The tale of the Jono

J

Jono1

New member
Welcome to my diary

I have been on a weight loss "journey" for a number of years. I have been obese for most of my childhood so about 3 years ago, I finally began to care enough to do something about it. I was 243 lb's at this time. I began counting my daily calories with the help of fitday.com and lost about 15 pounds. I then couldn't be bothered keeping count but still ate kinda healthy and lost another 15 pounds. I finished this "stage" of my life at about 210 lb and at the height of 6 ft.

Since then I have stayed roughly at that weight just living a normal life. Buuuuut I have gone up a bit over the past couple months to 222 lb.

I am just really sick of being overweight for a number of reasons. Its hard to find clothes that look nice, and I really love clothes. Like a lot. Its also hard because I consider myself a good athlete and I play a lot of sports, but I know I could be so much better if I was not overweight.

I am hoping this diary can help get me down to the 170's. I need something to keep me accountable.

I ask those of you that read this to please be honest with my progress. If i havent posted for a few days please comment. If I'm making progress please encourage me. If I'm not making progress please tell me I suck.

I will post every couple days with how I'm doing/feeling/weighing etc.

Thanks for reading

Jono
 
I'm here for you to be accountable to. I will be supportive, yet honest. I would really appreciate your doing the same for me. Best of luck to you!!
 
hey, i understand what you are going trough, keep up the good discipline and i will update myself from reading your dialy diary.
 
Hi, Jono, and welcome. I started back yesterday, too, so we can "travel" together.

Congrats on your earlier weight loss, but don't give up on what works! Logging your food at FitDay (or somewhere) is one of the best things you can do. It keeps you aware, honest, and informed. And posting here EVERY day keeps you accountable. Does all this take time and effort? Sure, but you and your health are worth some time and effort, and besides, you'll be too busy to eat that bag of chips that's calling you :)
 
Hey everyone

Thanks for the support. Today I have felt good, but my food has been the same as always. Pretty BAD. I went to the gym and had a good upper body session. Probably the best I've had in a while. I find it's so easy to just "go through the motions" at they gym, instead of working hard on every repetition of every set.

I'm also wondering if there is any way other than calorie counting that will work for me. I know it works so well, but it is such a pain, and its hard for me to keep doing it over a long period of time. I want something that wont take as much effort, but have similar results.

I'm gonnna do my best 2moro to start back up with calorie counting. Hopefully I will also go for a jog. I didn't weigh myself today so as far as I know

CW:222
 
ideas instead of calorie counting? hmm...i'm not sure. portion control...just eat smaller portions of what you normally eat. use a smaller plate...helps with portion control. fill that smaller dinner plate and only eat what you put on it, no seconds.

i normally make a meal plan of what i'm gonna eat the day before...like right now, i know tomorrow i am going to consume 1400 calories. that way, i just stick to the 'meal plan' and don't have to count as i go along. if i eat something that isn't on the list, i just add that in. it's kind of like having a homework assignment every night, in deciding on what i'm going to eat the following day. and i normally try to eat foods like fruits and veggies or specifically items i know i can count calories on...for example, i can eat 9 mini rice cakes as a snack for 70 calories. otherwise, i use calorieking.com and figure out the rest the night before. i'm pretty repetitive in my eating though, so i have memorized the calories on the majority of the things i eat day in and day out...which makes it easier.

now i'm just rambling. but my mom just is really strict with portion control and doesn't count her calories. everything in moderation, but only one serving and that's it. no food after 8 pm. lots of water and no other calories from liquids...that can be a big thing if you drink a lot of iced tea or soda, just cut it out.

:)
 
When I first started counting calories I hated it.. HATED IT!!! It was such a pain in the butt. Its been about 3 months now and it's become so natural. I leave the spoons, cups and scale out on the side of the counter and while I make my meal it only takes a few secs to measure out the miracle whip or whatever onto the bread.

I was watching a girl working at my gym yesterday.. she was folding towels and eying the basket of candy some JACKASS at the GYM thought was a good idea to put out ( wtf are they thinking?!?! lol) but anyway.. I was waiting on the hubby and bored so I scribbled out an extra 60 calories a day over a year.. and its about 22000 calories and almost 6 1/2 pounds ( I don't recall the exact numbers but that's about right) 60 calories is nothing.. a few nuts.. an extra fraction of a second pouring your cereal.. a little extra milk in your bowl etc.. you get my point.

