Pyschotron - Final Data

It's been a long six months, and it's only the beginning, but I do feel proud of my accomplishments so far. What I've done is no small thing (get it? small?). I'm still trying to figure out how I want to harness the blog going forward. I'm playing with a couple of ideas, but for now, let's go over the data. A future post will do the post-game analysis and talk about the next step. I can let you know that I'm still keeping track of my calories.

Final Weigh-In Results
Previous weigh-in: 283.6
Final weight: 278.0
Weight lost in month 6: 5.6 pounds (2.0%)

Starting weight: 346.6
Total weight lost: 68.6 (19.8%)

Before and after pictures:


Lighting issues aside, I'd say the most distinct and believable difference is in the face. Still not "slender" or anything, but after looking at the pictures, I can't be humble or dismissive any longer. Well done, self.

Final Weigh-In Pre-Results

Our final weigh-in took place on Thursday of last week. The two competitors registered their final numbers with the Battle Marshal, and then set off to set right that which had gone wrong, Quantum Leap style.

No, not really, but the last numbers have been tallied, and we do have a winner...

PSYCHOTRON
Congratulations to both competitors on a hard fought six month battle, and good luck to both of them going forward.

(Each competitor will write up a final post that includes their final weigh-in, along with any analysis they'd like to provide.)

Month Five Weigh-In Results

Well, you know what they say: month five is the bane of all competition. Come on, who watches baseball in August? Nobody. Literally nobody.

This competition was no different. Nick and I both had pretty rough month fives. There are plenty of explanations/excuses, including trips, events, willpower issues, and the fact that doing anything for five months is a challenge, especially when it's a set of life-changing decisions like we've undertaken. But in the end, we were both pretty disappointed with our performances, and neither of us would fault any of you for feeling the same way.

The numbers...

Psychotron
May 7th: 288.2 lbs.
June 4th: 283.6 lbs.
Difference: -4.6 lbs.
Percent Difference: 1.6%
Total Weight Lost: 63.0 lbs.
Total Percent Weight Lost: 18.2%

Gargantuar
May 7th: 265.2 lbs.
June 4th: 263.8 lbs.
Difference: -1.4 lbs.
Percent Difference: 0.5%
Total Weight Lost: 46.0 lbs.
Total Percent Weight Lost: 14.8%

With a score of 1.6% weight lost from last month, Psychotron wins again, his fourth straight victory! A little quick math indicates that he'll receive a prize of a Best Buy gift card in the amount of $40.

Post-Game Analysis

Well, you can see from the numbers, but it was obviously a tough month for both competitors. Honestly, Gargantuar at least has the excuse of having gone to Myrtle Beach for a raucous time just a week before the weigh-in. Psychotron simply didn't bring his A game this month, and just barely managed to eke out a hollow victory.

Look forward to posts by both of our competitors talking about how they plan to use month five as a learning experience, and how they plan to bounce back from an unexceptional performance.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 34

Initially I had tried to put together a formula for physical activity, but with all the various things you can do to get exercise, it's a little daunting. So I basically set a general goal of one hour of activity. It's a lot of time, but it's not like I really have anything to "do" after work anyways. Setting aside an hour of time every day to try to better myself is pretty reasonable.

The other thing is that, if it were easy, and something I would have no trouble doing every day, that's not much of a goal, is it? If I set a goal to walk 15 minutes every day, whoopie, who cares? Any day in which I accomplish my goal of one hour of physical activity, I can feel like was a productive day.

5/16/11

Calories: 2,020
Rock Band drumming: 90 minutes
Walking: 40 minutes

Monday was my first foray into the Boboli pizza realm, and I have to say, I was pretty happy with the results. I went for a "white" pizza, just threw some sliced red peppers and onions on the crust with some margarine and Parmesan cheese, and it was a tasty little deal. I had initially planned on just eating half of it and saving the other half, but space is limited in my fridge, and it was goooood. Even so, the whole pizza was 1,080 calories. And this was the full size pizza, not one of the personal pizza size ones (which are the ones I think I'll be using in the future.

Over on my other blog, Chip and I have been coming up with some ideas for pizzas to make. Chime in if you like, here or there.

5/17/11

Calories: 2,115
Weightlifting: 30 minutes

Tuesday is when I ran into my first question mark. Because I actually lifted weights over the course of about an hour, but it was while watching TV, sometimes breaking for 4-5 minutes at a time. The end result was a success, as I definitely got sore, and I worked up a sweat. But I couldn't really say that I "lifted weights" for an hour. What I should've done was gone for a half hour walk to make the point moot. Something to keep in mind for the future.

