The Raw Blogger

My plan to burn 1,000 calories per workout went well today.

Since I wasn’t losing while exercising moderately and eating well, I had to up the game in the gym.

I went full force and even brought my iPod, freshly loaded with new music. That was definitely a help.

The end of the year is coming up quickly, I really would like to meet my goals.

I have been good. I have been eating healthy. I have been exercising.

So, what has this gotten me? Fatter, that’s what. I step onto the scale and I gain weight! I’m at a very uncomfortable number too, much too high. 256 pounds!

I knew I shouldn’t have weighed in today… I felt very heavy when I woke up.

I guess I need to go at this a different way. Focus on calorie burn in the gym, minimum 1000 per day. What a joy that will be… bah. I hate the gym.

Guess I’ll go pig out this weekend, haha.

I feel like going out for a hike, but the weather sucks.

That wouldn’t normally stop me but I have no rain gear either!

So to prep up for hiking at least I hit the stair climber today. What an interesting piece of equipment. I will no doubt use it much more in the future.

I climbed something like 65 floors of stairs. I could really feel it in my legs!

Yes, this will be a good workout.

I got some tamari soy sauce for my vegetables… can’t wait! Yum.

Today’s workout went much better.

I took it easy and only did 35 minutes on the treadmill. You know, best to start out light and work your way up! Long story short, I burned 400 calories.

I don’t do running, so I just did a nice walking pace on a higher incline.

I’ll continue to try and “up” what I did the previous session.

Today I was invigorated.

I thought to myself, “Today’s the day! We’re going to redouble our efforts in the gym! BWAHAHAHA!”

And I did. I was cruising along burning 100 calories every 7 minutes. That’s a pretty decent speed, you know?

After only 14 minutes in, or 200 calories, I start to notice something. “Gee, it’s getting a little hard to breathe!”

My panic level started to increase and the chest pains became more severe. At about 230 calories I decided to stop. Maybe I just needed a short rest. No, no, it wasn’t going away.

If I was going to die I’d rather do it alone in my car, not out in front of everybody. So I decided to leave. At any rate, I’m still here– alive!

I’m quite disappointed to have ended the workout so short. Pitty, pitty… I will go there again tonight I think. Tomorrow I will weigh in so I can update my records.

With newfound determination I have managed to drag my behind to 24 hour fitness. After all, I bought that 2 year membership… I should probably use it, right?

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon there was practically nobody there. I decided to take a different approach. Normally I would hop on the treadmill and jog/run and be tired a couple minutes later. I’m just too fat to jog, too much pressure on my shins/feet/knees! So instead, I cranked up the incline.

Boy, I tell ya, it was like climbing a mountain! I had that thing to 10 and 12 at some points, coupled with a speed of 3mph I was able to do some serious damage. Not damage to my body, just caloric burning damage– the good stuff! Having used my bodybugg in the past, I have determined the machines are generally close to accurate on the whole calories burned (assuming you don’t lie about your statistics).

After ‘mountain climbing’ for 30 minutes I switched to the bicycle for 10 to cool down, then an elliptical to finish it off.

Altogether it was over 500 calories burned.

Today I whipped out a similar routine 30 min treadmill/30 min elliptical for about 750 calories burned.

Onward to the diet change!

I originally had this notion that I would go 100% raw, or close to it. I am throwing that out the window. Frankly, if I attempted that, I would fail miserably. I can, however, successfully eat approximately 70%-80% raw fairly easily.

I generally eat 5/5/5– 500 cal breakfast, 500 cal lunch, 500 cal dinner.

Breakfast will always be raw (banana smoothie). Lunch and dinner may not be completely raw. I have finally taken to eating salads with a non-raw dressing. Last night I made a soup which I would have dumped down the drain if it weren’t hot, it was healthy from fresh organic vegetables!

Okie dokie, so that is the plan. Still a vast majority of raw eating, just not 100%. I’m fine with the change, that is all that matters. Looking forward to the scale on Sunday.

Oh, woe is me!

Today I had to face the music. How much weight have I put back on since I fell off the wagon? Not something I wanted to do, but I have to face up.

