Friday Weigh In 11-13-2015

Yikes – has it really been nearly a month since I made a real post?  Radio silence much?  <sheesh>

A week of vacation and a week of business travel completely derailed progress.  I’ve run not-much since I posted last, and I’ve struggled with food.  BUT – I’m back on the wagon for the last few days, and my run this morning went very well.  Felt a little like old times there for a bit in the middle.

Weight:  305.2 lbs

Weekly Gain/Loss:  +0.6 lbs

Total Gain/Loss:  (-17.8) lbs

So, since I weighed in last on the week before vacation (Captiva Island, by the way.  Just do it.  Seriously – make that happen.) I’ve gained 3.6 pounds, or a bit over 1%.  That’s obviously a rate that would make huge very quickly – but it also isn’t as bad as it could have been.  The trick, as always, is not to see this journey as an all-or-nothing affair.  I’m still down about 18 pounds since June, which is great.  And I can get RIGHT back on that wagon and head right back down.

There was a time in my life where, right now, I might throw my hands up and quit.  I lost momentum, I gained some weight, and getting out the door and making good food choices has become challenging again.  Screw it – lets go get a burger and a milkshake.  But that would be silly.  Its like saying these 18 pounds don’t count.  And they do – they count.

So – back on the wagon.  I’ve got a few posts lined up, too – got to make the vacation post, of course, and then talk about a few other things going on.  Radio silence – over.

Onward.

Weigh In – 10/16/15

Interesting week this week – been busy at work, but overall felt good about things.  Another week where I lost weight, but not much – we know how those go.

Weight:  301.6

Weekly Loss:  (-0.6) lbs

Total Loss:  (-21.4) lbs

Average Weekly Loss:  (-1.47) lbs

I’ll take it.

I have not yet gotten to the point where other people are noticing and commenting, but I’m noticing a great deal about having lost 20 pounds – my clothes are fitting better, and things are just easier.  Like they are when you aren’t enormous.  I’m happy with this progress and will continue with it.

No weigh in next Friday – I’m taking a vacation with my family and won’t be anywhere near my scale and bathroom on Friday morning.  We’re going to Captiva Island, off the Gulf Coast of Florida near Fort Myers, and we’re very excited.  I plan on eating a lot of seafood, but trying to keep it not-fried.  Look for a post with cool beach-y pictures.

Onward!

Weigh In – 10/9/2015

Didn’t have much hope for this week’s weigh-in – I traveled for work this week, missed two runs, and ate a pile of barbeque on Tuesday night that would make most of you blush.

Weight:  302.2

Weekly Loss:  (-2.0) pounds

Total Loss:  (-20.8) pounds

Average Weekly Loss:  (-1.7) pounds / week

Shows what I know.

I’m seriously not sure how that happened.  The runs I did do felt good.  And I did try hard to keep the food consumption in line when I wasn’t having a glorious plate full of meat.  But I really had low expectations going in to this weigh in, so I was very pleasantly surprised.  I chalk this up to a large body that doesn’t want to be so large.

Now I get to re-set and kick ass this week.  I’ve gone over the 20 pound loss threshold, which is a big one, and I’m approaching 300 pounds again for the first time in a little over a year.  Next week is a normal week, and then I’m on vacation for a week, so I want to make this next week really count.

Another note – I finally got pictures today from the Great American Bacon Race, so that race report will be going up probably tomorrow, maybe Sunday.

Onward!

Weigh In – 10/2

Friday!  Little different lead in this week – usually I do my weigh-ins on Friday morning right after my morning run, and this morning I had a scheduled day off because I’m racing tomorrow.  I don’t consider waiting until after the run cheating since I do it every week, but any time something changes I get nervous – so I was nervous this morning.

Weight:  304.2

Weekly Loss:  (-0.6) pounds

Total Loss:  (-18.8) pounds

Average Weekly Loss:  (-1.57) pounds / week

So – this is one of those weeks where I have to understand that losing between 0.5 and 2 pounds per week is optimal, and that a loss of “only” 0.6 pounds is a good thing.  Because it is, unequivocally.  I’m right on the cusp of two big numbers, though, which does get my hopes up.  In 1.2 pounds, I’ll go over the 20 pounds lost threshold, and in 4.2 pounds I will go under 300 pounds.  Both of those are big deals, but I just need to get my patience.

Big week coming up.  I have my first 5K since July of 2014 tomorrow – the Great American Bacon Race in Tampa.  My goal for that race is to go run it.  Nothing else.  Obviously I’d like for my time in that one to be at least as fast as the time I put up in my first ever 5K back in 2013.  But I can’t look at it as failure if it isn’t – just being back out there is success.

