One Little Index Card

One little index card.

The last time I seriously tried to lose weight, I brought an index card with me to the gym and carried it around as I worked out.

On the index card, I wrote 210. That’s the weight I wanted to get to. That was my end goal. That also was about seven years ago.

I’m happy to report I have recently got down to the number on the card. I weighed in at 209 on Sunday.

But now I want more. I still have about 15 pounds to go to get to my end goal of 100 pounds of weight loss.

So I decided to break out another index card. On this one, I will write 194. That’s the end goal. That’s where I want to be and my target date is December 3, also known in my circle as my daughter’s birthday.

Having kids can be motivating. You have to be on your toes. You have to be ready to move at moment’s notice. I felt like I needed to make changes in my life to be a better dad and husband.

One of my friends at Anytime Fitness, the manager actually, told me choosing my daughter’s birthday was a great idea.

In her words, and I am paraphrasing, she said your daughter has been your biggest cheerleader during the entire process so it makes sense to make the big day her big day.

Now, can I get there? That’s 15 more pounds in about seven weeks.

It won’t be easy. And if I don’t hit the date, it won’t be the end of the world. But having that index card with me while I work out will help motivate me to do another set or two on days I just don’t feel like being there.

I will get to 100 pounds at some point. But getting it done before that date would make it special for me and her.

Update: I did not reach the 100 pound mark by December 3. We are still trying to hit that mark but will get there at some point.

A promised weight loss update from August

I promised a reader I would update my weight-loss journey every so often and have really failed to do so lately.

So I think it’s time for another one.

Things are still going well. Better than I expected to be honest. I have lost 70 pounds since January 10.

There have been many more ups than downs the past eight months but there have been weeks that just puzzle me.

I weigh in every Sunday. And this past Sunday’s scale reading showed minimal weight loss from the week before. It can be frustrating. Especially since you know you had a great week outside of one day.

I took my daughter to Pizza Ranch on Saturday. We were home without Mom for most of the weekend. We stayed home Friday but I let her choose the place for Saturday and we hadn’t been there in what seemed like forever.

I tried to eat the best I could but did indulge in some pizza and I finished her cheese bread.

Unfortunately, that one day probably hurt the scale reading the next morning.

And it came after a strong week of exercise where I hit 30 minutes of exercise each day and reached more than 11,000 steps in five of the seven days, including 20,000 steps on Thursday.

I have seen similar weeks to that before. Where you think the scale is going look great and it just doesn’t. And then I lose more than I expected another week.

It’s a process. And one that I don’t plan on getting away from. I like this version of me way more than where I was in January. It won’t be easy and I’m sure I will have some tough moments, but I don’t plan on going back.

I have changed my goal since starting, too. I figured why stop now and lock myself into one goal. You can always improve.

So now, instead of wanting to get around 220 pounds (I weighed in at 224 on Sunday), the new goal is to lose 100 pounds by next spring break.

We have a trip planned during that time for the first time since I can remember and I would love to be under 200 pounds for it. I would be at that milestone for the first time since maybe college? I don’t even know when I was last under 200 pounds.

The last time I gave an update, I had to get through state wrestling and state track and some other key times of the year when it’s basically impossible to eat well. But I did it.

Protein bars were a life saver. I just packed a few in my bag every day and it got me through long days.

I ran into a former boss at the Iowa Shrine Bowl in late July and we talked a little bit about the changes. He doesn’t know how I was able to get rid of energy drinks. It’s a staple with sports journalists who work long days and are up until 2 a.m. each night.

The truth is, I didn’t give them up. One of my biggest early changes was an adjustment of what I purchased at gas stations. I love gas station food and drinks. It’s quick. It’s easy. And it’s not all that expensive.

I got up to 294 pounds because I purchased sugar-packed energy drinks and hot gas station food like hamburgers, chicken and rib sandwiches, burritos and corn dogs every night.

Now, my almost daily trips to Kwik Star consist of diet pop, sugar-free and zero-calorie energy drinks and bananas with the occasional Muscle Milk thrown in there.

I’m still drinking a protein shake every day for breakfast. That includes protein powder, ice and a banana. I have recently added pumpkin to the shake after one of my fitness YouTube personalities told me it helps with muscle growth. So we’ll see how that goes.

