In April of last year, I hit the scale again – 332lbs – nine pounds heavier than my previous all-time high.  In fact, I weighed so much, my scale at home would just error out.  The clothes that I once fit into at my heaviest were now starting to stretch to their capacity, and I was starting to have to consider upgrading to an addition X.  I wasn’t about to let my weight get the best of me, and I once again put up the good fight.   Less than 2 months later, I met Megan, the love of my life.   Her journey had taken her much further – losing over 80lbs in just a few years.   She inspired me to keep up the fight, and by August, I once again found myself below 290lbs.

I’m really not sure when things changed, but eventually my new eating habits slowly started creeping back on me.  I’m not sure if it was stress from work, or stress from other outside sources, but slowly my eating habits got worse and worse.  I tried several times to start the diet back up, but it just never worked.  Within days, I was going back to my old ways, scarfing down burgers like there was no tomorrow.   Once again, my weight slowly crept up.  My clothes began to tighten, I began to get more and more tired,  and I just didn’t have the energy I once had only a year ago.   This morning, I weighed in at 329.8lbs.   Not my heaviest, but damn close to it.

Two weeks ago, I decided something needed to change.  I needed to pull my health out of the gutter, get smart, and just lose the weight.   Over the last few months, I kept thinking what was my point of failure?  What worked for me in the past?    How can I improve on my success in the past, and this time, stick with it for months, years, and the lifetime to follow?

I then thought back to the original success I had.  When I was posting daily logs of what I ate, and sharing it with the world, it held me to a slightly higher level of accountability.  When I was posting daily, I was doing great.  But why did I stop?   In the end, it was a matter of time, and effort, both of which I was finding a massive lack of.  Each post would take at least 30 minutes to write up, build a table, and calculate all of the totals.   What if I could simplify that process, allowing for quick entries and a running total each day?   I then built a system to allow for just that!

Welcome to Fat Guy on a Diet, 3.0!    Pardon my dust, I was hoping to have the place finished by the time this all launched, but I just completely ran out of time to do so.   Nonetheless, the journey begins again today – not tomorrow, not next week, not next year!   The time for procrastination and self destruction has passed, and it’s time to finally take my journey to the next level, and get myself to a level of healthy living that I can maintain for the rest of my life.

Daily Goals:

My daily goal is purely caloric, at least for the time being.   That’s the way the original diet was, that’s what I’m aiming for with this version.   My calorie range will be 1500 – 1800 calories per day.   I will try to vary that from day to day so that I don’t get my body too used to just a single level.   I will also have ONE day per week that will allow for up to 2100 calories.   This will be me treat day – and will allow for a special meal, dessert, or something along those lines.  Exercise will come, but at this point, everything is purely calorie-centric.

Posting – at least one post per day.   This will most likely be a journal post, which will detail everything I ate over the course of the day.   Sometimes posts will include recipes that I’ve cooked, news articles on dieting that I’ve read, or just my thoughts on my progress.

Lifetime Goals:

I have a lifetime goal in mind – 160lbs and/or less than 12% body fat.   Both are years away – and I can’t target that without smaller intermediate goals.   Previously, I’ve treated myself to food when certain goals were met, but this time, I’m going to try and aim for something less unhealthy.   I will post up my “Goal Page” shortly, but it will break the diet into 10 and 25 lb milestones.   The goals aren’t a “hit it, and I get a present” either – I will have to meet or exceed each one for 2 weeks in order to claim the goal as being met.  10lbs goals will be met with smaller rewards, 25lb goals will be much bigger.  I will also have goals at 300, 250, and 200lbs respectively.  Each of those will vary.   Finally, once I hit my lifetime goal, I plan to find some way to memorialize my journey, so that I will never forget the struggle to lose the weight I took a lifetime to put on.

So, here we are.  Once again, pardon the mess.  I’ll have the place cleaned up soon!   Wish me luck, and come back each day to follow along on my journey!

When I first started this journey three years ago, I weighed 323 lbs. While I wasn’t unhappy about my weight, I knew I couldn’t keep living the way I was. Over the course of about 6 months, I dropped that down to 283lbs, the lowest I’d been in the better part of a decade. Since then, I’ve bounced, going back up to 332lbs, back down to 290lbs, and today, I’m finding myself BACK to 327lbs (at least as of last week).

