Just got back from the doctor, and I have dropped 20 lbs in a couple of weeks of diet and exercise. Blood work was good, too. BP is dropping, triglycerides were spectacular, good cholestorol is up, and bad cholestorol is down.
Gave me enough motivation to continue this for another month. By April/May (the first pounds were easy- it will slow down dramatically, I expect), I should be in a range where I can stop dieting and start normal healthy living.
And I have lost two belt sizes already and feel better.
Louise
:::standing ovation:::
Marcus Wellby
Congrats, John. What brought on the dieting? Doctors orders or general self preservation?
SeesThroughIt
Damn, John. 20 pounds lost in how many weeks? Just four? Pretty damn impressive.
Gray
Good work, 20 lbs is much.
How did u do it? Simply got rid of that Chips/Popcorn while watching TV, Atkins diet or what else?
Lauren
Congratulations and much love. Next time, pictures. ;)
Bill from INDC
Christ almighty. What, did you drop the chip on your shoulder?
(kidding, kiding)
(mine weighs 40 lbs.)
John Cole
It was brought on by me thinking I was a heart attack (turns out that my heart is surprisingly healthy, and I am going to go get scoped to see if it is an ulcer), and then deciding that all the blood work and my blood pressure (which was 140 over 78), and the rest of the results were crap.
Decided it was time for a major change.
John Cole
I am on a supervised low calorie diet, btw, which is costing me an arm and a leg (and no, those aren’t part of the 20 lbs). I decided I wanted to lose some weight fast, but safely, then work with a nutritionist after a couple of months and get a healthy lifestyle after I had lost the weight.
Lot of prepackaged low calorie high protein meals. Expensive, but worth it. The expense is high enough (200+ a week) that I am sticking to it for a change.
Krista
Yay for you! John, that’s kickass, it really is! You’re smart to know that you’ll need a nutritionist after going off of the pre-packaged meals.
I’m so proud…(sniff)
Par R
You must have had advanced warning about the new Democratic Slogan (per today’s Drudge Report): “Don’t Support Republicans Because, Well, THEY’RE FAT!”
The Disenfranchised Voter
Congrats, John. Keep up the good work!
ChristieS
Good for you, John. I’m very happy for you. Hope the nutritionist you see works a good diet out for you. Keep up the good work, lol.
Stephen
Had my bloodpresure taken this morning — 75/40 with a pulse of 68. Ahh, the joys of long-term hospital stays where your only bragging rights pertain to a blood pressure reading. Anyway, keep up the good work, John. Both my parents have been on Atkins since the 1st of the year and have seen remarkable and very noticable results.
CaseyL
John, congrats on the terrific news!
I hope you’re going to stay on some kind of regimen, though, in order to keep the weight off. Does your current diet have a “maintenance” version?
Brian
Congratulations, John. That is very good, encouraging news. I’m trying to lose some weight and get into doing mini-triathlons, but it’s damn hard to do.
Rick Taylor
Congratulations. That’s fantastic. And very impressive.
–Rick Taylor
Laura
Congrats! Results are a great motivator. It’s good that you are monitoring your health improvements, and not just relying on the scale to measure your success.
That’s good. You only want to diet for so long. Even once you go off your diet, you’ll continue to lose weight with healthful eating and exercise.
Sine.Qua.Non
You deserve a seriously inventive and fun reward for that.
KC
Good news. Congrads John.
Alexandra
20 pounds in a couple of weeks? Damn I am one jealous female.
DougJ
Good luck.
Vladi G
I found that when I did something similar a number of years ago, the trick was to not get discouraged. I would lose 5 lbs. one week, then none the next, then one the next, then six. The trick is to keep on it during those weeks when you aren’t losing as much. I lost 30 in 3 months, and kept it off for a while. I’ve let it creep back up, but I’m working on it again. I refuse to go a size higher in khakis, so it’s diet or else (also exercise).
You’re an inspiration, John.
knayte
“:::standing ovation:::”
“John, congrats on the terrific news!”
“Good news. Congrads John.”
“Congratulations and much love. Next time, pictures.”
“20 pounds in a couple of weeks? Damn I am one jealous female.”
Damn, dude. Almost sounds like you just had a baby.
