hello from -40F wind chill Duluth MN !

Randall

Randall

New member
297 lbs (sigh), 6'4", 52 years old. Goal is to lose 40# within six months (I was 257# 15 years ago and felt great, although 22 years ago I was at 235 which I doubt I will ever see again.

I could use some quick tips from anybody here to help me lose some pounds fast during my first week or two of this horribly hard journey I am starting along with the rest of you, so I feel some reward for my efforts and keep motivated! Best tips and tricks from those of you who have lost weight before?

Never been this heavy before, depressing. How did I get to this point, :banghead: sad. New, just signed up. I don't want to spend too much time on the forums when I should be moving my body to lose fat, my goal of course, but I will participate here periodically to help others with encouragement and because I need social encouragement to get the dang fat off my lard arse body!

Took a good look in the mirror a few days ago after a shower, side view, it was pathetic what I saw. It is now or never (yeah, said that before, been there). I always fear the weigh scale, but NOT facing the weight scale is what got me where I am at, not keeping tabs on my weight gain that so easily gets out of hand over a year, or two, or three, by simply fooling oneself that the clothing makers are making jeans smaller these days, or whatever. Time to make a stand, here I am.

Bought Nintendo wii fitness yesterday, worked out. Walking, difficult at -40 wind chill but I did 15 minutes of that today. Loaded up on veggies at store today, and carbonated water; eating veggie stir fry with a little meat in it (or not) has worked for me in the past-- ie keep a journal of what I eat and activity, cut back on crap food, eat veggies and fish and stir fry, exercise as I am able. Another silly thing that has worked for me is I buy a big water plastic bottle (5-10 gal) and stuff sticks of butter in it as I lose weight, visually SEE the fat coming off me, fat that was on me, see how horrible it is and feel how heavy that fat was on me as I lose the fat and accumulate it in the water jug!

Normal man caught in a fat lard-ass body, hoping to reverse this!
randall
 
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I am in the same boat as you my friend. All i can say is keep with it. Seaking of boats I used to live in Superior, WI
 
Hello Randall and welcome to the forums!

I'm confident that you will find the support you are looking for here on these forums.

My first bit of advice to you is not to sweat the numbers at first. Sure, the number on the scale will give you 1 indication of progress, but it is not the whole story. Pay attention to the way your body and mind feel when you're eating a healthy and balanced diet. Pay attention to your energy level when you've gotten in some physical activity in a day. And, most importantly, pay attention to the things that you start to be able to do that you couldn't do as well before. I have lost 9.6lbs in the past month, and most of my "victories" have had nothing to do with that number. Everyday I work out I push myself to do something I couldn't do the previous day, and I encourage you to do the same.

Secondly, push yourself reasonably, but don't overdo it with your diet or the exercising. If you start off pushing too hard, you won't be able to maintain the changes you're making long-term.

If you want to change your life, you have to change the way you live ... and it doesn't happen overnight, so be patient with yourself.

Good luck to you :D
 
Thank you so much Addiecakes for the encouragement!

Speaking of weight loss -- and uh i guess that is why I am here 'eh, any tips from anybody on a weight scale to buy that will be accurate and consistent (especially in the 250-300lb range)? I have seen so many cheap weight scales all over the charts with stepping on one several times in the same minute! I do not even own a weight scale, yet, (gave it to my mother a few years ago-- thus one factor in my weight gain, not monitoring my weight), just used the built in weight scale of the Nintendo Wii Fitness system I bought yesterday (not even sure how accurate it is?).
 
We will win our fight with fat, gotta be doable!
So you are from Superior WI, just across the river from me-- you definitely know how bitchen cold it is and is getting here in Duluth Minnesota! Brutal today, i might go out now for a 10 minute walk, about all I can handle at -40 wind chill, it cuts into the face like knife right now. (thus my purchase of a wii fit system, but i might return it if it proves less useful than simply buying a treadmill for my living room, although I am tight for space).

ozbuc said:
I am in the same boat as you my friend. All i can say is keep with it. Seaking of boats I used to live in Superior, WI
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Randall said:
Any tips from anybody on a weight scale to buy that will be accurate and consistent (especially in the 250-300lb range)? I have seen so many cheap weight scales all over the charts with stepping on one several times in the same minute! I do not even own a weight scale, yet, (gave it to my mother a few years ago-- thus one factor in my weight gain, not monitoring my weight), just used the built in weight scale of the Nintendo Wii Fitness system I bought yesterday (not even sure how accurate it is?).
Click to expand...

