Struggling

It's been a while since I posted here. Be assured that it's not because I've given up on weight loss. It's because I haven't lost any weight since the last time I posted.

The good news is that I've kept working out and eating well enough that I have maintained my weight. I'm just having a really hard time sticking with the "diet." In order to lose the weight I need to lose, I've got to cut back again.

I need your prayers. I've lost a lot of weight, but I've still got nearly 30 pounds to go. Please pray that God will overcome my hunger.

Another Milestone: 208

So, the last couple months have been hard. I should have broken 50 pounds back in May, but with moving and shuttle missions, my routine just seemed to go out the window.

I got into the groove through the beginning of May, and it was great – pretty much steadily losing 2 pounds a week. But – especially during the shuttle mission that took up the last two weeks of May – I found it impossible to go to the gym at my usual time, which translated to me not going to the gym with any regularity for two weeks. So, my weight hovered around 212 for most of the month. However, I’ve managed to get back on the horse, and – as of last Friday, 6/5 – I weigh 208 pounds. That’s a total of 52 pounds lost.

To add to the encouragement, I’ve found that most of my clothes are so big now I can’t wear them without looking completely ridiculous. Pretty much since starting college, I’ve been wearing XL shirts. For the last several years, I’ve been wearing 40-waist jeans (42 slacks). Around February or March, I bought a pair of 38 jeans, and earlier this month, I got into some 36s. I was INCREDIBLY excited! Not only that, but I actually put on a shirt size LARGE. In the picture above, I’m wearing a large shirt and 36-waist jeans.

I got pretty discouraged for a while, but God has blessed me with a renewed vigor and determination. Only 28 pounds left to go!

As of today, lost 52 pounds. More later.

Closing in on 50 pounds.

Quick update for those who are wondering: I'm down to 215 for a total of 45 pounds lost so far. Thanks for all the encouragement!

219 - Past the Halfway Point!

Well, it's finally started to get a hard to stick with the diet, but I've still managed to make it past the halfway point. As of April 17, I weigh 219! That's 41 pounds lost - only 39 left till my goal.

230: 30 Pounds Gone!

On Friday, March 13, I reached another milestone on my journey to health: 30 pounds lost. I weighed in at 230 pounds.

A friend on Facebook asked what my secret was, so I’m going to spell out my whole weight-loss plan for you. But let me say right now that it’s no secret. Really and truly, I’m just eating less and working out.

1. How I Track My Calorie Intake

First, as I pointed out in an earlier blog, I set up an account on Fitday.com to help me create a diet plan and track my calories. There are some issues with Fitday. There is some inaccuracy in the nutrition info on some foods in their database. It’s really difficult to find some foods. But generally you can trust their info. Since you can create custom foods, I have actually entered a lot of stuff myself. Basically, anything I buy that has nutrition info on the package (which is everything that comes in a package!), I enter into the system myself. I eat a lot of the same things, so this works out. Stuff like produce that doesn’t come with a nutrition label, I look up in the Fitday database.

If for some reason I don’t have nutrition info on a food, I look it up at TheDailyPlate.com. Users have entered tons of foods brand name and chain restaurant foods into the system there. (NOTE: Look for the ones with the “Reviewed” tag.)

If I make a recipe at home, I enter it into SparkRecipes. They have a recipe calculator that tallies up the nutrition info for you. Then I enter it into my database at Fitday. (Some of these web sites also do the same thing Fitday does. I had just already set up my Fitday account and diet plan when I discovered them.)

2. How I Eat

First of all, let me say that I can eat anything I want. It’s just a question of how much I can eat. I am cutting 1,000 calories a day, leaving me about 1,582 calories. If something’s really high in calories, you may just have to forgo it.

I eat an extremely light breakfast. Usually consisting of:

Yoplait Light Yogurt (100 calories)
A slice of bread (70 calories)
Cup of coffee with Splenda and ½ tbsp. fat free half and half (about 14 calories)

or

Blueberry Bagel with a serving of fat free cream cheese (about 240 calories)
Cup of coffee with Splenda and ½ tbsp. fat free half and half (about 14 calories)

Those are my most common combinations. But I have also been known to eat Froot Loops, Corn Flakes (don’t drink the milk!!!!) or some Eggo Buttermilk Waffles with sugar free syrup.

I eat a 100-calorie snack around 10 a.m. Then lunch is – again – really light. Usually a sandwich (try using hummus instead of mayo), salad (with 1 tbsp of pretty much whatever dressing I want – I HATE low fat salad dressing), fruit, and a cup of sugar free pudding. Then mid-afternoon, I have another 100-calorie snack.

Dinner is my big meal of the day. Usually 700 to 800 calories. Here’s a fairly lo-cal recipe I like for dinner. It’s high in sodium, so see how you can cut the salt, but it’s pretty dang good. (I no longer salt the chicken before cooking it. And yes, use kosher salt. It’s lower in sodium than regular table salt.)

