priorities

Yesterday I had a realization about my priorities. Basically, I think I've made the important shift to seeing getting in a workout as a high priority.

Liz was off yesterday, and wanted to go out golfing as it was likely the last day we would have a chance to for the season. We couldn't go until I got home from work, so we only got in nine holes, but it was fun. I was supposed to be working on a kitchen remodling project last night, so I had initially said I would count the mini round of golf as my workout for the night.

But then when I got home and had dinner... I just couldn't do that. I just had this overwhelming urge to get up and go to the gym.

So on one hand, I slacked on the housework, on the other hand, I got a full workout in before the Y closed for the night. Getting in my workout is a priority. And it needs to stay that way.


And the Indians won... so the fates must have been pleased :)

See, exercising really does work... week 6 results

This turned out to be my second best week yet! The exercise really worked wonders on my progress. I'm feeling sore today, so this is just the motivation I needed to keep it up.

Anyway, I am down 8.4 lbs on the week, taking me to a grand total of 353.8, which is 39 down from where I started. I am at 23% of the way to my end of 2008 goal.


Still far, far to go!

14 for 14.

So tomorrow's another weigh in. I have high (or is that low) hopes for this week. Of course, Liz would say I'm setting myself up for disappointment... the more hopeful I am going into a weigh in, the less room I have to be pleasantly surprised. Shrug.

One major accomplishment this week… I completed my entire workout schedule! Now Sunday I did a second treadmill rather than my leg machines as the Y was closed… but I did an afternoon workout, and that's a moral victory, even if it wasn't as good a workout I may have otherwise gotten. For my morning treadmills I've decided to start tracking distance (inspired to do so by Grizzpyre). So for October I'm up to 2.7 miles. I still am doing walking only, at least primarily… I did about a minute of jogging yesterday just to see what it felt like. Even at that I could really feel the loss of weight from a couple of months ago, I just felt a lot more graceful and smooth in my movement, less like a bouncing sack of particularly angry potatoes. I am committed to start mixing in jogging as soon as I hit 350.

Which leads to a bit of a race with myself. I'm curious to see whether I will get to 325 or develop the stamina to jog a full mile first. I'm betting on 325… I can't recall for certain ever being in good enough shape to jog a full mile… not even when I played soccer in highschool… I was a good sprinter, but only for very short distances. On the other hand, back then the problem was that I really wasn't very committed. I mean, I worked as hard as I could at practice, but never spent any time on my own just trying to get into better shape. I certainly didn't get up an hour earlier than I had to so I could get in a run. I also wasn't watching my diet at all (and had I tried, I would have screwed it all to hell… I had some really wacky ideas of healthy diet back then). The healthier diet and the extra exercise should help me build stamina faster than I ever could back in HS. Only one way to find out.

Anyway, 11 hours or so until my week 6 weigh in... good luck everyone!

Halftime!

So we're half way through the 11 "Fabulous in Fall" challenge. This has been a great motivator for me, and I'll be sad to see it end in another 5.5 weeks. But the blog will continue, so I'm still publicly accountable. (at least in my own head... no idea who's actually reading :) )

So this half week is producing excellent results, though I don't know for sure why. I've been staying under on points, but staying a lot closer to the line than in weeks past. I have been exercising more ... btw, I did get my afternoon workout done yesterday, and will be hopping on the treadmill as soon as I'm finished here. Though even after only a week of having a membership, I am really missing the Y this weekend :)

Anyway, this morning I was at 357.8, putting me up to 35.0 overall!!! (4.4 on the week) I did go ahead and tell L to push my goal out to 50 instead of 25, but I'm considering sending her another e-mail to move it to 60. 50 (which will take me to 342.8) should be fairly easy now that I only have 15 to go with 5.5 weeks left... though 60 is a stretch. It would mean doing almost as well in the second half as the first.

So the question is whether I would rather have a goal I'm pretty confident I can meet... and avoid the discouragement that would come in not reaching my goal... or if I would rather have a goal that would make me push really hard in the last week to try to reach it, and run the risk of not getting there.

Because I know I've done damn well on this challenge regardless of the final goal (after all, I've already blown the original goal out of the water), right now I'm leaning towards putting the goal just out of comfortable reach and pushing myself to reach it. Because I may not reach this new target, but I would hardly call it a failure.


Oh, and this most recent reading means that I've lost 21% of the weight I need to lose for End Obesity in 2008! And even if I just stay level for the next three days and end the week where I am right now, my pace for the long term goal drops to 2 lbs a week.

With 350 within shooting distance for next week, I want to establish a few new goalposts for the coming months. I'm pretty sure that somewhere between 350 and 345, I will have re-lost all the weight that I regained after my first serious diet in 2005, and will be working on new ground from that point on. Then at roughly 310-315 I will be down to my high school graduation weight, and anything beyond that will put me at least overweight I've been in my adult life. Stay Tuned!

hodgepoge of random thoughts

So I had expected that one nice side benefit of my diet would be that Liz and I would start digging ourselves out of credit card debt a little faster, because I wouldn't be spending so much on junk food. This month is decidedly not a testament to that.

Now, to be fair, we spent a lot on the Niagara trip and the big barbecue, and the join up fees at the gym, and buying gym clothes and gym shoes that all won't be repeated every month.

So I'm not worried so much as disappointed. I had looked forward to smaller bills at the end of the month as another morale boost, and I'm not getting it.

But everything else is going according to plan, so I can't complain.

