70#'s + Lost, 13 To Go, & the Journey to Get Here (Day 151) With New Before/After Pics

First off I need to kinda catch up the past two days. Monday and Tuesday were a little busy because on top of the training, cardio, RESTING, eating, and computer/bookwork that makes up my normal day, I actually had to work a little as well.

Monday we trained chest at the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill. I also rode the new spin bike for an hour at home. Work found me at one of our properties in Dalton, climbing into a dumpster so I could remove a sofa someone had stuffed inside (the trash service would not have picked up the trash container with the sofa in it). Good thing I've lost weight and have gotten a good bit of my flexibility back. I had to climb up, then back down through a trash door, stand on a nasty treadmill, get under the trash covered sofa, and then lift it up and out of the dumpster. We got it loaded onto a trailer, added another sofa we found on the ground, and brought it home with us to take to the landfill later.

Tuesday Kim and I trained shoulders at the gym and again did 30 minutes on the treadmill. Again, I got in an extra hour on the bike at home. Work found me trying to get some tax issues resolved, scanning and emailing documents for my dad, bookwork, banking, etc. Nothing strenuous, just very time consuming. I've been so busy I haven't felt like shooting many pics of my food lately. I've been much more interested in eating I guess.

Ok, now on to the 70# milestone.

My new Bear on my new Bike!

As of Monday morning, I've lost 71.3 pounds since starting NS. My goals when starting were to get back to my college weight (220) or better, and I set the goal weight on the NS website at 200. I'm 3.7 away from 200 now. I've reset that goal to 190 now. I hope when I get there I'll be ready to begin to transition off of NS foods back to "normal" foods. We'll see.

I had someone comment on the NS site asking what motivated me? They were unmotivated and hated the program only a week into it. I replied saying that I'm self motivated. I was from the beginning. I don't see how you can be successful at this (or any other similar endeavor) if you're not. NS could have sent me boxed monkey feces and I would have eaten it I was/am so motivated to be successful. I was sick of looking and feeling like shit. I knew I was heavy at the time, but only now looking back do I realize how big I really was and how embarrassed and unhealthy I was. Below is a photo of me at my heaviest (288) at my sister's wedding. I'm the short, huge, penguin looking one on the far left.

Sorry for the terrible quality, not my photo.

When Kim sees photos like the one above and below she said they now maker her sad. I know what she means. They make me sad too.


My first post on this blog (here) I stated un-apologetically this was about me. It has been, but Kim kindly joined in and now she even trains with me. My mother has begun to diet a little with success, and I've had lots of people tell me what a motivation I've been to them. That's all great, but ultimately it's still about me. The photos I'm posting today were/are my motivation.

See what I mean.

Looking back at lots of the other first posts on the blog I can see how excited I was about the program and how successful I was early on. The entire process for me has been so easy. Not to say I haven't worked hard (we train 6 days a week, and do cardio every day), but that following the plan and getting results came easy.

This was the afternoon when Kim and I went down to Kirby Cove, below the Golden Gate Bridge to shoot some photos of the bridge at night. On the hike out Kim had to carry some of my camera gear because she was afraid I'd have a heart attack if she didn't. Maybe the low-point of my life, weight wise.

My workouts have changed drastically since beginning in August. I've always done resistance training first. Then cardio (if I did any at all). By the time I started the program I was doing cardio with most workouts, but it was after. At the time I thought the cardio was rather intense, walking uphill (incline of 10) at a speed of about 3.2mph. Now it's all different. I pre-exhaust on the treadmill (now I run/jog most of the 30 minutes, and if I'm walking it's around 4.3mph at incline 15) then train. I'm now doing an additional hour of cardio on the spin bike as well. Overall fitness has become the driving force in my exercise routine now. The amounts I lift have decreased (ten years ago I'd have freaked if I had any perceived loss of strength) but who cares? I'm not a bodybuilder, or an athlete. I'm still strong (relatively), and now I'm fast(er) as well.

The day I started.

One of the goals I had was to be able to get back into old clothes and my old training belt. I'm back into all of them now (some are actually a little big). I wanted to be able to go on trips and enjoy being out and active with Kim. Again, I'm there already. I hope to be ready for a beach trip this spring or summer. I can go into a restaurant now with out the chef wondering if he has enough food to handle all that I'll eat. I'm so much more comfortable and happy now.

For all of those new NS'ers struggling with the program, looking for motivation, I hope this is something that helps. I hope it guides you toward the what should motivate you. Yourself. The real motivation has to come from you. A strong desire to change and be successful. A positive attitude towards the experience. If not, I don't see how you can be successful or stick to the plan. If you go back and read my old posts, I think (hope) that every post shows a positive outlook, each day working towards my goals. Yeah, some days I didn't love a particular food or whatever, but I WORKED toward what I wanted to accomplish. Find an inner drive and challenge yourself. Learn self discipline and self control. Make yourself PROUD. Just the past week I've had to use self control concerning Peanut Butter (I was using way to much trying to add some protein to my snacks) and 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee (I just quit using cream all together). It's very rewarding to realize you're doing something that isn't working, decide to do something about it, and then actually DO IT! I had Kim hide the Peanut Butter from me (I knew I couldn't be trusted) and I was so sick over the cream I didn't need any help at all giving it up. See how easy that was!

Ok, enough with this motivational self help shit. Either you're gonna do it because you want it, or you're not. Good luck!

Below are a couple of recent pics

Finally, my ultimate motivation is to have a wonderful, long, healthy life with Kim.