Weight Loss with MS – Day 102 – MRI experience.

Today’s weight was 147.8, which was a moderate increase of 0.7lbs from yesterday. Purely water weight, as well as the fact that I weighed myself a good 4 hours earlier than yesterday, as I woke up 4 hours earlier at 4.30am without an alarm clock… ah well!

So I had my MRI yesterday and I must say, it never gets old for me. The nurses are so mortified when they figure out they’re ill equipped when it comes to stabbing me with needles to put the contrast agent in as my veins run deep naturally, but there’s also a good level of insulation on top of them. They can’t see my veins, they can barely even feel them, if at all.

A few stabs to my elbow joints later, the 2 nurses give up and call for a doctor to do it. The doctor, in all of his might picks up a bigger needle, jabs it into the back of my hand and wiggles it around till he hits a vein. I kid you not these are the words he used,”Well there’s a lot of blood coming out, so there must be a vein there!”

Yeah, thanks Sherlock, you cracked the case once more.

So that’s what it’s like for me to get stabbed with needles, I better be really good at enduring it – as it’s never just one and done, no, at a minimum 4 stabs. Think it’s worse for the highly professional medical staff though, it’s a hit to their pride as well as the fact that they don’t exactly enjoy causing patients pain needlessly, or with needles!

The tube felt like I fit in it better actually this time! Think I still need to drop at least 50 lbs for it to be comfortable though, but hey, I’ll get there! What a weird aspiration to have… to fit into the MRI tube better!

My exercise today was just walking, lots and lots of walking and a little bit of muscle work with my kettlebell. Nothing exciting there!

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My eating for today was (4 hour window):

Breakfast – Oatmeal & Banana – Not shown on the picture was 90kcal of Coconut Oil

Lunch & Dinner – Chicken with Veggies

Day’s Total -~1290 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

If you’d like to join me on my journey, consider giving me a follow!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 90 – 149.3kg / 329.1lbs

Well the titles are easy to write, just have to copy paste from the day before, no change in weight!

Which… I was expecting, so I’m actually happy about it. I do enjoy eating close to 2k kcal, but I must admit – I don’t think I can lose any considerable weight with it – even though it’s still over 1500 in the deficit for me daily…

The longer this journey has went on, I think I’ve changed my thinking a few times on the way – I’ve grown impatient, I want more… I’ve had something good and now I want to have it again…

I know for a fact, that dropping my weight slowly, safely and healthily is the key to lasting success, I know that so well it hurts.

So why the impatience? Why can’t I be content with dropping my weight slowly and surely anymore?

I think it has something to do with my competitive nature, deep down inside. I read a ton of blogs daily of people on their weight loss journeys, their fitness and… I want to be there. I want to match those numbers subconsciously and it seeps into my psyche as impatience when it comes to my own progress.

In the last few days I’ve been saying in my posts that we should focus on our own progress, not to compare ourselves with others. It’s the only logical way to do it after all, we are ourselves. We all have our own mountains to climb.

I curse my own struggles deep down inside, the things that are bringing my progress down, thinking others have it easier than me… but that’s a fallacy. A complete lie! We’re all individuals and our struggles are incomparable. What is hard for me, might not be hard for you and vice versa!

It’s the same as if you’d tell your friend that their struggles are bull because there’s someone who has it worse in Africa. Not only does that not make sense, it also demeans your friend and their struggles! As if telling them someone has it worse, would make their struggles any better! It’s absolutely detrimental to make those comparisons!

Yet here I am… it’s my 90th day on this journey and so far I have lost 31.5lbs. It’s commendable, I feel like a new man, I feel differences all around my body, and yet… it’s not enough… I find myself wanting more…

This blog is my little slice of heaven, a confessional. Something I can use to work out my thoughts by writing them down, I’ve always been that way. I process what I’m thinking through writing – I’m sure quite a few of you can relate to this. It just opens up what’s inside of you for yourself.

