Sunday Morning ~ Weigh In March 6, 2011
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This has been some week. I spent the week tracking what I eat with good success for the most part, and fair success as far a meeting my calorie goals. It really hasn’t been that bad, but I missed the mark on a couple of days. I can really notice what a difference there has been in the amount of food that I am eating. I was aware of times when I would normally just grab something and munch on in the past, almost out of habit it seems. There were a few times when I still did grab something because I was truly hungry. The challenge of being hungry is something that I really have struggled with in the past because it always leads to frustration for me, and I get discouraged and next thing I know all that I have been working for is forgotten. I don’t want that to happen this time, and since I am seeing signs, I want to find a way to counteract it. Find a way isn’t really what I mean. I know a way that will work for me and jump-start things for me. I have followed the principles of the South Beach Diet in the past and had good success with the first few weeks. But it is a mental hurdle for me, as is almost of all of this weight reduction health improvement thing. I did the South Beach Diet a few years ago and had great results for 4 weeks. It was very difficult at first, eliminating all those bad carbs and it sometimes seemed like I would never get done preparing my next meal. It was a lot of work. But I did it, and I did it for 4 weeks. I think I could have kept going, but I hit a major bump in the road. My son and I attended an 8 day summer camp with his scout troop. Food choices were very limited. All we could eat was what was supplied by the camp, and cooked by us. Traveling to and from the camp was about a 14 hour drive, and over two days, that resulted in a lot of fast food. When I returned to civilization, I was in severe need of some good old home cooking. And That is what I had. It never stopped, and within about 4 months, I had gained the 20 or so pounds I had lost when I followed South Beach.
I don’t have any planned bumps in the road, but still the commitment needed to do this is a big one, and I feel like I am inching myself towards it, getting closer by the day. I want to see some good results. I want to improve my health. There are many things I want to do, that I can’t do at this current weight and fitness level. I am getting there, and I will make strides to do it each and every day.
Results for the week (actually two) are as follows. I am down 1.3 pounds from my last weigh in to 262.7. Inch by inch I will make this happen.
Status Report – Week # 9 May 9, 2010
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Just a short sweet update for this Mother’s Day. I have had a pretty good week overall. Things continue to be very busy for me, and the week was not without a few challenges. The biggest challenge for me was my left hamstring. I am not sure what has happened to it, I can’t pin it down to a specific event, but it has been extremely tight for about 5 days now. I have tried stretching it on numerous occasions, but still the tightness continues. I haven’t done any of my c25k program this week because of this. I actually enjoyed week one of the program, and was looking forward to making progress in week two. Once I get the hamstring figured out, I will get back to the training that the program lays out.
I did pretty well with my eating choices this week. It was not without a few setbacks, but overall things went well. The results on the scale this morning show that I made some progress this week also. I weighed in at 251 this morning, which is down another 3 pounds from last Sunday. I had a feeling that things were going pretty well, but without the exercise, I wasn’t really sure what I would see this morning. Needless to say, I was quite happy to see the number 251. Surprised even, but I will definitely take it.
I want to wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day today. I will be thinking of my Mom today, and trying to make it a great day for the Mother of my kids.
Status Report – Week # 8 May 2, 2010
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Another week, another weigh in. But this has not just been another week for me. I have gotten back on track, at least partially. I went through some tough weeks during early April, but this week got me back into the swing of things somewhat. There is some hesitation in saying that I am back, because I have many things to improve upon, but I am moving in the right direction again.
Here are a couple of things that I can improve on as I move forward. Eating healthy foods. There, I said it. I haven’t been doing a great job with all of my eating. The last few weeks, I have slipped into some old habits that I need to eliminate in order to move forward. Habits like eating processed foods and not fresh foods. Salads have almost completely fallen off of my eating radar. Sweets and other treats have joined processed foods in returning to my diet also. A Hershey bar here, some potato chips there, a pound of weight still around my midsection……….you get the picture.
This past week has been better for me as far as exercise goes. I finally started(again) and completed week one of c25k. When I had started this program a couple of times earlier in the month, I couldn’t make the commitment to get through the whole week. It didn’t seem right to have an entire rest week between sessions, so I would restart on day 1. This week, I made it a point to find the time and just get outside and do it. All that said, it still took me 7 days to complete week one. I had intended to finish the first week on Friday evening, but I didn’t get it finished until Sunday morning. I am glad that I have gotten through it, and am looking forward to week number 2. I am using the podcasts of Robert Ullrey to help me pace myself, and I think they work great. For me it is good to have somebody on the opposite shoulder of my self-conscious to provide that little extra motivation when I get to doubting myself.
Here are this weeks numbers. The scale reports that I am at 254, which is a push. Nothing lost, nothing gained. While I really would like to figure out how to post a few weeks in a row with losses, I know that the scale just gives me a number. I need to look past the number and focus on the good decisions I am starting to make again to improve my health. I do believe that if I continue to eat healthy and exercise regularly, the pounds will come off.
