Battle of Wounded Knee

But I survived! A couple of Aleves and I was good to go.

Cell phone battery almost dead because I forgot to plug it in last night. It lasted longer than I did.

My problem: Being fat and lazy for the past few months. It's bad... very bad. It feels like I'm starting over. All the progress seems wasted. You can't let it go. You must continue striving for more. Set goals and keep them. Ugh. I need to stretch!

I discovered that I can guide my mouse over my run data at RoadRunnerGPS and see my speed and elevation over any part of my run. And I supposed I can use this all on a bike as well. Hmmmmm... Although the software has a rest number at the top. It doesn't seem to measure the rest. I wonder how I make that work? I stopped at the traffic signal and waited to cross. You can see the dip in the line but no rest data. Also, my free trial expires tomorrow so I guess I'll fork over $4.99 and continue using it.

But it feels good to run and I did a short jaunt uphill. I hate hills! Gotta remember to bring an ID with me for the paramedics...

Rest of the day: work, music, convo, discovery...

Technology Redeems Itself

A good run and a successful upload of data to the RoadRunnerGPS website. Rather than listening to Slacker radio during this run, I played media directly from the BlackBerry. I like the BlackBerry Desktop sync function that interfaces with my iTunes playlist. Who needs an iPhone!

Increased my distance by 33% today and 100% since I started running again. I need to find a scale so I can track my BMI.

Note to self: Either start earlier or wear light colored clothing. This is SoCal after all, it never cools down. Rain? What's that!

Discovered that I couldn't tweet and run at the same time but I could perfect a fast-walk tweet technique. I would hate to think of the danger if I was tweeting while on my bike. #FAIL

One more day of running tomorrow before my T-W-Th schedule dominates my life. Looking forward to Christmas break beginning on December 19. Or is it "Winter Break"? I'm not going to go there.

T-minus 5 days and counting to Christmas season. Where is that USB HDD with all my Christmas CDs. I may have to upgrade to a TB this year!

Off to Home Depot...

Technology is challenging

I felt much better during my run today and was looking forward to posting my results. However, RoadRunnerGPS was not able to upload the data for my run today and it appears that the info is lost forever. Reminds me of the problems I've had with the Nike+.

On a positive note, I sent an email to tech support and received a reply back within a couple of hours on Saturday. I suspect that the error was not caused by the RoadRunnerGPS app but probably by Verizon or the BlackBerry Storm crappy new OS upgrade! Man! What a piece of garbage! The new OS was supposed to be so much better but they've definitely taken a step back. Many steps back!

Another positive note, I increased today's distance by 50% and eliminated the rest stops.

Now, if I could just find an app to do my laundry...

Technology is Inspiring

All my foot problems and most of my schedule issues are gone so it's time to start training again. I'm not going to make the Turkey Trot nest week but once I check my training schedule I'll find something that fits in late December or January.

Thanks to @akaCowboyfan. I found an app for my BlackBerry Storm that uses GPS to track my runs. RoadRunnerGPS is very simple but it works so far after one run. Hopefully they will add features without breaking it.

I've been eating waaaaaay too much since I last ran and now it's time to settle it down and eat better. Let's see how it goes...

Thanks, Tiger!

A very good run today. I felt great. Was it the coffee I had before the run? Maybe. My running coach says that many people feel energized after having a cup of coffee before a run.

A mixed bag today...

I decided to recalibrate my Nike+ because when I use it during a 5K race, it never gives me the same distance as the race tells me. I went to local high school to use the track. As I was navigating through the iPod menu I discovered that the Nike+ wasn't calibrated. I guess it must of lost it's calibration when I had to reset the iPod awhile back. So I calibrated it and decided not to finish my run on the track. How boring! But the track had a very nice surface.

So I drove home and did my regular run and felt great. When I finished, Tiger Woods congratulated me on my fastest mile ever. What a great feature to have Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and other Nike athletes motivate you. Thanks, Tiger!

So here's a screen shot of my latest run. The area a circled in blue is where I walked a bit to warm up. And I still had my best average mins/mile run to date.

Hopefully I get my new shoes next week...

Milestone!

Too steep? Maybe. But I ate a lot yesterday and haven't weighed in yet. Doing on a 3 mile run in a minute. That should help.

