Good progress this week

This week I recovered from my trip to Asia and made good progress.  I am down to 192.2 (14.6 lbs from my start).  Unfortunately, I'm flying to europe for 10 days tomorrow.  So we'll see if I can keep the faith while I'm over there.  Fortunately, I don't have to wear a suit at all on this trip, so I'll have room in my bag for workout clothes.  I'll have a couple free evenings so hopefully I can do some slow jogging in or around the hotel in London and Munich.  I'm going to see a friend in Luxembourg while I'm there, so maybe we will do a multi-country run during the weekend.

Long week, and results of cheating

The last post I had was when I had weighed myself after working out (194.2)...so I had "cheated." Well, that lead me into two or three days of significantly higher weight, as much as 197.2. It was either karma which got me, or that I knew that I wouldn't be able to get back to 194.2 so I gave in for the evening and had an extra atkins bar or slim jim. It's a slippery slope when you lose focus.
Fortunately, I was able to right the ship and this morning was 193.8. It's the first time I had shown improvement in a week.
Among other good news, my friend Chris has lost 9 lbs and is almost back to her pre-kids weight (she wouldn't tell me what that is), and my friend Michelle lost 3 lbs (and that's a lot for someone her size). So it seems that the focused low-carb weight losing attitude is a bit contagious. It's good to see good things happen to people around you, and be able to relate them back to what you're doing!
We went to chris' house tonight and had a great low carb meal that her husband mike created...lamb and chicken on kabobs with onions and peppers, and a greek salad. But I still ate a bunch. I hope it didn't send me backwards. (Oh, and 3-4 glasses of wine).

I cheated just a little bit this morning

So I woke up at 6:oo this morning, and calculated that I had time to do something(!) before work. I could put my shoes on and run a few miles around my house, drive ten minutes to greenlake and run there, row on the rowing machine or go back to bed.

Fortunately, I didn't go back to bed. I put CSI on in the basement, and did 42:30 on the rowing machine (that's how long a one hour show is these days, sans commercials). So what's cheating about exercising?

I woke up and weighed 194.8 at 6:00, which was back to my lowest. After rowing, I was down to 194.2. So I'm going to count the post-rowing weight and that's the cheating. My body fat was 33.3, which means I was dehydrated, so I probably won't be so low tomorrow, but we'll see.

And btw, Grissom is leaving CSI. Very sad.

A nice walk in the park

Jen and I took a walk around Greenlake with the boys today.  Toby (who is a little OCD) counted 105 dogs, including one dog in a stroller, a dog wearing a sweater, and a dog sitting on a bench.  Anyway, 2.8 miles should be 100 calories or so.  I weighed myself this evening, and I was around 195.6, so hopefully I will have stumbled my way back to 194.8 in the morning, which is where I was when I left for Beijing last weekend.  I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's what it is.   I was just looking at the blog, and I'm very glad that I've put the graph at the top.  There's good and bad from day to day but over time it looks like I'm making progress.   I need to get turbo charged over the next couple weeks, because it's off to London, Paris, Munich and Luxembourg for a 10 day tour in February. 
I'm going to have to bring my shoes and shorts when we go to Europe, as I don't want to have to make up the weight again when I get home!

One other piece of weight-related news

My friend Danica has raised the bar...she now weighs 97 lbs, and so I'm once again above two Danicas! Hopefully I can catch up soon. It's a little bit unfair that I have to lose two pounds for every one she loses. on the other hand, I have much more opportunity to lose!

Good news

I checked the history, and the lowest I have been recently was 194.8. So I only lost 1 pound! I mean gained 1 pound! Not bad for a week long business dinner, carbs, and drinks.

And I got to see my friend laurie arnold while I was in Beijing. She was one of the first people I met at amazon, and I have run into her in various different cities/countries around the world over the past 10 years. So it was fun to see her when I was in Beijing!

Two steps back...in Beijing

Sorry I've been away, I had to go to China (Beijing) and we stopped off in Tokyo on the way back.  It was a fun trip, but I ate a little too much and fell off the low carb bandwagon a few times.  Dinner was lo carb -- peking duck, sauteed asparagus, beef with black bean sauce.  All relatively low carb, and I was able to get red wine with dinner (1g/glass) rather than beer.  But they brought subway sandwiches in for lunch, which was carby, and I did  get sucked into having a few beers throughout the week because it was simpler.  All in all I'm back up to 195.8 from 194.2, 1.6 lbs!  The good news is I'm like 30% body fat. 

I am hoping it means that all the walking we did in China and Tokyo actually put on some muscle, but I think that's overly optimistic.  Most likely the big dinners and the beer added the weight.  But I can probably make up the 1.6 lbs.  I'm going to Europe on 2/1, so I want to make some progress before then.

The good news is that my boss and the other person we traveled with (VP of finance, Jason) are apparently fitness nuts and they run/workout every morning.  So next trip I will bring workout clothes and join them.  All the hotels we stay/stayed at have an in house gym/treadmills.