This scale is the same brand that I use:

It isn't the same model, but it is reasonably accurate weight wise. I am unsure, however, how accurate the other body mass readings are on this scale.

The Wii-Fit scale is pretty accurate if you are using it on a flat, hard surface. If I try to weigh myself on the carpet it is off by 50lbs+ sometimes. But it gives me very similar data as the other scale I use for my weekly weigh-ins, so I'd say it's pretty accurate.
 
Day 6, I am down SIX POUNDS!!!! Just had to brag a bit, so happy. Day two I went UP a pound, then the next day was right where I was on day one. Then things happened, and here I am down six lbs on day 6. And NO HUNGER, NOT GOING HUNGRY. Eating fricken healthy, eating portions that make sense, snacking healthy, and exercising quite mild actually, 20-40 minutes of walking or wii fitness and now starting yesterday an Exercycle in my living to cycle while I watch TV. Forgot how good healthy food can taste, like sprout hummus tomato sandwiches, grapefruit, orange, hard boiled egg, whole grain cereal (just a cup), Greek salad, cod fish and broccoli, etc. Before I had been eating junk food and I know you all know what that is (can we say pizza? root beer float? cheese? chips with that healthy subway sandwich until you add cheese to it?), McD fish fillet sandwich with a shake?).

Way overweight but motivated as i see the lbs come off. long journey ahead.
(297-291-247)
Randall
 
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Congratulations on your loss! That's fantastic. I've noticed that when I have been eating healthy I find it hard to get my recommended calorie level, but I'm guessing that will even out a bit more as I start working out harder and I'll need more fuel. Plus I have to assume I'm under-counting my calories by at least a couple of hundred.

Anyway, great work so far. I know how it feels to know you still have a long way to go, but seeing progress always makes you feel good.

Congratulations, again. :)
 
Thanks! I wanted to send you a private message, one more day to go i think before i can do that per this site's rules, wanted to check on your progress too.

Treating myself to a movie at the theater today -- Avatar 3D! I have some beef jerky, cauliflower, bottled water, orange, and 1 oz of cashews weighed out and read to go! Bringing a chaperone best friend to strong arm me in case i lose control and try to buy popcorn or pop or candy. Then low cal dinner tonight-- veggie stir fry with some shrimp-- key is to cook veggies on high heat for a very short time and thus keep them as raw as possible; Neanderthal meal, LOL (hunter gatherer-- some seafood (shrimp) and lots of veggies); canteloupe for dessert after dinner. Then chamomile tea even later.

My bucket of lard now has 24 sticks of fat (margarine) in it; AMAZING how much fat just six pounds is. I have it on a sculpture (speaker) stand in my living room, to look at as I exercise, remind me how gross it is, that I have two of those 5 gallon water containers to fill with fat (each holds about 25 lbs of fat).
 
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Awesome, you are making progress, and building muscle! I need to do those wall push ups, tried some 'girl' push ups the other day (on knees) and then got a sore knee (bursitis) making it harder to bicycle. Addie maybe you could put some ankle weights on your ankles or arms, create more resistance when doing wii fitness step exercises, etc?

