Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Weekend Recap

Morning weight: 177.6 lbs

Tuesday morning is granted a bit late to recap the weekend, but there are several things that are top of mind that I want to get into here. Friday we went to our neighbor's house for a BBQ and I was very good about watching what I ate- I brought over my food scale and some measuring cups so that I knew exactly how much chicken and tomato/cucumber salad I ate. Then after that I eyed a chicken sausage that was sitting there begging to be eaten. It was delicious. It was also full of sodium and it caused me to retain a massive amount of water leading to a weight reading on Saturday morning of 180.8lbs... well above my 180 pound threshold that I was so proud of crossing.

To make matters worse, I really did not eat enough carbohydrates on Friday and did not get enough sleep. The result is that my run on Saturday morning, which was supposed to be 1 hour long ended up being half an hour and a 15 minute walk back uphill home. I felt miserable and deflated..I had no energy left, and after such a great run on Wednesday last week I had expected a much better run.

Sunday was a MUCH better day... although I stayed up late watching the Sopranos on Saturday and fell asleep on the couch, I still managed to sleep in on Sunday morning and had plenty of time to chill/wake up slowly. After my breakfast and morning snack I started to feel more energetic, so I went to the gym to do a treadmill run. That run felt fantastic! I ran solidly at 6.5mph for 30 minutes and then did a speed workout for the next 30 minutes. First interval was 90 seconds walking followed by 8.5 minutes at 6.7mph. Second interval was 90 seconds walking followed by 8.5 minutes at 7mph. The final interval was 90 seconds walking followed by 3.5 minutes at 7.5mph. (all of this was at a very modest 0.5% incline).

My legs have definitely felt sore after the speed run, but it really felt good and I'm glad I did it. Even more encouraging was that my heart rate was in the upper 160's even during the 7.5mph section... normally I would have expected 170's, so I'm getting in much better cardio shape these days.

Friday, July 25, 2008

28.5 to 20

Morning weight: 179.2lbs

Yesterday I had my 5 week measurements taken at the gym. Actually, it has been 7 weeks since I started the 20/20 program, but this was the first opportunity to get the measurements taken. Overall I've done extremely well. In the 7 weeks, I've lost 21 pounds, lost two inches from my hips, 1 inch from my waist and here's the kicker: I wend from 28.5% body fat to 20.0% body fat. My lean body mass has remained constant at 141pounds. If I maintain that lean body mass, then when I hit my goal weight of 160 pounds, I will be 11.9% body fat. If I increase my lean body mass, which I do expect to do, I will have even lower body fat.

I'm excited for a sunny weekend in Seattle... I'm going to go for an hour run on both Saturday and Sunday. I hope that these runs feel as good as my run on Wednesday felt! This is getting fun!!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

What a great run

This afternoon I went on a run with my trainer, and it was really a great feeling run for a change. Its been quite a while since a run actually felt good. Today we ran some trails near the club....we did several short but steep hills. The hills didn't feel too great, but hills never do. What felt great was how easy the run on the flat areas felt....it didn't quite feel effortless, but so much better than a month ago.  

I know that my cardio shape is improving quite a bit- before I started this program, my resting heart rate was 62. Now its 58...that's a pretty good improvement for a month and a half! My trainer said that by the time I'm done with the program in December, it could be as low as 49! We'll see....

Bring on the Legumes

Morning Weight: 178.6lbs

I tried blogging yesterday but Windows Live Writer froze and so I never got the blog posted. I bring this up because this is now the third blog entry I have written where my weight is below 180lbs. Why I mention that is that each time when I write in my weight, my fingers naturally gravitate toward writing 180 something vs 170 something. I just keep second guessing myself- whether I truly am 178 as opposed to 188!

With that in mind, below is my latest weight chart, which is starting to look like a mega mountain to go skiing on!

