The Officialish FOFC Weight Loss Dynasty

[Kodos]

Impressive! Especially the 2013 pounds part!

[hoopsguy]

Yep, you've just killed it Frogman. Pretty impressive transformation and from following your running info it sure seems like you've got the foundation to sustain these changes for the long haul.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Impressive! Especially the 2013 pounds part!

what can I say, I was carrying many years of bad habits around my midsection

I edited it to say the correct 203 lbs

And thanks guys! Hoopsguy, this lifestyle change is being tested these last few weeks as I lowered my mileage a bit. Not burning as many calories on a daily basis but I'm still maintaining my weight and not seeing any big increase in trend weight...

FM

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
6/10: 284.8
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
9/17: 268.4


I got out of the 280s for good on July 12th. I hit the 260's for the first time on September 13th. It only took me 5 weeks to get through the 290s and 5 weeks to get through the 280s so this just felt like forever, even though 10 pounds in two months is still pretty good.

I haven't complained about foot problems in awhile, last year I got really into running for awhile, overdid it and hurt my foot. The diagnosis is sesamoiditis, the ball of my right foot just feels generally sensitive all the time and if I do things that put pressure on that area it can start to hurt fairly significantly. The prescription for it was rest. Well, I did nothing from last November to July... and the pain came back instantly when I started going to the gym. I finally went back to my podiatrist, he added more cushion to the orthotic in my right foot and told me not to do any exercises that hurt for a month. So no running, limited jumping, no lunges or any other exercise that involves getting up on the ball of my foot. That's been going on for 2 1/2 weeks now, but its not helping. It still hurts from just general use. I'm going to wait until the full month is up, but the next step is a cortisone shot to try to get rid of the inflammation. I have a bad feeling this is a problem I'll have forever, since 8 months of laziness (ie rest) and dropping 50 pounds hasn't resolved it.

Anyway, things are going well overall, we'll see what's next for the foot in early October, and we'll see if I can get through the 260's a little quicker.

[hoopsguy]

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6

8/30: 171.0
9/7: 169.4
9/13: 167.8
9/20: 168.4

No major surprise. Not enough exercise after the Sunday run, a couple of evening poker games and a little too much booze. Correctable stuff, but realistically I need to start working on my fall/winter plans that involve less outdoor running and finding passion for some indoor activities.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
6/10: 284.8
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
9/17: 268.4
9/24: 267.2

Lots of bouncing around this week, though mostly around gym days. The morning after I go to the gym I'm up a pound or two, then back down the next day. That's been happening for awhile but seems a bit exaggerated this week.


Also, in foot news, I got a second opinion on the foot problems after doing some internet research and wondering if there were things my original podiatrist hadn't tried or had ignored. Seems the answer is no, the new doctor I saw today approved of everything that we've tried over the last year or so (off and on since I was inactive for parts of it), and he, too, said he really thought a cortisone shot was the proper next step, so I went ahead and got that done today.

He did explain things a little better though. He said that one of the sesamoid bones in my right foot is a bit "irregular looking", its not a huge problem or anything, but it does lead to a greater likelyhood of the type of inflammation I'm experiencing as I get older.

So with the cortisone shot there's a chance this one shot will just fix everything as long as I don't do anything stupid and overdo it (the shot will be enough to help get rid of the inflammation once and for all and the types of exercise I'm doing now is reasonable and shouldn't really cause it to come back). More likely though, it'll significantly reduce the pain and allow me to keep up my exercise program and there's always the hope that at a healthy weight these things are less of an issue.

Anyway, I'm good w/ what's been done now, if we start talking about needing shots more frequently I'll be more wary. Also, if this just doesn't work at all, then we may talk about wearing a boot for 3 weeks to completely immobilize it and see if that lets it heal completely.

[Subby]

I love this thread. Most of my favorite people at FOFC post in it and it is full of absolutely great successes. If it is okay I would like to use it as a low-stress place to keep track of my weight loss attempts. Basically I need a central place to keep everything (like a blog), where folks are reading (unlike a blog) and I can feel some accountability.

Basically I am fed up with whatever is going on with my eating. The exercise stuff I have down pretty good (for those that don't know, I bike commute between 20 and 30 miles roundtrip to work every day and will go for a long ride on the weekends). I have also started helping my wife get back in to running and am doing a run/walk thing with her three days a week.

So I am burning calories. Which is good, because I cannot stop eating. I get depressed when I think about how much weight I could have lost had I kept my eating under control (even a little). One time I tried a dynasty where I just came up with a list of bad habits and tried to avoid them every day. It wasn't even a weight loss dynasty but the negativity of it just kind of burned the whole thing down. It was hard to bring the anger every day. Usually I am just complacent.

Anyway, I decided to take like 10 good health habits and try and do them every day. Basically, when I go to bed every night, I will pull up this little checklist app on my phone (Paperless) and check off everything I have done, with the goal of getting a perfect score.

