Day 30 of David 2.0: Progress update

Day 30 update

Today marks day 30 of my journey to physical transformation. As of this morning I have lost 13 pounds. So what is my goal? Have I set one? The answer is yes. I've set a goal to lose 60 pounds in one year. I set an incremental goal of 25 pounds by Christmas, and am well on the way there.

Why 60?

The short story is that when I looked at a Body Mass Index (BMI) I found that even in losing 60 pounds I was still classified as overweight, but only barely. Now I know that this is not a very good indicator as it does not take into consideration muscle mass, but it is a general indicator. 60 is a round number, and one that I honestly believe I can hit in 12 months. My starting weight was 246.6, so actually I plan to lose 61.6 to get to an even 185. In 2003 I was diagnosed as Type II Diabetic. At that time my weight was around 290-295. Over the next 12-18 months I lost 50 pounds through mostly diet changes. I've maintained that weight loss plus or minus 5-7 pounds since. Now its time to take control and take the next step.

How am I doing this?

The tool. To accomplish this I have been following a reduced calorie diet. To manage this I am using the myfitnesspal application and recording everything that I eat. I've also tried the very similar livestrong app, but just like the myfitnesspal one better. I've found it easier to use, easier to add foods not found in the database, more accuracy on the nutrition values of the foods in the database, and one of the nice functions is that it can scan barcodes on food packaging and then pull the nutrition information from the database. I've logged every meal and snack for the last 3o days and it just becomes automatic. I know meal by meal how I am tracking for my daily calories, and can adjust my eating based on this. Myfitnesspal also looks at my calorie intake, activities, and weight loss and recommends changes to my daily calorie allowance to help manage my weight loss in support of my goal.

Food choices. Since I am recording everything I eat, I am really paying attention to food values - calories, fat, protein, fiber, and carbs. I find I talk myself out of eating certain things because I know it will have a negative impact - too many calories or not enough substance to fill me up, and don't want to risk going over my daily allowance. If I know I'll be having something for dinner that might be a little heavier in calories, I can work backwards and adjust through the early part of the day to help keep me on track. It's the little things. Eliminate the cheese, or skip the sauce, or sometimes skip the bun. It's looking at what makes up the calories in a meal and determining what you really want to eat. I'm not claiming perfection in this. I went to the state fair and paid the price. Cheese curds, mini donuts, a couple of Sweet Martha's cookies, and the all you can drink milk pushed my over my daily calories but almost 50%. Amazing how that impacted the weight.

Water. Water is key. I am averaging 12-16 glasses a day. I've found that by drinking the water I've reduced those hunger feelings that I experience in the evening.

Exercise. I have not added exercise yet, but that is the next step. I've dusted off the treadmill. I'm not a runner. In the past I've typically done 30-40 minutes of walking every night, gradually increasing the pace. That's the plan, and my 60 day progress update will include how I've done with exercise.

That's where I stand today. I am fired up about this. I did not expect to see the results that I have in the first 30 days. I don't believe I will continue to see the same pace of loss, but believe it will be close, especially adding exercise. Each day it gets easier and the results really help drive me.