Psychotron/Disney Joe Update

So as you may have noticed (or not noticed, as it were), I haven't really been offering much in the way of updates on my progress as this "competition" has moved forward. I put "competition" in quotes, because I haven't really been doing my part to compete with the other participants in this contest. I have been lifting more than I have at any point in the past six months, but not so much that I'd say I'm really pushing myself to succeed.

The question of "Why?" is one I've been trying to work through in my head, and I've mostly come up empty. But I think perhaps one reason is that during this period, I haven't really been holding myself accountable by posting updates. So in an effort to stifle that weakness and see if I can't turn this ship around (despite the fact that it sounds like I'm ~20 lbs. behind already), I'm going to start posting more regularly. I haven't been counting calories since late September, and I think I'd like to find a way to be productive without having to do that. So I won't be posting my daily calories or anything like that.

What I will be posting is two things. First, I'll be posting my weight. While I do believe that I've gotten marginally more muscular over the past month, I'm still way too heavy for my lifestyle, and for my own preference/confidence. Losing weight is the end goal of all of this, and the one thing I want to hold myself accountable for more than anything else. So, I'll post my weight every time I post, including this post (at the bottom).

Second, I'm going to post decisions. My contention throughout all of this, including past attempts to lose weight, was that a person could improve their health, lose weight, and become more fit simply by altering a few decisions every day. I know when I was at my worst, I made a slew of poor decisions. I would buy bags of Doritos and Tostitos, knowing that they didn't stand a chance of lasting more than a couple days in my house. I would decline invitations to activities that required some movement on my part (walks, games of basketball, even trips downtown). And I'd order pizza every once in a while, and devour the whole pie (or pies) in a matter of hours.

These are the kinds of decisions I need to change. So what I'm going to do is start posting decisions, good or bad, that I make and remember. If I decide to pass on pizza and eat a Lean Cuisine, I'll post that. If I falter and do order Domino's, I'll post that as well. I won't post normal lifting sessions, but if I find myself debating whether or not I want to lift on a given night, I'll post my decision on that, positive or negative. The idea is that forcing myself to share my mistakes and my triumphs will help me to more frequently make good decisions. Maybe I can't win the monetary prize in this competition at this point, but the real prize is improved health, and that's still on the table.

So, as I mentioned, I've been pretty lackluster thus far, since my initial weigh-in. I've ordered pizza more than once, I've talked myself out of going for walks a number of times, and overall I've just disappointed myself with my decisions. However, when I weighed myself Thursday morning, I was surprised to see that I had actually stayed pretty much even (up 0.4 lbs). While up is worse than down, and I'm not proud of my process so far, I can't help but be a little pleased that I haven't lost much ground from where I was at the beginning of this competition.

I'm going to set a conservative goal of losing 5.4 pounds by November 1st (so 5 pounds off of my starting weight), and 10 pounds by December 1st. From the rumors I've heard, that will still leave me well behind our top competitors, but at this point, my competition is myself. Wish me luck.

Current weight: 274.4 (+ 0.4 lbs.)

More Competition

On Friday evening, we added four more competitors to the contest. Here's our current list of combatants (sorted alphabetically by last name, of course):

Lanae Bradley
Ruby Edmonds
Joe Mattingly
Mike Mattingly
Mark Sabina
Marcus Walker

I didn't get final confirmation from any of the new participants regarding posting their starting weights, so in the interest of discretion, I've elected to not disclose them. New folks, if you want me to post them, let me know and I will. For me, I found posting my weight to be a good way to force myself to be accountable. But that was a different style of competition; who knows if it'll work the same in this instance.

If you haven't joined, you've still got a week to decide. I'm available most of the time through next Sunday (September 11) to provide the official scale for weigh-ins. Just let me know if you want to swing by. Once again, the wager is $25 from each participant. Right now, with an estimated 8-9 competitors, we'll be paying out the top two spots, but if we get a few more, we'll expand the prizes.

Happy dieting!

-Disney Joey

So It Begins

The first two competitors have weighed in:

Marcus: 186.8
Joe: 274.0

Note: your weight will only be posted if you give me clearance to post it. If you prefer, I'll record it privately.

