Trying to hold up 15 pounds lost in two months next to 123 pounds needed to hit my goal makes it seem impossible to get there. I need a way to succeed within 2-3 months. How do I do that? I lower the bar. So rather than looking at it as "I need to 123 pounds someday" I see it as "I need to lose 5-10% of my starting body weight within a 2-3 month period." That's something attainable. Even if it takes five months, it's still something I can do. It's a reason to celebrate. What happens after I hit that goal? I set another goal equally as achievable. The small battles add up to win the war. It also keeps the morale high. The only enemy here is the excess weight. Don't let yourself get caught up in the crossfire.
The road to success is rough and rocky but always leads up. The way that I keep myself going is setting up realistic goals. Losing weight can be a daunting task, especially when there's more than just 10-20 pounds to lose. Before starting this blog and committing to losing weight I did a lot of research. I took a few days and read as much as I could, then I borrowed from what I liked to create the program I'm using now. The biggest key to success is starting small and staying small. What I mean by that is breaking everything I do into chunks. Yes I want to lose 123 pounds to hit my first target weight. Yes I want to master Portion Control. Yes I want to run in races and be semi- athletic. The only problem is that there is no instant way to do any of those things. And if I set myself up to try all at once, I'd most likely end up failing again. In a year I could be down to my target weight. In two months I could conquer portion control. In a year I could be running races. The only problem is that there's no fast forward button. I have to take things one step at a time.
Trying to hold up 15 pounds lost in two months next to 123 pounds needed to hit my goal makes it seem impossible to get there. I need a way to succeed within 2-3 months. How do I do that? I lower the bar. So rather than looking at it as "I need to 123 pounds someday" I see it as "I need to lose 5-10% of my starting body weight within a 2-3 month period." That's something attainable. Even if it takes five months, it's still something I can do. It's a reason to celebrate. What happens after I hit that goal? I set another goal equally as achievable. The small battles add up to win the war. It also keeps the morale high. The only enemy here is the excess weight. Don't let yourself get caught up in the crossfire.
2 Comments
As promised, I went out Tuesday night and I got a measuring device. I could not find a tape measure that a tailor would use so I got a tape measure that a carpenter would use. Add in a strap that is big enough to go around my most problemed areas and I've got a system to measure my vital areas to track progress! I am going to measure myself every other Sunday while weighing myself each and every Sunday. I won't post the results individually, but with the recaps instead. And each week the timeline will be updated as well. So without further adieu, I present to you my measurements!
Wow. An engine in your belly... Too much Iron? I've finally been able to sit down for an extended period and read up on metabolism so I can get a better understanding of what it is and why I need to keep it going. I decided to also tie into this what I've been seeing a lot online. Every forum discussion around eating harps on the fact that you need to eat breakfast or else your body goes into "Starvation Mode". I can tell you now that that assumption is completely false. I'll dive into that also below. Since it's Sunday that means you also get the status update on all things fitness and me! So without further ado, lets see what I could dig up on the fat mauler- metabolism! Alas! A graphic artist is born! Hello everyone! As always, I hope this post finds you in the best of health and spirits! Stage two of my research phase is to better understand nutrition. Here is a general roundabout of what I know about nutrition. Protein=good Carbs=bad. I do know that protein is needed to build muscle as well. On top of that I need lots of vitamins to stay healthy and eating fats are bad. I couldn't tell you the difference between trans fat and saturated fat. On my quest I even came across Monounsaturated fats and Polyunsaturated fats which I honestly had no previous recollection of ever learning about in gym, health, or anywhere else. So I'm in need of some schooling. People have left comments about different aspects of eating, but before I charge headfirst into a specific regimen, I need to understand for myself why I need to make these changes. Cause if I don't know why I'm doing something or how it effects me then I have no reason to motivate myself to do it! Through google I found the CDC's health and nutrition area. In there they had pages for everything I was setting out to look for. I'll link the pages as I summarize what I learned. Research. Research. Research. My brain hurts right now. But I can feel it passing. So what in the world was I looking for? Just a few answers to better understand myself. I need to learn a little bit more about me before I just start shooting in the dark. What I found was a little surprising. My weight combined with the sedentary lifestyle- working an office job, not exercising very much- means that on a rough daily basis I burn around 4,000 calories! I used two different sites to compare results. They have BMR calculators where you enter your activity level, age, gender, height, and weight and it calculates roughly what your daily calorie output is. According to nutritiondata.self.com I burn 4073 calories, while walking.about.com says I need 4078 calories daily to maintain my weight. Those two numbers are very close, and pretty shocking. I get that my body has to work much harder to support itself and accomplish daily tasks but I had no idea that it was that high. One- if this is even close to being true, then I'm kinda disgusted at myself and how I've been living for so long that 4k calories was the limit and I managed to only sustain myself at that rate... That's a lot of calories to take in on a daily basis. Two- my road to healthy is going to have to really focus on nutrition and eating just as much as physical fitness. Three- writing this seems pretty easy, right? Execution is going to to be the real challenge.
|
Weight loss timeline:Starting weight: 446 lbs Archives
September 2016
Categories
All
|