Week 24: Day 6: Work Events & Good Friends

I'm down 4 lbs from last week! This is good but not as good as I was hoping...so what went wrong?

Last week was the Employee Assistance Program Week so don't you think this should have helped me? Their idea of assisting the employees was by giving us muffins & Belgian Waffles first thing Monday morning and then cake Thursday afternoon! My problem is my addiction to carbohydrates (donuts, baked goods, chocolate etc.) so where they not helping me with this issue? I find it funny that these work place help programs encourage unhealthy eating. I guess they know that unhealthy food is a comfort to me!

The second event was a dinner at our good friends place. They are vegetarian and they're always making good food...we love visiting them! They know we're trying to lose weight so they always have a challenge on their hands when we come because I'm also a bit lactose intolerant so large amounts of dairy products our out of the picture. If I can keep to small portions then a visit to their place is OK but the food is always so darn good! We have decided we will not be sacrificing these dinner parties with our friends so I will just have to work harder to keep the portions smaller and drink more water while we're there.

These two minor brakes in my program caused me to get cravings at least 2 times last week in the evening. I had to have an extra chocolate protein shake on those nights. This extra food didn't make me gain weight overall but it did slow my loss this week.

I have one major goal for this next week and that's to get my food journal done everyday so they have a look at it next week. This may be able to help me out a bit so they can give me some tips. They're already a little worried about me because I'm not eating a variety of meals and the meals I'm eating are simple. Keeping the meals simple and the same is important so I can have continuity in my daily tasks because of my personality.

Have a great day!
-Ian

Week 23, Day 7: The Wagon & Homestead

So...it's been some time! I messed up the title and said it was week 27 when it was only week 23 now the link to this post is going to be all funny!

We bought a new house and in all the confusion we fell off the wagon!

I had my first weigh in in about 2 months yesterday and I gained back 16lbs. Now this made me only a little sad considering that I had lost about 50lbs before falling off the wagon. As of this post I have been back on the plan for just over 2 weeks and lost at least 3lbs already!

The new house has stairs that our apartment didn't have so that's some extra exercise I'm getting while trying real hard to get home renovations done. Turns out I'm not a plumber!

All in all I'm back in a good place after getting the fast food and chocolate cravings/binges out of the way for the last 2 months. Eating out also does a real number on your budget!

I have decided to make the plan as easy as I can even though I know this may cause a plateau by eating the same meals everyday. All my meals are as balanced (1/3 carbs, 1/3 protein, 1/3 healthy fats) as I can make to help prevent cravings. Each snack is about 300 calories and each meal is only about 400-500 calories for about 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day. With my BMR at about 2950 right now 2,000 calories should allow me to lose about a pound each day! Also, I'm taking the vitamins supplied by the program...everyone should at least take a multi-vitamin everyday. My new basic menu is as follows:

Breakfast 6:30am:
Protein Shake - 1-3 scoops protein powder, 1 teaspoon flax oil, 1/2 cup soy or almond milk, 4-8 ice cubes & 1/3 cup frozen berries or 1 tablespoon coco powder NOTE: You will not need as many ice cubes if you're using berries!

Morning Snack 9:30am:
1 medium apple, 2 ounces of cheese, 10 almonds

Lunch 12noon:
6-8 ounces of protein normally skinless chicken breast, 1-2 cups frozen mixed veggies

Afternoon Snack 3pm:
1 medium apple, 2 ounces of cheese, 10 almond

Supper 6pm:
6-10 ounces of protein normally chicken, pork chops or steak, 1-2 cups fozen mixed veggies, 1-2 cups some other fresh veggies

Late Night Snack 8pm:
Protein Shake - 1-3 scoops protein powder, 1 teaspoon flax oil, 1/2 cup WATER, 4-8 ice cubes & 1-2 tablespoons coco powder. No soy or almond milk to reduce the carbs but still helps my chocolate cravings.

I will adjust my basic diet as need be to stimulate weight loss...this may even mean having a cheat day every few weeks to help reset my body.

And AND I will also try to hit my goal of 10,000 steps each day but I think this will be easy if I'm still doing renovations around the house!

-Ian

Week 14 Day 7: After the Anger

So…

I just went on a long walk with my wife and we had a chance to talk about things.

Really we did have a good weekend but the frustration I had with cheating made my weekend not so go. I think my general negative experience I’m having with my life right now is making it hard for me to enjoy things that are good.

We did go Geocaching (Connect with me! Username: IanHopfe) this weekend! We didn’t find the cache closest to our house but I had fun and I think my wife would have had more fun if we remembered the bug spray!

Now, I have to fill out my stupid Food Journal…really what the hell is with this food journaling BS? I don’t understand how writing down what I had to eat will help my already anguished mental state about cheating.

