Last week.

OK. Here's my report. Third column is actual weight. The trend line in
the fourth column shows that I'm just turning the corner on some
serious negative momentum.

Date	Day	Weight	Trendline
2008-08-01	Friday	264.0	266.5
2008-08-08	Friday	263.6	264.6
2008-08-15	Friday	262.2	265.1
2008-08-22	Friday	263.2	265.6
2008-08-29	Friday	267.2	267.4
2008-09-05	Friday	264.2	266.7
2008-09-12	Friday	262.0	264.8
2008-09-19	Friday	259.4	263.3
2008-09-26	Friday	259.0	262.4
2008-10-03	Friday	263.8	261.6
2008-10-10	Friday	261.4	261.7
2008-10-17	Friday	263.4	263.1
2008-10-26	Sunday	272.4	267.5
2008-11-01	Saturday	267.4	268.3
2008-11-07	Friday	267.8	268.3

I need to start making progress. On the upside, I actually worked out this week again. On the downside my cardio is weak-- especially my lungs-- and I'm still way, way behind where I was in March.

Bad Attitude

I haven't worked out since a week ago Wednesday. That's four workouts blown off. I have a decent work excuse for three of them. Really I do. Only one of them was unreasonable. I just stayed up late the night before a workout day and didn't get up in time and then a customer urgently required my attention unexpectedly in the morning. That night I had nicotine in my system and wasn't remotely tired at bedtime as a result. So, I watched TV until 1am and had to get back to work after 6 hours sleep.

Nicotine and I are old friends. It's a pleasant enough drug aside from it's most common delivery mechanism causing cancer. It was once professionally and personally useful to me because it would allow me to stay awake and alert for coding or late night gaming. Now that I don't code at night or game anymore and I'm realizing that this old friend does nothing but mess up my sleep cycle. This causes a messed up work out routine. Add to that the cardiovascular impact of not being able to run as far, as fast, for as long when I do get on the treadmill and we're talking about something that is standing square in the way of my health and fitness goals.

I hate working out. I hate not being able to run as well as I could three weeks ago. That makes me want to work out even less. Maybe even dread it a little. I need to get back at it anyway. Why? Because I hate my attitude even worse when I don't work out. Add to that a low grade withdrawal and I'm negative, angry, annoyed, overly critical and impatient. I try to keep this in check with high self monitoring in public and groups and maybe do a fair job. I cannot be high self monitoring all the time and I fear the smaller, friendlier groups where I don't do such a good job. Worst of all, my SO ends up getting hit with some of this. That alone is reason enough to get back on the treadmill and stop the lung pollution.

Perhaps the worst part of not working out is the appetite I get. When working out, I don't eat when I'm hungry. I simply eat six or seven hundred calories because it's time to eat. Last Tuesday night, after blowing through my snacks in the house, I went to the store specifically to get bad foods. I bought a big bag of candy, a bag of chips, a jar of salsa, a box of crackers, and a bag of sunflower seeds. I tried a little of each. By Thursday, the candy was gone. By Friday the crackers. By Saturday, the sunflower seeds. Of course, all of this was on top of my normal 1500 calories each day. The candy was 2800 calories alone.

The damage?

Date	Day	Weight	Trend	Diff	10ave	Diff
2008-09-24	Wednesday	261.2	263.0	-1.8	262.2	-1.0
2008-09-25	Thursday	260.0	262.7	-2.7	261.8	-1.8
2008-09-26	Friday	259.0	262.4	-3.4	261.3	-2.3
2008-09-27	Saturday	258.8	262.0	-3.2	261.1	-2.3
2008-09-28	Sunday	260.8	261.9	-1.1	261.1	-0.3
2008-09-29	Monday	260.0	261.7	-1.7	261.2	-1.2
2008-09-30	Tuesday	258.8	261.4	-2.6	260.9	-2.1
2008-10-01	Wednesday	260.2	261.3	-1.1	260.7	-0.5
2008-10-02	Thursday	262.0	261.4	0.6	260.4	1.6
2008-10-03	Friday	263.8	261.6	2.2	260.5	3.3
2008-10-04	Saturday	263.6	261.8	1.8	260.7	2.9
2008-10-05	Sunday	261.8	261.8	-0.0	260.9	0.9

As you can see, the trend line went bad on Wednesday and I've gained a half pound since. I NEED to get back on track again. I WILL work out tomorrow. I MUST.

