$2017 GRM Challenge Car Weight Reduction: Driver Edition

As with most people, I'm going to be doing as much as I can on my $2017 Challenge car to reduce the weight it has to carry around the course and down the strip. However, there's only so much that can be done on the car itself, especially with a boat of a car like I'm going to be bringing. So, in hopes of improving my car's times- and a whole lot of other non-car-related reasons- I'm going to be aiming to drop as much weight off myself as I can in the intervening time between now and the Challenge in October.

The goal I'm shooting for is dropping 20 pounds by then. Since the Challenge is roughly 5 months away, that's 4 pounds per month- or a pound a week.

I figure that tracking and posting about my progress here will be one of the better ways to ensure that I'm diligent about it, so I'll be trying to keep up with things as much as possible. I imagine that there are others thinking along similar lines- so I'd propose that this thread be a place where anyone can post their progress, vent frustrations, or ask for advice or suggestions.

So, starting stats (or at least 'stat'... I wasn't on top of things enough to have done anything more than stop on the scale this morning, so I'll have to do more measurements later...).

5/8/17 weight: 202 lbs Goal: 180 lbs To Go: 22 lbs

Unfortunately didn't start off in the best of ways today- overslept a bit and that combined with it being cooler outside and an errand I need to run meant I drove instead of biking in this morning. Hope to make up for it by going to the gym after work- I'm paying $10/month for it, I really should be actually USING the gym membership...

Good luck--- the lighter you are, the faster you'll become! There are so many weight-loss gimmicks out there, but it always comes down to this--- Eat less, exercise more. Burn more calories than you take in.....and the pounds will drop.

It always cracks me up when racers (especially auto-crossers) are totally obsessed with shaving tiny bits of weight off of their cars. (Man....I just NEED those titanium valve stem caps!) And you look at them, and they are 50lbs or more overweight. (I see a few 10ths that could come off there.....)

Kudos to you in getting healthier......and faster!

In reply to Joe Gearin:

Thanks! I don't plan on any gimmicks- just trying to eat better (I have a serious sweet tooth, especially for cake...) and get in more exercise.

I don't really eat terribly at the moment, but I do have a difficult time being good when it comes to desserts. There are places other than that where I can improve as well and I'll be working on that too. It generally helps that SWMBO is also on a weight-loss kick (since she is going to be on stage in front of lots of people doing the curtain speech for her upcoming show).

Exercise-wise, the summer is generally the easiest for me to get it in since I honestly prefer riding my bicycle to work over the other options whenever possible. Unfortunately last year my Achilles injury at the end of spring meant I couldn't ride the bike at all until into the fall, so it hurt me a LOT in terms of exercise and I'm still trying to make up for it.

I'm all about this. Would you mind if I joined you? Also need to lose 20 lbs. I'll hop on the scale later today and reply back.

Amputation is the quickest weight loss possible. And you don't have to worry about gaining it back!

Unless you are Deadpool.

In reply to Robbie:

Certainly! I'm all for others joining in- I figure I'm not the only one who could use to drop a few pounds, and it's always easier when you're not doing it alone!

One thing that helped me was doing lots and lots of push-ups. Get out of bed--- 20 pushups. Get out of the shower-- 20 more. Stop home for lunch-- 20 more, get home from work--- 20 more. I found It was pretty easy to do 100 a day, as long as I did them in sets of 20.

It woke my metabolism up, and combined with eating healthy, weight dropped off pretty quickly.

Similar to pushups, I do squats too. I've been using the tips inside here:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2016/12/13/staying-fit-with-no-gym-in-sight/

Since about December (I use them very sparingly - ha), but I am probably down 10 or so. 20 to go.

This is my favorite part of that article.

MMM said: As Tim Ferriss demonstrates in the Four Hour Body, it is possible for a relative beginner to trigger over a pound of muscle growth (3500 calories of body composition change) with just one brief session of barbell squats.

How far from the south end of skyline drive is your part of Kentucky? Would you be up for biking it with me one weekend this summer?

captdownshift wrote: How far from the south end of skyline drive is your part of Kentucky? Would you be up for biking it with me one weekend this summer?

