Achievement Unlocked: Below 280 lbs!

Starting Weight (SW): 299 lbs
Week 1 Weight Loss (WL):  7 lbs
Week 2 Weight Loss (WL):  10.4 lbs 
Week 3 Weight Loss (WL):  +4 lbs 
Week 4 Weight Loss (WL):  7.6 lbs
Total Weight Loss (TWL): 21 lbs

One of my milestone goals, self-imposed, was to lose 20 lbs. If I could do that I was confident I could lose 20 more, but I exceeded that. Even if it’s just one pound…it’s one pound I never want back on my body.

In my last post, Human Nature, I talked about the challenges of having a dip or plateau in your weight loss. I ended it with:

“That just means, provided you’re making healthy choices, your body is adjusting to the new direction. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams… DON’T PANIC!”

I am here to tell you that not panicking…was exactly the right thing to do.  I saw myself last week falling into that same Fibonacci spiral pattern of “oh no’s” over 4lbs.

For you math geeks, the Fibonacci spiral is a design is based on the Fibonacci sequence are the numbers in the following integer sequence. By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.

There’s several sequences in between the second one and the last, but you get the idea. Four Fraking Pounds caused me to lose sight that I had lost seventeen. Your mind will play tricks on you. Don’t let it.

How does this relate to weight loss?

The problems in your brain begins with this one thought and then another. Those two thoughts join up and create a bigger problem. That problem adds the one before it and goes on. If you allow it to…it will detail you from your goal and all the work you put in.
Here’s the example that I used in the last post.

“Maybe I should juice again.”
“Maybe if I only ate one time a day.”
“Maybe I was never meant to do this to begin with.”

So what did I do to have such a big turn around?

I didn’t give into the spiral of worry, fear, or self-defeat. I kept moving forward with my plan. Eating healthy with a paleo like diet, making sure I keep in my walks, and, while I’ve failed the 30 day ab/arm challenge, I am finding ways to increase my movement from simply taking laps around a hotel while walking around a convention to asking “What can I do to help” when I see people needing help moving things. There’s always a chance to increase your movement even if you can’t get to a gym. Trust me, I’m doing a convention every weekend through October and if I can do it you can.

I wanted to leave you with one last thing that will help you. I have also learned a very valuable lesson that you’ve been told from day one, but sounds cliché as hell. Breakfast is the most important part of your day. The days I eat breakfast my I saw some decrease in my numbers the next day, but, most importantly, my energy and metabolism kicked way up.

If I can do keep up with it…you can do this too!

Human Nature

Starting Weight (SW): 299 lbs
Week 1 Weight Loss (WL):  7 lbs
Week 2 Weight Loss (WL):  10.4 lbs 
Week 3 Weight Loss (WL):  +4 lbs
Total Weight Loss (TWL): 13.4 lbs

Sorry for getting this in late. It’s been a challenging morning. Where week two was filled with pride and hope…this week ended feeling like a really good cliffhanger episode of Doctor Who. You know…the one’s where you have to wait six months to see what’s coming next?

Wednesday ended the Juice fast and I was uber conscious not to go full bore eating again. There are at least two options when transitioning after a fast. The first is to slowly incorporate solid food back into your diet. That’s what I did. I started with one meal a day for the first three days and then work your way up to 2-3 meals over the course of a week.

The other option is after you stop juicing all together that you eat only fresh fruits and vegetables for the week after you juice. This gives your body time to adjust and you are eating the same thing you are juicing which means your body isn’t going into shock and can adjust. This is the way I should have gone.

The weight gain of 4 lbs may not seem like much, but when it’s a pound a day and you’re just watching it climb it begins to create fear based illogical reasoning in your head.

“Maybe I should juice again.”
“Maybe if I only ate one time a day.”

And the worst…. “Maybe I was never meant to do this to begin with.”

The problem is, Dear Reader, it’s all bullshit.

