No witty title, just Chris D's Diary

C

Chris D

New member
Hello people. I’m new here, so I hope it’s ok for me to jump right in and start a diary.

As of this morning, I weigh 242. I’m shooting for at least a 50 pound loss, but, if I develop one of those lovely 6 packs before then, I’ll go ahead and stop. I’d also like to get my body fat down to about 8%.

My target date is Dec 15th. That will put me at 1.5 pounds a week, which seems to be a fairly reasonable goal. The biggest issue for me will be overcoming my frustration at how long term a project this is. It’s easy for me to get discouraged and distracted, which is why I’m here :) I don’t think I”ve ever seen any site as supportive as this one is. Maybe it’s cuz I’m a guy and we’re always told to do everything on our own. Eh, I’ve tried that long enough, and it hasn’t worked!

I will do weigh ins every Saturday. Monday seems to be the standard, but, my thinking is that if I do it on Saturday, I’ll stay more focused during the end of the week. Besides, it’s easy to do good on Monday because it’s always a new beginning ;)

I’m going to use a mix of calorie cutting and exercise. I’m still working out the details of the exercise plan, but it will involve body weight exercises. I’m thinking about one 30 minute session, and then 3 10 minute sessions throughout the day, 5 days a week. For cardio…I think I will stick to walking for now. Being that I don’t have a car, I have plenty of opportunities to walk ? Maybe I’ll go for 3x a week at 30 minutes each. That will be outside my normal walking to school, etc.

For the diet…I plan on going with around 2000-2100 calories a day, with no more than 10% cals from fat. I’m going with a fairly basic diet (pasta, beans, raw veggies and fruits) because I’m poor and vegetarian ? However, I tend to get bored easily, so I may very well be asking for quick and simple vegan/vegetarian recipes. Just know that I can’t even cook a grilled cheese without burning it.

I’m coming here for support. I’m tired of telling others I’m going to do it and not do it. I’d rather not tell anyone, then just let them see the results. Actions do speak so much louder than words. I want someone to go “Oh shit, what happened to you!” So, I promise to be as supportive as I can, cuz I know you folks will be.

There is no better time than right now, so I’m officially starting today! I’ll start reading others diaries to see what kind of info I should post.

I’ll try to keep it 100% about the weight loss journey, but on occasion other parts of my life will leak in. Don’t worry, it’ll only be related to the positive changes that come along with weight loss.

Thank you,

Chris
 
Day 1

Alrighty, it's close enough to the end of the day to tally up the stats for me.

Exercise: I did get 30 minutes of fairly intense exercise in today, so I did good on that part.

Food: About 2400 calories, a bit higher than I wanted to go with. The cause of that was one of those evil bags of $.99 chips at the corner store.

I think that's going to be the biggest hurdle for me. It's so temping just to walk a few feet to the store and get junk food. Any tips on how to fight that?

Another thought...I have quite the soda addiction (diet and coke zero), do you really think soda causes weight retention? I do drink a good bit of water, but if soda is super bad for me, I'll do my best to give it up :)

Alright, tommorow I"M shooting for about 2000 cals, 30 minute walk and 30 minutes of bodyweight exercises.

P.S.-Hopefully I'll get into the groove of this diary thing soon. It still feels a bit odd posting my thoughts and having everyone read them. How long does it take to get used to that? :)
 
Chris D said:
Alrighty, it's close enough to the end of the day to tally up the stats for me.

Exercise: I did get 30 minutes of fairly intense exercise in today, so I did good on that part.

Food: About 2400 calories, a bit higher than I wanted to go with. The cause of that was one of those evil bags of $.99 chips at the corner store.

I think that's going to be the biggest hurdle for me. It's so temping just to walk a few feet to the store and get junk food. Any tips on how to fight that?

Another thought...I have quite the soda addiction (diet and coke zero), do you really think soda causes weight retention? I do drink a good bit of water, but if soda is super bad for me, I'll do my best to give it up :)

Alright, tommorow I"M shooting for about 2000 cals, 30 minute walk and 30 minutes of bodyweight exercises.