Today I will have my weekly appointment with my dietician and I expect to get legumes back in my diet. Legumes are things like kidney beans, chick peas/garbanzo beans, soy beans (EDAMAME!!!) and others. While overall as a category, this doesn't seem quite as exciting as say the vegetable category that I got back in week 2, I am super psyched about it due to the fact that I will be able to eat Edamame again, which makes it worthwhile to go out for sushi. I won't be able to get any sushi rolls or nigiri sushi, but I will be able to get edamame and Sashimi. YUM!  I cheated yesterday at lunch. I got a 20/20 Chop salad from the ProClub. It was only cheating because it was a Stage 6 food that included legumes and not a Stage 5 food, which is the stage I am currently in. It wasn't really good...the dressing was terrible so I won't be buying that one again.

Weight July 21

Monday, July 21, 2008

For the First time in Four Years

Afternoon Weight: 179.6lbs

I am under 180lbs for the first time in four years!!! I'm very excited about this because for years I have been trying to get back under 180 and have never quite made it due to numerous issues (Willpower, schedule etc...)

I knew I would lose weight while in Atlanta, but I didn't completely expect to be under 180. Atlanta was tough because I did not have my regular food sources to run to... I didn't have berries or shakes or even adequate food sources in some cases. But I did pay close attention to what I ate and didn't overdo it.

OK, so now the goal is to get under 170 in  a month's time! Woo hoo!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Getting Close

Morning Weight: 182.2 lbs

Only once in the last four years have I been lighter than my weight reading this morning. I am getting excited about breaking through this barier and getting in better and better shape.

I've taken a few photos over the past month using my work PC's web-cam. I made a video out of the photos this morning- I think they do a pretty good job of showing the weight coming off! Hope the quality doesn't suffer with this upload!


Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Slower going

Morning Weight: 183.2lbs

Weight July 9

Here's my latest weight chart. I'm still making steady progress downward, but the last week has been quite slow going. I'm basically down 1.6 pounds since a week ago. Given that I was traveling and had a few non-dietary moments over the past week, its still good to see the loss. But I really do want to be closer to 2 to 2.5 pounds per week. The good news is that of all the measurements I took over the past year, there are only 7 where I was of equal or lesser weight than where I am now. The lowest was 181.8lbs, and it happened when I was sick last year and didn't eat much for a few days, and as soon as I got better I ate more and gained it back, so I don't really view it as a solid weight measurement.

I added fruit back into my diet last week, but I really didn't eat much fruit over the past week, so I'm considering not adding anything back this week...I would be adding Dairy back in, but I don't think I really integrated fruit into my diet yet. I did have an apple today after lunch, and I have to say it was delicious.

So my goal for next week before I leave for a week in Atlanta is to hit 181.0 lbs. Then when I come back from Atlanta I would like to be below 180... I will have to really watch what I eat in Atlanta, and I don't like the fact that everything will be essentially buffet style conference food. That type of food is rarely of the variety that will be good for me.  I'll talk with my dietician about that today. 

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Glad I didn't run the Seafair Marathon!

Morning Weight: 184.4lbs

I'm still losing weight steadily, but boy is it ever slower than the first week! Now I understand why diets are so difficult to succeed at- you really have to be dedicated to continuing eating well on a daily basis. One interesting observation I made in the last week- on Friday I ate Isiernos Chicken Sausage for dinner. My overall caloric goals as well as percentage from Fat, Carbs and Protein were all right on target. However, given that the sodium content in the sausage was high, I ended up 1.4 pounds heavier on Saturday morning than I was on Friday night. That's a ton of water retention!

Speaking of water, the annual Seafair marathon and half marathon was held here in Seattle this past weekend. I had considered targeting this race at some point in the future. I am really happy that this wasn't the year with all the issues they had- 400 people were left stranded by inadequate bussing and never made it to the starting line. Secondly, the course was far hillier than the course profile represented. Thirdly, they RAN OUT OF WATER on a VERY hot day!! That's inexcusable- it puts runners lives in danger! So I'll stick to my mediocre/cold weather races for now!

Lucy in the Arboretum

Where I have lived, visited and want to go.