Up at 6:30 today - did my Wii Fit test, clocked in at just under 176.
I've had a mediocre week so far. Eating has been Ok, but not getting enough exercise. I did manage a 20 minute run last night, but need to get more consistency there if I'm going to crank up the metabolism.
Had a really big lunch yesterday, but then basically just had beer and popcorn for dinner last night, from a calorie perspective I was probably alright, but I'm sure it wasn't overly nutritious!
I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to avoid eating any Halloween candy tonight, I'm not feeling any cravings for sweets, so today should be just another average day, maybe I'll try to get another quick run in after work and then plan to hit the gym this weekend. Try to shave off another pound between now and Monday.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Day 9 - Update
Had a good day yesterday, clocked in just under 1800 calories, but was up at 6:00am and did about 30 minutes of Wii Fit, also played soccer for 90 minutes.
I found at soccer, and a few times over the weekend I was feeling a little weak, so I think I'm going a little too low on calorie intake, but it's that tight rope between scaling down calories enough to make good progress, but not so much that you go into 'starvation mode' where your body slows it's metabolism and hangs onto every calorie...
As I'd mentioned in the first post, I know this is an aggressive plan, but if I'm already a little ahead of the game, then perhaps I can re-adjust to closer to a 500 calorie per day as opposed to 1000 calorie per day loss (on average). The only downside being it's tough sometimes to see progress given that averages to just 1lb a week.
I found at soccer, and a few times over the weekend I was feeling a little weak, so I think I'm going a little too low on calorie intake, but it's that tight rope between scaling down calories enough to make good progress, but not so much that you go into 'starvation mode' where your body slows it's metabolism and hangs onto every calorie...
As I'd mentioned in the first post, I know this is an aggressive plan, but if I'm already a little ahead of the game, then perhaps I can re-adjust to closer to a 500 calorie per day as opposed to 1000 calorie per day loss (on average). The only downside being it's tough sometimes to see progress given that averages to just 1lb a week.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
So... What?
I just realized that if my mission here is to lose 15 lbs, I should, perhaps be providing a little status update!
As I mentioned, I'm not going to be too concerned about the scale on a day to day basis, but on a weekly basis, at least, I should be seeing a few pounds coming off.
As of midday today (I hopped on after a shower), I'm at 176.5 - That does seem suspiciously low considering I was around 180-182 last weekend, however, I've been consistently around the 177 mark since about Wednesday, so I think it's legit.
So I'm down 5.5lbs, with 9.5 to go and about 7 weeks to get there, which should be cool... I'm going to try to get some more exercise tonight, and I'm finished eating for the day - around 1200 calories, if I'm feeling hungry at all tonight, I'll just drink water and/or have an apple...
As I mentioned, I'm not going to be too concerned about the scale on a day to day basis, but on a weekly basis, at least, I should be seeing a few pounds coming off.
As of midday today (I hopped on after a shower), I'm at 176.5 - That does seem suspiciously low considering I was around 180-182 last weekend, however, I've been consistently around the 177 mark since about Wednesday, so I think it's legit.
So I'm down 5.5lbs, with 9.5 to go and about 7 weeks to get there, which should be cool... I'm going to try to get some more exercise tonight, and I'm finished eating for the day - around 1200 calories, if I'm feeling hungry at all tonight, I'll just drink water and/or have an apple...
Getting a little extra exercise
I took my son and a friend to the local skate park for an hour this afternoon. Instead of just standing and watching (and I can't skateboard), I practiced walking along some of the rails, balancing on them like walking across a tight rope... It was fun, and doing that type of balancing is really good exercise, you're constantly having to adjust muscles in your legs (and if you're me - wave your arms frantically) to stay on.
Wow - Saturday!
Ok, so I've had my first 'bad' day! But, only in a diet standpoint... I had a ball!
I took my father-in-law to a Leaf game last night - and once we got to our seats, I just felt like a beer... Ended up having 4 at the game, and the majority of a big bag of popcorn too!