P.S.-Hopefully I'll get into the groove of this diary thing soon. It still feels a bit odd posting my thoughts and having everyone read them. How long does it take to get used to that? :)
Click to expand...

Heya Chris,

I'm always tempted to just have a cheat once in a while, but I make sure I don't over do it. Those 99 cent bag chips I believe are over 1 serving, if I am not mistaken, so becareful on how much you consume or the calories will balloon up.

One method I have done is to just totally avoid those stores, but if you must go in, grab a granola bar or something. Try to think of a healthy substitute. If you NEED to have chips, try Baked Lays, those definitely arent as fattening as regular greasy chips.

As for the diet soda, I have tried to avoid soda all together. A few months ago I tried it and it was terrible, it tasted pretty bad so I just limit myself to water. If you must have some carbonated drink, try the flavored seltzer water, I think they have little to 0 calories!

And I agree it is weird to be posting what goes on your mind throughout the day on this forum, but I look at it this way, if I cheat, I'm lying to myself, and also lying to all these people trying to support you. And that'd make me feel so bad :(. Your goal depends on you to be trustworthy; not only to yourself, but the people here.
 
The 99 cent bags of chips usually have 2.5 servings if I'm not mistaken. Also, diet sodas are very bad. I forget exactly what it is, but some kind of chemical in them are horrible for weight loss. Avoiding soda all together would be your best bet. Also, you just started eating healthy and it's hard to get into the groove of things, but once the healthy eating becomes a habit, those cravings disappear (for the most part). Instead of craving chocolate, you'll crave an apple or banana. :)
 
Hi there, welcome to the forum. I also struggle with the diet soda. I have found its not so much the soda its self but the caffine in them that makes you retain water, it also plays avoc with your sugar levels, causeing you to crave sugary foods and starches. So if you manage to go off them its worth your while. I made my self I deal that if I got my 2litres of water in a day then I was allowed to drink my diet drinks. Well I found after that much water, there isnt alot of room for any other kind of drink lol. Good luck.
 
yep. avoid the diet coke. only have it if you must.
i try to just down alot of water now. and my daily 2 glasses of milk.
you can try making fresh juices too.

are you vegan or vegetarian?
cause instead of 2 glasses of milk you can have soy drink which is yummy too.

as for recipes, I've been going vegetarian lately for my lunches.
I like to get ideas from and from

Vegweb has good recipes.
And the Vegan Lunch Box has excellent vegan lunch ideas. The blog is by a domestic stay-at-home vegan mom who makes these yummy lunches for her son who's starting kindergarten. She takes pictures and posts them online. Her archives are VERY good for ideas. In fact, I'm inspired to make baked corn dogs because of her.
 
Kinyo-

You are correct. Those bags have about 3.5 servings, or appx 440 calories, with about 170 of those from fat. I guess if I should indulge, I should keep it to pretzels!

Yeah, I must stop with the diet soda. Not only is it bad for me, it's also rather expensive (at least at the rate I put em down). Mmmmm caffeine!

Ocire-

I'm going to have to find out a bit more about that chemical. Hell, just the burn of diet soda should be enough to tip me off! But nooooo, I have to keep on chugging it ;)

zoila-

What part of Australia do you live in? I spent a month in Sydney, 3 weeks in Melbourne, and a few months in Adelaide. Could you mail me some Helgas bread and some Tim Tams? :)

Do you drink soda at all anymore? Did you have major caffeine withdrawl? I'd love to hear more.

C-

I'm a vegetarian, but don't really care for dairy (milk is too thick for me to stomach) or eggs. My diet has mostly been bagels, beans, and pasta. I get about 6 cups of raw veggies per day, and between 2-4 servings of fruit (mostly bananas and apples. I could eat bananas all day)

Thanks for the links. The pics at vegan lunch box are making me veeeery hungry.

Are you vegan/veggie?

Thanks for all the feedback and help folks, I truly appreciate it!
 