Sorry there is still some frustration coming through.

Things should get better now that I had a great talk and walk with my wife!

-Ian

Week 14 Day 7: Heritage Weekend

We had a good long weekend exercise wise but again our eating has gotten the best of us.

Heritage Festival in Edmonton this weekend was great! We tried some food we normally can't get but we also ate ice cream. We walked all day around the festival so we figured an ice cream cone was fine.

Almost got heat stroke on the way home I think because I started to feel really sick to my stomach about a block before getting home. I had to sit in the dark with a fan blowing on me for a half hour before I could get myself to take a cold shower. Felt real good after that thanks to my wife convincing me to take one!

We ended up cheating for the rest of the day and that's not good. We did start the next day off well but we cheated again Sunday night. Today so far we have been good but the temptations are still there. It feels unfair that I have to have to watch what I eat when the rest of the world can eat what ever the HELL THEY WANT!!!

AKNFD;LNSAHKR;ELMF KJFNCLVVC FOKKJFDS CK CSJMC C !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Needless to say...I'm frustrated!

-Ian

Week 13 Day 6: First Kettle Bell Workout!

Yesterday my wife convinced me to go to the pool again...don't get me wrong I love the pool! I don't like that there has to be annoying people there! Creepy guys checking out my wife and then the same creepy guys walking around naked in the change room!

Well she wanted to spend some time on the elliptical so I brought by copy of The 4-Hour Body and headed to the stretching dumbbell area on the second floor of the pool. I read over the section on kettle bells and started my workout.

I started with the 20 pound kettle bell like 4HB recommends. The first set of 25 was not that hard! I almost thought I should get a heaver kettle bell for the second set but decided not to. Good thing...the second set was harder I had to really push out the last 2 and started to lose my form for the last 4.

The third set was OK till about 15 and then it got fun! I started losing my form at about 17 and really had to concentrate for the rest. The last 5 were a real challenge and made me feel like I did a great workout.

Took me about 15 minutes from start to finish with about 3 minutes rest between sets.

I plan to do it again sometime half way through the week maybe Thursday if my legs feel up to it. My legs were like Jello after the workout! I had some fun getting down the stairs to the basement to see my wife. Then even more fun trying to get up the stairs!

Bottom line...I enjoyed the workout and will be trying to continue!

-Ian

Week 12 Day 6: 50 Pound Detox

So this is day 6 of our 1 week detox and it’s going very well!

We had cheated a few times last weekend so my weight was at a high of 351 on Monday. Today my weight is 338! This detox has allowed me to lose 13 lbs so far this week!

That brings me to some good news…I have now lost just over 50 lbs!!!

I'm feeling good about myself and each day I feel like I’m coming out of some long dream. I’m waking up to my real life.

Exercise Update
What am I doing for exercise so far? Well I try to get 6000 steps per day, I have been trying to go swimming with my wife more often and finally I’m doing ab exercises (as per 4HB) 2 times per week.

-Ian

Week 12 Day 1: 100 Pound Detox

Since we have had trouble staying of program for the last few weeks we have been put on a special one week detox!

There is a new girl at the weight loss clinic that the company ships around to train staff. She also specializes in rapid weight loss! I'm very excited about this because she herself has lost 100 lbs!! It's nice to be getting info and advice from someone that has lost a lot of weight because you feel they understand you. If I have 150 lbs to lose and someone that has only lost 20 or 30 lbs is advising me I get in a mood...”Who are you to give me advice small fry!?!”

The excitement of being on the program has come back!

She has predicted about a 15 lbs loss for me and about 8 lbs loss for my wife in one week!

So what's the deal?

Well, first we had to spend MORE money to get extra supplements we don't have. Some to give us energy some to stimulate the thyroid and some to help clean the bowels.

Second, she cut our calories per day and gave us special meal plans. The meals are easy and good for on the go like chicken salad or smoothies. Our snacks are gone but we can still eat all the freedom food we want. Peppers, broccoli, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach and the other veggies low in natural sugars. If we are still hungry we're allowed to add a protein smoothie as a snack but I think we're trying to avoid that.

Third, she has recommended at least a 20 minute walk each day. We should lose a lot of weight without it but the loss should be very impressive with the walk each day.

Today was a first full day on detox and I'm already excited for our Wednesday appointment to see how much we lose!

Week 11 Day 7: Eat Less or Eat Healthy?

What is the formula for losing weight?

Food + Exercise = weight gain/loss

Exercise builds muscle but allows our bodies to burn more fat stores or use the food we eat faster so it doesn’t become stored fat. Sometimes people that start exercising get discouraged because they gain weight but this is due to the exercise. Solve this issue by tracking you Body Fat Percentage! We have a home scale that analyzes my body fat it may not be exact but it should allow you to track changes.

