Joggling away 10 pounds in 30 days

It might surprise you to learn that I’m overweight.  Yes, I joggle every day without fail and have done so for 2264 days in a row.  During that time I’ve averaged 3.7 miles a day and have never gone less than 1.5 miles.  I may not look overweight but if you run a BMI check on me (6′ 1″, 201 lbs) I score a 26.5 which is in the overweight category.  The highest weight I could be and have a BMI in the “normal” range is 189 lbs.  Right now that is the upper end of my target weight.  

The good news is that at the start of the year I weighed 211 lbs which means since January 1st, I’ve lost 10 lbs.  How did I do it?

Like this.

Step 1 – Begin when you’re overweight.  When you are overweight losing weight is much easier than if you are not overweight.  211 lbs was only 2 lbs short of the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life.  My body isn’t used to being that heavy so it is a bit easier to lose weight.

Step 2 – Exercise every day. To tell you the truth I don’t know how much my daily joggling has any impact on my weight.  It’s not like I increased the amount that I’ve been running.  In fact, I’ve run the same amount this January as I did last month when I didn’t lose weight.  I did add a daily pushup / situp routine which is additional exercise.  Anyway, what helped me to lose 10 lbs in 30 days was doing 465 pushups, 465 situps, and 82 miles of joggling.

Step 3 – Record all your food.  I’ve been using this Myfitnesspal app and it’s great.  It makes recording your food really simple.  The app has a huge database of food so you can simply type in the name of some food and it usually has a listing.  And for things that have UPC codes you can just scan the code and it automatically imports the data.  The app also ties in with the Runkeeper app I use to track my mileage and adjusts my calorie limit to accommodate the additional calories burned.  It’s quite fun.  The key to keeping a good food journal is to write everything down!  I even recorded the free samples I got at the local Mariano’s while shopping.

Step 4 – Limit yourself.  Ok, this is the real reason I’ve lost 10 lbs in 30 days.  I’m consuming less calories. I’ve consumed about 1950 calories a day for the last month.  It’s tough to know for sure but estimating, my average calorie consumption before this month was around 2500 a day.  All those donuts, candy bars and beers add up.

Oh yes and speaking of limiting, a few changes I’ve made have really impacted the amount of calories I eat.  These include…

a.  Limit drinking to 30 days for the year.  I’ve only had 4 drinking days thus far.
b.  Limit donuts to once a month.  I haven’t had any yet.
c.  Limit French fries to once a month.  Haven’t had any yet.
d.  Limit candy bars to once a month.  None yet.
e.  Limit soda to one day a month.  I always drink the no calorie sodas but I figured I was drinking way too much last year so I’m strictly limiting it this year.

So there you have it, how to lose 10 lbs in 30 days in four easy steps.  We’ll see if it’s as easy in February to lose the next 10 lbs.