Thursday, March 15, 2012

Completely Sore and Loving It!


After my long day at work yesterday, I went home to run a whole bunch of errands.  I stopped at the casino and had to park quite a ways away.  I got home and was completely exhausted.  Ashley and I stayed up until around midnight and then I was up to get ready around 5 AM this morning.  I'm not tired today, but my muscles are sore.

I didn't do so great on my calories yesterday, but it wasn't because I went over.  I was way under my calories for the day and I had only eaten about 1,000 calories total for the day.  From what I have read this is just as bad as eating too many calories, because it causes your body to go into "starvation mode."  I need to keep a closer eye on my calories throughout the day.

This morning when I was up early we watched some infomercials and I saw both the P90X and Insanity infomercials.  I know people personally that have had great success with P90X and I have only heard about people starting Insanity recently.  P90X requires a bit of money for equipment and a lot of time dedicated each day around an hour and a half.  Insanity requires around 40 minutes, don't quote me on this, each day.  I might look into something like this as it would give me more organization to my exercising.

Has anyone had any experience with either of these programs? (P90X or Insanity)  Until next time, the Daddy Weight Loss journey continues!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Calorie Counting: 15 Days and Still Counting!

Today marks 15 days of counting calories and I have only slipped up once.  I haven't been too active with the exercising portion, but I have been keeping busy with work and everything.  The weather here is getting up into the 60's (F) so we are getting back to walking/running tonight.

At work today I helped to unload a 53 foot trailer packed with semi tires.  I was absolutely beat afterwards, but I felt really good about it.  It was nice to get outside and work instead of sitting at a desk staring at a monitor all day.

I hurt my knee a little bit last week and I am really hoping that it doesn't bother me when I run.  That would push my efforts way back.  I will update you all if it bothers me or not tomorrow.  It is hard to explain what happened, but basically I fell around 15 feet and landed with my leg straight.  I was on equipment so think about if an elevator fell 15 feet and stopped abruptly.  It hasn't been hurting too bad today, but running might bother it.

See you all tomorrow!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Still on Track - Cocoa, Ice Cream, and Snacks


The title may be a little misleading, but I still managed to stay under my calorie goal while enjoying some treats.  I didn't plan on eating all of that, I was just really hungry.  I had a little bit of Chex Mix, about a half serving.  After the Chex Mix my sweet tooth went into overdrive and I had a half serving of ice cream with some peanuts.  Ashley had a craving for hot cocoa so she made some for both of us and it was really good!

I was pretty nervous when I went to add all of this to my calorie counter, but I came in with 61 calories remaining for the day.  I submitted my log for the day and the app told me I was still on track to lose 10 pounds in 5 weeks.  Yesterday also marked a milestone of being the 10th day in a row that I have logged calories.  Only slipping up once in the first 10 days is pretty impressive for me and I am very proud of myself.  I just need to get back to exercising as soon as the weather cooperates.  I am still doing my daily crunches and push ups, but we all know that I need some cardio in my life.  The weather forecast looks good for this weekend so maybe I'll be able to strap the running shoes on!

On a side note, I think baby weight loss sounds a little weird, so I am going to go with Daddy Weight Loss.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Buffet - Not All I Could Eat

We went to Ponderosa yesterday for Ashley's birthday with her family.  I was able to eat at the buffet and still stay within my calorie goal for the day.  I only had 50 calories left after the buffet, but I think I did pretty good.  Ashley had a coupon for her birthday so we got 2 orders of Sirloin Tips that I was able to eat today for breakfast and lunch, so that will help with today's calories.  After the buffet I decided to do some crunches and push ups, but instead just one set I did multiples.  I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I am now doing push ups without having my knees down which is a big accomplishment for me.  I was able to do 11 during each set last night, which is 1 more than I can usually do.  Crunches burned a little bit more last night, but I was paying closer attention to technique and I could tell the difference.

I did a little posing in the mirror last night and I am really starting to see the effects.  My stomach seems flatter and my arms seem more defined.  I still have a long way to go, but these little motivations help quite a bit.  Operation baby weight loss is in full effect!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Huge Personal Milestone

Yesterday I continued counting calories and made absolutely sure I stayed up my calorie goal of 1780.  I managed to stay under even with a few extra snacks throughout the day, I was only under by about 80 calories at least I was under and not over.  Weight loss is my primary goal and I need to do everything I can to achieve that.

After work last night, I stopped over my parents house to pick up some food and decided to weigh myself while I was there.  Now just a little back story first, my lowest weight since graduating high school (2004) is 232.2 pounds.  This past summer/fall I was at around 248 pounds and due to a change at my job I dropped down to 235 pounds.  Well the change at my job has been reversed and I was just floating at 235 pounds and I knew it was the perfect time to get back down.

Back to my parents house, so I jumped on the scale and looked down and saw 232.2 pounds.  I was very excited and knew that my hard work was paying off.  I went to write down my weight and realized that last time I weighed I used the same scale but was only wearing underwear.  I stripped down to my underwear and jumped back on the scale, and what did I see?

228.6 pounds

I was absolutely ecstatic and couldn't believe my eyes.  In 8 years I haven't been this small.  The greatest part is for the past few days I have started to notice that I feel smaller, my stomach looks tighter, and I have more energy.  It is amazing to see that my hard work is really paying off!

