Day 17 - and I am lighter than I thought!

Hey! I almost didn't get to this post. I am playing StarCraft II and I hate to admit it, but it is pretty good. I have been kinda bored with real time strategy games the last few years, but Starcraft has just enough of the right mix of story to keep me interested. Now you know my dirty secret. I am a gamer. PC, Xbox 360, Wii, I play em all. Between Gaming and Guitars I have my hobbies pretty well nailed down. I find I have a lot more time to enjoy both with all the time and money I save not eating all the time.

I dunno what it is, but I am down to 420 today and that is 4 more pounds for a total of 25lbs lost in 17 days.

Anyway I am still in this thing and I am getting excited about the rapid weight loss. I must get back to my game! I love when I have the weekend off!

-Until Tomorrow

Sean

Day 16 - Weigh Day Number One

Today's weight is 424 down from a starting weight of 445. Not too bad. That's 21lbs in 16 days! I won't go into a long post about how it brought tears to my eyes and I was so happy to finally be losing weight. The first 20lbs is always pretty easy. I have lost 20lbs before and gained it right back. I am happy with the results and 21lbs in 16 days is a pretty damn good start. but I am not gonna lie to you or myself. I have a long way to go and I am just getting started. I will start getting more emotional once I break 400lbs. That's a number I have not been below for a while now.

Don't get me wrong today is a celebration and I am happy, but I need to keep my eye on the prize!

Have a Great Friday!

Sean

Day 15 -Thats like half a month!

Day 15 is here and I am still in this thing. Tomorrow will be my first official weigh day for this blog and I am hoping for a solid 20lbs. I have had to tighten my belt three notches and I only have one notch left before I will have to start belt shopping again.

Today I spread my food out a little more than I have been doing and it went a lot easier. I find I sleep a lot because it is my only coping mechanism now that I have given up cigarettes and food for fun. I am sure that will level off once the weight starts coming off and the energy level shoots up.

I joined a gym that hasn't opened yet for a great price break. The gym is opening in August which is fast approaching. This will give me another tool for my weight loss arsenal and I am looking forward to it.

Sorry if i am not eloquent or long winded I just am not a writer. Maybe I will improve with time or maybe I will write more as I get more excited about my results.

-More to come

Sean

Day 14 - Was a tough one

I made it through another day. Work was tough and I had to work straight through without lunch. Not something I recomment on a reduced calorie diet. The hunger can get unbearable and I found my mind wondering and maintaining focus a challenge. I did make it through though and when it was over I went to burger king and got a large fry and a couple whopper juniors. I had been craving fast food, but this was the first time I had the calories available for it. Day 14 is an exciting milestone, but unfortunatley I did not have the time to give it the celebration it deserved. It is actually day 15 already and hopefully I will be adding that post sometime today :-)

-Till next time

Sean

Day 13 I'm not going anywhere.

Everyday I want to write "Day XX Can you believe it!" as a title because everyday I make it I can't believe it! I am finally doing this.  I have done good today It is 9:33PM and I have close to 500 calories left. Gonna do some good snacking tonight.

Today my 4 year old daughter Kati looks at me and says, "You're the only daddy I have, so you can't leave me." How sad is that? I informed Kati and I am telling all 2 or 3 of you reading this blog. I am not going anywhere! I am doing this and I am gonna be the best me I can be.

-Until next time

Sean

Day 12 - I'm still here!

Day 12's blog is a day late which may have lead some to believe I gave in to a couple large pizzas, a triple whopper, and a large sundae with marshmallow and caramel. Nope. Yesterday was a pretty good day and I kept busy enough that I didn't have time to obsess about my eating habits or my blog. That is a good thing!

I came in under budget and I ate some things I love. I had some Fettuccine Alfredo and I had a microwave bag of popcorn with Kernel Seasons Nacho Cheddar Seasoning :-) Day 12 was a good day.

I saw Sean Anderson's video of his Jet ski adventure and I was reminded of the last time I tried to ride a Jet ski. The damn thing sank! I shit you not. That was a pretty embarrassing moment. I have added Jet skiing to the things I want to do when i am not fat list!

-See ya tomorrow(which is today)

Sean

Day 11 - The Great Popcorn Diet.

