  Eventually I agreed to stay, but I limited myself to a handful of baby carrots.  I really don't like to explain that I'm on a diet to people, and that's half of why I liked this diet in the first place.  With ADF, I can eat normal half the time, and as long as I know it's coming, I can probably move days around so that I don't have to miss social gatherings or go and feel awkward.  It's hard to say no to your 92 year old grandma who even though she is still recovering from a broken hip just 3 months ago, she cooked a home made pie for you.  If only they had talked about Lunch a few days earlier when I arranged the time, I wouldn't have had a problem.

On the plus side, my hard work paid off and I lost another 1.5lbs.  Hopefully I can keep it up long term.

Week 1 Update

March 22nd

Day 9

Weigh In:   349lbs

To goal:         99lbs

So, I'm one week in to the diet.  I already had to mess with my schedule a little bit.  Wednesday was supposed to be a fast day, but I had a family birthday dinner scheduled, so I tried to make sure I ate well below my calorie break even point (~3800 per LoseIt).  The party was fun.  I ate too much I'm sure.  Luckily, that’s not to much of a problem right now, as pounds are flying off.  The thing I tell myself, for better or worse, is that if I didn't make the decision to diet, I would have eaten just as much (if not more) and then done nothing special the next day.  By following the ADF technique, I can start to make drastic, visible changes in my diet that will impact change.  Even if I make some bad decisions on my normal days, it will all work out in the end.

At the end of week 1, day 9, I am down to 349lbs.  That's 6.5lbs lost.  I'm sure some of that was the initial pop you get when you make big changes in your diet.  I'll be interested to see how I do the next week.  I know conventional wisdom tells you not to weigh yourself every day when dieting.  It's easy to get distracted by the little movements that come from water and whatnot.  I just am to excited to not weigh myself every morning.  Even after a normal day, I like to see how I did with keeping to a reasonable diet.  I'm tracking everything on LoseIt.com with my phone, so it gives me a good history of where I've been.


Weekly updates:
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 5
Week 10
Week 11

Alternate Day Fasting

So if you read my first post, I've decided that I need to lose some weight for various reasons.  That leaves me to figure out how best to work things for me.  I've always been skeptical of any gimmicky diets.  I've joked that I should sell a diet book called, "Eat Less, Exercise More and Lose Weight".  Most people don't want to eat less, and people flock to pills, surgery, and gimmicks to try to cheat the system.  Dieting isn't rocket science.  Your body burns X calories a day.  If you eat less than that, you will lose weight.

So if losing weight is as simple as eating less calories, than why is it so hard?  That's simple enough to answer.  It's because humans are built to want to eat!  It wasn't until modern times that we've been able to have food so readily available.  Modern factories, preservatives, and refrigeration has allowed food to be readily available in your home.  If you run out, you can just rush out to the local supermarket and stock back up.  It wasn't long ago that you grew most of your own food and had to preserve and store it for the winter.  If you overate, you might end up without enough food to last you the winter.  That's pretty good motivation to exercise self control.  All of that easy food means that we can finally indulge in eating.  Going against your primal urge to eat results in a lot of failure and disappointment.

Where does that leave me?  I've tried just counting calories.  It's simple enough, and there are some great apps for phones to make the task easier, but it has one major flaw.  The more complex a food is, the more difficult to figure out the calories.  For instance, if I make myself a sandwich, I can easily calculate two slices of bread, 3 oz of meat, 1 slice of cheese, and 1 Tb mayonnaise.  Now when I make homemade lasagna, it's got a few more ingredients.  And you can forget about going to family/friends houses for dinner.  Even if you have a ballpark figure, overeating by 2-300 calories is very easy, and that can kill all of your calorie deficit for the day.  I tried to keep track of my calories using the app LoseIt, and I found that all of my hard work staying low at breakfast and lunch were ruined at dinner.  Tracking was virtually impossible, and that left me struggling to have self control.  Sure, I didn't gain weight, and maybe I would have SLOWLY lost weight, but it sure wasn't a way to lose a ton of weight.

I've tried doing Atkins before, and that seemed stupid to me.  I'm sure it works, but I could never give up carbs long term.  It's also very hard to function out of the home, and that makes it hard for me.  I did Weight Watchers years ago, and that suffered from much of the problems of calorie counting.  I'm also cheap, so I hate to give money to some organisation so I can hear some feel good talk every week.

I was stumbling on the internet, and I found some interesting information.  I found some people turning conventional wisdom upside down.  We've all been told that you need to eat 5-6 small meals a day to get your metabolism running faster.  It's common sense.  Skipping breakfast is as helpful to dieting as a Chinese buffet is.  It makes sense.  If you don't eat, your body enters starvation mode and slows things down.  Sounds like common sense.  Apparently it isn't.  I'm not going to go into the details here.  If you want to read more about it, here is the "Top Ten Fasting Myths Debunked".  This got me interested in the Alternate Day Fasting (ADF).

