Losing the same five pounds

I spent New Years Eve in Seattle with a few friends. As we sat around, drinking champagne, we talked about resolutions. Not an uncommon discussion point. But then, we decided to do something different: we gave each other resolutions.

My friend Kira (one of five people to actually read this blog) gave me the resolution to keep up with My Sweaty T-shirt. It seemed like a pretty great resolution.

Haha, I am terrible at resolutions. Here it is a month later and this is the first post of 2016.

So, here is what I've been up to:

-I have made an effort to ellipticize more often. Seriously, an elliptical is my favorite workout.

-I have found a simple kettlebell routine that I like.

-I attempted yoga. I will do this again and write about it. It went hilariously.

-Yesterday, I tried a light weights circuit that I enjoyed.

-I have lost five pounds.

Now, I am very excited to have lost five pounds in the month. If I lose five pounds per month, I will lose sixty pounds this year. That would be quite the achievement. That's the sort of thing one could write into Men's Health about and have them write you up as a success story.

However, I looked at my Timehop yesterday. For those who don't know, Timehop shows you your social media posts on that day for as long as you've had, for instance, Facebook. So, I open it yesterday and two years ago, I announced that I had lost five pounds.

So, I'm good at losing five pounds, or at least pounds 250-245. Now, I have to push through more to continue the trend. I really, really don't want to be here a year from now being all ecstatic that I'm down to 245.

One thing that I'm doing now is keeping track of my food in take. That has had a big impact on my diet. For one, I don't drink as much alcohol. Not that I was putting back gin by the gallon, but I did enjoy happy hour. Now, I have a drink on the weekends.

Also, I haven't had any pop since January 3. I know this because that was the day we travelled home and it was a long stressful day and I drank a lot of Coke. Haven't touched pop since.

I'm also trying to eat more fruits and veggies. This has been a dietary goal for years. Smoothies help. Oh, smoothies. I will write an ode to my Nutribullet one day.

So, there is progress. Its progress I've made before. Now, its time to go further.

Proof of dedication

My last post was a little pessimistic, though I would call it a realistic look at where I stand heading into the new year. I thought I might follow up with the story of today to show that I am a little more dedicated to the cause.

Well, kind of. You'll see.

Today was a fun day. My wife and I went to see Star Wars. As awesome as that was, it is not exactly a high intensity workout. Not adding to it was the late lunch at Red Robbin.

Now, I have started to re-use the Lose It App. And as much as I enjoyed my burger, I knew it was going to hurt my calorie in take. When I put in my meal into Lose It, it totaled over 1,000 calories. After I added in dinner (manicotti, my favorite) I was over my calorie budget by 1,300. Not exactly a ringing start to my new commitment.

After dinner, I felt very full and kind of gross. But, I figured I could at least attempt to do something about it. So, down to the basement I went. I stepped while listening to Serial. I then hopped on the elliptical and watched football for an hour while racking up four miles on that. All told, it was a two hour workout.

I'm not sure how Lose It figures its exercise, but I received a FitBit bonus of about 400 calories, bringing me down to just 900 over. Still a bad day, but I didn't just accept feeling disgusting and fat, I worked at it. I made a dent into it. Yesterday, I was actually 500 calories under, so I am a net positive of 400 for the week. That is erasable.

I have written before that I know the task ahead of me is large. And while I may not be off to the best if starts, I figure I should celebrate a step in the right direction.

2015 comes to a close

Here we are, the end of the year. This was the year of the FitBit, the year I bought an elliptical, the year of big proclamations about losing weight and getting back to running shape.

It hasn't happened.

As of today, I weigh 252 pounds. I get winded going up stairs. If I'm being realistic, maybe I should buy clothes in the XXL size. For actually working at a resolution to lose weight, this year cannot be classified as anything but a disappointment.

But, I see that I have two choices. One, I can accept this. I can stay fat, guzzle pop, eat fast food, let dust accumulate on my exercise equipment, and just accept that this is who I am.

Or, I can take it seriously. If I look back on the year, I don't think I did that. When I got knocked off my long streak of days with 10,000 steps, it took me forever to get back to it. I drank pop, I didn't track what I ate, I'd snack mindlessly.

