This is what I said were my goals for the week were last week.

“My goals for this week, besides being under 203 pounds, are that I eat much better, drink only 1 night, jog at least 10 miles total for the week, and doing one other active thing this week.”

How did I do? I’m a little under the weather today so I won’t be weighing in today (illness notoriously forces your body to hold water, weighing in may not be accurate). So I’ll find out next week how I really did, but my guess is that I made my goal for this week’s weigh in. I ate a lot better (more often, less calories). I drank two nights instead of one but that is better than four. I jogged just over 9 miles for the week so I was one shy of my goal, however I said I wanted to do “one other active thing this week” but I managed to do four (two P90X routines, basketball, furniture moving).

Overall a fantastic week regardless of how much I actually weigh. Weight isn’t everything.

So, goals for next week: 201 pounds (though I’d love to be under 200), jog 12 miles (an extra 5K), two P90X routines, drink only 1 beer total, less sweets (as I eat a brownie), and basketball.

In other words, you have to cause yourself pain before you get healthier, stronger, faster.

I was thinking about this as I was dealing with soreness during some recent runs. As I was running I thought how odd it was that I had to put myself through pain in order to get healthier. You have to push through pain to force your muscles to heal stronger.

Friend and fellow Viddler team member Jeff Johns, who has run the New York Marathon, has an interesting approach to hills which I think is a great example of dealing with pain to get stronger. He says “I go as fast as I can and slow down on the downhill. I love hills, they present a challenge and the faster I run up them the better I feel. No matter what mile the hill comes at, I run as fast as I can up it.”

This may seem insane, Jeff says he likes the dentist too so maybe he is, but think about how our body is made. Our body is made to adjust and fit our lifestyle (within reason). For example, if you’ve never done 50 pushups in a row you’ll find it is pretty hard. However, you’ll also find that after trying to do 50 pushups in a row for a little while – you’ll be able to do them with little problem in a short amount of time. Running is no exception. That very first mile seems impossible and you may actually feel like you’re going do pass out. But, try it again two days later and you’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about. Within 1 day your body adjusts to running and is actually ready to run a bit further than the first time. Within two or three weeks you’ll be running longer distances than you ever thought possible.

This ability to adjust extends beyond pushups and running. Our metabolism also adjusts to fit our life style. Eat smaller meals more often and your metabolism sores and fat drops. Eat bigger meals less often and your body stores fat for the period of time between meals. Your body tries to do exactly what you ask it to do and then sets itself up better for the next time you ask for the same thing.

The point is, your body adjusts and very quickly.

When you’re running, even for the very first time, think of the pain as a sure sign that your body is working hard to adjust to what you are asking it to do. Obviously you want to be conscience of any injuries you could cause – and your body will tell you very quickly if you’ve injured yourself – but in general a little pain goes a long way. Waking up sore in the morning? That is your body healing itself not just back to what it was but better than it was the day before.

Within 4 runs my body is no longer sore and I’m back up to 6 mile runs at a time without thinking about it. It may take you a few more than that, and that is ok, but remember that when you feel pain you have to learn to hate yourself a bit. Push yourself through that pain knowing that tomorrow that pain will not be there and you’ll be able to do more than you did today. If you push yourself until you feel sore every time you run or exercise you will see dramatic progress.

Now, if you’ll excuse me – I have to go hurt myself. A little.

When I began to jog again last week it took only 1K or so before my lungs were back in stride. I’ve had almost no pain in my lungs since that first 1K (of a 5K run) and I’ve run about 20K since then.

What your lungs remember your legs quickly forget, it would seem. My legs ached after the first jog. For my first jog I went along my usual 5K course, except I did it in reverse. By doing this it sets me up for success because the beginning of the jog is slightly downhill and then it levels out for at least 2.5K straight. This builds my confidence in jogging for a duration of time rather than just distance. Sometimes simply jogging for 15, 20, or 30 minutes straight can be the mental challenge that people face in the beginning. However, the end of the jog is slightly uphill and so that is probably what caused the soreness.

During my second jog my legs were a little sore (three days later) but the soreness really began when I played football on Sunday. Both yesterday and today my legs have been very, very achy. So it will come as no surprise that I did not want to jog today. Well, my head did but my legs didn’t.

However, I’ve recently begun to do something I think is rather novel – whenever I feel uncomfortable about something or don’t want to do something – I do one better, I force myself to do more than I would have otherwise. Have trouble getting up early for work? Get up really early. Have trouble talking in front of a lot of people? Do a presentation in front of hundreds. Don’t want to jog because your legs are a little sore and you’re being a baby about it? Then jog double the distance you had planned on.

So that is what I did. I jogged 10K instead of the 5K I had planned on doing. I knew I could do it because I had done it before but it was still a major mental and physical battle. I almost took a shortcut home 3 separate times. Instead of taking the shortcuts I simply kept going. That is all you can do when you are at that point in a jog and you want to give up, just keep putting one foot in front of the other. With that out of the way, though, I can now focus on improving my 10K time and continue onto 15K within the next few weeks.

By then my legs should remember.

I did well with beginning my exercise routine again though. I ran on Tuesday, Friday, and played football on Sunday. I ran two 5Ks, or 6.2 miles, and had “ok” times for both runs. I have no idea how much exercise I got playing football but I’d be willing to guess it was a much better workout than simply jogging. It was a lot more fun too.

My current weight is, as my goal was, 205 pounds for a loss of two pounds this week. Next week I’d like to be 203 or below. My goal, per week, will continue to be 2 pounds or more (but not much more).

My goals for this week, besides being under 203 pounds, are that I eat much better, drink only 1 night, jog at least 10 miles total for the week, and doing one other active thing this week.

Today I weight exactly the same amount as I did last week; 207lbs. Next week, I won’t.

The Diet has been a huge success for me personally and not just on the scale. I don’t know what my general health would be like today if it wasn’t for the support I received. I know more about dieting than I ever have. I have seen many people lose weight and get healthy. And I’ve been able to share a lot of what I’ve learned with others both through this site and in conversation.

But it has also been an immense challenge for me and I have been unable to keep the weight off for more than a few weeks or a month at a time. I’ve never been as heavy as I was at the first weigh in but I have fluctuated between being about the weight I’d like to be and being a lot heavier than I’d like to be.

Over the weekend I did something that I had always wanted to do but I never took the time to do it. I entered all of my weigh in data into a spreadsheet so that I could track my weight over time. This enabled me to create a chart of all 50+ weigh ins that I’ve done on this site. Here is what it looks like.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned by really drilling down into the data found in this chart.

I lose weight pretty consistently when I want to. If you look at the beginning 25% of that chart (from left to right) you will see that I lost a consistent amount of weight over a fairly long period of time. I did it again towards the middle of the chart and then again nearer to the end. So, I’m able to focus on losing weight for a period but I somehow lose focus and gain some back.

Another thing I’ve learned is that I only lose weight when I’m writing about it each and every week. Weighing in, for me, is obviously paramount to my losing weight on a consistent basis. Any big jumps in weight over the last three years has been due to the fact that I didn’t take the time to weigh in each week. The three biggest spikes in the chart are the result of a lapse of time between public updates on my weight. In late fall 2006 I began to let my weigh ins slide. One or two a month rather than 4 or 5 a month. Then, in mid-Winter 2007 I attacked my weight again bringing it down to reasonable levels before Spring hit. I managed to keep it at a reasonable level through all of Summer 2007 and then BAM!, in Winter 2008 I completely forgot what I was doing and only weighed in once!

I made a huge mistake in 2008 by only weighing in a twice.

Earlier this year I got back up on the horse and began to focus on running rather than only weight. I lost twenty pounds in less than three months. And, for much of the Spring and Summer months, I kept that weight because I was running so much. Then I forgot how much I was enjoying running.

Now it is Fall. And I’m very disappointed to report that I’m back to where I was so many times before. I’m 207 pounds again. I was 207 pounds in March 2009, June 2008, and in July 2006. Each time I’ve been at this weight it has taken me about three months to get near where I want to be. So, today marks day one of that three month period. My goal, as of now, is to get to 180 pounds. This means I want to lose 27 pounds in three months.

My next goal will be to somehow figure out the ultimate solution to keeping the weight off forever. FOREVER. And if that means weighing in each week here on my blog, so be it.

So, as I have said so many times before, see you next week when I’ll be 205 pounds or less. I hope.

Today I weighed in at 189 lbs. which is down three pounds since I weighed in 15 days ago. I was hoping I’d be 188 or even 187 (which would have meant that I’d have finally beaten Pat Dryburgh in our little challenge) but I’m willing to wait for next week for that to happen. And it will happen.