And usually the person changes on the way, during writing. You open your eyes to see your own actions in a new light and can keep a level head after it. As I was reading through what I had written down, I was thinking of deleting it all, as I did not see myself anymore in the text. The person who thought that way moved on and I remained, but I thought it was important to let you see that process unfold itself. Even if it probably makes no sense! My thought process and the way I work out my inner struggles through writing are akin to a butterfly… it starts as a gnawing doubt of a caterpillar, which then morphs into a writing cocoon where all the doubts are worked over, and once a conclusion has been reached out comes a butterfly, the me that has been freed and no longer is bound by doubts.

We’ll make it through, my friend! As long as we keep a smile on the lips and eyes forward! I’m a huge advocate of positive thinking and I know, we’re all going to make it! To be the people we want to be… no… to be the people we are!

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For my exercise today I did a bit of cardio. I walked up and down the stairs for 20 minutes, went out for a walk with my doggie and did a small kettlebell routine.

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My eating for today was (5 hour window):

Breakfast – Oatmeal & Banana

Lunch & Dinner – Chicken with Green Beans & Brown Rice & A little bit of Creamy thingie (Instead of mashing them together, decided to plate and separate the kcal amounts to show where it comes from!)

Day’s Total -~1800 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

If you’d like to join me on my journey, consider giving me a follow!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 71 – Week 10

That’s a fairly massive -2kg / -4.4lbs from last week’s Monday. I must say that I am happy, if not full blown impressed by how it all worked out – with my workout.

The one thing I did change for this week was that I’d exercise before breaking my fast that lasted 19-20 hours daily – as my eating windows were 4 hours in most cases.

I’ve had stalling weeks, in the last 7 weeks I had dropped .. 6 lbs, and now I dropped 4.4lbs in a single week? Just by changing the time that I eat and when I exercise – not changing what I eat / what I do for exercise or the amounts of them all too much? I think everyone’s free to draw their own conclusions about my little experiment, but one thing is for sure… I will continue with my intermittent fasting and keeping my exercises to be before my breakfast.

If IF is what it takes to beat my obscene water retention, then so be it. We play with the cards we’re given against a pretty stacked deck, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to lose, no, no way. I will win with these cards, and so will you my friend!

We can do this!

Though the deck will be shuffled during Christmas, as I plan to have a normal Christmas with my family, eat as I please without counting or pictures. I will enjoy myself fully and then jump back on the bandwagon as if nothing had happened. Will be interesting to see how it affects my weight! (Hint: it will be skyrocketing upwards for a day or two) – but I will update daily anyway and I won’t steer away from my exercise, that will stay the same regardless of the holidays.

After all, Christmas only comes once a year – and I don’t plan to keep myself from enjoying the holidays or counting or focusing on other things than appreciating being with my family – it’s rest for my mind, reminding me why do I want to live a long and healthy life.

I want to keep what I’m doing for a life time, not just a week, or a month, or a year. This is it for me, and I can’t for the life of me imagine spending every Christmas from now on counting kcal… that idea just seems ludicrous to me. So I won’t do it, this is very drastically different to many of you – struggling to keep a healthy diet during the holidays… but hey, whatever works!

We are all individuals when it comes to how we approach things after all, and though our roads might not be the same, our results will be – we will all make it.

We’re all going to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be! Healthy, happy and living with a smile!

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My exercise today was my abs/biceps/triceps/shoulders (before ending fast) and I did:

3×15 hammer curls

3×20 tricep extension

3×15 skull crushers

3×15 military press

3×15 crunches

20 min of stretching

1h walking with doggie

All exercises done with 12kg / 26.5lbs dumbbells.

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My eating for today was (4 hour window):

Breakfast – Oatmeal & Banana & Rye Bread with Cheese and Turkey

Lunch & Dinner – Chicken with Brown Rice and Creamy 3-cheese flavored thingie – I seriously do not know what it’s called in English, perhaps low fat food cream? Eh, thingie is simpler!

