Week three now underway...

The sweet taste of success - well, at least in portion controlled doses!

Well, week one and two have flown by and now I have lost a total of 6.5 pounds since my start. This is what I am eating each day:

Breakfast (a choice of one of these):

1/3 cup oatmeal - about 2/3 a cup once prepared; 2 - 1" slices of cantaloupe

or

1 slice whole grain toast with natural almond butter; 2 - 1" slices of cantaloupe

large glass of water

Mid morning snack:

one rice cake with 2 tablespoons fat free strawberry cream cheese

large glass of water

daily multivitamin and B-complex

Lunch:

1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1 rice cake, salad with greens, feta, red onion and balsamic/EVOO, 10 baby carrots

or

1 can tuna, 2 Ryvita crackers, and salad with greens, feta, red onion and balsamic/EVOO, 10 baby carrots

Mid-afternoon snack:

Protein shake made with skim milk

Dinner:

Lean Cuisine dinner (on rushed days with school / rehearsals)

or

4oz chicken breast with 2 servings vegetables (broccoli, cucumber, asparagus etc) and sometimes 1/2 cup plain mashed red potatoes.

Evening snack:

Crispy minis serving (crunchy dill) about 10-12 mini rice cakes is a good snack that hits a bit of a hunger spot, but gives me that "salty chips" flavour in my mouth. hit back a big glass of water after that and I am good to go.

That is a sample of my meals right now, in total, I am consuming, 1850 calories each day, 18G fat, 150g of protein.

EXERCISE:

after two months not in the gym from moving and getting settled in, today I will start up again. Some people find it easier to start working out first, then adjust their eating; I have to do it the other way around. I find if I can commit to eating well first, then the workout will be a natural outflow from that, which is definitely the case. I am feeling great this week, even though I have only lost a few pounds. I will start hitting the gym once every morning to to about 35 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight training. the weights I will alternate upper body, lower body each getting in three per week, for a total of 6 days per week on weights and 6 sessions of cardio. that will jump start me for the first 4 weeks. Then I will add a second hit of cardio at the end of the day - a 20 HIT (high-intensity Interval training) session.

That's all for now...pictures to be posted later this morning.

~Big guy on a mission

Today is the day...Week one

Today is the start of something great for me.

Well, today I saw a blog online by a guy that looked exactly like me...well at least his body. I can't say if he had my boyish good looks (he had no face shot)  or fine canadian charm, but as for the love handles and man-boobs -as I not so affectionately call "schmeebes"- we looked EXACTLY the same. Which sort of scared me, and here's why.

I did a google search for love handles -hoping I would see from other guys who were once in similar shape to me how to lose them- and I came across a blog that was a guy like me trying to lose weight and get in shape. He was a typical 20-something fat guy with large love handles easily seen from the front and the back. I guessed his waist would have been around 40" or maybe even 42". Nevertheless, he honestly posted pictures of himself and shared his heart in his blog - wanting badly to lose weight. so he created (or downloaded) a series of tables and charts that helped him track his weight-loss, including food intake an all nutritional information, a graph with his weight-loss, and a schedule of his cardio regiment. I have to say, his progress reports and monthly picture postings of himself really inspired me to get cracking on all this too. 

So here we go; let me tell you a bit about myself.

I am 28 years old (born may 20 1980), married and live with my wife in Toronto. We are super happy together, just bought our first home, and are both ambitious and in good careers. My wife looks fantastic, and has since the day we were married. I, on my wedding day, had a nice 6-pack to boast of, and was very fit - I worked out 4-5 times per week and ate very green and clean. since, then I have gained about 35 pounds and now need to do something serious to get myself back in shape.

I am 5'10.5" (same height as my blog-inspiring counterpart) and I weigh in at 215 pounds on my accurate home scale as of today, October 20th, 2008.

So, I am making it my target weight to be at 190 pounds. Once I reach my goal weight, I will set a "leanness goal" of any further results I would like to reach.

For any other fat guys out there wanting to get fit, hopefully you will follow along in my journey to achieve my 'best body' - and more importantly, a happier me.