ADF is kind of a gimmicky diet, but it's one of the simplest diets to explain ever.  Eat every other day.  Sure, you can go online and buy a book on it, but that would be pretty silly.  Just eat every other day.  You can tailor it to fit your life if you like.  If fasting every other day is too much, than just do it 2-3 days a week.  Does the idea of eating nothing seem impossible to you?  Than you can eat a little on your fast days.  The common practice is to eat 500 calories if you're a woman, and 600 if you're a man.

Eat like normal every other day, and then have a very sparse menu of 600 calories on my fast days.  You may be asking, isn't this all just the same as counting calories and restricting your diet?  Well, yes and no.  Lets assume you need to eat 2500 calories to break even.  So a week of eating would include 2500 x 3.5 and 600 x 3.5 (on average).  That's an average of 1550 calories a day.  So you've got a calorie deficit of 6650 calories in a week.  That's crazy!  Even if you eat a little extra on your normal days, you'd be hard pressed to eat 6650 calories extra in a week.  So if ADF is just like eating 1550 calories a day, why not just do that?  Good question, but one with a very easy answer.  Some of the answer is psychological.  No matter what diet you use, it's hard.  You will fail.  The nice part about ADF is that if you fail on your fast day, you can just make it a regular day and then fast the next day.  It's impossible to fail on your normal days since you don't have any restrictions.  Apparently, there are also a ton of health benefits to fasting.  Our bodies weren't designed to eat all the time.  Going without food helps.

I started my journey on ADF a little over a week ago.  It's a lot easier than I anticipated.  I've found the fast days are a joy to get through.  I'll get deeper in to what my average days look like in a future post.  I can totally see myself doing this long term.  The nice thing is that I can adjust the days as I see fit.  I've been finding new and filling ways to eat 600 calories.  I've also lost a lot of weight in a very short time.  I'm looking forward to losing massive amounts of weight.

My Humble Start

As long as I can remember, I've been overweight.  I don't know exactly when it started, but it was definitely in early grade school.  I could blame it on a ton of environmental things, but ultimately I ate too much and exercised way to little.  I've always been bad at sports and I've never really enjoyed much physical activity.  Growing up, I let vide games and TV eat most of my free time.  As I got older, I ate more.  I'm not sure exactly when I hit my current weight, but I feel it was in my late teens.  I've been holding strong around 350 for over 10 years now.  I'm 31, and I really need to lose some weight. 

Three years ago, I got married.  Back in December, God graced us with a precious baby boy.  I really want to see my son and wife grow old, and I know that the more weight I have, the less likely that's going to happen.  As a test, I want you to think of the oldest morbidly obese person you know...How old are they?  Would you say they have a high quality of life?  If I answer that truthfully, I don't think I like the answers.  I can't let that happen.  Not for me, and not for my son.  I don't want my son to live the life that I did being overweight.  I don't want to have to worry that I can't go in a canoe with my wife because of the weight limit.  I don't want to worry that a folding chair might break under me.  I really don't look as heavy as I am, but imagine how much better I'd feel, look, and be if I lost weight.  I need to change.

So let's talk current.  As of 3/14/2013, I weighed 355.5lbs.  I need to lose weight.  The first question is how much?  Well, lets figure that out.  According to www.thecalculatorsite.com, At 355 lbs. and a height of 6'3", I have a BMI of 44.4, which means I'm "Heavily Overweight".  Nothing surprising there.  In order to reach the "Normal Weight" I would have to weigh 200 lbs.  Doing a little searching around, I found a nice pretty chart that gives me similar numbers.

http://ygraph.com/graphs/weightheightchart-20110718T235834-zg4jalf.gif

I'd consider myself a "Large" frame size, so lets say that I need to weigh 176-202 lbs.  That means I have to lose 150 lbs.  Wow.  Let's make the goal a little easier to attain.  Let's say 250 lbs. is my goal.  That means I need to lose 105.5 lbs.  Once I reach that, if I still feel like I need to lose, I can keep going.

Lets talk time.  How long will it take?  Well, I guess that depends on how fast I lose.  I know it will start off fast and slow down as I move along.  If I could average 2 lbs. a week, that would give me a one year time frame (52 x 2 = 2 104lbs).  This isn't going to happen over night.  I'm looking at a long process.  Realistically, this could take twice that.  You know what though?  If I don't start today, this will take even longer.  If I don't make a change today, this could take 20 years.  Lets just make this happen.