SakanaUshi's Diary

SakanaUshi

SakanaUshi

New member
Okay, I signed up on this forum at 2am before going to sleep. I did tons of measurements today after breakfast, including a weigh-in. Here is my rookie card:

Height: 6 feet
Starting Weight: 314 lbs
Starting BMI: 42.59 (by height/weight comparison)
Starting Body Measurements:
Neck: 18.5 in
Bicep: 16 in
Forearm: 13.5 in
Chest: 51 in
Waist (Belly): 53 in
Waist (Pants):
Hips: 50 in
Thigh: 32 in
Calf: 19.5 in

Goal Weight: 200 lbs
First Goal: 300 lbs (hopefully in a month)

(According to FitDay)
Calories Burned: 3478
Calorie Restriction: 883
Calories I Can Eat: 2595

I think I'll just round that to 2500. That's a generous amount. I should be able to maintain that for a few months (then I'll need to adjust the amount).

Also, I plan to exercise everyday (at least 30 min at target heart rate).
 
SakanaUshi said:
Okay, I signed up on this forum at 2am before going to sleep. I did tons of measurements today after breakfast, including a weigh-in. Here is my rookie card:

Height: 6 feet
Starting Weight: 314 lbs
Starting BMI: 42.59 (by height/weight comparison)
Starting Body Measurements:
Neck: 18.5 in
Bicep: 16 in
Forearm: 13.5 in
Chest: 51 in
Waist (Belly): 53 in
Waist (Pants):
Hips: 50 in
Thigh: 32 in
Calf: 19.5 in

Goal Weight: 200 lbs
First Goal: 300 lbs (hopefully in a month)

(According to FitDay)
Calories Burned: 3478
Calorie Restriction: 883
Calories I Can Eat: 2595

I think I'll just round that to 2500. That's a generous amount. I should be able to maintain that for a few months (then I'll need to adjust the amount).

Also, I plan to exercise everyday (at least 30 min at target heart rate).
Click to expand...

Now I have a copy of your rookie card! First edition, too. It'll be worth a bundle after you reach your goal weight!

I can't help but notice that we are really really close in size and weight. Do you wanna buddy up and try to lose this weight together?
 
Definitely! I already posted in the thread that PlumpHope started.... :)

Let's do this thing!

*is very psyched*

Anyway, on to my foodstuffs for the day thus far....

Breakfast:
1 cup Cheerios, dry (no skim milk in the house... must go shopping)
8oz Crystal Light Lemonade (to wash down the Cheerios)
1/3 banana (my daughter ate the rest)

Lunch:
3 Home-made Baked Taquitos (filled with sausage, peppers, and cheddar)
1 serving of Campbell's Select Harvest Southwestern Vegetable Soup
8oz Crystal Light Lemonade

Snack:
2 servings Baby Carrots
1/4 cup home-made sun-dried tomato hummus
4oz Coke

FitDay says I've had about 800 calories so far, and it also says I should be eating 2500 a day, so I'm in pretty good shape for dinner. The plan is a recipe out of my favorite cookbook, "The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook". I will certainly bring up this cookbook more in the future. I love it, because it's full of great-tasting recipes, but it cuts down on oil and uses low-fat ingredients and things like that whenever possible WITHOUT drastically affecting the flavor. As a result, I have dozens of tried-and-true recipes that I love with calorie counts between 200 and 500, mostly low-fat. The only thing it's not particularly good about is sodium, but it does cut salt when possible. It just uses a lot of canned veggie and beans for convenience. Anyway, my favorite part is it has all the nutrition info at the end of each recipe, so it'll be a snap to enter into FitDay. :)

Tonight is "Southwestern Bean Casserole". I guess I'm feeling Tex-Mex today. It's a layered casserole: you simmer tomatoes, beans, green chiles, creamed corn, salsa and some seasoning for 15 minutes, pour it into the casserole, and top with a bit of shreddar (Shredded Cheddar ;)). Then you top it with corn bread batter (with chiles, cheese, and buttermilk) and bake for half an hour. If you want the exact recipe, I can hook you up.

It used to be my favorite dish out of the cookbook, but I kinda made it too often for awhile, so I got sick of it. It's been over a month since I've made it, though, so it should be good.

