Weight Loss Journal and Guidelines

These are tips and wisdom I've learned from gaining and losing weight

Weight Loss Journal and Musings

Friday, October 25th, 2013

Yesterday I decided to walk laps around the block, and I walked around twice. Today when I went to walk (after breakfast, before lunch), they were pouring concrete at the corner of Bloomfield and Civic Center, so I walked inside the perimeter of the complex where I live. I did two laps today. (or one and a half, because I didn't go all the way around the second time.)

When I came in for lunch, there was about half the amount of leftovers as I had for lunch yesterday (pasta, veggies, and meat) so when I heated it up, it gave me an idea. If you tried to stuff a sausage and you squeezed out the other end at the same time you were stuffing the other end, then the sausage would be thicker if you stuffed more than you squeezed out. On the other hand, if you squeezed out more than you stuffed into the other end, the sausage would be skinnier.

This got me to thinking about how much food I eat in a month before I started dieting. If I could load that food onto the back of a truck, there would be a lot of food. On the other hand, if I was dieting and I loaded the equivalent amount of food onto the back of a truck, there should be a lot less food there.

If I decrease my portions and only eat three times a day, my body would have no choice but to lose weight.

Saturday, October 26th, 2013

I skipped dinner last night. Glen was going to make dinner, but since Andrew had put the chicken back in the freezer, Glen figured that it would take too long to thaw out, so he decided to skip making dinner. I decided to seize the opportunity to try something I had been thinking about.

By the time I went to bed, I wasn't even hungry. My theory is that I have so much body fat for my body to catabolize, that my body can't really go hungry when I skip a meal. When I woke up this morning, I weighed 244 pounds. Down two and a half pounds from 246.5 pounds yesterday. I think I'm going to utilize this technique in the future!

Sunday, October 27th, 2013

This morning I weighed 242.5 pounds. A couple of hours after breakfast I walked laps down Civic Center drive, turned on Bloomfield, and entered the complex through the main gate, then turned on Tomahawk Lane and did the circuit again. I did this three different times today, and didn't count my laps, but I must've done at least 8 laps or so.

I ended up skipping lunch today.

Thursday, October 31st, 2013

On Tuesday I went to see my new doctor and he decided to take me off Atenolol, because when he took two EKG's on me my heart rate was in the 30's and 40's, and the normal range is 60 to 100. He wants to see me next Tuesday to check up on me.

Yesterday I weighed 241.5 in the morning, and today I was 242. I skipped lunch today, and ate a little peanut butter as a snack.

Sunday, November 10th, 2013

I got sick on Halloween night and lost some weight, I didn't eat at all on Friday, November 1st and I went down to 234 pounds at one point. My weight bounced back up to 239.5 after I got well, and stayed there for several days.

I skipped lunch yesterday and walked 4 laps around the complex, I assume that equals one mile. When I woke up this morning, I weighed 237 pounds.

Saturday, November 16th, 2013

This morning I weighed 239 pounds, I ate a lot of food at Johnathan's birthday party last night. For the past week I've been yo-yoing between 237 pounds and 238 pounds. Yesterday I think I broke through to 236.5, but the scale kept jumping back and forth between lower numbers and 237, so I couldn't be sure.

For the past three days in a row I've been going to the gym, our bathtub is messed up, it fills up with water and the water doesn't go down, so the last time I cleaned it I didn't take a shower and worked out at the gym and took a shower there, and I've done that three days in a row.

Last night at Johnathan's birthday party, Flower said it looked like I had lost weight. I asked her how much it looked like I had lost, and she said 20 pounds. People are actually starting to notice that I'm losing weight!

Monday. November 25th, 2013

I weighed 234.5 pounds this morning. I put my clothes and shoes and socks on and weighed myself, and I was 239 pounds! I seem to be firmly under 240 pounds. This was without my jacket. My goal was to weigh less than 250 pounds with clothes on at one point, and now I've reached the next milestone of being under 240 with clothes on. My next milestone will be getting below 233 pounds, that is the lowest I've ever been when I dieted in the past.

I've lost 20 pounds since October 10th, I went from 254.5 to 234.5!

Thursday, December 12th, 2013

I weighed 230 pounds this morning. Yesterday I started doing fasted cardio before breakfast. I've been eating raw broccoli as a snack between lunch and dinner, and I love it! I'm really looking forward to my next milestone. If I can drop just one more pound, I'll be in uncharted territory, and I'm so excited to be on this weight loss journey!

Thursday, January 30th, 2014

On Friday, January 24th, I crossed over into the 220's by weighing in at 229.5 pounds. I have steadily lost weight every day since then, and weighed in at 225 this morning. Yesterday, I went to the gym and got my bodyfat measured, and I was at 27.2 percent, down from 31.1% in December.

I eat a cup of oatmeal with a cup and a half of water nuked in the microwave for breakfast, then I have that for lunch as well as a shot of whey protein. For dinner, I have one plate of whatever Glen cooks for dinner.

