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Do You Have the Winter Blues?

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
User is currently offline
on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
in Weight Loss

Today is the seventh 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.

 

 

Dave's Week Seven Summary and Results:  

You know what? Getting serious about losing weight is no fun. Why is that? Because everything we enjoy in life involves behavior that is detrimental to weight loss. That is why you need to change your behavior in order to lose weight and keep the weight off. 

Last week I had a case of the "winter blues". Maybe you are familiar with it...sick of winter, sick of cold, sick of snow, sick of the treadmill, etc. I ended up eating out a couple of times last week and made some bad food choices. Luckily I didn't miss a workout but every workout was a struggle mentally, and I felt like I was right on the edge of losing my motivation. When this happens I am usually rescued by my inner voice which tells me..."Stop being such a baby and get it done" or something like that. Sometimes there is an inappropriate adjective in front of the word "baby" as well...The bottom line is that if you are committed to an exercise/weight loss program you need to get it done. No excuses. I have mentioned this in previous weeks...if it was easy everyone would be fit and thin instead of unfit and fat.

I ended up losing another pound last week so I have continued my 1 pound a week average. So far I have lost 7 pounds in 7 weeks. Nothing special but I continue plodding along. I am hoping one of these weeks I'll really kick it in gear and speed up the process but it hasn't happened yet.

Exercise Totals: Ran 24.5 miles and biked 40 minutes on trainer

Results:

Starting weight: 189   Feb 19th weigh-in: 182   YTD loss (7 weeks): 7 lbs

 Mike's Week Seven Summary and Results:  

 A friend of mine once said you only have a certain amount of will power, and once you use it all on something you have nothing left for other things. When something that can be normally considered bad happens, your mind goes to processing it. Well when you are in a competition and something happens, it is best to process it quickly. This weekend my diet consisted of potato chips, beer, and french fries. I just lost it. My mind was processing something out of the ordinary and I had no will power left for eating right. I would hope that my rational side would have kicked in and my eating habits would remain unchanged, but Ruffles covered in Sriracha squeezed from the bottle, are way better than the lays rendition. All this good food coupled with video games, what a healthy lifestyle.

Another wise friend once told me that it is OK to be angry, but remember this. "Be angry for a day, a week, a month, or a year, but when you are done being angry, you will have to pick it up and start from that point. In other words, don't waste too much time being angry". When you are not really mad at anything, or anyone, it is harder to let it go, but you have to.  So I allowed myself two days to process it, and then rationally let it go.

The best opportunities I have been involved in have come from conventionally bad events. So I picked myself up yesterday, 90 Minutes of Bikram yoga and 75 minutes swimming later, I am back on track and not as mad. It may still be a few days mind you, but I am squeezing my will power to things I have control over and trying to move in a positive direction.  174.8..despite my let down I only gained a half pound...I can't wait to sweat this salt out of my veins.

 Exercise Totals: Elliptical 90 minutes +  biked 1 hr + swam 2.5 hrs + yoga 90 minutes

 Results:

Starting weight: 192.5   Feb 19th weigh-in: 174.8   YTD loss (7 weeks): 17.7 lbs

 

              Next weigh-in will be the 2 month mark.....March 1st!

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Dealing with Weight Loss Setbacks

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
User is currently offline
on Monday, January 21, 2013
in Weight Loss

Today is the third 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.

 

Dave

Week Three Summary and Results:  
As I write my third update I feel like the last three weeks have just been a continuous string of excuses. Now, don't get me wrong. My excuses are legitimate and completely make sense. The problem is excuses are the reason people gain weight and also are the reason it is difficult to lose weight. The last ten days I have actually gained a pound. During this time I was still sick and on antibiotics, was on vacation in Florida for 5 days, and had a couple of late nights out. You could say that only gaining a pound during a vacation along with my other excuses was a victory. The problem is I could come up with legitimate excuses every week. The bottom line is that three weeks deep I have only lost 1.5 pounds.

 Exercise:

 Sunday- ran 4 miles easy

 Monday- off

 Tuesday- off

 Wednesday- ran 8.35 miles

 Thursday- ran 5.25 miles with a couple of pickups

 Friday- off

 Saturday- Ran 5.1 miles easy

Sunday- off

 Totals: 22.7 miles of running in 8 days

 Results:

 Starting weight: 189    Jan 21st weigh-in: 187.5     Total weight loss: 1.5 pounds

Mike

 Week Three Summary and Results:  
Well, week three was rocky. In the last 8 days I have only lost .6 of a pound. Transition from the juice fast, two Patriots playoff games, and a scheduled annual bar crawl. If you know anything about me, you know that I know any success has its share of failures. The only separation between failure and success is picking yourself back up. During the first Patriots playoff game, I kept telling myself I only want to eat because I am stressed, so I didn't. Success. The bar crawl started out good, but drinking and weight loss don't really mix in my opinion. Finished the night with French fries, but it was an example of the 5% of the time I feel I can eat for enjoyment. Failure. Two hours on the Elliptical and probably at least three days to wash the salt and bloat out of my system. So here I am at the end of week three, still at it, and excited to get to running season. I am looking forward to a three hour event in June and then a seven hour event in September. But for now, I will drink water, clean up my system and get back on the mat. About 10 pounds to go in two months.

 Exercise:

 Sunday- 40 minutes elliptical

 Monday- 75 minutes swimming + 45 minutes yoga

 Tuesday- 1 hour spin class

 Wednesday- 90 minutes elliptical + 1 hour yoga

 Thursday- off

 Friday- off

 Saturday- 1 hour run

Sunday- 2 hours elliptical

 Totals: 1 hour of running + 1 hour spin + 1.75 hours yoga + 1.25 hours swimming + 4.2 hours elliptical in 8 days

 Results:

Starting weight: 192.5   Jan 21st weigh-in: 182    Total weight loss: 10.5 pounds

Week Three Recap:

The last 10 days were not what either of us wanted. Both Mike and I enjoy having a good time. The challenge is how do you enjoy life and lose weight at the same time. The problem is most of the fun things in life are not conducive to weight loss. Eating out, drinks with friends, and big family dinners are not the recipe for weight loss. So what do you do? Stop having fun? Finding that perfect balance of moderation is the key to a happy and healthy life. Setbacks are a fact of life and moving forward is the only way to deal with a setback. After a devastating Patriots loss last night the only positive is now I won't have to write a post explaining why I gained weight during a Super Bowl party.

Next Update January 27th!

 

 

 

 

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