I was listening to my favorite fitness podcast yesterday while working out at the gym.  I forgot the name of the person who was being interviewed, but for fat loss, he recommended to have protein before and after exercises.  Usually I take protein drink before the exercise session, and eat carbs after for my body to recover.

So I’m going to cut my carbs little more and stick with protein drinks even after my workout.  I expect to lose more weight this way.

I have this huge urge for a icy cold coke today.   It is incredibly humid and hot.  The weather is just killing me and my diet!  I might end up getting a bottle of Coke Zero instead of the regular one.  But today is tough.  I hope I don’t end up drinking too much soda today.

I will be out all day today with my wife hunting for some old mantels at architectural salvage yards.  To prevent myself from drinking too much soda, I will have to carry with me a big bottle of icy water with me.

I’ve been doing great with exercises.  I know I don’t have to work out for 2 hours everyday, but I’ve been at the gym for at least 2 hours each day.   I had a full rest day yesterday.  So I’m going back to the gym tonight.   The only challenge is that I end up going to the gym in the night.  When I exercise in the morning, I feel little dizzy.

Ok, I’m heading out now.

Two weeks are gone fast!  My last weigh in was on Saturday.  I couldn’t find the time to post it until today.  On Saturday, my weight was 196.6 pounds!  that’s 1.4 pounds lighter!

But I noticed that 3-5 pounds are fluctuating weight.  If I eat something, I gain 1-2 pounds easily.  So I really need to be more consistent so that next week, I hit 194-195 range to approve that I’m actually losing weight.

Progress

Start Weight - 200 pounds

Week 1 - 198 pounds

Week 2 - 196.6 pounds

Week 3 - Coming this Saturday

Luckily (well in some sense…), my father is not in the states at the moment.  My father is in Mexico as a missionary.  This means no big family meals today.  It would’ve been a disaster for my diet if he was here in the US.

Today,  I had a super shake that I came up with, and shrimp as my lunch.  The only food that I had outside of my plan was a Coke Zero… although it says there’s no calorie in the drink, I think it’s doing something bad on my body.  I need to find some information about diet drinks.  Are they ok to drink or what?  hmmm  if you know, please let me know.

I think I drink 1 Coke Zero per day although it’s not in my diet menu.

Other than that, I did pretty well today sticking to my diet plan.  Again, no change in my weight or my waist line.  lol.

When I started my diet, I admitted that my biggest challenge over the course would be the mindset.  I believe that mindset is one of the key elements to diet success.  Without it, I feel that I will never achieve my goal.

I was searching for some solutions for this today and found a podcast that does exactly what I need.  The podcast is called “Weight Loss and the Mind” by Shane James and Scott Paton.

I listened to three episodes so far.  Today, I will have to come up with my mission statement and start a journal.  Well, I’ve already started writing the journal online, so I can skip that part.  But I really need to come up with my own mission statement, which is the basic foundation of my diet.

Anyway, the podcast focuses on training our mindset to lose weight, which is what I really need.  I have like 50 more podcasts to listen to, how fun…

So my first dieting week is gone.  I think I did pretty well this week sticking to the plan.  My original plan was to log my diet journal everyday, but I haven’t had chance to do that this week.  I’m going to try to log my progress everyday starting today.  Pray for me…

Last week was a bit challenging especially with all the dinner meetings I had with my friends and families.  These meetings were set way before I’d decided to start my new diet.  I just couldn’t cancel them because it it very important part of our family tradition.

On the day I had a big family dinner at a restaurant, I exercised for an hour at the gym, and went back to the gym after the meal to burn the extra fat I’d eaten.  One significant change in my diet was that I ordered water over a soda.  I’m very proud of it.  I think taking small changes will count eventually.  It may look small to you, but it was a big step for me.  I’ve never done this before in my life, believe or not.  I always had at least 2-3 cups of coke or diet coke.  My wife was very surprised as well.

Anyway, in my first week, I’ve lost 2 pounds.  When I weighed my initial weight, it was with empty stomach.  Today, 198 pounds was measured with empty stomach in the morning.

Well, I look the same outside and don’t feel lighter or anything, but I feel a sense of accomplishment.  My original plan was to lose 1 pound each week and I lost 2 pounds this week.  Not bad huh? :)

Thanks for reading!

Make your own fruit salad dressing at home.