After some thought, I've decided my goal is to get under 250.0 pounds during this three month competition. It's a reasonable but aggressive goal. During my previous competition, I averaged 11.43 (repeating of course) pounds lost per month. In order to reach my goal this time around, I'd need to lose just over 8 pounds per month.

So, if you're looking to set your own goals, you can use my 8.76% to frame your plan. And I do recommend setting your own goals. In month three of my previous competition, my goal was to get under 300 pounds. The morning of the weigh-in, I was at 300.8, and I spent the morning and early afternoon running in the rain and playing Rock Band to try to burn off the weight I needed to reach my goal. My registered weight? 299.6. Goals are good.

As a reminder, you have 9 days to register your starting weight (the last day you can weigh in is Sunday, September 11th).

A New Deal

It's you.

The new competition is open to any and all competitors. As many of you know, we previously used this blog to chronicle a weight loss competition between Nick (Gargantuar) and myself (Psychotron). The competition was a success for both of us, and for me in particular. I went from 346.6 lbs at the beginning of January down to 278.0 in early July.

Because the competition clearly helped me lose weight and improve my fitness, I'd like to continue to harness that motivation. The ultimate goal is to be able to generate that competitiveness internally, but I think a good intermediary step is this new scenario: challenging everyone.

In this phase of my weight loss, I'm extending a wager to anyone who wants to take me on. The wager will be a standardized amount: $25 from you, $50 from me. That's right. If you best me, I'll pay out double what you would've had to pay me if I won.

However, it's not all easy street for you challengers. Unlike the original battle between Nick and I, all of these competitions will be raw, pound-versus-pound matchups rather than percentage-based.

I'll grant you that this makes it more of a challenge for those of you who haven't spent your lives getting fat, but consider this: it's always easiest to lose weight right when you start a new diet plan. I've been dieting for over eight months now. I hit walls virtually every day. You'll have every chance to succeed. And if you happen to BE someone who's got a lot of weight to lose, you're in the driver's seat.

Regarding time frames, I'm requiring any competitor to participate for at least 8 weeks. Losing weight over the course of a month is nice; losing weight over the course of two months is evidence of a commitment. And really, while the competition is fun, and the wager is a draw, the true goal here is to help all of us get in better shape, create better fitness habits, and live healthier lives.

You don't have to declare how long you'll be competing; however, you have to give me at least 1 week's notice before you want to weigh in (both starting and ending), and we have to both agree on a date, time, and place. This is to prevent you from taking advantage when you hear I'm going to a Chinese buffet on some random Saturday. You sneaky cad.

I'll provide the scale, and we'll use the same scale for all weigh-ins, for consistency.

If you want to share your strategies or progress on the blog, you're more than welcome to. If you want posting rights, just let me know and I'll get them to you. I'll obviously know your weights, but if you're not comfortable sharing them with the world, that's up to you. I'll continue to share my status, since that's been constructive for me (269.8 right now, by the way).

One last thing. The Psychotron character has run its course, so I'll be taking on a new persona for this competition...DISNEY JOEY!


Interested in battling? Email me at jargonfacer@gmail.com, and we'll arrange what needs arrangin'.

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.)

Psychotron - Daily Diary 42

That'll do, pig.

7/5/2011

Calories: 2,527
Tennis: 45 minutes

Had a nice stretch of tennis with Chip before my body basically shut down. It was hot as hell, we were in direct sunlight, and for some reason every bug on the planet seemed interested in what was going on in Woodley Gardens on Tuesday night. But it was nice to get out of the house, get a little sun, and remember how unbelievably awful my backhand is.

Still a bit too much snacking, though. I think it's high time I realized that having any kind of chip in the house is a bad call. It's so hard to meter myself with chips and pretzels; I need to just stay the hell away from them.

7/6/2011

Calories: 2,277
Rock Band singing: 45 minutes

Chip swung by again after work. We had talked about some Rock Band, but I wasn't really feeling it right when I got home, so we played a board game and watched PTI instead. Then, later, I decided I did want to play some Rock Band. I wore long pants and tried to sweat out some calories, though I realize now that I was just dehydrating myself. Oh well, more lessons.