I'm finally back on track to achieve "normal" BMI. Let's see if I can stick to it. Weekends are hell!

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

That's an old line gamblers would use right before they threw the dice. But I really need a new pair of shoes.

Wait! I just bought a new pair of shoes.

Ouch! After 3 runs I discovered that the Saucony's were cut a little high and they were making my right ankle a little tender. I felt okay until I put the shoes on and the right shoe would press against that tender spot. Ouch!

But, luckily the Snail's Pace has a great 30 day return policy so I went in to exchange them for the Nike's that I almost purchased. Unfortunately, they are still out of stock so they ordered a pair for me. Size 13! I normally wear 11 1/2 in dress and street shoes but did you know your foot swells when you run? And the Nikes are Nike+ compatible. Very nice but I have to wait a week for them. So I'm back to the old Nikes that are too small for my feet. I can't stop running. That will create havoc on my training. Hope I don't get black-toe.

I've included a chart of some of my logged runs through my Nike+. Click on the image to see the full size chart. Not all my runs are on here because I've been having problems with the iPod or the Nike+ losing my runs. Grrrrrrr And my pace is much better now. It's around 11 mins/mile. Not face but pretty good for an old guy who was never a runner.

I hope the beer and cigars I enjoy tonight don't screw up my training too much.... Cheers.

Back on Track

Well, I'm finally back on track. My chart shows my weight loss is consistent this week. I'm just a couple of pounds away from my low point in March. I've done some modification to my statistical analysis of my weight loss and an now tracking 4 projections.

• 7 day average
• 14 day average
• 30 day average
• average from the beginning of my program in January

If I look at the data as projected over the entire course of my weight loss program, October 3 is the date I'll reach my first goal of 24.9 BMI. The 30 day average projects July 19, 14 day projects July 4 and 7 day projects June 25. Why so different? Because I've been doing much better of late and if I stick to this pace, I'll reach that first goal quickly.

I'm eating lots of fruits and veggies and trying to stay away from steak and the other stuff I'm know to enjoy. My weekends allow me to enjoy a good meal but the week sees me being very watchful over what I consume.

Once I reach the normal BMI range I'll reset my goal and shoot for a middle of the normal range number around 22.

Do you know your BMI? There is a BMI calculator at the bottom of this page. Compare your number against the chart to find out if you're underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

Running is Like a Martini

I meant to post this last week but I've been very busy. I can barely find the time to write this today.

Last Saturday I finished my 1st week of training as I look forward to the Disneyland Half Marathon on September 6. Each week's training increases my distance by 0.5 to 1 mile. So on Sunday I ran a nice 4 miles.

What? I've never run 4 miles at one time! The funny thing is, as I was beginning the last mile, I felt great. I mean, REALLY good. I'm pretty sure I set record time for me during that last mile. Unfortunately, my iPod and my Nike+ device we not cooperating and I was unable to electronically log that run on the Nike+ website. So I have no idea of what my time was. Grrrrr

As I was running that last mile and feeling good, I thought back to the LA5K on Memorial Day and remembered how good I felt during the last 1/2 mile or so. And that got me to thinking...

I remembered an old joke I had heard many years ago when I had my first martini. I drink my martinis like Frank Sinatra drank his, with gin, vermouth and olives. That's all. No sweetener. No foo foo. I've you've ever had a gin martini, you know the jolt you experienced when you took your first sip of your first martini.

But what is special about a gin martini is the last drop/sip/gulp. That last slug from the bottom of the glass is always the best. So what do you do? You order another!

So, as I experience that great feeling during my runs in the last mile or so, I want to run again. Just like the martini, I want another!

I've reached the point where I can now consider myself a "runner." I never thought I'd say that in a million years. But here I am, still going strong.

Now, I just gotta cut down on the steaks, stogies and stiff drinks and I'll be on my way to a great 13.1 mile run through Disneyland Park on Labor Day weekend. (Notice that I wrote "cut down" rather than "give up")

Significant events so far:

• I've now run four 5Ks and I have the t-shirts to prove it! (Plus, two medals!)
• I signed up for the Orange County Fair 5Ks. Yes. Two 5Ks. One on opening day of the fair and another on closing day.
• I purchased new custom fit running shoes that are not broken in yet. I have 30 days to decide. Maybe I should have purchased the Nikes over the Sauconys. Hmmmmm
• I'd like to pick up a used GPS wrist watch. I wonder were I could get one for a great price?