Eat less food to lose weight correct? Wrong!

You need to eat the correct balance of food MORE times per day. Get yourself on a balance diet that is about 40% protein, 30% unprocessed carbs & 30% healthy fats. This will help prevent cravings for processed carbs like junk food and pop.

Eat at least 4-5 balanced meals per day; women 4 and men 5. Make each of the 3 main meals about 400-500 calories. Each snack should be about 200 calories. Try to eat about every 2-3 hours you're awake. Try to eat your first meal within 30 minutes of waking up to get your machine running.

Why eat so much on a regular schedule? You body is a machine that processes food. When the machine is not working you are not burning extra calories to process your food. The longer you go without food between meals the more your body will think it's in a famine situation and start working slow to help save processed food as fat. Your body stores fat to use at a later famine. I use to never eat breakfast and not eat till 4pm. Anything I eat at that time would have been stored as fat even if I had a balanced meal.

You can also follow the Slow Carb Diet or a Low Carb diet to help you lose weight. I have never tried the Slow Carb Diet yet because we're still following our weight loss clinic balanced diet approach. The Slow Carb Diet encourages the same meals every day and allows one Cheat Day every week to allow you to deal with cravings and to reset your body. Low Carb Diets don't seem to allow for this reset but if you try to keep your meals varied and not the same thing every day then it should lessen the possibility of a weight loss plateau.

If you hit a weight loss plateau on any diet...have a cheat day! Get your cravings out of your system and don't worry about anything. Within two days of the cheat you will be back on track and losing the weight again.

Guilt and humiliation can be a very dangerous thing when it comes to long term dieting. It will only hurt you so give your self some slack. Plan to have a cheat day! Try one a month or one every two weeks. Changing your eating habits is a life changing situation and is harder than we think. Give it time don't feel guilty when you cheat just try not to cheat more than one day per week!

Look at that...I'm sounding all weight loss guru in this post! Lol I think I'm writing like this to encourage myself more than anyone. Over the last three weeks we have been cheating about every two days and that is not enough good days in between the cheat to keep losing weight. This is just enough to stay the same or gain just a little. Very demoralizing in any case.

We need to get back on track! I need to get back on track! The train has not crashed but we are slowing down to pick the fruit off the trees we pass to often.

-Ian

End Negative Trending Topics on Twitter

I'm very sad, mad and mostly humiliated about the current trending topic on Twitter #fatpeoplenightmares

Help me fight the #fatpeoplenightmares Trending Topic on Twitter

I struggle with my weight loss every day and trending topics like this only compound the problem of my weight loss goals personally AND society as a whole.

If you want to help me end negative trending topics on Twitter please visit the general help page for Twitter and complain when you see crap like this.

If Twitter doesn’t stop trending topics like this they are opening themselves and everyone that posted negative comments to class action law suits! I'm sure there are millions of over weight Twitter users just that feel the way I do!

Cyber Bullying?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/
http://www.cyberbullying.ca/

Hate Crime?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_crime
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/06/15/f-hate-crimes.html

Would Twitter allow a derogatory trend toward Jewish people or African People?

After you make your compliant please express your feelings with a comment below!

UPDATE: I think Twitter killed the negative trending topic! All I did was have healthy lunch and I came back to find the topic gone from the list! Nice! Thank you to the people that RT my tweets about this matter!

WELL I spoke to soon I see the topic is back!

-Ian

Week 10 Day 7: Fast Food Routine

So we get tired of cooking often because we both grew up in homes where take out or restaurant eating was normal. After I became and adult before I met my wife I normally had 2 meals per day the first was my junk food “dieing of hunger” meal about 2 to 4pm. My second meal of the day was around 8 to 10pm and it was a like 2 or 3 meals in one from the local Burger Baron.

Work days we have discovered that we can stay on plan eating our balanced meals and snacks. By the weekend we seem to be exhausted of cooking and prepping meals for the next day. This exhaustion and the erratic weekend schedules hunger sets in when we are out and all bets are off! It is so important to build a routine and stick to it when trying to lose weight.

You should also think about a backup plan. If you get off routine then you need something to get you back on plan. I have been doing very well against my cravings for chocolate almonds by having a chocolate smoothie now and again in place of a meal or snack.

I don't think my chocolate addiction is my main weakness any more. I can't stand to see my wife upset about being hungry or having cravings. I have a very hard time being strong and playing the tough or mean guy to say no to her. If I'm in the mood to cook it's not so bad but if I don't want to cook I give in and we go off plan. She has told me several times that she appreciates it when I'm strong when she is not but I still have problems. I'm going to work on this and see what happens.