Blue Shark
…Has the weight loss by any chance extended to the scales upon your eyes?
…If they have fallen to the diet perhaps you too can see what six out of ten Americans can see…a dangerous Buffoon with his finger on “nukular” weapons.
…Please… Name one thing BushCo has done right and well for the American people in five years and counting…just one.
…Here is some help with a list of what has not gone quit well:
~Tillman cover-up
~Schiavo
~How many people affected in Hurricane Katrina
~Lack of the use of swift boats in the Katrina Rescue effort
~No air drops to Superdome
~Orders to shoot people over a loaf of bread that was taken from a store
~Explosion heard 2 days after the storm passed and THEN the levees gave way
~GOP holding votes open
~Last throes comment
~Stuff happens comment
~Mission accomplished (100 dead at the time)
~Medicare reform Bill
~Class-Action Reform Bill
~Medicare not allowed to broker prices for prescription drugs
~Drownie
~Condi shoe shopping
~We don’t torture, we send detainees to other countries to not be tortured
~Democrats are muzzled on all legislation
~Lobbying is well out of control
~Abramoff
~DeLay
~Diebold
~Ohio elections
~Katherine Harris
~Journalists targeted in Iraq
~Oil not paying for the war
~Not being treated as liberators
~Patrick McHenry claiming we hate America (Schiavo case)
~Ethics committee gutted
~FDA will approve anything (except emergency birth control)
~Attack on Social Security
~President flipping off the camera
~No child left behind is not paid for
~Refusing aid after Katrina
~Red Cross not allowed to assist after Katrina
~Fema is way too bloated and does nothing that the DHS can’t do
~Cutting aid to NYPD and FDNY that are affected form the cleanup effort when they were told that the air was safe to breathe
~Tax cuts to those that don’t trickle it down
~3 Trillion Dollars more in debt
~No help in NOLA until Bush arrived (then it stopped again when he left)
~Abu Ghraib
~Gitmo
~Italian reporter shot up
~Bolton recess appointment
~No legislation passed that big money hasn’t backed
~Documented reports of Bush’s Grandfather (Prescott Bush) bankrolling Adolf Hitler
~Buying the Iraqi press
~Wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera
~No water or electricity in Iraq
~Cindy Sheehan shunted
~Harriet Miers
~Jessica Lynch
~Soldiers serving well after their agreed enlistment time
~President won’t hold press conferences
~President only speaks to cherry-picked audiences
~Plame Outing
~Scooter Libby
~Spy in Cheney’s office
~Jean Schmidt
~Wage stagnation
~Halliburton in New Orleans and Iraq
~Outsourcing of jobs
~Money printed in Iraq
~NO WMD
~Yellow Cake
~Rove
~No victory gauge
~No armor for soldiers either Iraqi or American
~Outsourcing the building of Marine 1 Helicopters
~Fighter jets sold to Pakistan by W…on a Saturday
~No accuracy in unemployment rate reporting
~SEC has become a joke
~Hedge funds aren’t regulated
~No war strategy
~Downing Street Memos
~Borrowing from the communists
~$330,000 a month to Chalabi
~Bush housing Saudis
~Where’s UBL
~Flew UBL’s family out of the country after he bombed us
~No border security
~Gas prices
~Home heating prices higher than ever in history
~IRS auditing churches
~Price of war way underestimated
~Bayoil
~Closed session of Senate accomplished nothing the GOP said it would
~Pre-war intel was/is fixed
~Alabama voted for Jeff Sessions (how can that be?)
~Environmental laws absolutely gutted
~Middle class forgotten all-together
~Redistricting to rig elections
~Patriot Act
~Civil rights eroded/gutted
~Treatment of Michael Schiavo
~GOP votes against EVERY inquiry of wrong-doing
~9/11 commission ignored completely
~Programs for the neediest gutted
~Education budged harshly slashed
~Terror alerts subsided after Keith Olbermann finally exposes the coincidences
~Every document is classified
~Most secretive president ever
~Curveball
~Interstates inadequate for mass evacuations
~What was the Noble cause
~Everyone in NOLA have life insurance(?)
