Posted by Kromey at 3:59pm Jan 5 '10Okay, here's what I'm thinking is going to go down, and how. Criticisms welcome - and encouraged!
Let's start with The Diet:
I can't count calories. We'll just start with that - I just don't have the patience to come up with numbers exact enough to satisfy my obsessiveness with precision. Not to mention that I'm the kind of person who will forget to do it anyway, and then use that as an excuse to stop doing it altogether ("Well, I screwed up my count on Tuesday, which means my whole week is now shot - oh well, guess there's no point to it anymore."). If calorie counting is a cornerstone of my weight loss, I will use that failure to justify giving up entirely. Not what I want to do. Not to mention that I firmly believe that calories are a grossly incomplete measure of diet.
So calorie counting is out.
Instead, I'm just going to make healthier choices about what I do eat. Instead of that greasy double Baconator at Wendy's, I'll eat the less greasy chicken. Or skip Wendy's altogether and eat at Subway more often. And I'll get the 6 inch sub instead of the 12 inch - too much temptation there to eat too much. And I'll stop asking for the salt.
I'll get fruits and veggies to snack on instead of candy and chips. When I do eat chips, I'll use that amazing salsa that only has like 5 ingredients (all of which, except for water, are good ol' veggies) instead of the fake cheese dips (actually, I do this already, being that the cheese dips don't really mesh well with my lactose intolerance).
I'll cut down on pizza, and add more salads to my diet. I'll reduce my soda intake.
One thing I will not do with this diet is to deprive myself, as that's just destined to fail. I will indulge now and again, but I will consciously make the effort to eat more healthy foods and fewer unhealthy foods. I was doing this very successfully not too long ago, actually, and only stopped when I ran out of the healthy foods I'd been eating and instead of going to the store for more of them I just went to the nearest McDonald's. I didn't really have a set goal or any drive to stick with that, though, which makes the fact that I was doing it successfully for almost 3 full months extremely heartening.
Next is The Exercise:
My alarm goes off in the morning with ample time for me to hit "snooze" for half an hour before I actually get up to shower. I'll now instead actually get out of bed and work out. I'll start out with push-ups, crunches, and squats; as my strength and stamina start to improve, I'll add in the use of my pull-up bar (I don't have the physical strength anymore to do even one, so I'll have to work up to using it) and my resistance bands and exercise ball. The ball came with an exercise DVD, so I may give that thing a shot, but I don't know if I'll stick with and use that.
I'm considering throwing down the money for a Wii Fit. I know me and my near-obsession with video games - so if I can steer that drive into something constructive like exercise, that will increase my odds of success. But is the Wii Fit really worth it? Is it effective at all? I know I certainly work up a sweat boxing on Wii Sports, so there seems like there could be some good potential from something designed from the ground up for exercise... Anyone have any insight here?
The exercise thing seems pretty fluid and dynamic here right now, and that's intentional - it's more appealing to me that way, and making it appealing to me will increase my odds at success.
Finally is The Tracking:
I'm going to create a spreadsheet that I'll use for a few different things:
1) Tracking weight: I'll do weekly weigh-ins on Wednesdays (Weigh-in Wednesdays just has an irresistible ring to it, don't it?) and track my weight. I'll track starting, high, and low as well. And there will be charts, because I like charts.
2) Tracking exercise: I'll track how many crunches, sit-ups, pull-ups, etc. that I do each day to keep a record. At least initially these numbers should be climbing as I gain the raw ability to do more than 2 at a time, but I expect to eventually settle on at least a rough number for each that I'll stick with - the goal is simply to lose weight and get healthier, I'm not trying to build up muscle or anything here. And, again, probably will be charts, although once progress ceases and becomes stable I dunno that charts will do me any good.
This is also some good motivation to finally push forward with my long-standing plans to create a weight-loss/fitness community website, which will include community tools like blogs and forums as well as the ability to do all the tracking I just mentioned, plus BMI calculator (and tracking, of course!) and more!
The Goal:
The ultimate judge of success will be how I feel, both physically and mentally. But, as I'm the kind of person who needs concrete goals in order to stick with something, here it is:
I will drop about 60 pounds (I say "about" because I don't know what my current weight is, precisely - I'll find that out with my first weigh-in on Wednesday!) to achieve a weight of 165. That's near the upper limit of my healthy weight (based on my BMI), and it's something I know is attainable for me - I used to be just under 160, including some decent muscle mass. I'm not trying to regain that muscle (although that would be nice), I just want to shed body fat.
