Stinking Plateau...

I have been stuck at the same basic weight for the past 6 months. Someone said, "There is not plateau, you just get lazy or stop caring." I do not agree at all! Even though the scale has not really moved, I am losing shirt and pant sizes and still making progress. But I still want the scale to move DOWN! I am not afraid to ask for help, so I have and here is some of what I was told. I need to become a "natural" eater. I need to "accept" that I may be at my comfortable weight; not everyone is skinny.

I will not accept this and I do not understand what half of all of this means. One thing for sure, none of this weight loss stuff even makes sense any more. I spoke with my doctor on Friday and he is so happy with my progress and he does feel I am in a dangerous and vulnerable position to go back to old habits so he spelled some things out for me. What is happening in natural and normal. My body might be comfortable right now but it will not stay at this place and I need to continue to work hard. He drew out this diagram to help my understand.

There are really big words he threw in which I not going to attempt to spell but there are things going on in my body which will try and put the weight back on. The first 6 to 18 months were easy and the weight came of fast. It will come of slower from here on but it will come off! Just do not go back to where I was!

OK: Short term goal...

249 pounds by March 9, 2015

What should my long term goal be? 225? 200?






Shoulder is an issue right now! Hope I can get past this!
Check back and I will try and keep posted on what is happening!

Progress? Well maybe.. yes and no...

Once again, I have fallen off of my blogging band wagon. Same on me!

Yes, I am still working on my weight loss journey and have had some success and not so much at the same time. I am stuck in the dreaded plateau hell for sure. I heard that there really is no such thing as a plateau. "You are just not paying as much attention as your were before" is what I hear from the people which know what they are talking about. I know this: The scale has not really moved in almost 5 months. Have been up and down with in a five pound range so I guess this could be called maintenance time. Yet, I still restrict my calorie intake and have strongly ramped up my workout and exercise routine. So why no loss? I do not know but I think it is a mental thing!

There has been progress though. I am pretty much a solid 2XL shirt now. Remember when I started and I was at a 6X? My pant size is currently a 46 which is down from I have no idea, but I would estimate my waist was in the 70 range (YIKES). I have a 3X Pink Floyd shirt which I thought I would never get into again and when I put it on and it it fit ok (not perfect, a little small), and this is that point where I feel like I might be able to get into an extra large shirt (Depending on the maker). Might feel like that PF shirt. I did purchase a goal pair of jeans, size 44 waist. Unless I start to drop some pounds, it might be a while before that happens.

The exercise is rocking! I continue to challenge my self each and every day and workout. My goal for now is to walk an extra mile, 5 days a week, on top of what I am doing at the gym. It might be a walking the dog type of situation but as long as I can hit that mile, I am pretty happy. Have really piled on the weights as well at the gym. I am looking for heavy and more intensity in my workouts.

No rants for now. I feel good and strong! But I need for the pounds to start coming off again.
Going to work out this mental thing real soon!!

I am a beast now!

I need to do better..

I really need to get back in the swing of things and get back to blogging!

Nothing ground breaking to report. Down 157 pounds, but I have run into the dreaded plateau! Working through it the best I can. Have not been able to exercise quite as much as I like, but we are in food show season. Very hard on the body and mind.

From my last post, I ended up with no big news. I actually sent in an application and video for a contest on "The Chew" and did not get selected. That is the breaks and the way things go. They missed out on a great chef!

Over the past few days, I have seen myself starting to fall back into some bad habits. Once I can get back into my routine, I will feel much betting and be back on track. I am dealing with a bunch on bad emotions caused from stress at work and do not know how to deal with everything. I love my job and what I do, but at the moment, there are people I have zero respect for and they really grind on my nerves. I know they would fire my at the first opportunity and I would not at all be surprised to see this happen in the next few weeks. I just have a hard time answering to people which do not know what I do, think they know everything, and can point fingers while not lifting one to help.

Looking forward to getting over this stall out and getting back on track!

Updates

Check back here real soon because I may have some really good, BIG news!! 

Have a few updates to throw at you! First off, I finally made it past the 150 pounds lost mark; 152 to be exact. Still much work to do but I am stoked how far I have come.

I had another round of blood tests and my A1C came back at a 5.3 which is normal. I was so happy to see this number. Was maybe expecting a 5.7 or 5.5 at the best. Does not mean the diabetes scare is over! I now have to be more diligent than ever! 

Exercise is progressing at a great pace. Sometimes, I tend over to it, so I am still trying to learn. I have to remind myself all of the time that this is not about a number (scale), but about getting healthy. 

So where do I go from here? I think I am just going to take it 25 pounds at a time and see what happens. Another 25, 50, 75, 100? If I can do this over the next 1 year, I will be happy with everything and beyond. My real reason for this journey is to get healthy and break this yo-yo I have been messing with my whole life. If I get to a point where I am completely comfortable, I will leave it there. I really think another 100 pounds is impossible, but I also never thought I would be at this point either! Maybe anything is possible!

Next goals: 
-25 more pounds by March 31.
-50 pounds by June 30. (200 total)
-75 pounds by September 30.
-100 pounds by December 31. (250 total)

If I can get down to that 225 - 250 pounds lost range, skin removal surgery could become a need and option. That would be a really long time! Any way, the money could mean a stop to that, and no surgery at all.

It's been a long time...

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted so there are some good things to update:

My physical therapy did not work, and it did actually make my hip situation a little worse. I did get a few cortisone shots and this has helped greatly!!

I was really not able to do much exercise from July 2nd until just a few weeks ago. I got really tired of not moving as much as I should so I joined up with a gym and my pain situation has improved greatly since then!
I am not really a gym person but I have really enjoyed this experience over the past few weeks!

I am now down 141 pounds and just 10 pounds away from my goal of 299 pounds by my next doctors appointment on November 27. I hope I can get there!

A victory: I dropped another pant size. OK, I know this does not sound like a big deal, but when I started this, I was probably around a 74 (+) inch waist. This equals a 6X pant size. I could not really even tell you what jeans size I was because I do not think I fit into anything I had. Then I did squeeze into a 64 inch pant size, but that was still way too small. Today, I got into a 48 inch pant comfortably. When I left college, I was a 44 inch pant size.

So where do I go from here?? Let me got through this next 10 pounds and then I will make some decisions.
And maybe post another picture as well. It is good to be exercising intensely again!

KCCO

It has been a long week...

Had a colonoscopy on Monday and everything went well. Nothing abnormal was found and one small pollop was removed. My hip is still hurting but I am starting some physical therapy so I hope this helps. My second a1c test results are in and it was the same. Great it did not go up, but disappointing that it was not lower since I have eliminated so much sugar, starch, and processed crap from my daily diet. Frustrated today!. But I feel good and am feeling healthy!

KCCO!!

WOW!

So I had really personally not realized how much of a physical change I have been through over the past year. It has been a long but good year. 120 down but still more to go. The pictures were eye opening.

Still having a few health issues. I am tired of the doctors office, being poked, prodded, and scanned. Maybe this will let off here in a few weeks. Still one big hurdle to tackle. Will fill in more as I get closer to the day.

Have had a few questions about what am I doing? What is my secret? It is pretty simple: Less energy in, more energy out, low carbs. Looks like this: ( - food) + (+exercise) - refined sugar and carbs = weight loss for me. Everyone is different so who knows what works for who?
I know shear determination is the binding force for everything!

KCCO for now!

Jeff