Overall I had two fairly good weeks full of activity, a decent food diet, and no major setbacks. Even though I missed basketball last week I still managed to run over 9 miles that week and 6 the last week with basketball on that Monday. I’m currently working on bringing my 5K (or a 3.1 mile run) time down. My current goal is 28 minutes. I’m hoping to hit that this week.

Today Chris Fehnel and I did the Plyometrics portion of P90X, an exercise routine that he’s been doing since we re-started the diet, and it was intense. Fun. But intense. It is definitely a much harder workout than I would ever put together for myself. I’m considering doing this workout either every-now-and-then or even each week. We’ll see.

Next week will, more than likely, end the competition between Pat and I but I’m not going to stop there. I’ve decided to make other goals, besides actual weight, for myself. My 5K in under 28 minutes is my first goal, and perhaps “bringing it” to an entire PlyoX routine would be my second (since while I managed to make it through the routine I definitely didn’t “bring it”).

I know that Eliza, Chris, and I are doing great on our diets. How about all of you?

It has been a great week. I ate very well this week. I don’t remember missing a single meal, I ate enough calories every day, and most of the food I ate per-day was well balanced. And this showed in my weigh in, and also in the results I’ve seen in my workout routines.

My exercise this week went very, very well. I played, as per usual, about 4 hours of basketball on Monday, jogged on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday and did three core workout routines. For me this is a fair amount of exercise, but I plan on doing even better this week. Longer jogs, same amount of basketball, and more workouts.

This morning I weighed in at 192 pounds, that is a loss of two pounds this week. I’m feeling great, my clothes are fitting better, and I’m excited to come down the home stretch towards my goal. Losing 15 pounds in 6 weeks is fantastic. Five pounds until I beat Dryburgh, seven pounds to reach my initial goal of 185 and reassess where I am at – and make new goals.

I hope everyone else had a great week. Lets keep going!

I know, I play basketball a lot. But it is the sport that I could play every single day and not tire of it.

I had one ‘bad day’ on Saturday (for reasons I’ll leave out for now, but suffice to say the day consisted of not very good food, although it tasted great, and a lot of couch time). I’m going to try to avoid this type of day this week.

This morning I weighed in at 194.something pounds. My scale consists of a rotating dial with small numbers that are hard to read from 6′ 1″ above it. That is a loss of 2 pounds for this week. I’m feeling very good, fitting into clothes better, and ready to have an active summer. This brings me down 13 pounds in 1 month and 1 week. I’m looking forward to shedding this last 7 pounds, to beat Pat, before mid-May.

I hope he took it.

This week I’m going to try very hard to make the entire week one of a balanced diet. It seems that each week I’ve either done well at the beginning of the week and struggled toward the end, or vice-versa. I’m hoping to buck that trend this week.

Just to be clear, I’m still 196 pounds for a loss and gain of 0 pounds. I fully attribute this to eating too much. I didn’t eat anything I’d be ashamed to admit. I didn’t drink much of any alcohol (a glass or two of wine for the entire week). I didn’t snack. I didn’t eat very late. So I just ate too much and maintained my weight. Not the worst thing in the world.

Looking forward to owning it this week though. My goal is to lose three pounds.

This adversely affected my weigh in. The good news is that I had a really great week and so did many people on The Diet this week. I played basketball once, ran three times (all very good runs) and generally ate very well and stayed away from junk food of any sort.

Since I had to head to Viddler HQ yesterday I forgot to weigh in. Today I weighed in at 196 lbs. for a loss of three pounds this week. I’m very satisfied with this number although I know it could have been a little better if I didn’t overeat two meals on the weekend. This brings me to 11 pounds lost in three weeks. A great accomplishment to be sure.

My goals for this week, which I wrote about last week, were to watch my carbs more. I didn’t do this again. Maybe I just don’t have it in me to really watch the specifics of what I eat. This week my goal remains simple: lose two more pounds. I’m also going to do a little more to build some muscle this week instead of just running. Lets see how it all pans out.

Congratulations to everyone that lost weight this week. Lets keep it going!

My goals, as stated last week, were: “… to cut down on carbs, eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks, go completely beer and wine free for the week, and lose two more pounds.” I did pretty well with trying to stick to these goals but I was far from perfect. While I didn’t drink any beer this week I did have some homemade pear wine last night that was given to us. I didn’t do very well on trying to cut down on the number of carbs I’ve had for the week. In fact, I didn’t measure the number of carbs I had at all. I didn’t play any basketball and only ran twice. I did, however, eat more fruit and vegetables as snacks and did well with not eating too much.

One of the things I find most challenging during the second week is getting over the “make it a habit hump.” It is said that you have to do something 7 times (I think?) in order to make it a habit. I don’t know how this philosophy fits in with the complexities surrounding diets, but I know that for me to truly change my eating and exercising habits I need to get through the second week. If you look at the arc of my dieting last time, you can see that from the second week on it was a landslide towards the finish. I was totally committed to my diet, did really well with exercising on a regular basis, and kept up with my weekly goals. I’m hoping the same is true this time around.

I’m glad to have this second week over with and to have a decent weight loss. Now I’m ready to really ratchet up my commitment to the diet until I get to my goal.

My goals for this week include: drinking more water, trying to measure the number of carbs I eat, playing basketball twice, running three times, and having only one glass of wine. (I don’t want to cut out wine completely but I’ll probably have it earlier in the week this time.) Also, I’d like to lose two pounds this week.

I hope everyone else on the diet had as good or better a second week as I had and that we all continue on to reach our goals.

But that isn’t the case with everyone. Some people thrive on competition, being told that they can’t do it, being challenged by their peers. Some don’t. Personally, I thrive on the energy created around a competition. The desire to win isn’t what motivates me, its the desire to participate in a competition with others. Again, this probably isn’t the case with everyone.

This week Pat Dryburgh, the guy I’m in direct competition with on this round of The Diet, posted that he gained one pound. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal to me and I’d just keep moving forward with my diet, try to give Pat some tips via IM or something, and see how he progresses next week. But it was the language that Pat used in his weigh-in that really struck me and has made me think that we need to make a change in how we’re approaching The Diet this time.

“I don’t have to tell you that this is disappointing. I really thought I had been doing well. I know I shouldn’t be giving up, but it this has been a long, hard struggle over the last year, and I really just want it to be over with. I’m tired of it all.”

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt this way. And, since I do a relatively good job of keeping tabs on everyone else that has done The Diet over the years, almost everyone experiences these feelings at one time or another.

If Pat wanted to give up because of a one pound weight gain, normally I’d just give him a punch on the shoulder, telling him that his expectations are set far too high and that sometimes your body simply doesn’t react as well as you’d like it to. But this isn’t about one pound for Pat. This is about the entire process. About finishing what he started. About winning the battle, not with me but, with his weight.

Then he said this.

“So, not only have I gained a pound, but Colin has now lost 4 pounds. I feel more discouraged than ever. He has 16 pounds to go, and I now have 21.”

“I feel more discouraged than ever.” This is the direct opposite effect that The Diet has set out to create. If he had said “Now I’m more motivated than ever to get to the gym, do some running, and stay strict on my diet.” that’d have made me smile. But discouragement is not what anyone on the diet, including me, wants to see anyone go through.

So as of today the challenge between Pat and I is off. I forfeit. I will gladly find something under 20 dollars and send it to you Pat. Your encouragement, motivation, and health are worth far more to me and to you than 20 dollars.

So what is the new challenge? Of course we’re all still going to do The Diet in hopes of losing as much weight as we all set out to lose from the beginning. I think the new goal should now be to help motivate those who need it the most. If you are on The Diet your goals should be to help find more people to join us, to motivate those who have bad weeks, and to use the group as your primary means to stay motivated to accomplish your goals. The Diet is no longer a weight loss competition, it is a challenge to all that are on it to get healthy and help as many people as you can along the way.

How to turn weight gain into weight loss

I’m not a trainer, dietitian, or any other type of health expert so I can only go on my own experiences over the years with losing weight and trying to stay motivated. In week two of the first round of The Diet I gained 3 pounds.

I said “This week, I’m unhappy to report that I gained three pounds. I am now back up to 221.8lbs. However, this makes me more determined to stay on my diet, and get more exercise to make up for the set back.”

The weight gain motivated me to hop right back on and try to lose weight the next week. Why? Why did I get motivated and Pat got discouraged? It is all about identifying what went wrong the week before and not blaming yourself.

I have never gone to the gym with Pat so I have no idea about the intensity or process of Pat’s workout but to me going to the gym 4 times in a week is a great, great accomplishment. So what did Pat do wrong this week? Pat mentioned that he went over his calories by 1,000 calories on one of the days. He also weighed in while he was at the gym in the evening while his initial weigh in was earlier in the day. I believe these are factors in Pat’s weight gain this week and not Pat himself.

