5 Weeks Down - New Goals
Five weeks are now officially in the books. In an earlier post, I stated that I would never allow myself to climb over 250lbs. Then, a couple of years ago I flew by 250lbs. and didn’t look back as I climbed into the 260’s! I remained active during the “dead weight” years. This week I have dropped below the 250 mark and it is great to think I have hit a major milestone. My next milestone becomes 240.

A bigger goal for me becomes the week of November 11th. That is 11 weeks from tomorrow. I have earned an award in which my company is flying me to Orlando during the week of the 11th. As part of the reward I will be able to bring my wife along to participate in the ceremony where I will be recognized. It is a really big deal for my career and I’m honored by the nomination and award. What is great is I can use this as a mini-major goal from a weight loss standpoint. I’m 249lbs as of this morning. If I can lose 2lbs a week (very reasonable and I have kept up this pace over five weeks without feeling like I’m dieting) than I would be very close to 225lbs during the trip. If I can keep up my current pace of 2.5lbs a week, then breaking 220 is doable. So with that said—I’m setting a goal of being at 225 when I leave for the trip with an aspiration goal of 220! Wish me luck.

As a side note—I’m hoping this mini goal is just what I need! I have done very good on my diet until last week. I was out of town and struggled to stay on track. This week I started out eating well—but by today I broke down and ate garbage. I have found it easier and easier to skip on my calorie journal and it is time to turn this around. I have also been so busy with work that I go to be after 2am and end up skipping morning workouts.

Now that I have established my goals for the trip…my goals this week are clear:

Enter MFP daily (outside of my free meal).
Workout each morning.
Participate in the 100 push up challenge.
Run 10 miles.
 
0 comment | leave yours ?

Business Travel

A few weeks ago I was visiting the MFP site and I mentioned that one of the common events in my life that triggers a crash from my diet is travel. I always start strong, but by mid-week I'm eating anything I can get my fingers on.


Unfortunately, with my work I travel a great deal. In fact, I left on Monday for five days in Colorado Springs. An area I know all too well through work. Prior to leaving, I knew that I wanted to remain strong on my lifestyle change. For three weeks I had done very well. I had recorded everything and consistently thought about what I ate. Sunday I stayed up to late and decided to skip my spinning class on Monday morning. But as I laid in bed thinking about skipping the class I thought--it is a slippery slope. As a result I jumped out of bed and set me alarm. I did get up and accomplished the productive workout. I hurried home, packed and left for the airport with a bag full of healthy foods.


I can summarize my trip as follows--I did great on Monday. I was strong during the travel to Colorado and I ate very smart while I was there. Tuesday I got up and ran for 3 miles with incredible views of the sunrise shining on Pike's Peak as a reward. I ate good on Tuesday as well. Wednesday I got up again and ran along a beautiful creek and felt great. I ate pretty good, but started to have some slip ups. Essentially, my team was sequestered in a room for countless hours. We had lunch brought in (which I wasn't in charge of) and I ended up eating foods that I had little input in. With that excuse laid out--I still ate more than I needed to of the wrong types of foods. I was up past midnight that night working on a legal document and I skipped my workout Thursday morning. I ate poorly on Thursday but the problem with the food being brought in and eating bad was only compounded by the fact that we sat around from 8am to midnight with no activity. Friday I woke up after 4 hours of sleep and headed to the airport. I ate poorly (the worst I had in four weeks) and I got home. Resolved to eat better on Saturday, I crashed again and realized that I was on that slipperly slope where I make a few mistakes and then I just cave in until I have forgotten my goals entireley.


Today I decided I needed to come back online and remind myself why I'm trying to eat good. Weight wise I am doing well and wasn't impacted as negatively as I expected during the week away from home. This week I have to get back on the horse and be much better.


From a motivation standpoint, I had a great experience this week. Thursday I learned that I had won a very prestigious recognition from my company. As part of this award I will have the chance to fly to Orlando with my wife for a week of company paid vacation at a very nice resort. As part of this week, there will be a banquet in which I'm recognized in front of a lot of high ups at my company and a significant audience. I want to use this as a goal to drop some serious weight so I feel great about my weight during this ceremony. I weighed in today at exactly 250lbs. Up from yesterday but down 18lbs overall. If I can lose 2lbs a week until the ceremony--I would be at 225 during the cermony. That would be fantastic. I wanted to right down this goal on this site as a commitment to the goal as opposed to viewing it as a wish. I will work towards this "carrot".


All in all, despite a dissapointing week, I'm still here making goals. I normally would give up upon my first failures, but I want to keep developing good habits. I'll post again soon.
 
0 comment | leave yours ?

First 15lbs!
I have had a pretty good start to week 3. Yesterday I got up at 5am and again attended spinning, lifted weights and swam. I felt tired througout each activitiy, but I always feel better as I drive home knowing I could just be waking up right now instead of having burned over 1000 calories.

