Photo Day Again

Well, I am not sure I look thinner, but my hair looks longer! Anyhow, I am thinner than the first photo. No shirt off photo for awhile, image the trauma if some young reader were to find this blog! It could take years of therapy to put them right again! (I am perhaps exaggerating just a bit, but that helps me to stay motivated.)

Weight today...336 lbs. Gout was terrible over the weekend, but I still managed to go bike riding...walking was completely out of the question.

Till next time...Jack

4 lbs week Consistently

What will it take for me to consistently remove 4 lbs. of bodyweight per week and make sure that I am removing just fat? Good question. And this will be rephrased just a bit right now:

What will I need to do to consistently remove 4 lbs. of bodyfat per week while remaining healthy, very active and making sure that I have an absolute blast in the process? Now that is a good question and one that I will work each and every day to answer.

Here is another great question: What can I do to leverage this process of losing weight and make enough money from the leveraging to make one of my major financial dreams come true?

More about both of these questions later.

I feel decent today. Energy levels fair, gout still there but fading, upper body sore from a great weightlifting session yesterday!

Bye for now...Jack

Smaller Chunks

I currently weigh 338 lbs and I intend to weigh 195lbs in approximately 54 weeks. That is 143 lbs to remove in 54 weeks or approximately 2.75 lbs per week. I know my ability to lose weight will slow as I get closer to my ideal weight so I will need to lose more earlier on to compensate for this. Mentally, I want to think about 4 lbs of weight loss per week until I get much closer to my goal.

I am feeling perky today. Weight lifting went well. I am getting stronger very quickly. I have decided to focus on adding upper body muscle and stripping off lower body muscle. My legs are already much more muscular than I will need in my future. So I do lots of reps and sets when I am working my legs and fewer reps with more weight when I am working my upper body.

I am looking forward to visible results of this soon. The photo I posted of myself at 360 lbs was more than a little scary!

Bye for now...Jack

Photos and Goals

I am going to start posting pictures of myself each week along with my weight. I think this will be interesting over time and will also be motivating to me. That said, I will start with of photo of me taken just before I started my fast...just before I started on The Way Back.



So this photo is me, Jack at 360 lbs. And the posting of this takes more courage than most other things I have ever done! I even made the post large sized so all of the detail would show up. Wow! That is a fat Jack!

So Goals:

I will just put down a couple tonight:

I will weigh 195 lbs. by Monday, May 5th, 2008. This will be a total weight loss of 165lbs.

I will run the Bolder Boulder, a local Colorado 10k race in 60 minutes or less in May 2008.

That's it for tonight except for one thing:

My weight Monday, April 23rd, 2007 338 lbs. Total weight loss since the beginning of this process: 22lbs. Bye for now...Jack

Walking and Biking and Tennis

My feet are continuing to improve, slowly. I can wear an oversized pair of "tennis shoes" now. (I call all athletic shoes tennis shoes, but these are actually trail running shoes from Nike. Excellent and designed for someone as large as me, and that is not easy to find!)

I walked 45 minutes today. That would be my longest walk in nearly 6 months and I am a little sore now, but it was so nice out! Spring is here in Colorado as I write this and the flowering Crab apple trees are gifting us all with their incredible fragrance! Wonderful!

I have been lifting weights this week as well and I will be curious to see what my weight has done when next I check in with it. In the meantime, I continue to dream of playing tennis again and will continue to exercise to the edge of the envelope, exercising to soreness and fatigue, but working to avoid damage. This is not as easy at it was getting in shape when I was in my 20s!

Till next time...Jack

Tennis Continued

I love tennis! I started playing when I was a little boy, around 6 years of age with my father, and I just kept liking it more and more as I aged. I played on the tennis team in high school and on the tennis team in college. I toyed with turning pro in 1976, but my parents convinced me that I was better off to continue college. Who knows if this was the right choice, but it was the choice that I made.

I went thru a horrible divorce in the early 1980s, I had zero time, was working my self nearly to death to pay my attorney, and I just quite playing and never went back. This is strange to me now, that I just put down such a critical and huge part of myself and only now am going back...but going back I am!

I will let you all know how things progress after a mere 25 year layoff. Even the equipment has changed! What the heck is an oversized racquet and how on earth are they using "nano" technology to make my new fancy racket? It will be fun to find out!