Our weight fluctuates during the day. A lot. If I weigh in when I wake up at 7:00am I will be at least 3-5lbs. lighter than when I went to sleep. If Pat weighs 5 pounds more at night than he does in the morning, he would have weighed in with a 4 pound weight loss instead of a 1 pound weight gain! It is that simple.

Eating properly should be the number one goal when someone is trying to lose the last few pounds (or even 20 or 30) on a diet. I believe the saying goes; abs aren’t made in the gym, abs are made in the kitchen. Something like that. Chris Fehnel and Mike Stickel do a workout called P90X. It is a rigorous daily workout that lasts a little over an hour a day for 90 days. That is a lot more than I work out. Still, they’d both agree that they key to making P90X work is to stay on the diet plan that they give you. A certain number of proteins, carbs, etc. are scheduled out per day. If you don’t follow the diet plan you will, no doubt, lose weight. But you will not see the results you would have otherwise.

Pat, you need to get your eating in check. Eat more often and hit your daily allotted calories before 7pm at night. Turn your body into a calorie burning machine by feeding it regularly. Weigh yourself at the exact same time of day each week, instead of at different times. If you are going to go over your calories for the day try to work in a short run to keep your body burning fat. Do not give up. Ever. This battle is far to worth the win to give up because of one pound. Especially when there are clear reasons why you weighed in one pound heavier. We’re all with you and we’re all here to help. I bet you will lose weight this week.

I hope everyone on The Diet stays motivated, keeps tabs on the others that are dieting and motivates them when they need it, and even tells new people that could really use the encouragement to get on The Diet and get healthy. We’re in this together and we’re all going to accomplish our goals if we help each other.

Last week I weighed in at 207 pounds. I was able to play basketball twice, do some light jogging once, walking twice, and a little “yard work” once. As far as eating is concerned I did good with temporary lapses in judgement on Saturday and Sunday night (I had beer). But overall I think I did great this week.

As of this morning I weigh 203 pounds for a loss of four pounds this week. Since my goal is an average of two pounds per week this is obviously better than expected.

My goals for this week are to cut down on carbs, eat more fruits and vegetables as snacks, go completely beer and wine free for the week, and lose two more pounds.

How did you do? And what are your goals for this week?

Guess who’s back? Back again! The Diet is back, tell some friends!

You read that right. The Diet is back. And, like a Phoenix, it is back in a whole new way once again. Sort of like last time, what started out as a friendly challenge between a few ended up becoming something much larger, so too has The Diet this time. Last week I got an email from a guy name Pat Dryburgh who wanted to get on The Diet. We setup a challenge to see who could lose 20 pounds in the shortest amount of time. I asked him to write a little something for us here on the blog.

“There’s this guy who hangs around these parts that goes by the name of “Colin.” “Colin” invited me to check out his blog after seeing how über awesome I am over on my own blog. As I was poking around, I came across a cobweb-infested page simply titled “The Diet.” It was refreshing to see someone who spends their life behind a computer screen who had taken an interest in getting active. A year or so ago, I weighed about 270 lb., and today weigh in around 225 lb. However, I’ve been at this weight for the past few months. I was looking for encouragement, for direction, for guidance. With excitement filling my heart I scrolled down to see Colin’s most recent weigh-in…

June. 2008. 207 lb.

I realized then and there that something needed to be done. Colin has clearly neglected the Pudge 2.0 that’s formed between himself and his Mac for too long, and it was time to take action. So I wrote to Colin “hey, Colin. I know we don’t really know each other. In fact, we’ve barely made it through two emails back and forth. But seriously, we have a problem. You and me, we’ve got belly’s. And they ain’t pretty.

This is an intervention.

Think of your wife.

Think of your children.

We need to do this now.”

And so, with that the challenge was made. First one to lose 20 pounds wins. Loser buys the winner an online gift worth $21 USD (which is about $70 Canadian dollars).

Colin’s an American. He basically gets McDonalds delivered to his door every morning. Starbucks is part of his daily medication. I, on the other hand, was born with a hockey stick in my hands.

This will be a cake walk.

(Especially if I can convince Colin cake is part of a balanced breakfast).

Colin, it’s on like donkey kong.”

It is definitely on!  However, since we exchanged emails others had expressed interest in doing some dieting as well. Since most of them are my friends here in the local area – you can say I have my own support group – and I’m looking forward to following their journeys of weight loss.  I’ll let them tell their story in the comments.

My weigh-in for today, March 23, 2009: So we’re going to weigh-in every Monday. If you want to make your weight public, that’s cool, if you don’t that is fine too. My current weight is 207lbs.

Want to join us?

Like last time, this is an open invitation for anyone that would like to lose weight, get healthy, and have some support doing it. It can be hard to lose weight on your own. Hard to get motivated. Hard to stay on track. This is why we do this diet. We’re here to help each other.

So, whether you have 1 pound or 100 pounds to lose – please leave a comment below and let us know you’re in this for the long hall. Pat and I are going to race to 20, but then we’re going to be sticking around to keep each other and everyone else motivated to lose the weight and keep it off.  Third time’s a charm?

Reminder note: All photos, blog posts, AND Twitter messages should be tagged with ‘the-diet’ so that we can keep track of this thing. (For Twitter/Facebook, you can write #the-diet in your post.)

I know what you might be thinking, especially if you follow me on Twitter.  How can he play so much basketball and still need to get back on his diet?  It is because I like food and booze too much.  It isn’t due to lack of exercise really, because I get a fair amount of that considering that my day job is in front of a computer.

Today I weighed in at 207 pounds.  My goal for next week is 205.  Pretty simple.

I’m going to be trying to achieve this goal by watching what I eat, cutting down on alcohol consumption to only 2 ounces (or a beer and a glass of wine) per week, and keeping my same routine for sports and exercise.

Two factors spurred me to get back on the diet. The first was a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with some friends to see a Monday-night Steelers vs. Dolphins game (you may have seen it on TV, it being perhaps, the worst Monday-night game in history). While in Pittsburgh we enjoyed going to a few restaurants where they seem to serve fries with everything. Have you ever been to Pittsburgh? Trust me on the fries thing, never order a side of fries with your meal. After a weekend of eating, drinking, and football, we all decided we need to shed a few pounds.

When I got home from Pittsburgh I jumped on the scale and I was 212.2 pounds. I weight I hadn’t read on the scale since July of 2006. So, I got right back into being on the diet by increasing my exercise and lowering my calories. The same simple plan I’ve had so much success with in the past.

Fast forward about a month. I began to slow down on the diet again, though I wasn’t gaining any weight, and my brother calls me up and we get to talking about challenging each other to get rid of the last few pounds. We chose 15 pounds, though in hindsight I should have picked a little less (more on this in a second).

So, now it is the 26th of February, have I made any progress since November 28th? Today I weighed in at 195.2 pounds, for a loss of 0.8 pounds since last week, and loss of 17 pounds overall since the trip to Pittsburgh.

My new challenge is to stay between 190-195 for 3 months. I’m going to attempt to lose another pound or two this week, and then maintain it for 3 straight months (all while building a little muscle and hopefully losing a little fat around the edges). It seems I never really have trouble losing weight, but I do have trouble keeping it off and staying focused. I’m charting new territory for myself here, I’m not sure what I need to do to stay motivated, to lose body fat (I assume I need to cut carbs a little and increase protein intake) – but I’m up for the challenge. I never want to see the scale read 200+ again.

An update on “the diet”

One of the things that continues to surprise me is the number of hits, google searches, links, and people in general that end up coming to my site to find information on the diet. A lot of times people find the BMI calculator post, or just the diet page, but there are still people picking up the reigns and beginning their weight loss journey as recently as a few days ago.

One person that comes to mind is Doug Meade, who wrote Becoming less repulsive wherein he states that he’s starting on the diet. Another one is David Meade (are these guys related?), where he’s already posted a few updates on his progress. Keep it up fellas, I can’t wait to see you two progress.

Every single week I get emails from people asking about information on the diet, or to be put on the list as participants. Over the next week or so I’ll be updating that list, but I’ll only be including people that have documented real, tangible, results. “Good examples”, if you will. By the way, this doesn’t mean you have to be losing weight to be on the diet, this just means you have to be documenting it – whether you lose or gain.

There is no time like the present to get on-board, so don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like to begin your road to health. There have been many that have benefitted from this public display of goals, reaching them, striving for them, and even failing just to get back up and try again. Particularly me. I have benefitted a lot from it, and I’m looking forward to the next three months – and trying out my new goal.

