Sunday, October 28, 2007

A good Weekend

I now feel better than I did a week ago. Last weekend I didn't exercise a bit and that held true for Monday and Tuesday as well. It was primarily a question of motivation and the result of being on the go so much that I was worn out. I successfully navigated a Saturday of College Football without over consuming. I ran a long run yesterday and then when I came home I cooked up a huge pot full of beef stew. Probably not the kind of beef stew that most people are familiar with…technically, I don't even know if it officially counts as "stew"… I start with stew beef from our local store, add two potatoes (large), 1 turnip, several carrots (sliced), Celery, Frozen peas, frozen corn, and spices. Then I take the pot and fill 1/3 with beef broth and 2/3 with Water, and let it cook all day long (5 hours or so)… very slowly, I don't boil it. Then I add some brown rice and some corn starch to thicken it up. So, all ingredients are good for me, and not fried. So I ate quite a bit of beef stew, but I feel good for it. I did have some drinks while watching football, but I kept it to Miller light and very watered down Vodka and club soda…really just a dash of vodka and mostly club soda… that way I could feel like I was partaking without really consuming a lot.

Today I got up early and went to the gym… I had an hour of strength training followed by an hour spinning class. The spinning instructor informed us that she would stay for 90 minutes, so I decided I would try to make the 90 minutes. But the class today was all about power/hills so my legs were pretty dead by about 75 minutes, so that's where I ended. Finally, I got on the treadmill for 10 minutes for a light run. I got home around 11:15, ate, took a shower and then promptly took an hour and 15 minute nap!! Very relaxing… wish I could do that every day! Maybe I should set up a nap area in my office…. Not quite enough room unfortunately.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Holy Meteor!

I had a great run today… it was a fantastic crisp fall day here in Seattle. It was sunny without a cloud in the sky. At this time of the year the sun doesn't rise quite as high in the sky as in the summer, so it felt like the sun was directly in my eyes as I headed South along Lake Washington. There were a lot of people out running and cycling, taking advantage of what is likely to be one of the last nice days of the year. I ended up running 8.3 miles, but really slowly so that I don't suffer too much tomorrow. I have a lifting appointment at 8am followed by Cycling at 9am, so this looks to be a great exercise weekend.

Yesterday I was heading back from the gym and driving south along Lake Washington when all of a sudden a HUGE meteor crossed the sky directly in front of me. It looked like a smaller piece had broken off as there were really two streaks. The funny thing is that I was listening to the radio, and at that time there was a commercial on about a show on Sunday on the History Channel about Nostradamus' final prophecies including the "end of days". Right when that commercial finished is when I saw the meteor and I immediately thought there was going to be an explosion because I was certain it was going to hit the earth… My heart was really pumping hard! Of course it burned up quickly and there was no explosion, but wow was I startled!!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Stressed out

Morning weight: 182.5 lbs. Today's target : 182.0 lbs
Target for Wednesday October 31: 180.5 lbs

I did not reach my target this week, but I got very close, and so I am declaring success. I'm really stressed out this week...I've got too much going on and not enough time to do it. I will hopefully get a good workout in tonight...I'm going to need it! It will feel good to do a hard run and some lifting. I will need to focus my stress on working out rather than eating...it would be really easy right now to overeat some really unhealthy stuff, so I will be conscious of that and avoid the bad stuff. That's all for today... no time to write!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Photoshoots are dangerous!

I went to Portland this weekend to attend a photoshoot for an ad campaign I'm putting together. Saturday and Sunday on set with a number of really creative people. What I learned is that a photoshoot can be very dangerous for your diet if you are not careful. I started Saturday very well… I had a healthy breakfast of eggbeaters, fruit and multigrain toast. Though the stupid waitress gave me regular coffee instead of the decaf I had specifically ordered. Boy did I feel jumpy! I got to the shoot and very soon afterwards, they served lunch for the crew, which included ribs, rice, veggies and cheesecake. I restricted myself to one rib, some rice and veggies and no cake. So far so good. Then came dinner with the creative agency…. Sushi starters and then salmon and skirt steak. Yum…but the portion was on the high side.

Sunday I started again well with a Frittata with onion, potato, zucchini and tomato…. The potatoes were in some cases very undercooked, so I picked them out of it. Lunch on set was Pork BBQ and buttered corn with a wide selection of treats. I was quite hungry because my breakfast didn't turn out to be enough and so I overdid it on the pork. And I had desert, which I normally pass up, but it was a yummy lemon square. I had a decent dinner last night of sirloin steak (from Omaha steaks…yum) and green beans, but I think Lunch did some damage.

