Another Milestone reached

Yes folks. That number 2 is no longer the beginning number when it comes to me weighing myself. This shot here shows just about 198. Since this (which was about a week ago) I have seen from 196-just over 200, but the 198-199 has been the average. A little closer watch on the food intake and before you know it, the 190's will also be in the past and I will be giving a welcomed hello to the 180's.
I have stepped up one day a week and gone to 2 good workouts a day on Wednesdays one in the after noon and one after our choir rehearsal in the evening. Still trying to not take that Sunday nap between church services is difficult but I did so yesterday and took the kids outside to make a "MUD" project making a mini mud oven.
Lots of lifting and moving around to get everything set up and whenever you are dealing with a 3 & 5 year old, kid wrangling is also part of the project...Oh, and one other thing this involes is a lot of stepping (yes bare foot) in a mixture of kitty litter (unused), sand and water to mix the right consistency of mud. After that we added dry grass to the same ingredients, then cow manure for the finish layer. Not manure in the raw but store bought aroma free (or De-funked) cow manure.

My loving wife decided that I have been "swimmin in my pants" so she went to Old Navy to get me some new pants.




Here is my profile and straight on shots in my new pants. If you look closely at the shot on the right you will see that this belt is also on its last hole. I will either have to break out the hole punch or get a smaller belt.


Finally I have a pair of pants that fit...Guess what Honey...They are actually a little loose BUT A GOOD loose. At a size 36 waist for these pants, I am predicting if I get another 10-12 pounds gone (and I will) I will be able to get into a size 34waist pants. I feel like a kid in reverse. Usually as your kids grow, you are buying larger clothes every other month or so. With me it's sinching the belt and needing smaller clothes every other month or so. Because of the cost, sinching the belt will just have to work untill I feel I am at a size that I will be at for a while. I think what I will ultimately do is to go to a 2nd hand store and get some inexpensive clothes to clothe me along this journey.

If you continue to scroll down to some of my earlier post, you will see many a before and along the journey photo's to see the difference of then and now.
Then? 254 Pounds
Now? 198
Time? About 6 months
Monthly? About 9.something pounds a month
Weekly? About 2.something pounds a week
If any of my math magician friends out there want to give me exact numbers I will include your name for the credit.
When I started? On the treadmill 2 miles an hour? HURT!
Now? 2 miles an hour is not even a warmup.
When I started? I had no gym membership. Just some home equipment, and a local park to hike in.
Now? The home gym and local park gave me enough weight loss on my own to WIN a three month gym membership (last day is tomorrow...trying to keep it together and not cry...sniff sniff)
Then? 3months after a hip replacement surgery and very limited in what I could do physically.
Now? Even my doctor has eased my limitations because the weight loss has enabled me to do much more then just sitting around saying "woe is me"
Then? Putting my hands up to say STOP! when my son wanted to do some rough play.
Now? I initiate the rough play, and taking him for bike rides, walks in the park and more along with his sister.
Then? I ate BBQ, Pizza, and all things fried to excess.
Now? Get this...I eat BBQ, Pizza, and some things fried but nothing to excess.

Here it is folks. My big secret. I do eat few and I mean very few low cal meals and I have cut a lot of sugar and carbs out of my lifestyle. All I have done in a nutshell is cut my food intake but still eat a lot of the things I have always enjoyed, just not to excess. Two slices of pizza is enough. One piece of fried chicken is enough. Two BBQ ribs is enough "Beleive it, Or not"
Water has become one of my favorite drinks as well as some very good tasting low cal drinks but mostly water. All this plus exercising got me 56 pounds gone and cast as far as the east is from the west. I was told not to say I weight "lost", so no one else would find it.
What else has helped to get me here? ALL OF YOU THAT HAVE SENT WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!
Please continue to do so. God bless you all. CS
"If it's not a lifestyle change, it's only temorary"

