Week 5

Alright everyone, week 5 marks weigh-in number 2! I weighed-in at 160lbs today for a total of 14lbs!!!! I am very pleased with the results. I am trying to stay patient. 14lbs is GREAT but I would have loved to have lost a lot more. But I reached my goal of losing 5lbs before the next weigh in. I have been setting small goals for myself. Doing a few more push-ups and sit-ups a night, running a little further than usual before stopping to walk on my nightly runs, taking the stairs more at work, etc. The thing that I like about setting these little goals, although small, it shows that your body IS changing and you ARE making progress. Not much change in my diet. I am still eating the same things, simply because its easy AND healthy...but I can feel myself slowly getting bored so one of my goals this week is to experiment a little bit with different foods. This week Im going to start doing weight training. I want to avoid gaining a lot of weight in muscle so Im going to lift low weight with high reps. When you weight train, it shreds calories, speeds up your metabolism, and increases strength and flexibility. Im still focused on my goal and have absolutely no intention of giving up or letting myself slip. I still have a long road ahead of me but the fact that I am making obvious progress is what's keeping me pushing on.

Week 4

Alright everyone, its officially been one month since Ive started this whole thing. And about 3 weeks since Ive actually started eating right and doing some activity. Ive seen some major changes. I compared week 1's pictures to this week's and I think you can definitely tell a difference. I feel great and I constantly have a lot of energy. I notice a difference in flexibility also. My diet hasnt really changed much. Still eating the same things. Trying to experiment with different foods but I have no knowledge of cooking so its hard. One thing I have noticed the biggest change in is my running. Every night, I go on a 2 mile walk/run around my neighborhood. Ive noticed that since my first week, I can run for longer, I dont get out of breath as fast, and when I am out of breath, it doesnt take as long to recover. This makes me happy because my biggest worry when it comes to boot camp is the physical portion...especially the run. So if its taken only 3 weeks to notice a difference in my running progress, Im hoping by the time I go to boot camp I will be fully prepared. I am however, still working on my push-ups. I choose not to listen to music when I run, mainly because it helps with the mental portion of running, and I wont have music to listen to in boot camp so by the time Im there, I'll be used to it. Ive learned that running is almost more mental than physical. Once you block out the "MY LEGS ARE ON FIRE!" or the "I CANT BREATHE!" its not that bad. I use the sound of my breathing and my feet on the pavement to pace myself. And its slowly becoming less of a chore. I feel myself getting close to actually enjoying it...which is something I never thought I'd say. Up until now I havent used any weights at all because I want to focus on losing the weight and not gaining weight in lean muscle mass. But Ive been told by a few friends that if you lift weights that arent very heavy and just do more reps, it actually helps burn fat and calories. So next week I'll probably incorporate some weight training 2 to 3 times a week. But next monday is weigh-in number 2! My goal is to have lost 5lbs. If I dont lose that much, I wont be too heart broken because you should usually lose 1-2lbs a week, just as long as I LOSE weight and I havent put any on...I'll be happy! Until next time!

Week 3

So today was the first weigh-in! The scale we have here at the house is sort of wonky. I've heard you should always weight yourself twice...so I did...and got 2 TOTALLY different numbers. So I weighed myself a few times and got the weight 265lbs a few times. So for now, that's what Im assuming is my current weight. My goal for this week is to get a new scale! So that's a total loss of 8lbs! So while that's definitely progress...more so than Ive seen since I left the recruiting office over a year ago...I want more. Which is good because I'm hungry for it, but I'll go ahead and call this first couple weeks a "practice round" I know what works, I know HOW to do it...now lets ramp it up a little bit. Im gonna start working out harder. Im gonna be VERY strict with my diet. I'll admit, while I haven't been bad with my diet, I have made a few decisions that could have been better.

Also, I had my first experience with "diet on vacation." and let me tell you...its not easy. I was in a hotel with my girlfriend and healthy food wasn't just a fridge away as usual. So I didn't eat as much as I should have an my food choices weren't the best. But I worked it off tonight with a good run.

Like I said, Im gonna step it up starting this week. Another weigh-in during week 5. So we'll see how it goes.