7/7/2011

Calories (prior to weigh-in): 460
Calories (total): 2,580
No activities

For those unaware, our final weigh-in took place Thursday afternoon at the Battle Marshal's "garrison" (site of Saturday's culmination party, which you should all plan on attending). We conducted the weigh-in blind; that is, I know my weight, and Nick knows his, and Eddie knows both, but that's it. So when the results are announced Saturday, it'll be news to even us competitors.

Anyways, as a celebration of such an accomplishment (regardless of this last month's numbers), Nick's brother Kenny bought tickets for all four of us to go to a Frederick Keys game and enjoy a fully catered luxury box experience. It was magnificent, though the only reason I was able to stay remotely low on the calories was because I came in so low beforehand.

Looking Forward

I've decided that Friday and Saturday are going to be "free" days for me, while I figure out what my plan is going forward. Tentatively, I believe I'll continue to count my calories every day, because that's the one thing that I think has been a legitimately successful strategy for me. I think I'll also go through all of the previous posts, and all of my diet data from these six months, and try to draw out some useful information. I'm surprised to say that I'm actually looking forward to that "homework," for now at least.

See you Saturday, everybody.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 41

Son of a bitch this is getting tough.

7/1/2011

Calories: 957
No activities

My first day back in town was a rousing success. Well, speaking calorically. I didn't get any activity in, but I did go to a happy hour after work. I'd say keeping my daily calories under 1,000 including a night out is pretty goddamn impressive.

Oh, I mean, I played cornhole for like two hours, but I don't think I'd call that "activity."

7/2/2011

Calories: 2,210
Lifting: 20 minutes
Walking: 45 minutes

Saturday was like the epitome of what I'd like every day to be like. I had a solid amount of calories, nothing too extravagant, I ate food I liked, I got plenty of physical activity. A day to be proud of.

7/3/2011

Calories: 2,730
Walking: 40 minutes

I thankfully thought early in the day that I should get some walking in before things went south (or northeast, rather; the party was in Baltimore). I stuck with beer and a little wine for the party, but it turns out that doesn't help me at all when it comes to hangovers. I was a wreck the next day all the same. It's back to liquor for me.

Technically I did some walking in Baltimore on Sunday night, and some dancing at Mother's when we got there, but I can't assign any specific values to that activity, so I'm leaving them both off the list.

7/4/2011

Calories: 3,040
No activities

Okay, yes, Monday was a disaster. The only solaces I can take from it are A) it still wasn't as bad as my old school "bad days" used to be, and B) I only ordered the one pizza. We have to find the positives where we can, people. I spent most of the rest of the day sleeping or watching television, trying to recover from the madness of the night before.

Looking Forward

We'll have one more Daily Diary post, including the information from the remaining days before the final weigh-in. It's high time we start to talk about that, too. Six months have passed, and Nick and I have done some very good things, as well as run into some snafus. The trick here, maybe the toughest part, is what to do after our competition culminates. I know Nick and I still have weight loss goals that we haven't achieved, but I'm not sure if there's any more motivation to get out of this vehicle.

So how do we push forward? I know I've learned a ton of information about calories, as well as exercise suggestions, and I've gotten myself into some much better habits these days on both fronts. But can I really trust myself to continue on this path towards a healthier lifestyle without some kind of external accountability? I really don't know.

I know I don't want the time and effort spent on this competition to have been in vain. I want to become more fit, so I can play more sports for longer periods, and play them better. I want to keep losing weight so that, sometime in the year 2013, I feel comfortable enough to go up to a stranger and try to chat her up (I expect 2012 to be mostly apocalypse-related).

Whatever suggestions you can offer, I welcome.

Psychotron - Update

You'll notice that this post doesn't have a "Daily Diary" in its title. That's because I have no information for you regarding my vacation week. I had fun, I ate my face off, I played a little basketball, did a lot of swimming, and went kayaking (check Facebook for pictures). But I didn't keep track of calories, or the lengths of time I spent doing the various activities. I know that I mostly made bad decisions regarding food, and fairly good decisions regarding activities.

