Well I am on Day 3 and I already see the benefit of tracking. I am surprised by some of the foods that have less calories than I thought as well as others that have more. Today though I ate too much and after dinner I only had 160 calories left over. I usually eat two small snacks at night, just a habit that I can't break but today I can't do it because I will go over my allotment. So its the tracking that actually helped me, at least for today to break a habit that's otherwise been close to impossible for me to break. The question is this though. If I stay under my stated calories for a couple of days, can I use them on another day or do I have to stay under the calories every single day. To put it another way can I bank the calories for later use within the same week. If anyone was actually reading this maybe I would get my answer, but then again anyone else who was actually reading this has no life so why would I listen to them?

Well here it is day two and so far so good. I had so many calories left yesterday that I was able to have six cups of ice cream which I know is too much from a fat content but it did make me feel good about the diet. The tip today is to set realistic goals and move in baby steps. It's a great tip although I have no idea what it means. The second tip which is even better is record everything, the good, the bad and the really ugly. The ugly part will be difficult at times, well at all times but to develop a "get right back on the horse" mentality you have to see what caused you to fall. It's my experience that it is not the falling that causes me to yoyo diet, its the staying down after I fall and that has got to stop.

Okay today is the start of what I hope will be not only a long diet but a change of lifestyle as well. I am going to be writing this as if  hundreds of people are reading my blog, when in reality I will probably be the only one, at least for quite a while. I am motivated though mainly by the pictures on my blog and the pictures from my wedding. What bothered me the most about them was not that I looked so bad (heavy) but that Meryl said I looked good. Apparently, I have even looked worse so I can't even accept myself as I am.

This morning, January 25, 2016 I weighed 234.8 and at 5'8" that translates into a BMI of over 35, with over 30 being considered obese, so I have a long way to go. To maintain my weight of 235 I would have to eat about 2300 calories a day but since I don't want to weigh that much to lose 1 pound of fat I would have to go 3500 calories under my weight. That translates to 500 calories a day below my maintenance level or approximately 1,750 a day so that's what I am stuck with.

At any rate to help me with my diet Mandy & Matt suggested an app called MyFitnessPal which already is not working well but I am using it anyway. In the beginning I am going to follow their suggestions because clearly my own suggestions don't work. I am going to try with one suggestion a day because at my age, it's better to process one thing right than write down a 100 items and not do any of them at all.

Well their first suggestion is to track everything I eat through the app, the good, the bad and the really bad and that's what I am going to do. Wish me luck to all those that are not out there.

My Skinny View

Always Face Left

These are my before pictures on January 24, 2016. I know they are hard to look at. This is why when I pass a mirror I walk quickly by it. This is why I don't post my own pictures. And this is why I am doing this. I can't do much about the face, I know that, but I do have to get rid of that basketball that I carry around. So here goes. Wish me luck