Addiecakes said:
I'm doing well, could be better but I have pretty high hopes for this next week since I'll be starting a new program at my local fitness center. Here's a link to the last page of my diary so you can read about how my last few days have been: http://weight-loss.fitness.com/weight-loss-diary/36378-addies-new-beginning-5.html#post665277
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Randall said:
Awesome, you are making progress, and building muscle! I need to do those wall push ups, tried some 'girl' push ups the other day (on knees) and then got a sore knee (bursitis) making it harder to bicycle. Addie maybe you could put some ankle weights on your ankles or arms, create more resistance when doing wii fitness step exercises, etc?
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Yeah Randall, I've actually found that wall push-ups, with proper form, make me feel the burn more than the "girl" push-ups with my knees on the floor. I think it's because I simply don't have the upper-body strength to do floor push-ups with good form yet. Wall push-ups are pretty versatile too, if you start to feel like they're not working you hard enough, take a step back and increase the angle. Right now I just do mine in a hallway, usually and that small angle is plenty enough to give me what for. Eventually I want to be doing real push-ups ... I'm not even sure my shoulders could do that without injury right now.

As for ankle weights, I had considered them but was actually advised against them because they can cause a disproportionate amount of strain on your knees. You might think, "Oh, I lost 10lbs. so I should be able to wear 10lb. ankle weights and feel like I did in the first place" (which is how I thought) but KaraCooks brought it to my attention that the weight that I've lost has been little bits from all over my body, not sitting on top of my feet and making my knees work much, much harder. It sounds kind of basic now, but I hadn't even considered that before she said something, and, I've read enough of her posts to know that I should trust her judgement.

If I want to amp up my workout on the WiiFit, I can told dumbbells or bottles of water in my hands and it will accomplish much the same effect without the strain on my joints. But for the moment, I plan to work out at my local gym primarily from now on, which gives me access to machines (elipticals and bikes for now ... I have several old injuries so we want to keep it low-impact until I lose some more of the weight) that have resistance settings and monitors to show me how fast I'm really going ... and the trainer has set me up with a program doing intervals for my cardio, so I'm optimistic that it will give me the "butt-whooping" I've been seeking ... lol :)
 
Good point about stress on knees with ankle weights, and i like the idea of holding water bottles for step on the wii, i think i will give that a try!

Same weight today as yesterday, no loss, no gain, might be salt intake and water retention from the package of beef jerky i ate at the theater yesterday (Avatar in 3D was incredible, mind blowing experience). Or just fluctuations that I need to expect and accept.
 
I'm in kind of a similar situation. I'm 42 and over the last several months I've been changing my diet and exercising and I've lost quite a bit of weight. I'm also tall (6'5") and was about 235 in college (which is pretty close to where I'd like to get this next year). Maybe we can touch base and compare notes sometime...
 
Wow, yeah, we are very similar except I am decade older, but our height and ideal weight are similar. I too was 235 at age 30, crept up to 255, hovered there, gained, lost, gained, lost, now here I sit at 290. WTF?!? This fat has to go. Let's follow each other. I would like to get down to 247, don't know if I can ever see 235 again but wow I sure would like to. Might be possible. I am sure educating myself fast on horrific huge portions that have become part of our modern American diet, and learning those need to be drastically cut back as part of a daily lifestyle. Maybe once that is done and the lbs come off, a healthy weight, maybe even 235, could be achieved again by you and me.
Randall

WilTX said:
I'm in kind of a similar situation. I'm 42 and over the last several months I've been changing my diet and exercising and I've lost quite a bit of weight. I'm also tall (6'5") and was about 235 in college (which is pretty close to where I'd like to get this next year). Maybe we can touch base and compare notes sometime...
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Randall said:
Wow, yeah, we are very similar except I am decade older, but our height and ideal weight are similar. I too was 235 at age 30, crept up to 255, hovered there, gained, lost, gained, lost, now here I sit at 290. WTF?!? This fat has to go. Let's follow each other. I would like to get down to 247, don't know if I can ever see 235 again but wow I sure would like to. Might be possible. I am sure educating myself fast on horrific huge portions that have become part of our modern American diet, and learning those need to be drastically cut back as part of a daily lifestyle. Maybe once that is done and the lbs come off, a healthy weight, maybe even 235, could be achieved again by you and me.
Randall
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I'll definitely stay in touch. It might be extra motivation to have a weight loss buddy with similar goals.
 
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