Saturday, April 2, 2011

A Slimmer, Leaner, Healthier Jorj95

So after seeing pictures of myself when Cooper was born along with other motivators such as constantly feeling fatigued and just simply wanting to be healthy as my son grows up, I decided to finally do something about my eating habits.  I weighed myself on Feb 15 for the first time in probably 6 months at least, thinking I would be around 240 or a little more, like the last time I weighed myself, but instead I weighed in at 258.6 pounds (I actually took a picture of the scale but I can't seem to find it now).

After a few minutes of research on the internet, I found the secret of weight loss:



















It all seemed so simple.  And me being the type of person who either does something full-scale or not at all, that very day I decided I was going to start eating healthier and probably more importantly, just quit eating huge portions.

The first 5 days or so were really tough, I was probably averaging around 1000-1200 calories a day if I had to guess (I didn't really keep track but I made a point to look at the packaging sometimes).  For comparison I was probably averaging something like 2500-3000 calories a day before that if I had to guess, and probably even more than that on some days when we would go out to eat.  I know 1000 is probably a little lower than what is considered "healthy", but the way I'm wired, there's just no chance I can make gradual changes.  I really needed to kick start it as quickly and as dramatically as possible.  

I wasn't really eating that much healthier at that point but I was cutting my portions in half, and sometimes less than half, and also quit snacking on crap food like Cheez-its late at night.  I was pretty miserable and hungry for a few days and forced myself to go to sleep with a growling stomach a few nights but I got over it pretty quickly.  Gradually I started adding healthier foods to my diet, and also upped my caloric intake a bit and I'm probably averaging something like 1200-1500 a day now, which is definitely more sustainable for the long term.

So anyway after about 7 weeks of making healthier choices, I weighed myself today:



















I have to say it's pretty exciting to lose 21 pounds in 7 weeks.  The really crazy thing is that except for those first few days it really hasn't been that hard at all, and in fact I find a lot of foods that I loved before to just be disgusting now.  Also with the baby around, we're just naturally not going out to eat as much, and I'm also just busier during the day so I don't have as much time to think about being hungry.  I'm just super motivated to do this and not as a temporary thing, but as a permanent change to my lifestyle.

I wasn't even going to post this to the blog at first and have hesitated to do so for a few weeks now, because frankly it's somewhat embarrassing that I am as big as I am, but I know if hundreds of people were aware that I'm doing this, that there will be pretty much zero chance that I will fail at this.  Whenever that delicious cookie is staring me in the face, I'll think of my blog readers.  Okay, maybe I'll have one cookie, but even that would be a huge improvement over what I used to do.

My original goal when I started was to get down to 200 pounds by the end of the year, and maybe something like 170 by the end of next year, but that almost seems too easy now.  I really feel like I could get to 190 or even lower by the end of the year without much more effort than I'm already expending on this.  I know the weight gets harder to take off as you lose more so I'm not getting my hopes up too high, and also I don't want to set unattainable goals and set myself up for failure.  But 200 seems more than reasonable, that's only about a pound a week for the rest of the year.  As long as I'm eating reasonable portions every day I can't imagine this will be hard at all to accomplish.

Just for fun here is a recent pic of our family:
















Poor Cooper looks like he's trying to take a crap, but he's still pretty cute in my biased opinion.

18 comments:

  1. and yes i purposely waited until april 2 to post this so no one would think it was an april fools joke

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  2. Good job on the weight loss!

    Going to a nutricionist really helps, I went to one with my girlfriend and she made a flexible plan for both. My experience is that while living with someone, is hard to do a diet on our own and doing it with my gf made it easier food-wize, since we eat together most of the meals.

    I also attend the gym 3x/week, staying around 2h (shower included) there, it really helps and 2-3x/week is doable. If you have some time and motivation I recommend.

    Last but not least, good job with your family, you 3 look super happy on the picture :)

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  3. yeah i was just talking about going see a nutritionist today actually. and yeah my wife have been very supportive of me so far and really we're both eating a lot better now.

    we just bought an elliptical machine a few weeks ago and i have yet to use it but i definitely will soon. i just didn't want to take on too much at once and get overwhelmed by it.