But back at home today and I'm doing well on my diet…hope this week turns out to be a good weight loss week…. I'll do some running to get some exercise in… I wasn't able to run over the weekend.

And the worst thing is that at work right now they are doing a giving campaign and today they have a HUGE spread of food for everyone at the end of my hall...they keep sending emails out to encourage people to show up and eat some food. I'm going to have to avoid that entire part of the building...my lunch salad isn't cutting it for me!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Progress is Progress

Morning weight: 183.2 lbs

I actually lost a little more than a half pound in the last week. Last Thursday I weighed in at 183.8lbs…I'm surprised because I had gone back up in weight as I lacked motivation over the past weekend, but it looks like I wasn't as bad as I had feared. I'll take the progress, but know that most weeks I will need to lose more than just a half pound. It would take me 40 weeks to get to my goal weight if I only lost half a pound a week, so I need to do better. I've been very good since Monday, tracking everything and hitting my calorie goals and exercising. I'm still feeling sore from my Tuesday weight training session, so it will be interesting to see how tonight's weight training goes.

I got into a good groove yesterday on the indoor cycle. I ended up doing 22 miles in an hour, at least that's what the cycle said I did. I was listening to some new music I had downloaded from the Zune service…for $15/month, I can download unlimited tunes onto my Zune, and the catalog is quite good (though not as good as iTunes, but it is cheaper!) One thing about it being cold, dark and rainy again in Seattle: the gym is incredibly crowded in the evening now. In fact, at 6:30 yesterday it took me 12 minutes just to get out of the garage and onto a city street. (Normal time is less than a minute)…it was so backed up. The gym needs to do a better job of directing traffic flow out of the garage…I was only on the first level below ground…maybe I'll look for a spot near the top tonight.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Goal: Missed

Morning weight: 184.0 lbs. Goal: 182.3lbs

New Goal: 182.0lbs, Wednesday October 24

So I missed my goal for the week, solidly. However, I am down almost a pound from last Wednesday so I won't feel too bad about it. I'm getting back into the rhythm of exercise…the past week was tough because I was mentally and physically tired, so that led to lackluster exercise and poor nutrition habits. Not that I was eating food that was bad for me per se, but I was just eating too much of it. But I had a great workout last night… I ran for 45 minutes (just shy of 5miles) and then weight trained for an hour. I am definitely feeling sore today, particularly my triceps, my shoulders and my pectorals as well. I will cycle for an hour tonight and then I do some more weight training tomorrow. One thing that was exciting to see yesterday was that my blood pressure was quite low for me… 124:72… Normally I'm in the 130:86 range, so this was good. I have to work all weekend in Portland this weekend, so maybe I'll be able to keep my diet under control a bit better than a normal weekend of lounging around…

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

blah

Morning weight: 185lbs

My official weigh in is tomorrow morning, but I think I blew it this week with lack of discipline. I had ribs on Friday (I didn't eat most of the fries that came with it though), Paella on Saturday and Pizza last night. I did do some exercise during that time, partially mitigating the damage, but not totally… I ran 40 minutes on Saturday (wanted to run an hour but didn't have it in me), and yesterday I ran 30 minutes at a fast pace and cycled for 30 minutes. Tonight I'm going to run 45 minutes and then weight train. And I have to be disciplined with what I eat today and the rest of the week. I'll do a lean cuisine for dinner and no drinks!! I think in the end I will likely be equal in weight to what I was a week ago, so at least I haven't gained, but that's not a success.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Spinning

Morning Weight: 183.8 lbs Goal for 10/17: 182.8lbs Goal Attainment: 50% New goal for 10/17: 182.3.lbs

So I dropped another pound overnight. I don't think that's 100% real weight, but I will give myself some credit for being really good about my diet over the past four days, and there has to be some "real" weight loss component to it. So I'm going to revise my goal for the coming Wednesday to a half pound more. So instead of 182.8lbs, my goal will be 182.3lbs, that way I can still keep myself somewhat honest over the weekend. If I were to drop a pound over the next three days I would achieve my original goal and still have half a week left.

