RLS's diary

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rls85

New member
Hello everyone. I decided to seek help and support from others by joining this forum. I am 26, 195lbs, 5'9". Borderline diabetic type 2. Smoker.


Pounds just kind of started coming on about a year ago, when I was 180lbs (still overweight, I know.) I didn't really do anything to fix it, and I was living a sedentary lifestyle. I got up to 198lbs, and decided to start making an effort to change.


I started p90x, but I just kept fumbling through the whole thing. I would only do half the exercises... and stop on the 4th day. Then 2 weeks later, start again. Obviously I wasn't getting anywhere with this, so it wasn't much effort on my side I guess. This went on for about 3 months where the lowest I got to was 195-196lbs, until 3 weeks ago...


I decided to start p90x again, and not quit until I reached my goals (160lbs-165lbs) which I figure would take me between 9 and 12 months, and of course once reached, maintain that weight. I started to do the majority of the exercises to their full 1 hour length, some I simply could not do for the full amount of time though. I added 30 minute walk/jogs to the mix as well, until I bought some skates because walking kind of bored me, and skates are fun. I can't really run for long, I don't have the endurance built up yet, and I know smoking is holding me back greatly.


I saw some decent results, going down to 190lb's a week before today. This past week, I had to travel to south America for business... and today when I get on the scale out of curiosity, I was 195lbs.


What can I say? I feel pretty depressed. 5 lbs in one week? I would have never imagined. Yes, I ate poorly, drank soda, drank alcohol... I also walked for hours every day. I kind of figured the two would counteract, I was wrong.


So here I am determined to get back to where I was fast so that I can continue... but it just sucks so much to have to start all over again. I don't even know if I should continue on to "stage 2" of p90x, or just start all over again... I assume people here have been in my same situation, any words of solidarity? tips?


Well, this is me, 10/24/2011, 195lbs. I will stop by here to post my thoughts, and I will post a weight update once a week. Wish me luck, and any comments, bad or good, will be appreciated to keep me on track, motivate me more, and uplift my spirit.



------------------------------



-- How much weight do you want to lose? 35lb's

-- What is the timeframe for reaching your target weight? As long as it takes.

-- How do you want to accomplish your goal (what methods do you want to use)? Exercise, food.

-- Who or what can support you in reaching your goal? This community, people similar to me.

-- How realistic is your goal? I don't know, I think 160 is realistic, i would rather it be 155 or 150.

-- When will you start? I started 3 weeks ago... but stumbled hard.

1. What is your current height and weight?
5'9", 195lbs
2. If you were at an ideal weight now, what would that weight be?
155-160lbs
3. At what weight would you like to be at four months from now?
170-175
4. Why do you want to lose weight?[/b]
To lower the chance of becoming a type 2 diabetic, which is already in my genes, to feel better, look better, and because I frankly want to be more athletic.
5. Do you want to lose weight for a specific life event such as wedding or reunion? If so, when is that event?[/b]
No, I just want to change forever.
6. What obstacles could get between you and your weight loss goals?[/b]
Anything which will change my routine, business trips, etc.
7. Why do you think that you now have a weight problem?
Because I do. Looking at a BMI scale, looking at a mirror...
8. What lifestyle changes do you think would help you lose weight?
Working out more, and eating better. Cutting down alcohol, because I only drink soda with alcohol (or on business trips for some reason).
9. Have you lost weight in the past? If so, what has worked in the past to help you lose weight?
I went from about 185 to 170 about 3 years ago, by jogging and basically not eating... the second part is something I would like to avoid of course, but I did see more results and faster in the past than I have seen now. .
10. Why do you believe that you did not lose weight or you gained the weight back?
I always said... I'll start tomorrow... tomorrow never came. I didn't lose weight because I believe I have a very slow metabolism, comparing what I ate with others, and the amount of exercise, friends always saw quick results, and I didn't. That effected me psychologically, and made me quit or cheat, something i should not have done.
11. What, if anything, has not worked for you in the past in helping you to lose weight? Why do you think it did not work?
My head. I've just quit to many times, not put all the effort I should have into it. "Tomorrow i'll work out harder, today I just don't feel like it". lack of discipline.
12. Would you try writing down all food and drink consumed for a given period of time?
Yes.
13. Do you cook at home often? If so, what do you cook?
I just make soup or whole grain and ham sandwiches.
14. How often do you go out to eat? Where do you go?
recently (aside from my business trip) i have not gone out to eat.
15. What are your three favorite foods?
Pizza, pizza, and pizza.
16. What are your three favorite restaurants?[/b]
Subway, Local pizzeria, kfc or similar.
17. What are three things you can do differently when it comes to food?
Not overeat. Drink lots of water with my food, chew slowly...
18. If you woke up tomorrow and your body was exactly the way you want it, what would be different?
I would weigh 35lb's less.
19. Do you eat when you are not hungry?
Sometimes.
20. Do you binge eat (large amounts at a time)?
not typically, but when I do, they are really large quantities.
21. Do you hide your food or eat in secret?
No.
22. Do you eat when you are sad, nervous, or depressed?
Yes.
23. Do you eat as a reward?
On a Friday evening or even a Sunday, I'll have a full subway sandwich for example.
24. Do you eat while watching TV or using the computer?
I'll have dinner in front of it, but I don't snack while I use the pc/tv.
25. What do you normally eat for a meal?
very boring whole grain with 3 or 4 slices of turkey breast or ham sandwich, with nothing else, and a star bucks huge coffee, sweetened, non-fat milk.
26. What type of snacks do you eat?
I don't typically snack, on ocasion some honey-roasted peanuts.
27. In terms of exercise, what, if anything, are you currently doing?
p90x not the full routine sometimes, plus a 30 minute walk/jog.
28. Where do you go for exercise? A local public gym? School/work gym? Home?[/b]
Home and neighborhood.
29. What, if anything, are your three favorite types of exercise?[/b]
I honestly don't like to exercise... at all. I need this to change. Skating is fun.
30. What is your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly motivation to move towards your goals?[/b]
The number on the scale. Not being a fatty.

