My Weight Loss Story

This should be a blog because that's the way it's written.

This is actually my first real health and wellness story. Well it is and it isn't. I had a battle to quit smoking that I won in the early 80's and a battle to quit drinking in the 90's. I won both so now I want to win this one.

In hindsight, it was all about setting goals, monitoring progress and doing the work every week.

On my birthday, July 21/09 I weighted in at 240 pounds  I had just been at my family doctor's for a annual physical exam where I was examined by a very beautiful newly graduated female doctor taking the place of my regular family doctor. She asked me a lot of basic questions which made her suspect I might be a diabetic. Her suspicions did not surprise me, I had them my self. She ordered bloodwork and my sugar levels were at 6.2 (prediabetic levels). When I saw my regular doctor a month later, he wanted further blood tests to see if I was pre diabetic or a full diabetic. There didn't seem to be a third alternative although he did throw out that if I lost 10 pounds, it could make a difference. I basically said I had tried losing weight but it didn't work. What I really meant was I didn't feel like losing weight. I did not really want to be a diabetic either. I already had coronary by pass surgery 3 years earlier and was doing ok but I also know that diabetes is often viewed as a coronary/arterial problem. In fact, many of the same drugs are used to treat both diseases .

Nothing really changed over the next few days except, I still didn't like the thought of diabetes. As far as I was concerned I already had a few nails in my coffin and I didn't need anymore.

My wife Pat had bought me a fancy new weigh scale for my birthday which I liked because I could read it without wearing my glasses but I fully knew what was at the back of her mind--diet. I didn't like that either because I like potato chips. I liked them so much I started eating them every night even when I wasn't watching the 8 o'clock movie.

My daughter and her boyfriend came over on the 25 July to celebrate my birthday. He is a technical kind of person so he programmed this new scale for me and Pat. I had to step on the scale . I could read very plainly that it read 240 pounds. This time my brain said "this is too much." The boyfriend than stepped on the scale and weighted in at 175 pounds. Immediately, I realized that, I too, weighted 175 pounds when I was his age. What happened? It was a double visual that got me: seeing 240 pounds on the scale read out clearly--then seeing him weight in at 175 pounds. I think I made up my mind to do something right then.

As I have alluded to I am not a fan of diet or exercise. One makes you hungry and the other makes you sweat. I don't have a lot of experience at either. About 20 years ago, I lost weight by walking for about an hour a night in the neighbourhood. It was successful because I lost about 25 pounds. I had gradually put this weigh back on until I was almost at the same level as 20 years ago. Suddenly. this was not acceptable anymore.

I should add that my wife is an excellent cook and loves to bake muffins etc and a fan of weight watchers so she is very good at monitoring what I eat. Without her help here and her support I am sure I would not be able to achieve the results I did.

I started to walk on Monday July 27 with my wife Pat. Our first walk was about 45 minutes and we did this for a few days. Then we extended the walk to an hour. We probably increased our speed a little too. I was using beaten up running shoes that were really uncomfortable. My socks got all wrinkled for the sweet so I felt like I was walking on pins and pebbles. By August 7, 09 I had lost 14 pounds.

Also on August 7, we left for a 5 days at my sister's cottage. I figured I could walk 2 times a day there because there was little else to do. We did. Morning and evening we walked. Sometimes our walks lasted 1.5 hours and covered about 8 km. How my attitude towards exercise had changed it such a very short time. When I got home on the 12 August, I couldn't wait to get back on the scale to see how much weight I had lost. NONE. All that walking and no weight loss. I was a little perturbed. I was treating my self to a dry rye cracker and a ginger beer each night as a reward. After I got back, no more treats. I continued to walk once per day for about 1.5 hours. I bought a new pair of running shoes. Better but my socks keep bunching up and they hurt. pain from my feet has been the worse side effect so far and I am told it's because of the socks.

On August 19 I had my blood work done to test for my sugars levels. I had set a goal to lose 20 pounds by that date and actually lost 23 pounds. I was sort of happy with myself but I was pretty sure I had diabetes despite all the effort I had made. On Friday, I met my doctor who was extremely happy to tell me that my glucose levels were normal. (5 at fasting and 5 after a meal). Again, my doctor had a new doctor with him at the time and I can tell you these guys were really happy for me. I got the impression they don't hear that many good stories. They were beaming like a salesman who had just made a sale.

