Ugh...I'm stuck!

Hi, folks...

I have been doing my 50 for 50 campaign religiously since June 1st.  Today is the 30th and although it's been going well, I'm stuck.  I lost 13 pounds and I'm sitting at 287 pounds with a 44 1/2 inch waist.  Yes, there's been progress, but I was hoping for more.

Don't get me wrong...I'm not giving up.  But, I was hoping for more along the lines of 18 or 20 pounds dropped after the first month.  But, it's all good.

The most important part of this challenge is that I have firmly taken control of my diabetes.  My blood sugars have been well within my target range of 90 to 127 for the last three weeks.  I have had no spikes at all...even after eating or having a beer.  The change has been amazing and I'm extremely proud and thankful for that outcome.  

My blood pressure has been too low on several occasions and I've had to scale back on one of my blood pressure medications.  By the end of July, I hope to be off of it all together.  My goal is to be off all medications by the end of November.

So, I've kicked this thing into high gear as we go into the month of July.  I attempted to use the DVD workout system called P90X.  If you haven't seen the infomercial, check it out at www.beachbody.com/p90x.  It was a disaster!  Way out of my league right now.  So, I toned it down a notch until I work my way up to that system.  P90X had a predecessor called Power 90.  I did this workout for 60 days a few years ago and it made a remarkable difference...so, I pulled the DVDs out and have started again.  I'm going to commit to the 90 days on that program starting on July 1st and see how far it takes me.

The diet is going very well...I'm maintaining the routine pretty well.  It's just time to kick it up a notch!  BAM!!

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me on this trip!  I'm feeling really good about the results of the first 30 days!

Ray

Fifty for Fifty - Results of Week Two

Good morning!

Sorry for the delay in posting last weeks results.  The weekend was exceptionally busy with hectic events I'll explain during this post.

First, let's get to the results.  Drum roll please!!!!

Weight:  290 pounds

Waist:  45 1/2 inches

So, the diet itself is going really well and my progress is slow but sure.  I have had some medical concerns that have surprised me.

My blood pressure over this past weekend dropped dramatically.  At one point, it got down to 91/70 and I have been cuddling under a blanket every night to keep warm.  I am going to see my doctor today to talk about modifying my blood pressure medications.  I cut one of my pills in half...the prescription metoprolol.  It seems to be helping and the lowest my pressure has dropped since has been 112/77.

My blood sugar levels have also been exceptionally stable and within my target range on a daily basis.  I'm doing aerobic exercises six days a week and I've found that my fasting blood sugar level is always around 120.  Still a bit on the high side but, well within my target range.  I would feel better getting that number down to the 90's.

On Friday evening, I had a total of 4 beers over the course of the night.  Before going to bed, I checked my blood sugar to see how it responded to the alcohol and the carbs.  The reading was 110...totally amazing!  I did do some research on my blood sugar and how it is impacted by certain medications.  I found that metoprolol, which is my secondary blood pressure med, can contribute to high blood sugar levels.  That's a discussion I'm having with my doctor today as well.  I have even read stories of folks who never had high blood sugar until they went on metoprolol.  I never had high blood sugar until I went on metoprolol.  This will be an interesting discussion today.

I have continued drinking a lot of water on a daily basis...at least eight 8-ounce glasses per day.  As I reported last week, my skin feels much better.  I think I've flushed a lot of the toxins out because the headaches I had for the first few days are gone now.  According to my calculations, I burned nearly 9,000 more calories than I took in last week.  Obviously, those calculations are a bit off because in order to lose five pounds, I would've had to burn 17,500 calories more than I consumed.  I think I'm underestimating how much I'm burning in my aerobic workouts.  Counting the calories I eat seems to be much easier, so I think those numbers are pretty much on target.

I'll keep you all posted on the results for week 3!

Now for the other news...I spent Saturday driving back and forth to the hospital in Roseville to  pick up family members to visit Quanna's mom.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers...this fight with cancer has taken a toll and at this point, it's just a matter of time.  It's a very difficult thing for any family to deal with watching their mother suffer so much.  Say a prayer for them if you would.  Thanks!

Also, today begins the closing arguments for the federal trial to overturn Proposition 8.  Please say a prayer that this will be the end of that hateful and bigoted law.  The sponsors of prop 8 have now asked the judge to invalidate the 18,000 marriages that took place prior to its passage in 2008.  So, now James and I will be forced to sit in front of a news report once again to see if our marriage is being annulled without our consent.  These people have no compassion for anyone outside of their belief system...Hitler would be so proud.  If the courts in this country won't protect the hated minority from the tyranny of the self-righteous majority, then maybe it's time for a mass exodus of gay people to countries that do support us.  I guarantee you if my marriage is annulled, I will be looking to leave.

Blessings to you all!

First week is over...how much did I lose?

Well, the first week of this new diet is over...and I'm feeling much better.  Here are some interesting things that I've noted:

First of all, I drank more water in the last week than I have in the entire previous year.  I have noticed a huge difference in my skin.  The dry areas around the 'mask' area of my face are much much less severe and I hardly notice the redness that used to be there most of the time.  A HUGE bonus from this.

I have lost a total of 5 pounds...which is pretty typical of my first phases of dieting.  I'll probably lose another 10 or 15 very quickly and then hit the plateau where it becomes harder to lose.  I'm prepared for that this time around.

