$2017 GRM Challenge Car Weight Reduction: Driver Edition

sigh

5/21/17 weight: 202 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 22 lbs

Belly: 37"

So yeah- this morning's weigh-in sucked hard. Given the rather odd weekend meal-wise I wasn't going to be surprised to lose a little ground- but losing all of it really, really sucks. Probably the biggest issue was that we finally got out to a new grocery store and found a lot of things we really liked and picked up lots of new things to try- including more sweets than was wise (obviously).

So starting today I'm going to try harder- for one, we've gone through all of the sweets from that trip and I don't plan on getting more. I'm also starting something I've not done in a while- tracking everything I eat on my phone. If nothing else seeing the calories add up should help deter me from eating more than I should. It's not always easy since some things just aren't easy to track (like the leftover pulled-pork nachos I'll be having for lunch), but should help some. I also really need to start trying to do more resistance/weight stuff each day as well- with biking to work I get a decent amount of cardio each day, but I really need to be burning more.

I also found the tape measure so I can track what I care about most- trying to lose some of my gut.

The holiday this morning threw me off-schedule in posting, but not in weighing in...

5/28/17 weight: 200.2

To Go: 20.2 lbs

So, didn't make as much progress as I would have liked, but given this was a holiday weekend and since SWMBO was planning on starting a diet this week we didn't eat the best over the weekend. Been riding pretty consistently this week and got some good resistance training in Monday helping eastsidemav with pulling a rear end for his Challenge truck. Would love to get more weight training in, but with SWMBO's show coming up in a bit over a month and having a lot of things I need to finish before it for it to happen properly it's hard to carve out that time after work.

I was down to 213 but went on vacation for a week back to 215.

You can't really trust changes within 10lbs, especially if you are going from no exercise to anything that builds muscle. Muscle weighs more and it may be building at first. Watch out for dehydration too ,which can be a false loss.

Some tips

Eating bitter foods and food with bitter seasonings reduces want of food. Coffee counts if you aren't adding sweeteners. Sweeteners actually have a reverse affect and make you eat more especially the fake kind like nutrisweet. So stay away from diet drinks entirely.

In reply to jere:

I've avoided 'diet' drinks for quite a while now, ever since I realized it was the fake sweetener in Diet Dr. Pepper that was giving me headaches when I drank a lot of it (used to get a massive cup of it from the gas station when I was doing a long day of working in the garage). I generally try and avoid soda completely these days, but will occasionally grab a non-diet Dr.P when I'm doing a long day of driving. Can't stand coffee, generally drink tea- when I make it myself I put a few small chunks of rock sugar into it, when getting iced tea at restaurants I drink it straight unsweetened.

It's gonna be hard but I'm giving up potato chips for a while. Funny I just went seven weeks without a beer and couldn't see any difference but that was the only dietary change.

Eat well, work out more, get good sleep.

We added a pullup bar at work even though we have a full gym that no one uses. We also play a game, do X amount of pushups everytime you say 'insert word of choice'. For me, if I curse at work I do 10 pushups. You'll be surprised by how many 500-1000 pushup days I have. I don't learn well.

I started the fit life when I was a teen. I haven't eaten fast food, fried food, and haven't had anything other than water and certain teas since I was 15 (I'm 28 now). Ice cream still defeats me time to time and candy but rarely. I've always did a sport as a child (mostly wrestling and some form of martial arts) and had a job that had a huge physical requirements. Now I'm older and sit behind a desk all day. When I was 18 I was 5'7" and 143lbs no fat invincible teenager now I'm 190ish lbs and I could outperform my former self in anything physical (except doing splits. Those days are gone).

Your goals are very achievable. But once you achieve them, then what?

In reply to yupididit:

I'm trying to do all of those, but don't succeed well at them most of the time.

I was about 160 or so through HS and the first year or so of college, but of course started gaining more through college as I was involved in less sports-type activities (couldn't do both swim team & band since they practiced at the same time, and was a better musician than swimmer...). A big contributor as well was the fact that a few years into college I realized I was lactose intolerant and started adjusting my eating to account for that, which mean that I was actually properly digesting more of what I ate. I've gotten back down to below where my goal now is once before- when my ex-wife and I separated and divorced, I started actually using my gym membership and paid for personal training sessions and really watched what I ate and dropped a LOT of weight over that 4 months of training sessions.

