The hard times hit.

 It always happens - you're cruising along doing well on your program, and then life happens. It's OK - it really is - but man, this past week has been ROUGH.

Include in that yesterday being my birthday - but still sticking to plan through hard times and being VERY sick. Feeling good about all of it.

Not much else for today. Stupid lack of blogging ideas.

My week off is done!

 I'm fully recovered from the procedure, and I actually have gotten in a couple of workouts. I'm still needing to do some cardio today, but happy happy, it's happening.

This week (yesterday especially) is why you always want to do this with someone. I REALLY REALLY didn't want to do the workout yesterday - I'm sick, got a cold, can't breathe too well, and I just wanted to take it off. But I had just done a forced week off.

And today - I just didn't want to deal with 6 meals, and I wanted to munch some peanuts. Not too bad, right? Well, yeah, too many calories and it isn't on plan.

So doing this with my kid kept me going. I'm pretty happy that it's working too - another couple of pounds down each.

Time to go find another meal (#5) and schedule 20 minutes of cardio.

We got this...

So I have a terrible habit.

 I keep writing posts and then not posting them. The previous post from today was actually from last week. It is what it is.

Still staying on the program. Yesterday for whatever reason was a rather hard one when it came to food - not even that I wanted to eat crap - but more that I just wanted to eat and eat.

Didn't though, so there's that. I'm still sticking with what I need to stick to, and happy about it.

My kid did take a turn for the worse yesterday. His depression has really kicked in, and he struggled last night. I'm so proud of him though for sticking with the program. It's one of the things that is really going to help long-term with depression anyway.

Some days are easier, some days are harder.

They pass either way. Might as well stick with the program.

I think that posting every day just won't work.

 But do you know what will work? Sticking with the program.

We got a new baseline last week, and it was good. The new scale was a couple of pounds under the old one. So I like that already. I don't know how inaccurate the other one was, but we are getting a new weight on Saturday morning I believe.

We are staying strong - we are still 100% on the program - every meal, every workout, 100%. However, that may stop for a little bit for about a week.

I'm having a minor surgery done on Friday. Nothing big, and it is voluntary, but I'm not supposed to do anything strenuous for about a week.

Still going...

 So we weighed in this morning again. Technically I'm even since Saturday, though the new scale is a couple of pounds down. My kid liked the new scale as well.

Not a lot today - we have a new baseline though, and we are going to see what happens on Saturday - unless we wait until next week.

I'm going strong, living the life, feeling changes in my body, can't really complain about that.

Happy Monday

 Well, happy for me. I'm down about 4 more pounds, so that's good.

My kid - not so much. He gained three pounds, and this is with him sticking with the program - I truly believe he is giving it his all.

There are a few possibilities here:

1) The scale is wrong. It could be - I sort of hope so, but also sort of hope NOT, because my numbers are going down. Regardless, I bought a new one. More on the reason for that in a moment...

2) He is gaining muscle. Our workout program is semi-intense, at least in comparison with what he had been doing for the past several years, so yeah, maybe that's why.

So because of both reasons 1 and 2, I bought a scale that supposedly does body fat and muscle analysis. So on the chance that the scale is accurate, he can see things getting better anyway.

Let's see how it works. Weigh-in for new baseline on Wednesday.

Crazy days.

 Sometimes days just are so packed I don't know what to do with them. Today is one of those days.

Meetings from when I get up until therapy, then right to a woodwind quintet practice, home for a workout, hopefully in time for meal 6, do a few dishes, and then FINALLY time to relax a bit before going to bed.

Planning is probably the most important here.

AAAAAAND here's another one I never published. Nice.

The peeing.

It is constant. When you up your water intake, you just don’t think about the consequences. But here they are. 

Things are still going well tomorrow is the end of week 2, and I HOPE HOPE HOPE my kid loses weight this week  he has to, but I want to see it. Or rather, I want HIM to see it.

Weigh-in tomorrow. I’ll let you know.

Sometimes a plan works.

 The good news is that this is one of those days. BBQ restaurant has a good smoked turkey salad. I only ate half of it (the other half for meal #4 for the day), and I only had half of the dressing that was meant for that half of the salad.

Feeling good about things. Feeling changes in my body - I had to walk quite a ways up a hill to get to my car afterwards, and then realized that it wasn't bothering me at all - I wasn't winded. Which is something I hadn't considered.

Still going, my kid is still 100% on board with me. I'm liking this...