I'm in central KY, about an hour and a half or so (IIRC, been a while since I've been that way...) from the Eastern border with WV- a look at Google Maps says that it's about 6 hours to Waynesboro.

Biking the Skyline Drive does sound interesting, but I'm not sure of being able to make it out there this summer- with our company's transfer to the new parent company our vacation time is now a bit wonky (though we are also moving to a 9/80 schedule where we get every other Friday off...). That and I've never biked that far before...

I've dropped about 10 pounds (maybe more? I'll have to step on the scale tonight) since I started eating plant based. By plant based I mean that during the weekends I eat "normal", but during the week, it is an extremely rare occasion that I'll have anything with an animal product in it--not including my FIL's birthday last Thursday(steak), in the past 14 days I've had approximately 1 egg (pancakes), and a small amount of cheese on some refried beans.

And don't let people tell you that plant based folks don't get enough protein. Unless you're lifting and have extreme body-building goals, almost everyone, including vegans and vegetarians, gets enough protein.

Now that I've said that, protein is good! It takes longest to digest, so you feel full faster and longer. Take your time eating--when you finish your first course, stop for 10 minutes before you get a second helping. You probably don't need it. Also, most dehydration is mistaken for hunger, so try a big glass of water and (again) wait 10 minutes.

The big thing for weight loss is just Calories in<Calories out. Eat less and move more. The hard part is actually doing it.

So, yesterday didn't go quite as well as I'd have liked. I had planned on going home, grabbing my gym bag, and hitting the gym- but a while before I headed home SWMBO texted me that she needed some of the promo materials for her show done by that evening so after sitting at my desk at work for 8 hours I went home and... sat at my desk there for another 2 hours. And then she really wanted to go out to get dinner at where she had wanted to eat the previous night but the friends we were with hadn't wanted to go to a sit-down restaurant. At least I was good and ordered something that I knew I could easily eat half of and take the rest home for a lunch/dinner later this week.

Almost couldn't ride in this morning as we needed to get SWMBO's SUV to the shop to have a tire that has been dropping most of its pressure overnight looked at. Managed to convince her she could drive my Jeep and I put the bike carrier on the Mariner, drove it to the shop, and then rode my bike the rest of the way in to work.

So, it's worth noting that our bathroom scale is frequently questionably accurate- so while I'll be trying to post daily weigh-ins the change from day-to-day is likely to not be worth worrying about too much. The overall trend is what will matter. I say this because there's no way with yesterday's events that I dropped 2 pounds...

5/9/17 weight: 200.2 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 20.2 lbs

Joe Gearin wrote: Good luck--- the lighter you are, the faster you'll become! There are so many weight-loss gimmicks out there, but it always comes down to this--- Eat less, exercise more. Burn more calories than you take in.....and the pounds will drop. It always cracks me up when racers (especially auto-crossers) are totally obsessed with shaving tiny bits of weight off of their cars. (Man....I just NEED those titanium valve stem caps!) And you look at them, and they are 50lbs or more overweight. (I see a few 10ths that could come off there.....) Kudos to you in getting healthier......and faster!

Not only that, you're putting a massive amount of weight on one corner of the car, so it messes with the cars' balance. When I used to autox, there was a dude who ran a 1G Integra. He went way to the extreme preparing the car. Fully gutted, put covers on his tires between runs, etc... But he was an honest 350lbs+, he barely fit in the car. When he turned right, the car would get all kinds of weird.

Don't know I could agree or disagree with mtn's comments about plant based people getting enough protein. It really depends on what you eat, even with plant based. In general, I'd disagree, but I guess where there's a will, there's a way.

I do agree that when you boil it all down, it's a calories out vs. calories in equation.

215 this morning on the garage scale that I weigh all my car parts on.

Goal weight by challenge 195.

