Marcus: The Weight Loss Chronicles

Thanks for the kind words guys. I feel like a million bucks. Went to the gym today & had a pretty good workout and stayed 100% on track with food. At work, I was encouraged by several people to help myself to a box full of sweet, sticky bagels from Panera sitting in the kitchen. I resisted. The day before they had an entire cake sitting in the kitchen along with all kinds of other tempting shit. I sadly ate my tuna wrap while everyone else was gorging themselves on ice cream and cake. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something every time something like that happens though. It's a minor victory in my head.

Eating only 1500 calories on low days really sucks. I'm planning out my foods the day before now because it takes like 30 minutes to figure out what I will be able to eat with this more complicated diet. I've been eating a lean cuisine for dinner nearly every night for 4 months and that doesn't work too well with low-carb days. I'm going to have to do some light cooking it looks like which is a pain in the ass. Time to put the George Foreman grill back to work.

I resisted going out drinking tonight. I do plan to drink some this weekend on a high-calorie day, but try not to go overboard. I have a lot of work to do this weekend and next, so that really takes priority over having fun. I take the first part of the CPA exam a week from Sunday. I've got so much material to review it's not even funny. I'm worried. I'm getting to sleep early tonight & waking up for a 6 or 7am HIIT session. Looking forward to it. But, not looking forward to studying all day afterwards. Have a good weekend everyone.
 
uyis11 said:
Thanks for the kind words guys. I feel like a million bucks. Went to the gym today & had a pretty good workout and stayed 100% on track with food. At work, I was encouraged by several people to help myself to a box full of sweet, sticky bagels from Panera sitting in the kitchen. I resisted. The day before they had an entire cake sitting in the kitchen along with all kinds of other tempting shit.
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Ugh. My workplace is the same. Seems like every day there are no fewer than two places where there's a goddamned box of Tim Horton's donuts, cake or cookies laying around.

uyis11 said:
Eating only 1500 calories on low days really sucks.
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Have you thought about trying a 1900/1600 zig-zag? An extra 100 calories might be all you need to help you feel a little better about it. That's a couple small apples/bananas or pineapple or whatever for the real hungry times you experience. Either way, good job. It would definitely take a lot more planning to do something like that and inputting what I eat as it is annoys me. Even more complicated? Bah! Though, I do say that knowing that I'll probably be forced to try it myself one day.

uyis11 said:
I take the first part of the CPA exam a week from Sunday. I've got so much material to review it's not even funny. I'm worried. I'm getting to sleep early tonight & waking up for a 6 or 7am HIIT session. Looking forward to it. But, not looking forward to studying all day afterwards. Have a good weekend everyone.
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Good luck studying. I'm trying to figure out if the early morning HIIT session would shock my body awake or knock my ass right back out before getting anything else accomplished. :D
 
Ugh. My workplace is the same. Seems like every day there are no fewer than two places where there's a goddamned box of Tim Horton's donuts, cake or cookies laying around.
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What is it about offices that make people want to stuff their face with unimaginably bad food? Almost every single person out of like 70 people in my office is overweight. I look around and people are eating cookies or chips and drinking regular sodas all day. I guess it's just that sitting in front of a computer screen all day is very conducive to eating. I never will understand why smoking is looked down upon so much more than overeating of bad foods. Both are probably equally as destructive to the body.

At first, I thought HIIT would just exhaust the shit out of me, but it really does the opposite. Of my 2 sessions so far, I was tired right after I finished, but then got really hyper and full of energy after about 15 minutes and it lasted hours. Amazing. BTW I managed to do 5 intervals today instead of 4. It wasn't any easier, I'll say that. I think everyone in the cardio area of my gym could hear me gasping for air after intervals. I would have vomited and died had I tried this 4 months ago.
 
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i know its a bit late but well done on breaking the platue. i think if i continue to not lose i will try cal zig zag aswell :D
 
Did pretty lousy on my diet yesterday. All was well until I had a few drinks (managed to not drink very much at least). I was at a friend's house that was cooking lasagna for everyone and I ate a portion of that and then ate a candy bar & way too many mixed nuts later. It could have been worse, but it was just unnecessary because I wasn't hungry or anything. Keeping up with this zig zagging crap & tracking carbs is getting irritating. It's a lot of work to figure out what to eat every day. I bought some clothes I found on sale yesterday. Apparently, I am a 30 waist now. Pant sizes are silly, most of the 32s I tried on yesterday were too big and the 30s mostly fit, but one pair was way too tight. I bought some 32s the other day that feel just a tad bigger than the 30s. Do they just guess when they come up with sizes? I need to get some of my expensive dress pants tailored to fit me. I've been having to literally fold the pants on the side and keep the fold tight with a belt. Shirt size has gone from a L or XL to S or M now.