Yesterday I went to an hour long spinning class. My goal from the class was just to flush out my legs a little bit without overdoing it and getting them more sore than they already were. Well, the instructor of the class clearly had a week by week and even day by day plan, and this night was his tough hill climb night. That's one thing that I don't like about the Pro club… They have fantastic schedules for all sorts of fitness classes, but there's such variability in a class like spinning…they had three classes yesterday. It would be helpful if they list the type of class its going to be (hill vs strength vs endurance). In any case, I ignored the instructor at many times in order to keep my heart rate within the zone that I had set out for the ride and to keep my legs from getting sore. The result was great. I got a great workout but didn't overdo it, and my legs were actually less sore after the ride than before…I guess that's because I had them stretched out and used the muscles again. Today I will be going to the gym mid afternoon and walking briskly at 8%grade for 30 minutes followed by the stepmill for 30 minutes. I hate the stepmill, so this will take real motivation to complete!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Goals

Morning weight: 184.8lbs Goal for October 17: 182.8lbs Goal Attainment: 0%

OK, so you can see with my new heading line that as of today I am beginning the weekly goals and charting daily my attainment of those goals. So Wednesday will naturally be 0% attainment because that's when the goal new goal begins. My goal is to lose two pounds per week from here on out until I hit my ultimate goal weight. I'm glad to see that I've lost a little bit more than two pounds over the last two days, clearly indicating that I was retaining fluid post race. So if I lose the weight evenly (which I likely won't) I can expect .28lbs/day to get to my 2lb goal. So tomorrow if I end up losing more than a half pound, I may reset my goal for the coming week, given that I may still be flushing out excess water.

I've been very good on the nutrition front for the past two days, and I'm tracking my meals in Calorie King again, which is naturally helping me to think about food choices during the day. It also helps to be completely in control of my diet because I'm not travelling. As for the recovery from the race, my legs are still sore, but way less so than they were on Monday. So tonight I will resume going to the gym…I'm going to take a spinning class… I haven't done that in several years, so I'm excited to do that again…I hope there is a good instructor with good music because I think this is going to be my Wednesday evening plan for at least the coming week as well…

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Recovering

Morning weight: 186 lbs

I am starting to feel a bit less sore today, especially as I walk around. However, after sitting around for an hour or so, the first few steps are definitely difficult, as is walking down steps! But it almost feels like I have a bit of "Runner's high" going on… I'm feeling very positive about my effort in the race and looking forward to the next one already. Definitely feels better than when I finished the Vancouver half in May… it took quite a few weeks for me to feel better. Its also funny to me that I dropped a full pound overnight… I drank a huge amount of water during the hours after the race on Sunday and I think that my body was going into preservation mode post-race and not releasing much of it. I wonder if that's normal? I'm going to do some research on that. I'm supposed to do some strength training at the gym today, but I think I'm going to pass on that and work on setting up a good training schedule for my next race instead. With my soreness, I'm not so sure that I'd get a great workout in today anyway, and I certainly would not be ready to do legs or even abs for that matter… actually that's one area that is the sorest on me right now… Anyway, this overall feeling is great right now, so I'm going to do my best to stay motivated.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Setting Goals

Morning Weight: 187.0 lbs

Its been quite some time since I've been blogging regularly, and in the interim I have been travelling a ton. The problem with travelling is that I get out of my routine. When I'm on a routine I do really well about making smart food choices and keeping my consumption under control. But when I travel, that all seems to go out the window. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to keep myself honest during travel periods, but I do know that for the next three weeks I don't really have any travel scheduled. True I will be in Portland for three days, but the nature of that trip is different than most work trips and so I think I can do well while there. My travel over the past weeks was too meeting intense to really include much exercise, and add in the fact that I had a pulled hamstring from chasing Lucy when she escaped, and I didn't reduce my intake accordingly. In fact, with my travel, I have gotten out of the habit of counting calories.

Excuse excuse excuse. Well, At least I know exactly the reasons of my lack of loss, and so now I just need to address them. So I've thought of a new way to look at goals. Previously I've been looking at long term goals such as being under 180lbs by the end of the month, being 170 lbs in another 6 weeks… I'm going to change that and start tracking my goals on a weekly basis. It's too easy for me to rationalize bad behavior by thinking that I'll make it up before the end of the month. If I am true to myself about weekly goals, then I will be more strict about my intake so as not to mess up the weekly goal. So on Wednesday this week I will set my weekly goal for the coming week. Why Wednesday? I don't think my weight today is a true starting point…I'm sure that with two days of being good I will flush some water weight out, and so I want to set a goal based on a true weight, not an inflated weight.

The Victoria half marathon was yesterday and I did ok. I cut three minutes off my Vancouver time from May, so that's progress. In fact I was on track to run a good sub 2hour half but by 9.5 miles I had to slow down significantly. I think the hamstring pull I suffered a few weeks ago really kept me from being in the best shape for this race, though I was definitely in better shape than Vancouver. I'm super sore today, but that's likely to reduce over the coming days. So on to the next race… Lane and I will be looking into a race in the coming months….perhaps the Rock n Roll ½ marathon in Arizona on January 13. I ran a 1:57 there in 2006 without much training so it would be cool to see what I can do this time…

Lucy in the Arboretum

Where I have lived, visited and want to go.