HotBlonde
Posted by HotBlonde
Jul 09, 2012

6 Months ago today…

6 Months ago today…
… I started my first day in the weight loss challenge. I weighed in at 192.4 this morning, exactly 6 months after I started. From Jan 9th – July 9th I’ve lost 58.4 pounds total.



I have to say that although I was and am still confident that I can win this challenge I’m having issues with my back again. It started out last week as it had a couple months ago with lower back pressure for several days then turning into sciatic pain. Today is the first day I am experiencing the sciatic pain again. I have taken anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers today and made it to the gym despite the pain. It actually didn’t feel so bad on the elliptical but I’m feeling it now again. I have to say I am not happy about this because if this is going to turn into another month-long ordeal I’m going to be in a LOT of pain. I don’t want to have to go to the ER half a dozen times again. I was looking forward to my doctors appointment with the orthopedic surgeon this coming Wednesday morning, July 11th and was devastated when I got a phone call this morning saying that my appointment is cancelled and it’s being rescheduled for Aug 22nd instead. I was a funny sight crying my eyes out on the elliptical begging the guy to give me a sooner appointment. He’s supposed to get back to me tomorrow so hopefully I won’t have to wait more than one extra week. If worse comes to worse and I can’t exercise due to the pain at least I can try to keep my calorie consumption low and make up for my gym time once the pain is gone. I hope the pain goes away really, really soon!

Comments

Wizard
Wizard Jul 09, 2012

Sorry to hear about your back pain coming back. I hate to see you take extreme measures to win the bet. I'm open to discussing a surrender price.

bigfoot66
bigfoot66 Jul 09, 2012

I am sorry to hear about the back pain. I am also losing weight, I am also losing weight. I am down 88 lbs since August. Keep up the good work!

FleaStiff
FleaStiff Jul 09, 2012

I suggest you avoid any gym machines that put pressure on your lower back and see what happens.



Keep your fluid intake high and good luck.

7craps
7craps Jul 09, 2012

I suffered for 3 straight years with back problems.

Lost a lot of work, never knew what caused the problem and after a few weeks of feeling better, same thing, not knowing what I dd to set it off.



Pills, and exercises, and pain killers, and talk of surgery was all I ever got.



I never had a back problem before and was never in an accident to cause one. I was 44 then.



My Mom turned me to a book called "pain free" it was $20. I think now about $15.



I did a little reading and then did the exercises.

They were stupid.

F***ing stupid was my actual thought at the time.

They can not get rid of the 2 week constant pain I was in. I spent my whole days just trying to get comfortable.



I did the exercises half-assed because I knew no way can they work.

After 10 minutes I stood up and felt no pain.



I thought I had fallen asleep laying on the floor.



I called my Mom and told her what just happened.

The book has been a life saver for many including me.



If you have had surgery before, it may not help, or if you really have something wrong.

All it does is set your muscles back into their proper places.

We abuse our muscles all the time until they can not take it any more.



Worked for me

What is wrong with $15?



they have a website.



Maybe it can help in some way.



Keep up the excellent work!

I'll be in Vegas in October, my birthday month.

Hope you are there too, successful with a big smile on your face!

HotBlonde
HotBlonde Jul 10, 2012

7craps, PM me the name of the book. One of the times I was in the ER recently the doctor told me to just buy a $5 yoga DVD and to do the exercises on them. I was supposed to start physical therapy but they refused twice to see me, saying that because I have a dropped foot they wouldn't touch me until after I saw the orthopedic doctor. But now that I had my MRI done my primary care physician said that my dropped foot is not related to my back. That kinda burns me cuz I could've been going to physical therapy all this time and it likely would've prevented this new incidence. Sigh!!!



And if you're in Vegas October 17th, 7craps, you should come to my weigh-in.



But thank you all for the well wishes. I actually did end up going to the ER last night due to the intense pain that was keeping me from sleeping. I was lucky to get a prescription of dilaudid along with an anti-inflammatory so I'm hoping this'll help for now. I'm gonna find out today if I can get an appointment with the ortho doc sooner than August 22nd.



Oh and one more thought. If for some reason the doctor does say I need surgery I will probably try to schedule it after my weigh in cuz I don't know how much down time I'll need to recover and how long they would say that I need to stay away from the gym for. Like i said I'm not gonna let anything keep me from winning this challenge!

buzzpaff
buzzpaff Jul 10, 2012

Hot Blonde It's only money. DO NOT risk your health. I would rather lose my bet that think you might do long range damage to yourself. The real men on this forum all wish you success, but not at any price. You are still my favorite pin-up !

