Week 43 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 276 lbs.
Today's Weight: 274.6 lbs. (-1.4)
Total Lost: 105.4 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 26.9% (-0.5)
Lean Mass: 200.7 lbs. (+0.3)
Fat Mass: 73.9 lbs. (-1.7)
Waist: 50.5 inches (-0.5)

I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was nicely surprised this morning. Even though I ate too much on Turkey Day, it was all relative. A year ago, I could have eaten a lot more before I thought I ate too much. In addition, I so disliked that full feeling that went out for an hour walk in the cold off and on drizzle. I felt much better when I returned.

Mental Note: Don't even think about second until you move around and drink a glass of water.

Another nice thing happened. I earned my gold medal in the Presidential Champions program. I knew this was coming up. I was a little sad since I would have completed all the challenges. When I plugged in the numbers that put me over the top for gold, I was given a surprise. They offered another challenge. This one is the platinum award of which there was no mention anywhere on the website. Anyhow, the gold is earned when you reach 80k points. This took me about 5 months or so. The platinum award is earned when you reach 500k points. I figure this will take me another 26 months to earn. Wow, talk about a long term goal to work towards. I will do it.

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.: --Theodore Roosevelt


Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 42 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 278 lbs.
Today's Weight: 276 lbs. (-2.0)
Total Lost: 104 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 27.4% (-1.0)
Lean Mass: 200.4 lbs. (+0.5)
Fat Mass: 75.6 lbs. (-3.4)
Waist: 51 inches (-1.0)

Obviously, this was a good week weight-wise, but also fitness-wise. On Saturday, my daughter and I went for our regular run, except we went to the new bike trail which runs through a mostly residential area along our main highway. In other words, we weren't in rifle range of the deer hunters, lol.

Anyhow, I decided to run to the end of the bike path and back. That's a total of 6 miles. I was hoping to make it in 60 minutes, but no dice. I did make it 1:07:28 which roughly works out to and 11:15 pace. I ran the race with an 11:14 pace. However, I am sure I ran the race at a faster pace than I had been running, so I am thinking that my pace is improving. I will need to a fixed distance run more often to get a better idea of my pace.

Normally when running with my daughter, I run ahead a couple of blocks then run back to her and turn around again. Obviously, I would never be able to figure out my distance. On the bike path, she agreed to run for 30 minutes one way and then run back and I would meet her at the end. I bought her a stop watch, but she was goofing around with it when she was running and screwed the time up. Anyhow, it all worked out in the end, but we were unable to determine a pace for her. Not that it's all that important. I am just thrilled that she is continuing to run.

It's kinda of funny. I feel like we are developing a deeper bond with each other. We don't talk much while running since we aren't together. I do give her words of encouragement when I turn back to her. Perhaps, it's that we are sharing a common determination, will, struggle, pain, challenge, and mental struggle that is causing this bond. Maybe it's just the fact that we are doing something regularly together. Perhaps it's just me and she doesn't feel it. Anyhow, I am thankful for her and this special time we share.

Back to the good fitness week. Our local ice arena recently opened for the season. They only have open skating on Friday and Saturday nights. I took the 2 oldest skating. They didn't rent skates, but had used ones you could borrow. The oldest found one in her size, but my other daughter had to wear a pair that were 2 sizes too big. The poor girl ended up with some nasty blisters. I guess it's off to the thrift shop this week to find skates.

For kids learning to skate, they had walkers. I had never seen that before, but it's a great idea. I was dreading having to bend over holding my daughters up while they learned to skate. With the walkers, I could just skate around on my own. I can't wait to go next week.

"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." --Epictetus

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

A Date

Last night, my inlaws came to spend the night and babysit. My lovely wife and I went out on a date. First, we dined at Olive Garden where I could I have eaten better, but I could have eaten much worse. We enjoyed ourselves and my poor wife didn't need to run to the bathroom with one of the kids every 5 minute. She actually ate a hot meal!

Afterwards, we went the Blue Man Group concert. The show was fantastic. The band was phenomenal and the blue guys were a lot of fun. We arrived back home at 11:15 PM. I am normally asleep by 9:30 PM, so I was snoozing before my head hit the pillow. It was a very good evening. I wish we could do something like that more often. I am very thankful for my inlaws.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Week 41 Weigh-In

Last Week's Weight: 279.4 lbs.
Today's Weight: 278 lbs. (-1.4)
Total Lost: 102 lbs.

Fat Ratio: 28.4% (No change)
Lean Mass: 199 lbs. (-1.1)
Fat Mass: 79 lbs. (-0.3)
Waist: 52 inches (No change)

I am looking forward to a great week. I need to get more fresh fruits and veggies in. For some reason, it seems like as the weather gets colder, the less inclined I am to eat fresh produce. It's not intentional. I like fresh produce. I think that perhaps, I have programmed myself to focus more on heavy, starchy foods when it turns cold. I will need to be careful, intentional, and self-respecting.

Saturday, when my daughter and I went running, we decided to run in the woods. We have some nice trails around here. In the winter, they are groomed for cross country skiing. It was good and bad. There were lots of leaves on the paths. Some parts were grass covered. This made it difficult for me to keep up my pace because, I was afraid of stepping in a rut or a hole and twisting my ankle. Ever since I broke my ankle playing football in high school, I have had a tendency to sprain my ankle. The good part was there were lots of hills which is good training.

When we drove away from the trails, I realized that running in the woods was the dumbest place to choose this time of the year. It's hunting season. While it's only bow season, running in the woods is still none too bright. I guess it's back to city streets and bike paths for us.

"The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear." - Socrates

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

Ten Pound Pictures

Every time I reach a ten pound mark I post my shirtless pictures in order to mark my progress. Since I went under 280, here are my next pictures.



