I broke the 10 lbs mark a few days ago, at 196.6. 10 lbs is no small feat. unfortunately, there's another 30 to go! But one step at a time. I put on my jeans newly out of the wash today, and they actually felt comfortable, and I tried my suit on (I have a business trip coming up) and it actually fits. All good signs!@
Happy new year to everyone who's reading!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Almost to 10 lbs off!
I was 197.0 this morning...almost 10 lbs down from 206.8. If I had a suckier scale, it would be 10 lbs. Unfortunately I have my fancy 0.2 lbs resolution scale, so I'll have to wait a little longer. 10 lbs is a bunch, but still a drop in the 40 lb bucket...so I guess it's inconsequential which day I get there. But it's good to have new records every few days.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Good news...little bit of progress
The last two days I've been up a little bit. this morning I made my first progress in three days...down to 197.2, 9.6lbs below where I started in 3.5 weeks. Not too bad for no exercise. I would be happy to maintain this rate for 4 months or so. We'll see how possible this is.
Merry Xmas and Happy Chanukah to whoever is reading!
Merry Xmas and Happy Chanukah to whoever is reading!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Slight disappointment
Well, this morning I had a slight disappointment....I was back up to 197.8. Not a super big deal, but it was nice having monotonically decreasing numbers for the last several days. The upside was that my body fat level was down to 32.8%, the first it's been below 33% in a long time. Still, there's a long way to go as I have to get to 24% just to be "obese." And down to 20% to be normal. 13% of roughly 200 lbs is 26 lbs, so that's still a ways out there, as I doubt I'll be able to lose 3 lbs a week consistently for 9 weeks. If I could do two lbs/week for 13 weeks that would do it, but again my experience with diet alone is about 1 lb per week after the first few weeks is all we can expect. If I add in exercise, I could possibly get 2 lbs/week.
Btw, I use a Tanita scale from Amazon. It looks like Amazon doesn't sell them, but merchants at Amazon do. The scale tells you body weight and fat %. You can also find out fat lbs, % water, bone mass and some other data. You can configure it for up to five people in your house so that everyone can track together. I can't imagine more than two people sharing it, but to each their own.
Btw, I use a Tanita scale from Amazon. It looks like Amazon doesn't sell them, but merchants at Amazon do. The scale tells you body weight and fat %. You can also find out fat lbs, % water, bone mass and some other data. You can configure it for up to five people in your house so that everyone can track together. I can't imagine more than two people sharing it, but to each their own.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
other blogs/forums
I just went on the web to look for other diet blogs...or to see if mine showed up. I did a search for "atkins diet blog" and found thousands if not more. One site that sounded cool was 3 fat chicks which is a site/forums about losing weight.
btw, I lost another 0.2lbs since yesterday, so I'm at 197.6, 9.2 lbs down, another 27 to go (for milestone 1).
btw, I lost another 0.2lbs since yesterday, so I'm at 197.6, 9.2 lbs down, another 27 to go (for milestone 1).
Friday, December 19, 2008
9 lbs down
I hit 197.8 this morning. I cheated a little bit by waiting til 8:30 to weigh in, since it's a snow day...but I guess that will catch up to me tomorrow or Monday. Anyway, it's nice to make progress.
I also rowed on our rowing machine last night. One of the problems with rowing machines/treadmills/exercise is that it is so boring. I recently ordered these headphones from amazon. I bought them for watching TV when the furnace kicked on (my TV has been banished to the basement), but they were great for using on the rowing machine. I could watch TV, row, and actually hear the TV. The rowing machine I bought off of craigslist for $50 lightly used, and has lived in our basement (lightly used) for a couple years. So it's good to put it to use.