Saturday, February 1st, 2014

My weight bounced up to 226 today, I think that Costco pizza I had yesterday is the cause, I looked up the calories online and it was 700 calories. For lunch today I ate at Jack in the Box, and I spent $9 and ate over 1,000 calories. From now on I need to eat my cheat meals at Subway, because I have more control over how many calories I eat and I get full on less calories.

Sunday, February 2nd, 2014

My Cousin Anthony's girlfriend Nicole came over for the Super Bowl today, and she told me I looked like I had lost weight since the last time she had seen me. I was ten pounds lighter than I was at Johnathan's birthday party in November the last time she saw me.

Saturday, May 10th, 2014

I know I haven't checked in for a long time, but I finally got below the 220 mark. I was 215.8 pounds early this morning. For the past 6 weeks I've been losing an average of 2.2 pounds per week! Sometimes I lose less than 2 pounds and sometimes more, but I've been consistently losing weight. I'm in a May 1st through July 31st weight loss challenge at Bodybuilding.com, and because of that I was checking through my weight loss log and found that every Saturday since March 29th I've weighed less than the Saturday before. I even changed my sig there to reflect that.

I also got a new scale about a week ago, I paid $35 for it and got free shipping from Amazon. It is more accurate than my old scale. My old scale only measured to within half a pound, but my new scale measures to within a fifth of a pound. It lights up with blue digital numerals, and I can take my weight in a dark room without turning on the light, unlike my old scale. I measured my weight with the new scale, and then tried my old scale, and my old scale was half a pound heavier. My old scale had been lying to me all of this time! My new scale takes four triple A batteries, so I have to make sure I don't run out of those.

Wednesday, May 14th, 2014

I've been doing a thousand crunches every other day in sets of 50, and early this morning I had a dream that I was doing crunches and missed my first class at school because it was taking so long. I dreamt that I found an ab machine that I had never used before, and I was trying to figure out how to use it. There was some cute girl in the dream, a Hispanic chick who reminded me of a girl in my creative writing class.

Friday, May 16th, 2014

Something weird happened at the gym today. After running two and a half miles on a treadmill, I got in the pool and swam half a mile to earn a quest on Fitocracy, and when I got out of the pool and showered, when I tried to wrap my towel around me I was able to secure one end to the other! Several months ago or a year ago, I was simply too fat to accomplish this, but now I'm skinny enough that I can tie my towel around me!

Wednesday, May 21st, 2014

Today Andrew and Josh's Bubby came to get them and she saw me, and said it looked like I had lost weight. I asked her if it was noticeable, and she said "Hell yes!"

It's a good feeling when people notice my weight loss.

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

Today I went to the clinic and the doctor and Delbert both mentioned that it looked like I had lost a significant amount if weight.

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

I weighed in really heavy this morning, at 213.6 pounds. That is exactly one pound heavier than I was a week ago, so it is really disheartening to see such a lack of progress. On Saturday night I got paid, and went to the corner store and had a pastry, chocolate milk, and a Klondike bar, and that really threw me off my diet. I didn't know one little cheat meal could throw me out of whack for this many days. I plan on fasting through lunch today, to see if that can make a difference.

Monday, June 9th, 2014

Today I weighed in at 210.4 pounds, a record low! I took a crap three times before finally getting that weight, I took my meds after crapping the first time. I need to wait to take my meds from now on unless I have to go somewhere, because I probably could've gotten a weight a fifth of a pound lower, or even more. My Body Mass Index was 28.9 this morning, I crossed over into the 28's! I measured my waist circumference, and it was 41.5 inches, so that's coming down, too!

Tuesday, June 10th, 2014

Yesterday for lunch I ate the last of the enchiladas after eating a roast beef sandwich, so since Glen wasn't cooking dinner, I skipped dinner. For my PM weigh-in last night I was 212.8, that was my lowest PM weigh-in so far, and this morning, my AM weigh-in was 209 pounds, a new record low! My body mass index was 28.7! I measured my waist with the tape measure and I think I was 41 inches, I can't wait to cross over into the 30's!

My Cousin Anthony came over to do his laundry today and he saw me and said I looked "crazy skinny" and that I had lost an incredible amount of weight since he last saw me. I've probably lost close to twenty pounds since the last time I spent a lot of time with him.

Sunday, June 15th, 2014

My Cousin Johnathan came by today and he was amazed at my weight loss. He said my face looks different, and he can really see a difference.

Tuesday, June 17th, 2014

I went to Target today and tried on a pair of large shorts, I normally wear extra-large. They fit really well, and the lady that worked there said I looked like I wore a medium.

Friday, August 1st, 2014

I was out looking for Scrappy because he got out, and Chris our neighbor said she didn't even recognize me at first because I had lost so much weight.

Sunday, September 7th, 2014

At the gym today, T.J. told me it looked like I had lost about 50 pounds.

