Losing at a good pace...

Hello everyone (not sure how many people are really reading my blog if any)!!

I have been losing weight at a good speed now, about 1/2 a pound to about a pound a day. It really depends if I workout or not. I have been really good about working out the last week, but the last few days I have not been able to get to the gym. But I have a way to combat not going to the gym. I make this really good Taco Soup (Mom's recipe, Thanks!) and when I have it for a couple meals in a row, I lose weight FAST (like over a pound in a day). I am not sure why, because when I do make it, you get a cup and a half of soup that weighs in over a pound. The only thing I can think of it that there is alot of liquid and I make it really spicy. I just heard somewhere that if you are trying to lose weight, a way to increase you metabolism temporally is to eat something really spicy. They say that works because your body has to use more calories in trying to cool you down. So, maybe the combination of liquid and spice make it a good weight loss soup? Here is how you make it.

Taco Soup 339 Calories per Serving

Makes 6, 1 1/2 Cup servings

Ingredients:

21oz of 4% fat ground beef 735 Calories (I get this a Vons, it is packaged at 1.36lbs a container)

1 Taco Seasoning package 120 Calories

1 3/4 Cup of Kidney Beans 393 Calories (again, it is one Can of Vons Kidney Beans)

1 Can of Corn 280 Calories (Vons brand again)

3 1/2 Cups of Hunt's Diced Tomatoes 175 Calories (2 Cans)

1 3/4 Cups of Hunt's Tomato sauce 140 Calories (1 Can)

1 Onion Chopped 192 Calories (about 3 cups worth)

3 Cups of Water 0 calories

1 Can of Chopped Jalapenos (only add if you like it spicy) 0 Calories

In a large soup pot brown meat with the Onions. Once brown and the onions are transparent dump ALL the rest of the Ingredients into the pot and simmer for about an hour. Best soup ever!! and for the amount you get it is alot of food for not that many calories. Let me know if you try it out!

If you are not dieting, put a large scoop of sour-cream, crumble tortilla chips, and a hand full of shredded cheese in it. Best soup ever (behind my mom's Potato soup).

And the workout begains

Today was my first day back in the gym. For a first day back I did well. I first worked on the elliptical machine for 30 min, with a 5 min cool down. The machine says I burned a bit more than 500 calories in that 30+5 min workout. That mean 1/7 of a pound :). After that I worked out for another 30 min on the circuit training area. They have several machines that work out all the muscle groups. My shoulders are really sore from it.

One nice thing is that ALL of there scales (Digital and Analog) all go up to 500lbs. That means the stupid 350 pound limit is gone so I can weigh my self when ever I want at the gym, don't have to go to Dr. Billys to see my weight. I will still goto Dr. Billys to see my fat %, Lean body mass and BMR once a week.

Another Day, Another Weigh in....

Yesterday on the 14th I went in and got weighed again at Dr. Billy's office to see how well I am doing. To my surprise I am beating my expectations. I have lost a total now of about 16 pounds in 3 weeks. Although that is nice, that was not the surprise, the surprise was that from the last time I was on the machine (7/7/09) I have gained 2.3lbs in Lean Body Mass (LBM). The reason that is a big surprise is that I was expecting to be losing it not gaining it. Since my LBM is going up, that also means that my BMR is also going up. Typically when you are losing weight, you lose LBM, so each day you burn a bit less calories than you did the day before. But, I am keeping just active enough to be gaining LBM still.

To keep that up I just joined 24 Hour Fitness today to try to keep my LBM up (or even to make it bigger) and to lose more calories faster. If I can keep this up, I think I can hit my first goal (350 lbs) in the beginning of January of 2010, about 6 months. It will be soo cool if I can keep up my LBM and say in the gym the next 6 months. If I gain like another 12lbs in LBM, it means at 350lbs with a LBM of 243lbs I would be at 30% body fat. I am currently around 52% (I know that is really bad, but I had to start somewhere). I just hope I can keep up my LBM with working out 3 to 5 days a week at 24 Hour Fitness.

On a Side note, I made a REALLY good dinner tonight. I made a Turkey Breast Taco plate. It was 485 Calories. Here is what is in it:

4 1/2 Oz. of Turkey Breast 135c

1 Cup of cooked Brown Rice 150c

1/2 Cup Mushrooms 8c

1/4 Cup of Onions 16c

1/4 Cup of Green Bell Pepper 12c

3 small White corn Tortillas 165c

I just basically put it all in a pan, fried it with Pam Butter Spray (No calories) and put in it the tortillas. Great stuff!! Nice and filling.

Been doing well

I haven't been blogging as much as I thought I would, but I have been doing really well on my diet. I have been averaging about 1330 calories a day. I will let myself have 1400 MAX. After the first week, that is enough for me in a day. I find myself most of the time around 1000 to 1100 at night, and I make myself have a couple hundred more calories so I can be closer to the 1300 mark. On average I would say each meal I have is around 250 to 350 calories. I have found that Healthy Choice makes awesome microwave meals. Low in calories (230 to 310) and a lot of taste. My favorite are any of the Healthy Choice Steamers that doesn't have broccoli.

