As you know, since the first "a-fib" scare and subsequent hospitalization back in December, I've made it a goal to get back into shape. I'm literally sick and tired of being sick and tired.
But it's a long road, and it has many twists and turns, dead ends and other obstacles to my overall accomplishment of my goals.
Add in the fact that I really and truly had not stated, even to myself, exactly what those "goals" were. It was just a vague desire to lose weight and cut down on drinking.
Well, I've compiled the data here for analysis. Let's see how this 5 month journey has proceeded thus far, shall we?
1. Weight Loss
For the first time in years, I made 2 really good decisions in this venture:
First and foremost, I kept very accurate records of exactly what I ate and what I burned up via the free weight control tracking site FitDay.com.
Second, I bought a scale which could handle greater than 300 lbs. and, perhaps more importantly, I used it. If not everyday, certainly with enough regularity to keep a close eye on real weight loss (or gain).
With hard data, I can make informed decisions based on true performance. No guess work. It's science, baby!
Here come the graphics:
Weight vs Time
Note the jaggedness of the line as it makes it's gradual (and painfully slow) trend downward in this chart. That accounts for the near daily weight recording since I bought the scale at home. Prior to that, it was doctor's office scale results.
Ya, a bit of a roller coaster, especially in the past few weeks.
It's no secret, I'm stressed folks! ;)
Assessment: Though it is overall going down (good), it's takin' the freakin' slow boat to China. At this rate, a loss of an average .821 pounds per week, it would take me almost 3 years to get down to my goal weight of 185. Yikes!
Calories
This is a graphic showing the average calories eaten over the last month, but I checked each of the other months on record, and believe me, if I printed all of them, it would look like I just copied and pasted the same one. Since December, the breakdown has been basically the same as this. And, yes, on average, that includes 10% to 16% for alcohol.
The reports on calories burned are too sad to put up. Basically it's nil other than basal rate, which for me is big since, well, I am big. My 3 or 4 workouts in the past 5 months don't make a dent in the numbers. My basal metabolic rate, estimated by FitDay is 2563 calories per day. That means, by just breathing, digesting and stuff, not even moving, I burn that many calories.
I'm not sure how accurate that really is. It also says I burn 1154 calories a day from daily activities attributed to my lifestyle. And yes, it knows I am an office worker who sits on his butt all day, and that my pastimes are sitting a computer at home, too. Hmmm. Seems with an average of over 3700 calories burned per day for doing nothing, I would be able to eat heartily and never work out, yet still lose weight? I don't think so.
So I take the "calories burned" data from FitDay with a heavy grain of salt.
2. Reduction of drinking
Um, that hasn't been as successful, until most recently (for now, anyway).
Whether it can be attributed to stress (excuses), Ric's influence (excuses), addiction (excuses) or simply ignorance (more excuses), here are the results:
Drink of choice: Here's a quick percentage table that really is so brief, it doesn't need a pie chart:
What does Michael drink?
Beer: 69%
Wine: 30%
Margaritas (virtually the only mixed drink I ever have): 1%
Drinks* Per Day
*A drink is defined as either one 12 oz. beer, one 5 oz. wine, or one 2 oz. hard liquor
In this calendar, we track January to the present. See the legend below to determine what each color means for each day.
Legend:
(Color: Number of drinks)
Blank/White: 0
Blue: 2 or less (but more than zero, duh.)
Lt. Blue/Cyan: 3 to 5
Yellow: 6 to 8
Orange: 9 to 11
Red: 12 to 14
Dark Red/Maroon: 15 or more
Drinks Per Week
Here's a bar graph displaying the number of total drinks for each week in the time period. That big spike: 53 drinks in Week #8, was Feb. 17-23. That week sticks out glaringly not only because of the amount, but the persistence. I drank, every day consecutively, from Monday, Feb. 18th to Sunday, Feb. 24th. I gotta check around to see not only why, but what effect that had. I know I wasn't on vacation either. So that means I went to work hungover during each of those work days? Yikes.
Here's some final startling facts...
From January 1 to Monday, June 9th (the last time I drank), I consumed a total of 507 drinks over 58 occurrences.
That's an average of 8.74 drinks per occurrence. So, on average, if I'm gonna drink, I'll throw back almost 9 before I'm done for the evening.
Though most of my drinks are full-bodied beer (ie: not "light" beer) or wine at an average of 145 calories per serving, lets do a little math to see how much I consume, via alcohol usage, using a low-ball estimate of 100 calories per drink (accounting for some that may actually be 90-100 calorie light beer), shall we?
507 drinks times 100 calories equals: 50,700 calories.
That's right, I said over fifty thousand calories!
That's 2204 calories per week. Basically that's a whole extra day's worth of USDA recommended calories, per week.
How much weight does that translate into? Hard to say, that formula isn't as easy. But c'mon, do ya think it might be a hell of a lot easier to loose weight and ultimately feel a lot better, by eliminating that excess?