RogerKint
RogerKint Jul 10, 2012

Does your gym have a pool? Swimming may be better for your back. Good luck!

kmumf
kmumf Jul 11, 2012

Keep it up you can make it!

HotBlonde
Posted by HotBlonde
May 29, 2012

Halfway Through Challenge



So, today, Tuesday, May 29, 2012 marks the first day of the second half of my weight loss challenge. 20 weeks and 1 day left to lose a total of 90 pounds before weighing in, and this is day 142 of the 282 day challenge, 141 days down, 141 days to go. Half the time of this challenge has gone by already! Honestly, is it just me or did the time just seem to fly by? I can’t believe half the time has already passed!! Crazy!

I’ve been weighing myself just about every single Monday as usual, and weighed myself yesterday. I weighed in at 205.6 pounds. That’s a 45.2 pound loss of the 90 pounds I need to lose in this challenge. That means I’ve lost 50.2% of the weight in 49.6% of the time. Yikes! If you look at the chart above you’ll see the green line intersecting the blue line by juuuust a smidgen. Talk about cutting it close! But I have to say that I am still just as confident that I will complete this challenge a winner and collect the current $6,718 in winnings!



So, to recap what’s happened so far:

Started out great. First ten weeks were perfect, and I mean PERFECT. I didn’t eat a single extra calorie than I had planned to, and didn’t skip a single gym workout. I went to the gym 5 times a week, every single week for 10 weeks straight, having done 50 workouts over a 10 week period. In those first 10 weeks I lost 39.6 pounds, with a 3.96 pound per week average.

Then… I decided to take a half day off to let off some steam, enjoy previously restricted foods and alcoholic beverages, intending on getting back on track the very next day. Well, most of you know it didn’t work out that way. Half a day turned into 1 ½ days, which then turned into day after day for a few weeks straight. I was able to stick to my diet a few days within that 3 week or so timeframe but did not go to the gym at all for the first 2 weeks “off” my plan.

During the third week after my 10 week success, about 2 ½ weeks off my plan, I started noticing I had a lot of lower back pressure and couldn’t move my back/hips normally. I went to the gym twice toward the end of that week hoping that doing a couple full sessions of cardio would relieve the issue. Well…

April 9th, the first day of my 4th week off (I’ve now been off my usual program for only 3 weeks now) I woke up and noticed that the pressure and limited range of movement I had experienced during the last several days before had now traveled lower and had transformed from lots of pressure into actual pain. No bueno. I had to go see my chiropractor for an exit appointment then anyway from my previous bike accident a couple months prior and after limping to his office I told him about the pain I was now in. I wasn’t able to sit straight on the table and my blood pressure was high. He was able to do a massage treatment and they put Ben-gay on the area and I felt a little better but little did I know that this was the beginning of a 4-week long painfest.

The pain did not stop. About 3 days after my chiro visit the pain was so bad I had to ask a neighbor of mine to drive me to the ER. They shot me up and made the pain go away to where it was more bearable and gave me prescriptions that I could take at home. The pain medications did not help that much, nor did the heating pad or ice packs I was utilizing, and I was back at the ER 4 days later on the 16th. I spent about 7 ½ hours or so in bed there and they had to shoot me up twice cuz the severe pain and muscle spasms wouldn’t go away. I left after the pain had become manageable and was given new prescriptions and was shown stretches to do to help alleviate the pain. The next morning I woke up and the pain was not so severe and decided to take the chance and go to Vegas for a few days since I was under the impression that my back was getting better. Boy, as soon as I left my apartment I could tell that maybe the trip wasn’t the best idea because before I even got to the airport my back was hurting from the bus rides. Getting on the plane I asked a flight attendant for a bag of ice so that I could put it on my back, leg and foot during the 45-minute flight to help with the pain. I have to tell you the pain got so bad I almost had to scream. Thank god it was only a 45-minute flight otherwise I would’ve been in big, BIG trouble. To have to sit for that long itself was pretty bad. I ended up spending 9 days in Vegas but not without an enormous amount of discomfort and still experiencing constant pain. I have to say that although I continued to take my medications like clockwork until I ran out the only thing that helped the pain become manageable was drinking a lot of alcohol. That may have not been healthy to do but for anyone who has experienced pain that just won’t go away you understand that you’ll do anything to ease the pain. I continued to do my stretching throughout the trip and I have to admit, even though it may not be cool to do admit this, several times throughout my entire trip, when I was not able to go to my room and lay down and take pressure off my back, I had to go to handicap stalls in the women’s bathrooms where there was enough room and lay down. Let me tell you they do not clean well under the toilets as I had an unfortunately close view of the underbottoms of them! I played a lot of blackjack and had to find casinos that would allow me to stand when I played to help with my back (The Harrah’s/Caesar’s casinos are strict about having to sit down when you play, so I tried my best to avoid those casinos and stick to my MGM favorites instead). Of course I drank as much alcohol as I could handle at the tables which honestly helped deal with the pain and muscle spasms. And I often sat or stood with a bag of ice bulging out of the back of my skirt! What a funny sight!

