Flat Lines

For four weeks in a row, I weighed in at exactly the same weight.  No up, no down, just the same, each week.  My graph looked like:

plateau-1

You see that flat line down there at the bottom?  That’s enough for a Grade A freakout if you aren’t prepared.  If you are accustomed to a steady pattern of losing weight at a pace of 1.5 – 2.0 pounds per week.

Food is the culprit, as you might guess.  It isn’t that I’ve gone crazy and started eating whatever I want in all of the quantities I want.  No – I’ve just relaxed a little.  An extra bite here or there adds up, you know.

Also, unlike previous efforts at getting slimmer, the exercising I’m doing has a distinct muscle-building and body-composition-changing element to it.  So, though my weight number got stuck in one spot for a month, my body was still changing and I’m very close to requiring another belt purchase.  I’ll take some pictures soon.

All of this would be difficult to work with if there were no perspective.  If I only had a visual way of seeing how much progress I’ve made, where I am relative to my ultimate goal and my ideal path, and how significant these four weeks are in the grand scheme of things.

Oh, wait.

plateau-2

And notice that little dip at the end?  I focused on food last week and lost 1.5 pounds.

Heads down – lets do this.

The Hard Part

I get up at 5am, pretty much every day.

I do Crossfit, which looks insane if you’ve never done it before.

I’m also running – did 15 miles this week on top of the Crossfit.

People look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them all of that.  Especially when I say “5am”.  I might as well say 2am; most folks seem to think they are equivalent.

But here’s the thing – that stuff is actually not so hard.  Yes, it is hard work, and it hurts sometimes, and sometimes I don’t want to go.  But runner’s high is a real thing, and you can get it after non-running workouts, too.  Exercising becomes addictive, and you go because you like to go, and you get up early because that’s the time you’re ready to go.

No – exercising and getting up early is not the hard part.  This is the hard part:

Meal Prep

About 14 meals here, including breakfasts.  10% – 20% of your progress will come in the gym.  The other 80% – 90% comes in the kitchen.  Prepping all of this is a pain in the ass, but it is done, and I’ll eat right this week.

Lets go get it…

RR #20: Celebration Rotary Pancake Run 5K

I registered for this race last year and wound up getting lazy and not running it.  This year, I didn’t register for it initially on the theory that I didn’t need races and would like to save the money. But I eventually relented and signed up.  This is a charity race that Celebration Rotary does each year in conjunction with the fire department.  They have a big pancake breakfast at the fire house that is free for runners but that you can buy tickets for if you don’t run.  And they have a 10K and a 5K.

And the start line is about a mile and a half from my house. Continue reading “RR #20: Celebration Rotary Pancake Run 5K”

Its not THAT the wind is blowing…

For those of us that are in Florida, Georgia, or the Carolinas, Hurricane Matthew is going to be a big deal.  For anybody that wants to get cocky about it, I’m going to leave a video here.

Stay safe, friends … see you on the other side.