Best Solution - Weight Loss - Update 1

Today I hit a milestone in my weightloss plan. I dropped from a size 44 waist to a 42! Woohoo!!!

In my recent fascination with finding the best solution to a problem, I thought I would update my post from March 11th. My weight loss plan is based on 9 principles:

1. Daily Weigh-ins.
2. Calculate daily caloric intake needs.
3. Subtract 1000 from principle 2's calculation.
4. Divide the remaining amount over five meals and a late snack.
5. Try to eat healthy foods and stay frugal.
6. Exercise regularly.
7. Cycle Caloric Intake.
8. Evaluate Weekly.
9. Constantly look for ways to improve.

The Principles

Principle 1 - Daily Weigh-ins:

I weigh myself every morning to keep my weight loss goal firmly in my mind every day. I weigh myself at 5:00 AM every morning for consistency. I also use pretty much the same clothes - shorts and a light shirt when weighing in.

Weighing in every day also shows me if I "lose consciousness" of my weight loss and begin to slip. Seeing the numbers rise the next morning really focuses me to evaluate what, if anything, I did wrong the previous day.

Principle 2 - Calculate daily caloric intake needs:

I now use a great website I found since my March 11th post to calculate my daily caloric intake needs. I use the RMR calculation instead of the BMR calculation. I highly recommend reading all of the articles on this site. I particularly found the Calculating BMR and RMR and Calculating Daily Calorie Needs very helpful.

Let's take a look at an example of using this wonderful website. Let's say you are a 30 year old woman who is 5'7" tall and who weighs 187 pounds. You could calculate your ideal weight and discover your ideal weight is 139 pounds with an ideal range of 118 to 159 pounds. You realize you need to lose 187 - 159 or 28 pounds to be in your ideal weight range.

So you need to calculate how many calories you need to maintain your weight in one day. There are several ways to do this and you decide to use the BMR/RMR calculator. You have to make a decision on your activity level. You walk 3 times a week and decide that you are lightly active. The results of your calculator are a BMR of 2255 calories and an RMR of 2201 calories.

You want to lose 1 pound a week for 28 weeks so you subtract 500 from your daily intake need. Using the RMR calculation that means you can eat 2201 - 500 or 1701 calories per day for the first week and lose 1 pound. Of course you'll have to re-evaluate your weight and calories each week to maintain the weight loss.

Principle 3 - Subtract 1000 from principle 2's calculation:

This step is based on the theory that if you take in 3500 calories less than what your body needs, you'll lose one pound. I find this theory to be pretty accurate. So to lose 1 pound per week I would need to take in 500 calories less than what I need on a daily basis 3500/7 days = 500/day. To lose 2 pounds, I would need to eat 1000 calories less per day. My goal is 2 pounds per week so I subtract 1000 calories from step 2's calculation.

Principle 4 - Divide the remaining amount over five meals and a late snack.

On Monday through Saturday I eat at the following times:

6:00 AM
9:00 AM
12:00 PM
3:00 PM
6:00 PM
9:00 PM - Cup of milk only

I spread my total daily calorie count as evenly as possible across all meals except the 9:00 PM meal in which I just have a cup of fat free milk. I don't like eating after 6:00 PM.

I am a diabetic and eating 5 smaller meals helps me control my blood sugar and helps prevent me from getting that hungry feeling and it works great!

Principle 5 - Try to eat healthy foods and stay frugal:

I don't eat perfectly, I sometimes like to eat things I actually want to eat, like a cheese coney every once in a while. I do eat healthy most of the time, high fiber whole grain cereal (Kashi) as well as lean meats and vegetables.

I don't like fancy recipes and meals that involve 12 different ingredients. I am trying to watch what I spend and typically eat easy to prepare inexpensive healthy foods. I buy cereal, bread for toast, fruit cocktail in pear juice, chicken breasts (when they're on sale), fat free milk, etc....

I shop at Walmart most of the time and have a strict budget. I only buy what I need for the week and am able to save money and eat healthier at the same time.