If I can hit this goal, the aim will be to maintain that weight and strength. My family has a history of diabetes, so keeping at a low weight and exercising a lot is my best shot at not developing it myself down the line, and a strong driver (along with the race weight reduction...) for why I want to get back into better shape.

Weekend was pretty busy, and unfortunately included a graduation party with WAY too much good food. Still managed to eek out a bit of a loss, but within the margin of error for our scale unfortunately. At least I was good today and didn't wuss out on riding in just because it was raining lightly, but I really need to get more weight training into my schedule. It's still difficult though since there's so much to be done for SMWBO's show in a month and I have a lot of different responsibilities for it, so I'm going to be spending a lot of time sitting in front of my computer working on things for it when I get home (have set up something of a standing setup there- I really should try and get work to convert my desk too).

6/5/2017 Weight: 199.8 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 19.8 lbs

Berkley it...my challenge car is too light in the arse (gutted C4). Lights up rear wheels so i need ballast for drags. I'm using a skinny pro driver for the AX.

Gone to get a burger and fries.

OK, there's really no way around it- I'm probably going to have to be happy with simply holding my ground for the next month until SWMBO's show is done. We're both really busy as a result of it, and she's very stressed out about it and thus tends to want less healthy food. I can counter it somewhat both in trying to steer us to better fare, but only so much, and try and get more exercise in. Still- happy to have not lost any ground and lost at least some weight (even if it's within the likely margin of error).

6/12/17 Weight: 198.6 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 18.6 lbs

Keep it up. I have decided that I need to join in on one of these deals. I have my Rally Car almost ready to go but I am north 330 lbs. Time to get the bike out and stop shoving crap down the pie hole!

In reply to NGTD:

Ditto here. My wake up moment was this weekend - confluence of 3 different events that were more than coincidence. Yesterday: 325. Today: 322 (hey, the early pounds are easy) Goals: 5K "not in last" @ 295 pounds 1st week of august. That's 30 pounds in 58 days. Then 270 (lowest weight I've had in over a decade) by the Challenge with ultimate target of 225. No more Coke has gotten the ball rolling. Portion control. More water. Limit sugar & starches. And keeping a food log. More exercise to follow.

I. Can. Do. This.

NGTD wrote: Keep it up. I have decided that I need to join in on one of these deals.

Rooting for you too!

Before: 325. Currently down to 320.

This was the "wake up" pic. (cropped) It was sent with a batch of ones from activity over the weekend, but seeing - "THAT is how I look, not my own mental picture of me" was a big deal to me. We're going to start doing some Frisbee & volleyball too.

1 week in: I've been weighing in daily. Been very mindful of what I eat. and I've seen daily progress for that. As of this morning (7 days in) I'm down to 315. Target of 295 by 8/2 seems very achievable at this rate... but I know it will slow down the further I go. For Father's Day, we played a few games of volleyball and did some Frisbee toss. Good, generally low impact stuff that's fun & gets me moving. A friend of ours may join this journey with me.

Ashyukun - if you would prefer me to track mine separately, I will. This wasn't intended as a thread hijack, your dedication and documentation inspired me a lot like Mazdeuce's Grosh thread...

GSmith wrote: 1 week in: I've been weighing in daily. Been very mindful of what I eat. and I've seen daily progress for that. As of this morning (7 days in) I'm down to 315. Target of 295 by 8/2 seems very achievable at this rate... but I know it will slow down the further I go. For Father's Day, we played a few games of volleyball and did some Frisbee toss. Good, generally low impact stuff that's fun & gets me moving. A friend of ours may join this journey with me. Ashyukun - if you would prefer me to track mine separately, I will. This wasn't intended as a thread hijack, your dedication and documentation inspired me a lot like Mazdeuce's Grosh thread...

