New Year’s Resolution: Lose Weight

I know I’ve written before about trying to lose weight. I didn’t keep up with that, and I won’t promise I’m gonna keep up with this one. What I will do is make a promise to myself:

I will lose weight this year. I will do whatever it takes to lose that weight.

This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time. It’s something that I’ve tried to do in the past. I’ve tried various methods. I’ll go through those methods and why each one didn’t work for me. Then I’ll explain my new plan and why I think this will work for me.

Past Methods

The first method I tried wasn’t really on purpose. Before I moved to RI, I worked in a high school in CT. I worked in a small computer lab in the library. I was surrounded by the high school students at all times. I caught mono while I was there. I thought it was just a bad cold or the flu, but I was wrong. In that time I had lost 30 pounds in a period of only about two months. Now, most nutritionists and doctors only recommend losing one or two pounds in a week. On average, I had lost about 4 pounds per week because of the illness. Now, I was happy with the weight loss. I was down to 190 lbs. The only problem was that it wasn’t a healthy 190. It was the weight I should be and my current ultimate goal. Because it was due to illness and lack of eating and exercise, it wasn’t healthy and it didn’t stay. In fact, I gained back another 40. So while I had been about 220-225 prior to getting sick, I was up to 230-235 after I gained it back. I tried to keep up with running and eventually hurt my knee. I gave it up and my exercise began to wane.

I was now about 235. I had met Susan and we both tried losing weight through very drastic diets. The diet I chose for myself was the Change One diet. I actually still really like the idea behind it and the book is worth a read if you’re trying to diet. The problem I had with it was that it, like anything else, really doesn’t give you a good estimate of how many calories you specifically need. I had cut out so many calories, I lose weight really quickly. I had gone down to about 215-220 in a relatively short period of time. The problem was that I wasn’t exercising. So the quick weight loss that didn’t happen because of an increase in physical activity resulted in gaining back the weight, and then some.

I found myself at about 240. Susan and I were now engaged and wanted to lose weight for our wedding. We joined a gym, which is now closed (otherwise I’d probably join it again). This worked great for weight loss and getting in shape. We were eating a bit better, but hadn’t overly changed our diet. We were working out three or four nights per week. We would meet at the gym after work and then head home and make dinner. We kept this up through our wedding. I was going to a 20 min abs class that really worked great at toning my stomach a bit. I felt great. Our honeymoon came and we ate a lot, throwing out months of work. We didn’t keep up going to the gym after we returned. The problem was that by the time we got home, we were too tired to make dinner. We weren’t eating until 8:00 every night. We were burnt out and gave it up. We kept the membership for a while going once or twice a week sometimes skipping a few weeks at a time. A much cheaper gym opened closer to our apartment and we joined that one. The problem with that gym is it was crowded and nowhere near as nice. We didn’t like it so we never went. Eventually, we canceled that membership.

Current Method

By the holidays, I had gotten back up to my highest weight of 241.6. I decided I’m sick of being overweight. Skiing is the my favorite recreational activity. I’ve been stuck at a point where I haven’t advanced in skiing. The problem is that it’s hard to keep 240 lbs in control when you’re flying down a mountain. When I had gone on my crash diet and got down to just under 220, I felt great skiing and did a whole lot better. I decided that if I really want to advance as a skier, I need to lose weight. Knowing myself and how I gave up all my other attempts at losing weight, I was going to try something different. I didn’t make this resolution until a few days after the new year. I needed the holiday period to enjoy myself. So instead of making a pact with myself or someone else to go to the gym a few times a week or cut out all the sweets or something, I was going to make a smaller change.

The first, and biggest, change I made was to cut out drinking beer during the week. I would give myself 2 days a week to drink beer. If I drank it then, fine. If I didn’t, I wasn’t going to make up for it on a different day. I had been drinking one or two beers every day after work or with dinner. That’s an extra 250-600 calories, or sometimes more depending on the beer, I would not be consuming on a daily basis. I also added that if there was something going on, like a concert or visitors or a beer tasting, I would break this. This keeps the whole thing far more realistic for me.

In addition to cutting out the beer, we decided to eat a bit better. I am eating large salads with dinner each night. I’m eating Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast instead of Frosted Mini Wheats, which cuts out a bunch of calories. I added a good size bag of celery sticks to my snacks at work. The beauty of celery is that you burn more calories digesting it than it contains. I’ve heard the same thing about apples. I eat two of those every day. I’ve cut out the candy at work as a snack because of the celery. I also decided to cut back on dessert and eat things with fewer calories. Some of what I enjoy are the Edy’s Fruit Bars. I like coconut and lime. They each have about 100 calories or less.

Now, what might come as a surprise is that I haven’t cut out all fun stuff. On the weekend, I’ll drink beer, sometimes more than 2. I had a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream that I ate over the course of 3 nights. I’ll continue to do this. I also decided that when I was on vacation last week that I wasn’t going to pay too much attention to my diet. The main reason was that I was going to be skiing every day (and ski I did, but that’s for another post), burning calories. I also don’t count calories. It’s too much effort for me.

I know that this method will only work until I’m at a weight that can be maintained by my diet and nutrition. When that point comes, I plan on adding in exercise (which I do occasionally with the Gazelle we have). One of the plans I am thinking about trying is the Couch to 5k program. I used to be a runner in high school and kept up running a bit in high school and even after moving to RI. Even when I was going to the gym, I was running a little on the treadmill. The problem is, I don’t want to join a gym. I know I won’t go. I also don’t have the money or space for a treadmill. So I’m waiting until the weather warms up and I’ll start this method outside in my neighborhood on the quieter streets. While it would be easiest on a treadmill, I think running outside is more exciting and will get my legs in better condition to handle the road race.

My Goal

My ultimate goal is to lose a total of 51.6 pounds, bringing my weight down to 190. However, hard goals are tough, especially when losing weight. So to appease myself, I decided to set a softer goal of 200. If I can get myself to 200, or, preferably, just under 200, I will be extremely happy. I am still using the Google 15 gadget on my Google homepage to track my weight. I haven’t decided to make a change to fully tracking my weight in a spreadsheet, which I might start doing.

Before my vacation, I had lost about 5 pounds in total. This came out to about a loss of a pound a week (some weeks saw more, some less). I gained back some of it over the past week while on vacation, but I’m getting back on track. I feel healthier already. In fact, the 5 pounds I lost helped my skiing quite a bit as I made it down some steeper terrain with more ease than I did last year.