Well, All Righty Then!

The latest slap to my ego was delivered today by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I had applied for health/life insurance with them through the NRA. I received a letter (in an envelope that had never been sealed) stating that as much as they wished they could cover everyone, I was just outta luck. It seems my height/weight ratio didn't meet with their approval.

Fair enough. I'm fat, I'll be the first to admit it. I don't really mind being fat. And, yes, I know all about the medical issues that go along with it. I hear enough from family alone to fill a medical dictionary.

But as I don't make near enough to cover the medical bills that could result from even non-weight-induced problems, I need insurance. Ergo, I'm gonna have to lose some weight.

I've decided to try out using this blog as a tool to help me reach my goal. "What goal in particular?" you might ask. To which I answer: 100 pounds.

The last time I checked, I weighed in at 350 pounds. I'm 6'2" with a large frame but that still puts me way past the obesity line. (Which seems to be moved further and further back each year. But I digress.) When I was at my healthiest, I weighed in at around 235 pounds. I still looked like I weighed more than that due to the excess skin. But I got to that weight by a combination of calorie control and exercise that I wasn't able to keep up as I got busy with school and work. I figure 250 would put me into the range where I'm healthy enough to get past the height/weight ratio requirements for insurance purposes and would be maintainable with my current schedule (which is quite a bit more relaxed than the ones I had during school).

So, what's my plan? Well, I intend to do it exactly the same way as last time. I will drop my caloric intake to approximately 2000/day. When the weight loss begins to plateau at that level, I will drop it to 1700/day. When I hit plateau at that level, I will then drop it to 1500/day. Once I plateau at that weight, I intend to bring the calorie level back up to 1700 and combine it with about 30 minutes of aerobic exercise each day and 30 minutes of weights three days out of the week. I figure that a step-down style plan is the best strategy for me.

At this point, I'm not sure what form the aerobic exercise will take. When I was in college, I used the stationary bikes that were provided at the university gym. They were very nice pieces of equipment with adjustable length for the legs, programmable resistance, and displays for calories burned/time spent pedaling. I doubt that I'll be able to afford to buy one of these for my own use. I don't really want to get a gym membership either as I tend to purchase things and then not use them. (It's a character flaw, I know.) Suggestions for this would be welcome. I'm thinking this might be a good excuse do some juggling/replacing with my living room furniture to get my Wii up and running.

Lastly, I'll be logging my caloric intake each day on this blog. I figure if I can get some help from my few regulars to keep it up, I'll be far more likely to get and keep the weight off. We'll see.

And just so I have a starting point...

Today's calories were approximately: 2735.

I need to drop this by about 750 calories. I intend to keep the day's total in a side bar that I will put up after posting this. I'm asking my regular readers (all two of you) to do me a favor and keep half an eye on it. Call me on it if I forget to post or post a number that's really too high, eh? Thanks, I appreciate it.