I also rowed on our rowing machine last night. One of the problems with rowing machines/treadmills/exercise is that it is so boring. I recently ordered these headphones from amazon. I bought them for watching TV when the furnace kicked on (my TV has been banished to the basement), but they were great for using on the rowing machine. I could watch TV, row, and actually hear the TV. The rowing machine I bought off of craigslist for $50 lightly used, and has lived in our basement (lightly used) for a couple years. So it's good to put it to use.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Progress
199.2 yesterday, and 198.8 today. Incremental progress every day! well, almost every day. I've taken to adding a second weigh in before dinner in the evening. This is really obsessive, and probably not helpful, but it gives me a forecast of what I could be in the morning. This helps me control my appetite at dinner. Actually, if it's low I want to eat less because I will set a new low, and if it's high I want to eat less because I don't want to go backwards.
I bought a "baby loaf" of hot pepper jack cheese and cut a few slices for dinner to go with either a small steak or a few slices of summer sausage. You can make a steak and if you cut it in half you can eat it for two days, or in thirds eat it for three days. This is good for your pocket book as well as for your belly.
Last comment for today...make sure you eat enough. The worst thing you can do is to stay on the diet all day, and then be starving at night and munch snacks throughout the night...or even worse, binge on a pint of ice cream. Good to not have binge-foods in the house, btw.
I bought a "baby loaf" of hot pepper jack cheese and cut a few slices for dinner to go with either a small steak or a few slices of summer sausage. You can make a steak and if you cut it in half you can eat it for two days, or in thirds eat it for three days. This is good for your pocket book as well as for your belly.
Last comment for today...make sure you eat enough. The worst thing you can do is to stay on the diet all day, and then be starving at night and munch snacks throughout the night...or even worse, binge on a pint of ice cream. Good to not have binge-foods in the house, btw.
Monday, December 15, 2008
A tangent -- acupuncture
For the last several years, I found that I'd get a sore right shoulder from time to time. It would get worse when I was stressed and/or writing a lot. One prime example was when I was preparing a document for an upcoming meeting with our CEO. Then I was stressed and typing a lot. Last year, it got bad enough that I went to my PCP, and he wrote me a referral to a physical therapist. I had to see her twice a week for about 5 weeks or so, and she never had appointments at a convenient time. (What does this have to do with acupuncture, you ask? I'm getting to that.) So at $35/copay, I spent about $350. At the end of this time, my shoulder felt better.
It was better for about a year, and in October it started being sore again. I made an appt with my doc (that took two weeks). At the appointment he took X-rays, and he looked at them and said nothing's out of whack. (X-rays cost what, $50/pop and we did 6 of them -- insurance covered it). He then wrote me a script for an MRI, which I did the next week. I went back to him the following week and he read me the radiologists report that said everything was normal. After a month of trying to get diagnosed, he gave me another script for PT and told me to get an ergo workstation.
So after a month of working through the PCP, I am still in pain. He gave me a script for muscle relaxers, but they didn't help at all. I then found an acupuncturist through a recommendation of someone at work. I got an appt 2 days after I called. She spent about 15 minutes taking my pulse (that's how they diagnose your problems) and then stuck about 20 needles in me. That was last wednesday, 12/10. On Thursday, my neck and shoulder felt better. She charged me $90 and the insurance company nothing, because they don't consider acupuncture as a treatment for neck pain. It certainly seems like Aetna would have been better off paying the $90 than sending me for six X-rays and an MRI. I went back today for another round of needles and got a neck and shoulder massage as well. Total cost, $80.
While I was there, she told me that my liver and heart were out of balance, and that she is fixing those with needles. That's interesting, because when I went to the doc my blood test said that my liver enzymes are high, and my "c Reactive Proteins" are high. I have to go back in two months to get another blood test, so it will be interesting to see if the liver enzymes and cRP's are down.
I'm not 100% cured from my back pain, and we don't have test results on the enzymes, but right now I'm pretty bullish on the acupuncturist. I tried to get her to give me a needle to help me lose weight, but she said that she thinks the appetite suppressant points don't work very well. Oh well. More to come. I have my third appt next week with her, at which point she thinks that the initial treatment will be done (ie no more shoulder pain and liver and heart back in balance). Then I can go back for "maintenance" acupuncture once a month.
