Finally Updating

I should have started this 6 months ago, but for now I'll just start with a quick overview.

So, after making some progress I lost basically all of it. I was back up to 265 in June, when I had my physical and the doctor wanted to put me on Lipitor.

That was officially my wake up call. I decided, no, I would NOT go on Lipitor without a fight, so I took the next 2 months and worked my butt off. I dropped a lot of weight, and felt a lot better. Started tracking dogmatically with LoseIt again, and started a Couch to 5K program since I love to run and it was something I could fit into my routine.

Short version: while I made a lot of improvement, I still needed to go on Lipitor, just a lower dose. I have embraced that I may NEVER be off of it, but I'm not quitting until I'm at my goal weight and still need it.

I successfully completed the Couch to 5K routine: it's amazing to think of going out there and dying after running for a minute in July, to being able to run 45 minutes or more now without stopping. I haven't run this much since high school track, and I love it. My times are garbage, but are always improving.

I've starting a 10K routine, and I'm pushing myself HARD for it: the briefer running segments I'm almost sprinting, I'm aiming more for pushing my boundaries than finding a sustained pace right now, because I really want my resting pace to improve from where it is now (around 14 min/mile). My eventual goal is a 10 mile race in my wife's hometown in July.

I'm down 25+ lbs, 4" off my waist, and still losing a pound or two a week consistently while building strength and endurance. I've experimented a bit with cross training using the Army PRT program (there is a great free app with all the exercises), it's got a big appeal to me because I can do it without equipment. With winter finally coming to New England, I'm probably caving in the next few weeks and moving my training to a gym. Running in freezing temperatures isn't fun, especially with ocean winds blasting me.

Anyways, progress! A lot of it. I'm more focused than ever, and it's paying off.

Will check back soon.

10 Pounds Down, Thanks to Lose It!

So I know I haven't checked in much lately, but life continues as usual. I've been tracking everything in the mobile app, Lose It - originally my goal was to be under my calories for the week, now I've been focused on being under my calories every day.

While the weight continues to fluctuate, I've now hit a point where even if it ramps up a bit I don't pass 250lbs. I hover in the 246-249 range, and continue to trend down at a rate of around 1lb per week (slightly less than that lately, but still losing).

My general goal is just to not eat enough food to GAIN weight - then, any exercise (golf, hiking, etc) is a 'bonus'. I still eat just about anything I want, but the quantity has changed. Example: we had a happy hour to send off a coworker to his new job. I had an AMAZING pulled pork mac and cheese casserole - and I ate less half of it.

I find the best way is to not deny myself anything in a general sense, but to limit how much I order/eat. I'll admit to sometimes getting into a 'devour everything in front of me' mode, which I regret later. I also have a habit of ordering more than I need, especially when famished. What's helped that is always ordering a small, even if I'm really hungry. That at least combats having it in front of me, but many places to order food from are still not great for you even at small portion sizes. (Example: a small #9 at D'Angelo is still 620 calories, without chips or drink. With, you push 900-ish.)

I've been exploring more low calorie menus, too. The sausage flatbread pizza at Cheesecake Factory may leave you wanting more, but it's really delicious... just try not to eat your entire cheesecake, and watch out for the really bad ones (like the Red Velvet!). Those will ruin your week, not just your day.

My daughter will be 6 months next week, so the march continues! Here's to hoping I'm a thinner man in her memories of me when she's older.

Hiking to Heublein Tower on Lunch

A view of the tower from our office parking lot.

Entrance to the park.

So one constant lately has been that several of us work on personal projects at lunch. We grab our laptops, head to Starbucks, and grab something like Subway on the way back. Simple and easy.

Me!

My idea for a while has been to hike to Talcott Mountain State Park on our lunch break: a group of people usually does it a few times a year when it gets warmer, which it has been for about a week or two now here in CT. My variation on it was to take our laptops, get some coding in at the park, then hike back down. Today, we finally did just that.

My hiking buddy.

According to Wikipedia, the trail is 1.25 miles long and takes 30-40 minutes. According to LoseIt, hiking up a mountain and back down for an hour of total exercise is 842 calories. Seems good to me!

Only one of my work buddies was able to go today. I'm hoping in the future we get more, but we will see. It's takes enough time that it's clearly not an 'every day' kind of hike: with lunch, etc, we took about 2 hours total to get back into the office. Fortunately, I have a very cool boss.

Reached the tower! It wasn't open yet,
or I'd have taken pictures from the top.

 The biggest challenge of the hike is the first quarter mile or so - in some places it's a 30-40 degree incline, and it's never less than 10-20 degrees. This is one killer steep hill.

A view from the top!

 I don't know if it was the weight loss, or what: I'm down 8lbs in 8 weeks using LoseIt: I got a digital scale because my old one was garbage, and I suspect I wasn't actually down 7lbs when I last posted. Plus, I did rebound a little on my diet with cheat days - I didn't gain back more than a pound or two, but it took a few weeks to really turn around again.

The trail levels out quite a
bit after the initial incline.

Our office, looking the other way.

Anyway, it was either the weight loss or the fact we've been doing 'light' exercise lately, walking with our daughter, playing basketball at the office, etc, but I didn't do nearly as bad as I have in the past. There have been points I was unable to make it to the tower, and had to turn around and head back down when other, more 'fit' coworkers were returning to their cars. I did have to stop a few times, and I was hacking quite fiercely at points (I forgot my inhaler), but all said it went pretty well for me!

