Rob.c.weiss's Journal

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31 January 2014

Wow. I lost another 2 lbs last night! So, I had gained 7 lbs over the last week, but in the last two days I lost 6.4 and I'm almost back to where I was!!!

Now, before you get all honked about that... being 100% honest, I wasn't being great over the week I was away working on that big work project (I had cheese popcorn with far more frequency than any self-respecting soul ought to), but I really wasn't all that bad either. In fact, my daily calorie intake was still below the number of daily calories I'm anticipating to be my maintenance RDI (right around 2300/daily, I think; and I was still coming in below 2,000 every day).

My eyes kind of bugged out when I weighed in that one day, and I was up 7lbs! I knew then, and I know now, it had to be mostly water weight not because of the calorie totals, but rather the quality of the calories I was eating. The quality of those calories weren't the best, there is no doubt.

Anyway, it feels great to be right back at 213, and now onto the actual weight-loss. 212.4 is my official low, just need to get past that, and I'll be back in business! :D

To answer anyone that was wondering what I did (sorry it took so long to get back to you on this, TIC!), I really just buckled back down with the original plan I've been working for months (with the addition of the 16:8). For a week or so (Jan 9 through Jan 17), I was trying to adjust my calories and bump them up a bit, because I think they are too low at the moment. But even though I was only around 1500 cals / day, I got a GAIN of 0.4 lbs in that time. Grrrr. Of course, that bummed me out, and that combined with the stress of the work project, convinced me to relax a smidge. Ok. I know that doesn't fool anyone here. "Relax," of course, is a buzzing code word for "cheat". Which I did. And quite well, thank you very much.

Anyway, after all that mess, as I said, I skipped that experiment I'd tried Jan 9 through Jan 17, and this Weds (the 29th) just went back to my original plan. The original plan: At least 2 protein shakes a day, Hit 80+ grams of protein every day, keep carbs low (esp simple carbs), keep daily calories low, stay away from snacks (esp the ones that are easy to grab a small handful just walking past). I've recently added that 16:8, but I was kind of doing that before anyway. I'd never stressed about skipping eating till I was hungry--which was usually right around noon anyway--and I told myself not to eat after 8PM. So that's basically the 16:8 anyway. Recently I've been trying to add fiber reqmts and sodium reqmts, but no great shakes there. Also, trying to workout at least 3 or 4 times a week. Hah! I've been averaging 2 times a week in these last few weeks. Have to bump that up.

Anyway that "original plan" has worked miracles for me, so why drop it now? The big drawback to all this messing around is I've almost lost a month of progress. For all intents and purposes, I'm where I was on Jan 8th (ok, marginally lower, but not by much).

Oh well. What's three-weeks to a month? Especially compared to where I've been the last twenty years. As long as I'm back on track now.

Which I am. Did I mention that?

Anyway all, I hope you're doing great! I'm still trying to get caught up reading journals. I'm not sure I can do it all... esp since I've got yet another deliverable by the end of the week next week for work. But I'm trying!!! Miss you all, and hope you're doing FANTASTIC! Keep smiling, and best wishes to you all!

-R

Oh I totally forgot. Today marks my six-month-iversary (does that make any sense?) from when I started. Ok, let me try that in English... I started this journey exactly six months ago today (July 31 2013). As of today, I'm down 127 lbs, axed my CPAP machine, stopped smoking, feel better all around, and feel sooooo much better about myself. Ok. Enough of that.

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
96.6 kg	57.6 kg	15.0 kg	100%

(17 comments) Losing 6.4 kg a Week

30 January 2014

Oh, it's on! :D

For those that were asking, this is the quote that's been helping me since my blow-up! LOL!

Also, if you're interested in the wallpaper I'm using this month with the quote on it, you can get it here:

<b>Wallpaper with Feb calendar and quote (1920 x 1080):</b>

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
97.5 kg	56.7 kg	15.9 kg	100%

(14 comments) Losing 14.0 kg a Week

29 January 2014

Ugh... with the project stuff I was working on, I've been *bad* on my diet. Can you tell? Hah! 7lb gain!

