Hello Dietitian / Trainer

December 9th, 2009 § 0

Can I?

Dietian
I met with my Dietitian this past Monday and it was pretty quick and easy. She laid out the foods I’m able to eat this week, mainly Protein and the Protein Shakes. Myra has been gracious enough to cook/steam the chicken for me for my Lunch/Dinner.

I’m allowed a certain range of foods every week, and every week a new ingredient/food group gets introduced back into my system. The goal of this exercise is to determine how the foods react to your body [i.e. does this food make me hungry or keep me full]

I’m on Day 2 of my diet and I’m surviving so far. Ask me again 4-5 weeks from now.

I meet with her every week for the next 12 weeks, going over any challenges I had during the week and to talk about how my diet will change for the upcoming week. After the initial 12 I’ll meet with her for another 6 sessions – basically every other week for the remaining weeks. Luckily I meet with her every Monday so it’ll be a good start for the week.

Personal Trainer
I met with my Trainer on Tuesday and he’s a really cool guy. I was totally against getting a Trainer for my workouts, I had the mentality that putting together a workout isn’t so hard – back/bi’s | chest – tri’s | legs but I think the real kicker to success is accountability. That’s the biggest factor missing when I was working out on my own. If I don’t show up to an appointment, he’s going to call me and “nicely” bitch me out. If I don’t show up to workout on my own – who cared, right? That’s where I think I’ll succeed in the program because I’ll have someone watching my every move, doing measurements, and tracking my progress. Problem I may face is after my training is done, what do I need to do to keep up that accountability.

So during the workout we did 2 sets of a prescribed set of exercises – he wanted to gauge where my strengths were and use it to tailor my program going forward.  Luckily my Trainer understands that I sorta know what I’m doing and isn’t pushing me on those girly machines and put me straight to the free weights. I also made sure that he understands my goals for the program [i.e. kick ass in flag football, do more than one pathetic pull-up, and run more 5K's] The only thing I might have a problem with is coming up with stuff to talk about while I’m on the Treadmill since he’s right there watching me.

For the first few weeks of the program we’re going to do massive amounts of cardio and some strength training to assist with the weight loss. Then later on in the program he’s going to target some of the exercises to the sports that I want to play which is pretty cool. I’ll be ending the “intense” portion of the program right around when Spring Flag Football season begins.

I meet with him three times a week for the next 12 weeks then it goes to two times a week for the remaining 12 weeks.

Last Supper Syndrome

December 7th, 2009 § 1

I mentioned to my Physician at my appointment last Friday that I’ve taken the advice from people that were in the 20/20 program to eat all the foods that I love before I actually start the program. He laughed and said he advised against it; he called it the “Last Supper Syndrome.”  But he said, you’re an adult and you can do whatever you want – so I did – after my appointment I went to McDonald’s to get some breakfast :) What he said made sense tho – it’ll be harder to stick to the diet if I’m used to the “good” foods and go to a strict diet.

The picture above is my “Last Supper” on Saturday, we went over to Burger King to get 2 Whoppers, 8 piece Chicken Tenders, Fries and a Sprite!

The last few weeks while I was going through the preliminary work for the 20/20 program – I didn’t pay attention to my diet and actually gained 8 lbs. I weighed 232lbs before the Vegas Trip and I’m now at a cool 240lbs.

My first dietitian appointment is today at noon so that’s when I’m officially on the program and eating right.

Last Week Update

December 7th, 2009 § 0

Last week was a busy week full of appointments – I already covered my first appointment in my last post; the other appointments I went to were:

  • Initial Assessment
  • 1st Group Session
  • Physician Appointment

Initial Assessment
This appointment consisted of  getting two things done, an assessment of my current fitness state and my signing of the 20/20 contract program. The assessment consisted of getting my initial measurements, a body fat test, and a few exercises to test my physical strength. This went by pretty quick, from the other people I talked to I had a feeling it would have taken a little bit longer. The contract signing was pretty straightforward as well. Basically you choose the program you want to pursue [I signed up for the 12 week intense, 12 week maintenance] and sign your life away; after which you put down the required deposit down [at the time it was $750] and set yourself up for the financing.

