There are so many different diet pills and diet supplements that it can be hard to decide which ones are good and which ones won’t do a thing for you. I have not taken any diet pills and I am not sure if I will. I am sure they work for some people, but I would rather try and work off my excess weight through working out and eating right. The thing I worry about with Diet pills is that they are a temporary fix, to really solve the problem you need to change your lifestyle.

I am not saying that diet pills are not good for you, but I would rather change the way I live first. If that does not work than I may try a diet pill. Have any of you used diet pills? I am not talking about vitamin pills and nutrient pills and stuff like that, I am talking more about the “expanding” pills that make you eat less.

The one pill that is the latest craze is Alli, I am going to look into Alli a little more and I will let you know what I find.

Our scale broke and I have not been able to weigh in. I will weigh inat the gym soon and update everyone on how I am doing. Before the scale broke I was down to 232 so I have lost 3 pounds so far. I am feeling better about myself already. It is amazing how much more productive I am during the day when i work out, than when I don’t. I get a lot more done and I feel better about myself at the end of the day. Although the weight isn’t coming off as quickly as I would like, my clothes are fitting better and I feel better about my image. I will keep you posted more frequently on the weight loss when I get a new scale, until then I will weigh in at the gym as often as possible.

Our scale broke last week (insert fat joke here), and I need to replace it. I am not sure what happened to it, I just replaced the batteries and it was working fine. It is an older scale so I have been wanting a new one anyway. I found a couple of scales that I like, but there are so many features that I am not sure which one I should choose. The scale I had was very basic and didn’t measure anything, but weight.

Here are a few scales that I am considering:

Superior Talking Scale You’ll have to hear this to believe it!

The European Physician’s Large Platform Scale. With an extra-wide 12″ platform with textured dimpled foot pads for sure footing, this scale is designed by a 60 year-old award-winning company from France and is the same one preferred by medical professionals in Europe. The easy-to-read 8″-diam. dial is easy to view and displays weight in pounds and kilograms. The scale’s brushed all-metal body and heavy-duty spring components support 400 lbs. 19 1/2″ L x 12 1/4″ W x 5 1/4″ H. (15 lbs.)

The Digital Weight And Body Composition Scale. This is the digital scale that supports your health and fitness regimen by quickly and accurately measuring key body composition data in addition to precise weight readings. Unlike other measuring methods that require expensive, specialized equipment or submersion in water, the scale uses bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) (a harmless electrical impulse) to calculate body fat percentage, muscle mass, and body water within seconds after you step on the 12 3/4 x 13 3/4″ glass platform. Three modes (normal, child, and athlete) let you adjust the scale’s sensitivity for greatest accuracy, and it estimates the daily caloric intake needed to maintain your current body composition. The scale can store data for up to 10 individuals, making it easy to track the entire family’s progress. The 2″ high LCD panel features a dual-line readout that displays weight and body composition results simultaneously in bright 3/4″ high numerals. The scale has a 400 lb. (180 kg) capacity and displays weights in 1/4-lb. (0.1 kg) increments. Four AAA batteries (included) provide convenient cordless operation. 14 1/2″ W x 13 3/4″ L x 3″ D. (4 lbs.)

I may get crazy and get one of these cool scales:

The Best Physician’s Beam Scale. This beam scale proved to be the best in tests by the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute because it is consistently the most accurate. An independent industrial weighing systems company was commissioned to calibrate the scales prior to testing and this beam scale was the most precise, only deviating from the actual weight by 0.35% on average, unlike lesser models with inaccuracy rates up to 1.2% (2 lbs. for a 180-lb. person). Scoring highest for consistency, the scale was the only one that recorded three spot-on measurements of seven different weights, while the unit that placed second failed to record even one exact measurement. The scale has a 500-lb. capacity and measures in 1/4-lb. increments, the poise bar rotates to show measurements in Imperial or metric, a 24″ to 84″ height rod slides out of the unit to allow simultaneous height and weight measurements, and the engraved markings are easy to read. The scale is made from heavy-duty steel and assembles in 10 minutes. 57 1/4″ H x 10 2/3″ W x 20 1/2″ L (39 lbs.)