Anyway, I got all my stuff turned in, and I'm back in business now. I resumed being *good* this morning. It's going to take me a few days to go through all the messages and get back to everyone. But thank you as always for your WONDERFUL SUPPORT!!! I hope you're all doing well! Talk to you soon.

Rob

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
99.5 kg	54.7 kg	17.9 kg	Poorly

(11 comments) Gaining 3.2 kg a Week

22 January 2014

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
96.3 kg	57.9 kg	14.7 kg	Reasonably Well

(3 comments) Losing 1.7 kg a Week

18 January 2014

Hi everyone!!! It's been a busy few weeks!

<H2>Work</H2>
Work has made things really tough lately. I've got three big deliverables these last two weeks. One needed to be done yesterday, so I was busy crunching away on that. The other two are due this next week. So, it will be another busy week. Sorry if I'll be scarce again this week. I'll do my best to keep up on your journals and communication with my pals on here, but I may be spread a bit thin. That doesn't mean I'm not thinking of you all! I hope you're working hard and making some great progress on your plans! 2014 IS OUR YEAR! But we have to work our tails off to make it our year!

<H2>Panicky Bad News leads to... <u>Great News!</u></H2>
So starting about 3 days after my last visit to the doc's office in November--a supervisory weight-loss visit to make sure all is ok--I caught a cold. But it was the weirdest cold I ever had. It was *only* a runny nose and intense sneeze bursts of about 10 to 20 sneezes. That's it. No cough, no sore throat, no achiness... none of the other symptoms I usually get with a cold. For about 4 weeks, I went on, just happy it wasn't a full-blown cold. But it kept getting worse and worse. Still none of those other symptoms, but the symptoms I did have were getting worse. Not to gross anyone out, but my nose would just start running like a sieve--absolutely out of the blue. It would go from fairly inactive, to... well, gross, in a beat. And walking outside in the cold made it run instantly and furiously. I was using a full box of Kleenex a day (sometimes almost two!). Anyway, enough description... but I was starting to get a bit worried. It was really odd.

By the time 7 weeks of this went by and it still wasn't getting any better, I was beginning to panic. I was scheduled to see the doc again in another week or so, but in the meantime, I tried to find if others had experienced this kind of thing in some online forums. Could it be related to my weight-loss? What was going on? I had no idea. I ran across articles about GERD, Candida Yeast overgrowth, SIBO... all sorts of alarming things. I also found some people that said they'd been having this problem ongoing for YEARS. It never stops. I really panicked. Thanks to some of my online buddies that talked me down from the ledge!!! :D

<H2>Sleep Apnea and Me...</H2>
I have sleep apnea, and use a CPAP machine nightly. My nose was getting very raw from all the nose running and blowing, and had a sore spot inside that the CPAP kept irritating. Finally one day, I fell asleep on the couch. This isn't like me... but wow, it was a GREAT NAP! I couldn't believe how good I felt. It had been well over ten years since I'd slept without my CPAP machine, and it felt pretty good. That night, because of my nose irritation (the CPAP would make me sneeze because of the air blowing on that sore spot), I decided to try sleeping without my CPAP machine all night. In the back of my mind, I was wondering if maybe that was causing the nose issues... I slept great again. After a few days of no CPAP, though, the nose was no better and I was still in a panic about that. But finally after about a few days it was getting a little better. After a week it cleared entirely! It has been gone now for just about a week, and I'm feeling better than I have in years! I just went to the doc the other day, and he's still thrilled with my progress. Everything is still looking great.

It really is AMAZING! Something I was truly panicked about turns out to actually be some GREAT NEWS that had been veiled over. When I started this journey, I genuinely did not expect to ever get to the point of not needing the CPAP. I had sleep apnea BAD! 10 years ago, when I first got it, my apnea was so bad, I would sleep for 30 seconds, stop breathing and wake for 30 seconds throughout the night--all night long! The sleep clinic said it wasn't the worst they had seen, but it was right up there. I have no doubt the CPAP saved my life back then. But after being heavy for so long, most people can never go back because even if you lose the weight, the skin is still stretched at the back of the throat. I truly did not expect to ever get to the point of not needing it any more. And even moreso, I did not expect that it would cause me problems.