Friday, November 7th, 2014

Last week I hit a new record low of 204 pounds! I got paid on November 3rd, and I started gaining some weight since then. I went to the gym 20 days in a row, and I got on the exercise bike for 30 minutes a day during that time. I had to stop going to the gym for a few days, because I had a lot of schoolwork to do, but I plan on going back today. On Tuesday the 4th, election day, I went to Costco and got the two-year 24-Hour Fitness membership for $370 and I went over to the 24-Hour Fitness in Santa Fe Springs and got my membership. The Costco website says you can only redeem one of those membership certificates once, but at the gym I go to they let you redeem as many times as you want. I ordered a tie-dye towel from the same place where I ordered my tie-dye t-shirts, and I plan on bringing it with me to the gym when I go to the pool and the Jacuzzi.

A few days ago, I accidentally kicked Josh's football over a brick wall into somebody's backyard. They found out nobody lives there, so I got the stepladder and climbed over the wall and threw it back to Josh, and I climbed back over. In 2012, I couldn't climb over a brick wall, that's how much my strength has improved!

Tuesday, February 17th, 2015

This morning I started off the day by getting a Like from IFBB Pro Rich Gaspari at Twitter, I had responded to a question he asked yesterday about chest day, and told him that I was doing 100 pushups every morning because I don't have easy access to a gym. After taking my meds, I did 100 pushups in sets of 25, 20, and 15 before breakfast. This is day three of doing 100 pushups a day. When I got to school, they were having a health fair, so I went to the booth where they were taking people's blood pressure, and mine was 115/78 and my heart rate was 74. When I got done getting the goodies and paperwork from them they challenged me to a pushup contest with another dude, and I pumped out 23 in addition to the 100 I did earlier that morning.

When I got home, I ate a dinner of beans, Spanish brown rice, avocado, and fish and corn tortillas. Last Thursday I was walking home from the bus that dropped me off on Firestone Blvd., and I walked down Paramount toward Florence and saw some avocados on the ground. There is an avocado tree in front of an apartment building, and every day since then I have gone back and I've gotten a total of 5 avocados from there. They get ripe and drop to the ground, and some of them are too damaged to mess with, but some of them that I've found so far have tiny cracks and I washed them with soap and water and put them in a cupboard to ripen. Now I can get some essential fats in my diet, and they taste really good, just like the avocado tree that grew on the side of my Grandmother's house when I was a kid.

Since November I have gained weight steadily, but I haven't allowed my morning weight to hit 220 or higher. This morning I was 218.4 pounds, I've been watching what I eat for the most part, but I have the urge to eat cheat meals at night time. Tonight I had a bowl of Lucky Charms, but I used a protein shake because we don't have any milk. At the very least, I am mitigating my weight so I maintain instead of gaining; that isn't as good as losing the weight, but it's better than letting it skyrocket out of control.

Tuesday, March 17th, 2015

My weight has gotten to 222.2 pounds, but I'm trying to control it. I went and worked out at the 24 Hour Fitness in La Mirada on Beach Blvd. today, I had known about that gym for a long time, but hadn't gone in until today. I figured that since I'm on Spring Break, I can waste some time, since it's a longer bus ride than the 24 Hour Fitness I normally go to on Imperial Highway and Carmenita.

All the bench presses were taken, so I did dumbbell press with a weight bench using 60 pound dumbbells, then a bench press opened up and I grabbed it. There was already a 45 pound plate on each side. Prior to this, the most I had ever benched was 165 pounds. It's kind of a crazy thing, I only meant to go up to 165 or 175, but there were no 10's handy, so I put a couple of 25's (one on each side) and benched 185 pounds for 3 reps! That's an awesome personal record for me! I then did five reps at 175 and five reps at 165, then I did 5 sets at 155.

Monday, May 25th, 2015

My weight was 234 pounds this morning, my eating has gotten out of control. I ate three grilled cheese sandwiches today, (one at a time) and this got me to thinking, that diet is the major component of losing weight, so I'd better get olive oil when I get paid on the first so I can get oregano and whole grain wheat bread so I can eat that instead of using butter or margarine.

I found out Pompeian isn't a good brand, I need to get Kirkland organic extra virgin olive oil. I can get oregano at the dollar store. I have my grocery list for June made out, I just need to print it out.

Tuesday, May 26th, 2015

I weighed 232.6 this morning, and I went to the 24 Hour Fitness gym in La Mirada on Beach Blvd. I feel so out of shape compared to how I felt in October when I was under 210 pounds. When I did incline bench press today, I was so much weaker than I was a couple of months ago. It was crazy, I don't ever want to be that out of shape again. When I ran on a treadmill I only ran for half a mile, I need to gradually build up to where I was before.

December 2015

I went to the grand openings of the 24 Hour Fitness in Downey and Cerritos, they are both Supersports. I ended up becoming a member at the Cerritos branch, I will pay $39.99 per month, and double that once a year every May. I think it's worth it, because there are so many Supersports, and this amount is reasonable. One good thing about Supersport is they have towel service, you can get a big towel for showering and a smaller one to use as a sweat rag.

August 15th, 2016

In the Summer I went up to my sister Dianna's in Antelope, near Sacramento. I weighed around 221 when I left, and I came back weighing 233. My Cousin Squeenie said it looked like I lost weight, so I might have recomped while I was up there. I had been eating quinoa and tuna and olive oil while I was up there, and I was going to the gym. I regret that I didn't go to the gym every day, next summer I'm going to try to change that. I signed up for intermediate/advanced weight training on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that should keep me consistent. I bought a rice cooker at Target, so I plan on cooking quinoa.

