Goal – Lose 30 Pounds in 3 Months

This post is to make public my goal of losing at least 30 pounds in the next 3 months. One of my goals for 2018 was to lose weight. I didn’t set an exact weight loss goal. I knew I needed to lose about 50 pounds though. Right now I weigh about 5 pounds less than I did at the beginning of the year.

It is clear I haven’t been working too hard on this weight loss goal. I actually gained weight earlier this to reach my highest weight ever. Due to that I had to lose 9 pounds in order to get to 5 pounds down for the year. At this point losing 50 pounds during the year is unrealistic, but I think losing 30 pounds can still be accomplished.

Last week I was able to lose 4 pounds by just abstaining from soda and fast food for a few days and exercising in the morning. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while you might remember that I lost 30 pounds back in 2014. Although I have since gained all of that weight back, that previous weight loss combined with last week’s results indicate to me that I am capable of losing weight when I really try.

A major factor in my favor for losing 30 pounds in 3 months is that in the past I’ve consistently lost 10 pounds a month when living outside of the United States. That was without making a special effort to lose weight.  Last year while I was in Europe for just under 3 weeks I managed to lose 5 pounds despite eating a lot of fast food and drinking a lot of soda and not making any effort to lose weight. Living in Thailand where the food will be much more foreign to me should lead to greater weight loss than I experienced in Europe. Plus, while I’m in Thailand I will actually be trying to lose  weight.

One of my goals in going to Chiang Mai for 3 months is to work on improving myself. Being in Chiang Mai should facilitate my weight loss goal. A major help will be the fact that to my understanding my favorite soda, Dr Pepper, is not available there. I have tried and failed to quit drinking soda several times this year. Starting today I am quitting soda for the rest of the year. Since I don’t especially care for any sodas other than Dr Pepper, it not being available will help me quit soda. About 25% or more of my calories come from soda so cutting the soda habit will save me a lot of calories.

I’m also thinking that I will find it easier to not eat fast food while I’m in Thailand. Although, I know they do have Western fast food in Thailand, I don’t think fast food outlets are quite as ubiquitous there. Having fast food be a little less conveniently available should help. Also, the Thai food is supposed to be much cheaper than fast food. Being a tight-fisted miser should work to my advantage since I won’t want to spend extra on the less healthy fast food.

When I choose an apartment in Chiang Mai I will pick one with a gym. Having a gym in the apartment building should overcome any resistance to working out. Also, I should have a lot of time on my hands so I will want to exercise to help fill out my day. I don’t plan on renting a scooter or frequently using ride services. I intend to walk everywhere I can reasonably walk to which will help burn more calories.

To provide myself with a little more motivation I will be posting my results at the end of three months, including before and after photos. Getting healthy should be all the motivation I need to lose weight. Just in case it isn’t sufficient motivation the desire to avoid the embarrassment of posting an after photo that looks a lot like the before photo will provide me even more motivation.  The results will posted on November 29, 2018 regardless of the outcome.