We cheated twice this weekend and I gained 5 pounds...I'm so sad, mad but mostly ashamed. I don't every remember being skinny. Last time I was skinny I think I was in grade 1 so about 1984...what happened to that skinny little kid? I don't know how I got here. I don't really understand the events that created the fat kid that became the fat teen that became the fat adult. I have been trying to lose weight since I was a teen and it's taken me this long to figure it out but now I keep sabotaging my chances.

Me in 1983 or 1984, My first fish in Slave Lake.

-Ian

Week 9 Day 7: Salty Bosu Balls

Salt intake is keeping us from losing weight faster! I guess a problem with a balanced diet is when you have a higher than normal salt intake it has adverse affects on your water retention. One salty meal means weight gain or several days of no weight loss because of water retention.

So how can you help prevent the bad effects of high salt intake?

Lemon Water...and a lot of it!

I've been told real lemon is the best but we use the lemon juice in the big bottle. Start drinking it right after your high salt meal and continue for the next 2 days at least 3 times a day. Since you should be having a snack between meals this is another opportunity to have more lemon water making that 5 or more cups per day. I have blogged about it before but water intake is very important for weight loss and this will help you get the water intake you need each day.

In an attempt to start exercising more we went out to buy Kettle bells...but they didn't have any! Boo! But they did have a Bosu ball! So we spent the $120 to get the half ball just so we could do the 6 Minute Abs workout from Timothy Ferris's book The 4-Hour Body.

I only did 4 of the full motion crunches on the Bosu ball before writhing in pain on the floor for about 3 minutes. When I regained my composure I did about 8 Cat Vomit exercises but they didn't hurt as much as the crunches. I spent 3 days this week with extremely sore abs!

The plan was to do more again on Friday evening or if I was still sore I would wait longer to do them again. This falls in line with The 4-Hour Body rules of giving your muscles enough time to build and repair before working them again. I did the exercises again Friday and they still hurt like hell but I'm starting to feel real good about myself. The pain I got for 3 days after the first workout seems to gone already after a day and half so this might be a good thing.

On a side note: We found kettle bells at the local pool exercise room that we could use! This will save us over $100 because we don't have to buy them. Using kettle bells as a main weight loss exercise is also from The 4-Hour Body!

I have updated the My Stats page to reflect weekly averages for my body weight, body fat, BMR and BMI. My spreadsheet is setup to go from Sunday to Saturday so I will try to post these numbers every Saturday morning.

Also, I will be setting up an e-mail list that you can join to get my top weight loss tips and favorite recipes. I decided not to post them on the blog because some of this info is from sources that may object to me reprinting or sharing the info for free. So I figured an e-mail list will be a happy medium.

Have a great day,

-Ian

Week 8 Day 3: All Time Low 349 Canucks

First, I would like to express my disgust for the Vancouver Canucks fans that rioted in downtown Vancouver...

Second, I would like to thank the Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Fire Department, all Vancouver emergency services and support from surrounding areas for their hard work during the Canucks Riots. If you had to hurt someone last night to control the situation you have my support!

Third, after the display last night in Vancouver I would like to congratulate the Boston Bruins! The riot showed that Vancouver didn't deserve the Stanley Cup.

Forth, my hats off to CTV News for the great news coverage of the #canucksriot last night. CBC failed me again! Twitter had some great but shocking photos posted as always even the CTV news crew was following Twitter!

Fifth, after two days of weighing under I would like to announce that I have reached my first weight goal of 350 lbs! As of this morning I'm 349 lbs!

Have a great day,

-Ian

Week 7 Day 7: Demoralizing Success

I have lost just over 40 lbs but to me I barely notice. Yes my pants are getting a little baggy and I had to make new belt hole. Yes my shirts are fitting better. Looking in the mirror at my face...I still look the same. My co-workers have sad I look smaller especially in the face. Even so I feel a little demoralized because at this point I can't see the changes. I guess that must be what it's like to lose weight...everyone else notices but you can't.

We cheated 3 times in the last 2 weeks...it's not cravings it's not like we went out and bought a pile of chocolate bars and ice cream. We just went out to eat...we miss eating out! Cooking our own meals all the time is not normal for us. One the major reasons why I'm over weight is because out family eat out a lot and when I was single I eat out all the time. The cooking feels like a chore right now and I'm hoping like crazy that one day soon it will not fell like a chore.

I cost of not doing our cooking chore...I gain about 2 lbs every time we eat out even if we try to keep a balanced meal. I make sure I eat a large salad to start, drink 2 glasses of water with lemon at the meal and I get something lower in grains or carbs. I also try to do air squats 2 hours after to help my muscles absorb the calories.