I’m also traveling for work this week, to the scene of some spectacular food.  The best barbeque sandwich I’ve ever had was at a place called Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City.  They gave me this mound pulled pork served on Wonder Bread with a mustard-y sauce that was just spectacular.  And I haven’t been back to Kansas City since … but that changes, as of Monday.  And if you think I’m not going to go and HAMMER one of those barbeque sandwiches then you don’t know me very well.

Damn – now I’m hungry.

BUT – I’ve only got one scheduled run day while traveling, so that helps with keeping it up, and I’ll get focused on the rest of the meals.  Because I’ve got to be able to eat those sandwiches AND not weigh 400 pounds, and I might as well start figuring it out now.

Onward!

Weigh-In – 9-25-2015

Good morning and a happy Friday!  This week was the week that my wife started her own workout regimen … which means that dinners at home are an awful lot easier to fit into a point budget.  She’s still very sore, but two of us doing this is going to make it a lot easier.

Current Weight:  304.8 pounds

Weekly Loss: (-1.6) pounds

Total Loss:  (-18.2) pounds

Average Weekly Loss:  (-1.65) pounds / week

Good week this week.  The running has been going well, and the eating has been going well.  I’ve lost 3 WeightWatchers daily points since the beginning (21 points a week – that’s … a lot), and I’m starting to feel the pinch a bit as I make substitutions throughout the day.  So far the hunger has stayed mostly at bay, though, so there is that.

My first 5K since last year is a week from tomorrow – I’m excited and nervous at the same time.  I’m trying not to focus on the time.  That’s not the point.  The point is to get out there and do it, and not be disappointed regardless of how long it takes.  The race also has lots of bacon, so there is that.

Looks like we’re taking the kiddos to Legoland this weekend, so hopefully I’ll have some good pictures of that.  The weather is finally starting to ease here in Florida, and we’re getting glimpses of the glory that will be winter here.

Onward!

Weigh-in 9/18/2015

This week the company I work for had our national sales meeting, which involves screwing up routines and lots of hard eating (and drinking) that is, at times, difficult to stay away from.  But:

Current Weight:  306.4 lbs

Weekly Loss:  (-1.2) lbs

Total Loss:  (-16.6) lbs

Our meeting was at the Epicurean Hotel in Tampa, Florida.

Yeah – read that again. <sigh>

But I was overall really happy with my ability to keep it under control.  There were buffets for breakfast and lunch every day, but there were always ways to eat mostly very good things and keep the very not-good things down to reasonable portions (mostly a bite or two here or there).  My strategy was typically to fill half of my plate with the salad at the beginning of the buffet.  That made it harder to load that plate up with creamy stuff or tons of meat later.  It worked.

I did miss two runs this week – my Wednesday morning run just didn’t happen, and then when I got home yesterday I had come down with some kind of nasty cold thing.  This morning I actually called out to work and went back to bed … and slept until past noon.  Tomorrow is traditionally my long run, but we’ll see.  Hopefully I can get out there, but my scheduled 5-miler will likely not happen.  I’ll shoot for 3.

I had forgotten that when I re-started WeightWatchers this time I set my goal weight at a loss of only 5%.  I did that to make sure I was keeping perspective and not let the daunting number that I’ve really got in my head overwhelm me.  So when I logged that weight I didn’t expect WW to get all sparkly and congratulate me for hitting my goal – it was nice.  Even though I know I still have a long way to go, I also know I’ve lost 5% of my weight and I’ve set things up well to go even farther.  The next goal is another 5%, which will happen when I get under 291.

Onward!

Weigh In – 9/11/2015

Good week this week, across the board.  The hunger has settled down and become more manageable, and I’ve been able to tell a difference in how my clothes are fitting.  As such, I was optimistic about this weigh-in, and it didn’t disappoint.

Weight:  307.6 lbs

Weekly Loss:  (-3.2) lbs

Total Loss:  (-15.4) lbs

Weekly Average: (-1.71) lbs

So, yeah.  This is one of those weeks that will happen when you weigh over 300 pounds.  The 1 – 2 pounds / week average is a long term average, and also includes those weeks when I weigh much less than I do now.  Until then, there is so much extraneous crap on my body that it’ll shed pretty fast.  Obviously I’m very happy with this number, but one of the goals here is to not get all that excited.  In the coming weeks, I’ll have weeks where I barely lose any weight, if I lose any at all.  There may even be weeks with a slight uptick.  Those are OK, as long as the long term trend is down by 1 – 2 pounds per week.  That’s just math.  And I’d rather my energy and excitement level stay pretty steady than to get all excited by this and then get all down in the dumps when I have a week that’s not so good.

