Progress Report XXXXV - October 31

Last Week's Weight: 232.2 lbs
Current Weight: 225.8 lbs.
Loss/Gain: - 6.4 lbs.
Weekly Percentage of Weight Loss: 2.75%

26.8 lbs. to Year-End Goal (199 lbs.)
56.8 lbs. to Goal (169 lbs.)

Exercise Hours: 3:58:14.1 hours

Exercise Distance: 10 miles

Calories Burned: 2,452

I'd say my second week of weight loss was a success. Adding in the exercise component - keeping the daily caloric intake relatively the same as last week - kept my weekly weight loss number high. 6.4 pounds is still quite impressive.

The exercise activities I began this week were: walking, an ab routine (crunches, inhales, leg lift curls, leg lifts), pushups, weights (arm curls, arm reverse curls), and a stretching routine. I wore my heart rate monitor to measure calories burned.

Thursday night/Friday I was not feeling very well. Feverish with an upset stomach. Couldn't place the cause of my discomfort, but it didn't last much past 24 hours, so I'm thinking it was nothing more than a bug.

I can tell you this: My arms were killing me all week! Jumped into the weights with only arm curls, but I tore my muscles up. Thursday night, in addition to the sickness, my arms hurt so bad I had difficulty falling asleep. 55 reps of 35 pounds (1,925 lbs. of weight being curled) might have been an extreme start. Still, I stuck with it, and my arms, while no longer throbbing extensions of pain, are adapting.

Need to work over the next few weeks on finding some recipes to cook that I can store as leftovers throughout the week so that on nights I work or am rushed for time I have something filling, and healthy to eat.

To reach my year-end goal weight I need to lose an average of 2.96 lbs. per week for the remaining 9 weeks, so I've set my Daily Plate calorie goal at a loss of 3.1 lbs., giving me 1,250 calories a day as my consumption goal.

What A Difference A Day Can Make

On Monday when I went out to walk at 8 PM it was a warm 70 degrees. I was in shorts and a t-shirt and it was entirely comfortable, if not a little warm as I turned around and had the wind at my back.

Two days later, at the same time of night, the temperature has dropped 30 degrees, and the winds are gusting over 30 mph. I'm bundled up in slicks, a long-sleeve shirt, and a jacket. Hat and gloves, too.

Big change. But I suppose this is the end of October, and these are the conditions I need to expect for awhile now.

I'm ready. This is my season, my weather. Bring it on!

Progress Report XXXXIV - October 24

Starting Weight: 239.4 lbs
Weight: 232.2 lbs.
Loss/Gain: - 7.2 lbs.
Weekly Percentage of Weight Loss: 3%

33.2 lbs. to Year-End Goal (199 lbs.)
63.2 lbs. to Goal (169 lbs.)

Exercise Hours: 0

Exercise Distance: n/a

I'm back. Back on The Daily Plate, tracking my calories (and soon exercise) in an attempt to take off the pounds that hold me down, that hold me back from life as I want it.

I've set my weekly goal as 3.3 lbs. I've marked my lifestyle as lightly active. I was allowed 1,260 calories a day last week, and 1,202 calories a day this week. Adding exercise into the mix should keep the weight coming off, but it'll take some tweaking to figure just the right amount of calories I'm able to consume to maintain the energy for exercise and still lose weight. That's part of the challenge of a healthy life.

Can't promise the attention to detail I provided in the past with regards to posts about exercise, or regular blog postings in general. The time I have is limited. I'll do my best to keep the world (my 2 or 3 readers) informed.

Thanks for the support. Wish me luck.

(It's only my life.)

He's Back, Bigger than Before (but shrinking)

It's funny what a year off from healthy living can do.

Funny in a sad way because I packed back on all the weight, plus some. I was over 240 pounds a couple of weeks ago. Funny in a great way because I lost a massive amount of weight in just my first 6 days of starting back. And funny in a maddening way because when I look back to a year ago, I was consuming only about 1,400 calories a day and netting a -666 calories after at least an hour of exercise a day, and I know (think) I can't come close to that now.

How do I juggle two jobs, a tendency to eat when stressed (and let's face it, when am I not stressed, depressed, or otherwise moody?), a change in the weather for the poorer, and the other inherent difficulties of losing weight?

The best I can. That's the only answer that I have. The only answer there is.

I was able to follow the suggested number of calories to consume during my first week, and that number only shrinks with each passing week and pound lost. I know what happened in the past, but this is a different time, a different life, and I can only do what works for me now.

This week I add exercise to the mix (outside on the days it isn't raining and doing what I can inside on the days it pours). I can't expect to see weight loss numbers like I saw this week, but at least with the addition of exercise I stand a chance of continuing to lose weight on a weekly basis.

I'm 30 years old now. And it's time to finally be healthy. I'm looking to be down under 200 by year's end. By summer I hope to have met that goal I set a few years back: 169 lbs. and in the best shape of my adult life.

The ball's rolling...