I made it another day. Today I developed an obsession with popcorn when I realized I can make it a healthy snack. I have been doing very little snacking for fear it would lead to my ruin. Popcorn will become my go to snack. I ordered an air popper and some seasonings and some zero calorie butter flavored spritzer. I am ready to rock the Great Popcorn Diet!

I am motivated to be the me I feel like I am inside.

-Till next time

Sean

Day 10 - Been Fighting hard

I had a flatbread with budding beef and a slice of  sharp chedder for breakfast (only 250 calories!) would have been better had I not got to the bottom and found mold on my cheese! My wife just bought it at Krogers last night turned out it had expired in May. Not cool.

It was a very busy day at work for me so I had a Jack Link's beef steak for a snack instead of lunch at 120 calories and then I went to meet my wife at work so we could grab dinner together with our 4 year old daughter. I ordered and entire pizza at California Pizza Kitchen tipping the scales at 1016 Calories and still under budget. They brought some delicous looking homemade bread to our table with butter and I wanted to eat it and bad. Oddly, I did not eat it. Not one morsal. I knew this was gonna be a strange trip.

Day 10 a success.

-More tomorrow

Sean

Day 10 - Nothing to report

I haven't eaten anything yet, I am just excited to hit double digits! It's day 10! wooHoo!

-More to come

Sean

Day 9 - Appetite is creeping up on me

I have noticed the last couple of days my appetite is creeping up on me. I have just plain wanted more food. Today I have eaten 1070 calories already which does not leave a lot of room for dinner. Even with a few more calories I am way below the 3500+ calories the weight loss sites suggest I eat to lose weight, but that is not the issue. The issue is control. I need to be vigilant and in control and I feel like I am slipping a little bit. I need to redouble my efforts and be strong.

I still feel good about this. I just know I have a long way to go and I need to remain focused and patient. I noticed I have a new follower today! That helps a lot. Now I know at least one other person is reading this. And now it is your job to hold me accountable :-) (Just kidding btw, I know accountability is my job).

-More later

Sean

Day 8 - Another day down.

Today was a touch one. I found myself wanting more than 1500 to 1600 calories, but I hung in there. I find myself guestimating how much meat I eat when meats are grilled. We often buy a big piece of flank steak or sirloin and grill it out and cut it up. I am going to get on Amazon.com and order a food scale after this post.

Today's motivation for not being fat is being able to play with my daughter without getting tired. Usually when I take her to the park I read while she plays, but I want to do more with her. I want to show her all the things our city has to offer and that is going to take energy that I do not have yet. I will have it soon though and we will have some really good times!

Until tomorrow,

Seam

Day 8 - I gave in to a planned craving.

I have been craving KFC extra crispy chicken for three days. So I planned it. I usually sleep in on my day off and today was no different. I have been getting up early than usual however and I attribute this to the increase and energy I have gotten from my improved diet. So today I had an extra crispy breast and wing for lunch with a individual mash potatoes and gravy. The craving has been dealt with and I still have plenty of calories for dinner and a snack. Bam! take that craving! I am so ready to keep rocking this lifestyle change.

Sean Anderson you may be a genius. I mean you sat down and came up with a perfect diet plan based on the completely obvious (eat less, lose weight who would've thought?) and you did it. And because you did it and because you and I have the same first name and age, I decided if he can do it I can do it.

I am doing it every day.

-more to come!

Sean

Day 7 - Skyline for lunch.

I decided to treat myself today. I had a small 5-way at Skyline Chili. I had never seen a small 5-way before. My normal order would consist of a large 5-way and 2 or three cheese coneys. The small 5-way is quite possibly the smallest meal I ever sat down and donned a bib for. I was in and out in 15 minutes. This is gonna be a long strange trip.

-More to come

Sean

Day 7 - Almost done with week 1

It's funny my pants are getting lose already and I can tell it won't be long before I retire the hand made double thick belt I purchased from a custom made belt store on the Internet. I think sometimes we are afraid to lose weight and we sabotage ourselves. There is fear in change. In the past I would worry about not fitting in all of my clothes and having to buy new ones every several months. It is a silly fear, but a fear none the less. Of course this time I am excited about the change in my life and I looking forward to retiring this super sized belt. This time I will revel in pulling up my pants every time I get out of my chair!

-More to come

Sean

Day 6 - Ok so I made it another day!