I have read over and over that if you do something for 2 weeks, it becomes habit. I'm now into week 3 and I feel like I have developed some very good habits. Getting up and heading to workout is no longer as tough as it used to be. I remember less than a month ago how hard it was to get up and out of bed. I always justified that since I work from home--I can just go during the day. Well half the time I got caught up with work and my workouts were sacrificed. I'm glad this has become a pattern in my week to get up and get the workout in before my day "interfered".

Another habit I have developed centers on drinking water. I have a couple of 34oz bottles that I am constantly loading up with ice and it would seem un-natural to head to my upstairs office without my water bottle in tow. My wife has noticed how often I carry these bottles around as I have now found myself carrying them with me in the car. My secret to drinking is ice. I literally fill the bottle three or four times a day with ice and in doing so find myself putting our ice-maker through the daily ringer! Once a day I will add some sugar free/calorie free drink mixes to the bottle to give it a different taste.


The final comment I wanted to make on habits relates to tempatations. Temptations have become less intimidating. On one hand, I am realistic to know that a bad meal won't sabotage my overall progress. Moreso though, I just find that the temptations aren't as appealing as they recently were. We met some friends for dinner on Friday at a BBQ restaurant that serves incredible steaks! Fortunately, I restrained and ate a grilled chicken salad. The salad was fine and I even felt as I was eating it that I was somehow missing out. Yet, within minutes of finishing when I'm full I just feel so much better knowing I made a good choice, I'm full with healthy food and my self-confidence instantly grows.

I decided early on that I was going to have one free meal each week where I ate whatever I wanted. I can't tell you what a great pshchological boost having that meal to look forward to is. It makes passing on desserts much easier. Needless to say, I enjoyed a great meal Saturday courtesy of Red Robin! By Sunday, I was re-energized and happy to decline dessert at my MIL's.

Last night I went running after everyone settled down. I only went two miles but I kept a 10min/mi pace and felt good. I was worried about how the late night run would impact my basketball game this morning--and I'm happy to say there were no ill-effects from the run. I had a lot of energy today and really enjoyed playing hard.

Finally, my favorite moment occurred this morning. For years I made myself a goal that I would never allow myself to breach the 250lbs mark. That was "off-limits". Yet a couple of years ago I crashed through that barrier and kept going. In fact I went all of the way up to 267lbs! Totally embarassing. I'm happy to state that when I hopped on the scale today I clocked in at 252.2. Overall I hit the 15lbs mark. Needless to say I'm eyeing the 250lbs mark with concerted intent. Today after I finished my workout I got on the scale and registered in at 249.2lbs. I was absolutely thrilled to see a 4 as the second number. I realize the weight doesn't count as I only register weigh-ins first thing in the morning. But still, I know I'm close. It has been probably 18 months since I weighed this low. I can't emphasize the boost this simple win has given me.
 
0 comment | leave yours ?

Week 2 Wrap Up: Status Review
It is Sunday morning and I have just weighed myself for the 14th time since starting this process. The good news is that in the 14 weigh-ins, I have dropped from 261.2 to 254.6 for a total of 6.6lbs. If there is a downside to these numbers, it is that I lost 4.8lbs of that weight in week 1 and only 1.4lbs in the second week. I was really hoping for bigger numbers this week. Overall I have created a weight chart of my targeted success. I’m very left-brained when it comes to weight loss. I analyze every aspect of the weight loss from my calories consumed and burned to the timeframe I expect to lose weight. I truly enjoy weighing myself daily simply so I can try to extrapolate trends and patterns in what I eat and drink in correlation with the numbers from the scale.

One of the items I mentioned I analyze is the projected timeframes I have set for targeted weight loss. My thought process during the creation of my weight loss chart was based on the idea that multiple books and experts indicate that the most weight you should lose at a healthy level shouldn’t exceed 2lbs/wk. As a result, I started with this number and reduced the number to 1.5lbs/wk. My thoughts in developing this weekly weight loss goal center on the idea that I think I can personal drop the 2lbs/wk but I gave myself wiggle room. In addition, by projecting this chart out to next year during the racing season—I can see how much I would weigh during the big races of the Robie Creek Half Marathon and the Boise Ironman. What I have found is that losing only 1.5lbs/wk enables me to reach an ideal racing weight prior to the upcoming races next year.

Again, I’m happy with the overall number of 6.6lbs. In fact, my overall number could be bumped up to 12lbs if I subtracted my current weight from the 267.6lbs mark I weighed a few weeks ago. Long story short, this week I’m going to ensure that I lose the 1.5lbs that I am targeting. Due to my solid week 1 effort, I have some breathing room. I’m still a month ahead of my targeted weight loss. My chart for the next few months is listed as follows: (keep in mind I have projected this out through next June).


 
0 comment | leave yours ?