Something has to change – I can’t keep living like this. I now have a future ahead of me, and something to live for, and I want to have all of that and more. Starting July 1, 2011, I’m going back onto the journey – getting back to how it all began. Expect daily posts about how the diet is going, what I’ve been eating, and weekly weight-loss updates. I’m also going to try to write up some featured stories, and discuss weight-loss related news items that I come across. I’m also going to redevelop, and relaunch the recipe section – so look for all of that to come.

I’m working on a new design, and the format may change a little bit. I’m not going to aim for the huge posts, but instead going to incorporate the smaller post formats, similar to Tumblr. That’s not to say I won’t have full posts anymore – just not every post will be 200 words or more.

So, stay tuned. I’ll make updates over the next few days, but the first weigh-in, and the real diet begins on July 1st, 2011. I look forward to hearing from all of you!!

For example, we had doughnuts in the break room this morning. Sure, I would have seen them eventually, and they’re a pretty easy temptation for me to overcome. But I’ve got a coworker that comes back from the break room and tells me point blank “Hey, Luther, they’ve got doughnuts in the break room!”. I mean seriously! He knows I’m dieting, but yet he HAS to go and rub the things I cannot have right in my face! I’m sick and tired of that juvenile crap! It’s bad enough that I go to lunch and everyone is eating burgers and fries while I’m stuck eating the salad! Then they have to go and point out the fact that I’m held back from enjoying anything.

My other major foe is stress. I am classified as a stress eater. I can take a lot, but I usually deal with it by snacking, or having food I enjoy. Usually, when I’m having a bad day at work, I’ll stop and grab a burger after work and suddenly, things just feel right in the world. For me, that’s no longer an option, and it’s been one that I’ve been fighting hardest against for the last few weeks. Stress continues to mount as more and more work comes my way with less and less time to actually accomplish it in, all of it with unrealistic deadlines and expectations. I’ve fought this off by making healthier alternatives to my fast food addictions, but even those only go so far. The really bad part is this problem is definitely not going away anytime soon. I’ll continue to drive past the McDonalds and have to rely on sheer willpower alone to face and overcome the temptation that it brings. This weekend, it almost got me. Driving home Saturday night, I was pretty hungry. As I got closer to my home, the idea of stopping at McDonalds started sounding pretty good. Thankfully, I made a detour and went to the grocery. Yeah, I know you’re not supposed to grocery shop while you’re hungry, but I ended up buying some really healthy items that were needed (specifically milk and eggs).

The final issue that I’m facing is financial. Since I’ve started eating healthier, my budget has been out of control. It’s pretty much what they say – healthier food is much more expensive! Usually for lunch, I’d run out and grab a burger and fries from McDonalds which would be less than $4. Now, the cheapest thing I usually have is Subway, but there’s only so many times I can get the same $5 footlong before I get tired of it. Most of my lunches now range in the $8-$12 range – sometimes more, sometimes less. I’d eat at the office, but usually I need to step away for a while just to get my head together. Doesn’t help when you’ve also got a break room full of people chowing down on Taco Bell to face as well. Eating at home is, and always will be the cheapest way to go. It’s just not possible at work to cook the fresh items I enjoy like grilled chicken and fish. Also it takes dedication at home to pre-prepare my meals, sometimes which I just don’t have time to do. Because of this extra financial burden – it’s just driving my stress levels to even further levels – pushing the my last point even further into the forefront. One idea that I’ve begun to recently consider was going one of the bulk diet-food routes – most likely NutriSystem. That would allow me to have all of my meals, a specially prepared diet, with no need to cook or have anything ready in advance. Also, all of my meals would be rather low cost, compared to eating out nearly every day at work. Definitely something to consider. Unfortunately, the starting cost (almost $400) is near prohibitive for me to really even consider any of these options. I’d also be scared to buy $400 in food and not liking it! If it’s anywhere near the quality of most healthy frozen dinners – I can almost assuredly say that would be the case.

Somehow I need to get these aspects of my life under control, or I’m going to fall off the wagon so hard, I doubt I’ll ever get back on board.

Saturday, I did great all day – eating light and keeping everything in check. Saturday evening, I went with some friends to see Iron Man. My friend recommended hitting a Bar-B-Que place before the movie and I thought it would be like Bandana’s or Super Smokers. Not the healthiest, but I could just get meats and veggies. Boy was I wrong. First, it was mostly BBQ sandwiches. Alright, so I got a bun, not TOO bad. The next problem was the “healthy” sides were unavailable – so I ended up getting mac and cheese and corn bread. Then I ate it all… every single bit. What’s worse: it didn’t taste good at all! If I was going to cheat, I sure wish I’d gotten something I actually enjoyed. Afterwards, we went to see Iron Man, and that just made the whole experience worth it! Great movie – highly recommend it to everyone.