Anyway, that comes in at almost 500 calories a serving, but a serving is very filling thanks to the beans.

For exercise, I'd like to head over to my sister-in-law's apartment and hijack her WiiFit for an hour, since she's in Chicago for the weekend, but I might have to settle for elliptical or treadmill this evening. Gotta cook dinner soon.

Cord, I'll PM you my email address. :)
 
Man, it's nice to see that this board is so busy that I slipped to the third page in less than a day!

Anyway, I ate my Southwestern Bean Casserole last night. It was tasty.

Then I went and did some WiiFit, but my sister-in-law keeps a big bowl of candy on the coffee table, and before I knew it, I had grabbed a handful of M&Ms and had eaten most of them. Argh! It sucks when you start eating before you even realize it. Luckily, I had left enough calorie allowance after dinner to cover a treat, so I still came in under 2,500 for the day.

And I'm beginning to think that I should push a little harder than that. 2,500 is really easy if I just don't binge all the time. I'm pretty sure I could shave another 100-200 calories off that and never really notice. And that would add up to at least a pound a month. I dunno, what do you all think? Should I wait a few more days?

Breakfast today is a serving of Frosted Mini Wheats (yeah, frosted, but at least there's some fiber in there) with 1/2 cup skim milk and a 1/2 banana. I'll drink some water this morning, and maybe eat the other half of the banana. Lunch will be leftovers from last night.

I'm not sure about dinner. I never got around to the weekly grocery shopping yesterday, and I still need to plan the meals. Any ideas? I'll probably do a stir-fry with some brown rice once this week, and I could probably do two of em if one is tofu-based and one is chicken-based. ... Bah, I'll just bust out my old stand-by cookbook and find some fun things to try.

My wife is very supportive of all this, and she is trying to lose a few pounds, too (my sister is getting married in late June, and my wife wants to be the skinny bridesmaid). She's in a different boat than me (she's trying to get from 131 to 125 or so), but I guess we're heading in the same direction. :)

Oh, and I'll post some baby pictures at some point in order to draw you all mercilessly into reading my diary. Mwahahahahaha!
 
hey hey, thanks for the post in my thread! as far as cutting down, let's see how you are doing after your first few way ins. i know you want to lose and hurry and lose, but you gotta remember its a process and its gonna take time. so just be ready for the long haul. I don't track calories at all, and luckily it seems i have a gift of knowing when enough is enough. I work out a ton though, (well not a ton about an hour a day, six days a week, unless i play tennis) so it balances. anyway, congrats on starting out and good luck throughout your journey! i'll be here!
 
It looks like you are doing wonderful, I wish I had a wiifit, but I do have DDR for xbox 360 lmao so I might jump on that hahaha......

Wish ya the best, keep the good work up :)
 
So_tired_of_fat said:
It looks like you are doing wonderful, I wish I had a wiifit, but I do have DDR for xbox 360 lmao so I might jump on that hahaha......

Wish ya the best, keep the good work up :)
Click to expand...

i wish i could play more ddr! unfortunately i live upstairs and don't fancy possibly falling through floors...
 
I wish I had a WiiFit, too....

See, I just go over to my sister-in-law's apartment (on the other side of the complex) when they aren't around/don't mind the company. She's moving in a few months, though, so there goes my Wii access. :(

We don't even have a TV, let alone a Wii. We just never could justify buying one after returning from Japan. Honestly, it doesn't bug me. And if I want to watch TV, I'm free to cross the street to go to my complex's gym (they have flat-screens on the walls).


I'm currently planning the meals for this week. My routine usually goes:

Breakfast: cereal and skim milk, sometimes with fruit.
Snack: Fruit or granola bar or something small.
Lunch: Leftovers from the night before
Snack: Fruit or veggies
Dinner: Something healthy (I do the cooking 'round these parts)

I plan all of the meals on the weekend, usually, and then go shopping for everything I need. If any of the recipes need very perishable ingredients (meats, usually, or bean sprouts), I cook them earlier in the week. If something doesn't produce enough leftovers, I have some back-up lunches I can make (a sandwich, more cereal, a Lean Pocket).

