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JerseySmarts.com

Some Thoughts on Weight Loss from an Old Comment…

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Like most folks who are overweight, I occasionally find myself reading online articles and blogs that focus on weight loss strategies as well as telling success stories. A few years ago, I got hooked on a blog called 344Pounds.com which followed a young man named Tyler as he tried to lose an incredible amount of weight. I encourage you to use the link above to visit Tyler’s blog (which has grown into a full blown web community) and click around a little bit to read about how he was able to lose 140 pounds.

The reason why I bring up this particular weight loss website is because I used to comment on the blog entries from time to time. While I was browsing around that blog a few days ago, I found an old comment that I placed on 344Pounds.com about two years ago and I thought that I’d use this space to upload that comment. The comment is, in a shortened form, the story of my weight loss journey.

That's what it's all about - losing weight and ultimately reducing your health risks.

Here is the text of that old comment from 2009 which tells my story:

About 5.5 years ago I decided that I had enough of being overweight and tired. I was 385 pounds and 23 years old at the time. I dedicated myself to going to the gym, but not going crazy at the gym (an hour on the treadmill and some light lifting plus an hour swimming in the pool). I went at least 5 times per week. I’ve always had a good diet (no fast food, no soda, lots of water), but my portion sizes were obscene. So I lessened my portions and still ate the healthy food. I went from 385 pounds to 260 pounds in about a year. I felt great.

Then two things happened. First, my gall bladder went (the doctor said it was a result of losing too much weight too quickly). As such, my body had (and continues to have) a hard time processing fat out of my foods. Second, I graduated from graduate school and landed a great job an hour from my home. This means that I am out of the house from 7:30am until about 6:30pm and exhausted by the time I get home.

Slowly, the weight came back on. When I was in graduate school, even though I went to a school that was 45 minutes from my house, I had so much free time that going to the gym was easy. It’s extremely hard to lose weight when you’re out of the house in a sedentary office setting for 8 hours each day with an hour commute on either end of that work day.

Last winter I reached 380 pounds again. At that point, I was disgusted. I joined a gym down the street and went there every day for over a month. Maybe 10 pounds came off. So I stopped going to the gym.

However, due to an active summer and the dietary changes that I’ve made over the last few months (smaller portions), I dropped 50 pounds so that I’m weighing in at about 330 now. I’ve been at this weight for about a month and I’m confident that I can lose another 70 and sit at 260 (which is where I want to be in the short term).

The lesson that I’ve learned is that you have to get into shape when you have the freedom to do so. Because if you wait until you have an executive-type job and a lengthy commute, it’ll be harder than you could imagine.

The quick update is that I don’t weigh 330 pounds now nor do I weigh the 260 pounds (which is the goal weight that I have for myself before I really kick it into high gear). Instead, I’ve weighed between 350 and 365 pounds for the better part of the last year. Shortly after I wrote that entry, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. For two years, I’ve been on 10 pills each day and my doctor consistently monitors how the pills are working in my system. Two weeks ago, he upped my prescription to 11 pills each day. Last week he put me back to 10 pills a day and added a daily shot in the stomach (which I’m not pleased about). The shot is supposed to both help me control my blood sugar and lose weight. Go figure.

By the way, I weighed 364.2 pounds two weeks ago. This past Saturday, I weighed 354.2 pounds. A 10 pound drop in two weeks – a sign of things to come? Eh, who knows?

Everything I said in that entry holds true, though. There is still not a realistic diet and workout plan for people who have a long daily commute or who work two or three jobs. That diet and workout plan just doesn’t exist. And I’m tired of hearing people say, “You have to make the choice. You have to make that decision that you won’t take no for an answer.” I made that choice one hell of a long time ago and my mindset hasn’t changed. I’ve been eating mostly organic food for a decade, no fast food for a decade, no soda for a decade – I’ve got all of the hard stuff down. But, like many other working professionals – after I managed to achieve my major weight loss success I was slapped with the reality of the professional world and having financial and personal obligations to meet.