Sunday – I’m back on track, 100%! I ate healthy, and even spread my meals out to several smaller meals. I spent most of the weekend working, so I really didn’t have time for exercise. It’s definitely something I need to work on.

So, this morning, I got on the scale, terrified at how my indiscretions were going to hurt me. I thought for sure I was going to see weight gained since my weight in last week. My estimate was about 313-314lbs, and it really scared me that I would put myself back that much. So, I stepped onto the scale, closed my eyes and didn’t want to look. Eventually I convinced myself that I would have to look, so I peered down, and saw it read 309.0! That’s a 2.8lb loss for this week!

I’m not sure how it happened, and I really don’t know how to explain it. I weighed myself last on Friday morning, and I was still plateauing right around 311.2, so I was already afraid of no loss at all. Adding on the crap I ate from over the weekend, I thought for sure I was going to gain. I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t the case at all.

So, what happened? Right now, I’ve got one theory I’m considering, but it could be completely wrong – I’m eating WAY too little. Everything I’ve read says that I should be having about 2000-2200 calories a day for safe, healthy weight loss. I’ve been aiming much lower than that – 1200-1500/day. Day’s 700-800 calories short of where everyone says I should be. So I guess the question is, should I raise my caloric intake to the recommended levels? It could be my body is in starvation mode and is fighting me left and right to hold on to whatever it gets. Giving it a little extra seems to have helped burn off a little extra. Please tell me your thoughts about this in the comments, I’m really curious to know what you all think.

Breakfast was a Fiber One yogurt for 50 calories. Dinner was 8oz of chicken (240 calories) and Steam Fresh Broccoli and Cauliflower (105 calories). After dinner, I had a 100 calorie Yogurt. So, all together, I’m estimating about 1295 calories for the day (give or take a few hundred….)

When I woke up on Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was down to 314lbs. That inspired me more than anything else to really push to eat well all day Sunday. I started off with oatmeal mixed with vanilla protein powder and a cup of skim milk. A little later, I decided to have some toast with spray butter and a sprinkle of cinnamon. For my late lunch (almost 3PM), I stopped by Subway and had my usual – Foot long Oven Roasted Chicken with all the fixings. I figured eating as late as I did, I might be able to squeeze by without having dinner later in the day. I was successful in that endeavor, and that kept my total calories for the day down to under 1200. I was pretty confident that when I stepped onto the scale this morning, I would have dropped another pound, giving me my 5lb goal for the first time since the beginning. Unfortunately, I think dropping my calories SO much went against me, and my body decided to hold onto everything it got instead. So, instead of losing, I actually gained a pound. Not going to complain about it, but it was actually a bit discouraging.

So, this begins a new week, and technically the 2nd month of my new journey. I’m down 17lbs (not the 25/month I’d hoped), but still a respectable loss. And I really didn’t give up much over the last month. I cut out soda cold turkey, and just watched what I ate, avoiding as much processed food as possible. If I can pull another 17lbs the next 30 days, that would put me right about the 10% mark in the middle of May. My minimum goal is to have reached my PREVIOUS weight loss by the time my birthday rolls around. That would put me at 283lbs by early July, a total loss of 49lbs, or 32 that I have left to go. Ultimately, I’ll exceed that number, but if I can’t lose another 32 by then, I’ll be VERY disappointed!

So, it’s a new month – a fresh start once again! Goals for this month are to get the exercise program started. Can’t say I’m going to push myself to my limits, but I’ll at least make it into the gym regularly. Right now, I’m just going to be pushing cardio. I need to burn the fat, and that’s the way to do it. Maybe in a month or two, I’ll ramp up to weight training, though that most likely won’t happen until I hit about 60lbs of loss total. Other goals are to try and post more frequently. I can’t promise daily updates, but I’ll get as close as possible. I’m also looking to possibly put together a weekly podcast, probably teaming up with my old friend Fat Man on a Diet. Lots to look forward to in the upcoming weeks and months!

