Getting less fat in 2017... With technology!

That is very exciting news, Rob! I really, really wish you the best in keeping up this new you. We need you posting here for a good long while, man :)

Nicely done!

Thanks both of you for the kind words, I do really appreciate it!

In this vein, I started off Physical Therapy last week. Thus far, I can report that it hurts like the fucking dickens, but the nice gals at Pivot Therapy are very, very patient with my fatass slug of a self.

Seriously awesome – I don’t think enough people realize how much of an impact sweets have. A couple of years ago, I quit drinking soda for a few months. Without any other changes to my diet, I dropped ten pounds. That incident alone did more for my understanding of caloric intake than any amount of book-readin’. You should definitely be proud of that – here’s to hoping 199 is right around the corner!

Amazing news, congrats. That kind of major change must be hugely motivating so I hope it lasts too. And, holy chocolate truffle balls batman, that’s a lot of Lindt! That stuff’s like eating sugared butter!

Rob, that is awesome news. Those little things that happen tend to keep the snowball rolling. Don’t get discouraged if things slow down or pause. Keep being better, that’s the goal. The scale moving and the blood sugar changes are just icing on the cake (a crappy pun for the moment, but I’m gonna leave it.)

Keep up that great work, man!

Hopefully as you get more into it the pain decreases quickly and whatever you’re getting fixed gets fixed!

Thanks @SadleyBradley! Good job kicking the soda habit. Luckily I don’t like carbonated drinks so I haven’t been sucked down that path. It’s not hard to get some type of eating or drinking vice is it…

Thanks @geggis - Mmmmmm, chocolate sugared butter - but 1 or 2 need to count as my treat for the day :-)

Thanks @Skipper - Yeah, I know my current weight loss pace will drastically slow (or I think there would be a problem). Once this settles out if I could drop 2 - 4 pounds in a month I’ll be happy with the progress, knowing that sometimes it will slow to a crawl or even backslide for some reason other than eating too much garbage.

That’s fantastic, keep it going!

For me, it’s easier to not eat sweets at all than to eat small amounts, but if you can do portion control, go for it.

Not entirely related, but I thought I’d recommend the Kirkland signature protein bars from Costco. If you’ve ever seen Quest bars, these are knock-offs and are about one-third the cost (18 bucks for a box of 20). They are a bit of an acquired taste, but are low in net carbs (3-4 per bar) and very high in protein and fiber.

Thanks Misguided!

I too normally find the portion control difficult, and I can go without short term, but if I try to deprive myself long-term that always falls apart. Right now (and I hope later) I’m in the frame of mind that I can do portion control. I need to and I can’t give up. I’ve failed at it before.

I wish I still lived where we had a Costco. I love Costco. We only have a Sam’s Club. I’ll have to see what kind of healthy high protein low sugar bars they have, if any. It seems like Sams has less healthy options than CostCo. I’d like to find some bars that are just whole food ingredients that might not pack the protein some do.

You have to do what works for you, always.

A lot of protein bars are loaded with sugar, so do read the labels carefully.

Thought I’d check in to keep myself honest…

Feb 13: 205.6 lbs.
Mar 1: 202.2

Most days (4-7 per week) I do some type of moderate / difficult cardio for 30+ minutes.
Every day I walk on the treadmill 3-6 times a day for 5 to 15 minutes each, at a 4mph pace and 4 incline. Mostly to make sure I’m not sedentary for too long at a time. I also try to do some pushups almost every day. When I started this I could only do 12-15. Now I can do 30.

I had pizza for the first time in a couple months last night. I had 2 slices instead of 3-4. I stayed within my calorie budget, but was over on my sodium intake.

I’m not totally cutting out junk food, but I’d say my candy / chip intake has been cut by at least 75%. I’ve also been drinking 60 to 90 ounces of water per day.

I have my sights on getting below 200 pounds for probably the first time in 10 years.

Wooohooo! It’s great to hear about your progress. And keeping us updated will make you want to keep yourself accountable.

Working it into your routine is hard, so it’s awesome that you’ve been able to do that. Even if you stay in this routine exactly and change nothing about what you’re doing, I’m almost certain you’ll be below 200 by the end of March.

Nicely done!

Fantastic work, man. Keep it up and get under that 200 goal.