Day 2

Food: About 2400 calories today. I stayed away from any bad food (chips, etc), but got really hungry later in the evening, so I opened up a can of beans. I resisted the evil temptation of the chips tonight, go me ;)

Exercise: Non today, off day for me. I’ve decided I’ll do my bodyweight exercises M-Sat, and do cardio (walking at first) for 30 minutes on MWF. I will introduce running when I get to around 220 I reckon. Well, if I hit a major plateau before then, maybe earlier.

Have any of yall kicked the caffeine habit? I mean, I kid you not, I probably drink about a gallon of soda a day. Yes, I know that’s horrible. Trust me!

How long do the withdrawals last? Should I try the cold turkey approach, or wean myself off? Heck, I used to be a smoker, I can’t imagine it being worse than that?

That’s all for now. Looks like I may be going with 2400 calories a day, at least this week. If I drop 1.5 pounds this week, I’ll keep at 2400 until I don’t.

Another question…do any of you try…I’m not sure what the actual name is, but you shift your calories on a daily basis? Like, if you want your average intake to be 2000 a day, one day you would eat 1500, the next 2500, etc. If you have, what have you results been?
 
I used to be a heavy soda drinker, but once I really found out how much sugar and caffeine I was feeding to my body, I just stopped. Maybe I'd have a soda once a month or sometimes two, but its really only for special occasions.

Considering the 20 oz bottles contain well over 200 calories :( and heap loads of caffeine and sugar.

I'm also trying to knock out coffee from my diet, but thats very difficult since I have to wake up around 5:30 4 out of the 5 weekdays to make class, and even a good nights rest won't help in waking up at that hour lol. :p

I see you crave chips, I once did too. But remember to think of a healthy alternative, why don't you try baked potatoes! With a small scoop of maybe some reduced fat sour cream or maybe even light BBQ sauce, I bet it'd keep your mind off chips.
 
Hi! I think you're doing great so far. This is only going to get easier and easier for you. I'm not a soda drinker, but coffee is my poison. I have managed to cut back to one mug a day. I found that it makes me a nicer person if I get at least a little caffeine in the morning. :rolleyes: Just try to cut back the soda a little bit everyday until you're not drinking it anymore or only have one cup a day. That way you won't feel deprived and you won't crave it like you do now. Good luck and stay positive!
 
Oh yeah! I'm a vegetarian too. Maybe we can exchange recipes. I started to eat fish, though, because I needed to incorporate more protein into my diet.
 
Just a quick update for day 3.

Food-About 1900 cals. I lived off of bagels today! So quick and easy. Mmmmm everything bagels.

Exercise-Walked about 30 minutes (to grocery store and back), and did 30 minutes of body weight exercises.

Soda-I prolly only downed about 2 liters of soday today, and that's about half of my normal consumption :)

Thanks for the commnets and help folks, I appreciate it, and I'll try to be more in depth tomorrow night.
 
OH MY GOSH! :eek: That's alot of soda! Well, I'm glad you're limiting your consumption but wow... That's alot of soda. :eek: I rarely drink any soda nowadays. The only time I get pop now is if I'm eating out and even then it's diet coke, heh. I guess it IS a good thing you're drinking diet now.

I'm not a a true vegetarian. I'm very much an omni... :p but I have been trying more and more vegan/vegetarian dishes especially for lunches. Since I am diabetic and am trying to limit my protein/meat consumption. Generally, I'm just trying to eat healthier. Hence why I've been looking into more vegan/vegetarian recipes.

You, me and Misty have to share some recipes!
 
As I slip into self-sabatoge

Damn,

Only 3 or 4 days into it and I can feel the pull.

While I didn't eat horribly today (is that even a word?), I did eat entirely too much.

Let me give you a bit of background info on my situation:

I saved up money and quit my job so that I could pursue a career in music (songwriter/performer). It's much more challenging and stressful that I expected, and I always turn to food whenever I feel like it's hopeless. I'll sit down to write, and my mind will come up with 8 billion other thigns I "should" be doing, wiht about 7 billion of them invoving food. This is getting really discouraging and I must find a way around this. Does this happen to any of you? You make big goals, get just a bit discouraged, and turn to the fridge to make you feel better? Man I hope I'm not the only one :)


I'm beginning to think this food thing really is an addiction, just like nicotine or anything else that's bad for you. I eat when I'm stressed, nervous, depressed, etc. I quit smoking, so why should eating right be so damn difficult? I guess one issue is that you can't go cold turkey with food :)

End of rant. Thanks for listening/reading.

