My First Post

Dear friends, family and whoever else stumbles across this blog,

As of today, I am officially OBESE! When the scale hit 222.2 pounds this morning, I did some quick calculations and learned something only somewhat unexpected. While I was off doing something else (probably eating), my Body Mass Index (BMI) jumped the fence and landed in a big pile of OBESITY, i.e. a BMI of 30.1. For those unfamiliar with calculating your BMI, just enter your hight and weight at http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

So what’s wrong with being obese?

I mean, everybody in America’s doing it. It’s totally what the cool kids are doing in the back parking lot while they’re skipping class. Scarily enough though, in 2008, 33.8% of Americans were obese. If you look at the statistics for obese and overweight (BMI >24.9) Americans combined, it jumps to a whopping 64.1-72.3%! So only about 30% of Americans are what the CDC considers a “Normal Weight” (you can also be underweight if your BMI’s less than 18.5, which means less than 30% of Americans are what I would call a healthy weight).

According to the CDC, “Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes”. Hmm, now those don’t sound like too much fun to me. Nor does having my belly hang over my bathing suit at the beach (though I’ve been told it makes a VERY comfortable pillow). Also, I have manboobs. They’re small (totally not copping a feel of my own chest right now…all I’ll say is it hasn’t gotten to the point where they’re folding over themselves) but they’re noticeable, and gross.

Why am I excited about this?

Because becoming obese is a milestone that I promised myself if I ever hit, I would have to do something about. While I’m not thrilled that I’ve hit that milestone, I think the idea of actually being obese will give me motivation to watch what I eat, get my lazy ass to the gym and lose weight.

Also, I’m very lucky to be six feet tall and have a VERY broad frame, which means I carry my weight very well. On the downside (well, downside in the motivation department, upside in the mental health department), I don’t look in the mirror and think, “holy shit, how’d that whale get into my bathroom? Someone call a crane, we’re gonna need hydraulics to get this sucker off the beach.” Moral of the story, actually being obese will give me more motivation to lose weight than looking in the mirror.

So why am I sharing this publicly on a blog?

The simple reason: I'm planning to publicly shame myself into losing weight by allowing the whole world to follow my weight loss progress. It's also:

• An INVITATION to friends, family and the whole world to start your own weight loss/exercise/health blog (or send me your weekly weight and I'll post it, with your name or anonymously).
• A CHALLENGE to anyone else who wants to lose weight to see if you can lose weight and keep it off faster than I can.
• AND THE BIGGEST REASON: This blog is MOTIVATION to follow through on what I’m very publicly saying I’m going to do. Simply put, I look like a huge ass if I start this entire blog to lose weight, then either give up on it or gain more weight (and huge asses are what we’re trying to avoid here)!

What’s my plan?

Thanks go out to Timothy Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Body, for the following “four principles of failure-proofing behavior”, or in my case, failure-proofing weight loss:

1. Make it conscious.
2. Make it a game.
3. Make it competitive.
4. Make it small and temporary.

So what I’ll be actually doing is:

Make it conscious

• Following the eating principles of Paul McKenna’s book “I Can Make You Thin”. Basically, focus on your food when you're eating it and stop eating when you think you're no longer hungry. See addendum for details on these principles.
• “Before” and “during/after” photos. Taaaddddaaaaaa, here's a somewhat recent picture. This is the epitome of me lounging around, being lazy and eating a burger. And yes, that's an inflatable pool we set up on the roof.

Make it a game

• Tracking daily food intake on WeightWatchers.com
• Tracking my weekly weight

Make it competitive

• Here’s where I NEED YOUR HELP. I’m looking for people who also want to lose weight to join me in this endeavor. Start your own blog, or alternatively, send me your weight every week and I’ll post a table of who’s lost weight for the week along with my weight. We can make up undercover secret names if you’d rather your real name not be shared with the world. I have dibs on Sleuthly McForkenstein.

Make it small and temporary

• Do 20 minutes on the elliptical twice a week. That’s it for exercise, for now.
• Cancel my membership to the “Clean Plate” club
• Start this blog (check!)

What’s my ultimate goal?

By my 27^th birthday, which is almost exactly 5 months away (6/12/2011), I will lower my BMI to a “Normal Weight” value of 24.9. In pounds, this means losing 38.7 pounds over the course of 20 weeks, for a total weight of 183.5. Sounds like a big number, but it averages out to 1.9 pounds per week.

I’d also like to reduce my % body fat (currently 27.6%) to around 12-15% body fat, where you begin to see muscle definition (particularly in the abs). Because it’s easier to measure weight and set weekly weight loss goals, I’ll measure my progress in pounds but continue to measure my % body fat.