Principle 6 - Exercise regularly:

Exercise is obviously important in any healthy lifestyle change. I walk at 2 1/2 miles per hour for 30 full minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I just began doing this because I hurt my hip in 2007 and have had to take it easy for a while. I will increase my exercise progressively until I'm exercising daily for 30 minutes at a minimum and at a higher pace.

Principle 7 - Cycle Caloric Intake

If you eat 1000 calories less than your body needs long enough, it will adjust and burn 1000 calories less than it did before and you'll plateau (stop losing weight). It has been suggested by some to cycle your calories once or twice a week to fool your body into burning the same amount of calories.

Every Sunday I eat 200 calories more than my body requires. The next day I might stay the same or even gain a little bit of weight but it's enough to convince my body that it doesn't have to go into "starvation mode" and drop my metabolism.

If I plateau in the future anyway (so far so good), I may step up my calorie cycling to two days a week (with a couple of deficit days in between) but that would be the maximum.

Principle 8 - Evaluate Weekly

Evaluation is a necessary principle and I do this every week on all of my goals. First I review my goals - what is it I'm trying to do? Then I measure against specific criteria - in this case did I lose 2 pounds this week? If I was successful on my weekly goal then great, if not I need to try and figure out what is going on and make necessary changes to improve my system.

I would only change a system if at least 2 weeks of data supported the need to do so. I already recalculate my calories once a week at a minimum. To tell you the truth I do it everyday as I have the information in a handy spreadsheet. Planning the entire day of eating takes me about 5 minutes now so it isn't even a bother.

Principle 9 - Constantly look for ways to improve

This system is working great and I'm beginning to see less and less of a need to change anything but that doesn't mean I'm not looking.

I think it's hilarious when I tell people of my success. The first thing they do is suggest changes to my system. Hello! I said it was working perfectly! Doesn't matter, folks just need to prescribe changes from their own experiences. I guess I do the same though so it doesn't really bother me. I listen to them with the intent of possibly getting some actual good suggestions. The calorie cycling was one such suggestion from a friend of mine.

I will continue to read and learn about healthy habits and incorporate the "pearls" into my system. I can't wait until I'm ready to do the P90X system, but that day isn't until late in 2009. But having those eight-pack abs will be worth the wait!

The best solution so far

The Egyptian philosopher Ptolemy theorized that the Earth was the stationary center of the Universe. About 1400 years later, Nicolaus Copernicus displaced this theory with his theory that the Earth actually moved around the Sun. This was a better solution in explaining how the heavenly bodies moved.

The theory was not well received. In fact, 90 years after Copernicus released his theory in De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , Galileo Galilei was convicted of grave suspicion of heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture,"^[21] and was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life.

People have a hard time accepting different ways of seeing the universe. It is hard to change from one way of thinking to another. Stephen R. Covey calls this a paradigm shift. I, however, am starting to embrace new ways of thinking.

The more I learn different ways of looking at the world, the more I realize that my way of thinking is flawed. For example, I used to believe there was a job out there I would love so much it wouldn't even seem like work and I wouldn't be happy working until I found that job.

I now believe that I can choose to be happy at my present job and I am proving that this way of thinking is a better solution. I still believe there is a job which I can naturally be happy doing and I'm still searching for it, but this dream job is no longer the only way I can be happy.

Asking the question "Is this the best solution I've found so far to address this problem?" is quickly becoming my new habit of choice. I ask myself this question in regards to my health habits, my money habits, when dealing with other people in my relationships, when meditating on my religious beliefs and so on.

I am now constantly trying to improve the process by challenging my current ways of thinking and doing things. I have a weight loss program that is working very well. I recently watched a show called I can make you thin featuring Paul McKenna. I found that my system of weight loss utilizes very similar techniques as his system. I didn't find much reason to adopt anything he suggests but at least I viewed his suggestions with an open mind. I currently don't have any "issues" with my system, it is the best solution I have found so far.

I am also very happy with my financial plan and the way I live my life with balance using the 8 habits that Stephen Covey has taught in his many books. I am confident I have very good systems in place to help me live a live of health, wealth and happiness.

But I'm still looking to improve them.

