OurBodyTransformations

So another month and for the first time in a while I have a negative update. I know this is not the way I should start off considering how positive I am usually but I guess a little frustration has set in since there is no one to blame but myself for my weight. So as for my update I gained 1 LB this month and by my own personal BF% Device gained .04% BF, I know some of you are probably like what is he upset about it is only a pound but when you are as heavy as I am and you have been this way what seems like all your life it can drive you NUTS!!!!!! knowing the for a whole month ou do not lose a pound but gained one. So I ended up showing this gain due to the fact that I drank about 60 oz of water a few hours before my weigh in I was trying to make sure that I was hydrated so the DR could read my BF% but AGAIN we were unable to get a reading this makes it 2 times now in a row with no reading and what do I have to show for it an extra pound, of course since my DR visit I have lost that pound but my BF is still not under 38% this is due in part to some very unhealthy eating in the month of April.

So this month on the 8th I celebrated my Birthday I turned 29, my ultimate goal and dream is to lose the rest of my weight before I am 30 and not just the weight but also have my surgery to tighten up my skin. I want to be able to go to the beach and take my shirt off with confidence, it has been something I have wanted to do for a long time I am always the guy in my group that had a shirt on at the beach because I was to embarrased to take it off. So the fustration comes from gaining 1 pound and knowing for me to reach my goal I have to drop about 90 LBS by December and then have sugery and recover before 4/8/2012. It is going to be tough and  I am going to have to step up my weight loss but it will be worth it in the end. I have a good group of friends that help keep me on track, as well as anyone who reads this, I want to always have positive post on this site in hopes that it helps out my readers. As you can see from my last update to now it has been over 4 weeks this was do to me having to process the negative impact I had this month. All in all it could have been worse. So here is my chart as of 4/11

As you can see there were gains in a few areas where there are usually losses and lossess where there are normally gains. Like I said an off month, I am noticing a trend my I am gaining less muscle each month I went from an increase of 2in in some areas to now an increase of a .25in, I know I am not going to see dramitic increases every month espically if I do not stick to the diet 100% but to workout as hard as I do it is just disappointing.  The workout I do is tough even thought you get a 3 min break in between excercises it is a total body workout so it is killer on the whole body. I work out with a close friend of mine who I have known for over 11 years, he was a tiny guy when met hime what I mean by that is he was 6ft tall and had the width of a string bean. Fast forward to now still 6ft tall but 180 LBS of muscle with a BF% of 15. so when we workout I have someone that helps push me to my limit since I am always trying to keep up with him and even trying to surpass him but he is like Bruce Willis in the movie Unbreakable, evey week when we are working out he seems to increase his lift in at least one excercise by 10 LBS. I have increased my lift is a few excercises but considering we started out lifting the same weight and now he is 50 LBS ahead of me when it comes to rows, one of the machines we use can only hold a max of 200 LBS and I finally move to 160 in my dead lift after 2 months but my friend has been on 200 LBS for the past 3 weeks, like I said Unbreakable, and for anyone who has not seen this movie, there is a scene where no matter how much weight was put on to the weight Bruce Willis was able to pick it up, so now you can understand the reference as well . OK I have to go but I am going to try and make this my final negative post. I hate being negative espacially when it comes to talking about myself so I will make an improvements allowing me to stay motivated. Until May, keep up the good work and if you have not strated yet, start today at lunch do some air squats before you eat, just for 1 minute that still leaves you a minimun of 29 minutes for lunch or 59 if you get an hour and if you can’t spare that one minute then spare 30 seconds.

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So I has my appointment today and things were good but the one thing I was looking forward to did not get to happen. I was unable to get my Body Fat% tested, the machine would not register. So I am going to have to wait for my results on the BF%. But I did lose another 1.2 LBS. Hopefully my measurements make up for what went on to only lose 1 LB. So in my last post I used a regular tape measure, and I mentioned that I would be using a new measuring device to do my measurements this month it is called the OrbiTape by Sequoia. So here is the breakdown the measurements will reflect the last 4 weeks Feb 21st – March 14th.

