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Went to the doctor today for a follow-up on my June visit and for the first time in forever was told that I don't have to lose weight. All my numbers are fantastic at 189, and she said that I will be just peachy if I stay between 185 and 189.
I think I'll try to lose a little more, maybe down to 175-180 before figuring out how to maintain at a constant weight. Thankfully, given my method, maintenance shouldn't be too complicated -- just a matter of giving myself a few more calories each day. I'm already eating everything, so there's no change in what I'm eating, just a little increase in quantity.
Overall, it's pretty cool. I didn't lose half my weight, but I did lose 37.75% of my body weight in only 206 days. Yes, and that's with going out to eat with friends and travel and my 50th birthday, and a few beers. Sorry to boast -- that's not something I do much, but it's kind of exciting to have accomplished something this ambitious in this short a time.
I'll have a follow up post this weekend listing the 10 most important things I learned from this experience. I'll also add some before/after pics for some visual motivation.
18 Şubat 2013 Pazartesi
Is it wrong for a man to love a tortilla?
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There may be two things which have been indispensable in helping me achieve my weight-loss goals. The first is the support of my wife -- I don't think that I could have changed my lifestyle had she not changed hers similarly.
The second is a tortilla. Yes, a tortilla. Actually, somewhere over 400 tortillas, but all of one type.
La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Low Carb High Fiber Tortillas. Yes, the name is long and unwieldy, so long that saying it all requires you to burn 10% of the calories you get from eating one. But it is truly a miraculous product. Who knew that a 62g tortilla, with only 80 calories, could also have 8g of protein and 12g of fiber. Wow! And for those times when you don't need as much tortilla real estate, there's a smaller version that's only 50 calories but with 5g of protein and 7g of fiber.
What do I do with them?
I buy mine mostly from Costco (they may or may not be at your local Costco), and I horde them in my freezer (they seem to store just fine, nearly indefinitely, when you put them in Ziploc freezer bags and suck the air out with a straw before closing to create a near-vacuum). Costco discontinued them once before, but they're back, so I hope they stay available, but I'm not counting on it. My local Safeway has both the small and large versions, and they seem to put them on discount fairly frequently on my Safeway shopper's card. OR, if you're desperate, you can buy them direct from La Tortilla Factory, but the pricing's more than at the local grocery *and* you have to pay for shipping.
You may be wondering, "What's so special about these tortillas? We have a bunch of tortillas at our local grocer, many of them with healthy names, and they must be just as good." Well, there are a few
Mission Tortillas (which seem to be one of the more widely distributed national brands) has a 67g large 96% fat free tortilla. You'd think that would be a great alternative, but it has only 5g of protein, 3g of fiber, and it's over double the calories at 180. Ouch! They do have a nutritional powerhouse of a tortilla, the 70g Carb Balance tortilla which has 9g of protein and an incredible 26g of fiber, but it's 210 calories. If you're like me and eat 2-3 tortillas per day, the difference between about 200 calories (La Tortilla Factory) and 500 calories (Mission) would add up fast.
P.S. In researching this, I came across Tumaro's which offers a 8" tortilla that's 50 calories with 5g of protein and supposedly available in my area. I'll have to check it out.
The second is a tortilla. Yes, a tortilla. Actually, somewhere over 400 tortillas, but all of one type.
La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Low Carb High Fiber Tortillas. Yes, the name is long and unwieldy, so long that saying it all requires you to burn 10% of the calories you get from eating one. But it is truly a miraculous product. Who knew that a 62g tortilla, with only 80 calories, could also have 8g of protein and 12g of fiber. Wow! And for those times when you don't need as much tortilla real estate, there's a smaller version that's only 50 calories but with 5g of protein and 7g of fiber.
What do I do with them?
- Low-calorie giant breakfast burritos with egg whites, low fat/nonfat cheese, and salsa
- Wraps, wraps, wraps! Chicken, pastrami, veggie burgers, veggie dogs, you name it.
- Pseudo-naan to go with Indian entrees
- I've even been known to eat them on their own in a pinch.
I buy mine mostly from Costco (they may or may not be at your local Costco), and I horde them in my freezer (they seem to store just fine, nearly indefinitely, when you put them in Ziploc freezer bags and suck the air out with a straw before closing to create a near-vacuum). Costco discontinued them once before, but they're back, so I hope they stay available, but I'm not counting on it. My local Safeway has both the small and large versions, and they seem to put them on discount fairly frequently on my Safeway shopper's card. OR, if you're desperate, you can buy them direct from La Tortilla Factory, but the pricing's more than at the local grocery *and* you have to pay for shipping.
You may be wondering, "What's so special about these tortillas? We have a bunch of tortillas at our local grocer, many of them with healthy names, and they must be just as good." Well, there are a few
Mission Tortillas (which seem to be one of the more widely distributed national brands) has a 67g large 96% fat free tortilla. You'd think that would be a great alternative, but it has only 5g of protein, 3g of fiber, and it's over double the calories at 180. Ouch! They do have a nutritional powerhouse of a tortilla, the 70g Carb Balance tortilla which has 9g of protein and an incredible 26g of fiber, but it's 210 calories. If you're like me and eat 2-3 tortillas per day, the difference between about 200 calories (La Tortilla Factory) and 500 calories (Mission) would add up fast.