Anyway, about 2 days after I got back from Vegas, with the lack of alcohol consumption now, I was forced once again to go to the ER due to severe pain. After that 3rd ER visit I went 3 more times after that, making that 6 times total just due to the unmanageable pain I was suffering from. Never-ending pain and muscle spasms led to having a hard time sleeping as well. I spent most of this time bed-ridden and not only was it impossible to go into my kitchen and make myself a simple meal since most of the time when I stood up the pain would start shooting down my leg and foot, making it impossible to stand or walk for more than about a minute at a time or so, but it was even hard at times to do something as simple as use the bathroom.

So after about 4 weeks and 6 ER visits due to the severe pain I was dealing with, I started to notice the pain go away but in it’s place was now me tripping, and numbness in my left foot and a dropped left foot. I unfortunately had to go to the ER a 7th time now and was told from the docs who diagnosed my issue that due to the amount of muscle spasm activity I had endured over the previous 4 weeks I now have a compressed nerve which has caused me not to be able to lift my toes or my left foot.



It has now, today, been about 3 weeks since I haven’t been able to lift, and barely flex, my toes on my left foot or lift my entire left foot, even still. I have an MRI scheduled in about 4 weeks from now and then 2 weeks later an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on July 11th. I was told by the last ER doctor I saw and my primary care doctor to go to physical therapy but when I went with my referral they refused to see me until I’ve seen the ortho doctor and get instructions from him. I was really bummed but they were able to give me a brace that I now wear daily so that I can walk without tripping over my left foot any more and so I can pedal my bike without my foot constantly slipping off.



What you don’t see in the picture above is the part of my brace that’s connected to the part you see there, which extends from the back of my foot all the way underneath and up to the bottom of my toes. It’s a hard plastic that’s there to keep my foot at a 90 degree angle so that my foot doesn’t keep dropping since I can’t lift my foot myself.

So, basically, starting May 14th, the day after my birthday, I have stuck to my diet and now modified exercise program 100%, even without the full use of my foot, and am back on track. I’ve only been back on my program for 2 weeks now, and although I still go to the gym 5 times a week I am only doing cardio right now with no weight resistance at the moment. I attended a back class a week ago and am going to incorporate some exercises for only my core muscles three times a week until I am able to get full access of my foot again. But the good news is that over the last couple of weeks, in my first 2 weeks back on my program alone, I lost 12.2 pounds. That’s a bigger loss than my very first 2 weeks’ loss in this challenge when I weighed over 250 pounds, which was a loss of only 9.8 pounds. Who says this is supposed to get harder??

20 weeks down and 20 more to go. Will I make it? Will I weigh 160.8 or less on October 17th of this year? I expect to! And in fact, although my chart says I can expect to weigh 152.9 pounds on that date, here’s my personal prediction: I could weigh 146.6 pounds on that date, and could lose an average of 2.9 pounds per week from May 14th - Oct 17th. I don’t plan on straying off my program again, not even for a single day, until my weigh-in. I am PRAYING to god (you know, the god I don’t believe in) that I don’t encounter any more pain issues with my back within the next 20 weeks. It will be challenging to lose a decent amount of weight for each week of down time if that happens since not only will I be unable to do my regular exercise routines but it will be impossible to not only shop for but prepare the meals off of my meal plan. I don’t want to have to lay in bed again and resort to ordering take-out as my only source of food! But if that is what is to happen I will keep my daily calorie consumption as low as possible, even though it may be challenging. I plan on finishing this challenge the best I can, even if I have to crawl to the finish line!!!

