Mission (#1) Accomplished

At the risk of sounding like our wonderful President, I hereby declare that Mission #1 has been Accomplished. I set out last August to lose 55 pounds, and much to my surprise, I've actually done it. I started out a fabulously rotund 255...



...and dropped to a much slimmer 200 as of Tuesday, July 15, 2008:



That picture was taken last night after a brutal 20-mile bike ride from home to Mesa Community College and back (I'm taking night classes in an attempt to finish my degree). I biked the 10 miles one-way only to discover that the instructor was absent due to car trouble, and the exam I was supposed to take was now a take-home test. That's all well and good, but I was expecting to get a nice 90-minute break (not to mention 90 minutes to allow the Arizona sun to set) between the two legs of my bike trip. Oh, well - I made it home in one piece. But I digress....

I lost about 20 pounds last year, just by cutting out soda, trying to limit my portions a bit, and going to the gym twice a week or so, but by November I had fallen completely off the bandwagon. I remained somewhere between 235 and 240 lbs until a friend/co-worker turned me on to The Daily Plate (thanks Ryan!). I started tracking my food intake and exercise on April 8th, aiming to lose two pounds per week, and lo and behold, the remaining 36 pounds I had to lose are officially gone 14 weeks later (2.57 pounds per week).

It turns out all I needed was a little accountability; having to enter everything I ate into a diary really changed my behavior. Yes, I still eat plenty of ice cream and donuts, but on the days I do I'll eat smaller meals or work out longer. I have also discovered the wonders of the banana and the apple, both very filling but lacking in calories. Of course, changing my eating habits was only half of the equation; I also spend a lot of time and energy at the gym, lifting weights, riding a bike, swimming, and playing basketball. It has been an incredibly positive change for me - I feel better, look better, and have had to buy an entirely new wardrobe. :)

Acknowledgments
I could never have done this without: my lovely wife (for encouraging me), my friend Ryan (for turning me on to The Daily Plate; he's down 45 pounds himself), the author of this article, Krispy Kreme and Dairy Queen (for keeping me sane), LA Fitness, Mike at Mike's Bike Chalet, the folks at Kashi (for their excellent granola bars, my breakfast every day for the last couple months), my dad (for inspiration), Jacob Moffat (likewise), and my fellow Elders (for Tuesday night basketball at the church). I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of people, places, and things - my apologies.

Onward and, well, downward
So where to go from here? Much to my surprise and dismay, I'm still rocking a nice gut, albeit a substantially smaller one than I am used to. I have set a second goal of 185 pounds, which will put my Body Mass Index in the normal range (I'm still in the overweight group). I've adjusted my weight loss goal on TDP to 1.5 pounds per week (allowing me around 1900 calories a day - 1600 was getting pretty old there for a while), so hopefully I'll hit 185 sometime in September/October. Wish me luck!