Day #1

I’m halfway through the first day on the HMR diet and so far so good. I did get off to a rough start, I was running a little late this morning and walked out and left the sack I had with my shakes in it for the day. I had to back home at lunch for them and just had a shake while I was there.

I found myself having several “last meals” in the days leading up now. I had Larry’s Pizza twice for lunch, I had a double cheeseburger from Wendy’s Saturday night, a chili dog for lunch on Saturday, dinner at a Japanese steakhouse Sunday night and a Burger King Whopper as my “last last meal.” All in all, I actually had gained 3 pounds between my appointments a week and a half ago and my medical visit last night.

My weight last night was 260 lbs (yuck!)

My measurements (done Monday night) are as follows:

Neck: 17.25”
Chest: 44.5”
Abdomen/Gut: 45”
Waist: 41.25”
Biceps: 14”
Thigh: 25”

Based on the DOD formula for estimated body fat, I am at 31.2% body fat right now.

My goals for the next 4 months are to:

• Get my weight down to less than 200 pounds (60 pound weight loss)
  
• Continue exercising 4x’s a week and expend at least 2,000 calories
  
• “Stay in the Box” as much as possible
  
• Have 100% attendance on my classes
  
• Improve my running endurance and start training for the Little Rock Half Marathon in late October
  

4 Days and Counting….

I am finding myself having several “last meals” or “last treats” before I start the Baptist plan. Last night I bought some iced cookies at the grocery store that I usually try to avoid (I call them “crack cookies”) because I wind up eating too many of them in one setting and usually eat the whole box in a day or two.

Today I had lunch at Larry’s Pizza and overate….

I’ve only exercised once this week (Nordic Track for 20 minutes one morning). I know I WILL have to do better with that because I will need to have 2,000 calories worth of exercise per week.

If I follow my plan, that should not be too hard. I ran the numbers yesterday and an hour of running, cycling and Nordic Track all equate to about 900 calories each so if I can do something for 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week, that will mean I expend 2,250 calories which will put me over the top and this does not include working out with weights 2 days a week…

I’ve been thinking a little bit about what my reward(s) should be if I hit my goal weight or some intermediate rewards. I suppose I’ll try to finalize those this weekend and post them before Tuesday night…

8 Days and counting...

8 Days from beginning my weight loss program. I am still excited and nervous about it. A goal of the program is for the participants to exercise to burn 2,000 calories per week. I suppose that is a better way of targeting how much exercise since different forms of exercise burn calories at different rates.

I do hope I can do that. I figure 2 days on the Nordic track, 2 days of running, 2 days weight training and one bike ride a week could cover that.

I really want this to be successful and I don’t mind putting in the effort it will take to get there…

Starting the countdown....9 Days

9 days and counting until I begin the Baptist Weight Loss program. I am very excited about this but at the same time, I am very nervous. I know I am going to have some social situations come up that are going to tempt me and I need to be strong. I have an opportunity to attend the Arkansas-USC game on September 2nd, my 20 year class reunion is on Saturday September 30th and I may have to go on a week long business trip to Maine in late October (I’m going to try to get out of that one though).

My sister in law asked if I was going to have a “last meal” either next Sunday or Monday night. I haven’t thought about that one but maybe I should. ☺ She had a gastric bypass in January 2005 (she’s lost 215 pounds to date) and had “several” in the days leading up to her surgery.

I have been eating like crap the last few days though. So much so that I don’t feel well, too much crap. I probably should just try to eat better this week and not go too crazy even though I’m about to only start eating shakes, bars and meals from only one source.

I have been thinking more about improving my fitness as well. I know during this plan, they want to you get some sort of exercise so you are expending 2,000 calories per week. I have been thinking I want to start running and going to the gym again. I have been kicking around this exercise program in my mind: 2 days of running, 2 days of weight training, 2 days of 30 minutes on my Nordic Track and 1 day of cycling (1 hour perhaps).

I am thinking the running and Nordic Track would be done on weekday mornings before work. I would run on the mornings my wife is at home and the Nordic Track on the mornings she is at work. The weight training would be done on Tuesday evenings after class and during my lunch break on Thursday. The cycling would be early on Saturday or Sunday morning depending on my schedule.

This plan has been batted about in my mind the last few days so I thought I would just document it somewhere. I think by the time I start this program, I should state some format goals for exercise and my weight loss. I think the goal of running the Little Rock Half Marathon is a good goal to shoot for as well…
9 days and counting until I begin the Baptist Weight Loss program. I am very excited about this but at the same time, I am very nervous. I know I am going to have some social situations come up that are going to tempt me and I need to be strong. I have an opportunity to attend the Arkansas-USC game on September 2nd, my 20 year class reunion is on Saturday September 30th and I may have to go on a week long business trip to Maine in late October (I’m going to try to get out of that one though).

My sister in law asked if I was going to have a “last meal” either next Sunday or Monday night. I haven’t thought about that one but maybe I should. ☺ She had a gastric bypass in January 2005 (she’s lost 215 pounds to date) and had “several” in the days leading up to her surgery.

I have been eating like crap the last few days though. So much so that I don’t feel well, too much crap. I probably should just try to eat better this week and not go too crazy even though I’m about to only start eating shakes, bars and meals from only one source.

