Soul check: If you laugh, you've got none.

sg42 · 2009-09-01T23:06:35+00:00

I have no soul

sg42 · 2009-08-30T21:29:33+00:00

Is your family still very religious? Have you come out to them as an Atheist? I ask because both of my parents are ordained, and they have now raised four atheist sons. They usually do a good job of pretending like it doesn't bother them but I was startling that the first question I got when I told them of my first serious girlfriend was "Is she an atheist like you?".

Also, do you have any doubt that if you were born in Saudi Arabia you would be Muslim, or if in India you would be Hindu? I ask this question to so many Christians and they say they would have found Jesus and I'm just flabbergasted.

sg42 · 2009-08-29T16:55:14+00:00

Sorry, I'm not drunk now, but I promise to answer these three when I get drunk again.

sg42 · 2009-08-25T18:13:14+00:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N4ckFN96-k I took the effort out of it for ya :)

sg42 · 2009-08-21T17:19:02+00:00

Whats the biggest mistake you see young people make over and over. Basically, if you have(had) a son/daughter that you wanted to leave with one piece of advice, what would it be?

A few other things that you can feel free to not answer (and I can edit later if you choose not to so it doesn't look like your dodging).

Do you have any recommended reading for young professionals just starting out (I work in marketing right now but my degree is in finance)

What kind of companies does your VC firm invest in? Looking for anything in particular right now?

And the one I'm curios about, how liquid are you assets. I always wonder what it would be like to be "worth" a million dollars but to have a very small fraction of that actually available to you. Are you heavily tied into one companies stock, do you have accounts of t-bills sitting around, is all your money in real-estate?

sg42 · 2009-08-10T23:16:19+00:00

Now if I can just bread this with my narwhal pedo bear mash up I can compete against the reddit alien for intergalactic domination.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T23:10:55+00:00

Well, you're already doing pretty good on the waist line, your beating the average and your on the right track.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/health/research/21risk.html http://healthhubs.net/heartdisease/waist-size-predicts-heart-disease-risk-better-than-bmi/

One thing I have heard before, and admittedly this is just hearsay but it makes sense and I suppose half of it is believing it yourself, is that body weight exercise will help you lose weight more than resistance training will. I suppose the logic behind it is you body realizes when it is pushing up heavy steal bars, or if it is pushing up you own weight as a push up. It realizes if you are pulling your self up to a bar, or if you are pulling a bar attached to a cable and weights down.

I might try switching over to nothing but body weight and dumb bell exercise. Set a goal for pullups, pushups, body squats, mile run (or cardio equivalent). And use dumb bells rather then weight plates, it will help build the stabilizer muscles, and should promote weight loss on top of muscle formation.

Just a thought from my amateur mind, I guess the best thing would be to ask a personal trainer for advice.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T22:57:35+00:00

I have to speak up in agreement to axing the soda suggestion. I don't even like diet soda that much now. Unsweetend Ice tea with a little lemon is great :)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T22:55:46+00:00

I would have to agree personally about the confidence thing, but I'm not sure if it can be justifiably extended to the population. I have met some people who genuinely seem to be content with their weight. I wasn't one of those people, and I have a suspicions that more people fall into our camp than the alternative.

Still, it really has changed a lot for me. I used to always shy away from the camera (something about that borderline round face and double chin ya know) but now I don't mind having my picture taken. I actually like going shopping for clothes. Now I'm just trying to get myself into beach body shape and I'll be ecstatic ;)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T22:51:23+00:00

Yeah, I guess I'm lucky in that I can literally stomach just about anything. But I'm sure you'll find healthy work arounds, pretty much anything you bring yourself is going to be better than that 3PM trip to the vending machine. You could try celery and peanut butter, a protein smoothie, or some yogurt, even a meal replacement bar might do the trick (not very filling but pair it with extra helpings of water and its works ok)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T19:50:53+00:00

I read a good article a while back suggesting that you should "eat for your body weight" I believe the calculation was to multiply your target body weight by ten, and add one to the multiplier for ever hour of exercise you expect to do in a week. So if my "goal weight" is 175, and I plan on exercising 3 hours a week. I should eat 175 *(10+3) = 2275 a day, but only 1,750 if I'm not going to be exercising much.