The list:

1. Out of bed by 5:30a
2. Exercise
3. Drink Bulletproof Coffee (no this is not a paid product placement)
4. Do not buy breakfast out
5. No soda
6. No candy
7. No ice cream
8. No baked goods (cookies, cakes, pie, donuts, brownies)
9. Drink 60 oz water.
10. Don't eat after 8pm.
11. Brush teeth twice, floss once.
12. In bed by 10pm

Basically I am trying to HEAVILY reduce my sugar intake and confine my eating to a shorter window. The bulletproof coffee thing is an experiment, but I have to admit I DO feel pretty great after drinking it. The soda thing I had completely licked for a long time but just recently started drinking Coke Classic(!) so, brakes applied.

The list is not perfect, no. Easy to slide in a large pizza. Easy to eat a gallon of strawberry greek yogurt. But the list is manageable.

Goal is to get down below 180 by Christmas.

9/24: 199.9

[Radii]

Happy to have you posting here Subby! That looks like a solid list. It seems like if you stick to that and don't deal in ridiculous technicalities like "eat whole pizza but finish before 8pm" you should do pretty well

So you are liking the bulletproof coffee thing? What do you put in yours? So many keto folks swear by it, but I've never been a coffee drinker at all so I've never tried it.

[Alan T]

Subby, I always enjoyed your posts previously and was sad when they stopped happening. One question I have about your list though..

60 oz of water a day seems pretty low to me for someone your weight, especially for someone with as much cardio as you are doing. I know that I drink far more than that every day.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Radii

So you are liking the bulletproof coffee thing? What do you put in yours? So many keto folks swear by it, but I've never been a coffee drinker at all so I've never tried it.

It's good. I put in 2 tbsp of kerrygold butter and a tbsp of MCT oil. I buy and roast my own green coffee beans, so I know the origin.

I really like black coffee, so this might be a step down, but from an energy standpoint, it is a ridiculously strong way to start the day. I have it by 6am and can usually hold off on eating until about 11am or so.

[Subby]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Subby, I always enjoyed your posts previously and was sad when they stopped happening. One question I have about your list though..

60 oz of water a day seems pretty low to me for someone your weight, especially for someone with as much cardio as you are doing. I know that I drink far more than that every day.

That's a good point. I just don't drink it unless I crave it - I can't stand stuffing it down when I'm not thirsty. I will drink a bunch on long rides, though.

[Subby]

Just got my cholesterol numbers back. Had never gotten it tested before but I am guessing I am lower than a few years ago.

Cholesterol: 193
HDL: 83
LDL: 102
Triglycerides: 42
VLDL: 8

Using this: Cholesterol HDL/LDL/Triglycerides Ratios Calculator

I got this:

Your Total Cholesterol of 193 is DESIRABLE
Your LDL of 102 is NEAR OPTIMAL
Your HDL of 83 is OPTIMAL
Your Triglyceride level of 42 is NORMAL

RATIOS:

Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 2.33 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) IDEAL
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.814 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) IDEAL
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 0.482 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) IDEAL

ICE CREAM FOR DINNER!

[Radii]

Jesus Christ Subby. There is all kinds of controversy over the importance of many different cholesterol numbers amongst the keto crowd, but *everyone* agrees that trig/HDL ratio is hugely important and probably the best predictor of risk... that is immaculate, I'm in awe. Well done.

Mine was over 4 before I started dieting this year, I think its around 2.5-3 now, my HDL has always been low (probably b/c I'm an inactive piece of crap most of the time), if I could get mine anywhere close to that over the next couple years I'd be thrilled and amazed. Awesome!

[Subby]

Sweet! Thanks for that.

[Radii]

Testing again this week:

Endurance Test

500m run
20 pushups (knee, not quite full range of motion)
20 TRX Band Squats (a little easier than bodyweight)
20 bent over rows (8 kg kettlebells)
20 kettlebell swings (8 kg kettlebell)
20 push press (8 kg kettlebells)
100 jump ropes (my uncoordinated ass just gets to jump 100 times)
20 push press (8 kg kettlebells)
20 kettlebell swings (8 kg)
20 bent over rows (8 kg kettlebells)
20 TRX Band Squats
20 pushups (knees, not quite full range of motion)
500m run

Last month I completed this in 28 minutes, 15 seconds. This month's time, 23 minutes, 8 seconds. BAM. Over 20% improvement compared to last month. Having done it before, I paced myself better. Last month i ran too hard at the start and tired out. Also, I have gotten a lot stronger over the last month and can do a lot more weight than this if I'm doing lower reps with ease, which wasn't necessarily true last month. But clearly there's a lot of solid improvement in here too

The 500m run is NOT 500, their measuring is just way fucking off, but whatever, its the same distance as last month.The only thing I completely come apart doing are the push-ups. 40 pushups for me, even separated out like this, are just killer. By the end of the second round of pushups my shoulders no longer work. The last like 7 of them was done 1 at a time and burned like absolute hell. The rest of it if I pace myself, I'm good.

Obviously, I'm extremely happy to see progress!


I'm not sure they're going to continue doing this. Apparently of the 10-12 people I see with some regularity (and others who go to the morning sessions), only about 3 of us like this monthly testing. Which really sucks, because I love it. I have made sure to express to each of the trainers how much it helps to have this kind of measurement available monthly to help track my improvement, especially since the workouts every week change.