On August 24, I got new socks. Hopefully they will work better. I haven't lost any weight lately but I haven't missed a day yet. Just got back from my walk with the new socks. What a difference. My feet are no where near as sore as they usually are. Much more comfortable when walking too.

August 26. My weight actually went up to 217.3 over the past few days so I'm thinking this is going to be a longer haul than I thought. I was pleasantly surprised when it went down to 213.1 this morning. I 've been doing the same thing everyday but the weight seems to fluctuate for no apparent reason. Maybe it's a good reason not to weight yourself every day or maybe it's not.

One of these days, I will give you my typical diet plan for the day.

On August 28, Pat and I went to visit Montreal for 3 days. We went by train, stayed downtown and walked everywhere, even from the  train station to the hotel--about 12 blocks- with all our luggage in tow. We were located right next to Chinatown so there were lots of Chinese restaurants where we ate frequently. As I said we walked all day long through Chinatown and the old port/ town section of Montreal. Montreal is a great example of a European city. Lots of statues, fountains, parkettes, low rise buildings and truly historic buildings. It's very people friendly, bike friendly and full of great restaurants. It's not the place to go if you are on a diet. Even though I walked all over the place I still gained a few pounds. (I should add that I wasn't walking as fast as I usually do when I am exercising.)

Sept 1/09 I'm back to dieting and walking.

Sept7/09 I weighted in at 212.7 this morning . I have not stopped my regular routine since the last update and I am finally below my pre Montreal Trip weight.

Sept 12/09 weighted in at 210 pounds. This is a milestone. I hit 30 pounds weight loss today--that's half my overall goal of 60 pounds

Sept 18/09 Still holding at 210. Pat and I went to the Cobourg Y today to check it out. It could be really useful especially in winter and bad weather. We may join.

Oct 5/09 Joined Coboury Y today with Pat. I find the treadmill gives me much more of an intense walking experience than road walking. I walk faster on treadmill and I can also set the incline. I sure sweat a lot more.

My weight is now 206.

Pat really enjoys the swimming part. I can just do 2 laps but she can do 40 0r more.

Oct 22/09 My weight loss is now 38 pounds since July 25/09. I am getting close to 200 pounds (201.5). Going to the Y 4 or 5 times a week now. Just injured my knee with too much fast walking (4.1 mph)or perhaps too much (4 miles) or perhaps the incline on treadmill was too high (13). Got to slow down a bit so I can continue losing weight. I would hate to be sidelined for a few days or weeks because of an injury. I actually did 4 laps of this gigantic  pool a couple of times which is great for me. I hardly ever did any laps in our backyard pool but wait til next summer.

Oct 22. My knee is still injured so I have to stop my exercise program. What a bummer! Going to see physiotherapist Oct 29. Hope he has good news.

Oct 29 Physio says I can swim, walk in water (not on water) and do the bike at gym. When I started at the Gym I was proud of myself because I did one length of the pool and the 2 lengths. I have a pool in the back yard which is much smaller, of course, but I never did one length all summer. This week I did 10 lengths. Wow.

Nov 1 I did 20 lengths of pool 2x this week. Amazing. I would never have done this if I had not injured my knee by over exercising. (I had the incline set to 13 which is considered way to much unless you are training for mountain climbing)

Nov 6. In a very matter of fact way I stepped on scale this morning to discover I weighted 199.6 . That means I have lost 40 pounds. That's a real milestone that I am proud of and I did it 7 weeks earlier than planned. My goal was to lose 40 pounds by Christmas (and keep it off through the holiday season.)

My next goal is to lose another 20 pounds by March 1/10. I am working on that goal now. Short term, I want to lose 5 more pounds by Christmas. Hopefully my knee will be ok next week.

Dec 4/09 My knee still bothers me and I am reluctant to make it worse or chronic by stepping on the treadmill. I now am swimming exclusively to lose weight. That's kind of remarkable for a guy who has a pool in his backyard but never actually swam in the pool. I would hang around on a noodle but not swim.

Last week I set personal records of 30 pool laps, 32 pool laps, 40 laps and on Dec 3/09 I did 50 laps of the pool .

As of Dec 4/09 my weight is 194.50 so I have lost 45.5 pounds. I would like to be down to 190 by Christmas Day but that may be pushing it a little especially with all the extra eating that goes on at Christmas time.

Dec 9/09 I did another 52 pool laps yesterday and I am down to 193 Ibs. This morning I will exercise with all the old ladies in Cobourg in an Aqua Fit program because it's the only way I can use the pool on Wednesdays. You just got to do whatever you can.