September 15th, 2016

The last time I weighed myself, I was 226.8 pounds. I started going to the gym after school on days I don't lift weights and on weekends, I've been really consistent. I went from riding the stationary cycle 35 minutes for a little over 8 miles to 40 minutes for a little over 9 miles. I made some quinoa over the weekend, and I went to the school on a Saturday to go to the math lab, and I brought two cups of quinoa, three tablespoons of avocado oil, and two cans of tuna. I really liked it, so on Monday the 12th I brought some to school along with some fruit, and I really liked it, so I've been bringing it to school every day. Tuesday I only brought a cup and a half of quinoa and two tablespoons of avocado oil, and Wednesday I brought one cup of quinoa and one can of tuna and one tablespoon of avocado oil. The reason is I've been using MyFitnessPal and it says my calories for lunch were way too high, so I'm trying to limit what I eat and exercise more often. I'm planning on going to the gym and riding a stationary cycle before breakfast eventually, but I haven't done that yet.

October 14th, 2016

I joined the Oct/Nov 2016 weight loss thread at Bodybuilding.com that is led by Hanger, my starting weight was 226.4, and during the first weekly weigh-in on Friday October 7th, I gained weight and weighed in at 228.6, but I lost some weight this week and weighed in today at 224 pounds. I went to the park on Rives in Downey last night and ran 1.1 miles (I ran the first .55 mile, then I walked and ran the second lap), I need to start doing that more frequently. I'm hoping to lose two pounds a week from here on in. This morning I had a cup of oats with water, and the egg whites from two hard boiled eggs.

November 19th, 2016

On October 26th, I got down to 221 pounds, but I got my financial aid on October 28th and for the next week, I ate out and slipped off my diet and re-gained a lot of weight. I was at my heaviest yesterday, on November 18th, when I weighed 234.8 pounds. Yesterday I hopped back on my diet, and didn't eat any junk food, I bought some broccoli and boneless, skinless chicken breasts and cooked some Quinoa. This morning I weighed in at 233.6, so I lost a little over a pound. I need to go into the math lab today, and afterwards I plan on going to the gym. I want to be more consistent with going to the gym, for the first 12 days of November I exercised every day, but I slipped off.

One of my strategies is to go to sleep earlier in the evening, and avoid staying up late on weekends. When i stay up later at night, I get tempted to over eat.

Friday, February 24th, 2017

I went off my diet and got up to 254 pounds, but in February I got an iPad and downloaded the Loseit app. I joined Planet Fitness, and I've been consistently going to the gym. Loseit app is better than myfitnesspal, because I can subtract calories from any workout. With myfitnesspal, not every workout can be subtracted. I weighed 249.4 yesterday, and I've been consistent with my diet for five or six days, so we'll see how it goes.

Monday, November 12, 2018

I was at my Mom’s place for a month, we went to a casino and she won $117, so she gave me $60 to get a gym membership at Bishop Fitness Center and I used $7 of my own money. The initiation fee was $20, and the monthly fee was $47.

I trained most of October at that gym, and made progress. My shoulders and trapezius looked bigger. When I got home to Downey, my cousin said my shoulders looked bigger, and my other cousin Anthony said my arms looked bigger.



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Weight Loss Guidelines

I am currently trying to lose weight, and while I have made much progress, I've also regressed, so I wrote this set of weight loss guidelines in an effort to motivate myself to keep losing weight, and to hopefully motivate others.

Guideline #1: The Methodology Of Losing Weight Is Easy To Understand, But Difficult To Implement.

Twice in my life I've been significantly overweight, and I was locked up and I got down to a normal body weight from eating three normal meals a day. In those situations, I would be hungry at night, but I had no choice but to wait until morning to eat breakfast. Out here in the free world, we have more choices and temptations to lead us astray. If I could just stay away from eating after dinner, then it would be a lot easier to lose weight. I have no problem eating healthy during breakfast and lunch, it's later in the day when I tend to screw up.

Guideline #2: Your Desire For Long Term Weight Loss Must Be Stronger Than Your Ephemeral Desire For Junk Food

When you are hit by temptation, you must remember all the times you gave in and your weight shot up. Think of all the months you yo-yo'd, and then visualize the next three months: Do you want to weigh 24 pounds less than you do now (losing an average of two pounds per week), or do you want to weigh the same as you do now, or even heavier? When you realize the consequences of violating this sacred rule of weight loss, it is easier to resist temptation.

Guideline #3: Remember That It Is A Matter Of Life And Death

I started smoking at age 16, and stopped permanently at the age of 36. I had tried to stop many times previously, but didn't take it seriously; what finally gave me the incentive to stop and never pick up another cigarette was realizing that it was a matter of life and death. Being fat can be just as deadly as being a smoker, whether it's having a heart attack while running to catch a bus, or dropping dead while walking down the street, being obese is a death sentence, so every time you're tempted to eat junk food or overeat, just keep in mind that all those little "cheats" add up, and they're killing you!