[digamma]

Nice work radii!!!

[hoopsguy]

Great work month-over-month, Radii. Very cool to see that kind of measureable improvement.

Subby, fancy running into you here as well as on Strava ... I know one of things that helps me focus on not eating the third slice of deep dish pizza is lamenting what a fat ass will do to my running times. I've got to believe you deal with some of those same struggles/internal monologues given how active you've been with biking over the past six months.

OK, onto the stats ... I believe I mentioned deep dish pizza above?

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6

8/30: 171.0
9/7: 169.4
9/13: 167.8
9/20: 168.4
9/27: 168.6

Had a bad weigh-in on 9/26, and got pretty upset about it. Because I had practiced pretty good habits most of the week, and felt liked I deserved a more equitable result. So I showed the scale that day at lunch, by deciding that a personal deep dish pizza was the best meal I could have the day before a weigh-in. Throw in a couple of extra beers that evening, and I was basically giving the finger to my weigh-in.

Except the scale still came down about 1.5 pounds the next day. So if I had just followed the routine I would likely have had pretty standard week-over-week weight loss. Despite still not committing to meaningful exercise outside of running.

Anyway, will take measurements next week at the start of the month to see if there was any improvement. A couple of pretty good running achievements took place over the last ten days, for what it is worth:
- reduced my 10k personal record time by about two minutes, now running that in <8 min/mile pace
- ran my first 1/2 marathon ever (previous best was 10mi), in just over 9min/mile pace

I'm likely going to sneak in one last 5k race next month and then a 15k the first weekend in November. That will make 10 races on the year for me, which seems like an appealing round number. But as the weather gets colder here, I had better buckle down and commit to some non-running fitness activities if I want to sustain my weight loss. Because my diet activities still aren't particularly good, beyond average portion control.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
9/17: 268.4
9/24: 267.2
10/1: 266.0

Had multiple days this week where I just ate too much, the 266.0 today was well below anything else I saw this week, so I won't be surprised if it bounces back up a bit the rest of the week. We shall see!

[Subby]

Nice job all!

9/24: 199.9
10/1: 197.5

Incremental loss and I am struggling not to eat sugar. Probably my biggest win right now is sleep. I am in bed by 10pm and that is making a huge difference for my energy level the next day. Not eating anything solid until 10:00am to 11:00 am is also doing an interesting number on my concentration. I think it's definitely good to close your eating window a little bit. No need to be eating for a 16 hour stretch every day.

The problem with working out a lot is that you feel justified to just eat anything. My ideal weight loss daily intake for calories is 1860 but if I commute to work, I can have another 1,000 calories or more on top of that, theoretically. Just have to steer myself away from ice cream and to something like almond butter.

[Radii]

Grats on the good start Subby!

Last test for the end of September was today:

Timed Test

The first three are of the "how many can you do in a minute" variety:

Pushups: 21 from knees (last month 15 knees/7 more elevated from bench)
Situps: 3 situps/31 crunches (last month 4 situps/28 crunches)
60 degree TRX Band Rows: 26 (last month 21)

Plank: 30 seconds from toes (last month I was just starting to try to progress from knees to toes)
Half Mile Run: 6 minutes 46 seconds (last month 7:01)

Everything but the situps improved decently, even the first situp hurts like hell. Disclaimer that the run isn't actually a half mile, but they call it that. Whatever, as long as its the same every time.


We also took measurements today. Everything was down a bit, Stomach was down like 1 1/2 inches. I forget the absolute numbers, since we do them before the workout and I don't have anything on me to write them down. I'm pretty sure waist is 45 1/4" and it was like 46 1/2" or 47" when I first started.


Last note is that I was able to do Wednesday's workout without any noticeable foot pain, and during the testing today my foot was fine, but it hurt a fair bit afterwards, certainly from the running. An hour later it feels ok though, so its not going to hurt all day. Definitely an improvement. The biggest test of that really will be the next time we try to do lunges, before the cortisone shot those hurt instantly and constantly, even without holding any extra weight.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Radii

Grats on the good start Subby!

Last test for the end of September was today:

Timed Test

The first three are of the "how many can you do in a minute" variety:

Pushups: 21 from knees (last month 15 knees/7 more elevated from bench)
Situps: 3 situps/31 crunches (last month 4 situps/28 crunches)
60 degree TRX Band Rows: 26 (last month 21)

Plank: 30 seconds from toes (last month I was just starting to try to progress from knees to toes)
Half Mile Run: 6 minutes 46 seconds (last month 7:01)

Everything but the situps improved decently, even the first situp hurts like hell. Disclaimer that the run isn't actually a half mile, but they call it that. Whatever, as long as its the same every time.


We also took measurements today. Everything was down a bit, Stomach was down like 1 1/2 inches. I forget the absolute numbers, since we do them before the workout and I don't have anything on me to write them down. I'm pretty sure waist is 45 1/4" and it was like 46 1/2" or 47" when I first started.