31. Do you have rewards for certain goals?
No. I guess buy a ton of new clothes when I get there.
 
Welcome to the forums! I'm glad that you decided to lose weight, and it looks like you have a ton of weight loss experience, so that's good! Just remember to keep on going and never quit.


Oh, and about your metabolism, I understand you perfectly. My family can burn off fat faster than they can put it on, and I'm stuck with the stubborn body. My friends too are skinny as a stick (and some with six packs, and they don't even work out!). It's very frustrating, but sometimes you just need to focus on you and not compare yourself to anyone else. Sooner or later their metabolism will slow down and they'll see the weight pack on. You, on the other hand, will have adapted!


If you find P90X too hard, then by all means start off with something simpler. Workouts like P90X and Insanity are just hella crazy, and you have to have so much stamina to endure the workout. Don't feel bad if you fall off the workout. If it doesn't work, try something else.


Keep us posted, and can't wait to hear from you soon. :)
 
Thanks for the welcome.


I don't really have alot of weight loss experience, if that were the case I'd would have been where i want to be 5 years ago :-S


having a slow metabolism does suck... I have a ton of friends who are how you describe, eat twice as much as I do and somehow lose weight.


I think i'll start keeping track of what i eat as i saw you did in your thread.


Well, time to go work out.
 
Hey mate, glad you made it to these forums and started a diary. This place really is a great help and tool to use along your weightloss journey.


Something I would suggest is make some small goals that you could achieve on a week to week basis or even day to day; like cutting out soda completely or limiting the intake of it, drinking X amount of water a day, planning a days' meals in advance, or aiming to do atleast 30-60mins of cardio a day. And just tick them off at the end of each day and you can identify where you need to work more on doing.


Anyway hope you have a good workout!
 
Athanks DMR.

good idea on the checklist. in fact why not start now.

Today I ate:
Breakfast: Nature valley oats n honey. 190
Random drink: Powerade Zero. 0 (but 250mg sodium...)
Lunch: Whole grain ham sandwhich. (2 bread(340) 4 ham(80)) 420
Lunch: Venti ice coffee sweetened non-fat milk 45 (claims this but i have a hard time believing it, and doesn't have an option for sweetened)
Dinner: Penne rigate (270) chicken (160) tomato sauce (90) 520 (maybe too much for 1 meal?)
After work out (now) : Honey oats cereal with water. (weird right?) 240
1415 Total Adding markleach1's 10% margin = 1556.5

I definitely need tips, help, alternatives, ideas... about new quick to prepare foods. Eating as i did today... i know i will get bored of it soon. I overcome it by thinking, the stomach doesn't care about taste, burger king may be delicious, but when your done eating, the deliciousness has vanished, and your stuck with 1200 calories of junk. This is how i usually just eat tasteless boring food and not have that big of a problem with it... until i drive by a pizzeria of course :-S

I think i should add a low-sodium V8 a day to get veggies? I know my diet is missing many things, veggies, salmon... the list goes on. I usually stay away from buying them because of how long they take to prepare, and because they just end up rotting in my fridge. What are your opinions on canned salmon vs fresh salmon? canned veggies vs fresh veggies?

I'm also contemplating on not ordering my coffees with sweetener anymore... there aren't really good numbers published, and the people at starbucks go crazy pumping... i'll just order them with non-fat milk and be on my way.


