[ChubRock]

Last night was a friend's Christmas Party, and she called it the MacKinnon Clan Holidays Blowout! Though their scottish roots (via Nova Scotia) was the basis for the name of the party, it truly wasn't a Scottish theme.

I thought since people would dress up I would wear my new tank. Wife thought it was an ok idea until I put it on. My kilt maker made me a kilt that fits beautifully when adjusted to its limit, but the way a kilt pushes the belly sort of up and out gave my profile a distinct look, I'll leave it at that. So I adjusted and felt that I looked good. Then my wife had an opinion

So it starts today, a healthier diet, daily exercise and drinking more water. I have let my weight watchers membership expire and put back on 75% of the weight I had lost. (60 pounds two years ago)

My challenge: Lose 10% of your current body weight within 6 months.

For most men this is quite easy. If you weigh 230 pounds, it is only 23. I weigh 315, so it is "off with" 31.5.

Anyone with me? Yes, I know I may need to have kilts altered or swap them with other XMTS members, but it has to be worth being able to wear it without ever hearing my wife say "Hmmph, your tummy looks really big in that."


Ouch! Who's with me?

[NewEnglander]

I fell off the exercise wagon a couple months ago (okay, i might have gotten a nudge by the flu and then gleefully leapt off) but I plan on starting up again with the running this week or the next.
Good luck with your goal!

[Jamais Arriere]

I've been saying I was going to loose weight. So I'm with you. I'm now at 235 and my son wants me to run the Bear with him at the Grandfather games. I'm up to the challenge. Starting Today! Gonna be expensive to replace all these kilts.

[Sammac]

Well, my wife has been hinting lately. Weighed myself this morning, 225, so count me in.

[BEEDEE]

I've lost 30lb using the sparkpeople.com website. It's free and basically a calorie counter, but I found it works for me.

Brian

[Nighthawk]

I started a martial arts class 3 years ago because I topped out at 420. I'm down to 290 (and I have to add that a lot is muscle mass- my sensei describes my legs as "feakishly huge!" ) and I still have a goal of 40 more pounds. My weight loss has hit an empasse and stopped over the last 6 months. So yeah- I'm with you. Starting immediately.

[Rex_Tremende]

I had been dropping about a pound a week, on average, for most of the last year. I mentioned it elsewhere, but I did it simply by eating less, which, one has to acknowledge, is much easier to do when you live alone and can make completely independent decisions about what and when to eat. At my heaviest, I suppose I might have been close to 245. In going this route, I notice that I've hit plateaus at about 20 lb. intervals. For the last month, I've been stuck at 204-206, tantalizingly close to 203 once, but I blame this on my inability to resist the cookies that have piled up around the secretaries' desks. Food I can say no to. Cookies, which are not food but rather little morsels of instant pleasure stimuli, are a different matter altogether.

Reaching 200 by the end of the year was kind of an unofficial target. Though I don't expect to hit that now, I'm still looking forward to the milestone. I don't plan to do anything special about that, except quietly acknowledge to myself that I met a goal, albeit a late one. From there, I sort of think that it may be possible to get down to 185 in two year's time, and maybe I'll add some exercise into the equation.

I've shrunk out of most of my kilts, and all but two or three of my suits hang on me like sacks. I've taken to wearing waistcoats with my suits to fill out the jackets and to cover up all the bunching of the trousers at the waist, but it's getting harder to disguise the big gap around my neck at the collar. I feel like a schlub, and comfort myself by going for some retail therapy every couple of weeks to buy one or two pieces of something that fits - this week it was two pair of size 36 jeans, a size last seen for about a month back in 2003 when I was unemployed that summer after coming down from another high of 240 or so.

For me, and for many men, the battle against weight is lifelong, and I'm acutely aware of the risk of ballooning back up again (so, no, I'm not selling my kilts!). That said, I absolutely believe we need to love our bodies no matter what shape they are in, for it is a curse to loathe the vessel from which we have no escape. But loving our bodies sometimes means requiring it to do stuff it would rather not do. Successful compliance depends on negotiating a plan that both the body and the spirit can agree on.

Regards,
Rex, who has never, ever, discussed his weight in such detail in public before.

[WeaselMender]

I am in for a min. of 38 lbs. goal over 100 lbs

Weasel

[ForresterModern]

About 5-6 years ago I had a medication induced rise from my long time weight of around 230 up to 289 over about 18 months, despite activity including cycling about 150-200 miles a week in season. Unfortunately I was living in Wisconsin and season starts around late April and ends around late September (I don't do indoor very well---too boring). Then after my son was born it has been even harder, although I did train up for two long distance charity rides this summer (used to do about 10 per summer). Now stuck just under 280 for the last couple years, but would dearly love to lose 25-30, so yeah, count me in. Even if it means all my kilts need to be drawn in a bit I will suffer that cost.

I agree with Rex that controlling diet a little at a time is the best first step, followed by increasing your activity and muscle mass, which burns off the calories faster than just starvation. And it makes you feel better along the way too. Just tough in the winter to keep up the activity level for me for a whole variety of reasons.

jeff

[David Thornton]

It is far easier to eat a bit less than it is to burn the extra calories, look it up if you have any doubt. But, some increase in activity is absolutely essential to facilitate a change.

Rex also hit on one of my pet peeves, I'll explain. While he can make decisions both about what is available and what he eats, a married person cannot. My wife viewed my getting back to my goal weight as folly at first so she kept snacking at night-a major no no. As the weight came off, she along with her mother and my sister in law saw my weight loss as an indictment of their inability to do the same, so I was battered with negative comments.

I've held ideal for 12 months now. So it can be done. Good luck to each of you.

David