minimizeme.tv - Ups and downs of an ordinary man on a diet.

Mixed feelings

Published

on September 26, 2008

. 4 Comments

Two days ago when I stood on the scale for the first time in a month, I had a very pleasant surprise as you guys already know. But right after that I started to have mixed feelings which sound paranoid, but it’s true.

Let me explain. Since I started this blog, I’ve been telling people that the only healthy way to lose weight is to change your habits, eat fresh food and exercise. However, that’s not what I’ve been doing. I haven’t been exercising and although I’m not eating that badly, my eating habits aren’t as good as they were before the scale fiasco.

I even started to doubt the scale because the next day I had lost another 1.8 lbs!!! What the f__: I’m not exercising and I’m not eating all that well, but I’m still losing weight? Fortunately for my sanity I gained weight today and oddly I feel good about it. At least now I know the scale is working and will tell me if I’m putting on pounds.

Looking back, I realize that even though I haven’t been following a perfect regimen, I am doing something right. I figure the reason I lost weight was because I was consuming less energy than I was spending. Of course it’s easier for a guy my size to lose weight than someone who is close to their ideal weight, but still I haven’t been able to do much exercise because of my leg and there are a lot of people who are heavier than me who really struggle to shed a few pounds. So I must be doing something right.

Over the last two days, I’ve started to accept that losing weight involves many complicated variables and that it was foolish for me to not celebrate the fact that I’ve lost almost 30 lbs in 2.5 months. Also I have to accept that I’m not going to change my lifestyle and habits in just 2 months. It will take much more than that, probably years.

After one month the new scale finally arrived. Will it be the doomsday?

Published

alexcosta

on September 24, 2008

in Fears

. 2 Comments

Image courtesy of SXC

Last time I weighed myself was August 24th. It’s so long ago, I had to look at the calendar to remember the exact date. I don’t even remember what my weight was, but I know it was somewhere around 365 or 362.

I stop weighing myself not for lack of motivation, but because my scale broke. It broke in an odd way because it still works for my girlfriend who weighs around 125 lbs, but for me it gives a reading of 0.0 lbs.

So we decided to look around for a new scale and it wasn’t easy to find one here in Montreal that will register more then 330 lbs. So I decided to look on the net and I found one at a reasonable price that calculates body fat percentage and weight up to 440 lbs. I though it would be perfect.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. It turned into a complete nightmare. To resume the facts: I ordered the scale on August 25th and finally received one in good working order yesterday, September 22nd. The first one (sent by express post at my cost) arrived on August 26th. It was broken and I had to send it back at my own expense, can you believe that? The scale company said that I should complain to UPS for delivering me the broken scale, it was ridiculous. I ended up paying $88 in shipping for a $69 scale.

So after almost four weeks the scale finally arrived. I didn’t want to step on the scale last night because I usually weigh myself in the morning and frankly I wasn’t very excited because I haven’t been doing much exercise and I’ve been straying from my diet. I’ve been eating some sweets here and there. I haven’t been cheating a lot, but without the scale I had no proof that I was still losing weight….

When I woke up today I hesitated a little bit but for some reason I mustered up the courage to end my misery and confront the scale. One thing I knew was that the longer I avoided it , the worse the situation would become. I was just praying that I wouldn’t be more than 370 lbs.

When I stepped on the scale, a lot of things passed through my head and I started to remember all the bad choices I’ve made over the past few weeks and I was pretty scared of what I would see. When I looked down and saw 354.8 I was SHOCKED. My girlfriend even asked me to step on the scale again and I got the same result. I looked through the window and for some reason the sun felt to me a little bit shinier today.

The fun is over - Welcome to phase 2

Published

alexcosta

on September 12, 2008

in Progress and Thoughts

. 7 Comments

Image courtesy of SXC

phase2-web

After all the setbacks of the past two weeks, I’ve realized that phase one of my project– that phase when you’re full of optimism, you think everything will be a piece of cake, that you are indestructible and that nothing can stop you—is over. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the sunny optimism we all have when starting out on a long journey, after all if you’re not optimistic about achieving your goals, then why start?