5/18/11

Calories: 2,250
Weightlifting: 15 minutes
Rock Band singing/guitaring: 60 minutes

My sister's boyfriend offered to grill up dinner for the family on Wednesday, so I went home for that. I had a few too many potato chips, but overall stayed mostly within my intended zone. When I got back to my house, I felt like singing, so I booted up the Rock Band. In between sets, I did some half push-ups. Half push-ups because they're sort of at a 45 degree angle; I do them on my stairs. I haven't got the upper body strength to push up my whole body just yet, but I get a good soreness out of this for now, so it'll do.

Looking Forward

Nothing really of note so far. I've done pretty well sticking with my physical activity plan. One thing I think I'd like to work on, though, is incorporating some more intense activities, or some more extended sessions. Like a 2 hour walk, or some serious basketball. Who's in?

Month 3 Thoughts

Well month 3 is in the books and it was a good one. We both tried valiantly to obtain or own personal goals as well as win the month 3 prize. Where as I came up a bit short, Joe was able to surpass his goal and take home the baseball tickets as well as the $50 gift card for clothing. A huge congrats to you for also now being under 300lbs. I know this is only the beginning but being under 300 for the first time in a long time is a major accomplishment and I am proud of you. Now that I have that done, I can go back to hating your face and trying to crush you. Here are the overall competition stats.

Gargantuar

Total weight lost: 39.6lbs

Total percentage weight lost: 12.78%

Psychotron

Total weight lost: 47lbs

Total percentage weight lost: 13.56%

Psychotron is leading the overall competition by: 0.78%

Clearly the competition is up for grabs as of right now. 0.78% is right about 2.5lbs for me right now, meaning that if I was up to 42lbs lost it would be dead even. Looking back at the month it's easy to see where and how I could have done better. Just looking at the beginning of the month posts about Burger King and how slow of a start I had makes me wonder how much better I would have done if I was on top of my game all month. Nothing I can change now, I'm still pretty happy with my ending results, just upset that I was so close to my goal and to winning the month.

Month 4 Thoughts

My original goal before the competition was to lose 60lbs in 6 months. That would be an amazing start and I would have been under 250lbs total. Now that both Joey and myself have pushed ourselves hard and are both averaging well over 10lbs a month, 60lbs should be a pretty easy target. Month 4 is a five week month as the fourth week is April 30th and May 1st. Given that it's a bit longer I am setting an ambitious goal of 15.4lbs. If I were to meet my goal I would be at 55lbs for the competition in 4 months. I would be very pleased with those results and would consider 80lbs in 6 months, a reachable target. What the hell right, reach for the stars!

Side notes

It has almost been 90 days since the start of the competition. I have never consistently dieted and exercised for 90 straight days ever. A lot of the credit has to go to my friends and family that have been so supportive throughout the competition. All the people that have donated prizes and helped cook meals and just give words and prayers of encouragement, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know Psychotron feels the same way I do. I hope we make you proud and also able to see that anything is possible with the support of some awesome people on your side.

Month 3 Weigh-in Results!!!!

The results are in, and it was the closest month yet.

Gargantuar

March 5th - 282.8 lbs.
April 2nd - 270.2 lbs.
Difference - 12.6 lbs.
Percent Difference - 4.46%
Bonus Goal - 13 lbs lost (missed goal by .4 lbs)

Psychotron

March 5th - 314.4 lbs.
April 2nd - 299.6 lbs.
Difference - 14.8 lbs.
Percent Difference - 4.71%
Bonus goal - 14.4+ lbs. lost (made goal by.4lbs)

Winner - Psychotron by a margin of 0.25%

Congratulations to our Month 3 winner and good job to both competitors!!!!

Month Two Weigh-In Results

Month two of this epic confrontation has come and gone, and it's time to review the results. After an impressive but insufficient 14.4 pound loss in month one, Psychotron was looking to take his game to the next level. Meanwhile, Gargantuar was hoping to repeat his incredible 20.2 pound opening performance, and get a stranglehold on the competition.

Tensions were high as the secret weights were measured by NASA's UltraScale 11.1. The Battle Marshal had to break up the contestants several times before a silent accord was reached to postpone hostilities until the weights could be gathered.

As is customary, the challenger stepped up first...

Psychotron's previous weight was 332.2. At the month two weigh-in, he registered at 314.4, for a loss of 17.8 pounds. Psychotron was heard saying, "Fuck the 320's!"

The bar set high, Gargantuar rolled up his sleeves and climbed upon the UltraScale...

The Battle Marshal peered down onto the scale, and read off the results: down from 289.6 pounds, Gargantuar measured 282.8, for a loss of 6.8 pounds.

Your month two results:

1st place: Psychotron
2nd place: Gargantuar

Congratulations to all our competitors, and good luck going forward!

