Project New Me: Week #0 or The Grand Beginning #newme

Today, I weighed in for the first time for Project New Me.  I not only weighed in, however, but decided to track a few different factors.  One thing I’ve noticed is that a poor nights’ sleep results in more snacking.  It’s almost as if my body is low on energy from a lack of sleep and is trying to get more energy by ingesting more calories.  So losing weight is going to likely mean no more staying up until 1am when I need to wake up at 6:30 the next morning.  I also decided to track how much time I’ve worked out.  After all, the equation for weight loss (or gain) is: Calories In – Calories Burned = Weight Change.  I can drop the calories taken in, but increasing calories burned (through exercise) can result in greater weight loss.  Exercise might also help improve my final set of numbers: the measurements of my waist, arms and thighs.  (This last one will be taken on the first weigh-in of each month since it likely won’t change much week to week.)

So what are the numbers to start?

Weight: 207 lbs

Sleep & Workout Time: N/A (since this will reflect the previous week’s averages)

Waist: 39.25 inches

Arms: 14.5 inches

Thighs: 25.5 inches

Where is this headed? What are my targets?  My only real target is my weight.  I want to get back down below 190.  Since I’m at 207 right now, I figure that I’ll shoot for 187.  This means a 20 pound weight loss target.  Since I’m going for 20 pounds, I’ll make the target time 20 weeks.  This will allow for a gradual weight loss of 1 pound per week.  (Realistically, I’ll likely lose more than that in the first few weeks, but might also plateau.)

So that’s where I am and where I hope I’m headed.  Wish me luck.  If you are participating in Project New Me as well (or are just on your own weight loss routine), I wish you luck as well.