Chris
 
Welcome Chris, it sounds like you on a good start. Thats great. Everyone here is so awsome, if you need anything, feel very free to ask. I love this place, I come in everyday. I like you goal to, I think you set it just perfect. What kind of things distract you? I have a few, but then I have things that I want to do, that I don't want to do this size. Does that make sense? lol feel free to swing into my diary, I got lotsa stuff, and I like to talk all the time. Plus my best friend Jess is doing her diary here to, and she lives in a different state, and were both doing great. So you have come to the right place. GOOD LUCK!!! :)
 
I've been very bad

HI folks,

I would call for a do over, but that would'nt be fair.

I had a chance to go visit friends in Memphis, and of course went off the wagon already. I'm stuck in Atlanta till Wednesday, and will weigh myself on Saturday. I'll be the best boy I can till then, promise!
 
i totally agree with you that food is an addiction! but just like nicotine or crack, we gotta break the addiction I find. and get new things to substitute it that would be less harmful. that's why I'm drinking alot of water. everytime I feel like snacking, I drink water to help fill me up. And it's good for me. i'm also trying to express my emotions, thoughts and feelings via writing more. instead of taking it out on food.

good luck with the weigh-in!
 
Chris i would like to make a suggestion if its ok . See being a vegitarian you would i think like the diet i have been doing. you can check it out on my diary "up down up down where to go from here" i love it and if you follow it and dont stray i promise results i have lost 25 pounds and in the first 3 weeks
i have a friend who started it and lost 20 in the first 2 weeks. and sounds like you will like the foods mostly rice pasta and beans loads of veggies and some fruits. then one day a week meat which you can skip being vegetarian. :p
and i also have a few recipies on there like a mexican salad that is soooooo yummy. And the best part is it is measured so no counmting callories I Hated that. by the way so you dont think im just spouting off i have lost weight to i started at 391 and am now at 326 so i think it works.
 
Ok, 3 steps backwards, now I need to get my arse stepping forward!

Ok folks,

I lied. I said I was going to weigh in Saturday. I couldn't get a flight for Wednesday, so I had to buy a ticket for Saturday. If you haven't, never ever ever ever fly standby. It's horrible. I was stuck in Atlanta for a week trying to get back home.

Ok, weighed in today. I'm at 245, 3 pounds ABOVE where I started. Not good.

Initial C-

I'm a songwriter and I'm working on a career as a musician. One of the most stressful times for me (food wise) is when I sit down to a blank page. My stomach rumbles so loud it feels like an earthquake :) Does this happen to you when you write? What kind of writing do you do?

Secretly-

I'm definitely going to check out your diary. I do need some kind of guidance on this. I get so bored eatin the same stuff over and over, but I can't cook and can't afford specialty food. Off to check your diary now :)


So, for this weight loss tracker...is there one where you can measure backwards progress? I mean, I guess I don't think it's fair for me to jump up to 245 and pretend that's my starting weight.

Alright, my first goal is now to get to 240.
 
hey chris.. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Body weight fluctuates all the time. Plus it could still be water retention. However, if you are worried I would suggest cutting out some more of the pop out of your diet (I know you love them ;) ) but just a lil less every day might help. Or changing some of the bread and pastas you eat from white to whole grain. Besides that, I'm at a lost. Just stay focused and keep making the healthier choices and I'm sure the pounds will melt away.

As for me, I USED to write alot of poetry and fiction. But lately, I've been suffering through writer's block! ACK! Food for me... Isn't so much as an emotional/stress thing but more of an everything. heh. ^_^; I mean, I eat to celebrate when I'm happy. When I'm sad for comfort. When I'm bored. So now I just try to snack less. And if I do snack, I make healthier choices like raw cucumber slices and baby carrot sticks.

As for the ticker, I am not aware of one that does go in reverse. You can just give it some time. Maybe you won't need to change the ticker and u'll be 240 again. :D
 
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