Back to work now....

Dazed and Confused!

I didn't realize until today, that it's been over a month since I last ran. Why?

Two things have simultaneously scuttled my plans to participate in my first triathlon in August.

1. My oldest son is getting remarried on August 21. I can't miss that!
2. The Iron Creek Triathlon that I was planning on doing on August 22, has been cancelled.

So, now what?

I spent a month wandering with no direction. It didn't help that I was busy with work and eating way too much good food. You can see the results in my chart. 

I ran 5k today and it didn't feel good. Maybe it was because I changed my route. I wasn't feeling too good during that run.

What I am going to do? 

1. I signed up for a 5K that's part of the LA Marathon on Monday. I'm not sure I'll be able to get to the start line in time because of all the traffic I'll encounter. We'll see what happens. 
2. I've already signed up for the Pasadena 5K in March of 2010. 
3. I'm seriously thinking about running the Disneyland 1/2 marathon on Labor Day. Only 13.1 miles... I had gotten to the point during the last 5K that I ran, when my pace was perfect and I felt like I could run all day. Surely I could run 21 kilometers... Hmmmmm.... Gotta find a training plan...
4. I still want to look for a tri to run. Maybe I can find a club. I hate doing it alone.

In the meantime I need to get my weight back down. I haven't lost sight of my goal. I just went off course for a bit...

Hello again

I guess it's been almost a month since I posted. I've been:

1. Busy with work
2. Not running as much as I should
3. Eating more than I should

So today I'm back to the grind. Watching what I eat and trying to get past the wall that I hit a few weeks ago.

Since my last post, I have:

1. Run the L.A. Kings 5K
2. Run the Placentia 5K

My time is getting better. 

Things on my agenda:

1. My next race is in late May. 
2. In the mean time, next week I move from 5K training to Sprint Triathlon training. 
3. I'll be getting on the bike starting next week. I can't wait! 
4. Swim training starts in June.
5. I think I need to be properly fit for a pair of running shoes.
6. I'm going to use my phone to start tracking my training via GPS. Let's see if I can get some good data.

That's all for now....

No Chart Today

Just a summary of the days events...

My 1st 5K today in Pasadena. I don't think anyone expected the cold rainstorm that blew into Southern California from Alaska. It wasn't really that cold but a bit of snow fell on the mountains. 

Was up at 4:25 AM to drive to Pasadena so I could arrive before they closed the parking lots. A nice 20 minute walk in the rain from the Cal Tech parking lot to the start line on Colorado Boulevard in front of Pasadena City College. I was there in time to watch the marathon and 1/2 marathon start in the rain. LOTS of participants! 

After those 4,312 runners went by it was time for the 5K start. There were 771 runner/walkers who finished between 17:03 and 4:00:00. That's 17 minutes for 1st and 4 hours for 771st. I came in 448th or 11th in my sex/age division, less than 5 minutes behind the 10th place guy.

Pretty good for my first race. If you know me, you know I've never been a runner. I'm anxious for the next race so I can see some improvement. I think I'll shoot for the LA Kings 5K run that goes around Staples Center in downtown LA. You get a free ticket to the hockey game that night. That's a great deal! It's on April 4th. Should be fun!

After I finished the 5K, the rain came pouring down and I found a tent to wait out the storm, but not before I grabbed lots of free samples of drinks and energy bars and other cool stuff from the vendors. 

Then it was up to Lucky Baldwin's in Sierra Madre for some fish & chips, Maredsous 6 Blonde Ale and a Nub Cameroon with my good friend Danny from Stogie Info. 

Now I'm chillaxin' and wondering what to grill for dinner. Still need to write 2 syllabi tonight for classes that start tomorrow. Cheers!

Pasadena 5K Tomorrow!

They may call it the Pasadena Marathon but I'm going there for the 5K. A great tune up as I emerge from winter. I've simplified the chart. My line is flattening out a bit but look fore steepness starting next week as I increase my running time. 

Let's hope it doesn't rain too early in the morning on Sunday. My start time is 6:50AM.

Click on the chart for a bigger version.