Today's Meals Included a big 410 calorie omelet, a 6 inch turkey and ham on wheat from subway with provolone and a touch of mayo. I don't think I have ever ordered a 6 inch before, it was sufficient. I had a beef jerky for a snack and wrapped up the day with an 8 oz sirloin, 1/2 a cup of potato salad, and some fresh whole green beans. Oh and I had some dill pickle spears as a snack. I hit 1434 calories total.

I don't really have a specific motivation for today. I am just excited at the prospect of being a new man. Weight loss is not only about weight lose it is about change. You cannot change your body this much without changing the fundamentals of who you are. I wonder who I will be in the future.

Day 6 - Yeah Just imagine!

On my drive to work I heard an advertisement for high speed Internet on the radio. The tag line was "Just imagine all the things you can do without the wait!" of course I heard "Just imagine all the things you can do without the weight!" What a positive message to start the day with!

Sean

Day 6 - WooHoo

I can't believe it is day 6 already. I went to bed early and got up early. I made a giant omelet using Egg Beaters, 6 slices of ham and 2 slices of provolone. It tipped the scales at 410 calories and I will be stuffed all morning :-). I am going into work a couple hours early to work on a project I am having trouble completing during business hours. Wish me luck!

-More Later

Sean

Day 5 - and I am still doing this thing.

Well we made it to day 5. I am amazed. According to the scale I have lost 15lbs already. I am containing my excitement because this is not my official weigh day and I know some of it is water weight. It is still pretty motivating though. Today I had two packets of oatmeal with a pat of light butter and 1 oz of milk. It was good and it left me feeling full. I just returned from lunch and I had a small chili and 5 piece nuggets from Wendys. I believe we are having the pork chops we intended to grill out last night for dinner tonight. So far I am at 947 calories. I will have to watch my dinner calories closley, but I think I will be ok.

So todays motivation is to be at a size where people stop giving me unsolicitated weight loss advice. Why do people do that. People who have never met me out of the blue decide to tell me a good way to lose weight. How do they know I am not trying to gain more weight? Maybe I am going for a record or something? It will be nice to go through life without everyone assuming I am going to die in the next 20 minutes!

Until Next Time

Sean

Day 4 - So I made it and I took a little walk too.

Due to the whether we decided not to grill out and we went to Taco Bell and I had four crispy Tacos (two with low fat sour cream). It was good. Not normally a big Taco Bell fan, but hey the calories were where I needed them to be. My total for today is 1551 calories. I have had a hard time making 1500 so I set a target and I hard target. My goal is 1500 calories a day. 1600 is the number I will not go over no matter what. I call this my hard target. It's the wall! Except on Holidays where I will give myself 2500 Calories. By holidays I mean Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and Possible my Birthday. I don't mean St. Patrick's day and Presidents day and all the other holidays the government takes off. I don't work for the government and neither does my stomach! I got the idea for Holiday calories from Sean Anderson  'The Diary of a Winning Loser". His blog inspired me to do this and I use his blog for support.

So now that we have the ground rules set in stone. Lets move on. After my meal I took another cue from Sean A. and I went for a walk with my wife and daughter. We went to Inniswood Gardens a beautiful metro park in Westerville, OH. As it was my first walk and it was raining I only walked .50 of a mile. It's a start. When We got there I was trying to figure out how I was going to know how far I had walked. So I My Fender My Touch (android) phone and searched for an app that would monitor my walk via GPS. Within seconds I had downloaded Endomondo this awesome program that allows me to track all kinds of sports via GPS and not only that it has GPS maps of my routes on the website where I can track it all. Best of all it is free!
Take that iPhone 4!!! Technology makes getting in shape fun! I can't wait to walk again.

Until Tomorrow,

Sean

Day 4 - So far so good so what?

So, I have arrived at day 4 and I am still going strong. I don't mind telling you I am scared to death I am going to screw this up. My will power is always good out of the gate and then I forget my long term goals and devour a pizza. I guess that is why I am writing this. So I don't forget these long term goals.  So far today I have consumed 810 calories. We were supposed to finish it off today with some pork chops grilled out on the grill, but it is raining. So who knows?

I want to wear a pair of Levi's 501 blue jeans again. I used to look good in those many, many years ago. I think I will stick with that as my main motivation for today. Maybe I will just list one thing I want to do when I am healthy everyday. That will give me something constructive to write and provide me motivation.