Let it be known, I weigh 239.9 pounds. At least it is a smidge bit under 240, right?

Having weighed in at 237.2 last time, that is a net gain of 2.7 pounds. Next Sunday I hope to rectify all of this. My goal is to weigh in at 235! An ambitious 5 pound loss that would be.

I need to pick myself up off the floor and head to the gym today.

This is me after walking around Three Finger Jack (the mountain). Day 1.

Me again- Day 2, but I look dark. I swear, I don't have a unibrow! Mount Jefferson is behind me. Soon I'll be on the opposite side of that beast.

End of day 3. I could have gotten a better shot of Jefferson, but I collapsed and couldn't move.

Jefferson again, beginning of day 4. I'm headin' home! Tiring climb up this mountain.

Alright, folks!

After my backpacking trip I struggled for a week afterwards. I’m now back on the diet wagon! The Biggest Loser premiered this week and that definitely gave me a lot of inspiration, as always. I felt a tad bit guilty watching the show while mowing down my halfpound cheeseburger: stuffed with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, diced jalopeno peppers, and blue cheese crumbles, topped with a huge mound of pepperjack & mild cheddar cheese. I also made a chipotle mayo and used it liberally on my buns. Fried it up in my extra virgin cold pressed olive oil. Yum!

But guilty! That’s how I felt. I have no more trips this year so I should have no excuse what-so-ever for falling off the wagon again. I will do another weigh in on Sunday and every Sunday thereafter.

My powdered life force arrived today, right after I had just finished my smoothie. Oh well, I reckon’ I can still use it tonight. The suggestion is 1 teaspoon to start, then slowly work my way up to 1 to 2 tablespoons per day. I was warned I may experience loose bowels! Oh, the wonders of dieting.

With The Biggest Loser to give me inspiration, I think I’ll return to the gym. I mean, after all, I do have a 2 year membership to 24 hour fitness. Maybe I can reach my goal weight by the time the show ends. That’d be cool!

I decided to weigh in today because I wanted to see a weight before I did my backpacking trip.

I weighed in at 237.2 pounds. That is a loss of 6.1 pounds after 6 days on the diet. Of course, you should be a little skeptical in the beginning as people usually lose a lot of weight in the beginning of diets. That said, it still seems to be quite a good amount.

Last night I was really craving foods. The day was fairly boring so I was watching television, and the only thing on television was cooking-related shows. Well, I could only take so much before I was about to snap! I decided that before I broke down to an extreme I would have some mashed potatoes and a can of refried beans, which totalled 700 MUCH needed calories that day.

Alright, that is it for now. I will post again after I return from the backpacking trip and will do another weigh in then before I get back on track.

Whoa, powdered life force. Intense.

So last night in my quest to find a vegetable based entree I made corn chowder. After the first bite I thought I could handle it. I mean, it wasn’t THAT bad.

That sentiment lasted only for the first few bites. I then came to the conclusion, “This sucks!” and resolved to flushing it down the sink. I have ingredients for a cream of mushroom soup. If I can’t handle that I’ve decided to stick with smoothies permanently for this diet.

Now that I am switching up my strategy a little bit I was looking around for the best green powder out there. The general consensus seemed to be that HealthForce Vitaminerals Green is the best. Looking at the website they had me sold anyway. I ordered up a big bottle on Amazon (Better price, free shipping) and will use that to spike my smoothies so I can get my greens in. A few vegetables, like baby carrots, I will continue to buy and snack on.

My brother called and it looks like we’re going backpacking on Tuesday. What does this mean? Well, it means I will have to break the raw diet for 4 days while I am gone. There’s just no practical way I can eat raw out in the field and sustain the energy I need. We’re going to be travelling about 11 miles a day which is a slower beginner pace. I could go for longer but my feet begin to hurt since I have a lot of weight on them.

Again, what does this mean for my diet? Tuesday-Friday I will not be raw or vegan. Kind of annoying that I have to make a break this early on but I wont stress about it.

I will do my first weigh in on the sunday after I return from my backpacking trip and then every Sunday following. I’m feeling pretty good, I think I’m losing.