Dec 17/09 I have done a 60 pool lengths several times now and last Tuesday I did 70 pool lengths. Weight is hovering between 191 and 193. Just got to stop snacking.

Dec 18/09. I did 30 pool lengths Monday, 70 on Tuesday, Aquafit Wednesday, 70 on Thursday and 50 lengths on Friday , for a total of 220 pool lengths over 5 days and my weight Saturday morning was 190.4 . Next week I want to be below 190 for Christmas Day.

Dec 19/09. If you remember, I started this weight loss march back on July 25, when my daughter's boyfriend stepped on the scale and weighed in at 175 pounds and I weighted in at 240 pounds. I looked at him and said, "I used to weight 175 pounds". Well, on Dec 19 he stepped on the scale and weighted in at 185 pounds. Wow. He has to eat Army Food and was away for 2 months on exercises so he has some excuse. I lost almost 50 pounds and he gained 10 pounds so now there is only 5 pounds difference. On July 25, this difference was 65 pounds. Wow, things can change in 5 months.

On the following Monday, I had bad news. I weighted in at 193.5 How did I gain 3 pounds in 3 days? I guess I ate too many wrong foods. I knew if I was to achieve my goal I had to focus on exercise and diet.. On Monday, I did 50 lengths of pool, on Tuesday I did 80 pool lenghts, on Wednesday I did 70 pool lengths and today I intend on doing 60 more. At 7 am on Dec 24/09 I weighted in at 190 pounds exactly. The trick now is to weight in on Christmas Day at 190 or below.

I did it.

Well, it's Christmas Day and I weighted in at 189.2 Ibs. I reached my goal and I am happy. I feel I can use this same will power and goal setting to achieve any goal I want. Right now that's building an Immunotec business.

I was not impressed at all on December 26 when I weighted in at 196.4 pounds. How could I gain 6 pounds in one day? I really did not eat or drink that much  --- probably far less than I would usually eat on Christmas Day. Well being upset just prompted me to go out walking. I walked 9 km on the day after Chritsmas and another 9 km on Sunday. By Monday morning my weight was down to 192.7 which is an improvement but I still have to lose 3 pounds just to get back to where I was. It just proves you cannot take a day off even for Christmas.

I changed my program to do 30 minutes on treadmill and 30 pool lengths which works out to 1 hour and ten minutes on exercise. I did that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday, I did 30 minutes on treadmill and 50 pool lengths on Thursday, the last day of year. This is the first time on the treadmill since mid October when I injured my knee. I believe it's a 100%  now.

I weighted in at 189.8 pounds this morning which puts me back where I was on Christmas morning.

It's the end of January now. I have been doing at least 30 minutes on treadmill and at least 30 minutes in the pool 5x a week. Two days a week its 40 plus minutes on treadmill and 40 plus minutes in pool. I still weigh about 188.5 most days. So you see I am having problems losing more weight. I have been down to 186.1 and 186.4 on 2 separate days but it doesn't hold. I believe I am snacking more at night. I have to admit my anxiety level related to my business has been higher this month than usual so maybe I am eating more because of anxiety. Any excuse will do I guess. The good news is I am still below 190, the bad news is I seem to be stuck here.

I am going to continue what I have been doing and I am looking forward to warmer weather when I can hit the streets again like I did last summer.

For most of January I was stuck somewhere between 186 as a low and 190 as a high with 188 being about average. It was a little discouraging because my downward progress seemed slow or worse stopped.

Last week I developed swimmer's ear so I stayed out of the pool this week. Feb 1-6. This changed my exercise routine. Since Feb 1, I have been doing 45 minutes on treadmill a and then going on the bike for 20 to 30 minutes. I got results. On Feb 6 th weighted in at 184.6 on Friday and 184.3 on Saturday. I now have lost 55 pounds. I also started taking 3 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. I took this for other reasons but it may be working on my weight too.

Unfortunately that was a party weekend celebrating my son's 28th birthday so I guess I ate too much. By Monday morning I was 188.5 . That was depressing. I just meant I had to lose this weight again. It has taken me until Saturday Feb 13 to get back down to 184.8. Every day this week (M to F) I went 3 or 4 miles on treadmill at 4 mph or better and at least 5 miles on bike. It didn't seem like I was accomplishing anything all week until this Saturday morning.

I set these goals on Feb 6 and now I am resetting them but now I have a whole weeks less time to achieve the results.

