Work Weightloss Contest: Finished

I spent the last half of the weight loss contest gaining then losing a few pounds, so I only lost 4 pounds in 6 weeks instead of the 6 pounds I was hoping for. However, my moving average weight is now just a hair below 150 lbs, which was another goal I had and feels pretty good to have hit.

I've relearned that even if I'm not trying to lose weight, I maintain a lower weight if I track the food I eat than when I don't. So I'll keep tracking and aim for "Permission to splurge on buying luxurious yarn" by the end of the year. :)

How to be hard as nails

I haven't used my bicycle to get to and from the train station for my commute in months. I use the bus and work shuttle instead. It's only 12 miles a day, in four chunks. I know lots of folks here who are still biking, and A is still biking in Chicago for crying out loud. Still, I haven't made any effort to get back on the bike.

Then this morning I read How to be hard as nails, and #1 on the list is "Train outdoors in all weathers. Rain, wind, snow, hail. Train when other people just stay in bed." And here I am letting a little thing like 50 degree weather keep me in the warm bus and off the bike.

Time to buy some cold weather biking gear.

Work Weightloss Contest: Halfway

So far I've lost 3 pounds in 3 weeks in the work weightloss contest. If I keep this up I'll lose a total of 6 pounds, or 4% of my starting weight (of 154 pounds). Beat that, Samo!

Coming down with a nasty cold and losing my appetite kept me out the gym but also made me lose a few pounds. I kept losing through the rest of the week, even through Thanksgiving and airplanes and no gym time. This week I'll be back at work, back in the gym, and aiming to bring the moving average of my weight under 150 pounds.

Work Weightloss Contest

6 weeks: November 2nd to December 14th
Winner Take All: $100 even is on the line
Percentage Loss: Whoever loses the largest percentage of their starting weight wins.
Hidden Agenda: Those pesky last 14 pounds have got to go.

I started out with good momentum, and have stalled this week. My focus is going to the gym every day, and eating no more than 1500 calories a day. My average daily intake is currently 1900 calories, so that's where I'm focusing.

Three cheers for feedback

Ever so slowly and steadily I am, almost too slowly to detect, losing weight. If it weren't for Physics Diet's charts I think I would have lost my motivation weeks ago, but I can see, nearly ever day, that my average weight is going down. And although nearly every morning it feels like I'm making no progress at all, the graph of my weight in the last 30 days clearly shows that I'm now losing 0.32 pounds a week, up from 0.22 pounds a week a few weeks ago.



I still eat (what feels like) a lot of junk many afternoons, but I'm doing better. Seeing the results of my hard work and sacrifice is unbelievably motivating. Anyone at all who is trying to reach weight or body fat goals should track their progress this way.

Rewards

Oh my lord. Looking back over some of my entries from the past 12 months, I've made no progress at all. I still have all the same goals and problems. Blah. Anyway, here is an update rewards list:

(note: June 2006 version and October 2005 version)

148 lbs (again)

Permission to splurge on buying luxurious yarn

145 lbs

fitness test at gym

143 lbs

Long weekend getaway (wine country?)

140 lbs

(need a goal)

138 lbs

New (folding?) bicycle of my dreams

GOAL!

Momentum gained

The past two weeks have been pretty solid weight loss. Last month I lost .1 pounds a week, but in the last two weeks I've increased that to .22 pounds a week. I've been eating within my calorie limits, not eating junk, and exercising every day. Except for last Saturday, which was a junk food fest galore. But I wasn't very hungry the next day and I think it sorted itself out quite naturally.

I found a very motivational picture which I downloaded, then created an automated process on my computer (cron job, for the geeks) to have the picture pop up on my screen every hour through the usually very snacking heavy afternoon hours. It's been quite effective. On more than one occassion I've thought of the picture while in the snack room and asked myself "Do I want these chips or that body?" and put the chips back down.

I've drawn M into it a bit as well, and asked him to not offer me beer and cookies for a while. He's being very understanding.

So, I now have a much happier, determined, positive direction. Horray!

I feel lame

I feel pretty lame right now, posting for the first time in a month only to say that my progress has pretty bad because I've been eating doughnuts for breakfast and cookies for dinner. Okay, I'll buck up and be honest:

The good:
* I've been going to the gym on a very regular basis
* Since my last post (a month ago) I've lost weight, not gained

The bad:
* I've only lost half a pound.
* I've only lost half a pound because I have sometimes been having doughnuts at breakfast and three cookies and a beer for dinner.
* In other words, I have only myself to blame.

Does this sound like dedication to anyone? Commitment? Goal-oriented thinking? Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm doing a lot of thinking and reading about being mindful with my eating, so I sure know what I'm doing wrong. I'm tracking all my food intake, so I can sure see the cause and effect in action. But have I been doing less of the bad to see more of the good? No, not really.