Week 2

Alright, so I decided to update every week instead of every day. Ive learned that in weight loss, things dont get exciting or interesting on a day to day basis. The first week went really well. Im a 21 year old boy so I dont know the first thing about cooking, so right now my meals are pretty much the same day to day. In the morning I have 2 egg whites and 2 strips of turkey bacon with a glass of skim/fat free milk. Between breakfast and lunch I usually have an apple or some peanuts (unsalted). Some people prefer almonds but Im not very partial to those. For lunch I either have a ham sandwich with mustard. Mustard is a good substitute for mayo because it has 0 calories. Or a salad with fat free dressing. With that I usually have a handful of "veggie sticks" You can buy them at your local grocery store. They're like chips but they look like vegetable straws and they're not bad for you. The only thing is, they're salted, so I dont have very many of those. Between lunch and dinner I, again, usually have an apple or some peanuts. I usually alternate those snacks. If I have an apple early in the day, I'll have peanuts later, and so on. For dinner I usually have a chicken breast with some sort of vegetable. Usually broccoli. I bought a George Foreman grill. They're cheap, they cook things fast, and they squeeze all the bad stuff out of the meat. Since some of these foods can be sort of bland, I tend to add crushed red pepper to it. Gives it a little kick. You can find it in the "seasoning" section of your local grocery store. For a snack after dinner I usually have some Yoplait yogurt. They come in a million different flavors and they're fat free and only 100 calories. All I drink is water throughout the day as well. Every night when I get home from work, I go for a 2 mile walk/run. And at several points throughout the day, I'll drop down and do 10 pushups, situps, flutter kicks, and squats. I was told to give myself a few little goals every week. It'll show me that my body is changing and growing and it will help me move my progress along. So my plan is every week to do 5 more reps of previously mentioned exercises.

Since I started this whole thing a week ago today, I already feel so much better everyday. I have more energy all day, Im always in a good mood, and I feel great about myself, and even though it may or may not show in the progress picture that Ive changed in size, I feel like I have. And a few people have already told me it looks like Ive lost weight. Mainly in my face. They say that weight loss shows from the head down. It really amazes me how quickly the body gets used to healthy eating. This weekend my girlfriend ordered a few pizzas for her and I and the family for a rainy Sunday. I had a couple slices and a little later, my stomach turned sour and stayed that way the rest of the day. Its ok the have some "not so good" food once a week. Im not saying go out and eat McDonalds all day. But have a couple slices of pizza, eat a piece of cake at a birthday party, etc. That way your body says "oh no, this stuff isnt good" and it works harder to get rid of that food. But overall I think it was a good week. Im gonna weigh in every 2 weeks, so next monday we'll see how much progress Ive made.

And So It Begins...

Lets start off with some background info. My name is Corey, I am 21, and I live in Virginia Beach, VA. The reason I am writing this blog is because I am trying to lose weight so that I may join the United States Coast Guard. Just over a year ago, I walked into my local recruiting office and I was told "Get down to 200lbs and come back and see us." Now...if I had started training that day, I probably would have been VERY close, if not actually in the Coast Guard. But I went through many ups and downs with weight loss. I started and stopped countless weight loss routines since that day. It wasnt until last week when I finally decided that I CAN do this and I WILL do this. Currently, I am 273lbs. My maximum weight according to Coast Guard Recruiting Standards is 208lbs. My goal is to get down to about 195lbs...and I want to do it by my next birthday (July 5, 2011) Im doing this with some advice Ive been given by close friends and family, and even people I dont know. Is it possible to get down to that weight in that period of time? Im not sure...but I intend to do my best.

The reason I am making this blog is to help myself track my progress, and I also want to help people that are in the same situation as I am by showing them you dont have to starve yourself, or spend money on "6 minute abs" or other scams, and you dont have to wake up at 4:30am and run 3 miles 7 days a week and eat small, bland meals to reach your goal. Now I am in NO way a professional or very experienced at all in this subject...Im just doing my best and seeing what works along the way. That is the point of this blog. You dont just wake up one day and say "Im gonna lose weight!" and get right out and make the necessary changes. It takes time to really motivate yourself into doing it. Believe me...I know. And you arent going to do it all with just the snap of your fingers. You're going to have days when you fall back on your diet, or you dont feel motivated to work out. And that's what I want to document to help myself by looking back and seeing what I need to do differently, and showing others what not to do and how to avoid speed bumps. Everyday I will post something. It may be a 6 paragraph story, or just a 3 word check-in. But everyday I will post what I ate and how much activity was done, etc. The only thing that may help me and other may not have at their disposal is the amount of activity I do at my job. I am a walking courier at a law firm in Norfolk, VA. We occupy 4 floors of the building and every 30 mins, I have to walk the floors (at a brisk pace) and drop off/pick up mail. Not to mention other tasks having to be done throughout the day including lifting heavy objects, etc. I work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So that's a lot of activity. Also, every monday evening I will post 2 pictures of myself. One picture of the front view of myself, and one from the side. Wearing the same thing and standing in the same place in the same position. Since one post a week is quite often when it comes to weight loss, you (and I) may not see much difference in size or shape. And every 2 or 3 weeks I will weight myself on Monday morning and I will post my new weight, whether I lost or gained. I have to be totally honest in this entire process.

This isnt going to be easy. Im going to go through good and bad times. Some weeks I may have gained some weight, some weeks I may have lost a lot of weight. Either way I will alter my routine accordingly and I will update every change and every positive and negative I come across. Until next time.

-Cor.