Day’s Total -~1800 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

If you’d like to join me on my journey, consider giving me a follow!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 68 – 152.9kg / 337.1lbs

That’s another 0.4lbs gone that I hopefully will not see again! That brings my weekly total so far to 3.1lbs… I was 340.2 at the start of the week. Hmm, okay, fair enough! If I’d manage to keep it like this over the weekend, I’d be “fairly” happy!

This is a pretty accurate description of what I’m doing right now, with hoping not to gain anything over the weekend. Have to keep my focus and always look forward, since if I lose my focus for even an instant I’ll just end up flat on my back.

Also a lot like my movements after squatting, since it makes my left leg completely numb thanks to MS

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend ahead of them and remember, eyes forward! You might have faltered, you might have fallen, but what about it? Planning to stay laying down on the ground for the rest of your life? No, Hell no. You will get back up and move forward. It’s the only thing we can do, you and me. We carry on and keep going!

So let’s both of us do it! We can do this!

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For my exercise today I did a legs/chest/back type of a day before breaking my fast

3×14 squats

3×30 calf raise

3×14 dumbbell row

3×14 fly

3×14 dumbbell bench press

3×20 shrug

20min stretching

1h of walking with doggie

All of the movements were done while holding 12kg / 26.5lbs dumbbells

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My eating for today was (4 hour window):

Breakfast – Oatmeal & Banana & Rye Bread with Cheese and Turkey

Lunch & Dinner – Chicken with White Rice & 3-cheese flavored Cream… thingie (300kcal from that alone)

Day’s Total -~1765 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

If you’d like to join me on my journey, consider giving me a follow!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 67 – 153.1kg / 337.5lbs

That’s a 1.8lbs minus from yesterday. Quite a difference for only eating 800kcal less… … water, you mischievous little thing. Also means my experiment was a success and I think I’ll have one of those polar opposite of a cheat day once a month, or perhaps even, once a week.

This is basically how I feel nowadays. I’m immediately counting everything that I put in my mouth whether I want to or not. It’s just pure habit now – and it’s especially helped with the fact that my food does not vary too much. I know these ingredients, these packets, these amounts and how many kcal they are…

Routines are a funny thing! I don’t count my morning as having been started until I get my bowl of oatmeal and a banana. It’s just… nice, and it allows for me to not veer away from it, even if I’d have a cheat day – as I’m drawn towards my former routine after it. I want my oatmeal! I have no desire to cheat after having my cheat day – it would just seem unnatural to break my routine for more than that.

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My exercise today was my abs/biceps/triceps/shoulders and I did:

3×14 hammer curls

3×19 tricep extension

3×14 skull crushers

3×14 military press

3×14 crunches

20 min of stretching

1h walking with doggie

All exercises done with 12kg / 26.5lbs dumbbells and before breaking my fast.

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My eating for today was (4 hour window):

Breakfast – Oatmeal & Banana & Rye Bread with Cheese and Turkey

Lunch & Dinner – Ground Beef with Veggies and a tiny bit of Cheese

Day’s Total -~1700 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

If you’d like to join me on my journey, consider giving me a follow!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 51 – Exercise / Eating

It’s amazing what a kcal deficit and taking a week off of moving things from point A to point B can do to your strength. I seriously feel weak, significantly weaker than I was just 2 weeks ago. I’ll get it back though and for next time will be increasing the rep ranges, see how many I can do. Today (as well as yesterday) was more of a re-introduction to DOMS for my body.

while exercising

For my exercise today I did:

3×10 squats

3×30 calf raise

3×10 dumbbell row

3×10 fly

3×10 dumbbell bench press

3×20 shrug

20min stretching

All of the movements were done while holding 12kg / 26.5lbs dumbbells

As far as my eating goes, it was a bit out of the ordinary today, as the blood tests required for me to fast 12 hours before taking them, postponing my breakfast significantly and in the end, I ended up skipping a dinner. Don’t think it will be harmful for me, though it will make me smile if skipping the meal causes weight gain for tomorrow! Here’s what I ended up having today.