What is your goal?

When I’m away from home and unable to retain my focus on my food intake, I definitely suffer. Pizza, hoagies, greasy things, beer, etc. are the norm when I’m away from home so I really need to start keeping myself in check when I’m away (which is more and more frequent sadly).

I’ll be away this weekend so I’m hoping to do better this week than last and get back on track on Monday. Oh, and I haven’t played basketball in far too long!

This week I weighed in at 193 pounds which means I’m on track for my goal that I set last week.

My goals for this week are to hit at least 191 by getting out to exercise more this week than I have in previous weeks. I should be able to visit the gym tonight, basketball should also be possible tomorrow and perhaps Friday.

This weekend I’ll be in Philadelphia (on Saturday only) for Viddler’s MealToday contest – so I’m hoping to get outdoors on Sunday for frisbee or something.

A note to James Mathias: You and I have been part of this “diet thing” since the very beginning and you have been a major inspiration on myself and many of the dieters that have been on this journey with us. I wanted to reply to a comment you left on my MealToday where you said: “No worries bro, I got the hint, I’ll back off. Just leave you with this thought. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. I think you know what I mean. Sorry for bugging you in any case.”. I strongly believe you take me far too seriously. I think if you watch the video again you will hear sarcasm in my voice. I have always, and will continue, to value your input on my dieting habits as I know that you have far more knowledge than I in the areas of food and health in general. Please, please, please, never stop trying to help me succeed! Sorry if I came across as though I didn’t want you to call me out and help keep me on track.

Side note about eating healthy: I don’t know if I will ever, ever be able to live up to “eating healthy”. I try. But frankly I believe that there is a balance between being a food nazi and simply trying to change your diet and exercising more. I take the simple, fun approach to my health which is to try to keep my calories in check (while still eating what I enjoy) and being active. I do not believe I’d ever enjoy life living to the strictest of food rules. I realize there is great value in eating the best of foods with no preservatives, the best ingredients, etc. etc. – I’m just not that guy. If it means that my life is shortened by 2-months because I like Perkin’s Peanut Butter Silk Pie than by golly I think it is worth the sacrifice.

Thanks James – keep bugging me!

That’s it from me… see you next week (I like these much looser weigh in posts).

Sometime last week we’ve finally made final preparations for our upcoming vacation and, as these types of things always seem to do, this spurred me to hop back up on the horse.

My weigh in today does not reflect my exact weight currently. It reflects my weight when I weighed in at the time I decided to start dieting again and when I set my new goal.

I weighed in at 196 pounds the other day. I’m certain my weight gain has more to do with me simply not keeping track of it than anything else at this point. I’ve proven my abilities to lose and maintain as long as I continue to monitor my weight. So that is what I am going to try to do – continuously weigh in.

My goal is to weigh in at 185 pounds on September 18th. Four Tuesdays from today. Eleven pounds in a single month is not out of the realm of possibility, especially considering I’ve already lost a little weight over the weekend.

This morning I awoke to seeing this comment on my week fifty nine weigh in:

“So… It’s 5 weeks later, Mr. “I’m a bad, bad dieter!” (”Hello, Pot.” “Hi, Kettle.”) How’s the diet going? I lost 2.6 pounds over the last week, since I finally decided to get serious about it after a string of bad weeks. How about you?” commented – Wally Hartshorn

This is exactly the type of “calling out” I need from all of you. Probably just as much as you need the very same from me! So lets try to keep better tabs on each other again. It worked for us before and it can help us all again (including me).

Thanks for calling me out Wally. Congratulations on losing a few pounds last week. Let’s chat again next Tuesday to check in on each other.

Here is where my excuses come flying in. I rolled my ankle really, really badly a few weeks ago and it is actually still pretty tender. This, in part, is why I haven’t played basketball in a few weeks for any extended period of time, I haven’t ran, and I haven’t been to the gym. I’m bad. I know.

The worst part about the entire thing, is that I haven’t changed my diet. I know better. I know that when my exercise schedule gets put aside that I need to change my eating habits. But I didn’t. So here I am, slowly gaining weight.

Time for a shift back to doing well with regards to food and hopefully I can get back to my normal exercise routine very soon. My goal for next week is to be down 2 pounds.

I believe it is time to quit making excuses about scheduling problems and start doing things on my own. I’m going to start running, by myself, starting tomorrow. As for the gym I’ll have to create my own schedule (most likely Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday). I’d love to go in the mornings but that just doesn’t seem possible – I am not a morning workout person.

This week I weighed in within a few ounces of last week’s weigh in. Which is fine because I fully expect to be around 185 pounds for the rest of my life – so being 187 works just as well.

I hope everyone else had a great week on their diets.

This week I lost 2.6 pounds and weighed in at 187.4 pounds. I’m very happy with these results considering the weekend of eating rather heartily. Although I was able to play a little frisbee and play some basketball I really need to get my workout and exercise routine back on track for this week.

Yea, this weigh in is short and sweet. Hope everyone had a good week!

Usually if I do not eat well my exercise routine makes up for it. As I’ve seen in previous weigh ins I won’t normally gain even though I decided to eat a bunch of food. However, when I don’t workout and I eat like crap – this generally leads to me gaining a few pounds. A no-brainer, I know.

So this week I’m up 5 pounds from last week, weighing in at 190.00 pounds. At first I was mad, almost disgusted, with myself. But, after waiting a day I see my levels are already beginning to balance out and it is nothing to get mad about since as long as I focus on getting my diet and exercise back on track – I’ll be just fine in a few days.

Ebbs and flows happen on diets and usually they can be calculated, but even when they can’t, I’ve learned to keep my head up and focus on the next goal. Keep moving forward.

Here’s to a great weigh in this coming Tuesday. Oh, and it will be the start of WWDC so there will be two reasons to be excited!

Over the last few weeks I’ve had hundreds of ideas for how I’d write my one year weigh in. And I think the most important thing for me to do is to say thank you to all of those who’ve helped me over the course of the last year to be as successful as I have been.

Thank you Eliza for being my original inspiration for starting the diet. You’ve helped me on numerous occasions over the last year to stick to my goals. You’ve been amazingly supportive!

Thanks to Chris for pushing me during our workouts. I can always count on you to be my exercise partner which has definitely had an impact on me. Many people are not as privileged as I am to have someone to work out with consistently.

Thanks to James for showing me that this diet isn’t just about losing weight or that it isn’t a temporary action but this is a life-change and one that will last forever. You truly are an inspiration to many. (see James’ latest photo showing off his success on his diet, awesome!)

Thanks to Mike for being supportive as a friend and fellow dieter. Your unceasing schedule of getting to the gym every single morning has been inspiring. Hope you find a place in California to settle into and get that schedule back on track!

Thanks to Scott who has shown me that sometimes we need to do whatever it takes to stay on the diet even if it means doing things that we don’t like (like running or going to the gym).

Thanks to Larry who has, via our conversations, really given me great tips and inspiration for setting goals and sticking to them. I know Larry will be making his personal goals and I know how hard he is trying to do so – which inspires me to try as hard as he does.

And thanks to everyone else on the diet, those that read my weigh in entries, and those that congratulate me on my successes and pick me up when I “fail”, all of you have been a part of this last year and I can’t thank you enough for that.

Oh, I almost forgot – I weighed in at 185 again this morning which is no change from last week. For those that are unaware, I am not longer trying to lose weight but I’m trying very hard to maintain my current weight, gain muscle, and lose fat.

I can has cramp

Last week was the normal exercise and workout activities but near the end of the week Chris and I, via my good friend Larry, discovered HIIT running. The photo on your right is the result of my first HIIT session wherein I got a cramp and Chris nearly showed his lunchables. HIIT running is addictive and a little bit insane. Once you’ve done it and the pain along with the throbbing head veins subside, you crave it. You are constantly thinking about your next session and how you need to add another cycle. Like I said, insane.

This weekend we hit a few wineries, as we tend to love doing so much, and enjoyed a massive amount of great food and wine. Picnics in vineyards people! Naturally I thought I’d overdone it. Come to find out I didn’t gain an ounce over the weekend. So just like last week I’m sittin’ pretty at 185.

Yesterday was our third round of HIIT running. However, since Chris and I are insane (as mentioned before), we decided to go to the gym for biceps, triceps, and forearm workouts before heading out to play basketball for a few more hours. But boy did it feel good (at the time). This morning I’m a little sore and a few of my joints are cursing me – but overall I’m in good shape.

I’m looking forward to making this a great week to end the first of many years on the diet.

