Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 13

Sorry, but there is no video this week. Also, it is not week 13, but that is what Carlos put on his post. So, I am just going with it.

The last two weekends we have been on vacation. First, we went to the lake with some friends. Then, we went camping with Kim's family. Vacations are not good for my weight loss challenge because I take a vacation from all the measures I have put in place to lose weight and maintain my new weight.

The worst part that vacationing twice so close together is that the bad habits settle in. This morning, after the two weekends of bad habits, I weighed in at 213. That's up 3.5 pounds from my lowest weight, 209.5. It doesn't take nearly as long to put it on as it does to take it off.

So, starting today, I am back on the horse. This week, at least Tuesday through Saturday morning, I am going back to no sugar drinks and no snacking. I plan to weigh in on Saturday morning, but after that there is tailgating and football.

I have to admit that it has been challenging today to stay on track. I drank pretty much only water today and the only exception was some grape juice at lunch. The snacking has been kind of hard today, too. I think because I burned up a lot of calories, when I rode my bike to and from work, which has made me hungry.

I made the decision to get back on the horse while driving home yesterday from Savannah, but then tonight, I found out some good news, which gives me more incentive. Jeramie, who had also dropped the ball recently, is also getting back on track. He posted tonight stating his new goal. You can check that out here. Hopefully, with my renewed vigor, I can help him in his endeavor.

I hope you all will join me in supporting him and continue to support me

You can check out how everyone else in the challenge is doing here.

Why do I want to lose weight?

NOTE: This is pretty long, but it is a deep look into the chaos that goes on in my head. If do manage to read it all, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Last night Mandy asked me something like: "Do you think it's possible that you think about your body too much?" My initial response was something like: "Yeah, probably." Since that short exchange, I've been thinking about why I am concerned about my weight/body fat.

Last night, I announced that I had lost 15 pounds and accomplished my goal of trying to get down to 210 pounds. Some people responded with congratulatory remarks, others asked what my secret was, and someone even asked what motivated me to try to lose weight. To the motivation question, I responded by explaining that part of my personality is that I like to compare my results to others. The StrengthsFinder test calls this competition. Then, I told them about the Ragamuffin Top Challenge.

It was about half an hour after my announcement that Mandy asked me the aforementioned question. I think that her asking could possibly be at least in part because she is tired of hearing about it. If that's true, I don't hold it against her. Even my wife gets tired of hearing about it at times. And beyond that, I even get tired of it sometimes.

Most people might get down if the people around them are not supporting them when they are trying to lose weight, but when I hear my wife say something like, "You don't even need to lose weight," I half-way agree with her. So, I don't get mad/hurt/disappointed or any of those things.

See, most of the time when you are trying to lose weight, people don't question you, but in my case, I started my weight loss challenge in better shape than most people. I was close to being heavier than I had ever been, but even at 225, I was probably only carrying ~12% body fat. So, when someone would say, "You don't need to lose weight," my response would be, "Yeah, you're probably right. I don't NEED to, but I WANT to."

So, all of that was to get to the main point of this post. I am trying to figure out WHY I want to lose weight/body fat.

There's always the easy answer... health. I think this plays a role in why I want to lose weight, but I don't think that health alone is enough of a motivating factor. If it were, I probably would do more to improve my health overall and not just lose weight.

Then, there is that competition thing I mentioned before. I think this is the biggest factor, but not in the way it is described in the StrengthsFinder theme of competition. I thought at first that I was motivated by comparing myself to others, and I would be lying if I said that it was a non-factor. There is a component of comparing myself to others, but I don't think it is the driving force.

When I tried to think of who I would be comparing myself with, I couldn't come up with a good answer. I thought about my friends, co-workers and other people around me, but I don't think I am really competing with them. Not many of them are trying to lose weight, and the ones that I know of that are trying to shed some pounds do not have my same body type. So, comparing myself to them would be like comparing apples to oranges.