It was better for about a year, and in October it started being sore again. I made an appt with my doc (that took two weeks). At the appointment he took X-rays, and he looked at them and said nothing's out of whack. (X-rays cost what, $50/pop and we did 6 of them -- insurance covered it). He then wrote me a script for an MRI, which I did the next week. I went back to him the following week and he read me the radiologists report that said everything was normal. After a month of trying to get diagnosed, he gave me another script for PT and told me to get an ergo workstation.
So after a month of working through the PCP, I am still in pain. He gave me a script for muscle relaxers, but they didn't help at all. I then found an acupuncturist through a recommendation of someone at work. I got an appt 2 days after I called. She spent about 15 minutes taking my pulse (that's how they diagnose your problems) and then stuck about 20 needles in me. That was last wednesday, 12/10. On Thursday, my neck and shoulder felt better. She charged me $90 and the insurance company nothing, because they don't consider acupuncture as a treatment for neck pain. It certainly seems like Aetna would have been better off paying the $90 than sending me for six X-rays and an MRI. I went back today for another round of needles and got a neck and shoulder massage as well. Total cost, $80.
While I was there, she told me that my liver and heart were out of balance, and that she is fixing those with needles. That's interesting, because when I went to the doc my blood test said that my liver enzymes are high, and my "c Reactive Proteins" are high. I have to go back in two months to get another blood test, so it will be interesting to see if the liver enzymes and cRP's are down.
I'm not 100% cured from my back pain, and we don't have test results on the enzymes, but right now I'm pretty bullish on the acupuncturist. I tried to get her to give me a needle to help me lose weight, but she said that she thinks the appetite suppressant points don't work very well. Oh well. More to come. I have my third appt next week with her, at which point she thinks that the initial treatment will be done (ie no more shoulder pain and liver and heart back in balance). Then I can go back for "maintenance" acupuncture once a month.
Monday morning -- below 200
This morning was the first time I've seen a 1 at the start of my weight in a while! I weighed in at 199.6 after an up and down weekend. Friday was 201.4, Saturday morning I was at 200.0 (although that was after a heavy drinking night on Friday, so dehydration was a factor), and 201.2 on Sunday.
For those who like to have a drink or three sometimes, the Atkins program recommends against. But if you do have a drink while you're doing the Atkins (or any other diet), here are some tips...drink wine not beer. Red wine has about 1g carbs per 4oz glass, beer significantly more. Whiskey has no carbs, but when I tried that I ended up drinking too much. (Three double Crowns on the rocks is a lot of drink). The other piece is when drinking the drink your inhibitions are down. So focus on not eating french fries, onion rings, or burgers with buns. We were at two bars Friday night and I found vegetables to dip in blue cheese, chicken wings and steak on a skewer at our happy hour buffet at the first. At the second, where we went for dinner, they had a steak salad. So even though I drank a little too much, it didn't kill my diet.
The other thing to remember is that you often will have a low weight after a night of drinking, it's because you are dehydrated, not because you lost weight!
For those who like to have a drink or three sometimes, the Atkins program recommends against. But if you do have a drink while you're doing the Atkins (or any other diet), here are some tips...drink wine not beer. Red wine has about 1g carbs per 4oz glass, beer significantly more. Whiskey has no carbs, but when I tried that I ended up drinking too much. (Three double Crowns on the rocks is a lot of drink). The other piece is when drinking the drink your inhibitions are down. So focus on not eating french fries, onion rings, or burgers with buns. We were at two bars Friday night and I found vegetables to dip in blue cheese, chicken wings and steak on a skewer at our happy hour buffet at the first. At the second, where we went for dinner, they had a steak salad. So even though I drank a little too much, it didn't kill my diet.
The other thing to remember is that you often will have a low weight after a night of drinking, it's because you are dehydrated, not because you lost weight!
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Thursday -- good half a week
This morning I was down to 200.4, and 33.6% body fat.
How did I do that, I'm even outperforming my own expectations this week. One nice thing my wife did was to buy a tray of 30 deviled eggs, and stick it in the refrigerator. So in the morning when I'm in a hurry off to work, I can grab a couple deviled eggs (which are one of my favorite foods). Since they are basically eggs, mayo and mustard, there's no carbs. I mix that with a couple pieces of string cheese (80 calories, 0 carbs) and that makes a good breakfast for me.