So, this morning I weighed in at 185lbs. which is a loss of 1.6 pounds from last week putting me at an overall loss of 40.6 pounds! This also sets my BMI, according to this BMI formula, at 24.4 which is within the “healthy” range. So I’m really happy to have achieved this goal.

This BMI business is probably not the best “scale” to base goals off of but at least it is something that says I’m headed in the right direction. Being within the healthy range is a good feeling but I’m barely inside of that range. Does this mean I should set a new goal for weight loss or remain where I am? I’m hoping that getting my food diet under control will actually help me to shed some more fat while allowing me to build some muscle. But this won’t change my BMI since it only takes weight and height into consideration.

So I am not sure what my next goal should be. Being a goal oriented person I think I’m going to have to figure out something to stay focused on. Perhaps body-fat percentage?

No matter what, I’m extremely pleased with my progress and incredibly happy that I’ve been able to stick to this diet as long as I have.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, bmi, goal[/tags]

This past weekend Eliza and I and a few friends headed to the Finger Lakes region in New York to try and buy some wine. As is typical with vacations my “diet” went from eating specific amounts of specific foods to eating “whatever was available” in quantities that were chosen for me. With most of our meals the food was delicious – in fact – I did want to make sure I mentioned that if you ever have the chance to eat at the Seneca Harbor Station, do it. Every single dish that we ordered (of which there were seven of us), was excellent.

We managed to play a bit of frisbee, football, and the age-old classic hacky sack while we were in New York so that helped a bit with burning off a few of the calories from the food and wine.

All in all a good week – and I’m looking forward to getting back on track and getting to my goal.

[tags]diet, weigh-in, the-diet, finger lakes, vacation, new york[/tags]

Even though I only got to play a little basketball and managed to hit the gym only once this week, I did what I think was a great job in the “food intake” department.

This week I weighed in at 186.4 pounds which is a loss of 2 pounds since last week. I’m hoping to reach my goal of 185.0 by the time the full one-year mark rolls around and I’d love to maintain that weight for the foreseeable future.

My trips to the gym have obviously caused me to gain a few pounds in muscle and if I can continue that trend hopefully I’ll stay around the same weight while only gaining weight from muscle and losing fat. I know that to pull this off I’ll have to change the foods that I eat pretty dramatically – which is something that I’d love to do but feel might be one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced on my diet yet.

To gain muscle, and subsequently strength, I have to start eating a lot more protein and just generally healthier foods and leave the junk food and carbohydrates behind. Being that my current food diet is not even close to what it should be in this regard, I think it will be a big thing if I can pull this off. It begins with the food I actually have in the house – so shopping with the mindset that I want to only have good food in the house is probably the first step.

Can any recommend a shopping list for someone in my situation?

Update: I just wanted to thank everyone that sent me suggestions – especially James who wrote a great comment on this post with his suggestions and insight. James is definitely a great resource and friend to have – be sure to check out his site to monitor his progress which has been inspirational for me and my diet thus far.

I hope everyone is doing just as well on their diets as I’ve been able to do lately. Obviously I’ve had my bumps in the road but overall I could not be more happy with the results of deciding to diet. As this first year passes me by I look forward to continuing this new lifestyle for the rest of my life.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh-in, basketball, food, muscle, protein[/tags]

While in California for six days I actually ate pretty well. And by well I mean a decent amount of food. When I went to Texas on business it seemed that I was skipping meals because I was far too busy. However, having the entire Viddler team in California made my job much, much easier so I was able to relax a little and eat normally.

Since I’ve been back I’ve been pretty active. I’ve been playing frisbee and basketball quite a bit over the last few days and it feels great to finally be outside again. Winter here in northeastern Pennsylvania is simply far too long.

This week I weighed in at 188.4 pounds, for a loss of exactly 1 pound from two weeks ago. I’m looking forward to getting back to the gym starting tonight, since I’ve missed the last week or so being away. I’m not sure my muscles are looking forward to it, but they’ll just have to live with it.

Something I definitely need to work on is being consistent with workouts even while away. Finding a few minutes for a jog or time in the weight room of a hotel shouldn’t be too difficult and the only thing holding me back from that is laziness. I’m always excited to get back into my routine though, and now that the weather is actually enjoyable – I don’t think I’ll have much trouble sticking to an active routine for the next few months.

[tags]diet, weigh-in, the-diet, california, texas, exercise, basketball, frisbee, ultimate, weather, gym, pennsylvania, viddler[/tags]

I was able to get to the gym when I wanted to this week – besides last night which is typically basketball night. However, not being able to breathe properly would have probably made playing impossible. I hate when I miss basketball.

The outdoor activities have been at right about nil this week. The current temperature outside is hovering in the mid-30s. Not exactly the type of weather that makes you want to go outside.

I am not sure if I’ll get to the gym tonight, it will depend on how I feel later – but I would certainly like to. No running, just hittin’ the weights.

Overall, a good week.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, gym, basketball, sick[/tags]

So instead of just covering the amount of gain/loss each week I’ll also toss in some of my other goals that I am working on at the gym, on the court, or on the field. However, just to keep up-to-date I weighed in at 189.2 pounds for a loss of .8 pounds from last week. The amount of weight that I lost does not reflect well to how good of a week I had on the diet.

At the gym

I was able to cover a few goals that I had for myself at the gym for this week. The first was actually timing out a sub-10 minute mile. Although I had never timed myself running prior to this week, I already knew going in that I should be able to accomplish this. So, this I accomplished pretty easily (and by easy I mean sweating like a pig).

My next goal was to be able to run 2-miles, since that was something I had not tried to do before. For those of you that do not know, running and I do not get along, in fact – I loathe it. But, I have goals and I am going to make them. So I ran two miles but I added the goal of making it in less than 20-minutes which I just barely made it. I actually had the opportunity to do this twice this week and the second time I came in at 19:20. I’m looking forward to giving this another try and coming in under 19 minutes before moving onto my next goal.

In my I ran one mile post I said: “So, what is my next goal? I’m going to run a mile in the seven-minute range.” Well, that is kinda what I am working on right now. I’m slowly building up my stamina for longer distances while simultaneously going a little bit faster each time. My new goal is 1 mile in 8-minutes and 2 miles in 18 minutes. I’ll let you know how this goal goes.

In the field and on the court

A small group of us went to the park this weekend to play frisbee, a little tennis (I am absolutely horrible at tennis, and I do mean horrible), and basketball. The weather was great (though we’re expecting bad weather this weekend, ugh).

Andrew and I playing frisbee – March 2007 – Photo credit: Eliza Devroe

It was nice to play at least a little frisbee again for the first time this season. One of my goals is to be able to play competitive ultimate this year sometime. I may have to find a local team or something since I don’t know enough people that would like to do this to create my own team. If anyone knows the best way to do this, hook me up.

Tennis seems like a pile of fun but I’m just horrible at it. Obviously it is because I’ve only played like 30-minutes worth of tennis in my entire life – but maybe I could try to play with Andrew a little this year.

The first game of basketball was a game of 21 with Andrew, Paul, and I. And I was shooting really, really well. Then, when we hopped into a larger game – my shot went into outer space for some reason. I was having trouble getting any type of rhythm back and I was starting to get frustrated – which is the worst thing to do. But I had a great time and it was good exercise. I love basketball.

That was my week of activity. Running, working out, some sports, and a fairly decent diet. The change in weather definitely helps me to keep on top of things and I’m looking forward to making and setting new goals on the scale, at the gym, in the field, and on the court.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, andrew nelson, paul kozlansky, running, 2-miles, gym, ultimate frisbee, basketball, tennis, goals[/tags]

This week I weighed in at 190.0 pounds which is down 2.2 pounds from last week. Being active is definitely the key to the success of my diet. I was regular at the gym this week, and able to play basketball once (though it was supposed to be twice) – and now with the weather finally breaking, my activity level is bound to rise once again.

Winter was definitely hard on me and I hope to find ways to avoid these “down times” during the next winter. Any suggestions for this would help.

Oh, and for reasons that many of you reading this already know – and for reasons that I will be disclosing in a near future post – I’m almost entirely off of coffee and diet soda. So we’ll see how this affects my diet, I’m hoping in a positive way.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh in, gym, basketball[/tags]

This week I weigh 192.2 pounds which is a loss of 1.9 pounds from last week. Obviously by going away I got knocked off my goal by one week, but I’m actually just happy that I didn’t gain any weight while eating at random restaurants and bars.

I also wanted to take the time to acknowledge James Mathias‘ recent Weighed Down By Numbers entry. In it James says:

“Why am I telling you this? To make a point. Weight in numbers is the last thing in the world that you should be paying attention to when in process.” … “Weighing yourself is, unfortunately, going to be a necessary evil overall, but it should be done less and given less “weight” in terms of a measure of progress.”