Whether or not we have an eternal soul, our bodies are guaranteed to die at some point. How we eat determines how long we will live, so if you want to live a long life, you need to restrict your calories and exercise.

Guideline #4: You Have To Choose Between Food Or Getting Laid

One suggestion is to post a photo of a hot college chick inside the front cover of your training journal, just to remind you of what you're missing out on by being too fat to be in a relationship. Every time you are tempted by junk food, just remind yourself that if you keep over-indulging, you'll never have a hot girlfriend. The more you eat the wrong foods, the longer it will take before you're in a relationship with an attractive woman.

Guideline #5: Healthy Food Is Expensive, So Don't Waste Your Money On Junk Food!

You could easily spend $20 or $30 on just a small amount of fruits and vegetables, so to take that money and spend it on junk food is pathetic. During the times when you had no money, you told yourself that if you had more money, you could buy healthier foods, but when you had more money, you bought junk food instead. Keep this in mind the next time you have a decent amount of money, and spend it on healthy foods instead!

Guideline #6: Environmental Weight Gain Is No Excuse!

Whenever I was on a successful cut, I knew what I needed to eat every day to keep losing weight consistently. For some reason, when I went to visit certain relatives, my weight would creep back up. This has happened at my sister's (almost every summer) and at my Aunt's house. You just need to be more serious about counting your calories and tracking everything you eat. Being at someone else's house is no excuse to overeat.
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Fitness Goals for 2018

In October 2016 I was in decent shape compared to now, I weighed 223 pounds and I was exercising regularly. Over the next year, I bloatmaxxed and got up to 270 pounds. Now that it's January 2018, I plan on dieting and getting into shape. A year from now, I want to be shredded compared to now, weighing under 200 pounds.

I've started blending fresh spinach with walnuts and protein powder and water, and pouring it into my cooked oatmeal for breakfast. I want to see if I can go six months without eating fast food. That means I'll be on this diet until some time in July 2018. Right now, I don't get tempted when I see a doughnut shop or a fast food place when I'm out and about, unlike when I was bloatmaxxing and ate fast food whenever I got hungry and had money.

Yesterday I ran a mile on a treadmill, that was the first time in a long time that I ran for exercise. Back in October of 2013, I weighed 254 pounds and went on a diet and got down to 204 pounds in a year, and I remember that I did that by running consistently. I plan on running three days a week, that's my goal for this year.

I lost a couple of pounds already after dieting and staying away from fast food for a couple of days, I went from 271 pounds to 267 pounds, so I'm already making progress.
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This is a list of rules and guidelines for me to lose weight.


The three most important weight loss rules

1.) Go to bed early, wake up early

2.) Track all of your calories with MyFitnessPal

3.) Split your lunch in half, eat half at noon, other half in late afternoon

Drink large container of water before eating, and after eating to kill hunger.

Visualize how you want to look at the end of your cut, and focus on that throughout the day and whenever you feel a craving

Invest in a gift card to a grocery store, this will prevent you from buying junk food with your money

Write a grocery list and stick to it 100%

Follow the 80/20 rule; eat healthy 80% of the time, junk food 20% of the time

Eat plenty of fruits as snacks, especially if you're hungry at night

Exercise daily, if you can't fit a weight training session into your day, do some cardio, either running or cycling; but try to make most of your days cardio AND weight training

Your cardio has to be out of control, at least two miles or more of running or 8 or more miles of cycling

Eat less and take advantage of post exercise appetite suppression

Go to bed earlier so you have the advantage of not eating more later at night

Life revolves around weight training, not the other way around

Losing bodyfat is like World War One, where soldiers fought for days just for inches of trenches.

You need to take command and think like you're in a vehicle, and every time you go off your diet you're stopping and postponing getting to your destination.

Failing to plan is planning to fail, so if you know the ice cream truck will come at night and you find it hard to resist, buy enough nonfat yogurt to mix with whey protein powder instead.

All that matters is that when you go to bed at night, you ate below your TDEE calorie limits, didn't eat sweets, and ate healthy.

Sometimes, eating above your TDEE is okay if you ate healthy foods like fruit, to help wean you off of junk foods.

Tracking your calories is a must, it is not optional. MyFitnesspal is a great help.

Try to go six months without buying fast food.

If you're hungry enough for fast food or sweets, then you can eat your healthy lunch, and that will beat your cravings. Cravings are just hunger in disguise.
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When I lost weight in 2014, I went from 254 pounds to 204 pounds, and I didn't keep a log, so I don't remember the things I did to achieve that dramatic weight loss. This log is so I can keep track of what I did right, in case I ever get out of shape again. This will be a log of when I exercise and what kinds of foods I eat.

Habits are like piecing together a thread one at a time until you have a rope that is impossible to break.

Thursday, January 25th, 2018

I was sick Thursday January 18th, through Monday, January 22nd. On Friday the 19th, I only ate two cans of Campbell's chicken noodle soup that my Aunt bought for me, and most of those days I ate a lot less, as well. I weighed around 270 before I got sick, and afterwards I weighed 264.4 pounds. My goal is to stay away from fast food completely, for as long as I can. I would like to see if I can go six months without eating fast food, that would mean until July of this year. (Subway and Chipotle are the only restaurants I'll allow myself to eat at, because they're healthy.)