I can't blame the doc, he **HAD** asked me about it at that office visit three days before this thing started. I told him, "Nah! I still need it. I can tell." He told me to keep an eye on it. Wow, what a blessing.

Anyway, I'm so glad the problem is gone. It has really been interfering with things--I have not been able to workout the way I have wanted for about two months now because of it. Now I can get back to business on my workout schedule! :D

<H2>This week's failure</H2>
This week I began trying to adjust my calorie intake a bit to be more in line with these last 35 to 55 pounds. It has not exactly been a success.

I had been losing about 3 to 4 pounds a week on average these last several weeks. By increasing my calorie intake by about 500 calories a day, I figured I would slow that down a bit (by about a pound a week). While I've been staying right at the range I wanted, I've gained about a pound and a half this last week. Unfortunately I did blow it a couple of times with crummy food choices. But overall my calories have been right in the range I wanted to be at. However, I've also made some other poor choices... I've been having coffee almost every day (one day, I had almost 50 oz of the stuff). While I've been tracking the calories of the cream et al I add, I think the diuretic nature of it is messing with my results this week. I also wonder if maybe I am miscalculating some of the ingredients (cream and sugar) a bit...

I know this is something of an adjustment period. At the moment, I'm trying to decide if I want to roll back my recent change and go back to what I was doing, or stick this out but get rid of the bad choices. This weekend I have my daughter, so I'm not going to stress about it. But starting Monday, I will do one of the two. At the moment, I'm leaning toward going back to what I was doing--it was working well after all.

<H2>BCAAs</H2>
One other change that I'm making this week... When I was younger I had GREAT success with weight-lifting. I may have bad genes for fat-gain and storage, but one thing that made that a little better was that I never had an issue with gaining muscle. But this time has been a bit different. I did not worry much about it, as I've been in a weight-loss / fat-loss mode anyway. So many online guides say that gaining any real amount of muscle is just not feasible when you're in such a mode. But I know my body. Something hasn't been right, and it's been bugging me that I'm just not putting on the muscle the way I used to. I kind of chalked it up to a combination of my age and the fat-loss mode I've been in. Then one day it popped into my head that I'd always used Amino Acids when doing muscle building in the past, and I have not been using them this time.

For those that aren't familiar with this, I'm not talking about steroids, or any chemicals / hormones that stimulate the production of steroids in your own body. That stuff exists, too, and there is no way I'd go near it. What I'm talking about are simply Branched-chain Amino Acids--the building blocks of complex proteins (and consquently **MUSCLE**) in the body. I can't believe I'd forgotten that. I'm not body-builder, and I think at the beginning I figured my protein shakes would cover it. I know I've seen others talk about them on here (I think Bill, you use them, don't you?), but it didn't click till this week. So I've ordered some pretty good BCAAs. $16 on Amazon for about a month / month and a half supply. They should be coming Monday.

I'll let you know if I see a difference in my workout results after I resume taking them. I'm hoping it is what I've been missing. My gut feeling is that this will do it. I remember a personal test I did with stopping them when I was younger. What a difference they made for me then... I think it is true now too. Just wish I'd thought of it a few months ago, but the dumb nose-thing didn't exactly make workouts very feasible anyway.

<H2>THANK YOU!</H2>
Well, that's about it that's going on with me lately. I hope you ALL ARE DOING GREAT!!!

I'm sure most people didn't actually read this far, but regardless of how far you got, thank you for listening. I'll do my best to make the rounds tonight. Again, I'm sorry I've been scarce... I'll try my best to make it up to you all! You've all been so tremendous and a HUGE SUPPORT! I cannot ever begin to thank you all enough!

KEEP SMILING! 2014 is our year! Let's do it!

<small><i>"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity."
<b>-–Amelia Earhart</b></small></i>

<small><i>"The past is a ghost, the future a dream. All we ever have is now."
<b>-–Bill Cosby</b></small></i>

Weight:	Lost so far:	Still to go:	Diet followed:
97.3 kg	56.9 kg	15.7 kg	Reasonably Well

(21 comments) Gaining 1.5 kg a Week

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