Yesterday, at work, we celebrated the retirement of a coworker. Along with that celebration there were some great treats. We had a cake, some fruit, a meat and cheese tray and soda. I'll admit, I had a piece of cake. But that was ok. You see, I logged it into my daily calories and was able to adjust my dinner last night to the point that I didn't go over my calorie limit for the day. I stayed within my goal range. I had also forgotten my lunch which worked out perfectly, so I had some fruit and some meats and cheeses. I honestly felt like I succeeded yesterday because I stayed within my calories.
Today, we celebrated another coworker who will be leaving to go on to new things. There was fruit and there were donuts. I had some fruit. I avoided the donuts completely because I knew they would put me over my calories today. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a let down at the time. But when I look at my page on Sparkpeople and see the calories that I'm eating today and the weight I've lost it picks me right back up and I feel excited about where I'm going.
I know the road is long and it's not easy. In fact it's really easy to give in "just this once" but unfortunately that usually turns into, "oh well, I'll start again next week". The real trick is to stick to the diet every time and not let "just this once" ever happen. And then, if it does, you have to pick yourself back up and not wait til next week to start again. Life is full of things that knock us down. Picking ourselves back up, dusting ourselved off, and moving forward is the key. And doing that now rather than letting ourselves sit on the ground for a few days first is what gets us to our goals.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
A Hundred Pushups
I've decided that dieting alone isn't going to be enough for me. While I know I'm losing weight at a good pace, that's not all I want to do. I want to look and feel great and in order to do that I need to exercise. So I've looked at a few programs that I think can help me get there.
First, on the Sparkpeople website there are numerous exercise suggestions, not to mention a number of groups for several other exercise programs. That's where I heard about the Hundred Pushups. Actually, it was a post that my sister made on Sparkpeople. She had started the Hundred Pushups challenge and posted about it on her page. So I decided to check it out. You can find it at http://hundredpushups.com/. This site has a routine that you do 3 times a week where you increase how many pushups you do each day. The idea is that in 6 weeks you will be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. The workouts are based on how you do on the test every two weeks. It might take some people longer and some people shorter but in the end, you'll get to 100.
So I started. Two days ago I did the test and got 17 good pushups. Then yesterday, I did the first workout based on that test. It went well. It didn't take long and I just did it while watching TV. But I did it and that's what matters.
Since I found the Hundred Pushups challenge I started looking around and found another cool site. It's called 7 Weeks to Fitness and can be found at http://www.7weekstofitness.com/. It's got several workout programs for pushups, situps, pullups, getting ripped, etc. Next week, I'm going to start the jump rope routine. Between pushups and the jump rope routine I think I'll have a good start. Then, later in April, I'm going to start the Couch to 5K program. I started this once before and I can't remember now why I stopped... But this is another program that starts at a beginner level of jogging/walking and gets to you where you can go 5 kilometers without stopping in 9 weeks. That one is at http://www.coolrunning.com/. The nice thing about each of these routines is that they take you from a beginner level up to a more advanced level. After all, how many people do you know that can do 100 pushups without a break?
First, on the Sparkpeople website there are numerous exercise suggestions, not to mention a number of groups for several other exercise programs. That's where I heard about the Hundred Pushups. Actually, it was a post that my sister made on Sparkpeople. She had started the Hundred Pushups challenge and posted about it on her page. So I decided to check it out. You can find it at http://hundredpushups.com/. This site has a routine that you do 3 times a week where you increase how many pushups you do each day. The idea is that in 6 weeks you will be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. The workouts are based on how you do on the test every two weeks. It might take some people longer and some people shorter but in the end, you'll get to 100.
So I started. Two days ago I did the test and got 17 good pushups. Then yesterday, I did the first workout based on that test. It went well. It didn't take long and I just did it while watching TV. But I did it and that's what matters.
Since I found the Hundred Pushups challenge I started looking around and found another cool site. It's called 7 Weeks to Fitness and can be found at http://www.7weekstofitness.com/. It's got several workout programs for pushups, situps, pullups, getting ripped, etc. Next week, I'm going to start the jump rope routine. Between pushups and the jump rope routine I think I'll have a good start. Then, later in April, I'm going to start the Couch to 5K program. I started this once before and I can't remember now why I stopped... But this is another program that starts at a beginner level of jogging/walking and gets to you where you can go 5 kilometers without stopping in 9 weeks. That one is at http://www.coolrunning.com/. The nice thing about each of these routines is that they take you from a beginner level up to a more advanced level. After all, how many people do you know that can do 100 pushups without a break?
Monday, March 19, 2012
Two Weeks Later
It's been almost two weeks since my last post. Today, I weighed in at 277.2 and that makes me pretty happy. After about 3 weeks of dieting I've lost almost 11 pounds. But I've still got a long ways to go.