Another friend asked me the other day if all I eat now is chicken breast. I chuckled a bit, but she’s not too far off. I do eat a lot of chicken breast.

Some other key low-calorie foods that have played a role in the weight loss include cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, tuna fish sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, bananas, apples and pickle spears.

I eat a lot of salads, too. I put chicken breast, eggs and croutons in those and I don’t think I am suffering through it at all.

The last column update, I mentioned doing daily push-ups and squats. That’s still going strong. I am now doing 4 sets of 25 each so 100 per day. That helps me get some exercise in even if I can’t get to the gym that day.

Here’s to my next goal of 100 pounds and here’s to limiting the amount of Mexican food I eat weekly.

A weight-loss journey update from June

I wrote this column back in June. I wanted to share some articles on my weight-loss journey here as I approach the 100 pounds of weight loss. I am about 7 pounds away as of today and a few days after a not-so-good holiday weekend of eating a few too many sweets. 

I will share a few more stories a long the way as we get to the finish line. 

Here's the article that I published in the middle of June. 

When I stepped on the scale Sunday morning, it read the same exact weight as the week before.

I wasn’t bummed. I wasn’t frustrated. Just more motivated.

Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I thought I had a great week when it came to working out and the stuff I put in my body. But the scale doesn’t lie.

Since January 10, I have lost 63 pounds. It’s been an almost complete overhaul of what I eat and drink on a daily basis.

I cut out unhealthy gas station food, energy drinks that are high in sugar and I stopped snacking just to snack.

Those were the biggest issues I had that caused my weight to get to an all-time high back in January.

Some weeks have seen huge drops in weight. Some weeks showed minimal weight gain. My average weight loss per week has been three pounds with the largest being 11.2 pounds way back in Week 2 of the program.

When someone asks me what my secret has been, I don’t exactly know what to say. Most of things you can do to lose weight are common sense stuff. Most of us simply don’t want to do what is required to do.

I was one of those people for a long time. Because of the nature of my job, it was always easier to just stop at the gas station before I left town to cover a sporting event. Or grab something from there when I got back into town before I went to the office.

Now, when I go into those places, I buy diet pop, cottage cheese, yogurt, Muscle Milk and/or bananas.

I am pre-cooking food in advance so I can re-heat healthier options when it's convenient. Things like hard boiled eggs, chicken breasts and fish.

I have had a lot of salads in the past four months. But every salad I eat has chopped up chicken breasts, smashed up hard boiled eggs and croutons in it. The salad dressing is the only thing that is probably not the best but who eats salad without dressing?

The chicken breasts and fish have been awesome in the process. The BBQ sauce is not but again, you can’t get rid of everything.

And guess what, if you eat clean throughout the day, you are still able to eat things you ate before a few times a week. Like Mexican food.

I have tried to stay consistent through the process. Every morning, I wake up, make a protein shake with a banana and some ice for breakfast, eat tuna fish sandwiches or Greek yogurt or a chicken breast and egg salad for lunch and then eat whatever a lot of times for supper.

The next question I get involves the fitness part of the equation. I have always worked out. But there has been things I have done to add to the workouts.

My daughter and I do push-ups every day. It started with 25 per day in January and has built up to 50 every day in June. The number will keep growing and my daughter has been keeping me motivated and challenging me more every day.

It’s been a lot easier to run when you are less weight, too. I started out early in the process by doing sprint-type HIIT workouts on the treadmill to shred some weight.

It moved to timed three mile runs where I tried to better my time every workout. I also have learned through one of my favorite YouTube channels that walking can be just as effective as running. Especially if you put the treadmill at an incline.

The most surprising part of this process has been the fact that I was able to lose weight on the weeks of state wrestling and state track and field. And instead of riding in a golf cart to cover that sport, I chose to walk every time.

This process hasn’t been easy. It hasn’t always been fun. But it has been worth it. I feel great. And I was able to fulfill a promise I made to my daughter a few years back that I would get into better shape to be able to do more activities with her outside.

We all need a little motivation when it comes to weight loss. Besides doing what I told my daughter I would do, my biggest motivation was that I was ashamed at what I had become.

I’m still not quite where I want to be. But I'm no longer ashamed. That’s a great feeling.