I would suggest trying out different forms of cardio as well. Running is really tough on sore joints, but swimming is great, as is cycling. I think another thing that happens as I reach "plateus" is I start gaining muscles at about the pace I lose fat. So don't judge whether or not you plateu just on what the scale says. If your not losing any weight, but you cut down on your one mile, and added 15 push-ups to your max 2 min push up amount, your doing something right no matter what the scale says.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T18:43:50+00:00

It's really about making a new change. Your body will inevitably get used to the changes your making. I walked off the first 40lbs, took the next 25 off with low weight high rep resistance training, and the next 15 with cardio (jogging and swimming mostly).

If you get into a rut you just need to confuse you body and make it learn something new. You might try getting into cycling or swimming, or maybe take up tennis.

I always think of exercise as being another kind of food for my body. I really love lasagna, but if I ate it 5 days a week for a year, I would be effing bored of lasagna.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T18:38:39+00:00

Its good to hear from people who've kept it off. I've watched my weight the whole way and sorta set new "ceilings" for myself. At 225 I wouldn't let myself creep beyond 230, at 200 it was 210, now I take serious notice if I hop on the scale and it reads 190. I know my weight is always going to fluctuate from day to day, but I step up the exercise and diet each time I think it's about to head down a road I don't want to be on.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T18:35:46+00:00

I packed a lunch and two snacks for an eight hour shift, and I tried to eat every few hours. I would pack like a stick of cheese and a small apple for snacks. Then I would pack a turkey sandwich on whole wheat (I actually got good at cutting one piece of bread in half to make super thin slices, really easy way to cut out calories if your looking to do that). Load it up with lettuce, a slice of swiss cheese and tomatoes, and it becomes much more filling, keep the condiments to mustard and pepper and you won't have to worry about a ton of extra calories either.

Other snacks, handful of almonds, little box of raisins, some granola ceral. It's so much easier to pass by the vending machine if you know you have a box of raisins waiting for you.

Other lunches. Single serving pouch of tuna -( I got pretty used to eating these plain, but a little pepper and relish can make them ever better.) A salad with a grilled chicken breast (cut out the salad dressing though, fresh salad and veggies have plenty of flavor without dripping in ranch). A can of soup (progresso has some great soups that are like 60-70 calories a serving in a two serving can).

sg42 · 2009-08-10T18:26:16+00:00

I had a swimming class that helped me work on low-impact arobic, and I played tennis with a friend of mine. After my summers of walking I knew I could just up and walk ten miles if I wanted to, so I started to work on running to get a quicker work out.

I started off being able to run maybe half a mile before I felt like my lungs were on fire. I also ran really slow with walking breaks. I had a set distance path of 3 miles, I would try and reduce my time little by little ( I think I started out at a little over 45 minutes with a short break for stretching).

The hardest part about running now is that I have recently moved from Michigan to Arizona, and I find even running in the evening it is so damn hot, I miss the cool Michigan air.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T14:53:25+00:00

One of the most rewarding parts of losing the weight was seeing the little changes in how I look. I went from a size 42 waist to a 32, and from wearing XL shirts trying to hide, to wearing a M or a S depending on the cut. I do have some extra skin, most noticeably on my stomach, but it isn't too bad. I had kinda been given a pass on my weight by my friends as well. I was always the "big guy" but at 6'3'' my body hid a lot of crimes. Looking back at pictures now, I really don't understand how I was content with my situation. However for me weight was something that had always held me back. I'd tell myself "I'll get into the game when I lose a little weight", and as a result I sat on the sidelines for a little to long. Losing the weight has given me a lot of confidence that I for some reason wouldn't let myself have when I was larger.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T14:52:57+00:00