Last note is that I was able to do Wednesday's workout without any noticeable foot pain, and during the testing today my foot was fine, but it hurt a fair bit afterwards, certainly from the running. An hour later it feels ok though, so its not going to hurt all day. Definitely an improvement. The biggest test of that really will be the next time we try to do lunges, before the cortisone shot those hurt instantly and constantly, even without holding any extra weight.

Good stuff, progress is all that matters and you are doing so consistently throughout the journey.

Keep grinding buddy!!!

[hoopsguy]

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6
9/7: 169.4
10/4: 168.0 (down 0.6 compared to last week)

Additional stats, compared to last month:
19.6% body fat (19.8% previously)
61.5% total body water (61.3% previously)
38.8% muscle (38.7% previously)
6.6% bone mass (6.8% previously)
24.81 BMI (25% previously)

Modest progress month-over-month. I had hoped for a little better results this week. I was, by my low standards, pretty diligent on overall food intake and alcohol consumption was limited to a six pack of beer last weekend.

September highlights:
- new personal best 5k time
- new personal best 10k time (training run, not a race)
- ran first half marathon (training run, not a race)

I've got an early November 15k race on the books, so I expect to have pretty good motivation on the running front even as it is getting colder. One of my friends runs a decent amount of 10k and half marathons, and I would like to see if I can beat him in this race. I'm faster than him at 10k now, but expect he probably still has the edge on me at 15k today.

A couple of areas that I've got to work on for October:
1.) Drink more water: been lousy at this lately. Going to try and start measuring consumption here. Not going to worry about how much/little lemonade or root beer or whatever else, but want to get some kind of a baseline on how much water I'm drinking and start raising that consumption

2.) Healthier snacks: we had grapes in the house this week, something I enjoy but never purchase. Between grapes, carrots, celery, raisins, and pistachio nuts I think I can do better than the 100 calorie packs of Cheese-Its or Brownie Bites that I sometimes sneak from my kid.

3.) Start warming up to my treadmill: default running behavior should be outside, but winter is coming and I need to get comfortable with my workouts taking place on treadmill from time to time. I was a real wimp about this last winter, and I don't want to take 2 months to recover last years form again like I had to do in April/May of this year.

4.) Structure some kind of non-running exercise routine. Thinking some mix of upper-body and core, for 60-90 minutes a week, would be really good for me. I'll settle for 60/week over the remainder of this month. But first part is figuring out what I want to do and putting it into an Excel spreadsheet to measure going forward.

We'll see how good a job I do of holding myself accountable. I've found a good place with running this spring/summer and hope that I can mostly replicate those behaviors across other outlets over the next 4-6 months when outdoor running becomes more problematic.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
9/17: 268.4
9/24: 267.2
10/1: 266.0
10/10: 262.2


We'll see about that, there's a lot of things going on right now that may make a 4 pound loss in the last 10 days feel a bit off. I think I'm getting sick, feeling some flu type symptoms very slowly creeping on, gym Wednesday was awful and I didn't go today.

The other thing is that I'm trying an elimination diet as I got fed up a couple weeks ago with some digestive symptoms that I've had for the past couple years that won't seem to go away. I've been eating a bit less b/c I feel really really restricted right now. Unsure if the diet change is causing/contributing to me feeling under the weather or not. Its only been a week, and I have seem some people say that symptoms get worse before they get better when trying something like this... I have many different symptoms, and some have improved this week, and some have gotten worse. I'm pretty damn unhappy, but now that I've made it a week I'm committed to sticking it out for the full month, just so to see if I get results or not to get it over with.

Anyway, hooray for the weight number, boo to pretty much everything else right now!

[hoopsguy]

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6
9/7: 169.4
10/4: 168.0
10/11: 168.2

All in all, I'll take it. Lot of evening work + evening events = bad sleep and a little less exercise than normal. On the efforts to track for October:
- water: was better for a couple of days, but fell off mid-week
- healthy snacks: going shopping this weekend to pick up a few. Overall, pretty good week of not eating bad snacks
- treadmill: none this week. Weather was between 35-40 with little wind, so was able to run outdoors
- exercise besides running: nothing, although with all the evenings consumed this week I would have struggled starting a program.

Upcoming week looks a little more sane, but I'm drifting into a heavier work period between now and Thanksgiving, so if I want to return to weeks with weight declining I need to tighten up my focus.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
10/17: 263.2


That seems more like it. I was a bit sick last week and lost 4 pounds in a week, very unusual for me. I'm still struggling through this elimination diet, still seeing some improvement in IBS like symptoms in the evening, but not drastic improvements.

Gym was horrible Monday and Wednesday, my energy level was still completely in the tank (but I didn't feel sick, so even that was an improvement over last week), but today was great. So hopefully that's a sign that things are back to normal again.

Two more weeks of elimination diet in store, then I'll see where I'm at.

[hoopsguy]

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6
9/7: 169.4
10/4: 168.0
10/11: 168.2
10/18: 168.0

Work/home schedule was brutal this week. Had hoped to still be in the 167-something range but no joy this morning. Expect to make some marginal gains next week if only by virtue of not having 80% of work nights requiring me to stay late.