On the up side we got a new Canon Rebel T3i digital camera! We've been thinking about this for along time and decided to just go get it! I will post some cool pics now and again here on the blog for you to check out.

We did try the Yoga DVD they give us as part of the program last week! The woman on it is very silly and made me fell stupid while trying to do these moves. I don't know if I'll do that DVD again I have a Yoga for Dummies DVD that I have not done in over a year so I may bring that back out.

Finally, I will be measuring my weight as a weekly average from now on. This will help make the stats page a little neater looking. Also, body weight can fluctuate a few pounds from day to day so this will help prevent single day gains from upsetting me. The 7 day averages with luck will show a 2-5 lbs loss each week. So I will be trying to update the stats page and a few others over the next week.

Have a great day,

-Ian

Week 6 Day 4: Energy Meltdown

OMG the energy I have this week is crazy!

This week we started the 3^rd phase of the weight loss program we're on and the supplements they give us this week are great. I have energy to take my lunch time walks. I have energy after work each day to make supper, do dishes, and prep our food for the next day with my wife!

I think I may be operating better on the same amount of sleep or less some days. We're taking calcium and magnesium supplements before bed each night. Calcium is a natural muscle relaxant and helps you to sleep. Let me tell you we've been having some great night sleeps since starting the program.

Since my walking goal is to hit 6000 steps each day the extra energy is really helping!

So this evening as we were prepping our meals for tomorrow we had a meltdown in the microwave!

PS – I'm losing an average of 5-6 lbs per week!

-Ian

Week 5 Day 5: Damage Control

On Monday May 23 we had a cheat day as per page 100 of The 4-Hour Body (4HB). We did it because my wife has been volunteering down a the evacuee center for the Slave Lake fire and she has not been able to follow the program to a tee. Different companies where donating lunches to the volunteers so she had not control over what she ate because they were told they wouldn't have any space to store personal things like lunches. This change is daily routine was bothering her and in turn affecting me so we planned an organized preemptive strike!

The Damage Control chapter in 4HB is an important part of shocking the body out of routine to help spur further weight loss. The basics of it are take special supplements that day, then do special yet very simple exercises at certain times through the day and eat a couple of helpful foods during the day. The results were interesting.

I gained 4.4 lbs in that one day...is this bad? Did the cheat day rules not work?

I also LOST 0.5% body fat that day! What does this mean?

I gained weight but lost body fat so...I gained muscle! I would have to say it was a very successful cheat day even though after 5 days my body is still sore all over from the exercises we did that day.

But the real damage control I was speaking about in this posts title would be the next two days after our cheat day.

Even though on our cheat day we got very full and sick from the crap food we were eating we ended up cheating the next 2 evenings. I think we cheated these two other times because we still couldn't get back onto our regular routine the very next day. We were also foolish enough to cheat the second 2 times without following the 4HB rules of cheat days or cheat meals. This is where my problems were this week.

We needed to get right back on program as strict as ever!

Well it's been 1 full day since getting back on full program and I'm already almost back to my weight and body fat pre-cheat day. On Monday I will be getting measured again and I plan on getting the numbers from the weight loss clinic to share with you.

I think after 3 good days on program with weekend the results will be good.

-Ian

Week 4 Day 5: 8813

I'm excited this week because I'm getting new found energy and just a little ambition to do things. Don't get me wrong I will always love movies and video games but now I feel like I can start doing other things. Now this is just a feeling...getting up and doing things is still a mental fight.

Some fights I'm winning this week are: 2 lunch time walks, 22 to 24 cups of water per day, new hole on my belt.

Because of my first lunch time walk I got a new personal best steps in one day 8813! It really didn't seem that hard to do that much walking. I'm already thinking of working to 10000 steps.

On our Wednesday visit to the weight loss clinic I was informed that for my size I should be drinking at least 22 cups of water per day. That's over 5 L man this has been a challenge both for drinking and pee breaks! After upping the water intake over 3 days I lost 2 more pounds so I can't really complain.

Making the new hole so my belt was smaller was fun! This little win made me feel really good...because my jeans were beginning to slide down. Don't worry, Ethel didn't see anything!

I have decided to start tracking my Body Mass Index (BMI) as well. It can't hurt to track something else. So check out the stats page to see updates for that. Also, you can find some helpful links to Wikipedia to help you understand BMI and Body Fat Percentage.

Have a great day,

-Ian

Week 4 Day 2: Water for Slave Lake

So this weekend 40% of my childhood town of Slave Lake Alberta was destroyed by a forest fire. I was so shocked when I first saw the pictures of the new town hall & library burning. Then I got scared because my little sister and step mother still live in Slave Lake. I also have extended family and friends in Slave Lake.