I usually get hungry in the mid morning, so I go down to the snack shop/drugstore and grab a pack of beef jerky. The thin kind, not the chewy kind. The chewy kind has a ton of corn syrup -- ie sugar, which means it's 5g carbs per serving. The thin kind is closer to 2g/serving. Btw, beef jerky is incredibly expensive, but I find it's worth it to lose the weight and maybe live longer. For lunch, we have a salad bar in the building where you can build your own. I usually make a salad and then either get eggs, salmon or chicken wings to provide protein. Make sure you get a zero-carb dressing, like blue cheese or ceasar. Stay away from anything that says "light", as that's sure to have carbse. If we don't go to the salad bar, most sit down restaurants have a salad with some kind of meat -- steak salad or (in the northwest) blackened salmon ceasar salad...mmmmmm.
For dinner, when I get home late I will eat deviled eggs, string cheese and beef sticks (old wisconsin from Walgreens). And I try not to snack after I have the dinner, although I often will end up eating 1 or two more string cheeses later in the evening.
How did I do that, I'm even outperforming my own expectations this week. One nice thing my wife did was to buy a tray of 30 deviled eggs, and stick it in the refrigerator. So in the morning when I'm in a hurry off to work, I can grab a couple deviled eggs (which are one of my favorite foods). Since they are basically eggs, mayo and mustard, there's no carbs. I mix that with a couple pieces of string cheese (80 calories, 0 carbs) and that makes a good breakfast for me.
I usually get hungry in the mid morning, so I go down to the snack shop/drugstore and grab a pack of beef jerky. The thin kind, not the chewy kind. The chewy kind has a ton of corn syrup -- ie sugar, which means it's 5g carbs per serving. The thin kind is closer to 2g/serving. Btw, beef jerky is incredibly expensive, but I find it's worth it to lose the weight and maybe live longer. For lunch, we have a salad bar in the building where you can build your own. I usually make a salad and then either get eggs, salmon or chicken wings to provide protein. Make sure you get a zero-carb dressing, like blue cheese or ceasar. Stay away from anything that says "light", as that's sure to have carbse. If we don't go to the salad bar, most sit down restaurants have a salad with some kind of meat -- steak salad or (in the northwest) blackened salmon ceasar salad...mmmmmm.
For dinner, when I get home late I will eat deviled eggs, string cheese and beef sticks (old wisconsin from Walgreens). And I try not to snack after I have the dinner, although I often will end up eating 1 or two more string cheeses later in the evening.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday Morning
I woke up this morning and weighed 203.0. Some people say that weighing yourself every day and recording it to the tenth of a pound isn't productive. I disagree. Daily weigh ins keep focus on what you're doing (losing weight) and give you a chance to quickly correct if you have a setback. of course lots of things affect your weight day over day -- what time you ate last night, what time you weigh in the morning, did you use the bathroom before you weighed in, are you dehydrated. I have found that if you optimize to get the lowest weight, ie after you've used the bathroom and before you have anything to eat in the morning, you will get a good "lowest possible weight" trend. I sometimes wait as late as possible before weighing, but that always ends up biting me, because I will have to weigh early the next day and get to work.