I had a couple of runs this week that didn’t feel good at all – I even skipped one on the theory that a little recovery isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  This morning’s run felt better, though.  The first mile was brutal, but the second and third miles felt a bit like old times, and let me know that it WILL come back, if I will just keep working at it.

Next week is a travel-for-work week, and it is our national meeting and all of the food and alcohol that goes with one of those.  I’ve moved my schedule around so that I only have one run scheduled during the week, and I’m determined not to flake out on that.  And then I’ll just have to watch myself with the food.  Wish me luck.

Onward.

Weigh In – 9/4/2015

Good morning and a happy Friday to everybody!  Long weekend coming up, college football is up and running (and if the Razorbacks don’t beat UTEP by 40 points or more then I’ll be disappointed), and the weight, it is coming off.

Current Weight:  310.8 pounds

Weekly Loss:  (-2.2) pounds

Total Loss:  (-12.2) pounds

Weekly Average:  (-1.53) pounds

A good week this week.  I feel like the hunger has been under control a little bit more, and I completed the 5K training program that I was working on, so I feel like I’ve “graduated” up to regular running again.

I also signed up for another race – it turns out that the Celebration Rotary Club does a pancake breakfast and 5K/10K every year that starts and ends about a mile from my house.  I signed up for the 5K (on 10/31), and bought tickets to the pancake breakfast for the wife and child(ren) – so that’s a go.  For anybody that’s new (hi!), you can see all of my race reports and upcoming races here

If I can keep this pace up, I’ll go under 300 pounds in late October and be approaching my previous low (around 275) in time for the half marathon in late January.  It has only just begun, but I’m excited about getting back there.

Onward!.

Weigh In – 8-28-2015

Interesting week this week – as discussed yesterday, I hit a week where the hunger, it is real and all consuming.

Current Weight:  313.0 lbs

Weekly Gain / (Loss):  (-0.4) lbs

Total Gain / (Loss):  (-10.0) lbs

Weekly Average:  (-1.4) lbs

Added the weekly average in there, because its important – and doubly so in weeks where I was successful but maybe not quite as successful as I would have liked.  0.5 – 1.0 pounds per week is the absolute best pace – people that lose weight at that pace are just as likely to lose as much weight as those that go faster, and are significantly more likely to maintain their weight loss.  This is just a good, healthy way to do it.

And so, on a week when I lose less than a pound because I can’t keep from putting anything (everything!) edible into my unhinged yap … it helps to know that my weekly average of losing about a pound and a half a week is right about, or even slightly above, where I need to be.  These things also don’t move on a straight line, and as long as I’m doing what I need to do to keep the calories down, and I’m exercising at the consistent rates I intend to – losing anything is a win.

So – another win!  Ten pounds down!  Onward!

Weigh-in – 8/21/2015

Good morning!  Today is Friday, which deserves an exclamation point all by itself!  And that means a weigh-in!  So many exclamation points!

Today’s Weight:  313.4 pounds

Weekly Gain / (Loss):  (-2.4) pounds

Total Gain / (Loss):  (-9.6) pounds

If the first goal is to lose 10% of my body weight, I’ve reached 30% of that goal.  While I’d love to have seen that Total Loss number get over 10 pounds, I also know that a 2.4 pound loss in a week is a big number, and I shouldn’t go crazy with it.

I’m still in the early portion of this, which means that the weight comes off easier.  After awhile that is going to slow down, but for now every week brings real progress – which is very motivating.  This morning, when I expected Weight Watchers to dock me a point, they actually went the other way.  I was told that I don’t have a problem yet because of my weekly average, but losing more than 2 pounds a week is unhealthy and to knock it off.  I am not blind to the fact that I have an enormous daily allotment of points and that they are trying to get me to eat MORE to make sure I don’t lose weight too fast.

They are right, but still.  It is hard to not be excited about progress.

I’ve talked about Ben over at Ben Does Life before, and about how I’m a fan but that his methodology isn’t realistic for the vast majority of people out there.  He’s at it again, and recently talked about losing 73 pounds in the first 90 days. Which is ludicrous – that’s nearly a pound a day, and is completely unsustainable.  Don’t get me wrong, when you’re as big as he was you’re going to lose weight fast if you try hard.  But there has to be a point at which some semblance of a sustainable reality has to be confronted.

All of that to say – I’m thrilled, both at this week’s loss and the overall trajectory I’m on.

Onward!

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