Why do I call phase 2 “the fun is over”? Because it’s when reality sinks in and you realize it’s going to be a long process and all the things you should be doing become a struggle: daily exercise, resisting the goodies, writing for the blog, you name it.

This is the phase that separates those who really want it, from those who got started on a whim. I’m not really sure which category I fit into, but I prefer to think that I’m the kind of person who is going to persevere and reach my goals.

If I can make a sports analogy, it’s like the team that competes in a long tournament, goes through a bad phase and then needs to prove to themselves that they really are good, that they’ll recover from the bad spell and come back stronger and better than ever.

Phase 2 is going to challenge me every day. Why am I doing this? What’s the point of all this suffering? Now, I don’t think it’s all negative. After all, if I can get through this stage I’ll be that much stronger and better prepared to face new challenges. I only hope I get through it soon!

To finish, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who comes to this blog to read and/or leave comments. I really appreciate your visit—it helps give me the strength to keep going.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Weekly Update - Return of the Dead

Published

alexcosta

on September 2, 2008

in Progress

. 3 Comments

weekly-back-from-dead

This past week wasn’t fun at all. I had to stop doing exercise because of the extreme stiffness in my leg, plus I went off my diet and probably gained a few pounds.

Looking back, I think there were two factors. When my scale broke and I couldn’t check my weight every day, I think I unconsciously let myself stray from my diet. Then when my polar stopped working, I couldn’t monitor how many calories I was burning so I paid less attention to what I was consuming.

If I analyze it carefully, other than the pain in my leg, I didn’t have a good excuse to slack off. I could have continued my routine minus the exercise and for sure I could have lost another pound but unfortunately my old habits took over.

I can’t change the past but I’ve got full control over future choices. I’ve decided that my excuses for slacking off don’t justify my behavior and that even if I can’t work out as hard as before, any workout is better than no workout.

Even though walking is still painful at this point, I can bike ride so this will be my main cardio exercise for the next while. This week I’ll have to really pay attention to my leg and if the pain gets any worse I’ll probably have to scale back a bit or take a day off to rest.

I would like to finish with good news and fortunately I have some about my polar watch: I bought a new transmitter and it’s working perfectly. So my goal for this new week is to focus on the positive and believe that good things will come if I keep pursuing my goals.

Study says cheating on weekends is a no no

Published

alexcosta

on August 30, 2008

in Diet News and Thoughts

. 3 Comments

Image courtesy of SXC study-web

According to a recent study from Washington University, regularly overeating on the weekend can lead to a nine-pound weight gain by the end of the year. And it is not only holiday weekends that are to blame - it seems we consume more calories on most weekends.

And at the end of a tough week, you might feel you’ve earned the right to relax - a mindset that can also extend to your healthy eating habits. After all, a little splurge here and there shouldn’t sabotage your ability to manage your weight, right? Wrong.

Studies clearly show that if you’re trying to shed excess pounds - or keep the scale steady - you need to maintain a certain level of discipline seven days a week.

In the Washington University study, researchers tracked food intake, exercise and body weight of 48 adults, aged 50 to 60, for one year. At the start of the study, participants were divided into three groups: the first reduced their daily calorie intake by 20 per cent, the second increased daily physical activity by 20 per cent, and the control group didn’t alter their eating or exercise habits.

During the one-year study, all three groups consumed significantly more calories on the weekend than on weekdays. The calorie-restricted group stopped losing weight on the weekend and the exercise group gained weight. What’s more, people in the study didn’t realize they consumed more on the weekends.

Other research has determined that people who don’t give themselves a day or two off to cheat are 1.5 times more likely to keep off unwanted pounds.

But think about it: once you start giving yourself a few breaks on the weekend, you’re more likely to ease off on Friday and then Thursday. Eventually, the breaks accumulate and show up on the bathroom scale.

My 2 cents

I partially agree with this study. There was a three week period at the beginning of my diet when I was following my plan during the week and then eating whatever I wanted on the weekends. I wasn’t making any progress.

I started making progress when I put more control on my weekend intake. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t eating any food from the cheat department, but I was only eating a bite or two and no more than that.

The group chosen for this study is from an older demographic (less mobile, slower metabolism), although the article doesn’t really highlight this fact which I think is misleading and overdramatizes the findings.

