Me at 220 lbs.

 Not many people I know are excited to call themselves overweight, but I am!! As of this morning (7/8/12) I weighed myself at 220.8 lbs. For my height this puts me at a BMI of 29.9 which just barely pushes me out of the obese category and into the overweight category. Statistically this is significant because it means I am now at a much less risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Not that I have ever had any signs of those diseases, but considering my family history I didn’t feel like taking any chances.

I started this (it is certainly not the first time I have tried to lose weight) round of weight loss in November 2011. When I started I weighed 305 lbs. which put me in category 3 obese. Basically, that meant I could have a heart attack at any minute. I suppose there are many reasons why I was obese, but they don’t really seem to matter much these days.  I had a lot of strange thoughts of dropping dead one day and having doctors just writing it off as another obese death.With those wonderful thoughts in my head I started walking in September of 2011, but it wasn’t until November when I started tracking my weight again.

 My main weapon of choice has been a little smart phone application called Lose It! The two main things I like about this app is that it is very portable. You can use it on almost any device (smart phone, internet, tablet PC) you can think of which is good because it means it is always nearby. The second thing is the application has a great database. Rarely do I not find a food listed on their database and if I do by some chance find something not listed it is very easy to add it in. Also in it’s favor is an easy interface and it gives you very detailed nutritional reports of the foods you have been eating. It is not a end all be all solution. It doesn’t tell you what food to eat. It wont tell you to get up the morning to go running. It just tracks, but it does that very well.

As far as motivation goes I found it easier to have lots of micro goals. In total I am trying to lose 122 lbs. That is a way to big number for me to conceive. I have been breaking down my weight loss goals in 10% goals which roughly has translated into 20-30 lbs.  As a monetary incentive Denise and I have said that for every 10% we lose, we can have $50 dollars out of the family budget to spend on ourselves. The monetary incentive has been nice, but it really hasn’t motivated me to do much. The really motivation for me lately has been running. In striving for my weight loss goal I have added in my bucket goal of running a marathon. Having fainted back in 2007 when I did my first half-marathon I know the dangerous of not preparing well. For me there is a lot of motivation in not collapsing in the middle of the raceway. Not exactly sure why, but everyone has to find their own motivation.

So far it has been an interesting  journey. I get a lot of complements which is nice, but it makes me think of what they were thinking before I started losing weight. I get a lot of people commenting to me about running. I don’t know why but it seems like everyone wants to tell me how bad their knees are. I used to have bad knees, but losing 85 pounds has seemed to make them better. I get a lot of people’s personal success stories. I like those great and small. I can spend a whole day watching other people’s youtube videos about weight loss. I don’t see a lot of guy videos though. I suppose I should start a guy video series on youtube. I bet I would get a lot of views. Anyhow, there is still a long way to go but I am now over half way there. Here is to getting out of the overweight category!