That’s damned impressive, @robc04! I know the poundage may not seem like a ton (I mean, it does to me, since I haven’t lost weight in years), but the lifestyle changes sound incredible.

I’ve been doing a number of things to try to push myself into weight loss.

I took a sleep study and just got my CPAP machine to help me sleep better. Apparently raised cortisol levels from the apnea might also be contributing to weight gain, so double benefit?

I’ve also been going to Physical Therapy for about a month for my back pain, spurred by the last big episode a few months ago. They’re teaching me lots of exercises to strengthen my legs and core muscles so that it takes some of the pressure off my back muscles, which would be really nice. Most days, I just feel too much pain and soreness to amp up the will to exercise.

I’ve also been walking once or twice a week with a good friend. It’s not a ton of calories or anything, but it gets us both outside and moving, so I’ll take it.

Next stage is finally reassembling my exercise bike that I took apart to move and using that.

Then, theoretically, once I’ve dumped hundreds of dollars and tons of effort and time into these things, I might be able to convince myself to stop eating like such a goddamn pig (I follow the “Guilt yourself into improvements” school of thought).

Thanks for the support everyone!

This is really important. Having sleep apnea puts unneeded stress on your heart. Hopefully you’ll also feel better getting uninterrupted sleep. Don’t be afraid to try another mask if your first doesn’t feel comfortable, but give it time. I was diagnosed back around 1990 while I was pretty fit. I couldn’t get used to the CPAP and gave up. I got retested almost 2 years ago and had around 30 episodes per hour. That was much higher than I was initially. So I tried again. There seems to have been some good advancements in equipment. The machines can reduce the pressure when you exhale. The humidifier makes it less irritating. My favorite mask right now is the Dreamwear pillows. It just sits under your nose and the hose connects at the top of your head keeping it out of the way. The only downside is when I have a cold I can’t always wear it because my nose is too stuffy

I hope you can get that pain under control. That will make everything easier for you.

That’s awesome! Doing it with a friend is much more enjoyable and you can help each other stick with it. When doing it alone (like I do) podcasts can make running, walking and biking much more enjoyable too, so find some and queue them up to play when you exercise alone. I listed to a lot more podcasts now and this is one of my current favorites:
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/551791730/stay-tuned-with-preet

Keep it up Armando and good luck! We’re pulling for you!

I mean I’ve got to stick around long enough to found the Glorious Penbladian Utopia if nothing else ;-)

Thanks for the encouragement and tips. I somehow hadn’t thought of the podcasts while walking outside thing, despite the fact that I used to watch tabletop RPG videos on Youtube while using the recumbent bikes in the gym. It’s funny the connections our brains don’t make.

The CPAP will take time to get used to, but I’m so tired of just feeling like absolute underslept garbage 24/7 that I’m willing to do just about anything to fix it.

I’ve been contemplating playing something on the Switch while I exercise, since you can detach the joycons. But every time I look to see if other people are using it that way, lots of really judgy gym folk come out of the woodwork to say that you’re not really exercising if you’re able to concentrate on something like a game.

Screw it, I’ll give it a try.

For what it’s worth, it’s really just about righting the course of the ship. You make a course correction, you don’t build a new ship overnight.

Course correction: pick any of your typical daily meals. Just one to start. Start making that one healthier. You might also pick dropping soda if you’re a soda person or in-between meal snacks if you are an all day eater type of person. Whatever it is, just start with that.

That one victory will make others seem so much more reachable. That walking your doing is helping with that.

Here’s an example from my past:
I would pick up a large breakfast sandwich on the way to work, every work day. Many of those times that also included some sort of hash brown or potato product. In a sense, I was taking breakfast and making it into an 800+ calorie hit every day. My course correction was buying boxes of oatmeal (instant at the time,) and making those at work as my breakfast. From 800+ to about 130 calories. That’s 3350 calories a week I didn’t take in, or well over a full DAY of what my 5’ 7" frame needed, or just under a pound of calories (if you want to look at it that way as well.)

A few weeks of that started the change I needed to spur more changes. It’s a snowball, but it doesn’t have to be a fast one. It just needs to be one that rolls to where you need to be.

Ignore those people.

I’ve only been gaming while exercising the last 6 months, works great for me. Handheld while walking. Comfy recumbent bike at home with a controller. Down another 9 pounds in feb. :)

Works best with games that don’t involve a lot of strategy thinking &/or camera control.