~Blaming Tenet for the “slam dunk” comment and then awarding Medal of Freedom
~Elderly deaths went way up during the Social Security Savagery
~Dems can’t add amendments to legislation
~Over 60% of elections won by less than 4%
~Sensenbrenner walked off with the gavel during Patriot Act hearing
~Tax cuts to ship jobs away
~Soldiers getting Purple Heart collections
~Fox News isn’t biased
~Veterans benefits cut
~No exception for soldiers in the Bankruptcy Reform Bill
~Internet threatened with regulation
~Every shopping bag at Wal-Mart is made in Singapore
~Bianca
~Still ignoring NOLA
~Creating immigration laws that take affect in 5 years
~Pat Robertson and James Dobson tell their congregation how they should vote
~Jerry Falwell too
~Corruption is the norm
~No timetable for when the debt will be paid
~DOW was at 11,770 when Bush took office 5 years ago
~Dollar is losing value
~Haven’t defined what is/isn’t torture for all to hear
~Trade agreements are not even close to fair
~Ports left unprotected
~Definition of a terrorist is ever so vague
~GOP claims to have different degrees of Neo-Cons (but they all vote exactly the same)
~Swift-Boating John Kerry
~What is the Skull and Bones Society?
~Drownie was kept on the payroll
~Drownie was never fired
~Newt touring with Hillary
~How many soldiers in an Iraqi Batallion?
~Max Cleland was treated like a piece of shit
~Why were helicopters used to find the people, trying to escape the rising waters, pounding on their roofs from inside their attics?
~5 deferments
~Nuclear option
~Ethics committee couldn’t get Cunningham 2 years after it was known that his house was sold to a defense contractor for $700,000 over it’s value as he lived on that contractor’s yacht
~20% tax on land phone lines
~12% on cell towers
~Diesel fuel is 50 cents higher than gasoline
~Home by Christmas
~Establishing a democracy and not a Republic?
~Jeb doesn’t have FEMA woes
~War profiteering
~Health care
~Armstrong Williams
~Sure quote Lieberman a lot
~Caspian Sea pipeline
~If it’s a Reform Bill or Deregulation Bill the result is never better quality or more affordability
~Cheney said he was glued to the TV all week like everyone else
~Christian values never reflected in legislation
~Jeff Gannon
~Nobody accountable for anything
~Smoking in the rotunda
~Loaded SCOTUS
~MZM
~Chuck Hagel was CEO of ES&S
~Offshore accounts of members
~No mistakes come to mind
~Niger
~Haley Barbour told us FEMA was there on Tuesday
~No scandals given credence
~Math is spun (math don’t lie)
~Government is largest in over 200 years
~Looking under a desk for WMD’s
~Non-combative protestors arrested
~Soviet Gulags
~Superdome
~Opium export in Afghanistan up 2000%
~Hannity is a Pussy
~Ready for a Category 6?
~Global warming ignored
~Hans Blix
~Pakistan earthquake money
~Private prison stockholders
~George H W Bush runs Pharma
~Ambassador to the Vatican?
~Rush never busted on possession charges
~Bill Bennett
~Joe Wilson
~Indian Casino lobbying for how much?
~We aren’t safer
~Wire-taps BEFORE 9/11
~SCOTUS chose our President
~Carnival cruise line contract after Katrina
~Able Danger
~Ken Lay
~Harken Energy
~Rupert Murdoch
~Blatant over-charges in Iraq and NOLA
~Bird Flu vaccine for only 20 million
~Name 4 pieces of legislation passed by the Republicans that Adolf Hitler would NOT have applauded as a good start….
…Just one?
The Other Steve
I used to get these attacks, where I’d have this shooting back in the middle of my back. I’d also frequently have heartburn. Would cause me to have to lie down for a while. Started when I was about 16 years old, went on for 20 years progressively getting worse, until one night I was up dry retching into the toilet.
Turned out it was my gall bladder.
I’ve been trying to maintain a healthier diet. I’m drinking more tea/water and less soda pop. Eating more salads and less french fries. So I understand where you’re coming from.
stickler
If you’re paying the man $200/week, you’ve probably heard this already.
But just get up and walk. Every day. To campus, to the library, to your office on the third floor (or wherever it might be). Avoid cars and the elevator. And even better yet, walk fast when you do.
Exert more effort than you intake/imbibe.
