Where it all starts

So here it is, I'm finally committing myself to do it. I almost can't believe it's taken me this long to get started but I'm finally going to do it. Project 100 is an idea I've been floating around for about 2-3 years but just wasn't sure when I wanted to implement it. I've been doing research and studying every now-and-then and worked out something I think will work for me.

So what is project 100?

Essentially project 100 is an entire lifestyle change, a goal for me to lose 100 pounds in two years. It's centered around the fact that I want to change my actual lifestyle, not just go on a diet to lose weight and eventually gain it back. I've tried to incorporate things that I still like and can live with while still losing weight. Much of my loss will most likely be due to the extra physical activities I'm adding to my daily routine, as well as scheduled workouts.

So where do we start?

So I officially weighed myself yesterday. My starting weight, 310 pounds! That is actually somewhat of a relief. I have been cutting back, even if just a little, over the past 6 month in preparation for this project. Last time I weighed myself officially was back in June of last year, and back then I was at 335 pounds! So already, without going on any diet or changing my life style I have lost 25 pounds simply from my initial cutback. I knew I had lost some weight as my cloths don't fit properly anymore, but I had no idea it was that much.

Much of that though is due to the fact I'm over 300 pounds. Any physical activity I do is likely to burn 1.5-2 times as much calories as a normal person. While I do think I suffer from having a lower metabolism, at that weight I'm bound to lose the pounds simply by not over eating and forcing myself to gain weight. But the problem is, if I actually want to get down to my desired weight, which at this point is around 200 pounds, I cannot just keep going like I am. I will eventually reach a weight that stabilizes based on the amount of calories I take in and how much I burn per days.

So where are we right now?

As you can tell, I've already mentioned calories as a concern, and for the most part, it's what I'm going to be using to track my progress. That isn't to say that I'm not going to consider the other components of a normal diet, like fat grams, carbs, etc., but at this point it's too much to focus on right now. At my current weight there's not much reason for me to focus on everything, simply cutting back should work for the first 50-60 pounds or so.

My main goal for the first two months is simply cutting back. Let's throw out some numbers at you:

• Average calorie burn for me: ~3000 per day

Using many different calculators online, this is roughly what I get based on age, weight, gender, and activity level. I'm actually surprised it's so high, but I do imagine it's slightly lower than that as I'm sure I have slower metabolism than most people.

So where am I at right now in terms of burning calories?

Let go through a typical day for me. Most of my days I actually only eat two meals a day (bad, I know!). At least one of those is fast food/eating out. Let's take my favorite restaurant and most common order and do some number crunching:

• Super Star with Cheese: 940 calories

Hum, that's actually not that bad. Taking into account I only eat two times a day, if I ate food like that, it would put me under my calorie count a lot. That's where I realized where I'm really hurting myself: the sides!

• Large fries: 470 calories
• Large coke: 400 calories

So now we see that it is starting to make sense and where my weight gain is coming from. Not only that, most of what I drink during the day is not water, it's juices or even worse, more coke. On average I was drinking about 2-3 cans of coke a day, with other types of drinks. Each can is about 150 calories. This is in addition to any snacks I might have, which, believe it or not, are very few. I'm just not a snack type of person which I guess has been saving me from going over the edge.

So for some final numbers, here's what I estimate I was currently taking in for calories: 3500-4000 a day.

So how to we get there?

So the big question is how do I actually get to my goal. Based on the math above, it's easy to make the changes I need. For now, it's all about cutting back. Like I said, at my current weight I expend much more energy and burn more calories just doing basic tasks so I don't really have to go on a all celery diet or anything extreme yet.

Basically let's take everything I decided to cut:

• Cokes, juices, other drinks
• Sides for any time I eat out
• Snacks, excess foods

So basically, by cutting that all out, now my meals look to be around 1000 calories. I can go to my favorite restaurant and still order what I want and not gain any weight. But of course, this is about cutting back and changing my lifestyle, so there will be other changes. Instead of getting that Super Star with cheese that I love so much, maybe I'll get that Hand-Breaded Chicken sandwich which I also love. It's only 650 calories and it's something I really like. I don't mind the switch. If I'm feeling extra healthy, maybe a turkey burger at 490 calories. Going to Freebirds today for a burrito? I'll get the hybird instead of the freebird for a smaller burrito. Maybe not get cheese and have white chicken instead of carnitas.

The goal of this isn't going to be excluding myself from eating everything I like. If I did that, I don't think this diet would last longer than a week. The real plan of this project is to simply cut back. As you can see in my Carls Jr. example, I went from eating 1800 calories in a meal to only 650. And while many of these cut backs are based on calories, it also means I'll be cutting back the other bad stuff too, such as sugar, grams of fat, bad carbs, etc. Once I get down to a lower weight I'll have to start focusing more on those, but for now, I think this will work for me to at least get down the beginning portion of my weight. Remember, I'm trying to do this for the long run so I had to think of a plan that would work for me, not something that someone forced down upon me or something that was forced on a website.

So what else changes?

So what are some of the other things that change? Well the obvious one is what I drink throughout the day. My current plan is to drink at least 8 ounces of milk and orange juice (for various vitamins and other good stuff) and the rest water. Of course I can still have the occasional other drink as long as I am responsible about it. Maybe if I'm at a party or hanging out with friends I'll have a coke or something, but no longer will I have the 3-4 a day.

The other thing that changes is my meals. Two a day is just not healthy and probably hurting me more than anything else. While I'm not sure how much I can stick with it, my current plan is to have 5 meals a day, all small. A small breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a small two snacks thrown in there to keep me from eating large meals.

My breakfast is going to be Cheerios in the 8 ounces of milk I promised myself. Then for a snack it will be yogurt. Not sure this will stay, but for now the regular kind (not the non-fat), but I needed something to fit in here and yogurt seems like the best option. I may switch to low or nonfat later with more probiotics, but for now just regular yogurt is fine. Then the third meal is lunch, hopefully small, I want to average around 400-600 calories for this meal. Then fourth meal is a fruit of some kind, currently planning on apples or oranges, might fit in a banana. The last meal is going to be dinner, and I'm aiming for an average of 600-700 calories, maximum 1000.

So basically, based on what I have planned, my average day should consist of anywhere from 2000-2500 calories, and hopefully much less sugars and fat than before.

Lastly, I'm hoping to stop eating anything after 6pm. I haven't done much research as to why that helps, though I do know the basics of it, but it's something simple to cut so I don't mind.

So is that it?

Mostly. There are a few more things I plan to do and obviously I've left out much of my added physical activities but this post has already became longer than I had wanted so I'll leave those for another time. This blog is mainly to serve as a reminder to myself to keep on track. I hope to provide updates maybe once or twice a week so for those interested, bookmark this and hopefully you can see good progress.

My biggest fear from all this actually is just me caving eventually. Most of what I'm doing isn't that hard really, but to be honest, the biggest thing that's going to hurt me is the cut back on soda. I love soda and used to drink it with every meal, will be sad to let it go. But in order to change, some things have to be given up.

Till next time...