James was doing a single post per month, and I am not sure if that coincides with when he actually got onto the scale, but obviously that is what works for him. Then we have the people that weigh themselves every single moment of everyday, and then I fit somewhere in the middle. I try to weigh myself once per week. It allows me to practice what I preach in my Five questions for successful dieters entry. One of my tips was that you set small, and large goals. I set a healthy goal of about two pounds per week, but I set monthly goals of eight pounds per month or so. This way I do not get discouraged if I miss a small goal because I have a large goal to aim for still.

Point is: I think all of these methods work for different people but James’ words still ring true. If you are completely focused on the numbers you may allow them to begin to take over and make you feel a certain way about yourself – and that will never be a motivating factor.

Thanks for your wise words James – you’re an inspiration to many.

[tags]diet, the-diet, james mathias, weigh in[/tags]

This week was a fairly good diet and exercise week. I wish I had done a little better in the “eating department” since I did have a few onion rings and mozzarella sticks the other night. Hey, when you buy a new deep fryer what else are you supposed to do? But I managed to get to the gym on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday (just played some basketball), and last night I played basketball for about four hours. There is no doubt that without exercise I would never have lost any weight over the last forty weeks.

Today I weighed in at 194.1 pounds! That means I lost another 1.8 pounds from last week.

For me this is a huge success. Here’s why. I haven’t had three-consecutive good weigh-ins since September of 2006. That means that I have not lost weight for three weeks in a row in 24 weeks (which was Week Sixteen by the way)! Right after that was when Eliza and I went to Hershey Park (which kept me from losing an ounce) and then shortly thereafter moved into our new apartment. Due to my routine being completely thrown out, and the weather slowly getting colder and colder, over the course of the next 20 weeks I managed to gain back 13.4 pounds. So for me, recording three weeks of consecutive weight loss is a huge triumph and the stopping of a trend that has plagued me for far too long.

The more I examined this the more I came to realize a few things. Perhaps I’m finally “settled” in our new place. I’m comfortable enough to get into, and build, good routines rather than feeling out of place. The other realization would be that in twelve weeks we will be hitting the first anniversary of the diet. An entire year of diet and exercise. I think week forty is the perfect week to jump back on and ride it out to hit that first year mark with some good results. Results that you’d be happy with after having dieted for an entire year. For me, I’d love to hit and maintain 180 for at least an entire month before we hit the one-year mark. That’d be my success story for year one. Technically I should hit that mark in seven weeks, giving me a one week margin for error. Exciting times ahead!

If you are considering going on a diet, I suggest you take a quick look at the last forty weeks that I’ve dieted to see how a diet can go. Overall it seems like most diets are rather rocky and full of peaks and valleys that could easily discourage you (they did me, there is no doubt they will again). But I look back at my first weigh in and realize that I am really happy that for the rest of my life I will more than likely never see it on the scale under my feet again. I may see my weight rise and fall, and obviously it slowly went up for 20 weeks in a row, but I am determined to never let that happen again. Perhaps the next time I peak it will be over a 12 week period, and then the next 6 until eventually I’m able to only fluctuate a few pounds (which every healthy person on the planet does).

But please learn from everyone’s experiences that diets do not happen quickly. They never end! They are not wrapped up in a pill or a surgery (though for those who have had them they face all types of new challenges). Silver-bullet diets are not found on DVDs or on the back-page of a gossip magazine. Celebrities should not be your role models when wanting to lose weight, your peers should be. There is no perfect time to start one, so you might as well start now.

Thanks to everyone that has given me encouragement and has shared their story. I look forward to hitting the one year mark with good results to report.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh-in, exercise, food, gym, basketball, eliza devroe, theme parks, hershey park, pennsylvania[/tags]

However, I still managed to get to 196.2 pounds from 198.0 a week ago. I need to focus a little more on cardio this week I think. Perhaps I’ll get to play some basketball a few more times than usual. Anyone want to play?

James Mathias recently posted “One-third the Man I Used to Be” wherein he shows photos of “a guy” that he used to know – and the guy he knows now. I can sympathize with him completely. I look back at old photographs and when I see my fatter-self I hardly recognize him anymore. James’ change is dramatic, and that appears to be in both mind and spirit. Well done James.

How did y’all do this week?

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh in, james mathias, gym, cardio, basketball[/tags]

I’ve finally been able to create The Diet Stream which shows the last 25 items relating to the diet. It collects the latest blog posts from almost every dieter on the list (there are some that do not write about the diet at all, or simply do not have blogs), the photos and discussions from our flickr group, and bookmarks stored in del.icio.us with the-diet as a tag.

I’m pretty excited about this because it will allow new people to get a fairly good snapshot of what is going on, as well as those who are not familiar with using feeds to get up-to-date really quickly.

Perhaps one day I will jot down some notes on how I built it, but for now I will say it is powered by a flavor of mystreamr (a yet unreleased tool for doing things very much like The Diet Stream in a relatively short period of time). There is a little more behind it, so I will be sure to jot down my hassles that I came across and perhaps a bit of the code in the future so that you too can set something up like this for your needs.

If you have any ideas how I can improve The Diet Stream, do not hesitate to let me know. I hope everyone finds it of some use, especially those that I know have been asking for it for over thirty-eight weeks.

[tags]diet, the-diet, the diet stream, announcements, mystreamr[/tags]
[slug]diet-stream[/slug]

There are a ton of people joining the fat blogging movement, even Kevin Smith (who started his diet thing just before Jason did).

So I thought to myself, why not. Why not join Jason, or just as well have him join all of us, in the diet or fat blogging. The more the merrier I say.

So here we are Jason. Here to help encourage you, and other “fat bloggers”, to help you all achieve your goals as we have done for each other over the last thirty eight weeks. I bring with me nearly 50 others. Hopefully some of the stories we’ve already written will help to inspire those that are just starting out – and the recent new comer’s spirit will help to reinvigorate the rest of us that started so long ago.

We’ve got a page dedicated to our diet and a flickr group (for photos and those who do not have a blog). You’re more than welcome to join either of those if you’d like.

A note to all dieters: Check out Jason’s blog and those of whom are joining his fat blogging movement. Lets see if we can help to encourage those that are putting forth the effort as we did when we were first starting out.

[tags]fat blogging, the-diet, jason calacanis, dieting, kevin smith[/tags]
[slug]fat-blogging-diet[/slug]

Fast forward to the weekend and we went to the Philly meetups and ate and drank foods and drinks that would not be considered diet foods by any stretch of the imagination.

Last week I weighted in at 199.0 and this week I’m 198.0. My goal is two pounds per week and so losing one pound is “ok” considering the week I had. Though tonight will be my return to the gym schedule that I once held along with a new cardio program that I’m starting.

My new goal weight is 180 pounds. The last time I achieved 185 I was not working out at the gym – I was merely doing cardio (in the form of endless amounts of basketball). This time however I’m hoping to build some muscle which should help to bring down the fat percentage a bit. So that is my goal – a wiry, stronger, and healthy 180. Then I will want to attempt to stay there from one Tuesday to the next forever.

At 2 pounds per week that means my goal is to hit 180 by the weigh in on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007. I look forward to trying to beat that goal.

Why not set a goal for yourself, like Daniel Nicolas has, since he has registered for the Carlsbad 5000 and has 5.5 weeks to prepare for it. I find it ironic that the most recent post on his “food blog” is a recipe for Homemade French Fries! I’d love to see or hear more about everyone’s goals. I know Mike is currently at the gym and has been almost every morning since he switched to the Body for Life program, the same one James is using, and it seems to be working for both of them. Mike’s day 30-update showed real signs of progress and I look forward to seeing what his next 30-day update shows.

There is definitely activity. Definite progress being made. Not only am I hoping that over the next few months I’m able to contribute to this again – but I hope that others find the time to do so too.

Side note update: I accidentally sent trackbacks to the above links with the wrong URI, so if you could edit those trackbacks to reflect /diet/ instead of /notes/ that’d be killer.

[tags]weigh-in, diet, the-diet, mike stickel, james mathias, daniel nicolas, carlsbad 5000, goals, gym, cardio, workout, snow, weather, body for life[/tags]

What is this huge wake up call that I speak of? That I’m up 14 pounds from the peak of my success on the diet. I’m not discouraged, just motivated to hop back on the health-wagon and pay more attention to detail. Details like eating wings and drinking beer on the weekends (which stops now until at least summer time). I am going to make an effort to only have a single glass of wine per week (most likely our homemade wine that Eliza and I made). And I’m going back on the calorie watch.