All-in-all not too bad, but definitely far exceeded my calorie count for the day... Not like I ate a whole large pizza or anything like that...
I did some heavy lifting earlier in the day, moving some appliances up & down stairs and what not, so I imagine I burned some calories, so all-in-all I think not a disaster, and hey, that's gonna happen - you gotta have some fun in life, just important to try to keep a cap on it, and face up the reality and just get right back on the horse and keep rolling!
So for today I'm planning to get a good run in and some more Wii fit, and just have a really good day calorie-wise, eat very nutritionally, get lots of water and we're back on track!
I took my father-in-law to a Leaf game last night - and once we got to our seats, I just felt like a beer... Ended up having 4 at the game, and the majority of a big bag of popcorn too!
All-in-all not too bad, but definitely far exceeded my calorie count for the day... Not like I ate a whole large pizza or anything like that...
I did some heavy lifting earlier in the day, moving some appliances up & down stairs and what not, so I imagine I burned some calories, so all-in-all I think not a disaster, and hey, that's gonna happen - you gotta have some fun in life, just important to try to keep a cap on it, and face up the reality and just get right back on the horse and keep rolling!
So for today I'm planning to get a good run in and some more Wii fit, and just have a really good day calorie-wise, eat very nutritionally, get lots of water and we're back on track!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday Morning
I 'survived' the Friday Night Club! ;^)
I had just one beer, and enjoyed a few potato chips, but just a few, not a half-bag like I can sometimes knock back.
Sliced up a cucumber which was a nice juicy & crisp snack, and switched to water after enjoying (read: nursing) my single beer - it was a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, yum!
Got up this morning just after 6am, and did the full set of 16 Yoga exercises in Wii Fit! I'd never done some of them at all, let alone ALL of them... It took about 45 minutes or so to go through them all, but was good. Certainly not a heavy work-out, but I definitely had a bit of a shine going at points, and did some good stretching and toning.
Brewed up some really yummy coffee, and had a single slice of whole wheat toast with a little Naturegg & Mushroom Omelette for breakfast.
Just read an interesting article on Sparkpeople - Three Weight Loss Tips for Men
I had just one beer, and enjoyed a few potato chips, but just a few, not a half-bag like I can sometimes knock back.
Sliced up a cucumber which was a nice juicy & crisp snack, and switched to water after enjoying (read: nursing) my single beer - it was a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, yum!
Got up this morning just after 6am, and did the full set of 16 Yoga exercises in Wii Fit! I'd never done some of them at all, let alone ALL of them... It took about 45 minutes or so to go through them all, but was good. Certainly not a heavy work-out, but I definitely had a bit of a shine going at points, and did some good stretching and toning.
Brewed up some really yummy coffee, and had a single slice of whole wheat toast with a little Naturegg & Mushroom Omelette for breakfast.
Just read an interesting article on Sparkpeople - Three Weight Loss Tips for Men
Friday, October 24, 2008
Assessment of the week
Ok, self-assessment time...
Overall, I'd give myself about an 80% for week...
Food/Nutrition - I did really well here...
With the exception of Monday, where I was in my goal range, I stayed below it, which is good... I guess Wednesday, perhaps, was probably too low, but anyway... So yeah, it's been lots of fruits and veggies... I've had scoops of protein powder in milk as part of breakfast to get the protein up on some days which is good.
No bad snacks, no desserts, no alcohol (yet! ha ha), so all good... Weekend is always the tough time, so I'll try to just keep to my limits...
Exercise
Under-average here - Obviously was recovering from the 1/2 Marathon for a few days, but still got out to Soccer on Monday night, I'd done a little Wii fit, some push-ups, and then a decent run tonight - will have to maintain the exercise through the weekend.
Sleep
Did good here, I've been in bed by around 11:00pm each night, which is an important part of my plan. I need to be in bed at a decent time in order to get up early.
