Name: Michael
Age: 28
Weight: 241lbs
Height: 6'4"
BF%: 29
Current Goal: Be at or below 200lbs by Apr 10th 2005.

Well there it is. I am new to the forums and have been nothing but impressed so far. I finally realized that I needed to change my eatting habits and this site has helped give me the motivation to do so.

I have been trying to create my diet plan for about 5 days now. I started on the 10th and have done fairly well so far. My wife is also going to try and loose some weight and start eating healthier along with me. Maybe we can get ourselves back to the way we were 10 years ago when we first got married.

Currently my diet is working out fairly well. Its taking up alot of time each evening to plan my next days meal so hopefully with time I will be able to do it with less planning. After cleaning up a bit and cooking dinner when getting home most of my time is spent trying to figure out a balanced diet for the next day. I need to find a balance so I dont get burnt out on it and go back to just eatting whatever.

I dont have any excersise routine right now because I am waiting until I get my christmas bonus in about a month. I plan to buy a stationary bike then and start my cardio. I want to buy a weight bench also but my wife is concerned about not having anywhere to put it and to be honest I am too. We cant afford a gym membership so it might just be a bike and some dumbells for a while.

Well thats it for now. I just hope I can keep myself and my wife motivated.

Oh forgot to point out the importance of my deadline date for anyone that actually reads this. It's the day before my wife's next birthday. I figured it was a pretty realistic amount of time to give myself to loose the weight I want plus it would make a nice birthday suprise for her.

Well, how's it been going so far? You should be a few days into it by now. I started a couple weeks ago. The first week or so the weight came off pretty quick so I was thinking this would be a piece of cake, but it's slowed down now. You're lucky; in Tennessee you can do cardio outside for a lot longer than I can up here in upstate NY. It just started to dip into high 20's at night here, so the days are around 40 degrees. Don’t give up; there are a lot of very supportive people here to help you if you need anything, and good luck!! :gl:

Jeff

Well time for my first update:

I bought a new scale for the bathroom the otherday. A decent digital one. My weight on it was slightly different than the other scale I had but I trust the digital one alot more. So acorrding to the digital scale mt start weight was about 241. Right now I am 234. Not bad so far for not even having a decent workout schedule. My daily workout consists of a 30 mine walk during my lunch break at work. I am holding up pretty well so far with the diet. Well except for the weekends. Its so hard to eat 5 - 6 times a day when setting at home. Will have to work on the weekends.

I am really worried about thanksgiving coming up. I am having my parent over to the house and I always cook (lets the wife get a break). I make some of the best candied sweet patatoes :drool: . I cant see not cooking a meal like I normally do but man will it set me back. Then with Xmas right around the corner with all the candies my wife makes :drool: . By new years I will be right back to where I started. Well maybe I can have my stationary bike by then so I can have a decent cardio workout planned to burn some of the extra callories off.

Anyways I need to get some pictures taken so I can post them. I wanna be able to check back and see the improvments. Will have to try and make a point of it this week.

bigjeff
Its been going great so far. Probably seeing the same things you did with the weight dropping pretty fast right now. I am waiting for it to slow down but dont want it to get here. As for the weather its been very nice actually. The temp during the days have been in the 50-60s which is extremely high for this time of year. Only had a couple frosts so far. Unfortunately I cant do my walking or anything outside except on my lunch break. I leave for work before the sun comes up and dont get home until after it goes down all week.

Another day down and unfortunately I seem to be going in the wrong direction. I am eatting good during the week but I think the weekends bad eatting are killing me. When I got on the scales this morning I was at 235.5. Thats 1.5lbs up from yesterday. I think its that bowl of PB and chocolate ice cream I had sunday night. That was really the only bad thing I ate most all weekend. My biggest problem on the weekends is not eatting 5-6 times a day. I deffinately need to work on my weekend eatting routine.

Had a decent walk yesterday at work. Walked for about 45 mins. Not a very physical thing but atleast its something.

Well back to work I guess. Hopefully tomorrow I can show a loss again on the scale.

Well so far the holiday has been good to me. I have lost weight even though I ate a fairly large thanksgiving dinner. I dont think though that I ate as much as I normally did. Regardless now I am down to 231. I am so close to falling under 230.

Anyways just wanted to put a brief update of how things are going. I am pretty happy with how I have done so far.

My official Thanksgiving report is that I only gained a 1/2 pound. Not too bad I think. My weight is bouncing up and down alot lately but that probably has to do with me trying to get back onto a steady diet after the thanksgiving feast. Currently I am at 235.5. Alot has been going on at home so I am kinda getting burnt out but still trying to stick to my goal. Anyways just wanted to do a short little update while I set here at work waiting for lunch to roll around.

233lbs

Well I got some bad news yesterday. To make a long story short I screwed up my checking account and looks like my bonus I get tomorrow from work will go to straightening everything out rather than buying some excercise equipment. Its looking like I wont be able to get anything until probably around income tax time unless something drastic changes in my finances. Gotta love living from payday to payday.

Anyways I have been eating fairly healthy lately. Not tracking it as close as I was kinda due to being bummed about not being able to get some equipment to work out on and also due to wanting to see how I do without monitoring myself so closely. I know to loose much more than I have I am going to need to start doing some good cardio but without being able to buy a stationary bike for some time now I just dont see myself loosing much more than I already have.

Guess you can see where my mind is right now. Gotta atleast try and stay on track with eating until everything else gets sorted out and I can afford some equipment.

I'm far from an expert - but you may try to find some modified isometric exericises you can do without equipment. Some of them are super tough at first, but there may be some that can provide some kind of strength work for you. While picking up a heart monitor last week, I noticed a cable-setup for about $20. It attaches to a door and can give you some resistance training - basically anything's better than nothing. Also, scope out yard sales and community boards. I've seen some good deals on simple setups (ie just a bench and some dumbbells).

Good luck! :tu: