Week 30 Weigh-In

I had a busy day yesterday because it was my first day back to work after taking a week off. It will be pretty busy all week. I did pretty well during the week last week, but by Friday, I gave in to some of the temptations of eating out so much. Anyhow, I weighed in yesterday at 292.8 lbs. (-0.2). I can't say what the rest are since I left my tape measure at my dad's house.

One nice problem this summer was that for most of the summer I only had one pair of shorts that fit. The rest were either too big or too small. However, I could not find any to buy at the right size either. While at my dad's, I was in Target and decided to look at their clothes. I wanted size 48 shorts. The largest they had were size 46, but they were on sale for $3. I decided to buy them hoping I would be able to wear them in about a month. Even if I only could wear them a few times before the weather got too cold, they were only $3. When I got home, I tried them on to see how tight they were. THEY FIT!!! My wife made me try an old pair of size 46 pants. They fit too.

Even with virtually no weight loss and not able to take my measurements, I can see that my body is reconfiguring. I just wish that my reconfiguring life was as exciting, lol. I discovered that the job I was hoping for in my current profession is likely a no go.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Job Interview

I had my second interview for a new job in a new career. It went well and I am scheduled for my third and final interview in a few weeks.

Just a quick recap on my situation. My mother died last year from cancer. She had been my dad's primary care giver. He is suffering from the middle stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Basically, all of his responsibilities have landed on my shoulders. I have one brother in FL who can't take care of himself, yet alone anyone else. I have two brothers in MI. One will take dad for the day now and then, and lend a little help here and there for fixing up dad's house. BTW, he is single, no kids, and retired. The other brother has had very limited contact with dad, although he did take him up north for a week. Finally, I have one sister. She has taken dad for extended periods of time, but refuses to do much else. For example, she calls me up and tells me he is out of toothpaste!!! (Like I am supposed to make a three hour trip down there to buy him toothpaste!!!) Therefore, I have to make a three hour trip down 2-4 times a month in order to help put my dad's affairs in place, take him to doctor visits, and fix up the house. This has put a lot of stress on myself and my family. My current job requires 60+ hours a week. To say the least, my job is getting short circuited too.

The goal is to move my family into dad's house so that he can live out his remaining day's here (or until he needs to go into a nursing home). There very few openings in my current career near my dad's house. There is one possibility, but the process is slow and uncertain, so I am looking to change careers. I would prefer not to, but as the a great philosopher once wrote, "You can't always get what you want." I think I will get the job in the new career if I want it. It seems to be all a matter of timing right now. Grrr! I hate the waiting and uncertainty.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 29 Weigh-In

This morning I weighed 293 lbs. This is down 1 lb. from last week giving me a total weight loss of 87 lbs. I have 30.9%(-0.7) body fat giving me 90.5(-2.4) lbs. of fat and 202.5(+1.4) lbs. of lean mass. My waist measured 53.5(-0.5) inches.

I am happy with this weigh in. It would have been nice to lose more than a pound, but it looks like my body is busy reconfiguring itself. Losing an inch in the waist in 2 weeks is pretty nice.

Actually, it turned out better than I thought. My body and mind rebelled a bit last week. I think I was over-exercising. I seemed more tired and sluggish than usual, I wasn't as determined to get my exercising in, I was cranky, and I didn't care as much about eating healthy. Don't get me wrong. I exercised a fair amount and kept up with my running program. I didn't make fettuccine alfredo and pecan pie. I was just off my game if you know what I mean. Anyhow, a few of the books I've read said that they are signs of overdoing it.

I haven't run or ridden my bike since Friday, so I hope it's out of my system. So guess what? It's raining!!! It's barely rained all summer where I live. But I take a week off and it begins with a steady downpour which has no signs of letting up. Grrr... There goes my morning run. No chance to scope out the bike riding paths around here either (I took the week off and brought my family down to my dad's house).

Oh well, I guess that leaves me plenty of time to work on dad's house, lol.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 28 Weigh-In

Anyone seen a 12-year old boy? Because I lost one!!!! What an amazing change from last week. I must have been retaining water or something because I went from gaining 0.8 lbs. last week to losing 7.8 lbs. I weighed 294 lbs. this morning. I don't believe I lost that much in one week. I think some bodily fluctuation pushed my weigh-in high last week when I really had lost. In reality, I think that it's more like I lost 7 lbs. in two weeks. Regardless, this brings my total weight loss to 86 lbs. And it means, that I have reached my next milestone of getting under 300. BooYaah!!!

