JayLoss

Hey guys, sorry for not updating  in awhile. I have been very busy at work, basically working nonstop.

I just wanted to say that I have been able to maintain my weight by eating healthy, and I stopped going out to eat at places like Carl’s Junior. I don’t know why I like that place so much, they do have some healthy food, like the vegetarian burger, which is basically a hamburger wrapped with lettuce instead of a hamburger bun (not so much healthy, but not as bad for you). Also they have grilled chicken sandwiches, which are pretty tasty. Everything else they have pretty much isn’t good for you, like fries or onion rings. I usually just have a chicken sandwich and iced tea without any sweetener. But again I won’t be going back there anytime soon.

I don’t know my current body fat, I think it’s gone up to maybe 11% body fat. But I’m not too concerned about it, because my goal is to gain muscle in the long run. So increasing my body fat slightly is okay for right now.

By the way I am writing this post by my iPad dictation application, which writes everything I say down for me. So yeah, it’s gotten to that points where I am so strapped for time, that the only way I can write content is through my voice. Sorry if I sound boring at times.

What else to talk about?

Oh, I know what to talk about, I have decided not to run the half marathon. The reason why is because I feel my long-term goal of gaining muscle will be compromised if I attempt to train for the half marathon. It’s the increased cardio workouts that worry me, running miles and miles each and every week leading up to the half marathon will not benefit me in gaining muscle for the most part. Most likely what would happen is that I would actually start to lose muscle as I lose more weight with increased cardio which I don’t want to happen.

If I wanted to lose more weight, then sure I would run a half marathon and train for it, but that’s not the case for me. Instead I feel it’s time for me to bulk up!

I told my trainer that I want you primarily focus on gaining muscle now, I still want to lose body fat but in the process of gaining muscle, body fat increases. It’s not a big deal for right now. Obviously I won’t reach my 8% body fat goal for this month, but I can set that aside for another time.

It’s all about what you eat and it doesn’t matter what stage you’re in apparently, you always have to eat healthy. That’s what I have come to realize. If you want to lose weight you have to eat healthy, if you want to maintain your weight you have to eat healthy, if you want to bulk up you have to eat even better.

I’m going to focus mostly on high quality proteins, and minimal fats, only the good fats. I won’t be cheating and eating out at fast food places like I did a couple weeks ago. That was just dumb.

So Jay is now in the body-building phase!

By the way, I think I’ll have phases of cutting and bulking up from here on out. Let’s hope for some good results in the coming months.

Jay,
Current Weight: 178lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: ???
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 1% [?]

I guess my trainer was right that once you have a lower body fat percentage.. if you have one bad week of eating, it really shows.

So I have been eating not so good foods lately in an attempt to not lose anymore weight. The good thing is I’m exactly the same weight (177) pounds a few days ago, but the bad thing is my body fat percentage has gone up a little bit.

I think all those days of eating out is catching up with me?

It’s like I have to start all over with figuring out which things to eat to best maintain my weight while accomplishing my other goals.

I guess eating out at Carl’s Jr twice in one week isn’t a good idea.

Live and learn…

Jay,
Current Weight: 177 lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.9%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 5% [?]

A few days ago I reached my goal weight of 175 pounds!

To be exact I came in at 175.5 pounds, which is close enough. Today I’m at 177 pounds and I’m happy to stay within the 175 to 185 pound range as I work on lowering my body fat and building muscle. I think that’s a healthy range to stay in. As of now I’m at 10.3% body fat and I’m slowly going down.

I have increased my calories from around 1600 per day, to 2500 per day to make sure I don’t lose anymore weight. I have been slacking off at the gym this week. I have only been two or three times I do believe. I’m wanting to go today to train for the half-marathon, but I’m not sure if I’m up to it.

So my long term weight loss goal is complete!

I don’t plan on losing any more weight. Funny enough I’ll most likely gain weight as I focus more on building muscle. Though I’ll make sure to keep an eye on my body fat percentage in the long run.

I haven’t committed to running the half-marathon yet. I have a couple concerns with it before I say yes or no. First off I suck at running for the most part. I can run fine, but it’s not what I focus on at all when I’m at the gym. The LONGEST distance I’ve traveled running is maybe 1.5 miles non-stop. I have never attempted to run further then that.

Two as I don’t want to lose anymore weight, and I’m attempting to gain muscle, I think running will be counter productive to that. If running will help me in other ways, as in lower my body fat then I might have to say yes to it and focus on building muscle until after the half-marathon.

I’m in a fork in the road right now and I don’t know which path to take just yet.

By the way the reason this decision is so hard for me is once I say I’m going to do something, I do it. There is no going back unless I can’t help it.

Well, that’s a quick update. My long term goal and the entire reason this blog was created is now complete! I lost a total of 91-pounds in 9 in a half months.

Now I can go pig out on some ice-cream, Lol.

By the way to see some pictures of where I’ve come from and where I am at now, check out this post.

Jay,
Current Weight: 177 lbs.
Blog Starting Weight: 268 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.1%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 8% [?]

Should I run a half marathon?

A couple friends of mine are running the half marathon in November and they asked me if I wanted to run it as well.