Let me tell you about my experience this last Saturday. I got up in the morning and had a yogurt and an apple before leaving home to run a paintball event. For lunch, I brough a Fiber One bar, an apple and an orange. So far, it's looking pretty low calorie (much less than normal). But, when the event ended, I had a dinner activity to go to an no computer to look up how many calories were in what I was eating. I was going in blind (as we usually do when we eat at events). So I ate a reasonable dinner, but the dessert looked too good to pass up.
In the end, when I calculated my daily calories for Saturday, I had eaten over 3000 calories. This would be pretty good compared to my normal eating habits. But for the last 3 weeks I've been eating around 2000 - 2200 calories per day. I was afraid this would set me back a little. Fortunately, I had played a lot of paintball that day and I had been really good during the rest of the week. So in the end I still lost around 4 pounds this week.
This little story is a perfect example of what usually happens when I eat out. The only way I have to make sure I don't go overboard is to track everything, even if I know I went over. It's best to track it beforehand in order to only eat what fits within my goals, but even if I can't do that, I still need to track it all. Eating too much on Saturday helped me have greater resolve to eat right on Sunday which I did.
3 weeks and 11 pounds later I'm feeling pretty good about where this is going. My energy level is up (a little) and my pants are a looser (again, just a little) and I'm heading in the right direction.
Let me tell you about my experience this last Saturday. I got up in the morning and had a yogurt and an apple before leaving home to run a paintball event. For lunch, I brough a Fiber One bar, an apple and an orange. So far, it's looking pretty low calorie (much less than normal). But, when the event ended, I had a dinner activity to go to an no computer to look up how many calories were in what I was eating. I was going in blind (as we usually do when we eat at events). So I ate a reasonable dinner, but the dessert looked too good to pass up.
In the end, when I calculated my daily calories for Saturday, I had eaten over 3000 calories. This would be pretty good compared to my normal eating habits. But for the last 3 weeks I've been eating around 2000 - 2200 calories per day. I was afraid this would set me back a little. Fortunately, I had played a lot of paintball that day and I had been really good during the rest of the week. So in the end I still lost around 4 pounds this week.
This little story is a perfect example of what usually happens when I eat out. The only way I have to make sure I don't go overboard is to track everything, even if I know I went over. It's best to track it beforehand in order to only eat what fits within my goals, but even if I can't do that, I still need to track it all. Eating too much on Saturday helped me have greater resolve to eat right on Sunday which I did.
3 weeks and 11 pounds later I'm feeling pretty good about where this is going. My energy level is up (a little) and my pants are a looser (again, just a little) and I'm heading in the right direction.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
A Week In and Getting Better
Yesterday officially made a week since beginning my new resolve to lose weight and get into shape. Yesterday I weighed myself and I was at 284.8 lbs. That means I lost 3.2 lbs my first week. To be honest, I hoped for more. You see, I've done some dieting in the past and it'd not uncommon to lost more your first week and then to settle into the 2-2.5 lbs a week standard. But despite hoping for more, I'll be happy with it. It's a start. And as far as losing weight goes, slow and steady may not win the race, but it'll definitely get me to the finish line.
Last night, I decided to finally take some measurements as well. I'll just take these once a month so I can hopefully get soem change between measurements. Here they are right now.
Waist (1/2 inch above the belly button): 50.5
Hips: 51
Thigh: 30.5
Upper Arm: 16
Neck: 18
Calf: 19
Body Fat (according to my scale) : 37.4%
So there's my baseline. I'm hoping that a month from now I can see some noticeable difference on at least some of these numbers. The next step in my weight loss plan will be to continue counting calories (1,780 - 2,130 per day for me) and to start getting more active. Last week I played some soccer on wednesday and did some gardening and outdoor work on Thursday and Saturday. This week, I need to be a little more deliberate in my exercising and make sure I put in the time. 90 minutes of actual cardio exercise this week will be my goal. That's 30 minutes, 3 different days.
Last night, I decided to finally take some measurements as well. I'll just take these once a month so I can hopefully get soem change between measurements. Here they are right now.
Waist (1/2 inch above the belly button): 50.5
Hips: 51
Thigh: 30.5
Upper Arm: 16
Neck: 18
Calf: 19
Body Fat (according to my scale) : 37.4%
So there's my baseline. I'm hoping that a month from now I can see some noticeable difference on at least some of these numbers. The next step in my weight loss plan will be to continue counting calories (1,780 - 2,130 per day for me) and to start getting more active. Last week I played some soccer on wednesday and did some gardening and outdoor work on Thursday and Saturday. This week, I need to be a little more deliberate in my exercising and make sure I put in the time. 90 minutes of actual cardio exercise this week will be my goal. That's 30 minutes, 3 different days.
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