Weight Update

Cutter's Log - Stardate 3102.11.50
Current Song - Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)

Six months have passed since I decided to make a change with how I look and feel physically and mentally.

I recently dipped under 300 pounds, doing so for the first time since the spring of 2010. Back then, I was 298 (a loss of 40 pounds from a year prior) before embarking on a vacation trip to Cooperstown and Canton. I think the vacation threw things off a bit, and I wound up putting on quite a bit from that point forward.

I came back from a two-day vacation not too long ago. Prior to that, I hit the -50 mark by going from 343 in November to 293. Since that, however, I'm back up +5 to 298. Before you think five pounds is a lot, think of this: Five pounds on my frame is different than five pounds on an average person's frame.

While this may cause panic, I have learned to keep calm and move forward. Most people would freak out, and that just leads to the whole thing being washed away.

As of this writing, I am down 45 pounds since November. That's better than -10, +10, or +45. The trend is downward from a particular point. I'm fine with that.

When I started this whole adventure, I was unsure about how to put together a "goal" and a process to meet and maintain that goal. I had never, ever, undergone a routine such as the one I am working on now. My goal looked like nothing but going downward.

In the past six months, I have learned quite a bit about maintaining a trend. When people push me, I get that feeling that I would eventually end up like a couple of my former football coaches. One summer at the start of football season, one of them looked like he was half of his size from the year prior. Over the next 2-3 years he put back on what he had lost over the course of one year. Another football coach had the same thing happen to him.

One of the first tips given to me in all of this was the following, from another area high school football coach:

"My advice is to take it slow, very slow. Slow changes in diet, slow progress with exercise. Many bigger people try to run and do a lot of impact exercise and it backfires. You are better off losing a little weight that you can keep off than losing a lot and gaining all and more back. Weight loss is more about eating than exercising. Learn to use a calorie and exercise tracker like my fitness pal and it will become more of a science for you."

Am I serious about losing weight? Yes.

Am I going to kill myself doing it? No.

What I can't change is my schedule of things: work, website, home life, etc. While trying to keep these things afloat, I needed to find a way to knock a few off.

Eliminating website work since March has factored into a -50 loss. I will pick it up again briefly for two weekends in late May and early June, but then it's another break until the first Wednesday in August.

This is the third time since starting that I have "fallen off the wagon," however, I really haven't. I'm taking three steps forward and one step back. That "one step back" is important. I think this has really helped me in comparison to taking nothing up steps forward. I probably would have been exhausted by about -30.

By taking that small step back, that gives me more motivation to chop away more pounds. It's all a downward trend, still.

So now that I went back up again, I'm back to recommitting to the whole thing, again.

That's the plan all along. I'm still down 45.

I should also add that I have yet to consult a doctor on any of this, or am on any kind of system. It's my own made-up scheme.

***

I am down 45 pounds because of eating less than I had been and moving around a little more than I had been. I don't feel that I have plateaued yet. Of course, there are other ways to lose weight (strength training, vitamins, nutritional supplements - all of which I haven't even touched yet), and my plan is to switch gears to something else when things start to run off-course of my plan.

I have thought already of backups and grenades for my long-term path. It's better than scrambling silly for something at the first sign of trouble.

Lately, I have acquired more motivation to help guide me. There are others on the same mission as I am. They're not as large as I am, but still.