(P.S. Since it has always been my aim to reach my $9,000 goal of bets against me, what does the Wizard say the new fair odds would be for the rest of the challenge? I’m still gonna try to divvy up more bets if I can.)

Comments

teddys
teddys May 29, 2012

Welcome back. Your graph looks like a "random walk with a downward drift." You are making progress with some worse-than-average setbacks. We can't expect every process to conform exactly to expectation, just like gambling :)

PapaChubby
PapaChubby May 29, 2012

Glad to see you're still on track for your goal, and back to posting. Good luck with the second half!

pacomartin
pacomartin May 29, 2012

It's encouraging that you don't have to up your current average weekly weight loss. I would suggest hot peppers as a snack food now. It gives you the sensation of eating something powerful without any calories.

buzzpaff
buzzpaff May 29, 2012

HB, while you are eating low calorie foods, I think most of your critics in the forum are eating crow. LOL

GO GIRL GO !!!

Wizard
Wizard May 29, 2012

Thanks for the update. I make the fair line at success about +300.

rdw4potus
rdw4potus May 29, 2012

Hey! Glad you're back & good to hear you're on track. Looking forward to paying you off in October:-)

tsmith
tsmith May 29, 2012

When I was in my early 30s I had that same problem with my foot, where I couldn't flex or lift it and it flopped like a dead fish when I walked. Going up and down stairs was next to impossible. When I wore high heels my foot would turn and I would stumble; I looked like I was drunk. Bowling? Couldn't do it. Dancing? fuggedaboudit. I didn't have any pain tho, not in my back , leg, or foot.



It had to do with a nerve that runs along the outside of the leg. The doc said it was a common problem that came from the pressure applied by crossing my legs all the time or sitting with my leg leaning against a metal table leg at work.



I never wore a brace. I got electrical shock treatments, once (or twice? I forget, it was a long time ago) a week for several weeks, and combined with several exercises it rejuvenated the nerve completely.



I hope your problem gets fixed as easily as mine did.

HotBlonde
HotBlonde May 29, 2012

Thank you all for your well wishes.



tsmith, was the process painful? Sounds like something I may have to do. During my 7th visit at the ER the docs mentioned something about doing some sort of electrical testing to find out what nerve it is or something like that. The only thing I'm bummed about is that it's already been 3 weeks since I'm unable to lift my foot and I don't even have an appointment with the ortho doc until another 6 weeks from now. And according to what you're saying, that would mean even if I started therapy not long after then, I may not be able to get full access of my foot for 3 months or so from now. That kinda sucks. I don't mind wearing the brace but I really wanted to start weight training again, and starting up my HIIT again as well. Guess I just have to wait. :(

FrGamble
FrGamble May 29, 2012

Now that you are physically back on the right track you should think about going back to believing in that God who loves you. Maybe your next challenge should be taking care of your spiritual health? Great job and keep up the good work.

tsmith
tsmith May 29, 2012

Like I said, HB, it was a long time ago, but IIRC, it was a minor annoyance, nothing really painful. They used about 3 or 4 electrodes at different places on my leg and foot. I actually got a kick (no pun intended) out of watching my foot twitch with each shock. Then again, I have a high tolerance for pain. A few years ago I had nerve tests done on my arms and legs and I was chatting with the tech the whole time as tho nothing was going on. He was amazed because he said he had had grown men cry when he administered some of the shocks.



Yes, it might take quite a long time to get the nerve back to full working order, depending on how much damage has been done, IF that is indeed what your problem is. Your situation sounds a lot worse than mine ever was because the spine is involved. I'm sure you can find less strenuous exercises to do in the meantime. I don't know why you'd want to do that much weight training anyway; muscle weighs more than fat and might work against you if all you're trying to do is lose pounds.

FleaStiff
FleaStiff May 31, 2012

With your charts and math, I wonder if you are some sort of Project Planner or Administrator.



At the time you were in Vegas playing StandUp Blackjack, perhaps you should have sought out Swim Up Blackjack since it might have aided sore muscles even more.



Good luck.

HotBlonde
Posted by HotBlonde
Mar 26, 2012

HB's Weight GAIN Week 12



Sigh… What can I say about this travesty?? I am dumbfounded. I gained 14 pounds in 7 days! How is this even humanly possible??



