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