Milestone

Lost 20 lbs as of today. Although my chart doesn't show that, I was actually about 3 lbs heavier before I started recording my progress. Less than 10 lbs to go until my BMI is in the normal range. 

Ran 5 miles today. Too much heat. I need to schedule my runs at dusk or dawn. It's been rather cool lately. The heat snuck up on me. One more run before the race on Sunday. I think I'm ready.

Milestones

I've been busy so I haven't posted my progress for a few days. I generated a chart a few times but didn't get as far as blogging it. You'll see I changed it a bit to reflect my weight change and calories burned through fitness activities. Right now that consists of walking and running. Biking and swimming will come later.

I use the Nike+ to track my distances and notice that the device tells me I burn more calories for my weight than the LiveStrong.com website does. I need to do some additional analysis to see if I'm telling the LiveStrong.com website the right information. The Nike+ calculates automatically based up the calibration I did on the device. It knows how far I've run or walked and I simply need to enter my weight every day. Yesterday the Nike+ told me I burned 600 calories while LiveStrong.com determined it was 553. On LiveStrong.com I have to tell it how many mph I'm running or walking. Since I have my Nike+ set to kms, my conversion may be inaccurate. Next run I'll switch to miles and break my run/walk sections into different sessions so I can get an accurate read.

I've decided the Iron Creek Triathlon is too far off and I need to set some small goals along the way. Since my current training has me covering 5 - 6K each session, I figured I should try a 5K race. I signed up for a 5K in Pasadena. It's next Sunday so I have 3 more days of training runs before that happens. Since I run 5K on Sundays anyway, why not get a t-shirt to do it. Now I'm trying to decide what's the next goal to set, another 5K or should I go for a 10K. I've been looking for another run in late April. I'll let next Sunday's results decide on the 5 or 10K distance.

Net loss!

Wow! An actual net loss over the weekend. That's a first! My first goal is now less than 10 lbs away. A good run yesterday. A personal best!

Status:

Start: 209.2

Now: 193.6

Goal: 183.8

Burn!!!

Click the chart to see a full size version

Calves & thighs ached a bit today when I started the run but I forgot about it once I worked through my intervals. Can't wait til Sunday when I run again. On Tuesday I bump my run time up 3 minutes. Should be fun. Finished the first chapter of Triathlon Training for Dummies. Great book with lots of information. It's answering all my questions. There's a lot to learn.

Here's a list of the things I need to buy and do:

• Tune up bike
• Evaluate water bottle cage capacity
• Buy new helmet
• Buy goggles
• Buy triathlon suit
• Buy new bike shoes and pedals
• Buy bag to hold gear 
• Find cheapest way to ship bike to South Dakota
• Figure out way to blog with text and photos during the race

August 22 is not that far away!

Slight Ache

I'm feeling a little of the aftereffects of a few months of being a couch/desk/recliner potato. I little ache in my legs. I'm happy that I am following a plan that eases me into my training. Otherwise, I'd be running a 10K everyday and I'd surely hurt myself or have a heart attack.

Now I have to adapt to my exercise and not try to make up the calories I'm burning by eating more. Eat the same and let the exercise get me to my goal which is just 15 days away.

Status 

Lost: 14.8 lbs. 

Remaining: 10.6 lbs.

Now that I'm running, I should have no problem reaching my goal in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, I changed my chart to reflect Net Calories burned and added Extra Calories burned to show the benefit of exercise.

Now... off to lunch!

Huge Dip & Tri Training

It's been a good week. Once my body flushed itself of all the impurities of the crap I ate on the weekend, I find myself at my lowest recorded weight so far. This is the lowest I've been at least since July when I started the daily recording of my weight. 

My stomach is getting used to the smaller meals. Last night I made some stir fry veggies with light butter, no salt and no oil. Very low calories but I probably ate too much. I felt very full.

Today I started my triathlon training. I'm actually doing a Couch-to-5K and then a beginner's sprint triathlon plan. I don't want to be too aggressive and end up with foot and knee problems again. It's been too long since I've been out for a run. It was very nice and I love that I burned almost 500 calories in about an hour. I'll be running 3 days a week for the next 8 weeks. I add cycling in late April and swimming in late May. The triathlon is on August 22.