Till next time...Jack

Gout Continued

Still fighting with Gout. No particular results to talk about with Celery or with enzyme tablets. Basically, my feet hurt most of the time and have for more than 2 weeks now. I am tired of this and very motivated to make it go away. I am only going to report my weight weekly now, on Monday, or the soonest day that I post around that time.

I expect to be losing around 2 to 3 lbs. per week from this point out, and daily weigh in sessions are just not motivating at that rate.

So, next week we will look at this again.

Started tennis again. Very very exciting! More about that next time....Jack

Day 24

Went to my acupuncturist today for my biweekly tuneup. He is helping me to stay balanced and doing what he can to increase my energy levels and my energy reserves.

We are going to try 2 new things for gout: celery juice and a enzyme supplement called Marcozyme. I am taking 5 of these tablets 4 times per day and our hope and expectation is that these will help reduce the swelling and inflammation caused by gout. I will let you all know. Celery juice, well I will let you know about that as well.

I can fit into 2 pairs of shoes today! Wowsers...what a victory! (although I am still walking like a drunken sailor.)

Weight today 340 lbs. (Stable, but I am ready for another drop cycle) 20 lbs. of weight removed since Monday, March 19th, 2007

Day 23

I am continuing to recover from gout. It feels great to be able to walk around again! Yes! I have felt so crippled by this last gout attack. Anyhow, as I continue to lose weight, these attacks will become less frequent and severe and eventually go away.

I still need to lift weights today, I will start that as soon as I finish updating my blogs for the day.

Any great low carb flan or custard recipes out there? Would love to know about one!

Weight today: 340 lbs. 20 lbs. of weight removed since March 19th, 2007

Day 22

I was able to walk today for 30 minutes. Slow, painful, but I was able to walk! That is a victory. My walking shoes would just barely fit on to my still gout enlarged feet, but they would go on. Yes!

I would guess that I walked at less than 1/2 of my normal pace, but it will still help. I am going to go out walking again tomorrow.

Still craving carbs. I am doing a decent job of avoiding the really harmful carbs, but still no additional weight loss since I ended my fast. Not surprising given my virtually complete lack of exercise. Well, this week will be better.

Weight today: 340 lbs. 20 lbs. of weight removed since Monday March 19th, 2007

Day 19

Hungry today. I don't know why, but I have been craving carbs all day. I think I need to eat more filling meals and snacks. I am going to increase the serving size of salads and cucumber and celery at my meals. That may well help with these cravings.

Not being able to walk is really cutting down on my exercise plans. Very frustrating. I will need to compensate with weightlifting until this changes.

Weight Today: 340 lbs. 20 lbs of weight removed since Monday, March 19th, 2007

Day 18

I still have gout today. I wanted to attend a convention today, which I did, but the walking and standing was not much fun. I am looking forward to the end of gout...which will come along the way towards getting back in shape.

I think the bounce back from my fast is over now. 10 lbs of weight came back on and that was virtually certain to happen. Still, sad to see it, even knowing that it is normal and okay.

I am currently eating close to the South Beach diet program. I will probably stay on this diet with some variations for at least a few weeks.

Weight Today: 340 lbs. 20 lbs. of weight removed since Monday, March 19th, 2007

Day 15

Gout! Ouch! I have exactly one pair of very soft shoes that I can wear to my seminar tomorrow. My feet have moved up nearly 2 sizes in just a few days. I find this less than convenient, but it is what it is.

Other than gout, I feel great today! Very energized and vibrant. This is quite normal coming off a fast. I have healed much damage and cleared out lots of toxins. Now to keep the fat loss going.

I am already experiencing weight bounce back. Probably close to 10 lbs. of weight must come back on. This is normal and nothing to worry about. The habits that got me to the old place, those are things to worry about!

Weight today: 337 lbs. 23 lbs of weight lost since Monday March 19th, 2007

Day 14

I had to end my fast today. Gout flared up at a level that prevented me from functioning...walking, and I must give a seminar on Tuesday. So, I have shifted to a lower carb, reduced fat, quality protein diet and that should tame the gout well enough for me to walk in a couple of days.

Sad about ending the fast early, but happy to begin heavy exercise again. Spring is here.

I printed a picture of myself at a seminar in early March of 2007. It is not a flattering picture! I put it up on my wall. Below it is a picture that I found in another magazine that closely resembles me when I was in great shape. I have a great picture of what I don't want and what I do want.

Wonderful Spring day! Very exciting! Bye for now...Jack

Weight today: 330 lbs. 30 lbs. of bodyweight removed since Monday, March 19th, 2007