Ingredients :

• 1/2 c. pineapple, peach, or pear juice
• 1/2 c. orange juice
• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 2 eggs

Directions :

Mix the fruit juices, add the sugar, beat the eggs slightly, and add them. Put the whole into a double boiler and cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Remove from the fire and beat for a few seconds with a rotary egg beater. Cool and serve.

Have fun :)

My wife recorded a whole series of the “Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic” show from TLC for me.  I watched 3 episodes straight.  Good thing that I can skip all the commercials :)

“Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic” is a TV show about people struggling to solve their morbidly obese problems at the clinic.  Most of them are inches away from death, and yet many of them still don’t understand the situation.

Many of them cheat the dieting program designed by the clinic by sneaking in fast foods and not following the exercise programs.  I just couldn’t understand why they aren’t even trying to lose weight knowing that their weight will kill them in any time.

While filming the show, a lady who also cheat the program passed away from heart failure.  The incident shocked many of the cheaters and changed their behaviors.  But I have feeling that the impact will last for a few weeks.  And they will go back to their regular habits.

Well, the lesson I learned from the show is that no matter how ready you are outside to lose weight, it’s not going to happen unless your mind is ready.  At the Brookhaven Clinic, they provide the best support anyone can get and the best tools to help them lose weight.  And yet, not everyone’s taking an advantage of that.  Given the equal resources, the ones with strong will finishes the program and get their life back.

It is same for me.  I have a membership to one of the best gyms and have access the best organic market in the U.S.  I have all the resources I need to start dieting.  But if I don’t have the right mindset, I will fail no matter what.  And that’s where I lack the most.

That’s the area where I need to improve the most if I want to stay fit even after I lose my weight.  Just a thought for the day.

Since I’m doing this all by myself, I need to figure out how much weight to lose and how to do it the healthy way. Today, I’m going to find out how much weight loss is best for an average person. Then I’m going to compare that data to come up with the right numbers.

I used iVillage’s health calculator to determine my numbers. I don’t think it’s very accurate, but good enough to start with.

According to result..
* Body Mass Index : 28.47
* Healthy Weight : 151-163 Lbs

I just remembered that I had a physical evaluation done by a trainer at Life Time Fitness in my area. There are lots of good information on the profile page that they gave me after the evaluation. My body weight was 200 pounds at that time. I guess I can still use that data for my new diet plan.

According to the evaluation profile…
Date : 5/31/2006
Body fat : 26.2%
Lean mass : 148 pounds
Fat mass : 52 pounds
Body weight : 200 pounds

And at complete rest, my body burns 2099 calories each day. So my (BMR - basal metabolic rate) is 2099. In addition to my BMR, I will burn approximately 630 calories by processing food and through normal daily activities.

So basically, it’s saying that I’m burning about 2729 calories each day. I think.. correct me if I’m wrong lol. The trainer who did the evaluation gave me a plan to lose 22 pounds in 17 weeks. The plan was to take only 2100 calories each day. Well, if I took the advice, I’d be at least 10 pounds lesser by now.

There are so much information in this report. I can’t believe I almost forgot about it!

With digging deeper… I found the following recommendations for me.

Optimal % fat : 13.1 - 18.0
BMI : 28.7 kg/m2 - Overweight
Max VO2 : 44.6 ml/kg min - Moderate - I have no idea what this is. I need to check.
Bicep Strength : 78 pounds - Average
Sit and Reach : 11.0 inches - Poor
Body Age : 32 - Ouch!
Optainable Body Age : 19

It’s just embarrassing. I didn’t take good care of my God-given body, and I almost feel like I ruined it. I really need to make my diet work this time, otherwise, I might lose so many valuable things in my life.

I’ve decided that my target weight is 160 pounds, which is 40 pounds lesser than now. I will try to lose 1 pound each week. No more than that. That will be about 4-5 pounds off each month. If I stick to my plan, I will achieve my goal in 40 weeks.

My diet plan will start on June 4th, 2007. I read many books about dieting and found that they all have their own opinions about it. My plan is to combine multiple diet plans into a customized plan for myself. But before I begin, I need to come up with my goals and access where I stand.

I need an accurate weight scale plus some measurement tools for calculating my body fat. I will visit Target tomorrow to see if they have any good scales.

Currently, I don’t have diet plans or exercise plans yet. But I don’t want to waste a day. Until I come up with the right plan for me, I will use John Stone’s food log as my diet plan. I will be using his diet plans as the main frame, and I will be adding a few stuff in there to make it better for my body.