After booking a somewhat successful Challenge with Tweety. Suzzer has issued a 2011 challenge.
Nothing motivates better than a challenge and Suzzer has come up with a new idea and I have accepted

Here are the rules to the challenge

• Weigh ins must occur by Jan 8th and be posted
• We will Weigh in every 15th of the month(excluding Jan 15th)
• Player that last lost the highest % of weight that month wins the month
• Losing player makes a donation to winners charity of choice each month (NO Offsetting)
• Player That losses the highest % of weight on the Dec 15th also wins a bonus of $100 to his charity
• NO MMA Fasting Days prior
• Body Fat % to be posted monthly also

We thought by doing it monthly it keeps a guy motivated. I know last year I lost all my weight first 4 months and put 10 lbs back on .


Suzzer to confirm above rules and add anything I missed

I am at 245 this morning. I was at 218 at my low point this summer (spent a decent amount of time around 222). Then I went on a couple vacations and started working in an office with the typical perpetual dessert buffet about 6 feet from my desk. I started really trying to get serious about getting the weight back off when I was at about 232 - about 2 months ago.

For over 2 months I've been getting up at 6am and either doing boot camp or workout then 1 hour of cardio 3-5 days/week, then going to work. For the past month I've finally slain the demon of of resisting the non-stop work buffet. The secret seems to be to just never start. Then I reward myself with a half a cookie on the way out the door. But of course I'm still trying to have a social life on the weekend, Xmas parties, family etc. I've gained 12 lbs. in the last 2 months. This is back to my old pattern that got me up to 270 at my worst.

I've been on 2 dates with this girl and am really trying to not be noticeably fatter when we see each other again in mid-Jan. Fail. Hawaii vacation with the family coming up. Odds of more epic fail >95%. I'm seriously considering just being a complete hermit for a year.

I feel like there's almost no way I can work at an office and lose weight w/o wanting to snap my coworkers heads off. I seem to be back to my old self where if I am absolutely killing myself I simply don't gain weight, if I think I'm doing pretty well on diet and exercise I gain about 1lb/week, and if it's the holidays and I know I'm doing crappy I gain 2-3 lbs/week. fml

/emo soon-to-be-anorexic cheerleader rant

Also I fly in on the 8th so the weigh in might happen on the 9th.

don't tell me your going back to old zach braff looking suzzer?

Well hopefully I can turn things around with this challenge. Honestly I'm more worried about turning this girl off than anything else. She seems really cool and is definitely at the top end of my range looks-wise.

When I'm really dieting, I can't figure out whether it's better for me to get in big arguments on here on the healthcare threads and Cutler arguments in SE, because it keeps me from snapping at my coworkers, or if I should just avoid those things entirely.

Anyone else have any opinions on diet-induced irritability? I get it really bad when I'm exercising and dieting well. It was fine when I was playing poker because I didn't have to deal with people much. But now I work in a big open bullpen environment and am in constant contact with people. My diet is very good btw, so it's not like I'm starving myself or anything.

suzzer, have you tried following a regimented lifting program like SS instead of random cardio stuff?

I had a trainer twice a week last year and got much stronger. But I didn't really lose weight until I stuck to a very strict diet and did cardio 4-5 days/week on top of the weight training. Then even that stopped working and I had to switch to 200/150/100/50g of carbs 4-day cycles. Then the weight started falling off again. Although I don't know how productive or fun to be around I'd be at the office on 100 and 50 carb day.

Also I was on testsoterone (Dr. prescribed) for part of that time, which I'm sure helped.

I can't do squats or deadlifts any more until I get the hernia fixed though. I'm just too afraid that things going to rip right through and cost me $5k+ for emergency room hernia surgery (I have a high-deductible plan). A zero-deductible HMO plan with my current job kicks in in Feb, so I'll be working on getting surgery after that. My legs are still pretty big from all the stairs I do in cardio and boot camp. I still work out upper body 1-2x per week.

I think we both start strong and finish the year poorly. With this monthly thing it should work out better

Suzzer do you have a target weight for years end? Mine is 216

210 - that's been my target weight all this time. At my peak (nadir) I could say I lost 52 lbs. and was 8 lbs. away from my goal. Now I'm 35 lbs. away. Ugh. But some of that might be bloating from Xmas and flying that will go away quick. It might be more like 30 lbs. away is more accurate (hoping). I just refuse to believe I gained 10 lbs. in the last 3 weeks.

The Chiefs being good again has added one more social occasion to drink beer and eat BBQ to my regimen. That hasn't helped.

so true, i'd probably be 10 lbs lighter if the NFL didn't exist

Ok mY weigh No newspaper today so used internet date verification

Weight 244.4 Not bad for all the food I ate over the holidays
Body Fat 28.1

[IMG] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/IMG]

(borrowed from SM in the monthly thread)

That sucks about your hernia suzzer - not being able to squat or DL is a huge handicap to getting into good shape. Good luck with the bet!