I know this kind of weight loss is possible, because I’ve done it exactly once before in my life. I first started tracking my weight when I joined Weight Watchers on October 22, 2005, when oddly enough, my weight was exactly what it is today, 222.2 pounds. 5 months later, on April 1^st, 2006, I was down to 179 pounds. As you can see below, my weight has fluctuated since then, but it’s been on a pretty steady upwards trend.

Why will this be a challenge?

I’m a huge foodie. Some of my favorites are hamburgers, foie gras, cheese fondue, any type of sushi, Nutella, LOVVEE french fries, brussel sprouts (not kidding, I think these are delicious) and anything with hazelnuts. I LOVE food, almost almost almost as much as I HATE exercise. I also live in New York City, where I basically eat take-out for breakfast, lunch and dinner (literally, there are weeks where I don’t go to the grocery store, all my meals are take out).

Also, I work for an Advertising Agency, which means our clients come to our offices frequently. These visits ALWAYS include food. There’s pretty much a constant flow of taco bars, deli sandwiches, pastries, pasta dishes, salads, cookies and snacks at my office. And self control’s not my thing when it comes to food.

I was also raised as a member of the speed eating clean plate club. I never got any “starving children in Africa” speeches, but lunch growing up was a half hour of socializing inserted between classes at school, and dinner was a quickly eaten meal inserted between afterschool activities and homework. As much as I love the taste of food, I never learned to slow my eating and enjoy the meal. Just finish what’s on your plate and move on to the next activity! If you don’t believe me, read this: When my mother got remarried, we only half jokingly sat down her new husband (a “normal” paced eater), and explained that if he didn’t take his food from the serving dish at the start of the meal, there wouldn’t be any left for him!

I also don’t like to exercise. While I always feel great when I leave the gym, getting myself there is nearly impossible.

How can you help me lose weight?

Follow my blog and comment on my posts! Click the "Follow" button on the top right of the blog post window (right above the pictures of people following the blog). You can follow the blog by using your Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM, Netlog or OpenID accounts. Remember the whole point of this is that I'm now accountable to everyone I know to follow through on this weight loss plan. Commenting will let me know who I'm accountable to! Also I'd be happy to hear any weight loss tips, recipe suggestions, workouts/sports/exercise you enjoy doing, etc.

You can also compete with me! Send me your updated weight every week and I'll post it on the blog (remember, secret names are welcome if you'd rather not reveal your identity). Or better yet, start your own similar blog to post your weight loss journey (www.blogger.com). I promise I'll follow you!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates on my progress!

----Alex

Addendum

Paul McKenna’s book “I Can Make You Thin”

Paul McKenna is essentially the Dr. Phil of the UK, and I highly recommend his book I Can Make You Thin. His weight loss program is very simple:

1. When you are hungry, EAT
2. EAT WHAT YOU WANT, not what you think you should eat
3. Eat CONSCIOUSLY and enjoy every mouthful (i.e. slow down your eating)
4. When you think you are full, STOP eating

This is also coupled with the following Hunger Scale:

1. Physically faint
2. Ravenous
3. Fairly hungry
4. Slightly hungry
5. Neutral
6. Pleasantly satisfied
7. Full
8. Stuffed
9. Bloated
10. Nauseous

The idea is to eat when you're at a 3-4, stop eating when you reach 6-7, and try to avoid the extremes. Eating more slowly and focusing on your food helps you to realize where you are on the scale. You also learn to identify emotional eating and make sure you eat when you're hungry, not just when you want to change the way you feel. There's also a hypnosis CD that uses Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) to help you lose weight. I'm a strong believer in NLP and highly recommend this book specifically because of the hypnosis CD.

The problem with this system though, is I rarely have time to focus on the food when I'm eating, especially at work. I usually grab lunch between meetings or eat at my desk while I'm working on something else. This makes it hard to stop eating when I'm hungry. There's also a ton of delicious free food sitting around my offfice.

So in addition to Paul McKenna's technique, I'll also be tracking what I eat on WeightWatchers.com (WW). If you're unfamiliar with WW, they have a formula for calculating the nutritional value of food as a combination of fat, fiber, carbs and protein. Every food has a number (or a point value), and you get a certain number of points per day. I get 49 points a day, plus an extra 49 to use anytime during the week. The idea is to only eat when I'm hungry, but no matter what, avoid going over my weekly WW points allowance. This should ensure weight loss IF I stick to it.