As I often do when I'm feeling down on myself for my most recent eating transgressions, I have been looking at charts of my weight loss and gain, which I've been tracking since 2001. After I pat myself on the back for not having lost forty pounds in what is becoming more and more the misty past, I get down to looking at more recent ups and downs. Since roughly three years ago, when I finished my last big weight loss effort, I've cycled up and down in weight a few times, roughly 152 lbs +/- 4 lbs. Here, here's the chart I'm looking at right now.

I've made no secret of my desire to ultimately get my weight down to 138 pounds. But it's pretty. damn. clear. that if I don't actually change my habits substantially that I'll never get there. Instead, I'll keep bumping around the 156-148 pound box, enjoying my beer and cookies and sometimes looking into the mirror and wishing I didn't have a belly roll. And there's nothing wrong or less about that outcome, if I wanted it. But I want 138 pounds and I'm not doing any of the things necessary to get there.

In other words, I have a serious motivation problem. Blah.

Dedication, and Thanks

Thanks to Samo for getting me into the work gym this morning at 7:15am (which required me to get up at 5:30am, catch the 6:10am train, and bike for half an hour). Then to lift heavy things in a dedicated fashion for an hour before showering and THEN, finally having breakfast.

This extreme measure was necessary because I'll be at an "offsite work meeting" for 2.5 hours through lunch, which is our usual workout time. And the gym is shutting off the showers at 3pm for maintenance. So it was morning or smelly, and we chose morning.

I can feel the sore starting already. :)

Deliciously Sore

For the last week I've been weight lifting with a Plan instead of just performing whatever random exercises I felt like. Samo, poor soul, went along for the ride. This led to about a week of very sore muscles for both of us. Ah, the pain of renewed effort. :)

That that part is over, thankfully. Now I can focus on these short term goals:
* Stick to the Plan
* Be able to do an unassisted pull-up (I used to be able to... years ago)
* Perfecting my form on the squat (I don't go down low enough)

and these long term goals:
* That killer back I was talking about
* Losing those 9-17 pounds (now 7-15 pounds)

Oh, yeah: I'm losing weight again, which is nice. A little slower than I'd like to be, which isn't as nice. But headed in the right direction at least.

A Plan

Over in my other blog, I wrote a meme entry about things I'd do if I had time. After writing the list, I realized that there were a few things on it that I could make time for right now. One of those was to make an exercise plan so that my workouts are more focused and effective.

See, I've had a few vague fitness goals in my head for the last few months:
1. Lose 9-17 pounds.
2. Have killer back muscles so I'll look kick-ass in whatever backless dress I chose for my wedding.

But I wasn't doing much in the way of focused action to reach those goals. So I spend an hour this morning and made A Plan. Then I printed it out, took it to the gym, and started using it. I left the gym feeling more "worked out" than any time (outside of spinning class days) for the last few weeks.

Progress.

SparkPeople

My last post was over a month ago. In it, I talked about not being able to lose the weight I gained when I got back from my vacation in Thailand, about overeating at work, and I admitted that I wasn't really doing much to rectify the situation. Since then I've gained another half pound. This morning I weighed 155lbs.

Last night I decided to get serious. I at least want to get back to 148lbs, and wouldn't it be nice to finally reach my goal of 138lbs as well? In the past when I've lost weight it's structure that helps me out the most, that keeps me motivated and making good decisions when bad food choices are staring me down. I did a bit of googling, but got sidetracked and didn't have a plan by the end of the evening.

Then, this morning, my sister told me about the site SparkPeople, which helped her get over her weigh loss plateau. It's one of those community/food and activity tracking web sites, like most others. I signed up, latching onto my small amount of momentum and my sister's. We'll see how it goes.

This is what I was meant to do this time last year when I got above 150lbs, to prevent me from getting to 155lbs in the first place. I did try to watch what I ate, and tracked my food for a bit, but I was never disciplined and regimented about it. So this time I will be.

Status Quo

I haven't blogged much because not much of note has been going on. Still working out on a regular basis, but without any particular goal in mind. Samo and I do the crossfit workouts when they aren't crazy, and sometimes when they are. I'm in good shape, and getting stronger slowly, but I haven't really pushed myself for a while.

I went for a long hike this weekend and it was nice to be in great shape and not worry about holding the other person back. I remember the first long hike I ever took... it was a large group of people, and when it became clear that I was by far the slowest of the bunch my friend R stayed behind with me. I was so slow I'd have been all on my own otherwise. I huffed and puffed my way through eventually, but I was embarrassed and disappointed with myself that it had been so hard. I had thought I was in good shape until that hike. Fast forward five years, and I hold my own quite nicely thank you.