Things that make you go...hmmmm.
But it's a long road, and it has many twists and turns, dead ends and other obstacles to my overall accomplishment of my goals.
Add in the fact that I really and truly had not stated, even to myself, exactly what those "goals" were. It was just a vague desire to lose weight and cut down on drinking.
Well, I've compiled the data here for analysis. Let's see how this 5 month journey has proceeded thus far, shall we?
1. Weight Loss
For the first time in years, I made 2 really good decisions in this venture:
First and foremost, I kept very accurate records of exactly what I ate and what I burned up via the free weight control tracking site FitDay.com.
Second, I bought a scale which could handle greater than 300 lbs. and, perhaps more importantly, I used it. If not everyday, certainly with enough regularity to keep a close eye on real weight loss (or gain).
With hard data, I can make informed decisions based on true performance. No guess work. It's science, baby!
Here come the graphics:
Weight vs Time
Note the jaggedness of the line as it makes it's gradual (and painfully slow) trend downward in this chart. That accounts for the near daily weight recording since I bought the scale at home. Prior to that, it was doctor's office scale results.
Ya, a bit of a roller coaster, especially in the past few weeks.
It's no secret, I'm stressed folks! ;)
Assessment: Though it is overall going down (good), it's takin' the freakin' slow boat to China. At this rate, a loss of an average .821 pounds per week, it would take me almost 3 years to get down to my goal weight of 185. Yikes!
Calories
This is a graphic showing the average calories eaten over the last month, but I checked each of the other months on record, and believe me, if I printed all of them, it would look like I just copied and pasted the same one. Since December, the breakdown has been basically the same as this. And, yes, on average, that includes 10% to 16% for alcohol.
The reports on calories burned are too sad to put up. Basically it's nil other than basal rate, which for me is big since, well, I am big. My 3 or 4 workouts in the past 5 months don't make a dent in the numbers. My basal metabolic rate, estimated by FitDay is 2563 calories per day. That means, by just breathing, digesting and stuff, not even moving, I burn that many calories.
I'm not sure how accurate that really is. It also says I burn 1154 calories a day from daily activities attributed to my lifestyle. And yes, it knows I am an office worker who sits on his butt all day, and that my pastimes are sitting a computer at home, too. Hmmm. Seems with an average of over 3700 calories burned per day for doing nothing, I would be able to eat heartily and never work out, yet still lose weight? I don't think so.
So I take the "calories burned" data from FitDay with a heavy grain of salt.
2. Reduction of drinking
Um, that hasn't been as successful, until most recently (for now, anyway).
Whether it can be attributed to stress (excuses), Ric's influence (excuses), addiction (excuses) or simply ignorance (more excuses), here are the results:
Drink of choice: Here's a quick percentage table that really is so brief, it doesn't need a pie chart:
What does Michael drink?
Beer: 69%
Wine: 30%
Margaritas (virtually the only mixed drink I ever have): 1%
Drinks* Per Day
*A drink is defined as either one 12 oz. beer, one 5 oz. wine, or one 2 oz. hard liquor
In this calendar, we track January to the present. See the legend below to determine what each color means for each day.
Legend:
(Color: Number of drinks)
Blank/White: 0
Blue: 2 or less (but more than zero, duh.)
Lt. Blue/Cyan: 3 to 5
Yellow: 6 to 8
Orange: 9 to 11
Red: 12 to 14
Dark Red/Maroon: 15 or more
Drinks Per Week
Here's a bar graph displaying the number of total drinks for each week in the time period. That big spike: 53 drinks in Week #8, was Feb. 17-23. That week sticks out glaringly not only because of the amount, but the persistence. I drank, every day consecutively, from Monday, Feb. 18th to Sunday, Feb. 24th. I gotta check around to see not only why, but what effect that had. I know I wasn't on vacation either. So that means I went to work hungover during each of those work days? Yikes.
Here's some final startling facts...
From January 1 to Monday, June 9th (the last time I drank), I consumed a total of 507 drinks over 58 occurrences.
That's an average of 8.74 drinks per occurrence. So, on average, if I'm gonna drink, I'll throw back almost 9 before I'm done for the evening.
Though most of my drinks are full-bodied beer (ie: not "light" beer) or wine at an average of 145 calories per serving, lets do a little math to see how much I consume, via alcohol usage, using a low-ball estimate of 100 calories per drink (accounting for some that may actually be 90-100 calorie light beer), shall we?
507 drinks times 100 calories equals: 50,700 calories.
That's right, I said over fifty thousand calories!
That's 2204 calories per week. Basically that's a whole extra day's worth of USDA recommended calories, per week.
How much weight does that translate into? Hard to say, that formula isn't as easy. But c'mon, do ya think it might be a hell of a lot easier to loose weight and ultimately feel a lot better, by eliminating that excess?
Things that make you go...hmmmm.