This situation offers me a great deal of control. I only shop once a week unless we run out of milk in the middle of the week, in which case I'll run out one more time. This means I have very few opportunities to buy junk food. And since my wife uses our car to go to work everyday, I'm pretty much stuck at home unless I want to walk somewhere with the baby.

So, these shopping trips are key. I need to plan good meals and buy enough healthy snacks for the week. I need to have the willpower to not buy junk on my main trip. And usually, those things are good to go.

The only trick is that I need to think of things to make.... :banghead:

Any brilliant suggestions?

So far, I've got:
Creamy Four-cheese Macaroni (making this cuz my daughter loves it)
Green Beans with Bacon-Balsamic Vinaigrette (using up my bacon one strip at a time)

Seasoned Tofu Steaks and Vegetable Stir-fry with Ginger Sauce

Raspberry-Balsamic Chicken
Brown Rice
Southern Succotash

That's three nights... just three more to go. :(
 
We had a lovely pasta primavera last night (pasta with a little olive oil and red wine vinegar, various veggies and a little feta). It was great.

My wife also makes a killer lentil stew (which I love, even though I don't usually like lentils) - split red lentils, potatoes, carmelised onions, other veggies vary based on what is on hand.

How long did you live in Japan? I spent two weeks there once and it was awesome. I'd love to go back, and would live there if I could.
 
Hmmm, I suppose it's about time I talked about my experience in Japan... :)

I moved there in August 2005 with my wife. She got a job teaching English at a high school, and I figured I would be able to find work as a tutor or full-time work of my own. I was right, and I taught several students for the first two years. I also started working at some elementary schools in a village north of our apartment. We were all set to come back to the US after two years... but then we got pregnant. ;)

We found out in May 2007. My wife had already turned down her contract renewal, so it was up to me to find full-time work. We had considered going "home", but the insurance situation kept us in Japan. So, I got a full-time job teaching elementary English in two schools up in the mountains. We moved to an apartment closer to the schools, and my wife gave birth to our beautiful daughter in December in a Japanese hospital. We moved to Las Vegas in August, which puts our time in Japan at about three years. It was the best time of my life. I loved it there, and my biggest gripes about it had shriveled to nothing by the time we left. I kinda wish we had stayed for about a million reasons.... For one thing, I was much more active in Japan. I did Judo, I rode my bike more, and I taught little kids (quite a workout). Also, revolving sushi restaurants are the greatest thing ever.


I'll keep the rest of my post short. :p

I had "Creamy Four-Cheese Macaroni" tonight... only we were out of Velveeta, so it was three cheese... and we didn't have macaroni, so it was rotini. So, make that "Creamy Three-Cheese Rotini". I also made Green Beans with Bacon-Balsamic Vinaigrette. 350 calories for the Mac 'n Cheese, 100 for the beans, and 50 for the lemonade. Not bad. In fact, it was so reasonable, I had a 1/2 cup of vanilla ice cream to top it off. :drool5:

Lemme just enter all that into FitDay, and I'll tell you what you've won.....

Looks like I ate about 2,300 calories, so that's good.

The bad news is I didn't make it to the gym. I played a little Wii Tennis, and I walked over to do so, so maybe 10 minutes of walking total. Sigh.

Tomorrow, though... I'm determined to go to the gym. First thing, I'm eating a banana, checking my email, and then walking across the street and grabbing an elliptical or something.
 
Okay, I'm up, email is checked, stupid browser games are maintained, WLF is mostly checked....

I'm gonna use the facilities, jump on the scale (I need to see a loss soon or I'm gonna cry... :(), eat a banana, and get my warm-up pants on. Then I'm off to the gym!
 
SakanaUshi said:
I'm gonna use the facilities, jump on the scale (I need to see a loss soon or I'm gonna cry... :(),
Click to expand...

Hey, buddy.

Don't get discouraged if the scale doesn't show change. The last thing you want to do is be a slave to the numbers.

As someone on this board recently said, you didn't put the weight on in a day; it won't come off in a day either. Give it time. Right now you are still changing habits and lifestyle. Weight loss will come. Be steadfast.
 
My weight fluctuates a lot. I put 314 on my ticker, but then I weighed 316 when I checked myself right after that. The 314 was from the day before.

The next day, I weighed 317, and today I weigh 315. I imagine that I'm drinking more water, so I rehydrated a bit, which caused the initial gain. Then I've been losing a little every day since, give or take the normal fluctuations of a body.

