Nervous about Week 4 Weigh In.....

I’m getting nervous about my week 4 weigh-in today. I have done a great job on my physical activity but I did not do a great job staying within the diet. On Saturday I ate some snacks including fried cheese at a watch party for the Arkansas/Alabama game and yesterday I ate out for lunch. Given it was grilled catfish but it was still not following the diet.

My exercise consisted of 4,400 calories worth of effort which included walking stairs for 60 minutes, 4.1 miles of running and 95 minutes on my Nordic Track ski machine. I am glad I did meet my PA goal of 4,000 calories for the week.

I guess we’ll see in a few hours how much weight I have actually lost. I am guessing it will be around 4 pounds…

Week 4, Day 2

Wooooooooooohooooooooooo! My week 3 weight loss was 6.9 pounds!!!! I was in total shock standing there on the scale in the clinic. I was guessing 4.5 pounds and the calculations of calorie deficit and exercise were predicting 5 to 5 ½ pounds so this was totally unexpected.

My numbers for last week are:
Weight Loss: 6.9 pounds
Total Loss to date: 18 pounds (in 3 weeks)
“Days in the Box”: 7/7
Physical activity calories: 3327 (Goal for next week: 4,000 calories)

Boy, this is some motivation to keep going. I did fairly well last week on “staying in the box” and was able to kick my exercise up a notch. I started climbing stairs in our building twice a day. Ok, I’m in only a 3 story building to its 3 stories up and back down but at least I’m moving. I started off at 10 minutes per session and was able to move it up to 15 minutes per session within a few days.

I also started running in the mornings as well. I ran 1.8 miles Wednesday morning at a 13:17 minute per mile pace and this morning, I ran 2.3 miles at a 13:42 minutes per mile pace. Ok, it was a little bit slower but the distance was longer.

I think the stair climbing is helping my aerobic capacity as well. I have a 1.8 mile loop in my neighborhood that I typically run. In the past, I could go about 0.8 or 0.9 miles before I would need to take my first walk break and after that, my endurance would be shot so I could not run very far after that without another “break.” Well yesterday I was able to go 1.6 miles without walking and I think the only reason I had to was because I came up a rather large hill that kind of wore me out. After I walked for about 2 minutes, I was able to run the remaining 0.2 miles back home. This morning I got up to 1.6 miles before I hit that hill and had to take a walk break.

I did fairly well on my eating last week. I fudged a little bit. I made homemade mac and cheese for my family on Sunday for lunch and I did sample a bit (maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons) and I substituted a “Lean Cuisine” for one of my entrees on Monday but it was one of the lower calorie ones.

I am really pumped up over this weight loss. My 20 year high school class reunion is next weekend and if I can turn in another weight loss like this week, I will weigh what I did when I graduated from college. That is too cool! Plus I will be within a few pounds of half way to my goal weight loss of 60 pounds…

Week 3, Day 2

I had my second weigh in yesterday. I lost 2.8 pounds last week bringing my total weight loss to 11.1 pounds in the last 2 weeks. Overall, I am very happy with that weight loss because I ventured outside of the program over the weekend.

I went to the lake with friends Saturday and Sunday. Saturday night we ate out at a nice restaurant and I had grilled rainbow trout and on Sunday, I just ate off the program completely. I ate mostly turkey sandwiches and some snacks (cheese, triscuits, chips) but nothing was what I would consider to be in excess.

Overall, given that I strayed so far from the program food, I think I did ok with the loss. I know I could have lost a lot more if I had stayed within the program.

My goal this week is to stay within the program for all 7 days and increase my physical activity to a higher level. I got 3,500 calories worth of activity done last week. This week, I am shooting for 4,000.
My numbers so far are:
Week 1
Physical Activity: 2779 calories
“Stayed in the Box” 6 of 7 days
Weight Loss: 8.3 lbs

Week 2
Physical Activity: 3536 calories
“Stayed in the Box” 5 of 7 days
Weight Loss: 2.8 lbs

My goals for this week are:
1. “Stay in the box” (eating only food in the program) for all 7 days
2. Get my exercise calories up to at least 4,000 calories for this week
3. Do at least two of the following before class next Tuesday:
a. Weight training workout
b. Swim for 30 minutes
c. Bike ride for at least 45 minutes

My new brother in law is really fired up about me doing this program. He has been doing Nutri-System for a month or two and is a hard-core cyclist. He says me being on this diet has pumped him up to get back on his diet really hard especially since he has to lay off the cycling for a few weeks due to exhaustion. He is trying to talk me into running the Little Rock Marathon with him next March and doing a triathlon next spring as well…

I am waiting on a rebate check to arrive. Once that gets here, I should be ordering a new heart rate monitor to track my workouts better. I am looking at the Polar F11 most likely but I am may consider one of the HRM’s geared towards a triathlon as well…

Week 1, Day 3

Day 3 and I am starting to feel a little better.  Day 1 was hard, especially trying to break all of my “old” habits about food; going out for lunch at 11:30 on the dot, getting a McDonald’s cheeseburger on the way home from work if I wanted a “snack,”  eating some kind of a “snack” while cooking dinner (mostly junk food) and some kind of late night snack around 10 pm before bed.

Day 2 was a little easier and so far Day 3 is off to a good start.  The past 2 days, I walked out the door for work and forgot my shakes and snack bar and would have to run back home at lunch to pick them up.  I did good this morning by remembering them. :)

As part of this program, I call my teacher/coach mid way through my week, which for this class is on Thursday afternoons.  That call really invigorated me yesterday.  I wasn’t feeling down, I’m not sure how I was feeling but after the call, I really perked up.

She gave me 2 assignments:  have an extra shake today (6 instead of 5) and exercise for 10 minutes longer than my previous best effort.  This morning I ran 2.2 miles in 34:00 where I previously was running 1.8 miles in 25:00.  I didn’t quite make the 10-minute mark but I will make up for in the morning by doing 45 minutes on my Nordic Track ski machine.

I will have my first “big test” tonight because I am taking my son to an Arkansas Travelers game and my buddy Wes is going to eat “ball park food”/crap tonight and I’m sure I’ll get some for my son.  I am going to be strong on this because 4 months of sacrifice will be totally worth it to lose 60 to 75 pounds.  I am dedicated to succeeding at this endeavor.