Update 03/12/2012

I'm seeing a lot of results with Nutrisystem. I started it on January 1st and since then I have lost 31.6lbs. I started at 293.6 and I am currently at 262. I am very pleased with the results. I stuck to their program pretty strictly for the first month or so. After that I ate out once in awhile. But I adjusted my caloric intake for the day and ate smaller portions when I did and still lost weight. I've done almost no exercising so far. This weight loss has been a straight diet change.

Day 16, 17, & 18 w/weigh-in

I'm still going. Two weeks are now officially down. That is twelve workouts there. It is tough, more mentally than physically. The workouts get easier and I am able to push out more reps each time. But it is hard to keep eating like this and getting up to exercise. It it totally a mental game at this point for me.

I have been playing around with the diet a bit. I've been hungry a lot between my meals/snacks, so I bought a big jug of trail mix to snack on at work. It has low calories and fat calories. And I felt I needed to step up my calorie intake a bit. I counted and I was hovering around 1500 a day.

Even with such a low intake, my weight loss for the week was not as drastic as I hoped. I lost two pounds. That puts me at 10lbs since I started. I was hoping for more after my big loss last week. And with all the effort I'm putting in, I really wanted to see some solid numbers again. Still, it is a loss. And a healthy one at that. And maybe I have had some muscle development during that time. I just have 80lbs more I'd like to lose and at two pounds a week, it feels like it is going to take forever. I just have to keep reminding myself that weight loss is never easy or fast or no one would be fat.

As they say at Team Beachbody, I just have to keep pushing play.

Day 13, 14, and 15

I'm 3 days into this week and still going. I'm not quite as gung-ho about it as I was in the first week. I think that is to be expected. Yesterday was especially tough waking up. I had gone to bed later than I wanted and had to do cardio. I dread the cardio because it kicks my butt. But I know I really need it.

I'm still sticking to the diet. It is a bit repetitive at times. And I'm starting to be hungry ALL the time. Like between meals and snacks, I'm starving kinda hungry. I hope that means my metabolism is increasing.

To me, it looks like my stomach is getting smaller. But I'm not feeling lighter lately. And I've felt weird in my stomach. Like I'm full, even when hungry. I'm wondering if I am just feeling my ab muscles under all my fat from doing my crunches. I'm hoping that is what it is.

Day 3

Today was a good day. I awoke finding only minor pain in my thighs. I got through the exercises much easier. I found that my stretching had already made me a little more flexible as well as I was doing stuff I could not on Day 1.

The diet went well today as well. I stuck to that with no cheating. I find myself being hungry a lot more often now though.

I'm also feeling better about myself today. Obviously, I'm still fat. But just walking around I feel like I'm looking better and feeling stronger.

Personal Progress 12/09/09

I meant to report yesterday and missed it. I've been doing good on the diet for the past couple of days. Haven't diverted from it. I did start doing a meal bar for breakfast rather than a shake and it is working out better. I'm not nearly as hungry by the time my mid-morning snack comes around. I have gotten lax at times with making sure I take small bites and eat slowly. Sometimes I am so hungry that I start tearing into what little food I have and I have to consciously slow myself down. I am feeling really good with the diet. I need to start getting some exercise in the routine now. I keep procrastinating that due to my laziness still. But it will certainly help accelerate my weight loss.

Personal Progress 11/29/09 & Weigh-In #1

Well as of today I am 270lbs. That is 2.6lbs less than I was a week ago when I started this blog. Which given that it was also the week of Thanksgiving, I think it's pretty good.

The desire to gorge was not as strong today as it was yesterday. I stuck to the diet without any problems. I found that dinner is actually filling me up. I only eat a Lean Cuisine meal, 1 cup of salad, and a piece of wheat bread. That would not have come close to filling me up before I started. But spacing out meals and snacks helps. And I am still drinking lots of water. I also make a conscious effort to take small bites and to chew slowly. I think that is helping.