The only idea I have is something I do for some of my food. If I buy snacks I buy the reg kind but I buy a box of snack size baggies and portion it all out on grocery day. I do the same for my chicken.. I cut off the fat and weigh it out into 4oz portions so when I am ready to use it I can defrost and pop it right into a pan no fuss.

When I first started I also made a little binder of things I eat all the time and its nutrition.. like I usually have a turkey sandwich... or chicken sandwich.. egg.. etc.. for lunch.. I put the same thing on it so as long as I measure what I use the nutrition will always be the same. the same goes for my cereal.. I measure out the 3/4 C. and 1/4C. milk and the nutrition is already there from a past day I had it.

You could use baggies.. or buy some cheap little containers to measure things into.

Oh.. and last thing.. cause it really bugs me lol.. never believe when it says a serving size is "about" this many.. it LIES.. weigh it.. and its a good idea to weigh out things with 3/4C 1C. etc. serving sizes and then pour it into the cup to get a feel for how full the cup should really be.. or just weigh everything.. I am leaning more and more that way lol. Ok done ranting :leaving:
 
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Thank you so much for your responses.

I guess I will keep calorie counting for the time being until it becomes "natural". I did pretty well yesterday. I think I stayed under my limit but it was a little hard to tell because I had Indian food for dinner and am not sure exactly how much I ate. I also shot soom hoops in the afternoon for exercise.

Today is going well so far food wise, but it is a Friday so it's always a little hard on Friday nights. I went to the gym today and had a good upper body workout. (My left ankle has been really sore so I havent done any lower body stuff in a while to let it rest). I just weighed myself and it says 223 but maybe that is because it is the afternoon and I have all my food in my system. Hopefully the weight will start to go down during the weekend.

CW 223
 
This weekend has been a fantastic weekend. But horrible in terms of weight loss. I pretty much ate at will. I weighed in this morning at 224 :mad:

Hopefully this week I can stick to it better and the fat will melt off.

CW: 224
 
Hey guys

I have had no motivation lately to lose weight. Easter is always a time of big eatin', so I've gone up to 226.

But, I am so excited! I've been wanting to cut out chocolate for like a month to see if it has any difference on my weight. It always seems like whenever I'm snacking too much, it's always on chocolate. I've been trying to get my girlfriend to do it with me because i know I won't keep it up by myself. She hasn't been interested because she is in good shape and didn't care too much about diet. But after easter she put some weight on and is now keen to join me in it. We are starting on Monday (a week to eat all the leftover Easter goodies). We are going to cut out everything to do with chocolate (ice cream, chocolate milk, muesli bars, chocolate spread etc.). Absoulutely everything. We are also gonna stop having sugary sodas. Diet soda is ok. Whenever we are together, we are going to try and eat fully healthy, no junk food. She wanted to have no junk food at all for the mmonth but I knew we couldn't keep that up so we are just doing that part of the diet when we are together.

She is also keen to go runnning every other day. This is fun for me because I like to go running but she has always hated it. So I am going to try my best to go to the gym Mon, Wed, and Fri to lift weights. then run for half an hour on Tues and Thurs. We went for a run together yesterday and it was so much fun!

I also bought a punching bag and swiss ball this weekend so those will be more fun activities for me to do to get myself away from the tv. Does anyone know of good workout videos for swiss balls?

We are going to weigh ourselves on Monday so we can see what kind of difference these small changes of no chocolate and sugary sodas, eating healthy when we are together, and regularly exercising can do.

CW: 226
 
its always good to have a buddy

american idol sucks, i know its random but my roomate is watching it for some damn reason while im in the living room typing this well thought out entry into your journal.

anywho, any questions or tips, hit me up.
 
Hey

Yes American Idol does suck.

I know I already posted today, but it was a great day for exercise!
I did a 50 minute swiss ball pilates video and rode about 6 km outside on my bike. My road is a circuit of about 5.5 km and I did it in 22 mins. i'm going to try and improve that every time.

Bike Circuit: 22 mins
 
Good to see you headed in the right direction now :). I am a big snacker also so I fell your pain there. My trick lately has been that I save the"bad" snack for the end of the day and after I have it I total out my food journal for the day.. chug enough water to fill my tummy and go brush my teeth. The cravings will get better.. not sure they will ever go away tho. Keep up the good work!
 