I will keep you posted on what scale I choose and how it works for me, until I get this scale I will be weighing in at the gym. I will try to weigh in soon and post the results. I did weigh in on Monday, before the scale broke, and I was at 232. I have lost 3 pounds so far! I am feeling better and I feel like I have more energy as I work out more and eat better.

I think playing soccer is one of the best workout I recieve all week. I usually have a game every monday night and I am going to start playing pick up games on Saturday mornings. My monday night games are on an indoor league so it is a lot of running and very fast paced. I am pretty tired after a 40 minute game and I am also very sore. This last monday we had 2 games on the same night. We played our first game and I was exhausted, we play in an old warehouse and the air conditioning does not work very well. It was a hot summer day, and our game was at 7:00. It was probably between 90 – 100 degrees on the field. I have never sweat as badly as I did during that frst game. After the first game, which we won 4-1, we had a 40 minute break before we played the best team in the league. I was worried I was not going to have the energy to play in the second game. I was suprised when i felt as though I had more energy in the second game than I had in the first game. It was like I got my second wind and I was able to play very well. We ended up tying the best team in our league and we played one of the best games of our season. I am one of the youngest players on my team at 26, and their oldest player was probably 23. They were young, but the old guys ran circles around them and we should have won the game. It just taught me that I can still be in great shape despite my age!

I slept very well that night and got up and played basketball the next morning. I was still pretty sore from soccer, but I drug myself out of bed and made it to the gym. I played a good 40 minutes and felt great all day at work. It was a great 12 hours of working out!

Ihad a great week of working out! I had 6 great workouts and I feel great! This week was the first week in a long time that I worked out every day. Not only do I feel better, I am starting to see results. Hopefully I can keep this up every week!

I weighed in this morning and I am down to 233, I have lost 2 pounds since I started this blog to keep track. It is always good to see some results and I feel better about myself already!

I had a great workout this morning! I have been playing basketball every Tuesday and Thursday for about 40 minutes with a great group of guys. Lately I have felt like Basketball wasn’t enough and I would be getting a better workout at the gym, but I enjoy playing and I like the competitive aspect of it. This morning I tried something new, I went to the gym at 6:15 and worked out onthe treadmill for 30 minutes and then headed over to play basketball. Luckily my gym and the gym where we play basketball are close enough that this will work. I felt so good afterward and I am excited to do that every Tuesday and Thursday now.

I think the hardest thing for me lately has been pictures. I absolutely hate all pictures of me because I see what I look like to others. When I am looking in the mirror it doesn’t look that bad, and I realize that is why I am in the situation I am currently in. I see a picture and I can’t believe that is me in the picture because I am so fat right now. I am disappointed I let myself get to this point and I can’t wait to work it off. My sister just posted a picture of me on her Facebook account and I couldn’t believe it was actually me in the picture.

It is also difficult because I am a social guy and I love doing things with my friends. I have realized that for the past several months I have had no desire to see my friends because of the way I look. They are way cool friends and I know they don’t care, but I am so self conscious about it that I hate being around people that knew me when I was skinny. Until about a month ago in my mind I was still skinny, but when I get around people I know I can tell I look completely different by the way they look at me. Hopefully I will be able to lose the weight in a timely manner and I can get back to being social again.

Is there anything harder than working out and dieting while on vacation? We recently took a trip and I tried to my hardest to eat healthy and avoid the junk food, but it is difficult to eat healthy on the road. I avoided weighing in this morning because I did not want to be disappointed, I did make it to the gym and it felt good to get back in the routine of working out. I feel so much better during the day after I work out in the morning. I tried to work out while I was away, but it did not happen as much as I would have liked. The hotel we stayed at did not have a gym so I swam laps in the pool as much as I could. This trip was not a relaxing trip, and we remained pretty active the entire time. I am hoping that the activity during the day made up for the lack of actual work outs.