-Silas

Day 10

 Double digits - 5/41 of the way through the program! And honestly it is going well. I am feeling changes in myself already - changes under my chin, and thinning out around my middle. Smaller moobs as well.

I've been able to keep my kid interested as well. That's a first. He has done every single meal and every single workout with me. I've never seen him do this before.

I am hand-holding the entire time - making meals, bring him for workouts - but this step - where he is willing to complete this - is a HUGE step for him. I'm happy about it.

Tomorrow is going to be interesting - I'm going to be out of my house for a significant portion of the day. And going to lunch at R&R BBQ. Not a good way to eat healthy.

So - how do you do a fatty, greasy, carbolicious meal on a Body-FOR-Life program?

You plan ahead. I've been there enough to know what they have to eat. I'm going with the salad with bbq chicken. I'll eat half of it at lunch, and half again at like 3:00 or something. Voila - two meals, lots of veggies. Probably a few more calories than should technically be eaten, but for the purposes of what I'm doing, it seems like a great way to go.

Time to get back to work...and to drink another 40 oz of water.

-Silas

Lol @ the last post

 I wrote that on Friday, and it never got published. So I pushed the button and published it.

As for how it is going - down two pounds from last week, and feeling pretty good about things. This is the kind of program what will work, if you do it.

My kid was at the same weight. He can feel some differences in his body - but it is always so discouraging to work hard for a week and then see NO results.

Regardless - we were back at it yesterday and still going strong.

Oh - Free Day.

No workout, and ate some crap. Not TOO terribly much crap, but definitely some crap. It was fun.:) I wonder if that isn't what kills the weight loss. Gotta analyze that.

Regardless - I know have another 17 days to lose 4.2 more pounds for the DietBet I'm a part of. I can do that, if I work at it. In the end, by Saturday, it would be nice to be under 300 pounds.

Oh - Diet Bet.

I started a Diet Bet at the end of January. Basically, I have to lose 3% in a month, 3% in another month, 2% in the third month, 1% in the fourth and fifth, and then maintain for the sixth. 10% over six months - it's a good thing.

You pay in $ with any number of other people, and whoever is able to get to the goals splits the pot for that month.

So - yeah, there's that extra motivation.

It's been good so far. I'm feeling good, more energetic, no injuries yet from workouts, and feeling good about things.

Just gotta keep my kid motivated as well. So far so good on that standpoint...

Can you believe it?

 I'm still here, I'm still blogging. I'm still sticking with the program. Bill was right.

I weighed this morning, I was down about 2 and a half pounds since Sunday. Not bad, and exactly where I want to be. We did all 6 meals, and did our workout.

And we have a plan for free day as well. We are going to see the newest Batman movie on Saturday. We WERE going to see it tomorrow, but moved it to Saturday so that we can get something to eat as we watch. Probably a greasy burger, and maybe some fried pickles.

Doesn't matter - it's free-day. Sleep in some, don't bother working out (though I may do some light cardio), and eat whatever you want. (Within Diabetes guidelines that is haha)

Still strong, day 5.

Day three done

 Yesterday was day 3, and we did an upper body workout.

OMG my arms are sore haha

Still - so far so good, and feeling good about things. I am feeling hungry between meals, but nothing too terrible. I'm getting to the point where I'm sort of excited for the weigh-in on Sunday - I'm curious to know if this is working.

Short update, but what can you do? Nobody is reading this, so I suppose it doesn't matter.

-Silas

Another day, another 6 meals.

 So yeah - I'm eating 6 meals per day. Two of them are low carb protein shakes, and the rest are pretty small, but so far it is working out pretty well.

I am finding that I'm sort of hungry, so I may need to figure out how to add some extra veggies - like carrots or cucumber here and there - something to keep me more full than I would otherwise be.

Day 2 of 84 went well though, and my kid seems like he's still as motivated as I am. He's always talked about doing something like this, and it has taken us doing this together to get him moving.

But honestly it has taken doing it together to get ME moving as well. So yeah - it's a good thing.

Day two - and the cravings hit!

 See, as mentioned in a previous (like many years ago) post, Bill Phillips was right about the power of positive pressure. I think my kid and I both sort of didn't want to get up this morning and start eating a bunch of meals, but both of us did, and both of us are still going strong.

I think that even as a diabetic, I was getting into the habit of munching too many things - way too many peanuts, way too many sugar free chocolates, crap like that.

So yeah, slight headaches from withdrawal I think.

