<p>My husband had an uncle who specialized in taking pictures from the back. Hated it. </p>
<p>I love farmer’s markets too…but go to them less now that we are members of a CSA. We pick up weekly stashes of in-season produce. So far…so good…but I now have THREE butternut squashes - time to figure out what to do with them. </p>
<p>Off to the Cape later this week and looking forward to…LOBSTER. I’m not picky as long as it’s fresh…and don’t mind indulging in butter once in a great while. IDad…you are ambitious…and your family is lucky to have you at the helm!</p>
<p>Did the metabolic HIIT that I posted earlier for the recumbent bike. It was HARD! I didn’t put it on level 15 but used level 13 and 12 at the very end. I will be sore tomorrow! Also started taking a multivitamin today. Still thinking of addding some whey protein powder. Will see about that. Cooler today so will be outside more. Hoping to walk later.</p>
<p>The title of the article is waaaay misleading - it should have said, “Vit D deficiency is linked to cancer” (the author also used “effect” as a verb):</p>
<p>I think that it’s a good idea to take vitamin and electrolyte supplements when dieting and working out and drinking a lot of water. Stuff can get depleted faster than we expect.</p>
<p>OH, MY! Idad, you’ve lost 50 pounds in just over 6 months! Incredible! What an inspiration! Way to go!!! Are you at your goal weight now? Congratulations~</p>
<p>I was expecting to see a before and after. But a graph is good too.</p>
<p>Your chart is similar to what I’m trying to do. Top of 245, around 209 right now. I started 18 months ago but some school stuff added a lot of stress. This summer has been very productive as I’ve had focus on losing weight. I’m fairly happy when I look in the mirror right now - compared to where I was. Still a long way to go but success breeds success.</p>
<p>I wasn’t weighing myself every morning for the first month, but since early March, it’s same time same channel every morning.</p>
<p>When I started this process back in February, losing 50 pounds was just too daunting to even consider. I mean, I thought it would be possible in some faraway place and faraway time, but it would have been frustrating to measure by that yardstick. So, I just set out to lose five pounds and then do it again. Now, I’ve got ten of them under my (much smaller) belt.</p>
<p>Not only that, but I am much fitter at this weight than I was on the way up. I can’t believe that I’m now wearing “regular fit” jeans instead of “relaxed fit” that are the standard for us middle aged guys.</p>
<p>Another milestone: I dropped out of the “obese” category of body fat percentage today. I’m now in the “overweight” category, with 10 to 15 more pounds to go to get out of that category – although I don’t think you’d look at me today and think that I am particularly fat by 56 year old guy standards. I’m not really sure what to expect in terms of weight loss from here on out. The rate of loss has definitely been slowing down – bursts of the same loss, but with more frequent plateau weeks. I don’t know for sure how to interpret that because I’ve really stepped up the intensity of my weight training. I’m now at point where I think I can see some real fitness gains. I can tell by the way I’m doing the exercises, the pace on the Airdyne, etc. Building muscle results in a different weight loss curve than just doing cardio. I could see a stretch where my body changes shape without dropping much on the scale.</p>
<p>We’ll see, I’m very happy with the way clothes are fitting now, so I look at everything from here on out as a bonus. My brother, the soccer league player, has been whining about getting a tummy and being unable to stay below 195 in his fifties, so I wouldn’t mind sneaking up behind him and “geezering” him on the scale just to be obnoxious.</p>
<p>No. My new goal is to lose five pounds! Beyond that, I don’t really have a final “goal”. The government says that Barack Obama is a couple pounds away from being “overweight”, so by that standard, I’ll probably never make it. I’ve got a short, big-shouldered body type, not a tall skinny guy body type.</p>
<p>I’d say that another 10 or 20 pounds is probably realistic. I don’t know beyond that. I can’t see me fitting in clothes that I wore in my 30s.</p>
<p>Thanks, chintzy. You are **the biggest loser **on College Confidential, but I am very happy to hit this particular milestone. It’s been teasing me for a while now.</p>
<p>I should write a diet book: The Half 'n Half Diet. Not bad losing 50 pounds while drinking half n’ half in my coffee every day for the last six months. I’ve even had little bedtime snacks of a bowl of cereal with a little half n’ half. I’ve had pizza or pasta for dinner once a week for the entire stretch, too. Just goes to show that it’s not about cutting out this “bad” food or that “bad” food, but rather the total calories coming in versus the total calories being burned, over the long haul. Once I got past the Pringles, red licorice, and sour gummy worm craves, I really don’t feel like I’ve been dieting. It’s just become a habit to follow a steak or pork chop dinner with a chicken caesar salad or seafood dinner. Have a hot dog for lunch or bacon and eggs for breakfast, but not day after day after day. I still need to work on portion control. I eat huge dinners.</p>
