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After seeing some of the weight loss threads on the other forums, and my recent slacking in my weight loss I have decided to start a thread here.

I started out on my quest for weight loss as a new years resolution in jan of 2007. Since then I have gone from 315 down to 255.I got back into martial arts as both a student and a teacher. I decided to cook my own meals and monitor my intake.

but.....

I have recently gained back up to 270 in the last month. The reason for that is stress from work, I stoped working out due to work being crazy, and eating unhealthy quick food because of work. I love my job, but every quarter we do a lease return and have to replace and reload dozens of machines and servers. This time I am trying to get a system setup to help track this better, it takes a lot of setup and it takes a lot longer because of that setup, but in the quarters to come this should be 10000% easier.

I am NOT going to let this continue. NO NO NO, I WILL NOT allow myself to backslide and loose all my hard work.

I normaly cook my own foods, but due to the time constraints from work I have been eating fast food. I have made a comprimise. I went and picked up a ton of healthy frozen dinners. I know they are loaded with sodium, but I can offset that with more water intake and its MUCH less sodium that I was getting from the fast food.

I have also told my boss that if I need to work overtime, i need to go to my martial arts classes then come back to work to get the extra hours. I have a key to the dojo where I help instruct but working out alone is not as productive as being in a class or leading a class where you are being driven to perform harder.

The exercise should also help with the stress factor.. its a shame that our natural reaction to stress is to calorie load and sleep instead of eating healthier and exercising to pump up the metabolism.

I will try to post on this topic daily as a confirmation to myself that I am still putting that goal, my health, above all others.

To make a slight modification to the ole saying... I would rather be fired by one, then carried by 6.


Everyone is welcome to use this thread for the same goals. I ask that if you want to post before/after pictures that they adhere to the 8 year old daughter rules. (wear a shirt )

You have my support.

I know that keeping weight off is difficult.....very difficult. I have struggled with it my entire life. I am dead serious about my weight and have decided that I am going to live for my family.

Feel free to send a PM my way if you just need to vent frustration. Take care.

Jason

Melkor,

I've found that this works quite well for me. When you cook, cook lots of it and freeze most of it in meal-sized portions. That way, when you are running low on time, instead of buying unhealthy restaurant or fast food, heat up the healthier meal you made yourself earlier. I have lots of truly healthy frozen dinners without all that sodium.

I know exactly what you mean about regaining weight due to stress at work and less time in general for exercise. I was at 230 back in March 07, and went down to about 183ish by August 07, and kept at that weight until about a couple months ago, and I am creeping up to 195 right now, which has gotten me to kick myself in the butt a little.

melkor41 wrote:After seeing some of the weight loss threads on the other forums, and my recent slacking in my weight loss I have decided to start a thread here.

I started out on my quest for weight loss as a new years resolution in jan of 2007. Since then I have gone from 315 down to 255.I got back into martial arts as both a student and a teacher. I decided to cook my own meals and monitor my intake.

but.....

I have recently gained back up to 270 in the last month. The reason for that is stress from work, I stoped working out due to work being crazy, and eating unhealthy quick food because of work. I love my job, but every quarter we do a lease return and have to replace and reload dozens of machines and servers. This time I am trying to get a system setup to help track this better, it takes a lot of setup and it takes a lot longer because of that setup, but in the quarters to come this should be 10000% easier.

I am NOT going to let this continue. NO NO NO, I WILL NOT allow myself to backslide and loose all my hard work.

I normaly cook my own foods, but due to the time constraints from work I have been eating fast food. I have made a comprimise. I went and picked up a ton of healthy frozen dinners. I know they are loaded with sodium, but I can offset that with more water intake and its MUCH less sodium that I was getting from the fast food.

I have also told my boss that if I need to work overtime, i need to go to my martial arts classes then come back to work to get the extra hours. I have a key to the dojo where I help instruct but working out alone is not as productive as being in a class or leading a class where you are being driven to perform harder.

The exercise should also help with the stress factor.. its a shame that our natural reaction to stress is to calorie load and sleep instead of eating healthier and exercising to pump up the metabolism.

I will try to post on this topic daily as a confirmation to myself that I am still putting that goal, my health, above all others.

To make a slight modification to the ole saying... I would rather be fired by one, then carried by 6.


Everyone is welcome to use this thread for the same goals. I ask that if you want to post before/after pictures that they adhere to the 8 year old daughter rules. (wear a shirt )

I support you all the way. I too am on a quest to drop pounds. I've recently gone from 275 to 250. I'm struggling to get past that point but have htough tbaout taking up martial arts. I was scared that being overweight would not allow me to do that. What are your thoughts?

As with any form of exercise, check with your doctor. If he gives you a nod of approvial go for it. A good tae kwan do training sesson will burn about 900 calories for the hour. I have seen many students loose weight, myself included.