Broadway Oyster Bar should have been an immediate red flag – there was no way I was getting out of there and sticking to my diet. But immediately hearing those words, I was already salivating at the idea of having cajun cuisine. Suddenly, the diet was nothing but an afterthought, and I was ready for some food! Last time I’d gone there, I had a pound of boiled crawfish and a bowl of red beans and rice. I was dead-set on the crawfish etoufee, but when I sat down, only one thing drew my eye – the sampler. We ordered an appetizer, which was Cajun Chips (seasoned potato chips) served with remoulade sauce. I aimed to have just one or two, but immediately became enthralled with the flavor, and couldn’t stop myself. During that time, we had some interesting events happen with some of the other patrons, but everyone was just trying to have a good time. Eventually the meals arrived and I was blown away by the amount of food. There was a bowl of gumbo, and heaping piles of red beans, jambalaya, and crawfish etoufee. I gave the gumbo a try and was immediately taken back home – it was about as authentic as I’ve found so far in St. Louis. The red beans were the same as last time, very good, but still not like back home. The Jambalaya was great, but it’s really hard to mess that up. Finally, the crawfish etoufee was the best I’ve had in St. Louis – tasted just like grandma used to make. Before I knew it, I’d put away the entire platter of food! My guesstimate is that it was WELL over 2500 calories for that alone!

The thought of me losing control that much has completely frightened me. I’ve come face to face with temptation before, but have never lost this badly. This morning, I’m back on the wagon. The scale didn’t register any change (still at 317), but it might not have taken affect just yet. I was going to hit this gym last night and this morning, but ended up getting to sleep near 1PM, so I couldn’t pull myself out of bed too early. I also needed to make it into work a bit earlier to prepare for the day. My gameplan is to hit the gym tomorrow morning and get a workout before the day gets started. Spend the weekend there, and then I should have a good start for the rest of next week. I’ll let you know how that goes.

My father died of a heart attack when I was very young. He wasn’t in great shape, but he was definitely not obese by any means. When he died, he was actually younger than I am now. One of the fears in my whole life has been that I was going to die young as well, just as he had. For this reason, I panic whenever I get any strange pain in my arms or shoulders, or when I suddenly feel as if I’m out of breath. Couple that with the fact that I live alone, and I’m scared of something happening, and my not having anyone there to help me. That fear keeps me from pushing myself harder. Maybe I just need to get over it, but it’s one of the few “phobias” that I have. (Fear of heights is my other).

So, I need exercise, and I’m getting afraid to work out at home. Unless someone wants to come over and work out with me, that leaves just one solution: the gym! So, my gameplan is to head to the gym after my social media event tonight. I’ll have to fit dinner in there somewhere, but I’ll find a way. Most likely, that means I won’t be getting there till after 9PM, which in a way is a good thing. Most of the crowd should have dispersed by that point. I’ll let you know how that goes. At first, I’ll take it show, but I’ll start to ramp it up. Going to look to maybe doing interval training on the treadmill.

Meals for the last few days have gone very well. I’ve had my french bread pizzas for a few nights. Tuesday was the only exception where I made turkey burgers with broccoli and cheese on the side. Lunches have been almost exclusively Subway, with the exception of yesterday, when we decided to hit Panera. I just couldn’t resist the call of their Black Bean Soup.

Finally, updates to the blog are just about complete. The layout has been cleaned, and everything should be looking like it’s in place now. I’ve also added a new comment system from DISQUS – which allows you to log in and comment through your Twitter or Facebook account. I think that might make it easier for you all to participate.

Anyway, I need to get to work. A lot to do before I head out to the Social Media Club event tonight. Hopefully I’ll see a few of you there!

So, what’s new?   Well, the official weigh-in was this morning.  I came in at 318.4, only down another pound from the previous week.  Yes, it’s good, but not the results I was looking for at all.  I’m convinced my eating habits have greatly improved, and the fact that I haven’t had soda in a month is a true accomplishment that I’m very proud of.  But is it enough?   It seems the better I do with eating healthy, the less weight I lose.  Yes, I could starve myself and cut down to less than 1000 calories, but I think I’d be doing myself more of a disservice by going that route.  My biggest fear is massive loss of muscle mass.  I’m sure I’ve already done harm in that direction, but dropping my calories TOO much would only do more damage than good.  So, what’s a fat guy to do?

Well, there seems to be only one option remaining: exercise!  The problem is, I’m already maxed out with work, to the point where I don’t really have time for much else in my life at this time.  Even my biggest addiction, television, has taken a beating because of my career.  Sure, I usually have the TV on while I’m working, but I haven’t been paying attention to it NEARLY as much and have missed quite a few details in several of the shows.   Lately, it just seems like I’m working around the clock, trying to find ways to generate extra revenue.   Now, with my 3rd job FINALLY looking to take off – free time is going to become less and less available.