Status Report – Week #7 April 25, 2010
Posted by Scott in Motivation, Weekly Weigh In.8 comments
Another weigh in, another week gone by and I really feel like I am losing my way. Things have continued to be hectic at work, and in my life in general. I feel that the good habits that I had been developing over the past few weeks, have been slipping, and I am starting to feel the effects of my inaction. This has been a busy day for me, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about what to write for this update. I came up with this: emotions, results and direction.
Emotions – After a couple of weeks of feeling like I have had day after day of failures, I am feeling pretty down. I have had 3 very crazy weeks at work, and my personal life has had its share of challenges as well. When I started this journey, one of the things that helped motivate me tremendously was reading other peoples blogs about their weight loss journeys. I have struggled to find time to even stop by a few blogs and get updates on the fine folks in the blogosphere. So the net result is many hours of work, few hours of sleep, little blog reading motivation and just a general feeling of defeat. All of this has resulted in me falling into some old patterns. The worst of which was emotional eating. Whenever I get down on myself I turn to food. Cookies, brownies, candy or anything else that my family has brought into the house that is bad for me. I need to change. I need to get back on track. How? That is the question.
Results – Now this is where it gets crazy and hard to explain. This week, somehow, I don’t know how, I managed to lose two pounds and get down to 254 when I got onto the scale this morning. I have no idea how this happened. I ate pizza twice this week, lots of pizza one day. I ate fast food three times this week because I have been too tired to fix even the simplest of meals at home, and I just didn’t care at the moment. Although the regret soon hit me, just not enough to stop me the next time I hit the drive through. Exercise this week resulted in a zero. Zero work outs, zero walks. Just a zero! I need to change that.
Direction – I need some. Small steps must be the goal for the week. Anything I do that is positive will be 100% more than what I did this past week. I will walk this week. I will prepare my meals ahead of time and not hit the drive through this week. I will set my goal to read at least three blogs per day this week so that I can get motivated to get back on track.
Status Report – Week # 6 April 18, 2010
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This has been another long week for me. I have not had much time for me in which to post or read the blogs that I check out for inspiration. The long hours have taken a toll on the quality of my meal choices. I have made some poor choices along the way, but tried to mix in good things too. I am not very disciplined when I get tired, and this week I was very tired because of long work days, and not getting enough sleep. I was able to get out and walk last Sunday and yesterday too, but during the week I was only able to squeeze in one mile on Thursday.
Last weekend, that’s right, last weekend, I had set some goals for myself to support Craig at My Life, Take Eight who was repeating the Weekend Warriors challenge from a couple of weeks back. Craig didn’t like the results he had that first weekend of the month and wanted a do over. I, along with some others, decided to join him in repeating the challenge again last weekend. I wanted to drink my 80 ounces of water each day, walk at least 5 miles during the weekend and the third goal was to have a really good day of eating on Saturday before last weekends weigh in. I was able to accomplish all three goals, although the walking all got done in two sessions on Sunday. That is more than I usually try on one day, but it got done.
Overall the choices I made didn’t have a negative effect on my weight as I stayed even at 256 for no loss/no gain for the week. I am hopeful that this week will not be quite as hectic and I will be able to get back on track. I want to lose at least one pound for the week to get to my second “Minus 5 Goal”.
Status Report – Week # 5 April 11, 2010
Posted by Scott in Motivation, Weekly Weigh In.4 comments
It is almost hard for me to believe that I have completed 5 weeks on this journey. I am making progress, ever so slowly, and changing many things about my life. Overall, I think it feels good, but it is difficult dealing with the time it takes to move mountains. I didn’t put all my weight on in 5 weeks, so not sure why I should be disappointed when it comes down so slowly. I know that there are still things that I can improve upon. Are my eating habits better than they were when I started? Yes. Still lots of room for improvement though. Am I moving more now than I did before? I am. If I could do this even one or two more times a week though, how much faster could I get to where I want to go?
The moments of self-doubt are difficult to deal with. I made progress this week. I really did. But I don’t feel like I have accomplished enough. Sounds crazy I know, but I am doubting that I can keep losing by having more weeks like the one I just had. I know that I have more weeks like this coming too. My work schedule is going to be crazy for the next 4 or 5 weeks at least, and I am worried that I won’t be able to maintain the losses.
Here are the numbers for the week. I am down another 2 pounds. I should be proud of this, but I just have this feeling that it wasn’t real, or maybe isn’t lasting. I don’t know, but I’m just not that excited by it. Maybe the only way I will feel more “accomplishment” is to do more work to earn it.
Status Report – Week #4 April 4, 2010
Posted by Scott in Accomplishments, Exercise, Food, Goals, Weekly Weigh In.5 comments
This has been a tough week for me. I have been feeling under the weather since Monday evening. Some days have been better than others, but I wouldn’t say that I have felt good any day this week. Head cold, sinus pressure, no energy. That has summed up my week, that and not really following my healthy eating plan. Additionally, I didn’t really get as much movement in as I wanted. Unlike last week, I haven’t felt like I was making progress this week.
All that being said, imagine my surprise when I got onto the scale this morning and saw 258. That is a 3 pound loss for the week. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t eat that great all week, had less movement overall, and yet I lost 3 pounds!