Anyway, what did I eat yesterday...I have foregone the "Atkins bars" (for now) which have low net carbs, but high carbs. People are dubious if they are really atkins friendly. I find them yummy, although my wife doesn't like them at all. For breakfast, which I ate late on Sunday morning, I had a three egg omelette with beef summer sausage and mozzarella cheese. To get the pan ready, I fried a few pieces of summer sausage and ate them too. So four thin slices of salami, and half a 3-egg omelette. I could only finish half. I think that's a good sign of my appetite getting to diet levels. I had two slices of string cheese and some more summer sausage throughout the day. I am not sure how many oz or whatever of these that I had, because that's not the Atkins way. For dinner, my wife made a quiche (from the store). I scooped out the quich-y part in the middle, and ate that. Left the crust behind. So basically eggs, cheese and spinach. All low carb. To go with that, we had a salad -- spinach leaves from a bag, Cardini's ceasar dressing, kalamata olives and feta cheese. Very yummy and no carbs...well, there are a little in the spinach. Atkins limits the amount of veggies that you can eat for the first couple weeks, but I figure spinach and lettuce are good no matter what diet you're on. Also, I checked my Fat percentage on the scale -- 33.8%. This is another good metric to watch (along with actual belly size). For me, I want to target about 20%. Right now, I have about 69 pounds of fat (204*34%). If I could get to 20% and be at 170, I'd be at 170*20%=34 pounds. 69-34=35. So if I lose 35 lbs of fat, I will be at about 168. That seems about right. This is also important if you start exercising/lifting weights. You don't want to penalize yourself if you start putting on weight from the exercise, but continue to lose the fat.
Anyway, what did I eat yesterday...I have foregone the "Atkins bars" (for now) which have low net carbs, but high carbs. People are dubious if they are really atkins friendly. I find them yummy, although my wife doesn't like them at all. For breakfast, which I ate late on Sunday morning, I had a three egg omelette with beef summer sausage and mozzarella cheese. To get the pan ready, I fried a few pieces of summer sausage and ate them too. So four thin slices of salami, and half a 3-egg omelette. I could only finish half. I think that's a good sign of my appetite getting to diet levels. I had two slices of string cheese and some more summer sausage throughout the day. I am not sure how many oz or whatever of these that I had, because that's not the Atkins way. For dinner, my wife made a quiche (from the store). I scooped out the quich-y part in the middle, and ate that. Left the crust behind. So basically eggs, cheese and spinach. All low carb. To go with that, we had a salad -- spinach leaves from a bag, Cardini's ceasar dressing, kalamata olives and feta cheese. Very yummy and no carbs...well, there are a little in the spinach. Atkins limits the amount of veggies that you can eat for the first couple weeks, but I figure spinach and lettuce are good no matter what diet you're on. Also, I checked my Fat percentage on the scale -- 33.8%. This is another good metric to watch (along with actual belly size). For me, I want to target about 20%. Right now, I have about 69 pounds of fat (204*34%). If I could get to 20% and be at 170, I'd be at 170*20%=34 pounds. 69-34=35. So if I lose 35 lbs of fat, I will be at about 168. That seems about right. This is also important if you start exercising/lifting weights. You don't want to penalize yourself if you start putting on weight from the exercise, but continue to lose the fat.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Still no running - but week into atkins
I started on the atkins diet last monday (it's sunday now). It took a few days to get it dialed in. One of the keys is a good breakfast -- I recommend three eggs. They've got 80 calories each, and they will fill you up. When I don't have eggs for breakfast, I'm hungry all morning. That leads to snacking and bad things. You can also have a three egg omelette with melted cheese inside...yummy and totally atkins compliant.
Last night, we went out to Romio's Pizza in Greenwood and had "Atkins Pizza" where they put the toppings on a plate and heat it up. It's not super atkins compliant because there is lots of tomato sauce. you can ask them to make it with garlic oil base rather than tomato sauce. Then it's pretty atkins compliant.
After a week I'm down from 206.8 to 203.8. So not so bad, but not great. Hopefully I can get out and jog at least a little bit sometime this weekend.
Last night, we went out to Romio's Pizza in Greenwood and had "Atkins Pizza" where they put the toppings on a plate and heat it up. It's not super atkins compliant because there is lots of tomato sauce. you can ask them to make it with garlic oil base rather than tomato sauce. Then it's pretty atkins compliant.
After a week I'm down from 206.8 to 203.8. So not so bad, but not great. Hopefully I can get out and jog at least a little bit sometime this weekend.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Turkey Day 08
Well, I stopped running about 13 months ago. I had been training for the Seattle Marathon, but I stopped the running in September to try to kick a cold. It didn't help kick the cold, and I ended up missing the marathon. Since then I've put on about 30 lbs, and am at my all time high of 206 lbs (probably more after dinner tonight). I have to figure out how to either increase my exercise regimen or decrease my calories. Each of these shouldn't be hard, since I eat a ton of sugar and other bad food, and I don't exercise at all.
