The March Update

Finally had a little free time to right, yes I have been that busy, as I await to go to work. Weighed in at 264 this morning, which is good news, as this last month has been a real bummer when it comes to dropping any weight. Despite working out 6-10 hours per week (all cardio) I haven't had much luck getting the weight loss thing rolling like before. I have some pretty good ideas as to why and this week's loss confirms my suspicions. Lately, there has been a struggle for me to avoid eating after work (11p.m.) and sometimes those eats are really way out of line. Personally, I don't prescribe to the thinking that you shouldn't eat after a certain time at night. The thinking is that when you are asleep, you are body is at rest and you will not process the food as well and as such it will be stored as fat. But our bodies are always working even during sleep and since using the 6 small meals a day strategy, I have always ate late. The trick is to eat much more conservatively for that last meal. Here lies the problem that I've been fighting, I will, after work, frequent a place like Sheetz or even a Burger King. Sometimes it is just the stresses of work and my situation there that bring me down enough that I desire happiness, and the most efficient way to satisfy the ache is a quick stop on the way home. Truth be told, as my diet has gone, for me to eat a burger or a grilled chicken sub isn't really all that bad IF I only eat that, but those trips after work often include fries and a coke or a bag of salt & vinegar chips and a candy bar. What is worse though about those little points of weakness is the timing of those meals. If I were to cheat like that during the day, my typical daily activities would balance the scales by burning those calories off, but when consumed late at night they sit there like a lead weight. It is just to much food before bed, and it is a habit I MUST break.

A lot of cool things have happened since my last report. The swimming is really starting to progress. I swam my first non-stop 100 yards and after this past week's lesson, I think that I am finally starting to "get it." Being calm and relaxed in the water makes the biggest difference. There is a long way to go from an endurance standpoint as I need to be able to swim a 1/2 mile in the ocean in three months.....OH didn't I tell you ;P I signed myself up for a TRIATHLON! Yup, 1/2 mile swim-14 mile bike- 3.2 mile run that's where I'm taking Project Downsize to next. Assateague Island is the location and it is on Sunday of Father's Day weekend. When I signed up I had no idea that it was going to be Father's Day, and to be quite honest I don't know how I feel about it. Obviously, Father's Day was gonna be a rough one this year, but to do something like run my first triathlon on my first Father's Day without a father has churned up a lot of emotion and I anticipate it being worse that day. Okay, so to get away from that sadness, since I need to bike 14 miles I went out and bought a brand spanking new Fuji road bike, which I have named Kick Ass. This thing is so ridiculously light and fast, now all I need is some better weather.

So there is lots and lots of training to be done in the next three months, oh and the Tough Mudder is in April as well can't wait to jump in that 50 degree water (sarcasm).....

My free time has expired so I must go!

Quickie Update

Before I left for my beach birthday weekend I weighed myself and intended on writing this here update before I went away. However, that obviously didn't happen and so it is happening now whether you are ready or not.

The weigh in was 266, a 3 pound loss for the week and 13 pound total drop since the beginning of the year. Since I'm still stepping on the scales too often, I was actually a little disappointed because at one point during the week I was at 264. Gotta stop that habit somehow and maybe this weekend will help. You see while I was down in OCMD I did NOTHING, except eat, drink and relax and it was glorious! It was a much needed mini-vacation as the 6 day a week work and workout thing had me worn out. But the side affect of doing what I did down there certainly put some weight back on, I weighed myself when I got home and it was kinda ugly. So now I plan to stay off the scales until next Friday, mostly to avoid feeling guilty about having a fun, relaxing weekend.

I decided to stop lifting last week and strictly focus on the cardio stuff. Swim, bike, run....The Tough Mudder is like six weeks away so I need to focus on getting ready for that. I had what I describe as a breakthrough in the pool last week during my lesson. Coach Warren has been very remindful that I am not looking relaxed in the pool. In my defense, there are a lot of things I am trying to remember to do right in the pool,; how to breath, taking full strokes, the kick....and all that thinking makes relaxing difficult. But somewhere in the middle of the lesson he told me to do the breaststroke for a length. This is a stroke I am pretty good at (please keep laughter to a minimum about what strokes I'm good at) and very comfortable with. When I got to the end of the pool, he said that was the most relaxed I looked in the pool to that point and then made me swim freestyle back but told me to try to duplicate the feeling. It was the best lap I had swam, and by the end of it I didn't have the same exhausted feeling as I had on EVERY lap prior. In fact I swam 4 laps without that "Oh My God, this is so hard" feeling. Hopefully I can continue to strengthen my swimming skills with this little breakthrough.

Since I want to stay off the scale for a few weeks you hear won't from me again for a week and change....peace out!

Ok update time

Today I weighed in at 269. There is progress beginning to take shape once again. That make 10 pounds since the new year and the rebirth of this project. I am actually a lil disappointed by the weigh in because I have developed the nasty habit of stepping on the scales at work every day and at one point this week I was down to 265. So I had high hopes for this weigh in report, but we have to settle for 269 this time. By the way, it is a terribly bad habit to weigh yourself more than once a week if you are trying to drop some weight. What I have learned over the past year and a half is that weight loss is a fickle SOB. The negative reinforcement of bad weigh ins are much more damaging than positivity of good ones and in many cases your daily weight is affected by other factors such as water retention. Remember that you can't be discourage over a bad weigh in or two, if you are eating healthy and working out diligently the weight WILL drop.

Since our last chat, I have begun swimming at the gym. In my last blog I told you I was gonna start, well this time I'm telling you, HOLY JEBUS, SWIMMING IS HARD! The first time I got into the pool to swim I didn't make it one length of the pool (25yds) without needing a lifeguard. lol just kidding there, but I really didn't make it the whole way. Humbling, to say the least. Later that week I met with Warren the swim coach and found out that my first big problem was that I wasn't breathing enough and that was leading to my early exhaustion. He commented that there was a real good base to work with as it pertained to my form. My two biggest areas of concerns are that I am getting no propulsion from my kick and my butt sinks into the pool to deep which causes extra drag in the water. I would have thought my big booty would float better. Swimming is gonna take a lot of work to get better at, that's for sure. As for some of the other stuff, since I started swimming my hamstring issue has seemed to fade away. I am back pushing real hard in Spin and I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill. This weekend I'll try to tack on another half mile.

From a diet standpoint, I am doing much better controlling what I eat, but I still have my bad meal every now and then. I need to really try to force myself to eliminate these "cheating" meals and save them for my diet day off. Thanks to fellow Spinner, Don, I am gonna start tracking my daily meals again, but this time I will use the website suggested by Don www.fitday.com to help me plot out my numbers and see how I am doing. Do it for a week and you may be in for an eye opener! Potentially the diet may suffer over the next couple of weekends as this Saturday is Tubefest and next weekend I'm planning on heading to OCMD for the first beach trip of the year, and oh yeah its my birthday that weekend too.....gift cards to Dick's Sports are fine .

Well gotta go and get ready for work, ugh.....ttyl!