Week Eight Summary
I'm down to 168 this week. It was a great week with a 4.5 lb loss. I did not think this week was going to end up with that much of a loss as I stayed the same weight for three days in a row. My average weight loss per week so far is about 3.6 lbs/week. This is a bit better than the expected 2.8 lbs/week as originally planned so I'm very happy with the results thus far. Some weeks I've had very little loss and other weeks I've had a bit more. My loss per week has ranged from 0.9 to 6.6 lbs. Don't get discouraged if you have a bad week of little or no weight loss. If you are going to get worked up over making little to no progress or if you see a slight gain then it is best not to weigh yourself every day. I weigh myself every day but I've been weighing myself everyday since I bought the Fitbit Aria scale in November 2014. I've seen how your weight fluctuates day to day or even throughout the day. I know that you need to look at the trends over a longer timescale rather than looking at day to day changes. I am a software developer and data analysis professional so I do enjoy looking at data sets and having more data to look at so getting more measurements for me is fine but it is not for everyone.
Here is the updated chart for this week.
I provide the chart in hopes that others, who are working with PHD Weight Loss or other program, can see how much exercise I am doing in addition to the changes in diet to achieve the results that I'm experiencing. You can see that most days I'm reaching 10,000 steps but I'm not hitting that goal everyday. I have not looked into correlating the two but I'll bet that there is some correlation. The point I'm trying to make and we have heard time and again is that diet or exercise alone will not get you the healthy weight loss that you are looking for. Any healthy weight loss program requires both. I will say that I've not done intense workouts until recently so exercise does not have to be difficult. Up until that past few weeks, I've only been walking more than usual. Walking has been enough to see the weight coming off.
It was only after I reached the 170's that I started adding running to my exercise routine. I waited until I reached the 170's as I had joint pain in my knees and in my feet when I was carrying more weight. I had suspected that my weight was causing my knee and foot pain and once I started loosing weight, I was proven that my hypothesis was correct. I waited until I was in the 170's as I felt I may bring back the knee and foot pain if I started running sooner with still too much weight for my joints to handle. It is looking like that was a good plan.
I'm running three days a week by following the Couch to 5K program. I'm using the app on my phone called C25K by Zen Labs. It has been a great program thus far. I'm in week 3 right now. The workouts are around 30 minutes long. The first week has you run 8 times for one minute each time with a break in between. The second week has you run 6 times for 90 seconds each time. The third week is running 4 times with 2 times at 90 seconds and the other 2 times at 3 minutes. As you can see, it gets tougher and tougher each week but it is great to see that you are indeed improving each week. I'm noticing that I'm not breathing heavily when walking up stairs like I was in the past which is awesome.
My last thought around exercise is not getting hung up on "exercise". Just increase the level of physical activity that you do everyday. I know we have all heard these things before and may have tried on our own but I think getting on this program and working with folks who are tracking my progress such as Rachel and Dr. Lucas has been the difference for me. When I had my consultation with Dr. Lucas, she asked me how committed I was to loosing the weight. I told her that I was at about 80% committed and she replied that I need to be 100% committed. I knew that but the problem was that I knew I needed to loose the weight and wanted to, I just felt that I did not have the bandwidth to take on making the change. I also felt that I did not have the support that I needed.
I have had to have a great deal of self-control since being on the program. Some challenges that I have had is my wife does not want me to loose so much weight. I keep telling her that for my height, 160 is the borderline between having a healthy weight and being overweight. I wish to maintain a healthy weight so I need to get down to the 150 that Dr. Lucas has set. At 150 lbs, I have some room to maintain a healthy weight as I can go up or down a few pounds and not be out of the healthy range. Furthermore, I'm closing in on my goal so I'm motivated to keep going.
Some other challenges that I have had are celebrations with cake, traveling, and attending fundraisers at restaurants. Fortunately Rachel has been able to help me navigate each of these so I've been able to stick with the program. I've also needed to have a great deal of self control as well.