So as you can see this month was not as impressive but it is still a positive month every pound counts and I am happy to have lost one pound instead of gained one pound. I really wish I could have gotten my BF% but no problem. To add to my measuring tools I will also begin tracking my BF% using my own device (Omron HBF-306C)as well as my doctors meter. So in 4 weeks I will post new results and I am shooting to be one BIG loser…………in weight that is. Until next time good luck on your own weight loss adventure.

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OK so as promised I am posting roughly 1 month after my last post. So where do I stand after last month? Lets recap the Chart and I will add the new info as well.

So as you can see the last month has been good to me. I am sure you are wondering how can a shift like this occur in four weeks to gain 2 inches in my leg remove almost 2 inches from my waist and add 1.5 inches in my arms……..well this is due to my new diet and exercise. I actually do a modified version of the actual diet & exercise plan (the only reason I modified it is because I want to lose more fat before putting on more muscle) it is similar in every way of the original plan except I am not using as many supplements as required. So what is this plan you may ask and how can you do it? I have to tell you I owe this success to a Man by the name of Tim Ferris, a good friend of mine bought his book “4 hour body” which can be purchased on Amazon.com. I will give you a run down but I do not want to give away Mr. Ferris’s reasearch for free that would not be fair to him, take it from me one more month with success similar to this and I will be buying my brother a copy of this book as well. The book is under $20.00 and has been a New York Best Seller.  Enough on that, what am I doing you ask; I started eating a little differently it is actually more strict than how I was eating before except for one crazy thing I can eat anything I want every Saturday. As for working out I have cut my workout in half I workout twice a week 30 minutes each work. If you Google Tim Ferris geek to freak you can get a much better idea of what I am doing now his results are amazing and makes my results look like nothing but keep in mind I modified mine to work better for me since I want to lose more weight before I go all in to packing on the muscle. Let me tell you I have had some crazy cheat Saturdays that consist of pizza and pastries and many unhealthy items that I dare not post since they are bad for you.

I want everyone who reads this post to understand one thing I only changed up my diet to try something different to see if it would work my old diet was working fine and I did not plateau and if this diet would not have worked I would have switched back to my old diet but since I received good results I will stick to the new plan for now. It truly makes me feel like my goal first goal of 20% is more than reasonable. I will be posting new starting results by Friday, all measurements above were taken at home by my wife using a good ole measuring tape, my body fat was taken by my doctor. I will begin the new measuring with a product called the OrbiTape as well as calculating my body fat using 2 different devices as well as getting the info from my doctor. I just want to find a device that is consistent as well as accurate for at home use so I can not only keep myself in check but recommend an affordable device that anyone can use. I can tell you using the new items mentioned above my measurements will be different from what I posted before but I want be accurate and the old fashion measuring tape is not accurate because tension is being controlled by a human so depending on how tight or how loose they are when measuring your numbers can vary greatly, if my numbers change from what I have posted here it is because the numbers will have better accuracy than the information above. I believe my new measurements will be smaller in all body parts just because of tension used during measurements. What is a good thing about using the same devices all the time is your numbers can be way off but as long as they are way off consistently the your Gains&Losses will be correct every time. Example: if I weigh 300 LBS on my scale and 290 LBS on another, it would not work to use my scale to get my starting weight and the other to get my ending weight since they vary, but if I use only one of the scales it does not matter which one I use since I will lose the same weight. Now if want to know what my actual weight is then I would need to find out which one is accurate. So I am cutting this post short since I have other things I need to do before work tomorrow and it is getting late, I just wanted to share my good news and hold true to my promise of a minimum of one post a month. As well as shed a little light on a good book that can make a big difference. So to recap new measurement by Monday and I will also give you some background info on how good this book actually is. Here is something to think about when it comes to this book it is the first book I have picked up and kept reading after the first 5 pages in over 10 years!! GOOD NIGHT!

