The Wife Weighs In...Week 11

Good morning, GHWIW fans!

First of all, a huge WAY TO GO(!) to my loving (and very handsome) husband, who reached his big goal this week. I am so proud of you, sweetie! Your determination has been a true inspiration to me and a lot of other people. While I think you look fantastic, I am most excited by the change in how you feel about yourself. I think you are amazing, and I love you so very much. MWAH! (That's a big kiss, by the way.)

My update is nowhere near as exciting. I had a small loss this week, but I am perfectly okay with it. I'm starting to get a little lazy...not logging everything I'm eating and allowing myself to make some really bad choices. Not good.

When I first got really serious about losing weight, I was ever-vigilant. I counted every point of every bite of food. Now? Meh...not so much. So, starting this week, I plan to crack down and raise the "alert level" a little.

Thanks to the U.S. Department of Health Plan Security, there is an easy to understand Advisory System to follow, shown here. Over the past couple of weeks, I have been operating under a threat level of BLUE.

The fact that there has been credible information warning of an imminent and specific threat to my health plan (namely the entire holiday season), paired with heightened food-related activity among friends and family and the upward trend of high-caloric propaganda in the media, the department's strategic threat perspective is that we are in a period of increased risk. Due to these factors I feel it is my duty to raise the health plan threat level to RED.

All GHMIW fans should continue to be vigilant, take increased notice of their surroundings, and report suspicious foods or activities to local authorities immediately.

Stay on the alert, and have a fantastic weekend!
Laura

My update:
11/30/2007: 192.2 pounds
12/07/2007: 191.6 pounds (a loss of 0.6 pounds)
Total loss: 36.8 pounds
New mini-goal: 182 pounds by February 1
8 weeks and 9.6 pounds to go (YIKES! That's 1.2 pounds a week!)

The Weigh-In Week 26

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!!!!!



218.4!!!! That is what it said on the scale this morning!!! A loss of 5lbs.

This one is no flu fluke! I hereby declare Goal #1 Accomplished.

It feels like this has been a long time coming ,but really a year to lose 70 lbs. is not that long. And honestly, the last 62 of it only took me 26 weeks! I'm not bragging...in fact, I still can't figure out why I didn't do this ten years ago. I guess it's all about the proper motivation.

And I'm not done yet. 220 was an arbitrary goal. I choose it at random before I knew what my real goals were going to be. Over the last 26 weeks I have a much better understanding of those goals.

NEW GOAL #1:
214 by January 1st. A loss of 4.4 lbs. This is a pretty ambitious goal considering the holiday feasting and if I don't make it I'm not going to beat myself up. To make the goal I will have to lose 1.2 lbs a week.

At 214 my BMI will be 29.8 which would move me out of the Obese classification and into Moderately Overweight. It would be nice to start the new year Overweight.


NEW GOAL #2:
199 by May 29th 2008...my 34th birthday. I'm not sure if I will ever make it under 200lbs, but why not shoot for the moon huh? To achieve this goal I will have to lose .78 lbs. A week.

At this point I'm not really doing anything extra to lose weight. I am simply trying to live healthier. Hopefully the way I am eating and exercising now is the same way I will be living years from now. I may cut back on the workouts eventually as life gets more hectic with the girls, but I hope to still keep working out 3 to 4 days a week.

For now I am just letting my body do it's thing and find its own equilibrium. If that happens to be 210 instead of 190 I am just fine with that.

Which brings us to...

GOAL FOR LIFE:
Stay Healthy, Look Healthy!

I'd like to tone my body and put on more muscle and I will be able to run a 5k before this is through....but my biggest goal of all is to be healthy, at whatever weight I net out.

Only seven votes this week so no big winner. The closest was my Cousin Ali, who has been a huge supporter from the very beginning. Her guess of 3.4 may have seemed crazy high to the rest of you, but I say it was crazy like a fox! Way to goal Ali.

And thank you again for all of the support and encouragement you have all given me. If I've said it once I've said it... I couldn't do this without you all.

Have a fantastic weekend everybody!

Tony
12/7: 218.4lbs
Goal: 220 lbs. ACCOMPLISHED
NEW GOAL: 214
4.4 lbs. to go

P.S. That first picture is me doing the "Rocky" move...not me trying to show off my muscles!

Guess How Much I Weigh Conest - Week 26

I would like to take a quick moment to clear up somethings I said yesterday. If you read the comments on the post "Nancy Makin..." you may have noticed my lovely wife and I seem to have a difference of opinion . Don't worry we are not feuding...just having a very civil discourse.

Honestly Laura makes some very good points and her comment gives me the chance to clarify what I was trying to say yesterday but didn't quite get right.

First and foremost I was 100% wrong to lump Weight Watchers in with other fad diets.

Yesterday I wrote, "She did exactly what we all should be doing. She came to terms with her problem and found the willpower to overcome it."

What I meant to say was: "Wouldn't it be great if we all had this kind of willpower. To be able to overcome our problem with sheer will and determination."

In no way did I mean to imply any of us should try to do this on our own. We need our support groups, whether they be family, friends, your Weight Watchers meeting or an Internet community of like minded souls. The support is integral to the process.