Not tracking well on any of the metrics that I set earlier in the month. Still struggling to get any kind of routine similar to what I've found with running.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
10/17: 263.2
10/31: 265.5

This month has sucked! The elimination diet idea came crumbling down about 3 weeks in. The sad thing is that I was seeing an improvement, albeit a small one, with it. But I just didn't have the willpower to finish it out and slowly add foods back in. My symptoms at this point amount to inconvienance more than major disruption, I've used that to basicaly write off that experiment for now but will keep it in mind for later.

I was also sick for about 2 1/2 weeks this month. That sucked, and my appetite was way out of whack for much of it. I didn't feel like cooking, I ate out too much.

I cheated once. When I refer to cheating I'm speaking about keto/carb cheating. Was going to cook some burgers but the meat had gone bad, I got annoyed and ended up getting some fast food and saying "fuck it" and eating the bread, etc. First cheat with carbs in 10 months. The good news is that it was a one meal thing and I got right back on the horse. For me that's a pretty big accomplishment, I've been worried about that.

With being sick i have eaten out way more than I would want, not cooked as much, I skipped ~40% of the gym sessions I should have had. This week I went all three times though, and have felt better as the week has gone on.

Some of the extra weight i have now is likely water weight, some is probably legit from doing nothing and eating poorly due to feeling bad.


For now my focus is on getting back to normal and consistent, both with diet and gym habits. I've mostly done that since Monday, so I'm pretty much back on track now.

Semi-relevant to this: I posted in general discussion asking about standing desks, and I did use my birthday money to pull the trigger and order one. It'll probably be another week or two before I get it, but I'm looking forward to getting off my ass regularly throughout the day.

[hoopsguy]

6/14: 175.7
7/5: 175.1
8/2: 171.6
9/7: 169.4
10/4: 168.0

10/11: 168.2
10/18: 168.0
10/25: 168.8
11/1: 164.4

Additional stats, compared to last month:
18.8% body fat (19.6/19.8% previously)
62.1% total body water (61.5/61.3% previously)
39.2% muscle (38.8/38.7% previously)
6.8% bone mass (6.6/6.8% previously)
24.27 BMI (24.81/25% previously)

Last couple of weeks were odd. Previous week I saw my week in the 166 range up until my Friday morning weigh-in and spiked up to 168.8 for weigh-in. Tons of work, not getting regular exercise in, but diet overall pretty good.

This week, more of the same but the weigh dove down another couple of pounds from where it was mid-week and I didn't see any variance towards the end of the week despite having a mountain of Halloween candy lying around.

All of the gains over the last couple of weeks can be attributed to smaller meal sizes (home cooked meals more than dinners out) and not cheating with bad snacks between meals. Overall exercise amount was down relative to the last couple of months. I'm not sure when I'll get back to 5x/week exercising but it probably won't be this week knowing what commitments I've got to honor. In semi-related news, I'll be running my first 15k run ever on 11/9. It will also be my first time starting in the first corral, as my running times over the course of 2014 have slowly been moving me closer to the front of the line.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
8/10: 277.2
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
10/17: 263.2
10/31: 265.5
11/10: 262.8

So I've mostly recovered from the frustration that was October and seem to be in a decent place again. Hopefully I get under 260 for next month. I am planning on cheating on Thanksgiving, but that's just one day/meal. No leftovers allowed for anything with carbs.


Two other fairly big things:

1) I did order the standing desk I'd posted about, it arrived late last week, I've been using it for about 5 days and I like it. I have some serious posture issues and flexibility issues from sitting forever. The first time I stood up to work my lower back was burning like crazy after 20 minutes. Yesterday I stood up while playing a game for 35 minutes before I noticed. The last couple days I've stood up for an extra 2 to 2 1/2 hours each day in 20-30 minute stretches.



2) I got a cortisone shot in my foot about 6 weeks ago for my sesamoiditis issues, inflammation/pain in the ball of my foot. I got a pain free month out of it but its back now. Went back to the podiatrist yesterday and he said the most aggressive option is another cortisone shot + wearing a boot to stabilize/immobilize the area for awhile. No gym, wear the boot all the time except for sleeping/showering for 2 weeks, then go back to doing stuff but continue to wear it for a couple months whenever i can. So I'll start going back to the gym again, but will avoid the stuff that I know aggrivates it the most, lunges, jumping a lot since you're landing hard on your toes non stop, etc, and then wear it at all other times. Followup visit with the doctor in January and go from there. So for now I'm wearing this giant aircast boot thing that keeps my big toe from being able to move so hopefully it can heal for good.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
11/10: 262.8
11/21: 260.0

Weight is looking good! I haven't been to the gym in 2 weeks now b/c of the boot on the foot. I honestly don't think the foot is improving, but I'm being patient and doing what I'm told.