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Hello Readers! I hope the new year has been treating you well as for me I am down…..ON MY WEIGHT!!! My last post was the beginning of November so since then I have we have Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years. So my weight was 302 the day I last blogged and today I am 293! I did not get my goal of 276 but I am under 300 and I do not plan to see that number anytime soon. I lost a total of 83 LBS in one year. So how much do you think it would cost to lose the amount of weight I lost……….about $125 a month, I tell you this because I want you all to know that my effort is my own but I am being guided, I see my doctor every month the average you see there is the cost for all my blood work medication and doctors visits, almost anyone can do the diet I am doing and as log as you follow it you should lose weight as well. Up until now I have just been giving you my total weight loss I don’t remember telling you my Body Fat %. This number is not my BMI it is my body fat what percent of my body is FAT. When I started my Body Fat % was 53% and after everything I have done so far I am down to 42.8% that is right around 10% fat reduction. So as my buddy Shannon stated in a previous post New Year New Resolution, to recap my goal last year was to lose weight I did not define an exact amount but after a month I did and it was 100 LBS which I feel I came pretty close to, just because I failed does not mean I should give up, I am high and I always will, I make a big goal and add milestones to get there that way if I fail I can still see my progress and understand what happened and why it happened. If I would have set my goal to 50 LBS which is still an impressive amount of weight I would have short changed myself considering I lost 33 LBS more than that. OK now for my resolution. My new goal for the new year is to lose 32.8% of my body fat! I am no longer going to set a weight loss goal due to my new work out and diet plan my weight will no longer be accurate, this all also have me blogging more since I will be posting my results every month, even if I am getting on just to post my stats it will happen every month I promise, I know you are probably thinking to yourself “I will believe it when I see it,” but I am excited about my goal and I will post every month stay tuned.

I usually try to have some type of advice and/or something personal so here is what I have it is a combination of the 2, do not let stress cost you the ability to lose weight, I use to eat when I was stressed and I also use to blame not exercising on everything under the sun I am stressed, I want to hang out, I am tired, I just got off work, I work to hard……etc I am sure if I took 5 minutes I could have come up with a minimum of 50 more excuses they may not  make any sense but no excuse makes sense except for a few (example: a serious injury). I told you that to tell you this My dad has been in and out of the hospital since 11/1/2010 and 1/13/2011 in this time period my dad has had 2 surgeries, the first time was here in NC where I live I traveled from Charlotte to Winston-Salem several times during the month of November then the last time he was in the hospital it was in FL and it was on New Years Day I was not able to make it to FL until the following weekend which was 1/8/2011 he was released on 1/13/2011 after having surgery again, then yesterday 1/18/2011 @ 7:45 I get a phone call from my sister that my parents were involved in a car accident, they were hit in the back panel on the driver side causing them to 360. My parents are not old but they are not young they are both in there 60′s, they are doing  OK my mom is in pain but she is walking around, as for my dad he is still in the hos[ital they have him on a heart monitor I spoke to him yesterday and just like any dad would he said he is OK. After being out of the hospital for 5 days he is back in there again, my dad has spent 14 of 19 days in January in the hospital. As much emotional stress I am feeling and lack of sleep and driving that I have done since November I have still managed to lose 9 LBS in 2 1/2 months. So there really is almost no excuse to say ”I can’t lose weight.” Alright enough of my sad note I will now post my beginning stats.

I know the same number was put for Waist and Hips but I have no shape I am like a ruler the only curves I have are fat ones. Well like I said I will post my results in a month so we can see how much I have changed. Here’s to you and your family and to my new weight loss strategy. See you in 4 weeks Cheers!!!