Slave Lake Town Hall & Library Burning

I couldn't find much news except for Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It was amazing the info that was getting out from people in Slave Lake but I don't know if this was helping or making things worse. I didn't hear from my little sister till almost 1am that night. They were safe and heading to Westlock. The roads out of town were closed due to 3 forest fires that seemed to be all around the town so they had to wait before being allowed to leave town.

I was in shock most of Monday and didn't go in to work. There was a chance my little sister and step mother may be dropping in to stay with us because they didn't know if their trailer in Slave Lake was destroyed.

By mid morning we heard word that my older sister and family who live in Wabasca, that is 123km north east of Slave Lake, may also be evacuated. So now we had a chance of having a big group of visitors. Turns out things are fine for now in Wabasca and my litter sister and step mother didn't have to come to our house.

With all this excitement I didn't get my 5000 steps Monday and I don't think I drank enough water. We did make it to the weight loss clinic and still lost a pound so I'm happy for that.

But I'm still sad about my childhood memories that went up in flames.

-Ian

Week 3 – Day 6: Water for Occam

This busy life of shopping, cooking, eating and now a bit of exercise is really taking a lot of our time. I may only try to post one or two times per week. Maybe one long post on Saturdays and a short post Monday or Tuesday nights what I will try for. Saturdays we have more time and Monday evening is our official weigh and measuring night at the weight loss clinic so I will want to update you with the my stats that day.

Speaking of stats I'm trying to record more information for comparison. Something that I'm hearing from everyplace especially from Timothy Ferriss's book “The 4-Hour Body” that I will talk to you more about below. So I will be posting pictures on my pictures page along with tracking my weight, body fat percentage and measurements. I will be posting all the stats on a new page and updating that as I go. If I'm really busy I may just update the stats page without posting a main blog post so check it even if you don't see something new here. Like I said I will try to post my stats every Monday or Tuesday.

Now for some bad news...I gained 2 LBS one visit to the weight loss clinic. It was a little upsetting but they gave me the suggestion that I may not be drinking enough water. I always thought I drank enough water before joining the weight loss clinic and after we joined I started drinking more water. I was averaging 10-15 cups of water before program and was getting 13-17 cups after joining program. So it was even more upsetting to have them tell me I need to drink more water!

Well the next day I began drinking more water and now I'm averaging 15-20 cups of water each day. Guess what? The next weigh in I lost 3 LBS!!!! Crazy what the right amounts of water can do. Funny but at the same time I was reading the part in Timothy Ferriss's book about how he recommends large amounts of water also. Needless to say I got this message compounded into my brain this past week and it paid off!

Now that we know the program is starting to work we have begun telling some of our friends and family about it. I was nervous about telling people because we have been trying to lose weight for so long I didn't want to hear any negative comments. We have chosen not to tell people about how much money we spent pre-paying for 25 weeks of the program again just to avoid any negative comments. Our health is important and we are at the breaking point.

Two friends we told last night where very supportive and asked us a lot of positive questions while giving us a few tips. The experience of telling them was better then I expect from say our close family members. These friends are very into cooking so they got very interested in our meal plans and we even made plans to have them over for a healthy smoothy tasting. This should be fun we have it planned for two weekends from now.

Our friends were also very interested in the vitamins and supplements that we're taking as part of the program. When we joined the weight loss clinic the girl doing our consultation was explaining the program and showed us a book called “Nutrisearch Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements” by Lyle MacWilliam. This book shows independent research about the quality and absorption rates of over 1500 nutritional supplements available in the United States and Canada. This was the real kicker that got me to agree to dish out the money for the program. The company that makes the weight loss clinic's vitamins we would be taking got a 5 out of 5 star rating! It's crazy but common big name vitamins like Centrum rated 1 star or less and many of it's products rated 0 stars. Anyway I think this book will be very useful when you're trying to choose the right vitamins for yourself or family.

4-Hour Body – Review Part 1

So the new book I bought last weekend “The 4-Hour Body” by Timothy Ferriss is great! Don't bother reading any more of my review because if you want to transform your body, lose weight, gain muscle, recover from any injury, improve sleep or improve your sex life you need this book...BUY IT!

Ok...I'm a little mad that I spent all that money joining the weight loss clinic when all I needed was this book! That being said the money spent has been a real motivator so I don't really have any regrets. My plan is to stay with the weight loss clinic for the full 25 weeks we paid for and lose as much weight so we can adjust to a new healthy lifestyle. While doing that I will begin implementing some of the ideas set forth by Timothy.

The ideas Timothy sets forth in his book are simple to the point of non-believable at first. He always backs up his crazy ideas with research of top people and pictures or facts of his personal experience.