- - -


I decided to go ahead and move onto stage 2 or phase 2 of p90x.

Today I did:
p90x Chest & Shoulders & Triceps, and stumbled through the whole thing... maybe did half of what they did, and in some cases i couldn't even do that. second half I could hardly do a push-up. i then did P90X Kenpo X, the entire thing without missing anything. I started off really exhausted and not putting as much effort as i have in the past, i was just beat. All of the sudden i got a spike of energy from somewhere and finished strong.


Goals for tomorrow:

  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.
  • Do p90x plyometrics
  • Go for a minimum 30 minute walk/jog or skate, or at least half of another p90x cardio workout.
 
AI was reading this from a website which Jaycandoit posted on another thread:

Over time our bodies adapt to the lowered calorie level. Our body becomes more efficient at using energy (lowered metabolism), and therefore burns less fat.

This is why most of us reach a weight loss plateau. At this point, the only option is to boost metabolism; increased cardio, weight training, 'cheat' meals (i.e. occasional high-calorie meals), cycling (or zig-zagging) calories, and even manipulating macro-nutrient ratios can all help to do this (don't forget adequate sleep and hydration). You often find that the nearer you get to your goal weight (or body fat percentage) - the harder things get!

Continually dropping calories only serves to lower metabolism even further - the moment you return to 'normal' eating - the weight comes back on
Click to expand...

Mmm... sounds exactly like me.

I have been eating very low calories without doing exercise and not seeing any results at all during a pretty long period of time before i started working our seriously. I stayed away from soda, etc... this just seems like another thing going against me.


Any advice aside from "boost metabolism; increased cardio, weight training, 'cheat' meals (i.e. occasional high-calorie meals), cycling (or zig-zagging) calories, and even manipulating macro-nutrient ratios" ? I'm already increasing my cardio and weight training, and eating even more just doesn't sound like that great of an idea even though its what they recommend... wtf is macro-nutrient ratios? i'll research that tomorrow... off to bed.
 
AToday I ate:)
Breakfast: Nature valley oats n honey. 190
Random drink: Powerade Zero. 0
Random Snack: Planters honey roasted peanus 290 (more then i expected, atleast its good fats... not sure if i'm ready to replace this snack).
Lunch: Potbellys sandwich (490) and sunchips (210) 700
Lunch: Venti ice coffee non-fat milk 45 (not sweetened!!!)
Dinner: low sodium homestyle chicken noodle campbell soup 150
After work out (now) : v8 los sodium 30
1405 Total Adding markleach1's 10% margin = 1545.5

Met my calorie intake goal, though i am thinking of increasing it a bit. Not because i feel hungry, but because i think it will help increase my metabolism. Thoughts?

What i did do poorly today was portion size. I had 745 calories in one sitting. that was between 11:30 and 12:00. i didn't eat again until 6:00. That's 6 hours... should have done maybe 450 for lunch then 250 at around 3:30-4:00.


- - -


Today I did:
P90x plyometrics, Did the whole thing with very few stumbles, on some occasions not being able to complete the 30 second squat type exercises, but i did pretty good in my opinion.
P90X Interval X, It's a 40 minute workout, but i only made it through 20 minutes. I blame the squat exercises in it, i was really beat up from plyometrics. I feel that if it weren't for the squat type exercises, i would have been able to go on longer.


Today's goals:

  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.
  • Do p90x plyometrics
  • Go for a minimum 30 minute walk/jog or skate, or at least half of another p90x cardio workout.


Goals for tomorrow:

  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.
  • Do p90x back and biceps
  • Do p90x kempo x
  • Drink 3 liters of water minimum
  • Start drinking some green tea after workout.



Overall I think things went well today. :party:
 
Good work so far, regarding your metobolism from what I read on the internet its ideal to eat 5-6 meals/day, and avoiding just having 2-3 big meals/day.
 
AI cheated a bit last night. I was starving, too much, my stomach even hurt. I was having trouble sleeping and no amount of water satisfied it. I ate another chicken noodle soup can, for 150 calories. so yesterdays total was in reality 1555 adding 10% margin = 1710.5. i think i should have spaced my meals out more yesterday and maybe this would not have happened. I did not sleep well either, I fell asleep around 3:00, woke up at 7:00.