P.S. In researching this, I came across Tumaro's which offers a 8" tortilla that's 50 calories with 5g of protein and supposedly available in my area. I'll have to check it out.
Protein dense foods
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When I started out on this endeavor, I was eating only 1400 calories and exercising quite a bit, every day. Even later, as I raised my calorie count to 1800, I still faced the challenge of getting my necessary protein (100g or more) at that calorie level.
Doing the math, you can see that I need to average almost 6g of protein per every 100 calories eaten to get the protein I need. That's not easy considering that a) a lot of foods aren't nearly that protein-dense and b) I didn't want to subsist on nothing but chicken and tuna indefinitely.
So, when I read product labels, I'm very tuned into protein/calories and I love it when I find items that have 1g of protein for every 10 calories (there aren't that many of them). Here's a picture of a few of my favorites.
Several of these, I combine into my almost daily breakfast burrito. Of course, chicken, tuna, and certain other lean meats make the grade. And of course, there's my absolute favorite tortilla; it's amazing to me that a tortilla can have this high a protein/calorie level. And some forms of greek yogurt meet or exceed the 1g/10 cals goal; Dannon's Light & Fit Greek has 12g of protein and only 80 calories!
Note: Dannon's packaging is VERY confusing. The Light & Fit Greek package looks almost exactly like the Light & Fit non-Greek yogurts which are much lower in protein. Currently, the Greek version with all the protein only comes in 4-packs and looks as pictured above.
The only nit some would pick with the Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt is that it uses artificial sweeteners (sucralose and ace K) to keep the calorie count down to 80. If you want to avoid those sweeteners, I've found that Lucerne's non-fat 2X PLAIN protein yogurt (in the topmost picture of this post) has only 100 calories and 14g of protein, and you can add some honey or sugar to sweeten it up and still be above the 1:10 goal.
My other recent find is the Pure Protein energy bars. I try to eat regular food rather than energy bars as much as possible, but I like being able to throw one in my bag in case I run out of energy during the day when nothing's available. Unlike many high calorie energy bars, these provide pretty good protein at a reasonable calorie count -- the strawberry shortcake version has 19g of protein in a 180 calorie bar, and their other flavors are nearly as good. Compare them to the label of your favorite brand and you might want to give Pure Protein a try. I was enjoying Think Thin bars, but these are about 15-20% lower in calories (15-20% smaller, too), and a little more protein dense.
Doing the math, you can see that I need to average almost 6g of protein per every 100 calories eaten to get the protein I need. That's not easy considering that a) a lot of foods aren't nearly that protein-dense and b) I didn't want to subsist on nothing but chicken and tuna indefinitely.
So, when I read product labels, I'm very tuned into protein/calories and I love it when I find items that have 1g of protein for every 10 calories (there aren't that many of them). Here's a picture of a few of my favorites.
Several of these, I combine into my almost daily breakfast burrito. Of course, chicken, tuna, and certain other lean meats make the grade. And of course, there's my absolute favorite tortilla; it's amazing to me that a tortilla can have this high a protein/calorie level. And some forms of greek yogurt meet or exceed the 1g/10 cals goal; Dannon's Light & Fit Greek has 12g of protein and only 80 calories!
Note: Dannon's packaging is VERY confusing. The Light & Fit Greek package looks almost exactly like the Light & Fit non-Greek yogurts which are much lower in protein. Currently, the Greek version with all the protein only comes in 4-packs and looks as pictured above.The only nit some would pick with the Dannon Light & Fit Greek Yogurt is that it uses artificial sweeteners (sucralose and ace K) to keep the calorie count down to 80. If you want to avoid those sweeteners, I've found that Lucerne's non-fat 2X PLAIN protein yogurt (in the topmost picture of this post) has only 100 calories and 14g of protein, and you can add some honey or sugar to sweeten it up and still be above the 1:10 goal.
My other recent find is the Pure Protein energy bars. I try to eat regular food rather than energy bars as much as possible, but I like being able to throw one in my bag in case I run out of energy during the day when nothing's available. Unlike many high calorie energy bars, these provide pretty good protein at a reasonable calorie count -- the strawberry shortcake version has 19g of protein in a 180 calorie bar, and their other flavors are nearly as good. Compare them to the label of your favorite brand and you might want to give Pure Protein a try. I was enjoying Think Thin bars, but these are about 15-20% lower in calories (15-20% smaller, too), and a little more protein dense.
Happy First Anniversary!
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One year ago, I weighed 303.6 lbs. Today I weighed in at 157. Pretty amazing, huh? I didn't quite cut myself in half, but I did lose 48% of my body weight, which turned out to be plenty for me. My wife, as you can see did pretty amazingly, too!
One year ago, I weighed 303.6 lbs. Today I weighed in at 157. Pretty amazing, huh? I didn't quite cut myself in half, but I did lose 48% of my body weight, which turned out to be plenty for me. My wife, as you can see did pretty amazingly, too!