Today was the first day of no chocolate and sugary sodas!!

It wasn't too difficult and it made me want to eat healthy the rest of the way so that was good. I also did most of a pilates video. It was pretty hard but good. I was gonna go to the gym, but I have a sore back so I decided pilates would be better for it.

Tomorrow I will hopefully go to the gym AND go for a run, but it depends on how much I need to do for Uni.

I weighed myself last night and was 228 lb because of all the pigging out on chocolate to "get it out of my system". Can't wait to see how much a month changes that.

I've also been trying to think of some realistic goals for my weight loss. I think 10 pounds in the month is fair enough. Also, I have my girlfriend's ball (prom) on June the 6th. I'd like to set a longer term goal for then, maybe 15 lb's? I know thats more than the recommended 2 lb per week, but do you think it's doable?

I will try and weigh myself every morning, but will only officially record it if it is that weight for 2 mornings in a row.

P.S. Thanks for all of your reply's, it means a lot.

CW: 228
 
Hey there! Sounds like you have some good strategies worked out!

On the counting calories side:

I count calories from time to time, but when this becomes tiresome, I switch to portion counting for a while again.

This is more or less how it goes:

PORTIONS FOR THE DAY
6 Carbohydrates (70 cal each)
4 Protein (100 cal each)
2 Dairy (100 cal each)
4 Veg (40 cal each)
3 Fruit (70 cal each)
3 Fat (50 cals each)

= 1570 calories

As I go along in the day, I use a checklist to tick what I have eaten so far. Then I can see what's left. I leave a space to put anything over the portion limits in. So all you need to know now is what 1 serving size (portion) of a food group is worth.

1 Carb = 60g slice of bread, 70 grams rice
1 Protein = 30g meat, 1 cup beans, one third of the surface of your palm.
1 Dairy = 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup yogurt
1 Veg = 1 cup green leafy veg, 100g
1 Fruit = 90g, size of your fist, half cup
1 Fat = 1 teaspoon, 5ml

There are just some rough estimations... Not as accurate as calorie counting, but it has worked for me!
 
Hey guys!

Sorry its been so long since ive posted, university has been crazier than ever, but hopefully will be a little less so for the next week or 2.

Portion control seems like a good idea, I've definately been trying to watch the amounts I eat lately and I find that it helps.

I haven't been counting calories (on purpose) but I've been doin well. Its been nearly 2 weeks since I've had chocolate anything or sugary sodas energy drinks, anything fizzy and sugary. I've also been tryin to eat healthy in other ways.

I havent been for a run in a week and a half! And I havent been to the gym in 3 weeks!!! Just one of the things I hate about Uni. :banghead:

Overall I'm happy with my progress and weight has been consistently dropping.

CW: 222
 
Hey Jono

keep up the good work, it will start melting off.

I do want to say that I find keeping food journal (and exercise) the best way to hold MYSELF accountable. Sometimes its hard to write down my binges but I do it anyway. I was going to suggest counting Breads/Fats/Meats/Veggies/Fruits etc, but it looks like Anke beat me too it. At one time i stuck to that diet plan and was very successful. Now I do weight watchers points plan.

Also I am finding it is very important to try new recipes (even though I really loathe cooking). And I have my hubby on the wagon with me, so it makes it easier.

Anyway

I am being long winded here.

Have a great day
Kare
 
Hey everyone

Sorry I havent been updating lately! Life is too busy.

Thanks Karebear for those words. I originally kept a food journal but I found that I would forget to write things down, and then if I forgot, I would stop eating healthy. So now I just try to stay away from junk food, and only eat when I'm hungry, and it seems to be working.

There are 5 days left of my month without chocolate and soda! Its been both hard and easy at the same time. I stopped craving them after about the first week, but its really hard if I'm at a social function and they are available. I was losing weight pretty rapidly until I got down to about 222, but then it plateued for a week. In this last week I've been really focusing on eating healthy, and it seems to be working again.

I had a goal for this week to jog 10 kilometers. Its already friday and I've only done 3, but i will try and do 3 today, and maybe 3 on sunday.

The ending of the choc-fast is on Wednesday so I dont think I will reach my goal of 218, but hopefully I will be only a pound or so away. I will be happy with 9 pounds lost in a month :)

CW: 220
 
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