Then, I thought that I could be comparing myself to other athletes, e.g. Michael Phelps and Yang Wei, per my last RMTC video. However, I don't think that I'm motivated by comparing myself to them. Long term, if I keep up my weight loss and working out, I do think that I could end up with a physique similar to an Olympic swimmer, but that is not really a stated goal. Also, to claim to be competing with Olympic athletes would be a bit silly given that they exercise for a living.

You may ask, if I'm not competing with my peers and I'm not competing with other athletes, how is competition the biggest factor in my motivation to lose weight loss? It may come across as complicated, but in my head, the explanation is simple. I am competing with myself. More aptly, there is an internal competition and the number on the scale is the scoreboard. I'll try to explain.

You know in the cartoons where you see the character and he is trying to make a decision and on one shoulder he has the devil and on the other shoulder he has the angel. My struggle is similar to this.

There are at least two competing voices in my head. One voice is reminding me how much I like to drink sweet tea and how much I like to eat stuff like hot wings and ice cream. My mouth is watering now just thinking about those things. Another voice in my head is the proponent of good health.

When it comes to a decision about what to eat or whether or not to exercise, voice number one usually says, "Com'on. Just eat it. You know it tastes good, and you don't need to lose weight anyway" or "Do you really feel like going to the gym? You don't need to exercise." Then, there is voice number two that plays to my competitive nature saying, "Really, are you going listen to him? Are you going to let him win? What good will it do you to drink that? Or. eat that?"

Sometimes voice number one wins, but recently voice number two has been winning out. Thus, I have been losing weight.

I don't think that this internal struggle is an uncommon one. Probably everyone who is trying to lose weight goes through this. I just think that the competitive part of my personality plays in heavily here. So much so, that now that I have met my goal, I don't want to quit.

I know this may make me out to be borderline schizophrenic, but I just thought I would let you in on what I've been thinking since last night.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Weeks 10, 11 and 12

I missed a few weeks of checking in for the Ragamuffin Top Challenge, but this week I am back. Check out my video.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Weeks 8 & 9

I was slack last week and never put up a video. So, this week is a two-fer.



I feel good about having kept up with the challenge for nine weeks. Follow through is not my strong suit. I like the changes I am seeing in my body composition. It gives me more incentive to keep it up when I start to see some muscle develop.

Thanks to everyone who has continued to ask me how it's going. That provides some great accountability.

Once Carlos gets his post up, I'll link to it so you can see how everyone else is doing.

Peace and Hair Grease
-Shannon

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 7

Well, this video is about five days late. I weighed in on Saturday and recorded it, but I just got around to making the video last night. Check me out down below.



Last week was a good one. I did some working out and I am seeing some muscle definition develop. That's sort of like a bonus. I lose a little fat and gain a little muscle. Nice.

Check out how everyone else did last week.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 6

So, this is pretty late, but I wanted to get it up anyhow. Last week we were on vacation. So, I didn't get to weigh-in until Monday morning. It was not pretty. Check out my video to see what the damage was.



This week has been pretty good thus far. I think I am going to get back off most of what I gained. Check in next week to see how I do.

You can check out how everyone else is doing, here.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 5

This week will be brief. We are on vacation for the week at Carolina Beach with my mom and sisters. Currently, Kim, Palmer and I are on the patio of a fancy little wine shop/coffee house called the Grind. It is the closest connection to the internets that I have found.

Last week I was up a half a pound to 220. My goal for this week was to lose three pounds. Check out my video to see how I did.



This week since we are on vacation, my goal is not to gain any weight. Thus far, I'd say I'm doing okay. There's a lot more working out going on than I had anticipated. We are on the third floor so just going to the beach is a session on the stairclimber.

I hope everyone did great on the challenge this week. You can go here to see how they did.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 4

To start off with, I'll say that I just ate some ice cream and now my stomach hurts. Sunday is my "cheat day". So, I thought I would take advantage and have some ice cream for the first time in weeks. I'm so disappointed. It was such a waste. I feel like I should go run around the neighborhood or something.

So, this is the end of my third week. After last week, I was down 5 pounds total. This week was not as good as the first two. Check out my video to see how I did.

NOTE: I added a little sci-fi flavor to my video this week, which definitely upped the cheese factor.



Be sure to go check out how everyone else is doing here.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 3 (Update)

I finally uploaded my Ragamuffin Top Challenge video for this past week. I updated my original post and added the video to it.

I realize that all of you that subscribe in a reader would have missed the update, and thus missed the video. So, I thought I would post again and direct you back to the original week 3 post.

Enjoy.

How To of the Day

In my iGoogle, I have the WikiHow "How To of the Day" gadget. Every day they provide a link to a different WikiHow page. Today's link was How to Lose Weight. Due to my participation in the Ragamuffin Top Challenge, I found it to be an interesting article.

Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 3

This week I decided to weigh-in on Friday morning. I went camping on Friday night and and came back Sunday afternoon. I didn't want to wait until Sunday night to weigh-in. So, I did it a day early instead of a day late.

My goal this week was to continue the "no sodas, no sweet tea, no kool-aid, and no snacking" diet and to exercise three times. Here's a run down of what I did for exercise.

Saturday: Basketball (2 hours)
Monday: Walk with Kim (~1 mile)
Tuesday: Full Body Workout, Basketball (1 hour), Bike Ride (~14 miles), Walk with Kim (~1 mile)
Thursday: Stationary Bike (20 minutes), Full Body Workout

My bike ride on Tuesday was the Triangle Triathlon course. So, now I have a start time for my second goal. Check out the video for what the official time is. Then, you can check back next week to see if I beat it.



You can go here to see how everyone else is doing. Be sure to check Jeramie Mullis. That's my homey. Also, you should check-in on Annie D, she's a trip.

Thanks for checking in. Come back next week to see how I'm doing.

Feel free to leave some encouraging words.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge - Week 2

It's check-in time. Last week I started the Ragamuffin Top Challenge. It is a weight loss challenge started by Carlos, over at Ragamuffin Soul. Every week I will be checking in letting you all know how I am doing on accomplishing my goal of getting down to 210 lbs. Below is my update after one week. You can find my update from last week here.



So, there you have it. I am down a couple pounds. Hopefully, I will continue to go down a few pounds each week.

One thing I forgot to mention in the video is that I am also trying to eat breakfast each day. Bob and Gillian of the Biggest Loser say that it gets your metabolism going in the morning when you eat breakfast. So, I am giving that a try, too.

You can see how everyone else in the challenge is doing here.

Come back next week and see if exercising helps me lose more weight. Thanks for the support.

Ragamuffin Top Challenge

The other day I got on the scale and for the first time since January 1, I weighed more than I did at the beginning of the year. One of my New Year's resolutions was "to not weigh any more on December 31 than I did on January 1".

For the most part, I've maintained that. However, recently, I came across a "challenge" where people are putting their weight loss goals and progress out there for everyone to see. I decided that this is the kind of accountability that may push me to actually lose weight and not just maintain.

So, I have joined in on the Ragamuffin Top Challenge. The guidelines are simple. You can find them below.

1. You must have a measurable goal.

I'd like to get down to 210 lbs. I used to have a goal of being 200, but as the years go by, I keep moving in the opposite direction. So, we'll start out shooting for 210.

2. You must place a photo or video on your blog each weekend and give us the scoop on how you did.

Here's my initial entry into the challenge.



3. You must link back here so that the readers of your blog get to see how the rest of us are failing or succeeding.

If you want to see how everyone else is doing, go here to check it out.

4. You fill out the linky thing below and then people can get to your blog from my front page and we can cheer each other on.

Done.


I hope this does not become another one of those things that I start and do not follow through on. Check back and give me some love to help encourage me. If I know other people are keeping up with it, I'll be less likely to quit.