Please let this motivate all of you out there, it is never too late to get into shape and anyone can do it.  I know this will certainly motivate me and give me that push that I really needed.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

I finally slipped up...


I have been doing so well on my calorie counting and I figured I deserved a treat last night so I had some striped shortbread cookies.  My mistake was not looking at the serving size and bringing the whole box to the couch.  I ended up 850 calories over my goal for the day and I felt pretty crappy about it.  Don't worry though, it just fuels my motivation even more.  I just wouldn't have guessed that a serving size would be two tiny cookies, so now I am a little bit more alert to these types of things.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Busy Day

I have a very busy day today due to the baby shower yesterday and I won't have time to write a full post until tomorrow.  I can say that I stayed under my calorie goal everyday since I have started counting.  I also walked for 60 minutes on both Saturday and Sunday, so even though it was a weekend I didn't slack.  I also did my daily push ups and crunches.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Count Calories on the Go with the MyFitnessPal.com Mobile App

MyFitnessPal.com Logo

I have never in my life counted calories and I never thought that I would.  I thought I was eating healthy, but I knew something must be wrong if I never lose weight.  As I mentioned before I started counting calories a couple days ago and I mentioned I was using an Android app to do so.  I am using MyFitnessPal.com's app to track my calories and exercise (Also available for iPhone and iPad).  

Example screenshot from app

Once you download the app, you will be required to create an account and fill in some personal details.  It asks for things such as age, weight, height, and daily activity level.  I believe it also asks how often you will be exercising.  Once completed with that it will ask what weight is your goal and how many pounds you wish to lose a week (within reason).  Finally, it will give you your recommended daily calorie allowance.

Now each time you eat, drink water, or exercise you pull out your phone and enter the details.  Exercises are pretty straightforward, for example you type push ups and hit search and then enter sets and reps.  If you search running it gives different speeds, but if you put strength training it will give sets, reps, and weight.  Exercises that burn calories will subtract from the food you have eaten for the day.  For example if you ate 1500 calories and went running and burned 500 calories, you would only have 1000 calories counted against your daily allotment.  MyFitnessPal does not count calories burned from weight lifting or strength training.

You can also add water which is just a nice way of keeping track of how much you drink each day.  Food is where the app really shines in that it is extremely easy and useful at the same time.  This morning I took a multivitamin, drank a low carb Monster, and ate a sausage and cheese muffin from Burger King.  While taking the multivitamin; I pulled out my phone, clicked on the app, hit add to diary, chose breakfast, and scanned the bar-code on the vitamin label.  The app scans the bar-code and puts the nutritional value into your diary.  I also did the same for my Monster, and searched for my breakfast sandwich.  Throughout the day you can look at your nutritional goals and see where you are in excess and where you are lacking.  MyFitnessPal.com states that they have nutritional details for over 1 million foods!  If you can't find something you can add custom entries and even recipes.

The first day of calorie counting I really thought I was doing great, but at the end of the day I noticed that I had consumed about 90g of sugar over top of my allowed total.  Yesterday, I had more cholesterol than I should have.  I can see where my vitamin deficiencies might be and when I don't have enough protein in my diet.  The app stores all of these details and you can look back and see what foods you might want to avoid next time.

The app and website (MyFitnessPal.com) have a plethora of other features as well, the biggest being a social network.  I don't use this yet, but I might look into it.  From MyFitnessPal's research, those with friends on the service tend to lose 3 times as much weight as those that don't.  This is because you are not only sharing these details with yourself, but also with others who can hold you accountable or motivate you.  The site has forums, chat, and blogs to help motivate and educate.  On the website you can also run reports on various things such as nutrition, fitness, and weight loss.

Example report of my net calories consumed

At the end of the day each day, you can close out your diary for the day.  At this point it posts to your "wall" saying that you finished your day and how you did.  My favorite part however, is that after you finish for the day it pops up and gives you an update.  It is along the lines of, if everyday was like today you will weight XXX.X pounds in X weeks.  Last night mine said that I will weigh 221.5 (from 235) in 5 weeks, even if those numbers aren't true, it sure is a great motivation.  I have noticed over the last 2 days that at night I feel like I should have a snack before bedtime, I fire up the app and think to myself is it really worth it?  I imagine in my head how that one snack every night could be an extra pound lost each week and I forget all about having a snack.

Example of what you see at the end of each day

All in all, I think that this will really help me to keep track of my weight loss and exercise.  You can never have too many tools for this type of thing.  It is the convenience for me that makes this a real winner in my book.  If you would like to join me on the site, my username is ryanlthornton.  The Android market and iTunes links are below.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Rest Day

Yesterday I had a rest day.  It was my first day of counting calories and I was a little sore from the day before.  I still did 10 push ups and 30 crunches on lunch and took a 15 minute walk around the block with Ashley.  I ended up 200 calories under my daily goal of 1780 and I was pretty high on my sugar intake, but the app said that if everyday was like yesterday I would lose 11.5 pounds by April 5th.  I hope that it is right because that would be pretty good progress.

I hope that I am able to work out tonight, whether it be cardio or strength training.  I am starting to get a headache from grinding my teeth today and my shoulders are still sore from lifting the other day.  My shoulders have always been my weakest muscle and I hope to change that this time around.  The push ups are getting better, at least my knees aren't on the ground anymore.

See you all tomorrow!