Final Weigh-In

Yes, this is late in being posted by a few days, but guess what? I made it! In fact, I forgot I was aiming for 146 and thought I'd been off by .2 of a pound from 145, so I super made it. With tenths of a pound to spare! Go me!

This picture was taken bright an early Tuesday morning, 9/20/11.

Okay, we'll call that sock weight, because unlike in the original weigh in picture back in January, I'm barefoot.

Remember this? Me, too! I totally did it. I lost forty (one point four) pounds in 8 months. I accomplished my goal. I'm not a superhero and I'm not particularly known for my willpower, but I did it. Here's how.

How I Ate:

Throughout my fitness journey, I tracked my calories online. Most people don't do this because it's a pain in the butt. I didn't want to do it because it's a pain in the butt. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their body composition, though, with the caveat that it is absolutely a pain in the butt. I measure almost every piece of food I put in my mouth. I look up nutritional info for restaurants I visit. I plug family recipes into a website and then figure out how much of the total calories I probably ate, and log that. The bad news is, wow, there's a lot of AWFUL food out there. It also couldn't be easier to eat it and get huge, because it's cheap, tasty, and everywhere. The good news is that if you track your eating for about two months, you'll start to know what you can and can't eat to support your weight loss goals, and you can probably wing it from there. I chose not to because I knew I had a problem with overeating and because I had a measurable goal I wanted to reach, and it paid off. There's something really powerful about knowing precisely what foods support your goal, and there's something eye opening about seeing just how much real food you can eat for the same number of fat and calories as junk food from a drive through.

Chris, some homeless guy, and me, June 2010

I wouldn't tell anyone that there is any food to never or always eat. It's a matter of making it work for you. I know to a lot of people, cheese, sour cream, and refried beans spell diet disaster, but I found that those foods are usually worth the caloric trade-off for me, because I'd be eating them instead of things with more carbs and sugar. If given the choice of two foods with the same number of calories, I'm almost always going to go for the one with more protein, fiber, or fat than one with more carbs. I just find that carbs don't fill me up, and a hungry Whitney is a miserable Whitney. I drink little to no juice, soda, or sweet tea and drink a whole ton of water, some skim milk, and some Coke Zero. On that note I don't drink alcohol very much. It's usually a once or twice a month thing with several drinks, then weeks of nothing. I find I gravitate toward sugary drinks that have tons of calories and once I've had a bit, I start eating everything in sight. It's just not worth it to do this on more than special occasions. What else? Hmm, granola is deceptively bad for you, don't dismiss things everyone tells you are bad for you without doing the research, take fish oil, and try to fill up on fruits and veggies. Don't eat white bread or rice, and try to keep ice cream to a minimum, 'cause the stuff is killer caloric. Drinking hot tea fills me up, and measure out and check the calories on all pasta you eat, even the whole wheat stuff. You'd be shocked about how many calories you're consuming with pasta. On the other hand, red spaghetti sauce, even with meat, is great, and you can drown your half cup of noodles in it an feel pretty okay with your choices.

Me and Chris, September 2011

Those are my eating tips. The little ones all come from my experience with the big one. I can't tell you how much I benefited from incorporating MyFitnessPal, a food scale, and measuring cups/spoons into my fitness plan. Or maybe I can. 40 pounds in eight months. Yep, about that much.

How I Moved:

Well, the first few months, I did EA Sports Active 2 with Chris. It was a combination cardio and strength program that focused on short exercises strung together with very little rest between them, and was challenging for me. To say the least. Sometimes I cried. ANYWAY, it was surprisingly effective. I also walked around the city a fair bit around three times a week. Then I moved back to Jax and got a job in a restaurant. I walk a lot in a shift, and I love that there's movement in my job. I don't, however, think this is sufficient for someone trying to lose weight, so I joined a gym and have visited it intermittently since then. I've focused on cardio because my goal has been quick weight loss, but while that has helped get the pounds off, I pretty much look like a smaller version of the fat me. Skinnyfat is the term. I don't have any muscle definition and I feel weaker than I should. I regret that I haven't been lifting, as I know it's a huge help to boosting one's metabolism, strengthening the bones, and making you look like a hottie, but I've been lazy. It's my goal in the coming months to throw my attention on that aspect of fitness. Muscles, ahoy!

How I Felt:

Overwhelmed. Proud. Pressured. Enlightened. Occasionally, deprived. Like I accomplished something amazing. Emotions have been all over the place, 'cause it's been EIGHT MONTHS of working at this goal. I've had great successes, some failure, and holding patterns, so it's been all over the map. Here at the finish line, though, I can tell you this: I'm not happy because I'm 40 pounds down. I'm happy because I set a goal and worked toward it. I'm happy because I got in shape for myself, not for the rest of the world, but honestly, I've gotten a lot of affirmation from the outside world, so that's great and helpful. I think you can be miserable, lose wight, and remain miserable. It's about figuring out why you want to do something, trying to be positive about where you're at and who you are now, and taking the, "I'm awesome and I'm just going to improve on a good thing," approach to health.