I have a feeling that I will continue to have ebbs and flows like this for the rest of my life. Which is fine by me, so long as it keeps me from getting up to 226 pounds again, something I never want to see ever again. Weighing in is obviously the most motivating way, for me, to keep myself on track. And I’m going to make a real effort to do this every Tuesday again for the foreseeable future. Call me out on it if I miss.

I look forward to watching the numbers starting to decrease again. Will you join me?

After the recent revamp of my site, I updated the diet page and emailed pretty much everyone who I could find their email address, and comment on the blogs of those I couldn’t, to see if they’d like to remain on the diet. So if your name is on the list it is either because you are still active on the diet, or you’ve responded to me saying that you’re ready to give this thing another go. So please start weighing in again, and lets start seeing some progress and helping each other to stay motivated.

I know I need the help.

[tags]diet, the-diet, weigh in, food, basketball, gym[/tags]
[slug]weigh-in-week-thirty-seven[/slug]

You might say: “Some diet this guy is on, he keeps going up and down, up and down!”. For me, that is the sign of a diet and exercise program that is working, not failing. I do not want to lose any more “weight” but rather a little fat. The fact that my weight is fluctuating a pound or two, yet I’m still able to eat just about everything I want, motivates me to continue my exercise program.

I’ve been getting to the gym regularly again since the break, and I’m gaining strength and appreciation for my workout. I’ve been switching up my workout program a little this week, and I’m pretty happy with the results. I switched to a strength training program where you slowly increase the weight you are using through your sets. This makes the final set much more difficult than it had been for me previously – and I think that shows a sign of it being a much better workout of my muscles.

Chris even adjusted the way I was doing a workout of my triceps and it made a huge difference. If I’d been doing that workout from the beginning I think I’d have gained much more ground on my triceps. I’ll have to make sure I keep doing it the way he showed me.

Perhaps it is nearing the time to show some photos again as visual proof of the progress, or maybe even some Viddler hosted video. Who knows.

[tags]workout, gym, exercise, weights, weigh-in, diet, the-diet, viddler, chris fehnel[/tags]

Had some family visiting – which obviously completely knocked me off my diet and exercise routine. I’m really looking forward to getting back into routine, starting today, but I’m not going to weigh in today because I don’t feel it would do too much good.

Only two results would come of weighing in after so long of being off routine. 1) I’m within a pound or so of my last weigh in. 2) I’ve gained a few pounds. Neither would surprise me. But my weigh ins of late are more for the purpose of keeping myself “on track” and not deviate from my goals – I know I deviated and I know I made little or no progress towards my goals. Weigh in = not needed this week.

So, hopefully next week – after getting back onto routine – will show that I leveled out and am back in stride to reach my overall goals on the scale as well as in the weight room and on the court.

2007 huh? Incredible.
[slug]winter06-vacation-over[/slug]
[tags]family, vacation, diet, weigh-in, the-diet, goals, gym, scale, routine[/tags]

When you are invited to a friend’s house for a party, or have one for yourself, and everyone brings “whatever” it seems that the “whatever” ends up being the worst possible stuff your body should ever consume. I think the next time we plan something, it will be a health-food energized event. Vegetable medleys, fruit salads, and water. Some party that will be! But at least I won’t feel as bad as I did on Sunday after having eaten like I did.

All of that being the way it is. The regular gym visits prevail on keeping my weight under control. I weighed in at 189.4 pounds, down 0.6 pounds from last week. These types of things really keeps me happy about joining the gym and motivated to continue to go regularly.

This week, my goal is to have a really great week on the gym front as well as my food in-take. What are your goals this week?

[tags]weigh in, diet, the-diet, gym, food, party, goals[/tags]

What are the top five reasons you started to diet in the first place?
For me this is fairly easy to answer because I’ve literally cataloged every step of my journey from the very beginning. The very first time I wanted to diet was in September of 2005, right before my 25th birthday, and just after a vacation in Florida with family. What were my reasons then? To quote myself:

“I’m fat. I admit it. I’m telling you, not because you care, but I’m hoping it will motivate me to become unfat.” … “While on vacation, we’d go back to our condo and unload all of our pictures from our cameras onto our respective iBooks. Each and every time a picture of either of us with our shirts off would appear, we’d grimace in pain. Our eyes becoming watery at the unsightly bellies which have formed on the front of our abdomens.” — “The biggest loser” – September 25th, 2005.

That particular diet did not last very long (on and off for 3 weeks I believe). My attitude and reasons for doing the diet were all wrong, and I think it is one of the major reasons I did not succeed. I would say things like “I only lost roughly 2 pounds this week.”. Which would definitely effect my attitude. Little did I know at the time that losing 2 pounds per week was the best possible way to lose weight and keep it off.

My reasons for starting my second diet, and the one that worked, were the following:

• Health
• Age
• Self
• Eliza
• Sports

Although there is no particular order in the above list, I did try to list them by what I felt was most important to me at the time of starting the diet.

My first reason for sure was my health. I was sick of feeling the way I did, and being overweight can definitely have a huge effect on your health. My back hurt, my self esteem was down, etc. etc. – and I really just needed to get out of the funk. Second was age I think. I really did not want to have to diet when I was older, as I know it would get harder and harder to lose the weight the older I got. Even at 25 you can do the things you could when you were 18, and I didn’t want to be saying that when I was 35, 45, or even 55. I figured “Today is the day to start, not tomorrow because tomorrow always turns into the next day“. Third was self, and I say self because I wanted to feel better about myself. Always hating the way clothes fit, the way I feel, the way my stomach would fly out of my shirt when I bent this or that way, or the way I felt I was being perceived was getting really, really old. So to not have this on the list would be lying – I definitely wanted to look better and in turn feel better about myself. Fourth was Eliza’s success on the diet. She had started her diet before I started on mine and she was incredibly successful on it, was looking great, feeling good, and it was a huge motivation for me to do likewise. I owe much of my success to her lead. Lastly, I really wanted to do better in sports. I love basketball and frisbee and the diet has really made my “game” much more enjoyable. No more chest pain! No more chest pain!

So, those are my main five reasons.

What was your biggest failure on the diet, and how did you overcome it?
Hands down: Obstruction of routine. I had a few small set backs during my diet the first being within the first two weeks of the diet. Obstruction of routine can come in many forms. In that first example we went away for the weekend, ended up eating whatever we wanted at a restaurant, going to a few bars, etc.

One of the largest obstructions to my routine was moving. Obviously it was the reason I stopped doing the diet for almost 8 weeks. It completely knocked my eating habits, posting habits, and weigh in process that I had come to rely on.

However, the way I overcome it is to not worry about those times, get back on track and move on. You can see evidence of this between week two, three, and four of my diet. I went from gaining 3 pounds to losing almost 3 and then almost 5 pounds.

Things come up. Things happen. Vacations are fun! Enjoy them. Going away for the weekend may not fit into your diet. Don’t worry about those times. If you gain a few pounds, that doesn’t mean that your diet is failing – it just means that you need to get yourself back on track to reverse those few pounds the following week or over several weeks. For me, I can still look back and say I’ve lost around 40 pounds overall – even though I had a few weeks that I gained. Routine, routine, routine.

Did blogging help or hinder your success?
For me it helped tremendously. I now have my own, personal and private, journal that I keep – which would have helped in a very similar fashion – but would have lacked the “social responsibility” I felt to keep weighing in. Being able to see my progress over time, and having people comment on my successes and failures – has helped me a lot. To give an example (and this ties in with the previous question as well and where I got my inspiration) was James Mathias saying “Continuing forward without dwelling is what makes the difference.” on one of my posts where I didn’t do so well. This really helped me to develop a similar outlook, and to continue.

What things did you do to help ensure your success?
Simple. I do what I find fun and don’t do the stuff I hate. I love playing basketball and as most of you know I played a heck of a lot of basketball during my diet. I ended up developing a love for Ultimate too, and so I also used that. If you hate walking on a treadmill (I do), then don’t do it. Get outside and walk. Walk at a mall and do some shopping. Whatever you do, get off the couch.

As for food, the same philosophy. Eliza and I really enjoy grilled chicken salads. And, they happen to be good for you! So, we’d often make them, along with other things that we enjoy. Tomato sandwiches for example.

Another note about food is to never deprive yourself of stuff you really really like, even if they are not good for you. The only thing you will do is make that longing for that food even harder on yourself and you might end up bingeing. An example of this is, in my case, Cheez-Its. I love cheez-its, and they are not very good for you. However, Eliza and I would buy 100 calorie bags of cheetos, cheez-its, and other little things – and this really helped us to combat the cravings while not going overboard and staying within our daily limits. These little bags were essential for us.

