Blogger Weight Loss Challenge: Day 48 of 70
So we’re coming into the final stretch of the Blogger Weight Loss Challenge I’m doing with Tyler Cruz and it’s time once again to step up my efforts.
My Progress So Far
My progress so far can really be broken down into two stages in the competition:
Days 1 through 35 – The “Everything in Moderation” Plan
The first thirty five days in the competition I basically followed a “gradual improvements” type strategy where I tried to just make some small minor changes in my diet and to increase the amount of exercise I was doing.
I wasn’t tracking my weight daily, I didn’t have a specific diet or exercise plan in place, I was just trying the “moderation is best” approach instead of my typical “go hardcore or go home” approach.
After 35 days of yo-yo dieting where I would have “good days” and “bad days” I got tired of watching my weight go up and down on a daily basis but not really going anywhere.
In fact, by Day 35 (April 14th) my weight was 212lbs which was basically my starting weight so I hadn’t lost ANY weight at all. During certain times within that 35 day period, my weight did go down about 2-3lbs here and there but on April 14th I was no further ahead than I started!
Days 36 through 48 – The “Hardcore Diet Changes” Plan
On April 12th I went in to get Live Blood Analysis done as part of my plan to get some major leverage on myself to motivate me to make huge changes to my diet. After seeing the results of how crappy my blood looked under the microscope, all clumpy, stuck together and not very healthy looking I did a major overhaul on my eating habits.
I also started to track my weight daily and keep a very detailed tracking sheet with my weight, average weight and projected weight.
Although I don’t want to give away the exact diet I’m following yet as I don’t want Tyler Cruz copying me, I can share that I’ve basically cut out pretty much all “bad” foods and I’m mostly eating just healthy wholesome foods including a LOT veggies and fruits. Since April 15th, the only thing I’ve been drinking is water (no pop, no alcohol, no juice, nothing).
I’ve also cut out chicken, beef and pork and have only been eating seafood. About the only “bad” thing about the meals I’m eating is maybe the ranch salad dressing (which I’ve now replaced with something healthier) and that white penne pasta I had one night.
Here are some pictures of the type of foods I’ve been eating:
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- Garden Salad
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- Yellow Peppers, Cucumbers and Hummus
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- Praws, Asparagus, Mushrooms and Zuchini
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- Veggie Quesadillas
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- Veggie Pita
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- Garden Salad
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- Veggie Sandwich
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- Portabella Mushroom Quesadillas
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- Prawn Penne with Greek Salad
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- Veggie and Salmon Stirfry
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- Veggie Pita
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- Seafood Salad
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- Veggie Quesadillas
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- Garden Salad and Potato Salad
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- Salmon, Halibut, Potato and Garden Salads
Also, as I mentioned above, I’ve been tracking my weight daily and recording it in a spreadsheet. Here is the progress so far with that:
As you can see, I have a column where I’m projecting what my weight is going to be on May 21st based on my current pace. It’s not the most accurate calculation but at least it gives me an indicator as to how I’m progressing.
For example, yesterday I dropped down to 206.8lbs which put me on track to hit 200lbs on May 21st, but today with my weight jumping back down to 208.2lbs I’m nowhere near on track to hit the 199 lbs target for May 21st.
Now, any person’s weight does fluctuate from day to day due to the amount of water in the body (usually related to how much salt you eat 
) but as a rough indicator based on this tracking sheet I am seeing that diet alone isn’t going to be enough to win this competition.
At best I’ll be able to hit my target of 199lbs barely squeaking by, but that’s not very comforting. I’d rather try to hit a weight under the 199lb target so that I have some wiggle room just in case I have a “heavy day” on May 21st.
So, based on this “evidence”, starting tomorrow I’m going to be implementing some form of daily exercise into the program.
Most likely I’m going to run on my treadmill as soon as I clean up my exercise room. When I re-arranged the furniture in my computer room a few weeks back to make it more conducive to filming The Paulymath Show, I ended up making a big mess in my exercise room so I’ve got to get that cleaned up.
That in itself is going to be a workout.
Stay tuned for more.
Tyler’s Progress
Whereas I’m posting my daily weight on my Blog, Tyler is being a lot more sneaky with his weight. When I talk to him via chat he’s always telling me that he’s not losing weight, that he keeps gaining weight, but then somehow miraculously when he does a weight loss update on his blog he somehow shows a weight loss of 5lbs (as of April 20th). I could have sworn the day before that he told me he was above his starting weight. Sure, sure. I think he’s just saying that stuff on chat to make me think I’m ahead of him in the competition.