So far this (calender) week I've been 6/6 on my morning treadmill (doing full miles on Sunday and Wednesday), and I've made 4/5 of my evening workouts at the Y. I missed Wednesday because I was stuck in Columbus. I'm actually going to miss going to the Y tomorrow (they're closed for some minor remodeling) and again Sunday (they're only open Sundays in the winter), but I will do a upper body workout here tomorrow and maybe a second session on the treadmill Sunday to make up for the missed leg workout.

I've also been at or under points every day since getting back from the vacation, including counting up all of my points from the BBQ.

I'm making a concerted effort not to weigh myself until at least Sunday morning, because I spent all last (challenge) week weighing myself every morning as soon as I rolled out of bed. It was fun in that I was down every day, but then frustrating because I had a sudden upswing at the end of the week. (I had been down to almost 9 down on the week). So only doing a midweek and a end of the week report was the deal I managed to strike with myself.

It's sad though, I'm craving weighing myself right now almost as bad as I have craved any non-point-friendly food throughout this diet. I am so quick to develop addictions it is pathetic. Thank God I never tried smoking!

While I've been good at points, I feel as if I could be doing a lot better on individual food choices. Liz made up some coke cake cupcakes for me (thanks again for the tip!), and with the particular cake mix (organic from Whole Foods) and the smallish cupcakes that we made, they work out to only 1.6 points each. But they don't have any fiber or protein or omega 3's or anything... they're just purely empty calories. So they don't push me past my points goal, but they do fill up space on my chart that could be better used getting good vitamins and proteins.

My deal with myself is that I can only have one as dessert to a healthy meal, with a glass of skim milk, and only one a day. I did break down and have two yesterday, so I refused to have one today.

Another food choice issue is making sure i have enough protein. I've never been so close to being a vegetarian in my life. Not that there's ever any chance of me becoming one in earnest. But the only meat I've had in the past four days was the shrimp in my tv dinner at lunch today. I've been finding proteins in milk, eggs, cheese, and beans mostly, but I think I need to work harder at making sure that I am getting enough of those if I'm going to continue cutting meat out of my diet.


Another challenge is that I don't think I'm drinking enough water. Which is odd... drinking lots and lots of water is like the only healthy habit I had back before I ever even thought about weight loss. I'm used to being always thirsty, and I do my very best to always keep water on hand. Therefore I haven't bothered tracking my intake, as I just knew intuitively that I drink far more water than I need. But sitting down to think about it the other day I began to question that assumption. I think I will start actually adding water to my spreadsheet for the next couple of days and try to find out.


Ok, so this has rambled on enough. Thank you so much for checking in with my progress and for all of your support!

Lunch in Cbus?

I will be in Columbus this Sunday, but have no real plans other than just to be able to hang out with Liz for her commute. If anybody who reads my blog from the Cbus area is free and would like to meet up for lunch (especially if you have any WW friendly lunch ideas) shoot me an e-mail (mgibbonscamp at gmail .com) so we can get together.

Shamelessly Stolen Insperational Material

Text in plain type is stolen from Becky's Bar and Grill, and in bold is my own comments on it:

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I say the next time you feel “[following WW's] is Too Hard” consider how hard it was/is to:

Shop in Specialty Clothing Stores (Layne Bryant, The Avenue, Catherine’s) your choices are limited.

For me it is Casual Male XL (formerly Casual Male Big and Tall), which is the only place I can buy any clothing other than socks.

Missing Out on Pool Parties because you're too embarrassed to wear a bathing suit in front of your friends.

I have definitely done this. I love to swim (ok, so I love to play in the pool, not exactly swim), but I've only done so twice in the past three years (both times at Niagara when Liz and I had the hotel pool to ourselves) or maybe even longer than that. It's not so much my friends I'm ashamed of, but the way I know I look even to complete strangers. I know I'm disgusting, and I don't want to ruin other people's time in the pool... so I just stay away.

Not being able to wear your favorite outfit because it's too small.

Not wanting to hug those close to you because you don't want them to feel your rolls of fat.

Not going to the movies, because squeezing into the seats for 90 minutes is too uncomfortable.

Not dancing at weddings because you don't want people staring at the "fat chick" on the dance floor.

At work, twice a year, we have retreats at state parks for one and a half days, and the night between the two days always involves a DJ/dancing in the bar from like 9-1. I have managed to keep myself tipsy enough at two of the four I've attended to get myself out on the floor and just have fun. The first of the four I skipped entirely and hid in my room all night, the third there wasn't a decent bar and I was too sober/self conscious. There's one other guy, a Managing attorney, who is almost (but not quite) as overweight as me, but he has a lot more confidence than I do. And I hear my friends/coworkers making fun of him at times, and I know they'd think the same about me if we weren't friends (or maybe just if I weren't in the conversation)

Not attending family gatherings because you don’t want people to see how big you’ve gotten.

Not going to a picnic or summer barbecue because you’re afraid the lawn furniture won’t hold you.

I have broken a number of our folding chairs at home, [over time, not like all at once] and I refuse to sit in chairs which aren't either metal or really solid wood.

Not attending your high school reunion because you don't want old boyfriends seeing how much weight you've put on. Or old friends thinking "what happened to her?"

For me, I was already fat in high school... and it was at least part of why I don't think there is a single person who will be disappointed that I didn't show for the reunion. I will only go to my 10 year (next Spring) if I feel that I've lost enough weight to surprise people.

Having to ask for a seatbelt extension on the airplane.

I think i've said before in this blog... I do whatever possible to avoid flying because I'm afraid they'll make me purchase two seats.

Yes, journaling, weighing and measuring your food, exercising, and attending weekly meetings is hard but being over weight is much harder and so much lonelier.

Hell yes.