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So I am still having trouble trying to keep the once a month commitment but I am trying I promise. If you have been following me you can see that from my Title I am currently down to 302 (was 307 on last post). October was a tough month I did not follow my diet completely to the T, I actually cheated for an entire week, let me tell you not a good idea it set me back from seeing under 300, but that is ok, the one thing I have said is  you have to keep going. I have a personal goal of losing 100LBS my first year I have currently lost 74 LBS. I believe I started my diet around the 20th of January so I have around 2 months to lose 26 LBS that is 13LBS a month. I know that seems like a crazy amount of weight to try to drop with in 2 months but in my first month i lost 20 LBS. So how will I make this possible I will not allow myself to stray away from my goal. Which means back to eating right, no cheating and more exercise. So a challenge I have had that I almost see as a diet turn off is part of the body transformation itself.

**WARNING ABOUT TO GET INTO AN AREA OF TMI** When you are a guy like me who has constantly gained weight from birth to age 27 you really don’t know what will happen when you start losing weight, all you think about is how great you will look and feel, well feel great yes look NO. One thing I have a hard time getting use to is the look of my skin as I lose weight my skin hangs, I have tried using “Skin Firming” lotion and I try to keep the Coco Butter on but it can’t help what I have. Anyway because of this I have not done any Cardio since Month3 of my life change, I have done all weight training in hope that I can build muscle to help keep the skin from hanging as much. I tell you this because as embarrassing as it sounds especially with you knowing what I looklike do to me posting pictures the people that would read my blog are probably the ones who want to lose weight as well. All of the commercial diets along with people like Jared “The Subway guy” will never tell you that this challenge exist and you should know it is there, I have come to terms that when I get to where I want to be I will just have to have a surgery known as a “Body Lift” to get rid of the extra. Anyone who loses the amount of weight I am trying to lose would have to do this unless there is some secret that I don’t know about and I have looked hard. I tell you this because Cardio is one of the best things you can do on a diet it is also the item that helps show definition in your body. You can do 100′s of crunches believe me in high school 200 a day 5 days a week, but if you do not do cardio you will never see your abs. I have held back and could have lost more weight if I would have came to terms with “The Skin” issue sooner.

Anyway I hope my trials through this process benefits you and helps you learn from my mistakes to you can have consistent weight loss, I know some experiences must happen on there own and to each individual. As for my goal it is set and I plan to achieve it. 26 LBS is a lot of weight but if you remember this you to will always set high goals for yourself, “Some goals are so worthy it’s glorious even to fail”  – Manoj Kumar Pandey

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Back again with more good news I am still on the track with the weight loss!!! So from the last time I blogged I have been to 2 weddings had a small vacation to GA and only worked out about 28 of 60 days, so what did all that do to my weight loss? It set me back from my personal goal by about 5 pounds . But I am over it I told you this because every decision you make can effect…….affect (one of those is correct) your weight loss. My workout suffered in the following way, if you have been following me on my journey then you know I workout during my lunch break at work, well I have been so busy that I have been eating at my desk so I can work (this is never fun). But I am back on track now and trying to make up the lost time.  As for my diet I stayed on track with what I ate but my times were all off, I ate at odd hours since I was partying, but the key was still eating right. So I took 3 trips and the total weight gained was 15 LBS this averages about 5 pounds a trip, I had dropped down to 303, I was only 3 LBS away from my first “Big” goal. So I told you all the bad things first so I can now give you the good news with all the gain and partying I still tried to make sure I did what I had to do to try to lose weight so what do I currently weigh…….307 LBS! 8 LBS less than I weighed in July. I was able to still lose weight because even though I ate unhealthy food and I drank alcohol, I still tried to workout and still ate some healthy meals. Since I did not stick by my diet 100% my weight loss was not as much but I still lost weight which is a positive.

I have been blogging for a while now and I have a couple of pics to share the first one will be of me weighing around 376 and the second is from the end of this May. I am sure you will know who I am the pictures are both from weddings I officiated.

So as you can see when I look at my face from Pic 1 to Pic 2 and I am currently missing 4 of 6 chins it just keeps me going. Just one more chin to go! When I lose more weight I will show some full body pics. Good Luck in your weight loss venture and I will try to post again in October “The Candy Month”……..

