Feenix's diary - This Is Sparta!

Feenix

New member
04/07/09 - 283lbs
05/01/09 - 275lbs
05/18/09 - 269lbs
06/06/09 - 265lbs

So the first day of epic battle against the fat cells. I feel like Leonidas in 300. Except instead of 300 Sparta against thousands of Persians, it's just me against millions of fat cells. And instead of a rippling sculpted body like Leonidas I look more like the staypuff marshmellow man. THIS.....IS.....SPARTA!!

Day got off to a late start and didn't have my first meal until around 2pm. So total of three meals today, none of my planned snacks.

Found out how many calories my beloved walnuts have. Wow, gonna have to cut down on those. I love those things. Also struggling with cutting down on strong black coffee. Mainly because I usually drink it with a cookie or something else. Having the triple whammy of having a desk job AND working at home AND recently giving up a 20-30 a day smoking habit, my coffee and treat have become my best friend. Had two cups today (decaf, with no treat). I think I'll allow myself three max. Replacing it with lots and lots of water. Need something to do with my hands and I don't think my housemates would appreciate me fondling myself.

Amazed at how many calories the simple 3 meals today contained. I prob need to get in a bit more calories than I did today, but it still shocked me how many I did get through. I'd like to stay under 2000 so looks like I will need to really closely track everything. Go go fitday.com

Didn't get my planned two 15ish mins walks in today which is going to be my exercise component for a while. Need to start out easy as my current level of fitness stinks more than a rotten fish dipped in rotten eggs and covered in poo. Hopefully will eventually build up to something more intense in a few weeks, but gotta start somewhere.

Food:
- Apple, 6-8 walnuts, natural yogurt
- Ham, peas, baked potato
- Canned tuna, olives
Total Calories: 1505

Exercise:
Missed both walks

Day one down. Could have been better, could have been worse. Time to relax before bed (and spend all of that time daydreaming about my coffee and cookie).
 
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Yup its a good un. Still have to see Watchmen. I loved the comic so am a bit apprehensive about seeing it.
 
Food:
- Big slice wholemeal bread, orange (small), decaf coffee
- 4/5 Broccli florets
- Breast chicken, large flour tortilla, peppers, tomato
- yogurt, walnuts, kiwi, pear
Total: 1300

Exercise:
25 mins walk, good pace, good bit uphill

Wasn't feeling great today, tired and unfocused and not overly hungry. Not enough calories eaten yet, I'll grab a snack soon to get some more in, just wasn't in the mood to eat much today. Only got one walk in but it was 25 mins at a decent pace. Got the heart rate up so that's good. Forcing myself to understand that any sort of exercise is good and I need to start somewhere. Can be discouraging when you read about others 2 hours weight/cardio training!

Very nearly weighed myself today (after one day, go figure) but managed to just avoid it. Guess it was a tinge of the excitement you get when you start something. Going to stick to my once a week plan, too easy to get caught up on numbers.

Pretty tired so heading to bed soon. Peace out!
 
Can be discouraging when you read about others 2 hours weight/cardio training!


i don't know if was one of these people you mention, but let me come in adn say, that it took me 2 years to get to this point. whihc is when i decided to lose once for all and when i buckled down and decided i was making it happen now. don't get too hard on yourself. and by no means could i do 2 hours of anything when i first started. my beginning was waking up at 6 am and walking 1 mile. it was just 2 min. i slacked on that, then joined a gym. i was doing a half hour a day. then i slacked on that after 3 months. however i did pick up tennis, and as i got better at that, i worked out more. next year 2008. hit the gym in jan. fell off in feb, hit it back in april, fell off for the rest of the year by may. Still had tennis, so i wasn't gaining, but i only lost 10 lbs that year. finally, this year i decided to buckle down once and for all. i cut out a lot of things like staying up late, having no gf any more, hanging with friends every chance i get... to focus on me. i see most of my friends like once a month or 2. some are understanding and some aren't but i guess its a sacrifice i was willing to take to take care of me.

even after all that was said and done, it took a good month before i was doing 60 min of anything. nowadays, 60 min is nothing. i generally try to keep it between 1-1.5 hours, because i like to get to work early. i'm at the point where i crave it. i need my workouts. haha. it gives off a great feeling and you never want to look back. i thought i would get burnt out but 4 months later, i'm still doing my thing. you'll get there. one day at a time. just remember that you can almost always do a little bit more than you think you can when you are doing any type of workout. always challenge your body. if you walk 20 min, start throwing running in there, or go 40 min. it doesn't take that long to build up, but it takes a minute to lose, which is what you want, so that you can be assure that it will stay off!

hope this helps :)
 
Hey, Feenix! *waves*

Looks like you're getting this figured out.

I can second kureransu's suggestion that you give yourself time to work up to the level of exercise you envision. It will give you the chance to build up some muscle and to find what you like and what fits your life.

And please try to space your foods evenly throughout the day, especially if you intend to exercise more than once a day. You need a steady supply of calories to keep you going all day and to keep your blood sugar level.

Be patient with yourself and keep on keeping on :)
 
Hello

Can I joing your "THIS IS SPARTA" fight.
I am close to 300 (274lbs) lol so maybe two people can beat them faster.