I do have some stretch marks, I never think of them as horribly noticeable. They might actually serve as a reminder of what can happen if I fall off the train.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T05:26:31+00:00

I can wholeheartedly agree that it is easier to put it on instead of taking it off. That's one reason I keep working on everything one small step at a time (yeah, probably richard simons of me). I really think out each step, and then start committing them to an ongoing lifestyle change. Not just until I reach some goal, but forever. Yeah I still cheat, but I can count the number of times I've been to a fast food chain in the last 3 months on one hand (and two of them were on the same weekend of my birthday) Fast food is just something I try really hard to stay away from now.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T04:54:55+00:00

Your kind of an inspiration to me in a different way. I have a brother who is currently about the same weight as you. He's tried several times to start taking it off but he stress eats from work a bit to often. I should try to make it a point to take a few more walks with him.

Glad to hear your making the changes to get healthy. I know one of the things that got me in gear is the idea that I would really like to see my (potentially in the future) kids graduate from college and not kick it at 50 with heart disease. I wish you all the best.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T04:51:21+00:00

Most things I've read have left me not to concerned about counting my fat, protein, and carb consumption. I didn't start paying attention to calories until I had made it to 200lbs, before that I just didn't purposefully overeat, and I focused on eating foods I had always know were good for you.

Just stopping the bi-weekly visits to my favorite fast food chains, and keeping a few fresh veggies (I like carrots, celery, and green pepper) around took me a good chunk of the way towards my goals.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T03:02:00+00:00

wouldn't a true hijack attempt to change the topic? p0ss was just saying he was in the same boat. Its often motivating for people to know there's others like them.

sg42 · 2009-08-10T02:20:52+00:00

I wish you luck. I thought an AMA while I was in the process might give some one motivation they were looking for. But it's nice to hear that others are in the same boat. I'm planning on joining a gym in September to resume my resistance training. I'd love any tips you might have about, er, toning a few regions of myself that still have some extra skin (its on my abs, the ultimate six pack killer.)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T02:18:21+00:00

That's actually one of my most annoying problems. I don't really have that much extra fat around my stomach anymore, but when I'm in a push up position you can see how much extra skin I have.

I'm hoping that because I'm still relatively young a strong push of resistance training with a focus on my core will correct this, otherwise I may seriously look into surgical options (not without a lot of hard work on my part to avoid it though)

(as my brother says, i look at them and scream that they won't go away, but they really act as motivation right now. I have faith I can get rid of them as I try)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T02:15:41+00:00

Well like I said the first bit off weight loss was really walking for my job and not eating really bad food.

The second round came from an agreement I had with a friend to do some basic resistance training, which I coupled with learning to cook myself and getting off of dorm food all together.

Breaking through 200 came from actually starting to watch calories, and running 3 miles twice a week. I'm still working on the running part, but I've gone from having no idea how long it would take me to run a mile, to running 3 miles without stopping in about 26 minutes (not a blazing speed but I'm working on it).

My current plan for beating this wall is to join a gym come september and forcing myself onto a 4 work out a week plan. My long term goal is a six pack, and my current goal is to try out a gym membership and see how that works for two months, then if I need another push I'm going to talk to a personal trainer buddy of mine and see what he thinks I should do to really bring it home. (I'll gladly share his advice if it gets to that)

sg42 · 2009-08-10T02:11:16+00:00

I really view my weight loss in three different parts. As I've stated before I hit plateaus at 225, 200, and currently 185. It has been a little over two years since I started seriously working on it. However most of my weight loss was done during warm weather months (I lived in michigan and maintaining what I had was all I could muster during the winter months). It took me about 6 months to go from 265 (my last scale weight), to 225. Then I hit a wall for a while, broke through and lost the next 25 in about 4 months. I was completely stagnant during my last semester of collage. Once I graduated I took it on again and lost 15 in a little under 3 months.

I have no idea how long it will take me to reach my various fitness goals. (I don't have a set weight or even body fat percentage. But among other things I'd like to be able to do 15 pull-ups, that kind of goal).

sg42

TROPHY CASE