Well, as reported in the thread this last week I was not perfect on my diet this last week and I actually didn’t even go to the gym at all. My original plan was to take only the second half of Monday off of my diet and have fun and then get right back on track the next day and hit the gym and stick to my diet for the rest of the week. You know that I got really sick on Tuesday and ended up not eating for the first half of the day and then ate off my diet for the second half of the day. Wednesday I did perfectly on my diet and I did well for the first half of Thursday. If I remember correctly I did well Friday until I decided to go out Friday night with a girl friend of mine. I did not overdo it that night but did eat off my diet. Saturday I did well all day on my diet until I decided to go out with another friend and I partied it up pretty hard. Lots and lots of booze and food. Yesterday, Sunday, I was hungover and decided to join EuropeanHottie at her gym since she was going to the sauna. I did not eat until the second half the day when me, EH and her boyfriend ended up doing what we often do which is hit up several food joints for food and drinks. If I remember correctly we ate and drank at 5 different places. Even though we usually eat and drink a little bit here and a little bit there it obviously all adds up. I closed the evening last night at a pizzeria joint that had karaoke. I “had” to stay cuz I loooove to sing and ended up staying and drinking even more. I took a cab home cuz EH and her boyfriend were tired and left an hour or so beforehand and I even had the cab take me through fast food drive through for my “last” meal before getting back on track. You know, the usual “I’ll start my diet on Monday” bit. Yikes.

The funny thing is yesterday when I was hanging out with EH and her boyfriend, Jojo (that’s her boyfriend’s name) told me that I looked different than what I looked like earlier in the week. He said, kindly of course, that I looked heavier and not as svelte. I told him that I noticed myself earlier that morning when I looked in the mirror that my face looked more bloated and full. And the funny thing is when I was putting on my swimsuit that you guys saw me pictured in in my 8-week progress photo, it seemed that my swimsuit was tighter than I remembered. It still fit but it seemed more difficult to get on than it had on my photo day 3 weeks prior.



Boy do I feel dumb. I was riding high and thinking I’ve been doing all great, having my weigh-ins be ahead of schedule acting like nothing could bring me down. Let me tell you my weigh in this morning was reality smacking me in the face. Jojo is guessing that 8 pounds of my 14 pound weight gain is fat that I gained, but I don’t think it could be that high, I don’t think that’s possible. We all know that in order to gain a pound of fat you have to consume an EXTRA 3500 calories on top of what your body already burns. At 211.2, which is what I weighed in last week, it shows (you can see it reported on my chart) that my body at that weight burns 2,327 calories a day just normally. If I gained 8 pounds of fat then that means that I would have had to consume an extra 4,000 calories a day, totalling 6,327 calories each and every day last week. I know that even though I admittedly over indulged on a few days I did not consume that many calories per day each day last week. But even to gain 14 pounds is kinda scary for a couple reasons. #1 Even if this is water weight I am scared that my blood pressure is sky high and am hoping I haven’t harmed my body. And #2 I am very nervous about this challenge cuz I am scared for the first time now that I could actually lose this challenge! I am now committed to paying out $975 if I lose this challenge. I went from being totally confident that I could not lose this challenge to feeling very uneasy. I am hoping and expecting to lose the majority of this weight this coming week so my weigh in next Monday could put me at ease, but sheesh! I still can’t get over the 14 pound weight gain. I’m guessing it has a whole lot to do with the amount of sodium I had consumed this whole week. Going from only 1,740 mg of sodium on an average day to god knows how much I consumed this last week. I know it was a lot!

Well anyway, I am not planning on messing up any more. I had no idea that taking time off would have offset me to such an extraordinary extent. I calculated that the last time I weighed 225.2 was 37 days ago! This week off put me back more than 5 full weeks!!! I’m still in shock, and VERY curious to hear what you guys all think about all of this!

Comments

boymimbo
boymimbo Mar 26, 2012

I think either (a) your scale is off (b) most of the weight is water (c) you're carrying a 14 pound sack in one of your hands.

thecesspit
thecesspit Mar 26, 2012

I've put on 5-7 pounds in a few days before, and not been in full on party mode, so while a full 14lb is odd, I can see it... you'll certainly have retained a whole bunch of water, and your body has suddenly be flipped from sustain mode to "harvest mode", so will be thinking "well, I've gotta keep this around in case we go into another period of sustain or famine!". You are weighing yourself the day after the party... I've seen a nice little youtube of a muscle guy showing how he can visibly look like the before photo in one of those shots in about 3 hours after being the "after guying" and putting on 3-4lb in bloat.