Have you heard of Minimal Effective Dose (MED) or Occam's Protocol?

That's when taking a certain amount of a drug or doing a certain amount of something is the minimum amount needed to get a result. You only need 1 or 2 pain killers to get rid of your headache so why take 3 or 4? In regards to bodybuilding if you want to gain muscle mass you only need to do enough exercise and the right exercise to stimulate the hormones in your body to start building muscle THEN give your body several days of rest. Muscle building hormones stay in your body building muscle for days and over training can hinder your muscle growth.

Occam's Razor: “Entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity” or rephrased as “The simplest answer is usually the correct answer ” but I like to say KISS – Keep It Simple Silly!

Occam's Protocol page 193 of his book is what I plan to be using to gain muscle mass in the weeks to come. I may not start if for a few weeks as we adjust to our healthy lifestyle more. The Protocol is a workout plan that has 2 different workouts that should only take about 30 minutes to do and are alternated every 3 or 4 days. So workout A today then 4 days later workout B another 4 more days before workout A again and so on for about 4 hours of workout time per month. This is where the book got it's name...you only need to work out 4 hours per month to build a great body!

I also read the section on weight loss but I will not get into that until after we complete the 25 weeks at our current program. At the start of the book Timothy recommends reading the basic parts of the book first and then reading the parts that interest you like a reference book. If you're only looking to gain muscle mass then just read those pages or just read the pages on improving your sex life.

I will post more reviews of the book another time also I will not be updating my stats here because I'm about to build that new stats page to keep everything in order.

Have a great day!

-Ian

Week 2 - Day 6: Weekend Mayhem

So for the last two weeks we have had to develop a whole new daily routine. Adjustments had to be made to account for our new found cave man hunting and gathering life of shopping and cooking. I’m a big fan of routine and I hate change to my routine!

This brings us back to the weekend mayhem…weekends just are not working with our new routine! We like to sleep in so that puts breakfast at least 2 hours late so our snack is late or doesn’t happen because lunch needs to be made. Then you spend time out of the house shopping or driving around no place near a fridge of kitchen so afternoon snack is delayed.

This forces you to eat a snack with a meal which you shouldn’t do because you need the food intake at intervals throughout the day to keep your metabolism going. So having no food kicks your body into starvation mode making the extra big meal that includes snacks to spike your glucose levels! This in turn spikes your insulin levels that are the cause of most cravings.

In short:

Change in my routine = cravings and/or binging!

Well, I would like to say even though we had a change in routine I did not get any cravings so binging didn’t happen. I think this has something to do with the great vitamins we’re taking that are part of the program we’re doing. They did say we would get energy in the second week.

The vitamins we’re taking are giving me more energy and the funny thing is I don’t think I really noticed when I gained the energy. I think it was a slow process over the last week or so.  We got a lot of stuff done today and I almost got my 5000 steps. I’m going to try harder to get some independent walking in when I can. That being said…I had the opportunity to take a walk on my lunch break…and…I didn’t. I think I have a mental block to exercise when I have free time. I think it must be my childhood of video games and movies then my teen years of Internet addiction stopping me from being active.

The 4-Hour Body

On a different note I bought a new book today called “The 4-Hour Body” by Timothy Ferriss. I’m going to read through it and try to add a few of the hints and tips he talks about to my routine. I’ll will you in with some tips now and again if I find something interesting.

Weight update:

Saturday May 7: 369 lbs

That’s a total loss of 22 lbs so far!

Have a great day,

Ian

Week 2 - Day 4: 5000 Steps

 So I wanted to tell you about the exercise the program is having us do…not much right now.

For the first week they didn’t want us doing much at all as we did the detox phase of the program. This is because after a day or two we would feel tired and possibly have headaches or a foggy brain. The toxins in our bodies were being released at this point helping to improve our liver function and the function of our body in general. They really stressed the need to drink a lot of water during this phase to help flush our systems.

Not really a fun time and certainly not a good time to begin a hard core exercise routine. I spent too much time trying not to give in to my chocolate and ice cream addictions in no way would I have had the ability to concentrate on exercise.

This week as we started phase to we started taking metabolism boosting vitamins, we got pedometers and a Yoga DVD. The vitamins are giving us our energy back thank goodness! They didn’t tell us to start using the Yoga DVD yet but they did tell us to use the pedometers.

My pedometer reading today!

5000 steps per day is the first goal they gave us. Sounds like I lot and my wife though she would have trouble getting to that but I thought it wouldn’t really be that hard. Well it turns out my wife is getting 6000 to 7000 steps per day easy making me look very bad. I’m barely getting over 4000 steps on days we don’t go shopping and just under 5000 on shopping days.