Have a vision - part II

In Have a vision - part I I discussed creating a vision from a story. This is a pretty fun way of coming up with your ideal life and is an entertaining read when you want to review your vision and goals.

Another way of writing out a vision statement is to just list detailed major goals by human dimension. The six major human dimensions I have identified are physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual and financial.

Physical

Your physical dimension deals with your physical health. It involves goals such as weight loss, exercise, running a marathon and having six pack abs to name a few.

Mental

Your mental dimension deals with goals of the mind such as learning to play the guitar, memorizing scripture and learning to program computers.

Social

Your social dimension centers around relationships. It can involve goals such as having one on one talks with your children each week, being more romantic with your spouse or working on smiling more.

Emotional

As the social dimension deals with your interaction with other people, the emotional dimension centers on your personal emotions and attitudes. Some goals in the emotional dimension might be to stop using "victim language" or working on being more responsible.

Spiritual

Your spiritual dimension deals with your belief system. Some spiritual goals might be to live your life based on your list of values, reading the Holy Bible regularly, meditating/praying regularly and helping others with your time and money.

Financial

This dimension focuses on money and possessions. It is the easiest dimension to make goals for in my opinion. Objectives like being debt-free, saving a million dollars or owning your dream house are just a few financial goals.

Balance

In order to have balance and the best chance for complete happiness possible, you should work on all six dimensions. Goals for these dimensions should be SMART. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.

The following is a vision statement in the format I've described. All dimensions have been addressed and all goals are written in good detail. The SMART goal process will be detailed even more during the plan process ( a future post). These are just a couple of goals, a complete vision statement would contain much more.

Physical:
I will weigh 189 pounds by December 25th, 2008.
After achieving this goal, I will never let myself become more than 9 pounds overweight.
After reaching 189 pounds, I will complete the P90X 90 day challenge and will get some six-pack abs.

Mental:
I will become a Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) by December 31st, 2008.
I will become a Sun Certified Java Developer (SCJD) by June 30, 2009

Social:
I will internalize the 30 principles found in Dale Carnegie's "How to win friends and influence people" by December 31st, 2008.
I will meet with my family every Sunday and discuss the family goals.
I will meet one-on-one with my daughter every Saturday to help her with her goals.

Emotional:
I will form the habit of thinking before I speak to avoid negative habits such as criticizing, complaining and sarcasm.
I will spend 15 minutes each night going over a list of things that I am thankful for to consciously acknowledge that my life is really good.

Spiritual:
I will spend a minimum of 30 minutes each night studying the King James Bible and will complete the entire bible by March 31st, 2009.
I will work daily on my personal development in all six dimensions of my life.

Financial:
I will be debt free (except for my mortgage) by June 30th, 2010.
I will have a six-month emergency fund by June 30th, 2011.
I will save 15% of my gross income into my retirement accounts starting July 1st, 2011.
I will help my daughter pay for college starting August 1st, 2011.
I will pay off my mortgage completely by March 31st, 2015.
I will have my dream house built on May 1st, 2020.

This type of vision statement also gets into the specific planning of the goals. It describes the goals specifically and gives dates in which the goal will be accomplished. It is not, however, a complete plan. I will post about having a plan soon.

The best approach, in my opinion, is to have both a story-type vision as well as a goal oriented vision. This will make for some inspiring reading on the weekly evaluation process.

Kidney Stones

Yesterday began great with me weighing in at 263 pounds, down 1.2 pounds from the day before and meeting my weekly goal.

After taking my daughter to the eye doctor for contacts/glasses, I came home and went to bed for a well earned nap. I woke up an hour later at 3:00 PM with pain in my left kidney. I had felt pain like this twice before - the dreaded kidney stone.

I'm not going to explain what kidney stones are here but I will say they are very painful. The last time I had one, I waited about 30 minutes before going to the emergency room. By the time the staff had me hooked up to the IV and was about to give me pain medicine, the stone had passed and I was fine.

So, like an idiot, I decided to wait it out this time. Dumb! After two hours and thirty minutes of excruciating pain, nausea and vomiting, I decided it might be best to go to the emergency room.