Just get right back on the horse, doing what you were doing (no need to go extra hard or or extra hard on yourself, it was working, better than you imagined).



Taking a day off every 10 weeks isn't a bad thing, but even then you should be thinking in a sustainable mode... thinking "well I'm full, and even though I fancy a pizza slice on way home, I don't need it". Hard to do in the full party times, but just gotta be sitting there in back of head.

HotBlonde
HotBlonde Mar 26, 2012

boyimbo - the only option is (b). But who knew that you could gain up to 14 pounds of water in one week? I say up to cuz I'm sure a small percentage I gained was fat weight.



cesspit - I had originally considered taking one day off every 10 weeks, even thinking that it could actually be a good thing for my body. However the whole reason I never wanted to cheat in the first place throughout the beginning of this challenge was to avoid exactly what happened this last week: starting off with the intention of only taking 1 day off and that then leading to me taking another day and another day and another. Like I've said before, you can't cheat 7 times if you never cheat the first time! So I feel a bit of a dilemma cuz EH and Jojo were talking yesterday of going away for 3 days the weekend of my birthday, which would be Fri May 11th through Sun May 13th which is exactly 7 weeks from this last weekend. We can considered a wine-tasting weekend trip in Santa Barbara, which is about an hour or so from where we live. And we even considered going to Vegas instead and meeting up with those of you who are going to the WoV Con event that Saturday. But I don't know if I want to risk it since I could potentially lose this challenge and therefore lose a whole bunch of money. It may not be worth it for me to have another cheat day for the entire rest of this challenge. But who knows. I told EH today that I am putting my birthday plans on hold tentatively until I see what happens over the next several weeks. All I can do is wait and see. If everything is back on track we may still be able to do the weekend, and it sounds like EH would rather do a Vegas trip rather than Santa Barbara which would be cool cuz then I could meet some of you before my final weigh in in October.

thecesspit
thecesspit Mar 26, 2012

I didn't even consider it a "cheat day", as that way you building it up as evil and wrong. Spending one day out of 63 not worrying about one facet of your life is healthy. Like taking a day of work, or an extra 5 hours in bed. It's the keep doing it that's the bad and wrong. You don't want to be able to get into a sustainable life style, not one that is super constrained... else the slumps will be much much bigger.



Cheating is not sticking to your plan of having a single day off, not the day off itself. But in any case, be careful on bingeing even on a relaxed day. That's not good for you whether or not you are trying to win money, or reached your target weight.

Wizard
Wizard Mar 26, 2012

So, week 11 the scale wins, but your record is still 10-1. You learned a lesson about the cost of backsliding. I look forward to hearing that you'll lose at least four pounds this week.



As an aside, my friend who took the burrito challenge in my Sahara review was scheduled to become a father for the second time close to Thanksgiving. He offered bets that he could gain more weight from Thanksgiving dinner than the weight of the baby. There was a point spread involved, but that was the gist of the challenge. If he could gain about 8 from one meal, I could see gaining 14 over a week.

NicksGamingStuff
NicksGamingStuff Mar 26, 2012

I wouldn't worry too much, I have been going to the gym 4 days a week including one with a trainer session. I am not losing much weight, but I am stronger. He says its not the weight, but the body fat %, they have a neat machine that measures it. I would suggest comparing that as an overall progress. If you lose 10 pounds of fat but gain 15 pounds of muscle your better off.

sunrise089
sunrise089 Mar 26, 2012

@Nick - Respectfully, HB didn't gain 10lbs of muscle after eating poorly for a week. I too am shocked at how much she gained, but there's no need to sugarcoat (especially since she's doing so great overall!).



@HB - For what it's worth I agree with cesspit - I suspect it was a combination of actual poor eating, bad luck/timing with water weight, and both of those compounded by your body stockpiling after you've been so rough (aka disciplined) with it.



My advice, contra some of the others above, would be to be even more dedicated than before and try not to backslide a single day. Now even if you give up the diet today I'm still proud of you - you worked hard and lost a lot of weight. AND I'm confident you could tone the intensity down and still get to a healthy weight eventually, which is what's most important.



But you've said several times your goal is to win the bet, get into that swimsuit on time, feel even better about yourself, etc. If that's true I think you've well proven you have impressive willpower (I was bragging on you to my wife, who doesn't read these forums, this week on that account) but that you're vulnerable to costly (in bet terms) binges. Consider this a lesson learned and get back on the horse!