What is one recommendation you’d have for someone on Day 1 of their diet?
I have a few so I won’t be able to limit it to just one.

The first would be; have the right reasons to diet. You might be told that you need to diet, but unless you believe in the reasons for dieting you won’t actually want to do it.

The second would be; set small and large goals. I set incremental goals for myself as well as long term goals. That way I could always aim for the large goals while feeling good about hitting the small ones. And, if you miss a small one, you have time to correct your strategy to make the longer term ones. I liked having a goal of losing about 8 pounds per month, while keeping goals of 220, 215, 210, 200, and so forth, in sight as well.

The third would be; tell everyone you know that you are on a diet. Hiding the fact that you are on a diet only can lead to 1 thing – not being responsible for staying on it. The more people that know the more you’ll be motivated to live up to your word for being on a diet. Also, it will help notify those people of what to feed you, or that you may not want to be seduced by cake and ice cream all the time.

I really hope the above questions and answers can help everyone on their diets. However my perspective is definitely not the only one. I’m calling on Eliza (who has been a huge inspiration for the entire diet), Chris (who has had a ton of experience with dieting both “alone” and “socially”), James (who is the most consistent person I’ve run across and was a huge inspiration for me), and Scott (who has recently begun his journey and is making staggering progress). I hope they all answer this call, so that you might all be filled with their insight into this extremely rewarding struggle.

Update: If anyone else would like to answer these – please do so. Either email me or comment here or trackback this post with your answers – I’d love to read everyone’s perspective on this. I just singled out a few I’d really like to read – but I’d want to see whatever has to say about these five questions.

Update: James answered, Chris answered, Scott answered, and Eliza answered. Thanks everyone! If anyone else wants to answer these questions too, I’d love to read the answers.

[tags]eliza devroe, scott mcnulty, james mathias, chris fehnel, food, diet, the-diet, goals, excercise, sports, basketball, ultimate, frisbee, meme[/tags]

Let me tell you thought, this is a miracle in itself due to the amount of food I ate. Eliza had some family in this past weekend and she made lasagna (one of many of my weaknesses). But it didn’t stop there. Great wine, salads, punch, drinks, chocolate cake, milk shakes (need I say more?). The fact that I only gained 0.4 pounds really is proof that my workout program is working for me just the way I want it to.

Many times a good diet is a combination of diet and exercise. But exercise can help in many more ways than just to help you lose weight. It can also help you maintain weight. The fact that, after having been off the diet for 8 weeks, I only gained 3 pounds really does show this to be true. By keeping very regular with my workouts, getting to basketball, and being generally active – I’m able to not worry as much about what I am eating.

I still want to lose about 5 pounds (if I could target my stomach only with these pounds that’d be great). But, either way I’m more than happy that I’m at 190 after having such a great weekend of eating.

I hope everyone else had a great week.

Update: If you do not have a blog, please weigh in here. You don’t need to post photos of yourself in order to take advantage of Flickr.

[tags]weigh in, diet, the-diet, eliza devroe, family, food[/tags]

My plan is to get down to 185 pounds, and I’d like those 185 pounds to be as much muscle as possible without looking like I’m addicted to athletics. A few people have asked me why I joined the gym, especially after I had said that I never wanted to do so – well I realize there is a balance here. I never want to attempt to look like Arnold, simply because I think that says something about a person – rather I’m trying to get into better shape for the sports I like.

Basketball and frisbee, my two favorite sports to play at the moment, require a fair amount agility, flexibility, strength, and endurance. I’m hoping that by joining the gym, working out on a regular basis, and decreasing my body fat, I’ll pick up a few of those along the way.

In addition to my diet, I’ll start posting my body fat percentage (I’ll need something from Mike for this) along with the amount of weight I’m working with, my workouts, and my experiences at the gym. I can tell you that thus far, lifting weights is the most boring thing on the face of the planet.

How did you do this week? Post your comments here or in the Flickr group.

[tags]weigh in, diet, the-diet, gym, basketball, frisbee, sports[/tags]

It took me about 20 weeks to get close to my goal. I never actually reached the numerical goal I had set (180 pounds), but I was happy to have gotten where I did (185 pounds). Then we moved which made my dieting posts screech to a halt.

Since then I have gotten settled into our new home and dealing with everything that brings. On November 1st I joined the gym for the first time in my life. Eliza and I got 1-year memberships and since then we have been getting to the gym on a regular basis (except this week since I’ve been sick).

I suppose the gym, and those that joined with us, have been my support system rather than the Web, and so I was not keeping up with updates. However I feel as though I might have been leaving all of you in the dark when you were just getting started on your journey, and so I’m sorry about that.

When we started the diet, it was all of you that really helped me to be successful. My wife and my friends played large roles in my losing weight, but those of you that joined the diet had a profound effect on me. A sense of not being alone in my plight nor my delight of incremental loses. Every-time I had a failure on my diet I was picked up by nice comments about how all of you have had similar hardships. Or, when I did really well I was congratulated. This was vital to my success.

So, to pick up the ball once again, I’ve decided to start cataloging the process that happens after you “reach” your goal. The process of maintenance and making sure that the same thing that happened before (to get me as fat as I was) does not happen again. And since I’ve joined the gym, I’ll throw in an update on that front too. I will start keeping a catalog of my progress of cardio, lifting weights, and general activity through the winter months.

To help keep this thing growing a little I will try to keep up my evangelical work on how the diet has succeeded for me – but for those of you still trying to lose weight I asked that you also keep everyone else involved in your progress. This ship has far more than one captain. Every single one of us has made a decision to be on the diet and as such we should all try our best to keep each other on point with that decision.

I sincerely appreciate all of you that have “called me out” on not keeping up-to-date with this. Hopefully I can do a much better job in the near, and distant future. I’ll start by updating the diet pages over the weekend with the latest information. If you have changed your URL, gotten a Flickr account, or anything else – send me an email and I’ll get it updated for you.

I really need all of you who have participated on the diet to help me out. Help me to get this thing going again and really to keep it going. If I miss a week or two (or if any of us do) let us all try to pick up the slack where we can. This diet is not something that stops just because the scale reads a certain number, this will continue for our entire lives. Thanks in advance for anything you can do.

A note about prizes since I was asked where all the prizes are. The diet pages, as I said before, are grossly out-of-date. The Diet Channel has decided to give anyone that wants a diet a diet if they will take their posts and put them on their site. So, no contest really – but they would like you to tell you story on their site. If you want more information on this let me know and I will provide it as best as I can. They also made the diet a success and we don’t want to forget about them.

Oh! Don’t forget to join the Flickr group, if you have not already. It is free, and if you don’t have a blog it is a quick way to post your progress. If you are reading about the diet for the first time, and want to join, send me an email and I will put you on the list of dieters.

[tags]the-diet, diet, gym, flickr, dieting, the diet channel[/tags]
[slug]dec06-diet-update[/slug]

Last week I didn’t weigh in. I got some emails and IMs from those that asked me why I hadn’t weighed in, simply put, moving takes your normal schedule and flips it the bird.

So here is to getting back on track and joining the gym in November for some results on the muscle-to-fat ratio front. How did you do this week?

[tags]weigh in, diet, the-diet, moving[/tags]

I wasn’t trying to lose any weight this week, and I am not sure that I will actively try to lose much more weight – as I just want to decrease my overall body fat.

Something else I wanted to mention was that there are a lot of people that actually want to start a diet and yet haven’t yet. To those people I tell you, after the first few days of dieting you will regret not having started your diet earlier. When is the perfect time to start your diet? Yesterday! You will be really really happy that you did.

[tags]diet, the diet, weigh in, hershey park, food[/tags]

That being said, lets get to the weigh in. Last week I weighed in at 188.4 pounds, this week I am at 185.6 pounds for a loss of 2.8 pounds for the week and an overall loss of exactly 40 pounds!

Lets put this into perspective shall we? What is 40 pounds? What things typically weigh 40 pounds? According to the American Kennel Club a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier should typically weigh about 40 pounds. Another example, for those of you with children, is that most state laws require that children over 40 pounds must be in a booster seat, and I believe most children get to that type of weight when they are about 3 years old. For those of you with a love of boats, a 15-foot canoe weighs about 40 pounds.

So you could say that I lost a Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier, or a 3-year old child, or even a 15-foot canoe worth of weight. No matter how you slice it. I’m really happy to hit this milestone.

Something else I’m happy about is I am now considered healthy! My BMI is a healthy 24.5. I’m only .4 within the healthy range, but I’ll take it!

I hope everyone had as good of a week, and weekend, as I did.

[tags]diet, the diet, weigh in, bmi[/tags]