Here is how I think this happened. The night before last week’s weigh in, we had gone to our friends home for dinner. I ate a lot of food that night. Second helpings of everything, including desert. I was stuffed! Later in the evening when we got home, I still felt stuffed. It was by far the most food I had eaten in a while. I think that it still affected me on Sunday morning when I did my weigh in. I felt great leading up to last weeks weigh in, but only saw a 1 pound loss for that week. This week, I didn’t do that great, but had a 3 pound loss. I think both numbers are probably skewed by the huge dinner I ate last Saturday.
Last week, for the second week in a row, I set the same four goals for the week. Here is how they went this week.
Drink 80 ounces of water each day – 4 of 7 days again.
Complete week two of Two Hundred Squats Challenge – well, about that……….not done at all. Still need to do week 2.
Prepare lunches for work and plan healthy breakfast for the next day before going to bed. Worst results here again – only 1 of 5 days.
Start looking for a 5k to enter. I looked a bit, found some possibilities, but they are all in May, and I don’t think I am going to be ready for it by then. The search continues.
With today being Easter, I have some challenges ahead of me, but I am energized to get through today and not over indulge in the great food that will be on hand. I have avoided the kids candy this morning, and plan on doing so for the day. I wish everyone a Happy Easter!
The last thing I will include in this post is that I have reached one of my mini goals. I have passed my first Minus 5! I have officially passed the Minus 5 Times 1 level, and now I have nine more to go. Boo-yah!
Status Report – Week # 3 March 28, 2010
Posted by Scott in Exercise, Food, Goals, Weekly Weigh In.1 comment so far
Progress – a movement toward a goal or to a further or higher stage
That is what I am looking at this week as, progress.
I am feeling better overall than I was just a few weeks ago. I have not found myself quite so out of breath after climbing two sets of stairs at work. I am moving more and gaining daily on my goal of starting to run. Not quite there yet, bet getting closer. I made some really great choices this week, not all were great, but overall more good than bad. I feel that my body is changing. My stomach is smaller, so much so that people are telling me that they can see a difference. That feels really good to hear! My legs are more toned than they have been in years. It is progress, that is for sure.
The scale showed a little bit of progress this morning. I was happy with the number, especially since I ate a ton of food last night at our friends home. All of it was great tasting, but most was not what you would consider healthy, and I went back for seconds on everything, including desert. When I got home, three hours after eating, I still felt stuffed.
For the week, I am down 1 pound to 261. I cut in half the gain I experienced last week, and like I stated, my body is firming up.
Last week, I set four goals for the week. Here is how they went.
Drink 80 ounces of water each day – 4 of 7 days
Complete week one of Two Hundred Squats Challenge – done, on to week 2.
Prepare lunches for work and plan healthy breakfast for the next day before going to bed. Worst results here – only 2 of 5 days.
Start looking for a 5k to enter. Looking at few possibilities. I want to follow the Couch to 5k program for training, so when I start running will determine when I can enter a race.
These goals are going to be mine again for this week. That, and more progress!
Status Report – Week #2 March 21, 2010
Posted by Scott in Goals, Weekly Weigh In.3 comments
I had a sense of excitement and dread as I walked towards the scale. I knew that the choices I made this week were probably going to have a negative effect on the scale, but I was hopeful that I might see a loss because I feel like I am making progress. My stomach seems like it is shrinking a bit, and I am feeling better overall. But……..
I was not entirely surprised at the reading on the scale after the week that I had. Week 2 gives me a 2 pound gain. Ugh! So after 2 weeks of blogging about my progress I am down 2 pounds to 262. I was hoping for at least one pound lost so that I could reach my first Minus 5 Goal. Oh well, not to be this week, but I am not letting it get me down. No, I am not. I will use it as a motivator to get busy this week and make better choices with food and exercise. As Tyler, at 344 pounds posted a few weeks ago about the choices you make today, Yesterday is Gone. I am not going to let yesterday get in the way of the choices I can make today.
This weeks Goals –
1 – Water consumption of at least 80 ounces per day.
2 – Two Hundred Squats Challenge week # 1.
3 – Prepare all of my healthy lunches for work, and plan something for a quick and healthy breakfast before I go to bed each night.
4 – Start searching for a 5k race to enter in late spring or early summer. I haven’t started running yet, but it is coming soon!
Status Report – Week # 1 March 14, 2010
Posted by Scott in Goals, Weekly Weigh In.2 comments
This is the first of my weekly weigh in’s since starting Minus Five Times Ten. I have had a good week overall and have been pretty happy with my food choices, although the Girl Scout Cookies have been a challenge. I was able to get out and enjoy the finally nice weather a bit and get some walking in this week. I want to ramp up my exercise in the coming days. I am going to start the 200 Squats Challenge on Monday. I am also looking to spend more time outside walking in the next couple of days. This week is looking extremely busy at work with eleven or twelve-hour days, so I will need to stay sharp when it comes to making food choices and packing my lunches and snacks.
With that being said, I climbed on the scale and was happy to see the number 260 this morning. This is -4 lbs for the week. Not quite my Minus 5, but that is just the incremental goal, not expected each week. I am happy for the loss and getting started on the path to better health.
Minus Five Times Ten 