I'm discovering a lot about triathlons. Training techniques, gear for running, biking, swimming. How do I get my bike to South Dakota? Flights are cheap now at $298. Plus $80 to $175 each way to check the bike as baggage. Plus I'll need a bag or box to pack it in. Or I can use a service for around $200 round trip plus packing. That might be the route to go. I wonder how much insurance is? I'll find all that out as the weeks pass by.

My Timex Ironman Flix watch is perfect for the interval training. It has 9 intervals and I used 7 so I'll be fine. I can even hear the beeping over the sound of the iPod. I couldn't find my Nano today so I could track my stats with my Nike+. I remembered when it was once I got home. It was not charged anyway so I charged it and we're all ready for Friday!

Huge Bump

After being prompted by BBB, I realized that I haven't posted an update for a week. I was out of town last week without a scale. You can see the green line flattens out and jump a bit once I was able to weigh myself. I restrained myself fairly well and didn't eat too badly. I'm sure the bump would have been worse had I not been a good boy.

After a couple of false starts, I officially start my triathlon training on Wednesday. Very mild at first but I might add a bit more to accelerate myself. Maybe I'll even try a 5 or 10K along the way to the Iron Creek Xterra Triathlon on August 22 in South Dakota. Stay tuned.

I'm back.... sort of

I'm out of commission for a few days but I've been meaning to share that I've reached my lowest weight so far. It looks flat but that's because I don't have access to a scale. It may have changed though. Maybe I'll have to average it all once I weight again on Friday. We'll see what happens.

I definitely ate too much yesterday and I'm paying for it. I won't share the junk with you but, I'm doing better now. Whew!

I bought a new watch online. I decided that I needed a waterproof, shockproof watch with intervals. That way I can use it for training and racing. My running training calls for running/walking intervals of 5 mins, 1 min, stretch, 5 mins, 5 mins and then a walk/run ratio that increases each outing. New training start date is Saturday. I can't wait. I'm going crazy!

Hump Day

If you look at the chart, click it to make it bigger, you'll see a tiny little hump on the green line. Let's hope it doesn't grow. 

I felt good this morning and was surprised that I had gone up 0.6 pounds. I won't go into the details of bodily functions that I believe attributed to this bounce. Suffice to say that after a delightful morning, I may be back down below 196 again. 

Bought a handy little scale the other day so I can weigh my food by grams and really see what I'm eating rather than something like "large naval orange". I buy jumbo naval oranges from the store and today I weighed one in at 275g. After calculated the calories from a "verified" entry on Livestrong.com, I discovered that I'm eating 150 per jumbo naval orange whereas the large naval orange I was using showed 100 calories.

What I find is that most servings sizes that I see, like a cup of rice is a little over 100 calories, most fruit is 100 calories. So they key is to just eat 10 things per day and I'm set. Or, I'll just continue to use the LiveStrong.com software on my iPod Touch and wait for a BlackBerry Storm version to come out.

I Like Tuesdays!

Ah ha! Damn water-weight! Look at that green line at it's lowest point yet and I feel good. New target date is March 6.

I wish the rain would stop! I see blue sky to the west but who knows what's out in the ocean.

Don't forget you can click on the chart to see a larger version.

I love Mondays

On Mondays I'm usually motivated because I made it through another weekend of temptation unscathed. Well, maybe not unscathed, but I survived. Let's keep it going!

The Tour of California finally got things fixed and I'm watching the online live video feed. The problem really was the weather because cycling.tv had problems yesterday and their feed is back on today as well. Now, if we could just convince the Tour de France people to use this technology. Hopefully the GPS tracking of the riders will start working soon.

Another interesting technology development is the live updates on Twitter. I'm following a number of news organizations, photographers, race teams, and riders with live texts from the course. Johan Bruyneel was the first one to break the news yesterday that the GC leader had withdrawn from stage 2. You may have seen the news articles where Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind bike was swiped. Lance first broke the news via a tweet. Lance is the most followed Tweeter with over 117,000 followers. Yesterday I saw it was at 108,000. A couple of weeks ago it was at 10,000. Needless to say, Twitter just got another $35 million dollars of funding. Watch out. If you're not on Twitter, you should be! Follow me!

The Bounce

Am I on my way back up? Let's hope not! Friday and Saturday were bad days for calorie counting (unless you like to count a lot) but Saturday ended up with a few pints and stogies. That made me forget I was trying to shed a few. 

