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Week Two: Staying Motivated After New Years

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
User is currently offline
on Saturday, January 12, 2013
in Weight Loss

Today is the second update of my goal to to return to race weight by April 13th. I am in a "sort of" competition with my brother-in-law Mike to reach our mutual goal of 169 pounds. See my first blog for details on where we started. I think you will see we both tackle weight loss in a completely different way. The goal of this series of posts is to show how a couple of average guys get back to their goal race weight.

 

 

 

Creating a weight loss plan can be fun and exciting. Starting the plan and then sticking to it is a lot less fun. Since we are only in week 2, hopefully it is not a struggle at this point to stick with your plan. Take your plan day by day and try not to get short sighted. You didn't gain the weight in a week or two....Even to lose the 20 pounds I need to lose I expect months of behavior modification.


Dave

Week Two Strategy and Results:  
This week unfortunately I had a relapse of my bronchitis I suffered with at the end of 2012. I ended up going back to the doctors on Tuesday and have been taking antibiotics, cough syrup, an inhaler, and Advil all week. Strategy out the window...I have maintained my portion control but I have been sedentary most of the week. A couple of days I barely left the couch. Not a good week. The good news is I didn't use this as an excuse to overeat or completely throw away all of my workouts. I still managed some weight loss and I will push on to week three.

Exercise:

Sunday-40 minutes on bike trainer

Monday-ran 4 miles easy

Tuesday-Ran 5 miles with 4 "pickups" of 1 min

Wednesday-on couch all day

Thursday-on couch most of day

Friday-Ran 5 miles (9 x 2 minutes at 10k race pace at 2-3% grade)

Saturday- Ran 4 miles easy

Totals: 40 minutes on the bike and 18 miles of running

Results:

Starting weight: 189    Jan 12th weigh-in: 186.5     Total weight loss: 2.5 pounds

Mike

Week Two Strategy and Results:

Every war is won before it is fought, I heard someone in my sales bullpen say this week and it is true.  Strategy and preparation are the two things you can control going into any situation that will have a huge impact on the outcome. As I moved into my second week of the juice fast, I kept strong in remembering what Dave and I are working towards is a goal weight that will make our times better than last year. Being ten pounds lighter alone will knock 20-30 seconds off my mile time, and the confidence of being under 170 will carry me a long way in speed training come April.

Today, I come off my juice fast and will continue on my controlled calorie, single ingredient diet.  Last year I lost more weight eating that way than when I juice fasted. These last 13 pounds will be very difficult to take off, so I have no illusions of any more rapid weight loss. I anticipate months of focusing on the goal at hand. Some ask how I can spend 90 minutes on the elliptical in January, don't you get bored?  To them I say "the under 22 minute 5k I will run in May will be worth it."

Exercise:

Sunday-90 minutes easy on treadmill (running)

Monday-75 minutes in the pool (swim class)

Tuesday-60 minutes spin + 45 minutes yoga

Wednesday-yoga 45 minutes + elliptical 80 minutes

Thursday-yoga 45 minutes + 45 minutes treadmill

Friday-elliptical 75 minutes

Saturday-60 minutes treadmill

Totals: 3.25 hours of running + 2.6 hours elliptical + 2.25 hours of yoga + 1 hour spin +

1.25 hours swimming

Results:

Starting weight: 192.5    Jan 12th weigh-in: 182.6    Weight loss: 9.9 pounds

Week Two Recap:

After 12 days you can see the results..Mike has lost almost 10 pounds and I have lost 2.5 pounds. Believe it or not I am actually happy where I stand. After being sick for the entire week I still managed to drop a pound. It would have been very easy to end up gaining a pound of two or to skip a few workouts. I have to give credit to Mike...he has started the year hardcore with a 10 day juice fast and he worked out all 7 days last week. Kind of hard to compete with that....It must be nice to drop 10 pounds in two weeks! If you would like to see details on how Mike manages his juice fast check out his juice blogs from last year.

The next update will be 9 days out and I think it will be a very important status check. Both of us will be three weeks deep and hopefully we will both post some nice numbers. Can Mike continue this torrid pace? Can I finally post some decent losses or will I continue plodding along at a pound a week?

 Next update January 21st!

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Week One on the Road to Weight Loss

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
User is currently offline
on Saturday, January 05, 2013
in Weight Loss

 

Starting a weight loss program can be exciting. Setting a goal and creating a plan can be motivating as you dream about what the results could be. You imagine the "new you" down the road and how awesome it would be if you weighed your goal weight. Today is the first update of my goal to to return to race weight by April 13th. As I mentioned last week I am in a "sort of" competition with my brother-in-law Mike to reach our mutual goal of 169 pounds. See last week's blog for details on where we started. I think you will see we both tackle weight loss in a completely different way. The goal of this series of posts is to show how a couple of average guys get back to their goal race weight.


Dave

Week One Strategy:  
I already eat healthy...I have just been eating too much. This week I cut back on portion size and eliminated second and third helpings of dinner. In addition I have been eating out a lot during the Holidays so I made a point of not eating out this week. I am not counting calories or dieting; just following my instincts with portion control.

Exercise:

Sunday-40 minutes on bike trainer

Monday-off

Tuesday-Ran 5 miles easy

Wednesday-Ran 5.5 miles (track workout-15 x 1 minute at 10k race pace)

Thursday-off

Friday-Ran 5 miles easy

Saturday- Ran 7.1 miles (long run pace)

Totals: 40 minutes on the bike and 22.6 miles of running

Results:

Starting weight: 189    Jan 5th weigh-in: 187.5     Weight loss: 1.5 pounds

Mike

Week One Strategy:  
If you don't know my story I lost over 60 pounds last year by using a strategy of juice fasting and becoming a vegan. I wrote a number of blogs explaining in detail how I did it and you can read them here. This year I am happy to say I do not have to lose 60 pounds. I only have to lose 24. I like to dive right into weight loss so I decided to do what I do best right out of the gate....juice fast! Since January 1st I have not eaten anything. Last year I became a real believer in juicing and as you can see the results speak for themselves. In addition I have started exercising primarily with yoga and the elliptical.

Exercise:

Sunday-off

Monday-off

Tuesday-30 minutes easy on treadmill (running)

Wednesday-yoga 60 minutes + elliptical 60 minutes + 30 minute spin class

Thursday-off

Friday-yoga 60 minutes + elliptical 60 minutes

Saturday-yoga 90 minutes

Totals: 30 minutes of running + 2 hours elliptical + 3.5 hours of yoga

Results:

Starting weight: 192.5    Jan 5th weigh-in: 187.2     Weight loss: 5.3 pounds

Week one Recap:

After week one you can see that we both approach weight loss in different ways. On the competitive side you can see that Mike's extreme strategy really paid off. I chose a more measured approach and to be honest was content with the 1.5 pound reduction before I heard Mike's results. If you have not weighed yourself in awhile the initial weigh-in is always a little questionable. Weights fluctuate all the time so it is hard to tell if Mike had an inflated number to begin with. This week will be telling as it is the first full week without a Holiday distraction and also we both have a better idea of where we stand. Can Mike keep it going? Will I see better results next week? We will see. I know this is motivating me and I hope you have started your return to race weight!

 

Next update January 12th!

 

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