If I want to see results, I need to adopt a more laser like focus on this. I need to watch what I eat. I need to cut some things out of my diet entirely. I need to push myself more when I work out
I need to add in more exercises. I need to lift weights, do yoga, focus on abs.

I'll be headed home after visiting my parents at the end of this week. I'd really like it when I came back in the summer for there to be a noticeable difference. Maybe I should put a goal on it. Or maybe, for now, what I need is to have the goal of starting a trend within myself.

Either way, I feel as if I need to get serious about it now. Or else I may never get serious about it at all.

Weigh-in Wednesday: November 4, 2015

Fall may not be the best time to start in on an intensive weight loss plan. I mean, do you know what was last week? Halloween. Do you know what I have a literal giant bowlful of? Halloween candy. Do you know how good I am at resisting temptation? Not very.

I did start a plan to do more intense workouts, so hopefully we'll see results then, but I came in at 253.4 pounds this week, so not yet. I did see myself at 251 at one point this week, but it was not a Wednesday and thus didn't have a cool alliterative option for a title.

I'll talk a bit more on the workout plan later. I'll also talk about the most worthless trip to the doctor ever. I bet you're intrigued now.

Till then,

Alan

Weigh in Wednesday: October 28, 2015

It has been, I don't know, years since I last posted a Weigh-in Wednesday. But, since I am trying to get back on the wagon, so to speak, here we go. This week I weigh...252.6 pounds.

If you scroll through the archives far enough, you can find that this is nearly fifty pounds more than I did at the height of my training.

I have come to two observations about my goals. The main one being to drop down to around 200 pounds.

1) I gained this weight over the course of eight or so years, it will not go away over night.

2) If I can lose one pound per week, and really I think losing 1-2 is the healthy way to lose weight, it will take a year to lose this.

This will be a metamorphosis, just hopefully not as Kafkaesque. It will take work, it will take time, and it will take support.

Now, let's get started.

Starting a new streak

Last Christmas, my wife and I bought each other FitBit Flexes. I really enjoy the FitBit, as I find it a good way to monitor my steps throughout the day. I became somewhat obsessed with this.

I hit my step count of 10,000 steps for 226 days in a row. I had a handful of days well over that. Once, inspired to win a competition, I hit 30,000. Like I said, obsessed. My streak was snapped in September thanks to a nasty head cold. I lapsed back into my old lazy ways, and have been fairly inactive for a month.

While steps can help one lose weight, I didn't see any change in my weight over the year. This tells me I have a lot of work to do on some other fronts. Diet, adding in weights, that sort of thing.

However, hitting 10,000 steps can be an important part of my plan. And so, I am starting a new streak, with and added goal.

I would like to hit 5 million steps over the next year. This is an average of slightly under 100,000 steps per week. This goal means I will have to be consistent and put in some extra work along the way.

I'll keep you posted. The screenshot is from today's stepping. Till next time!

I'm back and own an elliptical

So, I haven't posted in a long time. But, I figure that I have some work to do and this might be a good way to chronicle it.

When I started My Sweaty T-shirt, it was because I loved running and wanted to share that love with people. And then, well, life happened I guess. I got into a career, abandoned it, went to school, worked overnights at a hotel, and started a new career. And all the while, I ignored my own health. As a result, I've gained about 45 pounds in the time that this blog was dormant.

I had (and still have) a goal of running a marathon. But, right now, that isn't possible. My knees can't handle the pounding they would take. I've made attempts at running, and it has been painful. I have to drop weight to even get back into running form.

So, I am starting up the blog again, to chronicle what I've termed "Operation Stop Being Fat". And hopefully, I'll get into running soon enough.

In the meantime, I now own an elliptical. Its actually a hybrid trainer with a recumbent bike included, but I don't like recumbent bikes, so I doubt I'll use it. Its given me a way to get my sweat on again, and its no impact, so I can still walk. Win, win.

I've also got some weights, a bench, and a kettle bell. There is a plan of sorts. I hope to keep to it, and this blog will serve that purpose.

I have work to do, and I can't wait to get started. Thanks for joining me on the trip.