For the past two days my weight has been around 265, it went up a pound yesterday and stayed there today. I haven't eaten fast food, so that tells me that even when I do things the right way, things can still go wrong. For the past two days, I ate oatmeal with whey protein powder and walnuts in it.

Tuesday, January 30, 2018

I went off my diet and ordered a large pizza and boneless chicken wings on Saturday night, but when I weighed myself this morning I was 263.6 pounds. I've been eating healthy since Saturday night (after eating the pizza) and I made some Pinto beans and brown rice, and I've been eating that for dinner, as well as boneless, skinless chicken breast.

For the Superbowl on Sunday I'm planning on going to Subway instead of getting pizza, I want to continue losing weight, and don't want to thwart my progress.

Friday, February 9, 2018

For Super Bowl Sunday I didn't stay true to my plan, I had four Whoppers from Burger King and for breakfast I had a bag of doughnuts from the doughnut shop.

Starting Monday, February 5, 2018 I am trying to stay away from buying fast food. On Wednesday and Thursday they gave away Carls Jr. at my junior college, so I had some, but tried to keep it healthy by drinking bottled water instead of bottled soda. Wednesday I had a chicken sandwich and Thursday I had a famous star with cheese, both times fries came with them.

For the past year I've had this mindset that the diet will start tomorrow, and I use that mindset as a crutch to excuse myself into eating fast food or sweets. My goal is to go six months without fast food. That means from February 5th until August 5th I won't eat unhealthy foods. If I fall off the wagon, I won't use that as an excuse to over indulge.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Yesterday I activated a guest pass at the L.A. Fitness at Norwalk Square. It is located 15 feet underground, below the shopping center. It isn't a huge gym, but there aren't very many people there, it's the least crowded gym I've ever been to. Mike, the guy who wrote me up the guest pass, told me about a deal where if I pay $200 plus first and last, I would only need to pay $20 per month for life, with no annual fees or payment increases. I decided to get a membership there, when I get paid in late March.

I worked out there yesterday and today, it's really convenient, because the route one picks me up right in front of the gym, and drops me off right in front of the college.

I've been successfully staying away from fast food, last night I ate Pinto beans for dinner and I felt full, and this morning my weight was down to 263.2 pounds.

Friday, February 23, 2018

I’ve been losing weight consistently, I started using MyFitnessPal since Friday, February 16th. This is what I’ve been needing to do since the beginning. Aunt Jo told me her boyfriend Glen said I looked like I’ve lost weight.

Sunday, 3/4/2018 Beans are the key
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On March 4th, 2018 I was craving fast food when I ate some Pinto beans and felt full. On Saturday, March 3rd, I had cooked the beans and ate some before going to the library. I noticed that I felt physically better than I usually do, and I attribute that to the beans.

On March 4th I cooked tilapia and had corn and beans, when I realized that beans are the key to everything. Fast food gives you a rush, but beans give you another kind of rush, a healthy rush. Beans have protein, carbohydrates and fat, and sustain you better than just about any other kind of food.

Wednesday, 3/14/2018

My weight got down to 258.2 pounds after dieting for two and a half weeks starting February 5th, but I was at too much of a deficit and my cravings went through the roof and I went back up to the mid 260's. For the past three days I've been doing good, I eat oatmeal and walnuts for breakfast, and chicken breast and fruit for lunch.

I'm trying to stay away from bread; several years ago I was on a diet and I told my friend Robert in Fresno what I was eating, and he said the bread in my sandwiches were too much carbohydrates. I'm keeping that in mind, so every night after dinner I cook two chicken breasts and put them in the fridge for my lunch the next day. One thing I've noticed about chicken is that I lose a lot of weight any time I eat chicken breasts. At night I eat a cup and a half of Pinto beans, and it's really filling and makes me feel good.

Yesterday afternoon, my Aunt Josey offered to buy me In-N-Out for dinner, and I declined. If I can keep taking this diet seriously, I think I can make it. I weighed in at 260.2 pounds this morning.

Yesterday I was looking through Facebook on my iPad, and I saw an ad to join a club at the Habit burger joint, and by signing up I get a coupon for a free Char burger with cheese. The coupon expires in April, but I don't want to use it just yet because I don't want to screw up my diet. I'll try to wait a couple of weeks before I use it.

Saturday, 3/17/2018

On Thursday, March 15th, I used my coupon at the Habit, and got a burger and French fries. Yesterday I weighed in at 259.2 pounds, and I gave in and ate a huge double quarter pound cheeseburger at Burger King, but I still weighed in at 258.8 pounds this morning, so I lost forty percent of a pound despite indulging.

This sort of thing has happened before, but I never documented it. I’m writing about it now so I can be aware of it.

