Weight Loss Pursuits: : Breakfast and Lunch on Work Days

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the direction to go with this blog. There are so many possible subjects that fit into the category of daily activities in regards to weight loss. If I'm not careful I could be all over the board; so I'm going to try to use each blog to speak on specific subjects. Sundays will by my weekly update on steps goals, stair climbs, calories, etc. Today I'm going to talk about food.

Breakfast

My breakfast meals don't change very much. On my work days, I eat:

• 2 large eggs (140 calories)
• 2 slices of bacon (158 calories)
• 1 container of yogurt (150 calories for regular or 90 calories for light)
• 1 coffee with sugar and creamer (105 calories)

That makes breakfast a total of around 473 calories depending on the yogurt. 

Note: I feel I should mention the differences with regular yogurt and light Yoplait brand. When I first saw light yogurt I figured it was like all the other lightened versions of sweet foods; I figured it replaced the sugar with a lower calorie (and less healthy) substitute. When I looked at the ingredients, I found the only difference is the amount of sugar added. So I would say, the light is a good substitute for the regular for cutting calories and, in my opinion, the flavor doesn't suffer. I still get some regular yogurts because at the store we shop at, there are certain flavors I like which only come in the regular. However, if there's a choice, I go light. 

Lunch

Like my breakfast, my lunches typically do not change much on my work days. Right now, they are a little different because my employer is doing a colorful challenge asking people to eat fruits and vegetables of all the colors of the rainbow. With that said, on work days I eat:

• Salad, consisting of 
• 2 cups of romaine lettuce (23 calories)
• Croutons, 7 grams (36 calories)
• Crumbled Bacon, 7 grams (25 calories)
• Sunflower Nuts, 1/4 oz (43 calories)
• Italian Dressing, 2 Tablespoons (50 calories)
• 2 large boiled eggs (154 calories)

So, typically my salad is 177 calories and with the eggs added lunch totals 331 calories.  Beginning this week, however, I've added a couple items to my salad for the purpose of my employer's challenge. My added items are:

• 1 cup of raw spinach (20 calories)
• 1 cup of cauliflower (23 calories)

Along with the added nutritional benefits, these two items only add 43 calories to my lunch bringing the total to 374.

Snacks

I decided, since we're talking about food at work, I should mention the snacks I eat as well. Typically for snacks I'll eat:

• 1 cup of pears in light syrup (114 calories)
• 1 pickle (7-15 calories depending on size)
• 1 package of 2 nutty bars (300 calories)

This week, like with lunch, I've added an additional snack for the purpose of my employer's challenge. So in addition to the above, I also have:

• 1/4 cup of raisins (130 calories)

This brings my snacks total to about 559 calories. When adding breakfast, lunch and snacks, my total when I get home from work equals 1406 calories with the new items included. While this sounds like a lot, it would be if I wasn't exercising at all. However, while many places will try to reduce you to an 1800 calorie a day diet, exercise allows for more. 

Lastly, I'll mention I also drink between 4 and 5 liters of water every day when I'm at work. I haven't completely gone off soda but, if I drink it, I drink it only on the weekends. So, this is my food on work days, not counting dinner. There will be a future blog specifically on dinner because it changes every day. For more information on food, see my wife's blog at Stay At Home Wife and Mom. 

Weight loss pursuits August Week 4

So, on a weekly basis I'd like to post specifics concerning my weight loss pursuits in a itemized, form. I'll be sharing daily steps, stair climbs, additional active minutes and calories consumed/burned according to my tracking device and meals with caloric information (probably every 2 or 3 days). Then, once a week, I'll weigh in and share that information and give a brief description of the week. So here we go.

Weekly Facts

• Weight- 497- (Last Week 500.4) Goal: 500 Acheived!!  New Goal- 475
• Steps - 21,619 -Avg: 3088/ day  New Goal- 4,000 per day
• Stair Climbs - 42 - Avg: 6  Goal: 8 / day
• Calories 
• Consumed - 2,675 avg per day
• Burned - 3,979 avg per day (+1,304)

During the week, for additional active minutes, I did some yard work sawing branches with a manual saw. To get calories burned, I went to www.calorielab.com, clicked on the calories burned link on the top of the page, entered my weight and found the activity, in this case, under home repair. This gave me a list of calories burned based on 15 minutes or an hour of doing the activity. As for meals, I won't get into specific meal information this week.

So, a successful week in my weight loss pursuits. God Bless!!

My Purpose (Intro)

First and foremost, this blog is dedicated to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whom I can do nothing without (John 15:5). 1 Timothy 4:18 says "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." All the exercise in the world will only do so much. Taking care of the body is important but in the end, this body will pass away. What really matters is what happens to you eternally. If you don't know Jesus Christ, please take a moment and click this Link to learn how you can be saved and live eternally. God Bless you.

My name is Dennis and I'm currently 500 pounds. A couple months ago I decided I was not only tired of my weight but I would do something about it. So here's a brief history of my story to bring this up to date. About a year ago I bought a tracking device, of which I will not divulge the name, but most anyone who reads this would recognize. I bought this tracker because, at the time, I was 525 pounds and I wanted to see what I could do to help bring that number down. Also, I work for an insurance company, once again I will not share the name, which rewards efforts to manage weight. So, I felt buying this tracking device would assist me in earning rewards and ultimately losing weight. I used the device for the rest of 2016 and stopped at the beginning of the new year because to continue earning rewards I had to see the doctor for basic health numbers to be updated. That brings us to a few months ago when I began using the device again. At the time I was 517 pounds and ready to get serious about losing weight. So, before I get into specific numbers and information, let me explain why I'm doing this blog.

I went back and forth trying to decide whether I should blog my progress in my mission to lose weight. On one hand, there are plenty of haters out there who just look for opportunities to heckle people they don't know from the cowardly shield of a computer screen. On the other hand, how many down to Earth, real life 500+ pound people are online talking about the daily struggle of staying motivated to do the work of losing weight? I haven't checked, but I'm guessing there aren't that many. So my goal here is not only to stay motivated in my pursuit, but also to hopefully encourage others who can identify with my struggle to keep pushing to better themselves through weight loss efforts. I guess I'm imagining that scene in Forrest Gump when he ran across America and gained followers who ran, not because they understood his reasons, but because they felt it had a positive message. I can't promise I'll be on every single day, but I'm going to try at least once a week, otherwise this blog really has no use. So, if you find this blog useful and encouraging, it has done it's job.

So as I said before, using my tracking device and the accompanying app, I am tracking progress in my mission to become three-fifths the man I once was. In the beginning, in July 2017, I started wearing the tracking device without doing any additional exercise to see what I was doing in a day through my normal process. I work at a desk job so additional exercise takes extra effort. I found that in a normal work day, I would take about 1,200 steps. My tracker also tracks stair climbs and I learned I climbed stairs about 3 times a day. My food intake averaged about 3,500 calories so overall I was burning more calories most days than I was consuming. I tried an online exercise through the FitYou app on Roku and I couldn't make it more than 5 minutes so I knew that wasn't my best route to success. I decided to increase my steps to 2,000 a day to start. Through increasing my steps to 2,000 a day, I watched my weight go down to between 507 - 512. Over time, in increments of 250 steps, I've increased my steps to 3,000 through last week and last Sunday I weighed in at 500.4 pounds. I should mention, I weigh in once a week because weight fluctuates and weighing too often can become a de-motivator. So from this point on, I'm going to post more specific information, food intake with calories, steps and stair climbs. I've attached my starting picture taken today at 500.4 pounds.