Jud's Chicken Pomodoro

3. How I Exercise

I am blessed that the NASA contract I work for provides me with a free membership to the onsite fitness center here at Johnson Space Center. I know not everyone is so blessed, and going to the gym can be an iffy proposition for a lot of people. Basically, I go to the gym for 45 minutes three days a week (four if I have time). I spend 30 minutes on a stair stepper. I think the average calorie burn for this is about 360. But I push myself, so I’m burning about 430 at this point. I spend the remaining time doing three sets of 12 repetitions of each of the following: curls, presses, crunches. The calorie burn for these is minimal (maybe 100 for the whole time), but they will build muscle, which will cause you to burn calories more efficiently and just plain burn more calories when you exercise.

Pick a time to work out when you’re most likely to actually do it. For example, if you’re not a morning person, don’t try to work out at 5 a.m. That’ll last about two days.

I go at lunch. I’m already at work, so I just go over to the gym and work out during my lunch break then eat at my desk. (I know this won’t work for everyone.) I get the added benefit of my stomach being really empty when I weigh, but not so empty that I’m gonna pass out!

The most important thing to remember about exercise is this: if you expect to lose weight and then maintain a healthy weight, you HAVE TO EXERCISE. No way around it.

(You can also track your activities at Fitday.)

4. This Time It’s Different

You have to understand that this is a lifestyle choice. That’s really what’s made it different for me than past diets. I won’t be restricted to 1,500 calories a day for the rest of my life, but – because I have a tendency to overeat, I probably will have to be very careful about how much I eat from now on. I will always have to exercise. It’s hard, but I feel better about myself. And I just plain feel better. Honestly. At first, you’re just exhausted, but then you find you have more energy. Oh, and you have to buy new clothes because the crotch in your size 40 jeans is hitting you between the knees and there are no holes left on your belt.

239: The Twenty-Pound Mark - Come and Gone!

I am very pleased to report that as of Friday, Feb. 13, 2009, I have lost 21 pounds! Down to 239 from 260 on Jan. 5!

I've been on diets before, and - as I've said - the first 20 pounds goes pretty easily. I had a lot of struggles trying to stick with the plan (which requires restricting myself to 1582 calories a day in order to lose 2 pounds a week - which I am currently blowing out of the water!), and there were a couple of times early on when I gained rather than lost. But the trick really is to just move on. If you mess it up, don't let that be reason you give up because one bad doesn't destroy everything!

And also, I give myself a little more freedom on the weekends to eat some things I may not eat during the week. I try not to go nuts, but just enjoy some foods that I really love. (That did get me into a little trouble early on, but I think it's under control now.)

I'm also on a 3-day-a-week exercise regimen now, and it feels good to be a little more active again.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers.

Jud's a Loser

The journey began on Jan. 5, 2009.

I’ve been struggling with my weight for years. I’ve gone on diets before, sometimes with success but more often not – especially in recent years. And – obviously – I’ve never been able to maintain the weight loss.

For the last couple of years, I haven’t even been able to motivate myself to make the requisite “I’m going to lose weight” New Year’s Resolution. A lot of spiritual, emotional, and psychological factors figured into that, and really, 2009 didn’t begin any differently.


Me with my daughter Emma at the Houston Zoo in October. I’m the big gray blob on the left – the one holding the baby. I weighed in at a hefty 260 pounds.

In fact, this is not a New Year’s Resolution. This is just me coming to the realization that I want to be thinner. I need to be. Strangely enough, we spent some time the first weekend of this year with some old friends who are big fans of The Biggest Loser. I’m not a big fan of reality TV, so I wasn’t really excited about watching this with them, but I did. And watching these people sometimes lose 100 pounds – 40 or 50% of their body weight – I was inspired. So, when Kacy and I got home, we laid out a plan.

I set up an account on FitDay.com to help me set up a healthy weight-loss goal. I set up an account at SparkPeople to help me calculate the calories of homemade foods. (Incidentally, if you’d like a pretty healthy and very flavorful recipe for Chicken Pomodoro, check it out here.)

As of Jan. 5, I weighed 260 pounds. My goal is be down to 180 – five pounds less than I weighed when I graduated from high school in 1991 – by Oct 12, 2009. (The odd date is so that I can maintain a healthy rate of weight loss – trying to keep it around two pounds a week.) That’s 80 pounds.

As of yesterday, I weighed 251 pounds. So, I’ve lost nine pounds, and I haven’t even really figured out how to stick to my diet plan (1,582 calories a day) consistently yet! Nor have I begun an exercise regimen. (That begins soon.)

So, please keep me in your prayers, and give me some encouragement. This is going to be a long, hard road. And, if you – like me – are struggling with weight loss, I hope this blog can be an encouragement to you.