Project Weight Loss Defined
Project Weight Loss is my plan for building healthy eating and exercising habits for the month of January. If I can make it a habit to eat healthy and regularly exercise for 31 days, I should be able to turn that into a lifelong habit. I have been putting on extra pounds in the fall and winter. I’m noticing that many of my clothing are starting to feel tighter. My purpose of sharing this weight loss project is to encourage others who would like to lose weight, eat healthier or get fitter. I also would appreciate everyone’s support and feedback.

My Weight Loss Background
Growing up I was always overweight. I reached my highest weight when I was 18 weighing 225 pounds, at the time I was 5′10″ tall. I didn’t play any sports growing up so all of that extra weight was fat. I remember throughout elementary school, junior high and high school getting picked on as the fat kid whether it was in the locker room or when I was walking down the hall going to class. Over the next 12 months (between ages 18 and 19) I improved my eating habits and started regularly exercising. I ended up dropping 50 pounds weighing 175. Losing the weight certainly made me feel great and improved my self esteem. However over the next months and years I started developing the bad habit of resorting to food for dealing with stressful situations. This developed some bad overeating habits. I have since been learning to control my emotional overeating.

Weight and Fitness Goals to achieve by January 31st
My current weight is 201 Pounds, with 23% body fat, at 6′0″ tall. Here are my goals:

• Exercise 5 days a week for at least 45 minutes each day
• Eat healthier more nutritious meals throughout the week, with an allowance of 2 cheat meals each week. More specifics about my meals is included in the following paragraphs.
• Lose 2.5 pounds per week for a total of 10-11 pounds in a 31 day period
• Drop my body fat percentage to 19%

Slow Weight Loss is Very Important
I can certainly lose more than 2.5 pounds per week, however I’ve noticed in the past that the slower I lose the weight, the longer I keep it off. Losing the weight slower helps me develop healthier eating and exercising habits for life. When I have went on extreme diets in the past, I did end up losing weight quickly however after the diet was over I always gained the weight back. Slow weight loss also insures that my body will mostly burn body fat instead of muscle mass.

Eating Guidelines
I will be aiming for the following nutrition intake 40% protein, 40% carbohydrates, and 20% fat. That means that I’ll try to formulate my meals such that 40% of the calories come from protein, 40% come from carbs, and 20% from from fat. To achieve this my meals will generally be made up of lean meats, eggs, veggies, fruits, beans, and other healthy carbs. I will be minimizing my intake of white carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, rice, fried foods etc.
Calories wise I will be aiming for about 2000-2500 calories per day. I could restrict my caloric intake more, however this would increase the chances of my body burning more muscle mass instead of just burning fat. I will be eating 4-6 small meals throughout the day to insure that my body is constantly burning food, maintaining a high metabolic rate, and a steady levels of energy.
I will also have two cheat meals per weak where I’ll just eat something I crave that might not be the healthiest. Cheat meals are also good because they insure that my metabolism will not slow down because of the decrease in my caloric intake.

Exercising Guidelines
I will be Performing a combination of cardio and strength training exercises. The cardio will help my body burn fat, while the strength training will insure that my body maintains most of its muscle mass

Leverage to Stay on Track
Simply defined, leverage is circumstances and systems that one sets up to insure that if they are tempted to slack off or fall off track, it will be much harder. A great form of leverage for any goal is letting all of your friends, family and coworker know about the goal. This way if you are tempted to slack off, not only will you be letting yourself down, but also everyone else that you’ve told. As you can see leverage makes it easier to stay on track. My forms of leverage:

• Publicizing this weight goal on here, and writing regular progress reports
• Signing up and paying for a few personal training sessions
• I will also add additional forms of leverage on here as I implement them

I Need Your Support
I really would appreciate everyone’s support, questions and feedback. As you know losing weight can be a tough goal, and the more support one has the easier it is. You can support me in two ways:

• Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post, this will keep me conscious of my public commitment to accomplish this goal
• If you are currently trying to lose weight, or increase your fitness please share your current weight, your goals, and any eating or exercising recommendations. You can share by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post. This will encourage everyone who reads this post who also wants to lose weight and will create some leverage for your weight loss goals since by sharing you are making them a bigger public commitment.