That’s just the way life works.

Don’t read this entry the wrong way, though. I’m certainly not bitter or angry or anything like that – not at all. However, I do think that along with all of the success stories, folks should be looking at the truth when it comes to those people who have lost weight and then gained it back.

I feel like my story is more typical than people would imagine.

The Biggest Loser’s “White Team” Makes a Phenomenal Statement

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A few weeks ago on the biggest loser, Allison introduced us to the White Team. The White Team is the team that – as Allison said on the show – was picked as team number 12. Why is that significant? Simple. Only 11 teams make it on to the show. During the March 29, 2011 broadcast, they showed a video of Allison going to speak with the White Team before the season started. She told them that they were team number 12 and not going to be on this season of The Biggest Loser.

Then, as The Biggest Loser loves to do, Allison told the White Team that they could earn their way on to campus by losing the weight at home. Well, the March 29th broadcast was the due date for the White Team to meet their weight loss goals. You can watch the entire episode that I’m referring to by watching the video at home. If you want to see the White Team’s story, then fast forward to about the 8:30 mark. I suggest fast forwarding to the 8:30 mark and watching the show through the story of the White Team, which only lasts about 7 minutes or so.

Now, if you watched the video above, you know that neither Vance nor his mother Leann lost the amount of weight necessary to make their way on to the ranch. But, what I liked most about this little segment, was what the White Team had to say – something that I really feel needs to be repeated over and over again on The Biggest Loser. What both Vance and Leann said was that they don’t get to spend their entire day at home losing weight; they don’t get to make weight loss their “job” each day.

I applaud Vance and Leann for their great weight loss successes thus far in their journey. However, their message of their story is one that absolutely must be shown side-by-side with The Biggest Loser. And that message is that you can’t sit at home and watch The Biggest Loser and think, “I can do that. I can lose 100 pounds in 6 weeks!”

Sure, you can lose all of that weight in a short period of time if you are a contestant on The Biggest Loser or if you don’t have a stifling daily routine. For example, I lost 125 pounds when I was in graduate school because I was working a part-time job and going to school part-time which gave me a lot of free time. But if you have a job (or two… or three), a family, a commute, bills that absolutely must be paid, etc. – then I strongly urge you to watch the weight loss success on The Biggest Loser with measured eyes.

Yes, you should be inspired by the people who are transforming their lives on The Biggest Loser (I certainly am). But remember this: for the vast majority of people who watch the show, even at your best your successes will be akin to the White Team’s experience in the video above. Are those successes something to be celebrated? Yes! But will the weight fall off of you as quickly as though if you were on the ranch? No.

Just trying to bring a little bit of reality to reality television.

Joined a Calorie Counting Website and Put Together a Workout Plan

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A few days ago I wrote about some of the folks that I observed at my new gym. As you might imagine, joining that gym wasn’t just a practice in observing the wild and wacky in a public setting. Nope. Actually, I’ve been saying for a few weeks now (dating back to before the new year, in fact) that I’d like to spend some time in 2011 getting into better condition in terms of my health. Right now I’m taking 10 pills each day (6 required, 4 optional) to combat Type 2 Diabetes and I’m hovering around 355 pounds (usually a few pounds less, but that’s been the ceiling over the last two or three years).

That’s not exactly healthy!

Back in 2004 and for most of 2005 I dropped a bunch of weight. I went from weighing 385 pounds all the way down to about 260 pounds. That’s pretty significant. However, during 2004 and 2005 I was a graduate student working two part-time jobs that really didn’t take up much of my free time. In those days, I would go to the gym twice a day if I was feeling good. Then in August 2006 I was hired by my current company on a full-time basis and things changed.