Being up early
I'm struggling a bit here, I've been up a 6 a few times, but then also slept in, either through the alarm, or not getting up... I really want to start getting up consistently at 6am, so I can do my Wii Fit Body Test, get some exercise in, and have a good start to the day, have a nice breakfast, etc. I have to make this a priority this week if I want to give myself an "A" score!
Ok, I've got some friends over, so I should stop geeking it up and go enjoy an ice.... cold.... beeeeeeeer!
Overall, I'd give myself about an 80% for week...
Food/Nutrition - I did really well here...
With the exception of Monday, where I was in my goal range, I stayed below it, which is good... I guess Wednesday, perhaps, was probably too low, but anyway... So yeah, it's been lots of fruits and veggies... I've had scoops of protein powder in milk as part of breakfast to get the protein up on some days which is good.No bad snacks, no desserts, no alcohol (yet! ha ha), so all good... Weekend is always the tough time, so I'll try to just keep to my limits...
Exercise
Under-average here - Obviously was recovering from the 1/2 Marathon for a few days, but still got out to Soccer on Monday night, I'd done a little Wii fit, some push-ups, and then a decent run tonight - will have to maintain the exercise through the weekend.
Sleep
Did good here, I've been in bed by around 11:00pm each night, which is an important part of my plan. I need to be in bed at a decent time in order to get up early.
Being up early
I'm struggling a bit here, I've been up a 6 a few times, but then also slept in, either through the alarm, or not getting up... I really want to start getting up consistently at 6am, so I can do my Wii Fit Body Test, get some exercise in, and have a good start to the day, have a nice breakfast, etc. I have to make this a priority this week if I want to give myself an "A" score!
Ok, I've got some friends over, so I should stop geeking it up and go enjoy an ice.... cold.... beeeeeeeer!
Friday - After work
Had a good week, I'm feeling very pleased, very motivated, feeling great!
Just got back from a 5k run, my first real run since doing the marathon... I had a kick-ass pace going, feeling really good, had to walk just a bit, which was odd, but I think it's just cuz I got kicking so much at first, and I'm probably a little low on energy having eaten relatively little through the week, but regardless, got home in under 30 minutes, got a really good sweat going - burned about 400 calories, so it sets me up to enjoy a few slices of pizza tonight a few beers guilt free! w00t! 167, here I come!!!
Just got back from a 5k run, my first real run since doing the marathon... I had a kick-ass pace going, feeling really good, had to walk just a bit, which was odd, but I think it's just cuz I got kicking so much at first, and I'm probably a little low on energy having eaten relatively little through the week, but regardless, got home in under 30 minutes, got a really good sweat going - burned about 400 calories, so it sets me up to enjoy a few slices of pizza tonight a few beers guilt free! w00t! 167, here I come!!!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Reminder
Ok, so I'm all motivated, I'm all gung-ho to lose the weight... But as days go by, how do I keep reminding myself of that?
Well I have a little idea... I have a simple elastic band on my wrist with my watch, and while to anyone else who saw it, it would mean nothing, to me, it's my little reminder... my reminder that I'm focused on losing my last 15 and that I'll stay on track and make it happen!
Well I have a little idea... I have a simple elastic band on my wrist with my watch, and while to anyone else who saw it, it would mean nothing, to me, it's my little reminder... my reminder that I'm focused on losing my last 15 and that I'll stay on track and make it happen!
Day 3 - Update
Had a good day yesterday, the aches and pains from soccer and the long run finally eased off, which was nice.
From a calorie perspective, had a great day, came in under 1,000 by my calculations. Basically ate a lot of fruit and veggies.
Didn't get much exercise, but at least got in a set of push ups and ran a few laps when I picked Jack up from his soccer practice.
Was up at 6am this morning, did a Wii fit test and weighed in around 177, same on the scale, but I won't get carried away by that, just keep doing the right things.
I set up email access into the blog; so I can post on the run via my blackberry. I'm walking along the GO Train platform now, awaiting my train. Brrrrr
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Sustainability & Food Consumption
Just some thoughts to ponder.