<p>I can’t find the HIIT workout you are doing, but I’m sure it’s a killer. They all are! It’s a diabolical approach to cardio.</p>
<p>I’m cheating the iPod workouts this week. The workouts not only increase the number of exercises on the circuits, but I’m supposed to be doing one circuit, then six minutes of Airdyne intervals, then another circuit, then six more minutes of Airdyne intervals, then the third circuit of exercises. The Airdyne intervals just wipe me out. I can’t do the weight-lifting in that condition. So, I’m doing all three circuits, then the intervals at the end.</p>
<p>I see where he’s going because the next phase mixes in aerobic intervals (burbees, jumping jacks, etc.) with the weight exercises. So, I’ll probably repeat this week mixing in the Airdyne intervals in preparation for that. I’m still kicking the can down the road by increasing the reps in each exercise from 9 to 12 or from 12 to 15, depending.</p>
<p>Congrats again, idad. I think what you have shown us is that you don’t have to deprive yourself of all tasty food to lose weight, and that it is important to set achievable goals and chip away a little at a time. Also, you are enjoying your new fitness level and activities! Success all the way around.</p>
<p>Teri- you are really kicking butt in the weight-lifting department! Amazing.</p>
<p>idad…awesome chart. Wow. 50 lbs. Congrats!!! I am going to have some lobster…with butter…in your honor this weekend at the Cape. I’ll tell all my friends and family about “idad” - and they’ll think I’m nuts. They don’t know how cool this thread is :)</p>
<p>I decided to walk to the grocery store to pick up a few items for lunch instead of taking the (very unpredictable) bus. My iPhone Maps said it was 0.9 miles one way -heck, that’s very doable. Little did I know that roughly half of that distance would be uphill, and we are talking about one of the steepest hills around here. Actually, going down was the hardest part. I must have burned half of my lunch calories trying to get my food!
My lunch consisted of:</p>
<p>Salad - 240 calories
Yogurt parfait with mango puree -150 calories
Large, juicy pear - maybe 100?
Glass of water</p>
<p>I haven’t had much alcohol. Maybe a glass of wine here or there. A beer occasionally. Maybe once a week. I’m not much of a drinker. I could have traded off my half n’ half in my coffee for a couple glasses of wine a day and called it a wash.</p>
<p>I do think it gets to a larger point of finding a diet that doesn’t feel like depriving yourself at every turn. My deal is giving up the snacks in exchange for eating really good dinners. I had this discussion with my wife the other night. We will, from time to time, have fajitas – usually with chicken, onions, peppers, etc. I have it with a flour tortilla because I like a flour tortilla. With the cheese and all, it’s not a low cal dinner, but if I don’t have cheese and sour cream and guac and the tortilla and rice, it’s not horrible in the grand scheme of things, especially for a very filling dinner. My wife wants me to switch to her high fiber low-carb tortillas. At 120 calories, I would save 10 calories. She says that I would save many carbs. So what? I’m not paying any attention to cutting out a particular food group. I’ll eat some carbs, I’ll eat some fat. For 10 extra calories, I’d rather have a tortilla and a fajita dinner that I really, really like. That way, I’m not hitting the cereal for a late night snack or breaking down and buying Pringles because my body is screaming for a carb-fix.</p>
<p>I guess everyone is different, but I think all this “diet”, “lo carb”, “lo fat”, “high fiber” food may be counter-productive if it takes all the enjoyment out of eating while trying to lose weight.</p>
<p>I agree with your strategy, I-dad! I do not deprive myself of tasty treats and do not try to replace my real foods with artficial crap. Moderation is the key. A glass of red wine here and there works for me. Otherwise, I would not have lost close to 25 lb!
(I can’t have my coffee without half’n half. Out of curiosity I looked up how many calories I added to my diet with a tablespoon of the stuff - 20! Would I drink bitter, yucky black coffee to avoid the measly 20 calories? No way!)</p>
Beyond that, I don’t really have a final “goal”. The government says that Barack Obama is a couple pounds away from being “overweight”, so by that standard, I’ll probably never make it. I’ve got a short, big-shouldered body type, not a tall skinny guy body type.</p>![http://i218.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/200.jpg?t=1282668549]Click](http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc14/hwc_1000/200.jpg?t=1282668549%5DClick){kind=link}