Tomorrow marks the start of week 2. My goal this week is to incorporate more exercise. I only got in one day last week. I found myself less motivated to do so with the holiday. I'm going to aim for 3 days next week.

Personal Progress 11/27/09

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and I, of course, went off my diet. I was still pretty good with it. I ate very little up to the point of dinner. And I didn't overdue it then either. Today I've eaten less than I normally would have. I probably came in at around 1000 calories for the day. I wasn't very hungry for the first part of the day.

I did find myself today missing being able to eat what I want whenever I want. But that freedom and carelessness is what lead me to where I am now. So I pushed the thought out of my head.

Days off work are the hardest for the diet. Not keeping as busy, I find my mind wandering to food and eating more. Almost makes me look forward to going back to work. Almost.lol

Tip- Make the most out of your salad

I've never been able to eat salad by itself. I've always smothered it in a lot of dressing so I could have a taste in every bite. However, when losing weight, you can't do that. And one tablespoon of dressing does not go very far when poured over one cup of salad. Then I accidentally stumbled upon the solution.

Take a small container with a lid, like tupperware, and make your salad in that. Pour the dressing on and then shake thoroughly with the lid on. This mixes the salad in the dressing quite well and gives you that flavorful taste in every bite.

Personal Progress 11/25/09

Well I'm feeling thinner. My pants seem to be fitting a bit better. Maybe it's all psychological, but I'll take it. :) I do feel less like my stomach is trying to burst out all the time. That may also be why I'm hungry a lot as well. There were different points of the day where I could not wait until my next scheduled meal/snack. I find myself looking forward to them. I'm not so sure that is a good thing. We will see how it plays out.

Tomorrow is going to be a cheat day. It's Thanksgiving, what can one expect. I am headed to a friend's house and plan on partaking of the feast. And then Friday, it's back to the diet.

Personal Progress 11/24/09

Today went a bit easier than yesterday. I wasn't as hungry early in the day. That may have been due to me being busier at work as well. I was very tempted to go off diet, however. A bunch of co-workers went out for Greek food. The idea of a gyro was quite tempting. I resisted though and ate my half a turkey sandwich and meal bar instead. Thinking about it now, I'm not sure I made the right decision.lol

I also worked out tonight. After getting home I went and rode the stationary bike for a half hour. Ended up going over 8 miles and burning over 200 calories.

I've been trying to incorporate things I've read before to help feel fuller throughout the day. I am drinking a lot of water. And I'm taking smaller bites and making sure to chew thoroughly. I generally scarfed down my meals before. So it takes a real conscious effort not to now. It seems to be working though.

Personal Progress 11/23/09

Another day down. I had school this evening so I didn't get a chance to exercise. I did, however, stick to the diet. It was pretty much the same as yesterday with a banana added in for an additional snack. I've gotta admit that I am hungry. It was really bad between my mid-morning snack and lunch. And now in the evening, I am pretty hungry. I'm just gonna bear through it. I figure I will have a few days like this until my body adjusts to my new eating schedule.

I used to just wait until I was really hungry and then shovel down a lot of empty calories. I'd usually only eat two meals a day with some random snacking mixed in there. So my body has to get used to less food and spreading it out more evenly. It is taking a lot of will power to not go eat something right now. I just keep thinking about my goal.

Personal Progress 11/22/09

Today was the first day of my endeavor to lose weight. All I did was start my new diet. That consisted of:

Breakfast- Slim Fast shake
Snack- Slim Fast snack bar
Lunch- half a turkey sandwich on wheat and a Slim Fast meal bar
Dinner- Lean Cuisine entree, 1 cup of salad with a 1tblspn or lite salad dressing, and a piece of wheat bread
Snack- and I will be eating a low fat yogurt here in a few

It went pretty well. I wasn't hungry most of the day until later in the evening.(such as right now :) ) Maybe if I had eaten a snack between lunch and dinner and pushed dinner back further. I'll get the chance for that tomorrow when I head into work. As an added note, I also drank water with everything except breakfast.

