Weigh-in Day #11

Shoot, I really meant to get this out on Friday this time around, but things got in the way, and I let them derail me.  I suppose it really speaks to my commitment level right now.  I need to step it up.  I keep finding excuses to cheat or put off actual commitment till tomorrow or next week or whatever.

A funny thing happened this weekend though.  My wife told me that she has decided that it's time for her to get committed to losing weight or getting healthy might be a better term.  She's resisted any efforts of mine to rope her into my quest over the last few months that I've been doing this.  I've been hoping that with me supporting her and her supporting me back, we might be more successful.  But, until now, it seemed like it wasn't going to happen.  Maybe now that she's decided to go for it, I'll be able to stick to my plan better.

This past week, I've been a lot better with my exercising, but pretty dang crappy with my eating.  What did that get me?  Here's my weight from Friday morning:

That makes me up about a pound from last week.  So, I'm more or less holding steady.  Kind of weird considering my terrible eating habits over the last two weeks.  I think I've gained two pounds in that time, when I probably should have gained ten.  I guess exercising better makes a difference.

I'm really trying to kick up my preparation for my marathon in October.  So, my exercise levels will be good.  Now it's time to get back to eating right, so I can get that whole package together and really pump up the weight loss.  I'm going for it this week.  Come Friday, I'll be down.  We'll see how much.

How about everyone else?  Doing better than me, I suspect.

Weigh-in Day #10

Okay, so it's a brand new day, and a new dawning. What the hell does that mean? I don't know. But I am trying something new, anyhow.

As you might recall from my last weigh-in, I was getting a little disheartened.  I had been plateaued for a while, and I was sick of eating a diet's food without getting a diet's reward.  So, what happened from there...

Well, I've decided to try a new way of eating.  It's similar to what I've been eating before, but this one includes more carbs.  It's something called carb-cycling.  Basically, you eat high-carb one day, low-carb the next day.  You don't cut anything in particular out of your diet (like I have been, eating low-carb exclusively), but you do have to eat things on separate days.

Supposedly, it should raise my metabolism, so that I don't get stuck on plateaus.  So, how did it go?

Well, first of all, the back story is that gave up trying in the days after my last weigh-in report.  I ate whatever I wanted for several days running.  I had Carl's Jr. (notoriously high in calories), Pizza, and candy galore.  To the point that I weighed just shy of 270 again when Monday morning came around.  Monday is when I started into my carb-cycling.  By this morning, however, I weighed:

Now, this might seem like it should be a let down, because I weighed 262.6 at last week's weigh-in.  But, I actually found it to be a rollicking success, because I weighed 270 just five days earlier.  I think this carb-cycling might be exactly what I've been looking for.  It is, however, a little more complicated, and might take me some time to really get used to it.

I need to give it a few more weeks to see what kind of results I might get.  Unfortunately for this upcoming week, it follows Easter weekend, and I didn't stick to my diet at all over Easter weekend.  So, I'm sure to have ruined everything and have to start again...again.  Soon enough, though, I'll get 100% on track, and then we'll see some results.

So, Tena, Marshal, Jeremy, how are you guys doing?  Tobias, I haven't heard from you in a while, I'm guessing you're doing your own things these days, right?

Weigh In Day #9

Three weeks ago I weighed:

two weeks ago I weighed:

And last week, I weighed:

And yesterday, I weighed:

Now, maybe I'm just an ungrateful bastard, actually probably I'm an ungrateful bastard, but for four weeks in a row, I've gone basically nowhere. I should be happy though, right? After all, 262.6 is my best weigh-in yet, right? I'm down 1.4 lbs. from last week, right? Unfortunately, I'm only down 1.0 lbs. from a month ago. I'm friggin' stuck in place. I've done nothing but hover at 263 for a whole month.

This wouldn't be such a damn pisser if I was, you know, eating whatever I liked, and having a normal life. But no. I'm eating a lot of nothing. Not splurging on what I'd like to, going a whole week 100% without sugar and carbs, and accomplishing nothing from it. It's pretty frustrating to say the least.

Yesterday, after getting that same old news from the scale that I've been getting every week, I went off the rails. I said, "if it does me no good, then eff it!" And I ate all that stuff that I had to forsake for the week before. I had the breakfast quiche that had tater tots as its crust. I love tater tots and hash browns, and when everyone else had them for breakfast on Sunday morning, I was a little sad to be left out. But there was leftovers, so I ate them, and ate them with gusto!

And I had some of the cookies that have been taunting me in the pantry all week, some more of the chocolate that I'd not eaten Monday morning once I was allowed to eat sugar again. And when everyone else had pizza for dinner that night, I friggin' ate some too. And eff it!

Yes, I was being a petulant child, but check this out. This morning, I weighed myself. Granted, it was after I had eaten breakfast and drank a bunch of water, but you know what the damned scale said? It said I weighed 268. 268! I struggled for a month to lose one freakin' pound, but in a day of eating what I like, I gained nearly six pounds somehow? I'm going to have to call bullshit. WTF? How is the deck so freakin' stacked against me? How can it be possible that it is so hard to take weight off, and so unbelievably easy to put it on?

The weight loss regimen that I'm using has worked for me in the past, but it doesn't seem to be yielding much fruit for me anymore. I lost fifteen pounds, but it's been a month now since I lost anything. I suppose I must be doing something wrong. I need to step back and look at my method, my calories, and so forth. I wonder if the lack of carbs might be lowering my metabolism and preventing me from losing weight. I've heard that's possible. We'll see, I guess.