But today was good. Although I was a little ticked off that I could not watch the Tour of California live online because of weather and server-load problems. I did catch the end of stage one live on VS. A crazy race with pouring rain, wind, flat tires, leaders withdrawing, breakaways that survived, and bike thefts! I need to watch the recap at 8 so I can see the podium ceremonies and post-race interviews. Here's a tweet from Lance.

Feeling good about my calorie intake today. I'll be a little over but I'll be okay. Driving to La Jolla tomorrow. Let's hope it doesn't rain too bad!

Flat-lining

I'm flat-lining. I've hit a point where I'm having trouble continuing my weight loss. Part of the problem is that I'm inactive right now. I was counting on my triathlon training starting on February 2 but I've had to postpone that while I sort out some issues. 

My original weight loss goal date was today. It's been revised to March 8, based upon my current 5 day rolling average weight loss. Look at that green line. A few ups and down but really going now where. 

I had a difficult Thursday and Friday while I sorted out my phone problems. Windows 7 and Blackberry beta software do not mix. I'm back to Vista and Blackberry 4.7.0.75 and I already miss 4.7.0.113 but it wasn't authorized by Verizon so I couldn't browse the web. Maybe that's why the battery life was so much better.

Great prologue in the ToC today. Levi 2nd. Lance 9th. I have them both on my fantasy team!

Do it Belgian Style!

I survived the Belgian beer tasting last night. Even ate a few egg rolls before joining a friend for tasting and smoking at the 8EightyEight - Diamond Crown Lounge. Turns out, the tasting was of a Belgian "style" beer brewed right here in The OC by The Bruery. You'll find a complete run-down of the tasting at Beer, Bikes & Butts.

The night was not a total loss. I enjoyed a few cigars, a few Stella's, the Laker's game from the recliners in front of the 73" HDTV, and wonderful high-tech conversation. I believe I brought another bird into the Twitter flock, or as some call us twitterers, the twibe!

Speaking of total losses. After 3 pints of beer, five 4 oz. tastings, and 3 egg rolls, I managed to weigh in 0.2 pounds lighter this morning. A good very night!

There just may be a Diamond Crown Lounge in your neighborhood.

Belgian Ale?

Feeling good. I should be down to my lowest tracked weight in a day or so. Although.... there is a beer tasting tonight. Belgian ale? I can't resist.

Back on Track

Ate too much yesterday and was full but still under 1,000 calories. Vegetables are great! Mushrooms, onions, zucchini with garlic, curry, basil & pepper. Interesting combo but good.

Looks like the rain has stopped for a few days. The mountains are covered with snow. It was in the 30s in the valleys last night. Saw lots of frost on the ground this morning on the way to work. 

Working all day today from 7:30 am to 10:00 pm with only a 1/2 hour break. Is that legal? I wonder if they will pay me overtime pay. Probably not. I think my contract precludes that but this work is sub work. I wonder....

The Lost (Gained) Weekend

I was away for the weekend. Ate too much to track so I estimated 3,000 calories per day. In the past, I would have fallen off the wagon completely but things are different now. I have a goal and I'm sticking to the program. My goal has been pushed out 2 weeks. I'll get there.

Found a inexpensive little kitchen food scale at Sur la table. Now I can weigh the food I eat to really see what the caloric content is.

Still raining here in Southern California. Supposed to clear up tomorrow. I'll stop at the grocery store tonight to stock up on fruits and vegetables. Bought tomato juice by mistake last week instead of V8. Similar but I like the V8 better. Now I need to choke down 11 cans of the tomato juice unless I can find some vodka.

The demons won the fight

No In-N-Out!

Fought a lot of demons today. Thought about In-N-Out burgers. Looked up taco calories on the Internet. Taco Bell tacos = 110 calories. Not too bad. 3 for lunch would be within my limits. But Taco Bell? Gross. Need to find another place. Maybe the Crazy Chicken?

But I pushed those demons to the side and went with my standard fare as per Jared. 6" ham sub (290 cals)... Filling. I'll finish the other 1/2 for dinner. I'll probably go for a large naval (110 cals) and a nectarine (90 cals) when I get home later tonight. 