- I went from a 48+" waist size to 30". When I started, I couldn't buy most pants at Costco because they didn't carry sizes big enough for me. Now, I can't buy most pants at Costco because they don't carry sizes small enough for me.
- I went from a size XXL or even sometimes XXXL (and in Villebrequin swimsuits, a scary 6XL -- they've got a crazy size system) to wearing S (and even that's sometimes too big).
- I went from not being able to run at all (50 yards would have had me bright red and sweating like a pig) to now being able to routinely run 10K a couple of times a week. I've run a maximum of 11.2 miles in one stretch, and I can run 1.5 miles in 12 minutes.
- I went from not being able to do a single good pushup to being able to do 200, albeit in sets of 10. My maximum continuous pushups is probably around 40.
- I went from having to buy business class seats (which were sometimes snug on some Asian carriers) or an extra seat on airplanes to being able to comfortably fit in coach. On the other hand, my butt is bony now, so the seats are still kinda uncomfortable, but at least I don't have to pay any extra money to fly.
- I've been "maintaining" my weight below where my doctor told me I was finished losing for 135 days. I've actually dropped about another 20 lbs over that period, but I'm happy at my current weight and size and have been locked in for a month now.
- My cholesterol, which was already only 132 before I started, is now under 100. All my other vital stats look great.
- My lifestyle is dialed in now. Healthy living is routine for me, not an aberration. I expect that I will continue to food diary forever (I have a friend who's been doing it for over five years now), but that's OK with me -- it's worth it.
- I've gone from being a hot guy who sweats all the time to being a cold guy -- my heating bill is much higher this winter (but my AC bill will be lower next summer, so maybe that will even out).
- I have to remember not to run up and exuberantly greet old friends who I haven't seen in a while because they don't recognize me and tend to freak out at a "stranger" who greets them that way.
I'm speaking at Ignite Seattle on 2/20
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Ignite Seattle is a quarterly event where a bunch of people get to give a 5-minute, 20-slide presentation on stage about a topic they're passionate about. Well, this Wednesday night (February 20th), I'll be one of the 14 people speaking at Ignite #19, and I'll be talking about what I've learned in losing 140 pounds in about 10 months. The event is at Town Hall in Seattle (no, not City Hall) with doors opening at 6:30 for pre-event networking and then the talks start at 8pm.
If you're interested in attending, here is the link to Ignite Seattle and here is the link for tickets (they're $5).
I hope to see you there!
If you're interested in attending, here is the link to Ignite Seattle and here is the link for tickets (they're $5).
I hope to see you there!
17 Şubat 2013 Pazar
Off Topic: Nancy's Free Selections Survey List
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I just wanted to let you know I am slowly updating my survey list and today I updated YouGov America, LiveWire Research, and Palm Research. I plan to update it more each week since I haven't really worked on it since I created it which was March 2011 according to the bottom of this post. By the way, the updates are basically my most recent experiences in the survey panel. I hope this helps you out.
I made a list of all the survey sites I have joined. For each survey listed it tells the minimum cash out, what the rewards are, how many surveys I've done and how many points/dollars I have. I plan to cash out soon which is the main reason why I made it. I will update it when I cash out, receive payment and when I join a new survey site. There are many sites listed.
If you'd like to check it out you can click here or just click on the "Survey List" tab at the top of the page.
This was originally posted on March 3, 2011.
I made a list of all the survey sites I have joined. For each survey listed it tells the minimum cash out, what the rewards are, how many surveys I've done and how many points/dollars I have. I plan to cash out soon which is the main reason why I made it. I will update it when I cash out, receive payment and when I join a new survey site. There are many sites listed.
If you'd like to check it out you can click here or just click on the "Survey List" tab at the top of the page.
This was originally posted on March 3, 2011.
Swagbucks - RSVP For The 5th Birthday Blowout
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Have you RSVP'd for Swagbucks' 5th Birthday Blowout? It's easy to do, and when you RSVP you're automatically entering yourself to win one of five $1000 CASH prizes. The whole birthday celebration will be a big one - they're giving out 135 Swag Bucks worth of codes, and they're giving away four more $1000 cash prizes on the 25th when they celebrate. You can find the RSVP link on the Swagbucks homepage - just look for the birthday image and click on it to be taken to the RSVP page.
If you're not a member of Swagbucks yet, join me and click here to register. Use the code 5THBIRTHDAY during registration and you'll start with 120 Swag Bucks!
Have you RSVP'd for Swagbucks' 5th Birthday Blowout? It's easy to do, and when you RSVP you're automatically entering yourself to win one of five $1000 CASH prizes. The whole birthday celebration will be a big one - they're giving out 135 Swag Bucks worth of codes, and they're giving away four more $1000 cash prizes on the 25th when they celebrate. You can find the RSVP link on the Swagbucks homepage - just look for the birthday image and click on it to be taken to the RSVP page.
If you're not a member of Swagbucks yet, join me and click here to register. Use the code 5THBIRTHDAY during registration and you'll start with 120 Swag Bucks!
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