I have revised my goals now. I want to weigh 180 on St Patrick's Day and 178 on Easter Sunday, April 4, 2010.

I also want to weight 178 pound when I see my doctor for my annual check up in July.

I weighed in at 183.9 this morning. Feb 18/2010-- A new low.

Well it's been a bit of a roller caster ride since the. It's now March 4 and I am at 183.1 but I have been up tp 186 since Feb 18. If I wasn't weighting myself every day I might be in trouble because I believe I could gain 10 pounds if I wasn't.

I'm doing the same thing. Walking mostly. Got back in the pool this week for the first time in ages. Also tried the rowing machine once. That's good for my arms, back muscles and hopefully my stomach muscles. Ithink the rowing machine will become a standard item from now on.

We are heading into to good weather here soon so I may get back on the street .

March 5, 2010

I hit a new low today of 182.5 pounds. Yesterday, I set a new high for the treadmill--5 miles in 65 minutes and 750 calories burnt. My knees hurt a wee bit so maybe I overdid it a little.

Years ago, I set my toll free number for my business at 1 877 242 0182. I weighted 242 pounds at the time and I wanted to weight 182 pounds. That was about 12 years ago. It was designed to be a constant reminder to me that I needed to lose weight. Most of the time, I just ignored the message but maybe my subconscious did not.I never did achieve my goal back then. I believe I lost about 35 pounds and made it to about 205 pounds. I never got below 200 pounds. When I reset the goal this time, I was determined that I was not going to stop like I did before. Going below 200 pounds was significant for me but going below 180 will mean a whole lot more.

March 10. I hit 181.9 today which is a new low but not before I went up to 183.5  and then back down. I overeat on weekends and sometimes during the week too. I read a news article lately that says you can't lose weigh by exercising alone. I believe that's true. You do need to limit calories. It's actually much easier physically (not emotionally) not eat 300 caleries than to spend 45 minutes on the treadmill at 4 mph so you can lose 300 Cal. I decided that in order to meet my goal I need up my exercise routine to do 5 miles on treadmill at 4.4 to 4.7 mph for the next 2 weeks. That takes about 66 minutes and I lose 750 calories according to the treadmill counter. I then do rowing or swimming for 20 minutes which I believe it worth another 100 calories. I always wrap it up in the steamroom for about 20 minutes. I am not sure it contributes to my weight loss but I don't care, it makes me feel good. It's my little reward. You need to build in little rewards. (not food).

March 8 th to March 16/2010

I was getting a little nervous that I was not going to reach my goal. My weight had not done much except stay the same which is ok I guess. I decided to do something more demanding for 1 week and that was 5 miles per day on treadmill at speeds of 4, 4.2,4.5,4.7 . Mostly, the latter two. According to the treadmill calculator that amounted to 750 calories which usually took about 66 minutes to do. After that I did 20 minutes on the rower. After 4 days not much really happened except I kept losing a little. . Weight were Mon 183.5, Tues 182.9, Wed 181.9, Thurs 181.5, Fri 181.6, Sat 181.3,Sun 179.2, Mon 179.5,Tues 179 and Wed 177.5 on St Patrick's Day. Wow. I, not only hit my goal of losing 60 pounds, but I also hit my next goal of "losing 62 pounds weight loss when I was 62."

Great now I have to keep it off. I realized that I needed to reset my goal to 175 pounds in order to stay motivated so I continue to exercise.

It's now April 15,2010. I have maintained my weight at 181 pounds which is ok but I have now mentally reset the goal to 175 by July 21, 2010 , my birthday.

I firmly believe that you should weight yourself everyday so you keep track of where you are. It is simply too easy to gain weight so you have to monitor your progress.

April 30. I weighted in at 179.5 this morning. For the past month my weight has stayed around 180-182. I have been exercising 5x a week as usual but I am snacking more at night. Now I have to exercise to burn off the snacks.

My standard routine lately is 5 miles on treadmill at 4.5, 4.7 mostly, and up to 5 mph then I go on the rowing machine for 30 minutes . Between the 2 of them, I lose 1000 calories. I signed up for the  Y again  and I have made a committment to sign up for the Summer as well. I think this has helped my mental attitude because I am more focused now. I was previously thinking about quitting the Y for the summer and hitting the streets but now I have changed my mind. I believe my workout at the Y on the treadmill is far more intensive than walking on the street. Besides they have a steam room at the Y. Right now that's my reward for exercise.