Weight Loss Background
Posted by moonimus on Jan 3, 2008
Ever since I started elementary school, it seems as if I have been in a back and forth struggle with my weight. I was a pudgy kid when I was little but I was always one of the taller kids so my length probably hid some of my weight problems. Currently, my height is 5′ 10″ and my weight is approximately 230 lbs. I’m a fairly broad guy but most people would consider me borderline or fully obese.
I started becoming very active in high school. I wrestled in the 215 lbs weight class even though I used to hover between 185 and 200 lbs at any point in the season. The next lowest weight class at the time was 177. I wasn’t much of a wrestler but I was quicker and more agile than most. I trained very hard during the offseason by lifting 4 days a week and running 5 days a week. The route I ran was a vicious 3 mile hill infested run and absolutely grueling in the summer. Not that I’m proud of it now, but I once lost 14 lbs in one week during my senior year. After that, my season was completely lost and I was a shadow of myself on the wrestling mat.
In college, I continued to keep up with the workouts but they became increasingly difficult to maintain the effort without the motivation of competition. I entered college at 185 lbs. I gained 15 lbs as a freshman, 15 lbs as a sophmore, and 10 more lbs as a junior. I was at 225 lbs for a while until one day in grad school, the scale said 245 lbs! I was 5 lbs away from 250!! I couldn’t believe it and I took it upon myself to turn it around. Three years from that point, I had become 196 lbs. It took a lot of hard work but I slowly lost my progress after a business trip soon after. Since then, I’ve crept back up to 230 lbs.
During the time of my gaining and losing and regaining, I was using different training regimens. I got into something called High Intensity Training, then Superslow, then variations on Superslow. I also went on the low carb diet during the losing period but went back to carbs not long after I hit 196. So I haven’t been a model of consistency.
Last year, I read a book called Ultimate Diet Secrets by Dr. Gregory Ellis. It was an eye opening read and I hope to share the knowledge I learned from that book into CalorieCents. I highly recommend this book! I am currently reading a book called Starting Strength
You can see in the right sidebar my goals for weight loss and decrease in body fat percentage. June 1 is 21 full weeks away so I’d have to lose about 1.4 lbs a week. It sounds so easy, doesn’t it?
Introduction
Posted by moonimus on Jan 2, 2008
So this is my first foray into blogging out in the great wide open. For the last few years, I’ve been over at xanga blogging inconsistently about various topics but now I’ve decided to narrow the focus to Personal Finance and Weight Loss. That doesn’t mean that there will be occasional sprinklings of unrelated topics.
So why blog? I was inspired by Clever Dude and through a link at Clever, Blueprint for Financial Prosperity, to take some action. Years before this point, I had read books like The Richest Man in Babylon, Your Money or Your Life, the Millionaire Mind and loved them. The first PF Blog I read was Iwillteachyoutoberich and then followed by the Simple Dollar. It’s hard to keep up with how many I read now. You can check them out on my blogroll. Essentially though, I’m blogging to learn something about myself.
Since my “initiation” I’ve been introduced to David Ramsey, Suze Orman, John Bogle and David Bach. My family has become more frugal and we have set some aggressive financial goals. In the last year, I’ve come to realize that I will continue to make mistakes in this journey and that I shouldn’t get discouraged at any setbacks. I used to get so frustrated with myself about not having the ruthlessness, cunning and desire to automatically change. Now I know that true change is not easy. It is gradual and filled with setbacks. Which brings me to my next thought:
I’m still figuring out the whole html thing so I’ll ask for your forgiveness in advance for any future egregious errors. I am happy to have actually gotten this far.