Breakfast 1-2# – Banana & Oatmeal

Lunch 1# – Rye Bread with Cheese and Ham

Lunch 2# – Pork (picture missing, it was just plain pork fried up on the pan, around 500kcal)

Dinner – Skyr with Rye

Day’s Total -~1665 kcal

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 50 – Exercise/Eating

Part 1 is here.

Today I finally returned to my dumbbells. My wrist still isn’t a 100%, but I’m eating ibuprofein for the inflammation as well as bought wrist wraps to help support it.  Had to throw bicep curls away though, I tried a single time to do it and it’s just an absolute no-go. Hammer curls are fine though, since they keep the wrist absolutely straight at all times and there’s zero pain from the movement, so those I managed to keep.

Today’s exercise in detail was:

3×10 hammer curls

3×15 tricep extension

3×10 skull crushers

3×10 military press

3×10 crunches

1h of walking with dog

20 min of stretching

All of the movements I did with 12kg / 26.5lbs dumbbells, will start to slowly increase those numbers to 20 reps. Will progress nice and slowly, as it’s just a minor part of my getting healthier – the weight loss should still be a priority, from a pure medical standpoint – so I think the added cardiovascular activity coming from higher rep rates could be a boon – while still gaining lean body mass.

Today’s eating was:

Breakfast 1-2 – Oatmeal & Banana

Lunch 1# – Chicken with Veggies

Lunch 2# – Banana & Cottage Cheese

Dinner 1# – Chicken with Veggies

Dinner 2# – Skyr with Rye

Day’s Total -~1860 kcal

Today was a good day, I increased my kcal intake as I thought I would, just to have some energy for the exercise as well as provide protein to the muscles at work/recovery. Will see what tomorrow brings us when I look at the scale, I have a feeling it’ll rise but that’s okay.

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Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 48 – Exercise / Eating

Here’s Part 2 of today – Part 1 here.

Today’s eating and exercise was all about getting back on track after engorging myself with unhealthy things the day before. I decided to eat a bit less than I would normally, but my exercise I kept rather normal – even little in comparison as I was feeling quite under the weather.

The junk food really does show its effects on the body immediately, it is not a good feeling at all.

It matters absolutely zero though, since we’re back on track now and no slip-ups will happen for the next 45 days!

Exercise – Saturday 29.11.2014 – Cardio

Stayed up for 1½ hours just stretching, dancing, punching the air, doing knee kicks, body weight squats, going through all the lifts with 2kg / 4.4lbs dumbbells to remind myself of the movements and how to do them right, as I’ll begin moving dumbbells again next week.

Surprisingly close to my exercise

For the dumbbells though, last week I was at 17kg / 37.5lbs in each, but for next week I will reduce that to 12kg / 26.5lbs and I’ll begin increasing the amount of reps I will make before moving onto heavier weights.

I’ve noticed my wrists did not take kindly to me increasing the weights too fast and all around supporting muscles will benefit from doing it slow and steady. So the only time I will increase the weight, is when I can do 3×20 with perfect form.

You might say this is far too many reps, and you’re definitely right – if the goal is to increase strength or gain pure muscle – but for someone who is morbidly obese I think this might be more beneficial for now as it will increase my heart rate through the roof, make me pour sweat and work as a cardio, as well as muscle training.

That’s my theory at least on it, I could be wrong, I mean… I’m not an expert or an instructor, I’m just a fat guy with too much free time!

Time to test it out with my body and see what happens!

Eating – Saturday 29.11.2014

Breakfast 1# – Oatmeal

Breakfast 2# – Banana

Lunch 1# – Chicken with Veggies

Lunch 2# – Banana

Dinner – Skyr with Rye (Tastes just as appetizing as it looks, but is filled with protein, healthy carbs and tons of fiber [around 20grams in that small thing])

Day’s Total – ~1250kcal

Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 48 – 158.1kg / 348.6lbs

So, that’s a weight gain of 5.8lbs in 2 days time! Quite impressive if you think about it, there’s quite a few people out there that have a hard time gaining that much in a month or two! What amateurs!