That was pretty much it, the Personal Trainer that did my assessment isn’t the same one I’m signed up for. Very nice guy; he went through all the specifics and was clear about what was required from the participant during the program.

You also get a little pedometer to measure your steps during the day, they want you to get 5,000 steps daily for the days you work out and 10,000 for the days you don’t.

Group Session
I got to the ProClub about 5:50pm and my appointment was at 6:00pm, I got to the boardroom where we are supposed to meet and saw there was a full room already. “Shit, am I late?” I walk right in and walked into the previous group session. “Oops”. So I wait about ten minutes to wait for my session to begin.

The main goal of this session was to get to know one another and open up to what each and everyone of the members wanted to get out of the program. The session is held by one of the counselors from the same location I went to earlier in the week.

Overall I think I’ll do well with this group, I feel that I’m one of the more social guys in the group and will be able to voice my experiences and opinions whenever we meet.

Physician Appointment
I met with the Doctor earlier Friday morning and he’s a really nice gentleman. I was very candid with him, basically telling him what I want to get out of the program and how I plan to accomplish it. He had a packet of my blood results and a profile of my results according to the program they use.

My blood pressure reading was way off because I had coffee right before I had the bp test. ugh. So the results of the profile were based on someone with high blood pressure. He mentioned that I’ll be working directly with my Trainer to work on getting that number down regardless of how high it was showing.

First Appointment

December 1st, 2009 § 0

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings
The 20/20 program requires the participant to attend three mandatory meetings before they can start the program. The first three are:

  • Counseling
  • Fitness Assesment / Contract Signing
  • Initial Physician Appointment


First Appointment – Let’s get started!
While I haven’t started any dieting, or working out yet I have officially started the 20/20 program. I had my first counseling appointment yesterday during lunch.

Initial Reaction
The counselors are not located at the ProClub, they are contracted by the ProClub for the program. As I was driving up to the building I started to get a little nervous; the other people I talked to that have gone through the program said it was nothing – but I still had my reservations.

After getting lost for a few minutes I finally found the door I was supposed to go through. I open the door and there’s two gentlemen standing there talking. No receptionist; just a little generic sign on a small table that said, “Please have a seat, the counselor will be with you shortly.” So I do and proceed to go though my emails / apps on the iPhone.

12:33PM
My appointment was scheduled for 12:30 and I arrived 15 minutes early (which is a first). Another person joined me in the waiting area and for some reason I thought it was my counselor “testing” me to see if I was friendly and would start talking to her. Weird thoughts go through your mind while you’re waiting in a counselor’s office. I got up and started to walk near the receptionist desk to see if anyone was around to ask about my appointment.

As I got closer, I saw a small purple clipboard with a few forms with a yellow post-it note with my name on it. I took a double-take and was like oh, would have been nice if someone told me to fill these out instead of leaving it on a desk. Anyways, I go and sit down to fill out the forms. Nothing special just the usual HIPPA forms and I needed to fill out a little Avery sticker with my name and date on it. I found out later that it was used by the ProClub to verify I made it to my appointments.

My couselor came out while I was filling out the forms and said she was running a little late.

Interrogation
Not really, actually it went okay. According to the counselor, the first appointment is used by the doctors and folks over at the ProClub to do some initial assesments on  your well being. Basically to find out if there are any things they need to really focus on during the program.

I won’t really get into all the questions but I will share a few things she asked me to get a feel of how the appointment went.

She started off with asking me why and what prompted me to join the program, then the questions evolved to asking me about my lifestyle (i.e. am I more social, or more of a loner, do I drink alot) what are my stress factors, and then ended with the typical depression type questions to see if there may be something they need to work on.

The appointment went by pretty fast, and at times I felt that I was just rambling on with what’s currently going on with my life and she needed to speed up the questions and I had to drop some one word answers.