Good strategy would be to gain copious weight first few months then own the rest

Suzzer needs to weigh in by tom

I'm in Hawaii, fly back tonight. If it's really that important I will try to swing by the gym tomorrow after I go watch the Chiefs in the playoffs. But I'll probably be about 7 lbs above my "true" weight at that point (vacation + airplane bloat + beer and BBQ). You'd probably do better for your cause by having me wait until the 10th or so. But it's up to you.

10 th is fine

3rd page? Holy cow this forum gets busy after the 1st.



This is a printout from yesterday. It's a machine at the gym where basically you pay $2 and enter a bunch of info. about your body size, what you're wearing etc. I don't know how accurate it is, but it should be accurate enough for weight on a relative basis.

My exercise plan is to do cardio, probably Stair Mill (not Master) for 60-90 minutes, 5 days/week, usually starting at 6-7am. Maybe Mon-Fri, but possibly rest on Thurs. and add Sat. Also work out 2-3 of the days before cardio - lower body with the trainer - and upper body/core on my own. I'm going to skip boot camp this session. It's rainy this time of year, and we only get 30 minutes of really hard exercise in generally (warm up, cool down, etc). I think extended cardio or fat burner zone is better. I will also be "bonk training" on every day except leg day. Basically you don't eat anything until after the cardio, then you have your protein and carbs. This is supposed to make you lose weight faster. I never ate much before anyway so I don't think this will be too tough.

The food plan is to stick to the pretty simple diet the nutritionist gave me a couple years ago - lean meat and protein, roughly 30g of "good" grain/starch carbs (potato, rice, Trader Joes sprouted wheat bread) at breakfast and lunch, and very few carbs at dinner (chicken or occasionally steak and salad). Fruit at breakfast and lunch, some carb control yogurt for dessert at dinner. And 2 protein shakes in-between the 3 meals. Oh yeah no drinking until summer - except for the Superbowl, and when I go to Tampa for the NCAA tourney in March. Alcohol and socializing are just deadly. I think I gained 12 lbs in the last month.

I did squats/deads for the first time yesterday in almost a year. Feels great to be doing that again, even though I can barely move right now. I'm going to risk hernia problems until my good health insurance kicks in on Feb 1. I doubt I'll get up to super heavy weight by then so I'm not super worried. The hernia doc at Kaiser said I could work out. I was just worried about having to go to the emergency room if it get's strangulated, and the $7k or so OOP that would go with that.

Carefull with the weights. Need the year long competition

I did one of these on the same machine in Nov. '09 when I was working out a ton. My lean body mass was 174 and my weight was 228 - for a body fat of 23 (!). So the most I can gain is probably 6 lbs. of muscle mass, which I'm sure will help me lose more than that in fat.

If I had done one at my worst point in about March '09 I would probably have been around 270.

Starting Weight 244.4 Body Fat 28.1 %

Feb 15th Weight 238 Body Fat 28.0%

Weight Loss 6.4 lbs

I think I may be making this months donation.

Next 30 day goal 8 lbs loss

Lol nice sandbagging with the PM. I thought you were going to be gaining weight.

It was a little tough with postseason football every weekend and old friends' going away party on the off-week. But I really turned it on strong the last 2 weeks as far as watching the diet. And I was getting a ton of exercise throughout the entire session (generally 4-6 days/week of either cardio, or boot camp, or weighlifting+cardio).



So according to this I lost 9 lbs and 2.3% body fat. But like I said I think those Jan #s were a little inflated from a week of pigging out on vacation and just getting off a plane a day earlier (= bloated, holding water).

Here's my charity: http://www.jdrf.org/ I have a friend who suffers with juvenile diabetes. And I know they have a very realistic chance of curing it through stem cells during our lifetimes.

If you want I can forward you a copy of the donation. Congrats on the first month.

Here is the Pop I got for confirmation

Thank you, Ray, for your contribution of $50 to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. You are helping us move even faster down the path to a cure for diabetes and its complications.

Nice, thanks.

I have a feeling this month we're both going to turn it up a notch next month. I have almost no social obligations other than a very mellow stay at my friend's place this weekend. I have identified several areas where I can beef up the cardio, or the time/style of training, or the diet. I'm going to incorporate some of them one at a time over the next few months, and maybe save a couple for when I hit a wall. You have been warned.

Also I'd like to see some drop in BF% next month for you.

o snap. go suzzer, go.

Just had a little celebratory BBQ lunch. Not bad for LA. Now back to the grind - grilled chicken w/salad for dinner.

Yes I will be having a Consolation dinner ad than back at it. Falling on the ice and bruising my hip didnt help