Most of that is water weight though. For many this would be a crushing blow to the mindset when it comes to dieting and weight loss, being shown how easy it comes back the moment you stop, but I’ll show you! If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, it is not the end.

Not by a long shot.

I told you yesterday I’d share my secret of getting back on track after throwing in the towel for a day of indulgence. I’m a man of my word and here it is…

You just suck it up and move forward, you don’t stop to think about it, you just start doing things right again.

Minds blown.

Okay I know that’s kind of a cop-out of a method, as it is no secret in the end. Easy to say, hard to do, but what makes it a bit easier is to realize that you really are worth it. You’re fighting a war and no war has been won without having battles going back and forth. Every now and then there’s counter-offensive from the enemy, making you gain a few lbs back, but it is in those times that it truly matters to keep your eyes on the prize. You want to change, you’re still the you that started all those days/weeks/months/years ago!

You want this, more than anything in the world! You want for yourself to be healthy and better!

You want it, you need it, you will achieve it. So no use in over-thinking it – just get right back on it!

You can do it!

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I will change up my style a bit when it comes to blogging though, I will create 2 posts a day from now on. One with me sharing my thoughts for the day and one with my exercise / eating for the day.

If I keep them together my blog posts will happen very late in the evening and they will be gigantic, as I’m a talkative person, even in written format (you might’ve picked up on this if you’ve read any my posts!) – so I’ll talk with you again later today, my friend, with an update on my fitness and eating!

Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

Till next time, my friend.

Weight Loss with MS – Day 45 – 155.5kg / 342.8lbs

Lost 0.9lbs from yesterday!

Thank you, thank you. That leaves me to where I was last week, before water decided to.. well.. water my plans, rain on my parade. It’s good that it’s going down and now that I know the reason for my water gain, I can start playing around it more. Caffeine is a diuretic… I do have a sauna in the house… My girlfriend is pestering me to start drinking green tea, and I can’t exactly say she’s wrong, I really should, really, really should! … I just hate tea, and coffee. Will continue just piling up little things on each other and we’ll make it through.

It’s not the end of the world, my legs still move and my wrist is getting better, I’m optimistic that I can get back to my dumbbells next week! *knocks on wood*

The worst part is the impatience though, I’m highly motivated and I want to pick those dumbbells up, test them, feel them, how would they do now that my wrist is getting better, but not at 100%. It’s the hardest thing in the world to tell yourself no, to let your injuries heal in peace or you’ll make them worse.

But we’ll make it through.

There’s a quote from an old, and I do mean old, Finnish movie called the Unknown Soldier and it goes

Kiiru on pidettävä ajallansa, mutta hätäillen tekemällä ei tuu muuta kuin kusipäitä mukuloita.

Allow me to do a little free translation for that.

Hurry should be had on its time, but doing things in a rush will not amount to anything but idiot kids.

I think it’s very true, there’s a time and place for everything, and the place I am in right now, is not the time to be in a rush. Now time for my exercise and eating for today!

Exercise – Wednesday 26.11.2014 – Cardio

30m of Stairs

1h of walking with doggie

20 min stretching

Eating – Wednesday 26.11.2014

Breakfast 1# – Oatmeal

Breakfast 2# – Banana

Lunch 1-4 – Ground Beef, Green Beans, Chickpeas and Chunky Salsa

Dinner 1-2# – Skyr & Banana

Day’s Total – ~2065kcal

Ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow? I’m contemplating if I should celebrate it, even though it is not a custom in Finland. I think a cheat day would do me good. Would be my first one during this journey.

Thank you for reading, sharing, liking, hating, whatever it is you do!

Till next time, my friend.