Losing Weight, interesting odyssey

I meant to post earlier, but at my 9 month weigh-in I'm down to 169 lbs. (75 Kg.). I've lost just over 50 lbs. For a while there I thought I was the guy from THINNER, eating whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and still lose weight. I ran an experiment for a week eating fast food couple nights, having dinner minutes before going to bed, etc. and that week the scale stayed the same, no loss, no gain. So I'm not cursed AND I still need to watch what I eat lol.

Rough estimates show I burn about 1800 calories a day. I stopped doing workouts for a number a reasons, but of course the number one is laziness. I do however, walk seven hours a day, so that's a work out in itself. Of those 7 hours I carry my backpack for a little over an hour and that can weigh anywhere between 5 to 10 lbs. (just under 5 Kg) which isn't much, but as my brother likes to say, it isn't the weight, it's the distance, and trust me walking over an hour with that on your back, you start to feel it. my body is in constant soreness, but oddly, it feels good, you know, productive. Next update will be at the year mark.
 
One of the reasons why you must counter modern ways of life, eg. the couchpotatoing we all love, with active exercise, is the lack of need to walk around and generally perform small physical activities just to make it through the day. If you can walk (there are number of places that aren't pedestrian friendly around the globe), you should, it's a basic metabolic workout in itself.
 
One of the reasons I love the accessibility of public transportation and walking here in Mexico vs. what I encountered in Tucson. To be fair, there are a number of reasons transportation in Tucson sucked, mainly it being a "small" town, or at least still having the mentality of one. I know that in major U.S cities it is considerably better, but still lags behind Canada and European counterparts.
 
Onhell said:
One of the reasons I love the accessibility of public transportation and walking here in Mexico vs. what I encountered in Tucson. To be fair, there are a number of reasons transportation in Tucson sucked, mainly it being a "small" town, or at least still having the mentality of one. I know that in major U.S cities it is considerably better, but still lags behind Canada and European counterparts.
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Oh man, public transportation in Tucson was terrible. It's gotten better in the last 4 years thanks to a couple of light rail lines that essentially run through the U of A and downtown, but it sucks outside of that area. When I lived there I had to take the bus rather often and there's simply no worse way to travel than waiting an hour in 105 F only to get on a bus full of meth addicts.
 
Preach, brutha! That was my issue too. And can you believe people COMPLAINED that the new trolley you mentioned running from downtown to the U of A was USELESS? and a waste of money? WTF? I was basically forced to buy a car, because the bus sucks so much.
 
Zare said:
One of the reasons why you must counter modern ways of life, eg. the couchpotatoing we all love, with active exercise, is the lack of need to walk around and generally perform small physical activities just to make it through the day. If you can walk (there are number of places that aren't pedestrian friendly around the globe), you should, it's a basic metabolic workout in itself.
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Jobs and employers can get in the way of this. Your only choice of employment might be to drive for an hour or two, or you get an employer that insists you have a car and be available at short notice for running errands/out of hours work. Then your only exercise option is slogging it out in a gym or getting to the sunrise session at a swimming pool.
 
Yeah but you can take a long walk after dinner, before bed, with a dog or alone if it's convenient. If you live in a square mile of blocks and roads, it won't be convenient. That's what I thought about when speaking of "pedestrian friendliness".
 
Best exercise decision I ever made was tying my hockey watching to my treadmill.
Instead of beer and potato chips during the games, I get a 6-10 K walk.
Multiplied over an 82-game season that’s a lot of miles and a lot less snacking
 
Brigantium said:
Jobs and employers can get in the way of this. Your only choice of employment might be to drive for an hour or two, or you get an employer that insists you have a car and be available at short notice for running errands/out of hours work. Then your only exercise option is slogging it out in a gym or getting to the sunrise session at a swimming pool.
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I agree with this too. That was my problem in Tucson. The bus was unreliable and as Mrknickerbocker mentioned the HEAT was unbearable. Some employers indeed required you have a car or a good paying job was on the other side of town making a car essential. Long hours, late meals, low energy made exercise difficult. Gym memberships are yet another expenditure many can't afford, or CHOOSE not to picking Netflix and Xbox Gold instead.