For starters, I went from a daily commute of about 5 minutes to a daily commute of about 2 hours and working 8+ hours in between the commutes. For those of you who are reading this and you’re just getting ready to graduate from college or graduate school – beware of your pending commute! I know that the job market is tough and people have to take jobs where they can find them, but if you’re the type of person that absolutely must spend a good deal of time in the gym in order to stay healthy, then please take that into consideration as you apply for jobs. Having a commute that can actually harm your health is one of the many dirty secrets that I found out about the working world once I got out of school (I found out some other really crappy stuff, but that’s for a future entry).

The other thing that changed was my Father being diagnosed with a terminal illness just two months after I started my new job. That diagnosis made me go out of my way to spend any bit of free time in a different part of the state from where I live (and, incidentally, from where I work). In other words, my free time was not spent in the gym – for good and obvious reasons.

The next big change occurred right after my Father passed which happened to be about a year after I was hired at my full-time job. The change this time was me getting hired as an Adjunct Professor at the local college teaching class two nights each week.

We’ll stop for a minute and review the timeline thus far: I went from having all of the free time in the world to taking on a 2 hour daily commute (not to mention going from a part-time employee to a full-time employee) to spending whatever free time I could muster an hour and a half away from both my job and my apartment so I could be with my family to being hired as an Adjunct Professor teaching twice each week at night.

On top of all of that stuff, I was still operating my website company and managing a few websites (including this blog) as well as reorganizing my finances to better prepare myself for the future (i.e. the huge student loan repayment push last year). When I thought I found a balance that allowed me a few hours of free time each week, I was elected to serve on the Board of Trustees for a national foundation which takes up more time than I care to let on about. Once I figured out how to balance the Trustee position with the rest of my life, I wound up getting hired as an online instructor at an all-online college (in addition to being an Adjunct Professor at the local college and my full-time day job with the commute).

I don’t have to tell you all, but this is an exhausting schedule to keep.

And in addition to being exhausting, it’s also not very healthy. So this year I’ve tried to take advantage of a few things that are working in my favor. First, I wasn’t scheduled to teach at the local college this semester. That means that I’m not going to be teaching in a face-to-face setting until next September so I don’t have to worry about that time constraint. Second, I’ve been spending a lot of time spinning off certain website clients that used to take up too much of my free time with silly, unnecessary requests. Sure, I have more clients to spin off, but the ones that I’ve let go thus far have dramatically decreased the amount of time I spend on dealing with my website company. Third, I’m coming to a head on many of the major items that I undertook as a member of the Board of Trustees for the national foundation. Once these major items are completed (likely by April), I’m going to only take on one project at a time for the foundation – and I’m going to make sure that the projects are small and manageable in my free time. Fourth, the all-online college didn’t schedule me to teach in either the January 2011 or February 2011 semester (each month starts a new semester for them which runs some 10 weeks).

And maybe the best change in circumstances of all is that my day job is planning to move its location from about 45 miles away from where I live to about 30 miles from where I live. In addition to the shorter distance, I plan on going to the office a little bit earlier each day and then leaving a little bit earlier to avoid traffic. With this plan, I could net a gain of about forty-five minutes to an hour each day of new free time.

With all of these constraints on my time being reduced, I figure that now is as good a time as any to try to get back into the spirit of 2004 and 2005 as best I can. To that end, I joined a gym, I spent some time doing research online to piece together a really good, low-impact weightlifting and cardio plan, and joined a calorie counting website to monitor the amount of calories that I’m taking in each day.

Tomorrow, I’ll post an entry about things that will be different this time around for my attempt to get a little bit more healthy. For example, back in 2004 and 2005 I was really looking to drop an incredible amount of weight for reasons of health, but also for reasons of vanity (who doesn’t like looking less heavy?). I don’t really care about that this time around. What I really care about this time around is reducing the amount of pills that I have to take everyday. I’ve had enough of these 10 pills each day!

Anyway, more on what will likely be different this time around in tomorrow’s entry.