But as we all know, good intentions don't work. I need to figure out a mechanism or system to keep me on the straight and narrow for at least six months. Ideally it would work so well that it would last for the next six decades. My dad started running when he was around my age. He says "I hate it, but I do it every day." And he's been running 3-5 days/week for at least the last 35 years. So I guess he's figured out the mechanism. :)
There is a personal trainer in our building at work. It's offensively expensive, but I would expect that they are running some kind of special, as I bet that's one of the first things people cut back on. I may stop by and see tomorrow or Monday.
The last time I lost a bunch of weight was when I had a buddy (Alex) who lived a few blocks away, and we'd go running every morning together. That helped with the motivation, especially when it was 35 degrees and raining in the morning.
But as we all know, good intentions don't work. I need to figure out a mechanism or system to keep me on the straight and narrow for at least six months. Ideally it would work so well that it would last for the next six decades. My dad started running when he was around my age. He says "I hate it, but I do it every day." And he's been running 3-5 days/week for at least the last 35 years. So I guess he's figured out the mechanism. :)
There is a personal trainer in our building at work. It's offensively expensive, but I would expect that they are running some kind of special, as I bet that's one of the first things people cut back on. I may stop by and see tomorrow or Monday.
The last time I lost a bunch of weight was when I had a buddy (Alex) who lived a few blocks away, and we'd go running every morning together. That helped with the motivation, especially when it was 35 degrees and raining in the morning.
Monday, August 11, 2008
What I learned tonight
First, I learned that I'm an idiot for posting the same post twice. Second, I learned that I don't know how to delete a post. If anyone knows and however unlikely is reading this, can you send instructions?
New facebook game....My City
Facebook | My City
This is a kind of stupid facebook game, unless I'm missing the point. I am trying to build a city, but I can only add once citizen per day...usually you can do at least a little more than this, to get you addicted.
This is a kind of stupid facebook game, unless I'm missing the point. I am trying to build a city, but I can only add once citizen per day...usually you can do at least a little more than this, to get you addicted.
Mortgage widget
I found this widget on the zillow site...pretty neat.
I just wish that when I called my lender I got these same rates. I just had an offer accepted on a house, and I was expected to pay 5.9% for money, and he's telling me I need to pay 7%. Arrggghh. hopefully I can find something better.
I just wish that when I called my lender I got these same rates. I just had an offer accepted on a house, and I was expected to pay 5.9% for money, and he's telling me I need to pay 7%. Arrggghh. hopefully I can find something better.
Our latest house?
9756 Dayton Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 | $379,950 | Greenwood Real Estate
We made an offer on this house this afternoon. Our realtor called last night, and said it had just come on the market, after a previous deal fell through. So we took a look at it this morning, and made an offer this afternoon. We're now waiting to hear back from them. Apparently there is another offer that they are reviewing along with ours today.
It's got two small bedrooms upstairs and two slightly larger on the main floor. The biggest drawback...only one bathroom. But we may put a second bathroom in the basement. But first step is getting our offer accepted. Second step is figuring how to pay for it. Then we will deal with renovations and/or upgrades.
We made an offer on this house this afternoon. Our realtor called last night, and said it had just come on the market, after a previous deal fell through. So we took a look at it this morning, and made an offer this afternoon. We're now waiting to hear back from them. Apparently there is another offer that they are reviewing along with ours today.
It's got two small bedrooms upstairs and two slightly larger on the main floor. The biggest drawback...only one bathroom. But we may put a second bathroom in the basement. But first step is getting our offer accepted. Second step is figuring how to pay for it. Then we will deal with renovations and/or upgrades.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Our latest house?
9756 Dayton Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 | $379,950 | Greenwood Real Estate
We made an offer on this house this afternoon. Our realtor called last night, and said it had just come on the market, after a previous deal fell through. So we took a look at it this morning, and made an offer this afternoon. We're now waiting to hear back from them. Apparently there is another offer that they are reviewing along with ours today.