Klayfish wrote: Don't know I could agree or disagree with mtn's comments about plant based people getting enough protein. It really depends on what you eat, even with plant based. In general, I'd disagree, but I guess where there's a will, there's a way.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4081456/

Oh, one other thing: Try adding 2 table spoons of apple cider vinegar a day. I can't find the full source, but here is the abstract: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19661687

The two tablespoons of vinegar a day group dropped five pounds by the end of the 12 weeks, compared to less for the one tablespoon a day, and a weight gain for the placebo group. Note that this was funded by a company that sells vinegar, so lets keep that in mind... but still interesting.

So yesterday went solidly better as far as things going the way I would have hoped for them to in trying to lose weight and get back into shape.

Though it took some creativity I was able to ride my bike most of the way to work and back (had to drop SWMBO's SUV off at the tire shop along the way, so carried the bike in the hitch rack and rode the rest of the way) and made up the distance lost with some errands over lunch I was able to walk to. I do need to start trying to incorporate more things like pushups, squats, etc. into my day, but at least I'm getting a solid amount of cardio in regularly. And I did haul around the Riv's wheels/tires as I swapped out the rear wheels, and got some good core balancing in trying to not fall off the roof while cleaning out the gutters.

Standard disclaimer: Our scale is not always believable, so I don't wholly believe I lost over a pound over the course of a day...

5/10/17 Weight: 198.6

Goal: 180

To Go: 18.6

5/11/17: 198.6 lbs Goal: 180 To Go: 18.6

Somewhat more believable result from the scale. Though it would be nice to have seen it go down again I can't really believe I've dropped like 4 lbs. in 3 days. Yesterday was the first full-distance bike commute day of the week, plus mowing the lawn. Unfortunately today is another slightly abbreviated ride since I had to drop SWMBO's SUV back at the tire shop.

Best to weigh yourself consistently 1st thing in the morning. Your weight will fluctuate quite a bit in a normal 24hr period.

Robbie wrote: Best to weigh yourself consistently 1st thing in the morning. Your weight will fluctuate quite a bit in a normal 24hr period.

That's what I do- I weight myself right after I get up before getting in to the shower. Our scale just seems to have a mind of its own. I miss when I was riding to work and swimming laps at the gym and could use the gym's super-accurate scale.

Much more sane change today- this I can believe. Yesterday wasn't too bad- was able to ride but didn't do much else. SWMBO is going to make being good at desserts difficult since she really wanted more of the king-sized Reeses' Pieces-stuffed Reeses' cups... but at least since we split the packs it could be a lot worse, and limiting it to just one cup and some fruit is still an improvement over what I'd typically want to eat (and I've been trying to have dessert further from when I go to bed).

I'm rather worried that I'm getting sick unfortunately- riding home this afternoon is NOT going to be fun, especially since it's currently raining (may well change in the next 2 hours though).

5/12/17: 198.4 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 18.4 lbs

Ashyukun wrote:

Robbie wrote: Best to weigh yourself consistently 1st thing in the morning. Your weight will fluctuate quite a bit in a normal 24hr period.

That's what I do- I weight myself right after I get up before getting in to the shower. Our scale just seems to have a mind of its own. I miss when I was riding to work and swimming laps at the gym and could use the gym's super-accurate scale.

Assuming you're in this for the long run, and not just a short term weight loss with specific timeline goals, it is better to weigh yourself only once a week or so. Too much fluctuation on a day-to-day timeline that may discourage you. Which seems better, losing a pound in a week, or on a day to day basis losing .35, gaining .4, losing .3, losing .05, losing .35, gaining .05, losing .4? The end result is that you've lost a pound in the week, but you may have gained weight two days in there. Seems bad for those two days, but it really isn't. You may just need to poop.

So, got less exercise over the weekend than I'd have liked- but also got waaaay more sleep than usual too (wasn't feeling the best)

I guess I'll drop down to just doing this on Monday mornings- which is probably going to be the worst time of the week on the whole coming after weekends...

5/15/17 weight: 198.6 lbs

Goal: 180 lbs

To Go: 18.6 lbs

Lost a bit of ground over the weekend- but still down for the week on the whole. Hope the downward trend continues...

Keep it up! As long as the needle is moving in the right direction, don't stress how fast it's moving.