I haven't been able to shake the weight that came back on after my trip to Thailand. I've gained over half a pound a week for three months. That's strictly my food intake at work. I'm kinda sorta working on that. I know that I've been eating more volume and worse quality. The bags of chips from the mini-kitchens morphed from unappetizing to a daily treat somehow. It's probably partially stress related. Acknowledging that isn't the same as stopping, though.

The Escape

Someday, if I work hard and eat all my steak, I'll be able to do this.

Same Max

Friday was a CrossFit rest day, but I weight lifted anyway. Saturday was a CrossFit "figure out your max lift for squats, shoulder press, and dead lift" but I didn't have the gym available and didn't exercise at all that day. Sunday I bicycled a bit, to get from point A to B, and could have done the CrossFit WOD but didn't because I didn't get around to it.

Today Samo and I weight lifted, and I forgot to look at what the WOD was before heading to the gym. Along with our weightlifting routines, we also lifted bench press to find our maximums. We both maxed out at the same weights as before, which is kind of disappointing, though I didn't lift for most of February.

Today's CrossFit WOD I should go back to the gym and do, but I'm pretty sure I won't.

CrossFit

I ran 3 miles today, and my knee felt much better. Finally. (.5 mi @ 6 mph, 1.75 mi @ 6.5 mph, remaining .75 mi decended from 6 mph to 5.5 mph)

Then I did today's CrossFit WOD: Deadlifts, 7 set of 3 reps. I lifted 1 set @ 65 lbs, 3 sets @ 75 lbs, and 3 sets @ 85 lbs. I started at a low weight and raised it slowly because I actually only recently added deadlifts to my regular routine and am still working on my form. I tend to let my knees come over my feet, which isn't good for my knees or my back. I actually do the same thing when I squat. Boo.

I'm back to my pre-vacation weight, plus some. Too many calories. Well intentioned mornings that turn into mini-kitchen raiding afternoons. Boo.

Today, after thinking about it off and on ever since I heard of it, I did the CrossFit Workout of the Day. Today was handstand push-ups and pull-ups which turned into modified push-ups and assisted pull-ups for little ol' me. I did those after my two mile treadmill run, where I babied my poor aching knee by stretching for half a minute or so between each half mile. Darn knee.

Tomorrow's WOD is deadlifts. Hooray for deadlifts! Those I can do.

Shrek fights childhood obesity

HHS Partners with Ad Council and DreamWorks to Combat Childhood Obesity

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Ad Council joined with DreamWorks Animation SKG today to launch a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) designed to help address childhood obesity. Featuring characters from the movie Shrek, the PSAs are an extension of HHS’ ongoing “Small Step” Childhood Obesity Prevention campaign, which encourages children and families to lead healthy lifestyles.

Watch the video

Thailand and Cambodia

Travel to a few out of the way countries for a few weeks, eat and drink and hike and walk and don't think about calories in or out. Lose two pounds. Desk jobs are bad for my waistline.

Silver, Tired, Thailand

I finally earned a Silver Medal, almost two months behind schedule. Blah.

I've lost a few pounds during this 8 week weight loss challenge I organized at work. It didn't motivate me much at all, I'm afraid. It was a nice idea, though. Blah. I hope Samo wins; she has a very good chance.

I'm tired of the whole thing, I guess. With my finite energy I've been focusing more on work and my partner moving in with me and my upcoming trip to Thailand. I've been exercising a lot, eating decently usually, but sometimes sharing cookie or a pint of (soy) ice cream with M. It's stress eating, plain and simple. But my weight is still going down, though very slowly. And I weight lift and run on a regular basis. So I'm having a hard time caring much right now.

Speaking of Thailand, I'm going there for 18 days starting next week. I'm going to eat, drink, sleep, walk, and not worry about any of this. Weight, work, or otherwise.

Could be better

Ei-Nyung asked me how my latest weight loss challenge is going, and I said it could be going better. Here's my weight chart for the last three weeks, since my last blog entry:



I lost weight steadily through the holiday. Horray! This isn't surprising, actually: I eat less at home than I do at work. Since coming back to work on January 3rd my weight has been flat, despite going to the gym every week day. More proof for you, Seppo, that the food you take in is WAY more important than the exercise you do. It's been easier to get the gym every day than to stop myself from eating 600 calories of cookies and trail mix and chocolates and whatnot nearly every day.

I did a small "talk to myself in the mirror, today is all you can control" pep talk this morning. Went to the spinning class at lunch. Ate two cookies in the afternoon.

I don't know the answer, really. I know I can lose more weight if I really want to. Maybe I don't really want to. I've lost $10, that's pretty much the only thing I know right now.