Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings

The scale read 262.5 pounds this morning, which is 9.5 pounds lighter than one week ago. Though, I tend to trust my “trend weight” calculation a little more. It’s currently at 265.22, which is still almost 7 pounds down. So far, I’d have to say that our new eating plan is doing pretty good. We haven’t had a chance to start the exercise plan yet. I’m hoping that we can get our treadmill moved from the basement to the garage this afternoon. Especially since Ivan is heading this way, and we’re likely to be stuck indoors much of the week (just like a couple of weeks ago when Frances blew through).

I’ve written up some notes and added a new page to the site, where I’m tracking my progress. See the Weight Goal page for all the boring details. And a pretty graph. I like graphs.

I’ve also added a current weight stat at the bottom of my menu. So you can just scroll down towards the bottom of any page to see my progress so far.

At the beginning of this year, I had resolved to lose some weight. My goal had been to lose one pound per week, though I really only managed about half of that, because I never started exercising as I had intended. By the beginning of May, I had lost right around 10 pounds. Then, in the shuffle of relocating to Georgia, I found myself unable to keep up with my weight loss program. In recent weighings, I find that I’ve gained back all the pounds that I had lost previously.

Now that we’re finally more-or-less settled, Susan and I both wanted to pay more attention to our health. We discussed several options: joining a gym or other exercise program (Jazzercise, Curves, etc), following an established diet/exercise plan (Atkins, Hacker’s Diet, etc.), or just doing our own thing (walking, watching what we eat). We were leaning towards the latter option, but finally decided that we’d like something more structured. We did some research, and after a lot of searching and reading many consumer report reviews, we’ve decided to give the Six-Week Body Makeover plan a try.

We received the materials for the plan a few weeks ago, and we finally made time to review them over the last week or so. Today is our first day on the plan. I won’t bother you with the details of it right now, but basically, it suggests eating five or six small meals each day, and it outlines a light cardio/resistance exercise program, designed to shape specific muscle groups, according to your particular “problem areas” and desired body shape. The program seems very reasonable and well thought out. We couldn’t locate any negative reviews in our research.

My breakfast today was an egg white omelette with tomato and a cup of fruit (pineapple and strawberries). At first I was thinking, “one cup isn’t very much.” But between the omelette and the fruit, it was a very filling breakfast. Susan had an omelette, some oatmeal and half a banana. For lunch, we made baked potatos topped with turkey chili (ground turkey, tomatoes, pinto beans, and a low-sodium mix of spices), with a side of steamed broccoli. Again, very filling.

Her plan is slightly different from mine (remember, it’s tailored to your gender and body style), but our meal choices overlap a lot, so cooking meals won’t be a hassle. We pretty much eat all the same types of foods, just in different proportions. For instance, I think she gets more of the complex carbs (like the oatmeal), and I get more fruit, and my protein portions tend to be larger (my omelette had four egg whites, hers had two).

I’ll be tracking my progress here, probably about once per week. The book says that typical first-week weight loss for men is about 5 to 10 pounds. I’m a little bit skeptical, but I’d certainly be happy for it to be true.