We've all heard of stories where populations of animals, and people exceed the 'carrying capacity' of a region and then suffer from a rapid decline of population and potentially a complete wipe-out.
I recently read a story about how a small group of Reindeer were placed on St. Matthew island for use as an alternative food source for a local military base, well with no natural predators, the population expanded exponentially, from about 10 into the thousands, and then in one year they were wiped out completely.
History seems to tell a similar story about Easter Island, explaining how as the population on the island grew, they continued to cut down trees on the island until there were virtually none left, with a serious shortage in resources, there were wars on the island and eventually the native population were almost wiped out completely, the once fertile island having lost it's topsoil.
Many environmental researchers look at the human population on the planet potentially facing a similar situation... Here's a graph of the Human population on the planet from 10,000BC to the present... Notice the spike?
Clearly, we're not learning to live sustainably, as there is no such thing as sustainable growth... Any amount of % based growth begins to create an exponential curve.
So what does this have to do with fitness & weight-loss?
What I'm trying to show here is that over-consumption, that constant growth is bad for a small population, bad for a nation, bad for the planet, and what I propose is that it's also bad for the individual.
If there is an ultimate truth or purpose for life, it should be to learn to live in a sustainable way, to learn to live in such a way as to maximize the chance of future success.
As an individual, if one consumes too much, gets too fat, becomes obese, you increase the risk of an early demise, just like these examples I've provided above. So the goal should be to consume exactly what you burn and no more, find your optimal size to maximize your health and fitness and remain there...
What do you think?
We've all heard of stories where populations of animals, and people exceed the 'carrying capacity' of a region and then suffer from a rapid decline of population and potentially a complete wipe-out.
I recently read a story about how a small group of Reindeer were placed on St. Matthew island for use as an alternative food source for a local military base, well with no natural predators, the population expanded exponentially, from about 10 into the thousands, and then in one year they were wiped out completely.
History seems to tell a similar story about Easter Island, explaining how as the population on the island grew, they continued to cut down trees on the island until there were virtually none left, with a serious shortage in resources, there were wars on the island and eventually the native population were almost wiped out completely, the once fertile island having lost it's topsoil.
Many environmental researchers look at the human population on the planet potentially facing a similar situation... Here's a graph of the Human population on the planet from 10,000BC to the present... Notice the spike?Clearly, we're not learning to live sustainably, as there is no such thing as sustainable growth... Any amount of % based growth begins to create an exponential curve.
So what does this have to do with fitness & weight-loss?
What I'm trying to show here is that over-consumption, that constant growth is bad for a small population, bad for a nation, bad for the planet, and what I propose is that it's also bad for the individual.
If there is an ultimate truth or purpose for life, it should be to learn to live in a sustainable way, to learn to live in such a way as to maximize the chance of future success.
As an individual, if one consumes too much, gets too fat, becomes obese, you increase the risk of an early demise, just like these examples I've provided above. So the goal should be to consume exactly what you burn and no more, find your optimal size to maximize your health and fitness and remain there...
What do you think?
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Day One - Dump
Well it's early days, but it was a very good day today...
I was up at 6:00am, planned to get some exercise in (still sore from the combination of 1/2 Marathon on Sunday and Indoor Soccer last night), but two of my sons (George & Henry) got up shortly after and monopolized the TV set, can't use that as an excuse though.
Anyway, I was able to get the blog set up, which was an important step, so I'm Ok with that.
Had a healthy breakfast - a chocolate protein shake and a piece of toast w/ Peanut Butter and Banana.
For lunch, I walked down to the Kitchen Table in First Canadian Place, bought 2 tomatoes, a cucumber and a bag of mini carrots and made myself a little salad with some Balsamic dressing I have in the fridge at work. The veggies were like $3 and I only used half! what a bargain, and the lunch was under 200 calories!
