Field "GOAL" Attempt - Missed Wide Right

Thanks for the question Roder, it helped spur me to blog today. I have been meaning to write a update for the last few days but I haven't been motivated since I kind of tanked it last week. I will cut strait to the chase and say I cant hit my sub 200 by January 1 goal. It does suck that I couldn't pull my shit together enough to do it. Christmas week here in Portland, OR area was a mess. We had record (most in 40 years) snow fall, freezing rain, and just crappy conditions over all. It pretty much crippled everything. The office that I work at was shut down the entire week and I was homeward bound. I only hit 4 out of 6 of my workouts last week. Then on top of that I had a few bad days of eating on xmas eve and xmas day. Not horrible but I wasn't really watching what I ate as closely as I normally do. I had some scotch with my dad, some xmas candy, etc etc etc.... I just re-read the last few sentences and its all a bunch of lame ass excuses (yes I know it). On the positive note I have hit 22 out of 24 workouts I had planned for the last 28 days. As usual I know my downfall is in my diet. All the equations I have used to try and calculate calories needed seem to put me in a 2500+ a day category. So I have been trying to do that and I think its just too much food for me to loose weight. The diet equation is the one thing that has always plagued me. I know I can loose weight if I go low cal/low carb but then I just become skinny fat. If I try to keep my cals up I stay the same weight and maybe gain a little muscle but its a really really really slow process. As my last post said I am currently around 30% body fat (give or take a few percent). So I need to cut fat off my body in a really bad way. If I eat to little calories than I don't feel I have the energy to really nail my workouts. If I eat to much I stay the same which almost makes my workouts meaningless (I know the health benefits are there but you know what I am saying). I got to figure out a way to kick start my weight loss again. I don't know if its my genetics or what but how my body reacts to workouts and food really po's me. Ok I have rambled enough to probably make my short list of readers not read. Bottom line I am not giving up and I plan to meet my goals in 2009. Nothing else I can do but just that, there is no other choice. FYI 206lbs today....

Pissed

Well my wife and for some stupid reason decided we wanted one of those body composition scales (Omron 510) as a joint Christmas gift. You know the ones that tell you your weight, fat%, visceral fat level, muscle% etc. The good thing about the scale is it weighs me really close to the same as our old one (within .5 lbs). The bad news is it measured my body fat at 30%... I really expected somewhere in the mid 20s. Even my friend whom I am working out with seemed shocked that my body fat was that high (he guessed me at 23%). He is just starting his workout regimen and is only 27 via my diabolic fat% scale. So yesterday I walked around really down on myself and frankly pretty pissed and feeling pretty damn defeated. I still did my workout but ended up having a cup of chai tea/nog (lite eggnog of course). So this f-ning scale tells me I have 61 pounds of fat on my body still. Realistically if I want to see 10%bf I would have to loose 40 more pounds of just fat. That would put me at 165 on a 6 foot frame..... That seems really crazy to me. I know these scales are not 100% accurate but I have been told they come pretty close. Anyway I will quit bitching about my fat A$$. Only thing I can do is get off it workout and eat right. Now does someone have a sledge hammer I can borrow???? My scale needs to meet the sledge!

A little Over 2 Weeks Left

Well I am still kicking and screaming trying to hit my sub 200 goal by Jan 1 2009. This last Saturday I saw a 203 (new low) on the scale. However last night I had a pretty good slip up diet wise. I had one of my all time favorite dishes "Phad Thai". Its not so much the Thai food that I have the issue with but the size of the portion I ate. It was probably enough for 2 or 3 meals. It was pretty tasty and satisfying. I didn't weigh myself yesterday or today. I will jump back on the scale tomorrow after a good day of eating and a good workout. My mom made a comment to me about "looking like I am putting on some muscle". She said my arms and shoulders look more broad and defined. I was wearing a polo shirt that I hadn't worn in some time. It was kind of nice to hear as I spend at least half my time working out trying to add lean body mass. I do believe I have some pretty good muscles if I could only get rid of the inch or so of sea lion blubber that encases my entire body. Some where under it there lies a lean tone body.

We just got smacked by a arctic front blowing down from Canada. We are supposed to be in the teens to 20s for the remainder of the week with more snow come mid week. The roads were pretty dicey here in Portland, OR this morning. If it's worse on Wed this week I am working from home or not working at all.

Keep fighting the good fight. Glad to see a few of you picking back up the torch.

Incoming

The battle continues.... Well the thanksgiving pounds I gained were not as easily lost as I had hoped they would be. I am finally back down into the 205-206 range after about 10 days. Diet has been really solid and workouts have been 100%. I have only had one rest day (Sunday) since I re focused. I feel good about what I am doing and am really hoping it will pay off and help me reach my goals. I am thinking of adding a second workout on a few of the days, maybe a short round of HIIT or something real early in the morning. I feel like I really need to jump start the fat loss.