You’re going to have a natural bit of weight gain after a juice fast. You just can’t obsess about it…like I was until I started this post.

Seeing the words go onto the post I realized three things that were always there, but my mind did not see.

1) I am eating and living healthier than I have in a long, long time.

2) I am learning every day what will make me healthier in the long run.

And the most important…

3) I have a great support system of people who want to see me succeed. Even to remind me when I’m being neurotic about a few pounds. Adding on those few pounds…I’m still at one of the lowest weights I have been in years.

I’ll leave you with this. Shit is going to happen. Likely the number on the scale will go up a little or stay the same for a few days. That just means, provided you’re making healthy choices, your body is adjusting to the new direction. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams… DON’T PANIC!

Meet Our New Friday Guest Blogger: Simone

Greetings from London, Slayers! Anne here! I just wanted to drop a line quickly and let you all know I'll be on a brief hiatus until after the 30th. I'm on vacation and while I WANT to write, I also know I should be focusing on enjoying this once in a life time chance to explore instead of worrying about when I'll be able to get wifi access again and post my blog. Please don't think I love you all any less! I am very excited to post when I can over the next few weeks and give you the "skinny" on my exercise adventures in England! I'll definitely be taking a run around Chelsea tomorrow morning so that should be exciting! I'm also going to the Harry Potter Studio tour in the afternoon and I am pretty much DYING of excitment already. 

BUT, my dears! You shan't be without entertainment. You'll still have posts from Michael on Mondays and he is doing an AMAZING job with his juice fast. The guy is nearly down 20 lbs since he started blogging here and his progress is mindblowing. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

I'd also like to use today's post to introduce you to Simone, our new guest blogger for Fridays! She's a Kung-Fu and Crossfit badass with the desire to get stronger. Her tale is so different from mine or Michael's and there is so much we can learn from each other! I could go on, but I'm going to let you hear about it from the horse's mouth!

Tell me a little bit about who you are and what you do.

My name is Simone, and like Anne and Michael, I’m a huge nerd, too. I’ve been reading voraciously since I was three years old, and I love good sci-fi and fantasy. I grew up without a gaming console (I know!) but dived in about two years ago with Assassin’s Creed and Skyrim, and I am currently loving my first taste of the Lara Croft world with Tomb Raider Reborn. The theme here is that for my entire life, I’ve loved adventuring from the safety of my home – but I’ve always been too afraid to get out there and try to be an adventurer myself. I don’t even have an arrow to the knee as an excuse!

When did you decide you needed to make a change in your health and fitness level and was there a specific moment where it clicked and you actually committed to doing it? 

I actually have a different story than many, and I’m a little guilty about it: I’m not on a weightloss journey, exactly. I’m a healthy weight. But for the majority of my life thus far, I have never been athletic, never strong; never particularly physically capable at, well, anything. I picked dandelions on the soccer field and spitefully walked my entire mile in gym class (still managing to turn bright red from the effort).

Because I’m in a healthy weight range, I’ve always felt like I should be perfectly happy with my body – like it was selfish of me to envy the strength and confidence of fit people when my own body was “fine.” My lack of talent at sports as a kid had convinced me that I just wasn’t cut out for physical activity. Oh well, right?

I’m the kind of person who overanalyzes and overthinks everything, so I haven’t really had a “moment” yet because I still don’t fully believe in myself. But I’ve had some major turning points in my life, such as joining a kung fu studio at 16, finding Nerd Fitness a year ago and learning about paleo and healthy habits, and starting CrossFit. I’m still too afraid to admit to myself that I might actually be able to be strong and capable – so for now I’m letting my progress kind of sneak up on me.

If you gave up or didn't make it a priority in the past, why do you think that was?

Like many people, I’m afraid of failing. I get bursts of enthusiasm where I vow to do X workout and eat Y food EVERY DAY, and then I burn out and let it slip away. I’m a pro at rationalizing all the “I can’t” excuses in the book! Keeping a positive and realistic attitude is definitely something I’ve been working on for a long time.