All and all, I have been disappointed in these pictures. I expected to see a bigger difference by now. I guess I shouldn't expect to since I have so much yet to lose. I suspect that I won't see the big differences I am looking for until I get under 250.

I know, this is not all about ego and looks. I am in this for the fitness, first and foremost. I am proud of my accomplishments. But, I am human. I still want to look good. I want to be able to indulge in a little vanity. While I am not as huge as I was, I am still blubbery, fat, and disgusting to look at. This is definitely a motivation (as I hoped posting these pictures would be) to continue on this path of fitness I have chosen to follow.

I am not looking for sympathy, just journaling my thoughts.

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!

ADDENDUM: This morning I decided to try a size 44 pants. I thought they would be rather tight. Instead, they fit well. I can't wait to get under size 40, but this was a pleasant surprise.

Week 40 Weigh-In

This morning I weighed 279.4 lbs. This is a 1.6 lb. loss from last week and a total of 100.6 lbs. lost. My fat ratio is 28.4% (-0.7) giving me a lean mass of 200.1 lbs. (+0.9) and fat mass of 79.3 lbs. (-2.5). My waist measures 52 inches (-0.5).

Today started out horrible. I woke up early to use the rest room. I started feeling sick and my stomach started cramping. I was in pain. I wanted to throw up, but didn't. I started sweating profusely. Eventually, the pain subsided, so I laid down for a little while. Soon, I was feeling better. My stomach still doesn't feel right, but I am doing okay. Although, I am not sure what that whole episode was about. We did eat out last night, so I wonder if it was a touch of food poisoning. Anyhow, I hope it does return.

Of course, the scales numbers helped me feel much better too. After I weighed, my daughter and I hit the pavement. We took a week off since the race, so today was are first day back at it. Because of the time change, we weren't running in the dark for very long. I felt pretty good running this morning. I really missed it last week. The race really inspired me to keep running. We are planning in entering another race in December (Brrr!).

As far as running goes, I picked up a couple of books by Galloway. His approach seems similar to the Beginning Runner's Handbook method. Of course, I have just begun reading these books. We started employing some if his ideas this morning.

Coincidentally, I saw a man interviewed on TV who has lost 100 lbs. and finished the New York Marathon. It took him 2 year to lose 100 lbs. Now he ran a marathon. What an inspiration.

Having just past the 100 lb. mark myself, I have no plans to run a marathon, but the idea is intriguing. I think I will wait until I have had at least a year of running experience before I think about entering a marathon. There are some triathlon and biathlon events in the summer. I might sign up for a biathlon if I can find a decent road bike at a decent price. I don't think I will look at the tri's because I don't have much experience on the swimming end.

Tricking the Treats

This Halloween was quite different from past Halloweens. In the past, we would buy a couple of the huge bags of candy sold by Sam's Club. Of course, we would choose the ones that had the candy we liked. I would hold off for a day or two before I would break into one. At first, I would have one or two a day. Soon, I would be grabbing hand fulls. My wife helped out too. We hoped that there would still be some left to hand out. Sometimes, we would buy an extra regular sized bag, just in case. Of course, we always overestimated how many little darlings would come begging, so we would have a bunch left over.

I am gagging, just thinking about it. It's a wonder that I never came down with diabetes (and yes, I have been tested).

This year, I bought one of the huge bags of candy from Sam's Club. However, I bought some nasty gummy candy. Half the bag went to the school where my kids attend. It's a small private school with about 60 kids preschool-8th grade. All the kids bring in enough for everyone in the school. Someone then takes all the candy and makes a bag for each student. The rest we handed out. Although, there was still some left over.

So buying the candy I wouldn't eat even if you paid me to was half the battle. The kids came home with a huge loot of candy. My wife took the opportunity to "inspect" the candy after the kids went to bed. I have no idea how much she "inspected," but I had no part of it.

Before, I took the kids out for some of the festivities, I made sure I had a filling snack and lots of water. In fact, I felt a little too full. I made sure I ate lots of salad at dinner and drank lots of water. When I took the kids door to door, some of the adults wanted to give me candy too (What is up with that?). I graciously refused.

So I filled up on nutritious food. I avoided many of the pitfalls. Yet, there was a tingling in my forearms as I thought about eating some chocolate. Certainly, one of my little ones would have gladly shared a bite sized Snickers or peanut butter cup. When the kids poured out their candy on the dining room table, there were mounds chocolate yummies.

I thought to myself, "You could eat one. It won't hurt you. A little treat is fine." All that of course is true...in the right circumstances. I realized this was not the right circumstance. I was like a shark who smelled blood. If I had one, I knew I would go into a frenzy.

Instead, I went to the store and bought some sugar free cocoa. I made a nice hot cup of cocoa and slowly sipped it. It was extra calories I would not normally have. It was after the time I normally eat. I am glad I did it. It satisfied that chocolate craving I was feeling. It made me feel full. Most of all, I took pride in not giving in to smell of blood. I showed that I respected myself.

That's how I dealt with a couple of hours Wednesday night. Since then, my wife has hidden the candy, not for my sake but so that the kids wouldn't have unlimited access to it. I am not sure how much candy she continues to "inspect," and I don't ask. I am afraid if I think about it too much, I might get sucked into the "inspection" thing. Then I will turn into a shark.

Anyhow, that's how I tricked myself to avoid the treats.


It does bring a question to mind. Why do I feel a tingling sensation in my arms when I get around the smell of chocolate? Is it a mental reaction? Is there something in the smell? It's kinda of weird. I don't recall having this reaction to any other kind of food. I wonder if there is something about chocolate. Do any of you have a physical reaction to the smell of chocolate?

Living Fit Is My #1 Job!