50 Pounds

Well it has been quite a journey so far and still more roads to exlore are before me as I want to continue losing. Some where in last week I hit 50 pounds lost. I have seen my scale around 203-205 but mainly around that 204 area. I started out at 254, so minus 50 (Pounds that is) I am now at 204 and still losing. One thing I did not do was to celebrate with a big ole pile of food. We did do burgers at a restaurant last week but I had half of mine on Friday and the other half on Saturday night. I haven't really change much since my last posting except my weight of course but I will soon have to. My membership at the health club ends on the 19th of this month (Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! Snif snif snif....Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!) and I will have to go to another plan at that time for my workouts. With three kids I really can't justify the monthly fee just for me to go to the health club so I will be working out at home, and doing more hiking again and now that we are averaging in the upper 90's outside the extra sweat will be ok. I lost 30 pounds before the gym so I know I will be ok without it, but I will shed a tear or two on that last day. The machines are great, and the use of the pool is one thing I know I will miss since I have been upto 30 minutes of non stop laps in the pool.
Well I did hit a few road blocks since my last post. I seemed to have gotten stuck around 210 or so and to truly admit it to myself, I had a couple of weeks of slipping in the food catagory. Even when the workouts were going great, I got a little lazy in preparing the right stuff. The good side of that is I know what happened and I learned from it. As for pictures??? here is the infamous scale pic. As you can see in this pic, I am around 203.5 which is actually 50.5 pounds not lost but just gone into never never land. I was recently taught not to say lost on the risk of someone else finding those pounds. S0 let's just say those 50 pounds are cast away as far as the east is from the west. What do I look like now? See below.

In this shot those were one of my pairs of skinny pants. A goal I had to try to get to. NOW??? If it weren't for that belt even those would fall down. Pretty much right now I do not have one pair of pants that does not fit me too big. Side shot below.

Yes, I am getting smaller and the proof is there. Till next time. God bless you all. CS

Progression

This entry will have more and more photos added along the journey. So please come back to this particular entry from time to time. CS

This was actually day one of the journey. 254 pounds of handsome yet not so happy man. This was Febuary 24/08







































Now at 251. Still not smiling much but on the way. Three pounds ain't a lot but it all eventually adds up.
























Now around 247 even though the picture doesn't show it...Yes I do have something to smile about.














This is around 232 with 22 pounds lost. Look!
I am starting to smile and I have extra room in my pants. To put it in full perspective, I had to lose a little weight just to squeeze into these pants, but at 22 pounds lost, I have room to spare...I also am no longer scared to show my feet.






















Skipping over many photos of foot and scale...In this shot with Ted, I am around two hundred something teen pounds. The shirt I am wearing I have had for YEARS. My favorite print but could not get it over the belly. I think you can see some progression in these shots, especially the love luggage that has finally turned into love handles. Still on the journey and losing and taking more and more photos.

This current shot below is a blurry 209. I know my feet don't show it but I am smiling much more these days.

You know for years many friends of mine would offer me food as a good jesture or favor, more than likely to get a good response, do something nice and get a smile out of me. All this time it was losing weight not offering everything fried, dipped in chocolate, or drowned in butter that does it. Growing up I was a plate finisher to the point of using a slice of bread to get the the last bits of gravy, butter of what ever else was there. You know that phrase..."Girl you look so good I could sop you up with a biscuit"? Well I think the person that originated that was probably watching me eat...Or maybe I originated it.
Now friends...I am not saying to stop taking me to lunch, and so on. Just understand that "if" I go I will not do like I did in the past and finish mine, yours and the strangers food at the table next to us. Also understand that "if" I go, I have taken that meal into account and will make adjustments in the rest of my day food and workout wise. So "if" I go, I will make that sacrifice for any of you who wish to buy me lunch.

To the right is my most recent pic now at 50 pounds gone. I still need to work on my smile some but beleive me...I am smiling on the inside.