Damned simple. And, once you’ve got rid of the spare tire the spendy way, it’s a very cheap method for keeping the spare tire away.
Think of your starving ancestors, who worked 16 hours a day and nibbled on gruel. They didn’t get fat, did they? So if you walk a block or two, your life isn’t nearly as unpleasant as theirs.
Al Maviva
John, congrats, and keep it up. My story – I’m down 40 since last July – mainly eating less, riding the bike a lot. Cutting way back on the weight lifting has helped too – I don’t need to carry >thatcan do it. Hang in there, never quit.
Blue Neponset
Congrats John! Keep up the good work.
Geek, Esq.
Great job, JC. I recently lost 100lbs myself, so I know how gratifying this can be (and, conversely, how miserable it can be to carry that extra weight around).
The real challenge is transitioning from a diet to a healthy lifestyle instead of relapsing into the old bad habits.
Krista
Geek, Esq. – Holy crap, dude! You lost an entire person! That’s incredible.
That’s it, I’m going for a run on my lunch break, even if I’d rather sit here and chat with you guys. :)
Mac Buckets
Much respect, John… but you’ll never get on “The Biggest Loser — Fat Blogger Edition” if you keep shrinking.
Geek, Esq.
As I tell people, I’ve lost an Olsen twin.
Veeshir
Good work John.
I don’t know how much I’m down. I moved a 25 minute walk away from work so I walk. I also walk the dog 3-5 times a day I pretty much walk everywhere now.
I’ve lost over a belt-hole in a month and a half.
I haven’t dieted though. If anything, I eat more. I only needed about 15-20lbs so I’ll let the walking do the work.
I’m also going to Italy next week, no sense losing weight I’m just going to gain back.
Geek, Esq.
Actually, I lost weight both times I went to Italy–we did a TON of walking around–especially in the Tuscan and Umbrian hill towns.
Krista
That’s kind of weird…I was going to say that you’d lost an entire Mary-Kate, but thought it might be in bad taste…
Geek, Esq.
I happen to thoroughly enjoy all things done in bad taste.
RSA
Way to go, John. And Geek, I’m reminded of an Ab Fab exchange:
“Inside of me, sweetie, inside of me there’s a thin person, just screaming to get out!”
“Just the one, dear?”
simon poulsen
Diet Cole(a).
Sherard
Blue Shark –
I am in awe of just how much of an asswipe you have to be just to COMPILE a list like that. Now, I know full well that you scarfed it from some leftie talking points site, but the idea is the same. To post in on someone else’s site, well that takes stones. To post it in THIS thread, well that’s just outright fucking stupidity.
Darrell
That is some bad advice. After your early 20’s it’s extremely difficult to put on more than 3 or 4 lbs of muscle per year.. and even that amount of muscle gain would take an optimum diet, near-perfect workout program followed consistently, and lots of rest. Many people who gain excessive weight during weight training blame it on muscle weight, when it’s actually just fat from poor diet and/or lack of cardio training.
Muscle burns more calories than fat even when resting. Remember that. Weight training should be one of the most important aspects of any diet and fitness program. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
A little weight training humor to get you started
Blue Shark
…Guilty as charged.
…It was a low blow. My apologies to you John. Your personal triumph on the health front is an admirable and indeed a formidable achievement.
…The log of crimes should have been posted elsewhere.
BlogReeder
Blue Shark: You keep using that word — I do not think it means what you think it means.
Blue Shark
…what word?…Crimes?…don’t fool yourself.
Krista
Darrell’s right about the weight training, btw.
How’s this for freakish…between the few of us on this thread who have disclosed how much we’ve lost (John, Vladi, Al Maviva, Geek Esq. and myself – 65lbs., by the way), we’ve lost a total of 255 lbs! That’s nuts!
Geek, Esq.
Darrell is right about the weight training.
You absolutely NEED to do weight training to make sure you keep your muscle mass. If you simply do a calorie-burning/catabolic (reduced calorie) weight loss program, your muscle mass will decrease.
Krista
Exactly, and then you”ll be slim but all soft and flabby-looking. Even if you do physical work, you should still do weight training so as to strengthen the muscles you don’t use at work, which balances your structure and helps you avoid injury. If nothing else, at least work your core, to help prevent a bad back.