Friday, 4/13/18

I've gone up and down in weight for almost a month, not going above 262 but not going below 258. For three days, from 4-9-18 until 4-11-18, I weighed 261.6 pounds, but then I ate two Jumbo Jacks and some Cholula fries at Jack in the Box, and I lost over a pound the next day. I just thought I'd mention that in my journal, because this sort of thing has happened before, but I was unsure if I documented it or not. I lost a fraction of a pound between yesterday and today, so I was 260 pounds this morning.

I've been weighing myself each day, instead of twice or three times a week. I have four ten dollar gift cards that I got from Caremore, and I used one at Ralph's yesterday to get fresh spinach, bananas and apples.

Tuesday, 4-17-2018

I’ve lost almost ten pounds since I weighed 265 pounds, I was 256.2 pounds this morning. I was running to the bus stop on Studebaker to catch the 111 Metro, and I noticed that it took less effort than when I was 9 pounds heavier.

Friday, 4-27-2018

I was 254.6 this morning, I got paid and only went to Subway once, I had to get something at Costco and avoided the snack bar and ate a peanut butter sandwich and a banana and that killed the cravings. It’s getting easier to avoid cravings now that I’ve lost a significant amount of weight. I don’t want to ruin my winning streak.

Monday, 4-30-18

I've weighed 254 for several days now, not sure what's going on but I think if I started exercising again that might help. I've been busy with school, but tomorrow I plan on going to the gym near the school.

Tuesday, 5-1-18

I went to the gym this morning and lifted weights and rode a stationary cycle. Afterwards I was hungry so I bought a signature wrap from Subway; I bought the turkey and guacamole without bacon, it was awesome. It has twice the meat as a six inch, but less breading than a footlong.

Thursday 5-3-18

I ate Subway today at the college, and I went to Burger King for dinner. I want to try to only eat fast food sporadically, instead of every day for a week like I did before. I may never completely stop eating fast food, but I can limit how often I consume it. I think it was unrealistic to think I could go six months without fast food; certain things trigger me. When I got home today, my cousin had bought pizza, and I had a slice. That made me rationalize going to Burger King, and I just couldn't resist the urge.

As long as I eat there infrequently, I should be okay. The problem I had in the past was I would eat fast food six or seven days in a row, and I would gain 7 or 8 pounds in that week, and it would take three weeks to lose it again; if I had $70, I would eat fast food every day until the money was completely gone. When I eat fast food, I need to keep track of when I had it, so I can avoid eating it until a minimum time period has elapsed. I would like to only eat fast food once every two weeks, that is my new goal.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

While waiting for the bus Valerie said it looked like I had lost weight, especially in the face.

Saturday February 15, 2020

I went down to 275 pounds today from eating low carbohydrates. Yesterday I ate peanut butter for lunch without the bread, and had chicken breast for dinner.

Thursday, 2/1/24

In December 2023 I bought a set of stainless steel measuring cups and measuring spoons. On January first, I began meticulously keeping track of everything I ate. I figured if there was a super soldier formula, I would be meticulous about buying and measuring the ingredients, so I might as well be meticulous about keeping track of my calories.

I started watching a guy named Sam Sulek on YouTube, and he mentioned downloading a specific app to track calories. I downloaded it and it asked me how many calories I wanted to consume per day and what my goal weight was. At 2,500 calories a day, it would take 23 months to reach 196 pounds, but at 2,000 calories a day, it should only take 16 months. It was then that I decided to consume 2,000 calories a day.

Around the 17th of January, I ate 2,000 calories a day, using MyFitnessPal to guide me. By January 31st, I was 10.2 pounds lighter than on January 1st. I overate a couple of times, but now I’m accustomed to eating less.

Wednesday, 2/7/24

I lost 10.2 pounds in January, and now I’m down to 275.2 pounds. I got paid the day before yesterday, and splurged on spaghetti, but had only one serving of noodles, which is two ounces. I also had tri-tip. I only went up about a pound the next morning.

Yesterday for dinner I had S.O.S. with two slices of Dave’s killer bread, one pound of Jenny-O turkey sausage and a packet of McCormick country gravy. I weighed less this morning than yesterday.

I’ve been walking the dog multiple times a day, but haven’t been lifting weights lately, and am still making progress.

Saturday, 2/10/24

I dropped three pounds since yesterday. I ate some tri-tip and I think I actually went over my calorie goals for the day yesterday. I did a little bit of running with my dog, not sure if that helped. It might be what is called a re-feed day, where I restoked my metabolism by eating more than usual.

Monday, 2/19/24

On Saturday 2/17/24 my dog Teddy passed away. He got hit by a car and had to be euthanized. I got him in December 2022 and walked him multiple times a day, 7 days a week. In March 2023 I got down to 265 pounds, a record low for me since moving to a rural area. Today, I hit the 260’s for the first time since 2023 and I owe it to dieting, and walking with Teddy all of this time. I miss him!

I’m more motivated to stay the course and lose bodyfat because Teddy got me started on this weight loss journey, and I don’t want to let him down. I feel like his spirit is still with me.

Thursday, 2/22/24

Tonight I was offered pizza and I refused, that’s the first step through a threshold into a diet. The clock finally starts ticking, and I want to see how long I can stay on this diet.