I HATE the gym, it feels like a giant hamster wheel. I know I'm doing it to "stay in shape," but outside of that it serves no practical purpose. Walking gets me to work, lifting a 20 liter jug of water onto my water dispenser provides me with water and a nice workout. If the bus is standing room only, like I mentioned above, the drivers are so terrible it's like a life size Wii Balance Board game, I feel muscles being stretched and worked on that I didn't even know existed. The terrain I walk is varied: smooth pavement, grass, uneven sidewalks, pedestrian bridges that include stairs or ramps, uphill and downhill terrain etc. In other words everything a treadmill can do except I'm actually GOING somewhere. I love that.

I know I need to supplement it with actual workouts, specially core workouts, but at the moment, I just don't want to. I'm waiting on being able to afford a wider variety of food so I know I can intake more as I do more exercise and my body asks for more calories to burn.
 
I found out that I have Fatty Liver Disease last month so I've been cutting certain foods from my diet and I've been exercising. I usually do jumping jacks, sit-ups, and twenty minutes on the treadmill in the morning and some weightlifting in the afternoon. I'm in China so I begged all my friends not to give me any alcohol. I wasn't really into it anymore before I found out I had Fatty Liver Disease and only had a little every couple of months before I stopped completely. No more fast food, no more white rice, and no more white starches except maybe Chinese dumplings (jao zi) because its considered to be healthy and its not too heavy on my stomach. I can have fish but no shellfish because I'm allergic and I'm avoiding all fried food as much as possible. I've also been eating more vegetables and salad whenever I can Its a little hard to stay away from bread so I switched to whole grain. I don't smoke and I try very hard to stay away from second-hand smoke. Some reports say coffee is good for the liver, some say its bad. Regardless I try to keep it to just cups of black coffee, no sugar in the mornings. Its not easy to follow the diet exactly here but I'm trying my best
 
Onhell said:
I HATE the gym, it feels like a giant hamster wheel.
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Amen!

Instead of forcing yourself into the kind of exercise that other people think you should do eg ('the gym awesome', 'running every morning changedm y life', 'two 12 mile hikes every weekend is fun', 'zumba classes are cool and what all the girls are doing') find something that's both enjoyable for you and good exercise. I used to swim a lot when I lived near an outdoor pool (yeah, in Yorkshire, where the pool was bloody freezing), and did horse riding. Of course people said that last one wasn't exercise, but an hour of showjumping or dressage training is most definitely exercise.
 
I can't stand the gym, I associate fun and engagement with sports, and gym is pure boredom. It's not the physical aspect (e.g. the lack of it) but it is simply boring. I've spent hours and hours in gyms in hotels because the hotel pools aren't exactly made for swimming.

Also consider that machines that work multiple muscle groups at once will have the longest queue.
 
I actually really like the gym. It may be a hamster ball, but at least everyone is there to do the same thing so no one is looking at you weird for sweating like a pig.
 
Metal Warrior 330 said:
I found out that I have Fatty Liver Disease last month so I've been cutting certain foods from my diet and I've been exercising. I usually do jumping jacks, sit-ups, and twenty minutes on the treadmill in the morning and some weightlifting in the afternoon. I'm in China so I begged all my friends...
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Sorry to hear that, but sounds like you are committed to this new "diet." FLC or not, all those things are beneficial in the long run and what I'm trying to do anyways, keep up the good work!

Brigantium said:
Amen!

Instead of forcing yourself into the kind of exercise that other people think you should do eg ('the gym awesome', 'running every morning changedm y life', 'two 12 mile hikes every weekend is fun', 'zumba classes are cool and what all the girls are doing') find something that's both enjoyable for you and good exercise. I used to swim a lot when I lived near an outdoor pool (yeah, in Yorkshire, where the pool was bloody freezing), and did horse riding. Of course people said that last one wasn't exercise, but an hour of showjumping or dressage training is most definitely exercise.
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I like to run. I did track and field in high school and LOVED running the mile. Never was the best, but one of the things I liked about it is that it was more about racing yourself than others. However, I walk so much now that I hardly have the time or energy to "run." As for "fun workouts, I help my mom with her groceries, carry mine in one go, make sure I am lifting about equal weight with both arms, etc. I also like lifting my dogs over my head lol. It is hilarious to watch their faces. I don't think they enjoy it very much, but again, "fun" exercise.

