The Cheap Man's Weight Loss Plan

Week three of Navy SEAL training went pretty well. I got a break from running this week, but that's about to change. I know it'd be somewhat harder if I was able to swim every day. I kicked around the idea of trying to sweet talk the nearby 24 Hour Fitness into giving me a trial membership in order to get access to their pool, but that'd probably be more trouble than it's worth. Quitting gym memberships is often like trying to quit the mob. Fortunately, I'm not having trouble with any of the workouts now except the push-ups. The sit-ups were pretty tough the first week, but my abs have adjusted pretty quickly. However, 5 sets of 25 push-ups is incredibly hard. I ended up having to break up the last 2-3 sets into smaller sets, but yesterday I was able to complete them all without splitting them up. I can't imagine trying to do this while 40 pounds heavier. It'd be humiliating. I cleaned out my home gym, selling both the elliptical machine and my Bowflex clo...

This car has too much horsepower. This TV is just too big. This computer is too damned fast. This watch is way too advanced. These are things I've never imagined myself saying, but I think I may have finally met my match with the Fenix 5X. The fitness tracking capabilities are top notch. Battery life worries are practically gone. The sapphire crystal is basically unscratchable. It looks exceptionally sharp and clean. And yet... I'm not in love with it - at least so far. I've worn some large watches, but this watch requires that you reset your expectations of what a large watch looks and feels like. To give you some perspective, here is a side-by-side of the Fenix, my Casio ProTrek and my Citizen Eco-Drive field watch that I've been wearing recently: It's hard to appreciate the massive size of this thing, even by this picture. Not only is it the widest watch I've ever tried on, it's also the tallest. I don't wear dress shirts that often, ...

Week one of BUD/S training is going OK. I can do everything but all the sit-ups (and of course the swimming, due to the lack of pool). The best I could bang out with sit-ups were 2 sets of 20, 1 of 15 and 1 of 10. But, at least I haven't experienced any soreness yet. Just the little bit of additional activity has me losing even slightly more weight. I'm holding my weight under the 40 pound loss benchmark on the scale every day now, and I'm feeling really good. I've almost forgotten how much I enjoyed running, which I'm sure has a lot to do with how much less of a strain it is on my body. I'm not going to lie - it was nothing short of exhilarating holding down the weight button on the treadmill for as long as it took to reduce the weight setting from 198 to 157- my weight from the last time I set it. It was definitely a bizarre experience. After the PowerWatch bust, I decided to try out another activity tracker watch. So, I ordered a Garmin Fenix 5X. It's...

Overexposure to your kitchen can make it difficult to stick to your calorie budget. A lot of my snacking is not because I'm necessarily hungry but food is just there, staring at me, taunting me. If every thought you have is interrupted by a visual reminder of your food source, chances are you'll find yourself snacking a lot more than you should. I try to alleviate the temptation by keeping myself away from my food sources after I've eaten. On days that I work from home, I try to keep my laptop either in my office or in the den. You'd be surprised how much you forget about food without a visual reminder. I have a bag of Twizzlers in my closet that I haven't touched from before I started the cheapo plan. I keep forgetting that I have them - something I never used to do. Today, I happened to be cleaning out the fridge at the weekend house, so keeping my work outside the kitchen area wasn't an option. And, wouldn't you know it, someone left one of those raw ...