For meals I would try to eat healthy and avoid fast food places as much as I could. We took some fruit with us that we could keep in our refrigerator in our room and I ate that for breakfast and snacks. For lunch I would try to eat a small reasonable lunch. Dinner was the hard part because we were traveling with family so we ate dinner with the group. We went to a steakhouse one night, and a Mongolian grill the next night.

It was a road trip so I snacked on sunflower seeds during the trip. I have heard that sunflower seeds are a healthy snack, but I have not confirmed that anywhere. I like to eat sunflower seeds on road trips because it helps keep me awake. Hopefully they are healthy because they are one of my favorites!

I came away with a couple of questions after our trip:

• Are Sunflower Seeds a healthy snack?
• What snacks do you eat that are healthy and still taste good?
• How do you manage your diet while you are on vacation?
• What do you do to work out while you are on vacation?

I know I struggle with dieting and as a result I am trying to lose some extra weight. Growing up clear through High School I had an amazing metabolism and i could eat whatever i wanted whenever I wanted and i would not gain weight. Now my body is different and I need to watch what I eat very carefully. I really struggle with this and I know if I can manage this better I will start to lose the weight. My wife is usually in charge of the food around the house and I have talked to her about only buying healthy foods and helping me get the junk food out of the house. She is a great support to me and has helped a ton. I am not a calorie counter and I don’t like to look at what is in my food, but I guess if I am serious about this I better get better at finding out exactly what I am eating.

I have never been a breakfast person so I struggle with what to eat and when to eat it. I have been told that it is best to eat within 30 minutes of waking up. I have been trying to do that, but I struggle with what to eat and how much to eat. I understand the importance of getting my metabolism going, but I need to know how much food will get it triggered and running well, and how much food is too much. I typically will eat a banana on my way to the gym and drink some water or juice, depending on if we have juice made up or not. After my workout I head to work. I have been taking in Quaker Instant Oatmeal packets and eating one of them about 4 hours after my banana while at work. They are the sugar free oatmeal packets and they seem to be pretty healthy.

At lunch I usually do one of two things; I either go out with the guy’s I work with, or head home and eat with my wife. When I go to lunch with the guys it is usually to a sit  down restaurant and i know it is not healthy. I try to order salads as much as possible and endure the ridiculing that come with it. It is all in good nature, but it does get old when you are trying to eat healthy. Lately I have been trying to eat with my wife more because it has several benefits other than just healthier food. We save money by not eating out as much, I get to spend quality time with my wife and daughter in the middle of the day, and I can control what I eat and make sure it is healthy.

Dinner is the wild card and I really don’t have a typical routine. My wife is pregnant again and she has horrible pregnancies in that she pretty much returns everything she eats to the porcelain throne in our bathroom (Sorry, I didn’t know how to say that properly without making everyone sick). Our dinner usually depends on how she is feeling and what sounds good to her. Lately we have been eating out a lot and I that is not the ideal meal for losing weight, but I completely understand that she doesn’t want to prepare food while being sick. Even the wrong type of smell will send her running to the nearest bathroom. I don’t usually get home from work until late so I don’t have time to cook. I keep trying to tell her to just by me those bagged salads by Dole and I would be happy. She doesn’t feel like that is “enough food” for me, but that is a whole new post for another day. I need to come up with a better plan to make both my wife and i happy about what we are eating for dinner.

I am going to do some research he next couple days and I will post the results of what I find.

Here are my questions this week:

• What are the benefits of eating breakfast, and when is the most effective time to eat it?
• How much food is recommended for Breakfast?
• What are some quick healthy lunches that I can make?
• How can I convince my wife that i do not need a large meal?

If anyone reading this blog has experience and can share what they have found with any of these questions I would love to hear what you think. Please comment and let me know what I can do to improve in these areas.