MrKnickerbocker said:
I actually really like the gym. It may be a hamster ball, but at least everyone is there to do the same thing so no one is looking at you weird for sweating like a pig.
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The only time I enjoy it is when I have a gym buddy, make it a friendly rivalry. While it is true everybody is there for the same reason, I could care less about the stares I get. When the bus is near empty I take advantage of the tight, fast turns to stretch my whole body, but specifically my back, abs, and hips. Most people don't notice as they just think I have poor balance, but I still get the occasional WTF is he doing look lol.
 
Onhell said:
Sorry to hear that, but sounds like you are committed to this new "diet." FLC or not, all those things are beneficial in the long run and what I'm trying to do anyways, keep up the good work!
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Thanks so much. I'm doing it almost everyday as long as the exercise rooms are open but I still do some kind of exercise when they are closed rather its a walk or a run around my city, workout exercises or all of the above
 
It's a little past the promised year-mark, but here it is. On Jan 29th I hit the year of being back in Mexico, and as of today I lost an additional 6.8lbs (3kg.) since last weigh-in. I went from 169lbs to 163 (76-73kg). Lowest fluctuation since I "stabilized" at 75kg plus/minus a kilo. After a year work is going well, life is going well, things are... stable. It's very satisfying to say I can close this chapter in my life, focus on the now and immediate future. So lat time I resurrect this thread lol.
 
Opposite of this thread; but I've finally gotten back to the pre-anxiety level of 75 kg... That was about a year and a half ago.
 
I started the “keto” diet on February 27th. Essentially no carbs and no sugar. LOTS of fat. I started out at 197 lbs. I haven’t really worked out much either. Currently I am at 178. It’s not too hard, I really like steak so I can eat a lot of that.
 
I always used to be the tiny and skinny kid, then started to to work out on/off. I did it in a gym, about 2, maybe 3 times a week if I felt motivated) and after gaining a bit of muscle on my skinny skeleton I was about 72kg. Got to the point when I was once complimented on a beach by an English guy that I considered good looking. Felt nice.
(By the way, @Metal Warrior 330 that was in China too. 加油我的兄弟！)
I stopped in October last year (partial reason was changing jobs - I no longer had the "multisport" card to access all the sport places for a small monthly fee) and now I checked myself these days and I was at about 63kg. Also visibly skinnier ('xcept that belly) I suppose I am one of those kinds you can call an ektomorf - if I don't purposely eat a lot and work out, I will go back to the skinny self. For the record after each gym session I drank some protein shake, just to make sure I had enough to rebuild, and did not watch my diet in any other way.

I drink plenty of beer, so I also do have a bit of a belly (not visible thru clothes, only naked) so I should do something abou that too. But cutting down beer is gonna be one of the hardest things here.

I started working out again this month, this morning I also went to a thai box class to try. Will see, if I like it in future, I might stickt to it - it was fun except for the parts where I got hit/kicked.
I will try to go to the gym before work for a couple of days - this will make me go to bed earlier and also drink less. I will evaluate how I feel after couple days. I know generally that it would be a much better lifestyle than my current one, but I srsly am an opposite of an early bird and beer is somewhat a bit part of my schedule for many years now. Wish me luck.

So I'm gonna continue just to look a little better ... the thing about gym - I do sometimes feel artificial in it, I would much more enjoy running about in nature, hiking mountains, or doing some sport or something. But that would just make me look skinnier/sportier, not really bigger. So, even though lifting weights sucks, I lift'em because I want to grow some meat around them bones. Helps with confidence too.
I have friends, who "love gym", I guess I will have to stick with the fact that I just go there to look better. Something for something. It does feel slightly rewarding after I am done, but the whole thing is a pain in the ass (especially shoulders & those days of torture walk after you squat/deadlift).
 
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