And I haven't weighed myself since getting back, but I'd venture to say I'm close to or equal to what I was when this month started. I'll have more information on that tomorrow morning (I always weigh myself in the mornings), but that'll be information for me, not you.

What this all means is that our final competitive month will basically come down to how much progress I can make in a single week. I did excellent today in my first day back, and we'll see how things shake out over the long, holiday weekend. I was invited to a party in Baltimore on Sunday, which will probably be messy, but I bet I can regulate myself so that it's a decent day. And I'll definitely be tracking my numbers for the rest of the way.

Look for my second-to-last Daily Diary on Monday or Tuesday.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 37

Is it early? Yes. Is it too early to make judgments on how this month is going to go? Yes. Is it too early to feel good about my direction?

No sir.

6/5/2011

Calories: 1,665
Walking: 50 minutes

A Sunday under 1,700 calories is a good sign. Normally I have a lot of trouble keeping the calories under control on weekends, Sundays especially, so I'm pretty excited. My whole mindset feels good, though. I feel like I'm just back, plain and simple.

6/6/2011

Calories: 1,613
Tennis: 45 minutes

What's interesting and encouraging here is that the tennis, on top of being a very good workout, helped me avoid snacking. I knew I didn't want to be weighed down going into the tennis, so I didn't eat anything when I got home from work. But my tennis game wasn't until 7:15 (actually 7:30 due to some miscommunication). So there was a nice two-hour period which historically has been an issue for me in which I had the extra motivation to not eat. And it worked, and it was great.

Also, after playing tennis, I definitely affirmed that, while it's good to walk and play drums and everything, there's a whole other level of exercise out there.

Looking Forward

Sure, it was only two days, but they were two good days. More than that, though, I feel a whole different mentality coming into the competition's final month. I'm not sure if it was the letdown from last month, or the fact that we're in the stretch run, or the natural high that comes from a good party. But whatever the reason, I want to harness it, capture it, and employ it going forward this month.

Bee tee dubs, anybody want to play some basketball?

Psychotron - The Reinvention

So you've all seen how last month panned out, or didn't, as it were. There were a variety of reasons why things went poorly, mostly related to a lack of willpower. So now, I'm focused on how to get back on track.

First things first, the whole "going dark" experiment was informative. I do believe I need the public accountability to force myself to stay true, less so for exercise, but definitely for the diet. My activities were fine during the dark week, but I did a lot of unnecessary snacking, and I'm sure that at least part of it was because I didn't have to worry about sharing that information with others. BUT, it was nice to find out that I was still motivated enough to be active, regardless of the accountability.

The party was awesome; kudos to Nick on putting together a nice event. And while everything after about 11:00 is a haze for me, the pictures look like I had a good time. And I woke up in my own bed, so that was a success. I think I'm going to try to start drinking more beer; it should help me regulate my pace a little bit better, plus maybe I can do a better job of keeping track of calories if they're neatly packaged in an aluminum can.

I'm re-establishing the calorie goal of 2,200.

And I've got a new tack for weekends. Historically, I had a little more trouble being active on weekends, because I felt like I should be taking advantage of every moment of my downtime from work doing fun things, like playing video games, watching movies, visiting people, etc. The better way to think about it, though, is that I've got way more free time on weekends. Plenty of time for both recreation and exercising, as well as the opportunity to combine the two with basketball, tennis, Rock Band, or other activities.

Let the final face-off begin. Good luck, Gargantuar.

You're gonna need it.

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.

Tropic Thunder

So our fifth weigh-in is this Saturday, up in Baltimore at Nick and Colin's place. Which, of course, means another party. I'm sure most of you have already gotten the invite over on the Facebook, but in case you didn't, you're getting this invite right here.

It's going to be a tropical themed party. Ladies, you should use this picture as recommended attire. And remember, less is more.