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  4. Check out paleo diet. U can actually eat more and lose weight, just no grains (rice, pasta, bread, cereal etc) It eliminates unnecessary carbs, but you can eat as much meat/fish/vegetables as you want. That combined with minimal exercise is better than any diet. Starving yourself is not the way to lose weight, because u will just gain it back quickly. Also u can break the diet once a week if you want.. check it out it really works well

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  5. I don't feel like I'm starving myself at all though except for the first few days when my body was adjusting. I don't really feel hungry any more often than I did before I started this.

    I'm not really looking to get on a certain "diet plan" or whatever because I know I will fail at that. I need as few restrictions as possible right now otherwise I will just quit at it.

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  6. Well done on ur weight loss so far!

    I use the elliptical or cross trainer as we say in the UK and have done so for many years. It's a great calorie burner.

    A great tip for using it as u get more comfortable with it is to stop using the arm part of the exercise and concentrate on legs only. This will make the exercise more cardio based and speed up weight loss

    GL

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  7. Way to go George!! I agree, don't take on too much at once. Seems like I can eat good, but not exercise too much...or...exercise great, but not eat well. I just can't seem to do both well at the same time! Keep up the great work. I look forward to your updates : )

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  8. Go jorj weightlossaments :) Wish I could also post something like this and we could do weight loss plan/lifestyle together but ummm...yeah. Maybe I'll do a weight GAIN post!

    hehe constipated coopaloop. You all look great.

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  9. Good work Jorj. Good call getting the elliptical -- I'm really happy with mine. I also think just eating less is the way to go diet-wise (though like azn I'm trying to gain weight right now haha). One thing people can really underestimate is how unhealthy eating out can be -- it's pretty common for meals to be 1500+ calories.

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  10. You should by a rowing machine or cross trainer too. Getting some exercise wouldn't hurt :)

    Also did I miss the blog with pictures of your new place and car?

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  11. I found a pilates studio 2 blocks from my house. It's a good quick workout and stretches you out very well and undoes an that hunching we do from hours of grinding. The scenery isn't too bad either! ; )

    -Markmax33

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  12. keep up the great work and look forward to reading your blog...i added you on my blog if you like to add me as well...thanks a lot

    Jeff
    http://goldganesh.blogspot.com/

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  13. Nice Work!

    I would add some strength training / muscle gain to the list of others' suggestions, as it helps speed metabolism which in turn helps handle the caloric intake in a healty way. Keep it fun tho. If you go that route, make sure you adjust your weight number goals a bit by breaking them down into "fat" pounds vs "lean" pounds so that a fit 200 is better than a "lean but still not fit" 170. Accurate body fat percentage measurements will help. Being stats/metric-driven, you'll find plenty of things to chart, graph, etc. It helps me to see my numbers in the areas.

    And just in case you need more motivation, the endorphin release has the added benefit of being good for your poker game via stress relief, mood enhancement, and stamina. It also helps table presence in live MTTs.
    I have fitness improvement on my 2011 poker goal list too.

    Fit jorj FTW!

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  14. Hey George, just wanted to congratulate you, I noticed you cracked $1 million on sharkscope. I know that doesn't really mean much since bonuses put you there a long time ago but it's still pretty cool since I don't think I've ever seen anybody do it without 1 massive cash. Hope things are going well.

    Btw, I just won a weight loss bet myself, went from 182 pounds to 162 in 44 days.

    c Dannon s

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  15. Holy Crumbling Liberty! What do you make of our fascist goverment's moves against the poker sites and our living and liberty?!

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  16. i have no idea obviously it sucks right now but i'll figure something out

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  17. - "Whenever that delicious cookie is staring me in the face, I'll think of my blog readers"

    Well, you have at least one reader who thinks that you should eat that cookie. You won't be as cute when you're slim.

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