Hi. I'm Kyle. I am 20 years old this August, 5'11", indicated weight is 235#. After reading the guide on how to begin the diary, these are some of the only answers I can be sure of. I do not know what my target weight should be. I guess I want to be lean, but I do not know where "lean" would be for my frame.
I want to lose weight because of poor body image, in short. I am not a people person, and I have two friends that I actually trust and see multiple times a month. I am a highly observant individual, and I have a passion for learning things that often leads me to chime in a bit too often. This, combined with the fact that I actually prefer being alone (and often in the woods) has left me with a low SOCIAL confidence level. I know and am confident in my own abilities to do work, follow through, and gather as much as possible from every group work experience I encounter. But socially, I am weak.
So this weight loss thing is something that I hope will work towards giving me the confidence to become more of a people person, and become more socially involved. I have never done so much as held a girl's hand that wasn't in my family, but this could also be related to the fact that my standards are ridiculously high. Regardless, this is probably the best vague explanation I can communicate, as to WHY I want to lose the weight.
I know what my current issue is, and it happens to be farm-sized portions. Reducing these will help. I am also addicted to caffeine due to 2-3 cups of coffee each morning (with no sugar) and multiple glasses of sweet tea (1.5c sugar/gal) throughout the day. I also drink sodas when away from home, to prevent withdrawal headaches.
More often than not, I have home cooked meals. I like to fry things, like fresh squash or hash potatoes - typical farm thinking. I will often grill porksteaks and beef. When it comes to venison, it is most often fried steaks/loin, or roasts with veggies. I also stew-fry pork loin with gravy and mushrooms, and I consume roughly a 50/50 split between homegrown mashed potatoes and dried flakes. I don't eat much fowl, and I do not eat chicken much at all. I do not miss out on veggies like fresh green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers (often put up in the fridge with onions), greens and lettuce, okra, cabbage, brussels sprouts, bell peppers, and occasionally sweet corn. Most of this is grown in my back yard. I will also throw together occasional stir-fry meals, Italian dishes, meatloaf, and grilled burgers.
I try to purchase fresh fruit often. I still have some red cherries, blueberries, canned peaches & pineapples, and strawberries. I have a plum tree that is getting heavy with fruit. I need to start buying pears again. I only go out to eat in social situations, usually late at night. Being unemployed means that homecooked meals are the staple in my diet. However, I will purchase a couple snack wraps from McDonald's more often than any other restaurant/fast food chain's products. My three favorite foods are venison (just about any way you can prepare it), tomatoes (with an excess of fresh ground black pepper & light salt), and pears/pear nectar (from a can). When it comes to changing diet habits, I could fry things much less, use smaller portions, and break my addiction to caffeine.
My snacks in recent history usually consist of potato chips, a fresh tomato or fresh sweetpeas from my garden, or a slice of sandwich meat (roast beef, ham) with a slice of bread. I will often pick blackberries, gooseberries, dewberries, and wild asparagus (can't stand it cooked!) if I'm wandering around outdoors. I also love to go fishing, and I have several dozen frozen bluegill fiddlers ready to cook. If I am camping on a river, I will often bring foil for the specific reason of grilling fresh smallmouth bass fiddlers over a fire, often with onions and potatoes.
My ideal end result is lean and light. I do not want to be some bodybuilder, but I keep my muscles in regular use on what is almost a daily basis. My legs get the most work of all, as I like to hike through unknown areas of the public ground in Missouri. I am not looking to have a perfect six pack, or bulging biceps, or calves of steel. I just want to be lean. I love cimbing trees and freeclimbing rock bluffs, and I can only see that getting easier if I lost this weight.
My exercise:
Sprinting around my yard until I am either dizzy from the effort or winded, and then I walk/trot until I can build up the "air" for another sprint. I will often do the slowdown period for 1-2 minutes, and the sprinting doesn't last more than 15 seconds at best. All told, I exercise on foot roughly 10-15 minutes at the most, whenever I do it. This happens roughly once a week, but I have been known to "forget."
Biking around my yard on a 21-speed mountain bike in low range. The goal here is to keep my legs pumping, and I will do periods of intense, wide-open pedaling in a higher gear between longer periods of steady pumping in a low gear. I have not been doing this recently, but I am doing this diary as a way to mark my commitment.
Another thing I do with my bike is all about the adrenaline rush. I will get onto the highway in front of my house, and pedal north. The land is flat, but there is enough of a slight downgrade that it is noticable. I will shift into a higher gear and try to maintain a slow, steady pumping. When I turn around, I will downshift for acceleration, end up in the highest gear available, and maintain a hard, wide-open pedaling for as long as possible. The adrenaline rush comes when I can see a vehicle coming from the south (visible from ~2mi) and I will pedal as hard as possible, attempting to beat the vehicle to my home. I will pedal idle around the yard until the highway is again clear.
I will be moving off to college this fall. After trying a local university and realizing zero passion for a mech. engineering major, I am moving away August 18th to begin a Bachelor's in Aviation Technologies, specializing in advanced maintenance. I would like to lose whatever is realistic by that point, and hopefully be in good enough shape to jog instead of hike around the forests in that area. I will try to stay as up-to-date as possible on this diary, and I will try to log what I have eaten, but I do not expect to actually be posting each and every day. Often I will be without the ability to access the internet, so hopefully I can play catch-up the next day.
To begin the intake log...
At 10:00 today, I ate:
- five finger-length strips of fried bacon
- two farm-fresh eggs from a neighbor
- three slices of bread
I do not like the idea of counting calories, but instead eating more slowly (I tend to want to get done eating as fast as possible) and choosing smaller portions. I will be trying to reduce salt intake as well as making better choices with storebought processed foodstuffs. If I can be convinced that counting calories is important enough, I will have to find some way of estimating the values in the fresh foods I consume.