It's got two small bedrooms upstairs and two slightly larger on the main floor. The biggest drawback...only one bathroom. But we may put a second bathroom in the basement. But first step is getting our offer accepted. Second step is figuring how to pay for it. Then we will deal with renovations and/or upgrades.
We made an offer on this house this afternoon. Our realtor called last night, and said it had just come on the market, after a previous deal fell through. So we took a look at it this morning, and made an offer this afternoon. We're now waiting to hear back from them. Apparently there is another offer that they are reviewing along with ours today.
It's got two small bedrooms upstairs and two slightly larger on the main floor. The biggest drawback...only one bathroom. But we may put a second bathroom in the basement. But first step is getting our offer accepted. Second step is figuring how to pay for it. Then we will deal with renovations and/or upgrades.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
New facebook game....My City
Facebook | My City
This is a kind of stupid facebook game, unless I'm missing the point. I am trying to build a city, but I can only add once citizen per day...usually you can do at least a little more than this, to get you addicted.
This is a kind of stupid facebook game, unless I'm missing the point. I am trying to build a city, but I can only add once citizen per day...usually you can do at least a little more than this, to get you addicted.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tracking progress
One of the things that helped keep me motivated while I was running and dieting was setting up a tracking system. To track my progress with running, I was lucky enough to have the Garmin software (included with the watch) so that all I had to do was plug the watch into my USB port and it would upload into it's software. I could view daily or weekly rollups of my total mileage and pace, or lap mileage and pace. I also built an Excel spreadsheet in which I kept track of my total weekly mileage, long run mileage and total weekly pace. This allowed me to watch the increase and see when I set new records for myself. My spreadsheets are on my other computer, but I will post these when I have transferred them over.
In parallel with the running improvements, I was losing weight at the rate of about two pounds a week. I would weigh in each morning (sometimes every other morning), and record the weight in my spreadsheet. I even graphed a trendline so that I could see the slope of the weightloss...it was about 0.24 pounds per day, or just a little under 2 lbs a week. The great thing about this spreadsheet was that I could see when I was falling behind my trend, and that would motivate me to be more disciplined about what I ate. Now it's two years later and there are at least a couple "facebook apps" which will keep track of your weight if you enter it, along with exercise history. I am using one of these today to track my weight loss. It's called Weight Graph and is integrated with a site called Fridge Graph. You can put in a target weight and end date, and it will graph your actuals versus the projected burn rate.
In parallel with the running improvements, I was losing weight at the rate of about two pounds a week. I would weigh in each morning (sometimes every other morning), and record the weight in my spreadsheet. I even graphed a trendline so that I could see the slope of the weightloss...it was about 0.24 pounds per day, or just a little under 2 lbs a week. The great thing about this spreadsheet was that I could see when I was falling behind my trend, and that would motivate me to be more disciplined about what I ate. Now it's two years later and there are at least a couple "facebook apps" which will keep track of your weight if you enter it, along with exercise history. I am using one of these today to track my weight loss. It's called Weight Graph and is integrated with a site called Fridge Graph. You can put in a target weight and end date, and it will graph your actuals versus the projected burn rate.
The next few weeks
Alex and I started running on a pretty regular basis. He was a tough coach, but it was fun. We did about 3.2 miles a day, 3 weekdays a week and did a little more on Sundays -- around 5 miles. After several weeks of this, we decided that we should do a half marathon. I went to Google and did a search for a training plan. We found one at Hal Higdon's site. The link I put in here is actually to his Novice marathon training plan, but we started with the half. Pretty simple, just run 3-4 miles a day, three days a week, and then slowly increase the mileage of the long run on Sundays. We started the long run at 5 miles, and increased a mile each week, while falling back every third week. In Hal's plan, he gives details of what you should be doing each week. But all in all the most important thing is to get your shoes on and run a little, consistently.
How it all started
Two years ago, I was flying back from a business trip in London.