I actually didn't own any kind of beachwear, so I hit the old Target and picked up a couple shirts and some flip-flops. Normally, you might not think this is noteworthy, but I used to not be able to buy clothes at Target because they were all too small. Granted, I haven't actually tried on the clothes I purchased, but they should fit. Hopefully. God, now you've got me worried. Thanks a lot, you twit.

Anyways, should be a fun party. Bring some beer/margaritas/daiquiris/pina coladas.

Month Four Weigh-In Results

The long-awaited results are finally here. Let's jump right in:

Psychotron

April 2nd: 299.6 lbs.
May 7th: 288.2 lbs.
Difference: -11.4 lbs.
Percent Difference: 3.8%
Total Weight Lost: 58.4 lbs.
Total Percent Weight Lost: 16.8%

Gargantuar

April 2nd: 270.2 lbs.
May 7th: 265.2 lbs.
Difference: -5.0 lbs.
Percent Difference: 1.8%
Total Weight Lost: 44.6 lbs.
Total Percent Weight Lost: 14.4%

A third straight victory for Psychotron!

Afterward, Gargantuar was seen whispering with shady characters like Ricky and Michael, no doubt scheming ways to force Psychotron into a bad month. Words like "Atlantic" and "City" were tossed about haphazardly. The rumors will swirl.

Look for the competitors' next posts, both of which promise to be interesting, aggressive, and perhaps downright vulgar.

(Nick, please do not post a picture of a wang.)

(Scooter, please do not post a picture of a wang.)

(Just nobody post penises, okay?)

Psychotron - Daily Diary 32

5/5/11

Calories: 2,157
Activities: walk

My last real walk of the month. It wasn't huge, but it was enough to get the blood pumping. I've actually had some stomach discomfort for about a week, on and off, so I've had a little more trouble getting myself outside and doing stuff. Hopefully that'll subside soon, so I can get some more activity going.

5/6/11

Calories: 2,193
Activities: short walk

Just a brief walk, tried to get it in before the rain hit Friday night. I was successful in beating the rain, which was nice, but it's too bad I couldn't get more walking in, on the eve of the weigh-in. Oh well, have to just trust the process.

Look for the results of yesterday's weigh-in tonight or tomorrow.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 31

In the spirit of more frequent posts, here's the information for the past couple of days:

5/3/11

Calories: 2,355
Activities: Rock Band drumming

Got pretty drunk, actually. Definitely too drunk for a school night, but it did contribute to me falling asleep at like 11:00, which is ass early for me, so who's to say whether it was good or bad?

No, it was definitely bad. But I worked up a good sweat drumming before I passed out. Drumming and lamenting the Washington Capitals. Sigh.

5/4/11

Calories: 2,200
Activities: walk

It was kind of a cool day. I cooked a decent dinner (spaghetti and meatballs), matched my daily calorie goal exactly, and had a classic 75 minute walk in the evening. It wasn't exceptional, but it was the kind of day that I can look back on and say, "I can live my life like that. I can eat responsibly and exercise every day." Which is a pretty nice feeling.

Looking Forward

...to the weigh in. In reading my competitor's posts about how much he's exercising, I'm not very optimistic about the results, but Saturday should be nice regardless. First, because it's another milestone, another day that goes into the record books for this competition, and another success, even if it's a little bit smaller than previous months. And second, I mean, it's a gathering of friends. If nothing else, it should be fun.

See you there.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 29

So far, I'm not sure about this whole points system. More on that at the end.

4/25/11

Calories: 1,360
Activities: walk
Points: 5

One thing I will say about the points system is that I do love having another piece of data to report, even if it's completely derivative of another piece of data (the calories). I'm a big fan of lists. Anyways, really good day, good bounce back after a tough Sunday.

4/26/11

Calories: 2,396
Activities: Rock Band, walk
Points: 1

I included Rock Band because I sweated my ass off while playing. Just soaked. Thank goodness I bought a headband for just such an occasion. That's right. I wore a headband to keep sweat out of my eyes so I could read the Rock Band guitar notes for Your Touch by The Black Keys and Centerfold by J. Geils Band. So if you didn't feel superior before...

It wasn't a bad eating night. It was, however, a bad drinking night.