I ended up working pretty late tonight, when I got home I made myself a little sandwich using these wacky re-hydrated soy cutlets I bought from a polish grocery store a while back, fried them up with some BBQ sauce.
So I'm under 1400 calories for the day, I'm going to get on the Wii Fit now, and shoot to be in bed by 11:00!
I was up at 6:00am, planned to get some exercise in (still sore from the combination of 1/2 Marathon on Sunday and Indoor Soccer last night), but two of my sons (George & Henry) got up shortly after and monopolized the TV set, can't use that as an excuse though.
Anyway, I was able to get the blog set up, which was an important step, so I'm Ok with that.
Had a healthy breakfast - a chocolate protein shake and a piece of toast w/ Peanut Butter and Banana.
For lunch, I walked down to the Kitchen Table in First Canadian Place, bought 2 tomatoes, a cucumber and a bag of mini carrots and made myself a little salad with some Balsamic dressing I have in the fridge at work. The veggies were like $3 and I only used half! what a bargain, and the lunch was under 200 calories!
I ended up working pretty late tonight, when I got home I made myself a little sandwich using these wacky re-hydrated soy cutlets I bought from a polish grocery store a while back, fried them up with some BBQ sauce.
So I'm under 1400 calories for the day, I'm going to get on the Wii Fit now, and shoot to be in bed by 11:00!
Strategy - Calculating Calories
Ok, so I've got a clear, objective, measurable goal - weight of 167 by December 13th.
Now I need a strategy of how I plan to acheive this goal.
It's clear this goal is acheivable, it will be based (in the simplest way), but what food I eat and how much exercise I get between now and the 13th.
So then the question becomes, what foods should I be eating, how much exercise should I be getting?
I like to take a scientific approach to this, I'd like to share with you the methodology that I'm using...
First off, let's clarify what it means to 'lose weight'...
1) We need to understand that our total body weight can fluctuate from 2-5 lbs in a day, based on time of day, the gross weight of food we've eaten, loss of fluids due to sweat from exercise, trips to the bathroom, retention of fluids related to consumption of salt, etc.
2) When we say we want to lose weight, generally we mean we want to lose FAT.
3) 1lb of Fat is equal to 3500 calories
So now we can start use some math to drive out what we're trying to accomplish here.
If my current weight is 182, and my desired weight is 167, I need to lose 15 lbs of fat.
15lbs of fat = (15 x 3,500) = 52,500 calories.
I want to acheive this goal in 54 days, so each day I need to 'lose' about 1,000 calories a day.
To be honest, this is a pretty aggresive goal, about 500 calories a day is perhaps more realistic, but I really want to make this a priority, so I'm going to shoot for this, I'm confident that a combination of healthy eating and exercise will get me there, and it's not so fast that it's dangerous or anything.
Ok, so we've established that I need to 'lose' 1,000 calories a day, how can I tell if I'm doing this - we know that the scale can fluctuate based on the points I mentioned earlier, so on a daily basis the scale won't necessarily be reliable. Instead I need to track the inputs and outputs...
Inputs - the food I eat
Outputs - how many calories I burn
Tracking the food I eat
Quite a while back, I joined a great, free, website called Spark People (www.sparkpeople.com) it offers some good tools to track nutrition, most common foods are already in their database and include the core nutritional info (calories, fat, protein, etc).
So I'll be using this tool to record all of the food that I eat, so I'll have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I eat each day.
How many calories I burn
This is a combination of 2 factors:
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
The first number is to understand, if I did nothing, if I layed in bed all day, how many calories would be burned by the body on it's own - keeping my blood pumping, breathing, digestion, etc. This is typically referred to as Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR.
There are a number of BMR calculators available on the web, google it, and you'll find a bunch, I'll try 3 different ones, in case they use different algorithms and use the average.