It’s been 8 days since his last update and I’m not believing what he tells me via chat anymore. I’ll wait for the next update on his Blog to see where he’s at. Yesterday he was whining to me that he’s fat and not losing weight, but I bet when his next Blog update comes out he’ll once again “miraculously” lose weight.
Sneaky bugger.
- 4/28/2010 - $600 Weight Loss Challenge: Day 49 of 70 | TylerCruz.com: An Internet...
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I love the foodie post Paul! My prediction is that you will loose weight on this diet. Watch the salad dressings though, as you know they can have a lot of calories in them that you might not have expected them to have…
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Banana Nut Muffins =-.
@Lisa: Yeah, unfortunately that was the only dressing I had in the house from my “pre-diet” days and didn’t feel like running to the store.
It’s funny though because sometimes I hear people making comments that a salad with dressing on it is the same as not eating healthy because of all the calories, which isn’t true. Of course it’s better not to have all that fattening dressing, but if that’s all you have my belief is that it’s still better to have a salad. Those types of people are usually the ones downing a Big Mac, like I used to, because they don’t want all the “calories” that come with the salad dressing, lol.
Since those pictures were taken my wife picked up some vinaigrette dressing that’s better than that ranch I had on the previous salads. The only challenge is that it’s so good and I’ve been eating so many salads that I’m all out of it now, so have to go get some more.
I also have to get some more fruit. I ate like 13 grapefruits in the last 10 days or so, lol. I’ve never eating so many vegetables and fruit as I have in the last two weeks. I feel great too.
So you have a treadmill, convert it to a treadmill desk and use it at walking speed for several hours a day (with your laptop)!
http://officewalkers.ning.com
I know I’ve said this multiple times on this blog but I hadn’t seen a reply from you yet about this idea and why you dismiss it (that I know of).
Also, read:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/
It’s probably also better to do some HIIT training instead of treadmill running at a constant pace for an hour. Switch things up.
Glad to see you finally taking this contest seriously and putting some more effort in it. Hopefully you will be able to continue to do some of these things after the challenge. Or are you just going to go back to your regular routine afterwards? I don’t see you being able to live without meat…
Also, didn’t you do all sorts of nutrition courses? And yet only now are you eating more fruits and ditching sodas? Why is that? Seems to me you were accumulating a lot of knowledge but did not practice that knowledge. I may be wrong though!
@Wesley: I think you mentioned the treadmill desk idea on Tyler’s site not mine. Honestly I don’t mind running on a treadmill, I quite enjoy it. I don’t like walking though, it’s too slow for me. I’d rather run for 45minutes than spend several hours walking. I prefer to put on some good music and just go nuts.
As far as HIIT training, yes I kind of do that with my runs. I don’t just run at a constant pace, I switch it up and increase/decrease speed all the time. Also, with my martial arts training it’s ALL pretty much HIIT training and things are always switching up. I just have to make time to go to more classes.
I plan on continuing on after the challenge. My ultimate goal is to lose 25lbs or so and then start on a strength training/muscle building plan, but I’m taking things one at a time. Right now I’m just focusing on getting this contest done.
As for nutrition courses – yes I took the Advanced Nutrition diploma program at Alive Academy, and I’m actually a “Certified Sports Nutrition Consultant” as I got my certificate for that, but there is a BIG difference between *knowing* what’s healthy for you to eat and actually eating it.
I’ve made progress over the years and slowly improved my diet, but haven’t done anything really drastic until now. Meaning after taking my nutrition courses I’ve been improving my diet by maybe 5% each year, but that’s obviously a SLOW process. It’s better than nothing, and better than developing worse diet habits over time, but it’s not something that creates results very quickly.
Looks like you’re eating awesome foods, Paul. Just curious though, what’s wrong with chicken? I love seafood, but I don’t see anything obviously bad about eating chicken?
I think the part of this I am enjoying most is your’s and Tylers jabs at each other, too funny.
.-= Jonathan from The Limelight´s last blog ..What To Do When You Are Naturally Lazy And You Don’t Want To Work For Someone Else =-.
@Jonathan: I’ve cut out chicken mostly as a spiritual experiment. I know I still eat fish, which is technically still “meat”, but I wanted to see how I would feel when I’m not eating chicken, beef and pork. So far I don’t miss it at all, and in the first week of not eating meat I did notice a very substantial shift in the clarity of my thinking.
I don’t know if it’s related, but I have also been way more drawn to meditate in the last two weeks and a whole bunch of “spiritually” related events have been happening. I don’t know if they are related to not eating meat, or if it’s just a coincidence but I’m enjoying it so for now I’ll stick to it.