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Hello readers! I know it has been a while since I have posted an update but I have just been very busy. Between home life and work life I am struggling to find time. So for the facts I am currently 315 LBS official weight. At the doctors I weighed in at 317 LBS. So as of today I am 61 LBS lighter! I am currently at the weight I was back in late 2004 early 2005. I have undone 5 years of damage in less than 6 months, so if you feel that it takes a long time to lose weight, you are wrong. I understand everyone won’t have the same results I have and age and everything under the sun makes everyone lose weight at a different rate, but one thing we can all agree on is that we all gain weight the same.

So I mentioned above my busy life, I work in IT Security and my job eats up a lot of my time, when I leave work I come home to help take care of my 22 month old boy. Anyone with kids can understand, especially at his age, that is a full time job in itself. So when I get home there is still “work” to do. Cook, clean, and the fun work play with my little man. So the easy thing would be don’t clean, order out, and just play. Which leads to where does my time go and why am i still gaining weight? If this is a question you ask yourself along with the phrase “I am always on the go” or “I am always busy” then I got a tip for you.

Maximize your time and try to make better decisions. I will give you my decisions that help me still lose weight in my “busy” schedule. I work an 8-5 job so I get an hour for lunch, (Tip 1) –>I bring my lunch to work 4 out of 5 days, I know what I am going to eat 4 days a week for lunch this allows me to do 2 things, 1 is allow me to calculate my calories <–(Tip 2) and 2 allows me to workout during my lunch break <–(Tip 3). I use my first 20 – 30 minutes to workout then I use the second half to eat, really who needs an hour to eat unless you have to go and get it. This does not only allow me to use my lunch break wisely but it also saves me $$$ which is always a Plus!

Now at home there are 2 different ways to handle this I am just going off the basics M-T after work Friday leads into the weekend so I have a different schedule. I do not have a problem with a “dirty” house I have a kid so if I cleaned everyday it would only get messy within the hour don’t get me wrong my kitchen get clean after cooking but I don’t pickup toys or vacuum everyday. Back to the plan…My wife and I work as a team so when we get home one of us tends to the baby while the other one cooks this way we can cook instead of ordering take out or getting fast food or popping something into the microwave that is just processed and unhealthy, we do have some meals that cook in 30 minutes and other meals that take 10 minutes. Check out our diet meals on this site they are great and healthy with very little prep. OK to finish up method 1 we have covered cooking, and since we worked out during our lunch break we can enjoy dinner, after dinner light cleaning (dishes, counters, stove) you know things that could cause orders or health issues. Then all that is left is what ever you want to do in my case play with the baby!!

Method 2 for the busy home is pre-made dinners choose a weekend or non-work day and pre-make a few meals that can either be frozen or will hold for a few days in the fridge. I use the FoodSaver which allows me to keep food for a minimum of a week for those really busy times. That way when you come home just heat it up and BAM! Dinner in 5 minutes. This should leave you with some extra time on those work days and you will still be eating healthily VS. the lets just get something quick from around the corner or “lets have it delivered.”

Well folks this is all the time I have it is 1:26 AM, My busy day ended over an hour ago and I really wanted to let you guys know I am still in the weight loss game and I don’t plan on quitting! If you have read my previous blogs my final sentence may at minimum make you crack a smile……..here it comes I am going on a 5 day vacation soon lets see how I do………

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Another first time blogger here as my buddy stated before me I also thought blogging was for people with to much time but the stories we will share mean so much to us. I started my transformation weighing 376 lbs after 2 and 1/2 months I am currently 338 lbs that is a current loss of 38 lbs. I look forward to the coming months and will try to stay up to date with my progress. I will try to post a minimum of once a month. I would like to mention that our weight loss is possible due to us knowing exactly what issues our bodies have and how to help them. I am happy to share my story and I am glad my friends and I share this journey together.

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