Now, I need another coffee (5 cals). The weather has taken a turn for the worse. From sunshine to completely overcast in a couple of hours, and this Starbucks is freeeeeezing!

Back to pre-Super Bowl Weight

It took three days but I got rid of what I gained on Super Bowl weekend. I'm back on track. Feelin' good.

Adjustments

Not a bad day yesterday. Still feeling the effects of overeating on Super Bowl Sunday. I didn't really overeat like the old Dale would have. Actually, compared to the old Dale, I ate very little, but the new Dale can't handle such a big meal. That's good.

Two changes to the chart. 

1. I've had to push out the goal date to 2/24. That's a gain of 10 days added to my original forecast. That original forecast didn't include the weekend blimps. Now that I've had 3 weekend blips, I think this forecast is more accurate. I still make progress. That's good. 

You can see the weekend blips in red. The first big spike, a smaller spike the next weekend and a HUGE spike on Super Bowl weekend. 

2. I've also added trend lines. Easy to do in Excel. I'm sure my weight loss trend line will flatten a bit over time. My goal is to keep it steep until I reach my goal. The calorie intake trend line is on the way up. The Super Bowl spike helped as well as the fact that I find I can eat around 1,300 calories a day and still lose weight. So when I'm hungry, I don't starve myself but hunt down a piece of fruit. I just discovered that white peaches have a lower calorie content than other fruit. I had one last night. Tasty! That's good.

First to 6

Keeping it simple with the chart. Don't get lost in the details. 

The predicted calorie spike occurred on Super Bowl Sunday, along with a Steelers win. I didn't track everything I ate. I just estimated 3,000 calories. It could be lower or higher. Not sure but it doesn't matter. I'm back on track today. The weight is a bit higher but I think I'm still carrying some of yesterday's intake.

Did you know that Beck's Premium Light only has 64 calories per bottle?

Today also starts triathlon training. I'm not sure if I'm going to race, but my brother threw a challenge my way for August 22. I found a Couch-to-5K (law school has sent me to the couch - it's time to get up) and Sprint Triathlon training plan at Beginner Athlete and I start today. The plan looks complicated at first but after analysing and inspecting closer, it's not that bad. 

I start with with a 25 walk today. I may skip the Couch-to-5K part or at least accelerate the training a bit. The point is, anyone can do this. I challenge you to do it as well.

Still losing

Had a great lunch yesterday. Could have gone for the burger but had the blackened mahi mahi with new potatoes, vegetables and garlic pizza bread. I even had a pint of tasty red beer. 

I guess I can handle about 1,300-1,500 calories and not falter too bad. Day to day weighing is bad because your body retains water based upon the salt content of what you eat and the weather. Plus, wait for this.... bowel movements. If you don't go, you don't lose much weight! One thing about this diet, you learn a lot about your body. I haven't added a column for bowel movements yet. Stay tuned...

I cheated

Thinking about the Super Bowl

Click on the chart to see a larger version

I'm worried about the Super Bowl. I've already decided that I'm going to eat the chips & dip, drink beer and enjoy the day. What I'm worried about is whether or not I'll fall off the wagon completely. 

As I was driving to lunch today I was thinking about splurging and eating something like tacos or spaghetti or pizza or maybe a yogurt for dessert. But I fought the urge and went to Subway, like Jared, and had the Veggie Delight. 230 calories. Plus it's fairly cheap if I buy the $5 foot-long and eat the other half for dinner. Since I budget 333 calories for each meal, the Veggie Delight works perfect. 

Today I only dropped 0.2 lbs. I believe this is because I made stir fry last night and I'm pretty sure the salt that I added and the soy sauce caused me to retain water. Once my system calms down today, I'm projecting a good weigh-in tomorrow. 

btw, I heard cookies calling my name last night and I resisted them. Bad cookies!

Feeling good

The belt is moving through the notches. 

I didn't have any blips in the weight loss area after the weekend even though I had blips in the calorie intake area. Not as big a blip as the previous weekend. The nice thing about tracking this info now is that I know what effects calorie intake has. Eventually it will become intuitive. I'll know what I can eat and what I can't.

Once I start my running in March, I'll be better off and I'll know my "maintain weight" number of calories. Once I offset the with exercise I'll be able to indulge in my favorite foods... in moderation!

