Monday Weigh-In #2

As of 5:05am this morning I weighed in at 196 pounds - I met my 2 pound goal for the week!

Surprisingly! I was not as careful with my food as I should of been last week. Saturday I ate over 2600 calories (Cheeseburger in Paradise is my personal weakness!) Not at all what I had hoped for but still managed to pull off the loss.

As I think about it, I'm not sure I'll make the goal to 175. Not because of lack of willpower, but because of weight gain from muscle. I started weight lifting, and when you put on muscle, you gain weight (the good kind). This is why you often see on the Biggest Loser some people either lose very little or actually gain a little weight.

But the good news is that muscle burns up to 15 times more calories than fat alone. So that's great news!

Monday Weigh-In

Today is CRAZY busy so I'll make this short.

The past 3 months I've taken a short hiatus for my weight loss. Between summer camps, CIY and crazy schedules, it was nearly impossible to lose and keep a schedule of exercise.

So today I officially start again and plan on coming on here each Monday morning to give an update on my weigh in. This helps keep me accountable.

The Goal: 175 Pounds
Target Ideal Weight Loss a week: 2 pounds
Today's weigh in: 198 pounds
Estimated Date of Goal: November 3rd (12 weeks)

I appreciate your prayers and encouragement through this journey. It's been difficult and no way I could accomplish these goals without your support. Thank you so much!

Me after losing 30 pounds

The "Are You A Bigger Loser Than Marko" contest ends today and I officially weighed in at 210, 30 pounds less then when I started. I'm pretty excited. But it's not over yet, I still have about 30 more to go! Thank you all for your prayers and your support!

Being a Bigger Loser part 3

Just found out and wanted to report to you all that I am in 29th place for the "Being a Bigger Loser Than Marko" contest. I'm pretty pumped since there were over 175'something that have been participating.

I've not lost as much as I would of hoped at this point, but I'm down 20+ and still keeping it off. I've made a big adjustment to diet this week so hopefully we'll see more results next week.

Anyways, I'm pumped that at least in the running for doing fairly well out of 175 participants. Thanks for the support!

Being a Bigger Loser part 2

On February 1st I embarked upon a contest with Youth Specialties to "Be a Bigger Loser Than Marko". In other words, who could lose the most weight?

Here are some things you might be interested in knowing since it started:

1. Those who are in the contest have lost over 1,370.9 pounds!
2. Marko is in 2nd place!
3. Dj isn't in the top 10.
4. But Dj has lost 20 pounds!

So continue to pray for me, it is greatly appreciated. I'm continuing to eat good food and exercise everyday. I've even found that I can effectively cheat and still maintain my diet. It was unfortunate that we ordered Girl Scout cookies a couple weeks before I knew about the contest and they have since arrived. Since I have to eat about 6 times a day I've limited myself to 2 a day and I've found that I don't even take advantage of them every day. Look at it this way, I can have 2 cookies for 160 calories, or I can have a large apple for 120 calories. I usually choose what is going to fill me more (and its better for me!).

So it's going well. My first goal is 200 pounds, so another 20 pounds and Ill be there. There are times when I get frustrated because it's not coming off as fast as I'd like but I feel rewarded when I finally see that progress is still happening. Thanks again for your prayers and support!

UPDATE: In case anyone is interested in exactly what I'm doing. I limit myself to 1800 calories a day and exercise at least 30 minutes, usually on a stationary bike. If all goes well throughout the day, I net about 1200 calories which is just what the body needs. I've typically seen 2 to 3 pounds a week of loss which is considered a very healthy amount of loss.

Over a week into the diet...

Things are getting easier. I'm losing my cravings for some of my favorite foods...although I'd LOVE to have some Taco Bell today. One of my favorite meals consists of turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce, tomato, red onions and a very thin layer of reduced fat Miracle Whip. I'm going to have one in an hour and I'm already craving it..And It's healthy!!

To be completely honest, I'm actually having a problem of eating enough food! Let me put it this way, I don't do calorie counting...that's no way to live. But I do have a rough estimate of what calories I have been taking in and shooting for about 1800 a day. Unfortunately, I'm only getting about 1200 a day...which you would think is good since you're supposed to take in less calories. But I'm just not eating enough to sustain my workouts.

I cycle for at least an hour everyday at a moderate level. According to my research, I should burn at least 500 calories from each cycling workout. So while the weight is coming off, I'm probably not doing my body any favors with the energy deficit.

This weekend will be a challenge. I"m taking my wife up to Indy for Valentines day and we're eating at one of our favorite places to eat: Cheeseburger In Paradise. I'm going to have to be extremely careful as to how I eat that day so I can afford the 1000+ calorie food I'll be consuming that night. I've looked all over the internet and can't find how many calories are in their food, so it's going to have to be a straight guess.

We might even get some Japanese Hibachi, which isn't all that healthy either (white sauce anyone? LOVE IT!!) so, it will be a tricky weekend not having my exercise readily available but I think I'll be alright.

Being a 'Bigger Loser'

A couple of weeks ago, one of the men that I look up to a lot in youth ministry posted on his blog about his personal need to lose weight. Mark Oestricher of Youth Specialties talked about how they had toyed around the idea of having a contest to see who could be a 'bigger loser than Marko'. Me, and apparently a lot of others jumped on the bandwagon and thought that would be a great idea.

Thus the contest had begun!

Today I officially joined the community to start this "Biggest Loser" contest. The prizes are pretty neat, I have to admit, however the motivation to finally do what I've been trying to do is an even better reward. My goal weight is 190 lbs. I'm flucuate between 230 and 240 and to be under 200 would just be amazing. So here's what I'm going to do about it.

A couple of weeks ago, someone slipped $150 worth of Chamber of Commerce gift cards underneath my office door as a Christmas present. I vowed then and there to use that money to get in better shape with either the purchase of a treadmill or exercise bike. I still don't know who gave that money, but it was a blessing and I plan to use it to better my health. Obesity runs in my family, and thankfully heart disease does not, but just the though of being able to run and play a game of football and not be all out of breath is just an amazing thought to me.

So, I ask for your prayers and your support. This is going to be difficult for me and I'll need lots of help. My diet isn't horrible per se, but I didn't get to 240 by eating broccoli. So with a combination of better diet and exercise I hope to drop under 200 lbs by the middle of April. We'll see what happens!