First Day back on the Wagon...I suck!

I am currently on my first day back on the wagon. I have so far failed, miserably. After going through the whole day, I finally had two burgers and later on at 10:00pm I had some Eggo waffles, but the good thing is I am not gaining anymore weight. I have kept off what I have lost thus far. I will do better tomorrow. I am thinking about not having coffee in the morning but having it at night so then I can take in more water throughout the day instead of lacking on water like I did today.

I will try to do better tomorrow.

What do you do when you fall off the wagon?

I have fallen off the wagon but have not gained any weight. I have been finding myself justifying eating out and eating ice cream and everything. I have been also over eating and eating at night for the last month or so. I have been doing home improvements and "haven't had the time" to watch what I am eating or working out. My workout is really my home improvements but i have not been eating very healthy. The nice thing is that I am still eating in the same manner that I have been using to lose the weight, I am just eating more crap than I am use to. I chew my food completely before I swallow. I have also been drinking a lot of water which helps keep everything nicely lubricated.



This is how I plan on getting back on the wagon.



First, I have been reviewing why I went off the wagon and what was the main driver. Then I looked at how to stop those actions and get back on track. So I identified that I was eating junk food, eating at night, and also eating a lot of food in one sitting. Sometimes I would eat fast enough that I would get full...to full. My wife and I have also been eating a lot of beef for supper, mostly steaks. I have also been eating more than I need of that steak. So what am I doing to make sure that this does not happen again? I am posting my results from my FMEA on the refrigerator so my wife and my family can see my progress. It is harder to cheat when you have many people looking over your shoulder. So I am creating my FMEA sheet for everyone to see.

Engineering My Weight Loss

I was asked how I am losing the weight so I though I would share to you all what I said.

-My Article-
I have lost over 30lbs since January 1st of 2008.

In December I looked at myself in the mirror while I was at the YMCA getting ready to go swimming with my kids and I saw a large man with large love handles and a large gut. Even though I am an avid lifter and can gain muscle easier than anything, I have always had a hard time losing the fat. That night I thought for a long time, “How am I going to lose the weight in the way that works for me?” I then came to the conclusion to look at things in the manner as an engineer, which I am. I sat down and started creating my project plan with no dates, I just wanted milestone because if I had dates, I would fail due to inconsistencies found in the human body. Every person’s body is different so no date plan can be successful. I know if I missed a date, I would just give up on the whole thing. After creating my milestones, I then created and FMEA (Failure Mode Effect Analysis). This document allowed me to list out all of the possible means of failure to my weight loss. I had listed out several items that will keep me from losing the weight. A couple of them being my habit of eating at night, eating sweats, and also making sure that I stay at around 2000 calories a day. Now, I did put one more thing down as a possible failure and that was the adaptation of the human body. The human body will adapt to your lifting schedule and cardio schedule in time, so why would calorie intake be any different. I did some research on this and my theory was correct so I cycle my calorie intake of five days at 2000 calories and two days at 2600 calories, give or take an ice cream sundae.

After my FMEA and project plan was created, I then created a data sheet which will track my FMEA occurrence and avoidance, weight training and cardio occurrence and avoidance, weight for that day, and also a little journal spot to document any event or reason of inconsistency (Birthday Cake, Holiday Cookouts, etc.).

The last thing that I created was an IPO (Input Process Output) diagram to show how this all ties together to my body and goal. My inputs are food, workout routines, and environment. My processes are digestion, eating (chewing and eating slowly), and exercising and lifting. And as far as the outputs are…I don’t think you want to know the outputs…or care.

Weezer - Beverly Hills

Disturbed - Inside The Fire

Audioslave - Cochise

The Supporting Wives - This one is for you.

During the journey of finding that skinny guy inside each and every one of us, we can't neglect that one person who has been through our victories and failures. I found this picture the other day and I think it speaks for itself. To all of the wives who have stood by their guy and helped them lose the weight that they have been working so hard for, "This one is for you."

Losing weight slowly to avoid extra skin

I have been losing weight at about a rate of 1.5-2 lbs a week. The last two weeks I have hit a plateaus which allowed my body to shrink down. I have taken some pictures and it shows that my skin has gotten tighter which is showing more definition in my body. I think during that period of time, my body was trying to get the rest of the body to form up to what it should look like.

It is important to slowly lose the weight because otherwise you will have a lot of skin left over and no where to put it. It is also a necessity to drink lots of water because as your skin shrinks back to normal the skin needs to have and maintain it elasticity by drinking water.

Making smart investments with George Divel

You all know how much I am into making money by doing something that I enjoy. I have found a blog written by George Divel. This blog allows me to read about tips on financial practices. George Divel tells people what to think to make the best investment decisions. I enjoy his posts because they are short and to the point. He also writes in a manner that allows me to understand what it is that he is talking about for financial investments. George Divel is a very experienced person when it comes to investments and it would be best to look at his site and see if that information pertains to you and what you are trying to accomplish in the future.

How it feels in comparison to how it should be.

I was working out during my lunch period and lady and I were talking about diets and workout routines. She went on telling me about the meal plan that she is on and she doesn't like the food, but she is losing weight...not feeling really great. She also continued telling me about the strict cardio routine that they spelled out for her. This routine was someone taking their best guess as to how all of this is going to work for her and not how it is suppose to be for her.