Successes and Challenges

It's been a while. I apologize to anyone out there who might have been following.

It seems that I only post when making progress. I thought about writing many times this year but with the additional job and busy summer I found tons of excuses not to. Now that I'm making progress and constituent calls are totally caught up, no excuses come to mind. Funny how that works.

In late 2006 I weighed 389.2 and decided to do something about it. I shed fat down to a low trend weight of 249 (actual weight 244.6) on March 7. But on January 23 I stopped my regular workouts because my ankles were getting sore. All the walking that running for office entails on top of the workouts was simply too much. So, I had lost 130+ pounds but then, once off track, gained 20 back to 271 on July 21.

Then, I entered a weekly weight loss competition with a colleague. They've been doing 1000 calorie elliptical burns at the gym before doing weights. This has motivated me to get back in to my APFT routine. I'm not burning nearly as many calories but my physical and emotional energy are again good. I'm still not running the whole 30 minutes but am regularly running 2/3 of it. So what's the motivator? The loser buys lunch on weigh in day and, more importantly, bragging rights.

So far, my original opponent has been been kicking my butt more often than not. Perhaps they'll comment on the exact record to rub it in. While not exactly OK with loosing the competition, I am OK with losing fat regularly again. Over the 8 weeks thus far, I've lost 9 pounds in actual weight and the trend weight is down 3. (If you've read previous entries, you know that the trend weight more accurately indicating fat loss means more to me than the weight loss number.) I'm not exactly setting any records at this pace but am managing to lose and have the obligatory social life too. We have an additional opponent who is weighing in for the first time this week. It'll be interesting to see how the competition dynamic works out for three of us.

The goal remains 189, the trend weight is at 263.2 today, so means 75 pounds to go.

Holiday Backslide!

Early January...

I'm sweating more. My heart-rate is climbing faster than normal when running making me take breaks. I'm not giving up but shouldn't this be getting easier? I hate running. Hate it. No fun at all. I guess that's what happens when you gain 15 pounds over the holidays.

Last week....

There we go. ((26 / 60) * 5.2) + ((4 / 60) * 6.0) + 2.6 + 2.7 = 7.95333333. What's that? That's the number of miles I ran last week. Still a PITA but just powered on through.

Today...

Down to 248-point-something. The trend lines look good. My calorie intake is 1700ish a day and I'm still slowly making progress. Mild foot pain 20 minutes in to the run yesterday so stopped at about 1.7 miles. Walked for an hour last night after work and all seemed fine. We'll see how the run tomorrow morning goes.

140 of 200 - Sixty to go

This fitness thing has become totally habitual. It's almost difficult for me to imagine waking up on on Monday, Wednesday or Friday and not doing pushups, then situps, then running for half an hour before I get ready for work. I mix in some 6.0mph "sprints" in to the run when I have the wind but it always beats me up when I do. Progress remains slow but steady. Now averaging 22 push-ups, 44 sit-ups, and running at least 2.6 miles in 30 minutes. While the time, place, and exercises are totally different, the rhythm of it feels just like going to football, track, or wrestling practice did in high school.

Current goals remain 36+ pushups, 42+ sit ups, 3 miles in 30 minutes, and 189 pounds fully clothed. I'm also flirting with the idea of running a half marathon this summer. We'll see.

Today, for the first time in my life since my senior year of high school, I weighed 249. The trend-line is at 252.9. It's still all about keeping my regular calorie intake below what I burn but I'm far less rigid about it these days. Loss rate per week for last week: 1.3; two weeks: 0.95; four weeks: 1.2; eight weeks: 1.0. I guess that puts me at about 60 weeks from goal weight. Will I ever break a year?

As my family and friends know, I've also taken on a challenge that requires quite a bit of walking through mid spring to see success. Walking in the cold is undoubtedly burning up a few more calories than normal and will continue to do so. I think it's helped with the diet flexibility I've been allowing myself of late.

Thanks for reading. Happy Holidays and wonderful 2008 to you all!