Amy had a Dr. appointment to see Dr. Billy. I tagged along to try to help her get a surgery date. We did not get a firm date, but I did get some other interesting news about me. They had this cool machine that not only could weigh me (most scales only go up to 350, I am bigger than that), but also tells you what your true BMR is (calories burned for a day when at rest), and a few other things. My BMR is 2611, FAR less than I thought 3917. That means that I am burning about 1300 less calories than I though I would be. So, that means I will not be losing weight as fast as I hope I would. Not to big of a deal, I still think for the first few months I will still be losing about 3~4 lbs a week. The reason my BMR is soooo off is that the math I used to come up with mine doesn't work once you get past a certain point. I am way past that point. It is because your BMR isn't really tied to weight, but how much LBM (Lean Body Mass) you have. Being a big guy I still have a good amount of LBM, 228.6lbs. Saying that, if I were to lose all my FAT (0% fat) I would still weigh in a 228.6lbs. The funny thing about that is per BMI I am still considered to be over weight because even with 0% body fat, I would have a BMI of 28 (24 and over is over weight). The machine also tells you how much you should lose to be healthy. That is also an interesting number for me. It is saying I should weigh in at 270 Lbs. That puts me a 15% body fat if I keep my same LBM. But I hope to get a gym membership soon so I can keep up my LBM or even get it higher. The higher my LBM the higher my BMR gets. The higher my BMR gets, the faster I will lose weight. I think I have lost about 8lbs so far. My weight loss at the moment is all based on math. I will weigh myself again on Monday and from having the two numbers I should be able to double check my math and I will for sure know what my starting weight is. If I don't change a thing, I will hit my goal at 1270 days (about 3 1/2 years), But I plan on working out with in the 3.5 years so I should hit my goal faster. I want to be 270 @ at no more than 15% body fat in 2 years (but I think even that is a beatable goal).

Now THIS is Breakfast!!

On Sundays my family normally has Jimmy Dean Sausage with Potatoes fried up all together. We still wanted to do something like that. Sooo... I wanted to experiment today to figure out if we can still have it but stay within our diet needs.

First I looked at the calories for the sausage. 2oz of meat is 180 calories and 5 1/2 oz of Russet Potatoes is 113 calories. Not too bad, only like 80 calories more than our normal breakfast. I have been WAY under, so I did not mine the extra calories. Yesterday after dinner I was under 1000. But I did make it up because I did not want to starve myself either and had a few snaks at night bringing it up to 1200.

To try to make it a bit more healthy I did not want to cook the meat in it's own fat. So I took the meat, flatten it out and put it on the O' George Forman. After cooking it, I took it off and cut it into 2oz pieces. It was almost perfect when I cut it into 1/4's. So that means out of 16oz's of pre-cooked meat, you only get 8. Wow.... 1/2 of the sausage you get is FAT!!!

Now that I had figured out a good way to do the meat I now needed a way for the potatoes to still come out nice and crispy. So, I got out some potatoes skinned them and cut them up kinda small. Instead of using a crap load of oil and butter, I used some of that calorie free Pam spray on the pan to start off with. I put the potatoes in, gave is another good spray and covered under a full flame. I cooked will it was a bit brown on one side stirred it and cooked some more. Then to try to get the butter flavor back in there we got another type of spray "I Can't Believe it is butter" calorie free spray (the stuff is really good). Finally I put on some seasoning and the potatoes came out awesome. Next all we did is measure out our potatoes, we did at 5 1/2oz.

Lastly we combined our own meals cooked them together for a moment so that the flavors could combine a bit from the sausage and potatoes! It was very good and I do feel quite satisfied.

Today is going to be an interesting day because we our going to a Birthday party and I am sure there will food there. I will have resolve and not have anything at the party and we will bring our own food. They should understand that we need our own food. Also, I slept in a bit also so we had a late breakfast. We did not eat till 10:00ish. The picture I attached is not from our pan, but from the kids. Ours was too good and I ate it, and was like DAMN! I should of taken a pic of it, then I thought Hey, we have the left overs from the kids dish. So that is basically what we had, but ours was measured out.

Trying new Breakfast out

I got a tip from an old friend of mine on Facebook saying instead of the carbs that I have been normally having, I should try to have a more protein rich breakfast and it will help my "diet compliance". I have not yet needed any help with compliance, but I did get hungry quite quickly eating the cereal. So, I decided to give it a shot.

After playing around with my calorie app on my iPhone I figured out that a 2 egg omelet with some veggies is basicly the SAME calories!! So, this is a no brainer for me. I would much rather have a hot egg breakfast every morning vs a cold cereal breakfast

Breakfast was quite good and I did not get hungry right after like I did with the cereal. This is my breakfast (215 Calories)...

2 Large Eggs 180 Calories

1/4 C Vidalia Onions 16

1/4 C Bell Pepper 12

1 T 1% Milk (to break the eggs with) 7

Loved it!!