You may notice that the waist and hip measurements are missing. I don't get to measure everyday so I just copy the numbers from the day before. Well, I must be losing inches because my body fat percentage was going up and that's wrong! I need to try to measure today to get a good body fat percentage reading.

I'm thinking I should do a review of the software programs I've come across during my little adventure...

Milestone!

Milestone day! I'm officially down 10 pounds! 15.3 pounds to go. New target date is February 17.

The Technology

I've been playing around with a number of programs, all free. I started on my iPod Touch with a simple program called WeightTrack, a free app available in the iTunes store. It does one thing only and you can guess what that is by it's name. I've been using it on and off since July but I only started getting serious about this in January.

Yeah, January is the month everyone embarks on achieving the goals they set in their New Year's resolutions. In part, that's what I'm doing but I also am motivated more than that. This is a year of many goals for me but this Blog is dedicated to just one, getting healthy.

Around Christmas I discovered that LiveStrong.com has a feature called, "The Daily Plate." With The Daily Plate ("DP") you can track your weight, exercises and food intake. The best thing about DP is that it has every type of food I search for. From McDonald's, which I'm not eating anymore, to every packaged food you find at the grocery store. I recently discovered a feature that lets you enter your own items, which explains why I have a bit of a problem with multiple entries for certain items like 3 types of naval oranges with 3 different calorie counts. My attention to detail wants me to find the exact number of calories I'm eating but then I realize that 10 calories here or there out of 1,000 isn't going to make much difference.

I downloaded the LiveStrong app to my Touch and now, armed with a logging and tracking device in my pocket, I set out to lose 25 pounds on a 1,000 calorie per day diet. After 5 days I created a spreadsheet to track my progress and since I can't be satisfied with just a log, I created some forecasting formulas.

My projected goal is calculated based upon a 5 day rolling average of weight loss from the previous 5 days and then projected out to find the day that I will reach a BMI of less than 25. More on BMI later. After searching the Internet a bit to find the BMI formula, I also discovered a formula for BMR and WHR. More on those later as well. So my spreadsheet expanded and I'll be able to use this as I set new goals going forward. 

You'll see that not every day is 1,000 or under. I discovered that I can maintain my weight loss if I keep it under 1,300 calories per day, although I still shoot for 1,000 each day.

Now I have to look at my spreadsheet and figure out how I could lose 1.4 pounds in a day but my body fat percentage went up from 27% to 28%. Must be an error in my formulas.

A little late

Well, I started my latest fitness kick on January 12, and I'm just now getting to creating a blog to track my progress. I tried Facebook and Windows Live Space but those sites don't suit my needs as well as this place.

I'll post a chart daily as I track my progress with this first phase.

Phase 1: Lose enough weight to reach "Normal" on the BMI Chart. For my height, that's 183 lbs. I started at 209.2, and I'm now at 200.6. Although I weighed 212.4 on January 6. That was my highest recorded weight to date. I say, "recorded" because I didn't weigh myself every day. My current projected target is February 18, when I reach a BMI of 24.9.

This time I am watching my calories rather than carbs as I did on previous diets. This means I eat more fruits and vegetables and much less fat. I'll miss my ribeye steaks but moderation is a virtue. A big, fat juicy ribeye will be my reward for progress!

Weekends are the toughest times because I'm around food. Weekends create blips on my chart. ;^)

Phase 2: Begin a running regiment again. I had to stop running when I discovered I had a bad case of metabolic arthritis. Very painful and caused by too much uric acid. So I now eat less protein, which means less steak and a whole list of foods that I was eating. 

Once I am able to run consistantly 3 - 4 times per week, I'll participate in my 1st 5K. I'm not sure which one I'll choose. Once I'm back running I'll start a training program and find a 5K that corresponds.

Phase 3: Back on the bike. Mountain and road. I'd like to train for a cyclo-cross. Stay tuned.

Phase 4: Not sure yet. 10K? 1/2 Marathon? Marathon?

WHY? Shouldn't we all be fit and healthy? I'm aided by technology. I can track my calories and my progress very easily with handheld devices such as my iPod Touch, BlackBerry Storm and my laptop. I embrace technology and believe it can help me be healthier so I live much longer. Now, what do I do about gin  and cigars. Quite a contradictory set of blogs, wouldn't you say?