Did someone say a year?

Good grief-- I started journaling this journey a year ago. The aught-six spreadsheet says I weighed in at 361.6 that day. This morning, one year and three days later, I weighed a personal best low of 254.4. That works out to an average 0.3 pound per day loss. That's, again on average, a 1028 calorie deficit every day for the last 368 days.

When I started this thing the goal was to lose 200 pounds. That's 700,000 calories. Using more accurate trend-line numbers: 384.2lbs - 259.9lbs = 452,550 calories. There are only 247,450 left to go. 2/3 of the way there. Behind schedule but still making acceptable progress.

Some people say 200 is too much. Some people say, "You look great, don't lose another pound." Others say, "You look great, you're almost there, maybe another 20." Or some other number. I say 189 wearing clothes on the doctors scale was and remains the goal. Only muscle gain can prevent it.

1lb=3500 calories. Knowledge truly is power. Thank you John Walker for making the way clear. Thank you to every person who has supported me in one way or another. Thanks to the commenters. But most of all, thank you to my wonderful significant other. I realize there used to be more of me to love but what's left of me couldn't possibly love you any more.

Update

While posted mid-november, this entry is for at least a month prior.

My current weight is 268.8, the trend is at 269.5 that's .7 to the good, the 10 day average is 270.4 which is 1.6 to the good.

The 1500 calorie plan has shifted to a 100+800+700 (breakfast+lunch+supper) 1600 calorie plan a while back. Subway is still the anchor staple. But now I significantly vary my sub choice from among those with the right calories. The new sweet onion chicken teriyaki was a great addition to the lunch lineup. Monday is now club day.

I get dizzy when I stand up after a stretch of three or four slightly lower calorie days. Clearly that's not acceptable, so I now make a point of making sure I get at least 1500 every day. Problem solved.

I've also had-- umm-- poo issues. Too much fiber if you know what I mean. Subway (geez, it seems to be all about subway with me, I promise this isn't a sponsored weblog or anything...) introduced strawberry yogurt. This is now a part of my lunch nearly every weekday and has brought the issue to a more-- umm-- solid resolution. Ya, enough about that.

Annual physical went well. All of the blood work numbers looked good except for the good cholesterol being a little low. Doc says that this is the hardest number to move. Blood pressure continues to improve as I continue to work out. I have always been a salt eater but it just isn't showing up in the cuff anymore. The doc went out of her way to congratulate me on progress thus far and we agreed to go back to annual physicals.

While the nurse led me down the hall to the exam room, the doc said hello to me as she walked passed. There was zero recognition in her face. When the doc came in to the exam room, she apologized and congratulated me on my new and improved appearance. Many folks have been tossing out comments about how I look great and how I'm 10 years younger. Perhaps it's shallow of me, but this sort of encouragement is very appreciated. I believe every comment of this sort serves to reinforce the positive behavior.

On the workout front, I have been running as much as possible during Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning workouts. I run at 5.5 or 6.0mph for a few minutes and then slow to a walk when gassed. I always maintain a minimum speed throughout the workout and that's currently 4.7mph. Sometimes, I'll try for a distance run at 5.0 or 5.2mph, but I can never seem to make it for 30 minutes. I'm doing about 3 miles a day including warmup and cooldown on MWF, and a walking program for a little over 2 miles on TR. I also do push ups and sit ups on MWF, I'm averaging a little under 20 of the former and a few over 30 of the latter.

And finally, a story about my best friend. I've always had the bigger physical body. Mostly just because I'm taller. But because I was a high school athlete and he wasn't, I have-- at least in my mind-- also been stronger and faster than him too. He too is a programmer and he too became a big, soft, mushy, overweight person sitting in an office chair and eating free food. In any case, we have been competing on the weight loss thing. He's been working out and losing inches without losing as much weight. Makes sense because his workout includes weights, mine doesn't. He came in to town and several of us went out to a local pub. We were a-drinkin' away. (There is no calorie counting on special occasions.) Fun was being had by all and we ended up arm wrestling. The bastard toyed with me before putting my arm on the table. I may still be faster but no longer am I stronger. I salute you, sir! (I'm still kicking your ass on weight loss though.)

Be well and thanks for reading.