I wish you the best, keep pushing!!!!!!
:waving:
 
yeah once you get on the ride its all downhill really

when i get in gear (a few more days)ill be back to 5 days a week

it sucks tryin to push it the first day back, my chest feels like crap

anywho, best of luck, once its going, its gone
 
Lol, I was wondering why I wasn't subscribed to your journal. Guess I never posted in it. :blush:

If you entered your weight into FitDay, it should say how many calories you need to maintain, and then how many calories you need to restrict (either by eating less or exercising more) based on your weight-loss goal, giving you your ideal total. 2lbs a week is pretty standard 'round these parts, which means about 1000 calories difference. Anyway, it's good to hit that as close as possible, IMHO. Too few, and your body freaks out and goes into starvation mode, which isn't good. That's also why it's good to pace yourself and eat three square a day.

God, I'm preachy.

What I meant to say is keep it up! You can do this! Rome wasn't built in a day, and Sparta is being defended by determined fat people! *pictures a bunch of shouting overweight people with ancient weapons and little clothing*
 
Many thanks for the comments all.

@kureransu, wasn't talking about you specifically. It's just that most of the get fit stuff one reads includes some mad exercise programs which at a bad level of fitness, seems very out of reach. I know it takes time to build up, it's just sometimes it's easy to think that you "need" to do tons of exercise so make a difference, even tho logically I know proper diet alone works. I'll get up there eventually. Thanks for the reassurance.

@Silver. Yup, I try to space out the 3 meals. It's funny, I had originally planned on having at least a couple of healthy snacks in between, but I'm just not hungry so haven't been forcing myself.

@So_tired, of course, grab your sword and cloak and lets get crackin! I'll make sure to keep an eye on your diary.

@Mike, starting does always suck. Sounds like you're giving this a good go, 5 days is good dedication.

@SakanaUshi. Yea I'm using fitday. It suggests just under 1500 per day. I set a target weight of 270 about a month and a week in the future, so per week its a bit over 2lbs. That seems fine to me as I know weight drops pretty quickly at the beginning usually, so 2.5lbs per week seems doable. I'm not living by these figures, I'll see how things go and adjust accordingly.

So today;

Food;
- Bowl of bran, pear, kiwi
- Cooked salmon, broccoli, jacket potato
- Breast chicken, olives, lettuce, walnuts
Total: 1700

Exercise;
- Nothing (go go rain)

I'm not too upset about the exercise, I want to concentrate on the diet first and foremost. I remember one attempt at getting fit I tried years ago went bust, partly because it was exercise intensive and I hated it so much. I ended up screwing up the exercise part after a couple months and also the diet part because I was in the mind frame of it has to be both.

I do however need to get fit regardless of weight-loss so I'll start giving it more importance once I get into stride with the diet side of things.

I still get amazed at the number of calories in what is a very healthy, properly portioned 3 meals. If I do want to introduce a couple of snacks, looks like I'm gonna have to be more picky in the food I choose (over 300 for the potato!)

Feeling wiped out again so it's off to bed soon for me!
 
Four your size, 1500 cal sounds low. FitDay tells me I need 2700 to lose 2lbs per week. But what do I know - I'm just a newbie myself.

Make sure you're not starving yourself. Takes a certain number of calories to be a Spartan.
 
Four your size, 1500 cal sounds low. FitDay tells me I need 2700 to lose 2lbs per week. But what do I know - I'm just a newbie myself.

Make sure you're not starving yourself. Takes a certain number of calories to be a Spartan.

i havent looked at what mine says, but thats what i take in everyday
 
I'm 36 and as for height, I don't know exactly, but I'm around the 5 10 mark (5 10 is what I use).

Checked fitday again and according to it, I burn about 2700 per day (not taking into account any activities) and need a calorie restriction of 1230 to get rid of 13lbs in over 5 weeks, therefore 1463 to eat per day.

I'll do a bit more research later and calculate things by hand just in case.
 
Well, that sounds right for that goal, but it also flashes red and says "warning, your current pace is unhealthy, lower it to 2lb a week."

If you add 30 min of cardio to the equation, you could eat a bit more. :)
 
Aye Sak, it does seem low. I'm gonna use 1700 instead I think as a ballpark for a couple of weeks and then re-evaluate.

Friday
Food: 1700 calories of good food
Exercise: None

Saturday:
Day got thrown out of whack. Didn't eat until 3pm and then ended up going to a bar and having 3 beers. 630 bleedin calories for the beers!! Totally threw the count out of whack. Tried making up for it by being mean with my food calories but ended up staying up late and getting hungry so had a very late salad sammich so total calories for the day was about;

Food:
2100 calories

Exercise:
30 mins good pace walk (half uphill)

Was a bit annoyed as I had marked today as a "relax the rules" day seeing it's Easter Sunday. Still going to indulge in a bit of choc goodness but will be more strict than I had planned. Although the dinner was already a bit more calorie wise that I usually have.

Screw it, I bloody enjoyed those beers so I ain't gonna guilt myself too much over it!

Will report todays damage later tonight.
 
guinness. yum. im a dark beer fan as well, thats why i have to stay away from em. so bad for you but so good.
 
I don't drink beer very much (only a couple of times a year), but when I do it has to be the good stuff!
In fact, especially because I only drink a couple of times a year, it has to be the good stuff!
 
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