Ok, question. I am pretty satisfied with how I look. However, how freaking skinny will I have to be to see abs? I almost feel like I would be too skinny or maybe unhealthy for that to happen. My arms have a lot of definition now with a ton of visible veins that weren't there before & my face looks much thinner, but it's like my body keeps every bit of fat in my midsection which makes me want to lose some additional pounds. I do not have a body image issue. It's just that in order to reach the goal I originally set out for (abs), I feel like I will be going too far. I'm really just annoyed that my body doesn't distribute fat more evenly. I would be totally satisfied and would move to maintenance if I were more evenly distributed, but that's not really something I can change. I don't want to look emaciated or anything and it would be weird to be buying pants that are a 28x32 or something. I don't know. I'm probably just going to continue to try to lose the fat around my midsection & go from there. If I look emaciated after I do that, I know gaining some weight back won't be hard to do.
 
I have no idea how freaking skinny one must be to see abs as I've never been skinny enough to have them. :D

All I can suggest is that you keep on the weights. Maybe even put more effort into the weights than cardio for a while and try to build some extra size. The more muscle you build the more you boost your metabolism and the more fat you will burn off over time.

Do you regularly work out your abs? Back in the day when I was a gym regular (before recently becoming one again) they were by far my most ignored muscle group. If I ran out of time, they got skipped. Bad, I know.

As I said... not an expert on abs here. Hope you figure it out. I'm nowhere near being concerned about my abs yet. That's at least another 20 lbs away, probably much more than that.
 
I don't know that abs answer either... My abs don't show thru yet but the fat on my stomach has diminishe quite a bit, and now basically the fat is shaped more "like" abs at the moment I guess... I know for most people that the stomach area is where it's hardest to get the weight off and it just kind of comes off when it wants to. I think your doing great and you just have to keep everything in line (exercise, diet, rest) like your are doing right now and it will all happen eventually. I'm with you though, having my abs finally show would be the ultimate!

-Sam
 
I don't know that abs answer either... My abs don't show thru yet but the fat on my stomach has diminishe quite a bit, and now basically the fat is shaped more "like" abs at the moment I guess...
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That's kinda like what's happened to me. There's some shape, but I still feel like being "cut" is so far off. If I flex my ab muscles I can press thru the fat with my fingers to feel the shape of the muscles which I've never been able to do. That means they exist at least!

After a semi-shitty weekend with food, I've gone on two low-calorie, low-carb days to start the week. About 1500-1550 each day with 33c/33f/33p yesterday and 37f/26c/37p today. Not exactly as low on carbs as I intended, but it was the best I could do with the food in the house. Did a full body workout today and 40min of steady state at slightly higher intensity than usual. Tomorrow, I'm aiming for 1500calories, 50c/25f/25p, & an HIIT session. Thursday will be full body workout, 2000cal, low carb, 40min steady state. Friday- 1750cal, normal carb, HIIT. This weekend is no-drinking. I have that big test on Saturday, that I will most likely fail, so I at least must prepare my best.

My weight has been jumping around since this past Thursday, between 166-169. It looks like this drop into the 160s might be permanent at least. I would like to see 0.5-1lbs this Thursday, but due to my lack of discipline over the weekend, I'm not really expecting anything.
 
uyis11 said:
My weight has been jumping around since this past Thursday, between 166-169. It looks like this drop into the 160s might be permanent at least.
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I blame it on a disturbance in the earth's gravitational field because I've been having the same fluctuation going on. :D The chart that my spreadsheet generates looks quite odd in the last week or so. All waves.

Good job on the permanent sub-160. You've clearly earned it. Congrats.
 
Thanks, fish. I'll go ahead and subscribe to your gravitational disturbance theory- works for me. These last few pounds are proving so difficult to lose. It takes a lot more work than I thought to go from "good" shape to "excellent" shape. It's slowly coming off, but its requiring a lot more effort than I had expected.

Did HIIT after work today. I managed 5 intervals with surprisingly more ease than last week. The intervals weren't easier, I just seemed to recover faster in between intervals & I considered doing a 6th interval, but I was pretty nauseous already. I'm doing 90 seconds of rest right now which is pretty long compared to a lot of HIIT workouts. Trust me, keeping track of time in between intervals is hard as hell- my head gets all foggy and I can barely think straight, so reducing it to 75 seconds or something is going to take some planning.