A view from the park.

We enjoyed the beautiful day on top of the mountain, got in some coding on a picnic table, then came back down and grabbed a Subway and a Starbucks like usual (though no sitting around in the coffee shop and socializing today).

Our picnic table!

All in all, a very productive afternoon. It was a lot of effort, but on such a nice day it was great to get out and enjoy nature for a while.

Some shots looking down on the incline.

More incline.

The end of the inclined section.

Progress after a Long Absense

So it's been a while, and thought I'd post an update.

My wife and I had our daughter on 12/12/12, and to say life changed is an understatement. Lack of sleep and constantly having to deal with baby-related things kept us both pretty occupied, but at about 3 months the 'little things' started to come back (like sleeping more than 2 hours at a time) and I was able to re-evaluate.

The big change started right after my grandmother-in-law's 80th birthday party: it was a big celebration with LOTS of food. And the day after, I decided I wanted to lose the weight, not for me but for her, and dammit I was going to do it!

I downloaded an app called LoseIt, with a simple goal - regardless of WHAT I did, I would log it. If I ate a 5lb bag of gummy bears... that's fine, but LOG it. The intent is/was to see what was going into my body, and where my issues were. Because at the small level, I didn't feel like I had major issues with the things I ate: I like whole grains, veggies, and a lot of other healthy things, I drink very little soda/beer, etc. So being 260 didn't seem to mesh with how I felt about what I was eating, even taking into account snacks.

After a week I found a great issue - it wasn't the day to day that was getting me. It was the, on average, 1 day a week when I went WAY over without realizing it. The first time it happened, our boss bought Chinese food for the whole office, and I had my usual: Boneless Spare Ribs and Crab Rangoon combo, with fried rice. Lo and behold, something on the order of 1200 calories in a tiny plastic death-tray. Then my wife suggested dinner from the local pub. My usual order was something like a pulled pork sandwich and a small bowl of cheddar ale soup - which, combined with breakfast, and the Chinese, etc, was something like 3500 calories for the day. So instead I had a grilled chicken salad loaded with veggies, and put about a tablespoon of parmesan peppercorn dressing on it, just to 'wet it'.

I've followed that general pattern for about a month now - eat what I want, log everything I eat/do, and if I get close to my limit make my dinner something lighter. I generally will cut back on lunch a bit if I know it's something crazy, because I can't "afford it" calorie-wise. If I want something, I have it - and I make the room for it. But in general, there are things that just aren't worth it to me. 2 of my wife's homemade cookies (~160 cals) are worth more to me than a beer (~120 cals). And it's working.

I'm down 7lbs in a month, to 253. My general goal is to hit 190 by next spring, but the main goal is that when my daughter starts making lasting memories that I am THIN. I want her to look at pictures of me and ask "who is that" and for me to say "that was me, before you".

I'll post pics when I hit 250lbs. Wish me luck!

Feeling Good

So I've been keeping with my exercise routine (mostly; last weekend was really busy, but I did manage to pick it back up afterwards). I've also been eating healthier meals, and lowering portions when I don't eat as healthy (or sometimes do both). Not a ton, but I feel productive with it.

Also started taking a multivitamin in the mornings along with my allergy pill. I'm not someone who thinks they help a lot, if at all, but I've done it in the past and haven't felt as run down, so I'm hoping it will maybe do something.

More pictures and another weigh in soon, I think.

Slipped

Yesterday I missed my third round of P90X; my wife and I went to dinner to celebrate, and I simply didn't feel up to doing ab work with a stomach full of pasta. Tonight is a wash as well, as I will be playing poker with some coworkers until the wee hours. My goal is to do them tomorrow, then get back on my 'every other day' schedule. We will see how it goes.

Day 36: P90X... Am I Insane?

Sorry for the long delay between posts. Life is pretty much the same; I cut quantities when I think of it, which is usually 1-2 meals a day. I've been making weak efforts at eating healthier, among them eating Subway more (really, as much as I can stand, which is 2-3 times a week). I am reminded of the John Pinette skit on Subway, and for those who haven't heard it they jyst is this: eat Subway enough and you will probably pray for death. I agree, after a while it just starts to taste like mushy cardboard, whatever you get.

Otherwise I have been prioritizing making an Android game on my lunch over things like hiking, etc. It does keep me from binging on my mid-day meal, though.

One change I had been meaning to make was adding some kind of ab routine to my life. You can see from the pics that is a central issue for me; my general philosophy is if I can make a dent in my beachball stomach, it might even out into other areas. If I'm going to focus on one area, that's going to be it.

To that end, I found a P90X ab workout, and tried it on Sunday night. I like how they constantly encourage you to take breaks, but by halfway through I was more of the mindset of 'I'm going to do 5 of these and sit here and die while you finish the other 20 reps'. Even 2 days later I still hurt, so I guess it's waking up something in my tummy.

The plan tonight is to try and get through most, or at least more, of the workout. Maybe 10 reps of each, or something. I need to work up to it since I have basically ZERO ab strength.

The goal is 3 days a week, about 15 minutes a day. We will see how long it lasts, but if I can't find 15 minutes at the end of the day then maybe I should stay fat, lol.