What are your goals and how do you plan to accomplish them? 

I have so many goals, they’ll have to be in a separate post. Things like deadlifting twice my body weight, running a mile in under 8:30, and throwing a punch that would actually be effective are all on my long, long list. In short, I’d like to be a leaner, stronger, and more confident version of my current self!

As a recent graduate, I’m transitioning to a new job and uncertain future right now, so life is chaotic. For now, I do CrossFit twice a week and I just started adding two nights of running with the “Zombies, Run!” app that Anne recommended. I also plan on adding some extra stretching and will be targeting a few of my other goals in the near future as my schedule settles down. I’ll keep you posted!

There are so many options when it comes to diet and fitness. Why are you choosing this particular path?

I’m terrible at working out on my own. I really love the camaraderie and community of my kung fu studio and among my friends in my garage – it helps me to push myself and keeps me coming back each day. Running is more of a struggle for me, but having exciting radio transmissions of zombies shambling along behind me is definitely helping!

Even though I can still hardly believe that I am, in fact, becoming an athletic person, my own experience in the past year has been so heartening overall that I’m beginning to consider pursuing health and fitness as a career somehow. There are still a lot of things that I’m struggling with, but my life has improved drastically even with small changes, and I want to show other people that if this introverted bookworm can pick 200lbs up off the ground, they can, too!

What made you want to guest post about your journey on PR?

I loved Anne’s story on Nerd Fitness. I’m pretty sure nerds and fitness are my favorite combination! I think it will help me to have an outlet to share my struggles and successes – and even more, I hope that it helps other people who may be facing the same doubts and experiences. We’re all in this together!

Project Reroll, The Flamethrower!

There's a new arrival at Project Reroll! In Spaceballs, Yogurt said it best. "Merchandising!" I just opened a store to sell shirts, bags, iPhone cases, waterbottles, and more! All of them feature our beautiful logo by Annie Stoll (Seriously, check out her stuff!)! She dedicated a lot of time an energy to  getting it just right and I just want to thank her SO MUCH and give her a shout out so y'all can find her other work on the web! Thanks Annie!

So why make a store?

I want to be able to commit more time to the blog and turn it into something even bigger and better than what it is currently. Sadly, I don't have the ability to do that because of pesky stuff like the time I have to commit to my day job to assuage the lack of disposable income I would need to take this project to the next level. 

Personally, when I read a blog, I'm not usually incentivized to contribute monetarily. Why pay money for something you can get for free? Plus, where does the money go and what direct benefits will I see for my contribution. I wouldn't ask for money if I didn't have an idea of how I'll spend it and what I'll do to improve your experience.

Set your fears at rest. I'll never make people pay for access to the blog. However, a community is what we make of it, and with 30,000 readers (holy Schwartz!), I think we have the slayers we need to level up the blog. Imagine what we could do if every reader gave a just one dollar?! 

More importantly, where will these earnings go? All funds raised through purchases at the store and deposits in the tip jar will be used to:

• Pay for private hosting on our own site away from "blogger."
• Develop a forum community so readers can get connected, chat about articles, and share information and experiences.
• Allow me to dedicate more time to writing more posts and to develop a more comprehensive program for Life Coaching clients.
• Purchase items/services/classes to review on the blog.
• Help me travel to/participate in fitness events like runs, tough mudders, etc. so I can chronicle the training process and the actual event on the blog.
• Pay for a proper video camera so I can make vlog posts on Project Reroll.
• Buy business cards.
• Acquire/distribute prizes for community contests
• Pay for the organization of community events/meetups/classes in NYC (and maybe elsewhere eventually).

Of these upgrades, I'd love to find out what interests my slayers most! Conversely, I'd love to know if there's stuff that people just don't care about at all. Are there other upgrades you would like to see? Other types of merchandise? Let me know! Please leave your ideas, questions, and suggestions in the comments.