Morphine to the rescue! One shot of morphine and some nausea medicine and I was feeling no pain. After a cat scan the doctor told me there was a stone about ready to pass into my bladder. They pumped me full of fluids and the stone came out with no issues. It was 9:30 PM when I got in the van to go home.

I was starving so I had a reasonable dinner and went to bed. Eating right before bed isn't the greatest idea but I was exhausted from my day.

The fluids and the late dinner cost me this morning on my daily weigh-in. I weight 264.8, a gain of 1.8 pounds. Oh well, I have to look on the bright side. I have no pain this morning and I'm sure my body will normalize over the next day or so.

On days like yesterday, when life throws something at you totally out of your control, you just need to deal with it and shrug it off. Today I'm back on my routine and know the weight will come back off.

Like the old saying goes "Obstacles are those things you see when you take your eyes off your goals". I've been doing my daily discipline routine successfully now for two weeks and my pride is deeply involved. Letting yesterday's setback get me down wasn't even an issue. It's time to focus on today!

My big goals

I started thinking about how many really big goals a person can have in life and I was surprised when I discovered that there weren't very many. Here are some of mine:

The House

A nice house is probably on everyone's want list. I have a list of features that I must have in my dream house. They are:

1. A one-floor plan.
2. A bedroom that is at least 400 square feet.
3. With a huge walk-in closet
4. A master bathroom with a whirlpool tub for two.
5. Two other bathrooms minimum
6. Three other bedrooms minimum (1 at least 300 square feet)
7. A huge laundry room with plenty of space for detergents, folding clothes, etc....
8. A library with comfortable lounge chairs and lots of books!
9. A meeting room. (Sort of like a conference room - with a projector, white board, etc....)
10. Personal offices for my wife and I.
11. A Solarium to drink the morning coffee in all year 'round.
12. An exercise room with about 500 square feet and all the trimmings (mirrored walls, weights, machines, etc....)
13. An in-ground swimming pool (in-doors would be even better!)
14. It must be extremely efficient (Solar powered?, heavily insulated, heat pump, etc....)
15. It must have a humidifier built-in to the heating and cooling system.
16. A large kitchen with a buffet-length island.
17. A large dining room which comfortably seats about 15 people for those holiday gatherings.
18. A 3-car garage
19. Lots of Storage space

Health

Not taking medicine for any health problems
Being my ideal weight
Maybe even being athletic (muscle toning and cardiovascular).

Wealth

Being debt-free (including the mortgage) - No Payments!
Cool cars, trucks, boats, and other toys.
Having a large emergency fund though losing my job wouldn't be a problem since I wouldn't have one.
Large amounts of investment cash making me a comfortable living.
Buying what I want, when I want.
Eating out at our favorite restaurants.
Giving money away to church, charities, family, friends and even complete strangers (wouldn't that be cool?)

Education

Constantly increasing my knowledge of the world, people and God so that I am forever stimulated by life. Sounds corny, but hey, it's my goal!

Social/Emotional

Helping others achieve their dreams through gifts, education and just being a supportive friend.
Helping my community by giving back through volunteer time and donations, especially to the local library.

That's about it

Ok, so those are some pretty big goals, but my point is, there is not a lot of them. Several of these are fueled by achieving the wealth goal. Have I mentioned Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover?

Easy Weight Loss

I'm usually pretty lazy (I'm working on it) so I wanted to come up with a way to lose weight without too much effort. My buddy Dan has a revolutionary weight loss plan he describes as "Eat Less, Exercise More". Hmmm, Sounds like the plan for me!

Eat less, exercise more is really all there is to it but it's obviously not as easy as it sounds or I wouldn't be overweight to begin with. So this post describes my thought process for losing weight and the plan I came up with to eat less and exercise more.

To begin I weighed myself and came in at 271.8 pounds. Ouch!

I then checked height and weight charts for men to see what my ideal weight would be. For a 6 foot 1 inch tall large framed man (that's me) the ideal weight would be about 189 pounds.

I have never been under 194 pounds as an adult so this would be a challenge. I was very happy at 194 pounds when I was in the military so weighing 189 pounds would be great.