I'm having a hard time with low-carb days, I don't really have the right kinds of foods to be able to do it just right. I need to make a better grocery list for next week. Today I somehow got exactly 1500 calories on fitday with 40c/36p/23f%'s. Tomorrow, I'm bumping it up to 2000 calories and eating a more normal ratio. That will probably help out my resistance workout. Tomorrow is a weird day, I've got work at 5:30am and I get off before lunch, but have a bunch of studying to do afterwards. The next few days is crunch time. I'm hoping to see 167 on the scale tomorrow for weigh-in day. I'm pretty confident I will make that goal this week despite my blunders over the weekend.

On a positive note, I've inspired a few other people to start on the same path as me. My little bro for one has started trying to get healthy. He realized he's now the fattest one in the family (with my bantering of him, of course) and has started an exercise/diet plan. Another good friend just started trying to go from "good" to "excellent" and has been using my progress as evidence it can be done (or rather, can be in progress of being done). Still, both of those people are far away & I still have nil immediate support/camaraderie where I live. Ah...back to the grind.
 
Keep it up, man. I tried doing HIIT while jogging the other day and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'm giving it another go tomorrow. For your rest periods, and you slowing down to a walk or just your normal pace. I was going my normal pace for 90, then stepping it up for 30. This made a nice 2 minute cycle, so I just had to look at the stop watch to know where I was.

Good luck with you "excellent" self.
 
Wow, your HIIT workouts sound amazing. I like doing intervals on the treadmill but nothing I'd probably consider HIIT like... Glad to hear you think your drop into the 160's was permanent. I kind of feel the same way about dropping to 210...

Congrats to you for inspiring your little brother. Thats what I hope to eventually do to my little brother, who is pretty overweight. It hasn't happened yet but I'm optimistic. It just frustrates me sometimes because I know he could make a big change in his body by just swapping a few bad habits for good ones....

Good luck with the studying. Thats what I have to start working on next week to "refresh" my brain on Nursing Math, Anatomy, and Physiology before school starts in August... I haven't been in school for 2 years so I feel like I've forgotten a lot.

-Sam
 
Running out the door for work...but had to post...

Weight this morning: 165.5lbs
Weight lost this week: 2.5lbs

Whoa. Did not expect that. False low? Water weight? Fish's theory of gravitational disturbances? This sets the bar really high for next week.
 
For your rest periods, and you slowing down to a walk or just your normal pace. I was going my normal pace for 90, then stepping it up for 30. This made a nice 2 minute cycle, so I just had to look at the stop watch to know where I was.
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I slow down to probably what would be considered a "sluggish jog" during rest periods, but I'm using an elliptical, so it's hard to compare it exactly to running/walking. So far, I've been doing the same 2 min. cycle as you describe (which makes it really easy to keep track), but next time I'm planning on cutting the rest time to about 45 seconds and see how I respond to that. I'll have to sit down and actually write down the times of the intervals because I'll get confused if I'm trying to add in my head while doing HIIT.

It just frustrates me sometimes because I know he could make a big change in his body by just swapping a few bad habits for good ones....
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I think that's probably the tale with a lot of people. Makes me want to become a "health savior" and start preaching the gospel. It also grinds on my nerves when I hear how misinformed people are about weight loss. It's websites like this one that actually spread good information. There's so many fad dieters out there, it's more sad than funny.
 
My life, today, so far:

4:45 wake up
5:30-11:30 work
11:30-12:00 commute
12:00-12:30 lunch
1:00-2:00 full body workout
2:00-3:00 racquetball
3:00-onward study

I remember there used to be days where I didn't wake up until 4pm. Look at all the things I could have been doing.

@1500 calories so far. Shooting for 2000 for today.

To the month of June: let's go, I'm ready.
 
That is quite the schedule you have going there. I bet it feels awesome and be that productive in one day. I hate hearing how misinformed some people are on weight loss. My friend at work sees what I am doing and asks for my advice and yet she still likes to go on some crazy crash diet she does for like 2 or 3 weeks, then she ends up giving up and bingeing and gaining back all the water weight she probably lost. I just keep to myself usually. People will eventually get tired of that cycle and decide to get informed...

-Sam
 
Sam- today was definitely an outlier. Nevertheless, I wish everyday was like this. Staying busy keeps me happy and sane.

I keep to myself, too. I swear there are some days that I don't speak a single word to another human and don't even realize it. Maybe that's not normal; however, I am unsuccessfully coping with an extreme aversion to OP (other people) as of late. The few and the far between can I tolerate, much less manage any type of discourse. The inexorable tedium of any simple exchange has proven most bothersome this week. I don't know; do you ever wake and realize that maybe you really are all alone?
 
I'm selling my old jeans on ebay [someone has actually already bid on a pair] & I tried them on to make sure they didn't still fit. Wow, this is a flattering picture. I think those abs are on their way.
 
I hope that is not the picture you used on ebay. The buyer might be looking for a little more then you want to give. :svengo:
 
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