AZDuffman
AZDuffman Mar 27, 2012

This can happen. I had a roommate who was a wrestler. Problem was he was going against an All-American at his weight and one weight below. (we had a very good program) So he wrestled at the 135lb weight class. This was a guy, naturally heavier than a woman, and about 5-9" tall. We were all about the same height and outweighed him by 50 pounds, and we all said we didn't weigh what he did since junior high. I mean, he looked virtually sick.



Well, he got hurt in a minor way right before the last meet. He said "screw this" and went off the wrestler diet. IIRC he gained 19 pounds in a few days. He refused to get on the scale to weigh in for the coach. Coach, a very famous guy in wrestling, was POed this dude basically gave up. The weight gain was water, booze, and other things that put his body more in line with a natural weight.



Hopefully you do better--this guy had a breakdown 3 days later. Very bad.

HotBlonde
HotBlonde Mar 29, 2012

Well, for those of you who didn't read what was said in the thread, it seems to be that a lot of the weight gain (I am seriously hoping) came from the prednisone steroid I had taken 3 times before I weighed in. And I'm not saying in any way that what I did over the week didn't affect my body, but I'm hoping to drop most of this this week.

buzzpaff
buzzpaff Mar 29, 2012

Now is the true test of your commitment. I for one have no doubt you WILL succeed.

HotBlonde
Posted by HotBlonde
Mar 19, 2012

HB's Weight Loss Week 11



So, 10 weeks down and 39.6 pounds lost. Not bad! And when someone usually asks me how much I’ve lost so far, I usually round up or down to the nearest whole number, so in this case I can technically say I lost 40 pounds in 10 weeks. Woo hoo!



Here is a chart I’ve made of my progress.



As you can see on the chart I am ahead of schedule. Actually 6.4 pounds and 16 days ahead, but who’s counting?? Lol. I’m 25% of the way through this challenge, 44% of the way to my 90 pounds weight loss challenge goal, and 34% of the way to my 117 pounds weight loss personal goal. I’m still considered obese by clinical standards but I’m no less happy about my progress. Once I lose an additional 14.2 pounds or more I will no longer be in the obese category! And even though that’s good and true it just means I will be moving into the overweight category instead. But hey, progress is progress!

I’m trying to figure out how much I’ll weigh and my body fat % by the time I hit October 17th. I used a machine at my gym that measures your body fat % but I think it came out a little too low.



It shows that it estimated that my body is 38.2% fat. I don’t think that is right cuz the weight we put in was 214 pounds. This would mean that my total lean body weight is 132.3 pounds. I don’t think that is right. I asked EuropeanHottie if she wanted to go get hydrostatic testing done with me, which is the most accurate way to measure body fat % but she kinda hemmed and hawed. So I’ve kind of estimated body fat percentage in my head. The chart below shows body fat percentage categories.



Now, I’ve found through other sources that a woman my height should weigh no less than 122 pounds or else I’ll be considered underweight. And according to the chart above the lowest amount of essential fat a woman’s body needs is 10%. Now I know my following calculations are not going to be accurate, but I’ve made some assumptions. Assuming at 122 pounds I’ll be 10% fat, that means that my body fat would be 12.2 pounds and my lean body mass would therefore be 109.8 pounds. Now of course my lean body mass could go up or down depending on how much muscle I have, water weight, etc., but I’ve just done this just to get an estimation only.



If my calculations are correct, or close to it, then I would be 49% fat right now, now 38.2%. For some reason the body fat percentage category goes from “average” to “obese”. I don’t know why that is. That would mean at 160 pounds my body would be considered average but at 161 pounds I would be obese. Maybe by obese they mean “overweight or obese”. I don’t know. Oddly enough my goal weight for the challenge is 160.8 so I would technically be out of the average category. But again, this is all according to my calculations which are not precise. And actually the source that said that a healthy weight for a woman my height is 122 and above also says that it’s still considered healthy up to 164 pounds, so according to that I’m good. Also another funny thing is my personal goal weight has been 134 pounds, and a trainer at my gym said that I should aim to be at 18% body fat, and according to my calculations 134 pounds and 18% body fat line up with each other. Pretty cool!