Psychotron - Daily Diary 8 (Super Bowl / First Weigh-in)

If you're reading this, you already know. We're a month in, and I'm almost a month behind. That's not to say January wasn't a success for me; the numbers say it was. But they also say that Gargantuar kicked my ever-lovin' ass.

It's kind of strange. Coming into the weigh-in, I didn't expect to win. I had said for a while that Nick would probably take down the first month, because I didn't exercise hardly at all. And secretly, to maybe one or two people, I confided that I actually hoped Nick would win the first month, to keep me motivated, and give him some positive reinforcement.

But when the numbers were all tallied, and he had come out overwhelmingly victorious, I have to say I was bummed. Second place out of two isn't exactly the kind of ranking you're looking for when you compete. Even not expecting to win, you still want to win. And it didn't help that I got blown out of the water.

First, here's some raw data from my first month:

Total calories: 62,016
Total days: 29
Average calories per day: 2,138
Starting weight: 346.6 lbs.
Ending weight: 332.2 lbs.
Change in weight: 14.4 lbs.
Change in weight (%): 4.15%


So I'm looking at my February, and I'm trying to make some plans to determine how I can prevent a repeat in Phase 2. Here are the changes/tweaks/new ideas I'm going to try to implement so I can get this competition back to even:

1. Salads - I had a lot of non-salad lunches, and whenever I had a salad for dinner, it was usually accompanied by something else. I'd like to work on getting more salads for lunch, and maybe integrating the concept of the "big salad" into my dinners, so I don't feel like I have to partner it with a sandwich or a Lean Cuisine.
2. South Beach / fruits and vegetables - Along the same lines as the salad, I want to work in more meals that include only proteins, fruits, and vegetables. Also, as I said in the past, pineapple was a rousing success, and I'd like to work more fruits and vegetables into my diet.
3. Spend more time cooking - This change might not make too much of a difference as far as actual weight-loss numbers at first, but I'd like to convince myself to spend some more time putting together food. In the long run, being willing to take 45-60 minutes out of my day to prepare food will open up new options for cooking that should allow me to squeeze out some calories.
4. EXERCISE

As I mentioned, I spent virtually zero time exercising this past month. I did some walking around in Disney World (since not walking isn't really an option), but other than that, I was almost completely sedentary. The weather is still a little cold for most outdoor activities, but I know I can get more activity. The first focus will be on resuming a grueling Rock Band schedule. It may not be a rowing machine, but drumming in Rock Band gets my blood pumping.

I've also got to fill out some form to apply for my work's fitness center. At least half of the reason I got that physical done two weeks ago was to get doctor approval for exercise, but I keep forgetting to get my paperwork in. Gotta remember to do that. If you talk to me while I'm at work, try to remind me to get that set up.

2/6/2011

Calories: 2,384

So, after the weigh-in and subsequent loss, I buried my sorrow in alcohol. Back on the train today, though. I've got a date with the Blackhawks that I don't intend to miss. Of course, if this upcoming weekend ends up including anything I may have agreed to last night (like a trip to Atlantic City??), my resolve will be tested right away.

Weigh-In Febuary 6th - Gargantuar

Well tonight, a big event came and passed with a victor. Oh yeah, and The Packers won the Super Bowl. We had the first of six monthly prize weigh-ins tonight just after the start of the first quarter. I will admit that I was a little bit nervous going into the official weigh-in. I had some idea where I stood, but not exactly, and I had no idea where Psychotron stood. But when Battle Marshal Eddie called us over to the scale...it was all business.

Joe "Psychotron" Mattingly stepped up to the scale first...

Beginning weight: 346.6 Jan 7th

First Month: 332.2 Feb 6th

Difference: 14.4 lbs

Wow! A great first month for The Tron. He really set the bar high and made me really nervous about losing. I mean, we both want to lose weight. And we are both happy for each other and care about each other's health. But I'm still very competitive in pretty much everything I do. I hate to lose and especially as public as it would be. Joey and I quickly figured out that I would have to lose roughly 13lbs or weigh 296ish lbs to be a possible tie/too close to call. Remember, the competition is by % weight lost.

Nick "Gargantuar" Engle takes his turn on the scale...

Beginning weight: 309.8 Jan 7th

First month: 289.6 Feb 6th

Difference: 20.2lbs

I pulled out the victory in the first month weigh-in! I am so stoked for both Joey and myself. I mean we lost an almost 35 lbs combined in one month. And it's only the beginning. The Tron hasn't even started exercising yet. His weight loss is almost entirely diet derived. That has to give him some motivation for the next month.

I'll update you all soon on my goal completion for the week, and the coming week/month strategy. But I wanted to share the results. It feels pretty good to be on the lighter side of 300. And I will never see the other side again.