The first workout on a bowflex yesterday was pretty good - we did lower body, because I used my upper body to put it together haha - but it worked.

Until trying to do crunches - as I started the third set of 10, my abs CRAMPED UP. Have you ever had your abs cramp? Yeah, not a lot to do but lay on your stomach and stretch some.

Still - feel good about how things are going so far. My kid an I are really doing this...

-Silas

And so it begins.

 So I guess my kid is serious about this business. Today I went and bought a bunch of way more healthy foods, and on a whim two small notebooks. Tonight we sat together and planned out our meals for tomorrow, and our workouts - that is, assuming that the new workout machine gets delivered tomorrow as scheduled. Doesn't matter. We'll work out one way or another.

So maybe this blog turns into a "Let's see what happens when a 46-year-old diabetic man with joint problems starts Body-for-LIFE just over a month before his 47th birthday" experiment. I don't know what will happen. I just know that I'm actually kind of excited to see.

I am going to do a bit of a modified Body-for-LIFE - fewer carbs than he calls for and more fats - good fats in general, but more fats. The science bears out that this is a good way to go to lose weight, so I'll do it.

I also am planning on checking my blood sugar rather often as well, and I'll have to see if I can even get myself into doing blood pressure here and there as well.

Tomorrow it begins. And not just tomorrow - that nebulous idea of the near future that never comes - I mean Sunday, February 27, 2022, my son and I are starting on this journey together.

One day? All 12 weeks?

Doesn't matter. We are starting as soon as I wake up.

-Silas

What? Another post?

 So yeah, it's me again - and yes, it has taken less than six or seven years. Resurrecting the Journal of a Fat Loser seems well on its way! Or at least it hasn't been discarded in the first moment like other times.

I've joined a DietBet a month ago - the challenge is to lose 10% of your body weight in 6 months. Well, technically 5 months and then keep it off for another month. So after the first month, I lost the requisite 3%, and 79% of the next 3% that I need for the second month. That's a good thing. It's a drop from 316.8 to 301.8. Holy cow - exactly 15 pounds I guess.

How did I do it? Well, for starters, I stopped eating crap, for the most part. I mean, I eat different crap now than I used to eat, as I've been diagnosed with type II diabetes since the last time I tried weight loss, but there was still a lot of crap - high fat meats, not a lot of good stuff.

Regardless, the past month has been better, though the past week has been...stagnant.

Which is why I'm glad about my kid wanting to do the Body-for-LIFE program, Last night we went out to buy a home gym. We went all over the place looking, and ended up getting one on Amazon. It arrives Sunday.

Which, by the way, is when we are going to start our program. We'll see how it goes. All I know is that if we even half-ass this, it is going to be way better than what we are doing now.

Here's to not just going nuts over the next few days...

-Silas

Hi there

For those of you reading (there are none) it has now been what - almost 7 years since I posted? And yeah, still hovering between 300 and 320 pounds. To nobody’s surprise. Because nobody is reading this, and I am not surprised. 

Anyway - here I go again. It’s time for me to start blogging about weight loss again. I mean technically it’s time to sleep, as it’s 1:18 AM, but I’m sitting here sort of angry with myself about what my life is like. Some of it is my fault, some is not, and all of it is bad for my mental health. 

I’m still fat, I’m now diabetic, and I have to fire someone in the morning. Hence me not wanting to sleep. 

Regardless it’s still time to go to bed. But I thought I’d post here first, on the off chance that I might actually start something up again. 

I have a kid - a 19-year-old son who has struggled with depression because of meds and self-medicating with food, he has followed in my footsteps of being too heavy.

He wants to make positive changes. So do I. Someone was talking to him the other day about the old Bill Phillips program - Body-for-LIFE - and he’s interested. 

At first I wasn’t - I just wasn’t ready for the changes this is going to necessitate. However the more I thought about it, the more I think I may need to do this. In the end it’s science-based weight loss - eat less, including lean protein and good fats, with not a lot of refined carbs (sounds like a diabetic friendly diet to me) and get moving a ton more - seems like a good way lose weight. 

I think what pushed me over the edge into doing this is the idea that my kid wants to make positive changes. If I can help him out, I will. And it will be good for me anyway.

So I have ordered the book from Amazon, I am ready to journal food and workouts in MyFitnessPal, and I’ve got Dario all set to monitor blood sugar and pressure.

As soon as I can find enough foods for my son to eat, we’ll shop and start this baby. 

It’s about time.

-Silas