So todays motivation. I want to wear a pair of Levi's 501 blues and I want to buy them off the rack in a normal store just like everyone else.  I want to wear them without a belt because I will have an actual waist. Yup, that will do. I don't wear jeans anymore because they just are not comfortable. I usually wear athletic shorts and sweats when I am home from work and at work I wear a short and tie and some stretchy chinos. I hate it.

I want jeans to be comfortable again

Sean

Still Here - Day 3

A couple more reasons to keep doing this. I would like to pull up to a stop light without having to duck to see when the light turns green. Also I would like to run into an ex-girlfriend and have her think I look good rather than thinking she dodged a bullet. Yeah I know it's vain, but isn't everyone a little vain?

So I hit 1560 calories today which is a little over my 1500 calorie limit. I don't view this as a failure, because I knew hitting 1500 calories exactly everyday would be unlikely. I figure long as I keep it below 1600 I am still in the zone. As for today. I have to eat my chili and this one is done. No more food.

When I get hungry later tonight I will just think about how awesome my life will be when this is all over!

Peace Out!

Sean

Dinner is in the books and I have consumed 1500 Calories today - Still Day 2

First, let me apologize if my posts seem a little erratic. I am still trying to find my rhythm. I am writing these as a type of personal therapy, so whenever I want a cigarette or food I write to remind myself why I am doing all of this.

Now that we have that out of the way, people are funny. Whenever you tell someone you are trying a new process to lose weight there always seem to be two camps of people. There are the "you don't know what your doing and you'll never lose weight that way." folks and then there are the "oh my god, are you crazy? you will die!" folks. Where are the "hey man I hope you do it!" folks?

So anyway it has been a long day and I have spent much time in the bathroom as my body adjusts to it's new diet and I have felt light headed a couple times. I am sure this will make the "oh my god, your gonna die!" folks happy.

I will not quit. It took years of drastic behavior to get me into this shape and it is going to take some drastic behavior to get me out of it.

See ya tomorrow!

-Sean

Why am I doing this? - Day 2

When your fat (let's call it what it is. at this point I am not just overweight I am FAT!) you find yourself missing out on a lot of things in life because the world is not your size. You find that things you used to love are no longer within your reach. I can't buy clothes or shoes that I like because they are not in my size. I avoid certain restaurants because I cannot fit into the booths. I can't go to amusement parks and ride my favorite coasters because I will never fit in them. I cannot ride my bicycles because it hurts too much. I can't go to the pools because I don't want to subject others to a vision of me half naked. I mean let's be honest here. I weigh 450lbs and I wouldn't want to go to the pool and look at a bunch of people my size milling around in bathing suits! I pick my cars based on whether or not I fit in them more than whether or not I like them. Hell I pick everything based on whether or not it fits me or I can make it fit me.

The sad thing is I can remember riding these coaster and riding my bike and swimming laps in the pool. It is easy not to miss something when you don't know what your missing.

I woke up hungry - Day 2

I woke up hungry. I know what you want to hear in a sitution is "hey I cut down on all the food and I didn't miss it at all". That just wouldn't be true. I still have my resolve and I am gonna go have myself a yogurt for breakfast.

I finished my food for the day

I ate some havarti cheese some more crackers and had another yogurt and I hit 1528 calories (due to an error in caloric information on a small chili from wendy's). No more food for today. Ack!

1500 Calories a day? Sure why not! Day 1

Ah yes the obligatory fat guy startng picture. Look how tiny my guitars look. "Fat guy and a little guitar!"



I learned something very valuable about weight loss recently. Turns out you will never lose weight unless you start a blog. A friend sent me a link to the blog of a guy who shares my name and age and he has lost over 250lbs in two years following one simple rule. He only eats 1500 calories a day. When he runs out of calories he is done eating until the next day. I know what your thinking. Your thinking damn that sounds hard. I'm gonna bet myself that it is not as hard as everything else I have tried. All I have to do is count the calories and I am done. No complex calculations. No way to try and trick myself into eating something I shouldn't be by cheating some complex formula. Just 1500 simple calories of whatever I want to eat and then I ride out the hunger. it's 7:18PM and I have eaten 690 calories today. a strawberry yogurt, 5 piece of chicken nuggets, a small chili and 8 saltine crackers. I don't mind telling you, I am starved! Let's see if I make it to tomorrow!

-Sean