C'mon 50!

From 236 to 186.5 (this morning). Yeah! 26 more pounds to my goal!

It's been pretty easy to stay with this. The weight comes off so quickly - it's really motivating. And, as you may have heard many times before:
I'm not hungry all the time
I have more energy
I'm very happy with the way I look
...stuff like that.

And all I had to do was reject, wholesale, the American industrial food complex!

What you should know about Take Shape for Life

I started at 236lbs. I'm currently at 195lbs. (That's 41 lbs lost). IN TWO MONTHS!

Here are a few things you should know about TSFL:

• You start with a health coach. Mine is a guy named David. He's been working the program for a while and knows a lot about the why's and wherefore's. He's handled all my questions so far, and has been very encouraging to boot.
• TSFL is more than just a diet. But I'll tell you about the diet. Once I hit my goal, I'll learn more about other aspects. For now, I've been very focused on the diet part. And with excellent results.
• I never feel famished. I eat 6 times per day, about every 2.5 to 3 hours. Even though I'm eating about 1,000 calories per day (creating quite a caloric deficit), it really doesn't feel like it. And it's not hard.
• Five of those meals are low-calorie meal replacements.
• One of them is the Lean/Green meal. Lean protein (chicken, fish, veggie options) and green vegetables.
• I have to eat healthy fats every day. Apparently that's good for the gall bladder.
• I eat over 72g of protein. That makes me feel full.
• My carbohydrate intake is limited to about 80-100 grams per day. So I'm not using them for fuel. Rather, I'm burning fat. LOTS of it.
• TSFL is VERY STRUCTURED. That's a good thing, at least for me it has been. Bear in mind:
• My physician has been telling me, for a LONG time, to be more active, eat more healthy foods, stay away from high-carb, high-glycemic index stuff and so on. He told me to eat more of a Mediterranean diet. He told me to snack on nuts (just a palmful).
• That advice is well-intentioned and sound. But it's not very easy to follow. It doesn't tell me what to eat when. And it leaves many questions unanswered: What constitutes "high-carb?" How many carbs should I have per day? How about fat? How about protein? Can I eat at restaurants ever? How will I know?
• With Take Shape for Life, I know exactly what to do. And it is DO-able.
• My physician told me about it. He sees it as an extension of his practice. He told me something very interesting which I will paraphrase heavily:
• "I treat people for high-cholesterol, typically with prescriptions. A lot of them really need to lose weight. But I've never had a concrete weight-loss program to offer them. I'll continue to write prescriptions, but now I have TSFL to offer them as well. Many won't do it, but some will. And they'll lose weight, lowering their risk for ALL those related ills: high blood pressure, heart disease, type-II Diabetes, arterial disease, high cholesterol and so on. It's just another way to treat the same conditions. But in fact it's a lot better for most of them than simply taking medications." 

That's the gist. I'll add more as I progress.

I have lost 40 pounds so far

Congratulations to me.

Looking for Inspiration?

Visit http://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/

There, you'll see inspirational, unedited stories of weight loss complete with before/after photos. And the writers are mainly young people, teenagers and twenty-somethings who are transforming their bodies and their lives as they prepare for their futures.

And there are A LOT of them.

Read it. It will inspire you.

That was then, this is now

Oh how the weight loss has slowed.

In my very first week, I dropped 11 lbs! There after, I've seen 7 to 4 lb losses per week. I was weighing myself every morning and, more often than not, I'd see a new, lower number each day. That was then - this is now.

For the last couple of weeks, the losses have been more modest. I'm still sticking to the plan as well as I always have, but the results are slower to come. The Take Shape for Life plan promises 2-5 lbs per week. I'm getting around 2 to 2.5.

I'm pleased, of course. But I need to readjust my expected timeline. I had been thinking that I'd be at my goal by November or December. Perhaps it'll be January or February.

It's not a race. That's the advice I got from my health coach, David. He's right. Since the beginning I have been losing at a rapid rate. An attention-getting rate. That was fun. But that was then, this is now.

Today: 197 lbs
Loss to date: 39 lbs
Remaining: 37 lbs
Goal: 160 lbs

BROKE 200!

This morning, I weighed 199.5 and my BMI is about 30.5.

Currently: OBESE (per those confounded BMI charts)
1.5 more lbs: Half-way to my goal
4.0 more lbs: I'll be merely "overweight!"

What a Man(nequin)!

I'm not exactly a clothes horse, but I've got to do something.

My pants don't fit. But I don't want to buy new clothes yet. What to do?

Well, I went to Goodwill and St. Vincent De Paul (a thrift store in St. Louis). Here's what I got:

• $4, a pair of Levi's
• $3, a short-sleeve shirt with a button-down collar
• $5, a pretty nice polo shirt. Slazinger, I believe
• $3, a long-sleeve oxford button-down shirt

Plus a belt at Burlington Coat Factory and I'm good to go for another 20-30 lbs. When I pass 170, I'll get out the checkbook and take a trip to the real mall. December maybe?