Let's start with The Diet:
I can't count calories. We'll just start with that - I just don't have the patience to come up with numbers exact enough to satisfy my obsessiveness with precision. Not to mention that I'm the kind of person who will forget to do it anyway, and then use that as an excuse to stop doing it altogether ("Well, I screwed up my count on Tuesday, which means my whole week is now shot - oh well, guess there's no point to it anymore."). If calorie counting is a cornerstone of my weight loss, I will use that failure to justify giving up entirely. Not what I want to do. Not to mention that I firmly believe that calories are a grossly incomplete measure of diet.
So calorie counting is out.
Instead, I'm just going to make healthier choices about what I do eat. Instead of that greasy double Baconator at Wendy's, I'll eat the less greasy chicken. Or skip Wendy's altogether and eat at Subway more often. And I'll get the 6 inch sub instead of the 12 inch - too much temptation there to eat too much. And I'll stop asking for the salt.
I'll get fruits and veggies to snack on instead of candy and chips. When I do eat chips, I'll use that amazing salsa that only has like 5 ingredients (all of which, except for water, are good ol' veggies) instead of the fake cheese dips (actually, I do this already, being that the cheese dips don't really mesh well with my lactose intolerance).
I'll cut down on pizza, and add more salads to my diet. I'll reduce my soda intake.
One thing I will not do with this diet is to deprive myself, as that's just destined to fail. I will indulge now and again, but I will consciously make the effort to eat more healthy foods and fewer unhealthy foods. I was doing this very successfully not too long ago, actually, and only stopped when I ran out of the healthy foods I'd been eating and instead of going to the store for more of them I just went to the nearest McDonald's. I didn't really have a set goal or any drive to stick with that, though, which makes the fact that I was doing it successfully for almost 3 full months extremely heartening.
Next is The Exercise:
My alarm goes off in the morning with ample time for me to hit "snooze" for half an hour before I actually get up to shower. I'll now instead actually get out of bed and work out. I'll start out with push-ups, crunches, and squats; as my strength and stamina start to improve, I'll add in the use of my pull-up bar (I don't have the physical strength anymore to do even one, so I'll have to work up to using it) and my resistance bands and exercise ball. The ball came with an exercise DVD, so I may give that thing a shot, but I don't know if I'll stick with and use that.
I'm considering throwing down the money for a Wii Fit. I know me and my near-obsession with video games - so if I can steer that drive into something constructive like exercise, that will increase my odds of success. But is the Wii Fit really worth it? Is it effective at all? I know I certainly work up a sweat boxing on Wii Sports, so there seems like there could be some good potential from something designed from the ground up for exercise... Anyone have any insight here?
The exercise thing seems pretty fluid and dynamic here right now, and that's intentional - it's more appealing to me that way, and making it appealing to me will increase my odds at success.
Finally is The Tracking:
I'm going to create a spreadsheet that I'll use for a few different things:
1) Tracking weight: I'll do weekly weigh-ins on Wednesdays (Weigh-in Wednesdays just has an irresistible ring to it, don't it?) and track my weight. I'll track starting, high, and low as well. And there will be charts, because I like charts.
2) Tracking exercise: I'll track how many crunches, sit-ups, pull-ups, etc. that I do each day to keep a record. At least initially these numbers should be climbing as I gain the raw ability to do more than 2 at a time, but I expect to eventually settle on at least a rough number for each that I'll stick with - the goal is simply to lose weight and get healthier, I'm not trying to build up muscle or anything here. And, again, probably will be charts, although once progress ceases and becomes stable I dunno that charts will do me any good.
This is also some good motivation to finally push forward with my long-standing plans to create a weight-loss/fitness community website, which will include community tools like blogs and forums as well as the ability to do all the tracking I just mentioned, plus BMI calculator (and tracking, of course!) and more!
The Goal:
The ultimate judge of success will be how I feel, both physically and mentally. But, as I'm the kind of person who needs concrete goals in order to stick with something, here it is:
I will drop about 60 pounds (I say "about" because I don't know what my current weight is, precisely - I'll find that out with my first weigh-in on Wednesday!) to achieve a weight of 165. That's near the upper limit of my healthy weight (based on my BMI), and it's something I know is attainable for me - I used to be just under 160, including some decent muscle mass. I'm not trying to regain that muscle (although that would be nice), I just want to shed body fat.
The beginnings of a plan - Kromey