You will quickly find that as you progress, your buying smaller belts when promoted and having to buy smaller uniforms just about the time you get them broken in

With the 3 frozen dinners today I am right around 900 calories. Going to go burn that off in a few minutes. I would love for you to post your progress in this thread with anyone else who wants to join us.

Thanks melkor41 for starting this. I hope that it will help me get myself moving to loose more weight. I was at 380 last year, then dropped down to 340. I was so happy that I was at 340. Now I am back up to about 370. I am going to make myself do more to drop the weight.

Having people that you talk to about it helps, and I hope that this thread will help us all. Again thanks for starting it. I dont think that I could have.

I did a double class last night at martial arts, but was so hungry by the time i got home i had to eat again. I dont think I could have slept otherwise. Had a bowl of special K and played GTA IV until i was tired. Woke up this morning for the first weigh in for this new attempt. 267.0 Better than I thought. Had a frozen dinner while i was getting ready this morning and picked up some bottled water and flavor packets on the way in to work. I needed to start drinking water like I used to as well instead of the caffene drinks.

Chewy im glad you joined us. Were all here for each other.

Water is something that I need to start drinking more of as well.

I had thought about doing martial arts, but dont think that I could do it at my size. I never did it when I was a kid, so I just dont know. Maybe I can find a class with other over weight adults in it, dont want to take a class with a bunch of little kids.

chewy555 wrote:
I had thought about doing martial arts, but dont think that I could do it at my size. I never did it when I was a kid, so I just dont know. Maybe I can find a class with other over weight adults in it, dont want to take a class with a bunch of little kids.

You should be fine as long as your doc says your healthy enough for exercise.

As a white belt you are not going to be going flying double jump kicks or fighting for extended matches. Some schools dont even let you spar until you are somewhere between yellow/orange to green.

I welcome you to our school, but i dont think you want to commute to Garland

Choosing a school is a very important thing if you stick with it, you will be spending the next few years of your life with this school or longer. I see a lot of people that join our school after spending years being unhappy at other schools. Are we the best for everyone? more than likely not. But the students we have are happy and are learning at a good pace and showing excellent improvement in skill/attitude/leadership/fitness.

I have been doing martial arts off and on for almost 10 years. I spent 3 years with one school that I truly loved before it went out of business. I have bounced between schools during my failed attempts to get back in shape until about a year ago where I found my new perm home.

heres a few things to keep in mind when looking for a school.

in the following when i say students, i mean adults and children alike..

First and foremost avoid a McDojo

McDojos were big in the 80s when everyone wanted to be the karate kid or american ninja. There were tons of students who wanted to take martial arts to be cool and the schools knew the students would not stay long. They would usualy franchise a well known instructors name and then make students sign contracts. After a few months when the students got bored, or realized how bad the instructors were, or figured out that they were not really learning from Jhoon Ree (or whomever's name is on the sign outside) they would get upset. They knew the students would leave.. they had a signed contract and got their money through contract break fees or through collection agencys.

Sadly these are STILL very popular, especially people trying to cash in on instructors names like Ed Parker, or the forementioned Jhoon Ree.

Never join a school that REQUIRES a contract . If they have some sort of package deal where you get a better price for 6 months or 3 months instead of going monthly, thats fine. But any school that REQUIRES you to sign a contract you should avoid.

Second, talk to the students.

The instructor needs students to keep his school going. He is going to try to get you to join. Very few will ever tell you that you are not a good fit for their school.
Ask the students after a class if they enjoy going there. If they feel that they are making progress in their goals. Just because a school is large or has been there a long time does not indicate that its a great school, it could just be run bya good businessman.

Third, talk to the instructor

Find out if he is the one teaching the classes. In a lot of schools the head instructor only does private lessons, or only does belt tests. In our school our head instructor teaches in every general class. The student instructors like myself only help out during the main class, and we only fully teach in the specalized classes. I run a friday night class where I split focus on self defense (joint locks, etc) and sparring. I also do some private work with young students who are timid and afraid to be in the general classes. It is for students who would like some extra help or extra training in those areas. The head instructor should be the one teaching the general classes.

Find out if the instructor is willing to work with you on your current fitness. No instructor is their right mind would not be willing to work with you to obtain your goals. A good instructor understands that you cant do 50 situps, but that you will try as many as you can. But there are some looneys out there. I joined a TKD school in richardson for a month a couple of years back in another failed attempt to get back into shape and to get back into martial arts. the instructor just saw me as training fodder for his tourney sparring team, he had no interest in my goals, only that of getting the next trophy for his window. Some schools will give an estimate of how long it will take you to get to your black belt. If a school GUARANTEES any time frame for your belt, run.... and run far. Find out the age spreads for the class times/dates you wish to attend. Sometimes I want to workout with the kids. It gives me leadership experience and gives me a fresh look on life. Sometimes I want something more serious and want to only work with adults.