One more challenge that I am currently facing is it is looking like I may be having an issue with nutrition. I believe that the issue is with genetics and not eating enough foods with Vitamin B and/or Vitamin C. I'm working with my doctor right now to determine what the main issue is. I've noticed that I get lightheaded sometimes when I stand up, turn my head side to side quickly, or do various activities. I did not think much of it as I thought it was simply having my electrolytes out of balance. I have been using Ultima Hydrating Electrolyte Powder to help but I was still experiencing the light-headiness from time to time. I finally realized something else may be going on when I had an issue attempting to stop bleeding from a very small wound. My doctor ran some blood test and found that I have enough iron in my blood but my iron binding capacity was low as well as a few other results were low. I'm adding some foods to my diet now to increase Vitamin B and C to see if there is any improvement. I am hopeful that changing my diet slightly will help resolve this issue. Below are some foods that I'm attempting to add into my diet.
Here is the updated chart for this week.
It was only after I reached the 170's that I started adding running to my exercise routine. I waited until I reached the 170's as I had joint pain in my knees and in my feet when I was carrying more weight. I had suspected that my weight was causing my knee and foot pain and once I started loosing weight, I was proven that my hypothesis was correct. I waited until I was in the 170's as I felt I may bring back the knee and foot pain if I started running sooner with still too much weight for my joints to handle. It is looking like that was a good plan.
I'm running three days a week by following the Couch to 5K program. I'm using the app on my phone called C25K by Zen Labs. It has been a great program thus far. I'm in week 3 right now. The workouts are around 30 minutes long. The first week has you run 8 times for one minute each time with a break in between. The second week has you run 6 times for 90 seconds each time. The third week is running 4 times with 2 times at 90 seconds and the other 2 times at 3 minutes. As you can see, it gets tougher and tougher each week but it is great to see that you are indeed improving each week. I'm noticing that I'm not breathing heavily when walking up stairs like I was in the past which is awesome.
My last thought around exercise is not getting hung up on "exercise". Just increase the level of physical activity that you do everyday. I know we have all heard these things before and may have tried on our own but I think getting on this program and working with folks who are tracking my progress such as Rachel and Dr. Lucas has been the difference for me. When I had my consultation with Dr. Lucas, she asked me how committed I was to loosing the weight. I told her that I was at about 80% committed and she replied that I need to be 100% committed. I knew that but the problem was that I knew I needed to loose the weight and wanted to, I just felt that I did not have the bandwidth to take on making the change. I also felt that I did not have the support that I needed.
I have had to have a great deal of self-control since being on the program. Some challenges that I have had is my wife does not want me to loose so much weight. I keep telling her that for my height, 160 is the borderline between having a healthy weight and being overweight. I wish to maintain a healthy weight so I need to get down to the 150 that Dr. Lucas has set. At 150 lbs, I have some room to maintain a healthy weight as I can go up or down a few pounds and not be out of the healthy range. Furthermore, I'm closing in on my goal so I'm motivated to keep going.
Some other challenges that I have had are celebrations with cake, traveling, and attending fundraisers at restaurants. Fortunately Rachel has been able to help me navigate each of these so I've been able to stick with the program. I've also needed to have a great deal of self control as well.
One more challenge that I am currently facing is it is looking like I may be having an issue with nutrition. I believe that the issue is with genetics and not eating enough foods with Vitamin B and/or Vitamin C. I'm working with my doctor right now to determine what the main issue is. I've noticed that I get lightheaded sometimes when I stand up, turn my head side to side quickly, or do various activities. I did not think much of it as I thought it was simply having my electrolytes out of balance. I have been using Ultima Hydrating Electrolyte Powder to help but I was still experiencing the light-headiness from time to time. I finally realized something else may be going on when I had an issue attempting to stop bleeding from a very small wound. My doctor ran some blood test and found that I have enough iron in my blood but my iron binding capacity was low as well as a few other results were low. I'm adding some foods to my diet now to increase Vitamin B and C to see if there is any improvement. I am hopeful that changing my diet slightly will help resolve this issue. Below are some foods that I'm attempting to add into my diet.