Oh no, please feel free to use this thread for your tracking if you like, it's what I intended in the first place- I figured it would be better for everyone if there were a central place where anyone interested in this could join in and keep everyone else motivated through their own efforts.

Every small step gets you closer to your destination they say... so I should be glad I'm at least moving in the right direction. And I can't really complain- I've not really severely changed my diet and have just been trying to slowly tweak and cut out the less-healthy things in my diet. Despite having several somewhat less-than-healthy meals over the weekend (Popeye's for lunch Saturday and mac & cheese with Pizza rolls for dinner last night...) and Reeses conspiring against me by releasing a Reeses cup with honey mixed in with the peanut butter (drools). Still, at least progress was still made...

6/19/2017 Weight: 197.6 lbs

Target: 180 lbs

To Go: 17.6 lbs

I was 211 yesterday, lowest I've seen a scale in about 2 years (albiet still within about a 10 lb window of my lowest in that timeframe). Making progress!

Frisbee, volleyball, and badminton. The kids are really enjoying badminton since they got the hang of it (the younger ones are still working on it....) Moving is good. I feel sore (the good soreness) in calves, arms, shoulders, and even my abs (hey, tightening that part up would be a big help!!) but my lower back is a less enjoyable kind of sore. I really like that this is something I can do with almost the whole family and everyone is having fun - and moving. I spent much of my teens reading, playing video games like the Ultima series etc. But I bicycled to school, then to college, and to work for some time. Now I have a 2 hour commute when I am not working from home. Not complaining, I've had 1 1/2-2 hours for 2 decades now. Live where it's cheap, work where the money is - allows my wife to be home full time. It's a tradeoff we chose a long time ago and are still good with. But 4h/day in a car and most of the rest in front of a computer screen means no movement. I'm hoping that this change of habit helps my kids to not follow in my earlier lethargic footsteps, but in a better path. My dad would spend a lot of time outside with us, throwing ball, Frisbee, paper airplanes, or just being at the playground. I haven't set that example. But there is still time....

Grrrr. A short ways into my bike ride to work yesterday, my left knee started to complain- but since I was already down the biggest hill it was actually less effort to finish the ride in to work than to turn around. My knee didn't get any better over the course of the day, so SWMBO picked up me after work and I drove in today with the bike rack on the back of the Jeep. I will NOT be happy if my knee doesn't get better soon- both because, well it hurts and because I want to be able to ride. If it's being a problem it puts a massive crimp on my ability to exercise...

In reply to Ashyukun:

That sucks. I went way downhill a few years ago when i hurt my knee. Will be praying for a quick and full recovery.

Today I had to go in to work, and my oxford shirt wasn't straining at the buttons. :)

Still a long way to go though.

In reply to GSmith:

Thanks. After taking it easy yesterday I decided to give riding in a try again this morning but ended up turning back around before even getting to the end of my street because once I had to start pedaling slightly uphill I could feel it starting to hurt and figured it was wiser to take the scooter and give it more time to recuperate than to push it. I'm also upping the ante a bit and taking some Ibuprofen today to help with any swelling that may be causing problems. I'm likely to not be able to ride tomorrow due to some things going on at work (and potentially the weather), so hopefully by Friday I'll be back to able to ride.

Hope to try and get out with SWMBO this evening for a nice extended walk with the dog to make up for some of the lost exercise. If this is still a problem next week I'll be making a doctor's appointment to see if I need to be doing more about it.

Ouch, knee pain is the worst. Have you been into the bike shop to have someone look at the way your bike fits you? Some adjustments to your position on the bike may help, especially if you are splaying your knees out without realizing it.

Also, have you made any adjustments to your seating position recently? Subconsciously trying to ride in a harder gear than normal? Try one gear easier at a higher cadence and see if that helps.

I should join in on this. I'm 6' tall and 180, but it's an unhealthy 180. I wear size 38 waist pants. If I don't bulk up on muscle, I'd prefer to be in the low 160s.

My hope is I can fit into the stash of 34 waist jeans and shorts I've kept for ages in time for the challenge.

Started back on my exercise bike this past week, and trying to eat better