HotBlonde
Posted by HotBlonde
Mar 12, 2012

HB's Weight Loss Week 10

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So I lost more than expected last week. I’ll never get tired of saying that! I lost 3.4 pounds last week. I’ve lost a total of 36.1 pounds last week which means I’ve lost 40% of my 90 pound weight loss requirements for the challenge. The 36.1 pound loss also represents 31% of my 134 pound goal weight. Feeling great!

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As mentioned previously, I started doing interval training from a website that I’ve been getting a lot of information from. The main website is IntervalTraining.net. I read the beginner’s article and it told me to start with the “Lose Belly Fat Fast” interval training which, despite it’s name, really is for people not used to interval training but it’s designed to get your body acquainted with interval training over a minimum of an 8-week period. Last week wasn’t too bad. I did my first workout of week 2 this morning and boy!... talk about a tough workout! I was able to make it through but am nervous about Wednesday’s and Friday’s workouts. They say not to advance to the next week’s workout until you’ve finished all 3 workouts during the week you’re on. Not sure yet whether I’ll have to repeat this week yet.

Following is a quick rundown of the interval training in the 8 week beginning stages. Just so you know “personal physical effort” or ppe is my term to describe how hard I’m pushing myself physically. Example 0% would be laying doing nothing at all and 100% would be running for my life, the fastest I can. I’ve italicized the change in each week compared to the previous week.

Week 1:
5 min warm up (from 10% up to 40% of my personal physical effort)
6 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 70% of my ppe
90 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down (from 40% down to 10% of my ppe)

Week 2: (my current week)
5 min warm up
6 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 90% of my ppe
60 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down


Week 3:
5 min warm
6 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 90% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

Week 4:
5 min warm
8 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 90% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

Week 5:
5 min warm
10 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 70% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

Week 6:
5 min warm
12 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 70% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

Week 7:
5 min warm
14 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 70% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

Week 8:
5 min warm
15 sprint intervals at 30 seconds each at 70% of my ppe
30 second recovery intervals at 40% of my ppe in between each sprint interval
5 min cool down

These exercise sessions last from 15 minutes 30 seconds long from start to finish to 24 minutes 30 seconds long and that’s it. I do this Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I still do my 45 minutes of high intensity cardio on Tuesdays and Thursdays but don’t do any intervals during those workouts. 5 min warm up, then get my heart rate up to 149 bpm, keep it there for 45 minutes, then 5 min cool down. I checked my heart rate monitor today after my workout and I got up to 177 bpm. Wowser, did I feel it! This is 95% of my maximal heart rate (which is different from my personal physical effort). I’m excited to see myself progress over the weeks, even if it takes me longer than 8 weeks to get acquainted. After I finish and get through all 8 weeks I will be following just a normal and standard HIIT program from what I understand. Supposedly you can use similar interval exercises for weight training too. I’m excited to look into that as well.

So here’s the thing. Even though I was huffing and puffing pretty badly during my cardio session today, it shows that I only burned 163 calories. If I use the same machine tomorrow to just do my regular 45 minute cardio session it will show that I will burn around 345 calories. That’s more that twice as much than I burn in my HIIT session. I know I touched on all of this briefly but HIIT is actually supposed to be better for FAT loss than the 45 min cardio session. Briefly, during the 45 minute cardio workout, or any high intensity workout for that matter, your body only burns calories during your workout and then quickly if not immediately tapers off. The HIIT sessions cause your body to burn energy in the form of fat for up to 38 hours after your session. I’m including a graphic below that was posted on the website.

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I still can proudly say that I haven’t strayed once from my diet or skipped a single workout. I hope to stay 100% committed throughout this whole process. EuropeanHottie is trying to convince me that I can let loose on my birthday, which is May 13th, but I don’t want to do anything to mess this up. I’m sure those betting against me would want me to but it’s just too risky. I had originally planned to come to the WoV get together May 12th in Vegas, but as I mentioned in the beginning of this journey I won’t be going on any trips at all during this challenge. Even getting away for half a day with EH to Universal Studios poses too many temptations!!

Comments

kmumf
kmumf Mar 13, 2012

Nice job. Keep it up!

EvenBob
EvenBob Mar 13, 2012

Take food to eat with you when you go

away for the day. Fruit, cheese, whatever

you can snack on. Its cuts down the

temptation to cheat.

Wizard
Wizard Mar 13, 2012

Good girl! Keep up the good work.

thecesspit
thecesspit Mar 16, 2012

Cheers for HIIT links. Always interesting stuff to me.