For now, I've just got to get my bad attitude back in check. Just writing this post pissed me off and put me in a bad mood. Bad moods mean splurging and gaining weight though, so I've got to get back to the positive outlook I once had a month and a half ago.

How about everyone else? Any progress?

A Sugar-free Week

I made it. No sugar and no carbs for a week. It was often a struggle, especially this weekend, when my wife made several things that I really like to eat, but that are high in sugar or carbs, and I had to turn them down, watching everyone else enjoy the heck out of them.

Surely, I'd get the last laugh, when my delayed gratification finally came to fruition and I ate my Symphony bar slowly and pleasurably.

When Monday morning arrived, I jumped out of bed at 6:30...okay, that's BS...I crawled miserably out of bed at 6:30 to go run.  I got my two miles in, then went upstairs to shower.  I weighed myself on the way in, and found that I'm still not under 260.  But I have two days left till the weigh-in, and I could still make it if I'm good, and stick to my plan.

I was planning out a couple of days of being careful with my eating, when I suddenly remembered that I could eat sugar this morning if I wanted to.  In fact, I had a Symphony bar waiting in my dresser drawer for the moment when that was allowed again.

I almost didn't want to do it.  I wasn't particularly hungry for that, and I wanted to make sure I hit 259.9 by weigh-in day.  I still ate it though, just less than I originally planned.

All I ate was that section that you see out of the wrapper.  I ate it as slowly as I possibly could, trying to savor every little bite, every gram of fat, every last calorie.  Interestingly, though, I found that it didn't hit the spot for me.  It seemed too sweet to me, and burned its way down my throat.  The pleasure wasn't there that I was hoping for.

It kind of puts a damper on my delayed gratification idea.  Will this work for me if the pleasure at the end of a week without sugar is not there?  If there's just as much pleasure from eating it every day as there is from waiting, where's the point in waiting?  Okay, I guess I might lose weight, but that's not guaranteed.  Too many other factors involved it seems.

Makes me think of my vow to avoid soda for a year.  I'm almost six months in, and I weigh no less than I did when I took the vow in the first place.  Was it worth it?  How can dumping that many calories have so little effect?

I guess, I'll try the no sugar/delayed gratification thing another time, and see if I can come up with a better treat to allow myself this week.  I think I've grown to enjoy dark chocolate more than milk chocolate these days.  Maybe I should pick something more along those lines instead.  I don't know.  I just hate it when things don't work out.  I'm more like Hannibal.  I love it when a plan comes together.

Weigh-in Day #8

Sorry, it's been one of those days. I just finally got around to posting the weigh-in. Last week, I was at 263.2-ish, since a few moments later I weighed myself again and it said I was over 264. Well, considering how this weekend went, I'm pretty glad to say that I am:

Which is pretty much the same weight.  In fact I weighed myself again before I left for work, and I was 262.4.  So, weird like that, right?

I was hoping to get under 260 this week, but it all went to crap over the weekend.  So, I'm making the 260 barrier this week's goal.

I think I can do it.  As long as I freakin' stick to my food plan (that's a new non-negative term for diet, you know like pre-owned instead of used).  On days that I am good, I drop weight like it was hot.  If only I could only eat what I should every single day for a long period of time.

So far, I've kept away from sugar and carbs, like I pledged to do on Monday.  I really mean to make it the whole week.  Then I think I will have a nice Hershey's Symphony bar with almonds & toffee chips.  Then, I'll go back on the no sugar thing for another week, and think of a new treat to look forward to.  Delayed gratification is supposed to make things all the better, right?  That's what I've heard.  That's why Sting does that Tantric stuff, right?

Anyway, Tena, Marshal, Jeremy, Tobias, how'd it go for you?

500 Miles

I know I finished this whole process a long time ago, but there was one tiny bit that I'd not gotten to.  Back in December, with one whole day to spare, I ran the final five miles in my goal to run 500 miles on the year.  Perhaps the first goal I've ever set and then gone forward and achieved.  Anyway, over the course of the year, I made videos to update people on my progress and to motivate myself and I guess any others who found them to be motivational.  It was a lot of fun, and a really handy way to keep track of my mileage.

On April 6th, I made it to my first milestone, 100 miles.  I published this video:

And talked about it on this blog post.

I kept running, training for a half-marathon race that I had already paid my fee to participate in.  On May 31st, I made it to my second milestone, 250 miles.  This was halfway.  And It wasn't nearly halfway through the year either.

I published this video:

And I talked about it on this blog post.

Things never quite go as you planned.  After my half marathon, I had a bit of a breakdown when it comes to my resolve for running.  I went an entire month without logging a single mile.  I got back to it, but as things got busy, and we moved into our new house, I missed another long period, almost another full month.  I got back to it, but I found, as the end of the year approached, that I had to really hit the gas if I wanted to make it.

I struggled along, my shin splints aching the whole way, until the final few days came, and I could see that I would make it after all.  And with a day to spare, I crossed the finish line.

I let it lie for the past three months, but now I have finally finished the accompanying video for the final 250 miles.  It was the last piece of the process.

While I was running that last month, I used these Post-it notes to track my progress, and make sure I didn't accidentally run too few miles.

You'll recognize them as the inspiration for the graphics in the video.  So, without further preamble, here's the video for miles 250-500.  It may be my favorite one yet.