4/27/11

Calories: 2,186
Activities: walk
Points: 2

So, four days in and we've got 9 points. That means we need 9 more over the next three days. Is it impossible? Certainly not. Is it a challenge? Absolutely. Three points per day means about 2,000 calories per day, which is lower than my daily goals ever were. So it's on. Probably my best tactic would be to try to get 4 or 5 points on Thursday, to leave a little wiggle room for the weekend.

By the way, it wasn't just a "walk" on Wednesday night. I managed to find myself about a mile from my house when we started getting torrential downpours in Rockville. I crossed my fingers and hoped that my mp3 player wouldn't short out (looks like it's alright), and double-timed it back to the house, but not before my clothes got soaked through and through. It wasn't bad, though. There's something refreshing about walking around in the rain.

Looking Forward

So I find myself feeling more tempted to misreport my calories now that there's a score associated with them. I've been able to stay true so far, but the new scoring system really seems to bring out the cheater in me, and I don't like it. I'll go through it for the rest of this weigh-in period, but it's on thin ice.

Our next weigh-in party has been scheduled for May 7th at my house in Rockville. I tried to email everybody the details, but if you didn't get that email, let me or Nick know and I'll get you the information.

We don't have a theme or event this month, just a barbecue hangout party. But we're definitely looking to have a themed party in June. Post any theme ideas in the comments, and Nick and I will decide which is best. FYI, next month's party will likely be in Baltimore.

Psychotron - Daily Diary 23

I just realized I haven't posted since a couple days before the weigh-in, so I'm running this up now. This will include the days leading up to the weigh-in, as well as how I managed to get under 300 lbs on the big day.

3/31/11

Calories: 1,832
Activities: walk

4/1/11

Calories: 1,370
Activities: walk, walk

So here's what happened. I weighed myself on Friday morning, and I was about 304. As you can see, I had a nice day diet-wise on Friday, and went for a walk when I got home from work. Weighed myself again that evening, came in at 303.8. I figured it was a lost cause, but I was bored late night on Friday, so I went out for a second walk. All totaled, I walked for about 2 hours Friday night, including a few brief stints of jogging.

I woke up Saturday prepared to sit around and wait for the party to start, but I wanted to get an idea of where I stood. So right when I woke up, I hopped on the scale and looked down: 300.8. I took a deep breath and said to myself, "This is an amount of weight you can lose today." I called my brother, talked over a couple options, then set out to hit my goal.

It was raining pretty hard at about noon, but I knew I wanted to get some walking time in, so I threw on a jacket and set out. I got pretty well soaked, but had a good 40 minute walk. When I got home, I weighed in again, still 300.8. I chalked a little of that up to still wearing the sweaty shirt I had walked in, but it looked like it'd be tough to get to my goal at that point. Still, I turned on Rock Band 3, set up the microphone, grabbed a guitar, and played for an hour and a half. I forced myself to move around, pretend I was on a stage, did some kicking and jumping, and basically did everything I could think of to work up a sweat and lose as much water weight as possible.

Mission accomplished.

Looking Forward

All of that hullabaloo will end up putting me in a rough spot for April, because while I weighed in at 299.6, my actual functional weight is probably more like 302-303. So I'll likely have to lose 3-4 more pounds than I'll get "credit" for on weigh-in day. I don't regret it, though; 300 lbs was one of my big goals coming into this whole competition, and reaching it was gratifying. Not sexually gratifying, but gratifying nonetheless.

My month 4 goal weight is a bit conservative: 290 lbs. I know that Nick is going to be bringing it hard this month, and there's nothing quite as sweet as a cash prize. But my goal for month 4 has always been 290 pounds, since the first weigh-in. In case you're curious, my month 5 goal is 275, and my month 6 goal is 265. And it's not like I'll just stop if I get to 290; I'm really liking my daily walks, and as I said, I've added a little punch to them with the spurts of jogging. I'm going to stick with that.

I have a couple other things I want to change/incorporate, but I'll save those for my first post-weigh-in blog. Since, you know, that'll be coming like tomorrow.

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!!!!