Standing desk usage is going well, up to about 40% of my desk time standing. I'm hyperfocused on posture and all of this "undo the damage of a lifetime of sitting" stuff, with the help of a physical therapist by some kind of crazy luck, was sent to the therapist for some long standing, not improving urology issues, therapist thinks all my problems begin with sitting forever causing the muscles around my bladder and that whole area to shorten and weaken, so all this stuff I've been working on to try to improve general fitness is also very likely directly related to the worst of my medical problems too. But she also told me that she doesn't want me standing all the time either. Her ideal for my desk time would be a rotation of 15 minutes sitting on a stability ball, 30 minutes standing, 30 minutes sitting, rotate that around for awhile, and be hyperfocused on posture at all times to slowly correct all these things. Apparently it'll take months, but it'll be worth it. I'm pretty excited about it b/c all the stuff we've talked about are things I'd researched on my own but that I had no real focus about, just a general idea that I could improve upon a lot of things if I stood up more when I worked (and played, since the gaming habit isn't going anywhere).

One more week away from the gym, I can start back up in December. I'm looking forward to seeing numbers in the 250s.

[sabotai]

I don't have much of a choice, I have to get back on this and lose this weight. Last time I posted, I said I had gone from 217 to 225 and needed to get my ass back in gear. Well, long story short, I didn't. Well, I did, sorta. I got back down to 220, but then during the summer and continuing into the fall, I started eating ice cream, microwavable pizza, M&Ms... Every time I'd go food shopping (which was 2-3 days a week because I suck at planning my meals ahead, and because I was overeating in general and going through all the stuff I'd buy too fast), I grab some ice cream (Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie, more addicting than cigarettes and coffee combined), sometimes pizza...sometimes a bag of M&Ms...

A month ago, I was back up to 230 when I had a doctor's appointment to get my back and joints checked. No real solution there, just general over use, probably lifting and doing things incorrectly and my weight being an issue. Was told to stay away from running and lifting heavy weights for now, and any thing else that would put too much strain or impact on my joints. Exercise bike or elliptical for cardio, yoga, etc.

But, I also got blood tests done, seeing as it's been a very long time since I had a check up. I was honestly worried I'd be diabetic because I've always been overweight and my diet has been bad most of my adult life. Well, that came back fine as did everything else. Everything except my cholesterol. A few weeks ago when I got a call from the office, the woman told me that it was "a little" high. Turns out, that was "a little" bit of an understatement. 2 days ago I got the full results.

Total Cholesterol: 256
HDL: 45
VLDL: 59
LDL: 152
Triglycerides: 296

Using the site Subby linked to before

Your Total Cholesterol of 256 is HIGH RISK
Your LDL of 152 is BORDERLINE
Your HDL of 45 is NORMAL
Your Triglyceride level of 295 is HIGH RISK
RATIOS:

Your Total Cholesterol/HDL ratio is: 5.69 - (preferably under 5.0, ideally under 3.5) AT RISK
Your HDL/LDL ratio is: 0.296 - (preferably over 0.3, ideally over 0.4) AT RISK
Your triglycerides/HDL ratio is: 6.556 - (preferably under 4, ideally under 2) VERY HIGH RISK

Ouch.

The doctor told me to go back around April to have another blood test and if the numbers don't get moving, I'll have to go on cholesterol medication. And as far as I know, my family does not have a history of high cholesterol and/or heart disease.

So, yeah...no longer is losing weight and living a much healthier lifestyle something I simply want to do. I will probably maybe die soon if I don't.

Anyway, my weight the last few weeks

Nov. 30th: 229.80
Dec. 7th: 227.66 (-2.14)

And this week is looking like it'll be another 2 pounds lost.

[sabotai]

Nov. 30th: 229.80
Dec. 7th: 227.66 (-2.14)
Dec 14th: 224.89 (-2.77)

These numbers aren't going to add up right, most likely due to just the error margin in my scale's measurements, but according to my fat% and muscle%, I lost 2.31 pounds of body fat and 0.07 pounds of muscle. My visceral fat level has been at 14 every day so far.

Dec 7th Fat%: 33.37%
Dec 14th Fat%: 32.76% (-0.61%)

Dec 7th Muscle%: 31.54%
Dec 14th Muscle%: 31.90% (+0.36%)

[Radii]

Welcome sabotai! Good news on the fears about diabetes being unfounded, if you can hold that off it makes everything else easier to fix. Keep it up!

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
11/10: 262.8
11/21: 260.0
12/15: 260.2

I've been stuck for quite awhile, huh? I cheated twice around Thanksgiving, one meal thanksgiving night and then had a bit of a sugar blowout the Sunday after thanksgiving, I had some really bad cravings and didn't have any keto friendly snacks nearby and gave in. Just those two meals though. I gained about 7 pounds, though it wast mostly water weight from being out of ketosis and came back off quickly once I got back on track.

I'm back at the gym after wearing the boot/aircast for 3 weeks. I didn't slack on that at all, got back to it as soon as I was allowed to.

At the moment I remain crazy hyperfocused on this physical therapy I'm going through for bladder/pelvic floor problems. Its kind of hard to do the stuff I'm asked to do without obsessing over it though, since a lot of the instructions are just to be aware of things that are basically bad habits and to spend time a few times every day to work on them. Some of the work with posture improvement still feels physically exhausting and makes me weirdly hungry, even though I'm not burning a ton of calories working on it. I tend to allow myself to give in to that hunger, but I don't really think that's a bad thing right now as long as I stay low carb. With the PT we keep finding new problems as we go, which I suppose makes sense. We are trying to undo 20 years of being a 100% sedentary desk worker here, that's probably not supposed to be easy.