You're Fat and It's NOT OK!!!

Did the title catch your attention? Did it make you nod your head in agreement or make you a little angry? Whichever it did, it accomplished its goal, which was to get you to stop and think about your own weight and your own perception of weight. I know this phrase is something I have said many times, both to myself and about others. And this phrase is one of the motivating factors that has helped push me to start this journey to lose weight.

We seem to live in a time when fat is becoming more widely accepted in our country. People are justifying their weight issues by bandying around the phrase "it's what is inside that counts". And that phrase is 100% right. But notice that no where does it say that it the ONLY thing that counts. Looks do matter. More importantly, health matters. And both are good motivators to do something about your fat.

They are the reasons I have started down this path and started this blog. I want to lose weight. I want to look better. I want to feel better. And I want to feel healthier. And this blog will allow you, the reader, to follow along the journey with me. This blog will chronicle my day-to-day effort to lose my waist, hence the title "Waist No More". Along with my daily journal entries on my personal progress, I will also post articles I write regarding the issue of being fat and losing weight. My goal is to do at least one article a week along with my daily personal progress reports.

Now I have mentioned myself a few times in this blog already. But who am I? Well, for the time being my actual identity shall remain anonymous. This is for my own benefit as I start this and work on being more comfortable with who I am. Who I am right now is a 33yo male. And these are my starting health stats:

Height: 6'
Weight: ~272.6lbs
Waist: ~52.5"
Systolic Blood Pressure(should be under 120): 124
Diastolic Blood Pressure(should be under 80): 99
Total Cholesterol(should be under 200): 138
HDL Cholesterol(should be over 40): 23

And for the looks portion, here are some beginning pics:




My goals are to get my weight, waist, blood pressure down and to get my HDL cholesterol up. What are my target goals? I want to get below 200lbs and get my waist down to 36" and get my health stats within their healthy ranges.

Now all of this is much easier said than done. I am well aware of the obstacles that stand in my way. Those include:

-I'm lazy. I admit it. I sit around all the time. I am a computer person and spend all my time on a computer. At work I am sitting at a computer. At school I am sitting at a computer. When I go home, I spend my time at my desktop playing games, or sitting on my couch with my laptop. The plus side to being so sedentary is that it won't take much to make a drastic improvement.

-I have no car. How does that affect my health? It has an impact on my diet. Getting to actual stores to get real groceries is more difficult. So I have been going across the street to Dollar Tree and Big Lots and getting my groceries there. And while convenient, I can only get canned or microwaveable goods there. Can't get fresh meat or fruits and vegetables. So a lot of the stuff I eat is high in preservatives. Speaking of food...

-I love to eat. I truly love the taste of food. So when I find something I enjoy, I tend to gorge on it.

-Papa John's BBQ pizza is delicious. This stuff is like crack to me. :)

-I'm busy. I work full time and go to school. So that makes it more difficult to eat healthy and find time to work out.

Being aware of the obstacles has helped me to make a game plan of how and what I am going to do:

-I got a ride to the store yesterday and bought food for the next two weeks. I planned out every snack and meal for the next two weeks and bought it.

- Drink more water. And I've cut out soda completely.

- I will walk on the treadmill every day I don't have school for 30 minutes.

- I'll use this blog to help motivate me past the laziness. My readers shall help keep my accountable.

I think this gets me off to a good start. I am also aware and accept that I might have days where I go off diet. Especially with this being the holiday season. If I do, I just pick up the next day and continue forward. No fretting about it and using it as an excuse to quit. And today was my first day on eating properly. I shall document that in a different post since I have gone on long enough in this one.

I welcome any comments and emails that you want to submit. I hope everyone gets something positive out of this blog. I know I fully expect to. I will warn up front that I plan to take a very blunt and forward approach with this. I don't think coddling offers the right encouragement in today's society when it comes to being fat. So I do expect some hate mail with my approach to the subject. But at the same time, I hope it is that extra push that others need.