I am really enjoying the holiday season this year. My oldest son is 3 and is totally in the spirit of things. He even helped pick out our Christmas tree this year and has had many questions about baby Jesus and Santa Claus. It's pretty wonderful to watch the season through his eyes. Anyway hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday. Below is the pic we are using on this years Christmas Card. Since I don't have all my FAT blog buddies addresses etc have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

So It Begins

Well the Thanksgiving holiday is finally over.... It was a extra long weekend (wed - sun) at the Oregon Coast with family. For me it was pretty much dietary suicide this year. I ate and drank a ton of shit that I shouldn't have. I skipped all my planned workouts (did get in a couple unexpected workouts). So, did I think about my decisions or feel bad about them. On all accounts yes.... I pretty much felt like a bloated whale thurs-sunday. The workouts I got in were brutal because I was running on total garbage food and alcohol. Those workouts reminded me every time why I need to put good fuel in my tank. I had for the most part forgotten what heart burn felt like until this weekend. It was a good time with family and friends and helped me remember why I am thankful for the weight I have lost so far. I weighed in at 210 this morning.... most likely 4-5 of those pounds will hopefully fall off fast. As I am sure I didn't gain 5-6 pounds in 5 days.

I know I don't have a ton of clout around here besides the fact that this is my blog. I have had allot of failures and allot of success in the time I have spent in this blog sphere. With all that said I am going to take another route that many others are backing away from. I am going to go out on a limb and say I am going to finish 2008 strong. I am going to kick ass in both the diet and exercise dept. I have every intention on hitting sub 200 before 2009 opens the door. I am not going to say I "might" do better. Today is the day I say I "will" do better. The day I will start another drive to hit my goal of 180 or so pounds. I am not waiting to make another lame new years resolution.... Who's in for a kick ass December?

Ground Hogs Day

Well the last few weeks have produced allot of the same for me. As of last Friday I weighed 205 (haven’t weighed myself since then). My diet has definitely been less than stellar the last few weeks (especially on weekends). I have been drinking a little more with friends and family which usually leads to worse food choices. Luckily the workouts that I continue to do have allowed me to maintain my weight and not gain anything back. That still leaves me with the frustration of working out hard and gaining no ground in my constant battle of the bulge. Deep down I know I am kidding myself if I think I am going to lose weight with a questionable diet. My body is good at being plump and it takes the strictest of diet regimens to even make a little dent. For me no strict diet means no weight loss. I can work out until the cows come home and see hardly any results if the diet isn’t in place. My current plan in the back of my head is to start a new round of diet and exercise following the thanksgiving weekend. I am not giving myself a all access pass to go crazy this coming week but I am trying to be realistic. We are going out of town for 4 nights with extended family so being on a really super strict diet isn’t going to be in the cards. I will be trying to exercise at least 3 of those days.

Sorry for the long time frames between posts but I don’t feel as if many people are really being very active in the fat coalition or I suppose this group of weight loss blogs I read. It’s hard to muster up the want to write if you feel like no one is reading. I watch my Google analytics and I am lucky to get a hit a day on this blog. It really kind of saddens me as this group used to be very active. It’s not like we have all met our goals… I suppose like the eb and tide of the ocean blogging will pick up and slow down from time to time. I hope things will start to pick back up around these parts.

Radar Jammer

Not a whole lot has changed for me as of late. I am still hitting my workouts really hard but my diet has left me spinning my wheels. I don't know if its the holidays or if its the weather/less light but I am having a hard time staying as dedicated to a rock solid diet. It hasn't been horrible but I have allowed little things here and there to slip in that I hadn't in the past. I think my wife's resolve has wavered some too and that definitely puts more stress on my willpower (especially in the diet department). For me weight loss is definitely won in the kitchen so I know deep down I must get back to strict eating or nothing is going to happen. At this point maintaining is not enough, I have not gotten were I want to go. I just need to figure out what will motivate me enough to get things rolling again. I have been sitting in the 205 range for way too long. You would think the close proximity to Onederland would be enough motivation to get me going. I ran a sub 30min 5k last night. Was trying to train for the turkey trot that apparently might not happen now. We normally go to Sunriver OR for thanksgiving and location has now been changed to the Oregon coast. I guess I could put on my own Turkey Trot beach style and me and my wife would be the only competitors. At least we would take 1st place in both the men's and women's categories. Besides slow weight loss life is good. We all need to up the blog chatter, besides Roder this place has been way to quite (and yes I still read daily)....

I will leave you with a cute pic of my kid. This year he wanted to be a Christmas tree for Halloween.... yes you read it right a xmas tree. I too was thinking "why not batman or Dracula??" My wife made his costume from scratch and I think she did a really good job. Everyone loved it and you could see him a mile away with the lights lit up.