What scares me and really ticks me off are the hundreds of thousands of "get skinny with no effort" schemes out there that people are sinking millions of dollars into, because they are so desperate to make a change without having to deal with their real issues. Fad diets, miracle pills, celebrity trainers that sound more like television evangelists; these things piss me off. They are get rich quick schemes that prey on the insecurities of our vulnerable self image and self worth and they are not what we need to make a difference in our lives.

"Find contentment and value in yourself." If you really need some book to tell you what to do, write that on a blank piece of paper, fold it in half and call it your new diet bible.

Thank you to my lovely wife for encouraging me to clear up my muddied thoughts.

Now on to the contest. I am very excited. This has been a good week!

Step right up, step right up.
Guess how much I weigh and win a fabulous prize.

To Recap:
Every Thursday I give you my stats for the week and you guess what you think the scale will say on Friday morning. The winner is the first person who guesses my weight / weight loss for the week without going over or the person who is closest without going over. Go ahead and click on comments at the bottom of this post and leave your guess.

I will post the winner when I post my weight on Fri. morning. If we get ten or more guesses I will have a prize for the winner.

Stats for the week of December 3rd.
Walked / Ran: 10.7 miles

Calories Consumed: From Thursday morning through Wed. night I have consumed aprox. 14567 calories.

Calories Burned: From Thursday morning through Wed. night I have burned aprox. 26936 calories.

30% of my calories have come from fat.
9% of those calories came from Saturated Fats.

49% of my calories came from carbs.

19% of my calories came from protein.

Let the guessing begin. Good Luck!

Tony
12/6: 223.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
3.4 lbs. to go

p.s. Don't forget you can subscribe to the e-mail edition of Guess How Much I Weigh . Simply enter your e-mail address in the space to the right.

I Won An Award

I have no clue what this means or how prestigious it is, but it is my first Blogging Award. So we should celebrate.

Thanks to whom ever nominated the blog!

If you are new to the site, start here to see what it's all about.

Then go here to see the pictures.

Nancy Makin Loses 530 Pounds

I know Nancy Makin 's story has been all over the media this week. And it should be! It is an amazing thing that this woman was able to accomplish.

If you have been living under a rock, Nancy Makin is a woman who lost 530 pounds. She started at 703 lbs and over the course of 3 years got down to 170.

There are two things that I really appreciate about this story.

First. This woman was able to do this own her own. She didn't need Weight Watchers or Atkins Or South Beach or a $1000 an hour trainer. She did exactly what we all should be doing. She came to terms with her problem and found the willpower to overcome it.

"I achieved this on my own, in a natural way, with no surgical procedures having been performed. No particular 'diet' plan was followed; no pills, potions or ab-crunching exercises played a part in my recovery," she wrote in a congratulatory letter to herself."

Being overweight is not a problem money can solve. Even with surgery, if you don't get to the real root of your weight issues, the weight will never stay off.

I know that weight watchers and other groups like it have made a real difference in a lot of peoples lives. But in my mind what you are paying for is motivation and if you can find that yourself instead of having to pay someone to do it for you, more power to you!

Which brings me to the other thing I really appreciate about this woman's story. Weight was never her problem.

"I've heard so many times, I said it myself, if I could only lose 40 or 50 pounds, I'd be so much happier. I've found on this journey that the opposite is true."

"Unless you focus on what's going on inside and start to feel better about yourself you won't be able to stop the cycle. The key is to find contentment and value in yourself by reaching out and doing something not for you, and the weight will come off as a side effect."

I really like that . "Find contentment and value in yourself." It can be a lot harder than you think to do it, but it is the crucial first step. For me it has made all the difference in the world. It's why I can say with confidence this is not a diet this time around. It's a whole new life!

Tony
12/5: 223.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
3.4 lbs. to go

Memories...Misty, Watercolored Memories

It was all Christmas all the time at the Johnson house this weekend.

We had a visit with Santa, got our Christmas tree, decorated the house and woke up to a winter wonderland on Sunday morning. It was the kind of magical weekend that memories are made of. Naturally I was in a nostalgic mood.

I love Christmas. This month leading up to the holidays is my favorite time of year. I love the music, the lights, the hustle and bustle, the shopping, the crowded malls, the hunt for the perfect gift. I love it all. But mostly I love the time spent with my family and the memories of all those Christmas' past.

Give me a second to wipe the tear from my eye.


So like I said I was in a nostalgic kind of mood this weekend. My lovely wife and I have been talking a lot about how this will be the girls real first Christmas... at least the first one they will understand. Which got me thinking about the first Christmas I remembered.

As I was thinking about it, I was overwhelmed with memories of my Dad with a mustache. When I was growing up my dad was a dead ringer for Tom Selleck, only like 30 times less cheesy. Even though my Dad hasn't had a mustache for more than 20-years, all of my Childhood memories feature my dad wearing the "Selleck". Those first impressions of our parents are hard to change... and I wouldn't want to.

This gave me another thing to be thankful for this holiday season. My girls Christmas memories will not feature a father with a tummy like a bowl full of jelly. If I can continue to make this healthy lifestyle work (and I will) my girls will never know the fat guy that I was for most of my life. To them I will just be Dad, good, old silly dad.

That is about the greatest gift I could ask for this holiday season.

Now I'm getting misty again.

Tony
12/3: 223.4 lbs.
Goal: 220 lbs.
3.4 lbs. to go