So now I had some problems to solve. One issue I've had with weight loss plans in books is the specific foods they tell you to eat. Sometimes I can't find Laughing Cow cheese wedges (South Beach) or I don't want to spend a lot of money buying healthy foods that are weird or expensive. Paying over $325 per month for Nutrisystem or something similar just to feed me alone is ridiculous! I vowed only to eat foods that I could get at the local Walmart or Kroger.

Next I decided on the amount of weight I wanted to lose each week. The general consensus is that two pounds is a healthy amount. Sounds good to me.

So how long will it take to get to 189 pounds losing 2 pounds per week? That was my next question. I break out my handy-dandy spreadsheet program and run the numbers. Starting on March 3rd, 2008 it will take me about 42 weeks to lose the weight. Cool! That's less than a year! I will be 189 pounds on or about December 17th, 2008. Merry Christmas to me!

So now I had to figure out how I was going to lose the weight without some pain-in-the-butt life change. I am a type 2 diabetic so I also had to think about blood sugar control.

The "Eat Less" of "Eat Less, Exercise More" means exactly that. The first thing I had to know was how many calories I needed to maintain my weight. I searched online and found a website that will calculate this figure for you.

I punched in my weight, clicked on male and chose Sedentary for a lifestyle as I am initially not exercising (more on that later). The number of calories I need to maintain my weight is 3734.

In order to lose a pound of fat in a week, you need to take in 3500 calories less than you need for that week. That means 500 calories less than you need per day. So, If I take in 3234 calories a day for 1 week, I should lose 1 pound. Since I want to lose 2 pounds per week I need to take in 1000 calories less per day than I need. That means I can eat 3734-1000 = 2734 calories per day and lose 2 pounds per week.

As a diabetic, I'm not supposed to have big meals because it spikes my blood sugar. So I decide to have 6 meals per day spaced out 3 hours apart. I also allow myself 1 cup of milk at the end of the day (3 hours after my last meal). Here is how it divides out:

2734 - 90 calories for the cup of fat free milk = 2644 calories over 6 meals

2644 / 6 meals = about 440 calories per meal. This means I don't need to really count calories per se, I just need to make sure when I eat every 3 hours not to go over 440 calories for the meal. If I do go over, I need to make sure I eat that much less on the next meal.

Spaced 3 hours apart starting at 6:00 AM, my actual eating schedule and meals look like this:

6:00 AM - Breakfast - I eat a bowl of Kashi cereal with 1 cup of fat free milk every morning = 300 calories

9:00 AM - 2 slices of Ezekial 4:9 bread with some Smart Balance butter = 250 calories

12:00 PM - Lunch - A banquet dinner (anything around 330 - 450) calories.

3:00 PM - 1 can of Fruit Cocktail in Pear Juice - 210 Calories

6:00 PM - 1/2 Small Bag of Dole Lettuce Salad with Fat Free Catalina Dressing - 150 Calories.
1 Baked Chicken Breast, Pork Loin Chop or 2 Talapia Filets = 250 Calories
1 Medium Baked Potato with Smart Balance and Mrs Dash Seasoning = 275 Calories.
Total Calories: 675 Calories

9:00 PM - 1 cup of fat free milk - 90 Calories

Total Daily Intake: 1975 Calories

Believe me when I say that I stay satisfied when eating like this and I only am taking in about 2000 calories a day when I can have 2734. The result? Well, the first week on this diet I was down 6.4 pounds. I'm currently working on my 2nd week. Maybe I'll hit my goal in October instead of December. Happy Halloween to me!

As for the exercise part I'm currently not doing any. I intend to start at 250 pounds. There are two reasons why. One, I hurt my hip in August of 2007 and am still recovering. Two, my treadmill is rated for no more than 250 pounds. When I hit the 250 mark in about five or six weeks I'll start walking for 30 minutes every morning. This will increase my daily caloric intake needs, in other words I could eat even more calories.

Well, there it is. Not too fancy and not too difficult. I re-evaluate my caloric needs and calculate the "per meal" figures each week. I may not lose 30 pounds in one month like some fad diets promise but one thing's for sure, come mid-December I will be my ideal weight.