The Workout
So since last time I talked about my actual diet, this time I think I should go over what I am doing in addition to the diet to help me lose the weight. For now, my basic goal is lite workouts that are not too intensive. I don't currently have any gym membership so I'm not doing any serious workout; for now I just wanted to keep it simple and not do any strength training.
To give you an idea of what my "extra activity" consists of, here's a few pictures:
At three bucks a piece that's not a bad bargain for a complete workout set. I've lost a lot of weight before with Dance Dance Revolution and it's something I've always had fun doing. I'd take this any day over blindly walking on a treadmill or riding an exercise bike.
For now this is my biggest addition to my daily routine. I have not started with any serious strength training yet as I don't want to start off too strong. I'll possibly add that in once I have more time to dedicate to this. Most of these games track the calories I burn based on my weight and steps taken, so I've been trying to average at least 300 calories of DDR a day if not more. Today I did 500 calories worth in about 45 minutes while eating a banana; it felt great.
The Problems
So like anything that I don't have experience with there are bound to be problems that I ran into. The first problem I didn't account for it time and stress. Having to deal with work, an overly aggressive school schedule, and a drastically different diet really ended up taking it's toll on me. If I could have changed anything, I would have waited to do everything till after my school had ended. But at this point I don't want to stop, I'll just deal with life as it comes at me. I'm trying to take everything else easier in order to make a little stress in my life.
The next issue was diet pills. I had thought about using diet pills a bit and did a bunch of research on it. There was this one my parents had taken that they had lost over 40 pounds on.that they recommended. Sounds good right, especially since it's someone that closely related to me? Well turns out my body just doesn't like them as well as my parents. While I probably should see a doctor before including anything like that, I took the risk and started taking them just to see what would happen. While the effects weren't drastic, I did notice odd things like random pains here and there (which may just be the extra exercise and diet) and feeling overly drained of energy. It was an odd feeling as it wasn't really just energy, I wasn't really feeling exhaustion, it was more like my body was eating my energy too fast and was running out.
That brings me to my third problem which was probably related to how my diet was going. Initially I had though cutting out all my excess fluids like juices and soda and the sides of my meals was a great idea. I mean it made sense to me. While it was in good intentions, turns out by not properly doing the math it became problematic for my body. I was basing my diet on the fact I burned around 2300 calories a day so at a 500 deficit 1800 calories sounded like a nice target. Thing is, because of my weight, height, and newly added workout schedule (in addition to the little activities I have added to my routine) my calorie burn was probably closer to 2800-3000 a day. I also did not realize how many calories I had been taking in with soda and other drinks, and by cutting them all of them I was essentially under a 1500 calorie deficit a day.
The Breakdown
What felt like a small cutback in eating and small addition of exercise was actually creating a catastrophic calorie deficit my body was not ready for. Add in the extra burn from the diet pills, stress from work and school, and the extra fact my body went into shock and you have one of the biggest breakdowns I've had in years. While I tried to keep it hidden from most people and only a few people truly know about it, it was a frightening situation that I could have avoided had I planned better and really took care of myself like I should.
Because of Randall essentially "breaking" I have made a few changes to my diet. While I'm still keeping most of my diet the same, I am actually increasing the food I take in. It feels kind of strange to be on a diet and eating more than I normally would but in the end it's still better than before; I'm replacing the extra sugary juices, chocolate milk, and soda with actual food, so just the subtraction of all the sugar is good enough for me.
The other change I'm making is my whole issue with doctors. I've always been hesitant with doctors and I really don't like going but trying to do this all by myself really isn't the best way to do it. I should have already went before I even started but I guess better late than never. I've gotten a few recommendations and I'll be going later this week or next week
The Progress
So what's the progress so far? Lets see, I started out at 310 lbs and now after two weeks I'm somewhere between 295 and 303. It's really odd, I had weighed myself over the course of several days when I started and my weight only seemed to fluctuate by 1-2 pounds at most. It's most likely do to the fact I'm drinking over 100 ounces of water a day (which is much more fluid than I normally drink) but it basically makes telling how much I actually lost a chore. For now I'm not too worried as I can already tell the difference in my cloths. Having to go to that next notch in my belt is kind of nice but now I have the problem with my pants always falling down (or at least trying to) Hopefully this doesn't create any awkward situations but it has become a serious problem for me. Perhaps I'll buy some new cloths in a week or two, but the problem with that is they will only last a few months. Kind of seems like a waste to me.
Well that's it for now. I'll probably post again in another week or two with another status update, hopefully the next two weeks goes better than the last two and I don't have another freak-out session.
Wish me luck!
PS. If anyone has any suggestions on multivitamins to take daily I would greatly appreciate it.