There’s are a total of four appointments with a counselor, so 1 down – 3 more to go!

Ooooh I want

November 27th, 2009 § 0

balancePerspective

I want it
I actually joked about this gadget a few days ago with my co-workers, but after finding out there’s an associated website and iPhone app to track the results it’s looking more and more interesting.

There’s a website you can log into to see all the times you step on the scale, and if looking at the website isn’t enough I can bring up my scale results on my iPhone.

The price tag is pretty steep, $160, for a first generation Wi-Fi enabled scale.

Maybe it’ll end up under the tree the year….hahah from Santa BZ.

20/20 Program

November 25th, 2009 § 0

20-20

Intro
So I’ve decided to finally end my never-ending cycle of losing weight and gaining it back and start the 20/20 LifeStyles program. I attended the mandatory Introductory session given by the founder of the program Dr. Mark Dedomenico last Thursday and while it was long and right after work, it did what it intended to do; get people informed and motivated.

The session focused on what causes our bodies to gain weight especially our Satisfaction Center and how it dictates how we feel about food. For example, he demonstrated how much sugar is in one single can of soda – it literally made my stomach turn over when he poured a full cup of sugar from a can of Coke. He also hit it right on the dot when he said that can of Coke will satisfy my Center and when it runs out in an hour it’ll want another can of Coke. There’s been many times that I’ve downed more than 3 cans of soda in one sitting.

The session also covered the major factors that cause one to gain weight [i.e. lack of sleep, emotional state] After the 1.5 hr session was almost over we were visited by one of Dr. Mark Dedomenico patients, Vance, who lost over 183 lbs during the program. He had a pretty inspirational story, putting his whole family through the program and sacrificing their 401K savings to front the bill.

Lab/Paperwork Complete
One of the few things that need to be done before you can start the program is to get your blood work done, and visit your Primary Care Physician to get the go-ahead for the program. I knocked both of them out yesterday morning and while my PCP was filling out the required paperwork for the program he had a few things to say about the program that were pretty interesting…

…the program works but once you’re off the program the weight comes back…

…they’re Nazi’s….you need to follow the program….

Scheduling
While I was told I’d be contacted by a member from 20/20 to schedule my initial appointments in 3-5 days, someone ended up calling me the same day I finished my paperwork and lab work. My BMI is > 30 so I’m pretty much eligible for the program which probably sped things up on the approval side of things.

The phone call was a little intimidating, I was actually doing this; starting a weight management program. There are three initial appointments with a couselor, a physician, and a dietian before I actually get worked on by a trainer. The 20/20 program really keeps you honest and accountable and they do it by scaring you with money. For these initial appts, if I need to move/reschedule them it’ll be $90 out of pocket, and during the program if I miss any appointments, a monetary penalty will apply. This isn’t too much of a concern to me, I’m actually banking on the fact that these penalties will keep me in check.

The coordinator schedules out all the appointments for the duration of your program. I chose to do the 12 week intense and 12 week maintenace program so I have the next 24 weeks pretty much planned out for the program.

Results
I know a few people that have gone through the program and some have indeed gained some weight back, while others were able to keep the weight off. Once I lose my 50 lbs, my goal is to lose another 5-10 to account for any fluctuations.

I’m excited to be in the program and I can’t wait to see what this blog will be like after I’ve completed the program.

Stay tuned for more updates while I’m in the program, I’m planning on keeping a record of what it’s like to be in the program for all those folks that plan on going through with it.

Lose 50 is born!

November 12th, 2009 § 0

Welcome visitors from ondabside.com. What I’d like to do with this blog is to change the name from “Lose 50″ to “Lost 50″ and I’m going to make that happen.

I’m doing the preliminary work involved to get myself into a workout regiment that will help me lose 50 lbs in 3 months – it’ll consist of extreme dieting, hardcore workouts [approx 6-7 days a week], and counseling.

More to come…

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