I have documented every bite of food that I've even over the last week.  I took in approximately 5,000 calories less than I burned between Tuesday and Friday...so, the 5 pounds is a little surprising for me.  I expected about 2 to 3 pounds but I'm probably flushing a lot of toxins out of my body with the water right now.
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I also had a few headaches as I transitioned off of Diet Coke.  I'm limiting myself to 2 per day at the moment...so I figured I would have some issues with caffeine withdrawals.  But for the most part, my energy level has been much higher.

Not a lot of changes in blood sugar or blood pressure that I've noticed yet.  It seems they are fluctuating all over the place right now...but I will wait until I get about 10 to 15 more pounds off before I expect to see any significant change in either of those numbers.

I also took the dreaded "before" photos last week.  I'll have those posted shortly and will also be doing a video blog this week.

I've had an immense amount of support from folks on Facebook and Twitter as well as from the Lisa Williams family members!  Thank you all!

Results from Day One

Good morning!

Well, I got through the first day relatively unscathed.  First the stats:

Calories consumed:  1823

Estimated burned:  3052

Fasting glucose level:  126

Blood pressure:  133/98

My diet was very good yesterday.  Breakfast was a whole grain english muffin with a pattie of lean sausage and a slice of cheddar cheese.  Mid-morning snack was an apple.  Lunch was whole-wheat pasta with meat sauce, afternoon snack was a banana...and dinner was 2 cups of steamed vegetables.  I tried to keep the bulk of my calories consumed during the breakfast and lunch meals.

I also had 2 diet cokes and nine 8-ounce glasses of water.  I have to admit something here...I hate water.  But, it felt good drinking it yesterday.  I actually had a headache most of the day, but a friend told me it was because the water was flushing toxins from my cells and the headache would go away once the body had eliminated the toxins from my system.  She must have been right, because the headache is gone today.

I got in a 45-minute workout last night on the Wii with 340 estimated calories burned.  I'm doing the Wii workout right now because it is easy on my knees.  Once I drop the first 20-25 pounds, I hope that I can amp it up a bit and do more high-impact aerobics.  I have the original Power 90 workout system and I would like to give that a try again.  I have several friends doing the P90X system now, but I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon just yet.

This morning, I had bit of a shock when my fasting glucose level shot up to 146.  It was strange because before I went to bed last night, it was only 101.  Perhaps I need to re-code my machine.  My blood pressure dropped a bit this morning down to 128/86.  I took both of these measurements right after my morning shower.

I also meditated for 20 minutes before bed last night and I slept like a baby.  I'm still working on the hypnosis CD and should finish it by the weekend.

All in all, a great day yesterday.  Looking forward to today!

Fifty for Fifty - Day One

Well, it's officially begun as of this morning.  I kicked off this mad dash towards losing 50 pounds over the next 6 months.  I know it's a realistic goal and I believe I can do it if I keep my motivation and determination strong.  So, I'll be throwing information up here on this blog quite often to keep the wind at my back.

A lot of this work is really based on remedial math skills.  In order to lose one pound, I need to burn 3500 calories more than I consume.  So, I started with calculating my basal metabolic rate (BMR) to determine how many calories per day I need to maintain my current weight.  Now, depending on which calculator I use that number has been calculated anywhere between 2550 calories and 3200 calories using my height of 6'4", weight of 300 pounds, and age of 49 years old...and also indicating a sedentary lifestyle in the calculator.  Most of the calculators I've found online resulted in a BMR between 2800 and 3000 calories per day, so I'm using 2800 as my baseline amount.

Without any exercise at all, I burn 19,600 calories per week based on a BMR of 2800.  Therefore, I must consume no more than 10,850 calories per week to lose 2.5 pounds (19,600 - (2.5 lbs * 3500)).  That equates to a 1250 caloric difference less per day that I consume versus what I burn. You get the picture, I'm sure.

So, this is the basic premise for my diet.  I must document each and every food or beverage item (other than water or diet soda) that I consume on a daily basis and calculate the calories in each item.  Then I have to calculate my estimated calories burned and ensure that my net caloric intake per day is at least 1250 under my estimated calories burned.
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If you watched my video blog in my previous post, then you know that yesterday I posted my weight as 298 pounds.  When I weighed in this morning, it was 300 pounds even and my waist was measured at 47 inches.  My fasting blood sugar this morning was 126 and blood pressure was 133/98.  These are the numbers I'll be tracking as I go down this road.

My target weight loss per month is 8-10 pounds...and I assume that my blood pressure and glucose levels will fall in response to that weight loss.  I have to track these measurements closely because being on medication for both type II diabetes and high blood pressure, there is a chance those levels could fall too much and my meds will have to be adjusted accordingly.

I had blood work done a couple of months ago.  Those measurements were:

Fasting blood sugar - 156 (down from 213 in October of 2009)

A1C - 7.2 (down from 11.4 in October of 2009)

Cholesterol - 132 (down from 250 in October of 2009)

I'm due for more blood work this month, so I'll post those as soon as I get them back.  As I said in my video, I'm going to be using hypnosis as a tool in this fight as well.  I'm putting together a CD to listen to every day.  I'll share that with you guys once it's complete.

Ultimately, I hope that documenting this fight thoroughly in this blog will help others who may be considering a similar effort.  If you want more information on anything that I'm doing, feel free to drop me a line and I'll answer any questions you may have.

Blessings to each of you!

Ray