Fourth, do some research

If an instructor tells you who he learned from, google him. You may not find anything about the guy, thats *not* a bad thing at all. Most martial arts schools are very bad about net presence. You just want to look for articles where someone has a complaint and what the complaint is. I also took kempo from a guy but found out that he was involved with a mail order black belt thing in the 90s. While the instructor is legit, I would not want to have his name on my diploma knowing that he just gave them away.


And last, Do not sign up until you get all the facts.

There are plenty of schools out there. Do not sign up for a school that does not offer a trial peroid. Use the full extent of the trial peroid, do not be pressured to join until you are saisfied. Try another school. you may find you liked a previous one better than the one your trying now. Instructors will usualy welcome you back with open arms if you choose them over another school even if it takes a month or two to decide. Take a look at any fees they add into the school. Most schools are part of a federation. This is usualy a requirement to compete at a state or national level. These federations require dues. Keep these dues in mind when you join a school. Find out if there are any initiation fees and what that covers. For some schools it doesnt cover anything just some cash in the pocket for the teachers, in some it includes your dues to the federation and a uniform. At our school we are independant. We do not pay dues to a federation, but we can not compete except for "open" matches. We do not have an initiation fee, but we have to pay for our uniforms.



Oh and as a side note from one big guy to another...... wear an undershirt and clear it with the instructor to either allow you to buy your own uniform and order a mediumweight or heavyweight thickness uniform or have him order one for you from his supplier. They will be more expensive (80$ish vs 20$ish) but you wont sweat through it and let the world see your underwear.

You can always take the patches off a uniform and take it to another school.

chewy555 wrote:Water is something that I need to start drinking more of as well.

I had thought about doing martial arts, but dont think that I could do it at my size. I never did it when I was a kid, so I just dont know. Maybe I can find a class with other over weight adults in it, dont want to take a class with a bunch of little kids.

Also.... everyone was a beginner at one time... I can understand not wanting to take with little kids. But dont worry about other adults. Most understand how life is once the metabolism slows down a few notches.

Some students are snobby and think "pft.... i could do better than that when I was a white belt" Ingore it... they more than likely couldnt and they are trying to make themselves feel better and if they have that kind of attitude they will not progress beyond a certian level. They may not have hit their celing.. but they will.

5-15-08

two days down and still sane

Did another double class last night and went home drenched in sweat. I had two frozen diet dinners for lunch yesterday to give me 600 calories which helped a lot, oddly its still fewer calories than a chicken quesadelia from taco bueno so its all good.

I am stiff as heck, I stoped stretching for 2 weeks while i was busy at work and not attending class. Its amazing how much you loose so quickly.

Scale says 266.3

I feel good. One of the guest instructors that comes from another school to visit (friends with the owner) said im looking much better than when he saw me last about 4 months ago. said i turned into a wall instead of a blob. I dont know about that... but if he says so...

Need to work on getting stamana back. I broke a sweat sparring around with the kiddies before the classes started, that used to not happen when playing with the children.

My wife and I joined Weight Watchers on December 27th 2007, and I have lost 40 pounds so far in the intervening 5-1/2 months. Started out at 340 and am now dipping just below 300. I've made steady progress each week, even if it's just a 1/4 pound. I realize that it's going to take me a couple of years to get down to where I want to be, around 200 pounds or so, but that's OK. I'm taking the long term view.

melkor41, Thanks for the post about joining the dojo. I will keep that in mind as I look for a schol.
Congrats on the weight still coming off.

AnnoyedMan, good job of the weight loss. I have tried weight watchers before, but was not very good at it.

Last night I walked on the ellipitcal at the house for about 20 mins. Thats more then I have been on it in 3 months. I was happy. Dont know how much it did for me. But I was happy. Will get on it again today and see how long I can go.

thats the spirit guys, little victories. If you think you can loose 100 lbs in 3 months or anything silly like that your going to fail and get depressed. Like you said, even a 1/4 of a lb a week is progress. I was getting depressed because my waist and belly size was not going down but i failed to notice that my thighs were loosing inches like crazy. I was doing a stretch last month and i went to grab the back of my leg to push on it and i was like "OH WOW!!! theres a muscle there.. and its firm..!!"

Allright, I'm in too. My wife is always better at loosing weight than I am. After our first kid, she dropped down below her before pregnancy weight in several months. Now she's working on losing the second child weight. She stays focused much better than I do. I get it in my head that I have to have something sweet, and jump off for a week or so and loose all my progress. I started yesterday riding my bike again. I rode 3 miles around the neighborhood. We don't have a decent martial arts program here that I know of, so that's out. I'm changing my diet, and excercising now. I did really well while in college. I had a membership at the sports center and did the super circuit 3 times a week. Thinking about doing that again. If I stay dedicated and loose some weight, it'll be a nice suprise for my wife.