Saturday, 3/2/24

I finally broke through the 265 barrier! I’m at my lowest weight since 2019. I’ve been consistently eating 2,000 calories a day, and weight training six days a week.

Monday, 3/4/24

Today I went shopping and still did my weight training session after lunch after returning home. Before, I always skipped exercise on shopping days because I was too tired, this is the first time I can recall that I followed through on a day like this.

Wednesday, 3/6/24

Today I walked three and a half miles to my doctor appointment, and back home the same distance. I still did my leg weight training workout after I got home, which is something I’ve never done after walking that much. I felt stronger, only my feet hurt, not my leg muscles. Lifting weights consistently has paid off!

Saturday, 3/23/24

I weighed 259.2 pounds this morning, that is the first time I’ve been below 260 pounds in five years. The other day someone gave me half of a medium pizza, and I ate it for lunch, but tracked the calories on MyFitnessPal. I skipped a regular dinner and ate fruit, and still managed to stay below 2,000 calories for that day.

Wednesday, 3/27/24

On Monday I went off my diet and binged, I ate over 3,000 calories instead of 2,000. Yesterday, I weighed 260.4 pounds instead of 259.4 pounds. I trained and worked arms, and today I was down to 259.6 pounds. When I binged, I ate mainly healthy foods. In past times, I would’ve gone up two or three pounds or more. I think that because I’ve been exercising, my metabolism is stronger.

Wednesday, 6/12/24

I decided that I want to work toward a two day training split, where I train all the muscles in my body over the course of two days, three workouts a day. I’ve taken a lot of time off, so I’ll have to approach this slowly.

I was 259 a couple of months ago, and now I’m around 285. I want to get back on track and train regularly.

Friday, 6/14/24

My new motivation is to get stronger than people who think they can take advantage of me because I’m disabled. I can channel that rage to not missing workouts.

Monday, 7/29/24

On Wednesday, July 24, I signed up for a one week trial of Amazon Prime and ordered some Olympic weights. On Thursday, 7/25/24, six Olympic collars came in the mail. On Friday 7/26/24, the weights and a case of Paydays came in. I ordered 8 ten pound Olympic plates and 4 five pound Olympic plates, and two adjustable Olympic dumbbells. The Olympic curl bar is supposed to come in on Tuesday 7/30/24.

On Sunday, I ate two or three Paydays, and weighed less this morning than I did yesterday. They’re high in protein so they’re better for you than other candy bars.

Fat to Fit log August 10, 2024

Yesterday I had a serious panic attack that took an hour to wear off. I decided to stop drinking Gatorade permanently and to stop putting salt in my foods.

Today I decided to start making chow mein with Garafolo noodles, chicken breast and vegetables. I copied and pasted the recipe, and I adjusted my budget so I can get he ingredients. I’m also going to make steak picada.

I’m also going to buy more vegetables every time I go shopping.
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Personal history of weight gain and weight loss

Back in 1989 when I was 18 years old, I went up to 196 pounds, and that was the most I weighed up until that point in my life. Before that, I had always been lean. Between October of 1989 and May of 1990, I got down to 155 or 160 pounds.

In 1991 I got down to 110 pounds at 5’-11.5” but got back up to 160 pounds, and stayed there until age 27.

In 1998 I got weighed and was in the high 190’s, and in 1999 I had a doctor’s appointment and got weighed and was 240 pounds. I didn’t even realize I was that obese. In 2002 I was on a 2,000 calorie a day diet, and over the course of 6 months or so, I got down to 175 pounds.

Over the course of a couple of years, I went back up to the 290s. I bought a scale and weighed myself, and gradually got down to 240 pounds.

Between 2010 and 2012, I stayed between 270 and 240. In October 2013 I went on a diet, and in November 2014 I weighed 204 pounds.

I gained weight progressively and was in the 230s for a decent amount of time, but junior college took up too much of my time and I gradually gained weight until I was in the 260s when I graduated in 2018.

In the summer of 2020, I moved to a rural area and bought a new scale. I was 293 pounds. Every year, I got down to a lower weight, but shot back up to the 290s. In 2021 I got down to 278, in 2022 I got down to 274.

I got a dog in December 2022 and walked him 5 times a day for a half hour each time, for 7 days a week. I got down to 265 pounds in 2023, but the dog died in February 2024. In April 2024, I got down to my record low of 259 pounds. That was my lowest weight in over 7 years.

From September 2024 until February 2025 I weighed in the 290s. In late February I weighed 286, but bought $40 of junk food and got to 300 pounds April 13th, 2025. I realized that in an emergency I would have a hard time walking the mile and a half to the bus stop if I needed to get to town, so I decided to go on a diet and start walking in the mornings.

Back during the summer of 2024, I knew I needed to walk, but liked staying up late so when I woke up, it was late in the morning and it was too hot to go for a walk. In April through August of 2025, I went to bed early and woke up around 6 am, and walked. I started out for half an hour, then did 40 minutes for a month, and eventually an hour each morning before breakfast.

I got to the low 270s in August of 2025.