Let me give you a little background. I'm 5'5" tall (well, some would say 5'4") and I had recently broken through the 200 lb mark on the scale. I was wearing 36 waste jeans and feeling uncomfortable in them. Anyway, back to the flight home. We had just spent the last week doing software training during the day and drinking warm beer and eating English (fried) food every night. We were all hung over, jet lagged and feeling generally crappy. I got on the plane and immediately unbuttoned the button of my jeans. We had a layover in Canada and all of my buddies had a beer, and I just drank water. I got home after a week away, and my wife wanted me to play with our two year old, Toby, who I hadn't seen in a week. All I wanted to do was go into my dark bedroom and sleep. That was the beginning of my 2006 weight loss program. Anyone who has had a similar experience -- feeling crappy, jeans not fitting, and lack of energy: read on.
After laying in bed "recovering" for a day and a half, I finally got off my ass and went for a "run." I put the word run in quotation marks, because I only was able to complete about 1.9 miles, at a pace of 13:30/mile. It was 80 degrees out, which is blistering for Seattle, and my face was completely red by the time I finished. It took me over an hour to cool down.
Over the next week, I went "running" several more times. I worked myself up to 2.5 miles, and brought my pace down under 13 minutes/mile. In the first week, I put in around 7 miles.
The next week I did several smart things...I combined my running with a low carb diet. Lots of folks are against this, but for the state I was in, and the pace I was running, I didn't need a lot of carbs. Over that week I stocked up at Amazon.com with a book about the Atkins diet, some new running shoes, an iPod Shuffle, and my wife's Garmin Forerunner.
The second smart thing I did was I started telling people at work that I was running. It turns out that one of the guys I worked with lived 8 blocks away, and was also fat and wanted to run. He had previously run two marathons (which was good for me), and was very out of shape (which was good for me). The next week we started running together. We would meet in the morning before work usually over at Greenlake, which is a lake with a three mile trail around its circumference. By week 3, with him pushing me, and us pushing each other to actually continue the running, we were running 11 minute miles for 3.2 miles around the lake.
Let me give you a little background. I'm 5'5" tall (well, some would say 5'4") and I had recently broken through the 200 lb mark on the scale. I was wearing 36 waste jeans and feeling uncomfortable in them. Anyway, back to the flight home. We had just spent the last week doing software training during the day and drinking warm beer and eating English (fried) food every night. We were all hung over, jet lagged and feeling generally crappy. I got on the plane and immediately unbuttoned the button of my jeans. We had a layover in Canada and all of my buddies had a beer, and I just drank water. I got home after a week away, and my wife wanted me to play with our two year old, Toby, who I hadn't seen in a week. All I wanted to do was go into my dark bedroom and sleep. That was the beginning of my 2006 weight loss program. Anyone who has had a similar experience -- feeling crappy, jeans not fitting, and lack of energy: read on.
After laying in bed "recovering" for a day and a half, I finally got off my ass and went for a "run." I put the word run in quotation marks, because I only was able to complete about 1.9 miles, at a pace of 13:30/mile. It was 80 degrees out, which is blistering for Seattle, and my face was completely red by the time I finished. It took me over an hour to cool down.
Over the next week, I went "running" several more times. I worked myself up to 2.5 miles, and brought my pace down under 13 minutes/mile. In the first week, I put in around 7 miles.
The next week I did several smart things...I combined my running with a low carb diet. Lots of folks are against this, but for the state I was in, and the pace I was running, I didn't need a lot of carbs. Over that week I stocked up at Amazon.com with a book about the Atkins diet, some new running shoes, an iPod Shuffle, and my wife's Garmin Forerunner.
The second smart thing I did was I started telling people at work that I was running. It turns out that one of the guys I worked with lived 8 blocks away, and was also fat and wanted to run. He had previously run two marathons (which was good for me), and was very out of shape (which was good for me). The next week we started running together. We would meet in the morning before work usually over at Greenlake, which is a lake with a three mile trail around its circumference. By week 3, with him pushing me, and us pushing each other to actually continue the running, we were running 11 minute miles for 3.2 miles around the lake.
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