I have been thinking more about improving my fitness as well. I know during this plan, they want to you get some sort of exercise so you are expending 2,000 calories per week. I have been thinking I want to start running and going to the gym again. I have been kicking around this exercise program in my mind: 2 days of running, 2 days of weight training, 2 days of 30 minutes on my Nordic Track and 1 day of cycling (1 hour perhaps).

I am thinking the running and Nordic Track would be done on weekday mornings before work. I would run on the mornings my wife is at home and the Nordic Track on the mornings she is at work. The weight training would be done on Tuesday evenings after class and during my lunch break on Thursday. The cycling would be early on Saturday or Sunday morning depending on my schedule.

This plan has been batted about in my mind the last few days so I thought I would just document it somewhere. I think by the time I start this program, I should state some format goals for exercise and my weight loss. I think the goal of running the Little Rock Half Marathon is a good goal to shoot for as well…

Thursday update

I met the doctor who will be supervising me on the Decision Free Diet and got some good news because he placed me on the intermediate supervision level instead of the "high." Based on my weight and BMI, I was falling on the break point between the intermediate and high supervision levels but since my weight is the only health issue I was having, he decided to put me on the intermediate.

The best news is that this means the program will cost me less because I won't see the doctor as frequently or have to have labs drawn either. He also gave me the choice of being on an 500 or 800 calorie per day diet. I decided to go for broke and choose the 500. Besides with this diet I can eat more if I need it so I'm not that worried about it...

The doctor also gave me a prescription for Ursodiol as well. One of the side effects of rapid weight loss is gall stones and gall bladder disease. Apparently this prescription will prevent the formation of gall stones in overweight patients who are losing weight very quickly (like I hope to do).

Another good note was that my lab results looked better compared to when I had them done in January. My cholesterol and Triglycerides were both lower than they were back in January.

I am starting to get fired up about this program.... I can't wait for it to start....

Going in a New Direction...

Ok.... obviously its been 9 months since I've posted to this blog. My Body for Life efforts fizzled out about the time of my last entry. Between work and family, I was doing a poor job of getting to the gym and I was not happy with my weight loss efforts. Actually taking the review course for my PE exam had the worst effect on my workouts because it took me away from my usual routine for 4 weeks and I never got back into it 100%.

In retrospect, I was never totally satisfied with BFL because I was never able to lose body fat at a rate greater than I was gaining muscle so my net weight loss through my BFL efforts was less than 10 pounds. On a good note though, I did lose quite a bit of body fat and I did shrink in size. The only problem was I didn't want to be a buff guy who weighed 250 lbs, I wanted to weigh closer to 200 pounds. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to lose the body fat, I just wanted some weight off too. The nutrition part of BFL was my shortcoming and the reason for my limited success.

I was going to start a weight loss program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (link) in January but my co-worker who was going to do the program with me dropped out the day before our physical and the mandatory classes were going to be a little difficult to work around my work schedule.

In the first 8 month since then, I made half-hearted attempt at doing the Weight Watchers points plan with exercise to lose weight. I was able to get maybe 5 or 6 pounds off but have pretty much leveled off the last month or two. So the frustration set back again one more time…

I looked at the weight loss program offered by Baptist Health (link) in Little Rock earlier this summer but never followed through. They called a few weeks ago about an informational session for their upcoming class.

Since I have been frustrated with my previous efforts at weight loss I figure now is the time to get some help. I signed up with the program and have my initial physical exam today. My program will start on Tuesday August 29th.

The program has 2 different options: Decision Free and Healthy Solutions diet. The Decision Free diet is where you are on shakes and meal replacements exclusively. The Health Solutions uses a combination of shakes, meal replacements and fruits and vegetables. The shakes, bars and meals are supplied by Health Management Resources Corporation (link). The company literature claims the average weight loss with the Decision Free diet is 60 pounds over a 13 week program and with the Health Solutions diet the average weight loss is 24.7 lbs over the same time period. One think I like about this diet over the UAMS diet is that I can have solid food on the Decision Free Diet. I have to have 5 shakes a day as a minimum but I can have bars and entrees so I do not go hungry as well. With the UAMS diet, you’re pretty much limited to the shakes…

Since I want to lose 57 pounds, I decided to go for the Decision Free diet just for simplicity as well. My goals are to weight 200 pounds by Thansgiving and to be able to inseam size down to 34 (currently 38).

I know I need serious help with nutrition so I can keep this weight off after I lose it as well. I am hoping the classes will give me those tools.

I want to use this blog as part of my accountability for the diet. I am serious about losing the weight this time and since I am forking out some big bucks for this program, I should be well motivated.

I am thinking off the top of my head but right now, I think will post my weekly statistics on my weight, loss for the week, loss to date, BMI and measurements. I will probably post several times a week as well with updates on my progress and exercise too…

Ok, here are my pre-diet statistics:
Weight: 257.6 lbs
BMI: 35.9

Goal Weight: 200 lbs
Goal BMI: 28

I will update with my measurements when I get those done (maybe tonight).

As I lose more weight, I want to start being more active. I want to run more with a goal of running the Little Rock Half Marathon in March 2007. I’ll have to look at the training schedules and see how that pans out because I haven’t run in about a year so I know I’ll need to build myself back up plus buy a new heart rate monitor…