Observations from My First Few Days at the New Gym

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A few days ago I posted that hilarious Planet Fitness commercial with the big lunk telling everyone that he lifts things up and puts them down. I have to admit that I go back and watch that commercial every once in a while because it really is funny – especially if you’ve ever seen these idiots while at the gym! By the way, I use the term “lunk” because that’s what is plastered on the wall of my Planet Fitness. I can’t remember the exact definition, but a lunk is that idiot that drops weights on the floor, grunts and snorts while lifting weights, and drinks some liquid out of a gallon container.

Come to think of it, I think I might be friends with some lunks…

Anyway, a few years ago (winter 2004 through summer 2005) when I was consistently working out, from time to time I’d post some of my observations while at the gym. Typically, I’d write a few lines about the outlandish activities that I’d see certain people engaging in when they should have been focusing more on working out. You can go back through this blog and find some examples if you want – or you can scroll down to read some early observations from my time at Planet Fitness.

Actually, I only have one observation of a weird type of person at the new gym and in the grand scheme of things, this observation is minor. Maybe there will be more examples of insanity as I go along at this place, but until then, enjoy!

The Person with Too Much Perfume/Cologne
I just don’t get the thought that goes behind this one. One week ago today I went to the new gym for my first workout session. The goal was to focus solely on acquainting myself with the different cardio machines. It was a pretty successful trip until the last 5 – 10 minutes. Here’s what happened…

After I spent about an hour on the treadmill, I went to ride the bike for a little bit. By the way, the stationary bike is a piece of cardio equipment which I typically try to avoid – something about peddling and getting nowhere bothers me. But I’m committing myself to trying and using new pieces of equipment at the gym and last Monday I wanted to get on the bike for a little bit.

Don't over scent yourself when going to the gym!

My intent was to spend about 15 minutes on the bike and then move on to another piece of equipment that I typically wouldn’t use. About 5 minutes into my bike ride a little old lady (she had to be in her late 70’s) hobbled on to the bike next to me with what had to be her daughter on the bike next to her. Now, I don’t care who works out next to me or what they do, etc. But this little old lady, God bless her, was drenched in that little old lady perfume. You know the perfume – that stuff you can smell a mile away? And she was about a foot away from me. Not good.

After a few huge inhales filled with whatever that little old lady perfume is made of, I had to get up. The end result was that instead of 15 minutes on the bike, I did about 10 minutes and I wound up a little lightheaded. I thought to myself, “I’ll go hang out in the locker room for a minute and clear my head and then get back to work.”

So I get up off of the bike and walk to the locker room and some kid had just walked into the locker room ahead of me. This kid was DRENCHED in cologne. I mean DRENCHED! I’m not one to play the ethnic stereotype game, but this kid was of a certain ethnicity that is frequently associated with wearing too much cologne and boy did he fit the bill. It was intense.

As you might imagine, after getting lightheaded from the little old lady and then getting smacked in the face with enough cologne to scent 50 men, I had to call it a day.

I’ve been back to the new gym twice since last Monday and I didn’t encounter the over-scented problem again so hopefully it was a one-time, rare occurrence!

Another Phenomenal Week in My Health Self-Testing Numbers

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By now you probably know that I’m a diabetic with Type 2 Diabetes. Since August 2009 I’ve been testing my blood sugar on a daily basis and taking 10 pills each day to control my blood sugar levels and supplement my diet. While the beginning of this process was a bit of a nuisance (trying to figure out which combination of prescription medications worked best with which combination of vitamins, etc), I think I’m beginning to make some good strides.

You may remember last Sunday when I announced that the previous week (September 19th through September 25th) was the best week for my average blood sugar tests since late March/early April 2010. Well, the week that just passed by (September 26th through October 2nd) was even better. In fact, this week my blood sugar tests averaged the lowest numbers that they’ve ever been since I began testing in August 2009.

I hope this means that I’ve been doing something right!