I want to get the weight down more but if its not happening effortlessly, I don't think I have it in me right now to work as hard as I am on the improvements I'm trying to make via physical therapy AND calorie count hardcore.

At the moment priority one is avoiding carbs, priority 2 is everything involving physical therapy, priority 3 is keeping the gym habit going strong since I just got back to that after a few weeks off, actual calorie counting would come 4th after all that. I do hope the PT gets easier soon though, and for the most part I am very pleased to have not gained any weight back at any point during the year. I will absolutely take slow and mostly steady with some occasional long term stalls -- but permanent -- weight loss over bouncing all over the place and gaining it all back the second things aren't perfect.

[Dodgerchick]

So my dad has high cholesterol and diabetes. My mom also has high cholesterol. I'm 40 years old and haven't seen the doctor in 10 years... yes that long. Mostly because I've felt fine, didn't think I needed to see a doctor. We have a Wellness Program at work which gives us discounts for seeing the doctor, dentist, eye doctor, etc. So with my family's medical history, the Wellness Program and me getting older have all been high motivators to finally see a doctor. Saw a doctor about a month ago and she asked how many lbs overweight I thought I was. "70-80?", I said. No. Apparently 100 lbs. I know I'm a big girl but dang, 100 lbs? That seems excessive. Now granted I'm really short. 5"1', so maybe there's some truth to that. I haven't been 100 lbs since I was in the 8th grade. I got some bloodwork done and I'm pre-diabetic. Everything else came back normal! I was pretty shocked, I thought for sure something would be "high risk", given my weight.

So anyway, ever since the visit, I've lost 9 lbs. and started running again. This is my last week of the C25K program.

I'll come back and post my bloodwork numbers. I don't understand any of them, but the doctor put a note that everything was normal, except sugar levels.

[Radii]

Good luck Dodgerchick, and congrats on the good start with 9 pounds dropped already! If you ever want to talk about blood sugar related issues with the pre-diabetic flag raised feel free to find me on facebook (or here, or whatever!).

Do post the bloodwork numbers, if for no other reason than it will be nice to see it side by side when you've lost a bunch of weight, even for some things that are currently in the normal range that could turn into "amazingly good" numbers after some progress.

[Radii]

1/10: 323
3/10: 306.4
5/10: 292.2
7/10: 281.0
9/10: 270.8
10/10: 262.2
11/10: 262.8
11/21: 260.0
12/15: 260.2
12/24: 257.8

Physical therapy still > anything else, but physical therapist asked me to do this full log of basically everything I do... sleep, all food, all drink, and all bathroom trips. That's fun let me tell you. Anyway, since I was doing all that already I figured I might as well start weighing everything and counting calories religously again too. I have changed my eating a bit too, eating earlier in the morning and eating a snack so that i'm eating a little more frequently. Those were PT suggestions for digestive issues, not necessarily for weight, but something has obviously triggered a bit of a spark here to get the scale moving again.

There will be lots of carb-loaded christmas stuff around for the next few days, I'm planning on sticking to keto though and skipping the gravy and dressing and desserts, especially now that I'm seeing some progress again. We'll see what happens when its actually in front of me.

[Radii]

Ending 2014 at 258. No carbs at Christmas or New Years for me. Christmas involved large amounts of turkey, a great mushroom rissoto made with cauliflower rice, and a low carb cheesecake.

That's all for now I'll make a bigger deal out of it on January 10th, official 1 year anniversary of this thing for me.

[Dodgerchick]

Radii, that's fantastic!!

[Dodgerchick]

dola,

I just realized I never put me weight on here.

09/28/2014 - 209.2
10/04/2014 - 205
10/20/2014 - 204
11/10/2014 - 202
11/22/2014 - 200
01/03/2014 - 197

Today I weighed in at 197. Finally under 200 YAY!!! I'm 52 lbs. away from my goal weight. Well, it's not really a goal weight, but when I get there, we'll see if it's a good weight for me. I weighed 145 when I graduated high school, and felt good. About 20 of those pounds were all boobs and booty, so let's say I was actually 125 hahaha

Speaking of being active, I haven't done much for the past couple of weeks. I messed up my knee and not sure how. I may have overstretched it, but it seems to be getting back to normal. I will most likely pick up on week 7 of C25K instead of where I should be W8D2.

Good luck everyone!

[Radii]

Congrats on getting under 200!

[Dodgerchick]

Thanks

[Radii]

1/10/14: 323
1/10:15: 255

So its officially 1 year since I started a ketogenic diet. My macros are currently set to eat 20g carbs/128g protein/158g fat a day, 2050 calories in total. When I started this a year and 68 pounds ago I was eating something like 2350 calories. I was eating at a much bigger caloric deficit then though. I did virtually zero exercise for the first 6 months. I joined a gym in the first week of July and have been going consistently 3 days a week except for a few weeks where foot problems required me to rest.