I told her that she should take some of the advice from the person training her but to also listen to her body. I have yet to find a book that tells you how to listen to your body to know how the cardio is working or how the meal plan is working. Your body will tell you. My body tells me after I have a burger from a fast food restaraunt that that is not going to make my body feel good. Or if I have some ice cream before working out, I feel like crap and my workout is totally tainted.

I told her as far as a meal plan goes, eat what you like but eat in small portions and eat slowly. A coworker told me to chew 25 times before swallowing....yeah right. Who in their right mind is going to count everytime they chew...not me. I told her to try to taste at least three ingredients when eating, that will make her enjoy her food longer.

Losing Weight and Saving Money

You all know that I have been working on losing weight. I have lost 25lbs so far and feeling great. One thing that has really helped is the fact that I am fully stocked on my multi-vitamins from a bodybuilding website that I found not to long ago. This bodybuilding website is called www.illpumpyouup.com. This site has all of the great brands at a fraction of the price. I use to have a site that I would always buy my supplements from but when this site came up, I just couldn’t turn them away. They carry over 150 brands giving them access to over 2000 different products. Now what store online could say that and keep a straight face. I make sure that I by my whey protein and my creatine from them because with them I am saving over 25%. Now that you have heard my testimony, give this bodybuilding website a try.

Dennis Leary - Traditional Irish Folk Song

In the spirit of St. Patricks Day I thought this might be a funny song for everyone to enjoy.

Eat when you are mad

DO NOT DO IT! I just got done eating a lot of peanuts and it did not make me feel good even though I wanted to do it so I can feel good. I will talk more about this in the future.

Health Insurance for YOURSELFand the FAMILY

Health insurance can be looked at as a dreadful thing to get, but if you had the insurance you and your loved ones will be covered in case of an emergency. My family is covered and I can rest assured that if I get into an accident I know that I will pass on and my family can move on without issues or problems, financially. You can get online insurance quotes and see what you would be willing to spend to get the coverage for yourself and family.

I cannot express this enough. Just play the "what-if" game and you will see where things could go wrong.

Eat Measureable

In the last couple days I have been eating food that I cannot measure accurately. This posses a problem because then I do not know how much I am taking in. You know me, I love data so I can measure my inputs and outputs. What is nerve racking though is the fact that I am swinging up for weight which I should be maintaining my downward slope for weight. The weekend is coming up so I am thinking about eating high calorie this weekend and then on Monday, start all over and eat low calorie. I hope to see my weight drop to 247 or lower. We will see

Video Games for the Phone

I recently got a Moto Q which allows me to be on the internet and manage my calendar. It also has a good size display to be able to play video games on the phone.

I recently came across an older game (1990) that recently made it to the phones, it is called Dangerous Dave Mobile. You are to travel through the mansion full of evil spirits, ghouls, and other threats in search for your missing brother. I have the trial game on my phone and I am going to order the game after the trial is up. If you want to try the trial version then you can go to the Official Dangerous Dave Mobile website and download the game for your phone. The graphics are awesome even from a phone's point of view. The graphics are great and so is the sound quality. The experience that you have with this game will all depend on the phone that you have. I like to play games as a nice cool down from working out or while I am waiting for my wife and kids. Let me know what you think of the game.

Lost 22lbs since January 1st.

It has taken me 2.5 months to lose 22lbs and I feel great and everyone tells me that I look like I have been losing weight. Before I took on this challenge to lose the weight I was afraid of losing my strength during the process. I have lost zero strength throughout this entire thing. I actually had a great heavy day on Monday and increased my dead-lift by 75lbs. I was amazed that I had that much of an increase even though I have cut down my quantity of food. I eat 6-7 times a day and eat a lot of protein, but at no point have I lost any strength or muscle. I love it.

AC/DC - Back In Black

Habits form in 21 days.

Because I have been eating cookies and some other junk food, it is going to be hard to stay away from that stuff all this week. I am waiting here at a Saturn's dealership to get my free oil change and they are cooking cookies...the good kind. You know, the kind that was made with real butter and the sugar is just filling the room. I am only having coffee because that is going to be my treat from this stuff. I had some fruit at the house before I came over so I am good on my sugar needs but they sure do smell good.

This last weekend I have been eating to much and also pies and cookies....to much of those too. I see this coming week to be a little difficult to stay on track but I have to be strong and keep on track. It does take 21 days to form a habit and those habits have been in place for over 60 days so I think going off of the wagon for a short while will not hurt anything.

Stay On Track!

It is hard to lose the weight (currently 20lbs lost) but it is even harder to stay on track and not enduldge in sweets and junk foods. My grandfather-in-law past away and we came back home to see all of the family and be around for the funeral. While coming up, we stopped at Arby's and I almost justified the fact of getting a burger or at least some kind of roast beff. I ended up turning both of those down and got a salad with no dressing...but it was hard. My wife actually helped a little with keeping me on track even though she got a roast beef sandwhich. But I tell ya, you really need to avoid all of this if you want to make it easy to stay on track. It is almost impossible to stay the coarse with these obsticles in the way.

Just remember your goals and try to reach them with no excuse.