Week 16 – Doing a 180

Weight last week: 187.8
Weight this week: 188.4
Change: +0.6
Total lost: 6.4

Not my best week. I gained 0.6 lbs. And I know exactly why. I had my usual cheat day on Saturday but then had another cheat day on Monday. I was at a family get-together and decided to indulge in a couple of treats but of course this means to overindulge in way too many treats. The rest of the week was solid at least. I really would like to lose weight more quickly and I need to pay more attention to my portion sizes.

I have been going over my calorie limit most days with the thought that my physical activity can offset the extra calories, but this clearly is not the case. It works when I am training for a marathon and running 50 miles a week. It doesn’t work the rest of the time. So I will lock in to my calories more this week and not have two cheat days. And then I can get back to losing weight.

I don’t anticipate any issues in the coming week, and I will keep my cheat day within reason, so I hope to see more progress than the last few weeks.

I have been able to get good workouts in all week, so exercise is not an issue. My running felt good and the bodyweight exercises are coming along. I am building up to four sets of 25 pushups and air squats. I also need to start using the pullup bar that I assembled last week so I can get my pulling muscles activated to offset all the pushups I have been doing.

I just gotta bring the weight down. I know I can do this, and I will do this. I just need to stay focused on my dreams.

Week 15 – Doing a 180

Weight last week: 188.6
Weight this week: 187.8
Change: -0.8
Total lost: 7.0

I surprisingly lost 0.8 lbs this week. I am surprised since I didn’t have the best week with nutrition. Especially last Saturday. I completely went off and had way, way too many sweets that day and overate in a way I hadn’t in ages. I got back on the train during the week and have largely kept to my plan of no sweets during the week, and no drinks for major calories. I probably drink water 80 percent of the time and G2 (low sugar Gatorade) 18 percent of the time, and I have the occasional diet soda if I am feeling super run down and need some caffeine. But I’ve lost seven pounds since my all-time high in July.

The workouts have been good. I’ve been slowly building my running back up since my hike a few weeks ago. I get out three days a week, and this week was 25 minute runs, and next week will be 30 minute runs. I think the ultimate plan is to get to a point where I do a three day a week maintenance plan where day 1 is 4 miles, day 2 is 5 miles and day 3 is 6 miles. That puts me in a good position to pivot to a half or full marathon, or play soccer. And I could drop that day 1 for speed work. Right now, I just want to maintain and improve my overall fitness.

For my non-running workouts, I am still doing my pushup/air squat/core routine. I would love to be able to do 100 pushups in a row someday. I need to keep losing weight for that, but I am slowly building toward it. And I just bought a pullup bar, so I would like to be able to do 10 pullups again. At one point I could do like 15 maybe?

Time to finish what I started.

Week 14 – Doing a 180

Weight last week: 188.6
Weight this week: 188.6
Change: -0.0
Total lost: 6.2

Not my best week as the scale did not move at all. My nutrition was not as locked in as usual. I gave in to ice cream earlier in the week and also had some cookies. My portions were not good but I got better as the week went along and was able to at least maintain my weight. Of course it would have been better to have lost something, but I am ok with a stall out for this week.

My exercise has been good, I have been building my running back up after a strenuous hike in the mountains a few weeks ago. I run three days a week and do a push up/air squat/ab routine on alternating days and take Saturdays off to play golf. I’ve done at least 15 minutes of exercise every day since January 1 and aim on doing it until January 1, 2021.

In any event, the quest continues. I am not having a great week so far so I don’t expect amazing progress on Friday, but I don’t want to gain either. We will see how it goes.

That’s what dreams are made of, RIP EDDIE VAN HALEN.