The solution – prioritize.   I need to find out what’s more important to me?  Is it my health or my career?   One is going to have to take a backseat to the other.  If my health isn’t up to par, then the career is unnecessary – so the choice is pretty obvious.  I need to spend at least one hour per day on exercise.  That might be a visit to the gym, or using workout tapes at home.  Either way – one hour PER DAY will be dedicated to exercise.  At first I’m going to aim for cardio.  I need to burn the fat more than anything else.  Once I get below 300, I’ll start concentrating on weight training.

So, for the time being, I think I’ll have to cut back on the work and studying.  Usually I spend about 2-3 hours on that, but that’s going to have to drop to one hour max each night as well.  I’m not going to cut back on my sleep in order to make more time.  I’ve actually enjoyed getting to bed about 10:30 each night and waking up for 7 – giving me over 8 hours of sleep total.  I think the extra sleep has been extremely beneficial and has reduced my actual stress levels considerably.

That does bring up a point though, the sleep HAS helped with the stress, but the stress ITSELF has been higher recently than ANY other point in my life.   I usually sit back and let life take me where ever it may, but recently I’ve been working to forge my own path in this world, and that’s been like fighting an uphill battle.   The stress alone might be a MAJOR player in my current battle as it is a major factor in the body holding on to excess fat.   Could it be my career that is fighting against me in more ways than one?   Definitely something I should consider further.   Either way, exercise IS the direction I’ll be going!

Finally, what’s up with the site?  Fat Guy on a Diet is one of SEVERAL sites that I run, but it’s the only blog format site that I maintain regularly.  I’m always learning new tools and technologies, and recently came across a new WordPress theme called Thesis.  Thesis isn’t a theme in the general sense, since it doesn’t provide this really nice look and feel with little developer work.  However, it provides a toolset for developers to build on to and allows for a very clean and consistent look and feel while being SEO friendly, and having VERY clean code displayed to the end user.  Yes, I know, it’s a lot of techobabble for a lot of you!   I’m working to redevelop the site using thesis and things were coming along nicely, but I was pulled in a different direction for a few days, and the site hasn’t looked right since!  I’m going to spend some time on it this evening after my exercise session and SHOULD have it looking pretty decent once that’s done.   Just know that once the work is completed, the site will be leaner, meaner, and ready to take on the world – just like me!

Also tonight, I’ll be posting the French Bread Pizza recipe that I made last night – it’s absolutely fantastic, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!

Sunday went very well. I woke up and made egg sandwiches for breakfast. Just two eggs and toast with Smart Balance butter. This was the first time buying or using Smart Balance, and I’m not sure what to think. It was very tough to spread, and I’m not sure I really tasted it in the sandwich. With those, I had my standard two cups of coffee, both of which were badly needed. A little bit later, I decided to have some fruit, an apple and and orange. The orange was sweet and delicious. The apple, however, was not crunchy and delicious, but rather soft and chewy. Seems I’ve had a run of bad luck lately as far as apples go. Personslly, I like my apples to have a bit of crunch when I bite into them. Oh well…

Dinner was one of my old favorites – tacos! Rather than the unhealthy alternatives, I decided on chicken soft tacos. I’d go into detail, but you can find the recipe over in my newly created Recipe Section. The tacos came out to be absolutely fabulous. I had three last night, and saved the rest for leftovers. This should last me a day or two.

Later on that evening, I had one of my favorite snacks/desserts from when I was growing up: toast with peanut butter, bananas, and honey. Awesome desert that’s filling, healthy and delicious!

This morning, I did my weekly weigh-in. I came in at 320.2lbs – which means a total loss of 12lbs so far! That’s a 4lb drop since last week, which is short of my 5lb/week goal, but still very respectable. I celebrated with a light yogurt for breakfast.

For lunch, I decided to go to Subway. Unfortunately, they’ve ended their “All Footlong Subs for $5″ promotion, so I was stuck with the regular selection of 8. I opted for the roasted chicken breast with all the fixings, and honey mustard. Very tasty and filling. One thing I noticed was that Subway was going to start offering breakfast on April 1st. I’m going to review the calories, but might give them a shot on a few mornings if the stars align.

Dinner was once again turkey soft tacos. They were awesome again, but I refrigerated the tortillas when I was done last night. Warming them in the microwave had the adverse affect of making them a bit tough. Overall, just as tasty as last night, and I’m only about 1/2 way through the ground turkey / taco mix.

A little later I got hungry again, so I decided on my favorite dessert / snack again. Peanut Butter / Banana / Honey on toast. All in all, a good day! Very happy and proud of my progress. Good things are coming and I can’t wait to share the journey with all of you!