My main, unwavering goal throughout the year is to stick to the carb restriction. Everything else has been fluid and flexible. I can count the number of days I went over 20g net carbs in the last year on one hand. I've gone through periods where I weigh every single thing I put on my plate and religiously count calories on myfitnesspal. I've gone through periods where I estimate everything and log on myfitnesspal, and I've gone through months at a time where it just felt too tedious so I was careful about the carbs and ignored everything else and didn't log anything. I definitely lose the most consistently when I am logging everything, but its just not sustainable for me to do that all the time, I'd go crazy.

As far as health goes, things are much improved right now but there is still work to do. The biggest thing is that when eating low carb I basically get to live as though I were not diabetic. I am, and if I eat a bunch of carbs at any point my blood sugar will spike, but practically speaking this allows me perfect blood sugar control and hopefully I can put off the advancement of the myriad of complications from diabetes forever this way. My cholesterol was still not ideal the last time it was tested. Its improved greatly though. I get that tested again in February.

My initial goal for weight loss is set at 220 pounds. 68 down, 35 to go! I still have no idea at all how I may want to adjust that once I get there.


On current stuff, I'm starting to see some improvements in physical therapy, but its still a long process with no end in sight. I am only going once a week instead of twice now, which is nice. Some of the improvements aren't exactly functional yet, changes we can see doing specific tests during office visits, but limited symptom relief. I'm optimistic though, and I have seen some symptom improvement. A lot of the pelvic floor stuff is vague/subtle/small ups and downs. With the foot the PT working on that says she can see more mobility with the work she's been doing, and I have some work I'm doing at home to try to push that along. I dunno, its all very vague right now but with a clear, slow movement in the right direction.

[Radii]

1/10/14: 323
1/10:15: 255
1/17/15: 253.8

Moving right along. I did actually get below 253 a couple days but not quite ready to stay below it just yet. I've been a bit lazy and eating out a little too frequently. All good though, still dropping!

[sabotai]

Got lazy weighing myself over the holidays, and a bit lazy with food and exercise. Only dropped a few pounds the last 5 weeks or so.

Nov. 30th: 229.80
Dec. 7th: 227.66 (-2.14)
Dec 14th: 224.89 (-2.77)
Jan 18th: 222.71 (-2.18 / 5wk)

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Radii

1/10/14: 323
1/10:15: 255
1/17/15: 253.8

Moving right along. I did actually get below 253 a couple days but not quite ready to stay below it just yet. I've been a bit lazy and eating out a little too frequently. All good though, still dropping!

This is friggin awesome, 70 pounds in a year and still going. Congrats and kudos on your hard work!!!

[Dodgerchick]

Radii, that's fantastic!!

Sab, keep up the good work



I used to weigh myself obsessively every morning. I don't anymore, now it's every 3-4 days or so. Weight is still the same, I think. 196 or so, not sure. I went to Zumba yesterday after a r e a l l y long drought. I'll be going to BodyCombat class tomorrow as well. There's this yoga/tai chi class at Gold's Gym that I'll be trying out, we'll see how that goes. I'm excited, as I've always wanted to try Tai Chi. A good instructor goes a long way, and for me, I don't like it when they talk so much. Just tell me how to do it and let me meditate on the position/move for a minute. That's all I want.

Do you guys have any go to recipes? I'd like to add some new recipes to our rotation.

Radii, I'm gonna make the buns recipe today.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Dodgerchick

I used to weigh myself obsessively every morning. I don't anymore, now it's every 3-4 days or so.

Seems like a personal preference thing. I feel better if I weigh daily, I see the ups and downs and I'm cool with it. If I weigh less frequently then I don't know if I'm looking at an anomaly or if I'm doing something wrong. I see lots of other people say they weigh once a week or even once a month and are much happier that way.

Radii, I'm gonna make the buns recipe today.

Awesome, let me know how it turns out!


For go to recipes, I can eat the same stuff over and over so I am probably no help. I rotate pork chops/chicken/burgers and occasionally mix in some fish or steak or whatever. My mom does make cauliflower rice (there's amushroom rissoto w/ cauliflower that I partciularly like). Its weird, b/c I hate cauliflower if its just steamed or whatever.

[Radii]

1/10/14: 323
1/10:15: 255
1/17/15: 253.8
1/24/15: 252.6

This has been a strange, awful week. Adjusting to a new medicine and getting hit extremely hard with side effects of massively increased/out of nowhere anxiety. The upside, if there is one, is that I've been diligent about going to the gym to try to wear myself out every day, so I have hit the gym 8 days straight now. Happy to see the weight drop below 253 as that's the "official" 70 pound mark, but have no idea what next week will be like if things don't change quick. We'll see what happens.

[Dodgerchick]

Originally Posted by Radii

1/10/14: 323
1/10:15: 255
1/17/15: 253.8
1/24/15: 252.6

This has been a strange, awful week. Adjusting to a new medicine and getting hit extremely hard with side effects of massively increased/out of nowhere anxiety. The upside, if there is one, is that I've been diligent about going to the gym to try to wear myself out every day, so I have hit the gym 8 days straight now. Happy to see the weight drop below 253 as that's the "official" 70 pound mark, but have no idea what next week will be like if things don't change quick. We'll see what happens.