1) Discovery Health - http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html = 1848
2) BMI Calculator - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/= 1851
3) Glow.ca - http://www.glow.ca/Glow/GlowWebsite.nsf/GlowInfo/bmr = 1843
So, as we can see, they're all pretty close, and given that I'm talking about losing 1,000 calories a day, 5 or 10 either way is irrelevant, so let's just round to 1850/day
Exercise
Obviously when you move around, you burn calories. Spark People, and many other sites offer tools which provide estimates of calories burned performing various types of exercise. So I'll plan to use these tools in order to help.
So essentially my daily game plan will be this:
Calories Consumed - BMR - Exercise = -1,000
or another way to put it:
Calories Available to Eat = (BMR (1,850) + Exercise) - 1,000
As I mentioned in my note earlier, it is a pretty aggresive strategy. If I were to get no exercise whatsoever, I could only consume 850 calories a day, a pretty meagre diet for sure. So the key here will be for me to get approx. 500-1000 calories a day in exercise so that I can eat a more satisfying diet in the 1,350-1,850 range.
I'll post more later on what I've learned about food choices, and how I can build a healthy, satisfying diet with a budget of 1,350 calories. Now I'm off to eat an apple...
What are your thoughts? What have I missed here? Any other web sites or tools I should consider?
Now I need a strategy of how I plan to acheive this goal.
It's clear this goal is acheivable, it will be based (in the simplest way), but what food I eat and how much exercise I get between now and the 13th.
So then the question becomes, what foods should I be eating, how much exercise should I be getting?
I like to take a scientific approach to this, I'd like to share with you the methodology that I'm using...
First off, let's clarify what it means to 'lose weight'...
1) We need to understand that our total body weight can fluctuate from 2-5 lbs in a day, based on time of day, the gross weight of food we've eaten, loss of fluids due to sweat from exercise, trips to the bathroom, retention of fluids related to consumption of salt, etc.
2) When we say we want to lose weight, generally we mean we want to lose FAT.
3) 1lb of Fat is equal to 3500 calories
So now we can start use some math to drive out what we're trying to accomplish here.
If my current weight is 182, and my desired weight is 167, I need to lose 15 lbs of fat.
15lbs of fat = (15 x 3,500) = 52,500 calories.
I want to acheive this goal in 54 days, so each day I need to 'lose' about 1,000 calories a day.
To be honest, this is a pretty aggresive goal, about 500 calories a day is perhaps more realistic, but I really want to make this a priority, so I'm going to shoot for this, I'm confident that a combination of healthy eating and exercise will get me there, and it's not so fast that it's dangerous or anything.
Ok, so we've established that I need to 'lose' 1,000 calories a day, how can I tell if I'm doing this - we know that the scale can fluctuate based on the points I mentioned earlier, so on a daily basis the scale won't necessarily be reliable. Instead I need to track the inputs and outputs...
Inputs - the food I eat
Outputs - how many calories I burn
Tracking the food I eat
Quite a while back, I joined a great, free, website called Spark People (www.sparkpeople.com) it offers some good tools to track nutrition, most common foods are already in their database and include the core nutritional info (calories, fat, protein, etc).
So I'll be using this tool to record all of the food that I eat, so I'll have a pretty accurate understanding of how many calories I eat each day.
How many calories I burn
This is a combination of 2 factors:
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
The first number is to understand, if I did nothing, if I layed in bed all day, how many calories would be burned by the body on it's own - keeping my blood pumping, breathing, digestion, etc. This is typically referred to as Basal Metabolic Rate or BMR.
There are a number of BMR calculators available on the web, google it, and you'll find a bunch, I'll try 3 different ones, in case they use different algorithms and use the average.
1) Discovery Health - http://health.discovery.com/tools/calculators/basal/basal.html = 1848
2) BMI Calculator - http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/= 1851
3) Glow.ca - http://www.glow.ca/Glow/GlowWebsite.nsf/GlowInfo/bmr = 1843
So, as we can see, they're all pretty close, and given that I'm talking about losing 1,000 calories a day, 5 or 10 either way is irrelevant, so let's just round to 1850/day
Exercise
Obviously when you move around, you burn calories. Spark People, and many other sites offer tools which provide estimates of calories burned performing various types of exercise. So I'll plan to use these tools in order to help.