- Vitamin B
- Eggs
- Vitamin C
- Red & Green Bell Pepers
- Broccoli
- Brussel Sprouts
- Cauliflower
- Kale
- Spinach
- Iron
- Grass-feed Beef
- Spinach
I am at a bit of a loss on why Vitamin B or C would be an issue as I take a multivitamin everyday. I have heard in the past that some people claim that multivitamins are a waste of money as they pass straight through your system and are not absorbed. If my issue is indeed tied to low vitamin B or C then I may start to believe that those folks may know what they are talking about.
I know I'm going on and on this week but I have one more thing to share. I found a site with some great Keto recipes that I plan to try out. The site is Perfect Keto and the recipes are found at https://www.perfectketo.com/category/recipes/. Keep in mind that they are selling some products geared towards Keto dieters but I think they have some great information on the site. In particular, I found there site through a blog post they have regarding Kombucha on Keto. (https://www.perfectketo.com/is-kombucha-keto-friendly/)
Final Thoughts
- Weighing yourself everyday is not for everyone but if you can handle seeing gains or low losses it can be a good tool to keep you on track.
- Increasing activity is necessary but it does not need to be intense. Do what you can but increase your daily activity.
- It is best to work with someone when losing weight. You can work with professionals such as PHD Weight Loss or with friends and family. It is much tougher to go it alone.
PS: If you decide to purchase a Fitbit Aria scale, I want to let you know that the scale has had design issues in the past. I hope Fitbit has improved the quality of the scale but I doubt they have. My first scale was dead on arrival but I was able to repair it. I posted a repair guide for the scale so if you have one which failed, you can repair it. Check out my post at http://richteel.blogspot.com/2014/11/defective-fitbit-aria-scale-fixed_16.html. I also found a video on YouTube from Thomasz Plawski. I believe he read my post as he mentions reading a repair guide online. The video is at https://youtu.be/dDEvXJIW4lY. Thomas only taped down the pinched wire which most likely was a temporary fix. He really should have cut the wire and spliced it back together.
FYI: I weigh myself with the Fitbit Aria and the Renpho scale provided by PHD Weight Loss every day. I like that the Fitbit Aria syncs over the WiFi so it is available anywhere right away without needing to have my phone or other device. The Renpho scale requires an device with Bluetooth to sync with and the data is only available on a device running the app but it provides more information that the Aria. There is a difference between the weight reported on both scales. The Aria is always about a pound more than the Renpho scale.
Addendum
I wanted to add a few thoughts regarding one of the reasons that I decided to reduce sugar intake and get on a diet and start taking better care of myself. I have a lot of respect for Dr. Sanjay Gupta and watching one of his videos regarding sugar made me think about reducing sugar.
The part that caught my attention the most was around the 5:55 mark when Dr. Gupta is talking to Dr. Kimber Stanhope of UC Davis and discusses what happens when a rush of sugar hits your liver. It is a real eye-opener. (It reinforces what Dr. Doug Lucas says in the PHD Weight Loss video at https://youtu.be/l7oRALPgJxw.)
Another video got me thinking more about weight and diet overall. It has convinced me that going vegan would be a good goal to have. Most likely I will not but I am trying to incorporate more veggies and eat less meat. The PHD Weight Loss program is helping me get there.
FYI: I weigh myself with the Fitbit Aria and the Renpho scale provided by PHD Weight Loss every day. I like that the Fitbit Aria syncs over the WiFi so it is available anywhere right away without needing to have my phone or other device. The Renpho scale requires an device with Bluetooth to sync with and the data is only available on a device running the app but it provides more information that the Aria. There is a difference between the weight reported on both scales. The Aria is always about a pound more than the Renpho scale.
Addendum
I wanted to add a few thoughts regarding one of the reasons that I decided to reduce sugar intake and get on a diet and start taking better care of myself. I have a lot of respect for Dr. Sanjay Gupta and watching one of his videos regarding sugar made me think about reducing sugar.
The part that caught my attention the most was around the 5:55 mark when Dr. Gupta is talking to Dr. Kimber Stanhope of UC Davis and discusses what happens when a rush of sugar hits your liver. It is a real eye-opener. (It reinforces what Dr. Doug Lucas says in the PHD Weight Loss video at https://youtu.be/l7oRALPgJxw.)
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