It's certainly not about starving yourself. It's never been about hating myself and feeling like I won't be happy until I improve. It's all about this, "I am great, and I can be greater!" approach. I wish I could communicate that to others, because I want to be a sign of cool people getting cooler, not miserable people becoming happy through weight loss. No way, man.



I hope this has been helpful to people with similar goals. I know tracking my weight and being accountable to this blog has been essential to me meeting my goal, and I know I really really want to share the things I think have been most essential to my success. My advice: Set a clear and measurable goal. Build in some room for error/real life, and then work like the dickens. If you see things aren't working, try new things. Learn a lot. Use your entertainment (like Biggest Loser or blogs you read) to keep your head in the game and give you more knowledge in a fun way. Don't give in to stupid, "diet of the month" plans you find at the top of the New York Times bestseller list or in a magazine. Drink more water, eat more vegetables, and find a physical activity you like, from walking to weight lifting to yoga. Be awesome. You were born for this.

Weigh in Week #34

Are we down to the wire or what? The deadline for my goal is September 20th I've got 1.4 pounds to go to get there. Even if I don't make it, I'm darn close, and I'm darn proud.

I've been sick for a week, so I haven't been able to work out, and it's been my birthday, so we had lots and lots of good food. Luckily I've been good more than I've been bad, and I've had a little less of an appetite than before thanks to the sickness, so it's balanced out for the most part.

I'm actually really missing the gym since I've been so sick lately. If it was just a sore throat and a runny nose, I think I'd be in there, but I've got some gross-sounding death coughs that make me wary about pushing myself more than I have to. But yeah! I'm looking forward to returning to the gym, starting my weight training again, and getting arms like my Education professor. She's ripped, man!

Okay, guys, final weigh-in in five days! It's happening! We're doing this!

A Reflecton on Labor (Day)

I'm spending the holiday sick, and doing a lot of reading for school that, if not for this holiday, I would be attending. Yay, labor!

Speaking of, I feel like I'm reaching a breakthrough at work. I'm really getting so much more comfortable with the serving aspect that I can connect to the guests because my mind isn't on so many other things. Sure, I still make mistakes and I've not learned 100% of the items on the menu (just the 80% that are most commonly ordered), but it's enough to get by. It's fun to talk to customers and try to find common ground, and it's great to know that some people go out to eat for more than just food. They want atmosphere, food, and personable, friendly service.

So yes, the non-monetary aspects of work are going well. I went out with coworkers the other night after work and was really excited to interact off the job. Yay, socializing!

As for money, well, I'm still working around 20 hours a week, but we're just not getting a ton of customers on my shifts. I don't know if the restaurant is taking a hit, if people are just tipping poorly, or if I'm getting some bum shifts, but it's not great. I'm still able to pay my modest bills, but I don't feel like I have a lot left over for wedding things or paying off my student loan early. Ah, well. I have a great job environment with wonderful coworkers and customers, a schedule that accommodates my school hours, and tasty tacos whenever I want them. Okay, that last one is a little dangerous. But overall it's working out great.

Weigh-In Week #32!

Last week I was a bit overconfident. I stopped counting calories. I didn't work out. I'm down a grand total of one pound in three weeks. This is bad. This will improve.

Alright. Anyway. This week I weigh 150.4 pounds, for a total weight loss of 36.2 pounds since I started this thing back in January, which makes my average weight loss 1.13 pounds a week.

I ate some baaaaaaad food. I also ate some healthy reasonable food, but I didn't do the little things to keep my nutrition on track and made too many excuses. Bad eating is okay in moderation with friends and family for a special event, but it's goofy and not special when you're hanging around the house. I am not going to give up, because I know I can do this. In order to meet my goal, I've got to lose 1.5 pounds a week. This is totally happening. Come on, guys. I can do this.

The Road Ahead

In other news, I'm really looking forward to post-goal activity: weight training! I love getting stronger and I know how many health benefits it offers. I know it's a super effective way to keep your weight low thanks to calorie-torching muscle mass boosting one's metabolism, and I know I'm going to look a lot better with muscles under my skin. I do have a bit of post-weight loss loose skin on my arms and stomach, and it would look way cooler to have abs, triceps, and triceps to help fill that out.

I'm not sure what program I'd like to start, but I'm bouncing between Starting Strength, Krista's Beginner Full-Body Routine, and Sean10mm's Stripped 5x5. I'm looking for something that emphasizes a handful of compound movements that hit pretty much everything. I'm not interested in doing 48 isolation exercises to hit each muscle individually, because the human body works as a system and muscles work together. I want overall strength, definition, and health.

That's the plan! I'd also love to return to yoga, but my gym has seriously cut back on the number of yoga classes it has and my schedule has only gotten more restricted.

Alright! I've got the tools to do well, because I've been using them for over half a year. I've got the desire, because I absolutely want to cross this off my list and be able to say, "Look what I did!" And I've got a plan to keep all these good things I've been doing going. Well, an idea of a plan. I'll pick a routine by the time I hit my goal. Now all that's left is to make this happen!