The only problem I have is I don’t want to lose anymore weight. So I’m going to have to eat a lot more, most likely over 2500 calories per day.

The problem with eating more is that I’ve come to enjoy proteins. Proteins that fill you up and have low calories.

I wake up in the morning and I have eggs with toast and orange juice. And then for a snack. I might have a boiled egg, and then later maybe a protein shake. Then for lunch I would have chicken or a turkey sandwich. And then maybe some sort of low-carb snack.

There are carbs in there, a good amount. But I think I need to eat more carbs if I want to increase my calories per day. The bad thing is I don’t know a lot of healthy carbs to eat. For example, today I ate a bagel, some chips with salsa, a couple pieces of chocolate, and I think that was it for breakfast.

It made sense that several hours later I felt very tired I still feel very tired and fatigued, I think it was my blood sugar that spiked and then went down. So I don’t like a lot of carbs.

I just finished off a protein shake, which is waking me up a little bit right now, I am slowly getting my energy back. I’m about to make some salmon for a mid afternoon snack.

Sorry for the randomness of this post, I’m actually writing it all by just my voice. I’m using this application on my iPad, which is called dictation. I believe that’s what it’s called, no it’s called Dragon dictation!

It’s pretty nice I like it very much. I wrote all this with just my voice in a couple minutes.

So what do you think, should I run a half marathon and risk losing more weight? That’s my biggest concern over the half marathon, I’m pretty sure I can do it. It’s just that the increased cardio workouts, the training, will increase my calorie burning per day which I really do not need right now.

So what do you think?

Jay,

Popularity: 5% [?]

This seems to be a trend with losing weight and getting fit. As your appearance changes and becomes more dramatic over months and years, it almost never fails that the people closest to you start poking fun and question whether or not you’re doing things the right way. All of a sudden they’re weight loss experts (even though 95% of them are overweight) and they feel that you’re doing something dramatic or dangerous to lose weight, rather simple exercise and diet. They feel that you are out of control and that you don’t know what you’re doing.

At least that’s what it sounds like from my perspective…

My goal weight is 175 pounds. I’m only a few pounds away from that goal. My starting weight was 336 pounds several years ago, a 161 pound difference once I reach my goal weight of 175 pounds. Today I weigh 179 pounds after a depressed eating frenzy last night.

I take what people say about me to heart and at times let it affect me. It’s funny, the people that I’ve just met the past few months think I’m doing great and look great as well. My family and friends on the other hand say stuff like this:

• “you’re wither away” – close friend I’ve known for a couple years
• “you look like a crackhead” – Uncle
• “if you don’t start eating something I’m going to have to force feed you” – close friend I’ve known for 10+ years
• “you look sick” – mom
• “you look different, you need to STOP losing weight” – mom
• “you look completely different, you don’t look like Jay anymore” -uncle
• “soon you’re going to disappear” – close friend I’ve known for a couple years
• “so what’s going on, are you not eating?” – friend I’ve known for 10+ years
• “are you throwing up? Are you not eating anymore? You look completely different” – Uncle

And the list can go on and on as it seems every time I’m near these people, I hear their negative (with positive sometimes) feedback and I’m getting sick of it. Most of them do not know about this blog and I’d like to keep it like that. And apparently they don’t know my goals or how I’m reaching them, because if they did they probably wouldn’t say stuff like this. I guess they didn’t believe me when I said getting fit and healthy would be my number one goal in life. It’s everything to me right now. There is literally nothing above my health and fitness, and because of this way of thinking I have been able to make dramatic changes to the way I look and feel.

This is me the first week I started this blog, December 7th 2009 at 268 pounds:

And this is me today after a workout, I’m 179 pounds here:

Diet and exercise does work!

I’m going to think of their opinions as uneducated and an unwarranted cause of alarm due to dramatic changes I’ve gone through. The funny thing is if they’re causing such a ruckus at this stage of the game, I wonder what they’ll say 6 months to a year from now when I bulk up. I can either take it as a challenge to surprise them or give in to their poking and quit, which I hope doesn’t happen.

Sigh..

Jay,
Current Weight: 179 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 10.8%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 9% [?]

So more on procrastinating and getting things done.

Yesterday I decided to redo my to-do list as I seem to do monthly but this time around instead of letting it sit somewhere I have so far been able to complete three tasks today!

Having a to-do list is pretty much how I get anything that is time consuming done. It’s how I was able to build my first business from the ground up and how I bought my first house. It’s where I can store my thoughts for another time.

I’ve had a lot of to-do list over the years. I’ve used phone applications, web applications, notepads on my computer, small physical notepads and notepads like this yellow one below. I always seem to get the most work out of my yellow notepad which is easy to access and big enough to not forget about.

I have a lot of stuff to do and it seems I can add something new to the list just as quickly as I check something off. I wonder if it’s worth it sometimes. Life isn’t about being a slave to the to-do list, is it?

I have since learned that outsourcing projects and tasks are well worth it, especially if you have competent workers. I was able to get help with SEO and copyright issues from some very helpful and experienced people I’ve come to know. They saved me about a weeks worth of work and continue to work for me!