I have decided I need to add some extra steps somehow:

• Short walk a lunch time
• Short walk during my 15min brakes
• Short walk right after work because I have about 5-10min I have to kill so I don’t show up to soon to pick up my wife from her work.

If anyone has any simple ideas please post a comment!

Today I feel good but at our visit to the clinic today I only lost 1lbs and my wife stayed the same. I think maybe it’s our activity level and maybe a few small changes we can make in our food. I’m trying to avoid any changes to our food so more activity would be better.

Have a great day,

Ian

First Week Update

The first week and a half was HELL!

Sorry for not keeping you updated on a daily bases as was my plan but if you read on you will see why the long period between posts.

The First few days were crazy!

The program we joined gives you massive amounts of high quality vitamins all the time but the first week is the detox phase. In detox our bodies begin to expel all the built up toxins in our body and jump start proper organ processes. This is all about getting ready for long team weight loss with a better running body.

So my wife and I have both started this program and that’s a good thing because one person without the help of their spouse will have a hard time. Grocery shopping and cooking, more grocery shopping and a lot more cooking…this is taking a very large amount of time and effort to make this kind of change. Especially when we only cooked maybe twice a week at home and the rest of the time we ate out. Fast food mainly on the way home…we love the Wendy’s Triple Baconator!

I now know what it is like to be a cave man! Anytime I’m not a work I’m shopping for food or cooking food we are spending all our time just trying to stay alive just like the cave men and hunter gatherers of the past.

To make things worse in the first few days of detox you get tired! It was so hard to keep motivated to make that next meal or snack. 8 hours of work, visit to the weight loss clinic at least 3 times per week for at least an hour for coaching, 1-2 hours of shopping after each visit to the clinic finally 1-2 hours cooking supper making snacks and lunch for the next day. By the time you’re done it’s 9 or 10 time for bed.

Being healthy and eating right is a hard job. Changes like this can’t happen overnight and especially with no help if you’re trying to lose weight on your own.

Thank god for the coaching sessions and the feeling of accountability I’m getting. We have to track all our food, wear our pedometer all day and report back to our coaches where we get weighed every time we visit and measured every week.

They help us plan our meals and print us off a shopping list for our meals. This is a great thing but when you don’t have all the basic ingredients in your home already the first few days are very expensive for shopping. We are buying strange oils and spices we would never think to buy. A big problem we had the first week was trying to buy the proper amounts. A regular person doesn’t have a metric to imperial conversion calculator on them at the store but we do now.

My wife downloaded a great app for her iPhone. Without the app we were buying very large portions of food compared to what they were allowing us to eat in the mail plans. You don’t think right…you buy what you would normally have bought thinking it would be about the same. WRONG

After a week our shopping trips are faster and cheaper because we know what we want and how much. Why pay for something you won’t use?

We are still adjusting to the lifestyle of healthy balanced eating and are 3 days into week two.

Week two we start a 28 day metabolic booster phase to help bring up our energy and burning fat faster. They are getting us to concentrate more on beginning some basic activity like trying to walk 5,000 steps per day. Nothing extreme because how many obese people you know that like or can jog 5km each morning? During the second phase we should continue to lose weight at a fast pace.

Incidentally the program we started guarantees 2lbs loss every week! For the price we paid it better work. We had a few days of buyer’s remorse about the amount of money we spent but in the end nothing else we were doing was working in fact we each gained 40-60lbs since we got married in 2010. The price is a BIG motivator for me!

Anytime I think I’m going to brake and cheat on the program I think of the money. I money we spent was the start of our savings to buy a house when we start having a family but because we’re both over weight we can’t seem to get pregnant so losing the weight and becoming more healthy is more important to us right now.

So…What did I lose in the first week?????

Monday April 25: 391lbs

Monday May 2: 375lbs

In my first week alone I lost 16lbs and my wife lost 6lbs but everyone know men lose faster and I have more to lose anyway.

We were supposed to visit the weight lose clinic tonight but we needed some sort of break in the pattern of work, clinic, cook, eat, shop, sleep, work, clinic, cook, eat, shop, sleep and so on. So tonight we came home cooked and eat only! My wife has time to visit a friend and I had time to post this blog!

Now for some parting notes:

• I feel like I have a bit more energy but nothing like wanting to run around the block.
• I can’t really notice the 16lbs loss at this point because I’m such a big guy. I don’t think I will notice till I’m down 30 or 40lbs.
• I do feel optimistic! This will work for us and that is giving me extra strength to continue.
• I will try my best to post something every day and I do plan to fill in the other pages of my blog when I get a chance.

Have a great day,

Ian