I’ve been reading, listening, and watching videos, tapes, and books on diet and exercise for the past three weeks. My conclusion is that no matter what diet you are on - Low Fat, Low Carb, Grape Fruit Diet, Slim Fast, Jenny Craig, Nutra System, Weight Watchers etc. the one common thing that all diets do is restrict calorie consumption. That’s the whole secret - PERIOD!

Your body needs to burn more calories than it takes into it - PERIOD! You can achieve this by two ways. Cutting calories, Exercise or a combination of both. Take in fewer calories and burn more - That’s it. Now, how many calories should you consume? I have a little calculator over on the left hand side towards the bottom. You can select the settings to what you are now just to see what they are but the important thing is to choose the setting of what weight you want to be.

I want to be 199 lbs, so at 5′10″ and age 44 my daily calories should be no more than 2274 calories consumed per day. Remember 3500 calories equals one pound. So by cutting 500 calories per day from my diet I should lose on average one pound per week. It’s all about the math. The calculator says that I am currently taking in about 2767 calories per day so doing the math I should lose one pound per week but I’ve been exercising so I hope to be able to cut an additional 500 calories per day making it a 2 lbs per week weight loss. How’s the math?

Yesterday, I ate very well and didn’t cheat. The only thing that I might have done is eat too much. In the morning I ate a western omelet and sausage links. Lunch consisted of a salad with 1g ranch dressing with bacon bits. For Dinner I had a bunch of chicken legs and I cooked them on the grill. I ate about 8 chicken legs and also ate a lot (Actually too much) of my favorite smoked cheese. The smoked cheese may have been the culprit to my problem. I think it probably contained more carbs than allowed.

The result was maintaining the same weight as the day before. Which is not bad but I was hoping for a loss. I really think that I will because of past results. You can check my Weight Loss chart to see how I am doing.

Weight: 271.4 lbs

I am certain that I can attribute much of my weight gain to my local carry out store. Almost everything they sell in that place is high in calories and fat. I have been in a habit of stopping there twice or more a day. Once in the morning to get my Diet Mt. Dew, cigarettes and Krispy Kreme Donuts. I’d stop home and get about the same with the exception of the donuts which I usually exchanged for a Nestle Crunch bar or some other fatting snack.

Now that I have quit smoking, there is no need for me to ever step foot back into the store. Today, I am also declaring it - No Carry Out day. If you have stock in Speed Way or Thorton’s gas stations then I would sell come Monday as the only thing I am buying from them from now on is gasoline.

Weight: 274.6 lbs

Day 1 Quit Smoking and Day 1 No Carry Out