Really, I should just put my scale away and only take it out on Sundays or something.

Anyway, did 30 on the elliptical (+5 min cooldown), and it said that, based on my weight and age, I burned 455 calories in that time. So, that's pretty sweet. I'm still shooting for 2,500 calories today, and we'll see how that goes. I might start shooting for a lower number so I have a little wiggle room.

Eating a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats with skim milk now, so my breakfast is identical to yesterday's. I'll probably grab a multi-vitamin, too. Then it's off to story time with my family (the wife is home for spring break this week).
 
Oh, one more thing. To prevent discouragement, I've decided that I'm going to stick with this for all of April, regardless of the results. I want to form the habits I'll need to succeed. I need to start eating and exercising like a 200-lb man. The rest will come naturally then, right?

If I haven't lost weight by the end of April, I'm obviously doing something wrong, so I'll make changes then. I don't see that being a problem, anyway. If I had to guess, I'd say I'll have lost 15lb by May 1st. We'll see. :)
 
SakanaUshi said:
Oh, one more thing. To prevent discouragement, I've decided that I'm going to stick with this for all of April, regardless of the results. I want to form the habits I'll need to succeed. I need to start eating and exercising like a 200-lb man. The rest will come naturally then, right?

If I haven't lost weight by the end of April, I'm obviously doing something wrong, so I'll make changes then. I don't see that being a problem, anyway. If I had to guess, I'd say I'll have lost 15lb by May 1st. We'll see. :)
Click to expand...

hey hey, you sound like i did when i first started this! Seriously as a guy coming from pretty much where you are (i started at 330) exercising is hard to guage what is enough for a 200 lb man. as far as what i do, i do 6 days. 3 days cardio, 3 days weights/ cardio mix. I do 64 min on the elliptical sun, tues, thurs, and resistance via circuit training mon, wed, fri. circuits usually last about 45-min. I feel i work out a ton, but this allows me not to count calories and still lose i believe. i too try to live life like a 200 pounder ha! as far as weighing in once a week is all you need. doing it compulsively will drive you insane and demotivate you. if you have any question about what i do, just let me know. i'm no guru, but i have learned a lot and am always happy to help someone better themselves.
 
Well, I put the scale in the cupboard. I'll only take it out on Sundays. So, I guess that ticker is staying put for a few days.

Thanks for the replies, everyone. :)
 
Welcome Sak

Just started myself, so I'll be keeping on eye on your over the next month! Good idea with the once a week scales, I think everyday would do more harm than good. Also remember, scales only tell part of the story (well at least that's what I will tell myself next week when I weigh-in and get bad news :p)

See you about
 
I've been trying to do tape measure stuff, too, but I'm using this crappy little 25" tape, so I have to go around twice for the bigger measurements. I will need to pick up a better one. I like the tape measure much more than the scale, cuz it's much more honest... but it's hard to be accurate with it when your squishy flesh has so much give to it. :sigh:

I finished off the Southwestern Bean Casserole with my wife for lunch. Since then, I've snacked a bit on some healthy stuff: a cup of grapes, some baby carrots and hummus, and a Dannon Light & Fit Yogurt (60 calories). My current total is 1235, according to FitDay.

Tonight's dinner plan is a quick Thai Green Curry Chicken recipe over jasmine rice. This one isn't out of my favorite cookbook, so no nutrition information. I guess I'll just have to do some math. It uses light (watered-down) coconut milk, so that's gonna be some sat fat and calories, even if it's "light". I'll just enter the recipe into bigoven and see what pops out.
 
Well, today was a bad day for other reasons, and my eating wasn't spectacular, either.

Mostly, the problem is that I ate seconds at dinner. I probably ate way too much rice. The curry was really healthy besides the coconut milk, which was 315 calories for the whole recipe (my wife and daughter ate some too). I never got around to entering the ingredients to get a calorie total, but I'm just gonna say it was enough to get me close to my limit. I had another 60 cal yogurt an hour ago, and I'm done eating for the night. Since I exercised, I had some wiggle room anyway, but I don't like it when I lose control.

All in all, it was fine. I just wish I didn't hate my life. :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top