God bless you and look for updates on this post. CS

Count Down to Under 200

Today I stepped on the scale and I was under 210 "Less Hips!" "Less Hips!" "HOORAY!"
I had a real good week of exercise and eating right and of course that is key. I was unable to swim as much because of time and I've changed my lifting workout (which is very good to do from time to time) to no free weights but all machines. Also instead of a few body parts a day, I am now working the whole body a few times a week. I also have a few no lifting days with just cardio for about an hour per session plus some ab work. I have found out that using the machines is much more comfortable and no plates to load. The only problem is that you never really know the true weight you are able to lift. BUT! Since I am 43 and not intending to enter a power lifting competition any time soon, I don't need to know that I can actually bench 400 as long as I am still (and I am) workin my muscles to fatigue. Also I have notice my shoulder pain is less and less using the machines and because I don't have the fear of dropping a weight on myself I am getting a better range of motion and more repetitions even when the muscles are fatigued.
Yard work is staying in my repertoire of things to do for exercise and over the weekend I did quite a bit. Lawn mowing, planting, finishing my compost box, shredding old branches, raking leaves, and setting rocks are all the things I did outside this weekend and right now we are hitting about 99 degrees daily. This keeps the sweat going so a lot of water drinking is a must and I like my cold H2O. This week I also have cut more carbs but not totally. Two taco's mid week, a PB&J for lunch one day, and carbs from some of the sugars in my juice have been there but no days where I can say I overdid it. This brought me from around 214 in the beginning of the week to around ("LOOK AT IT") 208 at my best scale reading for the week. The picture I am posting may say 209-210 (Sorry for the blurryness...and the ugly feet) but I am happy to no longer see the 200 teens. So now the count down is on to get below 200.

To let you all know why this is imortant...
I have not been below 200 since my Navy days and even then staying below 200 was a real struggle. At one time the struggle was 170 or below, then 180 or below I think I skipped over 190 then all of a sudden I just could not get below 200. I was over 200 through most of high school, then some where in 1984 I had to lose 40 pounds to get into the Navy. I lost 75 by my entry date then during my time in the Navy I started slowly creeping up in weight and the struggles were on. I read about 5 years ago that it is very unlikely that a person over 40 will lose weight to a good level if they enter their forty's over weight. I have a word for that. "BULL" If you set your mind to it to have a better life style, you will start doing the things you need to do to get there. For me this is probably my biggest self made monster, the monster of overeating and I feel that I have it conquered. Losing the weight is the results of having it conquered. Most will think that nothing is conquered untill the goal is reached. I like to think that reaching the goal is the result of a conquering journey.
Well it is Sunday and I am soon to be back at church. Will write more later as the countdown to 200 continues. God bless you. CS

10 More Pounds

Today I went to the Spectrum Club Tezel location. One big advantage of going there for a little change was seeing my old friend pictured next to me, Ted Carreras. Another New Jerseyite that (like me) does not say Joisey. Ted & I worked together about 8 years ago at the Northwest Racquetball & Fitness Club in sales. We had many good times together there and were usually #1 or 2 for our location in sales. Seeing him working the desk reminded me of how friendly a guy he is. I don't think I have met anyone else that remembers everyones name and usually the last detail they discussed. Good seeing you again Ted.

Today I am FINALLY under 215. The day of the show (see the link in the "More of the Journey" blog entry) I weighed in at 224 and today stepped on the scale at the Tezel club and it read
213(point something I can't remember). So that puts me around 41 pounds lost. Still not into my goal shorts but getting closer. Workout wise I only did a little abdominal work THEN 30 minutes on the elyptical followed by 20 minutes on the Tread Climber followed by 30 minutes of laps in the pool. My swimming has surprised me that I could go for that length of time but that's a good surprise. Since starting at the health club (Thanks again to SA Living & Spectrum clubs) I have been able to do more different exersizes than I have been doing before, especially swimming and I average 5 days a week in the club. The weights feel heavier than ever, and I am not lifting as much as I used to by a long shot but the body weight and inches are dripping off and that is the main goal. The Hip is doing fine and I saw my doc this past Wednesday and he gave me a good at-a-boy for the weight loss (his exact word were "that's to be commended"). Leading up to this whole weight loss thing were severe pains in my right hip that had me limping badly and even waking up in the night in pain. Recovery from the surgery also was no picnic but when Dr. Evans gave me the ok to do some low impact exercise I went for it. Mainly hiking at Eisenhower Park, our home treadmill, & bowflex and cutting my food intake was the key.

What I would say to anyone wanting to lose weight is this.

YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER YOUR FOOD INTAKE. Working out without proper eating is like putting bad gas into a great sports car. Since most of us want to LOSE WEIGHT we have to remember..."We are not a great sports car yet" BUT we are working on it. So in our case it is like putting bad gas into a clunker. It will run, but it usually sputters along the way. If you are not sure what to do, get to a dietician (in my case I eventually saw Heather "AWESOME LADY" King via Spectrum Clubs) or at least a good book (not a fad book) and start doing at least one thing that you can maintain. Add another, then another, then another good eating habit and low and behold one step at a time you will be onto a good eating "LIFESTYLE". If it's a diet and not a lifestyle, you will start the yo-yo going again.

YOU HAVE TO DO SOMETHING. Mainly make a decision. I said this to Shelly Miles via email but not on the show. Everyone know's how to go for a walk and most of us already know what foods to stay away from or cut down on. Make that decision and don't let anything stand in your way. Along this path, there were nights that I would cook a meal for my family, and a little something different for me...Or my dish had less or no sauce, or no bread and so on. This way I could eat with the family but with out the excess empty calories.
I did say don't let anything get in your way...This means be creative. Can you take your kids or spouse on your walks? What active energetic games can you play with your kids? Do you have a dog? Take him or her with you. In short...Every workout does not have to be 100 crunches, the treadmill, and weights. Include those close to you so eveyone will be enjoying you along your path to good health. Remember...The better "YOU" you can be, the better "YOU" everyone else will experience.

LET THE "SNOWBALL AFFECT" TAKE PLACE. Once you get started, and you see and feel some results you will be motivated to do more. An avalanche usually starts with a small break of compacted snow breaking lose. It picks up more snow as it goes. It eventually has the potential to take trees and houses and everything else in it's path. My first week I lost about 2 pounds. Some weeks I lost 3, some only one. Those weeks added up to now 40 pounds lost and several inches lost, and wearing clothes I could not wear before. I called it "Shopping in my own closet". More about the snowball. Eventually those around me started asking the typical question...How are you doing it? When they realized that I was doing something that any of them could do and that there was no big secret thing...Some of them started doing it to. Like the avalanche, others were getting swept up along with me. I know a snowball gets larger as you roll it but in this case think of the snow as fat. The more you lose, the more you will be able to do, the more you are able to do (and do) the more you will lose.

BEWARE OF DISTRACTORS. The biggest distractors are.
Missing meals.
Joining others in a double cheeseburger at lunch.
Missing workouts.
Listening to the common phrase..."Just once won't hurt you"

Let's go one by one.

Missing meals (mainly breakfast) and Joining others will happen if you don't have food with you. I bring my breakfast and lunch and snacks to work with me. I won't get hungry because I have food with me. I won't eat badly becasue I packed all the right things.

Missing workouts will happen if you don't realistically plan them into your day. More people that I talk to about working out all seem to have the same reason for not doing so..."I just don't have the time". We all have the same 24 hours use them wisely. Get a good 30 minute DVD or written routine you can do at home. If you have cable turn from the typical shows and turn to Fit TV and DO one of the workout shows. (Guess what...that channel also has healthy eating shows)
If you don't plan it, it usually won't happen.
If it happens unplanned, it is usually so sporadic that it will only be enough to make you feel exhausted

"Just one won't hurt"...DON'T LISTEN! YES IT WILL!
If I have an alcohol addiction, one drink can set me back. Addicted to bad foods? Stay away.
I can almost tell you the exact meal that ended each attempt at a trying to eat healthy. Why? Because these things triggered something that wanted more and more and more and more until poof it's months later and I can't fit certain clothes again.
Now this is important. YOU CAN GET BACK ON THE HORSE IF YOU HAD A SLIP.
If you ate one cheesburger, understand that it's one cheesburger and not a lifestyle. If you ate that entire cake? Same thing. You went to a BBQ and ate non stop for hours? Same thing. Just don't go from life event to life event with out an intent to eat healthy. Get a smaller piece of cake. Limit the amount of ribs and brisket and all the trimmings. Do a workout before you go. Take part in "ACTIVE" activities while you are there. If there are none, suggest some.
Distractors will make you a native to the worlds largest nation...PROCRASTINATION

Well this is enough of listening to myself ramble on. I hope someone reads this and get encouraged. Remember two things
Like Nike says..."Just Do It"
and??? Don't Quit.

