Why I'm Starting to Blog Again

I decided to blog again, because I saw a hole in the internet's vast sea of information (which was surprising considering how many cat pictures, and fail movies are already out there).  Back in the end of April I weighed 233.8 pounds (according to the "slightly above average priced at Wal-Mart" bathroom scale that sits outside my shower), so that's 106.0499 kg for all of my non-English system using friends... that number honestly means nothing to me.  I was thirty then (oh, the good ol' days) and stood at a towering 5'11", again that's 180.34 cm, and again, that number means very little to me.  At the time, I looked at myself and said, "Self, you're not as in-shape as I wish you were.  We might want to do something about that."  Which was the very dramatic start to me trying Myfitnesspal.com again (I lost fifty pounds while using it about five years ago).  I decided it would be a lifestyle change for me.  The first time I used it I played it like a video game where I weighed food, only did cardio, and did my level best to hit that 1200 calorie a day mark (if you get below that mark myfitnesspal won't project your weight loss in five weeks because at 1199 calories you are simply starving yourself and that might backfire... they have a whole warning paragraph about it).  After getting below my goal of 200 pounds (you do the math on where I started) I realized only eating 1200 calories a day was unsustainable, and really not very much fun, so I decided I had 'beat' the game of weight loss and could move on to other games.  Not surprisingly, I did not keep the weight off.  And so I found myself at thirty almost weighing as much as I had back when I tried the first time.

I went along my merry weigh (pun, get it?) until I got to about August, or September.  I was down to 219 pounds (99.33672 kg), but didn't really look different.  I reflected on the first time I lost weight and had noticed the same thing back then:  I lost weight, but didn't feel like I looked any different.  And, let's be honest, none of us are really doing any of this for our health, it's all about vanity, and my weight loss was not stroking my ego, so I decided to do something I hadn't ever done in my life (that's me being completely honest) I decided to watch what I ate AND exercise at the same time.

At first I mostly just walked in the mornings, but I began looking online for workout programs.  Because of some ingenious advertisement placing and the fact that Greg O'Gallagher (the creater) looks like he just got off the set of Baywatch, I started looking into Kinobody.  I took that quiz (if you've looked into Kinobody, you know which one I'm talking about) like, ten times and always got the Warrior Program as my 'best fit', but I was skeptical, I mean, how in the world could they know the best program for me after six questions (before anyone leaves a comment, I know it was a marketing ploy)?  But, Greg did say a few things I liked.  He said you would need a caloric deficit to lose any weight (love me some honesty), but he also said it was meant to be a lifestyle change, so no cutting out whole types of food, or anything like that (which fit right into my lifestyle change mindset).  He promised results, but not overnight results (again, a little honesty is nice).  And he said to look online for things he put out for free to see if he was full of it, or not.

So, I took him up on his offer.  I looked online and tried a few things he talked about.  One thing Greg is big on is intermittent fasting.  This is where you skip breakfast, eat a small lunch, and then eat a big dinner, with fruit as snacks for in between meals if you need them.  He's also big on drinking coffee before lunch to suppress appetite (as some of you know, I'm LDS, so I wasn't able to follow this piece of his program).  I also looked deeper into the programs he offered and I saw there was a bodyweight program.  This was huge for me, as I really don't have time to make it to the gym, nor the money for a weight set.  On top of that, I hurt my back a while ago and have re-injured it a couple of times trying to lift since the initial injury, so I'm a little wary of weights.  He talked about a few things I didn't know what meant, but I did understand pull-ups, push-ups, leg lifts, squats, and trying to work on big muscles first and only lifting three times a week.  So, I put together my own hodge-podge regimen and took off, with calisthenics on M, W, and F, and a walk or jog on T, Th, and S, with Sunday off for the Sabbath.

I've been pretty good at keeping up with this for the last three months and weighed in a couple of days ago at 189.8 pounds on that same high-quality scale.  The quick employment of my desktop calculator says that means I've lost 44 pounds (19.95806 kg) overall and 29.2 pounds (13.2449 kg) since starting to exercise.  Honestly, the best part about exercising is that I can see more tone, which feeds that ego and makes me want to keep trying.  Also, if you look at my Myfitnesspal tracker for weight, you can see slow and sort-of steady weight loss before trying out some of Greg's ideas, and then a quick and steady drop off after.

So, I put him to the test and his advice really did help, or at least it seemed to.  True to my word, I paid my money and am starting the Kinobody Bodyweight program.  Which really brings me to why I'm blogging again.  As I looked over the internet I found a few people who reviewed the program, but all of them seemed like workout website guys... you know, ones that might be paid by Kinobody to 'try' their program, who started the program with six-pack abs and then made sure to eat a lot less for a few days so their abs would pop in their 'after' picture?  What I didn't find was a review from a normal guy who started out in less than stellar shape and showed his results after trying the program for several months.  So I thought, hey, I'm a normal guy, well, normal-ish, I'm in less than stellar shape, I'm trying out the program, why not give people like me what they want?  And if no one wants this, at least maybe this will keep me on the program so I can at least, for myself, see if it works.  On top of reviewing Kinobody, I think I'll also do a few reviews on products.  Right now, I'm thinking protein, as that took some research, and I've found some good ones.

Anyway, if you're like, "This sounds awesome!"  go ahead and leave me a comment about how awesome it sounds for some encouragement.  If not, then, you know, be cool about it.  At any rate, I'm kind of excited to track progress and see how much this actually works.