Looking forward to becoming a bona-fide member of this community, thanks for any and all support!
I want to lose weight because of poor body image, in short. I am not a people person, and I have two friends that I actually trust and see multiple times a month. I am a highly observant individual, and I have a passion for learning things that often leads me to chime in a bit too often. This, combined with the fact that I actually prefer being alone (and often in the woods) has left me with a low SOCIAL confidence level. I know and am confident in my own abilities to do work, follow through, and gather as much as possible from every group work experience I encounter. But socially, I am weak.
So this weight loss thing is something that I hope will work towards giving me the confidence to become more of a people person, and become more socially involved. I have never done so much as held a girl's hand that wasn't in my family, but this could also be related to the fact that my standards are ridiculously high. Regardless, this is probably the best vague explanation I can communicate, as to WHY I want to lose the weight.
I know what my current issue is, and it happens to be farm-sized portions. Reducing these will help. I am also addicted to caffeine due to 2-3 cups of coffee each morning (with no sugar) and multiple glasses of sweet tea (1.5c sugar/gal) throughout the day. I also drink sodas when away from home, to prevent withdrawal headaches.
More often than not, I have home cooked meals. I like to fry things, like fresh squash or hash potatoes - typical farm thinking. I will often grill porksteaks and beef. When it comes to venison, it is most often fried steaks/loin, or roasts with veggies. I also stew-fry pork loin with gravy and mushrooms, and I consume roughly a 50/50 split between homegrown mashed potatoes and dried flakes. I don't eat much fowl, and I do not eat chicken much at all. I do not miss out on veggies like fresh green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers (often put up in the fridge with onions), greens and lettuce, okra, cabbage, brussels sprouts, bell peppers, and occasionally sweet corn. Most of this is grown in my back yard. I will also throw together occasional stir-fry meals, Italian dishes, meatloaf, and grilled burgers.
I try to purchase fresh fruit often. I still have some red cherries, blueberries, canned peaches & pineapples, and strawberries. I have a plum tree that is getting heavy with fruit. I need to start buying pears again. I only go out to eat in social situations, usually late at night. Being unemployed means that homecooked meals are the staple in my diet. However, I will purchase a couple snack wraps from McDonald's more often than any other restaurant/fast food chain's products. My three favorite foods are venison (just about any way you can prepare it), tomatoes (with an excess of fresh ground black pepper & light salt), and pears/pear nectar (from a can). When it comes to changing diet habits, I could fry things much less, use smaller portions, and break my addiction to caffeine.
My snacks in recent history usually consist of potato chips, a fresh tomato or fresh sweetpeas from my garden, or a slice of sandwich meat (roast beef, ham) with a slice of bread. I will often pick blackberries, gooseberries, dewberries, and wild asparagus (can't stand it cooked!) if I'm wandering around outdoors. I also love to go fishing, and I have several dozen frozen bluegill fiddlers ready to cook. If I am camping on a river, I will often bring foil for the specific reason of grilling fresh smallmouth bass fiddlers over a fire, often with onions and potatoes.
My ideal end result is lean and light. I do not want to be some bodybuilder, but I keep my muscles in regular use on what is almost a daily basis. My legs get the most work of all, as I like to hike through unknown areas of the public ground in Missouri. I am not looking to have a perfect six pack, or bulging biceps, or calves of steel. I just want to be lean. I love cimbing trees and freeclimbing rock bluffs, and I can only see that getting easier if I lost this weight.
My exercise:
Sprinting around my yard until I am either dizzy from the effort or winded, and then I walk/trot until I can build up the "air" for another sprint. I will often do the slowdown period for 1-2 minutes, and the sprinting doesn't last more than 15 seconds at best. All told, I exercise on foot roughly 10-15 minutes at the most, whenever I do it. This happens roughly once a week, but I have been known to "forget."
Biking around my yard on a 21-speed mountain bike in low range. The goal here is to keep my legs pumping, and I will do periods of intense, wide-open pedaling in a higher gear between longer periods of steady pumping in a low gear. I have not been doing this recently, but I am doing this diary as a way to mark my commitment.
Another thing I do with my bike is all about the adrenaline rush. I will get onto the highway in front of my house, and pedal north. The land is flat, but there is enough of a slight downgrade that it is noticable. I will shift into a higher gear and try to maintain a slow, steady pumping. When I turn around, I will downshift for acceleration, end up in the highest gear available, and maintain a hard, wide-open pedaling for as long as possible. The adrenaline rush comes when I can see a vehicle coming from the south (visible from ~2mi) and I will pedal as hard as possible, attempting to beat the vehicle to my home. I will pedal idle around the yard until the highway is again clear.
I will be moving off to college this fall. After trying a local university and realizing zero passion for a mech. engineering major, I am moving away August 18th to begin a Bachelor's in Aviation Technologies, specializing in advanced maintenance. I would like to lose whatever is realistic by that point, and hopefully be in good enough shape to jog instead of hike around the forests in that area. I will try to stay as up-to-date as possible on this diary, and I will try to log what I have eaten, but I do not expect to actually be posting each and every day. Often I will be without the ability to access the internet, so hopefully I can play catch-up the next day.
To begin the intake log...
At 10:00 today, I ate:
- five finger-length strips of fried bacon
- two farm-fresh eggs from a neighbor
- three slices of bread
I do not like the idea of counting calories, but instead eating more slowly (I tend to want to get done eating as fast as possible) and choosing smaller portions. I will be trying to reduce salt intake as well as making better choices with storebought processed foodstuffs. If I can be convinced that counting calories is important enough, I will have to find some way of estimating the values in the fresh foods I consume.
Looking forward to becoming a bona-fide member of this community, thanks for any and all support!
So really it's about how you feel you look. 