Based on my experience, it’s ok if you want to cheat a little bit during weekends, you just have to pay attention to the quantity and let the scale be your judge. If you’re losing weight you can continue, if you’re not you have to cheat a little bit less.

The Globe and Mail > Health

Tough week. Last 3 days–even tougher

Published

alexcosta

on August 28, 2008

in Frustration

. 3 Comments

I don’t know why, but each week feels harder than the last. Maybe it’s because I want to do better or because every day I feel a little bit more pain. I’ve just had to change my plan because I was so stiff on the weekend that I could barely walk. Fortunately I can bike ride, not with the intensity that I would like, but at least I can do some exercise.

The last three days played out like a tragic sequence of events: on Sunday my scale stopped working which screwed things up for Monday which is my official weigh-in day. I ended up having to use Sunday’s weight for my results posting. I needed a new scale, but its not easy to find a scale that goes up to 360 pounds. So I ordered one online and I choose express shipping, which cost 40 bucks, so I could get my scale no later than Wednesday.

On Monday, I decided to give bike riding a try and since my girlfriend wasn’t working that day I asked her if she wanted to go with me. She is my biggest supporter, and she accepted right away, so we went for a nice bike ride and since she has a mini-computer attached to her bike, we could measure the distance that we rode. Later that day I realized I had lost my keys during our ride.

On Tuesday morning as I looked everywhere for my keys and was turning the whole house upside down, the doorbell rang–my first happy moment since Sunday. The UPS guy came to my door with a box. It was my scale!!! It’s a very nice scale that holds up to 440 lbs and gives you your body fat percentage which is a plus. So I picked up the box, put it on the floor, opened it up, grabbed the batteries, put them in the scale, stepped on top only to receive an error message!!!

I spent a couple of hours trying to get the bloody scale to work, read the manual, browsed the website, changed batteries, prayed to God, you name it, but nothing helped me to make that scale work. By that time I was so pissed off that I needed a release for all that bad energy….so I decided to get my bike and do my exercise. I changed my clothes, put on my sneakers, picked up my polar watch and strapped the heart rate monitor to my chest and suddenly my polar watch stopped monitoring my heart: what that fuck!!!

Anyway, I tried 3 times to get that @#*&$^#&* watch to work and nothing, so I went bike riding. I always want to convey a positive message in my posts like: “looking back it was a good decision” and yada, yada, yada, but you know what? All the time that I was bike riding I was bitching and cursing to myself about all the things that have happened to me. My ride wasn’t fun and it didn’t give me any sense of pleasure or bring me anything positive.

After getting home, I went to the supermarket to buy something to eat. After picking up some low fat frozen butter chicken and a whole wheat naan, I grabbed some frozen cookie dough but fortunately at the cash register I saw an organic muffin, and I decided to change the cookie dough for the muffin.

Ohhh, that feels better, it’s organic and has no sugar added, but you know what, BIG SHIT, the problem is not the muffin, the cookies, the chocolate or the ice cream that I had on Monday. The real problem is that I go to those foods to find comfort for my problems. The muffin is not going to fix my @*#&#^@&#*# scale, the ice cream will not make my #&#$&*^&^$^% watch work again, the chocolate will not help me to find my ^&#^$^#&@* keys, and I was trying to fool myself thinking that it will be “just this time”, yeah, good one, Alex.

So now I’ve decided to stop sabotaging my diet, because that will just hurt me and my latest results, however, I still don’t feel like leaving a positive message this time, because I still have a &^$^#$%^$&$ pain in my leg and I’m writing this post with a bag of ice on my @%#&$*@%$ left knee and I had to take 2 Ibu-profen to try to stop the #@!^#*% pain.

Weekly Update - Beat by the Pain

Published

alexcosta

on August 26, 2008

in Progress

. 12 Comments

I’ve tried, I really tried but I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to stick to my plan. I was doing well last week, I still had a little bit of pain in my left leg, but it was manageable. However, last Friday (oh my god, another toughest day on Friday) thing changed during the last 1500 steps. I started getting cramps and by the time I got home my left leg was completely locked.

