Tuesday, May 1st 2007 marked the start of Phase 2 (and you’ll notice an updated progress meter on Scott Gets Fit, if you visit the website that is). My goal for Phase 2? 40 pounds in 8 months which will bring the total weight shed to 120 pounds over 16 months, which I think is pretty good.

3 pounds down, 37 to go!

That’s pretty cool.

You can read Colin’s answers, and the answers from:

• James (I’ve always liked his blog’s design)
• Chris

Here are my humble answers:

What are the top five reasons you started to diet in the first place?

I’ve been a fat guy for a long, long time. Nothing too shocking about that, but in the last few years even I thought I was getting a little too fat. I lacked motivation to do anything about it, and then I got an ear infection.

The ear infection started in my right ear, and somehow managed to get into my left ear. I had dueling ear infections. I was going to ride out the one ear infection, but I couldn’t stand the pain of both so to the doctor I went. The doctor looked in my ear, gave me a prescription and scheduled me for a followup appointment.

I figured the followup would be to check on ye olde ears, but it was all a ruse. A damn, dirty ruse! She did peep at my ears, but then said, ‘So, you’re weight isn’t where we would like it to be. And we looked at your bloodwork and you’re almost diabetic and your blood-pressure is high. We have to do something about this now.’

This didn’t come to me as a shock. I can even remember then I knew that I wasn’t the Scott that I wanted to be. I was at my mom’s house for Christmas, and I just recently cut my hair and shaved off my beard. I took this picture and let’s just say I wasn’t very happy with the way I looked. I wasn’t that fat was I?

Yes, yes I was.

The doctor’s words finally motivated me to do something, and so I would have to say my top five reasons are:

1. To no die
2. To be healthy
3. Did I mention the whole death thing?
4. I felt it was now or never
5. To look more like I do in my mind’s eye

That last one is the real clincher. I have a healthy self image, one that doesn’t really align with reality. More and more often over the last few years I would look in the mirror and think, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s what I look like.’ And not in a good way.

What was your biggest failure on the diet, and how did you overcome it?

Hmm, I don’t think I have had any major setbacks as such. I mean, going to the gym sucks. Not being able to shovel whatever I want into my big, fat face sucks but overall it is working.

I have been snacking at night a little more than I should, so that is probably the biggest failure to date, but I haven’t overcome it yet. I’ll let you know when I do.

Did blogging help or hinder your success?

I started this blog the on August 17th, and I haven’t looked back. If I weren’t blogging this, I wouldn’t be doing it. I can’t stress that enough. Even though Scott Gets Fit has turned into a list of my weigh ins it has helped motivate me (and it is fun to track how I have lost about 50 pounds in real time).

Plus the blog got me to publicly say that I weighed 383 pounds, and that was important to me. I needed to ‘own’ the problem. I was scared for a long time that if people knew how much I weighed they would stop liking me (I actually just wrote ‘stop licking me’ by mistake. Sadly, no one has been licking me in awhile). It makes no sense, since my friends are awesome, but it was just something I had to come to gripes with. Blogging helped me do it.

Plus, if I fail all my friends will know and I’d be embarrassed.

What things did you do to help ensure your success?

Colin says :

Simple. I do what I find fun and don’t do the stuff I hate.

That is the exact opposite of what I have done. I hate going to the gym, but I do it at least 3 times a week (I try for 4 but I’m only human). If I weren’t exercising I would still be losing weight thanks to my diet, but it would take much longer.

The key to my success is routine. I do the same thing at the gym every time I go, and I try to go at the same times every week. Without that routine I would be skipping the gym left and right, and that wouldn’t be very helpful at all.

What is one recommendation you’d have for someone on Day 1 of their diet?

This is a cliche, but only because it is true: losing weight is a marathon, not a sprint. What does that mean? It means that you won’t always stick to your diet, and you won’t always be working out. You’ll gain back some weight you lost, but that’s ok! You can work it off again. This is a long term thing you’re entering into, not a get skinny fast plan. Hard work will pay off, but it won’t be quick and it won’t be easy. It will be very satisfying though.

You see, Apple and Nike have teamed up to create the Nike + iPod which is a doodad that snaps onto your iPod nano and a sensor that slips into your shoe. It tracks how far you have ran, and how long it took you to cover the distance. It also syncs up to some Nike website where you can track your progress and ‘challenge friends,’ which I don’t think I would be doing (the challenging that is).

So, I need to get a new iPod nano and a Nike + iPod sports kit and I will be totally hot, or something. Who’s with me?

‘So how often are you going to check in on the old weight.’

I have given this some thought and I have decided on once a week. Why? Well, I don’t see a need to weigh myself everyday. That’ll just be too much of a roller-coaster, plus I don’t own a bathroom scale so I would have to go to the gym everyday to check my weight and that isn’t going to happen.

Keep in mind that my gym membership starts on Sept. 1, so expect the first weigh in on or around Sept. 1 (it’ll probably be on the 2nd because the first is a Friday and I have D&D so I won’t be going to the gym. Something tells me that I’m not the only geek that skips the gym for D&D).

Goal

I want to get rid of 80 pounds in 8 months. Some people tell me that 1 – 2 pounds a week is a more manageable goal (that would be about 64 pounds in 8 months) but I say nuts to that. I’m going to work my butt off (literally! Ha! Get it?) to attain my goal (and then I’ll be all sexxy and stuff and the ladies will be interested in me, but I won’t be interested in them since they obviously just want to use me for my smokin bod. Where were you when I was 80 pounds heavier?! Huh?!).

The Plan

Now that I have a goal how do I get there? And why the hell do I need a blog to help me?

I’ll be posting the following things on this blog:

• Once a week I’ll post my weight
• Every day I will post what I ate that day (exciting, huh?)
• At some interval I will post pictures to gauge progress
• I’ll whine a lot about exercising

Lifestyle changes

Clearly, I can’t get rid of the pounds if I don’t change the way I live my life (forever). Effective immediately I will be taking the following steps:

• Today I had my last sip of sweet, sweet Pepsi for awhile
• Eating after 9pm is no longer allowed, I’ll drink some water instead
• I will walk home from work at least 2 times a week, and break a sweat doing so
• I’ll soon be joining a gym and, like, working out

Will all of this transform my keg into a six pack? Nope, but it will make it into a mini-keg and besides, the ladies like guys with a little meat on their bones, right? Right?! Someone please agree with me!

Oh, and I probably won’t die of a heart attack if I do all this crap (hopefully).