One fringe benefit of losing weight is it saves you money on clothing.  I now can fit into a lot of clothing that I purchased when I was a couple sizes smaller.

Which reminds me of a tip I read somewhere.  Don't get to fixated on the scale.  Your weight goes up and down, and muscle weighs more than fat.   How your clothing fits can be a better sign of progress.  Especially when you are working hard to lose weight but it's not showing up on the scale.

Current Weight: 189

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Weeks went by and I barely lost a pound, despite sticking to my exersize routine.  The good news is I am still slimming down, and am now at 190 pounds.  Just 10 pounds from my 180 target. 

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While I am still working on losing weight, now at 193.  I am changing the focus of this blog a bit.  I'll still share my Frugal Weight loss experiences but will also post tips, new stories and anything else I come accross that I think might save people money.

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I exercised every day this week for 30 minutes or more and lost two pounds.  Not earth shattering, but it's still progress.  At one point I weighted myself and I was down to 195, but Sunday night it was up to 197.

Current Weight: 197

Here are some tips I use for eating out:

1. Don't eat out!  It's tough to control portions and unless it's a major chain, you can't easily get nutrition information.  I used to eat out fairly regularly but have scaled it back quite a bit. There is no question I could save money and lose weight if I stopped altogether.

2. Eat Less.  At sit down restaurants, plan on only eating half of whatever you order.  Portions are huge, especially at Mexican and Italian restaurants.  I always plan on having leftovers and I get two meals out of it and don't go home without a stomach ache.

3. Drink Water.  Avoid sugary pops, just opt for water.  Less calories and less sugar.

4. Fast Food.  Pass on the fries or anything fried.  Just get the sandwich.  I also don't get a soft drink.  You save money by buying larger sizes but the food is lousy in the first place, less is more.  Just get a cheap sandwich and try to avoid eating there altogether.

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I stuck with my program and exersized (eliptical trainer) every night this weed for 30 minutes.  Stretching before and after has helped a lot.  I watched my diet pretty well.   My strategy for diet has been to cut out snacks, desserts, pop (and other sugary beverages) and avoiding eating out so much.  I have also tried to eat better when i do eat out.  I'll put together another post about that.  I already eat pretty well, so I am not drastically changing my diet yet, just trying to eliminate some bad habits.  By the end of this week when I weighed myself I had lost 6 more pounds.  Hopefully I'll weight less than 200 by the end of this week.  The blog seems to help motivate me to exersize everyday.

Current Weight: 202

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30 minutes on my elliptical trainer burns between 350 to 400 calories.  When you consider that there are candy bars that contain nearly that many calories it really makes me think twice before eating calorie heavy snacks.  Fred Meyer regularly has 4 for $1 deals on candy bars, they are easier to pass up when you consider how long you have to spend exercising to burn it off.

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At the end of week two I finally have some weight loss to report.  I exercised 30 minutes 5 days last week and lost 5 pounds.  My weight still fluctuates throughout the day but I am reporting my weight after I exercise, which was 208, on the 14th day of my weight loss program.  Not really a huge payoff for all the hard work, but I am committed to this for 3 months.  So theoretically, I could reach my target of 180 fairly easy at that pace. Next week I hope to exercise 6 days, instead of 5.

Current Weight: 208

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Bananas

One thing that has really helped my muscles recover, other than stretching, is eating a banana (or two) a day.  I noticed that I am much less sore when I start advertising in the evening when I eat atleast one banana a day.

Drinking Water

When I started, I was drinking water while exercising.  I have stopped doing this, it just seems to be a distraction.  I am not going to die of thirst from 30 minutes of exercise, I drink some water before and as much as I feel I need after.

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Another great tip I discover was eating an apple before eating.  If you shop around you can find school boy apples for $1 a pound or less.  They are great for between meal snacks and if I eat one before a meal, I do find I can eat less to get full.  I now combine this tip with drinking a glass of water before eating.

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Day 1: I started my exercise routine on my elliptical trainer.  It was pretty hard on my legs. I started with 15 minutes.   My hope was to add 5 minutes a day and to eventually do 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week.  My legs were very sore after only 15 minutes!  I really was not used to exercising.

Day 2: The next day I did 20 minutes but did a different program that had lower resistance for most of the workout but spiked occasionally.  It was difficult but I made it through 20 minutes.

Day 3: The next day my legs were extremely sore! I didn't ride the Elliptical.

Day 4: On the 4th day my legs were still sore, but I got the bright idea of stretching before I got on the elliptical.  It made a big difference.  I noticed that once I get to 15 minutes, I get a second wind and can pretty easily go for another 10 minutes.  I was able to do 25 minutes and then stretched afterwards. 

Day 5: On the 5th day I was able to do my target time of 30 minutes on the elliptical.  It really didn't seem much harder than 25 minutes.

Day 6: 30 minutes again.

Day 7: I was sore and tired, so I didn't exercise.

The Bad News

I haven't lost much weight.  I have tried to eat better in addition to the exercise above and so far I have maybe lost 2 pounds.  The good news is that even in just one week, I have developed more stamina on the elliptical and have developed a nice routine of stretching and exersize.

Disclaimer

What works for me, may not work for you.  I am a relatively healthy 30 year old male who in the past has been pretty athletic.  So ramping up to 30 minutes of exercise seemed reasonable to me.  But I have since researched this a bit more and many sites and books recommend easing into a routine slower than I did and consulting a doctor before starting.

Current Weight: 212

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I currently weigh around 215 pounds.  I work in a job that basically requires that I sit down for 8 hours a day.  This has caused me to gain weight every year that I have been working this job.  At 30 years, I have decided to try to stop the yearly weight and gain and reverse it.  I have decided that my best target weight is 180 for my height which is 5'9". 

BMI

When I did research for what my best target weight would be I was surprised to find out that even at 180 pounds, I would be borderline overweight according to the commonly used BMI (Body Mass Index).  My ideal weight for my height according to BMI is 128 to 176 pounds.  When I was a skinny athlete in college I didn't weigh 164 pounds, probably closer to 175, so I am not sure what to make of the BMI for choosing a target weight.  You can check your BMI at the link below.

http://www.consumer.gov/weightloss/bmi.htm

Frankly, I think it's just an index to make everyone feel lousy about themselves. :-)  I'll stick with a target weight of 180 pounds.

My Plan

Here's my plan for losing the weight.

1. Exercise: I have a Horizon Elliptical Trainer that has been gathering dust.  My goal is to ride it 6 days a week for at least 30 minutes.  I won't start out at 30 minutes a night, I work my way up to it.

2. Diet: I'll watch what I eat.  Easier said than done, but I am going to be a label watcher and will try to incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet.

3. No Gimmicks: I want long term weight loss, so I am going to try to change my behavior and routines.  I won't spend money to lose weight, other than buying better food.

4. Daily Progress:  I am going to track my progress daily by weighing myself daily after exercising. 

5. Realistic Expectations: I am going to work on this for three months.  I have read that losing weight is a slow process, so I am not expecting anything dramatic early on.  I have also read that muscle weighs more than fat, so I don't expect my exercise to result in a lot of weight loss until I have built up some muscle.

Starting Weight: 213 pounds

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Hey folks,

In this blog I will share tips for weight loss that has worked for me.  I work in the computer industry and have gained weight over the past 5 years.  Now I am starting to work it off.  I have only been at it for a few weeks so I lot to learn but I also have already found some strategies that work.  If anyone else has some tips to share, feel free to send them to fisherswanson@gmail.com and I will probably post them and try them out!

Thanks for stopping by,
Fisher

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