I thought that by Monday everything would be ok, because it’s not the first time I’ve been dealing with this kind of pain, but it bothered me during the whole weekend and even now I can’t walk properly. Now the real test begins.

Enough with the bad news. The positive side is that despite all these problems I completed my goals for last week and I was able to lose 2.1 pounds, which is in line with the amount of weight that I want to lose each week.

So here are the results:

number-step-day

number-step-total

distance-milies-day

distance-milies-total

calories-burnt-day

calories-burnt-total

week6

Partial R.I.P.

Published

alexcosta

on August 25, 2008

in News and Progress

. 1 Comment

scale-not-working

I won’t be able to weigh myself today because my scale stopped working. Actually, it’s partially working because when my girlfriend uses it, it’s ok but when I step on it, the scale shows 0.0.

Thanks “weight watchers” for the wonderful scale that worked for less than a year. Since I don’t have today’s weight, I’ll use Sunday’s results for my weekly weigh-in.

I just ordered the Phoenix TBF 440 which measures up to 440 lbs. I hope this one will be tough enough for the big guy in the house. It also measures body fat which will be cool.

By the way, my official weight for this week is 362.4 lbs.

The Plan - Revision #2 - 08/20/2008

Published

alexcosta

on August 23, 2008

in Weight Loss Plan

. 3 Comments

revision2 Hmm, I particularly like the last task

I came up with some goals during this past week. I’m feeling strongly about them, so I’d like to make them official.

My plan is to lose 2.5 pounds a week, or 10 pounds a month. I think that’s hard but not crazy. I’ve been losing at that rate over the last 5 weeks so, I’m going to try to keep it up. Another goal is that when I reach 350 lbs, I’ll change my cardio exercise to bike riding. I like cycling and with the approaching Canadian winter my plan is to use an indoor bike which I prefer to using a treadmill.

I can definitely see progress in every aspect of my strength training, but it’s still a challenge, so no need for alterations there.

As you guys know, my cardio training has become my Achiles heel. It’s getting harder and harder to complete my daily 10.000 steps. Besides the pain in my right knee, I started to get stiffness in my left leg, extending from the upper part of my calves up to my butt. When I warm up it’s fine, but afterwards and again the next morning I feel like I have a wooden leg because my muscles are so stiff.

My girlfriend already told me to change for the bike, however, sometimes I’m a little bit stubborn and I don’t want to change my plan. In a funny kind of way, this pain is giving me added motivation to get to 350 lbs ASAP, while still respecting the goal of 10 lbs a month. Since I’m not too far (364.5 lbs) off, I’ll try to reach 350 without changing my plan.

However, I need to find something to relieve the pain in my leg. At the moment, I’m taking Ibu-profen and applying some muscle cream. I’ll also start doing some stretching and I hope that by doing these 3 things it will make a difference. If not, I’ll have to go back to the drawing board and make a third revision.

The toughest day

Published

alexcosta

on August 21, 2008

in Exercise and Frustration

. 3 Comments

Image courtesy of SXC

x-ray-web It can always be worse

So far last Friday (08/15/2008) has been the most difficult, horrendous, day of my barely started weight loss journey. I knew that I was going to have days like this, but somehow I didn’t expect they would start so soon. Probably I wasn’t thinking straight, because usually the worst days are in the beginning. After you start to get used to your new routine, things become easier or at least you’re more physically prepared. Maybe I wasn’t prepared or expecting to get to this level, I really don’t know.

The day started okay. I was feeling good and quite happy because it was the last workout day of the week (Friday). I started my strength exercise routine with pushups. It was hard but I made it through the whole cycle, actually my best performance so far. I did the hundred, and it was the first time that I didn’t lose count. To finish off, I did my lower abs exercise which was very difficult but I also completed the full routine.

Even my problematic knee was cooperating and wasn’t hurting, so I was confident that my last walk of the week would be productive and I thought I could challenge myself to go at a faster pace. So I started as usual, walking at a mild pace to warm up and I could feel that the backs of my knees were a little bit stiff. However, no big deal because they’ve been stiff almost everyday and I was still improving my time. Continue reading ‘The toughest day’