So essentially my daily game plan will be this:
Calories Consumed - BMR - Exercise = -1,000
or another way to put it:
Calories Available to Eat = (BMR (1,850) + Exercise) - 1,000
As I mentioned in my note earlier, it is a pretty aggresive strategy. If I were to get no exercise whatsoever, I could only consume 850 calories a day, a pretty meagre diet for sure. So the key here will be for me to get approx. 500-1000 calories a day in exercise so that I can eat a more satisfying diet in the 1,350-1,850 range.
I'll post more later on what I've learned about food choices, and how I can build a healthy, satisfying diet with a budget of 1,350 calories. Now I'm off to eat an apple...
What are your thoughts? What have I missed here? Any other web sites or tools I should consider?
About John's Last 15
Hello!, allow me to introduce myself. I'm a married father of 3 boys, working as an IT Consultant in Mississauga, Canada.
About 3 years ago, I weighed in at a hefty 225 lbs, with a 40" waist and came to the realization that it had to stop, I'd packed on a good 50 lbs since college and if I kept it up, I could imagine ended up with diabetes, heart disease and an early funeral.
I decided I had to make some serious changes and I did so.
It took about 8 or 9 months, but by winter of 2006, I had lost most of the weight, was down to 180 lbs, fitting into size 34" pants.
I've maintained that weight for the past 2 years, but on many occasions I've tried to push through and get rid of the last 15 lbs to get me into the healthy BMI range. For various reasons I've failed to consistently stick to a plan and make it.
I realize that there's an unfinished job here.
I ran in my 2nd half-marathon this past weekend, finished in 2hrs, 15 minutes. This is 5 minutes improved over my 1st half-marathon, but still a pretty crummy time. Looking around at these events it's easy to see that the top competitors are not carrying around extra weight (unless it's small bottles of water or gatorade!). I'm planning to get under 2 hours (seperate goal), but know that really, I have to get the weight off, I have to take off this final 15 lbs, and this blog will be my diary in acheiving this goal.
I want this blog to be interactive, I want it to help other to lose weight, and I want it to be a motivation tool for myself as well.
I will be posting every day, providing updates on my progress along with my thoughts around challenges I might have, asking for support and suggestions and responding to comments.
My current weight - 182lbs, my goal weight - 167lbs, my target - my 36th birthday - December 13th, 2008.
About 3 years ago, I weighed in at a hefty 225 lbs, with a 40" waist and came to the realization that it had to stop, I'd packed on a good 50 lbs since college and if I kept it up, I could imagine ended up with diabetes, heart disease and an early funeral.
I decided I had to make some serious changes and I did so.
It took about 8 or 9 months, but by winter of 2006, I had lost most of the weight, was down to 180 lbs, fitting into size 34" pants.
I've maintained that weight for the past 2 years, but on many occasions I've tried to push through and get rid of the last 15 lbs to get me into the healthy BMI range. For various reasons I've failed to consistently stick to a plan and make it.
I realize that there's an unfinished job here.
I ran in my 2nd half-marathon this past weekend, finished in 2hrs, 15 minutes. This is 5 minutes improved over my 1st half-marathon, but still a pretty crummy time. Looking around at these events it's easy to see that the top competitors are not carrying around extra weight (unless it's small bottles of water or gatorade!). I'm planning to get under 2 hours (seperate goal), but know that really, I have to get the weight off, I have to take off this final 15 lbs, and this blog will be my diary in acheiving this goal.
I want this blog to be interactive, I want it to help other to lose weight, and I want it to be a motivation tool for myself as well.
I will be posting every day, providing updates on my progress along with my thoughts around challenges I might have, asking for support and suggestions and responding to comments.
My current weight - 182lbs, my goal weight - 167lbs, my target - my 36th birthday - December 13th, 2008.
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