Today I ate:
Breakfast: Nature valley oats n honey. 190
Random drink: Powerade Zero. 0
Random Snack: Planters honey roasted peanuts 290 (more then i expected, atleast its good fats... not sure if i'm ready to replace this snack).
Lunch: subway half sandwich (370) and Venti ice coffee non-fat milk (45) 415
Dinner: other half of subway (370)
After work out (now) : 3/4 cup brown rice (225), 1 chicken(160), 1/4 cup beans(70) 455
1720 Total Adding markleach1's 10% margin = 1892

Ooops ! over-passed my calorie intake goal by between 120 and 300, and still i was hungry almost all day. I will not overpass it again this week (ending monday |disclaimer: this does not mean as of monday I plan to over eat, i'm just saying that I will be extremely strict the rest of the week)) except for the cheat meal day, which i haven't decided if i want it to be friday or sunday. Depending on my monday results, i'll adjust my calorie intake, because i do feel i may have slightly increased my metabolism as i use to not be this hungry... and i do believe I am getting good workouts and calorie burns.

Aside from passing my calorie intake, i feel i did not eat improperly today, because i spaced out my meals decently imho. Nature valley oats n honey at 7:20 a.m | Powerade from 8:00 to 12:00 (i sip) | peanuts at 10:00 | Subway at 12:15 | coffee at 12:30 to 2:30 | Other subway half at 4:15 | and dinner at 8:45

I think i could have improved the subway meal by not ordering it with cheese, and a different bread. that alone would have subtracted about 60 calories from each one. Also,, i think i should have made 1/2 cup of rice instead of 3/4. That would have subtracted 75, that's almost a 200 calorie total with those small changes.

According to a website, i should me eating:

Your Basal Metabolic Rate is: 1843 calories.

Your Average Daily Calorie Need Is: 2534 calories

so, to create a 500 deficit, i should be eating in the neighborhood of 2000, but i really find this excessive considering in the past (sedentary lifestyle) i was eating something like 1500-1600 a day, and I was at a steady weight. Granted now i am exercising... still, the goal is to lose weight, not maintain it. Thoughts?


- - -


Today I did: (6:15pm to 8:30 pm)
P90x back and biceps, Did the whole thing with stumbles/using the chair across all pull-up exercises.
P90X KempoX, Did it all, but i was very exhausted from the beginning.

Maybe I'm doing too much in a row? Tomorrow is a cardio day, so I will only do an hour of cardio, friday i will do strength and cardio, and during the weekend i will do 2 cardios a day. I think as of next week, I may only do one workout a day plus a 30 minute jog on non-cardio days, and then 2 cardio workouts each day on saturday and sunday, spaced out ofcourse.

Thoughts?


Today's goals:

  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.
  • Do p90x back and biceps
  • Do p90x kempo x
  • Drink 3 liters of water minimum
  • Start drinking some green tea after workout.
 
ADidn't post yesterday because i got kind of busy

yesterday I ate:
Breakfast: Nature valley oats n honey. 190
Random drink: Powerade Zero. 0
Random Snack: Nature valley oats n honey. 190
Lunch: Whole grain ham sandwhich. (2 bread(340) 4 ham(80)) 420
Lunch: venti ice coffee non fat 45
After work out (now) Dinner : 3/4 cup brown rice (225), 1 chicken(160), 1/4 cup beans(70) 455
1300 Total Adding markleach1's 10% margin = 1430




- - -


Yesterday I did: (6:15pm to 8:30 pm)
P90x Core synergistics, Did the whole thing with a few exercises i did not have the balance for. Replaced them with something else i found during the workout.


yesterdays's goals:



  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.[/S]
 
A
Had a pretty long day today. Missed my alarm clock and showed up late for work.

I wasn't going to weigh myself during the week, only on sundays, but out of curiosity i did today and i was 190, which is 5 less then when i started. My plan was to be 190 for sunday. I'm confident I will accomplish that.

I do feel kind of beat even though i have not worked out today. I have done 7 workouts in 4 days, my body is tired... I was planning on making today my cheat day, so i'll go forward with that and givemyself a rest. i still won't make it excessively bad. I'll make "healthyish" food choices, and later i'm going to go out with some friends so some alcoholic beverages will be present, which might get out of hand. Tomorrow and sunday i will go back full force. No excuses.


Today I ate:
Breakfast: Mini muffins. bad choice i know, but i was in a rush and desire got the best of me. 230 calories of junk.
Random drink: Powerade Zero. 0
Random Snack: Planters honey roasted peanuts 290
Lunch: Nature valley oats n honey 190 and icecoffee non fat 45
Snakc: Nature valley oats n honey 190
Snack:Small Apple: 90
Now: DOn't know yet. will update.


Total so far: 1035 with 10% margin: 1138.5

I have a bad feeling I may go over this badly, not so much because of the dinner, but because of the alcoholic beverages.



Today I did:
Run around the office like crazy. :p


Goals for tomorrow:
  • Do not overpass 1600 calories and no fast food.
  • Do p90x core synergistics
  • Do p90x kempo x
  • Drink 3 liters of water minimum
 
Hey rls85 :)


Hope everything is going for well with your lifestyle! Just wanted to stop by and send you some positive vibes :)
 
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