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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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Lose the Holiday Belly and Return to Race Weight

Posted by David Hardy
David Hardy
VTR Expert
User is currently offline
on Monday, December 31, 2012
in Weight Loss

 

 

 As the calendar turns symbolizing the end of the holiday season, every athlete should begin to switch gears from the "off-season" mode to 2013 race season preparation. At VTR we will focus on two athletes who gained some weight this off-season and are starting the process of returning to race weight. This will not be a scientific examination of the process. The goal is to give helpful tips and hopefully some motivation to start losing the extra weight you inevitably gained over the holidays. I think you will find it interesting as both athletes begin to return to race weight in two completely different ways. The focus will be on total weekly mileage, general nutrition strategies, and of course the results of the weekly weigh-in.

This is not a weight loss contest but what usually happens with competitive people is that everything turns into a competition. It will be interesting to see who reaches their goal race weight first but the focus will be to gradually lose the weight and increase fitness as we get closer to serious racing in the spring.

Profiles below:

Athlete #1: Dave   (your VTR host)                                                           

Goal Race Weight:  169         Current weight:  189

Last year: Great season as I completed the Ironman in Montreal on September 10th. In addition completed 18 races including a half-Ironman, 3 half marathons, and a failed Ironman attempt at Vineman.

Off-season: Mostly ran; averaging 100 miles a month since September.

2013 goals: Break 1:30 in the half marathon on April 13th. I want to be at my goal race weight on that date as well.

 

 

Athlete #2: Mike (popular juicing blogger)                  

Goal Race Weight:  169         Current weight:  192.5

Last year: Incredible year losing 65 pounds in the first 4 months of 2012. After completing all 10 events in the Good Times 5k Series, started training for triathlons and completed the Montreal Olympic Triathlon in 3 hours on September 10th.

Off-season: Yoga 3x a week and several spin classes. Limited running and swimming.

2013 goals: Finish a half-Ironman. Goal to return to race weight by start of Good Times Spring Series. (mid-April)

 

 

 First progress update Jan 6th.....Time to get moving!!!

 

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