First 4 Days of the diet

Today is the day I started my Diet (Well, change of life). I found an awesome app called Lose-It on the iPhone. It is a great way for me to keep track of all the food I am eating as well as the calorie intake. Another nice thing about this app is that you can also set you goal Calories for each day. It said for me to lose 2 lbs a week I would need to eat a bit over 4000 Calories. I am not going to go by that because that is way too much. I bet the formulas it uses doesn't take into account guys that are my size. I adjusted my daily into to no more then 1,542 (The closest I was able to get it to 1500) a day.

With my first day, I realized that eating the right kind of foods can fill you up but not be high in calories. I was quite full and satisfied after my chicken salads at lunch time and dinner. In-fact I was no where near my 1500 calorie a day limit I wanted to hit. I had about 250~300 more that I could of had.

Now I bet you are wondering how did I come up with the 1500 Calorie daily limit. Well, I wanted to see what I would have to eat and how fast I would lose the weight. Well, looking around on the internet I found this equation to figure out you MBR (Basal Metabolic Rate). Basically it tells you how many calorie your body will need to survive doing absolutely nothing (like just laying in bed all day never getting up). So, since I know my BMR, I had to see how many calories I burn in a day since I just don't lay in bed all day. There is another equation called the "Harris Benedict Equation", that basically just takes your BMR and depending on how active you multiply it by 1.2 to 1.9. I am in the 1.2 ~1.3 realm I would assume. So, in order for me to live I am guessing I burn about 5,697 calories in a day. So, doing some math I can figure out if I eat this much in a day what is my Net Calorie intake. Since we all know 3500 Calories equals to 1 pound, I know the answer. With a 1,542 calorie diet I have a net calorie intake of about -2,987 meaning I will be losing around 0.85 pounds a day for the first few days. The way the equation works the more you lose the lower you MBR also gets. So, I made an Excel spread sheet that I was able to play that took that into account (if you want a copy of it, let me know and I can send you one). With playing around with that number I was able to come up with a reasonable calorie intake for the day. If my calculations are right, I will hit my Goal of 250 pounds in almost exactly 1 year (I am 6 Foot 3 Inches and have a large frame).

Here is what I ate for day 1: 1,246 Calories

Breakfast: 215 Calories

1 Cup Special-K Cinnamon Pecan 160 Cal.

1/2 Cup 1% Milk 55 Cal.

Lunch : 348

7 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 210

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

5 1/2 T. Pace Picante Salsa 22

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/2 a Bell Pepper 25

Dinner: 406

3 oz. String Beans

7 3/4 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 232

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

1/2 Cup Pace Picante Salsa 32

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/2 a Bell Pepper 25

Snacks: 278

2 Pickles Kosher Dill 16

2 Servings Sourdough Pretzels 220

1 Sugar Free Jello Single 10

1 Gogurt 32

Here is what I ate for day 2: 1,246 Calories

Breakfast: 215 Calories

1 Cup Special-K Cinnamon Pecan 160 Cal.

1/2 Cup 1% Milk 55 Cal.

Lunch : 373

7 1/2 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 225

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

5 1/2 T. Pace Picante Salsa 22

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/2 a Bell Pepper 25

Dinner: 376

1/2 Cup Green Onion 10

1/4 Cup Carrots Shredded 11

1 Cup Romaine Lettuce 8

1/2 Cup Bell Peppers 23

1/3 Cup Vidalia Onions 21

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Mushrooms 10

4 T. Peach Salsa 40

1 T. Mr. Yoshida's Marinade 45

5 1/2 oz. Tilapia Loin 151

Snacks: 348

2 1/3 Pickles Kosher Dill 18

2 Servings Sourdough Pretzels 220

1 Beef Jerky Package 110

Here is what I ate for day 3: 1,359 Calories

Breakfast: 215 Calories

1 Cup Special-K Cinnamon Pecan 160 Cal.

1/2 Cup 1% Milk 55 Cal.

Lunch : 378

8 1/8 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 244

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

1/2 Cup Pace Picante Salsa 22

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/4 a Bell Pepper 12

Dinner: 406

3 oz. String Beans

7 3/4 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 232

1 Cup Cauliflower 25

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

1/2 Cup Pace Picante Salsa 32

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/2 a Bell Pepper

Snacks: 373

3 Pickles Kosher Dill 23

3 Servings Sourdough Pretzels 330

2 Sugar Free Jello Single 20

Here is what I ate for day 4: 1,172 Calories

Breakfast: 217 Calories

1 Cup Special-K 162 Cal.

1/2 Cup 1% Milk 55 Cal.

Lunch : 327

7 1/4 oz. Costco Chicken Breast 218

2 Cups Romaine Lettuce 15

1/2 Cup Pace Picante Salsa 32

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/4 Cup Vidalia Onions 16

1/4 Cup Bell Pepper 12

Dinner: 282

3 oz. String Beans 25

5 3/4 oz. Tilapia Loins 158

1/2 Cup Pace Picante Salsa 32

1 T. Bacon Bits 35

1/2 Cup Vidalia Onions 32

Snacks: 346

2 Pickles Kosher Dill 16

1 Servings Sourdough Pretzels 110

1 Sugar Free Jello Single 10

1 100 Calorie Snack Pack 100

1 Beef Jerky Package 110