My body fat went down 0.5% to 31.6% giving me a lean mass of 201.1 lbs. (-3.8) and 92.9 lbs (-4) of fat. My waist was 54 inches (-0.5).

With the new baby, I have had little time to peruse or comment on the blogs. I do want to thank The Captain and Spidey for the kind words on their blogs. Eating healthy has been a challenge lately with people bringing us meals and tons of desserts with a bit of eating out here and there. My exercise routine has been a bit out of whack with everything going on, but I am sneaking it in at every possible moment.

We had a family gathering yesterday for my son's baptism. The relatives I haven't seen in a while made a big deal about how much weight I've lost. I know I should accept their compliments graciously, but they did get under my skin. They irritated me because they were overdoing it. I still have more than 100 lbs. to lose, but they were saying things like, "You look so skinny now." Who the hell looks skinny at 294 lbs.? I think I would need to be 8'6" to look skinny at my current weight. I know what they meant, and I just smiled and thanked them, but it still irritated me. One of them said to me, "Now that you lost this weight, don't you put it on again." I wanted to say "@@#$ you!!!" Grrr!!! What a stupid thing to say! Well, they're gone, and I didn't say anything rude.

Now, I am getting to the point in my weight loss when I will have to endure all the stupid, ridiculous comments people make. It's just around the corner when every yahoo will tell me about the diet program that will really work for me. I wonder if Eloise has a section on commenting to someone on his weight loss. OTOH, I would rather be at this point and endure all the asinine remarks than morbidly obese pushing toward super obese.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 27 Weigh-In

It had to happen eventually. I weighed 301.8 lbs. this morning which is up 0.8 lbs. since last week. This reduces my total weight loss to 78.2 lbs. My fat body fat stayed the same at 32.1% giving me 96.9 lbs. (+0.3) of fat and 204.9 lbs. (+0.5) of lean mass. My waist was 54.5 inches.

It was interesting after last Monday, I weighed under 300 every day. After 6 days of coming in around 297-298, I shot up this morning to 301.8. It's irritating, but I am not down about it. I am not going to make any excuses or rationalize the scale number. It is what it is. I am not going to second guess myself. I am just going to go forward.

In spite of the scale number, a few very nice things happened this week. Since, I began jogging, my bike riding has improved. I have to work harder in order to get my heart rate up which is a nice sign of my improving cardiovascular health.

In addition, I picked up the book recommended by Fit Club
Scott called, "The Beginning Runner's Handbook." My oldest daughter (almost 8) told me she wanted to try it with me. Since the program has intermittent running and walking, I could run for the time, then walk back to her. This week with increased running time, I run for half the time in one direction, then back to her, then back the other way, then walk back to her. I know it sounds confusing, but I need to encourage her.

I discovered the reason she wants to do this with me is because, she has done so lousy at her track meets the last two years. Her school does a track meet with other schools once a year. Both times, she came in last. She doesn't want to do that anymore. She is very tall for her age and not too coordinated, despite being in dance classes for four years. It's very exciting for me to see her attempting to improve herself like this. I just hope that she does not get discouraged by the difference in our running speeds.

Anyhow, this running program was designed to train beginning runners to finish a 10k race after 13 weeks. I had no intention of planning to run a race when it was over, but by the end of last week, I decided to see if there were any races at the end of our 13 weeks. I found the Mackinaw Island Great Turtle Trail Run. It's 5.7 miles which is somewhere between 5 and 10 kilometers. Now, I am working toward that goal. My daughter wants to enter this race as well. I am going to wait and see how the training goes before I enter her.

Several people have told me that they have noticed my weight loss this week. It's strange. Now that people have finally started to notice, I don't care about that so much. It's nice to hear it, but I have realized that something has clicked in my brain. I am more concerned about increasing my fitness level than I am about hearing the comments. I am more stoked about entering the race and completing it than I am about the compliments. This was not the case a few weeks ago. Maybe it's a phase, but I hope not. That vanity stuff is so nebulous that I think it's more of a downer than it is an incentive.

Finally, I think my mood has improved some. I am feeling very good about my accomplishments, the new baby has lifted my spirits, and I am looking forward to the future. Career, dad, and brother are still uncertain factors, but for now, I am not obsessing too much. I do have my second interview coming up in a couple of weeks. I imagine I will get more uptight about that as the day approaches.

Hah! I was planning a short post. Oh well!

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!