It is me Tom! Since this is the first post on Adietgeek dot com I figure what better way to start then talk about my experiences so far attempting to lose about 20 pounds.  I have never been on a diet before, or at least never before made the conscious decision that I want to lose weight and hit a target weight.

I would not describe myself as seriously overweight, just overweight. I am 5 foot 10 inches tall and a couple months ago I chimed in at 197 pounds.  That is actually the highest weight I have ever been and when I saw it I sort of panicked a bit.  Maybe a lot of it had to do with the holidays during the end of 2008 and just in general very little exercise on my part.

Anyway, after a visit to the doctor I was informed that my ideal target weight is 165 pounds.  When I first heard that it seemed very low for my height.  I think I would feel more comfortable with about 170 so that will be my target weight.

Right now I am 189 pounds and here is how I did it.  A couple months ago I decided to pay more attention to the labels on the foods I was buying so I could get a sense of how many calories are in certain types of food per serving.  I have not been counting the calories exactly, just roughly guessing.  I have been trying to stick to about 1200 calories per day.

What have I been eating? All sorts of stuff to be honest. Pasta, vegetables, meats, cereal, fish, pizza. Just the normal stuff that I usually eat.  I have been trying to keep quantities smaller than I used to eat because I have a better sense of how many calories I am taking i per serving.

This has not been a perfect system. There have been many times when I have broken my pattern of small quantities and then headed for the junk isle in the supermarket. I mean I have broken the rules many times. But when I have done that (for example eating a full bag of tostitos and finishing the salso off too) then I try to be sure not to eat anything else for that day to keep me somewhere near the 1200 calorie limit.  So I think they key has been to try to keep around 1200 calories.  But I must admit that my occasional binging episodes is an area of concern.  I think i am doing that because I feel so starved sometimes, especially in the evenings.  So I am going to have to work on eliminating too much junk or occasional binging!  Perhaps I can come up with some alternative teaser foods to keep me happy .

I have been going to the gym Monday Wednesday and Friday. I walk on the treadmill for 1 hour each of those days at a 2.5 incline and 3.5 miles per hour.  So it is about 3 miles of walking 3 days a week or 9 miles of walking a week. I do a little bit of strength training with the weights too on those days.

What has surprised me the most so far with this little project is how SLOW and difficult it is to lose weight.  It takes a lot of time.  And I have to tell you I really do not think it would work as well with just eating less.  The 9 miles of walking per week definitely helps to manage and maintain my progress.

So I am at 189 now… Will I succeed in reaching my target? I think so. But I can tell you this is not easy.  It is the first time I have ever seriously tried to work on losing weight.  So this is definitely a good learning experience.

I am occasionally going to update you on this little project as time marches on.

Wish me luck! And by the way, how about we make this the official ‘ My First Diet ’ thread?  So in the comments you are welcome to share your experiences on your first diet and how it went or how it is going…

You can do it! Fighter Spirit!