Fit by 60! - TomO's Pledge

[TomO]

Tuesday, May 8, 2008

Weight: 236.4 - Plateau #3, Day 23

Ate and drank 2,726 calories yesterday:
Fat: 82 gm 27%; 27 gm saturated, 9%
Carbs: 302 gm, 41%; 33 gm fiber
Protein: 200 gm, 29%
Alcohol: 3 gm, 1%

Yesterday was an off day, so no exercise. That left me with my NARM of 2,359 calories, giving me a surplus for the day of 367 calories, and a month to date deficit of 2,410 calories. My accumulated deficit since the plateau began is 9,240 calories -- nowhere near the 12,000 calorie deficit is usually takes to bust up these plateaus.

I discovered buffalo meat hamburgers at our local Trader Joe's last night. They're very tasty, and relatively low in fat. In fact, I made myself a buffalo cheeseburger as follows:

2 pieces whole grain bread, sliced thin
tomato & lettuce
1 slice swiss cheese
1 buffalo burger patty

502 calories
Fat 21 gm, 32%; Saturated 11 gm
Cholesterol 131 mg
Sodium 386 mg
Carbs: 24 gm, fiber 2 gm
Protein: 55 gm

 

[saturdaysaint]

TomO! How are ya man?!!? I think this is my first stop in here! sorry it's taken so long. I LOVE Buffalo burgers! I grill atleast every other weekend and we had buffalo burgers about a month ago! It was my first time having them to..they were SOOOO good. Loved it. We're bbq'ing this weekend actually for Mothers Day. Got some good deals on meat this past weekend! Some beef ribs, some lean steaks...having some friends over...it's gonna be a grand time!

 

[TomO]

Hey, Saint, thanks for dropping by! Sounds like you have quite the weekend planned. I love those BBQ's, even if I do eat too much at them.

Have a great week!

 

[saturdaysaint]

You too! When I bbq... I have actually REALLY watch myself..cause it REALLY could get outta hand! LOL I used to Gorge myself, 2 burgers, a hot dog, macaroni AND potato salad, and of course... RUM! w00t! sorry...got all excited for a second...

 

[Miss Ladybug]

Tom, I will eat my norm calories today, don't you worry. HEHEHE, did you read my above post from lastnight on your diary?? I was wondering if you stopped by Renee's diary for some good advise?
Kim

 

[TomO]

OOPS, I forgot -- I'll go there now. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[sirant]

Just bought me a new BBQ!

Hey, Saint, thanks for dropping by! Sounds like you have quite the weekend planned. I love those BBQ's, even if I do eat too much at them.

Have a great week!

No buffalo though...... Drat! I guess its hugely popular in Japan, but if they have it here, I ain't seen it. Only water buffalo, and surprisingly enough, if you were to be a large slow moving animal in China, thats the one to be. Not many get eaten, (everything (literally) else look out!) especially if you looked at it first..... Good life really, pull a plow through soft soggy rice fields, eat all you want and make babies. A lot worse out there. Like statisticians! Ew!!! Just kidding.... Maybe.... being water buffalo means a lot less deadlines...

Bought a little electric BBQ this time to save hassle with those damn miss-shapen lumps of charcoal. Got a whack of burgers and chicken breasts cooked up and thought of you. Sacrificed 10 fat burgers and 8 chicken breasts in your name. Hopefully that gets the scale gods back on your side buddy!

sirant

 

[TomO]

Sacrificed 10 fat burgers and 8 chicken breasts in your name. Hopefully that gets the scale gods back on your side buddy!

sirant

Thanks, sirant, I think I may be needing it. Only day 23 still, but coaxing the scale gods never hurt a thing.

 

[bethann1156]

Oh gosh, BBQS....ours needs some new parts and we are trying to decide if we should fix the one we have or just get a new one! We grill out all the time...year round....and with ours out of commission....well, I hate it!

Hey Tom....maybe a run on the beach....or a swim in the ocean...sometimes just changing up your routine will jumpstart your weight loss....of course the incense had been working pretty good for ya!

Hope you are having a good one!

 

[TomO]

thanks, Beth. My routine is a pretty good one now, actually, and has a lot of variety. This is just something I have to work through -- I have no doubt that if I keep doing what I'm doing, the plateau will eventually crumble. I've done it twice before, so the third time doesn't freak me out as much.

 

[TomO]

Thanks, Deanna. I hope so too, but realistically, I don't expect a significant drop for another 10 days or so. Just how my body works, unfortunately.

