230 down and 110 to go. I would be perfect if I was 9 feet tall!

My plan has been much more consistent (yet slow) than my posting on this Biz-nitch. I am up to 216 pounds lost over 25 months. Not exactly warp speed but I feel successful. The last chunk is off thanks to carb cycling.

Seems like I could be married to this one for a while.

Happy Holidays!

OK.....Not Bad!

I have been frustrated with myself throughout this journey. I just took a look at it from a different angle. True, it has been slow. When I started this "last effort" I needed to lose 350 pounds. As of right now that number is down to 170.

I am more than half way there. Clearly to far into this to stop now or ever.

The best part has been what I have learned about healthier living. Thank you google!

Sweet!

Son of a bitch. It's the beginning of a month and once again I am re committing myself.
I need to break this cycle.
August sucked.  I sucked in August.
397

I would like to be the cool guy who jumped on the lose all my fat motorcycle and a year later it is gone. But, I am not. It has been a struggle lately. This time I do not feel like I have failed or jumped off the tracks.

I go in streaks where I cruise and then stall. I have found that when I am in a stall it helps to change up my routine so that is my direction.

I just had one of those sweet Rockie moments. I did not hear the music or even think about it at the time. As soon as it was over I did though.

You talk yourself into not being a quitter. Pain don't hurt, you know?

I think that is my first "Dalton" from "Roadhouse" reference. It is about time.

You watch the Fat Loss TV shows and they are losing 20+ pounds in a week. Someone like me thinks they can and should do that. Maybe I could in a week........once. It helps to realise that isn' really the real world for most people.

I have been losing 3-4 pounds a week for a while now. You know what? That is OK.

I have been able to stick in the neighborhood of my big plan for long enough to lose 170 pounds.

Feels pretty good. I have excuses that I use every day. To make progress on top of that is a win in my mind.

This is as close to actually making a "lifestyle change" as I have ever been. Not much else I want to say right now.

375 is the next big number to reach in my mind...........

20 to go to get it.........

Little steps..............

Time to stop watching those shows.......for me at least.

I have read many things about when you should eat. I see so much that it is hard to tell what is the right way to go. It is my experience so far that the earlier you can shut down your food intake the better. It seems I lose a significant amount more if I do not eat past 5PM even if I still consume the same amount.

That is a huge change for me but it is something I am getting used to. Vinny dislikes this a ton though.

I have talked recently about being less obsessed about the process. I feel like I am getting sucked in again. Not sure I can do much about that other than being aware and responding correctly when I eventually cave.

If I am able to do that I will know I am learning some valuable lessons.

I suspect that this will be impossible to relate to. But, right at this moment I am very happy to be 398 pounds. I think back to when I was 565 and could hardly walk because of a jacked up back.

The back trick is still their. The thing is now I have hope I can get past it.

This last edition of trying to beat my fat problem has been sincerely different than all the others.

1- It has gone much slower than any other. In the past I would lose 60 in the blink of an eye and then gain that plus in two blinks.

2- I have been less maniacle about the entire deal. It seems to be allowing me to stick with it.

3- In the early 90's I went from 437 to 217 in a year through Jenny Craig. I got off the "juice of Jenny" and over 15 years gained 348 pounds. This time I am actually learning about food.

18 months and 167 pounds lost......so far the turtle is still in the race..........

402

I said I would be pissed at myself if I didn't break 400 in July and I am. I take responsibility for the failure. IT seems I rarely do that in my attempt to get control of my problem.

I have also started trying to push myself in other aspects of my life as well. You can surprise yourself when your back is pushed up against a wall.

My goal for August is to lose 22 pounds. The last two months I have lost 12 and then 15 so 22 is a lot but considering their is plenty more to do than I have done it is attainable.

The interval workout on the bike is kicking my ass......oh well.

BTW my clothes are falling off me. I can't afford now or soon new ones. By the end of August if/when the 22 are off that is going to be a problem.

A problem I welcome.

If you see a fat guy from Wisconsin in August walking around in clothes that are 6 times too big say hello. It is probably me.

Over the past year I have ridden the exerise bike plenty. 30-40 minutes and some times I will do that 3 times in a day. I give good effort and usually go between 14-15 MPH.

I just did FIVE minutes of interval training on the same bike. Eight seconds of max effort and 12 of recovery. That wore me out twice as much as 90 minutes in a day ever did.

I have recently read that interval is the way to go for burning fat. I am going to give that a try for a bit as I was getting bored the other way. I will need to work up to it but the plan is for 30 minutes of that at a time.

Thee good and the bad. My eating plan has been spot on but my exercise has been none due to the back thing. So I am not losing at the rate that makes me want to do artwheels.

However, I am making solid progress with an excellent chance to get under 400 by the end of the month.

One of the things that is different about this attemt is that I do not have an all or nothing attitude. If the past when I stumbled I them chose to make an avalanche out of it and then 6 month later I would be the fat guy that I was plus 60 pounds.

