It's finally going according to plan...

251.1 pounds of excellence, thank you very much.

   I hit a plateau this week, but I broke it with a vengeance.  As of my last post, I got my weight down below the plateau but as it turns out I still fluctuated right back into the range it was stalling in.  I stuck to my guns and kept my resolve, and it paid off.  This weekend I have been eating like shit and drinking beer (light beer, mind you), so I'm probably stalled a little right now, but the numbers don't lie.

So, as I enter the new week with a good amount of motivation, a lot of things are occurring to me.  For one, I'm going to have to buy all new clothes.  Pants are already getting loose on me and my shirts are starting to fit like crap.  Unfortunately I don't really know what size shirt to buy anymore because I have really big, broad shoulders and a barrel chest, but the shrinking stomach is starting to leave my t-shirts looking like a ghost from Pac-Man or something.

Fuck you, reality!

Secondly, the psychology of weight loss is interesting.  I was walking around the house in a tank top the other day feeling lean and mean, when I caught a glimpse of my love handles in the mirror.  It's really annoying because I'm just trying to enjoy my success and reality is trying to tell me "Less fat is not thin".  Shut your whore mouth, reality.  I look great in a tank top.

Needless to say, I won't be going sleeveless for a while.
Anyway, that's my story for the week.  I might be here tomorrow if the Packers game goes long and I need to bitch about my willing consumption of beer.

Cheers.

Well, that was easy.

As you may or may not have read yesterday, I was a bit frustrated with my current progress and the prospect of plateauing.  Well, I did what I said I was going to do, and within 24 hours, I've lost that three pounds again.  So my theory is that I'm probably retaining some form of weight due to either caffeine or sweetener.  I still haven't started that variety thing.

Regardless; fuck you, weight.

Next step, buy a goddamn accurate scale!

Cheers!

Getting to the bottom of the slow-down.

It's been a week of +/- a few pounds between 256 and 260 pounds. Though most weight loss is subject to its occasional plateaus and minor gains, it's very frustrating in the light of my previous weeks of success. With that said, I did a lot of snooping this afternoon and decided that it could be three factors.

1: Not enough variety. I might need to mix it up a bit.

2: Artificial sweetener. I drink a good deal of diet and sugar free drinks.

3: Caffeine. I drink a lot of caffeine in the form of coffee and diet coke.

So, it looks like I might just cut sweeteners and caffeine out for a while and try some variation in my diet. The main thing for me is that I don't mind eating the same things most of the time. I'm not a picky eater, so it's really easy for me to just buy products in bulk so I have a lot of food on hand. Having to buy a greater variety of food is more expensive and just not something I care about much. But, I've gotta do what I've gotta do.
Best case scenario I get back on track with dropping the weight and I can carefully introduce things back into my diet.

We shall see. Nooch.

Oh, and results.

After about nine or ten separate steps on the scale, it stayed on this weight for last four. I guess that makes it "official".

But still, fuck this scale.

The inevitable slow-down

I've finally reached that point in my weight loss where I'm creeping into the hard-won pounds. On the plus side, that means I'm getting closer to target weight. On the minus side, I want to break my scale. C'est la vie.

Another interesting thing I learned recently is that my scale is an asshole. I tend to weigh myself pretty regularly now just to get an idea of where my daily fluctuations are, but a few days ago, I immediately stepped on the scale a second time because I wasn't paying attention the first time. I took note of my weight and went about my day. Later that night, I re-weighed myself to see where I stood at the end of the day, and I was over 2lbs lighter! That was exciting at first, but I had to verify. I reset the scale and stepped on it once again. 2lbs came back. Apparently, my scale has this weird way of subtracting between one and two pounds upon the first step on it. This is a scale that is advertised as being extremely accurate. Fuck that scale.

So, I'm going to start doing my research and find a proper, accurate digital scale. Hell, I could have lost 90lbs for all I know at this point. Seriously, fuck that scale.

Holy shit! He lives!

Hey kids;
I know it's been a while since my last post, but I got tired of you and needed a break. Just kidding. I've just been really busy. Avoiding you.
So it's a few weeks in, and I have lost a decent amount of weight (probably 20 lbs or so, but who's counting? Oh right, I am.) I intentionally jumped off the wagon for our annual Fiestas De Santa Fe because you're an idiot if you don't eat fried food and drink beer at a festival of that magnitude. Even if you're pregnant and there's a fire. Seriously, you don't want to leave behind a charred, pregnant corpse without a funnel cake or Navajo Taco and a beer in your hands.

Since then, I've really cracked down on my diet; being extremely good about avoiding carbs, and packing in upwards of 2500-3000 calories a day. It has accelerated the last couple pounds of weight loss and I expect that this speed should be steady for the next 10 lbs or so. I'm cruising toward 250 (which would put me at an overall loss of 27 lbs and 24 since the beginning of this "experiment"). Remember: I'm no more active than I previously was.

This brings me to my next step. I think I've demonstrated good evidence that diet is at the crux of weight loss, but the one thing I can't avoid is the fact that I'll probably look kinda flabby as I thin out. I'm going to be starting a low-impact toning regimen (light weights, lots of reps) just to firm up a bit. I assure you, this will be minimal physical exertion so I don't want any of you piping up about how my working out is doing it and not my diet. We're already past that. And I'm smarter than you. So shush! Also, it's not going to take much, because I'm not that fat, dammit.

I just have big ass and stomach bones.

Blogging from my phone?!

That's right.  I'm on my phone.  I decided to figure out a way to work on the road without missing a periodic check-in.  As you may have noticed, I've been absent every other day this week and I may follow that protocol from here on out.  What can I say?  I'm too busy being awesome lately. 

As far as the saga of the beer gut, I've noticed the visible signs of my weight loss have slowed but this is to be expected.  The first ten are the easy ones (which technically I lost months ago), so it's going to be a longer haul from here on out.  Like Huey Lewis once said, it's hip to he square; and I'm built like a square.  The last part of that lyric was cut from the album version.  Saw him live in 89 and he did sing it.  And pointed at me.  I'll be checking in later today.