Well, that’s how I get a majority of my work done.

Hopefully I can check a couple more things off my list tonight.

Jay,
Current Weight: 179.5 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 11%!!
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Body fat is going down down down! I measured three times this morning and it went from 10.9 to 11 precent.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I’m good at procrastinating…

I know I have to do something, but I put it off over and over again until weeks or months pass by and it’s still on the to-do list.

It seems the older I get, the more I have to do. So in an effort to have more time to complete the higher workload, I have gotten rid of activities that have taken up a bulk of my time. For example I pretty much stopped playing video games. I canceled my TV/cable. And I got rid of a couple cars that were requiring too much of my time and money. I have done all this and it has given me hours and hours of free time each day and I complete so many tasks but yet the big task on my to-do list never seem to get done.

My excuse for not writing in this blog as much as I would like is the lack of free time (and I guess stuff to talk about). Right now I have 30-minutes before I have to be ready to meet my trainer at the gym. I have to go to the post office before I do that, but I decided to write this post before I go. I could have woke up earlier, but I decided last night that I would sleep as much as I like so I could be productive today (it seems to be working).

Is it the lack of time (which I feel is always in short supply) or the lack of focus?

I have a focus problem. I often find myself losing attention and wandering the internet for hours. Let’s face it there are tons of fun and interesting things to do online.

Then there are other times where I don’t want to do anything. Yesterday for example was one of those days.

I had a ton of free time to get things done, but the only thing I did was organize my living room and clean up a little. I didn’t do any work that needed to be done, I just zoned out for the most part. I actually felt bad for most of the day. I had a headache and was achy for some reason and I didn’t notice until the day was just about gone. I think it was all the chocolate I ate.

Anyway, like I said for the most I complete the small tasks that I set out to do, I’m usually pretty good about that. It’s just the big tasks that take a lot of time and energy I procrastinate on and drag out for weeks and months. As such I going to start talking about ways I can fix the problem (getting stuff done and not procrastinating as much).

I have tons of tips that I would like to talk about and I’ll do it over the weeks and and months ahead.

Seriously, I’ll show how I get so much done in the day and as I write about that, hopefully it’ll help me get my bigger tasks completed. Maybe having myself accountable, like I am with getting fit with help things.

More details later.

Jay,
Current Weight: 180 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 12.2%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

P.S. Funny, my stats didn’t change at all in the past 6-day. I think I’m slacking.

Popularity: 7% [?]

I made brisket today and I liked it.

And the whole reason why I BBQ is for this..

I think I made enough to last me a couple weeks.

Jay,
Current Weight: 180 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 12.2%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 9% [?]

I broke out the OMRON body fat analyzer today and it read 12.2% body fat!

My goal is 8% body fat by September 12th. My starting body-fat was around 15% which was measured June 13th, 2010. So in a little over a month and a half I have lost 2.8% body-fat, and I went from 191 pounds to 180 pounds today.

It seems as I lose weight, I lose body fat. That sound okay, right? Well to me it’s somewhat discouraging because I only want to lose five more pounds and that’s it. Once I reach 175 pounds I want to stay at that weight and just build from there. My trainer told me that in order for that to happen (lose body fat and stay the same weight), I would I would need to finely tune what I eat, specifically no junk foods and only the foods my body needs. So I guess no more midnight ice cream.

I don’t want to be a stick either. I actually want to be built in the long run and I want to use 175 as a base to build from. It’s a balancing act it seems, a sort of challenge.

I like challenges.

Jay,
Current Weight: 180 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 12.2%
Goal Body Fat: 8%

Popularity: 8% [?]

Yesterday my trainer decided to weigh me and get my body-fat percentage.

Well, two months ago the scale read 194 pounds and 16% body fat.

Yesterday it read 184 pounds and 11% body fat!

That’s pretty awesome, especially considering I ate a large breakfast and drank a lot of water a few hours before the weigh in. I know measuring body fat isn’t very accurate, but it’s still nice to see a general move in the right direction.

As for my own body-fat measuring with OMRON, I haven’t used it for awhile so I’m not exactly sure where I’m at, but the last time it read 13% body fat, which was a little over a week ago.

So that’s good news.

Right now I have a short term goal of reaching 175 pounds and a long term goal of getting down to 8% body-fat. Once I reach 175 pounds I want to use that as my base and build from there. It’s amazing the changes I’ve gone through in this short amount of time. From weighing 268 pounds 8-9 months ago, to 183 pounds today. From going to to a size 46-inch pants to 34-inch and from a XXXL shirt to just a Large. Not only the physical changes but I have gone through a lot of mental changes as well that will hopefully stick with me for life.

I tell you what though, once I reach 175-pounds, I’m going to enjoy eating more to bulk up. Of course I won’t pig out, but I will enjoy the extra 500-1000 calories in a day to maintain.

Jay,
Current Weight: 183 lbs.
Goal Weight: 175 lbs.
Heaviest Weight: 336 lbs.
Current Body Fat: 13%??
Goal Body Fat: 8%

P.S. That steak looks tasty right? I think I found what I’m going to have tonight.

Popularity: 10% [?]