The other new thing is I got past the 40-60 pound stage and proceded.

At 375 I plan to reward myself with a little adventure with my nephew to Minnesota. I will explain it when I get to that point.

A trip to Chicago is my excuse for falling off on the exercise lately. Not a great one but being limited is a fact I need to deal with. Did not do real bad from a eating stanpoint. I am taking the approach that still losing some despite some major obstacles is a victory. Moral victories are usually a bunch of crap but I am choosing to accept this one.

The first week in July ended up pretty good. Six pounds and 154 total. Logged 110 miles on the bike and feeling pretty good about my current plan. With the break in the weather I noticed my stamina is getting pretty damn good. I jus did 10 miles and I did not even need to trickmyself into it.

It has been four plus months since I stumbled onto this blog. It is true I have struggled over part of that time but the reason for me being not here is that my computer blew up. To those that scream "Apple Computers do not Break" I scream back BLA BLA BLA.

I see in my last entry that I raised my calorie intake to 2500 on the advice of the experts and to be honest that was a train wreck as I gained 8 pounds over a couple of months. I have gone back to cutting that way back again. I am not tracking it to the morsel as I had been but I check it on occasion to make sure I am in the ball park. I have had a range of roughly 1200-1600 calories per day.

The major change is the amount of moving my as at lest at some level. That almost always is riding the indoor bike. (With an occasional short walk with Vinnie) I rode 228 miles on the bike in June and that was with me taking off 12 days due to back pain. (or as I speculated on my tracking calender those were my "bitch days")

I lost 13 pounds which I was pretty happy with considering the limitations I put on myself with the injury. I have vowed to myself no bitch days this month and I am off to a perfect start in that regard.

July Goals include 500 miles on the bike and losing 20 pounds. So far 6 1/3 days into the month I have 95.4 miles in and I will weigh tomorrow.

IT was 417 pounds at the start of July and strangely 400 seems like a big deal to me. I would say if I do not get their this month I will be very disappointed but I am not even letting that thought cross my mind. I WILL do it and that is all I have to say about that. (bahahahahaha Forest Gump)

Statistically I am a little behind the 500 goal but I am very happy with what I have done so far as the last 4 days have been at or near 105 degrees out. That is some straight up B.S.

I plan to be around a lot so talk to you soon.

Cheers

Things have changed a bit in the last week. I went a step further and discussed my diet with two diet/health professionals. They both urged me to increase my calorie intake a great deal. For the past week I have increase to 2500 per day.

To be honest I now feel like I am overeating. The truth is that I guess I never really ate a tremendous volume of food.  Particularly for a guy over 500 pounds. Just that I mainly ate garbage.

I have already come to enjoy healthier food. I am borderline addicted to brussel sprouts. Weird but true.

I have also started working out for real. Probably over did it on day two as my calves are very upset with me. To bad calves......get used to it.

I am up to 119 pounds lost. Wooohoooooo.

I lost 0 pounds this week. That makes a total of 5 pounds over the last 3 weeks. That is pretty disappointing to me. I will live.

After a lot of reading and talking to people who know stuff it seems I am not eating enough food to lose weight. That is something that a fat guy has a hard time understanding.

The theory seems to have been validated by health professionals. I had been eating 1500 calories for 50 days. I have been advised to increase to 2500-3000 per day. So I have been at 2500 for two days.

I start working out at anytime fitness on Monday.

Fingers crossed.

After a very strong start I am now going on three weeks with very minimal loss. I haven't been eating to much or bad stuff. I just stop losing. That blows as I have a long row to hoe.

Two people a lot smarter than me have convinced me I am not eating enough. That is a hard thing to wrap my mind around.

I am betting on/hoping they are correct.

I have been at 1500 calories for 47 days. My very healthy and smart sister says 2500.

That seems like a ton.

Fingers crossed.

My calorie intake has been in range for 40 days. As I am obsessive I have been reading a lot to improve my knowledge of healthy eating.

A few days ago I realized that I had not been eating any whole grains. It was interesting as I have been trying to figure out why I have not had much energy. In the past I would gain oodles of energy with any substantial weight loss.

After research I substituted a cup of brown rice and red beans for a salad with one meal per day.

Bingo.

My energy is up and I feel very full with the adjustment. I am becoming a fat guy scientist.

I lost 3 pounds this week. I am trying very hard not to be disappointed. I followed the plan. Not much I can do about it other than not let it derail my routine.

That is what has happened before. I start thinking that if I go through an entire week and just lose three it isn't worth the effort.

Very stupid logic.

Not this time. I roll on.

So far I have given myself three goals. I reached the first one today.

Two years ago my little brother gave me a very sweet Milwaukee Brewers jacket. He bought the largest one they had and it was not even close to fitting. It was basically a hat.

It fits now wooohooooo.

The scale has been proving progress for quite a while..........but this feels pretty damn good.