 

[Happychubette]

Love your new avatar.

 

[TomO]

Thx, Kelly. Hope you're doing well. It seems like you've been making HUGE progress -- congratulations on all your hard work.

 

[bethann1156]

thanks, Beth. My routine is a pretty good one now, actually, and has a lot of variety. This is just something I have to work through -- I have no doubt that if I keep doing what I'm doing, the plateau will eventually crumble. I've done it twice before, so the third time doesn't freak me out as much.

yeah, I know...just wondering if something completely different would change anything...plateaus are so mentally taxing...but you have a great attitude about it!

 

[TomO]

Workout Log - 5/8/2007

Cardio Coach Volume 6 [candace]
60 minutes, 1000 calories
Max HR: 164 (96%)
Avg HR: 139 (82%)

View attachment 3375

I felt good and strong this afternoon, full of energy. The think I really like about my CC workouts is that each time I can strive to do just a little bit better on multiple aspects of the workout. Here's a graphic of the last time I did this workout, on April 23:

View attachment 3376

In this workout, I improved the following:

• Challenge 1 - increased speed of last sprint by 10 rpm
• Challenge 2 - increased speed of last sprint by 10 rpm
• Challenge 3 - increased speed of 1st hill by 10 rpm
• Challenge 3 - increased speed of 2nd hill by 5 rpm
• Challenge 4 - increased speed of last sprint by 20 rpm
• Challenge 4 - pushed HR to 164 bpm

These are all very small incremental changes, but if I look at where I started in January, there's a fairly substantial improvement. In fact, the first time I tried this workout, I had to quit after 45 minutes.

 

[Blancita]

Great attitude Tom, though I'm not sure about those buffalo burgers (??), organic or not.

Scientifically this plateau nonsense just doesn't make any sense. I'm not one to get too discouraged or down thankfully, but I'm already up to a 13,800 deficit. Ah well, what can ya do??? Do you have any science on the plateau? I'm curious.

 

[TomO]

I don't have much science on plateaus, mainly because the science isn't there. Plateaus are fundamentally an expression of your metabolism. With many things in the body, there is a single gene that acts like a "switch" turning a phenomenon on or off. Not so with metabolism. There are many, many genes involved, and scientist are just beginning to understand how metabolism works in the first place.

There are lots of "tricks" to "fool" your metabolism (see the Index of WLF "Keepers"), but these are basically ideas based on practical experience.

If you're doing everything right, and you've tried all the "tricks", then about all you can do is let "momentum" build up. Sooner or later, the plateau is bound to crack.

In the meantime, burn plenty of incense to the scale gods, offer lots of burnt meat to GOM, and pray to GOWR.

 

[Sophie335]

you will get through it tom - you have twice before after all. if whats going out is grater than whats coming in then eventually somethings gonna give keep at it. that cardio ^^ looks great - is it a video ( i noticed there was a name after it)

 

[TomO]

you will get through it tom - you have twice before after all. if whats going out is grater than whats coming in then eventually somethings gonna give keep at it. that cardio ^^ looks great - is it a video ( i noticed there was a name after it)

No, it's only an MP3 soundtrack. You can download them at .

 

[TomO]

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Weight: 236.4 - Plateau #3, Day 24

Marlene wanted to have dinner at a Mexican restaurant last night - a real challenge for me. We started by turning away the chips. Then I ordered a salad with dressing on the side, and fajitas with no tortillas. The server looked at me like I was crazy, but I managed to keep the dinner to 1,300 calories -- a lot, but not over my food budget for the day.

With my NARM of 2,360 calories, plus 1,000 calories from exercise, I ended up with a 478 calorie deficit, even though food and drink came to 2,884 calories total. So far, that makes a month to date accumulated deficit of 2,887 calories, and an accumulated deficit of 9,717 calories for this plateau. I'm hoping by 12,000, it will finally start crumbling.

I was really hungry most of the day yesterday, even though I was nibbling on stuff a lot. Some days are a lot harder than others, that's for sure. Most days, I don't have a lot of hunger, but the last couple of days have been real bears to get through.

Newsweek had a not very encouraging article about obesity in this issue, basically saying that if you're genetically disposed to obesity, the odds of your not being obese are pretty bad. Apparently the biggest problem with the genetically obese is hunger pangs.

Having dealt with those over the past 2 days, that really struck an unpleasant chord with me. Obviously, I think I can finally lick this thing, or else I wouldn't be here. But it just confirms it won't be easy to keep the weight off, once I get to my goal.