Speaking from a purely nutritional point of view, the debate of whether chicken is good for you or not is still up in the air. Some nutritionists say that chicken is the best of the three meats due to the low amounts of saturated fat compared to a steak for example, but if you’re not eating organic, free range chicken, you could be ingesting growth hormones and antibiotics. If you’re not thinking about any moral or spiritual aspects of it and just purely going on nutritional value, I *think* as long as you eat organic chicken there’s probably not much wrong with it.
However, what I found is that when I was eating chicken it wouldn’t be organic – it would be whatever the restaurant was serving or whatever KFC fried up, and that kind of chicken is not good for you.
Congrats on the current weight loss, let’s just hope you don’t have to pay Tyler.
Also, what ever happened to the Paulymath show?
.-= Karl Hadwen´s last blog ..Video – The Call of The Entrepreneur =-.
@Karl: I’ll be recording one soon. I’ve been recording video’s for my Blogging Course, but I know I’ve got to do another Paulymath Show real soon here.
One thing I’ve learned about recording video is that it takes a lot more preparation than doing a Blog Post because with video you can’t take a break in the middle. Meaning, to shoot video I have to create an environment where I won’t be interrupted for 30-45mins at least, to do one take. That means no dogs interrupting me, no phone calls, no wife calling me for dinner, etc. With Blog posts you can write, and if you get interrupted you just come back a few minutes later and keep going. With video you have to start all over.
I might need to set a schedule to shoot during the night when everyone including my dogs are asleep, or maybe I need to learn to just shoot and then cut/edit interruptions. We’ll see. Like I said, I *have* been shooting quite a bit of video, it’s just not been for the Paulymath Show. I hired a mentor to help me get the Blog Course finished, so there’s been a giant fire under my butt for that. Thanks for lighting one for me for the Paulymath Show. I know it’s been too long since the last episode.
Paul another alternative to salad dressing that you might want to try is salsa. Most salsas are quite low in calories. The one in my fridge right now has 15 calories in 2 tablespoons! Most salad dressing are not that low in calories. Just a thought. It is a yummy dressing if you like salsa.
.-= Lisa´s last blog ..Banana Nut Muffins =-.
@Lisa: Thanks, I’ll try that. I don’t think I’ve ever had salsa on a salad.
Ah, that all makes sense, Paul.
I am certainly very deepy opposed to the way our meat suppose it being produced these days. Factory farming is an inexcusable disgrace,and frankly is makes me sick.
On the other hand, I am not of the opinion that we as humans were designed to be vegetarian, the idea that out species just started eating meat by mistake is pretty out there to me.
I think I could give up chicken without any problem, and pork without a doubt (except maybe bacon), but I’d have a hard time saying goodbye to steak and prime rib roasts.
What can I say, my family is eastern European, food is very important to us, ha!
.-= Jonathan´s last blog ..What To Do When You Are Naturally Lazy And You Don’t Want To Work For Someone Else =-.
@Jonathan: I’ve studied both sides of the vegetarian debate. I believe we were “designed” to survive, first and foremost so we are capable of eating a LOT of different things for survival. For example, Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashed in 1972 and the survivors of that crash had to resort to cannibalism to survive.
The real question for me isn’t what we’re capable of eating to survive, but rather:
(1) What is optimal nutritionally.
(2) What is optimal morally.
(3) What is optimal spiritually.
and MOST important of all (4) What tastes great and makes you feel full of energy.
Paul, You’ve got a couple of good things going here…motivation and a new plan! It looks very much like the plan that started in my house this week, and we’re seeing great results. That “up and down same 2 pounds” can be so frustrating. Congratulations on forging ahead (and not trusting Tyler, of course! ha! ha!)
Angela
@Karl: Ask and you shall receive. New episode now live.
Best of luck with the contest!
Its great to see that you have plan that you are working on. I see that you have the determination for this and you are on the way to success.. good luck!
.-= Maaya´s last blog ..Orthodox Lent Compliant Curry – sent by reader =-.
Hi Paul, I’ve come to find you and your blog from Tyler’s rundowns of this weight loss competition with you. It’s definitely been real interesting so far and I’m sure I’ve bookmarked another good blog to peruse. Good luck to both of you and may the best man win.
Till then,
Jean
That is so funny that you started this because I have written a post that I had planned tol post on my blog next week with tips on how I keep my weight down. My thing is needing to exercise. My weight is not much of an issue, but I’m really out of shape! It’s hard with kids to find the time, but I’ve ordered my double jogging (well, walking for me) stroller so I can get started again!