I did all of this with my new hardware in place. You can do it to. CS
Look>>>>>>>>>>>>>My actual hip implant!------->

A New Day One

Well, this was Monday May 19 and my new day one.
I am now working out at Spectrum Clubs here in San Antonio "FOR FREE" thanks to SA Living & Spectrum Clubs and thanks to all of my encouraging friends, at church, here in town, and all over the US sending me emails of encouragement. The contest is over but life goes on. Next goal? Under 200 pounds. Donning my SpongeBob Bandana and workout clothes, I WILL make it. Next week I have an appointment with Registered Dietician Heather King to get my food intake in order. Till then Iwill keep steppin, walkin, lifting and stretching and logging all of my meals so she will see all of my "On my own" mistakes.

The above picture is me on the Precor Eliptical trainer. No shock, and kinda like cross between a cycling and running. The weight loss also has a lot less pressure on my new hip which allows me to do alot more much more comfortably.

See that picture below? Just imaging me thinking to myself..."oooohhhhh, that feels sooo good" Lower back stretch. Another Precor machine but for streching.
One of the restrictions with the new hip parts was not to break 90 degrees between my thigh and torso. I am recovering well and able to get well beyond that restriction.


I will post more soon so please come back. CS

More of the Journey

That is Claudia (13) on one arm and John (4) on the other. That's two of my three.

Well, by the time this picture was taken 4 weeks had gone by as well as 11 pounds. Over this weekend my workout suffered as did I. No treadmill, or bowflex or weights. This weekend it was Friday and Saturday replacing about 23 feet of Cedar Fence. Going to home depot, loading the wood, knocking down the old fence (except the post) and putting up the new was the workout of the weekend. I would take hiking and lifting anyday over that but because it was only about 23 feet or so of fence, there is much more to go. By Sunday, everything hurt, neck, back, legs and arms, hands and feet. I did a good curcuit on the Bow Flex Sunday night and today (Monday) I can just feel the ending of the work pains from Fri & Sat. My body fat is down a little also and I will look at that again tonight to be sure. One thing that still feels the burn is my sunburnt shaved head. Next time I will wear a cap or a bandana.

At this point I was around 21-22pounds lost.

I remember raising my shoulders and pulling in my stomach to get these pants on. NOW??? They're too big. The workout of the week or the last two weeks has been? Yard Work!!!
Walking while pushing a weight called a lawnmower that is not self propelled, raking leaves and grass, turning my compost pile, cutting over grown rose bushes (OUCH!) and other shrubs and more plain hard work outside. Up and down ladders and trying to finish my
out door place of rest on our back patio has been most of what I have been doing and it leaves me much more sore than any hike or weights. One other lifestyle change has been instead of taking a nap on Sunday between services I have been doing some of this work mentioned.

This is Shelly Miles, me and Leslie Bohl Jones.
I have been watching the SA Living Show for a few years now. I have found out through the show and emails we have sent back and forth that these two are a class act and very down to earth. Meeting them only secured what I had already known. What really secured this was my wife also saying how nice they both were. The day of the finale for the online losers was my wifes birthday and more importantly her day off from work. We went to the studio and had a great experience. We were allowed to stay after our segment of the show. Took this awesome picture then eventually made our way home for my wife to change clothes, got off to breakfast...(No food before the show, I had to weigh in that day) Another contestant (Marci) and I were given prizes for sticking it out online. I lost 30 pounds and Marci 32.

My wife Julia and I later went out to one of our favorite hikes at Pedernales State Park. We went for a short but challenging hike there because the hike is across an exposed rock river bed.

Where I am sitting here is not totally surrounded by water but there is also no direct or real
path to get there. Just jump some rocks and avoid the water and you are there.

That is me below and the beauty below right is my wife Julia. Iam soo glad that she likes to go hiking and likes the outdoors. Our honeymoon? We hiked several location between San Antonio and the Grand Canyon. Big Bend, The Catwalk outside of Silver City NM, The Grand Canyon, and Enchanted Rock were all hiking spots on our honeymoon. We also hiked on Mother's Day.

Well today I was right at 220 pounds this morning. My ultimate goal is between 160-170 so the road is before me and much work is to be done. Keep me in your prayers and come back to see the progress. God bless you all. CS